Remembering the Titanic

 I was totally excited to get the chance to review another book for Christian Focus 4 Kids, this one Titanic: the Ship of Dreams- John Harper by Robert Plant.  My oldest, Bubby (9 years old), is totally into seafaring and shipwrecks, so I was looking forward to digging into another historical fiction with him.  He devoured the book in just a little more than a day, and then I got a chance at it:)  The book is based on an actual passenger of the Titanic, John Harper.  I had not heard of Rev. Harper prior to reading this book so I did a little research on him and it made me all the more eager to see what was in store with the fictionalization of his story.  Rev. Harper was a widower from England and traveling with his daughter, Nana to the USA to the Moody Church in Chicago via the Titanic.  The author portrays Rev. Harper just as I would imagine him myself, a person eager to share Jesus with everyone he met.  For example, his home church grew from a mere 25 to over 500 under his time as it's pastor, a sure sign of a thriving church.  While Rev. Harper is the primary character, most of the plot is seen through the eyes of Nana, and it's through her that we get to meet famous people such as the Astors who give her a tour of the ill-fated ship.
  I loved this story for bringing attention to a person who is such a light to the Titanic story.  Even as the ship was going down, Harper was fighting for souls - "women, and children and the unsaved into the lifeboats!".  With his last breath he was leading people to the Lord (that part of the story is very true & his last convert lived to tell the tale!).  The author did a fantastic job not just showing how Harper tried to win souls, but laid out the plan of salvation so plainly that even someone reading the book who is not a Christian could tell what it's all about.
  The book included historical notes on Rev. Harper as well as a timeline of his life & study questions.  I absolutely loved this book!  We will definitely be reading it again, hopefully as a read-aloud (if I can keep from tearing up!).  Thank you Christian Focus 4 Kids for sending me a copy to review!

A picture commonly accepted as being John Harper & his daughter Nana

Starting Young

A young me at a cemetery in Texas

  Genealogy has always been a part of my life.  I can't remember a time when my Mom didn't research; I caught the bug when I was just 18 (read about that here), and my kiddos started going to courthouses & cemeteries when we still had to lug them around in their carriers. 
  Recently one of my buds encouraged me to teach a genealogy class to our homeschool group. Of course I was excited at the chance.  To me, genealogy can teach so much beyond just family relations, it's history, research techniques, problem solving, even math:)  While planning what to do for my fall class, my Mom brought to my attention a really cool program that our State Historical Society is doing called the Sleeping Heroes Project where students research Civil War Veterans buried in Kansas, and then upload the information into a database.  I picked out a handful of local cemeteries we can work on documenting, which was easy since our county has hardly been done yet.  In order to capture the kids' interest (and ok, I admit it, I couldn't wait!) I researched one vet from each of the cemeteries I chose.  I was really surprised at what I found: a spy, one who marched with Sherman through Georgia, a Confederate, one who fought at the first major battle west of the Mississippi, and even one of my own kiddo's ancestors who was captured at Chancellorsville. 
  My enthusiasm for the project rubbed off on Bubby who begged and begged for me to let him start transcribing the ones in our city cemetery.  I finally relented, making the justification that I could see how the whole transcription/research thing would go for a 3rd grader.  It actually went pretty well, he's been accurate with writing down exact spellings, etc... & actually helped me tweak my spreadsheet too.  My plan is to let the older kids do the research and transcription and the younger ones do the bulk of searching out where the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) stars are that mark the vets' graves.
  The plan is to meet once a month and work as a group and if the kiddos and their families have further interest they can work on a smaller cemetery on their own.   I'm excited to see what else we uncover with this project and maybe get some young ones interested in some history!
 

It Never Hurts to Ask

Recently, while prepping for a research trip to Atchison, my mom e-mailed the Depot museum there where our distant cousin William "Deafy" Boular's special boots have been on display too see if they were still as such.  She received a reply that they were not, but if she would ask for the curator upon her arrival, they would bring the boots out for her to see.  Awesome!  This led not only to an actual viewing of the boots, but a one on one with the curator where she could ask some questions of him as well.  She found out that if he had still had his legs, he would have been over 6 foot tall.  The museum is gearing up for another exhibit on Deafy as soon as funding allows, so I'll have to revive my research on him I suppose:)

Deafy's boots

Papa's Girl

Today we lost all of our menfolk (except Baby Boy) to the pursuit of the wild morel mushroom, so we needed an adventure for just us girls, which included Grandma.  Mookie has been dying to take some flowers to her great-grandpa's grave, so we took advantage of the beautiful day and headed out.  After a few side trips, and Mookie questioning whether or not we'd actually get there, we arrived to Cummings Cemetery.  Cummings is just a spot in the road nowadays, but it's the town where three generations of my family lived and are buried.  Mookie took the ultimate care to make sure the flowers were laid carefully for the Papa she loved so much:) 
  I wasn't as close to Papa at her age as I was in my grown up years, but I sure enjoyed the time spent visiting and just being together later on.  I tried to make sure we got in to visit him as often as we could because he absolutely adored his great-grandkids, and they him.  In fact, they got away with so much more than I ever could when I was their age.  The glass figurines in the front window my sister & I couldn't touch, Papa would set out for my kiddos to play with on the floor.  They loved to lay down on the floor as he grabbed their feet securely and said "now what are you going to do?", which would be followed by laughter and wiggles to get free. 
  Some of the pictures that are most dear to me are some we found when we were breaking up my grandparents' house after they had both passed away.  They were ones my Papa took one Halloween and epitomize the love that the kiddos and he shared.  He must have seen us coming and quickly grabbed his camera and opened the door and snapped pics as they were yelling "trick or treat!".  I keep these in their original photo develop packet in a drawer, every time I pull them out I tear up as I flip through the series that starts with us exiting the car to pics outside by the bush before we left.  I sure do miss going to his house, the door swinging open and a hug with a "how you doing girl?".  We miss you Papa, and hope to see you again one day!

ding dong!

