Update

Just checking in to be accountable for some of my New Year's goals.

READING

Two days late but I did finish How People Change and Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands. Both excellent reads, but I'll have to admit I'm partial to How People Change. Both books will be books that I'll be continuing to go back to.... marking in them some more, taking more notes, referencing the recommended scriptures, and continuing to digest their information and counsel.

Great challenges and convictions were shown to me through reading these books.

For March, my reading goal is to read the book The Peacemaker by Ken Sande. I only have one book a month scheduled on my reading list until August, but if time permits and with no particular goal date, I'm adding Age of Opportunity: A Biblical Guide to Parenting Teens to my reading list. It is also a book by Paul David Tripp.

Also, I'm continuing to read Proverbs monthly. Two months down, ten more to go. I also continue to read the Psalms chronologically. I should be finishing those by the end of March. Then the next book I want to read through and study is James. (then Romans)

REVELATION SERIES by Ryan McKee

I've listened to all the messages to the churches, except Sardis. So, I still need to download that, and then progress to the next part of the series. Great series and highly recommended.

EXERCISE

Haven't been as consistent as I would like. Been shredding, but I missed several days. However, I'm happy to report my eating is getting back under control. (somewhat) :-D

Maddie is begging me to get the new Jillian Michael's DVD: Ripped in 30, and I think I'm going to do it. It looks beastly, but something I think I would like to challenge myself to conquer. I'll keep you posted.

CRAFTS

I finished my Swiffer cover. I haven't worked on much more than that. I do have a Christmas gift I need to pick up working on again. Can't say much about that, as it is for a family member and some of them read this blog, so let's just say, if you want to encourage me....say, "Get busy, Mary!"

HOMESCHOOLING

On another note, if you are a homeschooler and looking for a grammar program, may I suggest to you, Analytical Grammar. What a great program. My daughter is parsing and diagramming sentences, and also doing some summarizing. She has a better grasp of the mechanics of gramar more than ever before.

I don't have time in this blog to tell you everything I love about this program, but go to their site with a cup of hot coffee or tea, and plan to spend some time watching the videos about their products. My daughter actually said, "I love diagramming." WOO HOO! Not since Peace Hill Press published their four levels of First Language Lessons, have I been this excited about a grammar program. I LOVE First Language Lessons, and I think there is NO BETTER elementary grammar program for homeschoolers....or any child, for that matter. I've not had anything to recommend for those who finish FLL except Abeka, which, let's face it....it NOT for every child. So check out Analytical Grammar.

Valentine Dinner

On Friday evening, we had a pleasant time at the Valentine Dinner for the Young Married's Class at our church. We are grateful that even though we are not young and have been married almost twice as long as some of the couples in the class, that they welcome us into their fellowship. :-)

The teens from our church did all the serving for the banquet. They did such a wonderful job! Our server Sharon W. was most excellent!

Of course, my two favorite servers were: Maddie and Marcus

The newlyweds to be in our family looked spectacular.

Thanks to all the hard work our Sunday School class teachers did in planning and decorating. The cooks prepared marvelous food. The servers waited on us so graciously. The clean up committee did a fabulous job! A fun night was had by all. :-)

I'm going green

I wouldn't say I'm really going green, but one small effort.....

I do like my Swiffer mop, but hate buying the refills sheets for it. When I saw the pattern for this cover, I immediately wanted to make it. I'm very proud of it, and to top it off....I did it completely on my own. No phones calls or email requests to my crochet mentors for help. This was a start to finish effort of my own.

One contribution to going green....not purchasing the refill sheets anymore.

Also, when this cover is sullied, I can take if off, turn it wrong side out and use it some more before washing it in the washing machine. I have one cover made and I'm working on a second.

I love how crocheters are so ingenious. The leaders in the field come up with some of the best and cutest ideas. Those who come up with these concepts --then write ---then share the patterns ----for FREE, are part of what makes crochet a great hobby. People are always so willing to help!

FINISHED!

This weekend, I was able to finish Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams. YAY! Now on to the next two books on my list. They need to be finished by the end of February. Whew! I hope I can get it done!

First up: How People Change followed by Instruments in the Redeemer's Hand.

On another goal related note, I did read the book of Proverbs this month. I'll be reading it again during February along with continuing to read Psalms chronologically. :-D

A Baby Coocoon

So, here is my latest finished project. I made it for Baby James. However, he weighed over 9 lbs. so I'm not sure he'll be able to fit into it; but...he will have a keepsake. :-)

Checking In.

So the new year is a time for goals. I have challenged myself in several different areas. (See post New Year-New Look for reference.)

Let's see how I'm doing:

Bible Reading: I'm on track with reading Psalms (Chronologically) and Proverbs by the end of March. Actually, if I stay on track I will have read Proverbs three times by the end of March.

