Shooting Range

Stepping out of the car and onto the gravel parking lot, my ears were immediately bombarded by the cacophony of gunshots. Experiencing a strange mixture of excitement and trepidation, I grabbed one of the rifles and followed my cousin, Chris, and siblings, Jonathon, Leisel, and Lynnae into the gun range.

When I was younger I used to shoot my brother's BB gun and I may have shot a .22 before, but I don't recall. This was my first time, however, for visiting a real shooting range. Expectation ran high and Leisel and Lynnae's excitement bubbled over in great grins and sparkling eyes directed at me. They had both been to the gun range before and were eager to go again.

Chris's .22 was the first gun that I shot. He had just bought a new scope for the gun and it was very helpful in getting an accurate aim at the target. I did most of the shooting with Jonathon's old .22, however. It had a lot of problems and needed to be loaded one bullet at a time, but I enjoyed the challenge of trying to sight the "old fashioned way".

My favorite part about shooting is: opening the chamber to reload and seeing the the thin thread of smoke drift out from the opening. The smell of gun smoke was another very pleasant part of shooting. Jonathon declared that if they made cologne that smelled like gun smoke, he would wear it.

Jonathon made some really good shots, getting some nice groupings around the center of the target.

After we had shot up the rifle targets we moved over to the pistol range and got to shoot Chris's brand new Kimber .45. I had never shot a handgun in my life and, I must admit I was rather nervous. Gripping the rough, maroon handle, processing varying instructions on the best way to hold the gun (from Chris and Jonathon), I took aim and Chris released the safety lock. Taking a deep breath, I pulled the trigger... and hit the bull's eye.

What I wasn't prepared for was the vigorous kickback of the .45. Shaking a little, I finished up the round and then went to sit down. I wasn't quite sure what I thought of pistol shooting. The bullet exit is so close to my hands and I feel less in control with a handgun. After every one had had there turn, Chris offered to let me shoot again. I didn't want to, but I forced myself to do it; I didn't want to back away from something just because it shook me up a little. I shot 5 more shots and hit the bull's eye one more time. I felt a little better after forcing myself to shoot it again, rather like someone who has fallen off of a horse and gotten back on again. Just before Chris put the gun away, he let me take the last 4 shots. I conquered my first fear of it and I think that I am ready to go back and try shooting it again.

Leisel and Lynnae, however, reacted completely differently then I did. They both loved it! and were rearin' to shoot it at every opportunity.

We spent over 4 hours at the gun range and it was really a fun experience. I would love the opportunity to get more practice in shooting. I'd love to get the bull's eye every time. And, admittedly, I wasn't a great shot with the rifle. I could hit the target (some of the time), but 50 yards was just too far for me to get very accurate shots.

Football

Football season...or rather the end of it. Admittedly, no one in our family has been breathlessly watching the games all season long; we are not much of a sports family, I guess. However, there were several of our number that really wanted to be able to go to a live high school football game.

Not being much of a sports fan in general, Ultimate Frisbee is about the only sport that I really get excited about, I have never been very interested in football. Since watching Facing the Giants, though, I must say that football has become a bit more interesting to me. I still wouldn't prefer a football game above a good Jane Austen story, but I was excited to get to go and see the game.

It had been raining all day yesterday and even as it moved on toward evening there appeared to be a lowering cloud in the horizon. To pour or not to pour that became the question as we hurriedly put together a dinner, keeping one eye on the dark cloud the entire time. Opinions were divided, certain diehards among our number declared that they would be perfectly willing to sit on bleachers, acting the part of a sponge, soaking up the falling rain. Others of the less adventuresome group would have preferred to have the assurance of a roof over our heads.

When Ania saw the football players she asked Bubby, "Why are those Giants wearing helmets?" I'm not sure whether the parallel in her mind came from the humongous appearance of the football costumes or the movie Facing the Giants.

As it turned out, the weather cleared and, aside from the evening chill, it was not an unpleasant night to sit out and watch a football game.

