Part one

This is the reason (or reasons) why I do not celebrate Halloween. Even if my parents said that I could, I still wouldn't.


History traces Halloween back to the ancient religion of the Celtics in Ireland. The Celtic people were very conscious of the spiritual world and had their own ideas of how they could gain access to it - such as by helping their over 300 gods to defeat their enemies in battle, or by imitating the gods in showing cleverness and cunning.

Their two main feasts were Beltane at the beginning of summer (May 1), and Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween) at the end of summer (Nov. 1). They believed Samhain was a time when the division between the two worlds became very thin, when hostile supernatural forces were active and ghosts and spirits were free to wander as they wished.

"During this interval the normal order of the universe is suspended, the barriers between the natural and the supernatural are temporarily removed, the sidh lies open and all divine beings and the spirits of the dead move freely among men and interfere sometimes violently, in their affairs"
(Celtic Mythology, p. 127).

The Celtic priests who carried out the rituals in the open air were called Druids, members of pagan orders in Britain, Ireland and Gaul, who generally performed their rituals by offering sacrifices, usually of crops and animals, but sometimes of humans, in order to placate the gods; ensuring that the sun would return after the winter; and frightening away evil spirits.

To the Celtics, the bonfire represented the sun and was used to aid the Druid in his fight with dark powers. The term bonfire comes from the words "bone fire," literally meaning the bones of sacrificed animals, sometimes human, were piled in a field with timber and set ablaze. All fires except those of the Druids were extinguished on Samhain and householders were levied a fee to relight their holy fire which burned at their altars. During the Festival of Samhain, fires would be lit which would burn all through the winter and sacrifices would be offered to the gods on the fires. This practice of burning humans was stopped around 1600, and an effigy was sometimes burned instead.


Blending of Paganism with Christianity

When Christianity spread to parts of Europe, instead of trying to abolish these pagan customs, people tried to introduce ideas which reflected a more Christian world-view. Halloween has since become a confusing mixture of traditions and practices from pagan cultures and Christian tradition.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. During their rule of the Celtic lands, Roman festivals were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The Romans observed the holiday of Feralia, intended to give rest and peace to the departed. Participants made sacrifices in honor of the dead, offered up prayers for them, and made oblations to them. Another festival was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

As the influence of Christianity spread into Celtic lands, in the 7th century, Pope Boniface IV introduced All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs, to replace the pagan festival of the dead. It was observed on May 13. In 834, Gregory III moved All Saint's Day from May 13 to Nov. 1 and for Christians, this became an opportunity for remembering before God all the saints who had died and all the dead in the Christian community. Oct. 31 thus became All Hallows' Eve ('hallow' means 'saint').

Sadly, though, many of the customs survived and were blended in with Christianity. Numerous folk customs connected with the pagan observances for the dead have survived to the present.

In 1517, a monk named Martin Luther honored the faithful saints of the past by choosing All Saints Day (November 1) as the day to publicly charge the Church heirarchy with abandoning biblical faith. This became known as "Reformation Day," a fitting celebration of the restoration the same biblical faith held by the saints throughout church history.
To be continued. . .

My eyes are dry

My eyes are dry
My faith is old
My heart is hard
My prayers are cold
And I know how I ought to be
Alive to You and dead to me

But what can be done
For an old heart like mine
Soften it up
With oil and wine
The oil is You, Your Spirit of love
Please wash me anew
With the wine of Your Blood

This is how I feel sometimes; I really like this song.

I am getting new shoes today I think, when we were camping I put my shoes too close to the fire to dry them out and the heat kinda ruined them. Besides, the plastic in the heel bugs me.

My wrist hurts when I type so I'm stopping, its almost time for lunch anyways. Maybe later I will write more, right now I am starving:)


I raked a bunch of leaves today and this is what I think of them. I played in the leaves with Puppy and rubbed her with corn cobs and buried an apple in the leaves for her to find. I lost two clips for my wrist bandage while I was doing that. Then she and Snickers played together, taking turns being on the bottom and getting beat up. I came inside to get a drink and Gwandle kept meowing at me to open the bedroom door. SO I opened the door and there was Timmy who had cried so much he was horse. He really needs to learn how to open my bedroom door. Its pretty much time for supper and I'm supposed to be looking for wire (for Puppy's fence) on eBay.

