Big doin's around Granny's House...by this time next week we'll have a really full house with the Slaughters, Weltys, and Longenbaughs pouring in for our Fun Family Week, complete with family portraits and the inevitable 9 siblings pics and games and good food and drink and cool weather and lots of laughter and chaos. Bring it on! 

Labels: Books, Family, Homemaking, Homeschooling, Kids, Language, Movies, Music, Sundays

Yes, he's in the net, getting the official weigh-in. At 7 pounds, 8 oz., he's definitely in the Bantamweight class  :-)

Labels: Babies, Family, Grandkids, Kids

I've just returned from seeing Atlas Shrugged with Steph K. and we had a great time. The movie was almost exactly what both of us expected, very much like what we'd envisioned as we read the book. So what did I think about the movie? For a film that was made on a meager $10m budget and shot in 26 days, it was remarkable. This is the movie that Hollywood didn't want made and that was rejected at every turn for the past 20 years, so the fact that it made it to the big screen at all is surprising. There were places that it was a little rough and that showed the lower production costs, and there were places that would have been fairly mysterious to those who haven't read the book...and of course it's a little disconcerting that it stops a third of the way through the story. All in all, though, I was delighted with it. If you've read the book, even part of the book, go see the movie. If you haven't read the book, go see it anyway and then dive into the book and get it read before Part 2 is released next year! (Better yet, get it from audible.com and listen to it.)


And please, listen to or read the biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It might just change your life.


We're getting ready for a major upheaval here. Sometime in the next two weeks we'll have the entire upstairs re-carpeted or re-floored. I'm about to find out what's under the kids' beds. I think I should be afraid.


You know your kids are growing up when you have to spend a day helping them with their tax returns  :-/


Can it really be Holy Week already? I'm thinking I just now made my New Year's goals. Looking forward to our church services this week...


Don't know what to make of Donald Trump. Should I be petrified or just laughing? 


If this is true, it's very sad. Not that I would take 60 Minutes' word for anything, but once in a while they've been right.


Okay, update on my Mac story. Thursday I took it in to the Apple Geniuses, and guess what? They're geniuses. Who knew? I do still have "issues" with the Mac, but do you know what the main and most worrisome problem turned out to be? FIREFOX. Firefox 4, to be exact. Evidently it has major memory leak problems and it was eating up 25% of the 4 gigs of RAM just by being loaded. I was using it because I really do not like Safari, Apple's preloaded browser, and so I thought I'd minimize my adjustment to the Mac by sticking with the browser I already loved. FAIL. Lesson of the story: if you're a Firefox user and you are having trouble with your Mac OR your PC slowing down, especially after it's been on a while, check and see how much of the memory Firefox is using. You will probably choke. Answer, for me: Google Chrome. LOVE.IT.




Yesterday The Papa returned from a 16-day trip to Australia. He came back loaded with stuffed kangaroos, boomerangs, Australia ball caps, and Tim-Tams. He said he was tired of living in the future.


And since the present day is quickly drawing to a close, I'll close also and wish you a beautiful Holy Week and a blessed Easter at its end. Hosanna!

Labels: Books, Holidays, Homemaking, Kids, Movies, Political Observation, Sundays

Chicago schools ban lunches brought from home

Labels: Education, Kids, ObamaNation, Social Observation

Labels: Books, Devotional, Food, Kids, Money, Movies, Political Observation, Technology, Theater of the Absurd

Labels: Kids

Labels: Books, Grandkids, Kids, News, The Papa, Theater of the Absurd

Labels: Family, Food, Kids, Political Observation, Sanctity of Life, Science, Sundays, Theater of the Absurd, Weather

Labels: Kids, Weather

But I felt cheated when I got here and it was 75 degrees. When I drive this far north I wanna get some benefit besides seeing my kids! Well, today I'm fine. It was in the 30s when we went to church, and the day has stayed nice and cool. Tomorrow the high will be 46 and that's kind of on the verge of cold. The best thing is that I'll be getting back to San Antonio in time for another big freeze there! I'm a happy mama this winter!

CJ and Tony have such a darling house and are fixing it up so cute. I have no married sons yet, but one of the greatest joys of my life has been to be in the homes of my married daughters and watch them building lives with their husbands. Nothing like it.

Boehner has obviously been a busy man this week. No time for the tanning bed. But I did love his answer to Chris Wallace about smoking. 


