Theorems of the Paci

Having experience with three children now, I would like to put forward some theorems on the physics of pacifiers (pacis, binkies, etc.). These are all based on my observations.

Theorem of Paci Uncertainty: It is not possible to know the location of all pacis designated for a single child at any given point in time.

Theorem of Paci Induced Equilibrium: It is necessary to know the location of at least one paci at any given time in order to sustain equilibrium. If no pacis have a current known location, one must be located in order to ensure equilibrium can be achieved.

Theorem of the Paci Property of Substitution: When the location of one paci becomes unknown, the location of that paci will not again be known until another paci has been located first.

Theorem of States of the Paci: A paci may exist in a continuum of subjective states of cleanliness, which are only able to be evaluated by the observer (parent). The state determines whether the paci is suitable to use to restore equilibrium. Some factors affecting the evaluation of the state of the paci include experience of the observer, gender of the observer, subjective evaluation of the cleanliness state of the location where the paci has fallen, application of the "three second rule," average hours of sleep the observer has experienced that week, and how far away the system is from equilibrium.

I hope these thoughts help parents pursue further study regarding the paci.

One Month Old!

In honor of Philip's one-month birthday on Sunday, here are pics of all three at one month old.

Stephen:

Lydia:
Philip:

Review: God's Technology video

My wife was given the opportunity to download a free copy of God's Technology, a video about training our children to rightly use digital technology. It is produced by HeadHeartHand and features David Murray, a professor at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. Here is a review.

Dr. Murray presents some guiding principles in how Christians should think about digital technology and some practical steps to guide children to learn how to use them.

Some things I particularly appreciated:

• He points to God as the ultimate source of digital technology and social media, and that He is to be thanked for them. 
• Training our children in how to use digital technology doesn't just focus on behavior, but on the heart. He encouraged interaction with our children about their online habits, both good and bad. 
• Digital monitoring tools are good supplements, but do not replace in person supervision, interacting, and good modeling.

As for the production, it is clean and professional. The visuals support the talk well without being distracting. My one complaint is putting in the animated clip about social networks in the middle of this video. I'm not sure it is necessary, and going between different production styles is jarring.

Overall though, I recommend the video for the practical advice that can be used with any age child on godly use of digital technology.

Commandment regarding the poor

But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess—if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today. For the Lord your God will bless you, as he promised you, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you. (Deuteronomy 15:4-6, ESV)

I've read this before, but it is an extraordinary command regarding:

1. How a nation should be a lender, not a borrower, and in being so, rules over them
2. There are to be no poor among you - and the chapter goes on to describe an economic system for how that is to take place.

See also v. 11 - that we will always have the poor with us.

It's been very interesting to read this section of scripture as a systems engineer and see how God was creating a whole way of life for his people.  That includes a law system, an economic system, cultural norms, and a whole worship system.  The whole thing admitted of The Fall and sin, and yet pointed the people to God and His grace and how to show that to each other.  This whole system was utterly different from the people around them.

I wonder how different just our family looks from our culture, or how much our church family looks different?  Admittedly, we're in a very Christianized area with many churches, so some things will not look different, but some will - and should.

Blabberize!

This is a quick, fun project:

http://blabberize.com/view/id/333269

Pictures from Summer & Fall 2010

These are pictures from this summer and fall that I finally got off the camera.  This covers the local festival, VBS, beach trip, summer fun, Raleigh trip, birthdays, and Halloween.  I'm also testing out this embedded thing from Shutterfly to see how it works.

Click here to view these pictures larger

Yes, still here

Yes, we're still alive.  Yes, we voted today.

First, the family update.  Kristy is at nearly 34 weeks and is BIG.  Her intuition says this baby is coming early.  I'm teaching a class this fall, so I think I'd better make the exam out early.  Also, I hope everyone understands if we don't get Christmas cards out this year on time.  Stephen is 6 now, and Lydia will be 3 soon.  I'll let Kristy talk about homeschooling, but Stephen seems to be doing fine.  He definitely has a math brain.  Lydia seems more social and talkative since being in preschool.

Due to how things get scheduled in the college, November is usually a really busy month for me.  However after some changes to how we do the electronic portfolios, that work came early in the semester.  Now I have time for all the other new tasks.  But, even when I come home exhausted, I remind myself to be thankful that I have a good job.

