Friday, December 26, 2008

Wii Willy Winkie



I played it! I lost at Wii Tennis! It is just phenomenal what virtual life throws at us. Is there a virtual job that I can go to from my bed. NO! The good side of Wii is that they break no vases in the house, playing ball. Amazing!
I think I prefer a broken vase or two if you would go outside, Please!
Isn't God good! Amen!

"Wee Willy Winkie runs through the town,
Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown,
Rapping at the windows crying through the locks,
Are the children in their beds, Now its 8 oclock!"


Thursday, December 25, 2008

It is a Nine year old Christmas Eve

There are so many questions at this age. Is it babyish to believe that God is good? Is there really a Santa? Can somebody really remember me at Christmas time? We are very blessed by many Santas this year. While we baked the holiday cookies, it was a good time to orient a questioning 9 yr. old to the reality of Gods goodness in the beauty of the season. Whatever we get is never enough when we are greedy and whatever we get is always a surprise when we are expecting nothing. Love teaches that it is a good God who is always giving. The wondrous sunrises that He stays up all night to paint for us, The love of family that He blows his goodness into, we take for granted, but somehow, when we put something in a box and put a bow on top, we remember that God is good.
King David was a man and he was unashamedly manly in his exuberance for God as a boy, as a man, as a shepherd as a brother, as a shepherd and finally as a king. Faith is not babyish, my boy!

Friday, December 19, 2008

This is my friend Olivia.



Every Friday my class goes to see our friends in another class and we have buddies in that class. My buddy is Olivia.
We read together and play together and have alot of fun. I am so glad that she is my friend in school

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Ethan gave me the first gift of my 47th

It was wrapped and ready for the day before and I had to hold myself back from opening it until the day. I woke up early and Ethan wasn't awake yet, so I waited still.
Finally, he woke up and it was time to open my present. To my surprise, I got a beautiful Santa Claus candle holder for my mantle or my desk at work, I haven't decided which yet.
I am so happy and grateful. It is precious to have a son think of his mother so thoughtfully and share with her.
Thank you, Ethan! Love, Mommy

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

It is a Nine Year Old Holiday season.

Ethan especially enjoyed the craft day that he had in his class.
There are 5 days left for his end of the year reading project. We mapped it out and read it 5 times, but we are far delayed in the process of finishing the project.

We have to work hard to get that project finished.

Friday, November 28, 2008

A thankful MOMMY






for the little boy who made Grandma Ruth smile in her worst hour. The beautiful face of a baby and now the handsome and loved development of a young man who is crazy about wolves and his family. I am thankful to God that you, "met me halfway, across the sky!"

Monday, November 24, 2008

Electric Man helped me out on the program

with the children last night. The little ones are a handful and I was grateful for an armorbearer or bocketbook bearer named Ethan whose strength of mind and emotions was a strength for me to lean on during the program. I always think that I can do it and then there are some essentials that I forget, someone's name, someone's sweater. These are the things that my electric man helped me out with. These are the lives that electric man helped me touch and touched me deeply with his support of me and his acceptance of the name that God gave me to give him. "STRONG" WISE_WHOLESOME-Corn-bred Ethan!


Friday, November 21, 2008

A backward roll

At nine years old the thrill and the enthralling moments are fewer than at first. Today it was the sensory feeling of a backward roll. Again and again he rolled and turned himself upside down and whoopy, it was sooooo fun!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

I am electric man...

Doing everything that I can... I can't wait to fit that song on my blog. I am going upstairs to read Nate the Great with you. Love you!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Charrette lessons for Ethan!



It has been my privilege to see each of my children become apprentices to their father at some point in their scholastic careers. This huddle of male minds coordinating and cooperating is a beautiful sight.
Needless to say, we are again doing the thing at the last minute. Sad, but true; we could have started earlier, but we didn't. So "Charrette" we do and "Charrette" we must. This is our affectionate term for, and "all nighter" to get the job done.
The finished product is more dear because everybody in the house touched it. Everybody in the house interacted and we lost a great deal of sleep in the process. The birth of the creativity that produces and runs the economy!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

It's November and we missed

nearly half of the men we were supposed to study last month. Alright Ethan, lets get at it. This month, in honor of the election, we will look at the past President's and some of their character strengths and lessons. A tall order, huh?

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

We are His people

the sheep of his pasture. God feeds us daily, with new mercies and new ingredients into our lives he pours to make us who he wants us to be.
God is in charge of what you are to do and to be and even these disappointments can, by His grace, be used for His glory and for your good.
Study hard, my boy! Find those holes in your mind like 8x4 and 2+3 and fill them with the information and see what God will do with them...

