And the bat...Leviticus 11:19

We spent four years at the seminary. Four years.The Man and I both received all kinds of instruction in how to handle situations in churches.  None of it prepared us for tonight.

The night was dark by the time The Man and the older children returned home from the midweek service at the church.  As the kids were tucked into bed, The Man told me that he was returning to the church and asked if I wanted to go with him.

I grabbed the camera and he grabbed his gear.

Tools every pastor needs:  fencing mask, head lamp, fish net, leather jacket and gloves.  The folks that had stayed after the meeting to clean the church confirmed that "it" was still in the fellowship hall.  Apparently doors left open to let cool breezes in can also let bats in.

Our church doesn't have a belfry, so it had to settle for a place high on the wall in the fellowship hall.

Caught!

The bat is now safely outside catching bugs.

Some pastors fish to get creatures into the church...some fish to get them out!  The Man does both.

See through a glass...1 Corinthians 13:12

As I mentioned last week, I've been helping out The Man in his office. Today was the first day the kids and I were there just as long as The Man. Since The Man's office is in just one corner of a very large, mostly vacant space, S and J enjoyed having the unused area to fly paper airplanes. G and Goldilocks loves spinning around on the doctor stools. Sacagawea spent most of the afternoon sitting in the sunny new schoolroom crocheting. We have that one room in the building set up with a table and chairs for the older kids to use when we start school next week.  

Since the office is only 2 miles from our house, we just zipped home for a lunch of vegetable soup hot from the crockpot. J and Goldilocks stayed home in the afternoon so she could get her nap and the rest of us returned to the office.

The Man graciously offered his arm to help me learn to draw blood, but since I can't seem to get the hang of taking blood pressures, I'm not sure I'm ready to poke people.

At least for the next week or so I think I'll stick (pun intended) to answering phones, faxing, scanning, learning the ins and outs of his emr software, and figuring out what to do with the windows in the exam rooms. The paper towels he hung up to cover the windows last February are shrinking, so I think it is time for something a bit more (what's the word I'm looking for here??) appropriate. Yes, that's a good word.  Appropriate.

I've also spent quite a bit of my "spare" time cleaning the office and surrounding area. I cleaned some things a bit too well.  

"Where's the sticker that was here on the window?" The Man asked me this afternoon.  

"I peeled it off and threw it away yesterday when I washed the windows."

"Find it and put it back."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes."

As I dug through the trash and found (Yay!) the sticker, The Man explained that it was the bar code the courier scans when she picks up lab specimens and NOT a price/product sticker that someone failed to remove when the window was installed. Oops! Since I had carefully folded it over onto itself so it wouldn't stick to the wastebasket, it was still nice and clean and stuck back to the window.  The lab courier confirmed for me that it still did its job!

I don't know how long I'll be over there full-time, but I know we're all in for an adventure.  I also don't know what all God has in store for us (ha...another pun--not intended--that a few should get) with this next step in our journey. I hope we can glorify God and be a blessing to others in our community.

End of the year...Exodus 23:15

No more apologies for not writing more here. When I'm at the computer I usually only have one free hand to type, which doesn't make for effective blogging. The Man has taken Baby S to be changed and put to bed. As soon as she's asleep, I'll put myself to bed, so hopefully this will be a short post!

I suppose it is trite to say that I don't know where this past year has gone...but I'm not even sure what happened to yesterday. Twenty-ten has been a very eventful year for our family. I hope that 2011 brings more time to enjoy the everyday pleasures.

I'll try to give an update since my last post. All of these items are very deserving of their own separate posts, but that's not going to happen...

M: Got the results for the PSAT he took in November.
> > BRAG ALERT < <
He scored in the 99th percentile of juniors who took the test. That was his very first standardized, non-mommy given test. I've always known he was a smart kid, but it is nice to get some valid confirmation of that. I was quite relieved that I haven't totally ruined him academically by homeschooling him.

J: Almost as tall as me now. He's been told he can no longer wear my garden shoes to make quick runs outside since he's been stretching them out.

S: Backyard Ballistics was finally available to be checked out from the library. There are PVC weapons in the entryway and I found two potatoes under his bed when I vacuumed today.

A: The Man made her a loom for Christmas so she's learning the fine art of weaving. She LOVES singing and rocking her baby sister to sleep.

