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?

You may or may not know that my husband has, in the past three years, had two strokes and a heart attack. You know that email that goes around the Internet, the one that gives you things to watch for and check if you think someone might be having a stroke? That email was what provided the clues to let us know he was having the second stroke. The heart attack… I had no clue what was going on while we was having it; I only knew he woke up in terrible pain in the middle of the night. He thought he might be having a heart attack and didn’t want to scare me, but endured it and then confirmed with his doctor later. (I know. I know.)

So today I’ve heard about something else that, as much as I hate to think about it, might be a good thing to learn about. It’s Sudden Cardiac Arrest, which is different from regular heart attacks. I’ve not had a lot of time to explore this site that shares information about Cardiac Arrest, but the things I have read are disturbing, like the fact that Sudden Cardiac Arrest is considered the "single most important cause of death among adults in the industrialized world." I guess this means that, as much as I’ve always tried to ignore illnesses, I might be wise to at least study it enough to know what things most commonly factor into SCA. Okay, I don’t guess I should check it out; I know I should.

Wisdom. I don’t like thinking about illnesses, so I try to ignore them, but sometimes wisdom says you need to spend a little time online, doing some educational reading.

Celebrating Jesus (and Jack’s returning health!)!
Tammy C

Amanda Bennett is another long-time friend. We met at a homeschool conference years ago and have laughed together many times since. She’s well-known among homeschoolers and considered a unit study guru for good reason; she’s a prolific producer of some of the best unit studies on the market. She’s also thoughtful and loving and FUNNY. She is one of those rare people that truly knows how NOT to take either herself or life too seriously. And did I mention that she’s funny? Her blog hits on more topics that you can imagine - tree farming, unit studies (DUH!), to… who knows?

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

I’ve shared about Cindy Rushton before. Her heart beats a lot like mine does, so if you like me you’ll surely like her. Cindy Rushton’s blog… You never really know what you’ll find. The most recent entries right now share about seminars she’s offering through her chatroom. These events are wonderfully rich experiences that can change your life, so I’m glad she’s got this space to tell the world.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

You’re wondering about all the blog entries about blogs I recommend, right?

I explained it a while back, but it has been a while, so I thought I should speak up again. I’ve discovered, through researching page rank and other fascinating bits and pieces about succeeding on the Internet, that you actually do someone more of a favor if you link to them directly in a blog entry than you do if you link to them in a blogroll. So I’m working on getting my blogroll whittled down to a single link that will take you to the page containing all of the blogs I recommend. This means that, for a time, you’ll see more entries than usual, with many of those pointing to blogs. Hopefully you appreciate this instead of being bugged by it, because there are some fabulous blogs out there and if you’re like me you’ve probably never even glanced in my blog roll to notice them.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

The Clearing (Subtitle: finding myself in the thick of it!) used to be known as An Open Book. It’s the offering of one homeschooling friend who moved from one of those foreign countries (Some people call them states) to East Texas a year or two back. Julie, the author, blogs on a variety of topics, from homeschooling to family to her home to… Well, right now, aside from doing an impressive revamp of her blog template, she’s in the middle of something called Script Frenzy; I imagine it’s similar to NaNoWriMo, which is a writing project that has been tempting me for years. I wish she had time to tell us more about that!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Scraps of Glory is a blog intent on offering…

I love the explanation that Maxine, the author, gives. Scraps are bits and pieces, snippets if you will, and her desire is to show the glory of God using short collections of words. Her blog entries tend to be brief, but blessed. Today’s, for instance, takes you to Shakespeare for just a few minutes, letting you contemplate the quality of mercy.

Beautiful!

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

This is actually an excerpt from an article I wrote several years ago.
In reading it again, I realized that this is yet another of my favorite quotes
and that what I wrote back then still applies today.

I realize now what the imagination is and why Jesus used parables to teach. The imagination is the bridge between the heart and the mind.                                                ~Michael Card

Thinking about this, it hit me hard that, yes, the world (or the devil using the world) IS out to destroy our children’s imaginations, because imagination is necessary to faith. The scripture says that "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1) How do we ’see’ those things "not seen"? We use our imaginations! How do we access anything God has for us from salvation onward? We get a vision…we imagine.

Now I understand even more why particular games get such a hold on their players. Even aside from the demonic influence people talk about, there is imagination’s desperate need to be ‘activated’, to be fed. When given no healthy food, the human body will latch onto anything it can get. It seems possible the same holds true for God-given imagination.

I have heard many homeschoolers discuss how their children’s playmates lack imagination - how sad it is to see. Now that I’ve had time to really consider it, I see it as much more than sad. Rather, I think, it is spiritually dangerous. If we would pray that those around us would awaken to the goodness of God, perhaps we should pray also that their imaginations be awakened so that they can truly SEE.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Funky Peacock Studio is the blog home of my artist friend Marilyn. Mind you, she would insist that she is not an artist, but if you take time to visit and look at her work you’ll see that she is. I’ve known it for years, of course (I own some of her art, so have proof!), but I know from experience that it can be hard to say the words, "I am an artist," and believe them.

Anyway, she’s a fabulous mixed-materials artist and often shares her projects with her blog readers. If you read in my blog, a couple of months ago, about an art-sale fundraiser for some elderly ladies, this is the same gal. And she’s still doing the fundraiser, I believe. I truly admire her willingness to give and give and give. I also love reading her blog because you never know what it will contain. Today I found a family photo from when she was two months old, genealogy, childhood memories that got me remembering my own summer days, a lovely spring vignette, her latest fabric postcard, and more.

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C

Dena is a co-owner of Trigger Memory Systems and a homeschooler with a wide range of interests. The most recent blog post topics at Dena’s Deliberations range from Ben Stein’s new movie, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, to a cool new art trick her son taught himself to "strewing" (Her definition: "leaving educational items lying about in places where they’re likely to get perused without it actually being considered ’school.’").

Celebrating Jesus!
Tammy C