Ages have past since my last post

Wow.  I haven't written on this blog in a long time. My dad wants me to continue writing on it...thinking about it... (to be continued)

Stunt man Pete!

A friend of mine in Kitale heard that I wanted to ride a motorcycle around where we where staying. He went out of his way to find two motorcycles to use and we eventually got go riding together. We cruised around Milimani Estates, without helmets, just the wind in our face and the sun on our backs! What my friend did for me was so nice and such a blessing. I am a man who loves adventure-especially if it involves something with a motor attached to it that I can ride, or drive!

Here I am attempting a classic stunt. This was such a fun day in Kitale!

S.B.

Passing on family traditions

This one is for you Mom! Giggles now loves

to eat tomato mayo sandwiches!

Photo Update

Our girls after their annual tradition of

Easter Dress Shopping with Grandma!

Missy-Moo with wanted to put her

3D glasses on Sarah - her stuffed

chimp so I snapped a picture of the

two of them together.

Smiley Jones, taking in all our fits of laughter.

He is such a good sport!

Smiley doing the Tom Cruise look with his big

cubby cheeks!

You just can't take this kid seriously with these

glasses on! He kept asking for the keys to the

roadster... I told him that he would have to grow

into his new glasses first! We laughed so much

trying these silly 3D glasses on. I love my gang!

Dr. Suess made us Breakfast

I woke up today to friend on the line, ringing me up because he had time. Then out of the blue and without a debate, their lay green eggs?, on my fruit patterned plate! "Green eggs and ham" I heard with dismay, that was our lot for breakfast today. With a twisted expression I took a small bite of the green eggs and ham and to my delight... they tasted so swell I just had to yell, Sam I am... I love green eggs and ham!

Dr. Suess confessed to using green food colouring...

Maybe Dr. Suess will visit your kitchen for breakfast sometime!

Family Day Get Away

For Family Day we went for a drive an became tourists in our own province.  We found this store that had a pet Lynx that Giggles became fast friends with.  I wouldn't dare get that close at first, but when I discovered that it was stuffed I also gave it a pat or two on the back.  After that I quickly moved on to look at some stuffed wolves that suddenly caught my attention up on the wall! 

We went to a great store that sold vintage candy and then ate Pizza for lunch, Yummy!

I took my girls to see the 3D movie "BOLT" and Giggles had to try her glasses on Smiley!  He is such a good sport. 

Earlier in the day we stopped to visit with some friends who have a pair of owls living in their barn.  This one was huge! They don't call it the Great Horned Owl for nothing!  Simply awe striking!  

We had a lovely day to add to our living memory banks.  

My Smile'n Shorties!

When I think of Missy-Moo I see her smile in my minds eye, and I smile as well.  There are so many things that I love about my girls, their laughter, their hugs, their hilarious  imaginations, but most of all their smiling faces. 

Giggles, my oldest, makes my wife and I laugh till it hurts and that talent is rubbing off on Missy-Moo as well.  There is a great deal of laughter to be spent in one's lifetime, and if you ever feel you have run out of it all you have to do is spend some time with the little people (kids) in your life and you will again rediscover those deep wells of laughter erupting from within.

Smiley Jones, My infant son is all about spreading the love.  He can't speak much more than a gurgle and a coo so he smiles for you and melts your heart.  Mr. Smily Jones is also prone to giggles now, and making him do so has become an obsession of mine.  I just can't get enough of his happy smiles and adorable sounds!  Smiley can now roll over so he is definitely taking this growing up thing very seriously.  Soon he will be sitting up all by himself, then he will be eating messy foods with a spoon and the fun will keep on rolling into his first Christmas walking and talking with us.  Don't you just want to pinch his chubby little cheeks?  What a blessing to have a son!

Making Memories

You know the funny thing about kids is that they know how to make just about anything a blast if us as parents will just play along...  Giggles and her cousin here are entertaining us and themselves while we waited for Christmas dinner to begin.  I don't know if all the "hot chocolates" each day was so good for them, but it sure helped to keep them up and animated until 10 p.m. or later most nights!

I learned that my daughter was a really a superhero, her cape was a nursing blanket but that didn't keep her from saving people from the perils of her imagination.  She saved me from a killer lion who "almost ate me all up..." I am so grateful to Giggles for saving my life, and for her ever expanding imagination!  ~ Sabbatical Dad

Waking up in Joy.

I ate this half of the roof... to my kids dismay I must add.  I think they wanted to eat it... but they go to bed way earlier than I do, and I got the munchies at 10 o'clock.  
This is my brides creation.  They are called Finnish ice candles!  I love them!
This is Smiley giving a double wink!
No winking here!  All smiles.

I woke up this morning to the sound of giggles in the hallway outside my bedroom door. Laughter is a great alarm clock!  My girls often sneak into my room and jump on me to wake me up.  Sometimes they give me a wet willy or a newgee on the noggin... all work just as effectively as the other.  They snuggle in my arms a while and we pray and then tell stories together.  I love my little alarm clocks and all the joy they bring!

Taking time...

Today I just sat and made silly faces with Giggles to try and get Smiley to smile!
We probably blew the better part of half an hour doing that. It was so much fun!
I believe that the little moments of snuggles and smiles with our children are
what help us to stay soft inside during the most trying and rough times of our
lives. After a prayer for grace and a beaming smile on their face - as one of our
kids run to us for a warm embrace - reality sets in and we are reminded that
we are so loved... Thank you God for the hundreds of smiles and hugs and
snuggles you have given to me from my very precious children! ~ S.D.

Canadian Artist - Anne Williams

This is a painting that my daughter Anne did in water colour of the smaller picture she saw in a book.
I love my Canadian Artist - Anne Williams!

First Snowman of the year!