NANC Reading: I still have not finished Competent to Counsel. UGH! I have not devoted the time to it like I should since I didn't make the goal I had set for myself by finishing it before the new year. So, I need to whip that out. I do still want to have read How People Change and Instruments in the Redeemer's Hand by the end of February. I need to step it up on this. I want to read every counseling text book on the NANC recommended reading list by the beginning of August. These books include: Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams, The Christian Counselor's Manual by Jay Adams, Counseling-How to Counsel Biblically by John MacArthur, Seeing with New Eyes by David Powlison, The Peacemaker by Ken Sande, and Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands by Paul Tripp. All the while working through Basic Theology by Charles Ryrie. (Basic Theology will NOT be finished by the beginning of August) :-D

Revelation series: I'm behind on listening to the Revelation messages from Mamre Baptist Church. There is something wrong with the volume on either their end or my end and so I'm not able to just listen to them while sitting at my computer. I'll have to put them on my MP3 player and listen so I can get the volume loud enough for me to understand. So, I need to work on that one.

Exercise: I set the goal of doing the 30 Day Shred again along with the new ab DVD by Jillian Michaels and going to spin class. I've been doing the 30 Day Shred. I need to work on fitting the ab video into my workout routine. I have done it twice, but need to be more consistent. It is a great routine. I do like it.

The spin class is another story. Mickey is changing shifts, so he will be home with me during the mornings when spin class is going on. I do not want to commit myself to being out of the house three mornings a week when that is supposed to be when we are having our devotions and prayer time together. SO...for now, spin class is out.

(However when he's out of town...I'll be heading to spin class in the mornings.) :-D

Crafts: Crochet projects are on target and maybe soon I will be able to post a few pics. We'll see....

My new favorite crochet resource, besides the Internet is Crochet Today.

Did any of you make any goals/resolutions for 2011? Are you staying on track? Are you giving yourself time to evaluate how you are doing and where you need to make adjustments?

Until next time.

~MAK

Cleaning....

So, I'm cleaning today. I like to clean on Fridays. I like to have the house nice for the weekend. We are having some people over tonight, though and I feel like I haven't cleaned in forever. With the holidays here and the girls visiting, I haven't done anything like I normally do. I feel like I'm playing catch up.

What are your cleaning routines? Do you have a set day you clean the whole house, or do you clean a little bit every day? Do any of you follow www.flylady.net ?

Just curious.

January 5, 2011 Another sad day in Omaha, Nebraska

Millard South shooting: Suspension ignited fury

By Henry J. Cordes and John Ferak
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS

Robert Butler Jr. was pulled from his first-period class Wednesday at Millard South High School, summoned to the school office to face the music.

A school security camera had caught the 17-year-old senior — who transferred to the school this past fall — driving across a school football field. Assistant Principal Vicki Kaspar informed him of his penalty: a 19-day suspension.

Butler was escorted out of the school. Sometime afterward, he posted an item on Facebook about the “evil'' that the school had driven him to.

As the lunch period wound down in the suburban Omaha school's buzzing halls, the meaning of those words became clear.

Butler returned to Kaspar's office, this time brandishing a handgun. He shot the 58-year-old administrator, mortally wounding her, then fired on Principal Curtis Case.

Butler, the son of an Omaha police officer, then fled by car. Omaha police found him about 35 minutes later in a parking lot, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot Kaspar, described by colleagues as a consummate professional devoted to kids, was rushed from the school by helicopter but died hours later. Case, 44, was in serious condition and expected to survive the shooting that rocked the school, the district and the city.

It is believed to be the worst school shooting incident in Nebraska history. After Wednesday, Millard South joins the long, sobering list of schools around the globe that have been devastated by disaffected students with guns.

For many in Omaha, it also was a haunting reminder of the Von Maur shooting spree, which on a similar wintry weekday in December 2007 left eight victims dead.

“We had tragedy descend on our city,'' Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle said Wednesday.

None of the other students in the high school at 149th and Q Streets was hurt, but they endured an ordeal of terror.

After the gunfire rang out, students were ordered to huddle in the back of darkened, locked-down classrooms.

“Someone was shot. I'm not dead,'' one student texted her mother.

Another texted this message: “If I don't make it out, I love you.”

Panic-stricken parents rushed to the school based on such contacts and breaking news reports, fearing for their children's lives. Hundreds gathered in a church parking lot set up as a staging area, looking east to Millard South and nervously checking cell phones and messages.

Parents were quickly assured that their kids were safe, but it took hours before all the students were finally released.

All other Millard schools also had been ordered into lockdown. Even kindergartners went through the sadly common school drill — one that this time was for real.

Butler's father is Robert Butler Sr., an Omaha police detective. Omaha police officials released no details on the handgun that the young Butler used, though The World-Herald has been told it was his father's Glock .40, a common police service weapon.

Police and school officials also released few details on what transpired inside the school.

But interviews with students who knew Butler and two people familiar with the case provided an account of a good but unhappy student who struggled with the move to a new school.

Butler had transferred to Millard South in October from Lincoln Southwest High School. The midyear move to a new city and school had been difficult for Butler, his friends said. A source said Butler was upset about the transfer.

Butler appeared to reference his negative feelings in his Wednesday posting on Facebook, the social networking website. Omaha had changed him, he said, and his new school was “even worse.''

For Millard students, Wednesday was the first day back from Christmas break. Two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity said Butler and another student were seen Wednesday morning driving a car across an athletic field at the school, damaging it.

