Writing has been very difficult to do lately. I am home for a 10-week leave of absence to take care of my 4½ month old son now that my wife is back at work. I am 4 weeks down and have 6 left.
I was warned not to make any plans on getting things done during the leave, as taking care of him would be more time consuming than I believed. So far that has been mostly true. I am able to get some things done while he takes naps, but it’s hard to do anything that can’t be put down and walked away from at a moment’s notice.
One thing I have been working on is doing a family tree. My uncle (by marriage) has been doing a family tree for many years, for both his side and my aunt’s (and thus my dad’s). He gave me everything he had, which gave me enough to get some really interesting stuff off of ancestry.com. I was able to track back through my father’s side to the year 1263, which I think is pretty amazing. Of course it’s not guaranteed 100% accurate, but it’s the best I’ll ever get.
I was also able to find many “Famous relatives” through my dad’s mother’s side. It turns out that my dad and the current President Bush are 11th cousins. I am also related to: Gerald Ford, Millard Fillmore (the 13th President), George Eastman (of Eastman Kodak), Frank Lloyd Wright, Ellen Wilson (Woodrow’s First lady), Emily Dickenson, Angelica Van Buren (Martin’s daughter-in-law and First Lady), Elizabeth Monroe (James’ First Lady), T.S. Eliot, Richard Bennett (Former Canadian Prime Minister), Chester A. Arthur (21st President), Barbara Bush, Norman Rockwell, Oliver and William Winchester (of the Gun company), Jane Austen, Bette Davis, and several others that I hadn’t heard of.
I canceled my subscription to Ancestry before the trial period was over, but plan to pay for a month when I get everything put together that I can find on my family, including my mom’s side, and my wife’s family. Or maybe I can get the same kind of information with a free trial in my wife’s name.
I also read through John MacArthur’s The Truth War, which is a very good book based mostly on the Book of Jude. It discusses the necessity of battling for truth in the realm of Christianity, and discusses many ages-old heresies that have plagued the Church since the beginning. He doesn’t name many modern-day names, but he makes it clear who we need to avoid as being false teachers and false prophets. I would highly recommend the book!
I am currently about a third of the way through The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism by Christopher Horner. It is also a great book, exposing the complete fraud that is the Global Warming cause. He also makes the case that everything that the Greens accuse “skeptics” of doing, they are guilty of themselves. Even though I’m only a third of the way through it, I would also recommend this book as well.
And with that I hear my son waking up. Until next time!