Samantha Pierce

You Passed the US Citizenship Test Congratulations - you got 10 out of 10 correct! Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test? You Are 7 Up Understated and subtle, people warm up to you slowly. But once they're hooked, they can't imagine going back to anyone else! Your best soda match: Diet Coke Stay away from: Mountain Dew What Kind of Soda Are You? Diet Coke? I think diet sodas ar gross. I can't stand the taste of artificial sweetners. (Via Memento Moron .) You Are Cream Pie You're the perfect combo of simplicity and divinity Those who like you life for understated pleasures What Kind of Pie Are You?

To day I'm thankful for/that: Spring has sprung! Tuesday I took the kids for a walk and we listened to the birds sing. I wore flip flops yesterday and today I'm going to go out without a coat. Helpful friends The house is still mostly clean (even hubby's office!). The word of God. God's grace. The life and witness of Abdul Rahman . The lives and witness of those who have died, and will continue to die, for the sake of Christ. Wisdom and understanding. What are you thankful for?

"So I do understand the concept that most Christians hold of the Old Testament being replaced by the New Testament, which is one of the many problems I have with the religion." My inner theologian stamped her foot and shouted, "No no no!" when I read that. This statement was made by someone who claimed to have been raised in the church and to have been "active" up until college. Apparently there are people out there labouring under the misconception that Christians believe that the New Testament is a replacement for the Old Testament. This false belief leads to other false beliefs like, "...the infallable God of the New Testament made a mistake when he imposed that law on ancient Israel." So let me break this down for all who are confused about this matter. The New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Not just the prophesies about the coming of the messiah but the Law (note the uppercase "L") given to the people of ancie...

Today I'm thankful for/that: The house is still clean. Helpful friends. Peace and quiet. Wisdom. I have some of my own but I'm mostly thankful for that of others. What are you thankful for?

Bleh, most of my free time for the next few day will be taken up by doing my taxes. Hasn't anyone instituted a nice simple flat tax yet? Sigh.

The birthday boy hanging out at school.  This time I got him actually looking at the camera.  Now this is the life!  Getting to lick the beaters and the bowl from your homemade birthday. 

I haven't had time to look for any quizzes this week so I'm going the cute kid route again. Here are the kids cuddled up on the couch back in February. By the intent look on all of their faces they are probably watching something staring Elmo.  Sophia hanging out outside on Tuesday just before the big storm that made it all the way to the Berkshires hit. (All of that snow melted yesterday.) 

Today is St. Patrick's Day. Because it is so close to Ethan's birthday I made green shamrock cookies for the boys to take to school. Hubby and I showed up for snack time when they were breaking out the cookies. In response to a question from a student in Ethan's class one of the helpers in the room said, "Those are shamrocks! Today is St. Partick's day." The she turned to one of the other helpers in the classroom and asked, "Are we allowed to celebrate that?" All of the adults in the room laughed and the kids kept eating. But I did over hear a quiet discussion about whether or not St. Patrick's Day is allowed to be celebrated in my city's schools. I can't really say that I was surprised that she stopped to ask the question or that others actually had a discussion about whether or not St. Patrick's Day was an allowed holiday. Everyone realised how absurd it was that she would have to ask the question. But we all knew that somewhere out...

Today I am thankful for/that: The house is still mostly clean and the feeling of being totally overwhelmed is, for the moment, at bay. Helpful friends. I've got a jerry rigged computer set up that works. The boys' clothes were still clean when I put them on the school bus yesterday. It was picture day. Ethan hits the big oh 5 this weekend. I wonder if I'll be around when he hits the big 5 oh? What are you thankful for?

Duet 6:4-7: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. TulipGirl blogged about the Heart of Discipline a couple of days ago and quoted the above verse. I read it today and realised that it describes what I have been making a real effort to do with the boys recently and what I had been planning to write about in this post. I've been teaching Ethan memory verses and going over concepts from his Sunday school classes in earnest the last few weeks. This week was the first time that I've really tried to teach him scripture. One of the interesting things about autism is that it comes with an amazing memory. It only took a handful of times of me repeating this week's memory...

Spring is coming. This is winter aconite, one of the earliest blooming of spring flowers. I caught sight of these yellow blooms at the end of the driveway on my way to the grocery store yesterday morning. When I finally got out to take a picture of it today it was snowing and the sun was shining at the same time. The last few days have been very warm. We slept with the windows open last night. But today winter seems back for one last hurrah. The snow is falling and accumulating as I type. I snapped a few more pictures today and they'll be up at my picture blog sometime before midnight. Update 10:15 PM Blogger is misbehaving and it's past my bedtime so those pictures won't be up until tomorrow or until the problem with Blogger is fixed, which ever comes first. Update 31/15/06 7:08 PM Okay the pictures are up now .

So I took my computer apart and fiddled with some bits and now not only is the keyboard still wonky (it looked like it was working properly for about 5 minutes) but the mouse has stopped working too. Before I took it apart I couldn't even get my spare keyboard to work. The kids had unplugged the computer thereby running down the battery and causing it to shut down. I couldn't even get it to boot up. Add to that the fact that Firefox is on the blink and I am seriously put out. Thankfully hubby's penchant for hoarding computer parts means that I have a spare mouse to work with.

I've been trying to get the boys interested in watching MacGyver ( other IMDB listing ). I like the idea of them being able to grab whatever they have on hand and with a bit of know how and tinkering save the day. At the same time there is a voice in my head yelling at me telling me that I'm nuts. The boys don't need any encouragement or inspiration to tinker with, take apart, blow up or otherwise demolish things. They'll figure it all out for themselves. They already know too much and don't have nearly enough common sense. For now the boys are much too interested in roaming the house looking for trouble to sit still and watch the show. I am, for the moment, spared the consequences of my temporary insanity.

Today I am thankful for/that: I haven't smashed my misbehaving computer to bits in a fit of enraged frustration. I've got a spare keyboard to hook up to my uncooperative computer so I can still use it. Watching Sophia excitedly yank her shirts up to her neck to show me her belly button. Seeing Ethan on his scooter trying to chase down Isaiah while yelling, "Hey come back here!" Watching Isaiah pretend to clean and cook in the kitchen. Cooking with Ethan. His knife skills need a lot of work but he can stir and flip pancakes pretty well for an almost 5 year old. What are you thankful for?

Chicken and Hog Farms Measured for Air Pollution Morning Edition, March 7, 2006 Hog farms are known for their odor. But so far, no one has paid much attention to whether these smells actually pollute the air. Now, the Environmental Protection Agency is testing chicken and hog farms for gases and particles that can make air harmful to breathe. So this has nothing to do with all of those city slickers and suburbanites moving into the sticks and being confronted with the not always pleasant realities of living down on the farm? It must be the high incidents of bad health among farmers caused by exposure to animal waste 24/7? What, you haven't heard about that epidemic? Don't worry, neither have I. I really don't know what to make of this. What is the EPA going to do, make farmers give their animals colostomy bags?

What language should I learn? You should learn Russian You should learn Russian. You like to be able to speak to people wherever you travel if even just a little bit. You are smart enough to learn this language and have the patience to follow through with it. Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com Funny thing is, I did try to learn Russian back in college. I still know the Cyrillic alphabet. Sis 1 sent me a few links to quizzes but I haven't had a chance to look them over yet. I may post them later on today. Ah never mind.

Today I'm thankful for/that: The house is still clean. My bedroom is on its way to being clean. There's enough money to pay the bills. It's so bright outside at 5:15 PM when I'm leaving for my dance class that I think I'm leaving too early. My sewing machine. What are you thankful for?