Mathematics Factorial

Year 3

is about to begin.

These last two weeks have been quite the weeks. It started with a sharp pain in my right side that I figured was a muscle until it was still sore a few days later and I wasn't generally feeling well. The pain continued and I saw the dr who referred me for a CT scan and drew some blood. Both of these resulted in nasty bruises from nurses who apparently weren't great with difficult veins.... They didn't think the pain was appendicitis because I was eating.

I continued on--spending time at school with training, workshops and getting to know our new full time Algebra teacher (who is the awesome) There was convocation (at which I usually have to fight back cynicism), the Ron Clark presentation, and then setting up things around my classroom.

Then, we moved the wheelers to Waco... a venture of a little over 48 hours with me moving around lighter objects, driving down their truck, sleeping and resting my side when I could, good food and fun with friends. I discovered that Baylor is a gorgeous campus and Waco street layout is more confusing than here in good ole Longview.

We came back, I spent more time moving (pushing with my knees and/or kicking, dragging) things around my classroom and making it feel like my territory again. I also cleaned out the filing cabinets of MUCH paper that was out-of date, not mine, not relevant, or stuff I already had. This is all in the name of the grand plan of starting the year organized! so it's easier to stay that way as I go. hehehe. All the while, I'm enjoying time with my math ladies and trying to wrangle the results of my CT and bloodwork from the dr office.

After learning our new and improved gradebook program, I finally went to the office and demanded my results which had "just" come in. Everything was clear (good) but I was still hurting (bad) So they put me on Nexium for my stomach, referred me back to the gastro who spotted the gallbladder malfunction last year and he said, "it's just a muscle." Apparently, the puncture from laproscopic surgery last year can cause a certain to nerve to get irritated and cause side pain-"neuropathy" So I was told to take anti-inflammatories and rub in muscle balm. I suspect that my having begun to lead a more active lifestyle make have stirred things up--guess it's good to know that the exercise is doing something to my muscles.

The week of teacher days has been spent with half day trainings/meetings and half-day work in classrooms, and lunch out with the math crew. We're introducing our new girl to the good places in Longview--Butcher Shop, Joes, Jason's Deli, Dudleys, El Sombrero, Sonic, and Bodacious.

THe last two late afternoons in my classroom have me generally ready to go next Tuesday. We even have 5 weeks planned out in curriculum and not too much to make or rework. I have two weeks of lesson plans actually typed out. My walls aren't boring. The new textbooks are numbered. I have something of a system for my filing. Now, i still have many things to do...but not things that had to be done before the first day of school. We're looking forward to this group because they're coming to us with a much better history of test scores than the group we had last year. My class schedule has changed a little bit, but with lower enrollment our class sizes are looking nice (under 20 so far). The technology is set up and working.

Ready or not, here it comes :-)

oops

Oops, i let the blog sit too long again and there are no pretty pictures to see.

I thought I'd share some thoughts from our ladies Bible study tonight. We're about to finish up the book, which i really don't recommend... and the subject tonight was "women being subject to their husbands" M. Peace didn't really have much to say that I fully disagreed with, but there were a few points and Her general stance of not leaving much room for exceptions for various circumstances and various interpretations bothers me. So, I had plans to pull out my doctrines book and do a little bit of research on the Greek words from the verse to see what others had to say.

Well, an hour and half before the study was to begin, I was called and asked to facilitate the study as the current leader would be unavailable. (The ladies have been taking turns.) I said sure, why not! I have my doctrines book and the person told me to look for an article by Beth Moore that they had found. So, I pulled out my doctrines books, looked up what little there is on the subject of wive's roles in marriage (the main focus of the book is the "big" doctrines) and then went to the internet. I googled "Beth moore wives submission marriage" and the first link is this excellent article.

I was very impressed with what I found and little light bulbs were flashing in my mind in excitement. I tried to find some more, but was coming across lots of sites like wayoflife.org which weren't impressed with the "anti-biblical" fact that Beth Moore was teaching sunday school at her church. Anyways--another set of thoughts for another day.

Moore uses one of the key passages as reference for wive's role in marriage--Ephesisans 5:22, Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. One statement in the article really flashed out at me and I used this to open the study after prayer:

"First, notice verse 21: "Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." The attitude of all Christians is to be submissive to one another. No discussion of this topic can stay on track apart from that spirit."

