To be absent from the body and Present before the LORD

This is the King of Loss. I know this loss all too well.

2gatherstones's avatarGatherStones

2 Corinthians 5:8

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

I should be happy for you, my Son – I guess that is what this passage is trying to tell me.  That is a hard thing for me to process.  You are absent from your body, but also absent from our lives.  I know you are with the LORD, present before HIM.  That must be glorious.  At the same time, I know you did not want to leave your family and friends.  I know being with LORD is wonderful – but I selfishly want you with me, with us.

GOD, YOU have my baby – I know he is YOUR precious child too.  I believe, I know YOU love my baby– so please take care of him.

Help me to focus on the joy he is…

View original post 111 more words

Emotional Beats: Walking and moving (I)

Nicholas C. Rossis's avatarNicholas C. Rossis

Back in September, I published Emotional Beats: How to Easily Convert your Writing into Palpable Feelings. As promised, I will be posting the book on my blog. So, here is the next installment, continuing Part 3 of the book: Other Beats. This chapter deals with:

Walking and moving (I)

Emotional Beats | From the blog of Nicholas C. Rossis, author of science fiction, the Pearseus epic fantasy series and children's books Read for free with KU

There are so many ways of describing walking, each of them conveying a certain emotion. For instance, consider the differences between the following: walk; tread; stride; stroll; saunter; march; amble; stagger; perambulate; ramble; meander; wander; dawdle; mosey; roam; rove; travel; journey; tramp; trudge; slog; plod; lumber; scramble; journey; shuffle; hobble; shamble; waddle; trundle; limp.

Here are some more examples:

  • He swung around/spun around.
  • She slinked over to him
  • She hurtled into the room with all the momentum of a tidal wave, slamming the door behind her.
  • He rushed to his feet.
  • He barreled into the room
  • Snake:…

View original post 367 more words

This entry was posted on August 30, 2017. 2 Comments

Hard Tweets Explained: NäN

Joshua Edward Smith's avataralfageeek

In the early days of computers, pretty much the only thing everyone could agree on was how to represent small positive integers. Other than that, nobody could agree on anything. They couldn’t agree on how many bits were in a byte. Or how many bytes you should work on together (called a “word”). Or how the bytes in a word should be ordered (biggest to smallest, or smallest to biggest). They couldn’t agree on how to represent negative numbers (sign-magnitude or two’s-compliment). They couldn’t agree on how to map letters to numbers (EBCDIC or ASCII). And they really, really, really couldn’t agree on how to represent real numbers (the kind with decimal points in them).

Over time, all these arguments got settled. Except the word ordering one. They still can’t agree on that. And the final decision on how to represent numbers (both integers and real numbers) was worked out…

View original post 429 more words

How to Easily Make Facebook Videos…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's avatarChris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

from Janice Wald’s Mostly Blogging Site:

Today, everyone is jumping on the popular trend to produce videos.

Facebook videos are called Facebook Live.

Twitter has Live Video powered by Periscope, a live streaming app.

YouTube has always been the king of the video market until Facebook and Twitter decided to compete for their share.

Facebook Live has proven to be a decent competitor. After becoming available to the public, just last year, according to recent statistics, interest in Facebook videos has risen over 330%.

Guest author Cathy Lawdanski is here to offer tips on how you, too, can take advantage of the surging interest in Facebook Live to produce your own live streaming videos.

By the end of this post, you will know how to get started and what to talk about in your live streaming videos.

Facebook Live Made Easy, by Cathy Lawdanski

We hear all the time…

View original post 159 more words

This entry was posted on August 28, 2017. 2 Comments

Homework not effective? What about distance learning?

Zach Groshell's avatarEducation Rickshaw

Homework is one of those contentious things that divides teachers as well as parents. John Hattie’s research leads to the conclusion that homework in primary school has an effect of nearly zero.  But the reality is that many schools have policies that require homework to be assigned to students on a daily or weekly basis.

This year, I am experimenting with a theory that primary student achievement can be improved with homework if there is a distance learning tutor available for coaching for every assignment.

