Gunslinger ~ Avenged Sevenfold

My most favorite band of all time is a band called “Avenged Sevenfold” and today I wanted to share one of their songs with you, an “undercover” song about God. On the surface it’s about a soldier fighting in a war, but you don’t have to dig to far to figure out that throughout the song this “soldier” is talking to God as he lay dying on the “battlefield”. There are many jewels like this throughout ALL of their albums. I hope this song touches and comforts you as it does me 🙂

Yeah, you’ve been alone
I’ve been gone for far too long
But with all that we’ve been through (the key to this is to know that the “we” is the soldier and God, going through this life together)
After all this time I’m coming home to you

Never let it show
The pain I’ve grown to know (the inherent pain of being a Christ Follower Of The Narrow Way while on this planet earth)
‘Cause with all these things we do
It don’t matter when I’m coming home to you

I reach towards the sky I’ve said my goodbyes
My heart’s always with you now (because he is dying, his heart will now always be with God)
I won’t question why so many have died (the many who died is all of the millions of christian martyrs)
My prayers have made it through yeah (-the mission was a succes! 😀 )
‘Cause with all these things we do
It don’t matter when I’m coming home to you (God is always with him, so it doesn’t really matter if he dies now or later and he’s willing to stay and do more work if that’s what God wants)

Letters keep me warm
Helped me through the storm (Letters from home = Bible)
But with all that we’ve been through
After all this time I’m coming home to you

I reach towards the sky I’ve said my goodbyes
My heart’s always with you now
I won’t question why so many have died
My prayers have made it through yeah
‘Cause with all these things we do
It don’t matter when I’m coming home to you

I’ve always been true
I’ve waited so long just to come hold you
I’m making it through
It’s been far too long, we’ve proven our
love over time, it’s so strong, in all that we do
The stars in the night, they lend me their light (symbolically stars often represent angels)
to bring me closer to heaven with you (this is the line that gives it all away, the fact that the soldier is talking to God throughout the whole song..and also the fact that the soldier is dying)

But with all that we’ve been through

After all this time I’m coming home to you

I reach towards the sky I’ve said my goodbyes
My heart’s always with you now
I won’t question why so many have died
My prayers have made it through yeah
‘Cause with all these things we do
It don’t matter when I’m coming home to you

And with all that we’ve been through
After all this time I’m coming home to you

They that RULE by the sword, DIE by the sword

When Jesus said to Peter “Those who live by the sword, die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52) he wasn’t criticizing Peter for chopping off the guy’s ear! 

NO! and HELL NO! 😡

He was comforting Peter with The Truth of His Spiritual Law. 

Peter DID NOT live by the sword, he was a fisherman, with a sword for protection, just as Jesus had said “If you have no sword, sell your garments and buy one..”  (Luke 22:36)

The people coming to arrest Jesus, the pharisees and the saducees and the roman guards all in cahoots together to unlawfully take him down, for Jesus had done nothing wrong…it is THEY, the mad power hungry crook criminal tyrants, who LIVE by the sword!

All Peter knew is that they we’re coming to take away His Lord and His Friend and he did that which is most courageous and commendable…He defended Jesus! (remember, greater love hath no man than this that he lay down his life for his friends).

And Jesus, seeing this, knowing the love that Peter had for him, comforted Peter reminding him that they will get their due..that they will get what is coming to them…for all that RULE by the sword, DIE by the sword.

And in TRUE prophetic fashion, Jerusalem was later sacked by Rome and Rome was later on sacked by the barbarians.

So, Jesus spoke a prophecy as well as a spiritual law! 

And, not surprisingly, the so-called “church”, in their usual fashion, has been getting this wrong for YEARS! 🙄

Making The Best Of A Bad Situation

Here in West Virginia, the home schooling laws are not as relaxed as some states.  You have to notify them of your intent to home school each year at the beginning of the school year and you have to either keep of portfolio of work and have it graded by a teacher or take the standardized testing each year.

