Writings For Children and Parents

Do You Believe in Superstitions?

noreply@blogger.com (healthseeker) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 21:31:00 +0000

Do You Believe in Superstitions? Remember the childhood ditty, “Step on a crack, break your mother’s back”? And what about wondering if the black cat that crossed your path had any white on him. The fortune cookies at a Chinese restaurant influence a lot of superstitious people, to say nothing of the astrology forecasts in newspapers. My mother used to match people for compatibility according to the month they were born in! One “superstition” if you can call it that, should be convincingly wrong is water witching. The very name indicates an involvement with spiritualism which is very real. Water witching is done in different ways. Sometimes a forked stick is used, or a wire or two. The person holds the wires while walking over an area of ground. When the wires or stick point down on their own, that is where there is supposed to be water. Sometimes there is and sometimes there isn’t. One family I know had a water witching done at their place. When the person holding the wires walked over a small creek, the wires forcefully pointed down. The family’s older son noted all this, and after his father and others had finished their water witching and gone into the house to talk, he decided to test things out for himself. Quietly the boy slipped out of the house, picked up the wires that had been used and walked across the same creek. Sure enough, the wires pointed downward. Then he prayed to God that if this were of Satan that it wouldn’t work and proceeded to walk back over the creek with the wires. Nothing happened. Very impressed, the lad later told his father about the incident. Jokes are made about graveyard happenings where a person falls into a newly dug grave and can’t get out. As he sits there wondering what to do next, a second person falls into the same hole. The first fellow quips, “It’s no use, you’ll never get out.” And the second guy is out of the hole in no time flat. We laugh, but need to beware that spiritualism is very real and very evil.

The Family Bike Trip

noreply@blogger.com (healthseeker) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 20:43:00 +0000

The Family Bike Trip – Clara Mae Watrous It was 1945, and Mama and Daddy decided on our taking a family bike trip from Jacksonville, FL, to Orlando, FL. We were too poor to own a car, though soon after the bike trip, the folks purchased one from my brother-in-law who was a used car dealer in Pennsylvania. My junior size bike and their adult bikes soon hummed down the cement block highway single file. I can’t remember if I was first or in the middle, but I do remember that 25 blocks equaled a mile. When we landed in Deland, FL, people were shouting, bells were ringing; the second world war had just ended! We stopped overnight at a bed and breakfast, where the dear old lady teasingly told us she was 38, but she was really 83. In Orlando, we visited the zoo. The beautiful doe eyed lama apparently didn’t appreciate my sweet talk and promptly spit in my face. Yuck! Needless to say, I’ve never gotten too close to lamas ever since. On the way home, a car zoomed past us, swerved across the oncoming lane and rolled over twice in an adjacent field. Miraculously, all three passengers and the driver were able to get out of the car and walk around. Right after that incident, we noticed a perfect double rainbow, symbolic of the miracle we had just seen. When almost back to Jacksonville, a pickup truck offered us a ride, but Daddy politely refused for the sake of being able to say we completed our bike trip without assistance. He must have told the local newspaper, because they printed an excerpt about our unusual family bike trip.

Why So Many Shootings?

noreply@blogger.com (healthseeker) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 20:40:00 +0000

Why So Many Shootings? It seems we see news reports of shootings every day, even here in America, the home of the “free and brave”. Why? Some say it’s because America’s citizens are allowed to have guns, and they cry, “Do away with all firearms!” Then when a gun toting robber or maniac wild shooter wields their gun (and they always find ways to have them) the innocent victim has no defense. Back in the days when this country was founded, the people usually had a rifle. It was a necessary “tool” for hunting and for protection from wild animals or people. Children were taught about guns and about being safe with them. So why do we now have so many more incidents of shooting innocent people? I maintain it goes back to what they watch on television. You can hardly see any program that doesn’t have killing episodes. Even the news glories in crime scenes. And then there is the home life, or lack thereof. Many children have only one parent who must work to support the family. What do they do between the hours they get home from school until the weary parent returns home? Usually they watch television. Another thing that contributes to a lack of respect for life is the video games the children are mesmerized with. Most of them are based around killing. After while the youngsters get hardened to scenes of crime. They lose the value of life. Shooting others is like a game. I say let’s spend quality time with our children. Plan with them for some fun things to do together. There are ideas aplenty in books and magazines available at the library. Also, another need, as I see it, is to discipline ourselves as well as our children to only watch television that is wholesome. Or just get rid of the one eyed monster all together! It’s a well known fact that we become like what we behold.

Words

noreply@blogger.com (healthseeker) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 23:03:00 +0000

Last Sabbath we took a trip to visit a church in Canada. The sermon was on the words we speak and how we have an influence on others. How do we speak? Are our words clean, pure, and do we have a good attitude? What about the look on our face...sometimes that speaks louder than words. Do we look sober, happy, angry, irritated, cheerful? We all have an influence for good or ill.

