Current Events

This is a post of several things--all of the photos were taken with my (not smart) phone.  So the quality is not so good.

But--this sunset turned out spectacularly!

Last weekend I got to go to The Great Homeschool Convention, Memphis-style.  Luci and JT went with me.  Luci got to take part in the Kids' convention, which was a lot like Vacation Bible School--she had a ball!  JT went to some of the Teen Track lectures.  He was not as thrilled, but he did hear some great speakers.  (Chuck Colson was on the docket until he got so ill in the past few weeks.  We were sorry to hear about his passing this weekend.)

Thank you to my Mom and Dad, who sent me some money so I could buy whatever I wanted while we were there, without any guilt or credit cards.  That was incredible!  THANK YOU!  (JT thinks most of it was spent on torture materials for Sophomores in High School, but, whatever.  I loved it!)

 While there, Luci got to hold a real, live baby duck!  JT did, too, but his photo came out even more blurry (is that possible?).

The hotel and conference center were right downtown, very close to the river.  There are several trolleys in Memphis, and one goes in a loop (perfect for we tourists who want to venture out some, but don't want to get lost).  We rode around and saw the pyramid, the Lorraine Motel (where Martin Luther King, Jr was killed--Luci kept saying, "that's where The King was shot"--not sure if she understood this was not Elvis, even though she had heard the story of his life several times), and we even saw the Occupy Memphis encampment.  We did not see any people out, though. (well, there is that one guy right there on the left--maybe he was part of that group, but he looked like he was just walking by, to me)  It was a beautiful day, so perhaps they were out working somewhere?  Yeah, I don't think so.

JT was wearing this t-shirt while we rode the trolley:

I told him he ought to get off the trolley and go preach to the Occupy Memphis crowd about earning one's own way, but he declined the invitation.

After we got home, we told Bryan about what we saw.  He said his friend (a college student, a pretty smart fellow) had never heard of the Occupy Wall Street group, so of course had no idea what Occupy Memphis was about, either.  We saw some of the inlaws this past weekend, and the ones around my age did not know what the groups were about, either.  I was stunned.  Hadn't they watched the news?  All three of my kids knew about the groups (Luci didn't know what they were there for, but she has seen them on the news).  They know about the presidential elections, about the shooting in Sanford, FL (Trayvon Martin) and quite a few other current events.  Even Luci has an opinion about Michelle Obama.


JT said it was because I watch the news a lot (love DirecTV for those 24 hour news channels!).  I guess I owe my news-hound status to my parents, who also had the news on a lot as we grew up.  Thanks, Mom and Dad! 


I can mark off "Current Events" from my list of things to teach my kids. 

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This Tuesday I went to the commissary all by myself.  ALL BY MYSELF.  Did I mention that I was all by myself?!

It was wonderful, just having my own thoughts and no squabbling from the back seat.  It's 75 miles to the commissary, and 75 miles back.  All.  By.  Myself.

In Limestone County, if the road is wet, they drop the speed limit to 45.  

Which meant only that I got nearly a whole 'nother hour of solitude as I tooled along at 45mph.

Obama-man

SNOW!

We had a dusting of snow! That makes any day grand around here. Today I took Luci to the dentist. The visit went well. She had a sedative to help her be calm and it made like a happy, drunken 4 year old. She was pretty funny and talked a mile a minute. But on the way home, she chewed a hole in her lip and it looks pitiful. Oh, I feel so sorry for her!

Now we are watching the Inauguration. What an incredible day, knowing that our country can pass power from one party to the other without bloodshed. To know that my kids think nothing is out of the ordinary when an African-American takes the lead because they see no difference in skin color...they see the person. We wish our President well!

She's a Republican!

This puzzle was put away on Wednesday afternoon.
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Luci was just about asleep for her nap today when she asked, "Did the red side win?"

No, sweetheart, the blue side did.

Oh. Okay.

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Which has been the attitude around our house--Oh. Okay.

A New President

Here's our puzzle--did anyone else do one? I know my parents did. I could imagine Nana whooping with joy. :) If you worked on one of these puzzles, leave a message to let me know. I was surprised at the one who actually worked the most on our puzzle: Bryan! He understood the electoral college pretty well, and kept checking the internet news last night for updates on blue and red states. Talk about painless learning! Next presidential election, JT and Luci will be putting our map together. How to order a political puzzle here.

Vote Tuesday! -- But Remember This...