This morning the snow on the lawn was packy! With much excitement the girls and I went out to make a snowman! We didn't have any carrots so an orange marker did the trick! The warm weather persisted and Frosty melted into a puddle on our side walk before noon.

I forgot the NOSE!

Today in Church my Missy-Moo made a craft with a face. It was lovely. While we visited out in the lobby Missy-Moo was dancing around with her paper plate person when a sudden look of horror washed across her face. She started crying as she said, "Daddy, Daddy I forgot her nose! I forgot to draw her nose! (with a sobs erupting). You have to take me back to class so I can draw a nose on her, she can't breathe!" It took all the grace of God in me to keep from bursting into laughter right there on the spot! (I didn't know paper plate people could breathe, but it would only make sense that if they could they would need a nose to do so!)

We found a pen near by and Missy-Moo carefully scrawled a nose onto the middle of her paper plate person. "Ah ah! That's better, and she gave her creation a hug and they returned to finish their dance.

God cares about the little things in all of our lives, even the missing noses on our paper plate people. God is so good to us. Let's remember His kindness to us today, eh.

Sabbatical Dad

The plan...

Today our friendly facilitator, Louis, from our home schooling board came by to meet with us all.
Louis gave us many insightful ideas and wisdom on how to get the most out of our first full time home schooling year! We are so excited. I am absolutely thrilled we are taking this (against the cultural norm) journey of being the educators of our children. I am now Sabbatical Dad, Principle, Teacher, and guidance counselor. Character development is a big part of home schooling. It's something we are glad to have this focused time with our kids to work on together. Did you know that Harvard and Yale and other Ivy league schools actively seek out homeschool graduates to join their institutions for their advanced programs of study? They are finding that these types of students out of the homeschooling communities show greater leadership, more desire to excel and end up being their top students more often than mainstream students. That really excites me because my kids are bright, very bright. And as much as I have heard that homeschooling will damage them socially, none of them can give any such proof. In fact, of all the home schooled families that Holly and I have met, they have the most behaved, well rounded sense of humor, and advanced abilities to carry on a meaningful conversation from very
young ages. I have not met one homeschool child who did not have excellent manners or a lack of respect for their elders. I think there is something more to be said about the good that homeschooling offers children in their critical developmental years than is reported and widely believed by the masses.

As Giggles teacher I get to take her through history, geography, science, math and social studies!
I am also the principle so any misbehaviour gets corrected on the spot. I don't redirect, I correct.
Giggles is my star student and what she comes up with when exploring her studies is astounding.
I am amazed at results! Giggles is a future nobel prize winner, or national, international leader. She really flies to the top of everything she puts her hand to do! She even won the local colouring contest held by the local news paper. Like I said, Giggles is my star student!

Sabbatical Dad

Today was fun...

Today our house was very messy, though full of bubbling laughter.
We cleaned a room, ate up, and cleaned some more right after.

We prayed for grace, prayed for peace and prayed for one another,
Anne coloured, Brie danced and Father Kissed their Mother.

Our home is where we love to learn, to draw and loudly play,
It's also where we told outrageous silly stories today.

Sometimes our house gets quiet as we take our peaceful naps,
Mostly though we sing and dance and eat peanut-butter wraps.

If the weather proves unhappy, or the sun forgets to shine,
We keep on living in the Joy of Christ our loving King and Vine.

Sabbatical Dad

The Beginning...

I have been a working man my whole life. Since I was 15 years old I have worked out of the house for long hours laboring away to afford the things I needed and wanted. Now I am 31 years old. I am married to my beautiful bride, Grace, and we have two bright daughters who are 6 and 3 years of age. As well as the newest arrival our 7 week old bundle of joy boy. I really do have all that I need, and now, all that I want in life. I adore being a dad and realize my role as a father is vital. Most of all I love the synergy that the members of my precious family create now that we are all together again. We are a fantastic team and we are natural winners!

Since 2002 when the birth of our first daughter changed our lives forever, my heart has always been to stay home more and help raise our daughter and now our other two little ones. Although this desire was deep in my heart I still had to work 60-80 hour weeks to make ends meet, and often times that required me to work long days where I never saw my kids. On several occasions I would be out of town away from my family for two weeks, or more, at a time. I sacrificed so much potential family time for the obligations of working for Corporate Canada and "keeping a decent job." I worked overtime, extra days and went beyond the call of duty for my employers while my family suffered in my absence. I wasn't putting my family first and it was killing me as a husband and a father to see the glaring results. Can you relate? God really brought this to my attention and to the attention of my wife when our eldest daughter started showing growing and worsening behavioural problems. These problems where trickling down to our 3 year old and nothing we tried helped. These behaviours were affecting our whole family and our unity as a husband and wife. We prayed for an answer and a solution. One thing that my wife and I both agreed upon was that to most effectively help our daughters they needed to have more focused time with us. More specifically they needed more focused "daddy time." After our son was born my brother asked me if I was going to take parental leave like he had done twice before. I had never considered that option for myself but something compelled me to look into it. Holly and I were facing an ever worsening problem with our daughters at home that we could not ignore much longer. As parents we prayed and followed the leading of the Lord for myself to take parental leave. Needless to say it was the right choice. My extended family were in complete agreement with us as they have seen our struggles first hand. We cherish that they care about us all so much. My employer accommodated our decision to take this sabbatical, although it came as a shock I'm sure. One thing I had to come to grips with was the fact that anyone with a few skills could do my job as a truck driver, but only I could be what my daughters needed most, their Daddy. God has been so good to us and has faithfully provided what we have needed to make this transition. Biting the bullet, admitting our kids where in crisis, and putting our family first again has taken us from being an un-unified family with challenges to overcome, to being a unified family with those same challenges to overcome. I am so glad that we are the latter!

Sabbatical Dad