G: Cute, cute, cute. And he knows it. Very smart kid, but he still isn't talking. He got a Candy Land game for Christmas so we could "teach" him his colors. He beat me yesterday. I guess he already knew his colors! He absolutely adores his baby sister. Unfortunately he hasn't learned the difference between sharing a doll with her and whacking her on the head with a doll. "Gentle!"

Baby S: Smiling, giggling, cooing, and sleeping well through the night. She is a very sweet and happy baby. I can't believe that she is quickly outgrowing clothes that were swallowing her up a few short weeks ago. She had her first bite of real food yesterday. She was sitting on my lap next to G's high chair. While my head was turned G stuck his spoon into her mouth. Wild rice soup seems to agree with her!

The Man: Over the course of a few weeks, he replaced some rotten boards on our bridge so we had to drive through our pasture to get to the road. He still has a bit more to do, but it is functional.

The creek started flowing again on Christmas. It has been rather wet the past month. A bit of snow is still on the ground outside and it has been getting down into the teens the past few nights. Brrrr.

I still hear Baby S, but I'm yawning and ready to go to bed anyway. May you have a blessed and happy new year!

Waiting...Proverbs 8:34

I was hoping all the posting I did during the month of July would give me the momentum to keep blogging. Oh, well...I had good intentions!

Baby is growing just fine. Hopefully we will get to meet baby soon. The doctor says any day (hour?) now.

The kids are all doing ok. J and S had sore throats and fevers last week, but seem to be all better now. The Man came down with the sore throat and fever within the past few days and even stayed home from work today (rare occurrence). Tonight he did a strep test which was positive. I'm praying the rest of us stay well.

M is now a few weeks into his junior year of high school. Pre-calculus and Chemistry are the new courses for the year in addition to the standard English, History, PE, Music, and Spanish. He spent a few hours this week with a missionary from Costa Rica to practice his Spanish dialogue and vocabulary. We need to get him over to the local high school soon to sign up for the PSAT coming up next month.

We are still easing into all the subjects for the 3 middle kids. We are trying to work on a routine that enables all the kids to get the varied help from me, the very pregnant mama, while keeping G out of all the "fun" stuff the older kids get to do.

J is in eighth grade this year. S is in fifth grade and claims he loves school more than any of the other kids do. Sacagawea is in 3rd grade and doing very well despite the fact that she has so much more work this year than in years past.

G has tins of cars, animals, blocks, and puzzles that had been in storage. These "new" toys are keeping him quite occupied while the others do their school work.This is the first time we have had a single toddler while trying to full-time homeschool everyone else. It is a new learning adventure for all of us.

Given my most recent blogging history, this is likely to be my last post as a mother of 5! I will try to get pictures up of #6 as soon as possible. They will probably appear over on facebook before here, and we've already promised grandparents that they get a call before info goes on facebook!

I'm trying to decide whether to go to bed now or stay up timing contractions...how's that for a cliff-hanger?

Twenty years...Genesis 31:41

Happy 20th Anniversary to us! On 7-8-90 we got married. We've now officially spent over half of our lives married.

A few months ago someone got me thinking about marriage certificates. Hmm. I had the fancy one in the little folder that was given to us when we applied for the marriage license, but I couldn't remember getting an official copy after the wedding. I checked the county website and it stated that a copy would be sent within 2 weeks after it was received. Hmmmm. What if...? Maybe we weren't legally married after all.

"Now you tell us!" stated M in disbelief. The children quickly agreed that we would have to have another wedding if we weren't married. And soon. Before baby #6 arrived!

I called the county and found out what I would have to do to get a few copies and sent in my letter and $4 in cash. Then I waited and wondered. I had already checked and none of the states we'd lived in were common law states. This could be interesting.

I told The Man that if the county didn't have record of our marriage, I wanted to go to Vegas and get married in an Elvis chapel. He said no. I think he thought I was kidding. I was. Sort of. I think it would have been hilarious to have him wear a pair of blue suede shoes.

He wore his white tennis shoes at our reception.

Fortunately, the county did have record of our marriage and I have the two official copies tucked away in the safe with all the other important records. No Vegas wedding for me! It is just as well. I couldn't decide whether we would have our 2nd wedding on 7-8-10 (on our anniversary) or 8-9-10 (to appeal to my sense of numerical order).

I love you, The Man! Thank you for putting up with me all these years...even if you wouldn't wear a pair of blue suede shoes.

