Kitchen dialog

My eldest son, getting ice: "Why are there blue jeans in the freezer?"

Me: "Because somebody gave Seth chewing gum."

A parent will immediately understand.

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For those who don't, the explanation was that someone in the van gave Seth some chewing gum, with which he tried (unsuccessfully) to blow a bubble, which resulted instead in blowing the whole wad out of his mouth, which then was lost from view (Me: "How do you lose chewing gum?") until long after he was home and noticed this odd accretion about ankle-high on his new blue jeans. Heloise says freeze it, ipso facto giving gum to a seven-year-old results in blue jeans in the freezer compartment. Makes perfect sense.

UPDATE: They never got really stiff like I expected, but the gum did get tough enough to scrape off with a kitchen knife.

Fat Envelopes

It's been a while since I applied to college, and I had forgotten the popular rule of thumb - fat envelopes carry acceptance letters, thin ones are rejections. Now I have an impending high school graduate, and fat envelopes are arriving. Today he got his acceptance from my alma mater, Clemson, and a waiver of out-of-state tuition and $2000 on top of that. Very nice.

Campbell University's came yesterday; they have rolling admissions so we weren't surprised to hear from them this soon. Clemson's early reply was a pleasant and unexpected welcome to December, though.

Inundated, sure, but not this way

Our celebration of Independence Day ended with an unplanned swim in Lake Wateree, as our family's aged dock gave way at the end of the fireworks. Thankful toward God, no one was seriously hurt, though plenty alarmed.

Wife Melanie has a fuller account on her blog Mamahadeen.

Flaps Down

We heard from our traveler about 9:30 this morning that he was safely on the ground and in the company of his uncle. He said a 45-minute delay on the first flight made a challenging change in Detroit, with only sixty minutes between flights, but the short layover at Tokyo's Narita airport (an hour and fifteen minutes) apparently went without a hitch.

I was thinking of the flaps on the aircraft, but I suppose this also refers to our young eagle alighting, as well. Godspeed to him.

Pigskin and Paper

When Theodore Roosevelt left office, he planned a lengthy African safari to get out of the way of his successor's fledgling administration. His sister Corinne records in her book My Brother Theodore Roosevelt that as TR prepared to leave the White House, she offered to buy him "a real present". His request was a specially-bound collection of books because, as he said,

"Of course, I must take a good many books; I couldn't go anywhere, not even into the jungles of Africa without a good many books. But also, of course, they are not very likely to last in ordinary bindings, and so I want to have them all bound in pigskin ..." (p. 251)

Hence the legendary "pigskin library" now in the collections of Harvard University. Roosevelt wrote back from Africa that it had been "the utmost possible comfort and pleasure" to him. "Fond though I am of hunting and of wilderness life, I could not thoroughly enjoy either if I were not able, from time to time, to turn to my books." (p. 256)

So when Roosevelt headed for the wilds, what books did he want close at hand? Corinne gave the list -- starting with the Bible and the Apocrypha (why, being Dutch Reformed, TR specifically included the latter, I can't say). From there TR's tastes ranged to Homer's Odyssey, Spenser's Faerie Queene, Bret Harte and Mark Twain and Edgar Allen Poe, Macaulay and Shakespeare, Die Niebelungenlied, Sir Walter Scott, and The Federalist Papers. They included books on naval history, collections of poetry, Pilgrim's Progress and a biography of Frederick the Great.

The fifty or sixty titles are not a complete "Great Books" collection by any means -- they were just what TR wanted to take on his hunting trip.

My son John will be in Asia for three months, and like TR, he is a voracious reader. The long journey is intimidating enough, but a recently-returned friend advised that he found nearly zero reading material in English while he was there. That was my own observation from our visit in 2005; the only English-language bookstore I visited was heavy on economic treatises and teach-yourself-English guides.

Lacking a burro to carry John's luggage, we traded permanance for portability. I suggested some titles from our collection of paperbacks, but the final selection was my son's -- and we discovered the morning of departure that he had decided to fill out the rest of his weight limit with books.

