August week two {high mileage adventures–part one}

 

Tuesday, August 12::  16 hours drive-time from home to Cleveland {Macedonia}. 707.4 miles according to mapquest.

• We left home just before 6am.  That is impressive, folks.   Almost as impressive as our noisy muffler system (catalytic converter?)
• Kate helped with driving for a couple hours, which included going around Chicago!
• Lunched at a McDonald’s in a toll road plaza.  Not so impressive. ha ha

• Dined at Steak & Shake in Macedonia.  Yum.  {note the burger menu repeat…oops}

• Shopped w-mart for lunch fixings…

 

Wednesday::  5 hours drive-time from Cleveland to Gettysburg, PA. 293 miles.

• Morning news was all about flooding in Detroit and the Mid-Atlantic.

• Stopped at a fruit stand for apples, peaches, and maple syrup!

• Lunched at Gettysburg National Military Park – picnic style {& no burgers}

• And on to the 2-hour auto tour.  Which took us All Afternoon.

[I remember it being 6pm when we discovered the Visitor Center was now .c.l.o.s.e.d. and someone needed a restroom!]

 

• + 1.5 hours drive-time from Gettysburg to Fairfax City, VA.  84 miles.
• We enjoyed some of the scenery along the way…

• Touring in Philadelphia was scratched from our list when we cut a day off of our trip.
• Hotel clerk who greeted us was a little wacko, but we enjoyed our 2-night stay anyway ~ including the great breakfast buffet in the hotel restaurant.

 

Thursday::  23 miles to George Washington’s Mount Vernon

{which is privately owned by a foundation, did you know?}

• Lunch this day was enjoyed at Mt. Vernon’s own food court – Pizza!
• Then we headed upriver to Arlington National Cemetery… parked and ran up the hill to witness the changing of the guard… twice.

• Headed downtown to park/take a walk up and down the Mall… from the Supreme Court to the WW2 memorial and back to our parking garage.  We could no more walk.  We could also not even touch the steps of the Capitol building ~ a sorry change from when Tim and I both visited 30+ years ago.  We surely look like a bunch of unhappy citizens bent on blowing up the place, don’t we?

• Really Late Dinner {after watching Tommie Rae win the Chopped Teen Tournament} at Five Guys Burgers & Fries ~ our most expensive meal of the entire trip!  but at least they were overly generous with the fries…   We. could. not. eat. them. all.

August week one {other projects}

 

Indoors we were working as well…

Saturday, August 2nd ~ Pizzas for the freezer to share with a friend.

 

And how do you like Abby’s new closet curtain hanger?  She was feeling akin to the Nester!

 

Abby had several creative,crafty ideas she wanted to accomplish before her summer was over.

These were cork coasters…

{and somewhere I thought I took pictures of these finished hanging on their bathroom walls}

 

Sunday, August 3rd was our church’s Sunday School picnic… And somewhere along the way, the tradition of a Men’s Pie Contest was added.  The Cattleman was our family’s willing participant {can you tell it was h>o>t> outside the day he made this?  Same day they were setting most of the poles for the barn.}

   

Kate {and the Popper} arrived home on Sunday evening.  Have you noticed Kate loves to bake? 

Monday:: English muffins.

  

 

On Tuesday, my nephew’s wife Maggie came out for a bread-baking lesson.  Success!

  

 

Thursday was Daniel’s birthday!

Daniel loves donuts.  Kate loves to go overboard.  Or her un-named sister forgot they were mixing up a half-batch?

  

  

<3  The girls were making Kayleb’s food in heart shapes all week.  He loved it.  <3

 

We had friends over for supper, so while Tim continued with the building crew Daniel manned the grill. 

  

After those friends went home we had a little party with 18 packages for Daniel to open.  And a bit of sibling silliness too.

  

 

Friday…

At lunch time the girls served up Daniel’s birthday cake… which they had decided would serve as his ‘card’ also— thus the names signed around the side.   And since Daniel is back at college to study Greek, I found a birthday greeting to match…

    

Daniel requested calzones – so of course we made some special for Kayleb’s plate.  A ‘care package’ from Kayleb’s beloved Kara also arrived on Friday.

  

Friday night we celebrated with my folks with dinner at the Mongolian Buffet.

 

Let’s see – all or some of us also had dentist and chiropractor appointments that week.  I spent much time ‘finalizing’ reservations and such.

