I'm sorry that you wanted to spank me!

Disclaimer: this is not about disciplining children or whether spanking is an effective method.

So we are preparing to move. Amy is at home still in recovery from Samuel's birth. She would like to organise the house while I am still at work, yet some of the older children feel that it is their duty to play with their friends that they shall never see again as often as possible.

So when I returned from work the plan was I do some cleaning while Amy prepares dinner. I went to the basement and started to clean. Time was not a worry and I was well into a task when I was called up for dinner.

I can get cranky over certain things, (which is why I have these things happen frequently, to teach me control) like being prematurely taken away from tasks that I am super focused on, or children not wanting to eat meals, yet will devour any form of junk that is within a mile of the table three seconds after saying I am full I don't need supper.

I come upstairs and the meal is cooked and Amy may have been dealing with a wee one. So I decide to dish out the food. Get me eight bowls and serve out the stew. Luella takes a look at her bowl and proceeds towards the garbage with it. I interceed to stop the tragic loss of this well prepared dish. This now becomes a power struggle between 40 year old parent and 4 year old child, I move the bowl to the center of the table and go to gather spoons to civilly eat with. Luella plays the Daddy is out of the room I will climb on the table and dump my food gambit. I return to the dinning room to find that one of the bowls are empty. I play the your bowl is empty and you disobeyed Daddy card and send her to her room. Mommy intervenes and Daddies ability to disipline is thwarted liked the vader he is.

I banish myself to the basement to finish the job I started. Luella comes down, "Daddy we have to talk"

"What do you want to say?"

"I am sorry"

"Why are you sorry?"

"Daddy, I am sorry for making you want to spank me."

Now in no way I felt that I wanted to spank her for wasting her food. I felt that going to bed without dinner or having her eat out of the garbage were more fitting punishments. Sometimes justice is left unsatisfied.

Today I don't feel like doing any blogging.

We have the European cup and the Olympics. They will bring happiness to some and sorrow to the losers and their fans. A temporary happiness or sorrow that will be a fleeting moment. Erased by the news, like that which we recieved not too long ago of a young girl who faces surgery, a lump inside her head near the brain stem. The joviality becomes less as the night passes and the anticipated news creeps out to the world as slowly as this night seems to pass. Good news that they will wait til morning that means that it won't kill her immediately yet her family waits for the word as to when? What will this mean for this budding Soccer player? This dancing queen? The mind races with uncertainty and doubt. Then a phone call from a friend, a leader from church, who willingly comes to sit in a chair and listen and then envoking a blessing on the home and family. The comfort of the spirit flooding my soul as a worthy servant bestows great blessings of peace.
Now I hope our niece will get rest and prepare for this battle she must fight and know that there is many that stand by her to support her. So today I blog for Jo Jo.
I think I will shave my head in support of my niece.

Dynamo Short Wave Radio

Alec found my emergency radio. He asked me how it works. I told him it needed batteries. He wanted to know what type. I told him AA. He wanted to know what double a batteries were. I told him the type that are used in the Wii remotes. He got the spare batteries right away. Always put things in ways others can relate to.
We started to play around with the switches and knobs til we found a channel that we could hear something. I don't know what language it was but he was excited to hear it work. He started to move the knob and found a baseball game. My wife told him that was how people would find out about the game by listening to the radio. Alec decided to share his new knowledge with his brother Kaleb. "This is how they watched baseball movies!" We relate the unknown with what we know.

Daddy that is one of my boyfriends!

I fear driving around with Luella. It seems that whenever the two of us are driving she starts a conversation that scares me. I never know what will come out of her mouth. She started to tell me about how she will have lots of boyfriends when we go to Ontario. She talked about going to school and having 6 boyfriends. Then proceeded to spew out gibberish names 8 names that I counted. She will be starting JK this year. She seems excited to go to Ontario. Now that she is talking about boys and is so young maybe this is the wrong choice to send her to school.
Now don't get me wrong I love the fact that she will talk to me about anything. Earlier she wanted to know where rain comes from. I tried to take her through logic. Showed her the clouds and told her they were made of water vapour. I then asked her where rain came from. She responded "Bakugans." Some times I think she is looking for the shock factor. And when Luella talks about her boyfriends bam she knows how to shock daddy.

