Thoughts about My Dad

When I think about my father throughout my life, There are two words that come readily to mind:
    Protector and Provider

As a child I knew that I was completely safe.   I didn’t know how much this affected until the qualities I desired in a husband were those very same qualities.  Dad protected us in many ways and I am sure in ways that I am unaware of.  Part of his protection was by being a provider.  

Not only did he work to provide a future plan in regards to his field of financial planning, he protected and provided for us through giving us a vision of the future.  He taught us to make goals and and helped equip us to achieve those goals through the gaining of knowledge, self discipline, diligence and perseverance.

He always provided a voice to speak into our lives that encouraged us to the the best we could be at the things we chose to do.

Dad and mom provided a loving home in which was always a sanctuary where we could retreat to as kids or teenagers.

Most of all, he provided a way for us to hear the truth…a truth that transforms and shapes our way we look at and process life’s circumstances, how we interact with others and in this case celebrate and grieve.
   
Living so far away I have come to treasure the face to face conversations and interactions I get to have with others, especially my parents. 

Experiencing the Past with Dad:
Dad’s dementia allowed us to “travel” back in time to Dad’s navy years (through his long term memory), and even to his teenage years in his mind.  My kids and I got the amazing opportunity to see who he was at heart and what his priorities were by talking about events that in his mind just happened.

When Griffin asked Dad what was his favourite memory of being in the navy was, Dad’s response was “Easter Sunrise Service in the middle of the ocean”.  The fleet of ships were pulled together.  The chaplain lead the service through the PA system that broadcasted across the fleet.  It does not surprise me that one of my favourite childhood memories is Easter Sunrise Service by the ocean.  It’s by the ocean I realise how small I am and how big God is.  In the ocean I realise how out of control I am under the power of the minimal waves and how in control God is.  The Bible says even the winds and the waves obey God.
   
In this celebration of life and this storm of grief, we can worship the One who is in control of all things.  He is the Giver of life.
    Job 14:5  “HIs days are determined and the number of his months is with you and have appointed his limits that he cannot pass”.

Dad’s personal care and concern for others:
Another memory of my time with Dad is that he would often ask how “so and so” is.  He had a genuine concern for people.   One day he asked about a specific person and I told him, “Dad he is against God right now.  He has seen so many horrors in war and has done so many things, he is just mad at God it seems and even questions God’s existence.”  My dad’s reply was, “has He read the Bible?”.  In that simple statement was an answer that had many answers.  It showed my dad’s priority and trust in God’s word to show the answer to our deepest questions and needs. 

Dad’s honourable heart:
Dad’s love for his parents and brother (John) was evident in the time we had with Dad either through our visit last summer or our phone conversations with dad and mom.  Dad’s heart to obey his father and desire to be in by curfew when he was talking with Griffin showed.  At one time, Dad thought he was the same age as his teenage grandson Griffin who was sitting next to him. Dad was concerned about getting in by curfew.  Dad was also concerned to make sure his parents were taken care of.  There were funny moments as well where dad thought he was going out on a mission in the navy and didn’t want his mother to worry.  He kept whispering about having to go on a mission.  All throughout those moments, and all those times through my own childhood, I got to see a loving heart of a protector and provider. 

Dad’s trust in Mom:
    Mom is the love of Dad’s life.  They make a get team.  He spent his life loving and caring for us as a family.  I have been humbled and grateful for mom’s selfless dedication to taking care of Dad.    When Dad didn’t even know at times that he was married or who mom was, he would still call out for “Gladys” when he needed help or was unsure.   This is a testimony to his trust and faith in her, and the relationship that was built for over 50 years.  He knew that she was a safe person that he could trust.  She has been amazing at making decisions for what is best for Dad and his care, and has been the best advocate for Dad he could have ever asked for.