Return to Routine

This is now my 4th year of helping Mommy with the homeschooling of my sisters. I was talking to Mommy the other day and commented on the fact that I began to teach Cosette when she was in 2nd grade and now she is in 5th grade. How fast time flies! These have been blessed years for me and, though there are times when I begin to wonder what God has for me in the future, I am confident that this is where He wants me right now and I am very thankful to be here.

This year is a little different than the previous years. For one thing, I have added Leisel (who is in 10th grade) to my list of students. In previous years, she was doing computer school, but this year Daddy and Mommy decided to have her go back to doing book school. Another thing is that I have decided to work independently of a school curriculum. Leisel and Lynnae are both doing Saxon Math while Kayleen and Cosette to Rod and Staff Math and Science. I am teaching Writing to them all this year using a Writing book by Susan Bradrick. It is very helpful and gives them many opportunities to put into practice all of the grammar skills that you learn in a normal English textbook. They all have a remarkable talent for writing and I am exciting to see them improve over the coming year.

For History, I found a program on AIG that I decided to use this year. It was put together by Diane Waring and is written for grades 6-12 so that all of the girls are able to do it together. Since History is my favorite subject, I am really excited about the program this year. Our study book is Romans, Reformers, and Revolutionaries and this month we have been studying the fall of Rome and the rise of the early church. In the process, the girls have written a research paper on a subject of their choice, listened to lectures, and been able to do some fun activities such as skits mocking several of the emperors of Rome.

Piano and violin lessons have begun again and practice is getting into a routine. Leisel's teacher is going to be teaching her how to improvise on hymn playing and so I am going to sit in on Leisel's lessons so that I can learn all that I can. I can easily play the hymns, but none of the complicated furbelows come very naturally to me.

We are still in our rental home waiting for the Lord to show us the next step, but we are confident that he is directing our path. It feels good to be in a routine again and I try not to think to much about how nice it will be to be finally settled in a place that we can call our home.

The results of helping the chief baker clean up a chocolate caked spoon.

Several weeks of beautiful autumn weather has made it possible for the little ones to get out and play in the back yard. The yard is small and they have to run laps in order to get the proper amount of exercise, but, since it is fenced in, Mommy feels much more comfortable letting them run around by themselves. They have enjoyed the extra time outside.

Lessons from a Toddler

How delightfully simplistic is the life of a child. Their world is so small and their crises so insignificant compared with those of the real world. The other day, after church, Daddy and Mommy drove out to look at a potential house in Battle Ground. When Mommy came back she said that Ania was watching the other cars on the road and thought that everyone going in the opposite direction was going to church (where we had just come from) and everyone going in the same direction as our van was going to look at the house.

Thinking back to the real world (the world of the grown-ups), we could maybe learn something from the world of a toddler. Perhaps we should develop a more single minded view as we look at the world around us. Everyone on earth is going one of two ways: to heaven or to hell. The world is full of problems and I am not minimizing the day to day struggles and decisions that come up, but we would do well to occasionally pull back and take a look at the larger picture. The ultimate question is where we will all spend eternity and the day in and day out situations of life, however important at the moment, cannot compare with our eternal destiny.

If we began to look at the people with whom we interact day to day as bound for eternity, granted only a short space of time on this earth, would it change the nature of our interaction with them?

Circumlocutory Government

The Circumlocution Office was (as everybody knows without being told) the most important Department under Government. No public business of any kind could possibly be done at any time without the acquiescence of the Circumlocution Office. Its finger was in the largest public pie, and in the smallest public tart. It was equally impossible to do the plainest right and to undo the plainest wrong without the express authority of the Circumlocution Office. If another Gunpowder Plot had been discovered half an hour before the lighting of the match, nobody would have been justified in saving the parliament until there had been half a score of boards, half a bushel of minutes, several sacks of official memoranda, and a family-vault full of ungrammatical correspondence, on the part of the Circumlocution Office.

