Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Scholarly Pursuits...

...or Why I Home School, Reason #238.
We are studying the Civil War this year here at The Gale Academy of Classical Education. We each chose an aspect of the war with the assignment to prepare a report and give a presentation on the chosen subject. Shane's topic was the weapons of the war (naturally). He likes to do the barest minimum and continually tries my soul by not being a cheerful and dedicated scholar. But I am relentless in my efforts to inspire him to greater heights of educational endeavor (I have taken away all video games and anything like unto it) in hopes of helping him attain his full potential.

Yesterday was spent in an ongoing debate with Shane trying to negotiate his way into a lazy and sloppy presentation and a one paragraph report. He was wearying me with his whining but I stuck to my guns (a little weaponry reference there hahaha). In the end, I quietly reminded him that he needed to do his best and left him to decide what that was.

This morning, I woke up and walked down the hall. Taped on the wall there where I couldn't miss it was Shane's presentation. And laid out nicely in front of it was his report. He had used one of our emergency flashlights to spotlight his work. Attached were two sticky notes:
 "Sorry about the typos" and 
         "I told you I'm capable of applying myself"

But the best part was the title page of his report:
Weapons of the Civil War
A fantastical report of the horrible, bloody and devastating weaponry of the Civil War by
the fantastically brilliant and cultured author, Shane Gale: the hero of the civilized world
and savior of the arts and culture.
In this touching and beautifully written report, you'll find the mysteries of the 
Civil War have been unlocked in a wonderful cultured masterpiece.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Sam I Am

They met at the Village Store.
The young villagers were ready to head
to the mountains.


There they would learn the ways of men.
Mountain Men.



Our own potential Mountain Man: 2nd from the left.
 Holding his plate of pizza and gazing off into the horizon.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Conversation in the Car

Driving down Main Street with Shane, he noticed a big "FOR LEASE" sign on the front of an old building.

Shane: We should buy that and put a store in it.
Me: What kind of store?
Shane: The Awesome Store!
Me: Really, what would you sell at the Awesome Store?
Shane: Guns, knives and candy.
Me: I think you are missing something...
Shane: Oh yeah! Kittens! And we would tie a ribbon on the kitten and tie a knife to it. Orrrr... we could make up gift baskets for holidays: A kitten, a couple of knives, a gun and some candy. It would look so cute with the kitten playing with the candy. People wouldn't be able to resist!

Monday, September 12, 2011

News From the Field

We hadn't heard from our missionary for a few weeks--and I had to assume he was anxiously engaged in the work-- so not too much Mom-worrying here. But it was nice to get his email today and find out that he is fine and yes, working hard.

Here is an excerpt from his email today:
So we had an amazing baptism yesterday but you kind of missed out on the whole background story. There names are Qhua Lauj (Khoua Lo) and Neeb Thoj (Neng Thao). They are the ones that I wrote an email to Elder Trythall of the 70 a couple weeks ago about. So after he got the email he spoke with President Lewis and the answer was no, they couldn't be baptized. I spoke with President Lewis for a while about it as he tried to explain Elder Trythall's reasons and I tried to explain why there really wasn't any other option but to baptize them here. I don't think I've been so upset my whole mission, to work so hard to baptize, have an amazingly elect family that wants to be baptized, but have a general authority say they couldn't just seemed so wrong. Elder Trythall offered to meet with Elder Thao and I so that Saturday we set an appointment to go see him. I don't think I've ever prayed so long and hard as I did the couple of days leading up to the meeting. It's pretty intimidating argueing a case as 2 missionaries against your mission president and a member of the 70. The meeting was mostly him talking and trying to convince us that these boundaries are super important, and I pretty much got his point but he hardly even let us speak. The most upsetting part is that he kept trying to say that if they had enough faith they would go anywhere. Khoua and Neng are being completely disowned from their families for this, Khoua's older brother told him, "If you get baptized we're no longer brothers." They have tons of faith, they just don't speak English! But after an hour he finally admitted that with Neng not speaking any English that it would be ridiculous to make them go to an English ward when there's a Hmong ward so close. So in the end he gave us permission to baptize them and said that eventually they would need to move within mission boundaries but they could have at least until their lease ran out, that they weren't under any pressure to do it now. So we had the baptism yesterday and it was great. Nyiaj Looj Lauj, Khoua's uncle baptized him and Elder Thao baptized Neng, who is actually his aunt (by Hmong standards anyway, his great grandpa is her granpa or something like that). As soon as Qhua came up out of the water he started crying and he cryed again during the confirmation (we had a water side confirmation). It was an incredible baptism, very spiritual and very amazing. We still have 2 more people working towards baptismal dates at the end of the month and a few more that we're hoping to firm up for dates in October, hopefully before the 19th :)
So the work is still going fantastic. Oh, I forgot to mention transfers, I'm still in North Sac with Elder Thao but I'm stuck being a district leader. It may be my last transer but I don't plan on slowing down with the baptisms, I'm deffinitely going to make this last transfer count. We have a lot of good people and the ward has never been more behind us. Bishop Lo is super impressed with us for going all the way up to a general authority to in his words, "fight for the Hmong Ward." He even made a big deal out of it in Ward Council yesterday. So while all my emails about school and coming home seem trunky I promise I'm still 100% in the work. I love you all and will try to email again next week.
Love,
Elder Gale

Stuff We Did This Summer


Some quilting for sweet grandbabies:




Some precious time with this sweet grandbaby:


And his sweet Mama:





Some dog wrestling:

And dog snuggling...

Some changes are coming for the Gale Family:


Some changes that involve packing.
Lots of packing.
Again.



The hardest part of packing without a known move date?
Packing up the books.
I want to have them all at my disposal.
Ready and waiting should the need arise
to answer a question or satisfy a curiosity.

So I have done it slowly and reluctantly.
Keeping most of our favorite go-to books out
til the last minute.
Our destination?
Connecticut--you know--the other side of the country.





Then we watched this...
and it inspired this purchase:

Which inspired more of this
around the house (and in us):


Which led to busting out the wheat grinder:

And a real change for the better in healthy eating.
At least for me--the youngsters are reluctant converts.
But I'm getting better at sneaking the good stuff in. Shhhh.

As summer was winding down,
we set up the classroom for a new school year:





And then I decided it was time for Fall.
82 degrees? 
Whatever.


A change in seasons will be something to look forward to.










Happy Birthday Scott!

 It has been awhile since I updated this little family scrapbook on the internet. I like to pop over here from time to time and look at our ...