The world will not be healed and restored because we elect the right president. We live in a great country, with the best political process I know of, but our country is not the light of the world. Our president may be the most powerful person in the world, but he's not sitting at the right hand of God. Our military is full of brave men and women willing to die for their country, but they are not able to eradicate the world of evil.
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Christians should understand these things better than anyone else. Yet the anxious, fearful, and sometimes mean-spirited qualities demonstrated by many Christians at election time betrays just how little faith we have in King Jesus.
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The ascension is more than a cool special effect at the end of a Passion play. It is a dramatic political statement made by God himself about how the long-awaited King of the world has been enthroned in heaven. Slowly but surely news of his reign will spread through the world until someday the curtain separating heaven and earth will lift and the two realms will become one. Until then, our challenge as followers of Jesus is to live in such a way that demonstrates who the real King of the world is. This will be seen in our acts of service, stands for justice, and exhibitions of grace done in the name of Jesus, rather than in the name of partisan politics. In fact, every time we gather to worship and celebrate the risen, ascended King Jesus we’re participating in a political party of a different kind.
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It may just be that the most important political statement Christians can make this election season is to publicly declare that we’re putting our hope, confidence, and trust, not in any one particular candidate or party, but in our ascended King who will someday return and transform our world into a place where the streets have no name.
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By Wade Hodges, from this longer article in New Wineskins.

JT Gets It--

This will be big in history, won't it?

No matter who wins, this is big!

JT's comments this morning.

Politics Again

To those of you who are voting Democrat this year, apologies, because I don't intend to step on your toes. This is a real ad, and it made me laugh--at the audacity of Obama's speech, and at the Moses image.

OK, I Found A Reason to Vote for Obama

This was in the paper today, in the call-in section of the editorial page (they let anyone comment anonymously, they'd even let me do it)...you also have to remember this is Alabama, the home of University of Alabama, and we have some big football fans here...

I really hope to vote for Hillary Clinton, but she might not get
nominated. I can't help but wonder: If you put a 'G' in front of
Obama's name, it spells "GoBama." So, I might vote for him. Roll Tide.

A New Post

There is another post below Luci's astronaut post. I know that, to be polite, good manners say you should not talk about politics or religion. If you don't like to talk politics, then don't read it. Mom and Dad, I know we vote on the opposite ends of the spectrum--but hey, you named me sUSAn. That USA part has stuck with me and I wanted to share the post. Hope you still like me!

I promise I won't be posting about religious practices any time soon. At least, I don't think so! Oops--already did that with Luci's praise post. I guess I'm just balancing things out.

I Wasn't Going to Post This, But...

this is something that really bothers me. I usually like to stay away from controversial things. Politics is controversial (politics "are"?). And with this I might disappoint my mom. I hope she'll like me anyway.

I've checked out these stories, and they are true. Find out here: Obama and McCain. I got this email about Senator McCain and checked it out. The contrast between these two men cannot get much sharper than this. This is a long post, but the story Senator McCain tells is a compelling one, and I hope you will read it.

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Here are Senator Obama, Gov. Richardson (NM), Senator Clinton and Ruth Harkin. US Flag Code states that "During a rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed all present except those in uniform should stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart." Granted, they probably didn't want their bottoms facing the audience...but come on, Senator Obama, what is it with not putting your hand over your heart? If he's the next president, what will he do all those times he "has to" listen to it during his time in office? This just really grates on my nerves.
Here is the story Senator McCain tells:

As you may know, I spent five and one half years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. In the early years of our imprisonment, the NVA kept us in solitary confinement or two or three to a cell.

In 1971 the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation into large rooms with as many as 30 to 40 men to a room. This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of a few hundred POWs 10,000 miles from home.

One of the men who moved into my room was a young man named Mike Christian. Mike came from a small town near Selma, Alabama. He didn't wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old. At 17, he enlisted in the US Navy. He later earned a commission by going to Officer Training School Then he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot down and captured in 1967. Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunities this country and our military provide for people who want to work and want to succeed.

As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves and other items of clothing. Mike got himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months, he created an American flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt.

Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of the cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I know the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important part of our day now, but I can assure you that in that stark cell it was indeed the most important and meaningful event.

One day the Vietnamese searched our cell, as they did periodically, and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it. That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, and for the benefit of all of us, beat Mike Christian severely for the next couple of hours.

Then, they opened the door of the cell and threw him in. We cleaned him up as well as we could. The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept. Naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room. As I said, we tried to clean up Mike as well as we could.

After the excitement died down, I looked in the corner of the room, and sitting there beneath that dim light bulb with a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend, Mike Christian.

He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating he had received, making another American flag. He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was to us to be able to Pledge our allegiance to our flag and country.

So the next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you must never forget the sacrifice and courage that thousands of Americans have made to build our nation and promote freedom around the world. You must remember our duty, our honor, and our country.

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"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."