When we first moved here I wasn’t too happy about the whole “testing thing” at first, but after nearly 5 years of testing (this year in April will be our 5th time taking the test) I have come to accept it and to a certain extent even enjoy it believe it or not!  The whole thing is treated like a big party, with testing and then a break for lunch, and then more testing, and then cake and other treats and playtime with at least 30 other kids after all the testing is done.  My kids have a blast every year 😀

Each year, the child takes a test corresponding to the grade that he is in.  This year Solomon takes the 2nd grade test and Elijah takes the 6th grade test (yes, Elijah is ahead, and that is another great thing about the testing, you can have your child take whatever grade test you think they will pass, it does not have to correspond to their age level..).  Matthew is in school too now but he doesn’t have to take any tests until 2014.

To make things easy, we buy the practice tests off Amazon.com and at the beginning of the school year we give each child the proper practice test corresponding to their grade level for that year, being as “true to life” as possible in order to get as accurate a result as possible.  Doing this, we can then determine what the child’s current strengths and weaknesses are and then put extra emphasis on their weakness while continuing to build up their strengths, in this way our whole school process becomes very streamlined.  We then flesh out the bones with more fun and real life skills…like gardening, proper land stewardship/management, animal husbandry, wood working, cooking, sewing, learning a foreign language (Spanish), art like origami or pottery making or calligraphy, and exciting science experiments using microscopes and chemistry labs…it is these types of things that actually make up the “meat” of our home-based education system 🙂

I know that some people in the home school communities have issues with testing, saying that it is an inaccurate way of judging what the child knows… but I tend to look at it this way, tests, for better or for worse, are the way of life in this world.  Eventually all of our children, whether home schooled or not, are going to have to take tests…tests for college, tests for job certification in skilled work like that of an electrician or plumber etc. and, if they wanna drive, a test to get a license…so, in reality, it’s actually in the child’s best interest to become comfortable with and skilled in the art of the test.

Because test-taking really is an art form.  There are certain skills involved, deductive reasoning and the ability to be able to read into a question so as to know what the question is expecting…what I call “The Art Of Bullshitting” and it was the main way that I managed to graduate 6th in my class when I was in high school (I started 11th grade as valedictorian of my class, but there is only so much bullshit a girl can take! LOL  I became so sick of school that I pretty much stopped doing any form of work, other than showing up everyday and taking their stupid tests when I was forced to…but because I was good at tests I still managed to graduate 6th in my class…not too bad, if you ask me…)

So, new for this year, one of the subjects that we are focusing on is test-taking skills, secrets, tips and tricks and I find that it has been quite fun to be able to relive all the methods and techniques of bullshitting one’s way through a test…and it has served as a hilarious reminder of just what a farce all of man-centered knowledge is!!

Each and every culture, from the high tech western world to the primitive tribe living in a hut in the rainforest, has it’s universal agreed upon myths and perceptions of reality accepted as “normal” (a collective dreamstate, aka brainwashing or mind-control..) …simply understand your own culture and what they want to hear and what they expect, whether you actually believe the bullshit or not, and repeat it back to them and you’ve basically won the battle…

Sadly, this is what “education” has been reduced to in our society…don’t dare try to think for yourself and if you do, you better not say it out loud! 🙄

Wild Life

More pictures, cause I’ve no time for words.  Serious schooling going on around here…from November (when the major bulk of the gardening season is done) till April when the kiddos take their homeschool test, is when the major bulk of our schooling gets done for the year.  And with THREE boys in school now it’s gotten super intense, taking up many hours a day, six days a week (Sunday-Friday).  But were having fun and learning a lot, just doesn’t leave much time for a blog is all.  Although I am contemplating getting up earlier to make time for it (I mean I only go to bed at midnight and get up around 7AM usually..so what’s one or two less hours of sleep?? hahahahaha).  Hope you enjoy the pictures 🙂

