The History of Arizona has Begun!

That’s me in my yellow suit jacket, except my eyes are green.  I actually did have a very similar banana-yellow suit for my going-away outfit from our wedding in 1987… but I’m dating myself.  I found this cute picture while searching for pictures for the cover of my binder for the class I’m teaching… Arizona History.  It’s a one semester required-for-graduation course… that has the potential to be EXTREMELY boring.  Really.  Arizona History on a timeline of all history is about 3/4 of an inch long, well, not counting the Ancient Peoples.  So my job, as it has turns out, is to make the history of Arizona come alive and be remembered forevermore in the minds of these five high school homeschoolers.  No small task.

As I searched for quality curriculum…. the choices were about as small as the history itself.  So I ended up finding a somewhat interesting reader… not a text at all… written for the Bicentennial celebration of our great nation.  The book is short, yet stacked with quips from interesting individuals and not-so-familiar stories.  Perfect.  Add to that, a boatload of hands-on activities that will have the kids experiencing Arizona like never before. 

During the first class, I was breezing through the planned activities and projects, so the kids would have an idea of what to expect.  When I read, “Make ancient pottery replica” a hand shot up belonging to a former Ancient History student of mine.  “Are you going to smash them and bury them again?”  HAHA!  That was the BEST activity EVER for studying archaeology!  They painted their pots so carefully!  And then without them knowing, I smashed and buried the shards in my barren flower beds in the backyard.  When I sent them out with their tools for the dig, they were a bit surprised until the first painted pot part was uncovered.  I’ve never seen so many eye-rolls in my life!  And the eye-rolls continued when I told them for homework they had to glue them back together!  Anyway, I’m NOT smashing pots this time.

A large map of Arizona was also brought out to show them the route we will take for a two-day field trip to the southern end of our state.  Sarcastically, I pointed to a large pink Indian reservation and told them that there was a cool dude ranch located there that we could have stayed in, but that pink area is the part of Arizona that Obama gave to Mexico and it’s not safe.  (It’s only partially a joke… he had signs put up IN AMERICA that say the area is dangerous because of border jumpers INSTEAD of protecting our border and making any effort to stop the flow of illegals!) Anywho, the students responded with several amazed faces, “WHAT!?”  “He did?”  “Are you kidding!?”….. YES, I’m kidding!  Sheesh!  Kids these days will believe anything!

Currently, I’m knee-deep in maps and National Monument brochures.  Why am I such a nerd?  I’m not sure!  But without nerdy history lovers, where would we be?  Repeating all the same dumb mistakes of the ancient peoples ~ that’s where! 

Great teaching begins HERE! (fist pump!)

Weekend Report

Whilst I was away scrapbooking amidst the pine trees, my family and our home-group from CCV had a garage sale to help raise funds for our adoption.  They are SOOOO awesome!  I did sell some of the bigger items on Craigslist too… and there are four or five more things to sell, but we made over $1,200 so far!  My teenage daughter and I pulled out all the like-new designer kids clothing from the piles and piles that were donated and plan to consign them next week.  That should be another couple hundred dollars.  Whoooo HOooooo!

The best story from the entire weekend was from Saturday morning at the garage sale.  For those who don’t know, we live in Phoenix, AZ…. home to MANY illegal aliens…. who ALL shop at garage sales.  AZ is also the home to the infamous SB1070 bill that enables officers of the law to ask for identification from anyone they pull over, who happens to look like they could be an illegal alien.  (I would love it if Obama came to AZ and got pulled over and asked for proof of citizenship…. but I digress.)

Anyway, there is a man in our home-group who is a policeman who works nights.  He arrived home from his beat and dropped by the garage sale to see his wife and offer his support to our family.  Well, his presence in his uniform didn’t go over so well with the shoppers.  In fact, many dropped piles of chosen articles where they stood, slouched to their vehicles in the cul-de-sac and escaped without showing proof of citizenship.  When everyone figured out what was going on, Mr. Policeman’s wife sent him home to change his clothes… and to stop hampering business.  As soon as he left the cul-de-sac, six cars came right in and the shoppers resumed shopping.  It was hilarious!