And so the election has come.  I cared more this time than previous times I voted.  I did a fair amount of research, even on offices I don't normally research like district court judges.  There were few races where I had a clear favorite.  Mostly, I either struggled between what I thought were two good options or two bad options.  I crossed party lines on a few.  Local politics are apparently very energizing and controversial to some around this area, if you believe the letters to the editor.  One local candidate said three was "civil unrest" in the county due to the incumbent.  I admit I hadn't noticed, outside the letters to the editor.  Still, one local race was decided by about 100 votes. Our state senator was elected by a margin of 200 votes.  The North Carolina General Assembly now has both houses controlled by Republicans for the first time since 1898.

Change is good right?  Our president said so about two years ago.  (Yes, I know what he really meant)

Homeschooling, here we come!

Well, Stephen is now "Kindergarten age," so our decision to homeschool is now "official." Our first day will be August 23. He has been in preschool for the past 3 years for 2-3 days/week while I worked. I'm done with my job, and I've been gently telling Stephen that once Kindergarten begins, we will be having school at home. He was reluctant at first, but thankfully, we have many friends who are homeschooled!

Here's a look at what we'll be doing!

Bible: The Child's Story Bible by Catherine Vos. We've been reading through this for a few months, and I like it! It's the level of depth I had been looking for since I felt Stephen had outgrown our other story Bibles.

Reading: About a year ago, we began The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading by Jessie Wise. I wanted to save money, so I bought only the book (the complete kit comes with already printed flash cards, audio version (I think) and a magnetic board with letters). Once we started reading I realized that Stephen needs the hands on experience. We hit a wall and took a break, I ordered a magnetic board with letters, and we should be on our way again!

Last week, Stephen got his own library card. He was quite excited! Our town is building a new library, so we'll definitely be making good use of that place.

When I bought Saxon K, I didn't know just how basic it was. Stephen has been speeding through it - it's like playtime to him. He loves the manipulatives and will play with tiles making patterns for quite a while. I plan to skim through the rest of the book, covering new things, and moving on to Saxon 1.
We'll be working through Mudpies to Magnets for science. We also have some science kits, which Stephen loves! He is certainly his parents' son...
I saw these workbooks at a homeschool conference and couldn't resist. I got a couple levels - just a little mental excercise. They'll be much easier once Stephen can read better and do them on his own!
I haven't done too much Stephen school with Lydia around. In the past, we have done everything while she naps, but that has turned out not to be Stephen's best working time. We'll be doing normal preschool things with her (and she'll be in a church preschool 2 days/week). Our big thing coming soon is potty training - oh boy!

Today's Checklist

Let's see how today went

• 1:30 am - get up with kids who are scared with the power out - check
• 8-ish am - get up with kids for breakfast, take care of sick Kristy - check
• lazy morning watching Gummi Bears - check
• keeping the laundry going - not really
• fix lots of different things for lunch for the kids that they don't eat - check
• drive 45 minutes to the nearest splash pad - check
• fun time wearing out the kids - check
• take pictures - nope, didn't bring camera
  
• drive back, listening to Paws & Tails (the kids liked it) - check
• stop for a "snack" at McDonalds and prove that daddy is a sucker - check
• put Lydia down for a nap - check
  
• mow yard - check
• shower and put self down for a nap - check
• be thankful Kristy is feeling better and making supper - double check

Hmmm...not bad.

Reading Lists

Lists of books to read combines two things that I've liked for a long time - reading and lists. One of my earliest ones was an attempt to read through all the Bobbs-Merrill Childhood of Famous Americans books in my elementary library (the older ones); I even kept a journal with a one-page entry per book I read. Well, I didn't finish that one, but I still remember a lot of the history I learned through them.


Another list was in high school - my 9th English teacher gave us a list of books commonly used in part of the AP English exam (here is a larger list). I used that list as my general reading list all through high school (didn't read all of those either, but I read a lot of great literature I might not have picked up otherwise). In grad school, to escape the constant science, I picked up biographies once more (not the Bobbs Merrill ones) and thought about reading through the US Presidents - that was in 2004, and I'm still on John Adams.

Now that I'm on the brink of homeschooling, I'm getting into new lists - lists to read to Stephen and Lydia and lists for myself to read in preparation. Also lists to buy for the future. With Stephen, I'm currently going through the preschool list in The Book Tree to find stories that he will like - a great resource!


