Since the last post, many things have happened--can't remember them all, which is why I need to post every day or so....I can't believe how full each day is.
We are going through One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voscamp in our Ladies' Bible Class at Highland. I am enjoying the book, although she is over the top at times--verbose and repetitive. She needed a good editor. However, the premise of the book is very affecting--listing for yourself 1,000 gifts of God in a journal to motivate the attitude of thankfulness to God in yourself. I have made several presentations on the idea of seeing God in the everyday mundane things which surround us. Perhaps I should have written a book about it as she has done--I understand the book is selling like hotcakes (now what does that mean?) At any rate, I am now on 270 in my journal and going strong. It is a wonderful idea worthy of praise. My latest entries happened last night when I kept the grands--271.
Seeing the thrill of my granddaughters as they received the small bottles of shampoo, conditioner and lotion I got at the hotel this weekend. 272. Seeing Sam's face as he surveyed my freezer and saw popscicles (sp?) 273. The warmth in my heart as I watched them play with their father's wagon in the driveway.
Another big happening was my trip to a family reunion in Lubbock this weekend with my two cousins, Wanda and Linda. This is a yearly Carpenter-Brandon reunion. I am not big on family reunions, (which is strange, given my interest in writing spiritual autobiographies) but decided I would go. I had a wonderful time meeting strangers who are in my family tree. I met a first cousin of my dad's who looks very much like him, although shorter in stature. I couldn't keep my eyes off him--so much like Ollis Elton Brandon! At any rate, I found out a lot about my dad's family and gathered some pictures of my great-grandfather's "home place" in Winnsboro, Texas.
I have volunteered to teach Ecclesiastes in Ladies's Class next semester, so I am gathering a library of books for study. That is always fun. What is not fun is paying for them. I taught this class at Otter Creek about four years ago, and it went well, so here goes again ( I will miss Sandy Collins, my co-teacher).
So many years have passed, but we it seems we can't keep our minds off the Holocaust (nor should it ever be forgotten!). I saw the movie "Sarah's Key" last week--from the book of the same name by Titiana deRosnay. Sarah locks her younger brother in a secret closet as she and her family are taken away, saying that she would be back to get him. (She too is a child and has no idea where she is going). Months pass, and she is desperate to get back to him. Unexpectedly she is able to escape....to find him dead, of course, in the closet. The rest of the book tells the story of the journalist who began to do research into these incidents in France who found herself living in the very same apartment where Sarah lived.
The book details the collaboration of the French govt. with the Germans to get rid of the Jews--a fact almost lost to history. There is a lot of French in the film with subtitles, but that did not bother me. The movie is just as riviting as the book. Our Otter Creek book club read the book when it first went to paperback.
Must go and get ready for the World Series--Go Rangers!!!!
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