My Political Post for 2010

Today was the first day of the homeschool convention here in Phoenix.  The exciting thing this year is that I get to go to seminars instead of working in a booth.  I’ve been in the Konos booth for 6 or 7 years now, but they aren’t doing conventions any more.  Sad but true.

(Photo from  www.focusonlinecommunities.com)

Anyway, the first session was power packed:  State Senator John Huppenthal, Governor Jan Brewer (of immigration fame), Senator John McCain (the 5th Arizonian to not win the presidency), and my personal favorite, Michael Farris.  Those who aren’t submerged in the homeschool world might not recognize that last one.  He is an attorney with the Home School Legal Defence Alliance (or Association… or another A….).  He’s also a dad of ten kids.  Yes, you read that right.  TEN.  My hat’s off to him for that point alone.  He’s a lawyer with a great sense of humor who entertained and enlightened us this morning.  But it gets better. 

(Disclaimer:  I might not have all the details totally accurate, but please get the gist of this.)  The UN has a new-ish treaty that they are trying to get all the UN countries to sign called the Rights of the Child.  It is pretty well a sure thing that our president would sign this document before his term is up.  (Notice I didn’t say termS.)  Up front it sounds all nice and fair for children, but it is not.  It would not only undermine the autonomy of the USA but also the authority of the family.  I learned all this today at the homeschool convention… amidst several thousand like-minded individuals who don’t take kindly to governments telling us what to do with our children. 

Mr. Farris has written Senate Resolution 519 (Here is the text, in case you’re interested: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-sr519/text )  Mainly it states that the primary safeguard for the well-being and protection of children is the family, and that the primary safeguards for the legal rights of children in the United States are the Constitutions of the United States and the several States (plus WAY more).

I did not realize that if this resolution has 34 co-sponsors in the Senate, this treaty could never be voted on by President Obama.  I just assumed that he would vote according to his socialist beliefs and we would suffer the consequences… again.  But 34 senators can say, “We will not support this” and it freezes the vote.    This is also why the Founding Fathers, who would be shocked and dismayed at the state of the union, put a clause in the Constitution to separate the USA from other countries.  Brilliant.  For such a time as this.

The AZ senators are already co-sponsors, among (I think) 27 others.  So I can’t do any calling to senatorial offices.  But if you live outside of Arizona and don’t want President Obama giving away your right to parent your child according to your beliefs, please find out if your senators are co-sponsors of Sen. Res. 519…. and encourage them to be sponsors!  Be American and contact your representatives!

Ok, My Sister’s Jar will be back to fluff and nonsense, and vacation pictures, and drivel tomorrow.

Oh Boy! The Election is Over!

A sad and disappointing evening on Election Night 2008 for the millions of people who supported Senator McCain.  We had church tonight and I was teaching a first and second grade girl’s class…. but I must admit I was a tad distracted by world events.  We jumped in the van after church just in time to hear Senator McCain’s concession speech, and a darn good and gracious speech it was.  Made me proud all over again that we supported him.

We zoomed to my parent’s home to watch President-Elect Obama make his victory speech.  (No, we don’t have TV…. but maybe now a RICH person will pay for cable for all of us who don’t have it…… that was total tongue-in-cheek…..)  I was a little surprised that he wasn’t all smiles.  Maybe he already realizes that he’s in WAY over his head!  His family sure looked beautiful.  I’m honestly thrilled that Americans voted in a black president…. seems we’re almost over the color deal….  BUT why couldn’t it have been a godly black man?  Or at least one with some history.  Anything!  Maybe even with a name like Joseph Watson…. or Bob Smith…. or Ray Grant.  (I’m obviously not over the Muslim deal.)