Matthew 12:34 tells us that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. I like the way Colossians 4:6 directs to let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt. Food can taste rather flat without salt. People avoid those who are always negative and down on most everything, but folk who have a sunny smile and see the good things about them rather than the bad, usually have more friends.

It has to be a inside job, on our hearts. Like Jesus said in Matthew 5:8, blessed are the pure in heart, and we might add "speech". Many don't realize what they are really saying when they utter expletives and euphemisms. Expletives are described in the dictionary as words added to fill out the sentence or thought, an interjectory word. Euphemisms are words in place of another word.

It was interesting to see what the following expletives and euphemisms meant:

My goodness = My God (Jesus said there is no one good but God. See Matthew 19:17)
For heaven's sake = Put hell in the place of heaven.
What the heck = Heck meaning hell.
Darn = Damn
Gosh = God
Golly = God
Gee = Jesus

Rather than dwell on the negative, follow the admonition in Philippians 4:8, and think of whatever things are true, noble just, pure, lovely, of good report, and praiseworthy.

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived tells us in Proverbs 17:28 that even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace.

Does it seem to hard to speak good words, especially when you hear bad ones all around you? Cheer up, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13), and you can be an uplifting influence to those around you.

Easy Biscuits to Make

noreply@blogger.com (healthseeker) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 03:25:00 +0000

One of the first things a child can learn to make is biscuits. It can be a fun time with children and grandchildren alike, doing things together. It's good for boys to learn to cook as well as girls. A simple recipe I have adapted from my first cookbook given to me by my mother is fast, easy and delicious. The ingredients are:

2 cups flour (1/2 unbleached, 1/2 whole wheat)

1 tablespoon baking powder (the kind without aluminum)

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup milk (or water)

1/4 cup oil (first cold pressed virgin olive oil is best)

Preheat the oven to 400℉. Stir the first three ingredients together. Stir the last two items together. Mix the two just enough to make a soft ball. Place on lightly floured board or mat. Gently press together and then flatten to about 1 inch thick. Cut with a cookie cutter (straight up and down with no twisting). Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes.

Some variations are: Add a tablespoon of honey. Add caraway seed, basil, and Italian seasoning--about a teaspoon each.

So get together with the children in your life and have fun making these easy biscuits.

Five-In-A-Row

noreply@blogger.com (healthseeker) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 19:27:00 +0000

I first saw the game Five-In-A-Row being played before a Saturday night program at college. To get a good seat, one needed to go early, like even a half hour. One professor would occasionally bring along a square peg board and two different colored golf tees to play the game with either a family member or another earlybird. It looked like such fun that I purchased a peg board myself and some white and blue golf tees.

Two to four people can play, four people playing as two teams, helping one another without telling the other team member any move to make. As the title suggests, the object of the game is to get at least five tees or more in a row. A point is given for each five and also any tee added to the row of five. The points are marked by a golf tee put in the holes on the edge of the board.

Of course, the opposing person or team tries to stop the other person or team from getting five tees in a row by blocking either end of three tees or more in a row while still trying to place five tees in a row without being blocked themselves.

Here at home, we support the peg board with four books placed under each corner. Our family has had fun playing Five-In-A-Row with each other or others. It's a good game for young and old.

Miss Lawton and HULL GULL

noreply@blogger.com (healthseeker) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 01:30:00 +0000

When I was around nine years old, days could be boring when there was no school and Mama and Daddy were at work. But it was always fun to go see Miss Lawton. The landlady rented a bedroom to her and provided her meals in the kitchen.

Miss Lawton's small bedroom was upstairs with a window view that overlooked Second Street. She had a charming way of making me feel welcome, and I enjoyed listening to stories of her childhood.

One day she introduced me to the game Hull Gull. We sat facing each other, I on her bed and she in a chair. Each of us had an equal amount of marbles in our laps covered by a towel. She cupped her hands around a chosen number of marbles, brought them out from under the towel and said, "Hull Gull." I was to answer, "Handful," and she then asked, "How many?" I would guess how many marbles were in her hand. If I guessed the right amount, she would give me the marbles. If I guessed too many or not enough, I would give her the difference from my marble stash.

Then it was my turn to do the same as she had done, asking her to guess how many marbles I had in my cupped hands. Sometimes we would have no marbles in our hands, especially if we had given them all away. The game ended when the one who guessed wrong couldn''t give the difference to the other player.

I never forgot that kind, elderly lady who took the time to play with a lonely nine-year-old. Why don't you try playing Hull Gull with the children or grandchildren in your life and have fun with them.