Well, I’ve been MIA for a while — it’s been pretty busy here with little time for fun stuff like posting interesting tid bits and my bird’s eye view of the world.  But I’m taking a little time this morning to say “hello!”

An important request to those of you who believe in the power of prayer — I have a good friend whose wife is expecting.  They’ve suffered through a couple of miscarriages, but this pregnancy seems to be going well.  They’re at 12 weeks and so far everything looks good, based on a recent ultrasound.  Please keep all three of them in your prayers!

My sweetheart recently went on a motorcycle retreat with some men from his step-dad’s church.  They rode miles and miles up into the East Texas piney woods and he said it was a truly rejuvenating experience.  I hope he’s able to go every year, as he really has seemed more at peace and generally happy since going!  Now if someone would come up with something for us girls!  (Hmmm . . . scrapbooking, anyone?)

The little miss is doing well.  I’m not sure, but I think she is ready for school to be out.  She loves to read, but she’s tired of reading the “required” books.  I think she’d like to have more freedom in her reading choices.  This will be a lot easier for me to manage next year when we start homeschooling.  I want her to have a well-rounded education, of course, but I also want her to have an education that is custom-designed for her benefit AND enjoyment. 

My sister and I will be attending the SETHSA homeschool conference in June.  While I’m pretty sure that we’re going to start out using A Beka’s materials, there are so many wonderful materials out there to supplement and enrich the educational experience.  I need to start “hoarding” my pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters now!

The business is going well — I have several jobs coming to completion with installations scheduled three days next week.  Have a few bids simmering on the burner and hope to hear positive replies from the potential clients soon.  That will help with the expenses of homeschooling, too . . .

Here’s a column I read this morning that I thought you’d all enjoy.  I know it made an impression on me:

Learn When to Keep Your Mouth Shut

By Michael Morris
The Facts

Published April 20, 2005

When our children are growing up, we do our best to teach them language that is respectful. Certain phrases are merely unacceptable, and we are scolded or worse if we use them.

Some children have some difficulty getting their brains and mouths to work in unison, which would explain why I spent a good bit of my childhood in the bathroom having my breath made Zestfully clean.

One such phrase we discourage our children from uttering is telling people to “shut up.” It’s a quite harsh, impolite way of telling someone you disagree with them or are just disgusted with what they have to say. Still, as we run across people in our daily lives, it seems more and more often no other phrase is quite as fitting.

Such as when we watch Barry Bonds complain about how difficult people have made his life. Watching his press conference about how the media has tried to tear him down and treated him unfairly, playing the race card in the process, is so ridiculous it sends us screaming “Oh, shut up already!” at the television and looking for that old novelty foam brick to fire at the screen.

The same goes for most of the political debate shows.

Why do Chris Matthews, Sean Hannity and their brethren not know when their comments have gone so far outside the bounds of logic that they need to grab the SuperGlue and do a little tooth bonding?

Still, the times when the phrase is most deserved to be uttered we remember the lessons of our parents and allow discretion to take over, instead standing there smiling uncomfortably as our blood pressure climbs. It would be so much easier if we could just drop that direct, two-part instruction on the person for the sake of our long-term mental and physical health.

A trip to my dry cleaner’s lately has me popping a precautionary aspirin afterward.

The young woman who works the counter makes small talk with me by complaining about how terrible her job is. Poor thing only gets paid for about 20 hours of overtime a week, and she’s so grateful for Saturdays to roll around because she gets to go home at a decent hour — 3 p.m. instead of 6:30. My heart is bleeding over the terrible life she must have.

Apparently she must believe that I’m not a customer, but a career counselor.

She’s one of those young adults we’ve raised with the spirit of entitlement that you just want to grab by the lapels and snap her into the real world, where folks regularly work 60 hours a week on second or third shift to feed their families.

But that wouldn’t be nice.

It also wouldn’t be nice to clam up the folks who complain about how stressed they are because they’re not sure how they’re gonna make the next payment on their Lexus or how much it costs to keep their kids outfitted in South Pole gear and Air Jordans.

Maybe the solution would be mandatory group sessions for these chronic complainers, sessions led by homeless mothers and senior citizens who can’t afford to fill their prescriptions each month.

Maybe it would be to buy them a ticket to be part of the next mission trip to Nias, Indonesia.

Either would provide some perspective on the spoiled, ungrateful lives we are leading, and perhaps teach the chronic complainers to shut up without us having to say a word.

Michael Morris is assistant managing editor of The Facts. Contact him at (979) 237-0145, or e-mail michael.morris@thefacts.com.

Guess that’s it for now.  I’ll try not to go so long between posts . . . hope you all have a great day!