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, ...

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...

A couple of days ago, Zachary received a beautiful scarf from Hillsdale with a note saying that he might not need it now, but he surely would need it later.  Our hearts broke a little that day; He had already told us he had made a decision. And so, Zachary made the most difficult call of his life yesterday. When he told us later in the day, our hearts broke a little more. But he made a mature decision.--he chose not have debt.  I'm proud of him.  He considers it a failure that he missed the 3.75 GPA by 1/10 of 1 point. That  was tough. But he took 4 AP  classes and Honors for everything else. I've seen others take a lesser load to achieve that coveted 4.0 +. His SAT score was high enough to be admitted to any school except a few Ivy League ones.  To us, that's not academic failure and it's not to Hillsdale either.  It was the debt that caused him to say "no" to his dream college. ...

    I read a quote that said, " my swimsuit told me to go to the gym, but my sweatpants were like 'nah, girl, you're good '." And it actually seemed funny until I. saw. myself. in. a. swimsuit.  The truth is weight has never been an issue for me--hate me if you want to; I have my own issues-- until now . Yes, I did gain 60 pounds with my first pregnancy, but those pounds slipped off my body like the sun slips beneath the horizon at sunset.  And, there has never been another sunrise...well, a weight-rise might be more appropriate. Until now. Until I sat for months with a fractured knee. Until I started craving strawberry ice-cream in the middle of the night. Until eating peanut butter straight from the jar seemed like a good idea. Until now.  I'll tell you straight up, it's time for an intervention.   Tomorrow.    My sweatpants are feeling pretty roomy tonight.  

  We set out Saturday for another anniversary adventure--it has been 23 years after all!  We realized that we weren't going to make our destination on time and I was having a "rumbly in my tumbly," (thank-you, for the reference, Pooh Bear) and we found a gem in the middle of  "little Mexico!"  I am not kidding when I say that we could hear roosters crowing from our seats on the patio.         I am not sure what Dr. B. ordered, it was a daily special. But, oh my!  Salmon with some kind of spicy, sweet (love the generalities here) sauce with pickled carrots, cucumbers, and jalapenos.       I had a blackened tilapia fish taco with their house tartar sauce and heaps of cilantro. And really, can you ever have too much cilantro?  Well, except for Dr. B., who is not fond of it and finds a miniscule amount too much. However, because he is awesome like this, he gave me half of his and it was tot...