So what's in John's "pigskin library"? A list as eclectic as TR's:

The Bible, both in English and Mandarin; a new Langerscheidt's English-Mandarin dictionary; Larry Burkett's Business by the Book; mysteries by Dorothy Sayers and Josephine Tey; and though they don't add any weight, he had downloaded e-text versions of Matthew Henry's Commentary, several books by J.C. Ryle, a number of G.A. Henty's historical novels, and for devotional reading, Spurgeon's Morning and Evening.

He also has my copy of Robert Axtell's book on cross-cultural etiquette called Do's and Taboos, with the Asian portions marked; a book by the Puritan Thomas Brooks which he and I planned to read together (he got the unmarked copy, though); Allan Drury's Senate novel Advise and Consent; an economics book by Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman; and John Murray's Principles of Conduct.

Maybe that will hold him.

John has a busy summer planned, and he may not have time to read more than his morning devotions and an occasional scan of the International Herald Tribune or something similar. Still, since he's had his last trip to the library until Labor Day, he had to make some provision. True bibliophiles will understand.

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Corinne Roosevelt Robinson's My Brother Theodore Roosevelt (New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1921) can be read online or downloaded in pdf from Google Books. So can a multitude of other titles; I have to remember to look there first for the out-of-print volumes.

The Great Circle

Son John is on his way to China (should be arriving any minute now after a thirty-hour journey). His route as drawn by the Great Circle Mapper shows what we miss looking at the familiar Mercator Projection world map -- if you distort the scale on the axes, the shortest distance between two points (here, between Detroit and Tokyo) is not a straight line at all. You can try it with a globe and a piece of string if you don't get it.

Upcoming Events

There is no record that the Swiss reformer John Calvin ever visited China.

His namesake did it in 2005, and he's going back this Sunday.

Workshop info on having large families

Here are a few resources to go along with our workshop "Yes, We Know What Causes That",

North Carolinians for Home Education Annual Conference
Session 11 -- Saturday, May 24, 2007


Theodore Roosevelt on a tour of the Midwest:

"Three cheers for Mr. and Mrs. Bower and their really satisfactory American family of twelve children!"

Books to Help You Make the Decision or Explain It To Others

A Full Quiver: Family Planning and the Lordship of Christ by Rick and Jan Hess
Be Fruitful and Multiply: What the Bible Says About Having Children by Nancy Campbell
The Bible and Birth Control by Charles Provan
The Way Home: Beyond Feminism and Back to Reality by Mary Pride

Email Groups to Encourage You

Quiver-Full! is an email discussion group for those committed to or interested in the Lord planning their family.

MOMYS Mothers of Many Young Siblings is for mothers who have ever had four or more children eight years and younger at the same time -- others can subscribe as "read only MOMYS". This one is a great encouragement and you know the advice comes from people who really know.

Biblical Resources - "To the Law and to the testimony!" (NKJV unless noted)

Man and woman were created to be fruitful

Genesis 1:27-28 - The Mandate from Creation, before the Fall
So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; ...

Genesis 9:1, 7 - Repeated to Noah after the Flood
So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth ... And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it.”

Genesis 35:10-11 - Repeated at the establishment of God's covenant people
And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; your name shall not be called Jacob anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel. Also God said to him: “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.

Children are a primary purpose of marriage

Malachi 2:14-15
Yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant. But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring.

Children are a blessing and a gift from God
Psalm 127:3-5
Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them; They shall not be ashamed, But shall speak with their enemies in the gate.

God's people should expect to have children from Him

Psalm 128:1-4
Blessed is every one who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways. When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house, your children like olive plants all around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD.

Leviticus 26:9 - God's promise to His people
"For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you."

1 Chronicles 25:5 - Seventeen children given as a special blessing
All these were the sons of Heman the king's seer to exalt him according to the words of God, for God gave fourteen sons and three daughters to Heman. (NASB)

God provides for His children

Psalm 37:25
I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.

