Lydia Quote

Last night, as Lydia was playing with Hannah's hair, she said, "Girls don't have to be perfect, but they can be a little bit pretty."

25 Random Things About Me ~ Susi

I know, I wrote one of these up when I first started the blog, but I didn't have anything to post. You know, I probably have changed some of my ideas. :-) I hope you all enjoy reading this!

1. I love to read! I especially enjoy reading history!

2. I love animals! My favorites are horses, dogs, and cats.

3. Contrary to the last point, I don't like reptiles, amphibians, insects or spiders.

4. Ever since I was little, I just couldn't seem to hold still. (My family can testify :-)

5. I prefer to wear long, dark gene skirts.

6. I love music! For the piano, I enjoy playing "bangy", syncopated hymns, playing fiddle style of the violin and Celtic on the recorder and tin whistle. My favorite kinds music to listen to are fiddle, Celtic, bluegrass, and western.

7. You might say I at the cross roads to being healthy.:-) I know all the junk food is bad for me, but I do love to eat ice cream while watching movies!

8. I really enjoy writing, although I have to be in a "writing mood" to be able to write anything.:-) I write mostly poems and letters, but I am working (very slowly...) on a story.

9. I am probably one of the most social people in our family. Unlike most of the girls, I love being with people and get energized by them.

10. I used to be very messy (I guess I still am a little). When I was younger, I used to pile all my stuff (clothes, dolls, crafts, everything!) on my bed and then at night, squeeze under all of it to go to sleep. I think I'm a little cleaner now, I hope.:-)

11. I love the smells of a barn, newly printed books, and babies!

12. I have never broken a bone, but was the first child with a tooth cavity.

13. I enjoy cleaning up the kitchen with Hannah. Since I like to wash and she likes to dry, we make a pretty good team!

14. I like to do jobs that aren't too hard, but are time consuming (making Jon and Phil's lunches, cutting up vegetables, etc.) and then I can think while doing them.

15. I love to nickname people! I think everyone in our family has at least one silly nickname that I've named them.

16. My favorite subject in school is and has always been history. My favorite time periods are WWII, the Civil War, and Colonial.

17. My favorite people in history are George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Daniel Boone.

18. I like cold, windy days over hot, sunny ones, and I love snow!

19. I really enjoy watching movies with the golden ring and the jewel (Laura). Some of my favorites are Iron Will, The Magnificent Seven, and the Searchers.

20. I have never had any sickness or disease worse than the flu.

21. I don't really like to go shopping.

22. I can handle animal blood just fine, but when it comes to human blood, I'm a little bit squeamish.

23. I've always been a little "visionary", always coming up with crazy ideas that, of course, wouldnt work.

24. I've always had a problem with me speech; when I was younger, I had a lisp (with the help of Laura, I overcame that problem,) and now I have a problem of talking way too fast, slurring my words, and stuttering.

25. I am a very care-free person. Sometimes this is a good thing, but a a lot of times it's not so good; just ask Hannah!:-)

Well, I hope I found enough interesting things about myself and I hope I didn't repeat anything from the other 25 random things I did last time. Please leave a comment!:-)

George Washington's Birthday!

Our New Garden!

Yesterday, Jon, with the help of Phil and William, built raised beds for the garden and spread compost in them. He extended the garden several feet longer and wider than it was last year. With the raised beds, we'll be able to grow a lot more.

John Winthrop penned these lines in 1612 at the age of twenty-four:

I desire to make it one of my chief petitions to have that grace to be poor in the spirit. I will ever walk humbly before my God, and meekly, mildly, and gently towards all men.... I do resolve first to give myself - my life, my wits, my health, my wealth - to the service of my God and Saviour who, by giving Himself for me and to me, deserves whatsoever I am or can be, to be at His commandment and for His glory.