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) had a very negative view of youth, as we sometimes do who can't keep up with the youthful enthusiasm. He wrote to the curiosity of the pleasures of sin for a season and what they can afford or not. Learn, listen and use the gifts of humor and reasoning to reason with your generation for good.
He wrote under the pen name of Mark Twain and as the second book on the order of the gospel of Mark he did all to tell us what Jesus is not about. He is right. Jesus is not about that. Encourage the good and overcome evil with good!

Friday, October 24, 2008

I find it amazing how many of the men that

God used had some disability of some sort. Cervantes is a wonderful example of using what you have to God's glory. Despite tremendous disability and among a time period where ordinarily, no accomodations were made for such disabilities, as is the case today, ie. wheel chair accessibility to places; Cervantes rose and utilized imagination and intellect to create some of the most alegorical masterpieces in history. In my opinion, he captured the spirit of the angel of light deceiving the church in his day. Don't go through life and miss the wonder of reading Don Quijote'.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Best in the World!

A most direct,gentle spoken and humble man was Arthur Ashe. Of all of the men that I listed, he is the only one of them that I actually got to see on this earth. He was soft spoken and concentrated. He was intense in his concentration and discipline. His book, Days of Grace show a man who loved his family and gave himself to them with a passion. Read that book, my son and learn to discipline your body as well as your mind.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Tears for Mr. Inventor.

"I didn't win the representative contest. I didn't get chosen for the choir." I will cry about it and I will cry with you, my son. Disappointment is just that "dis"-"appointments". Appointed by God to meet you in your need. All appointments are not yours to keep. Some appointments are for others. This is the season for you to get to know your brothers and sisters because they will be gone soon and you will be sad that you spent so much time with people who really don't mean anything to you and missed the opportunity to spend time with the ones who are most special.
I cannot go back and retrieve my baby brother. He is gone and I was on the volleyball court and in the books, when I could've been dandling him on my knee. For what? I knew not that he would be gone.
No theology, no study, no song, no privilege is equal to the privilege of coming home to the ones you love. You are their representative and singer and king and priest and hope and helper. Outside, they cannot see who you are. At home, we can see you as you really are. Our Ethan!


Everybody has limitations. I hear that Teddy Roosevelt had asthma growing up. This is hard to imagine with his "bully for you" strong male persona. He grew up and became president of the United States and in his youth his time with Momma and Papa running him up and down the street were more important to our nation, ultimately. Hanging out with fools will make you foolish. Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. We have cemented the foolishness in our age. Learn from your elders and appreciate the wonderful examples that God has given you in your home for this season.

Monday, October 20, 2008

God's boys are good boys!






How can a young man keep his way pure? Ethan, loves God and loves his family and his inventions and making the world a funny place to live in. I just love seeing that about him.
This weekend I was astonished at the strength and physical helpfulness that I received from him, not having to ask numerous times. He is not yet trusted to complete the task to my liking but a good effort is noted. I love how he doesn't take it for granted that I will accept his effort, but he asks me, "am I finished with this?" No! is said a number of times and I have to point out what completion means to me. I would rather have him complete the job without the numerous interjections and interactions about basic things such as what does it mean to pick up the toys from the floor. He is becoming a responsible 9 year old and that means picking up and much interaction will make him the kind of man that can communicate effectively to other's his intentions and expectations. I have to remember that when I am barking out the orders and engage him in the process as well.


The fact that Horatio Nelson grew up in a large, God-fearing and godly family contributed to his effectiveness as a leader of men in his generation. He had a way with men to cause them to spend themselves past where they were and to show courage unto death that attracted people to him and made him a hero at Trafalgar.
I don't want you to follow Horatio in war, my son. I want you to beat your swords to plowshears and follow Horatio to lead men to be courageous in fighting against their lusts and against the enemies of their souls and families, in the same way that Horatio influenced men to be courageous for the things of this world.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

First Visit to COLD STONE ICE CREAM PARLOR!

Part of being in a big family is having birthdays happen 8 times a year. Everybody says birthdays are like Christmas in our house. I don't know but it is fun to enjoy oneanother's company over a bowl of hand crushed candied ice cream.




Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Got your glasses?

Got milk? Where are your glasses, Mr. President? Even if you are not president, Ethan, you are going to need your glasses.
I loved your new invention, Mr. Inventor. Your drawings are small, but intricate. Your ideas are useful and creative. Keep up the good work, but don't quit your dayjob, being my precious son and studying with your teacher.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

This month he's running for President!

