FIRE SAFETY PART TWO
The man was supposed to arrive at 7 p.m. He didn’t. We got a call and another man was coming instead. Mike had spent over 8 hours in full battle gear lying in the dirt in 100* weather – he wasn’t in a great mood. The man arrived at our home shortly after 8 p.m. – more than an hour late.

He did talk with the kids about some fire safety things (scared them but I’ll work on that). He gave us a sheet of things to do for a fire drill etc. He walked through the house with us to determine what we needed. He gave us a figure of $4800+ to buy smoke/fire detectors and heat detectors. WHEW.

We DID learn a lot of valuable information. It did bring home that we need to make a plan with the kids…we did a drill after the neighbor’s fire in AK but that won’t help us much down here. {sigh}

Mike was ticked that they build up a huge case of guilt in the men ….you love your family, you want the best for them, how much would you say their lives are worth???? and then they obviously have a giant mark up on their products…..I see his point.

They say the smoke alarms you buy around town are less than 50% functional. This IS the base for the fire school. Mike plans to talk with the Fire Chief and Deputy Fire chief and/or I’ll talk with my friend and her dh and we’ll find out what they recommend and what they have in their homes. We think we can buy commercial grade detectors and put them in all the bedrooms, living room, garage and attic for less than $5,000.00.

Meanwhile we DID learn some great things and we’ll take those steps now…off to the store tomorrow.

FIRE SAFETY

Last night we went to a workshop where an ex-fireman gave a wonderful talk on fire safety. He was informative, funny and very low pressure. He mentioned the name of the company whose things he sold. We then had a free dinner (Lin's for those of you local).

He'll be coming to our home tonight. We realized we could do a lot more in this realm and he's going to help us formulate a plan, try to sell us smoke, carbon and fire alarms (theirs are much different than the ones at Wal-mart). I hadn't realized how many really unsafe fire hazards we have around here.

Also - he was showing how they don't recommend you put your face to the ground anymore because there are so many toxic things in our home....carpet pad being one and that it releases a leathal gas when it burns....well that was the ONLY thing I knew about fire safety and it was out the window. {sigh}

Mike wants me to try to find out how much they are asking for their products. I found their website www.masterguard.com but I can't find a listing of prices anywhere (bad sign). Has anyone ever bought any of these products? Do you have a clue as to price?

REQUEST

I've mentioned that I'm currently in the midst of redoing a parenting study. I know what we do and why we do it - but I want to have all my thoughts in one spot. I also want to have all the reasons WHY we do what we do documented! {g} I think I will pass this on to my children if they like the way they turned out. :::snort::: Nah - I have no clue why I'm doing this except I'm repeatedly asked if I do x, y or z in parenting and then questioned as to why I don't do x,y, and z.... I've even been told I'm a liberal because I DON'T do x,y, and z. I'm sort of amused that folks want children like ours but they don't like my answers when I tell them how we parent. First person that asks me after I'm done will get a 438 page book of notes dropped on them. :::snort:::: I am DELIBERATELY not reading parenting books. Several have told me there are wonderful new books out there that say "what you do"....but I want to go back to the Word and have the confidence that I'm saying what the WORD says before I read any of the new authors being recommended to me. And BTW....we have made some changes in the past month due to this study.....I am certainly NOT saying *I have all the answers*.

I've reached a part in my study where I'm ready to branch out. I've mentioned the heart thing and the character of God and so you sort of know that direction. The thing is that I know where we part company with many Christians is in the use of the rod. There is no sense running from the Word if you think it doesn't agree with what you want to do. Run TO the Word...check it out and if you find it says something other than you are doing - change. That's where you'll find freedom and confidence. I'll never forget how freeing it was to do a word study on "meek" - I realized that *I* am meek - even more meek than many who fit the definition of what society/church tells us is meek. LOL Sermon over.

I have been studying the rod. I began by looking up every word that is translated as rod that I could find - both in the Old Testament and New Testament. I'm now ready to take the definition back to the context of the Scriptures where it is found. I've been very careful not to let the works of others (sermons, friends, commentaries, books) influence my word study. I want to be sure I study all the Scriptures that are most often quoted to define the use of the rod in child rearing. Surprisingly, I've come up with only 4 in Proverbs. Please share with me any and all Scriptures that you believe define the use of the rod in child raising. I ask not to be argumentative. I want to accurately handle the Word of Truth on this subject. I want to be thorough. I want to be sure what I do lines up with the Word. At this point I'm reaching some conclusions and I want to be sure that I've examined all the verses that others may think are important on this aspect of the study.

I will not argue with you at all - in fact I really am not asking for opinions at this point....I'm asking for references that you would consider important for someone studing the rod to examine.

Thanks.