What Hal Southern, a Country and Western Composer and Musician, has to Say

Some day in the not too distant future, historians and scientists will look at the physical and written remains of our present-day civilization and shake their heads in total disbelief, unable to comprehend how an advanced culture such as ours could totally disintegrate in a mass of crime, social strife, wars, walfarism and total lack of involvement of the people in their own destiny.

You would think, that in our present state of confusion, both national and international, we would take heed of the lessons of history. History does repeat itself and we are going through a phase of permissiveness, self-gratification, racial disintegration, violence and morel destruction that can only lead to self-destruction on a scale of unparalleled in history.

Isn't it about time we stand up and be counted? Do we want the kind of country where it is considered square to be patriotic, stupid to be honest, insane to follow the Golden Rule, where you are considered Establishment if you work hard, raise a family and pay your bills? Is it wrong to be clean, literate, thrifty and have short hair-cuts? Is it wrong to like country music [depends on what kind! ~Susi], tunes that have a melody, lyrics that say "I love you", rhythms that want to make you dance with a partner, or are we square because we don't like ear-shattering, wild, psychedelic sounds with obscene lyrics and clothes to match?

This nation wasn't made great by unwashed lazy hippies, crybaby welfarism or racial minorities begging for a handout. The nation was built on the honest hard work, thrift, guts, desires, and needs of Irish, Jew, Negro, Mexican, Chinese and endless other people. Common people who had the guts to be uncommon, people of all races, creeds and nationalities, people with one common bond - freedom. In their hearts they must have known that American was the last stand for the individual, the last chance to justify man's existence on earth.

Is it wrong to ask that our communications media be a little more impartial in its treatment of things patriotic? All too often, it seems that some radio stations, for instance, will not play anything they labal as patriotic or controversial, but will turn around and play protest and anti-Establishment records all day long. Is it controversial to say on record that you like being an American, are proud for the chance to continue being an American?

Why should Capitalism, Free Enterprise, and Conservative be dirty words? Is it so wrong to want to make a profit on honest endeavors? What is wrong with making money and reinvesting it in a strong America. This great nation wasn't built on a cradle-to-the-grave philosophy, nor will it survive with the government always acting as a big brother. Remember, Uncle Sam is your uncle-not your dad!

Well, I insist on being counted. I'm four-square for Mom, apple pie, the Bible, and the Flag. I'm for free enterprise and, last, but never least, I'm for freedom the whole world envies, a freedom that makes people all over the whole world risk their lives to achieve, a freedom that allows us the strength to have inscribed on the Statue of Liberty:

Give me you tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breath free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

A Thousand Shall Fall

A couple years ago, while Laura was at Homespun General Store, she found the book A Thousand Shall Fall, read the back of the book, and told us girls about it. That Christmas, I had Phil's name, and Laura told me that he would love this book. After I bought it, I was reading the back and it mentioned that Franz Hazel, the main character in the book, was a pacifist, a lot like Sergent Alvin York. I told Laura about that and she said Phil probably wouldn't like the book. So I settled with some other gift for Phil and all of us girls read the book and LOVED it. I thought I'd write a review about it, even though I haven't read the book in a couple months.




A Thousand Shall Fall - The electrifying story of a soldier and his family who dared to practice their faith in Hitler's Germany by Susi Hasel Mundy with Maylan Schurch takes place in 1939. Franz Hasel, a 40-year-old pacifist, was drafted and assigned to Pioneer Company 699, Hitler's elite troops who built bridges at the front lines. His religious scruples did not endear him to his superiors. Sarcastically dubbed "carrot eater" [because he did not eat meat] and "Bible reader", he finally gained the respect of his unit. Just before he was sent deep into Russia-where all but seven of his 1,200 unit would die-he secretly discarded his gun, fearing that, as the company sharpshooter, he might be tempted to kill. In Russia, he was faced with a different problem: how to warn the local Jews before the SS got to them.