It's sad watching Egypt go down in flames. But I've wondered many times in the past few years what in the world was holding it together.

Bravo to the cast of "The King's Speech" for taking the equivalent of Best Picture at the Screen Actor's Guild Awards tonight. 


I love my son-in-law. On the way home from church we stopped at Lowe's and he bought a fireplace screen and tools so he could build fires during the coming ice storm. We pulled up in front of the house and saw that while we were gone a tree had fallen down in the yard. So Tony turned around, drove back to Lowe's and bought a chain saw! Two hours later we had a gorgeous, roaring fire!


Tomorrow I head home, trying to outrun out-drive what may be the biggest ice storm of the year here in Oklahoma and north Texas. Normally I'd just extend my stay by a day or two and wait it out, but I cannot run the risk of getting stuck somewhere and missing Nathan's graduation from Basic Training on Friday! There are family activities at the base on Thursday, too, and even though it's going to be freezing cold, I WILL be there for them!

If you hear a rumor that I have succumbed to Words With Friends, it's false. Completely, totally, utterly, almost false. Nope. I don't have time for that.


However. I won't be driving fast enough to miss something else: tomorrow night my brother is making me fried chicken livers and cream gravy! That man knows how to please his sister!


On the drive home I'll be finishing up Some Sing, Some Cry and starting a couple more audio books. These companions make the long drives very pleasant! 

But though I've enjoyed the audio books, I can't wait to get back into my hard copy of One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. I can't tell you the treasure this book is. I'm sorry to see that the price has gone up at Amazon, but get it anyway.


From my Scripture memory work this week, a verse which has been precious to me for most of my adult life:




It's going to be a wild week at Granny's House, what with Nathan spending most of the weekend at home and lots of company coming in during the week for the festivities (not to mention the spectacular Green Bay win I'm expecting on Sunday!). I should have lots to report on the next edition of the Snippets! In the meantime, stay warm and off the roads and check back in during the week...

Labels: Books, Family, Fun, Kids, Sports, Sundays, Weather

Labels: Books, Holidays, Homeschooling, Kids, Political Observation

Daughter Bethany, 20, spent a good chunk of her summer here in Virginia with Annie, helping with the children and keeping Annie company during the last month of her pregnancy. Sometimes I think that Bethany was the only one of our brood to get what must be a recessive gene for artistic creativity. And it's so good to have her as part of our family, or else we'd have a much less decorated life.

During the month of July, Bethany spent her days making all manner of crafts with Erin, 5, and Jude, 2 1/2. And I don't mean just construction paper cards and pipe cleaner people. They did some pretty elaborate stuff together, and when I got here I was able to see some of their projects. Below is their "garden" that now dresses up the room they share and a bird they made with real feathers.

Bethany, you ROCK!

Labels: Family, Fun, Kids

When did it happen?

I still think of myself as the mother of little ones, short people as we have often referred to our "B Team". And no, that's not a disparaging term around here...it's just always been a way to distinguish our older three, the "A Team" from the younger 6 who were born after seven years of what The Papa claims as "bad luck."

But I digress.

I'm wondering when I went from mother of little ones to keeper of a house full of young adults. No, not all of them...my Baby Prince is turning 14 this fall and the other "short boy", now over six feet tall, will turn 16 a few days later. But the dynamic of the house has unmistakably changed in the years we've lived here and sometimes it seems that it must have happened one night while I was asleep. I woke up and we had more drivers than cars to drive!

For years, one of my biggest dilemmas was, "How do I keep school going for the big kids while trying to entertain a preschooler, clean up after a toddler, and keep the baby asleep?" So what month did that become, "How do I keep school going for the younger ones while trying to keep track of work, music, church, babysitting, and entertainment schedules for all the post-high school kids and make sure they all have a car at the hour they need one?"

I know. It happened slowly. But since it's documented scientific fact that time compresses after you reach 40 and life really does speed up, I'm sure I'm on solid ground when I shout, "SLOOOOW DOOOOOWN!"

So how do I really feel about all this?

I love it. Maybe I love it because we really did enjoy every day with the little ones and squeezed all the life out of those years that we could. Maybe I love it because the now grown- and almost-grownups can do more for themselves and can help me take care of things around here. But maybe I love it just because I enjoy the companionship of my young adult household much more than I ever expected to. I guess I heard too many horror stories about the teen years and beyond, and although I never quite believed them all, I don't think I looked forward to these years as much as I might have if I'd heard a few glowing reports from the road ahead.

