7-Quick Takes

Join Jen and the other Quicktakers over at the Conversion Diary

1. I hope that when my kids leave home, they have treasured memories of reading books with mom – as teenagers!! Because I have really enjoyed reading books with Noah and Gabe during their high school years! From Animal Farm to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, to the Scarlet Letter and Mark Twain, it has just been a delight to share these books with these boys. We are currently reading the autobiography of Frederick Douglas and have gotten to the part where young Frederick tricked his white playmates into teaching him to read and write with taunts of, “I can write that better than you can!” It really goes to show that even a child can learn basic academics if he has a mind to do so! and I hope that message spoke to the boys as well.

2. Long-time readers might recall that a few years back I was pondering how to embrace my new role as an “older” Titus 2 woman and had some difficulty fitting into the role, at least on line. I think the problem was that I just didn’t wait long enough!  Now I am getting e-mails and calls from younger women on an almost daily basis asking for advice on just about everything, from dealing with little boys, to buying a piano!  It’s just interesting to me to see how the pendulum swings sometimes.

3.  Made the mistake of telling myself that I too could be a runner! I should back up and say that my town has become all about biking and running and we even  host a major marathon here every year.  My kids have been involved in cross country for eight years and I just started to feel that I wanted to belong to this ever growing group!  So Wednesday I took Rosie to Kid’s choir and Izzy to art class and Noah and I went to the park to run.  He started running easily, effortlessly around the park.  I walked half a lap  and warmed up and ready to break into a run.  I think I got 2/3 of the way up the street when I experienced a sharp pain in my knee that I couldn’t shake off. I went directly home, put some frozen peas on it and took a prescription arthritis medicine and within an hour I had no pain at all the rest of that day, or the next day. I’m thinking maybe I averted 6 weeks of knee rehab by acting quickly – but I think what this really shows me is that I’m not a runner, and I better stick to fast walks and my exercise videos!

Either way, calorie wise it might be pretty equal, at least for me. I’m willing to go longer distances and spend a bit more time walking – as long as I have something good to listen to on my MP3 player!

4.  Speaking of MP3 talks – I love Voddie Baucham’s talks on homeschooling. He has absolutely convinced me that homeschooling is the best choice for educating Christian kids, even in high school. You can check out a sampling of one of his talks here:

5.  And if that wasn’t convincing – here’s a quote I found on FB from a young Christian educated in the public school system:

We shouldn’t let our morals, our beliefs, or our traditions delude our brains from the real issue here – securing a proper future for America and all its inhabitants. All I can beg of the general population at this point is to vote for who will be a better president, not a better Catholic

6.  For the record, I am not convinced the Catholic High Schools around here are doing any better.  After all LeBron graduated from the Catholic High School just down the street!  A local Catholic High School Grad posted this

…I voted for the future of the country, the seniors and those who are most vulnerable…I voted for moving this country into the 21st century…and NOT for us to be taken back to the age of suppression of Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Women’s Right to Choose and a time when a privileged few dictated what happened to the rest of us

Yes – when I think Freedom, I think oppressive taxes and IRS agents.  Don’t you comrades?

7. On a happier note, this Sunday the bishop is coming to bless our new pipe organ.  I am told this should be a once in a lifetime experience – and considering I’m 53 and this is my first pipe organ dedication, I tend to believe it. I have been asked to play the Psalm response on my flute because we can’t officially play the organ in public until it has been blessed. At least three of my kids are singing for this program too and Gabe and Noah are also playing with the handbell choir, so it should be a great event. Hopefully I can get a video or two on here too so stay tuned!