Games

We played "Postcards from North America" today. Our game closet is over full of games we rarely play. I've decided that we will play one game every day until we get through it. If we can't stand a game, we shall get rid of it and thin them out.

Postcards is a fun game. We like reading the postcards when we get to a place on the board. And it was fun watching the boys get all excited about the one's from places we have been. One downside, I want to go to the places that are on the board that I haven't been. ROADTRIP ideas abound!

The Salt Shaker Incident

On Sunday, Tom dropped the salt shaker and broke it. No big deal right? Wrong. He starts bawling. You'd think that he was afraid he was going to get in trouble or that he felt bad that he had broken something valuable. He was upset that he broke the “salt shaker we have always had”, “a part of his childhood”. These are his words. He was inconsolable for quite some time. I tried to be supportive. I know how sentimental he is. You can't even imagine what went on when we moved from our house in Anaheim. They don't remember any other house.


I started throwing away the pieces and he was getting them out of the trash. He insisted we could glue it back together. It was broken into at least 50 pieces. It just wasn't going to happen. I got him to let me clean up the mess and throw away the pieces. The whole time he sobbed out things like, “I will always remember it.” “It's the only salt I've ever known” “...so many memories”, as if it were a special toy.

I went back to making popcorn and turned around to find him grabbing pieces from the trash and running out of the room. Then I heard him put the pieces in his drawer. I shook my head and jokingly told him he was nuts. We went to watch a movie and the rest of the evening rolled on.

Later that night, late, everyone was asleep, I wake up to hear him rummaging around in his drawers, wait, then I hear him sobbing into his pillow. I go in to him. He has the pieces of the shaker and he is just so pathetic. I gave him some love and told him we could find a new one that was even cooler than the old one. I didn't mention replacing it with the same one since I wasn't sure we could or if it would be healthy, I mean the kid is freaking out. He went back to sleep.

I heard nothing about it the next day. We did joke with him about breaking the new one, the paper container from the store. I looked up a replacement for the old one and it was $30 since they are from a set that is discontinued. He saw it and I told him it was too much for a salt shaker I wasn't attached to anyway. We should just get ourselves a cool new set that we love.

Late last night, he came into my room and woke me up. He said he wanted to give me half the money for the new set we found online. The kid has issues. I'm joking really, he's just very sentimental like his Dad, but seriously, how do I comfort him?

It's working!!

A month ago, I made a promise to myself to start studying more regularly. I have three books I'm working on in the morning. I get up at 5:30 and make coffee, check my email and FB while it brews, get my cup and open my Bible. I read a couple chapters, not study, just read. What does the Lord have for me today? Then I read as much as I can of "The Great Books". I love these books! It's a entire classical library in my livingroom with a schedule what order to read built in. I got them for Christmas at out used book store in town. When I've had enough of that, I move on to my science book or whatever class I'm working on. I made the starting promise to do this for one hour every morning, no matter what my mood. And it's working! Today I was stuck into it for over an hour and didn't realize what time it was. I'm so excited!

Geology By Design

Just finished reading "Geology by Design" by Carl R. Froede Jr. I read the Astronomy one in the same "design" series a few years back and was thrilled with it so I was excited to get this book when I saw it at the Creation Museum in Santee, CA. I don't even pretend to understand half of what is in this book. It is pretty technical to a layman, but I slogged through it anyway and got quite a bit out of it. I love rocks in the first place, so that is why I was drawn to the book. I'm so curious to know what scientists ideas are about how the rocks formed. Living next door to Joshua Tree National Park makes it hard not to notice the crazy rock formations and how different one area can be from another. While writing this, I'm trying to figure out how to get the boys to let me explore a little today with the new knowledge that I have. I'm also just dying to get deeper into the subject. I think I might take a geology course online soon. Can't right now though, because I signed up for an economics class, so I've got to get crackin' on that. :)

I highly recommend these books though. Even if it seems too technical, keep reading. There are tons of tidbits hidden in there that will open up whole avenues for you!

Palm Spring Air Museum

Thanks to our lovely friend Gale, we had the chance to take a "educational" tour at the Palm Springs Air Museum today. THANKS, Gale!

 Tom loved seeing this big gun out front. It's called "Flak 88"!

At the beginning of the tour, this guy, Greg, gave the kids a lecture about the science and history of flight. They ate it up. He was a great presenter and the kids all loved his demonstrations.

 There were some mock-ups in the children's area that most of the kids spent a LOT of time on, including mine.

 Lunch was a little pricey but the food was good.

This is where we spent a lot of time. This guy talked with the boys about submarines, battleships, and aircraft carriers for an hour. He was in the Navy during WWII. I loved listening to their questions and his answers. He showed us how they got the planes back on the battleship, the Wildcat wings and how they set the plane up to take off from an aircraft carrier. It was great!

We will definitely be going back soon. They have lots of things for the kids to do over the summer. And Dan did not get to go today. He had to work and could not get the day off. There was so much to see that we will need a trip back anyway. Even I was interested in talking to the people there since they were all so nice. I'm not much of an airplane fan, so usually I'm pretty bored in about an hour or so.

Why is it cold?

It's the middle of may and I'm wrapped in a thick blanket this morning! It was 42 degrees when I got up. The wind died down though. Yesterday it was blowing so hard that it knocked me into the door on my way back from the laundry room.