Another list I'm adding to my lists is the Great Books. As I guide, I'm using Susan Wise Bauer's
The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had. This list hits on many of the works she lists in the recommended reading for the rhetoric stage (high school age) in The Well-Trained Mind, which I plan to use as a guide in homeschooling my children. I'm going through chronologically (her guide is organized by genre) and reading the second book, The Iliad. We'll see how it goes!

22 Hours Without Power

It was an adventure. It really started yesterday afternoon about 3 when Kristy let me know I needed to go to the store. There was "wintry mix" coming down at the time and about 38 degrees, so not too big a deal. Ingles was fairly insane. (We of course needed, bread, milk, and eggs.) It was really coming down by the time I left and was sticking nicely to the road. I didn't think I could make it up our road, so I parked at the end of the road and hiked up with most of the groceries. (Yes, I hiked half a mile, uphill, in the snow, carrying a weekend's worth of groceries.) So, we ate supper and started watching The Secret of NIMH (recent purchase from the $5 bin at Wal-Mart), which we could watch for about 10 minutes at a time until the power blinked off again.

It finally went off for good around 7 pm. So, we all got ready for bed. It has never been off for more than about 6 hours, so I assumed it would be back on sometime in the night.

Oh well.

We spent most of today up in the kids bedroom. Thankfully we had a fair amount of food like cinnamon bread and bagels, so we had breakfast and lunch. We had bottled water too since the pump was off. The iPod was charged, as were our two laptops, so we got to watch some shows. We read books, played games, and slept. I brought up 5 candles and lighting those seemed to help warm the room. Still, the rest of the house got down to about 54 degrees.

Around 4 pm (while we were all having a nap) the power came on for about 10 minutes and then went back out again. About 4:30, it came on for good (so far). Whew! We of course went out to play in the snow for a bit. It was great snowball and snowman snow, so both were part of the festivities. We got about 5 inches.

And yes, I'm buying a generator.

The Guys and the Long Weekend

This weekend was the (sort-of) usual annual get together with some Clemson buddies. The plan was to get a cabin near Hendersonville, NC and just hang out starting Friday evening and leaving Sunday morning. Well, it wasn't all according to plan. The "cottage" turned out to be a rental house in a residential neighborhood of Hendersonville. This wasn't all bad since it was close to everything in town. And, it was fairly secluded with trees all around. Overall, it was quite nice except for one thing: no running water. The pipes were frozen between the street and the house somewhere.

Being guys, we were able to deal with this situation fairly well. And the company gave us our two nights for free. So we sat around, played Settlers of Catan with both the Cities and Knights and the Seafarers expansions - very fun. We also played Risk, but used this version that has a much shorter play time. I highly recommend both. One also brought some episodes of Top Gear, which I also recommend. We also traded old in-jokes most of the time.

It was a great time with some friends that I see too rarely. It's great to be able to pick these relationships right back up after being out of contact for long periods of time. Facebook doesn't count - nor does it allow time for more serious, reflective conversations that can take place.

Well, it turned out that everyone wanted to leave by Saturday evening. Admittedly, without showers we were all getting a bit stinky. I debated staying the night and called Kristy to talk about it. I found that Kristy was sick and probably couldn't teach Sunday School in the morning, so I came back that night as well. In the midst of this, I had dropped the kids off with my parents for the weekend, so this morning on about 5 hours sleep, I went to church (40 minute drive), went from there down to Greenville to get the kids (another 2 hrs and 20 minutes or so), and came back up to Cullowhee (another 2 hrs and 15 minutes or so). And Lydia was up Saturday night/Sunday morning with a cough - thanks to my mom for nursing her for that one.

Leaving Hendersonville was bittersweet. Good to get back to the family (and get a shower), but sad to see good friends scattered again.

On my way from church to Greenville, I took a route on Hwy 123 that goes by Clemson. I drove through campus, enjoying good memories - and even some unpleasant memories that have shaped me. Those guys have been good friends to me - I'm thankful to know I have them.

Anyway, it was a good weekend. The kids are in bed, Kristy is on the mend. I'm tired but happy - and I have tomorrow off to recover from my weekend.

Stephen is Reading

Stephen has just started reading! Video evidence:

Lydia's Sampoo Commercial Tryout

So we don't leave Lydia out of the videos, here is one of her shaking her head. She loves doing this. I think of it as her tryout for shampoo commercials.

Another Homemade Movie

Being off work is great. Stephen and I made another movie. Compared to the last one, it has a similar plot, different protagonist and new Special Effects.

Enjoy!