Punk cats

I can't get the tattooed cat bigger which is just too bad. I got the mohawk kitty from photo bucket. If you will notice, one eye is blue and one is green; also its ear is pierced. Probably the cat belongs to a biker gang and eats hamsters all the time---raw.

I was digging today and a seagull the audacity to poop an my hand! Probably trying to get back at me for all the times I hit its relatives (and possibly it) with rocks. I also chopped several worms into pieces when I got bored and needed to do something besides dig and shove wire under the ground. I get to take a long break because I ran out of wire and I'm waiting for dad to get more.

Hahahahaha! Did you notice? I added music to my blog.

mohawk puppy!

I haven't been able to find a cat with a mohawk, but heres a puppy. And don't click on the pictures, for some reason they link to a not so nice place. I'm not sure why since I got the pictures somewhere else.

WiLfuLL coNFusIoN

ok so nowe this is really me. i dont normmaly capitalize or use punctuation and you would never be able to read what im saying because my spelling is bad. if this blog is going to be like my journal thids is how it will be. it got tirring to capitalize and observe puntuation so today inm taking a break.im waiting to see if all the little kids will listen to me and not touch the fence transmitter. if they happen to touch it in the right spot they will get shocked. it will be funny (for me) if a kid comes out here with a shocked exspression and frizzly hair and then deny that theu touched the wire. its calling for wet snoe tonight and tomarrow i cant wait. i love snow i meqan when itrelly snows. ever been out side when its wet fat flakes and they pile up on your glove and you can see aech individule snowflake. and then you wonder how peoplle can believe in evolution . how can such order and beauty come from dissorder and a bang? i can only see a Creator. i was listening to wierdd electronical music by 7and5. then i looked them up and its new age music for a new world or something likke that. so then i started listening to soun affect muis. its really funny they have pigs squealing and 747 jet landings and a battle field and men bloewing their noses. plus woman laughing. now im listening to be still m,y soul except its not very still it sounds more like the begging of a horror movie or something. after a50 sec or so it gets better. be still my soul is one of my favorite songs besides search me oh God annd it is well with my soul. im kinda bored so whatever i think of i write or type i mean. there is a book on this desk called one fish two fish red fish blue fish. i remember my dad reading that to me and skipping words and changing the story around. thats probly why when i read to john it sounds weird. like last teusday elijah and dallas told me to read backward and not just backward but read the words backward. so you would read publish post like this hsilbup tsop. they were just trying to make me be quiet. mcintires back feet are yellow on the tips from here dirty ears its really gross. now im listening to this hikmet hukumenglu. i dont know if its a bab group or perso but it sound cool. i cant find it on google. they have an album called H2O aquarium that was releasde in 2006. you know one thing i dont like? i can type on and on about uniportant stuff but i find it hard to write obout the Lord and everything He has done for me. it seems like i should be able to write about that as easily as i write about nonsense. i can tell my friends and talk about Him alot to them but wwhen it comes to writting things just slip my mind and leaves a blank. mom says my few breif moments are too long so id better get off.

crazy cats

For some reason Ive been on this cat craze thing where Ive been looking up cat videos and pictures. And then laughing a lot. Like this one video were cats were talking! It was so funny! Ever here the Long John and Long Johnson? I would post a video but I don't know how.

We bought an underground dog fence today. It was on sale at Canadian Tire so we decided not to wait until spring. So today I gave myself a blister digging so that the fence can be underground. I really need to use my hands for something other than typing and school work. Last time I tried chopping wood I got 9 blisters. Well, now that I can use the fence (Monday I can actually) I wont get my arm nearly pulled out of my socket every time I take Puppy for a "walk". Most of the time its a run or a really run "walk".

The bunk bed Josiah was building is almost completed. When it is done I may post pictures; I use all the pictures to make a post look long when I don't feel like writing. Like now, I don't fell like writing anymore and I want to go to bed. I am so tired the computer screen is swaying every now and then and all the words run together. Maybe I actually have that cold thing people had. Elijah, Abby, Lizzie, John and Timmy had fevers today.