Little frog dude that was living in my spider plant on the front porch two summers ago

Charity, on her first birthday, eating wild back raspberries that Nathan picked for her

Gizmo

Gizmo with kittens

My oldest son, Elijah, cradling my youngest son, Samuel, who is only a few days old

Samuel at 6 months old

FooF as a kitten (he’s the father of Gizmo’s kittens)

Savannah as a kitten (she’s FooF’s Sister)

Savannah all grown up and sleeping in a basket

Jack hiding in the weeds, he died last March, I love the colors in this photo 🙂

Lots of Nothing

Why I have not posted:

• I had two awesome gardening posts planned, replete with pictures from last year’s garden.  Pictures that I had stored on a teeny tiny SD Card in my digital camera…and that teeny tiny SD Card has disappeared!  I’ve torn apart and organized my WHOLE DAMN HOUSE looking for this card and it ain’t here…I think one of the toddlers may have eaten it..
• but now at least my house is cleaner and more organized..eh?  I found extra tiles for the floor and a pillow that belongs to one of our couches and I switched clothes around…little 18 month old Samuel is not so little anymore, had to pull out all the 2T boy’s clothes for him…they grow so fast!
• Also did my seed order for 2013..only $60 this year, not too bad…last year I spent $100!  Working on my garden plan for 2013 as well, will be trying some new things like eggplant…never grew it before, but I will this year… 
• And I’ve been making lots of venison broth from all the nummy bones from the deer that Nathan shot, soon I will be canning it.  I love home-canned broth in my pantry, it always inspires me 🙂
• It’s warm again.  It’s amazing how a few nights of temperatures spent near 15F makes a 33F day seem “warm” but it does.!  And that always annoys me, I am thankful that it is warmer but I hate the fact that 33F feels warmer…I wake up and go outside to milk goats and I’m like “wow, it’s warm out here!” and I only wear a light fleece coat and leave my hat in the house. . and that annoys me, 33F should NEVER feel “warm.”…
•  When it’s “warm” I do not post, I go outside and do all those things that I have been putting off because it was too cold.  Like the big bonfire that we’ve got planned for today, burning the gigantic mass of boxes that has accumulated from all of the shipping and recieving from the x-mess E-Bay business season..finally coming to a close!
• And that’s another reason why I have not posted..been soooooo busy with all this stoopid holiday related shit and I don’t even celebrate it!  I don’t like that either, but that’s what happens when you’re in the video game business…lots of people buy video games for x-mess, our next busiest time is summer…parents buying kids games to keep them busy and outta their hair while on summer vacation.
• Been talking with Nathan and looking online a bit at other properties near our area, we have more of an idea now of where we might want to settle permanently …it’s about 45 minutes from where we currently live, deeper into the woods and further from the interstate.  I’m pretty happy with where we are right now so, it will have to be PERFECT if I ever move again.  I’m talking 4 bedrooms, huge barn, fenced in pasture, a creek/spring/well…the works!  otherwise it just ain’t worth it…
• Also been focusing more on health and weight-loss for the past week.  Nathan got this new nutritional “tangerine” flavored supplement powder stuff (Tangy Tangerine ala Alex Jones) and I’ve been taking it for the past week.  I make a shake in the morning, with 1 1/2 cups raw goat’s milk, 2 raw eggs from our hens, a tbsp. of stevia in the raw, a dash of vanilla and a dash of salt and 2 scoops of the tangy tangerine stuff and I whirl it all up in the blender and suck on it through a straw as I go about my business during the morning (it tastes just like an orange creamscicle) …and I must say!  It really does work!  I’ve been able to cut out my second cup of coffee that I have most mornings, I have so much energy that I don’t even want it…and I can’t sit still!  I go and go and go on nothing but the shake alone till about 4pm…I didn’t even get on the internet yesterday, I did not want to sit still!  There’s so much to do and so little time…so little time…