From a Cluttered Desk

I am Tammy Cardwell, she of the cluttered desk. (Hey, you think I'm kidding?!) I'm having a blast here in Blogland and invite to you to peruse my ramblings. Like a buffet, they offer variety - essentially whatever makes it to the top of the piles that sometimes clutter my brain. We'll eventually cover it all - homeschooling, God, our church, the Eclectic Homeschool Online, books I'm writing and publishing, conferences I speak at, the joys of grandmotherhood, and hopefully chocolate. Of course, this is only what's near the top now. Who knows what's in those piles?

Yeah…writing letters

I just realized that one of the reasons I’ve been so bad about getting blog entries written is that my time has been taken up lately with writing actual letters - handwritten (or computer generated) letters that are slipped into envelopes and mailed to individuals. In this case, those individuals are in places where they have no Internet access and letters from friends and relatives are rare, so my letters to them have taken priority over blogging.

It never really occurred to me before that blogs are a lot like letters. In them, we share whatever…just like we do in letters…and trust our friends and families will take time to read and, we hope, be blessed (or educated or enraged or…) by what we read.

Just musing

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Okay, this is pretty awesome. Get a university student to start asking questions and you never know what you’ll end up with. This one has done some research that he says proves God spoke everything into existence.

A science student in Kentucky says when the Bible records God spoke, and things were created, that’s just what happened, and he can support that with scientific experiments.

"If God spoke everything into existence as the Genesis record proposes, then we should be able to scientifically prove that the construction of everything in the universe begins with a) the Holy Spirit (magnetic field); b) Light (an electric field); and c) that Light can be created by a sonic influence or sound," Samuel J. Hunt writes on his website.

You’ll find the complete article, entitled Research: God did speak world into existence, at WorldNetDaily.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

There I was, reading through the most recent of the 5,845 emails that were waiting for me, and I came across one of those emails. You know them. Someone took something they’d ‘found,’ added some graphics and their own personal thoughts, and sent it out into the world with the command that everyone who reads it is to send it to bunches of other people.

Usually, I don’t even read the things. (The 5,845 number is literal, so perhaps you understand why) I read this one, though, because it claimed to be sharing Charlie Daniels’ thought on illegal immigration and I was interested. I’d made it about halfway through the email before I logged onto Snopes to check it out. The words really are Charlie Daniels’, which was a surprise since so many of these emails are bogus. In the Snopes article I found links to Charlie Daniels’ website, the Soapbox (his blog), and one of the two blog entries that were used to create this email.

My question is WHY did I not at least find, IN the email,  the links to the two blog entries that the email creator used? Every first year high school student knows that you are to always cite your sources, and there is a very good reason - many good reasons - why.

But there’s no reason for me to repeat myself. Here’s a copy of the email I sent to the friend who forwarded the email to me.

Pardon me a moment while I be anal.

I’m not upset with you; you only forwarded it. It really irks me,
though, when people create stuff like this and don’t cite their
sources. How do you know that the emails are even telling the truth if
they don’t show you were they got their information? Not to mention
the fact that what they’re doing is copyright infringement, which is
illegal; no one has the right to publish someone else’s work without
their express permission and if they have that permission they are to
include a note to that effect with the reprint. Which, if we were
picking nits, means it’s also illegal for us to forward these stolen
works. But anyway…

So I checked it out. Except for a few minor changes, these are what he
said in two blog posts in 2006.

You’ll find the originals in these two locations. If the originator of
this email had bothered to at least mention this, the people reading
it would have known where they could go find more excellent offerings
from Charlie Daniels.

Mexican Standoff 04/03/06
http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox-2006-040306.htm

Out Of My Face 04/10/06
http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox-2006-041006.htm

He ends all of his blog entries with…

Pray for our troops

What do you think?

God Bless America
Charlie Daniels

Okay, I feel better now. <grin>

Of course, it didn’t make me feel all that much better or I’d not be here now, mouthing off in my own blog.

Charlie Daniels wrote the words and they are his. We have no more right to pick them up and use them as we will than we have the right to walk into his house and swipe M&Ms from his candy jar; I don’t care if the creator of the email did at least properly attribute the words.

Yeah, I know what’s coming next. "Well, he ought to be honored that his words are going all over the Internet!" I’m sure Mary Stevenson was honored that everyone was using her "Footprints in the Sand" with the attribution "Author Anonymous" too; after all, it was blessing so many people! (Sarcasm Alert: Visit The Official Footprings in the Sand Page and you’ll see.) I would not be honored to know that someone was freely copying and sharing my blog posts, or my articles, or my books, without first requesting and receiving my permission. They’re my words and, like my children, I prefer to know where they’re going and what they’ll do there. And believe me, I would really not be honored if I found that the person was not only sharing my words, but was not directing people to my blog where they could read the originals for themselves.

So Charlie Daniels, on behalf of those who don’t know any better (Hopefully it’s ignorance and not something else), I apologize for the illegal sharing of these blog posts. Too, I want to thank you for blogging. My investigations led me to your site and after spending about two hours reading blog posts today I know I’ll be going back for more. You rock!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Discount Homeschool Supplies is owned by a homeschooling family and they had a very challenging 2006. To help them out, several of their friends who own publishing companies have offered ebooks, discounts, and more to put together a package that they’re selling at a tremendously low price. (Over $120 value for $29.95) If you want to take advantage of this special offer, you’ll need to do so before midnight on Saturday.