Do I have to call you Mr. President when you win the election son? He was not so enthusiastic about running when I told him that he would have to wear his Sunday clothes everyday when he is the President.













Just trying to encourage him to take a little more initiative about the way he looks. Now I realize that it does take alot more effort from a whole family for a boy or a man to become President. Thank you Barbara Bush and thank you Laura Bush for being there for the man that we call President right now George W., because if it is such an upheaval in our emotions to run for 4th grade President, imagine the strange and interesting things that have happened in the Bush household lately.

And another thing, I was a little annoyed that Obama didn't give us any idea who his advisers are. At least we know a little about McCain's advisers, even if we don't agree with their strategies but who are Obama's other than Biden.


Thursday, September 25, 2008

MR. Inventor, LOOK...

both ways before you cross the street.
Today, I watched from the window and a big boy who told me about his snow dream, ran out of the house 5 minutes before the bus came.
Somebody didn't look all 4 ways before he crossed the street. I couldn't run out to grab him because I was not presentable, by any means and I am still getting over the trip to ER yesterday for the FINGER.

The FINGER got stuck in the door.
IT is now sour and sore.
It is blue and poor DAD is on the floor,
His pain is so bad.
He's got meds which are so strong and the pain still seems to last so long.
This is the story of the FINGER!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

2 Young fellows still waking up to smell the coffee!





Enjoying a blueberry muffin on brothers' birthday!





Grasshopper and my best friend!






Naturalist Ethan, Strikes again!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

When I stumbled out of bed,

and walked out of the door of my bedroom, I found a spinning boy in the hallway. Aimlessly spinning and singing and spinning like a planet. He knew that this was the wrong thing to be doing at 6:30 am. He knew that I would reprove him for such aimlessness, so he just stopped. I wanted to say what were you thinking about, Ethan. What was the motive and thought behind that movement in the morning. I don't even have the energy to get out of the bed this morning much less, to spin like a top at the top of the stairs, just tell me what you were thinking and maybe it will make me spin like that too. He didn't think that I was going to say that, so he stopped and I went about my business and he went about what he was supposed to be doing.
Sometimes all that's needed to bring order is the presence of a parent. Thank God for the grace to be that to him.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Late, Late, Late

Running to the bus, thank God for good neighbors. They held the bus and today was an early day for the bus. She said this is going to be the time for the rest of the year. God is so good to give us neighbors who would graciously hold the bus. They look so beautiful in the morning while I am stumbling out of my bed and still there is sleep in my eyes running my little guy to the bus. 2 days to 5 now!

Saturday, September 13, 2008

For the Love of PETE!

How long were we going to wait until we got glasses for this young man? Everytime he gets them fixed it is only for a few days that he has them fixed and he breaks them again. Here we go again. Got them fixed and today when I got in the car, a curious and obviously newly seeing boy was investigating a funny book with more candor and observation than usual. It is great to see the curiosity in a 9 year old! See well, my boy!

Friday, September 12, 2008

Mommy, guess what I got from school?

I borrowed "Nate,the Great" I finished it in 10 minutes. I find the snake book and the wolf book alot more interesting. Is that okay? Okay, son, that's okay, just try reading some books about people sometimes, okay?

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Some people are posers.....




And some people are doers!
Doers are hard to get a good picture of, but they are always busy. Sometimes busy following Indiana Squirrel around the park and sometimes getting into trouble and sometimes discovering some new way to make the family a better place to be. Such is the expression of the precocious 9 year old called Ethan.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Serve em up, Electric Man!

Serving is fun, at nine for the electric man, doing everything that he can. He spent 1/2 hour on the courts and 1/2 hour on the swings and running around the track. He said he ran until his little heart was going thumpety thump in his chest. A likely story...:) We have to maintain the physical exertion.

Saturday, August 30, 2008

Off to the Raptor Center today...





To catch a glimps of some predatorial birds. Saturday, sun and fun of the summertime has been replaced with more thoughtful exercises, such as homework .



Nine years old and experimenting with authority and sharing. The baby brother is often tattling on me for no reason and the big brother ignores me in his teenage pursuits. Such is life!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

...think, I'll take a seat under this tree

Walking for a few more minutes down the path, I see a tree. Lots of loopy willows hanging low and lots of different insects to see inside the leafy looms of the willows. I wanted to sit under the shade, because the heat was making me feel like sitting down.
When I went to sit down, some gooey stuff fell out of the leaves and gunked up my arm. It might be sap, but I don't know what it is. I am not sitting here.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Several butterflies...