Which brings me to my reason for putting this on cyber-paper tonight. Yes, enjoy every moment of your children's early years. Yes, they go all too fast. Yes, you'll look back with a longing for those little feet and big belly laughs. But you're also headed TOWARD a lot of joy. Don't let what you see and hear in the world around you cause you to dread the years that you've worked so hard for. If you're raising your kids to honor and serve the Father, to respect you and to love and enjoy their siblings, you have the best years ahead of you. One day, you'll wake up and all your kids will be taller than you are and you're trying to find their Social Security cards and there won't be any sets of car keys left and you're gonna wonder when it happened.

And you're gonna love it.

Labels: Kids

Can't win for losing.

In yet another nod to the protection of fledgling self-esteem, an Ottawa children’s soccer league has introduced a rule that says any team that wins a game by more than five points will lose by default.

The Gloucester Dragons Recreational Soccer league’s newly implemented edict is intended to dissuade a runaway game in favour of sportsmanship. The rule replaces its five-point mercy regulation, whereby any points scored beyond a five-point differential would not be registered.

Kevin Cappon said he first heard about the rule on May 20 — right after he had scored his team’s last allowable goal. His team then tossed the ball around for fear of losing the game.

He said if anything, the league’s new rule will coddle sore losers.

“They should be saying anything is possible. If we can get five goals really fast, well, so can the other team,” said Kevin, 17, who has played in the league for five years. “People grow in adversity, they don’t really get worse…. I think you’ll see more leadership skills being used if a losing team tries to recuperate than if they never got into that situation at all.”

Kevin’s father, Bruce Cappon, called the rule ludicrous.

“I couldn’t find anywhere in the world, even in a communist country, where that rule is enforced,” he said.

This is the logical follow-on to what we already have all over this country where every kid on the team gets a trophy. Not just a ribbon for participating, mind you, but a trophy. Cuz every kid's a winner! Well guess what, folks, not every kid is a winner and not every team is a winner. That doesn't mean every child isn't valuable, but we're mixing up the two. Why have competitions if the outcomes have to be more or less even?

Since when is winning, by one goal or ten, not fair? And if we decide that sportsmanship means you shouldn't run up the score, how is MANDATING that going to teach sportsmanship?

Come on, kids, let's go play Scrabble. And this time, if you end up with four or more E's, you can trade them for any four of your neighbor's tiles. And if at any point you have more than a 50 point lead, you have to refrain from using anything but 3-letter words.

Just to keep it fair, you understand. Cuz you're ALL winners!

Heads, we all win

hat tip: Anne W.

Labels: Kids, Social Observation, Theater of the Absurd

It's going to be a great week! This week I get to discontinue the antibiotics that have been the bane of my existence since New Year's Eve. And on the same day (Thursday) I have clearance to begin putting weight on my operated hip/leg. Just 25% at first, but it's a start and I'll be on the road to some independence again. And Tuesday I will begin outpatient physical therapy, having exhausted my in-home therapist's ability to keep up with me. I'm on the move!

Yesterday was not a good day for me physically, still feeling the debilitating effects of the antibiotics. I didn't really accomplish anything all day other than going through a six-inch stack of old magazines, culling a few gems and throwing the rest out. As I tackled the first few, I realized it was an interesting visual for me of where my life stopped last December. Most of the mags were holiday issues that I hadn't yet read and then they accumulated in a corner since I didn't want to get rid of them until I'd gone through them. Well now, my bedroom is several pounds lighter and my shelves have several inches of space to breathe that they didn't have before.

I realize I've been really spoiled in the months since December...hardly a week has gone by without someone either bringing me flowers or having some delivered, and sometimes I've had three different bouquets at once. I think when I'm on my feet again I'm going to have to buy my own and keep at least one bunch in my room all the time!

"To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it." [Thomas Jefferson, via a must-read article, America's new culture war: Free enterprise vs. government control, by Arthur C. Brooks in today's Washington Post (!).]

Anyone have a recommendation for a really, really good santoku kitchen knife? Pioneer Woman swears by her Wusthof, but I'm also looking at Shun and a couple others....

