Rabbit Trails

Have you ever seen those studies that break down the time that public schooled students are actually learning? It's something like 1 1/2 hours in a 7 hour day once you subtract all the class changing, home-work handling, snack breaks and group pencil sharpening sessions. The idea of those studies are to convince homeschoolers that it's OK that we are only putting in 4-5 hours a day, since we don't have all the group distractors. WELL, those people never analyzed a day like today at my house! We'd have to put in a good 14 hours today to compete with that 1 1/2 at the public school! Days like today have so many distractions, that I'm often distracted from attending to my previous distraction.

Here's one brief example. We took a lunch break. I gave Elijah a cheese stick to eat while I made lunch. Charlie stole Elijah's cheese stick. Elijah insisted that Charlie sit in time-out. I had Alyssa handle that since Charlie is her dog.

While we were standing around watching Charlie do time, Elijah knocked a pile of junk off my desk and discovered Chuck E Cheese tokens. Since they have "big rat" on the coin, he knew what they were for and that reminded him that he likes to stare at the "big rat" pictures from his birthday on the computer.

While I was pulling up the rat photos, he then discovered his flip-flops under the desk. We had to put them on immediately, yes, on the wrong feet - with socks.

See what I mean? This is all lunch break, and that's just Elijah. I haven't mentioned that Tori kept calling me for help with her book, I had to wipe Julia, I had the distraction of trying to convince Ben that it takes longer to walk to the barn, to get his bike to ride the garbage back to the barn, that it does to just carry the garbage to the barn in the first place. I never got that through to Ben before James started his 4th pleading routine for mercy (for losing TV for the day.)

So, where was I?

This is the reason we often are not done with school by the time JD comes home from work!

Troop Carrier or Luxury Liner?

In the late 1940s, the U.S. government commissioned William Gibbs to work with U.S. Lines to construct an 80 MILLION-DOLLAR (in 1940!) troop carrier for the Navy. The purpose was to design a ship that could carry 15,000 troops during war. In 1952, the ship was complete. It was the fastest and most reliable troop-carrier in the world.

The catch is, she never carried troops. The ship was put in standby once during the Cuban missile crises in 1962, but otherwise she was never used in all her capacity by the U.S. Navy.

Instead the SS United States became a luxury liner for presidents, heads of states and a variety of other celebrities who traveled on her during her 17 years of service. As a luxury liner, she couldn't carry 15,000; instead she housed just under 2,000. Those passengers could enjoy the luxuries of 695 staterooms, 4 dining salons, 3 bars, 2 theaters, 5 acres of open deck with a heated pool, 19 elevators and the comfort of the world's first fully air-conditioned passenger ship.

Things look radically different on a luxury liner than they do on a troop carrier. The faces of soldiers preparing for battle and those of patrons enjoying their bonbons are radically different. The conservation of resources on a troop carrier contrasts sharply with the opulence that characterizes the luxury liner. And the pace at which the troop carrier moves is by necessity much faster than that of a luxury liner. after all the troop carrier has an urgent task to accomplish; the luxury liner, on the other hand, is free to casually enjoy the trip.

When I think about the history of the SS United States, I wonder if she has something to teach us about the history of the church. The church, like the SS United States, has been designed for battle. The purpose of the church is to mobilize a people to accomplish a mission. Yet we seem to have turned the church as troop carrier into the church as luxury liner. We seem to have organized ourselves, not to engage in battle for the souls of people around the world, but to indulge ourselves in the peaceful comforts of the world. This makes me wonder what would happen if we looked squarely in the face of the world with 4.5 billion people going to hell and 26,000 children dying every day of starvation and preventable diseases, and we decided it was time to move this ship into battle instead of siting back on the pool deck while we wait for the staff to serve us more hors d' oeuvre.

(excerpt from the book Radical by David Platt)

Funny Girls

Last night when I had Julia in the bathtub, she said three things that really made me laugh. Due to the fact that I'm getting old and I didn't write them down right away, I can only remember one. Because of something she said, I told her that she was smart. She replied, "I'm smart because I'm not upid-sta." I recognized her pig-Latin term and asked her where she heard that. She just laughed and told me that "upid-sta means dumb."

That reminds me of several years back, Alyssa told people that we studied pig Latin for our home-schooling language. I had to correct her that it was just Latin - no pig!

My Tori funny story of the day happened tonight at the church picnic, baptism and swim. The kids were lined up going on the diving board. Tori took her first turn ever - she jumped and was swimming straight to the side, when the life-guard got concerned and jumped in for her. I told the life-guard that she was fine, but she told Tori that she needed to jump, come up for a breath and then swim to the side. Tori looked at her seriously and said, "but I don't like to breathe.

Just for fun, here's a picture of the two of them together two years ago. They were one and 2 1/2.

Big Kids, Big Fun

It's really nice that Gabriel and Alei are such good friends; they are having a really good time on the road together. Gabriel already asked if she could fly out in June and drive home with him; I have no issue with that (as long as she gets a job to pay for the ticket.) Their fun of the day today was to hit Franklin, TN, near Nashville to check out the Christian music artists home-town. They did spot Steven Curtis Chapman with his wife and daughter. They also rolled up to the supposed home address of Toby Mac and shot some pictures. I think Toby may remember Gabriel, since he has year to year at Creation Festival, but it still may have caught him off guard to have him appear in his drive-way. They remind me of that old I Love Lucy when Lucy goes on the Hollywood home tour and ends up jumping a fence and hiding in the one guys house. Ok, it's not near that bad, since Gabriel and Alei aren't breaking any entering laws.

I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, because I'd love to be on their today adventure. My today adventure has been cleaning a kitchen, two bathrooms, dusting, vacuuming and laundry. Oh, to be young and carefree again............