Dad’s fun side:
We got to make fun memories for the grandkids and with Granddaddy thanks to crazy sock dance parties in Ireland and to impromptu dance parties in the kitchen with the Soyars when we were all in Cary together.  I remember Dad singing, dancing and joking around with my aunts and  uncles in the living room of my Grandmother’s house.   I also remember Dad dressing up with Joel Brothers at church for a youth fundraiser.  Joel dressed up as Sonny and Dad dressed up as Cher.  Mr. Brothers and Dad also dressed up as Native Americans in a canoe behind one of the panels of “Let’s Make a Deal..” mock gameshow.  We always knew there would be fun when Dad was up to something like this.

Giving:
Dad loved outings and picnics and hiking.   One of my favourite memories is going on the annual walk  (Crop Walk) to raise money for the hungry with Dad, Martha and friends from church.   He often participated in serving dinner at the local homeless shelter with the men from church.   He did not do this out of a heart of obligation but out of a heat of love and concern for others.

There is a Sure Hope:
Death is the penalty for sin which was first committed in the Garden of Eden.  However through Christ death has been defeated and this is not the end of the story but only the beginning.  Our life is but a vapour in the spot of eternity.  Death is not what we were designed for but eternity is.  For those who put their trust in Christ and repent of their sin as my father did, and his life exemplified, we pass straight into the presence of the Lord.  One day all things will be restored through a New Heaven and a New Earth.  As believers, while here, we grieve, we suffer but not alone and not as those without hope and therefore we live in the eternal, transforming, grace filled life that starts at the moment we believe.

Gifts to Celebrate:
God was gracious to give us Dad.  God is loving and gave us each other.   While we grieve deeply, we celebrate the life the gift of my earthly father, and the life of our Redeemer who makes it possible that this is not the end, but the beginning of eternity.

Why Do We School at Home?

 

Here is a picture of our school room

Why do you homeschool? 

This is a question that I get frequently.  To be honest, this is a question I ask myself at least weekly and I definitely ask the Lord.

Am I against public schooling?  

Absolutely not.  

There are many teachers I would be happy to have teach my kids.  My two neighbors would be first on the list and I know my kids would be in good hands with them.  They are amazing women with amazing energy and talent, and genuine care for kids.

The reason I started homeschooling?  

First reason: 

At the time we lived in Georgia (USA) at the time.  It was ranked 48 out of 50 states in education.

Second reason:

In the USA any other religion, apart from Christianity, is accepted in public schools.   Allah, Buddha, etc are allowed to be mentioned, however teachers will get (and have gotten) fired over mentioning God or Jesus Christ.  If our worldview is based on the teachings of the Bible, then it should affect every aspect of our lives.  Therefore it did not make logical sense to send my kids to a place that instills teaching and values contrary to my own.  Further, the kids would spend more waking hours in that environment than at home.

Why do I homeschool now?

The reason I homeschool is because it is a calling.   

Let me be honest,

 I would not be doing this AT ALL 

IF

 it weren't what I thought the Lord would have me to do.  There are a lot of other things I would enjoy doing.   

One thing for sure is, I do not want my kids living in a bubble, unsocialised and unable to cope with the world.

(Those who know my kids well, can testify to whether this is the case or not)

They may be shy in some areas and may need better training in manners and how to carry a conversation but these are things that can be improved upon whether homeschooled or not.  

We are all a work in progress.

How did the day with my 5th year (11th grader start) today?

Reading through the Bible  

He was not born a Christian.  No Christian is.  It is a decision each individual must make, a decision to follow Christ, or not.

My Question is....

How do you make an informed decision of following Christ,  

if you don't know the teachings of the Word of God?

So this is how we started the day.....after a big cup of coffee.  

We are reading through the Bible chronologically.

Today's reading was on the resurrection.

 While reading we noticed that were some seeming contradictions in the four gospel accounts.  So we went back and played detective.
We listed what the similarities and differences were.

 Then we looked up those contradictions in some of his textbooks he and I are reading through together.

 We could not find the answer to the particular question in those, so then we went to the internet to a trusted source:  
Answers in Genesis

We found an article and came up with a plausible answer.

