Dominion Family

Grotto Falls

Christopher woke me up a 6:30 this morning so I could take him fishing. I was the mama human going along to protect my young from bears. We found a beautiful spot along a roaring river and he fished while I drank coffee, talked on the phone to Tim (I can’t always get a signal out here) and read the Bible. Oh, I took a few pictures, too. I have now used up 4 rolls of film.

I could be heard chanting, “There are no bears on Hemlock Mountain, no bears, no bears at all.”

Really!

Yesterday we took what was dubbed an “easy hike” up to see The Grotto Falls. I did think I was going to die a few times but I was determined not to harm the children’s fun by pooping out. Whew, we made it to the falls, read a chapter of The Princess and Curdie and made it back to the van. It was well worth the pain and suffering but I felt very sorry for several groups of elderly people who also bought the “easy hike” promo. I was like a prophet of doom as we descended, telling older groups of hikers they had a long way to go.

I think we may go to Cades Cove today before the leaves drop.

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News Flash:
We saw 3 bears yesterday. In my 44 years of living I had never seen a bear in the wild. It was a mama and 2 babies walking through a gully. We were able to park and watch them for quite a while. Hope the pics turn out.

It will probably come as no surprise that I love THIS post by DHM. Just call it mutual admiration.

I am not able to spend more than a few minutes a day online. Yippee.
I don’t get a phone signal most of the time either. Double Yippee.

Please go buy Mark Steyn’s book America Alone: The End of America.

Tim and Nathaniel arrive today for a weekend of family fun minus 3 members. That’s the way it is these days.

We miss you Timothy, Nicholas and James.

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Officer Fife

has gone from feeling blue:

To sheer happiness:

Barney asked. Thelma Lou said yes. We couldn’t be happier.

You oughta see the ring.

And for the record it all began with Shakespeare.

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Our long vacation is almost
over. It has been fun and interesting. We have hiked and read and watched TV. Last night I was pleased that one of my children said they would rather read than watch TV. It rained the last couple of days so we turned the TV on more.

The funniest thing was all of the political ads. 8yo Andrew went around asking everyone who they were going to vote for: Bob Corker (Rep) or Harold Ford Jr (Dem)? Of course, we didn’t really get to vote for either because we don’t live in TN. When one of the other children told Andrew they were voting for Bob Corker, Andrew was shocked. He asked the sibling if they realized that Bob Corker had not answered the phone 31,000 times (911 calls) which goes to show that those dirty political ads are probably about a 2nd grade level.

I only wanted to watch one show while I was here but you probably wouldn’t believe which one it was.

It is also very annoying not to be able to hit pause or rewind.

I long for commercial free viewing.

We did like the Geico commercials. Alex can dance and sing, “It’s my birthday, fixed my bumper…”

You know, when you don’t have a TV you always imagine all kinds of interesting things on it but then when you get a chance to watch it it is just a lot of nothing.

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I will continue my vacation vignettes by telling you of an interesting phenomenon I experienced.

Nathaniel and I drove to KY to attend a banquet. My dad was being inducted into the EKU Hall of Fame. This was the first ever EKU induction so it was a big deal. Among the other inductees were an NFL football player and an Olympic runner.

I was a little appalled when I realized Nathaniel was wearing cargo pants. My dad took us out to lunch at Paneros and we ended up shopping at Goodys for Nathaniel.

The weird thing was they were playing Christmas music in Goodys and because I was visiting my parents away from home I had to keep slapping my brain around to remind it that it was not Christmas yet. I hate early Christmas music just because I enjoy the season and the music so much.

That music completely tricked my body even while my mind disengaged itself. I found myself dancing among the clothes looking for holiday sweaters, swaying and humming. It made me so mad.

We had a great time at the banquet where they did not play Christmas music but where my dad was the last speaker and as always he gave a great speech. I especially liked the part where he told a roomful of coaches that Nathaniel was a GREAT ballplayer.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow….

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I have been hoping to have time to post this for a couple of weeks now. In America Alone by Mark Steyn on pg 188 he has an essay entitled Cradle to Grave. In my opinion this essay gets to the heart of the matter. For the faithful I will reproduce a few lengthy excerpts but please buy the book.