"trick or treat!"

The kids with the glass figurines in the front window.

Operation Surprise Birthday

  Nine years ago we were blessed with the arrival of our first baby.  Bubby loves celebrations, but since the arrival of our Baby Boy I thought I would lay low on organizing festivities this year.  The only problem is how do you argue with this sweet boy who comes up to you a mere 2 weeks prior to his birthday and says "Mom, I wouldn't mind if you threw me a surprise party for my birthday".  Drat!  It took me a while to figure something out, but he's been dying to go to the Combat Air Museum in the Capitol, so I organized an impromptu field trip for our homeschooling buddies which included touring the museum & then eating a sack lunch on the State Historical Society grounds followed by cake & walking the trails.  Simple, but it would do the trick.  One of Bubby's best buds came with us to the museum and we met some of our other buddies and Ducky and Grandma there. Bubby didn't know our destination until we arrived - he was so excited!

overlooking the museum

The kids loved the planes, and even though we didn't spend much time at each display, they enjoyed every minute.

sitting in one of the helicopters

In fact, most our time looked like this...

we adults just tried to keep up.  In fact, in the second hangar there were so many planes the kids tried to keep away from the parents and all we could hear was the sound of their flip flops:)
  One of the highlights of the museum this time was a really nice display of Daniel Forbes who is from our hometown (you can read about our adventure with him here).
   Our buddies who joined us at the museum had to leave, but some other buddies were able to join us at the Historical Society instead so the fun continued!  At first we were worried about our plans for eating outdoors...

burning the prairie grass at the Historical Society

but the wind was blowing away from us and it was finished rather quickly so it didn't change our plans one bit!  We played on their wonderful playground, ate, opened presents, and ate cake and then went on a walk to two of the highlights of the trails out there on the grounds - the bridges!  One is a historical bridge that has been transplanted there, the other is a suspension bridge.  It was under the suspension bridge that the kids explored the creek and built little "wells", caught nightcrawlers and threw rocks into the deeper water.  Fun stuff!

We were so blessed to spend such a wonderful day with our good buddies!  Bubby dubbed it the best birthday ever!

The Prince of Preachers

   

  As a homeschooling momma with a history background I am always looking for new resources to give my kiddos a desire to learn more about history.  So, when recently I was given an opportunity to review a historical fiction on Charles H. Spurgeon I jumped at the chance! 

  The book is Charles Spurgeon: The Prince of Preachers by Christian Timothy George in the Trailblazers series.  When our family went to Texas last year we took the Trailblazers book on George Mueller & did it as a read aloud & the kids couldn’t get enough of it, so I was ready to try another! 

  I have long enjoyed reading Spurgeon quotes and used them frequently on my Facebook page, but never found the time to read about the man himself.  While this was a historical fiction for youth, it was inspiring to read about a man who was so gifted in the way he proclaimed God to the masses.  The writer showed a man who was able to personalize the Gospel for the everyday man & rattle the old school & “traditional” Anglican church. Spurgeon’s love for telling people about Jesus was even illustrated with having him leave his bride waiting at the altar while he evangelized :).  The book did not focus on all the sunshiny parts of Spurgeon’s life though, it also included his bouts with depression,  & his troubles with gout.

  The book was all tied up neatly with the story beginning and ending with Queen Victoria disguising herself to go out and see this great preacher.  Now while that is surely part of the fiction of the book, I found it a wonderful way to show what a draw this man had on all walks of life, from the elite to the poorest orphan who charged a bench tax, to the maid desperate to learn. 

   One of the things I enjoy about the Trailblazer books is that they all end with a brief historical summary of the subject of the book & a timeline of their life, and discussion questions.  So these books are perfect for incorporating into your homeschool curriculum!  I was very blessed to have the opportunity to review this book & learn more about this great man in the process and look forward to finding out more about him!

 Thank you Christian Focus Publications for giving me the chance to review this by giving me a free Kindle copy to use!  This is my first time participating in the blog tour & I’m excited!

Hometown Hero

Last week we went on a field trip with our homeschool buds to the National Guard Museum at Forbes Field in Topeka.  They had artifacts from the Civil War to present, everything from bayonets to a recreated M.A.S.H. unit.  Our guide even let the kids try on some uniforms at the end, which of course inspired some pretend play of world war III after lunch:)

One super cool thing we learned is that Forbes Field is named for Daniel Forbes who is buried in our hometown of Overbrook!  Major Forbes is known for being one of the pioneers of strategic photo-reconnaissance flying combat missions & died in 1948 while piloting a "Flying Wing".  Of course, when Bubby found out that he was buried in our town's cemetery, we had to pay a visit to Maj. Forbes!