Would researching this topic happen in a public school where we live?
No.
Would it happen in the States?
Highly unlikely-especially not in public school, possibly in a private Christian school.
  

While this post is not a full answer on why we homeschool our kids,
it is a good illustration of what our days are like and what some of our core values are.

 Another answer:  I want my kids to think  
outside the box.
I don't want them to believe what is handed to them.
I want them to think
logically, 
philosophically 
and
search for
TRUTH.

Our Day of School and then some :)

I sometimes feel we have enough to read and sometimes it is just nice to look at pictures.  Here are some pictures from our day today at home doing school, doing life. :)

Starting off, I usually try to get up an hour before the kids, to wake up, get organized, but most of all to study the Bible (because I need all the help from the Lord I can get! :)  ).  Here I was sorting math worksheets.  We are working hard at memorizing math facts.

 The kids eat breakfast and do their chores.  If they get ready (make up their bed, change clothes, brush their teeth, eat breakfast, spend time with the Lord in reading and prayer and do their chores and are ready for school) by 9:30 they earn media time. Ruth got bumped up to 45 minutes because she volunteered to help fold the little girl's laundry last night while Ludie was doing dishes and I was at Bible study.  She really has a sweet heart to help and serve!

We start each day a different way.  Today we started it with Go Noodle's Indoor Party Recess.  On the screen you can see Koo Koo Kangaroo.  It's a happy way to start the day.

 We did not do it this morning but some days we start the school day with learning the books of the New Testament in the Bible and what their main theme is (Walk Thru the Bible resources).  Here is the coloring page for Philippians.  The theme is "Happily Humble".  We then find out reasoning behind the theme.

 Griffin's chore was to do his laundry today.  (He hung out his clothes himself).  You'll see his other chore later.

 He starts school using ABEKA DVD teaching programme.  A sweet friend gave us the DVD's. We are mixing up his curriculum this year.  He is doing Apologia for Science and Classical Conversations for History.

 Here is his teacher for Algebra.

 Complimenting Classical Conversations is Story of the World.  We are combining these two curriculums for history.  Right now we are learning about the Age of the Ancient Empires.   We have worked from Creation up to the Shang Dynasty.  I love this curriculum because it combines the history recorded in the Bible and the history you find in secular textbooks to give you a complete picture of history.  We are working on a timeline of the world.  The kids have convinced me to mummify a chicken since we've been studying Egyptian mummification (but they stress, not the chickens from the backyard).  All I have to say is, those hens better start laying eggs again!

 The girls are working on their quickness of sorting letters by alphabetical order.  This is a fun game they like to be timed on.

 Ruth is very diligent in getting her work started early so she can finish early.

 Emily is working on reading her first chapter book.  Which is a huge deal considering trying to figure out a word at one point brought tears!  She is doing great!

 Here's Bella.  Or as I affectionately call her, "Stinky".  The neighbours I am sure know her name well from us chasing and yelling for her to come.  She has a knack for getting out right when we have to go somewhere.  She comes to us any other time but she will get out and then start terrorizing the chickens. Don't let those little legs fool you, they can move light lightening!

 The kids snack time.

 My snack time.  I found Appenzeller Cheese at the store.  I hid it just for myself.  I share lots but I hoard cheese and snacks sometimes.  My Suisse friend introduced me to Appenzeller this summer.  I fell in love with Switzerland and the cheese!

 Uh oh!  My stash was discovered!

 We don't do a lot of things traditionally.  I don't usually care how the work gets done, as long as it gets done.

 She is scoring her work (I score tests and checkpoints, but they score most daily work).  I spot check.

 I love living 2 1/2 miles from where Ludie works.  That means some days we get to enjoy lunch together. We have fun at home but with Ludie home, the fun level increases significantly!