Master calm my troubled seas!!

Last night at about 1 o'clock in the morning I came across an suv flipped over. A large cumpled ball of metal. I pulled over. When I approached the vehicle I saw a hand coming out of the sunroof. A young girl of about 20 years old. I checked for a pulse and noticed she was breathing. I initiated a call to 911. Within about 5 minutes emergency vehicles were all over the place. Hour and a half later I was on my way. I arrived at my hotel room at 3:30 in the morning. Wrestling with sleep. Tossing and turning all night. This afternoon I tried to nap with the thoughts coming back to me. Tonight is not much different. I seek solace I know that I can find it with my Lord. After seeking council, the thought ocurred to me to write this experience down. I know where my harbour is, it is with my family.
I feel that I should share about my love for the hymn Master the Tempest is Raging. I was nearing the end of my 2 year mission for my church. In my last area I worked with a woman who could not attend our church meetings because she wanted to be obedient to her husband. He told her she was not allowed to attend church. So as to avoid conflict she would have us over for lemon water and pound cake. Before we would leave she would ask us to sing Master the Tempest is Raging. Every week! I asked one week if we could sing a different hymn. She explained that while she struggled with her issues of not attending worship with her fellow saints she recieved enough solace from the words that she sings prayerfully each week waiting for her safe harbour. I learned to love that prayerful song more that day. I love it everytime I am away from the safe harbour of my family.
So if you see a redheaded guy walking down the street singing to himself. It might be me seeking to calm my troubled soul. Just as sharing these words have helped me still my troubled mind.
Obrigado Dona, for such a valuable lesson!!

Away from Home

The family is moving. I have been given an opportunity to travel ahead and scope out the area we will be moving to. This is a great time to see what the community has to offer, and I want to assure that we will have all that we require to live there since I will be traveling from home often. I know that my and my wife's extended family will be closer with this move. So family support is, hopefuly, going to happen more frequently.
This trip is going to give us a sense of comfort by allowing us to know what is there in the community. Where are the doctors? Are they taking patients? My daughters are into competing in vocal competitions. Can we find a suitable teacher? What are the schools like? Will we do brick and mortar or will we continue to teach from home? What is the local church like there? I know that my family is very adaptive. I love that even though we may have conflict at times they do forgive and love each other. I have been blessed with a wonderful wife who may inflict undue pressure upon herself, yet she is a great example of love. Some days I feel like I am more of a nuisance. I hope she knows that being away from her is difficult. I enjoy what I do and the places I have been, Dorthay had it right "there is no place like home."

How ever rare, Even Mom's do make mistakes.

We have been given an opportunity to welcome our seventh child into our family. No I did not stutter, I did say seven. Amy has been for weeks, even months been saying that she was carrying a girl. She even tricked the ultrasound tech to refer to the baby as a girl. I had some doubt when the wives tale survey we did said 61% for a boy. Well low and behold we delivered a wonderful boy. Now we need to come up with a name. What is in a name? Identity means so much, he would be equally loved with what ever name we decide to bestow upon him. Even if he wants to be called by a different name, like when Alec walked in stating that he would only go by "Diego," luckly that phase was short lived and he returned to his birth name. I hope my children don't think that their names come from a game of boggle. As was once pointed out to my wife. We take lots of thought into names. Their are stigmas to some names, some more than others, like Jack is a great name their are many good people who have used this name. There has been associated to that name some personel stigmas that I am trying to forgive and let go in my life. I am sure that their are some people in this world that dislike the name Michael due to my imperfect behavior. Too which I say sorry. I have thought long and hard about how a name associates us to many things. It could be to tyrants or heros, sinners and saints. The most important link is the identity that we make for ourselves. Although some things I have done in my life may not be forgivable by some. I am the some of my experiencies. I guess that it comes down to picking a name we are proud of and nurturing with love and gentle direction to help my children stand proud of who they are over the choices they have made. Humble enough to forgive and ask for forgiveness for errors they have committed. Walk tall my sons and daughters we have a rich history of men and women who have stood up for their beliefs. Who love God and will work on their relationship with him.

