Next week, Lord-willing, parts 6 and 7 of raising homeschooled daughters will be up. Number 6 will address the differences between a woman’s purpose, calling, and role as it relates to raising our daughters. Number 7 will address preparing daughters for marriage. I am not sure what is next….before we move on to raising homeschooled boys!

“John tells us in chapter 3:21 of his gospel “he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” This elect lady wasn’t afraid to have her very life laid open before others because she purposed to live a life that reflected her faith in Christ. And as a result, others loved her and the message that her life gave to them encouraged and strengthened them. This dear woman had nothing to hide because she knew that all her righteousness was as filthy rags, that her very standing before the Lord was based only on what Jesus had done in her life.” Listen here to this week’s podcast entitled “God’s Curriculum for Homeschooling Moms, Part One.

A couple weeks ago we were so blessed to have my son Ben’s friend, Lon Eldridge visiting us. He drove up from Tennessee so the two of them could record an album and I will be sharing the fruits of their efforts as soon as all the songs are mixed. Lon brought along about 2 dozen instruments and they played a mixture of gospel, blues, bluegrass, techo, and who knows what. While they were here, they recorded a new version of Mom’s Prairie Song for the thatmom podcasts which will premiere with tomorrow’s podcast. See how many of those instruments you can identify!

This afternoon I am seeing a huge jump in visits from several different sites who are linking to the “raising homeschooling daughters” series. For clarification, I wanted to note that I didn’t coin the phrase or the concept “movement homeschoolers.” This was a label given by R. C. Sproul Jr. to himself and others in this article (scroll down to “I resemble that remark”) to which I responded in this blog entry. Hope that helps for those who wondered what in the world I was talking about in this series!

Also, for those who may be new to this blog or to the term “patriocentricity” I would encourage you to listen to the first podcast in my series on patriocentricity and patriarchy. (If you have never listened to a podcast, it is fun! Just go to the september 7 thread, click on the icon, and listen from your computer. It should take about 20 seconds to download and you don’t need an ipod or any other mp3 player to use this.) For the record, I do not claim a label in the gender debates because I think there are way too many shades of pink and blue in the discussions to be able to identify myself accurately. At one time I would have proudly embraced the word “complementarian” but it has been hijacked and is now used by people who hold to some very unbiblical ideas regarding men, women, fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters.

Three years ago this month, Clay was busy building a deck on the back of our house. Along with help from sons and a son-in-law, they put together an outdoor paradise, at least the framework for one! Talia asked me for pictures, so today she gets her wish!

This is what the dreadful backyard looked like before. Our house was built in 1894 so there is always something that needs to be done to it. But she is a grand old Victorian lady and I love her.

This is my cat, John Calvin, waiting for a taste treat from the table. Did I just admit to that?

This was taken a couple years ago in the fall…no weeding and lots of Miracle-Gro! Oh, and Illinois rain and sunshine!

This was taken from the backyard at night. Mollie strung hundreds of Christmas lights in the cherry tree that grows through one end of the deck. That first year we had scads of nasty berries all over but haven’t had that problem since then. Clay kept threatening to cut down the tree so I think she heard him and was scared into infertility!

Ben took this on the upper deck a few weeks ago. The only thing missing was Clay’s delicious grilled chicken and my potato salad.

95 degrees predicted today
post-menopausal
waiting for the air-conditioning repairman

I can still remember what I was wearing…a calico top and white wrap around skirt. I had sewed both of them during that long, hot, and humid July, waiting for the baby to arrive. And now I was waiting for Clay’s bus to pull into the station. I hadn’t seen him for 6 weeks and was anxious to have a glimpse of him in uniform, to hear him laugh in real life. Since we had said our goodbyes he had had a haircut, I had had a baby. Now we were a real family, heading to some as yet unnamed destination.

On our way home I listened to one story after another about his drill sergeant, the 20 mile hikes with full gear and backpacks, the new recruits who didn’t speak English. We held hands and dreamed about where home might be next. He was excited to meet his daughter and I was excited for that, too.

Neither of us had had any real experience with babies. As a teenager, I had only babysat for preschoolers and older children. In fact, before I came home from the hospital with Mollie, I had never even changed a diaper. Clay had never held a baby. So it was with a great sense of wonder that he reached his large hands down inside the bassinet and took this little one into his arms. Her head could lie in his hand while her feet barely touched the inside of his elbow. She opened her eyes wide, studying this new person who made funny faces at her and spoke in whispered tones. It was love at first sight.

No one told Clay that he was supposed to build a relationship with his daughter, he just did. As soon as she was old enough to go along, he took her every time he needed to run an errand. She toddled around after him in the yard, in the basement, wherever he was working when he was home. He sang to her, read to her, played with her, gave her bathes, and diapered and fed her. And she adored him. When she was big enough, she sat in his lap on the tire swing in our front yard and laughed and laughed as they went higher and higher. She wasn’t afraid because Dad was holding her.

Clay had introduced us all to wonderful classical music from the time the children were small and he would often tell us interesting things he remembered from the music history class he had taken in college. So when Mollie started playing little songs on Grandma’s piano, we knew it was time for lessons. Clay and I agreed that we would use his Christmas bonus check that year to buy our own piano. Though the older boys were also taking lessons, they didn’t love it like Mollie did. Not once did we have to tell her to practice and by the time she was in high school she was spending several hours every day listening to new music and playing ever more complicated pieces.

Clay could always tell when Mollie was in a musical slump and so he inspired her by bringing home interesting CD’s of artists he knew she had not heard of. His encouragement of her gifts and interests were the precious expressions of his commitment to helping her fulfill a calling the Lord had placed on her life. Years later while she was in college and when a horrible hand accident only days before her junior piano recital left all of us wondering if she might ever play the piano again, Clay immediately went to the music store to buy her CD’s to, once again, inspire her during the most devastating of times.

Clay and I have loved being parents and sharing the joy of having a daughter is a special blessing from the Lord that still amazes us. We have watched her grow from that tiny pink rosebud of a baby into the most lovely and creative of women who delights us every day in her love for the Lord and for her husband and children. God has gifted her in ways we never would have dreamed of that one July day when we held her and could only imagine what she might become. Later this month as she celebrates her birthday, we will be thanking God for this godly and most cherished of daughters.

Today as I look at the important relationship between a father and his daughter, I am more convinced than ever that a dad’s most significant roles in her life are to love and cherish her, to teach her what is important by example, and to do all that he can to see her gifts, talents, and callings flourish to be used for God’s glory. Anything less than that is squandering one of the loveliest and most amazing treasures God can ever bring into the life of a father.

* I had wanted to put a picture here of Mollie and Clay but my scanner is on the blink. Instead I put this picture of our son and his daughter!

Just a quick note about the July 11th podcast. As we are heading out of town for the much-anticipated wedding of one of the most lovely of homeschooled daughters, we decided to add a couple days on to our trip for museum-perusing, and lomein noodle-munching. This leaves us no time for podcast recording before we leave so I am bumping the podcast schedule ahead a week. Sorry for any inconvenience.