What I Hate About Working From Home

Audrea's job is so much harder than mine, and most of her rewards are so intangible.

She spends her whole day serving our family by cooking, cleaning, teaching, organizing, singing, shopping, saving, praying, disciplining, peacemaking, shepherding, crying, remembering, forgetting, suffering, laughing, restraining, preparing, planning, understanding, thinking, praising, rebuking, caring ... shall I go on? I could.

I spend 8 hours of my day serving my family by sitting upstairs at my computer thinking, writing, and coding. I get to listen to music all day, experience mostly peace and quiet, and have a view that is amazing. It's so unfair. It just seems like a crime.

While I truly appreciate the blessing of working from home, I hate having to stay put, do my job, and know that Audrea is doing so much more than I am doing.

This drives me to realize two things:

1. When a husband comes home from work (or in my case, comes downstairs!) to a wife that stays at home with the children, and especially if she is one who also teaches at home, he should do whatever he possibly can to help her in fulfilling her role as wife and mother of her family. This is just as applicable to those families who are unable (or choose not) to have one parent at home: the roles of each partner do not change--the work/ministry (in my mind) would be still there to do, but would need to be done with less time available.


2. A husband (like myself) should be motivated to work as hard as he possibly can at his job in order to honor God in the fulfilling of his role as provider and protector of his family.

One other thing that these impress on me: I love my wife more than you can even know.

This Truly Incends Me

I'm having a hard time writing this post without displaying unbridled anger in my language... so I'll keep it simple and let it inflame you.

I double-checked with Strunk's Elements of Style, The Chicago Manual of Style, and American Psychological Association style guide and verified 1) capitalization of a personal pronoun is reserved for the first-person pronoun (however, references to deity are acceptable--Him, You, etc.) and 2) that the word--Bible--is to be capitalized when referring to the Christian scriptures.

Two sad commentaries on our American culture today:

Last Monday, before Inauguration Day, CBS published this story discussing how the Lincoln Bible would be used to be sworn on by then-President Elect Obama. Unless specifically referring to the book which Lincoln used for his inauguration, the author would refer to God's Word as simply "the bible." Five times, he or she clarified that the book to be sworn in on was simply--a bible.
While the tradition of swearing in using a Bible is simply that-tradition--it does reflect the distinctly Christian heritage the United States of America was signficantly influenced by. The Bibles used for swearing in Presidents have not just been any holy book for some miscellaneous religion: if it was a Bible, it was The Holy Bible, the testament of the Christian faith. It is denigrating to my faith and to our country's heritage to reduce it to simply "the bible"--as if it was irrelevant which religion was associated with the book.

Today, then, Audrea pointed out to me a Garrison Keillor op-ed piece in the Courier Journal. In referring to President Obama, Keillor says:

"People were being marshaled into waiting areas for each train to D.C., each of us with a Commemorative Train Ticket with a picture of Himself on it"

Did you get that? "Himself."

Specifically, note this question and answer from the Chicago Manual:

Q. Is it proper to capitalize pronouns that refer to a deity? For example, “God is willing to forgive anyone who comes to Him.”

A. Yes, although it’s not Chicago style. Capping the pronouns can imply an expression of religious faith on the part of the writer; lowercasing them leaves the writer’s beliefs unclear. The choice of style should be made with sensitivity to the type of reader you are addressing. Lowercasing is more inclusive, but it might offend in some kinds of religious literature.

So, if it wasn't obvious to you already, it should be now: People are worshipping the President as a deity, and are trying their best to relegate God to a myth.

Horse-Riding Lessons

Savannah has talked about taking horse-riding lessons for a couple years. It used to be that she would ask us to buy a horse. We told her how much work it was and how fast the poop accumulated, but that usually didn't deter her. Eventually we said, "Well, how 'bout lessons, instead, someday?" Our mistake. From that point on, she had talked about lessons. This Christmas, her favorite gift was a certificate for horse-riding lessons. According to her, "It's the best gift I've ever gotten."

There is a horse riding club right here in town, just 5 minutes away from our house that we take her to. You'll notice in the picture that she has her coat on and looks bundled up. The lessons occur in a large barn but the barn is not really heated. She loves it all the same, though.

(It isn't extremely bright in there, so you'll have to excuse the graininess of the pictures.) When I took her for one of the lessons, I was kind of nervous, considering my horse-riding accident last spring. Watching her go around the fence without any help slowly built up my confidence in her.

Meanwhile, she goes on loving horses and still talking about a career centered around horses.

Encouragement for Sufferers

Hear a good word from John Piper on proper perspective through hard times. Though his subject concerns the economy, this was encouraging to me in my present trials.