They have spoken against me with a lying tongue...Psalm 109:2

Just in case anyone is wondering why we would leave all five kids at home by themselves, I don't really have a good answer. Up until a few weeks prior, I had never done such a thing, except for a quick trip to the store or post office. Even though M is very capable of handling things now that he is 16, I had never really had a reason before. The day after Memorial Day I was called for jury duty. I decided to go and serve my time, but due to miscommunications and other reasons, the court sent everyone home until the next Tuesday. However, the night before we found out the case was canceled and I didn't have to go back.

The following week after that, The Man had to go to court. He was going to be on the other side of the jury box. When we first found out over two years ago that he was being sued for malpractice, it didn't occur to me that I would go to court also...and two years ago I probably wouldn't have. After talking it over, we decided if the kids could stay home while I went to jury duty, they could probably handle it while I went to court with The Man.

The first week, our church was doing VBS. Since M was being counted on to play the piano for that, we decided that I would go ahead and take the kids to VBS in the mornings and just go up to court in the afternoons. The lawyer told us on Monday evening that they expected jury selection to take place Tuesday morning with opening statements in the afternoon, there would be no court on Wednesday due to state budget cuts, testimony on Thursday, and maybe a verdict on Friday. Great expectations!

What really happened: Jury selection all day Tuesday and Thursday morning. I arrived at the court house on Thursday afternoon to find out that there were major juror issues. The judge ended up canceling court in the afternoon due to an undisclosed emergency. By the time I arrived in court on Friday afternoon, the jury had been sorted out and the lawyers gave their opening statements. The plaintiffs also started their case.

The next week (last week) I spent all day with The Man in court. I'll just say here that the judge had a nice chair. The jurors had nice chairs. The plaintiffs, defendants, lawyers, bailiff, court reporter, and clerk all had nice comfy-looking chairs. The wooden benches that the rest of us observers had were not comfortable. Pregnant women should not spend all day sitting on wooden benches. Just so you know. Next time (ha!) I'll at least take a cushion.

Although it wasn't exactly a pleasant experience, I am fascinated by the judicial process. Watching (but not talking to!) the jurors, the banter that went on when the jurors were not present, the reactions of the jurors to different things that were done or said...that part I liked. I didn't like sitting there trying not to stand up and yell, "Liar, liar, pants on fire!" The nice, legal way of saying that same thing? "Objection, Your Honor! Misstatement of the evidence!" A "Sustained" means the judge happens to agree. Fascinating.

The Man's new favorite phrase is "Assumes facts not in evidence." That one was also heard quite a bit through the trial. I have a feeling I'll be hearing it a lot from now on.

By Tuesday afternoon all the witnesses had said what they were going to say. Wednesday morning the jury instructions were ironed out and the plaintiffs' lawyer gave his closing statement. After lunch The Man's lawyer gave his closing statement and then the other lawyer got to say a few more things. Then, finally, the case was in the hands of the 12 jurors. Were they paying attention? Could they see through all the testimony that the plaintiffs didn't have a good case? Through the case we had prayed that all would be to the glory of God, no matter the outcome. Of course, we had our hopes as to which way we preferred the verdict to be.

We left the court house and went for a walk to buy J's birthday gift (his birthday had been the day before). As we approached the store, the lawyer called and said the jury had a question. We went back to the court house to hear the question. The reporter said it would take her until the following morning to locate the parts of testimony the jurors wanted to hear again. The judge gave instructions for them to keep deliberating.

We left the court house again, but this time I forgot to turn my cell phone on as we left the court room. We made it to the store, bought the gift, and as we were leaving the store, I remembered to turn on my phone. At that point I got the message about Sacagawea's bleeding head. I called and talked to the kids as we drove up to a park near the court house to wait. As I was still on the phone with the kids, the lawyer called The Man again. The jury had a verdict.

We went back to the court house to hear the verdict: Not negligent. Since only 9 of the 12 had to agree on a verdict in a civil case, the fact that they didn't have an answer to their question wasn't a big issue.

That was it. I was telling The Man later that it was very anti-climatic after all the stress and angst of the last few years. Oh, well, I'll take it over the alternative. I have a lot more thoughts on the situation, but those will have to wait for another time as this post is far too long.

OK, post #2 for July is now done! Post #3 is all set up and should post automatically in the morning. I'm on a roll! Is anyone else joining me?

To every thing there is a season...Ecclesiates 3:1

We're busily getting ready for The Man, M and J to leave for a church mission project in Chile. This is the first time the boys will have used their passports for international travel, and they sure are excited. M bought a camera yesterday so they will bring back lots of pictures.