 Our international friends have introduced this Portuguese sauce to us.  It is called, "Peri Peri".  Of course my fire breathing son loves it.  The best is made from our friend from church that spent many years in Africa.  He gives us his homemade Peri Peri.  We then return the bottle with homemade North Carolina BBQ sauce. We had Peri Peri Chicken Rolls (subs) today for lunch.

 During lunch we like to read classics.  We just finished The Secret Garden.  We are now on the Narnia Series.

 We have the CD of the book.  Ruth and Griffin work on speed reading and keeping up with the CD.

 Then there is recess.  As you can see, not everyone is happy.  We have been working on sportsmanship but we don't always apply what we've learned.

 Oops and what was the S in sportsmanship for?  Sharing.  Uh-oh.  Mom has a cheese problem. 

 We end up all getting along.  At least for the next 5 minutes.

 Here is Griffin's other chore.  We were blessed to get another bed.  No one wanted our old one (I can't say as I blame them).  Instead of paying money to have it go to be thrown away, we decided to use it for firewood.  The kids finished school.  Then I needed to go do some very important errands....

 Picking up our hot sauce order from Amazon.  It's cheaper to get a gallon of hot sauce on Amazon every 3 months than buy the small bottles in Tesco.   Then there were more errands, and then home to cook our favourite: Breakfast for Supper.  A perfect way to end the day!  Somedays there's extracurricular activities after school. Thank God there's not any today.  I'm tired!

A special thanks to the Koester Family, Walsh Family, Tami Packard, Jey Willis, Tracy Waters for helping enable us to have school supplies and your creative ways in getting them to us.

A Blast Through the Summer

Are you ready?  I realize that there is no way I can cover the whole summer or all the amazing experiences and people we had but I will post some final pictures of the summer so we can move into Autumn (since it is almost October!)

The girls learned how to swim this summer thanks to this sweet lady!  It only took one week of lessons and then they were off!

We got to tour Wretched TV studios and see how the shows are recorded and edited. 

Ludie was surprised by being called out onto the set during a recording and actually was interviewed by Todd Friel on Wretched TV for a show that has now been aired!

We also got to make s'mores with two of our favourite people in the world: 

 Larry Boy!

and Suzanne Miller.  This woman is one of the biggest influences on our family's life and is such a blessing!

This is the Hunt House on campus at Southeastern Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC, named after our pastor, Johnny Hunt of First Baptist Woodstock, our home church.

We got to meet up with former Immersion student Ashlyn and her hubby for some Irish Pub Grub.

Camping with the Creech Family!  We used to all stay in tents.  We have now upgraded to RV's.  Thankfully they let us bunk in with them.  Here are the kids enjoying FROG LEGS for supper.  Yep!  And they are GREAT!  You just can't think too much about what you are eating.

Pop Doing what he does best, cooking!

Does anyone want a pot-bellied pig for sell?

Lakeside mornings! ....The best!

Bet you haven't been to church in your golf cart!  I had to take a picture for our friend Mick. :)

A family tradition.  You have to have your picture withe the gorilla.

Pictures of home.  North Carolina.

I grew up riding the boats at Pullen Park.  Now my baby is doing it!

Yes, we crashed paddle boats (Traci Byrd always told me, "Rubbin's Racin'")

Our kids favourite thing to do with Granddaddy....Ice Cream!   They got to experience Carolina Concrete for the first time. You can hold your bowl upside down and it does not slide out.

Precious hugs!  Precious moments!

There are more hugs to go around. 

Barbara's side of the family.  It is rare that we are all together at the same time to get a photo!

The kids got to go to a Mexican Restaurant for the first time and celebrate Uncle Mark's birthday!

Later we finished the night with future NBA star, cousin Alexander.

...then an Irish Reel

And of course no night is complete without the worm (Yes he used to get paid to breakdance!)

Lila got to meet Aunt Jane for the first time.  They weren't strangers for long.

Uncle John carried on Uncle Horrace's family tradition of giving all the kids baseball caps.
What a blessing it is to be with family.  We don't see them often so it makes each visit so precious.