Cats

http://www.swapmeetdave.com/Humor/Cats/index.html

Hey look! A tick!

I am not a normal sane person so that is why I am posting this picture. I went out to feed Puppy lunch, and while she was eating I was petting Snickers. I felt a large bump on his shoulder and thought "my thats a big one!" Sure enough, he had a big brown tick on him. I want inside and mentioned very causally (causally as in: oh Ben, Snickers has a lady bug on him) to Ben that his dog had a rather large tick on him and perhaps he should do something about it. Ben said rather loudly "WHAT!!, EWW, THATS GROSS" So I got the Revolution stuff and put it on the dogs and then brought Snickers to the porch. I took the tick of with tweezers, and, after examining it, I took some pictures and then flushed it. My mom's reaction to it was:

ME: Hey mom, there is a tick on Snickers, it's this big.
MOM: Thats icky
ME: It was big as a pea, you know fat.
MOM: Thats icky.
ME: You wanna see it?
MOM: Thats icky.
MOM: Did you here me?
Me: What?
MOM: Thats icky.

So now you know how bored I can get when I'm done with school and I'm avoiding cleaning the bathroom. I sit around reading books, playing computer games and taking pictures of ticks. I am also waiting for Dad to get home so that they can start building in my room. They are building a bunk bed, but instead of two beds there will be a closet, dresser like thing and book shelf underneath the top bunk. I am greatly looking forward to that being done cause I cant stand clutter and I like places to put things. I will also be able to get rid of that ugly couch and that table thats slowly breaking in half. And then eventually, dad will get me a new mattress, and I wont have to sleep on one that smells like ammonia so bad that I have to put two blankets on top of it so that I can't smell it. Whats funny is that the mattress was made in a Texas maximum security place. Sadly the tag was ripped out long before I could prove that to my doubting friends. I am not going to post my permanent resident card picture. It looks bad.

Ben is very carefully making roads in the driveway. I think he has forgotten that he isn't allowed to do that. Oh well, its a pleasure for a season I guess.

Ah, dad is home.

Nothing

This is what happens when you (Nathanael) take too many pictures of me, I have a headache, just washed a bunch of pots, And the only bug juice left was cherry. I wont put the thing about the cupcake in here. I haven't had my daily quota of cookies yet, so later I'll post more. Maybe then something worth posting will have happened. Besides, Josiah wants to use the computer.
Hi wike to gay whi garkas. Yi gum iz diddy. Thats all I could get out of him, he was too interested in his gum.

All this afternoon John and Timmy have been at each other! Timmy hits John and John stands there and cries, then John bugs Timmy and Timmy in return grabs Johns face and John screams. John will then take Timmy's toy or book away and then Timmy screams. Also while the guys play computer games, Timmy and John keep pressing the esc or enter button which causes annoyed outbursts from Ben and Elijah resulting in more crying from John and Timmy. Timmy came into the kitchen where I was making dad's cake and pulled the mixer cord which made the whole thing fall on the floor. Finally Timmy falls asleep and there is a little bit of peace, except for outbursts from the guys when reprimanded for something they didn't they were doing wrong. I am very tired and and I feel sick from icing so I am going to bed.

Biology

I got a 86% on my test today. I got two questions wrong and one question half wrong, here are the ones I got wrong:

1.Name one organism in kingdom Protista that is pathogenic. Name the malady that this organism causes.
2. Two samples of cytoplasm from an amoeba are studied. The first is thin and watery, while the second is thick. Which sample was taken near the plasma membrane, and which was taken from the center of the amoeba? (I knew the answers, just accidentally switched them)
3. Even though kingdom Protista is mostly known for its single-celled creatures, there are two phlya that contain multicellular organisms. What are they? (I knew of one, not two)

Just in case Joseph hasn't gotten to this particular test yet, I wont write the answers. I also looked at yeast that was fermenting and mold from cheese under a microscope and a magnifying glass. I had to draw what I saw and what I drew looks like weird lumps of nothing. People shouldn't eat bread dough because its alcoholic and the smell that people associate with baking bread is actually alcohol being baked away.

