Soccer...The Montage

Is this offensive?

Roe v. Wade?

What about Planned Parenthood?

Well. Do you know this about them?

"The organization's status as the country's leading provider of surgical abortions has put it in the forefront of national debate over the issue."

Or this?

"Planned Parenthood has been accused by pro-life organizations of agreeing not to report cases of statutory rape to the authorities; for example, a pro-life activist, posing as a 13-year-old impregnated by her 22-year-old boyfriend, called over 800 clinics requesting an abortion. According to the recorded audio and transcripts, over 90% of the clinics agreed to her request not to report the boyfriend to the police for statutory rape."

Just want to be clear.

What about this part?

"Planned Parenthood receives almost a third of its money in government grants and contracts ($336.7 million in FY 2007)."

That is tax dollars. Your money. My money.

Let's summarize:

We pay tax dollars to an organization that performs more abortions than anyone else. Oh, and they will perform an abortion on your 13-year old daughter and you might never find out.

God help us.

It is not news to me that Planned Parenthood is a pro-choice (pro-abortion) organization. My desire to be well-informed stems from my passion for the unborn baby and defending it's right to live. To live and not be killed.

I think there are still people in this country who believe that Planned Parenthood is the local free clinic for birth control and cond&ms. A crash course in s*x education, staffed by friendly and well-meaning folks who want to give options and *choices* (my favorite word) to young women in need.

But then again, our country is notoriously good at turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to dealing with the consequences of poor choices.

If the above did not elicit some level of uncomfortableness, I sincerely hope the following does.

Regardless of where you stand in the world of politics or religious beliefs, there should be a place where human beings instinctively care for a helpless newborn life.

For goodness sakes, there are phone numbers you can call and people will rush to your home in an effort to rescue and save the life of a helpless newborn baby bird.....or a helpless newborn baby squirrel.

What about a newborn human being?

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Offended yet?

from Jill Stanek's blog:

Barack Obama opposed legislation as IL state senator to protect abortion survivors from being shelved to die:

» Links to Obama's votes on IL’s Born Alive Infant Protection Act

» Obama’s 10 reasons for supporting infanticide

» Why Jesus would not vote for Obama

» Audio of Obama arguing against giving medical care to abortion survivors

Barack Obama thinks partial birth abortion is a “legitimate medical procedure”:

» Michelle Obama's partial birth abortion fundraising letter

Barack Obama opposes parental notification of minor girls before they abort:

» Media Matters corroboration

Barack Obama has stated “the first thing I’d do as president“ would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would overturn every local, state, and federal abortion law passed in the past 35 years:

» Video of Obama promising FOCA to Planned Parenthood

Homeschool Teacher Gets No Respect

The following exchange may or may not have taken place in my house on this very morning...

Teacher (reading from a precious and classic alphabet book):

"F is for fought for it, G is for got it, H is for had it, J is for....."

She is interrupted by the student.

Student (curled up in the nook of teacher's arm):

"Mom. When you make the *H* sound you blow too much air and your breff stinks."

New vocabulary word for tomorrow:

Tact - Acute sensitivity to what is proper and appropriate in dealing with others, including the ability to speak or act without offending.

Soccer and the one-up

Oh how I wish I had my camera at soccer practice on Monday night. Since I did not, I will try to recreate the events as they occurred...

Samuel is a good 20-30 yards away. He and another boy are passing the time while waiting their turn to do the next drill.

I can hear nothing so this entire story is based on actions alone and my feeble attempt at lip-reading.

The other boy has his back to me so I can't tell when he is talking but I can tell from Sam's response that he has said something.

Sam responds with a half-grin and I can read his lips:

"Well. I am five years old. Yeah. FIVE YEARS OLD"

The other boys shifts his posture and stands a little taller.

Then he hops on both feet.

Samuel scans the boy from head to toe and makes a visual assessment.

Then Samuel jumps with both feet.....just a little bit higher than the other boy.

The boy then does a move that includes a jump and a kick.

From the look on Samuel's face....he is impressed.

Samuel produces a jump/kick/spin move that is much superior to Hop Boy.

Other boy decides to pull out the big guns and attempts....The Cartwheel.

Samuel is not fazed. Other boy is going down. His face says it all.

Eyebrows raised (say what?)
Hands on hip (that all you got?)
Laughter (you got to be kiddin' me!)

And then. With reckless abandon. He throws down the gauntlet....

And turns a BACKWARD SOMERSAULT, IN THE GRASS FOLKS!!!

(and the crowd goes wild!)

Other boy slumps his shoulders and walks away. He understands that on this day at the soccer field, during the showdown of "One-ups", he is not the victor.

Bring it on.

I ONLY HAVE 15 MINUTES!

Here I come, throwing some pics and words around. I have 15 minutes until the bell rings!!!

We went to Virginia Beach this past weekend. Chris had planned to take Hannah to the Third Day concert and since it was at the beach we decided to lump it all together and call it a "getaway". Our original summer vacation plans included a short trip to the beach so this worked out great.

I hope you enjoy this post with an obscene amount of pictures.

Here is a fairly long sequence of Samuel and the ocean. It might not be riveting to you but I thought it was kind of cool :)
Hold on to your hats. Here are some baby pics that might make you a little weak in the knees...

Castle Building...
Miscellaneous pictures of sweetness...