Study thoughts and a REQUEST (ok request seperate)

When I say I'm studying something folks often don't know what I mean. For those who don't know me well - here is a stack of the books I had out just this a.m. as I work through my Parenting study. It is going to be so NICE to have all these random thoughts of mine in one spot again...and maybe this time I'll put the thoughts on the computer so that I don't loose all the study again.....but as of now they are in a little composition notebook.

Here are the tools I had out this a.m.

Tools I use most often in THIS phase of a study:

Bible (KJV, NASB, LB, NIV etc)

OT Complete Word Study Dictionary

OT Complete Word Study Bible

NT Word Study Dictionary

NT Complete Word study Bible

Vines

Theological Wordbook of the OT - (vol 1 -2)

Strongs Concordance and dictionary

Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew/English Lexicon

Kittles - lots and lots of books on NT word usage

Websters - NOTE this is only to clarify meanings of ENGLISH words and not to look on Bible Words - for that you use a BIBLE DICTIONARY!!!!!! {smiles for all who've taken a study skills workshop with me! I miss you!}

Yesterday, the boys had their friends Mikey and Stephen over for another seige of Axis and Allies.....

Here are a few of the pictures promised of Stacia dancing. Josiah put on KJ52. Josiah loves this artist and the tunes often play during clean up. He trained Stacia since birth to break dance to this music.....but Monday when he put it on....Stacia surprised us!

Stacia RISES

Stacia dances...to bad this isn't video and you can't see the legs moving and the tush shaking...

Dance session ends with a bit of sisterly fun...

I'm a softie for sales folks of all kinds. Mike has taught me to say "no thank you; we're not interested" as soon as the telephone spiel begins. I hate to think how many great deals I've missed this way.....{sigh}. I still am not very good at dealing with the folks at my door! This man showed up on Monday with his older wife - both with arthritis - and wanted to paint my address on the curb. This reminds me I should check and see what they did out there. OK I'm not going to feel to bad about not turning away people at my door - because come to think of it Mike bought a nice candle from the TLC cheerleaders not to long ago. :::snort:::

DINNER ROLL CALL

OK - help me out here. I've gotten into a rut. I would love it if lots of you would simply post a week of dinners and/or lunches from your house. OK - if you are also in a rut and don't want to admit what you've had for dinner in the past week...how about you make up a DREAM week and I won't even make you title it "dinners for a week - in my dreams"! :::snort:::

Don't worry about your dinners fitting our eating style...I have learned to adapt most recipes to our new lifestyle....unless of course it has pork or deep feeding fish or shrimp.....

OK I'll get you started....Dinners we've had in the past week or month or maybe even year {g}

Manicotti
Baked Chicken
Lasagna
Pasta with Asiago cheese/chicken breast
Grilled burgers/steaks

I'd love to hear from Jodi - my vegan friend...and Adrienne and Heather my healthy friends...and Becky my healthy friend with young kids who EAT Quizno sandwhiches without picking out the tomatoes and lettuce......

Oops - time to run Jamin to work....

Discipline Thoughts:

OK - I'll share snippets as I go along on my personal study. Has anyone commented on the teachable moment question down below? Someone better do that. {g}

I'd like your input on this. I've spent considerable amount of time praying and thinking about this. It's been fun.

"How does God discipline His children?" - I want to discipline as God disciplines. Therefore my discipline must glorify God. To glorify is to give a "correct representation". This means that my parenting must be an accurate reflection of God's nature and character. I'm not talking about my children's behavior here but about MY actions and MY heart. MY actions in parenting must reflect God's character. I began to list all I know about God's character...and it's been one of those "ah" and "freeing" moments in parenting. Brainstorm with me? I'll share my list later...but I'd love to have some of you think with me....describe the character and nature of God.....

A conclusion I've reached is: my parenting and discipline must BEGIN in the heart and character of God.

fill in the blank.....God is:

BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH

I woke up this a.m. with a blue screen on my computer. It says it is "beginning dump of physical memory" - that's o.k. This day FEELS like a day devoid of physical memory. {G} I'm on the boys' computer....that will work...though it's not as convenient for doing my "things"....

The past two days have been full. We've done a bit of speech and school, cleaned, bowled, ordered diapers from a very hard to reach lady in AK, had friends over for another rip-roaring round of *Axis and Allies*, worked hard, baked bread, baked cookies, run to Sam's TWO times....attended a fire safety workshop followed by a free meal at a local Chinese Buffet....Mike is going in at 5 a.m. all week for PT. He's doing training for his deployment. We updated our will.

That's life the past few days. OH yes...and Stacia has not learned to stand and walk but she stands and DANCES all by herself. Josiah took a bunch of pictures....I'll get them uploaded when my computer finds it's memory. UGH...I really do NEED to back up my journal and our photos.