For A Father

Mr. John Clarke is a genius. If you do not know who he is click here. He read a poem on ABC National Radio on February 14, 2012 called For A Father by Anthony Cronin. I recommend that you listen to Mr. John Clarke read it aloud because of the way he describes it and so forth, but I have conveniently copy and pasted it here for you to read for yourself.

With the exact length and pace of his father’s stride
The son walks,
Echoes and intonations of his father’s speech
Are heard when he talks.

Once when the table was tall and the chair a wood
He absorbed his father’s smile
And carefully copied the way that he stood.

He grew into exile slowly
With pride and remorse,
In some way better than his begetters,
In others worse.

And now having chosen, with strangers,
Half glad of his choice
He smiles with his father’s hesitant smile
And speaks with his voice.

This is probably my favorite father poem, but I do not read much poetry.

Another Fun Weekend

This week, I couldn't think of anything to write.  Instead, I am just posting another weekend of pictures for you to see.  At the end of this post will be a link to a secret video!  All you have to do is answer 3 questions and you will find the link to a video that you will not want to miss out on.  Do you realize how horrible it would be if all of your friends and family were tweeting and posting to Facebook their excitement about the video you didn't watch because you didn't want to answer 3 questions?

 The order of the pictures is backwards.  We went to the park Saturday morning, and slept in the tent Friday night.

Steve's Tent. Setting it up.

Had to get the chickens in.

John boy and Tigger in John's sleeping bag from the bowlins

Putting things away.

Steve testing the best hard ground to sleep on.

Coleman grill and coffee percolating.

Waiting for coffee still.

Still waiting.

Yay! Coffee! He really had coffee. Half a mug.

Click here for Secret Video!

Where we slept.

Best Part of the Day

I have decided today that the best part of day during the week is somewhere between 7:30 and 8:30 at night. The time that John boy, Bethany and I sit down and do our nightly devotions and put John to bed. We just started number 12 of Truth & Grace Memory Book #1. 12! It's awesome to think of how many things a two year old can memorize.

Can you see God? No, but He always sees me.


Almost each night (sometimes we are outside to late) we read from the Bible. Then we do John's catechism. Then we sing, and pray. Then my exclusive daddy time starts. I brush his teeth, make sure he uses the restroom and then tuck him in. Pretty much every night he asks if I'll "The Lord is my Shepard I shall not want". Which I normally will. I think if he tried he could quote the whole thing. He has a King James Version by his bed, so I will usually translate it while I read. Then it's Hickory Dickery Dock and he is off to sleep.

Time flies. He went from being a pile of pajamas on the floor to going on long walks with us. So I write with a grin, a bit of being proud of my son and that's about it. Plus I haven't written anything in a while, so there ya go.

Hear, my son, your father's instruction,
and forsake not your mother's teaching

Proverbs 1:8 ESV

Happy Father's Day - Be Fathers!

From InnocentDads.org : 


1) 43% of US children live without their father [US Department of Census]

2) 90% of homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes. [US D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census]

3) 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes. [Criminal Justice & Behaviour, Vol 14, pp. 403-26, 1978]

4) 71% of pregnant teenagers lack a father. [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services press release, Friday, March 26, 1999]

5) 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes. [US D.H.H.S., Bureau of the Census]

6) 85% of children who exhibit behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes. [Center for Disease Control]

7) 90% of adolescent repeat arsonists live with only their mother. [Wray Herbert, “Dousing the Kindlers,” Psychology Today, January, 1985, p. 28]

8) 71% of high school dropouts come from fatherless homes. [National Principals Association Report on the State of High Schools]

9) 75% of adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes. [Rainbows f for all God’s Children]

10) 70% of juveniles in state operated institutions have no father. [US Department of Justice, Special Report, Sept. 1988]

11) 85% of youths in prisons grew up in a fatherless home. [Fulton County Georgia jail populations, Texas Department of Corrections, 1992]

12) Fatherless boys and girls are: twice as likely to drop out of high school; twice as likely to end up in jail; four times more likely to need help for emotional or behavioral problems. [US D.H.H.S. news release, March 26, 1999]

Speaking of Father's Day, I won a free book from GoodReads and it was pretty good.
It was: