Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ!
I want to share another story with you, about a hymn called "To God be the Glory." Bobbie Wolgemuth writes:
"Can you imagine what it would be like if you couldn't see? Being blind is like living every day in the dark. Once there was a sweet blind girl who lived her whole life in darkness; yet she kept smiling. She had heartaches that would make almost any other girl unhappy. But not this special young lady. Her name was Frances Jane Crosby... Frances was born in 1820 to a loving couple who lived on a farm in New York. They liked to call their healthy baby girl "Fanny." When she was only six months old, Fanny became very sick, and her parents were not able to reach the local doctor. Without knowing it, they let someone pretending to be a doctor put the wrong ointment on her eyes and Fanny became completely blind. Something else terribly sad happened before Fanny was even old enough to talk. Her daddy died. Fanny's mother had to take a job as a maid. Fanny's grandmother, Eunice, bravely accepted the task of training and caring for baby Fanny. Both her mother and grandmother asked God for the strength they would need to guide Fanny as she grew up without eyesight and a daddy.
Grandmother Eunice took Fanny on long walks in the fields around the farmhouse, letting the little girl smell the meadow flowers and touch their soft petals. Nearby, she could dangle her feet in the cool water and hear the trickling brook. Fanny loved the friendly songs fo the birds and swoosh of the wind blowing leaves on the huge trees...Even without eyesight, young Fanny was filled with delight just listening and touching everything.
Listening to her grandmother's voice read hour after hour from the Bible, great classics, and poetry was Fanny's highest joy...Speaking phrase after phrase, young Fanny learned to memorize huge portions of the bible...When Fanny was only ten years old, she had memorized most of the New Testament!
At the new school for the blind, Fanny's talents blossomed. She learned to play the organ, piano, guitar, and harp...Because she was able to remember all the bible stories and verses she had memorized as a child, she wrote over nine thousand hymns and poems in her life...Fanny was quick to tell everyone where her smile came from. That's why she wrote the song, "To God be the Glory." She wanted everyone to know who had answered her prayers...Now it's your time to tell someone the reason for your joy."
Much love,
Hannah
The sheet music is from Hymnary, and if you would like a copy of the text, I made my Canva hymn file shareable.
I love sharing stories with our kids, and so I thought I'd share the Three Little Pigs and a remake of the story that my own kids love! I also shared a bit about Javelina, thanks to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
My sweet Friend,
Have you heard the story of the Three Little Pigs? This is a common folktale in my country, and tells of three pigs building houses. One builds with straw, another with wood, and another with bricks. The wolf comes and blows the straw house down, and the pig runs to the wood house. The wolf blows that house down, and then both pigs runs to the third house, which the wolf can't blow down because it's made of bricks. My kids enjoy this story, and José likes to pretend he's a little pig with his brothers and sister and they ask me to be the "bad wolf." Many times authors will take a common folktale, and make it a little more fun by changing the details up a little bit.
My kids love a remake of the Three Little Pigs called "The Three Little Javelinas" by Susan Lowell. In this version, the Javelina brothers are lazy, but not the sister. One brother builds a home out of tumbleweeds, and the other brother builds his house out of saguaro cactus ribs. The sister builds her home out of adobe bricks. It takes her a long time to build her home! Then Coyote comes and wants to eat the Javelina. Coyote says, "I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house down!" Coyote blows down the tumbleweed home, and the first Javelina runs to his brother's saguaro rib home. Coyote blows down that home, and they both run to their sister's home. Coyote can't blow down her home, so he tries to crawl down the chimney, but she lights a fire, and Coyote runs away squealing and howling and he never bothers the Javelina ever again!
Javelina can be found from the southwest United States (including Texas, where Eric's brother lives) to northern Argentina! The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum says, "Javelina have a scent gland on the top of their rump covered by long hairs. They will rub their scent on rocks and tree stumps to mark their territory... Javelina are not pigs...Javelina are medium-sized animals that look similar to a wild boar. They have mainly short coarse salt and pepper colored hair, short legs, and a pig-like nose. The hair around the neck/shoulder area is lighter in color giving it the look of a collar. Javelina have long, sharp canine teeth which protrude from the jaws about an inch." We also learned that Javelina can eat prickly pear cactus and rattle snakes! And they live in groups, and when threatened, one Javelina will lay down it's life and die to save the rest of the group!
I included photos of Javelina, and some of the book illustrations by Jim Harris for you to enjoy with the story! What is a common folktale that you know? I would love to hear the story! And if you re-wrote the folktale, how would you change it?
Love,
Hannah
I found the Javelina photos through a Google Images search.
Happy Writing!