And this is for that annoying uncle: You are not aloud to read my blog. Don't you dare read it or I will not be happy. There is nothing here that you need to see.

After church tonight I might post something of more interest.

Roller skating

This is one of the bad inventions, it is dangerous and I don't recommend anyone trying it. Especially don't try it on a wet road with an energetic puppy. Not that I tried it of course, I'm not that crazy. Here is a song that I like,

Because He Lives

God sent His son, they called Him Jesus
He came to love, heal, and forgive.
He lived and died to buy my pardon,
An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives.

Chorus:
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow.
Because He lives, All fear is gone.
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.

How sweet to hold a newborn baby,
And feel the pride and joy he gives.
But greater still the calm assurance,
This child can face uncertain days because He lives.

And then one day I'll cross the river,
I'll fight life's final war with pain.
And then as death gives way to victory,
I'll see the lights of glory and I'll know He lives.

Timmy says,

Yallus, you air ah cazy beh. You nee tdu to bubby may brover. Ey lihk slating, iht ih bvon. Ey nee to go to bed now.

The dishes await me.

Man, this font is really annoying. Why wont it do what I tell it to do!!!

Timmy and Tarantulas

Hmmm, I wonder if something is missing from his diet that makes him resort to cat milk? It must have tasted icky, because his face doesn't look to pretty in the third picture. He willingly drank it, don't think for a second I made him drink it (nervous laughter here.)

Our neighbor (um, how do you spell his name?) is mowing our grass right now. It's nice to have neighbors who like to mow grass so much the do other peoples lawns.

We got our pictures taken today for our permanent resident cards. I'm positive I'll look really weird without glasses on, even though I haven't seen it yet. If I'm aloud I'll post my picture later.

So now I have a new person writing comments, named larry. I wonder who it is; I look forward to finding out.

Here is an absolutely lovely recipe, Everybody try it and tell me what you think.

1. Take one plump goliath tarantula.
2. Squeeze the insides carefully onto a leaf.
3. If the tarantula is female, squeeze out any eggs too.
4. Roll the hole mass up in a leaf.
5. Put it over a low-burning fire.
6. Stick the tarantula body beside it to toast.
7. Take the rolled leaf and the body from the fire.
8. Remove the hair and fangs from the body, and peel it.
9. Eat all the white meat and the whole mass in the leaf.
10. Pick you teeth with the fangs.

Bon appetite, or however you spell that.


Oh, yes, how do you all like the baby picture?

Insert evil laugh here

I looked at my stat counter today, and someone from Tennessee who is associated with BigIdeas had visited my blog. I don't know if that song was copyrighted or anything, so my dad told me to take it off. It's funny, whoever that was had no referring link. So you guys are all spared reading it:) I'll post again later.

Chelsea, if your reading this, I NEED MY CALCULATOR!!!! I refuse to do ALL those problems in my head tomorrow. How would you like to do 10 ".75 + 6.3 + 5.7 + 23.6 + 7.8 + .5 + 23.5" problems in your head or on paper? And thats just practice, I'm not talking about the algebra that you have no idea how to do. You've had my calculator for more than a month, so please give it back. And don't worry, I need the one from Sarah as well, so I'm not just singling you out and forgetting that Sarah has my other calculator.

Here is another sentence from Timmy:
Ih ha a puvel bahl, ih vrew it aht vera. Ih ahm a zillzy beh.

I can't think of anything to write because there is nothing to write because nothing interesting has happened because I haven't done anything because its Sunday because on Sunday we rest so nothing interesting has happened so I have nothing to write because I haven't done any thing interesting so therefore I cant think of any thing to write. I think I need to stop and go take care of puppy.

Translation guide

This is for all you people who can't understand John and Timmy talk.