What I’m trialing this year:

This year I’ve told all of my students that whenever they need help with their homework, they should shoot me an email. I know, it sounds like a crazy responsibility for me to take on, and I’ll see if I have the stamina to keep up with it throughout the year, but so far it has gone really well!

Screenshot 2017-08-28 19.24.38

“I…

View original post 466 more words

A Highland Pearl

HighlandPearl2017

A Highland Pearl by Brenda B. Taylor

My review follows the book blurb found on Amazon.

“A sweet romance blossoms amidst feuding and war. With her reputation at stake after being accused of practicing witchcraft and hated as a member of a rival clan, Maidie considers leaving Clan Munro and returning to the home of her birth in Clan Cameron. Fierce battles, a tragic encounter, and a handsome clan chief compel her to make crucial decisions in this haunting romance set in the16th century Highlands of Scotland. 

Maidie is summoned to Fàrdach Castle of Easter Ross-shire to assist in caring for the wounded of Clan Munro after a battle with Clans MacKenzie and Cameron. She dreads the task since her husband, Kenneth Munro, was killed in an earlier battle. Maidie is a healer, taught by her mother, with the skills and knowledge needed to tend the wounds of Chief Andrew Dubh Munro who is seriously wounded. 

People in the castle and those in the village of Drumainn turn against Maidie. Angus, the castle physician, resents her for taking his job in caring for the chief. She is hated by some, because she is a member of the enemy Clan Cameron and came to live in Ferindonald, the Munro lands, with her husband. 

Maidie considers returning to the land of her birth in Clan Cameron with her young son, Sven, but falls in love with Andrew while caring for his wounds. Although her neighbors now call her a witch, she wishes to stay in Drumainn because of her love for the chief.

Against an effort to guard his hardened heart from another hurtful encounter with a woman, Andrew falls in love with the tender, caring healer, Maidie. He wants her to stay in Drumainn, but his enemies, the Camerons and MacKenzies, have other plans. They use Andrew in an exchange for Maidie and Sven after their warriors capture the Munro chief. Her father, the brother of Chief Ewin Cameron, wishes for Maidie’s inheritance to stay within his hands. After the exchange, Andrew vows to get Maidie back and plots her return to him and Clan Munro. While inside Castle Lach, the seat of Clan MacKenzie, Andrew meets a small child who is his daughter. He takes the child with him to provide for her when he leaves Castle Lach.

Gavin, Andrew’s brother, falls in love with Maidie. She is attracted to him, but knowing his roving eye, avoids his amorous attentions. Gavin tries to woo Maidie and win her heart away from Andrew. He offers an alternative to rescuing his brother instead of using her as an exchange for the chief. Maidie will not put Andrew’s life in danger and refuses. She resigns herself to going back to her father’s home. Gavin decides he cannot stay at Fàrdach without Maidie and makes plans to leave.
Davina, the younger sister of Andrew and Gavin, harbors resentment toward Maidie because of her brothers’ attentions to the healer. Davina is also jealous of the young warrior, Tavish, who Andrew assigned as Maidie’s bodyguard, and who is infatuated by her sweet charm. Davina secretly loves Tavish and wishes to marry him, but her brothers desire her to marry the MacKenzie’s son to bring peace between the clans.

Although Maidie loves Andrew, she knows their love is forbidden. Too many adverse circumstances surround their relationship. Being a devout believer, Maidie is concerned about Andrew’s lack of spiritual convictions. She realizes they can never be happy with a gulf between their beliefs. Will Laird Andrew Dubh Munro and Maidie Cameron Munro overcome the barriers standing in the way of their love?”

It has been a long time since I have read a historical romance and I fell in love with this book. The highlands, the thick brogue accent, the castles, and the entire story made this a must read book for me. Intrigue was woven in a fashion not normally found in many historical fiction books. Love gently grew among more than one couple while interwoven with (now barbaric) medical treatments such as blood-letting. Battles are won and lost, and the heroine uses herbs to heal wounds made of those herbs, and how she gently cleansed and sutured each wound. I also found the spirituality I read to be such a blessing, as I am fully Christian and this was pleasing to read. Well written, well woven, well researched, and I give this story five stars!