The kids painted pictures for our new wall. Check out Cole's blog for his painting.

Sydney and Nora in their matching dresses after church one Sunday. It was our last weekend at our old house.

Tea Party in Honolulu

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday at Hickam Beach. This is the second year in a row, I have driven to the beach before church to take pics near the water. We had Easter Brunch at church followed by worship service. The rest of the day was spent lounging around the house with a short trip in between to the beach (inlet area) the kids enjoyed catching crabs and Nora gets to play in the water for the first time.

Passover Dinner

Our house for Passover dinner. It was a house full with the friends from church. An experience for us all. Wish my house was bigger to take it all in.

An Essay from an online educational newsletter I receive monthly from Veritas Press.

Entitlement, Owning the Problem, and the Classically Educated

I'm like any other red-blooded American who wonders how we are going to pay for all of this. Our federal government has been on a spending spree to rival . . . well, this kind of spending actually has no rivals-ever. Recently, trillions of dollars have been (or will be) "invested," spent, or otherwise disposed of in the name of getting our economy back on track. Consequently, we, the citizens, are the owners of a failing insurance agency and the largest lenders to two of the largest and unhealthiest auto companies.

Now I realize I'm being a bit sarcastic, maybe even cynical, here. I also realize you are as tired of hearing about this as I am, but that is partially my point, so hang in there for a minute. I also realize there is much that is hard for us, the average citizens, to understand. However, this is really quite a disturbing set of circumstances when all things are considered.

Coupled with all this spending is a new strain of entitlement-one that believes the federal government has both the obligation and the right to look into details of private transactions and make unilateral changes to contracts and existing agreements. Talks of even scarier intrusion are quite common.

It's been said that America had better repent of such financial recklessness or we will receive the judgment of God. A pastor and friend had a different take. He indicated that this is the judgment of God. Is what we've done not a bit like the man who has lost his job and promptly goes out to buy a new $75,000 recreational vehicle with borrowed money to help the economy? Taking on more debt-a lot more debt-hardly seems a wise approach to getting out of debt.

Yet a bigger problem remains. It's the problem of ownership. No one owns the national problems we face. I feel little ownership of the federal debt. I feel little ownership of the process that includes the foolishness that tacks on huge pork-barrel add-ons to popular congressional bills. Summarily speaking, I feel little ownership to community, cultural, or collective sin. I don't have a clue as to how to repent of it, either. Do you?

We might bury our heads believing that these problems were not caused by us and can't be fixed by us. And, at a micro level, we might be right. But who does own them? Who really takes responsibility? May God give us a clear sense of what it means to corporately confess our sins as so many of us pray every Sunday. And may God give us wisdom to carefully and collectively follow that repentance with godly actions-actions that include strategic efforts to bring concern for biblical wisdom and righteousness into the public square, actions that include an understanding of what God's Word means when it says that judgment begins with the House of God.

Frankly, we need godly politicians. We need godly pastors, too-ones who won't shrink from tackling the difficult or equivocate on complex matters such as these. Finally, we need godly, articulate, bold lovers of truth in the rising generation who will be not only the next politicians and pastors, but businessmen, parents, citizens, laborers, and friends of the lost.

Summarily, we need a people who know the facts, think well, and articulate their thoughts in such a winsome way that they are able to conceive what it means to own a corporate failing and know what to do about it. That is why I believe a classical Christian education is so important, because I believe that is exactly what it produces.

But we need more than that from these people. We need them "to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with their God." May we become those people, and may we raise a generation of those people.

Marlin Detweiler

Nora and Sydney

Sydney at the top, around 6mths and Nora below at 7mths. One of the few dresses I kept. I always liked Sydney in red. Now its Nora's turn. Our girls are all smiles!!!