We have just completed our 25th straight year of homeschooling. This year, because of many unforeseen circumstances, the year didn't look like most others; and yet, when I look back over the past quarter-century, not too many years looked like most of the others. Nevertheless, I'm glad to see this one go and glad to be in the planning stages of year 26, one in which I have only two students, a freshman and a junior in high school. It's impossible to explain to new homeschoolers how different things are now than when we started in 1985. And although most of those differences are good ones, the opportunities available now make the process of choosing and planning mind-boggling!

Other summer plans include working with CJ on her wedding arrangements and getting our photos into digital format via the new photo scanner I bought on sale months ago. It's still sitting in the box, but not for long!

But first, we have Shelley's senior recital and graduation at the end of next week. We're so proud of how hard she's worked in many different areas this year, completing several college courses, achieving some real competence in French, and continuing to hone her piano skills in both performance and teaching...all while finishing up her regular high school studies. Next weekend we'll celebrate all those things, hearing her concert on the piano and then presenting her with her diploma (and eating some good food afterward!)

Reading this week: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (via Kindle), and back to reading The Reason for God by Timothy Keller.

Okay, I'm having trouble figuring this one out. I've mentioned before that during the past couple of years my taste for chocolate has pretty much evaporated. Since I was never a dark chocolate lover and can't therefore claim those health benefits, I've been okay with losing my craving for oozy milk chocolate desserts. But now I find I'm losing my taste for sweets altogether. I know this can't be a bad thing, especially for a diabetic, but it's a mystery to me how it's happened in such a short time. I may find that it's been a side effect of some of the dozen or so meds I've been on and that my taste will return when some of them are discontinued...but then again, I almost hope not :-)

And snip, snip, that's all folks...hope you have a week as good as I expect mine to be!

Labels: Books, Food, Health, Homeschooling, Kids, Political Observation

Last night, our beautiful daughter, CJ, became engaged to Tony Longenbaugh and will become his wife on October 9.

CJ has been the model of a faithful young woman as she's waited for God to bring her future into focus. She's taken care of me through some pretty rough times, but she's also served her family, her church, and her friends in every way she could think of--making meals, teaching bread-baking classes, directing children's musicals, housesitting and babysitting, helping homeschooling families organize their homes...and dozens of other acts of service that have made her a blessing to all who know her.

I have no doubt that all the things that make CJ such a beloved friend and family member will continue...but soon she'll be serving with a different name and in a different state (Oklahoma). In the meantime, we'll treasure our last five and a half months with her and thoroughly enjoy helping her plan her wedding.

Pray for CJ and Tony as God leads them into a future of serving Him together!

Labels: Family, Kids

WASHINGTON—According to a report released Monday by the U.S. Department of Education, an increasing number of American parents are choosing to have their children raised at school rather than at home.

Deputy Education Secretary Anthony W. Miller said that many parents who school-home find U.S. households to be frightening, overwhelming environments for their children, and feel that they are just not conducive to producing well-rounded members of society.

Thousands of mothers and fathers polled in the study also believe that those running American homes cannot be trusted to keep their kids safe.

"Every year more parents are finding that their homes are not equipped to instill the right values in their children," Miller said. "When it comes to important life skills such as proper nutrition, safe sex, and even basic socialization, a growing number of mothers and fathers think it's better to rely on educators to guide and nurture their kids."

You MUST read the whole thing, down to the last line :-)

Increasing Number Of Parents Opting To Have Children School-Homed

hat tip: Dr. P

Labels: Education, Fun, Homeschooling, Kids

Take a look at my "Mission Statement" (left sidebar). It is one of my favorite Bible passages:

"...Tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done....that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children."
~Psalm 78:4-6

Many of my posts might not seem to fit into this framework, especially the political ones. But I believe that in order to leave our children and grandchildren the country we've been blessed with, it's necessary to be diligent and watchful of the peace and democracy we treasure. There may come a day when we no longer have the freedom to openly declare to our children "the glorious deeds of the LORD" and will have to do this in secret.

But I digress. This is a post about bugs.

No, really. I'm not big on bugs, most of the time. But today I ran across a series of photos, taken through a scanning electron microscope, that captivated me. And if we can get past the fact that these are pictures of creatures that normally annoy or injure us, I think they'll captivate you, too, and your children.