Vote for the Quads Blog!!

Hey everyone who sometimes takes a look at my blog--could you do me a favor?

My friend, Jen Murray, has a blog about her quadruplets. Please take a moment today and as often as you want (but no more than once per day) to vote for it being one of the best parenting blogs of 2008. Her blog is an encouragement to those parents who wonder how to take care of several children at once and is always an amazing display of God's grace in many ways. Her blog can be seen here and you can vote for it here.

(Funny note about how I know Jen: I met Jen when I lived in Danville and worked at the Open Door. She would come in and give me a hard time about this so-called girlfriend (aka Audrea) that must not exist since she had never met her. It wasn't until much later that I found out that she was the kid sister of my dear friend, Kirby Myers!)

Oh my... no words for this

From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Morning Report: Even the porn industry wants a bailout

Finally, in this era of unprecedented government bailouts, there is an industry worthy of our tax dollars.
In a story that no sportswriter could invent, CNN last night reported that another major American industry is asking for assistance as the global financial crisis unfolds.
Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said yesterday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion for a bailout of the adult entertainment industry.
Things must be tough all over.

Happy New Year!!

Welcome to 2009, everyone!!!!!

My family and I wish you all a happy new year and pray that you will experience afresh God's grace throughout the whole year!

Pickin' the Christmas Tree, Kentucky Style

When we lived in Wisconsin and Minnesota, we would typically go pick out our tree at a tree farm or go cut it down, usually while freezing our noses off, and enjoying a hot cup of chocolate afterward. Transporting it home always involved tying it to the roof of that van with twine and then getting sap all over your hands while trying to take it off the van and set it up. The whole process from start to finish (of just going getting the tree, picking it out, and bringing it home) would take at least three hours.

This year we got our tree Kentucky-style. We put a few of the kids in the wagon and then whole family including the dog walked to the end of the block where there is a flower/garden shop that had real trees.

We picked out the tree, paid for it, tied it to the wagon, and walked back down the block to our house with it on our Kentucky sled.

I brought it in and set it up in the stand and watered it and it was ready to be decorated. The whole process from start to finish this time took well under an hour. I think the temperature outside was around 45!
The girls all decorated the tree while I went outside and hung lights on the house (I forgot to get a picture of that). Here we are in front of our beautiful tree!
This year with the extra time, we were able to set up the "kids tree" and hang the lights on it as well!

Thanksgiving Day

This year was the first year we hosted Thanksgiving celebration at our house. My sister, Karen, and her husband, Ricky, came up from Nashville, and my mom came down from Danville. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner together and as usual, a round of teasing each other!
Savannah had a great time setting the table and making it look beautiful!

Halloween Happenings

I know this is really late to be posting about Halloween, but if you've been reading for the last couple of days on this blog, you'll know I'm in catch up mode.

Before we went trick-or-treating on Saturday, Audrea and the girls went to a Reformation Party at Clifton Baptist. Here the girls are in the Dissenter's Jail. The theme of the party was John Knox and the Covenanters. Ironically, we had already been learning a little bit about the Covenanters from our readings through Jesus in Exodus.
Here they are dressed up in full costume:
The next day the younger girls kept the same costumes and Savannah dressed up as a "pioneer girl" and they all escorted Superman.
Of course, what would a troupe be without their dog in cape!

William

Tonight we will look at a few glimpses of the busy life of our toddlin' boy William.

Will turned 1 this year and celebrated with a decorations of dogs everywhere! (Notice the wall of coloring pages and drawings behind him in this picture.)
Will loves to work--especially cleaning. If he can get involved with whatever you're doing, he's happy!


Will is also our little builder. Here he is below after he and I went to Home Depot where they help kids do building projects once a month.
Will is also very strong and agile. Here he lives up to the name on his shirt--Lightning Mcqueen. Audrea frequently catches him up on top of the girls bunkbeds sometimes standing up and dancing to their music.
And speaking of music, he's a huge fan of anything musical (his tastes range from classical to rock, from hip hop to country, so basically anything daddy listens to!)
He has also picked up same love for books that his sisters have. Here he is with them and his Grandma Connie reading to him.
For the longest time he would do this silly little face shown below. He'd scrunch up his lips like so and breathe loudly in and out through his nose. Give it a try. I'm sure your friends will love it!
Finally, I leave you with my favorite picture of the year. Will and his best friend, Caleb, were playing in the bedroom after Will's bath when we caught him just like this. The picture was so hilarious we hosted a caption contest on facebook. The winning caption was "Tell me again... why do I have to be naked in order to escape?" The second place caption was "Uh dude, you're visible again."

