Navigating this Site: How i've set it up

  Occasionally i get questions about how to do this or that: email me, subscribe, whatever.
  Periodically i'll change some of the formatting.  Here is the setup as of tonight; i don't expect to remove anything, though i do occasionally move stuff.
  And this post is really LONG.  But i've put the most requested parts toward the top, easier for you to find.. 
  Really, everything you're looking for should be here.  If you're

Scam Alert

  This week i have received FIVE calls from the same North Carolina phone number.
  The first time, i checked the voicemail the caller left: a very trustworthy-sounding male voice told me that my Social Security number has been suspended for suspected fraud activity.
  Yeah, right. That's not how they'd contact me.
   Today

Saturday Sisters: Dorcas Women

Today my friend Debbie Scales is a guest blogger.  Thank you, Debbie, for your regular encouraging words!

I know several women like Dorcas and want to tell you about one of them.
This Dorcas woman

First Time Voter

  When i brought Max into the FSSA office a few weeks ago, they were required to ask him if he wanted to register to vote.
  He said yes.
  So Max became a registered voter.

Saturday Sisters: Sharing Our Testimony

  So many of us KNOW what Jesus has done for us but have a hard time sharing.  Yesterday i got in my inbox a link to Liz Curtis Higgs' article, telling how she shared the difficult story of her own past with her children.

"Graduation"

  Earlier this month, i described one of our at home days, and mentioned the difficulty we'd been having figuring out what Max was wanting when he said repeatedly & insistently, "Graduation."

Dealing with FSSA

  Earlier this week, the mail contained 3 envelopes similar to these.
  They were all essentially mine, though one actually had Max's name on it.

Ancient Clothes, Modern Issues: Tamar, a Saturday Sister

  A girl should be able to trust her family to protect her.
  Something went horribly wrong with this princess' family.

Life on the Computer Farm: Properly Arranging My Settings for Optimal Privacy/Publicity

  A few days ago i added a blurb here inviting people to leave comments.
  Yesterday a friend told me that she tried but was unable to do so.
  This had me very worried.  Not only

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

Cropping for Effect

 This was my mom's dog Kandi.  Or Candi - should've let the name be spelled the way she wanted!  i think i was the actual photographer, using one of the Instamatics.

Here's the original.  i wouldn't cut the actual photo, because the chair is An Important Historical Detail, and the library table likewise (you might recognize it, or not, from blog pictures of  Duckpond in the Life on the Computer Farm series).

Anyway, the doggie kinda gets lost in the entire photo.  The smaller, peekaboo shot is maybe better.  It's about the cute doggie.

Or how about this one?  It's kind of a weird view, but tells a different story.  Offhand, i don't remember where i used it, somewhere on this blog, but this seemed a reasonable way to use an onhand photo to convey the message:  i'm here, i'm telling you stuff, but not everything, still some privacy involved.

Cropping for effect.  A tool to use.

Here phishie phishie

sheesh how dumb do phishers think we are?

As dumb as experience proves i guess.
This afternoon i got a threatening email my on my non-gmail account. It claimed to be from the provider of that account.
The email said that as there is "congestion in all Yahoo! Mail user accounts, there shall be a removal exercise of all used and unused Yahoo! Accounts. Yahoo! Inc would be shutting down several accounts", and if i do not want mine to be among them, please click the provided link so that they'll know i'm real.

Please.

That is, in the first place, a standard phishing ploy.

Here phishie phishie, come and give me your private information so I can catch you.

If you're skilled at reading "headers," you might find it interesting to click your View tab & see what you find.  That drops a menu.  Here one of the choices will be Headers, with choices of Normal or Full, something like that.  A full header will have tons of gobbedlygook, meaningful to pros and geeks, but if you look carefully anyway, non-intiates might see that a suspect message comes from some unexpected place.  Like a US firm is sending from overseas or unknown origin.

In this case today, i didn't have to open up the header.
My would-be phisher thoughtfully used his gmail account.
If this threatening email were genuine, which it wouldn't be, the sender would have sent from an account of the company threatening to disconnect my service.  (Anyone at Google  or Yahoo want to know more?)

The internet is like a highway.  Stop, look and listen.  The bank account you save may be your own.

You can find many phishing information links online, with advice on how to not be phished.  Just now i found 1,580,000 links by googling "phishing protection".  Here is a Wikipedia description of the technique tried on me.

Saturday Sisters - Esther

In the occasional series ~~~

aI trust in God.  I praise His word.

I trust in God.  I will not be afraid.

What can people do to me?
Psalm 56:4 NIrV

The story of Esther is

a fascinating one.

Doesn't every woman want to be the beautiful heroine who saves the day?

   So many times we read the Bible and, if we think about the time involved at all, think the events took place in the amount of time it takes to read about them.  

    Like in the book of Esther. There was a feast; the king got mad, and so he divorced his wife. 

                  But, now he was lonely.

A man needs a wife.

His advisors prescribed a kingdom-wide search for a royally beautiful girl, a beauty contest whose like had not been seen before, and - bang!

Esther was queen.

    Then next month she saved her people, right?

 Well, not exactly

There was a feast; the king got mad, there was the divorce and beauty contest.

     But Esther had been married over five years when she learned of her people's danger. 

    Her husband had not seen or spoken to her in several months. She wasn't just risking his anger by approaching him. The law granted the king the right to execute her. x

xxWith the loving guidance and truthful conviction, Esther’s relative, Mordecai, spoke the words that resonated in Esther’s heart, prodding her to risk her own life for the life of her people:

And who knows

but that you have come

to royal position for

such a time as this?

Esther 4:14b NIV

And what was Esther’s reply:

. . .And thus I will go

in to the king,

which is not according to the law;
and if I perish, I perish.

