Prayers for a friend and his daughter

Today marks the 3 year anniversary of the death of Kelsey Roberts. She was killed at the hands of her mother. This horrific event has put one person behind bars, and left a father without his daughter.

We are friends with Steve (Kelsey's father), and hope that he finds sweet peace knowing that his daughter is in the gentle hands of Christ.

The Llama family asks for prayers for the repose of the soul of Kelsey, peace for Steve, and conversion and repentance for Norma.

Sibling-ness

One of the wonderful things about our boys has been the fact that they play so well together nearly 100% of the time... except for the last few weeks. Bossiness from Bobcat, stealing and arguing from Bubba, and well... tattling from Snookie. That pretty much sums up our days, trapped in the house because of the heat and gas prices (which are finally starting to fall, but not nearly far enough to make out of the house adventures affordable)...

Honestly I am looking forward to starting schooling up again so that more of our days are occupied with specific activities (and individual work time) versus the days we are currently experiencing.

Uggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... did I mention how freakishly hot it is here, blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh...

Happy Birthday! *Now with Pictures*

To Daddio! Today marks the beginning of the last year of Daddio's journey through his twenties... and what a day it was! Reaching temptures of 105 degrees, and wind that really felt more like a hot hair dryer... we ventured out of our cool cave after he opened gifts (a sweet new coffee maker that grinds the beans and has a timer, a golf flag for our flag pole, and a cool new golf shirt).

Activity 1: Driving range... first large bucket of golf balls went well, the second one was not so smart... sweat dripping in our eyeballs!

Activity 2: Movie -- Wall E... cute and funny, and not nearly as preachy as we thought it would be.

Activity 3: Central Market for some crazy awesome coffee beans (SnickerNut) for the above mentioned sweet new coffee machine. Oh, and for some amazing steaks for dinner! (And a lovely addition to the meal was Beer Bread.)

And then home again, home again... and out of the insane heat. After all the adventures of the day it has been a relatively quiet day.

Birds and Bees

I always thought the birds and bees talk (I still have no idea why they call it that) would be a difficult one. We have discussed modesty and how bathroom doors stay closed and nobody except Mommy, Daddy, and Dr. M are allowed to see or touch their private parts. They're not all that modest, but they are pretty good about following the rules.

I knew they were getting to the age where we'd need a slightly more descriptive yet age-appropriate discussion of boys and girls and body parts. I've been wondering if I should find some photos. Well, not photos - maybe cartoons, or drawings, or something. As it turns out, it's a pretty easy discussion... if you let someone else do the talking for you.

We were visiting MommaLlama's extended family yesterday. Her cousin has a new baby girl, and went into the room where the boys were playing for a diaper change. They observed and, you guessed it...

Boys: "Where's her p3n1s???"
Cousin: "She doesn't have one."
Boys: "How does she pee?"
Cousin: "She has a hole."

This is all second hand information from the cousin, and I feel a little bad that it happened without me there. But, perhaps seeing a baby girl undressed was the best way to deal with that at a very basic level. I suppose that's how most children who grow up in large families learn about it. Seeing diaper changes, or bathing with brothers and sisters at a young age. So... thanks, cuz. That was easier than I thought it would be.

History

I came across a great article in the Texas Homeschool Coalition Review Magazine. It's not earth-shattering, and I've seen similar things before, but I thought the author did a nice job of summarizing the point, and it was encouraging to me. He writes:

Keep a good historical perspective. Most people who have ever existed on this planet, including heroic men and women of the Bible and some of the greatest minds of all time, did not do school like you and I did school. None of the early Pilgrims, Puritans, or Founding Fathers of this country knew anything even close to the standardized, secularized, compartmentalized, age-segregated, government-controlled schools that most of us attended. Yet they gave us our rich Christian heritage, the Mayflower Compact, the Delcaration of Independence, and the Constitution! Do not let anyone make you feel guilty for not schooling your children the way you were schooled. There were godly, well-educated children long before someone invented yellow school buses, Friday night football, and the prom.

Couldn't have said it better myself. This is not meant as a knock against other forms of education, and I don't for a minute think we're among the "greatest minds of all time", but at the very least this demonstrates that home education has a pretty good track record throughout the centuries.

Shark Week

My wife is weird. I may have mentioned before that MommaLlama loves shark week on the Discovery channel. I don't know why, but she's just a shark fiend. Anyway, just now on this show, they found a gigantic shark and they cut out its eyeball and there was a parasite worm-thing burrowed into its cornea. I almost threw up. She is loving it. The next time one of the boys does something mildly gross or strange, I do not want to hear about it. Eyeball parasite trumps just about everything else, dear.

PS - I'm off on Monday. We're going to the zoo to celebrate Boys Anniversary. I'm sure MommaLlama will write more about that later. It's probably going to be insanely hot and humid, but it's better than work.

Hot hot hot... *update*

5 - Day forecast:
Friday - 101° F
Saturday - 103° F
Sunday - 106° F
Monday - 104° F
Tuesday - 103° F

You've got to be kidding me!

OH, and today's heat index: 112° F