Beyond Bringing Up Boys

Samuel got the letter that he had been coveting for awhile now--the invitation to join the ELCA Chapter of the National Honor Society.  He's already in the Beta Club and on Student Council, but he was told by the academic dean that the NHS was a special honor given at ELCA to only the top % of the class and faculty invitation. He gritty !

17 years. The days are long, but the years are short.  We love you, Samuel! 

Michael, grade 9 and Samuel, grade 11.  This morning for family Bible, we watched  a Ted Talk on the power of perseverance. David followed it up with the words of the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians 3 :   13  Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do:  forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,   14  I press on toward the goal for  the prize of the upward  call of God in Christ Jesus.   Most of the time, I find myself looking into the rear-view mirror of life considering what we could have done better with our boys. But as I looked into my boys' faces this morning, I thought about their own personal determination.  Zachary has chosen a non-traditional path toward his undergrad by choosing to take classes online so that he can keep his job working at a local  law firm--this month marked him working there two years.  In addition, he works several hours at Chick-Fil-A. One night a week, he

I've been going through my digital not-so-organized photos and really missed a place that I was writing our story.  Actually, my boys stop over and walk down memory lane through the archives on occasion too.  So, here I am. Trying this again. An update is in order:  Zachary is in his third year of college, continues to work full-time for a local attorney, works PT at Chick-Fil-A (to keep him remembering what he doesn't want to do with the rest of his life), and studies regularly for his LSAT, which will be next June. Samuel will be a junior beginning tomorrow.  He is a great student, still plays the piano and the drums (go figure!). He isn't sure what he wants to study in college but has certainly been eliminating some areas!  Seth will begin 8th grade on Tuesday and is still our favorite.  Not really, but since his brothers' think he is, I figure I may as well give them  something to talk about when I'm dancing on the streets of gold.  Dr. B. begins his 11th y