Word John Timmy
Drink Grink Gink
Cookie Cookie Gogie
Book Book Vook
Cat Gat Gat
Shoes Yoes goes
Swing wing Wing
Out side Out Yide Goe side
Silly Yilly Lilly
Hair Air Vair
Nose No No
Here is an example of John talk,
GoGoph, you are yo yilly. Meaning, Joseph, you are so silly. Or, I my turn to be on the tool.
Here is an example of Timmy Talk,
Vera, yoo ahv gikin. Meaning Sarah, you have a kitten. Or, We nee yahngers, You figure that one out yourself.

If you have any more words you don't understand, tell me.

Gwandle

First, here are two pictures of the dead rabbit.




And here is Gwandle,


This is my new kitten who currently lives under things. HE is very cute, but HIS claws are sharp. If any one hears anybody call Gwandle a she, don't listen. HE is a HE.

As you can see, I fixed the date on the camera, so those rabbit pictures were not taken in 2005, they were taken today. I do not feel like writing any thing; I want to go put a model German WW1 biplane, North American WW2 Mustang and the British McDonnell Douglas "Phantom" planes together.

The turtle

The first two pictures are of the turtle I found at the pond. One of its legs had been eaten away by a bunch of leeches. I took the turtle home an put salt on the leeches and they died. The one pic is obviously its head, the second one is supposed to be a non-existent leg if you can tell.

The last pic is "Destroying The Bad Dream". It looks really weird and wild, but Lizzy loves it.

Um, tiny tim, I'll post a pic of the dead rabbit maybe tomorrow, I'd really like to know who you and pink pocket are!

Nate is wanting me to get off so he can fix his computer, so I'd better get off.

This and That

This made me laugh, see if it makes you laugh.
http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page.aspx?c=1&p=56114&cat=2,51555
Why not just stomp on it?

I drew a picture today titled "Destroying The Bad Dream". It is for my little sister who gets bad dreams easily. When my brother gets home from work he will show me how to put pictures on again, and everybody can see it.


This is Snickers

My puppy managed to get out of her crate last night, and punched the screen out of the window in the shed. She also ate all of her and Snickers (my younger brothers dog) treats and tried to eat the dog food. She looked stuffed this morning and made quite a pile! While I was taking her out, this other non-fixed male dog from down the road comes over. So I took him home and his owner didn't even known he was gone, even though he was working outside!! He tells me we will have to keep a closer eye on our dogs since neither of them are fixed. Hmmm, I think next time maybe we will call the pound since this isn't the first time that dog has been over here.

I've been mentioning my brothers and sisters here, but not their names. So here are my brothers and sisters names, oldest to youngest:

Nathanael, Josiah, Me, Elijah, Benjamin, Abigail, Elizabeth, John, Timothy and ?

A dead rabbit, and other things

Guess what I did! I dug up my dead rabbit after it had been dead only one year. She (Lilly) hadn't completely rotted away and looked like a dead (duh!), moldy piece of wood, except for the bones and skull showing. All my neighbor friends stood around and said sweet, cool, awesome, and ewwww, don't touch it!!! I hadn't actually touched it with my hand, just my foot. After that I buried it, (to be dug up again at a later date) went inside, washed my hands and then made supper. I grilled (with the help of my friend Sarah) salmon fillets on the BBQ, they tasted OK but aren't my favorite.

I have also been cleaning my room, like getting rid of clutter and things that certain people don't remember exist any more. I want to paint some thing on my bedroom walls, but I don't know what yet. It will probably start out as a yellow sun then turn into a giant yellow UFO, then finally end up as a humongous sunflower covering an entire wall.



My puppy has grown a lot! When I first got her last April (of this year) she couldn't get on my bed, now she can stretch all the way up to the top bunk, and it's about 5 inches taller than normal. It takes two people to cut her nails. One to feed her cookies (the human kind) and the other to cut, she averages about a cookie a foot.

It's really weird how if you stare at my friend Sarah's living room ceiling, the ceiling seems to slant downwards and the walls seem to start closing in on each other. The longer you stare, the more you fell squished. Her living room reminds me of sunny clouds because the walls are blue, the floor is honey colored wood and the ceiling is plaster thats been formed into swirls and peaks; very textured. The sun pours into the room through three big windows, and the TV is off.