Reasons to use Shaklee

For all my friends with small children, I would like to recommend Shaklee cleaning products. Did you know?
• Over 90% of poison exposures happen at home.
• Common chlorine bleach is the #1 household chemical involved in poisoning.
• Organic pollutants, found in many common cleaners and even air fresheners,
have levels 2 to 5 times higher inside your home than out.
• Common cleaners give off fumes that can potentially increase the risk of kids
developing asthma, the most common chronic childhood disease.
• 1 in 13 school-aged children has asthma. Rates in children under five have
increased more than 160% from 1980 –1994.
• If your home is anything like the average U.S. home, you generate more than
20 pounds of household hazardous waste each year (the EPA designates
toilet cleaners, tub and tile cleaners, oven cleaners, and bleach as hazardous waste).

Shaklee
Difference
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cleaning choices that are:
SAFE
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✔ No harmful fumes
✔ Hypoallergenic
✔ No volatile organic cleaning
compounds
✔ Formulated without hazardous
chemicals such as:
• Kerosene
• Phenol
• Cresol
• Lye
• Hydrochloric acid
• Sulfuric acid
• Sulfamic acid
• Petroleum distillates
• Ammonia
• Sodium hydroxide
• Butyl cellosolve
• Phosphoric acid
• Formaldehyde
• Morpholine
POWERFUL
✔ Outperforms 12 national brands
✔ 100% money-back guarantee
GREEN
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natural sources
✔ Biodegradable surfactants
✔ Recyclable packaging
✔ Recyclable wipes
✔ Recyclable dryer sheets
✔ No chlorine bleach
✔ No phosphates
✔ No nitrates
✔ No borates
✔ No volatile organic cleaning
compounds
✔ No animal testing

It has been brought to my attention that I don't smile all that often on camera. This was taken by one of Tim's co-workers and I was so pleased that we were both smiling.....No it has nothing to do with what is inside the red cup....just happy....a rare night out.

Nora Claps-6mths old

Can you get

any happier? Nora figured out how to clap today. She has done it several times own her own without being shown how. She thinks it is the coolest thing going.

Where are we again?

Oh yeah the Macadamia Nut farm.

All over Oahu

Rare moment

Wish I had the man sitting just in front of these trees enjoying nice and quiet until.....


Mack loves to crack Macadamia nuts, he would have stayed there all day. Job opportunity?

The kids took this shot. China Man's Hat. The wind was really kickin' that day. It was cold here for HI while my visitors were here. I was bummed but I don't think they really noticed. They just kept telling me that it was warm to them.

Submarine tour. I prefer to stay on the land. Nora was too little, that's my story and I am sticking to it.

Hawaii with PawPaw Tommy and Mimi

Polynesian Culture Center boat ride. The kids never get tired of this place.

I have no idea where to begin. 10 days and about 1,000 pics of Hawaii. We whale watched, snorkeled, some went on a Submarine, North Shored where the surf was high and watched surfers do their thing. Ate out a ton! I am still full. I don't need to eat for a really long time.

Nora

Nora is getting bigger. She sits up, plays with her toys and has a smile that just doesn't stop. Nora also nurses every 4 hours which means I am exhausted!! She is 5.5mths so we let her eat her first cereal yesterday. It was a family event. I think she is going to like this eating thing.

Aloha Run 25th year

Tim ran the 8 mile Aloha run in 1hr 2 min. Mybe next year Cole and I will try.

Homeschooling Trials

Our friends who have 9 children in their homeschool family are starting to see their oldest leave home for college. The second oldest rattled off the names of colleges he has been accepted into, the Air Force Academy to name one. I was very excited for him. We live in an age now where the homeschooler is grown up (they actually survived), out of the house and making their way as adults in life (without having a social breakdown as some think) .

I have known 2 men (former homeschoolers) who worked with Tim in the EOD career field. OK well, maybe homeschoolers are crazy and demented but that is getting off the point I am trying to make.

It has been encouraging for me to see a finished product . I do struggle with the future for my children. How will they turn out? I am happy to see the lack of consistency in what defines a homeschool parent. They come in all shapes: 4 year degrees, high school diploma, some are real certified teachers.... most aren't. There is even the single parent thrown in the mix from time to time. Some provide a rigid curriculum, others are more laid back in their schedules and formality.

I want a how to book on everything. Tim once threatened to throw out all the "how-to" books in the house because I drive him crazy over "we need to do it this way". How to be a Christian, how to be a wife, how to be a mother, how to be a homeschool mom....then there are those "how to be __fill in the blank_____ and do it better" books.