When one contemplates the demographic catastrophe, it’s easy to say, well, maybe we should reduce the tax burden on young fertile adults, make it easier for them to afford to buy a home and start a family. But the economic argument is in the larger sense marginal. In traditional rural societies, children were a necessary insurance for one’s old age: by the time you were too stooped and worn to plough the field and hunt for dinner, Junior would do it for you. Today, when you’re stooped and worn (and, in fact, long before that point), the state steps in to take care of you. Reconnecting nanny-state populations with cross-generational solidarity requires much more than the marginal tax breaks the Portuguese government announced or the nine thousand bucks the Russian state is now offering for second children. The most important action in reaquainting individuals with a larger sense of life is the one that governments recoil from: shrink the state.”

“That gets closer to the nub of the matter. It’s not just a question of tax breaks and affordable housing. the chief characteristic of our age is “deferred adulthood.” All over North America and Europe there are millions of people going to college for no good reason. Certainly, there’s no reason why the sum of knowledge the average American has accumulated by the time he’s completed a bachelor’s degree should take twenty years to inculcate…”

“The state and its citizens would be better off if we gave students a terrific high school education and then let ‘em get on with earning money so they can afford to have two or three kids in their twenties instead of one fertility-treatment special delivery in late middle age. It won’t be easy to do that, particularly in America, where schools are a bastion of over-unionization dedicated to expanding thier privileges and protections at the expense of their pupils.”

“In the end, it’s not about cash: after all, materialism and self-gratification are why Eutopians gave up on the future in the first place.”

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After all the talk on this blog about tacky plastic ornaments, I felt compelled to admit that I saw something plastic and tacky that I liked.

Maybe it is a judgment.

We were eating at a pancake house beautifully decorated for autumn when I noticed a tree made of plastic lighted autumn leaves. It was totally tacky but I think it would look lovely lighting the dining room on Thanksgiving.

It is amazing what can be done with plastic and lights….just leave out the air!

For the record I did not purchase the plastic and lights.

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Since I tend to be a bit critical I wanted to take a minute to commend two ministries that recently ministered to our family.

The first is HSLDA. After being members for 17 years, we didn’t have the money to renew in August because of Tim losing his job. I got a call a few weeks back and HSLDA offered to pay our fees for the first 6 months of the school year and let us begin again in January. That was completely unexpected. A big thank-you to HSLDA.

As we were leaving for our vacation I got a call from Focus on the Family. We used to be big Focus supporters but over the years we have drifted away from that ministry. In spite of the fact I don’t agree with everything they promote, I do believe Dr. Dobson still has two things going for him that many other mega-ministry leaders have lost: integrity and humility. I suppose those two qualities work as garlic around the neck in keeping sin at bay.

As we were leaving for Gatlinburg, I recieved a phone call from Focus. Call it a ploy but the girl asked if she could pray with me about anything. Since I am living my own version of Facing the Giants these days I was more than happy to share a few things with her and then she prayed a simple, humble prayer for me. It lifted my spirits immensely and she didn’t ask me for money.

Call us jaded but we have become completely callous towards ministries begging for money. We still give to certain small groups that send us personal letters asking for assistance but we pretty much ignore any ministry that uses paid non-christian callers to drum up support.

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I had been scanning baby pictures when Nicholas got engaged.
Here are a few pictures of Timothy when he was young.

We called him Alfalfa:

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Dana posted her Thanksgiving menu and asked that we go ahead and post ours. I did spend way too much money at Sam’s yesterday and I am not done yet but we are having company this weekend followed by 27 people for Thanksgiving.

Because we are having so many people, I talked to the children yesterday about “deference.”

My definition of deference for the children:
Listen when others are talking.
Let it go.

We shall see…..

I am trying out new recipes from my new cookbook Thanksgiving 101.

Menu:
Turkey/Gravy
Ham
Dressing: Cornbread Sausage, Traditional Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Rolls, homemade
Sweet Potato Casserole
Green Bean Casserole
Spiced Cranberry Jello
Cranberry Sauce
Scalloped Yams

Appetizers because we are eating late:
Hot Crab Salsa Dip
Christmas Salsa Dip
Cheese Sticks
Buttered Cajon Pecans
Guacamole

Desserts:
Various
Maybe Cranberry Cheesecake and Bourbon Pecan Pie.

Autumn Glow Punch, Tea, Coffee etc

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