Saving in silver?

www.silversaver.com is the way to go!

Sophia's 3rd Birthday

Well, what flavor are we getting?

Dear loved ones,

Well...the ultrasound showed, to the best of its ability, that we are having a beautiful and healthy baby....girl! We are both overjoyed and sad at the same time. Our hopes had gone the way of a boy but the Lord has decided to bless us with another girl. We trust our heavenly Father and know that he is the one designing our family and not us...what a relief. So while we are rejoicing over the knowledge of this precious little pink new life, we are also mourning the death of a hope. What strange emotions. We would be so grateful for your prayers and/or simple words of congratulations, but ask that you refrain from any “clever” comments, as our hearts are still tender and we don't want to be tempted to bop anyone in the nose. :-)

Thank you for both rejoicing with us and giving us time to process what we are now in the habit of calling our “stupid human thinking”.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Ric and Jenna

Things I wonder about...

Last night, we were preparing for a class session that Jenna was going to teach the 1st & 2nd-graders at our kids' Home-Education Co-Op, which happens once-a-week on Thursday mornings. So when the check-out lady at Stater Brothers asked why we were purchasing dry lima beans, plastic cups and sundry other items, I told her that Jenna was "teaching a class tomorrow." She then lauded Jenna for being a teacher, and seemed to have an instant boost in respect toward Jenna... I can only assume it's because she assumed that Jenna was a public school teacher... Is that presumptuous? I only wonder, because earlier that day she got almost the same treatment (plus a discount!) at another store earlier that day, after she said she was "teaching a class."

I wonder if she would have received the same displays of respect and admiration if she revealed that she was a "keeper-of-the-home?" Recently I saw a friend (also a "home-keeper") list her job description as "CEO of Household Operations and Student Development." How cool is that!

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Also, when we announced to friends that we were expecting our 5th child, some of them carelessly said something like, "Don't you know how this whole thing works?"

Listen. I'm 40 years old. I've been procreating, off-and-on, for the last 13 years. What do you take me for? Just because we don't subscribe to the "Boy for me and a girl for you and praise-the-Lord, we're finally through" line of thinking, does that imply that we're not capable of making thoughtful decisions about the size of our family?

Anyway, just thought I'd rant for a while. Thanks for reading. :-)

More Disneyland Pix

Our visit with family in the Arizona desert

Visiting Ric's brother Dave in Lake Havasu and his Dad in Kingman, AZ

Chloë wants to fly....?

Around the dinner table last night, we asked the kids what they'd like to learn to do as they got older. Chloë, without hesitation, said "I want to learn to fly. But not like in an airplane."

Daddy says, "You mean, like in a hang-glider?"

Chloë replies, "No, like a bird! Just spread my arms or wings and FLY!"

Well, I think THIS is what she had in mind. Looks like FUN!! WOW!!!

Sophia on the Trampoline

(Click the title for a bigger size)



(Background song is "Rainy Weather Friend" by David Mead)

Visiting the tide pools at Point Loma...

What I did on my Summer Vacation...

Livin' large in South Lake Tahoe!
(Taken August 2008)

CLICK HERE for (less-incriminating) photos :-)

Sophia Sings!

Books I've Been Reading... (Ric)

Click the pix for more info...

"Mothers Health?"

I think that the sub-issue of abortion-in-case-of-mother’s-health, while specifically valid, is generally less-than-consequential. At worst, the caveat of keeping abortion legal for “mother’s health” is a smoke screen and a slippery slope toward catastrophe for any society.

First of all, who defines “health?” Emotional? Spiritual? Physical? Social? I guarantee that while the primary answer may begin as “clearly physical,” those who want to keep their “options open” and their responsibilities limited will continually re-define the “mother’s health” until it means something more akin to “mother’s well-being” or “mother’s choice.” This “pragmatic redefinition” is an undeniable precedent among those who devalue human life, as is the custom of those who subscribe to the ideology that humanity has evolved by chance, not by divine design in maturity, completion and excellence.

Second, I would bet all I have on the assertion that the ratio of “mother’s health” abortions to “don’t want a baby” abortions is inconceivably low. The number of what I’ll refer to as “opt-out” abortions has reached (and continues to surpass) staggering proportions in America, let alone the world. Over 48 million. Simply unimaginable. That is eight times the estimated number of Jews (and others) executed in the Holocaust by Hitler – a disciple, as it were, of Darwinist “Natural Selection” ideology. Now, the world collectively said, “Never again” about such atrocities – and yet it continues, with no signs of slowing, unless legislation changes. This number has reached these proportions because the practice was first legalized, then “socialized.” (And this figure merely represents the “documented” instances.) The goal of radically reducing this statistic must include alterations to current legislation, at the federal level, and go on to include preemptive and restorative educational and social actions.

