Father Son Ski Trip

One of the great things about skiing are the opportunities to talk with girls. One thing I liked to do was start conversations with girls on the ski lifts. Many of them have their names written on their skis. They forget they are written there, so when you call them by name you catch them by surprise. I went up the mountain one time with a beautiful girl. She had a wonderful laugh. She laughed each time I called her by name. Her name
was Rental - Steve Martin


My cousin is a high school teacher. He is also the sponsor of his school's ski club. As such, over the years, he has thus far twice had me as a guest, a non paying one at that, on one of his ski trips. On the last occasion I brought Charlie. It was March 14th and while the day started below freezing, we skiied in about 40 degree weather .



It was a gorgeous day for him to learn to ski. I arranged for him to have a lesson. The instructor had him practice to begin with 1 ski on a rather small incline and graduate to 2 and then to the actual bunny hill, where his greatest difficulty was using the tow rope.


Charlie and I hit the bunny hill hard for a few hours then had a nice junkfood jamboree at the snack bar. Nachos, hot dogs and his own soda (something that never happens at home.) We skiied for a few more hours after that and then we headed for home around 3 o'clock.





On the way home, we stopped in the town of New Glarus, Wisconsin. If I have my greats in order, Charlie's great great great grandparents were some of the original settlers of New Glarus, coming there from Switzerland. I took a picture of him at the monument under the names of his forebearers, Jost and Fridolin Becker. Our home school is named after my grandmother Izola (Becker) Roller. So I thought it was appropriate on the innaugral outing of the Izola Becker Home School Ski Club, to also study her history.

It had warmed up to the mid 50's by then, and there we sat in a park, jacketless, enjoying each other's company less than 2 hours after being on a ski slope.

We had a fantastic time. Charlie is keen on skiing and we hope to get the whole family in or back in the act soon. Don't worry cousin Billy, next time, it will be on our dime.

Next Time: State Capitols

High Fructose Corn Syrup

This week at We are That Family there is a special themed version of Works for me Wednesday. It's a backwards rendition of WFMW. You present a dilemma and the rest of the readership tells you what works for them. It's a backwards rendition of WFMW.

My dilemma is this: I wrote a post for WFMW over a month ago for this particular edition. If you go back to my WFMW post back in the Rocks in My Dryer era circa 2-18-09, you will note that I said I had post ideas planned out through 4-15-09. You will also note that Shannon was not running themed editions on the first week of the month for the last few months of her WFMW run. So, I came up with this post and thought it would be terrific for the 1st Wednesday in April. So what do I do? Do I post my original idea or come up with a new post entirely. Here is the post I intended to run today...

High Fructose Corn Syrup

It is so hard to get our children to eat healthy these days. Especially hard to get them to eat their vegetables. That's why I am so glad for high fructose corn syrup(HFCS).

There has been a lot of misinformation coming out about HFCS, and I for one was so deeply moved that the corn refiners association would battle this misinformation with advertisements like this one.

What I especially like about HFCS is that it's in so many products. Because of it's ready availability, it is so easy to eat in moderation.

So, High Fructose Corn Syrup works for me. To see what other sweet ideas are out there go to We are that Family for the April 1st edition of Works For Me Wednesday.

Next Time: Father and Son Ski Trip

Turtle Soap is Best

8 or 9 years ago a good friend of mine and his oldest boys were visiting Amy, Emma and me. We were headed somewhere, perhaps a White Sox game. This was back in our apartment days and we had recently moved across the hall from a 1 to a 2 bedroom. I was showing them around and we got to the bathroom. We had the aquarium soap dispenser with the sea turtles pictured. One of the boys asked their father why we had turtle soap. Without even missing a beat, my friend cheerfully responded "Cause turtle soap is best!"

I am not sure why he answered this way. I am equally unsure why, but I really liked his answer. It was anything but ambiguous. It was a proclamation, that has stuck with Amy and me all these years. About a year ago, I mentioned this exchange to my friend. He had totally forgotten it and really had no idea why Turtle soap was best. My friend had 4 children at the time of the remark and now has 9 with 10 on the horizon. He answers a lot of children's inquiries and I do not expect him to recall each and every one of his answers.

It got me to thinking, though. To me, this was a memorable, if not, defining remark of his, and he had no recall of it. There have been many occasions when I have remembered something as a highlight reel type memory and the other participant had little or no memory of it. It is also very common, when someone else has an indelible timestamp memory of me, that I have not thought of for years.

Now, when these moments are light turtle soap memories that is fine. As a father and specifically the teacher of my children, I hope the snapshots my children choose to remember are of a positive nature rather than words I'd rather they forget. Today, for example, my daughter recalled my oft spouted phrase of my main job being keeping my children safe. She even made a joke about it (It doesn't pay much, but it's worth it!). She also made a comment today about all the times I yell at her. As parents we build memories, as sinners many of those memories we wish could be forgotten. As a believer in Jesus I know those sins and those memories can be washed cleaner than turtle soap ever could.

Next Time: High Fructose Corn Syrup

Go ask my Dad.

My last post was about a give-a-way at Mama Archers Blog. I posted it because that is how one enters the give-a-way. Today, I am posting about a post that appeared on her blog last year. Again, my motivation is to earn another entry in her give-a-way. But more than that it gives me the opportunity to broach a topic on this blog that I have not as of yet brought up.

Some of you may know that I would someday like to write a book. I often say I am working on a book, but that does not do justice to my friends who are actually working on a book. I have ideas for a book on relationships. From time to time I may talk about some of those ideas here.

Mama Archer's post was about relationships. In the post she linked to something she wrote in a blog called Weekend Kindness. What she shared was actually from a paper her daughter had written about finding a spouse. Many of the standards her daughter mentioned are those I am imparting in my daughters. Specifically, a courtship model, that involves the active role of the parents especially the father.

When my 9 year old was younger, I taught her what to say if a boy ever wanted to marry her. The response is "go ask my Dad." She still remembers it, and has not fought with me about it, yet, but that day may come.

My youngest child, also a daughter, is 3. She is leaving what I call the "save them every day" stage. The part of their life when you seem to be keeping them from physical peril at every turn. We spend so much of their early child hood keeping them from physical harm, making rules to keep them safe. Before they use a tool that could hurt them, we instruct them, and give them careful supervision while learning new skills.

I am not sure why with all that care giving I would be willing to withdraw all that guidance when they become of dating age. Many parents seem to think they have no chance of asserting control in any of those areas, so they do not try. I was greatly encouraged to read that Mama Archer's daughter plans to allow her parents an active role in determining her future husband. I will write more about these issues in the future.

Next Time: Turtle Soap is Best