In case you didn't quite catch the title, it is "Dinosaur Rescue the Princess from the Globbies Good Luck." Once again Stephen's choice.

I have no idea where "globbies" comes from.

Stephen's Personality

As a parent, it is so much fun to watch the kids grow and develop. With Stephen being 5 now, there are a number of traits about him that seem fairly stable. I'm recording this for fun now and posterity later to see how he develops later in life.

Stephen is incredibly creative. He can pretend all sorts of things, making up new names for whatever new invention he made. Many are based on the last cartoon he watched or book he read, but not completely - they always have his own twist to them. Same for his Lego toys - he gets me to build to the directions, but then goes off and builds whatever he fancies. I really hope he keeps this trait and that his engineer and scientist parents don't teach it out of him. Example: We bought our Christmas tree on Friday and I brought it in that evening. We didn't decorate it until Saturday afternoon. Stephen, not wanting to wait, set up a "tree" upstairs (the old green desk chair) and decorated it with various toys.

Stephen is outgoing and social. He's rarely shy - sometimes and usually in a completely new situation. But he warms up quickly, finds kids (or adults) that will talk to him, and proceeds to entertain them. He's often the ringleader in whatever is going on. He also wants to play WITH people. He does play by himself some, but much prefers to have someone active with him. Sitting on the couch and watching is not sufficient, as I have learned. Lydia adores him, so she often plays along, or at least imitates him.

Stephen is rambunctious. He needs movement and noise. It's interesting sitting next to him at the dinner table because he'll often be leaning over on me, playing with my placemat, or just plain out of his seat standing between my chair and his. He likes to have a toy to fiddle with while eating - the noisier the better. He's often humming or talking while we eat or driving in the car. Oddly enough, he's used to being (fairly) good in church. He also loves to be outside, no matter how hot or cold, just so he can run and play more wildly than inside.

Stephen loves media. He likes watching shows on the computer or TV and really likes computer games (much like his daddy). But, he also likes being read to and I think he's excited about learning to read.

Stephen is giving and compassionate. He enjoys helping (when he pays attention long enough to do so). He very much wants to take care of his little sister. If one of us is sick, he wants to come and pat us till we feel better. I suspect that giving/compassion/hospitality may be his spiritual gifts.

Stephen reacts strongly to discipline. When we confront him with something he did wrong, he is usually very penitent. I think it upsets him that he did something to make mommy or daddy upset or disappointed. Assurance that we love him is an important part of discipline for him.

Stephen loves to learn. He loved looking through a book about rocks with me not long ago, and had me tell him the names of all the rocks in there. The other day he told me about how worms move through "soil." He's really brilliant, sponges up information, and generally makes logical conclusions.

To sum up, Stephen is a lot of fun now and I look forward to seeing him grow more over time.

Thoughts for Parents with Children in Worship

I found this blog post by Doug Wilson not long ago and have re-read it several times. It is very encouraging about having your children in worship with you.

Homemade Movie

Kristy was gone to a sale in Greenville (got some good stuff) so I was home yesterday (Saturday) with the kids. Stephen's creativity always amazes me, so I decided to work on a creative outlet to encourage that.

We made a movie.

Here it is in all it's glory. We got through our creative differences, various production issues, and managed our low budget. We did all the set design and video shooting while Lydia had her nap and I finished editing it later that evening.

The title was Stephen's idea.



It's silly, but it sure was lots of fun.

Silas George Nickles

(This is mostly for friends that follow this blog and are not on Facebook)
Silas George Nickles was born at 1:57 pm on August 28. He weighed 1 lb. exactly. The doctor believed he passed away at least a week beforehand. We were about 20 weeks into the pregnancy.

I am thankful for friends and family that have been so helpful and gracious to us at this time.

The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

10 Reasons The Past Few Days Were A Disaster

1. Kristy has been feeling awful
2. Lee caught the nasty fever/ache sickness
3. Stephen also got the nasty fever/ache/throwup sickness
4. We discovered the throwup part while in the car
5. Lee skidded into a ditch while trying to assist with the throwup part
6. No adult felt up to cleaning up the car until a day later
7. We missed the first day of Stephen's soccer camp today (he probably wasn't up for it anyway)
8. Lee neglected to purchase everything needed for our planned supper
9. Kristy didn't figure that out until after starting dinner
10. Lee broke our pyrex measuring cup while trying to fix something else

The moral of the story: sometimes you have to give up, laugh, and go to Subway