First, I want to welcome all of you who have recently signed up for my newsletters. I hope you will find information here that helps you recognize the Lord’s faithfulness and in doing that will help you to grow to love Him more.
Second, the new edition of Dan’s Doodles is just about ready. We are planning to give several copies away in addition to having special pricing for people who are signed up for my newsletters. We hope to have it available in a week or two. Watch your mail boxes for more information and a chance to win a copy.
Third, thanks to all of you who prayed for my mother-in-law after her recent fall during her visit from AZ. We are so grateful that at 83 she could fall down an entire flight of stairs and not break anything. In fact, we were discussing the fact that she has fallen several times in recent years and gotten bruised, but hasn’t broken anything. At her age that is an excellent reason to be praising the Lord.
Fourth, I just received this in my MACHE newsletter:
Online Discounts – Ongoing (National) From: Rick Platt
Homeschoolers are eligible to receive online discounts at hundreds of retailers. To view the “My Education Discount” home page, go to: http://www.myeducationdiscount.com
Today I’m going to share a funny story about our animals. Our menagerie consists of a dog, Strider – two cats, Ella and Roe – and a parakeet, Pippin.
Strider, Stop – That’s Enough!
Strider, stop — that’s enough! The words rang out as Emily called after our dog Strider to stop drinking so much water. He had a bad habit of gulping water so quickly that he threw up, so we were in the habit of telling him to stop, then letting him take a bit more until his thirst was satisfied. We all did this automatically whenever we heard him lapping away at his water dish.
As we sat gathered in the family room with Emily telling Strider to stop, someone noticed that Strider was lying on his mat in front of the fireplace — sleeping! So how could he be drinking water when he was sound asleep? No way! So who or what was down the dark hallway drinking his water?
Seconds passed as the five of us looked at each other in disbelief. Then we heard the lapping sound again and realized that our parakeet, Pippin, had learned to imitate the sound of Strider drinking. He was sitting happily in his cage “lapping” away.
Pippin is quite a bird. We got him as a hand-fed baby from a breeder who makes a special effort to see that her birds are family friendly, like to be handled, and quickly become a part of your family.
He learned to talk easily, although being novices we did make some mistakes. We didn’t realize that he would repeat every word we said, so when we repeated “Praise the Lord, Pippin!” instead of just saying “Praise the Lord,” he said, “Praise the Lord, Pippin. To me it was often a reminder to tell myself to praise the Lord, too.
In spite of his diminutive size, Pippin is the alpha male among our animals. Shortly after we got Strider, our flat coated retriever — did I mention retriever… as in retrieving birds — we decided that we would have to train him to leave Pippin alone when he was out of his cage.
One day Pippin was sitting on the back of a stool in the kitchen. Strider, who is 80 pounds and big enough to be able to stand on the floor and be face to face with Pippin on the stool, decided he would check out this new creature. He went over and began to sniff him — with all of us ready to grab both animals if Strider’s hunting instincts kicked in. But Pippin had things well in hand — as soon as Strider got too close, Pippin began to growl at him. Yes, he actually growled a deep, threatening growl — and Strider backed off.
We also have two cats — one of them is terrified of Pippin and the other finds him curiously interesting, but a growl or two sends her packing too.
So don’t let size hold you back. You too can be a Pippin… I mean David.
Finding Joy in the Journey,
Phyllis
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Phyllis Sather
Proclaiming God’s Faithfulness at:
© 2009 Phyllis Sather
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Contact me at: Phyllis@Phyllis-Sather.com