I have been reading Little Dorrit over the past few weeks and, despite it's dark undertone, I have been really enjoying it. Particularly striking to me is the concept of the Circumlocution Office (Dickens' satirical name for the Government of that day). In the story the government sends the hero round and round, driving him from pillar to post in hopes of getting justice, but justice was never gained. No one in office accepted responsibility for anything, he was always referred to someone else.

It is with increased fascination that I have watched the working of our government over the past several months. It is a fascination mixed with curiosity and a sense of the unbelievable; the America that I know and love, the America that my parents and grandparents knew, the America that countless thousands of brave men have died to defend, is fast disappearing. It seems that the voice of the people is being suppressed under a hand that is getting heavier every day; it is the hand of an ever increasing and more powerful government. Mommy describes it as a nightmare where some impending terror looms over you and all you can give is a silent scream.

If Dickens were alive today, I am sure that our government would provide him with a smorgasbord of personalities to caricature. America, the essence of liberty and example to the world, is fast becoming the representation of "How not to do it". Laws are being proposed which would do nothing, but halt the wheels of progress in America and create a Circumlocution Office out of our health care and justice systems and any other system which they can possibly control or create.

In spite of this, however, I have not lost all hope for my beloved country. I know that the King of Kings is on the throne and His rule is sovereign and just. Even if this country or world in which I live should fall apart (and it will some day), my security is in my eternal home. I know that any prayer I make to my heavenly Father flies unhindered to heaven. Any trouble or injustice on earth is observed by His all seeing eye. Resting in that confidence, I will pray diligently for my country and trust God to work out His perfect will.

Busy Hands

Ania's new task now is to help with the dishes. She loves to pull a chair into the kitchen and assist in washing and drying the numerous dishes that pile up in our kitchen sink. I think it is a great task for her in learning to do her share in keeping the house running (as long as all of the dishes stay in tact).

Daddy took these pictures the other evening and I could not resist posting them. Everyone does their part in the work around their house and whenever someone is gone, even for a short time, their absence is felt and the work load becomes harder for the rest. Ania is fast learning to take her place in the complicated machinery of the family. :-)

Cats, Cowboys, and Crepuscule

Yes, I did have to use a thesaurus to achieve the title's perfect alliteration. Originally it was Cats, Cowboys, and Sunsets, but it was so close to being alliterated that I could not resist a little search for a corresponding word. I decided it wouldn't hurt to give everyone, including myself, a new vocabulary word of the day.

Since moving into our rental home, we have made friends with small, black, neighorhood cat. I am not sure who it belongs to, if anyone, but it is the sweetest, gentlest kitty. At first it was very skittish and if you put it on your lap, it jumped off as soon as it could. Now she voluntary crawls up into your lap and if you try to push her off, she curls into a tighter, round ball with her head and tail intertwined.

She has become our constant companion and spends most of her day and evening either on our front porch, in a little box we put out for her, or on the back porch. She longs to come inside and watches for any opportunity to dart past the guard and into the house. Today, she even climbed all the way to the top of our screen door, looking for an opening.

We have named the kitty Lucky.



Ania does have a little of the drama queen in her. Most of the time for a photo, she rises to the occasion. :-) When Kayleen took this picture of her and then showed it to her afterward, her response was, "Aaaaawwwwwwww". She's heard it so many times, that I guess she must suppose that is the proper response to cute pictures.

The other day Annalise, Austin, and Ania dressed themselves up as cowboys. They have a considerable lack of toys, in fact, most of their toys are packed away so they are learning to make do. A lack of suitable cowboy clothing necessitated the rifling of Austin's closet to come up with the requisite articles.

Kayleen took these pictures this evening, attempting to catch the autumn glow that pervaded our back yard view. I think that she did a very fine job.

This lone tree standing against the backdrop of stormy clouds is amazing. A barren tree is a rare sight in Washington; even during the Autumn season we have plenty of evergreens to color the landscape. This picture looked like it was taken in the midst of a wilderness.