I do all my own stunts

Fits me to a T

My life in T-Shirts

A few years ago I was at a birthday party for my wife's cousin (cous-in-law). My wife's sister (sister-in-law) gave my cous-in-law a t-shirt that said "I do all my own stunts" . I thougt it was way cool and wanted one myself. My cous-in-law was turning 8 at the time.

So, yes I get my fashion tips from pre-pre-teeners. I love that story and I love that shirt. They both capsulize my personality. T-shirts are like washable bumper stickers. I realize that in a way certain shirts I have had in my life can tell my life's story. From time to time I will be displaying them for you here.

Next Time: My video collection

The Same Guys

I was looking at Ship full of Pirates/Meanwhile Back at the Ranch recently when I received quite the shock. I was looking at the following post and the guys in that video looked very familiar. I knew those bug eyes and facial tics from somewhere. Then when one of the guys started playing the recorder, I knew! It was the Fabulous Bentley Brothers from Jelly Telly.

It seems like the guys who sing excellent and very funny summaries of books of the Bible, like this one on Judges, also sing very funny songs about frogs and Facebook.

These guys have an excellent website at Rhettandlink.com. I highly reccomend both their personnas. I have linked up some bentley/rhettandlink videos at my site. Let me know which one you favor.

Next Time: I do my Own Stunts!

State Capitols and Restate Capitols

Welcome to all linking to this post from Home School Carnival gardening edition.

When Emma was in 1st or 2nd grade she had a unit on States. She learned all the capitols, the year they became a state and a famous citizen of that state. Charlie followed along and learned much of the information himself. It was an excellent unit, and a great jumping off point for other studies. We learned many interesting facts we had not known before, like the fact that Adolf Hitler had at one point owned large portions of Colorado. This led to studies on the Holocaust. We learned about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. This led to further studies about civil rights. It also sparked an obsession in Charlie about boycotts.

Since that time we have seen Emma's memory of capitols dwindle down to 50% from knowing all of them. We decided to prepare a refresher for her and Charlie during Spring Break. Since Amy now has a Spring Break at her job we give the kids a few days off their studies as well. We did have them review the capitols every day for a week and now Emma is almost back to 100% again. Charlie is kind of boycotting the quizzing and answers Baton Rouge or Salt Lake City to all of them.

The Monday of Spring Break was the regular day for our home school cooperative. I teach a class on grammar and editing for the 7th grade-and-up crowd. I like to open the class in an unusual way, so I began by quizzing them on state capitols. One girl did not know the capitol of Illinois. That's fine if you live in Kansas. But when you live in Illinois, it's kind of an important fact! I went through 20~25 states and no one even got a quarter of 'em. They assured me they had all memorized or at least studied the capitols before. These are bright articulate kids. But just like Emma and Charlie, they need a refresher. Here is a demonstration.

This Monday, the tables were turned. I was assisting at the co-op in Charlie's class. They were reading a story about Martin Luther King and the bus boycott. I could not think of Rosa Parks' name. It was killing me! I asked Charlie, he didn't remember. I sauntered across the hall and asked Emma, she didn't know. I stayed up all night racking my brain and at about 6 a.m, it dawned on me. No, that's just a bad joke. I thought of it on the drive home. But the point had been made. Things get forgotten, and things worth remembering need to be taught over and over.
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Another important aspect of state knowledge is being able to place them on a map. No doubt many of you have seen this useful resource. It is very addictive and I have become pretty good at it. I have placed all 50 states without an error 3 times now. It all depends on the order of the states you are given. Today we had a family contest and Emma won placing 47/50 with an average error of only 14 miles. Charlie is not able to read all of the states. He does a pretty good job of recognizing the states by shape.
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Next Time: The Same Guys

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