Finally, make no mistake that, as I asserted in a conversation you and I had several years ago, humankind has a “lover of the soul” (our Savior) and an “enemy of the soul” (satan, “the accuser”/ “destroyer”). I believe that the enemy laughs at and scorns us before God, for the fact that this unprecedented infanticide continues unabated. As a human who survived gestation because my mother chose to keep me (though I was pre-Roe-v.Wade), I am grateful not to have been a victim of her “choice.” As a believer in the power of the redeeming blood of the Son of God, I know that abortion is not the unforgivable sin; God can and does renew the purity and conscience of those who humbly approach the throne of grace. Every life is valuable to God, and by all scriptural accounts, he tends incline His heart especially to the helpless, the poor, the destitute, the accused… yes, even the voice-less and “non-viable.”

The issue of the legalization of abortion not relegated to the “health of the mother,” but to the health of everyone. It shouldn’t be an available option for an independent, sentient being to extinguish the existence of an absolutely dependent, voice-less other.

Humbly and respectfully submitted,

--Ric

My thoughts on the political landscape...

I think it’s reasonable to assert that anyone who willingly enters into a lifelong, covenant relationship with their Creator is necessarily obliged, as a matter of conscience and integrity, to cast their vote in the direction of the candidate(s) who most closely reflects the heart and truth of the only Son of God, Jesus. As a communicator, Jesus was never recorded as having to say “actually, what I really meant when I said that, was __________...” He communicated the heart of the Father concisely, consistently, and let the chips fall where they may. It was primarily His verbal communication and assertions – not his deeds – that ultimately caused upheaval and hostility among his enemies. In the middle of His earthly ministry, His words made it very clear that to not follow Him (i.e. devote one’s life to Him) was the equivalent of being His enemy, and thus the enemy of the God of the Universe. To “see” (i.e. “know”) the heart of Jesus was to see and know God.

Rationally, from this standpoint, my choice of presidential candidate must therefore rest on whom I feel most readily and unapologetically aligns themselves with the Jesus of the Bible; not the “Jesus” of the Koran, or of the Mormons, or of any other post-Biblical source… and there is a world of difference, I assure you. From my perspective, Obama needs just too many words to convince America of his intentions (Proverbs 10:19, Ecclesiastes 5:3), and he seems to want to align himself with as many seemingly-worthwhile causes as possible. I’m a little more at peace with McCain, who purports that “more government” is not the solution to America’s ills, that the answers to many of America’s questions are not as complex as Obama described in the Civil Forum. I’m even more at peace in voting for McCain after having read what I have about his choice for VP. Together, they more closely resemble the American leaders that our founding fathers – in their providential wisdom and courage – envisioned for their bold-yet-God-dependent new country.

Thanks for reading. May we all VOTE without wavering, and serve this country without compromise, contradiction or complaint.

Our Recent Vacation (photo album)

We recently took a trip to Yosemite (our 4th time), Columbia State Historic Park (ditto) and Lake Tahoe (our 1st time). What a blast!

View Album

Get your own

Packing Heat!

Caleb and I (Ric) recently visited Iron-Sights indoor shooting range, where we emptied 100 rounds into some animal targets. First, we used a 6-shot revolver (which slowed us down and forced us to start safely :-), then we upgraded to a Ruger Mark III, which allowed us to shoot “bam-bam-bam-bam!!!” After the event, Caleb passionately asserted “You’re the best Dad in the whole universe!”

I needed to hear that. :-)

Chloë at the dentist...

Here's our little princess, with her watermelon-flavored "happy air" (nitrous oxide) and glare-reducing shades! Ready for take-off! :-)

"Business is Business" - a poem

Here's a cool poem I came across on a worm-composting site...

Business Is Business

"Business is Business," the Little Man said,
"A battle where everything goes,
Where the only gospel is 'get ahead,'
And never spare friends or foes.
'Slay or be slain', is the slogan cold.
You must struggle and slash and tear,
For Business is Business, a fight for gold,
Where all that you do is fair!"

"Business is Business," the Big Man said,
"A battle to make of earth
A place to yield us more wine and bread,
More pleasure and joy and mirth.
There are still more bandits and buccaneers
Who are jungle-bred beasts of trade,
But their number dwindles with passing years
And dead is the code they made!"

"Business is Business," the Big Man said,
But it's something that's more, far more;
For it makes sweet gardens of deserts dead,
And cities it built now roar
Where once the deer and the gray wolf ran
From the pioneer's swift advance.
Business is Magic that toils for man.
Business is True Romance.

And those who make it a ruthless fight
Have only themselves to blame
If they feel no whit of the keen delight
In playing the Bigger Game,
The game that calls on the heart and head,
The best of man's strength and nerve.
"Business is Business," the Big Man said,
And that Business is to serve!

-- Berton Braley

Homeschool Graduation Night 2008

A day of beating the heat(wave)

Here's our little "front-yard-water-park!"