Memorial Day weekend.  8 hour drive to the Davis Mountains underway, listening to the radio, bouncing along in the Jeep, thinking of beautiful scenery, good food, hunting some wild pigs, just about anything except politics.  I have been so wrapped up in the CD 17 and State Senate 22 races I had forgotten what it was like not to think about the sorry state our Nation and State are in.

We arrived in Fort Davis after the day’s festivities at the U Up U Down Ranch – fifth and sixth grade classes experiencing ranching.  Fathers, mothers, grandparents, uncles and aunts demonstrating ranch life, shoeing a horse, fixing the windmill, roping and branding the steers, listening to songs around the campfire.  The purpose:  teaching children the heritage of ranching and overcoming the daily bombardment of political correctness and socialistic indoctrination against it.  Strike 1! (more…)

I think as word peeves go, this one ranks pretty high. Mainly because it has such widespread use.

When I hear somebody in a protest say “…try and make a difference…”, I cringe.

When I hear a reporter say “…the President will try and get concessions…”, I wince

When I see a newspaper that proclaims “…will try and go without stopping…”, I throw the newspaper away.

The two are incompatible clauses…they actually negate each other.

Think about it this way: (more…)

Regarding the 12/22/07 Homeschooling for Life with guests, Jim Bob Howard & Steve Murphy Program.

Since the request for review was made on a Yahoo! homeschool group, I thought I would give my two cents’ worth.

I listened to the podcast of this program and throughout the broadcast I was on the edge of my seat, waiting for the crucial, critical element to be revealed in the message of Steve and Jim Bob. It was nice to hear Dads from the community and that, in and of itself, made the program refreshing. (more…)

Some topical conversations, and most everything else on a majority of Yahoo!-based and other on- and offline homeschool communities, seem to express a concern for or addresses the Moms who are homeschooling but wholly leaves out the Dads – or even complains about them. (more…)

Background: My Mother-In-Law is very dear to me, closer than any other woman except my wife and sister. She is very smart, loves everyone, and cares about people to a fault. She is a teacher by training, now retired. She loves all 12 of her grandchildren (born in the last 8 years!) and her three daughters, three sons-in-law, and one son. She is the epitome of what a Mom should be, and makes Mother-In-Law jokes seem just so foreign to me.

Perhaps her only challenge is (more…)