The Beggar is Back, I hope!

We have spent the past month in our garage.

Well, not exactly, but it sure has felt like it. My incredible husband decided that we needed extra space. He took to converting 2/3 of our garage into a family room -- and the result is amazing. We have a large room that really serves as two rooms: a craft room with craft and homeschool supplies, a desk, a laptop, and cute little table, and a reading/play room which consists of comfy reading chairs, bookshelves full of living books, a chest of toys, and a closet full of board games and Legos and such.

My husband is the most inventive, enterprising man you will ever meet. If something around our house needs to be done, Ron will "get a book on it" and see that it's done. From garbage disposals to dimmer switches to track lighting to installing hardwood flooring to building playground equipment, he will figure it out and get it done.

When we were first married, I used to refer demurely to Ron's enterprising ways as jury-rigging (actually, until about a week ago, I would have misused this term by calling it "jimmy-rigging." Fortunately, I have a super-smart mother who let me know that "jury-rigging" is the correct phrase. However you say it, the phrase gives the connotation of "though it'll work in a pinch, it's improvised, and not done correctly.")

Gone are my days of not giving proper reverence to my husband's craft. He has proven himself, beyond measure, to handle all sorts of household projects. He is a jack of all trades, and a master of the ones we appreciate the most (like being a wonderful husband and father).

To give you just a taste of some of the current re-model project Ron's been working on:
He created a second ceiling frame and wall frame as a skeleton for the room, made a large built-in closet, a large enclosure with folding doors to hide the laundry room, brought electricity to the room, hung beautiful lights, installed Pergo flooring and carpet, cut trim, and painted walls. Luckily, he had my dad's construction expertise to help with drywall, mudding, and texturizing (not to mention the muscles and time dad lent us -- thank you so much, dad!).

As you can guess, I haven't had much time for blogging lately. But after a month of de-cluttering almost our entire house and helping hubby with the new room, I am ready to declutter my head by getting some random and crazy thoughts out of it and onto my blog. With a nicely organized house (it's almost where I want it to be, I need a little push to finish up the task at hand) and extra space for the boys' books and projects, I feel rested and at a peace.

I'm ready to get back to my daily regimen of reading lots and writing a little!

God is from Mars and Venus

Off with the skirt, On with the Pants is an article sure to make you either clench your fists in anger or laugh out loud as R.C. Sproul, Jr. (son of the well-known Christian theologian R.C. Sproul) brings you face-to-face with the issue of men's leadership in our churches.

Sproul Junior has a silly sense of humor sprinkled with a bit of sarcasm and large doses of truth. He writes with passion that is a bit over the top...but I do think God will use this dynamic man to get a few good messages across.

Enjoy!

Where Have All the Young Men Gone?

I was perusing The Rebelution Blog this morning, and was struck by this post called If Boys Would Be Men, Would Girls Be Ladies? I can't say how impressed I am by the young male authors of this blog.

This post strikes me for a few reasons. The first is that feminism has been on my brain for the past few weeks, even though I have yet to finish posting my thoughts. Then, just yesterday, my sister mentioned a discussion she had in the high school teacher's lounge of a recent article in Newsweek on schools failing boys. The topic of "boys in education" is one very near and dear to my soul, and the idea that institutional schools aren't set up for boys to succeed was the first thing that drew my husband and me to consider homeschooling. And, over the past few years, I have had a paradigm-shift in my way of viewing men -- I now see how important it is to us as The Church and as a country to have REAL, godly, strong men leading us to victorious moral living. (I am so honored that God put three little men into our home, not because boys are any better than girls -- I am not swinging clear to the other side of the spectrum -- but because our society has an absolute lack of godly men and the thought that God could use our seed to replenish this lack excites me. Godly women just seem easier to find than godly men, and I am of the opinion that godly men will only make life more wonderful for women in general. I only ask the Lord to lead Ron and I in raising these little guys to be true men of faith -- manly and godly world-changers -- :) that's all I ask, Lord!)

I hope you'll take a moment to read the Rebelution post - and remember, these boys are only 17 years old!!

A few excerpts from the posting:

"The problem is not that women have risen, that's not even an issue here. The problem is that men have fallen."

"The truth is that young men today possess little incentive, whether archaic or otherwise, to pursue excellence in career, marriage or family. True men are not only disapearing from our universities, they're disapearing from society's most fundamental institution, the family. Unless men, as the heads of their families, return to the historic call of biblical manhood, the family will continue to decay. This is a battle our generation must fight."