I hate to admit that I am lazy and just want a book or a person to tell me how to do it...how to make me successful. I really just want someone to say do it this way and it will work out best. To myself I think..."Ask so and so how they do it cause their kids really seems to have it together." or "they seem really organized I must be doing it wrong". I have homeschooled for 6 years, read books, talked to many different types of homeschooling families and have never settled on any one way they have told me. Of course I have picked fruit from their trees and applied them where I need to but I haven't adopted any ONE method or copied exactly what another would do. (Against my desires to do so)

There are parenting methods, teaching methods, horse/dog training methods that are all different. Even when applying the same style, you get a different outcome. At some point (and I am slowly getting there) I am going to have to be confident in saying to myself and the world. "This is how I do it, it works for me". As long as I am not living in a world of sin that displeases God, he has given me freedom to raise my family, choose a career, live in a location that I desire and to his glory, I will be successful. He will accomplish his purpose he has for me in his way as well, unfortunately he won't provide a "HOW TO" book on that. That is where Trust comes into play.

Homeschool

Colleges Want Your Homeschooler!
From Patti Miller, for About.com
Filed In:
Teaching and Testing

It used to be that homeschooling families approached colleges with some fear and trepidation. The path to admission was quirky and nonsensical, and the hoops that needed to be jumped through were often ridiculous…if the school would even consider accepting a non-traditionally-schooled person. Homeschoolers had no access to federal scholarships, and colleges rarely gave any money to them.
Things have changed, and definitely for the better. Homeschoolers are entering college in record numbers, with higher test scores than their public school counterparts.
“Home educated students generally score at the 65th to 80th percentile on achievement tests, 15 to 30 percentile points higher than those in public schools,” writes Brian D. Ray, Ph.D. of the National Home Education Research Institute. They also tend to stay in college and finish on time, often with above-average grades. This makes them very desirable students.
The Financial Aid picture has changed also. Thanks to the Higher Education Act Amendments of 1998 (Pub. L. No. 105-244), the student is eligible for Federal Aid if “the student has completed a secondary school education in a homeschool setting that is treated as a homeschool or a private school under state law. That’s all that is necessary. No GED, no special tests, just a homeschool diploma. The law also discourages colleges from discriminating against homeschoolers, and encourages them to accept students on the basis of their ability, not the accreditation of their school.
This played out very well recently when I took my seventeen-year-old son to our local community college to enroll him in their computer science program. I went armed: copies of my letters from the county board of education to prove that we were legal, a homemade high-school transcript to show what he’d studied, results of a recent standardized test, and a copy of the state homeschool regulations.
I didn’t need any of it.
I dropped Evan off to take the COMPASS exam, a placement test that many colleges use to see who needs remedial classes. Evan hadn’t studied much, but he felt ready for the challenge, and it could be retaken if he chose.
An hour and a half later, I went to pick Evan up. He was not in the testing room, and he’d left only about two minutes before. I wandered around the campus, wondering how I could lose someone twice my size. After a nice long walk, one of the ladies in the testing room said that maybe they’d sent him to the academic counselor.
When I finally caught up with Evan, all there was to do was pay.
He’d registered, been accepted, and signed up for three classes (no remedial needed).
It was a bit more complicated five years ago when his older sister, Claire, applied to a small, private, heavily academic college. She had a few small scholarships to the school from some church programs she’d participated in, but she was only sixteen, so we doubted she’d make it. On the other hand, she had a 33 on her ACT (top score is 36: national average is 19-20.)
This school had a user-friendly program for admitting homeschoolers. They asked for a list of courses taken with books used, test scores, a student essay, and recommendations. It was easy to navigate, and the admittance office was very helpful. All-in-all, though, it took a few months, not counting the dishearteningly long FAFSA application.
When all was said and done, though, Claire was offered most of her tuition paid in scholarships and a very low-interest loan for the rest.
Claire graduated last year, second –and youngest- in her class.

"Human Sin is stubborn but not as stubborn as the grace of God and not half so persistent, not half so ready to suffer to win its way."

- C. Plantinga