And They Are Off....

The car was packed tight, holding everything that Gabriel was sure that he'd need to survive the year. Alei was lucky to get room for the suitcase and backpack that she needed. We insisted that he allow room to actually see out his back window.

We woke up all the kids, except Elijah, at 6:45 to see Gabriel and Alei off. Although Elijah was up late last night, he woke up at 7:00 in time to hug Gabriel good-bye. I was happy too, because I love this picture of my oldest and youngest son!

After that, we stuck everyone in front of the car for a last minute, in your pajamas, good-bye picture. I guess I'll have to use it on this year's Christmas cards since Gabriel won't be home to take a new one (jk.)

Julia has cried several times when we've discussed Gabriel's leaving. She gave the final good-bye kiss.

They have already made it to Knoxville, TN, where they are spending the night with a friend of mine. Then tomorrow they are driving to my parents in Memphis, TN.

Happy Birthday Debs

Although we spent the day shopping and packing for Gabriel's departure, I couldn't go on without giving Aunt Deb a proper Happy Birthday post. It's a privilege to be Debra's sister and she is a true blessing to all nine of my children. Although she works and has quite the full schedule, she truly makes time for my children. She watches and discusses movies with Gabriel; the last was Bonhoeffer. She leads a teen girls Bible study in her home on Tuesday evenings that Alei considers the greatest small group atmosphere. Deb has takes all my "big girls" shopping when the lines are long, but the bargains are too good to miss. She has even taken part in our crazy Black Friday ritual; last year she waited in line for hours for gun clearances. She commonly reads Bible stories to the boys; in fact, they have began the Bible story book for the second time. The little girls adore her and constantly help her with any cooking or laundry. Deb has been known to spend a few hours un-braiding hair on a stressful hair day. Lastly, Aunt Deb often will take Elijah with her on Wednesday evenings while we attend church. Li-Li and Aunt Deb look for white bunnies in her yard and other brown bunnies in the neighborhood where she lives.

Debs is a wonderful adoption supporter; it's nice to have local family admire the commitment that we have made to additional children. Debra has experienced much in her 29 years. Although I'm not going to get all these right, she has spent one summer in India, she has taken mission groups to Mexico, she studied language school in Papua New Guinea and hit China for additional language training. She taught school in Afghanistan for three years before returning to Virginia; she was a fabulous help home-schooling my kids that year and it provided an opportunity for her to teach without fear of being shot at. She is currently the main writer for Calvary Chapel magazine which circulates all over the world. Debs is still drawn to evangelism of the Muslim people and manages to make Muslim friends that live in this area.

We don't know what the next years will bring in Debra's life, but we are assured that they won't be boring and that they will make a difference for the Kingdom of God. (We just hope they don't include her movning away!)

(picture taken mid-singing. Julia's really belting it out!)

Happy Birthday, Deb - thanks for sharing it with a simple dinner at our home.

All Grown Up

We are at the very end of Gabriel's time at home. In fact, he is currently on his way to Richmond to screen for the Navy. If he commits, it's on a delayed entry program until this time next year, which allows him to have this year in Colorado. The advantage of signing now would be that he should get exactly what he wants - the intelligence field. He has long term sights of NCIS or the FBI. He will be home from Richmond tomorrow night and then leaves for CO on Friday morning.


I snapped a few new pictures of him yesterday.


Julia showed up during our shoot; I love Gabriel's look in this picture.

Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the Lord. - Psalm 31:24

Hair Day

I am a bit overwhelmed by hair day. It took about three hours to take Tori's hair out, then two hours to take Julia's out. After that, they both had a shampoo and condition. Then I spent almost an hour combing their hair out. Then I drove to pick up Kriscia and she spent a few hours corn-rowing their hair; then I drove Kriscia home. Needless to say, we didn't even finish school today. While I get a lot of help with their hair, it still dominates my day and the poor girls have to sit for hours. We aren't doing anything extravagant or anything, so I'm at a loss on how I could simplify this part of our lives!

Alei took the last shift on Julia's hair this afternoon; poor Julia fell asleep sitting straight up!

So, we got her a pillow, plopped her head down and kept on working.

They sure did look cute when they were all done! It's nice to have them matching for a change.

I told them to look at each other for me to take the picture, and that just cracked them up for some reason.

My sweet girls. It amazes me how often people tell me that they look just alike. I don't think they could look much different really - beautiful in their own ways.

Julia has really lost the toddler look the last several months. They have grown so fast!

Today - Haircuts; Tomorrow - Corn-rows

Tonight we cut the four boys' hair out on the patio. I love it when it's cool enough to not make the mess in the kitchen. Do you think Elijah was slightly over-due for a trim?

He didn't enjoy the process too much, but did admire himself in the mirror when it was all over.

Thankfully, Gabriel, James and Ben are much easier. JD has gotten really good at tapering Ben's hair on the sides. Ben was happy with the new cut.

We have saved a ton over the years cutting the boys hair ourselves. I honestly also think it's faster than driving and waiting at a barber shop.

Tomorrow a friend's daughter is coming to corn-row Tori and Julia's hair, so the morning will be spent taking out their current braids, washing and combing!

The Last Hurrah

It really doesn't take much to make Gabriel happy -

He had friends -

And more friends -

And more friends - I never counted how many kids were here. I'm guessing around 40.

There were plenty of burgers from the grill, lots of chips and dip, some awesome fruit kabobs that the girls and I made all afternoon (and I didn't take pictures of) and cake and ice-cream.

This is Gabriel's last weekend at home. It's exciting to see him venture out into the world, but kind of bittersweet. Julia starts crying every time he tells her that he is moving to Colorado. It's also going to be very hard on Elijah, who just isn't old enough to understand it all yet.