Flitted past me and almost hit me on my nose, but it called attention to the beautifully woven spider webs lining the path where I was walking. The butterflies didn't go near the spiderwebs, but the beatles used them as a trampolene and hopped from one to the other along the bushes. That was phenomenal to see.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Stomped on 5 ant hills

I stomped on 5 ant hills. I don't know why. I just felt like stomping on them. Ant hills are so interesting, but everytime I see them I want to stomp on them. Still no sign of the brothers and sisters.
Shhhh! someone is coming down the path, I think it is a jogger.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

What to do without a gameboy?

Ordinarily, I would be sitting on a rock or the bench playing my favorite game on the gameboy. I could be angry with myself for not having brought it to the park with us today. That way, I would have a choice as to whether to chase the brothers and sisters or play tennis or play on the gameboy.
My mind is wandering because I don't know what to look at when I am not looking at the screen. There is a big sky above us. Do you think that that is the screen for God's gameboy?

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Beatles

Three of them on a branch in front of me caught my attention. I wanted to carry the biggest one home with me, but I had forgotten my camera. Still no sign of the big children. Make my own fun, I said to myself.
I tried to think of a song in my head.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Back to the path...

A little robin was hopping on the path. I am not used to seeing a robin on the path with me, they are usually flying or flitting. This one wanted to make my acquaintance, but was afraid to because I was holding Indiana's paw. Squirrels and robins don't get along, I found out.
The robin looked at me and said "Are you with him?". Yes I am. "Why?" she said and then flew off. I guess I am not going to get to know this robin and Indiana today.
We walked and walked for about 5 or 10 minutes and still I didn't see my brothers and sisters. I was starting to wonder if I was going to be stuck playing tennis with mom for the rest of the day; because I wasn't sure if I was brave enough to go out of her sight and around the lake and find them or not find them and still find my way back to her. It was a big decision for me.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Eight is about wondering...

Wondering why the birds fly. Wondering where the tadpoles go when I can't see them. Wondering where my brothers and sisters went and why didn't I choose to go with them initially?
I am stuck and I have to make my own fun.
Thankfully, Indiana squirrel and I will find them or have a good time trying.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

City parks are full of

urban wildlife, but with all of its splendor and urban shelter and bliss,there were absolutely, positively no deer in the city. It was my imagination that the sound of the cars on the city street were actually a flock of deer. I would have to go to the country to find that. My mind had actually felt for one fleeting moment that I was in the country. The fact that deer could have crossed the highway and come all the way to Freedom Park made me giggle and that giggle actually gave me the courage to cross the path and continue on my way to find my brothers and sisters and go outside of my comfort zone, out of the view of Mom on the courts.
Not quite free, but striking out to find my own path to fun. The fun that can come from my own mind. The fun that is not initiated by an elder sibling or grown up. Indiana couldn't tell me what to do, he was there to tell me what not to do.
I am awake now and off I went.
I am on my last adventure of my eight year old self. I hadn't known that 8 was going to pass so quickly and that 8 was going to take me from my junior self to my major self. This was one of those rights of passage for me. Walking away from my mom's fun and not at the other children's beck and call. It is Indiana, a friend of mine and me enjoying a day at the park.

Monday, July 21, 2008

I heard a noise over my head...

and when I turned around, an entire flock of deer were galloping by. They were not on the path and they were not even touching the thicket. I cannot imagine where they were going.
If I were a deer, I would have followed them and I wanted to. I was sitting on the rock and the sound made me get up and go on my way again. I said good bye to the pollywogs and the geese and took Indianas hand and went on my way back to the path.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

I took one step off of the path,

to the right and there in the thicket, a little gray bunny was collecting berries for her family supper. "Hi, you're Ethan, Mr. Squirrel's friend, aren't you?" Yes, "I don't think you will be comfortable in the thicket, you'd better go back to the path." I will be alright and right down to the creek he strutted, without as much as a second thought.
I'm nearly nine, he thought. Its time I start doing things without the rest of the brothers and sisters having to vote on it.
The creek was a wild and eery place with a world of wildlife all its own. The creek wildlife has everything it needs right down there and never needs to go up to the path for anything. I had no idea that Mr Squirrel, himself had never been down to the creek, before and this was his first adventure down there too.

