More Atlanta Pics....Courtesy of Naomi's Photography, Inc.

Welcome Here Park... a fitting name for a family reunion picnic.

Partners in crime - Naomi, Brianna (cousin), Marcus at downtown diner

Georgia Dome - or is it geodeisic?

World of Coca - Cola - we waited 1 hour and paid $100 to be advertised to. America is amazing.

The Paul Men - Justin, Me, Dad

Marcus, Aunt Lillie, Chris (trying to dodge being photographed)

Marcus and Miki (rock that orange, girl!)

My mom, "Dear", always smiling...right?

Abigail, my niece (doesn't she look like there should be a patch over on eye and a parrot on her shoulder?)

Aunt Lillie, beauty and sound mind

The photographer's self portrait at the family picnic. Good job, Naomi.


Looking unto the Hills,

homeschoooldaddy

Days of our School Lives...

Thank God for Public School. Yes, I said it.

As much as I denigrate public schooling at times for the burgeoning, bloated bueracracy that it is, I must admit no one was happier than me to see the first day of school come for my oldest, now a junior in high school. Tropical Storm Fay came along and gave all of Miami what we want most out of a storm - days off with no rain, wind, or roofs caving in. Well, maybe just a little wind and rain, and only the kids got the days off. So while Mom and Dad covered computers at work with trash bags, the kids watched more TV and stuffed themselves with more microwave pizza.

Needless to say, I was extremely conflicted. I was content to let Marcus and Naomi rest Monday and Tuesday and celebrate the fact that they weren't bound by the tyrannical school schedule. But when there was no school schedule to base our celebration around, and no standard times for me to measure our work against - I usually try to have the kids assignments done in time for after school tutoring, which was cancelled - I was hit with the realization that the school schedule does provide a basis in which I as a homeschooler have a structure set up for me. Even our summer vacations are simply an extension of the normal public school vacations, and most of the time I simply use the school calendar holidays as holidays for my kids as well. It just makes it easier to track when I don't have two calendars to keep up with.

So am I a hypocrite? No, probably just lazy. I know if I had more administrative skill I could have my own highly personalized schedule for our family learning. But it makes more sense for our blended educational family to use the standard timelines of the school, so we always have continuity in our day to day planning. I don't know if this works for others, but it works for us.

As for this year, I'm not yet settled on Naomi's language arts program. I'm somewhere between adopting a total curriculum and simply buying a subject area concentration from Alpha Omega or Sonlight. The beginning of school yesterday seemed to underscore the need for me to hurry up and choose, but the sight of Naomi doing her own practice through internet games was enough to comfort me that that tyrannical schedule doesn't have to take away our ability to move at our own pace.

Looking unto the hills,

homeschooldaddy

Me and the kids at FPEA, Orlando, Fl

trying out my Shozu Account!

The Joy of Reconnection

It's hard to return, but harder to stay away.

So much has transpired in the last few weeks, so it's best that I start with what's fresh, which is our family reunion experience in Atlanta. Just a weekend with 300 of my closest friends. I must admit I was a bit apprehensive as the trip neared at the beginning of August. After all, I remember very few of my relatives, and my last family reunion trip was more a blur than a memorable event. So, Miki, Christopher and I packed up and headed to Atlanta (which was a feat in itself considering our car's radiator died hours before leaving, forcing us into a rental van), and rehearsed the phrases we felt would protect us...
"I'm Laverna Johnson's first grandson..."
"I'm Reita's daughter in law...
"We're on the Williams side"...

Anything to remind our relatives that we really belonged.

Upon arrival, our first sight was the giddy faces of Marcus and Naomi, freshly spoiled by my parents - the new video game hasn't arrived yet, but I'm sure the kids will remind them to ship it - and hugs all around for my parents, my sister and niece, and my aunts that had arrived. We then found ourselves in the hotel ballroom with about 100 of the first arrivals, where we met up with the family choir and my cousin Marilyn, who was directing traffic for me music wise. Of course I had to play - it was my ticket into good graces with the family for missing so many reunions. (Just kidding.)

I could talk more about the goings on - the picnic, the dance where my parents and (gasp) my wife and I danced while grandkids and kids gawked and gagged at the sight of romantic adults (how do they think they got here?), the bickering of the family business meeting, or other memories. But most of all I was filled with a sense of belonging, of once again knowing I have roots in something larger, bigger, and more expansive than my little life here in Miami.

Confession.

