Sunday Wrapup 8/25/2013

Hiromi announced in church today that Iwashige baby boy number five had arrived.  I'm sure that information took people for a loop temporarily.  He was counting his own three boys, of course, and Shane and Dorcas' first son, and now their new baby.

This baby's comfortable settling in makes Shane and Dorcas more aware than they were at the time that Tristan's arrival was accompanied by far more difficulty than is usually the case.

I think it's neat that it was Dorcas' Sunday School teacher who was the midwife in charge at the birth center when her baby was born.

You're good at lots of different things, Lois.  Thanks for serving so faithfully and well.

All of us who had gone to the birth center to see the baby stood around and sang "Happy Birthday" to Carson before we blew out the candle and sliced into the birthday cake the birth center staff baked for the occasion.  How's that for a down-home touch?  Lois may have baked the cake.  I think she sometimes does anyway.

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We're back on the property this year where several ancient Bartlett pear trees survive.  Yesterday I finally thought to check to see if there were pears present, and there are.  Tristan and I picked and ate one and it was good.  I wish Ella Nisly were here to tell me if it's time to pick all of them.  They should be picked slightly green, she said, because they ripen from the inside out, and are mushy on the inside by the time they turn yellow on the outside.  When we lived here earlier, I could send my little boys up into the trees to pick the ones out of reach.  No such luck now.

The newer pear trees out back also have fruit.  It's a pity that Hiromi is not very fond of canned pears.  He's more enamored with Asian pears than the European variety--which is what most of us are most familiar with.  Asian pears are round and crunchy like an apple when ripe.  We have a few of those on a small tree out back.

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The alfalfa field surrounding our property got sprayed with Roundup last week.  The alfalfa looks as good as ever, but the pigweeds are looking mighty sickly.  It's obviously Roundup-ready alfalfa.

I'm not smart enough to have it all figured out.  If it were being made into hay, I can't imagine that the pigweed would be a huge problem.  The other alternative is that the alfalfa is being saved for seed, and the weed seeds cannot be included in that seed harvest.  Harvesting seed, however,  would have to be through a special arrangement with whoever holds the patent on the variety, as I understand these  matters.  Are there publicly released, patent-free genetically modified alfalfa varieties?

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Twila Y. brought a beautiful bouquet of flowers to my schoolroom last week.  The neat thing was that the whole thing looked exactly like something I would have put together to sell at Farmer's Market--vase and flower varieties all.  That's because she had gotten the plants from seeds or plants I supplied her with earlier.  She has been a faithful customer in the past, but this year I didn't start any plants.  I sold her some zinnia seeds instead, and she had the good fortune of having many of last year's plants reseed this year, and the zinnia seeds grew into nice plants with colorful flowers.

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We had a lovely and leisurely Skype conversation with Joel and Hilda and Arwen yesterday morning.  It was almost bedtime there.  Having a conversation where seeing them is possible is a great blessing.  It's not quite as good as having them within arm's reach, but feeling present with them makes having them far away more bearable.

Arwen is one busy little lady.  She's getting around well on all fours and pulling herself up and taking some side steps--none of which she had started before they left.

Lynita (their family friend who is a wife and mother) has Dengue fever, and is quite ill.  That wasn't such good news.  I pray for a good and fast recovery.

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Joe and Marilyn K. and their baby are headed to Nepal for about five months.

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Frieda Y. returns this week to her teaching job in China.

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Here's a link I found and shared on Facebook on various homeschooling statistics.  The sources for the statistics are given at the end of the report.  Cindy P., who posted the link where I saw it, was standing a little taller after she saw the report, for having been homeschooled.

In one of the comments on my post, someone shared some Sunday School history, obviously from the perspective of  not being enamored with the Sunday School system--because of the age segregation, and children not learning from their parents primarily, or in their presence at least.

Also in the comments was the perception that nearly all conservative Mennonite and Beachy churches "outlaw" homeschooling.  I'm curious.  Is this how it is?  I know of three Beachy churches who fit into the above category, but I would not have thought that the majority fit this description.

I keep chuckling inside at something my dad wrote once to someone who was a minister in such a church.  I don't remember the whole sentence, but he said something about leaders in such situations who "have inadvertently overstepped the bounds of their authority . . . "  How's that for decisiveness and clarity--with a good dose of diplomacy as well?

I'm nearly as troubled about the future of education in our circles as I am about the future of healthcare in our country.  I doubt that the answer lies, in either case, in beefing up a system that I see as being fundamentally flawed in important ways, although I recognize good-faith efforts along the way in creating the systems in operation now.  I especially like the elements of the systems that do not abandon those with limited resources.  If someone can figure out how to maintain that element while empowering and equipping people to do for themselves what they are able to do, I think the result will be a winning combination.  People should not be surprised if that winning combination will create very different education and health care "animals" than we have now.  Lord, help us not shrink from tackling that task.