Here’s what they have to say about the sale. I’ll include thelink afterwards.

We are having a very special sale this week. With a little help from my friends, I have put together this package of ebooks, discount codes, and products just for you.

In 2006, our family encountered many obstacles, and if you have read my ebook, you know that I found some creative ways to continue homeschooling thought the things in life that crept into our school schedule. What I did not detail in that ebook, were the actual obstacles we encountered. (If you would like to receive a free copy of my ebook, Overcoming Obstacles While Homeschooling, you can sign up for my free newsletter, and you will receive a copy of it delivered right to your email box.) In March of 2006, our daughter had oral surgery to remove her wisdom teeth. In April of 2006, our son, Jacob, had his third eye surgery to correct an eye that persistently turned in. This surgery was scheduled after we had exhausted all avenues of alternative treatment, including eye patching and vision therapy. In May of 2006, our daughter had an appendectomy. And in July, I gave birth to our 6th child. All of these medical "events" in our life caused us to have $10,000 in medical debt. We do have medical insurance, but they have reduced our benefits to a point that we have to meet high deductibles before they pay any benefits. We also have regular doctor’s office co-pays, medication, and glasses for two of us in this total. Therefore I asked for the help of my friends to have a "benefit" sale for our medical debt.

This is a very humbling time in our lives, and we strive to live debt free. We are under enormous stress trying to pay our monthly living expenses and trying to pay a little bit on each medical bill.

Now that you know why we are having this sale, let me get on with telling you about it. I am so overwhelmed at the generosity of the participants who allowed me to offer you these products.

This sale will end at midnight on Saturday, February 10, 2007, so don’t delay in placing your order!

And here’s the link. You can help yourself to these special prices and help a worthy family  while you do.
http://www.dhss.com/shop/custom.aspx?recid=4

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

I’m reading The Practice of Praise, by C. H. Spurgeon, and while reading it I’ve had some revelations that are both awesome and so simple they make me feel a bit stupid for never having fully comprehended these things before.

I sing in our church’s choir and there have been many times through the years when I was "going through hell" and could have chosen to sit out during praise and worship. I have walked into the choir loft with fear clutching at my throat because of something I was facing. I have walked into the choir loft with a heart that was broken and bleeding because of something someone had done. Regardless of my situation, every time I walk into that loft, I make a decision. Sometimes I let life get the upper hand and enter the loft to physically fill my called position and nothing more. I open my mouth and songs come out, but they’re only sounds because I have not come with a heart determined to praise. In those instances, I exit just as I entered, unchanged; nothing has happened.

But then there are the other times - most of the time, thank God - when I enter the loft and give myself to praising my most glorious God. On those days something HAPPENS. It may be one of those days when fear is tearing at my throat and at first I can only praise God a little, but I give God that little bit of heart-felt praise. As I do, the fear recedes some and I am able to give God more. Then the fear moves even further aside and sure enough my praise becomes greater, more heart-felt, more confident. By the time I leave the choir loft I have been changed; where fear had reigned, now I have confidence that somehow God is going to make everything come out all right.

This doesn’t just happen, and it doesn’t happen just because we had a moving praise and worship service. It happens because I choose to praise God and God inhabits my praise. (Psalm 22:3) When I praise God a tiny bit, He inhabits that tiny bit and, as He enters, all that is not of Him shies away. Then I have the strength to praise in greater measure and He inhabits in greater measure; again, other things back away. See the progression? It is said that praising God is one of the most selfless things we can do, and it is, but even so it still benefits us. (In truth, I see that everything we do for God ultimately benefits us.)

We should want to praise God regardless; it is part of the Christian’s nature to praise Him. But now that I’ve seen the very real benefit of God inhabiting my praises I realize that I must praise Him ESPECIALLY when I don’t feel like it.

This was the first part of my DUH revelation. The second part is this. I should not limit my praises to Sunday morning worship. Oh sure, we all know this, but how many of us really get the import of Psalm 92:1-2?

[It is a] good [thing] to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night…

It is a good thing - not just a good thing for me to do, but good for me. And as I said, it is not only limited to Sunday morning worship, or even to sung praises. Any time we praise God from our hearts, He inhabits our praises and things happen. So let us praise! Let us praise Him for His lovingkindness in the morning. Let us praise Him for His faithfulness every night. Let us, indeed, practice praise every day we live, all day long. It is, after all, a large part of what we’ll be doing in eternity!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Leviticus 18:5
If you obey my laws and regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord.

This is true on many levels. Obviously, the children of Israel found spiritual life through obeying God’s laws and regulations, but they really did find physical life too.

It is astounding, how many of God’s laws and regulations were health-related. When I first learned this, I wondered, but then I realized that they didn’t have all of the information that we take for granted today. They didn’t know about bacteria and germs and how to avoid passing contagious diseases from one person to another, so they had to be told, “Don’t do that.”

One might wonder why God would simply give them a list of rules without taking time to explain them all, but in reading Leviticus one realizes that there were so many rules they had to learn quickly that there’s no way. They were like children, and as is often true with children I’d say that in this case it really was easiest just to say, “Don’t touch the stove!”

And like obedient children, they did what they were told to do and they truly did find life, I’m sure living healthier lives than did those who lived around them. In fact, though I’ve not studied the health-related practices of ancient civilizations, I’d hazard a guess that they were ages before their time in this area.

Talk about Daddy taking care of you!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C