So I spent some time trying to analyze why I was drawn to this photo gallery. My thinking went something like this: I LOVE astronomy. I'm about to spend some money on a college-level course in astronomy, not only because it challenges me intellectually, but also because it strengthens my faith in a God mighty enough to do things I can't come close to grasping. In studying astronomy, we look UP and OUT, to the very largest objects, distances and speeds we can fathom. We see only the beginnings of the scope of God's power and imagination, and we bow in awe. Or we should.

But what of small things? For thousands of years, there was a whole world invisible to the human eye, and therefore, the brain. We had no concept of things too small to see. But with the invention of the microscope, and recently, the electron microscope, we can look IN and DOWN. I use the word "down" in a broad sense...not directionally, but in the sense that the Bible speaks of "the depths of the earth":

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth... (Psalm 139:14-15)

Did you ever wonder what it meant that you were woven together "in the depths of the earth"? In this sense, it certainly doesn't mean under the sea, or in the earth's core. It means that you were created at the microscopic, even the molecular level. Here we're looking IN and DOWN into the tiniest parts we can imagine.

And so these glimpses into the microscopic world strengthen my faith in much the same way as astronomy does. God is the God of the smallest things we can imagine and way beyond that. When I was in school, our textbooks taught us that the very tiniest things in the universe were electrons. Open a recent physics book and you'll find that electrons are veritable giants compared to more recently discovered particles. Every time we think we've reached the limits, we find there's something tinier (or in the case of astronomy, farther away.) I love to imagine God just smiling every time there's an announcement that we've now found the limits of something. I think He waits until then to get ready to open up the next level of understanding, even to those who "sit in the seat of scoffers" (Psalm 1).

I thought of these things as I looked at the remarkably detailed photos of insects. I tried not to think of how much a bee sting hurts or what a fly looks like on the flat side of a flyswatter and concentrate on God's amazing (a word way overused but completely appropriate here) intricacy, symmetry, creativity. The tiniest functions, ones we haven't even figured out yet, have fabulously designed structures devoted to them. Eyes are a display of microscopic honeycombs, works of art in themselves. Why should we not bow in awe of these miracles as well?

So pull your kids and grandkids in close, and use these wonderful photos to "tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done"!

Creepy Crawlies "Up Close and Personal"

Labels: Homeschooling, Kids

The many faces of my beautiful daughter #4...Happy 23rd, CJ!

Labels: Kids

The Christmas carols at church today were exquisite, voices assisted by strings, flute and two pianos. For some reason the third Sunday of Advent is always my favorite--we're well into the season but not yet swirling in those last few days before Christmas. I wish I could say that my heart is as quiet on the fourth Sunday as it is on the third, but I'm just being honest here...

Is it just me or have you noticed that parking is not as bad this Christmas season and the stores aren't quite as crazy? I think that internet shopping, which I've been doing for years now, is finally starting to affect the total volume of shoppers out on any given day. Not that I actually GO in stores, you understand. Just observing from outside :-)

Could we just go ahead and extend Eggnog Lattes for two months?

I will pick up the very last gift tomorrow. Then starts the wrapping marathon. I bought myself a pair of memory foam slippers just for this purpose. It's the most standing I'll have done in a long time...although sometimes I do sit in a chair and lower my ironing board to just the right height so I can SIT and wrap!

Winter was canceled.

While on my Hawaii trip I finished (thanks to Kindle!) The Courage to be Protestant. I think I mentioned before that the writing was pretty bad. It did get better, almost as though Wells switched editors halfway through. Regardless, it's a valuable book and I'm glad I bought it.

I'm still not holding my breath, but I'm beginning to smell a meltdown in the Democrats' Health Care Destruction bill. Doesn't mean they won't still pass something horrendous, and whatever it is they'll claim victory, but perhaps we can avoid some of the worst parts: public option, Medicare buy-in for people my age (which is worse than a public option and I'll tell you why if you email me), and what amounts to a repeal of the Hyde amendment. We'll see.

This month, Shelley, our senior who's also taking Dual Credit college courses, finished up French 3 with a solid A. She's really found a love here, second only to her music. Yesterday she went as part of the French Club to participate in a story time with kids at Barnes and Noble. She read, in French (and beautifully to my ears), Dr. Suess's Les Oeufs Verts au Jambon. Oh, you haven't heard of that one? Well of course you like Green Eggs and Ham!

Have a wonderful week-before Christmas!

Labels: Books, Holidays, Kids, Political Observation, Weather