Meanwhile, back at home, Franz's wife, Helane, and their four children, Kurt, Lotte, Gerhard, and Susi [the author], were fighting their own battles. Pressured to join the Nazi Party, she announced, "I belong to the party of Jesus Christ."

"Tomorrow night your children will be taken from you unless you join the party," Herr Doering screamed.

And she had another secret. One day the getspo knocked at her door. "Are you hiding a Jew?" They demanded.

Their chance of survival? Dim. Their only ally? God.

In a few short years they lived several lifetimes of danger. As thousands around them fell victim to the horrors of war, they were borne up on angels' wings-sometime quite literally. This is the true, sol-soaring story of one desperate family who chose to be faithful whatever the cost, and found refuge in the shadow of the Almighty.

The lieutenant's face turned beet-red. "You must be mad, Private!" he bellowed. "This is the German Army! This battalion's going to way, and you want Saturday off?" Under his breath he spat out, "It's just my luck to be saddled with a religious nut!"

Theory Testing is This Saturday!

A couple months ago, Mrs. Clark said that Hannah and I should do theory testing given by the Lynden Teachers Association. After showing us all the different things we have to do, Hannah and I decided that it would be very beneficial if we want to be piano teachers to learn some more theory.


These are all the different things we have to do:

We have to learn two songs of contrasting styles, one memorized. I'm playing Daydreaming by Timothy Brown (a romantic piece) and Musette in D major by Johann Sebastian Bach (a baroque piece). We have to give a verbal description of the memorized piece (i.e. tempo, mood, dynamics, etc.)

We have to prepare six scales (two white key major, two black key major, and two minor played both natural and harmonic). I'm going to play A major, E major, A flat major, E flat major, A minor, and E minor. (I choose A because A is the only letter in the music scale that is in my name and E because it is the dominate note in the A major scale.) We have to do the primary triad inversions, chord progressions, and a whole bunch of other stuff that has escaped my mind at the present moment.

A few other things we have to do are rhythm and pulse development, sight-playing, a lot of different things to do with counting, the order of sharps and flats, the major key signatures, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

The only one thing I not too excited about is the listening. The teacher will play a piece on the piano and we have to say whether it's in 3/4 or 4/4 time and if it's a major or minor key. We also have to listen, while turned away from the piano, while the teacher plays different intervals, and be able to say if they are 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths, or 8ths.

Well, all of the agony, stress, and pain of this theory testing will be over Saturday night, so if you run into me the days prevailing the test, don't think anything of it if I seem to be otherwise engaged.:-)

~Susi

Horses!

It's Abraham Lincoln's 201st Birthday!

4th Horse Riding Lesson!

Wednesday afternoon, Krista Van Cleve and I had another riding lesson! Tanya's, our instructor, son was sick and she had to take him to the hospital, so she said we could ride without her there. It was a wonderful two hour lesson!

Give Heed, My Son

Where is the man who would saddle his steed

And fight for the maiden with brave, valiant deed?

Where is the man who with dragon would fight,

And vanquish the foes with all of his might?

~

O, where is the is the man who for honor and pride,

Would battler the foe that he meets from inside;

who will dwell with that dragon that rages and reels

To consume the chaste valor true manliness yields?

~

Who can say to his bride as he bends to his knee,

"Precious gift for the Lord, I've kept myself for three:

I have fought and defeated the dragon within;

Through Christ I have kept my vile heart pure from sin"?

~

Our heart is deceitful and given to lust;

Our perception and strength we never can trust.

Cry to Jesus for help as you sink, soon to die,

Like Peter when tall waves had tempter his eye.

~

Like horses unbridled to mischief do run,

So will our hearts, if not conquered, my son.

Call to Jesus for strength to battle that foe,

For your heart if your enemy if you let it go.

~

To Jesus, to Jesus our hearts must be wed,

Or defile forever the sweet marriage bed.

Set your face toward to The City, and from pilgrim learn

That faith if the key: for Christ let your heart burn!

~Michael Bradrick