When tucking in my 9 year old son, he showed me his McCain/Palin sign over his bed and asked what he should do with it now.  Sadly, he rolled it up and put it in the trash.  He seemed agitated so I asked what was bothering him.  He honestly replied, “I’m just worried about taxes.”  Believe it or not, I held in the laughter.  I reminded him that he’s NINE and he probably didn’t need to worry about taxes quite yet. 

I reassured my children (and myself) that God is still on the throne.  God was not surprised tonight, like we were.  He will still pour out his blessings on His children.  Evangelism will continue.  The Holy Spirit will still move.  People will still find Jesus!  All is not lost.

Go Senator McCain!

Two and a half more days and we’ll all know exactly what the good ol’ USA deserves.  Well, you get what you deserve, right?  God help us!  We visited the McCain Campaign Southwest Headquarters  this week and helped the cause by putting together yard signs.  It was a buzz of activity. 

Our homeschool co-op also stepped into his office for a few moments to see all that is on display there as well.  They have a rotating system of showcasing hundreds of different pictures, certificates, awards and memorabilia, but the set that was out blew my mind.  The honor and service awards  were vast in numbers that Sen. McCain has been awarded.  Wow.  I wanted to read one in particular to my kids about his life and commitment to America, coming from a family devoted to military service and his valiant stint as a POW, but I was in tears reading it silently and couldn’t manage a vocal performance at that moment.

There were pictures of Senator McCain with Presidents Nixon, Regan, Ford, Carter, Clinton and both Bushs.  There was a picture of him in his flight suit as a handsome young soldier (who looked a lot like Tom Cruise, in my humble opinion) taken three minutes before his personal freedom was taken away from him for six years after he was shot down.  There were also many awards around the office for his work with prisoners of war and veterans.  The man knows what’s going on.  He’s been there, done that and wrote the book.

I was not automatically for Sen. McCain in the beginning.  He did not get my primary vote, but unquestionably, he has my Tuesday vote.  There is just no comparison between the two candidates in work ethic, experience, history, values, respect, track record, etc.  What in the world has Sen. Obama done for our country so far?  I cannot for the life of me figure it out.  And what in the world is a world citizen?  Are they handing out new passports for everyone on planet Earth who can fog a mirror?  I want an AMERICAN citizen as President, who is proud of our great country, and proud of our system of government, our emblems and our Christian heritage.

As many of you, I’ve read a vast array of commentaries about both candidates.  The one that made me really laugh said that in order to claim a nationality, like Chinese, or Spanish, or Black, you have to be at least 1/6 of that nationality.  I don’t know if it’s true, but they stated that Sen. Obama is 1/8 black, so he can’t legitimately even claim that.  Shoot!  That was his main playing card! 

This is my kind of candidate…. a little stand up right before the big day.  To our eternal amusement, Senator and Mrs. McCain did a stint on SNL.  Here’s the link:  http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/mccain-qvc-open/805381/

Needless to say at this point, VOTE! on Tuesday.  And if you got a call from the “McCain” camp telling you to get out and vote on WEDNESDAY…. it’ll be all over by then.  It’s TUESDAY that counts.

Kids Even Got It Figured Out!

My nine year old son already has enough common sense to vote in a presidential election.  Here is his journal entry from school yesterday:

“What makes a great president is a president that cares for us unlike Obama would ’cause if he dosen’t care about (unborn) babies he wouldn’t care about us.  McCain is a good president.”

Yep, that about sums it up.

We’re studying the electoral process right now, as is only appropriate for this day and season.  We are having elections soon between two candidates from our homeschool group.  They are filming their campaign ads tomorrow.  Should be highly entertaining.  One of the slogans is “Vote Blond Not Brown.”  I suggested that this might not be a wise idea…. but what do I know?  The kids also still have to make ballots, the ballot box and the voting booth.  When all voting is completed next week, in turn they will be drawing the electoral votes out of a hat.  So we really won’t know who has won until the end…. just like the REAL election. 

Do your duty.  VOTE!