Butler, who reportedly had not had previous disciplinary problems at the school, was pulled from his first class by a school security officer and brought to Kaspar's office between 8 and 8:30 a.m. She imposed the suspension after the damage to school property. Kaspar also called Butler's father in his presence.

Butler was escorted out of the school building. His father did not pick him up, so it was unclear how he left the school or where he went.

It also was unclear what time Butler made his Face­book posting. The indefinite time stamp for the status update, made via a cell phone, makes it appear that it could have been either just before or just after the shootings. Either way, the words he wrote are chilling.

“ur gomna here about the evil s--- I did but that f---- school drove me to this,'' he wrote. “I greatly affected the lives of families ruined but I'm sorry. goodbye.''

Butler reappeared on the school campus about 12:45 p.m. He walked past an unarmed security guard and into the main attendance office, where Assistant Principal Kaspar worked. He opened a latch to get behind a counter where four secretaries are stationed and walked into Kaspar's office, just feet away.

Without saying a word, Butler shot Kaspar with a handgun as she sat behind her desk, hitting her three or four times in the upper torso.

Responding to the commotion, Principal Case bolted out of his office across the hall. Butler exited Kaspar's office and shot Case two or three times from about five feet away, hitting the principal in the back and hip.

As Butler left the school office, he fired wildly twice down the hall, one shot lodging in a wall about 15 feet from Case.

Through a window, the school security officer saw Butler leaving the office and crouched down behind his desk to protect himself. Butler saw the officer and pointed the gun at him, but did not fire.

Butler then left the school, and the officer ran into the office to check on the victims.

The whole incident lasted less than two minutes.

Kaspar was found down behind her desk, bleeding profusely. “Help me,” she pleaded.

Over the intercom, students said, another assistant principal announced a “code red,'' the signal for a lockdown. It requires students to stay in their rooms and take cover.

“It's not a drill,'' he said in a shaky voice.

The first call to 911 came at 12:50 p.m. A school resource officer at Millard South put out a “Help an Officer” call, and several Omaha officers rushed to the scene, the first arriving in seconds.

Responding officers learned that the suspect had fled in a red Honda Accord. Butler's name and description were quickly broadcast. Since it was not yet known how many suspects there were, officers, including some in tactical gear, entered the school to conduct a sweep.

Police found the red Accord about 1:25 p.m. in a parking lot near 148th and D Streets, about a mile from the school.
Officers approached the car and found Butler dead behind the wheel from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police announced about 9 p.m. Wednesday that Kaspar, too, had died of her wounds.

Millard South remained a crime scene into Wednesday evening, the school roped off, the cars of students and staff remaining in the parking lot.

Classes at Millard South were canceled for Thursday. The school district was making counselors available to talk to students and staff.

The shooting incident is only the second in a Nebraska school in the state's modern history. In 1995, a seventh-grader in Chadron shot and wounded a teacher.

But as with the Von Maur shootings three years earlier, Omaha received a grim reminder that such senseless violence can happen anywhere, anytime.

Said parent Milton Lopez: “I'd never expected this to happen in a little town like Omaha.''

Contact the writer:
402-444-1130, henry.cordes@owh.com

New Year -New Look

Joyful- 2011!

Starting the year off with a new look for an old blog that has been left to the dust it might seem. Maybe this year I will be able to put a little more time into it.

This seems to be shaping up to be a year of new beginnings.

Our oldest son, Michael was engaged to a wonderful girl, Amanda last August. They will be married this August 27th. We are very much looking forward to this event in their lives.

My niece was also engaged this year to a great guy...Nate. So, we have two family weddings.

So far, I know of at least two other weddings coming up this year. It's going to be a very exciting August. :D

I want to read through the Pslams and Proverbs the first quarter of this year. Also, as soon as I finish reading Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams, I'll be reading How People Change and Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands both by Paul David Tripp. My goal is to have those books completed by the end of February.

In our Read Aloud time with the kids, we'll be tackling Do Hard Things by the Harris brothers. I've owned that book for some time and am looking forward to finally conquering it with the kids.

On the Bible study front, I'm setting the goal to listen to the Revelation series of messages by Ryan McKee of Mamre Baptist Church. http://www.mamre.org/content.cfm?id=213

(If you would like to join me, make sure you check the dates of the messages to listen to the book study in order)

On the physical front, I'll be working out. Back to doing the 30 Day Shred and also hitting spin class three times a week. Jillian Michael's has a new video for 6 Weeks to 6 Pack Abs. Well, I have more than 6 weeks of "cushion" to work through, but I'll be doing the ab video also.

I have a list of crochet projects I want to finish by next December. Some of those are gifts, so I won't be mentioning them in full detail. Maybe at the end of the year I'll be able to post some pics of the finished projects.

Our family is engaging in a new ministry of leading the children's church program at our church. We are excited about this and had a great initial kick off day. One thing that I'm so excited we were able to find was the Classic version of music for children. Thanks to God's Kids Worship:

http://www.godskidsworship.com/default.aspx If you are involved in Children's Ministry check it out!

I do wish you a joyful new year. May we all grow to be more like the Savior, Jesus Christ in this year.