D. I. C. T. I. O. N. A. R. Y.

We do are primary schooling at home. The children enjoy some of the freedoms from not being in a traditional school, yet have teachers that they report to. The older ones are learning to write papers on their own. They ocasionally ask for some help. "Dad how do you spell 'science'?" I spell it the way my father taught me D. I. C. T. I  O. N. A. R. Y.
It is brilliant you stumble with a word and dictionary. You dictionary any thoughts that you dictionary dictionary.
Of course there is something lost in interpretation! But I don't give a dictionary. Thanks Dad, I sure do miss you.

"When you were a little girl, Daddy?"

Luella wants to know what it was like when I was younger. I was thinking of the 'up hill both ways' answer I always recieved. My Father did not grow up with all the wonders that we now deem a necessity now a days. Some of his stories would rival the four yorkshire men. I am sure that my own children might question some of my adventures. They sure like to push my buttons when they try to ask for everything. 'I want this! I want that! I want..... I want.... I want!!' Then hearing them dislike items that are needs like food and clothing. This drives me crazy. I just need to keep reminding them of what is important. That we don't need objects to make us happy (even though they may make life enjoyable), we need the love and support of our family and friends. We are very fortunate for having great friends that have supported our family like family. It will be great to move close to our children's uncles and aunts, yet it will be sad to leave the relationships that we have grown and nourished. Now I have to find a way to kindly enforce that daddies never were little girls!

Nice Daddy vs Mean Daddy

So we have less than a week til number seven arrives. There is school things on the go, our house is having construction being carried out, the older girls were participating in the Provincial Music Festival. We are pretty busy. With us moving at the end of summer, the kids want to spend as much time as they can with their friends. So yesterday after school Miss Maya wanted to go to a friend's house to play. When both I and her mother said no we were deemed mean and Maya was saying that she was being punished. Well mean daddy was in my head 'You think that is punishment let me teach you punishment!' Luckly nice daddy was in there also 'explain to her about how she will have to get home, all the events that we must do and the short time line we are working with.'  She still thought that she was being punished yet was willing to follow her parents. Mean daddy was once again defeated. Til the next conflict like Luella biting Reuben.

Breaking Gas!

Well yesterday we had a gas line break outside our house. Everyone was evacuated from the street. The emergency crews would not let us on our street for about three hours. We were refugees for that short time. What was the lesson learned? We really could have used our 72 hour kits. That would have provided the family with a change of clothes, some entertainment, and something to snack on. We never know when an emergency will happen, as a Boy Scout I was taught to be prepared. I guess I need to take heed of those childhood teachings. Okay family time to follow good teachings.

Fighting the Inner Electromelon!

My family and I enjoy Veggietales. One episode I really enjoy is Larryboy and the Angry Eyebrows. There is a scene where Larryboy comes in late for his superhero class. They are learning about controlling their anger. One of the students is named Electromelon. The instructor tells his students they must control their anger. Electromelon says, "Electromelon become Electromelon when angry."
What triggers the inner Electromelon? Everyone is different, one of my moments is when my children undo a day of cleaning in five minutes. The remarkable thing is how they have the power to defeat Electromelon. Whether it be Leulla needing a hug, Reuben with his grand greetings, or Alec giving himself a wedgie, all powerful bane to my inner Electromelon.

In the Beginning

I have decided to start a blog. I have been thinking of doing this for some time yet didn't know what to write about or what my purpose is in doing this. My wife and I have been trying to encourage our children to write so we set up our oldest on a blog. I guess that part of this is to be an example. I have based my blog URL on two of my favourite Hymns "Master the Tempest is Raging" and "Come Thou Fount" both songs have great meaning to me from various experiences in my life, of which I will relay in some other posts. I guess that I just want to get started and make a commitment to post at least once a week. I don't write this for anyone other than myself. I guess that if it was for anyone then it would be for my God, but I recently found out that He doesn't read Facebook and probably doesn't follow blogs either. So I will leave those kind of things to Our daily conversations. I guess that I am not really looking for my fetter but wanting to express that I know what my Ebenezer is that I struggle to hold on to my end of the chain that binds me to my Lord. For His end is held fast and does not change like the waves of trends that cause our boats of life to be tossed on the stormy seas. Well That is all the rambling that I will subject you to today.