Elayna

This morning I want to introduce you to my darling Elayna. Elayna turned 4 this year as you can clearly see in the picture below.
Baby Sweet's happy grin is always such a warming sight! Here she is doing one of her favorite things: munching on snacks!
Here she is doing her most favorite thing: sleeping whilst sucking her thumb under her cuddly "tt-woobee-bubba" (as she calls it--she keeps adding new names that she likes).
Elayna can't decide who she likes to play with more: Will or Sabrina. She has been such a big helper with her brother but does tend to get into the most squabbles with him :)
Here's my little lovely one helping make these flowers look even more beautiful.

Sabrina

This evening I want to show you our "little red"--Sabrina. Sabrina turned 6 this year and is also growing up way too fast!
You may have noticed Sabrina's length of hair in the picture above. She announced to us this year that she wanted to get her hair cut a little shorter. It was the first major cut she has ever had! It was down about two-thirds of her back, but 10 inches later it touches her shoulder.

Though she's not proud of them, notice the freckles that daddy passed on to her that are starting to pop up under her eyes:Sabrina has a darling little smirk (as shown below) that is designed to capture your heart. I will be a very busy dad fighting off the boys with this one!
I love this picture below where Audrea caught her in a natural moment having tons of fun on a hay ride:
Our little Bina has about 45 nicknames that we've given her including but not limited to hoppy, boppy, bina bop, hippity, hoppity, and on and on. One of her other nicknames is revealed here in this picture: floppy.
This was also the big year for her to part ways with her two front baby teeth.
The new ones did grow in quickly before Christmas!

Savannah

For the next two days, I'm going to highlight our four beautiful blessings from God: our children. Today, I start with our oldest: Savannah. Savannah turned 9 this year and is too quickly growing up as you can see in this portrait below.

Savannah loves all things horses. Here she is riding Star at her uncle Rick's farm.
I'm not kidding when I say "loves" horses:
Savannah is also our avid outdoors person. She'll stay out all day if you let her. Here she is with her first catch of the day at our Elliott family reunion.
You'll also notice in these pictures a strange device she is wearing. We discovered this year that she has scoliosis and will have to wear this brace until she stops growing. I wrote a lot about this trial in our life earlier this year on this blog.

Savannah is also the leader of our little artists. Here she is below with a butterfly she painted on silk at an art camp at Sojourn Community Church this summer.

She also wanted you to see this large silk banner that she helped her class paint.

Savannah's accident was a big highlight of her life in November! If you hadn't heard, she fell off a diving board at our school's rec center pool and was taken to the hospital for stitches. Here she is being assessed by the medics.
Here's the Gurney Girl being rolled away!
Here she is being loaded into the ambulance.
And, praise the Lord, here she is with the only effects of the fall: 3 stitches in the chin.
All has healed up nicely and matches the little scar on my chin where I hurt it jumping off the stairs backwards at First Baptist. We've decided to start our own club. Not sure what to call it though: the chin club or the clutz club!

A New Addition to the Family

This September we welcomed a new addition to our family: Suzie Q (not necessarily after the Hostess treat or the Creedence song, however both apply well!). Suzie Q is considered a "designer dog" (pathetic, I know) and is a combination of 3 AKC breeds: Shih Tzu, Brussels Griffon, and a Toy Poodle. She weighed a little less than 2 pounds when we got her and now she is up to 5 pounds. She won't get much bigger than that. She isn't a "yipper" and she doesn't shed which makes her a pleasant dog to have around.
Audrea drove up to Chicago to meet her mom who had brought Suzie down from the Wisconsin Rapids area. Then Audrea brought her back to Danville where we (Paul, Elayna, and William) were waiting for them. She brought Suzie in, tucked in a box that was wrapped up like a present. In this picture below, Elayna had opened the box to discover the puppy and William was pointing and saying, "dog, dog" over and over.
The happy little puppy once freed from clutches of Elayna bounded into William's arms.
It's kind of silly, but Suzie is just like a baby in that she won't go to sleep unless she is being held by someone. Well, at least that's what she tries to pull off. If you ignore her for long enough, she'll try and find a blanket somewhere to curl up in.
One of the funny/bad things she does is find Will's pacifier's on the floor and picks up and walks around the house sucking on them (not chewing!). Here in this picture below we had caught her in the act.
Suzie is basically potty-trained now. It's been several weeks since she had an accident, but getting to that point took an unbelievable amount of patience (or the display of a lack of patience) on my part. We started working with her on the sit-stay-come commands right away. Now, unfortunately, she is obeying better than William!