Mom is making hot pepper relish, wonder how that will turn out.

Biology

Kingdom Protista is divided into two main groups: protozoa (proh' tuh zoh' uh) and algae (al' jee). These groups are not phyla. Instead, each group contains several phyla; thus, they are often called subkingdom Protozoa and subkingdom Algae. Most protozoa exist as individual, single-celled creatures, while most algae form colonies. Whereas most protozoa are heterotrophic, most algae are autotrophic. Finally, most protozoa have a means of locomotion, while most algae simply float on or near the top of a body of water.

Within the two subkingdoms, there is an amazing amount of diversity. There are four major phyla in subkingdom Protozoa: phylum Mastigophora (mas tih gah' for uh), phylum Sarcodina (sar kuh die' nuh), phylum Ciliophora (sil ee ah' for uh), and phylum Sporozoa (spor' uh zoh' uh). These phyla are distinguished from one another based on their organisms' method of locomotion. Subkingdom Algae, on the other hand, contains five major phyla: phylum Chlorophyta (klor' uh fye' tuh), phylum Chrysophyta (cry' so fye' tah), phylum Pyrrophyta (pie' roh fye' tuh), phylum Phaeophyta (fay' uh fye' tuh), and phylum Rhodophyta (roh' duh fye' tuh). Organisms are separated into these phyla based on habitat, organization, and type of cell wall.

Someone explain this to me in English!

Ninja Remote

My brother got a ninja remote from a website just for nerds (does that mean he's a nerd?). Anyways, I went next door where my friend Chelsea lives. This Chelsea has a annoying uncle who's name is not being posted to respect his privacy:) So he is watching Texas Chainsaw (not a good show at all) and I started messing up the channels and muting it, he was confused at first but then I showed him the remote and he had no idea what it was. So I turned the TV off. He told me to go away, I left not wanting to be injured by a cranky guy.

It's still raining a bit, and it's cold.

The same brother as above also bought some BlackBlack gum. If you don't know what that is, one piece equals drinking a Redbull. I bought a pack from him, and this stuff really works!


Later: Today that annoying uncle told me I needed to throw that remote in the garbage.

Rain

Its been raining all day, so I haven't really done any thing interesting. I painted Cat in the Hat on my bedroom wall and ate candy, and I listened to classical music. Next Monday I'm going to start my school work up again, so I am enjoying my last few free days. My younger siblings are playing train on the dinning room chairs, I remember doing that when I was younger. I have to start making supper in 5 minutes, so this is it.

Keith Green

I'm going to go through all my interests, and expound (I think that's the word) on them one by one, I will start with Keith Green.

I like his music because it's got life to it, it's not slow, "I'm just repeating the words" stuff. He means what he sings and he wants you to hear the message and apply it. Certain people I know may not like Keith Green, so I deleted the video. But I still like his music even though some of it is a bit "rocky". It's just the way I am.

Some things that happened today:

My mother found out about my blog, I could only keep it hidden for one day (well, not even). And Josiah came home from the hospital today!!! He had to take penicillin for the pneumonia though, so now he gets to eat lots of yogurt. I did lots of laundry; it never ends does it? My Lego pirate ship was smashed for the third time a few days ago, so today I started putting it back together again! Maybe when I'm done I'll super glue everything and then when it gets knocked over in the middle of the night it wont break! How does one end a post without sounding abrupt?

My first post

Ok, so I did it. I've been debating for a while whether I should have a blog, and I couldn't resist any longer. Perhaps I will be able to write here more often than in my journal, we will see.

I am going to keep count of how many days it takes for my mother to find it. It didn't take her to long to find my brothers blog, so it shouldn't take her to long to find mine.

Here are a few things about me:
1. I love making lists
2. I like lemon meringue pie and pumpkin pie
3. I have six brothers and two sisters
4. My mom is expecting
5. I really don't like math but I like history and biology
6. I'm home schooled
7. I am (Lord willing) going to be a nurse in the Bangladesh, Nagaland, India area
8. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is Isaiah 40:31
9. I really want to learn how to fly a plane like this one

0. There are no more numbers on the key board