Out of all the exciting things they could be excited about, the conversation yesterday was all about the seasons. It will be winter when they leave here. They will arrive in Chile (in the southern hemisphere) in the summer. A few days later it will become fall, and then when they fly back here it will be spring. They will experience all four seasons in a span of 2 weeks. It doesn't take much to excite homeschoolers!

That shall reign over you...1 Samuel 8:11

The kids and I went to the polls this morning. Don't worry, ACORN hasn't corrupted our little valley. All the kids got stickers just for showing up with me. [For those that are concerned, G's sticker was on him just long enough for the picture.] They have "voted" in every election since they've been born. Here is an Electoral College map for the young ones to color.

I wasn't thrilled with any of the choices, but since The Man's campaign never got off the ground, I had to go with what was there. I am glad that election day is finally here, and I pray that we are all able to survive the next four years, no matter who takes office.

The Man won't be able to go to the polls until he gets off of work this afternoon. He starts a new job today. Yes, another one! Hopefully this will allow him to cut back or discontinue his overnight/weekend work in the ER.

Last night was a good night for G (and for me). I think the time change helped us out a bit. He went to bed about 10:30 p.m. and didn't wake up again until about 3:00. After eating and going back to sleep, he slept until about 8:00 this morning. He's been either eating or awake most of the morning and just now went down for a nap. I hope we finally have his days and nights switched around to where they should be.

For I know...Jeremiah 29:11

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday I caught up with The Man again in age. I didn't take a picture of my birthday cake. See the previous post, imagine about half the cake gone, and then you'll have a pretty good idea what my cake looked like!

Yesterday also marked the 20th anniversary of the day I first remember meeting The Man. He claims he met me several weeks prior, but since I don't remember, I don't think it counts. After several rounds of "If I had told you that day that 20 years later we would..." it was agreed that it was probably a good thing that our future wasn't all revealed to us at that point!

Face to face...1 Corinthians 13:12

Happy Birthday to The Man!

I pulled out his baby pictures. Does this one above look familiar? It looks almost exactly like this one of Baby G that I posted last week.
G's cheeks are chubbier. If I'm not careful, they just might fall off from being kissed so much.

S and Sacagawea made The Man a birthday cake. They decorated it all by themselves. We didn't have enough candles so they improvised with 3 on one side and 8 on the other.

Wait patiently...Psalm 37:7

Still waiting! We all are getting anxious to meet the new little one. Even The Man has started nesting.

Last week The Man assembled the little bed for the baby. I found this neat bed online, but I didn't think this particular design would work with our bed (not to mention that I found the cost exorbitant for the few months it would be in use). I sent the link to my dad with all the changes that I wanted made. Last summer he designed and cut out all the pieces and sent it back with us when we visited. For the past 4 months,the pieces have been patiently waiting in the corner of the bedroom. Now it is assembled and installed on my side of the bed, just waiting for the baby! I would like to prime and paint it first, but The Man thinks it looks great as it is. I may get it done, but it is not a priority right now.

This morning The Man attached the supports that fit snugly under our bed frame to keep the baby bed from tipping or moving away from our bed. He also attached a top to some drawers in our bathroom...now we have an official changing table!

Yesterday The Man cleaned out the chimney so we are using our wood stove for heat now. He also installed the new sliding glass door that we purchased. I really wanted it done so that I wouldn't have to be the one to open the door for the kids when they bring in wood. Yesterday was the first perfect day that we've* had for the job. The frosts that we've had have killed off most of the bugs and and it wasn't too chilly during the day to have an 8-foot opening in our living room. He still has a bit of trim work to finish up, but I'm really liking the new door!

Last night a church member brought a few bushels of apples for us. The Man and children are excited about making some apple sauce this afternoon. I better go start washing some jars!

*I did give my opinion a few times, and even helped steady the door during installation, but I left the hard work to The Man and boys.

Home...Genesis 43:16

He is home! They were able to get through customs, etc. in Dallas quickly (they all had just carry on baggage) so they were able to get on stand-by for an earlier flight to SFO. Since they were 2 hours ahead of schedule, I requested that the folks he was traveling with drop him off at my doctor's office up in the city. They arrived just after I finished my appointment (good visit, another 1/2 lb. weight gain, no lecture). I dawdled in the parking lot because I knew they would be arriving soon. The kids were all surprised!