                                    Esther 4:16

Be gracious, O God,

for man has trampled upon me;

Fighting all day long he oppresses me.

When I am afraid,

I will put my trust in You. 

In God, whose word I praise,

In God I have put my trust;

I shall not be afraid. 

What can mere man do to me?

                                                                                  Psalm 56:1,3,4
Esther accepted the risk of the path God had chosen for her and she stepped forward in faith with prayer and fasting and action!

When trouble surrounded me, I cried out to the Eternal;
    He answered me and brought me to a wide, open space.

  The Eternal is with me,
    so I will not be afraid of anything.
    If God is on my side, how can anyone hurt me?
The Eternal is on my side, a champion for my cause;
    so when I look at those who hate me, victory will be in sight.
It is better to put your faith in the Eternal for your security
    than to trust in people.
It is better to put your faith in Him for your security
    than to trust in princes

             Psalm 118:9,10The Voice

He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” 
 so that we confidently say,

“The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid.
What will man do to me?”

                                 Hebrews 13:5b-6 NASB

In 2012 Purim begins March 8.  In this Purim 2012 Guide, you will learn about a Scripture reading for today, the Saturday (Sabbath) before Purim begins, and a traditional Jewish way to celebrate what God did for the nation of Israel in Esther's time.

What's in a Name?

i've been using pseudonyms in this blog.

i explained about how i chose some of them in my post, Confidential or Private?

Some, like Max for our second son, short for Maximum Smile, are working well.

Some, like MyGuy, for my husband, the father of our kids, nearly so.

My friend tells me that i really should not use FB to designate our oldest as Firstborn because so many people think of FB as "Facebook."

Ok. After consultation with our son, he will now become Boom, as in short for Boomerang Kid, the college grad now living reluctantly at home again.i don't guarantee i've caught them all, but i've attempted to change all previous references to FB to Boom, for Boomerang Kid.  That fits because he's a college grad who's lived on his own, now reluctantly living at home again until he can make it independently.

And while i'm at it i think The Perfect Corgi, newly named TPC on this blog, will become Puppy. Much simpler, and it's one of the names i use for her anyway.

Puppy is about love, not age, anyway, so my 11 year old corgi is truly a puppy. (Now where have i heard 11 years old before?????)

Housecleaning with Max

  Today Max and i began to rearrange his room.
  i share this to give you a feel for working with this wonder-full, communication-impaired young man with autism, as well as inevitably a bit of my own limitations.

The"Desk to Last a Lifetime,"
when Max and MyGuy had nearly finished constructing it

  i've known for some time that he wanted the room arranged differently, but there aren't many options, what with the Desk to Last a Lifetime that takes up 1/4 of it.  Plus, let's be honest, there's ANYTHING else i'd rather do than housekeeping, never mind housecleaning with Max.)
  We began with two hours of "Keep it or get rid it?" about every single item on his dresser, piled a foot high in places.  (MyGuy and i are not ones to do the purge & ask questions later thing.)
  Well, back up.  First i had to determine that Max was willing to do the project now.  There have been other good times for me that were not good times for him.
  So anyway we got on with sorting the stuff on the desk.  Some of the "get rid of" stuff is things i've been looking for, & will go in the scrapbook or to his teacher for schoolwork.  Or maybe enrichment here.  i found the instructions for a mini digital camera he was given several Christmases ago.  Maybe the camera will surface too & we can look at the photos he took. (But he sure had fun shooting.)
  That took a couple hours.  Very boring.
  We took everything off, polished the top, vacuumed the available carpet, moved the dresser, vacuumed again the additional available carpet, then began the process again with the stuff on the bookcase headboard.  There wasn't so much, so that didn't take so long.
  At that point we called Dad/MyGuy to help with the bed.  Moving, more vacuuming, reminders of why moving furniture is bad for the marriage, replacing stuff.
  i'd measured wrong.  Yes, the bed goes where i thought.  Yes, the dresser does indeed fit in the niche under the window.  But the shelves don't fit between the bed & the window, so they'll have to stay where they are. But that won't be the problem i'd thought either.  They can slide along the wall they're on, or not, as Max prefers, as long as we remove the boxes on the floor that extend past the shelves.
  But the shelves must wait for later.  Now it's time for MyGuy and Max to go to the grocery, then we'll reconvene as a family for lunch and library.  Today i think we'll also take the tree down.
  Saturday routine has kicked in.

Confidential or Private?

Boom as a Toddler

   i am a private person.
  Here is how you will know my family:  MyGuy, Boom (for Boomerang Kid), and Max (for Maximum Smile).  Not exactly full openness, but protects their privacy.  Two of them have webpresences, and both have public and private personae.  Max has confidential school stuff, which is, in this computer age, no doubt stored online.
    What is the difference  between confidential and private?  Theoretically, the two words should mean the same.  i can tell my story, but not theirs.  Our stories are very much interwoven, but they must tell their own stories.
   i care passionately about education, but find i can only speak in generalities.  The school's story, you see, is not mine to tell.  i don't have enough behind the scenes details.  My son's education is vital to me, but i would be speaking from not knowledge if i tried to tell what's happening.
   There's a word for what i do if i tell your story without you, and it's not pretty.   i can come along side you as you tell your story.  That's called advocacy, much nicer than gossip, and it tends to be more accurate too.
   But confidentiality bothers me a little.  Though the two words are theoretically the same, confidentiality often reads as "I'm protecting me while hiding behind protecting this other person."  That may not be the intent, but it comes off that way.
   You may think i'm hiding something too.  That's your right.  i would say much more if i knew you.  As it is, i want to share, but feel bound.