by Roseanna White | Mar 6, 2017 | Word of the Week
Another lesson learned at Colonial Williamsburg. =) Well, I’m pretty sure I’d learned this before, but not with a nice visual handy…
So since the mid 1800s, people have referred to capital letters as upper case and small letters as lower case. This is a direct borrow from printers’ type cases, where they keep the metal letters with which they build their work. Since small letters are used far more often than capitals, these were stored more handily in the lower case. Capitals, which are used rather sparingly in comparison, were kept in the harder-to-reach upper case.
The simple names (upper and lower) for the type case have been used since the 1500s. I’m a bit surprised it took 300 years for the names to be transferred to the letters kept in the cases!
Interestingly, setting type was the job of the lowest (and generally shortest, ha ha) apprentice, so younger boys learning to be a printer might have a hard time reaching those capitals at all. (Now what’s the excuse of my 9-year-old for hating to use them when writing with a pencil? That’s another question altogether…)
by Roseanna White | Mar 2, 2017 | Bible Study, Thoughtful Thursdays
As I’ve begun this year’s 40 Days of Jesus reading for Lent, it’s been fun to begin with some of the most famous passages in the New Testament. The Gospel of John begins with that well known “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…” and moved right forward to the first verse many of us memorized: “For God so loved the word that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Sometimes it’s a challenge to see new things in a book you’ve read so many times. But especially surrounding that well-known verse in chapter 3, I love sitting back and reminding myself of what it really means in context.
A few years ago we read John in church and went back and read the account of Moses and the Israelites that chapter 3 is referring to. The story is from when God had sent poisonous snakes into the camp as punishment, and the people were dying. They cried out to Moses for deliverance, and he put a bronze snake on a staff. “God will save you,” he told the people, “if you just look upon this staff and believe it.”
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| From Michelangelo’s work on the Sistine Chapel, we see a scene with the brazen serpent or Nehushtan |
As many as looked, were saved.
But not all looked. Many would rather die in their bitterness and anger toward God, or calling out to false idols, than to trust Him. To humble themselves before Him.
This is what Jesus said He was. Salvation to all who look and believe. So simple–so difficult for stubborn humanity to accept.
But we’re already bitten by that snake of sin. We’re already dying. It isn’t that He’s condemning us if we don’t accept Him–it’s that nature will simply take it’s course. The ball’s in our court. He already came and died and rose again for us. All we need to do is believe . . . but if we don’t, then that poison of sin will overtake us. We’ll die.
This is the simplicity and the complexity of the salvation story. Striking, every time we read it.
If you’ve been reading along, has anything from the first four chapters of John jumped out at you?
by Roseanna White | Mar 1, 2017 | Books
Okay, getting home from a 2-day field trip to Colonial Williamsburg on a Monday evening has totally thrown off my week’s schedule. (It’s only Tuesday right? What? Wednesday?? No, that can’t be right…) I’m doing my best to get back into the correct swing, but it’s taking me a few days, LOL. Next Wednesday, I’ll share some of the fun stuff I learned at Williamsburg, and the photos I took. For today, I can’t put off edits that need done any longer. Sorry. 😉
But as it’s Wednesday (?!?), I figured I’ll instead invite you to join me tomorrow night for an evening of BOOKS! Ah, one of my favorite things. 😉 A friend of mine has recently begun to sell Usborne books, and we’re having a Facebook party!
If you’re not familiar with Usborne, they’re a huge publisher of children’s books, with titles appropriate for babies up through teens. We’ve used some of their science and history books in our homeschool curriculum each and every year, and they’ve always been among our favorites. I didn’t realize, though, that they had so many books just for fun–activity books, novels, art books, you name it!
If you’ve got kids or grandkids or children otherwise in your life and are always on the lookout for a good book for them, I’d love for you to swing by the Facebook party tomorrow night at 8:30 p.m. EST. If you check in right at the start, you’ll be entered to win door prizes and giveaways! (Who doesn’t love free books, right?) And they’ll be showing us all about the new additions to the catalog and what Usborne has to offer.
If you’re interested in attending, you can try to view the event directly here–some folks have reported issues with that though, so the best bet might be to leave me a message either here or on Facebook, and I’ll send you an invitation.
Looking forward to hanging out and chatting BOOKS!
by Roseanna White | Feb 27, 2017 | Word of the Week
Happy Monday from Colonial Williamsburg! It’s Homeschool Days down in CW, so my family and I are here on a 2-day pass. Yesterday we had great fun visiting many of the trade shops and enjoying the early spring weather and flowers (daffodils! In February!).
And it’s from one of these trade shops that I got the inspiration for this week’s word.
We visited the milliner and mantua maker just before lunch yesterday and had a lovely time chatting with the ladies who make the dresses and hats (I know just enough to know what questions to ask, as my hubby pointed out). One of things they showed us was an 18th century clout–the word at the time for a diaper.
As she showed us the clout, she pointed out that diaper was in fact the name for the sturdy weave of cloth they used in the clout (under the cover) originally (similar to the image I use above, though that’s just a digital pattern). Diaper signified a very tight, patterned weave that is far more absorbent, as it happens, then a normal weave. The word itself comes from Latin originally–dia meaning “thoroughly” and aspros eventually meaning “white” but first meaning something more like “textured” or “rough.”
The word began to be used to for the clout itself, rather than the pattern, by the 1830s.
I know, I know–I spent two days in Colonial Williamsburg and talk to you about diapers, LOL. Just goes to show that you never know what might impress me when it comes to words. 😉
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Don’t forget that today begins the 40 Days of Jesus Bible study! If you’re going to be reading along, start today with the first chapter of the Gospel of John.
by Roseanna White | Feb 24, 2017 | Bible Study
Last year, my church instituted a Lenten Bible study program that involved reading a chapter a day of a Gospel, from Ash Wednesday to Easter.
We’re doing it again this year, with a slight variation on days and readings. This time we’ll be starting on Monday rather than Wednesday, but only reading on week days, not the weekends. Our books will be John and 1 Corinithians (35 chapters for the 35 weekdays leading up to Resurrection Day).
I’ll be doing one post a week on the blog with my thoughts from that week’s readings (Thursdays). If you’d like to read along, you’re welcome to chime in then. Or you can join the Facebook Group and participate daily! We’ll be posting a discussion question each day from the chapter.
Last year we had a wonderful group with lots of great conversation, and we’re looking forward to our study again this year!
Again, this will begin on Monday 27 February with the Gospel of John, chapter 1, and reading one chapter a day Mondays through Fridays. Hope to see you here and in the Facebook group!
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.