No one would've guessed that Ethan was afraid of wandering off by himself. It really wasn't wandering, He knew that Mom was on the courts and the other kids were on the path, he had permission and this kind of fun and adventure was something he had absolutely never done before.

A school of pollywogs swam close to his feet and he certainly wanted to shed his shirt and join them in the cooling water, but he dare not go that far, regardless of the heat he was feeling. He drank in the sight of them wiggling together in the water and kept the thought in his mind to draw on his sketch pad when he got back to the car.
Frogs and flies and diamond needles and beetles and fish and alot of different kinds of worms and lizard things were down there and he didn't have any idea what most of them were. As long as he wasn't bothering them and just sitting there watching they were fine. 20 minutes past quickly and he was sitting there and watching the interplay of the stream and the wind and the birds and other wildlife. Amazed.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Mr. Squirrel wouldn't leave me,


I noted, as I was wondering at the determination of Mr. Beatle going around and around on that trunk of that tree. Where am I going? I thought, am I going around in circles like the beatle on the tree? I am trying to find my older brothers and sisters, they have gone on before me and I am trying to find the path that they took. I can't see them and they can't see me.
With that I started down the road. There was only dirt under my feet at first. The thicket was to the right and beyond that was the marsh and the river. I dare not go to the river, no matter how curious my mind is to know what wonders are there near the water. Mother said to stay on the path and I would find the brothers and sisters just past the patch of trees.
My mind wants to wander down to the river and see the frogs and the herrons that are sunbathing and swimming. That is not good. Who will I listen to right now?

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Mr. Beatle stood on a tree

purple and Black, with six long legs. He wouldn't talk to me with Mr. Squirrel in tow. I was shocked.
"What are you doing?", I asked. I am looking for the other side of this tree, he stated, matter-of-factly. With that statement of fact he left me and kept walking around the tree.
He got back around to me and greeted me again as he went around the second and the third time. He never seemed to realize that I was the same guy he met up with when he went around the first couple of times. I know that he finally gave up looking for the other side of the tree, or he figured out that he had past it several times without noticing, because he wasn't there when I came back.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Mom, almost hit Indiana


with her serve. Tennis players don't like wild animals coming on the courts while they are playing.
Ethan was so scared to leave the courts by himself, it was not funny. He wasn't yet familiar with the Charlotte squirrels. They knew him, because he was a boy and hadn't chased or bothered them in the whole time he was at the park.
15 minutes, it took for Ethan to leave the courts. To the left there was the thicket and then the path into the park, to the right was the overpass that was a complete no-no for him to go alone. Mom had given him permission to go to the left, but he was too afraid to take her up on it.

Friday, July 4, 2008

An Hour of Tennis at the courts

was more than enough for him. The other children were out exploring and in the sweltering heat. It was only for his mother's pleasure, that Ethan stayed out on courts.
"Can I go now?, Mom?" breathed out the desparate fellow.
It was ten days till his ninth birthday and he wasn't planning to play any tourneys between now and then.
Why was he even out here, he thought, I don't even like tennis. Mom would be disappointed to think, I thought that. "Can I leave, now?"
"Okay, Ethan, 5 more balls and you are done, I think you are really developing and getting the hang of this huh?" said mom, between barking out instructions,"Are you having fun yet, or is it still a chore?"
Ethan would never have told his mother what he really thought about tennis. He just stood at the T and waited for his last 5 balls. Once this was over, his real adventure would begin. He missed 3 of the 5 and mom was more than disappointed, but he was satisfied to have hit 2, dropped the raquet and ran to the gate.
Freedom Park is a big place and he looked to the left and to the right of the gate, there was absolutely no sign of the big kids anywhere. What would he do?
First, he yelled back, "Mom, where are they?" I don't know. A big bubble of disappointment built up in his throat. Mom said, they are somewhere on the path. You can walk that way and I'm sure you'll see the group in a minute or so.
That was so far outside of Ethan's comfort zone, but he was not going back onto those courts.
This meant he was going to have to make his own fun.
Out of the bushes, as though he could feel the bubble in Ethan's throat, came the boldest little squirrel.
I am Indiana Squirrel and I am here to go on an adventure with you Ethan. Ethan took Indiana's hand and they went on an adventure in Freedom Park that prepared Ethan for being 9 years old, like very little else that he had ever seen.
That night when he went to bed, he was a very different sort of fellow. Courage and an appreciation for wildlife was a very new thought.
A bold explorer and a couragious naturalist, came back from that walk, 10 days before 9.