Tom had a baseball game last night. I thought for sure they would cancel it because of the crazy wind, but they didn't. All the other teams did, but not our game. Crazy boys. It wasn't bad though. Since it was still light out, the sun was warm on our backs. Tom's team had to forfeit since they were short four players. Grr...Why do people do that? It's a team sport, you can't just not show up because you don't feel like playing today. Half the team shows up to practice, too. What the heck man!? They played the game anyway, since they were there and it was a great game to watch. Since we already forfeited the game, the coach put in any of the boys who wanted to try pitching. It was pretty crazy. Tom played catcher a bit and got to get a boy from his team last year out. That made him happy. I love watching Tom play. He is very confident and knows what is going on in the game. When he started last year, he had no clue how to play baseball except that you hit the ball and run. Now he is the master of the rules, at least. He is getting much better at the skills, too. He had two great hits! One even surprised him as he ran to first. He did his trademark fists in the air "YES!" and then realized he had really hit it and made it all the way to third. The part I love to see though is how much attention he gives to the game. You have to watch it. He looks like a mini pro.

Jake made a friend at the game this time. Actually, he always makes a friend. There are boys from his team last year, or little brothers and sisters of Tom's teammates that he is running around with. Tonight, he sat there with a little brother on the bleachers and talked with him for a long time. I heard him ask who his brother was, how old he was (5), what team he played on, etc. Jake is always nice to little kids. He loves them. I think he prefers their company to kids his own age. He makes faces at them and carries them around. It's pretty stinkin' adorable.

Finished Book 1 of Politics

Ok, I'm not even pretending to understand the last two books of Aristotle that I have read. It all seems pretty jumbled up to me.

I learned the word "niggardly" means cheap or grudgingly mean about spending. Also that there are "natural forms of society" and that that the smallest "state" is husband and wife. I did heartily agree that a man who is not social is the most dangerous to a society. He is armed and intelligent with no ties to human life.

He talked a bit about slavery being a natural condition in the world along with submission of wife to husband. There was a bit about whether or not women and children have natural virtue which I did not understand much of. I got that they did, but it was different. The virtue of a man is to command or be master of his family and that of woman is to obey. Children are immature and will grow to be citizens someday so need to be taught these virtues. I think I was missing his point.

I'm off to read some commentary on this book to see if I can make any sense of it all.

Biblical Studies

I'm loving reading Geology by Design! I read another similar book about Astronomy years ago and just as impressed. The book is a science book and gives answers and research to topics related to the subject. I'm big on the rocks man, so I picked up this one. Much of it is over my head, but I just keep reading and I find nuggets of enlightenment in every chapter.

I don't like Christian studies that only site the Bible as a the reference. I like ones that use science as anyone else would and then show how what they have found correlates to what the bible says happened. It's very exciting.

Another thing I was looking at was a study of the Torah on http://www.hebrew4christians.com/. I so want to buy that. I love a deep study of the bible. I love finding out what the words originally meant and how they were translated into English. It gives the scriptures so much more depth. Those that have not read into what the Bible actually says and then condemn it really bug me. There is just so much knowledge there. No wonder the Jewish people call the books of Moses, the Teaching!

The Baseball Issue

Why is Little League such a hotbed of hatred? I just don't get it. I understand that it's "the Great American Pastime" but why all ugliness even at the lowest level? It makes me want to start a league where you're only allowed to play if you just want to learn the game and have fun. And you have to take a test to get in.

Yesterday, while watching my littlest play, I listened to two mother's sitting next to me complain about all the other kids playing that weren't doing so well. Of course, theirs made big mistakes too, but they yelled at them sarcastically from the stands and talked about how much they would have to practice to get any better. I wonder if that helped their sons. I heard parents yell at the umpire about bad calls, that's typical, but I never hear them gripe about it when it's about the other team. I heard them complain and put down our 14 year old umpire as if there is some kind of conspiracy against our team. That boy spends all his extra time at the ball park volunteering so that the younger boys can play (you can't have an official game without an umpire) and he has to know all the rules for all the leagues, rookie, minor, major, junior, not to mention the softball leagues, and they are all different. I heard parents complain that the coach is letting kids play positions that they aren't good at. They are all not good at any of the positions! That is the point. They are learning to play the game.

Well, it just went on and on and that was just this last game! What is wrong with people? There is no money on these games. There is no college or pro scout there picking players for next years line up or scholarship. There is no major award for winning. It's just little boys learning to play baseball. It just kills me that these boys have to go home with these parents. I heard one mom saying that she was pissed off that her son didn't want to play pitcher when he was so good at it, she forced him to play. One mom said her son didn't want to play baseball this year but she signed him up anyway, it would keep him out of trouble. I mean, he's 10 years old, and at school from 7am to 3pm (probably later). What kind of trouble can he get into?

Jake and Tom complain that most of the kids are wild animals in the dugout. Two maybe three on the team are paying any attention the game at all. I have to say, my boys are not the best players, but they are in the game when they are there. They want to be there and they enjoy playing ball. I enjoy watching all the boys play.

Oh, one more, I actually heard several parents brag about being thrown out of several little league games for bad behavior. Seriously?

Ok, I'm done...for now. We have another game on Thursday.