An Open Letter to My Narnia Classes

Dear Narnia Students.

30 years ago I embarked on a journey. I heard my first Narnia story. I am not sure whether it was how Aslan died for Edmund, or how Eustace turned into a dragon or how Aslan changed him back. It may have been about a mouse's courage, or a horse's boy. Those stories that I heard read to me, or later read myself, had an impact on my life.

An impact that continues to grow to this day. It has been my delight to share those stories with you. It has also been a joy to see the impact these stories are having on you. I can see how much Narnia means to you from your involvement in class, the projects you've done and the stories you've written.

C.S. Lewis was able to put important spiritual truth in a fantastic world. Aslan, as you know, represents God. Here are examples based on what we read this semester.

• In The Magician's Nephew, Aslan creates the world and puts into motion a plan to save Narnia from the evil Digory brought into the world. In the book of Genesis, Jesus creates the world and God puts into motion a plan to save us from the evil Adam and Eve helped bring into our world.
• In The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, Aslan dies for Edmund and comes back to life because He was innocent. In the Gospels we see how Jesus died for the sins of the world and how God brought His son back to life, because he was sinless.
• In A Horse and His Boy, Aslan saves a baby in a boat and then uses that baby (as a boy) to save Narnia from destruction. In the book of Exodus, God saves a baby in a boat and then uses that baby (as a man) to save His people from slavery.

There are so many more spiritual tie-ins, but at it’s heart, Narnia is great stories told by a great storyteller. It has been my pleasure to share Narnia with you this semester. I hope you will join me next year to finish the series and take the adventure Aslan gives us.

To Narnia and the North,

Mr. Roller.

Lizards Rock!

I really thought it said Lizard!

When I was 17 I met a girl and dated her for almost 3 years. My entire Senior year and my first two years after High School. For the latter 2 years I was also a volunteer leader in my high school youth group. For those two reasons I read a lot of books on dating relationships at that time. One book I read recommended many different dating ideas. After I read it I was always on the prowl for unusual dating ideas.



One day I was visiting a friend at the Elmhurst Hospital. I saw a sign for a museum in the town. It was called the Lizard Museum, at least that's what I thought. It sounded cool, a whole museum about Lizards? It sounded like it might make for an unusual date. When I got home, I called my girlfriend (This was early mid eighties and cellphones weren't really the end all or be all that they are now) and told her about the museum. She also thought it was cool, and we talked about going there some time.



Flash forward about a year. I was at my girlfriends dorm room meeting some of her suite mates. One of the girls was from Elmhurst. I got all excited and said, "Hey, have you ever been to the Lizard Museum?" At first she had no idea what I was talking about. Then she started laughing. " You mean the Lizzadro museum!" She said, "It's a rock museum!"



Now 25 years or so after the Lizard Museum debacle, I am finally heading over to the Lizzadro. It's full title is the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Art. It's a free day at the museum, so a number of families from my home school co-op are heading that way.

That's my Six Words, for more six word Saturday At Show mt Face dot com click here.

Three Thanks Thursday

Every Third Thursday I like to mix things up here at 3TTT with a special themed edition. With Thanksgiving on the horizon, I have decided to blog about 3 things, for which I am thankful. If you are planning on blogging about what you are thankful for any time in the next week or so be sure to link the post to Mr. Linky below.

Here are 3 things I am thankful for . . .

1) I am thankful that I spent regular time with my brother prior to his death last year. I saw him twice in the week before he died. His death was unexpected, so it's not like I had a chance to say goodbye. But, I did have a chance to visit with him and spend time with Him, and I will always be thankful that I took the opportunity to do so.

2) I am thankful for my wife's encouragement. I had a men's group meeting this morning and went to a men's retreat this past weekend. Amy encouraged me to attend both these events and shuffles her schedule around to make attendance possible. I really appreciate that she is interested in my growth.

3. I am thankful for the pioneers of the homeschool movement. Because of their passion and perseverance, My family and so many others are homeschooling with much less obstacles than they faced.


So those are my 3. Please blog about 3 things that you are thankful for and link up. I am also thankful for you, my readers and followers.

Where I've Been, Where I'm Going.

Where I've Been.

This is a map showing the states I have been in. Don't be too impressed. If I weren't counting airports, Washington, Colorado and Alaska would not be on there.
visited 43 states (86%)


These are the countries I've been to . . .



Create your own visited map of The World

Again not as impressive as it seems. The map gives me all Russia when I was never in the European part. Belgium and Switzerland were "airport countries".

Where I'm Going!

This review of my travels reminded me of the words of Paul to the Philippians:

320But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. (NIV)

Like much of the Bible this is part encouragement and challenge. These verses are a contrast to those who "live as enemies to the cross of Christ" v.18 They are described in v 19 . . .

319Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. (NIV)

So, I challenge you today to focus on the transforming nature of Christ rather than the tragic transient nature of the world. But mainly I challenge me!

Circus

Friday and Saturday I was at a men's retreat. I hope to tell you more about the retreat at a different time.




While I was gone, the rest of the family went to the circus . Special thanks to my Dad, who was the founder of the feast.








Everyone had a great time. Amy liked taking multiple videos of elephants. Here's one of them.




Amy asked Lucy what she liked best about the circus. Lucy responded, "The exciting parts of course!

Home School Blog Awards

I'm honored, I'm humbled; I'm third.

I just found out today that this blog has been nominated in the 2009 Homeschool Blog Awards(HSBA). It has been nominated in the Best Home School Dad Blog category. While I'm very honored for the nomination, I must say I'm a little cheesed off for not being nominated in the humor category. My Lucyisms alone would make me a shoe-in!


Seriously though I am honored to be nominated and look forward to looking through all the nominations and all the blogs.

The thing is now that I've been nominated, I really want to win! (Currently I'm in third place, thus the six words) That is where you, my readers, come in. You can vote me by clicking here or on the I'm Nominated button.

If you are just in from Six Word Saturday and don't know a lot about my blog, I hope the rest of this post gives you an idea of what kind of fun and frivolity occurs at regular intervals here.

Art Fans

All my kids are fantastics and prolific artists. Charlie and Lucy often draw 2 excellent pictures on opposite sides of the paper. This has made displaying them a bit problematic.

That is, until yesterday, when I created the Izola Becker Revolving Art Gallery. This week, Charlie is Displaying his exhibit: "Hijinks on the High Seas". Lucy is already working on the portfolio for her showing.

Interactive Reading

For the past few weeks I have been reading the children a chapter a day from Marguerite de Angeli's fine book, "The Door in the Wall."

I was reading today's installment, while the kids worked on their sewing and are projects. Since they were multitasking, I decided to as well by reading and filming at the same time. Here is what happened . . .

My new camera has a lot of cool features. I was playing with the self portrait setting yesterday. This shot captures my feelings of my HSBA nomination. I call it in an homage to Dead Poet's Society, "The Sweaty Toothed Madman."


So I managed to Show my face once more at Six Word Saturday. Head on Down to Show My Face dot com to see what's doing.