I thought this was an excellent starting statement for what can be a...heated...discussion sometimes.

We began discussion with some basic points from the article--submission does NOT imply inequality/inferiority, submission does not mean submission to all men in general, and in contrast to the Martha Peace's point of view in the book, that "as to the Lord" does not necessarily mean, "submit to your husbands as you submit to God", but rather, "as to the Lord" means submission to husband as an act of service to the Lord.

Then I explained a connection of this passage to the Fall from something I read in Moore's article. Grudem, in the Doctrines book, points out that the curse of Adam and Eve from the Fall distorts the roles of marriage as intended in marriage. For example, Eve's curse: "desire for your husband"--desire can be translated as a desire to take authority from her husband, a distortion of Eve's willing and intelligent submission as a helper to Adam. Adam--"he shall rule over you" is given a strong term for a monarchial authority--implying a misuse of the authority given him by God in marriage,a distortion of a loving, considerate and humble leadership of Adam over his family.

Moore, in the article makes an interesting point herself that I connected to Grudem's discussion as summarized above:

Paul's primary directive to women dealt with submission, while his primary directive to men dealt with love. Could it be that he was targeting the areas most likely to be our weaknesses?

I find it very interesting that Paul could be referring to the weaknesses in marriage created by the fall--submission for women, loving leadership for men.

Next we discussed the Greek word used for submission "huptasso". I was very intrigued when Moore made the point that submission is not slavery to husband as Paul uses a very different word for this kind of obedience in Ephesians 6: "huakouo, hupaaakouo"--submitting as a lieutenant to a captain, slave to master. Hupotasso is a compound word with a meaning of "to olace under or in an orderly fashion"--referring more to having order in marriage with a role of submission to the husband as the leader and responsible one. Peace in her book had described submission more in line with huakouo than with hupotasso--Hupotasso was a military term for arranging troops under the command of a leader. in non-military use (and the word is used frequently throughout the New Testament), it was to mean a "voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, carrying a burden" (blueletterbible Lexicon)

Husbands lead by giving loving consideration the thoughts and opinions of his wife--because we are both still imperfect human beings and sometimes she might have a strength that will point out the weakness in his ideas. It works both ways too-and as Moore admitted and I will admit--I have to face it, sometimes there are times where I really am emotionally irrational and the lines to logic in the brain have been pulled down by hormones. Other times, I am more of the pushover and my husband can be the tough one.

The key in the roles of marriage is that there is a third player in the marriage--Christ. decisions need to be made between the three parties of marriage in prayer--to give honor to the one who created marriage and the only one who can really keep a marriage together in face of imperfect human beings.

It was a good discussion, and we had some time to let things rabbit trial into other discussions--like abusive relationships and if there is a biblical basis for divorce. It's hard to accept that God would want someone to stay in a relationship where one of the partners is abusing their role to an extreme. My personal view is that, biblically, the situation needs to be confronted--first between the spouses, then with friends, then with the church--try and get help to beat the sin. If the spouse will not repent and change his ways after this method has gone through, I think a case can be made for biblical separation at minimum in similarity to taking the final extreme measure of asking someone to leave the church. At minimum, my own personal stance is separation without divorce, or divorce without remarriage unless the abusive spouse has broken the bonds of marriage further by adultery--which is clearly given as a reason for divorce in the Bible.

Well, it is late and i need to sleep. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment box.

Great Day

Well, I had a fabulous day today with my great friend Ashley. We went to Tyler and walked around the Rose Garden and museum. Then, after grabbing cold drinks on our way out of town, we stopped in Gladewater for lunch at this restaurant we've both always seen and never tried--the one that advertises cheesecakes.

It's a charming little place in a historical house called Pea Patch. We got a really good lunch of chicken fried steak, peas, salad, mashed potatoes, sliced tomato, roll, and dessert for $4.25

I think I'll definitely be going back and I'll try the cheesecake next time--was too full this time. Great friendship, great fun, great food makes a great day.

Oh, and in playing with manual settings on my camera, I took pictures at the garden. They're posted at the picasa site.

A test

So this is a test...I'm curious how long it takes people to get the answer to the problem below. I guess leave your answers in the comment box...so be fair to the test and don't check comments to see the answer before trying to get it on your own. Just leave a comment with answer and about how many minutes it took you to get it.

What is the measure of angle ABC?