We also did a test run with our puppy Liberty at a friend’s house while I was getting new tires on the Suburban on Friday morning… Right. {Test run = fail.  Their puppy and our puppy were too equally uninterested in making a new friend}

Sunday afternoon  [the 10th] also saw several of the yearling calves shipped off to market.  And I made adjustments to our hotel reservations when we decided to cut a day off of our impending trip… We were just a bit too weary and unprepared to leave here on Monday morning.

 

Next up:  Travel Time!

21 years?!

 

Born in the wee hours of Grandparents’ Day 1993…

~ Katherine Ruth ~

   

 

1995…

 

2010 ~ 17th birthday in Prague…

 

April 2011…

 

August 2014…

 

Happy 21st Birthday, Kate!  We love you!

9/11

 

Bastiat and legal plunder

 

{sigh}

This morning I was reading to the kids from Carson about how the Constitution came to be regarded and respected as Higher Law in our country due to a contest between Chief Justice Marshall and the Jeffersonians in the early 1800s.  Interesting.  It was also was understood that each branch of government was to determine its own actions based on its own interpretation of the Constitution.  {{the judiciary branch wasn’t the only judge of what the Constitution says!}}  So Congress often debated the constitutionality of its proposed legislation.  And “until after 1865 many more bills were invalidated by Presidents on the ground of their unconstitutionality than were invalidated by the Supreme Court.” 

Think on that for a minute or ten.  {Then be sure to go back and note the year of 1865.  I could go off on the Lincoln presidency…}

Meanwhile in the year {AD} 2014…

A facebook friend posted yesterday about it being an election day.  I surmised it must be school board election time.  Which we do not get to participate in since we lived outside city limits.  Yet our kids would be considered part of the local school district if we enrolled them in the public schools?  And 53% of our property taxes are sent to the same local district.  {anyone else see a problem with that?}

ANYway, today her status became a short discussion of additional taxes levied to pay for new school buildings…  ad nauseum. One commenter [Jenn] pays for the private education of her children, and she is of the opinion the public schools appear to have an abundance of funds.  Someone else [Barb] was arguing that Jenn also benefitted from the public school systems in her own education {which Jenn refuted with the fact her parents paid}.   But then they both agreed that vouchers were a great option so that Jenn’s taxes could help pay for her own kids’ private education.  End of discussion?

I hesitated.  Thought about posting something like this:

:x

As in, I’m biting my tongue instead of spewing hot lava. 

But then I went looking for Mr. Bastiat’s little gem called The Law.  Since I couldn’t find our printed copy I resorted to an online search:: success!  espec since it’s so much easier to copy/paste.  {and yes, I’m lazy – but I did read much of the writing while searching for his discussion on legal plunder.  So I’m not a total dufus in spite of my own public schools education.  ahem.  God is the Great Redeemer!}

On facebook I only posted the first paragraph I’ve quoted here, but it’s all so good.  So in the midst of my trying to recount the long month of August in our own small world, here’s a little insight to the reality of socialism in America.

Why do we have so many ‘victims’ in our country?  Why is their so much real violence?  Why do we have such an anti-American living in the White House?

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

I am so incredibly thankful that my ultimate citizenship is in heaven by the grace and mercy of God.  Meanwhile we are to be good stewards in the place God has put us.  I believe that includes being a voice for truth and justice.  Now we just need Tim to offer his own blog of wisdom to share with y’all.  For now I guess you could listen to Jan M on WHO Radio along with reading some Bastiat.

While I suggest you click and read the entire book, you could begin with this tidbit from Frederick Bastiat:

 

How to Identify Legal Plunder

But how is this legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.

Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law — which may be an isolated case — is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.

The person who profits from this law will complain bitterly, defending his acquired rights. He will claim that the state is obligated to protect and encourage his particular industry; that this procedure enriches the state because the protected industry is thus able to spend more and to pay higher wages to the poor workingmen.

Do not listen to this sophistry by vested interests. The acceptance of these arguments will build legal plunder into a whole system. In fact, this has already occurred. The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it.

Legal Plunder Has Many Names

Now, legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways. Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs, guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole — with their common aim of legal plunder — constitute socialism.

Now, since under this definition socialism is a body of doctrine, what attack can be made against it other than a war of doctrine? If you find this socialistic doctrine to be false, absurd, and evil, then refute it. And the more false, the more absurd, and the more evil it is, the easier it will be to refute. Above all, if you wish to be strong, begin by rooting out every particle of socialism that may have crept into your legislation. This will be no light task.