We woke up Saturday morning to a beautiful display of dolphins, but the pictures were hard to come by...
The hotel pool...
This boy and his tan lines CRACK ME UP... (note his trunks are NOT white)
Daddy/Daughter Date to Third Day concert....
Dad said it was really really loud and consequently exposed his age.

Ya'll know how we love some portable carnival rides...
Honk...
Contrary to the evidence provided in these photographs, Chris and I are actually both Caucasian.. He works all day inside and I spent a good part of the summer at the pool. It is apparent from these pictures that one of us is missing the component that allows the skin to tan.
Who wants more baby?
There was a volleyball tournament going on outside our balcony during the day on Saturday. It was pretty cool to watch.
Mom: "Samuel, you have sand all over your face. All over your mouth. Did you stick your face in the sand?"

Sam: "Mom, I am gonna ride in this stroller. I can still fit. See?"

And he again dodges the obvious question about his hygiene. I have come to believe that boys are simply gifted in this area...
We sure did have a sweet time...

Two Snaps and a Circle!

Second week of homeschool is a breeze! We got this thing down! Ain't nothing to it! Easy Breezy!

Formulas? We know'em!

Schedule? Set your watch by'em!

Obedience? Respect? All kinds of love and sugary kindness???

AB-SO-LOOT-LY!

Er.

Ahem.

Cough.

....

NOT!

Last week really did go off with very few glitches and I have to tell ya'll that I might have even been a teensy weensy bit puffed up when this week started.

-Pop-

My kids, with all their fleshly wants and needs popped that bubble right quick on Monday morning. I had no sooner taken a deep breath of pride and admiration for my great and fabulous self, when Samuel started in with a sing-song chorus of:

I don't waaaaant to doooooo this! I can't dooooooo this! This is toooooooo hard!

At which point I said:

Come on Sam. They are Froot Loops. Eat them.

And I realized that if he was diggin' his heels in at breakfast we were in for a bumpy ride. The boy cried on Saturday because we did not have school and was limp and cross-eyed on Monday because we did.

Well, I quickly informed him that we had two kinds of wisdom being taught here at the Casa De La School and one of them involved the alphabet and the other involved....well.....his bottom.

So he said, "BRING ON LETTER B!" and from there, the fun ensued.

These two weeks have actually been really good. The start of this week kind of threw me because we added in all the extra evening activities. I have never embraced this part of our schedule and it always takes me several weeks to figure out what needs to be purged from our day in order to be ready for the afternoon and nighttime mayhem.

The schedule has been working well, minus the whole "running" and "taking a shower" part. If we take a break in the morning then we move Latin to the afternoon. If not, we can almost finish around lunch. Writing takes a bit longer and I give the girls a week to complete those assignments. They choose what day to spend the most time on that.

I love Drawing To Learn and our circle time is most definitely the highlight of our day. I am working in the Easy Grammar this week and I will probably order the Daily Grams as well.

We have only done this for one year, but already I have learned so many valuable lessons. I had heard people say that I should be fostering a "love for learning" but I didn't really understand exactly what that meant until now.

School shouldn't be *hard*.

Challenging? Yes.

Overwhelming, laborious, burdensome? No.

Watching Samuel begin each day with an eagerness to learn and then master his lesson is an absolutely beautiful thing.

mas·ter·y - expert skill or knowledge

I am not the least bit interested in how much he accomplishes each day, in terms of papers piled high on his little desk. What thrills me as his mother and teacher is when I see his desire and determination to do well.

It has been harder to break the girls of old habits. The "score" is still very important to them.

Even so, there have been great moments of clarity when something finally makes sense and it feels good.

Really good.

And just so you know (and if you homeschool, then you know).....it ain't all roses.

The remark that I have heard most often from people is how they could *never* do it. That I (sinful Kim) must be full of patience and goodness and all kinds of smarts to be able to pull this off.

They wonder (out loud) how I can stand to be with my kids all day and they say (out loud) that their kids would never listen to them or respect them as the teacher.

They even say (again...out loud...with their mouth) that I must be a "better" person.

So here is my answer to all the peeps who might have thought or even spoke some of the above verbage.

I am *not* full of patience and goodness or even a few kinds of smarts.

I am not a better person. I am actually the worst. 1 Timothy 1:15

There are times when my kids are not listening to me and I am not enjoying their presence anymore than they are enjoying mine.

The sacrifice is huge. Monumental.

God fills in all the gaps.

There are a lot of gaps.

Yelling, crying, apathy, exhaustion, stress, self-pity, loneliness, fear.....it's all there.

Remember? The gaps?

I don't write a lot about the hard stuff. For one, I don't know that it's fair to expose the shady behavior of my children without exposing my own.

We hit the bumps every. single. day.

What I know is this. And I know it as sure as the day that I rose up from the pew with clinched fists and a knotted stomach. As I made my way to the front of a church where I had worn the same dress for three weeks in a row. There was not one good thing about me, my life, or my heart.....except that God had been gracious enough to gingerly plant a faith in Him there.

From that beautiful act of deliverance I was able to have salvation....My black heart was saved from sin which should have cost me my life. I was never worthy nor am I now. I did not win favor with Him because of my value.

And so I teach my children, because he was gracious enough to place them here... a beautiful act of restoration in my life of which I am not worthy. I have no choice but to be accountable for their teaching (Matthew 18:6, Ephesians 6:4).

It requires a daily death to self and a hard lean on God.

I can only boast in Him.

Quiet time....got real quiet