The Man loaded up his stuff in the back of the pickup and drove us all home. Fortunately, I had prewarned him over the phone that the camper shell no longer had a door attached. It had been slightly damaged long ago when it was off the pickup and a wind storm was unkind to it. It was still functional, but while The Man was gone, I noticed the door was slipping down slightly. Yesterday while going up over our local mountain pass on the way to the big city for M's violin lesson, I glanced in the rearview mirror and was surprised at how clear the view was. Yikes! The door was gone! I pulled off the road as soon as I could and went to investigate. The camper shell door frame was still attached to the shell, but only at the very bottom, and the frame was bent so the door was leaning over to the inside of the truck.

I lowered the tailgate and had M and J crawl up in the bed. With a bit of coaxing, they were able to completely remove the frame and door and lay in down in the truck bed. Whew! I don't know if it can be repaired, but I'm so glad it didn't fly out and damage someone else's vehicle (or worse)!

The Man took several pictures during his trip to Chile. I'll have to have him do a guest blog post so he can explain them all!

Return....Genesis 31:3

He's on his way home! We think! One of the sites says his plane never took off, but another says it took off on time. We're being optimistic! We tried calling him this afternoon via the Chilean contact's cell phone about 5 hours before his flight, but he had already been dropped off at the airport.

Busy, busy day scheduled for tomorrow. We're going up to the big city for M's violin lesson (his piano teacher is taking the week off). We'll run some errands while we're up there and we need to be back to our local city by 4:00 for my OB appointment. I think I'll be getting another lecture...not a good one! Back home for supper, then to church for the midweek service, and then home again to tuck the kids in bed. The Man might be home by that time. I hope so!

Return unto his own family...Leviticus 25:41

The Man is gone. He left about 4:30 yesterday afternoon to drive to the airport with a couple from our church. They spent the night in the airport city and this afternoon they started on their journey. Right now they are probably* somewhere over the Pacific Ocean on their way to Chile. They are doing a "site visit" to get ready for the church mission project next February. The other man promised he would make sure The Man got back safely. He better.

After they left, the kids and I left the empty house and went to the local farmers' market. Yum! We have such a short growing season at our elevation so it is nice to at least see some of the potential of our area. We left with some melons, tomatoes, cucumbers, currants, and corn. From there, we went to the church and worked on organizing some of the materials left over from the fair booth. Soon it was time for the mid-week service. We received a lot of squash and some lemon cucumbers from one of our members.

Sacagawea & S usually color left-over children's bulletins or draw during the mid-week service. Last night Sacagawea traced her hand and wrote, "I love Mom and the Man" in it. I didn't realize she paid that much attention to this blog!

You may just be seeing more posts from me this week while The Man is gone. He took the camera with him, so I won't have the pressure of trying to upload pictures via our dial-up! I still have a lot of catch-up posts brewing, so I'll try to get them posted this week!

*I just tried tracking the flight on flightstats.com, but because it is an international flight, they can't track it. If anyone knows of an international friendly site, please let me know before next week!
Update: I should have G**gled a few minutes ago. I found the flight map on flytecomm.com. He IS currently over the Pacific traveling at a ground speed of 534 mph. The kids were happy to see that the flight status is "In Flight." Only another 6 1/2 hours to go!

A marriage...John 2:1

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Eighteen years ago today we married.

The Man brought these home for me last night so I can enjoy them all day today. Aren't they pretty? I was going to put them in the refrigerator last night since it is so hot, but they're too big!


We went to a wedding on Sunday. It happened to be the bride's parents' 39th wedding anniversary. I started calculating how many years we'll be married/how old we'll be when our youngest gets married. Yikes. Considering our youngest isn't even born yet, I don't even want to speculate!

A leader and commander to the people...Isaiah 55:4

If The Man were president...

The Man thinks that he could do a better job than any of the current three choices. I agree, but I really don't wish to move again...especially to the city. The Man said we probably wouldn't move, since he legally couldn't take all of his possessions to Washington, D.C. Besides, his patients couldn't all travel there to see him, and it would get monotonous to travel back and forth each week for church. We would probably just live here.

That would mean that we would finally get DSL or Satellite. It just wouldn't do for the folks in D.C. to get a "The person you are trying to call is on the phone, please leave a message after the tone" voice mail message because I'm busy blogging.

