{ 7 Quick Takes }
Friday, May 25, 2012 at 10:51PM 
Regular baseball season is over. My little John (up above) did not play but was so excited about his brother's games that over the course of the season we added to the Red Sox t-shirt he received for Christmas. He is a cutie and plays whole 9 inning games pretending to be a star player on his team. He allows himself to be struck out by the imaginary pitcher. He allows himself to be picked off by imaginary infielders. And he allows himself the occasional homerun (both in the park out of the park homeruns). He's a cutie!
And here's Thomas (aka Ice Man). He had a fun season and was dubbed the ice man as they would bring him in and it would take a lot to throw his concentration. He's just a kid that loves baseball.
This week just felt like a really long long week. I'm not sure exactly what it was that made it seem so ... but it did. Unfortunately, due to baseball season I was unable to attend the final lecture by Prof. Koons with our host, Jennifer Fulwiler, as a special guest. I'm sure it was wonderful and am looking forward to hearing about it from those who were in attendance.
It's close to summer and my daughter, Mary Rachel, my baby girl, will start her little summer business. For the last 3 years or so she has advertised herself, through my wife Jennifer's email groups, as a "Mother's Helper". She basically offers a service where she will come to your house and entertain your children so you can get things done a bit more 'efficiently'. It's not quite baby sitting as Mom is still there doing what she needs to get done but it's been very helpful for the ladies who have taken advantage of the help/service. Well, she still loves dolls and had her eye on a new American Girl doll last year so she worked as much as she could to earn the money for the doll and many of the accessories available. This stuff is not cheap! So, what is the target for this year? An iPad. She's not a greedy little girl though and says she doesn't need the latest one. She'd be happy with the iPad 2.
So, if you're in the Austin area and need a little help in occupying your children with some playtime that you don't have to monitor drop me a line and I can connect you to a young, resourceful and cute 12 year old entreprenuer.
I'm not the most impatient person but if I have to wait in line somewhere I like to have something to read. At the same time, I sometimes don't have time to go through and read all the articles I come across at the time I come across them. The solution? Pocket
This little tool allows me to capture articles, videos, pictures, etc as I'm going through the web doing other things so I can then come back and view them. And when i say capture I don't mean actually copy them. It just allows me to pull them up later on my iPhone or iPad when I have the time. I've got 6 kids...I'm at the grocery store almost everyday for something. This lets me catch up on articles that I want to read rather than the ones on the newstands. Though I still may snag a snickers while in line. There's no app for that...yet.
This is Dominic. He's my 7 year old and a real cutie too. The book of the week is The Hobbit
Music video for the week....It's hot and so it's summer here in Texas. Time for a good ol' summer song.
Gimmie That Girl!
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gave a talk around raising children. It made such a lasting impression that I've carried many of his thoughts with me. One of these involved how to treat your daughter as a proper young lady with respect so that she will grow up knowing what it is like to be respected so she can discern through the young men that she meets.
by 
which I've enjoyed for some time now. It's an interesting premise and can lead to discussions on what is a just war. Interestingly, Card is a mormon but the main character comes from a Catholic family and is the 3rd and youngest child of a family. He (Ender) was only allowed to be conceived by a government that has a 2 child mandate after the 2 older siblings didn't qualify for battle school. That opens the door to all sorts of discussion as well...
CD and learned all the songs and would actually 'perform' the songs (lip syncing) while on our coffee table. Well, fast forward 9 years and now my youngest, John, will walk around the house singing things like "Born in the USA" or "Oh, Oh, We're half way there...Oh, Oh, Livin' on a Prayer" or "so remember, your people. remember your children. remember your promises, O God....cuz your grace is enough..." and other songs that you would not necessarily hear in a 3 yr old's repertoire. All that to ask the question....Am I depriving my kids of some sort of toddler right of passage that they experience by learning "she'll be coming round the mountain"? Will they be mocked as they grow up and hang out with other parents and staring back at them blankly as they think "you want me to sing what?". I love music so it's a tough call for me.
. Well I just finished this book and it has inspired and influenced me so much that we are going to be changing the way we homeschool next year. I highly recommned it!
makes a lot of sense. There are so many kids these days that have no appreciation for nature and stifle their imagination by watching so much tv or playing video game after video game that they don't know what to do when they are outside. You can sometimes see them 're-orient' themselves to playing regular games outside. Our family is not a hardcore outdoor family but we do limit tv to either 30 min or 60 min a day if that and our boys just have the habit of playing outside. They love to get muddy (as seen above) and just like playing with sticks and rocks when a ball is not available. It is struggle as dad to not feel the pressure to get them the latest and greatest gadgets but when I see them playing with each other (understand ages range from 3-14) and having a good time it makes me realize that that is what's important...