trails, bison and hot chocolate

Priya was responsible for making breakfast this morning. She did a fine job.

Some normal people take their children to festivals or amusement places. But these children's mother is paranoid of lots of things: public bathrooms, waiting in large crowds, talking small talk with strangers. So we put on our duds and walked the state park trails. There is currently no snow and the temperature was just above freezing.

We convinced aunt Naomi to go with us. But it was kind of like having a tour guide because this is her place of employment. She poses with the troop on the bench standing on one foot.

The bison herd hung out by the fence so we could observe them for a while.

Then we ate bananas and hot chocolate on the picnic table until the breeze moved us to warmer spots.

snow and hair-do's

Sam's bet with Aunt Becca is still on. The bet is that he can grow his hair out until December. So we experimented with some new styles yesterday. For Sam, combing his hair means a side part combed over just like Grandpa E and Grandpa S. This is his faux-mohawk (sort of) and his three missing bottom teeth.

Ellie, in her hat from Aunt Rachel and Anneka pose in front of the snow and the pumpkin display. If the snow was any heavier today, we would have a raging blizzard. As it is, the snow is just heavy enough to get out hats, boots and mittens. Priya is still present and accounted for, there just isn't a recent picture of her.

two powerful and different quotes

Oh the weight of these words...

• We should not be entertained by the sins for which Christ died. —John MacArthur

• Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christian should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong."- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

root of the problem

Although it is commendable that the largest city in South Dakota has only 2 homicides on its record this year. It is also two homicides too many. One happened this week.

As I read the story yesterday, I can pick up clues to why this happened. In fact I wanted to cry for that mom. Not because she was the center of the horrendous murder of her boss. I want to cry for that mom because she settled, she gave in, she couldn't or wouldn't stand up. The fact that she had two restraining orders on the father of her children: one in 2009 and one in 2010. Her children with this man, the 17-month old and the 7-week old, would have been perhaps conceived after that. If she would have never given this man a minute of her time, much less free reign of her life, her body, perhaps, perhaps could this have been prevented.

I will now repeat: I am not an expert on domestic violence; violence against the mother of your children is never acceptable; I understand life is nearly unbearable with a violent domestic partner and it is hard to get away from them. No, I don't know the whole situation.

What I am thinking about starts before this.

I am going out on a limb, but since the two weren't married, I am assuming this wasn't an arranged marriage that just never got around to getting married. Each of them decided sometime, under unknown influences, that this was the person to hang on to. Or shack up with. At least for a while.

I just wonder if she had a good friend or any kind of friend who was helping her check this guy out in the beginning. Were there warning signs she wasn't looking for, but everybody else saw? Perhaps she wasn't listening to that friend's advice against such a relationship. Perhaps her friends, her co-workers, whoever saw the relationship progressing didn't want to meddle. Did she even really know this man who fathered two of her children or did the relationship start out backwards from the beginning?

Oh, if I could speak in a way that made sense or was in a position to say it, this is what I would shout to teenage girls, to adult females who are looking, experimenting: you have been created by specifically by the Creator of the Universe. You are precious. Every part of who you are. You are valuable. Any man who does not respect you should have none of your time or attention. You have more to offer than to be treated as a used piece of toilet paper. You are specifically designed for a unique purpose. (a million or a billion have said it so much better than I)

The old saying, "Why buy the cow, when you can get the milk for free?" comes to the front. There was no investment on that man's part to let his woman know she was valuable or respected. There is a good chance she didn't expect him to.

So there it is. The unpolitically correct version. Domestic violence is not a one-way street, in general. Domestic violence starts with a glance and a compromise or two and some behavior overlooked.

There is a very good reason why the Creator of each human walking or crawling or sitting or laying on this earth set out some operating instructions on how we are to treat each other as humans and as males and females. One will be a man that perhaps few will mourn for in the coming days. One will be the salon manager who sent out a warning, perhaps too many months or years late, that many will mourn for in the coming days.

first day...

On the first day of third and first grade, Priya and Sam pose in what might be argued as an awkward shot.

anneka cate turns five

note the fancy fingernails

blueberry cupcakes with blueberry cream cheese frosting

some birthday gifts

celebrating a week early with Grandma and Grandpa S

celebrating with Grandma and Grandpa E

vanilla bean ice cream that didn't work quite right

photo credit: rebecca sankey (yes, I ruined yet another lens)

cricket and the poke

Upon the advice of dad and uncle Dave, Cricket is now wearing a form of a poke. Some children must wear a strange apparatus to help their mouth and teeth grow right. Some dogs wear a lamp shade to prevent them from biting other dogs or scratching themselves when they should not. Her lambs, pictured above, along with all the other sheep ran from her the first day she wore the poke. But obviously, they have all gotten past that.

Cricket wears this sort of hilly-billish thing because she has a penchant for getting out of fences. As in, we will spend much time fixing a fence and we turn our backs a few minutes. Cricket is usually standing in the middle of the yard smiling or something, looking for green grass or a snack of some sort. It has worked too. 1) She has not starved or strangled herself  and 2) she has not escaped a fence since it was installed around her neck. I don't know if she has tried to starve or strangle herself, but I did watch her try to get out of the fence in usual fashion and it did not work.