This blog would probably get more than 500 hits a day if The Man were president. A few weeks ago I was shocked when I saw that our free StatCounter had filled up over just one weekend. It seems that someone linked this post on a German/English orthodontia website in Europe. Although it has tapered off, we still get a few dozen hits a day from that site. If only I had time to figure out how to exploit my children make some extra cash from that traffic. Maybe if The Man were president I would have people that would do it for me.

People. Yep, I would have a bunch of them. They would make my food, clean my bathtub, take out the trash, do the laundry. I could get used to that. We would even have our own private plane (that M would fly, of course). That plane is probably too big to take off and land at the Near Perfect Little Valley's airport, so we would have to use the bigger airport up by the city. We could build an helipad out in the alfalfa field.

Secret Service agents? I could do without, but it might be nice to always have someone 50 feet behind Sacagawea to radio in her position in case she tries to run away. Maybe I could assign my agent to follow the Dog to make sure he doesn't find any more poison.

The Man said one of the first things he would do as president would be to issue an executive order to make it illegal to enforce unconstitutional laws. Which means that he could take all of his stuff to D.C. Which means we might move...I'm not sure I would like that after all.

One of the best things about The Man being president is what would happen afterwards. He would get to build his very own Presidential Library. Yee Haw. I would finally have some place to put ALL of our books.

We had this discussion before we got out of bed this morning. We haven't quite worked everything out, but we agreed that we don't have time to campaign. So, if you would like The Man to be president, let us know! If none of the other candidates excite you, simply write in "The Man" in November. Thank you for your support.

This picture is of The Man lowering our flag to half-mast of June 6, 2004, the day after the death of Ronald Reagan.
Unfortunately the rope is now broken and The Man hasn't had time to fix it properly, so our flag isn't up right now. If he were president, I'm sure our people would take care of that also.

His natural face...James 1:23

Photo added!

I've been such a slacker blogger! This morning when I returned from the fitness center The Man was getting ready for his shower. I noticed a bit of white stuff on his face, then it dawned on me...his beard was gone!

While I was happy to see his face again, I complained that he didn't tell me ahead of time. I don't think I've taken a picture of him since the Dog's kisses. I have nothing to show you faithful readers! I'll have to share a picture of his 3 1/2 month old beard if I can find one.

edit: The Man's mother did have a photo from her visit here. The Man consented to me sharing it with you all...
Several of his patients and church members have complimented him on his beard. I was told it was quite impressive. I just missed his face. I happen to like his face. Is that so terrible?

All her household are clothed...Proverbs 31:21

Last week I was up in the city and popped into the only "nice" department store and discovered they were having a clearance sale. The Man will only wear 100% natural fiber (usually cotton) button-up shirts to work. Those are sometimes hard to come by at a reasonable price so I was excited to find some nice shirts for $2.97 each (regularly $30-46). I bought several, had The Man try them on, then went back the next day and bought a bunch more stuff. I used less than $90 off of gift cards we had from Christmas, but according to my receipts I "saved" over $700.

The next day one of The Man's patients complimented him on his tie. The Man told him that his wife (me) usually picks out his clothes and that I had just bought him several new shirts on clearance at the department store in the city. The patient came back to see The Man yesterday and told him that he had checked out that sale and bought a dozen shirts.

I happened to find this all very hilarious.

I send The Man off to work in his 100% cotton button-up shirt and tie and assume he is talking to people about their sore throats, diabetes, smoking, lab tests...not the latest sale!

So, since everyone that reads this blog is either a doctor, married to a doctor, goes to a doctor, or knows someone who goes to a doctor...is it common for doctors and patients to chat about clothes or sales? What do patients talk to their doctor's about? I really can't recall discussing anything other than something directly related to the reason for the visit.

Not a...razor...Judges 16:17

These pictures were taken last Friday night. I'm still insisting that The Man's beard is too rough and sharp, but the Dog doesn't seem to mind.

Gray hairs...Genesis 42:38

The children asked that I blog about a particular subject. I've been trying to ignore it, but it doesn't seem to be going away.

On the morning of January 3 as The Man was heading to the office I noticed that he hadn't shaved.

"Are you trying to grow a beard?"

"No. God makes it grow and I just decided to quit shaving it off every morning."

This is not the first time he has had a beard, and it probably won't be the last (assuming that this one will be shaved eventually). He's probably had a beard about half a dozen times since I've known him.

I'm okay with The Man not shaving for a day or two, or even a week, but I happen to like The Man's face and I don't care for him covering it up completely. The kids say they hope he never shaves again.
What do you think? (Self-Portrait courtesy of The Man)