Raising a family is meant for hard times, too

Exodus 1:7-9 - Israel as a refugee nation in a time of famine
But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose a new king over Egypt, ... And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we ... "

Jeremiah 29:5-7 - God's word to His people carried off to Babylonian exile
"Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace."

Third family member qualifies for state Geobee

We just got word this weekend that son Caleb has qualified for the North Carolina Geography Bee (GeoBee) sponsored by the National Geographic Society. This means that Caleb scored in the top one hundred students in the state on the written exam which he took after winning the local GeoBee in January.

The rule in statistical process control is "three points establish a trend". Caleb is our third son to qualify for the state competition (John finished second for the state a few years ago, and Matthew qualified last year after an upset win over Caleb in the local Bee), so I suppose this is now a family tradition :-)

Congratulations to Caleb, who is now redoubling his study preparing for the competition later this month, and congratulations also to his teacher, my wife Melanie!

Richard Burr on lobbying reform

Our Senator, Richard Burr (R-NC), replied to our letters of concern over the lobbying reform act recently passed in the Senate. I thought these two paragraphs were worth highlighting:

As Congress reforms current lobbying laws, you should know I will not support any legislation that would restrict the ability of North Carolinians, like you, to share opinions on issues with my staff or with me. For this reason, I voted to remove section 220 of the lobby reform bill, which I fear would have restricted the ability of small organizations from speaking on important issues. Under this section, constituent groups, who in most cases work in North Carolina, would have to file regular reports and abide by the same laws as lobbyists who work in Washington, DC. This change could hamper constituents who are simply organizing on a local level to contact their Senator or Member of Congress with their concerns.

I believe all citizens have the constitutional right to petition our government. I am hopeful that as Congress works to finish a lobbying reform bill we will strike the right balance between ensuring lobbying laws are followed and allowing citizens to give me their opinions. Almost every North Carolinian is represented in some way by a lobbyist in Washington, DC – including, teachers, farmers, bankers, doctors, engineers, those citizens who are ill, accountants, those citizens who need food stamps and government assistance, students, union members, small business owners, and seniors. I will work to ensure that any new lobbying reform law will not unfairly hinder the fundamental principles of freedom of speech or the right to petition the government, but instead strengthen the credibility and integrity of our democracy.

Richard Burr, Letter dated February 7, 2007

Happy Valentine's Day

Enamour'd, artless, young, on foreign ground,
Uncertain whither from myself to fly,
To thee, dear Lady, with an humble sigh
Let me devote my heart, which I have found

By certain proofs not few, intrepid, sound,
Good, and addicted to conceptions high:
When tempests shake the world, and fire the sky,
It rests in adamant self-wrapt around,

As safe from envy, and from outrage rude,
From hopes and fears, that vulgar minds abuse,
As fond of genius, and fixt fortitude,
Of the resounding lyre, and every Muse.

Weak you will find it in one only part,
Now pierc'd by Love's immedicable dart.

John Milton, Poems (1645), Sonnet 6
Translated from the Italian by William Cowper (1731-1800)

Sometimes they do get it

My wife recently wrote the author of the Chinese textbook we're using with our children, explaining briefly that we are homeschooling and requesting access to certain instructional helps on the publisher's website. Behold the author's return salutation:

Dear Young laoshi,

which means, in mixed Mandarin and English, "Dear Teacher Young".

Good! He got it.

In a way, it's surprising how often people outside of the homeschooling community really don't consider the parent educating their own children to be a teacher, not really. I don't know if it's a matter of class size, institutional identity, state credentials, or what, but it might be worth examining sometime.