These posts became scarce as I began considering big changes in our family life and lifestyle, and I began to fear writing. Mostly because this became a safe place to air my feelings and frustrations, I was terrified that when thinking of change and opening myself to the possibilities publicly on paper, I would lose that sense of honesty in trying to protect my readers (and myself) from the sense of uncertainty that such a reflection would bring. But with a few sermons and a reflection period, I realize that without such a opening to new horizons, there could be no real benefit in being reconnected. How could I have such a strong foundation, a family stretching 6 generations, and not at least give the next generation an example of fortitude in the face of change and challenge? My ancestors do not loom large as intimidators, but as
examples of how far life can take you even when you don't realize it at the time.
Knowing I'm at one of those points - where my present is as tenuous and tender as my future - gives me even more reason to hang on to the foundations of my past. To know that my city of residence, my career, or my current calling don't change what made me what I am now, and changing any of those first conditions will not change the root of who I will be. It is all based on the connections already made in my faith and my family that ensure that my success will be permanent even if my circumstances change.

I'll have much more info on the reunion, not that I got the heavy stuff out. I'll attach pictures soon.

Looking unto the hills,

homeschoooldaddy

Thoughts on the 4th.....

Well, it's been a while since I've checked in, and summer has rolled on in some expected ways, and transformed in some unexpected ways.

Since I've written, the younger 2 kids went off to Pensacola to spend summer with the grandparents (my parents), which turned our normally boisterous household of 3 children into a one-teenager family overnight. Raising a 16 year old is tricky enough, but without his brother and sister to drive him crazy (as he sees it), my wife and I have found new ways to interact with him. He's more engaging, perhaps because there's no pressure to stay within the confines of the older brother role. Of course, it may also be the fact that he's now 16 and realizing it. I'm sure that if he was confident in his driving and had found a job, he would try renting out an apartment, 'cause that's basically what his room has become. We see him every few hours, coming out from the screen heaven of TV and laptop. In fairness, he's been as helpful as ever, assisting us as Miki and I have pretended to move out ourselves in repainting all our furniture. We've reverted to college life, living out of Rubbermaid rolling dressers and camping out with mattresses on the floor.

For the 4th of July, we took a trip up to West Palm to visit Miki's mom. For a mover and shaker such as myself, the free time is both blessing and burden. Blessing in that we had time away from the bustle of ministry, but burden in learning to enjoy that time. It seems my biggest struggle is learning to relax, which of course means my wife can't relax either. She is always trying to make me comfortable, and I feel guilty for that as well. It's tough to let go of the super - plan mode that our daily life requires.

As for the night of franks and fireworks, it did seem a little disappointing. Without a big family gathering, we improvised our way to the display in downtown West Palm Beach. We didn't count on traffic though, so we ended up watching from the top of a parking garage behind another building that kind of blocked our view. The bangs and booms did bring the requisite oohs and aahs, and I couldn't help thinking of how Americans are continuously defined by what is bigger, louder, or showier. Even in this time of readjusting attitudes on our economy (how many Hummers have been sold lately?), we still want the newest and best auto, the biggest flat screen, and we find great joy in firing thousands of pounds of colored gunpowder into the air in order to say, "Look at us, we're the greatest country on earth!" How ironic is it that our national celebration is capped off with a Chinese invention?

Forgive the sarcasm, but it is my feeling that more of our self - image must be based on our internal meaning, not on our external traditions or fall-back illusions of grandeur. A new President does not define us; neither a political party, nor a cause or a case for some law or judgment. What defines this country is the definition of an individual -

"having a striking or unusual character; original".

Our country is based on the dichotomy of individuals that affirm each other's individuality, while declaring their united understanding of the same as the essential right and responsibility of each to uphold and maintain. And whether you equate the ideals that spawned such a sentiment with the Magna Carta, the deistic leanings of Founding Fathers, or the direct influence of God, no one can replace them with any slogan or flag pin. The true celebration of our independence is in the everyday exercise of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Love is what love does, and patriotism is what patriotism does. It sacrifices self for others, family, faith, and country. It realizes the country is better when I am better, not when others make it better. It refuses to place its future in other hands, but takes up the mantle and works until its future is squarely in his. Mostly, it realizes that one's citizenship is a gift, a blessing, and that in another reality we all could have been born into a worse situation, or not been able to escape one by emigrating to this country. Therefore, it constantly lives to repay the gift by being a blessing back to the land that gives it sanctuary and substance.

Happy birthday, USA.

Looking unto the hills,

HomeSchoolDaddy