The ongoing adventures of the Thomas family at Chenoweth Farm
A reporter spent some time recently with Beth and Serena, and this article is the result. Here are some comments from Beth about what was published and what the process was like from her angle:
This interview was actually an interesting experience. After I mentioned that my middle daughter was studying Chinese and Arabic, the reporter, Nathan, volunteered that he had spent 2 years in China as a missionary. I assumed that he was Continue reading “Chenoweth Academy in the Sentinel News”
There… I’ve been struggling with this for months, and now I’ve said it. So, before you click past, aghast at such umbrage, may I point out a simple fact: Sen. Obama’s mother is white. Of course, his father is a black man from Africa, making him very precisely an “African-American”. Nevertheless, with inter-racial parentage, it stands to reason that he is just as much white as black. In truth, he is mulatto, a term I became more familiar with in the first stages of Sarah’s courtship with Dani Auguste. (In Haiti, by the way, these folks are typically from the upper classes and are given respect as a matter of course.) This tension was brought to mind while reading this article today from the Wall Street Journal, and I think it makes an excellent point. Somehow, Sen. Obama’s vision and Continue reading “Barack Obama is white!”
Actually, it should be “RPC Ball”, since friends of Sarah’s gave ballroom dancing lessons for weeks, and it was held by the church. Here’s Sarah and her new guy, Rainey. Looks like they had fun!
More pictures are here…
Lydia is under the weather this week, so here’s a quick post with a snippet from a recent e-mail:
She hopes to be back on the blog next week…
After a violent storm last week (no power for 2 days, trees down, 7 barns gone) it’s been great to have some good weather and to enjoy some flowers on the special day for love- Feb. 14th. Beth and I celebrated with some friends from church at Porcini’s last night. It was very good food (shrimp for me), great conversation and loads of laughs as 3 new couples were gathered up front for the “Cathy Mitchell version” of the Newlywed game. For those of you who attended, you know what I’m talking about 🙂 For the rest, imagine trying to guess your spouse’s answer to some trivial question about your honeymoon while everyone else (who already know the answer) stare at you, grinning from ear to ear. 
Apparently, Beth & I have managed to avoid the spotlight for these annual events, so Cathy has sworn to get us up there next year. <note to self: begin planning west coast business trip for next Feb….> We’ll see!
Now, for the curious among you, who have noticed a word in the title Continue reading “Valentine’s Day, Courtship and Flowers”
It appears that I am the official recipient of a “fuss” (see below :-), and in response to both my news-aware daughter and anyone else who might be getting a daily dose of “liberal”, I offer World Magazine. It is an excellent source of news and commentary, both timely and with an eternal perspective, from a consistent, Christian worldview. It’s a natural fit for some of you; for others, who have no particular religious faith, I especially recommend it because it is a source you can trust to do one thing well– present an alternative perspective to the NYT and all other “mainstream” media. Why would you want this? If God is no more important in your life than the score of last week’s football game, why should you care? Oddly enough, there is a very good reason– civic responsibility. To be specific, the quality of life your grandchildren will experience will be directly affected by the cultural foundation we all lay today. If all you read is the NYT, your part of that foundation might well be rabidly, lopsidedly secular. In reality, the founders of this country, along with the majority of great men and women since, were not atheists and were either believers or at least church goers who had bought the Reformation worldview. Whether you agree with it or not, understanding the moral framework which produced the greatest democracy in human history is a goal worth spending some time to reach.
Here’s an example. Good from Bad… Homosexuality: The cultural mainstreaming of homosexuality is liberating those seeking to escape it is an article which addresses a failure of the church, an unexpected consequence for the radical left and good results which come from misguided (at best) intentions. You will never see this in the NYT, because they abhor it’s implications. You must have a subscription to read the whole thing, but “just a taste” for $5 online isn’t a big investment. It might make you mad, or it might really help you, but it will never parrot the NYT’s line of thought. Try it, then come back here to let me know what you think…
Take a close look at this fighter plane. Do you see anything unusual?
One of the things that makes living in America in the 21st century a challenge is something I’ll call inscrutible complexity. That is, some things seem simple or manageable, but when you actually try to do them, you get lost. I have business clients, for instance, who look at a computer screen as they try to figure out how to do something, and they’re toast. They are looking at the same screen I am, but they are overwhelmed by all the information and can’t make sense of it. Something like that has, I believe, happened with US foreign policy in the last decade. So many things are going on, and they seem so complex and dangerous, that the average voter just wants to “get the troops out of there”, come home and be done with it.
I recently read at article at EjectEjectEject.com that is Continue reading “The Obvious … isn’t”
A funny thing happened on the way to graduation (my daughter’s, not mine). We got her a Nikon D50 for a graduation present, and she started taking lots of pictures. The pictures are great, the camera is great, we should be happy. Ah… I, specifically, should be happy. Not happy- exactly- because now the camera’s doing the talking (metaphorically, shall we say) and the long posts about what’s going on in the head have become leaves, and such. Therefore, I was majorly pleased to find this post, which is about work, words and CSI Las Vegas. Having been to her house, sat on the couch and tried to Continue reading “Post of praise”
Authorities are warning leaf-rakers in the north-central KY to be on the lookout for a man-eating tarp. Last spotted in the Shelbyville
area, it approaches from the rear and quickly engulfs it’s victim before anyone can react. This poor soul, for instance, was gobbled up in a matter of seconds; rescuers only recovered the boots and a few tuffs of hair. The tarp apparently slinks along the ground on the edges of a yard, and jumps out from behind when the raker is walking away. One expert on the subject of man-eating tarps has done some research which suggests that if rakers periodically swing their arms in a circle above their heads and “woop-woop” like wild savages, the disoriented tarp will wander into the nearest ravine and get tangled up in the bushes.
A reward is being offered for the capture of this particular tarp. If and when it is spotted, everyone should immediately surround it, wave their arms frantically, woop in their most frightening voices and keep up the din while someone else calls 911 on their cell phone. If, while waiting for the police, it approaches anyone in an aggressive manner, all present must join hands, howl like wolves and stomp on the tarp with all of their collective feet. Since it can only swallow one victim at a time, this will stun it and prevent a disastrous outcome.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
If I told you that homeschool parents had established a leadership academy in their home, you might be surprised. Even most homeschool parents would be surprised because surveys show the two main reasons parents choose homeschooling are to avoid the negative peer environment of public schools and to teach from a religious perspective. Few homeschool parents identify training their children to be leaders as the reason they chose home education. But are they right? Perhaps many homeschool parents are training their children to be leaders without realizing it.
So begins this article by HSLDA President J. Michael Smith, recently published in the Washington Times. He’s right. We have four children, and they would all scoff at the suggestion that meekly following the agnostic and “whatever feels good, do it” crowd is even remotely desirable.* Our goal has always been to teach, lead and counsel, and always based on the truths of Scripture and common sense. Though they haven’t always been wise nor sinless, no one would say any of our kids are crowd followers.
To find out where the title of this blog entry comes from, read the whole article.
Guess we accidentally raised a bunch of leaders. Praise God! We are so proud…
*Even Andrew, our son who died several years ago in a tragic accident of his own creation, managed to do it by stepping out of the crowd. Later, at a Louisville Youth Choir function where his memory was honored, at least one person described how he had been a leader in ways we didn’t even know…