A time to speak, and time to be silent

I maintain a section of NCHE's website for statewide news and events, including an "Upcoming Events" entry which lists NCHE functions or outside occasions where board members will be speaking and representing the organization. We're on the list, too, so I thought it would be interesting to pull the last two years' archives and add a couple of non-homeschooling events we did, too. Although I'm doing fewer homeschooling events now that someone else is in charge of NCHE, I am preaching at our church on a fairly frequent basis. John did a couple of presentations in here, too.

2006

Hal & Melanie
Fayetteville, NC - HOME Support Group
Winston-Salem, NC - 22nd Annual NCHE Conference and Book Fair
Clayton, NC - Johnston County Home Educators Graduation and End of Year Promotion
Sumter, SC - S. C. Home Educators Association 2006 Convention

Hal
Raleigh, NC - Leadership Raleigh
Garner, NC - Bountiful Harvest Homeschoolers
Wilson, NC - Sallie B. Howard Charter School
Smithfield, NC - South Smithfield Baptist Church

Melanie
Sanford, NC - Christian Home Educators of Central Carolina, Homeschool Conference and Book Fair
Clayton, NC - Johnston County Home Educators Books

2005
Hal & Melanie
Wilson, NC - Wilson Area Home Educators
Winston-Salem, NC - 21st Annual NCHE Conference and Book Fair
Sumter, SC - S. C. Home Educators Association 2005 Convention
Clayton, NC - Johnston County Home Educators Book Fair and Conference
Greenville, NC - HOME Homeschool Orientation and Mini-Conference

Hal
Wake Forest, NC - Lighthouse Christian Homeschool Association
Raleigh, NC - Leadership Raleigh
Raleigh, NC - John Locke Foundation

Melanie
Clayton, NC - New Support Group, Hocutt Memorial Baptist Church
Smithfield, NC - Public Library of Smithfield and Johnston County
Lumberton, NC - Robeson County Home Educators Expo
Wilson, NC - NCHE Eastern Support Group Leadership Conference
Montreat, NC - NCHE Western Support Group Leadership Conference

Done!

Not settling our brains etc. yet

Just an observation that even those who are working for a low-key, Christ-centered Christmas celebration are sharing the great American holiday ritual of the late-night Christmas Eve wrap session. I am amazed and humbled that my most excellent wife manages to collect so many gifts, and some of pretty substantial weight, for our children over the course of a year -- and for so little cash outlay. God truly blesses her efforts.

Okay, off to the wrap mines. We've already wished "Merry Christmas" to our family in China, which has already reached lunch time on December 25.

What the Youngs eat for Thanksgiving

Young Turkey, of course.

Home again, home again

Many Chinese restaurants in the U.S. have a painting of eight horses, running together in a rolling pastureland. The symbolism was explained to me once and included the fact that eight, in Chinese thinking, is the luckiest of numbers, and something about horses being symbolic of wealth.

Recently I realized that this painting is much like my daily life, which seems to be riding many horses at one time. One day, about Tuesday of last week, I was in Roanoke, Virginia, for an engineering course in connection with my contracting work. After class, I came back to my hotel and made a sales call to a potential customer for our family import business. When that was done, I had supper, then finished writing a review of Facing The Giants for my usual publisher, Carolina Journal.

Thursday I drove back from Roanoke as far as Cary, where I spent the night in preparation for a 6:40 a.m. flight from Raleigh-Durham International to Green Bay, Wisconsin. This was a joint sales call to another customer involved with my contracting work. While we changed planes in Minneapolis, I dictated a revision of my Carolina Journal story over the phone to my wife, Melanie. After we got to Wisconsin, I had to deal with a question from my work with North Carolinians for Home Education.

Friday we flew back from Wisconsin and my family and I drove to our grandmother's house in Union, S.C. Saturday we spent in Easley, S.C., at a board meeting for South Carolina Home Educators; Sunday we returned to Smithfield to pick up a bundle of sample material to show to the customer in Charlotte on Monday. Last night we were back at home.

At one point, I was sleeping in my fourth state in as many days (Roanoke-Cary-Green Bay-Union). I'm looking forward to a few days at home, now, being properly thankful.