California Knows How to Party

We got back late last night from a wonderful trip to California to see Dave and Joni and to hang out in San Diego. We had a great time with family in the desert.  We swam, relaxed, ate, relaxed and sat in the sun.  What I call a perfect vacation with kids.  San Diego was much more of a whirlwind.  We went to Lego Land.  The boys liked it but I felt like it was way overpriced and kind of run down.  The San Diego Zoo was awesome.  We spent a good day there and there was more to see.  All in all, we had a great time.

The view out the back door

A great hike in the desert

Lego Land

The notebooks are in La Jolla

Molly Pearl

There are some people in the world that seem to have two very distinct personalities.  There is the private and the public.  Molly is one of these.  At home, she is a complete chatter box.  She is funny, vivacious and creative.  Invite some people over or bring her out in public, and the transformation happens.  She becomes shy and introverted. 

To proved this to all of you who only know the public Molly, I shot the video below.  Molly has been composing some of her own music.  It's hilarious.  It's mostly on the topic of God and the cross.  Very interesting.  Lately Ben has taken to accompanying her while she improvises.  Enjoy.

Downton Abbey

Amanda and I have gotten way into the PBS show Downton Abbey.  How far have we gotten into it?  We watched all of Season 1 last weekend and have caught up in Season 2 this week.  Needless to say, it's really good.  It is the story of a noble family in England during the early 1900's and of their house staff.  The stories are very intriguing and it keeps you watching from episode to episode.

We've watched all of Season 1 for free on Amazon through our Amazon Prime membership.  You can find all of the Season 2 episodes at PBS.  You'll have to work fast to catch up because the next episode comes out on PBS this Sunday.

Run for the border

We had Taco Bell tacos for lunch today.  We bought the big party packs.  Every time we do that, I tell the kids this story.  Growing up in Alpena, we didn't have Taco Bell.  So every time we would take a youth group trip "down state", we would stop there for one of our meals.  Jeff Cutler and Jason Rensberry would order a 10 pack of tacos for themselves and sit down and plow through them.  They were two dudes who were both about 6' 4" and 150 lbs. soaking wet.  We were all amazed at the food they could put away.

My kids love that story.  As I began to tell it today, Matthew started his guttural giggle and said, "I know this story!"

This is gonna be scary!

Sometimes Amanda sends me snap shots from moments throughout her days.  I got these today from their adventures in the car wash. 

Lucy wasn't real excited.

When I was home for lunch, Lucy said to me.  "Car got bath . . . SCAWEY!"

Cognitive dissonance at age 8 and 9

It's been a while since I've posted on the books that we are reading.  This one has been so good that I had to write about it. 

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor is a difficult, beautiful, sad and wonderful novel.  Set in pre-civil rights era Mississippi, it follows the story of a black family as they navigate the waters of second class citizenry.  The Logan family is different from many of the share cropping families around them.  They own the property that their family farms.  This fact gives them the strength to question the atrocities of everyday life.  Cassie, the narrator and only girl of the family, struggles to reconcile the things that her mother tells her about who she is and what the whites in her community tell her.

Reading this with the boys has been great.  It has opened their minds to a terrible world of which they know nothing.  It has given me so many opportunities to tell them about the fallenness of the world that we live in.  We have also spoken of the privilege that we have simply because we are white.  Pastor John spoke on racial reconciliation on Sunday (as he does every MLK weekend) and it was another good chance to come back to these topics with the kids.  When the the "N" word came up for the first time in the book, I stopped and had to tell the boys about this terrible word.  This is why we homeschool.  I want to be the one to walk my kids into the darkness of our world.  I want to be next to them the first time that they see things that make them cry and make them angry and make them question.  I won't always be there, but it is a wonderful thing to be with them at first.

If you're looking for a book to read to expose your kids to issues of racism, segregation and a past that was not so long ago and that has huge modern ramifications, then I highly recommend this novel. 

If you've ever been a grade school boy . . .

then you've spent a few evenings like this.



The boys have been hoopin' it up in their room a lot lately. Joe and I passed lots of time on our Nerf hoop in our bedroom. The technology has advanced bedroom basketball ages. No more orange spongy ball with a cardboard basketball. The hoop the boys just got is plexiglass with a blown up ball and everything.

BONUS POINTS:
Can you name the sound track?