Meals on the Alaskan homestead had particular meaning to the children, for they were one of the few things done in an eventful fashion.  As soon as the plates were set upon the table, 7 hungry children would rush to get a seat.  Mama trained us out of this by saying she would call us when it was ready.  She would then ring the dinner bell which hung on the porch, to playing children who came a-running.  We all had to wash our hands before sitting down.  Food was passed around the table in the same direction and no one was allowed to reach .  No talking was permitted unless Mama or Daddy asked a question.  If anyone complained about the food, he was sent away from the table.  Remarks like, "this looks disgusting" were rewarded with stern punishment.  "If you can't say anything good," warned my parents, "Don't say anything at all."  When we finished our meal, we could not leave the table until we were excused. Usually we could be excused early if we were finished and asked, "May I please be excused?"

One night when Daddy was away all night, a snow storm blew in. All the children were asleep in their beds, and it was getting very cold in the house.  At that time Mama had 4 children, and one was a baby. 

 She looked out one of the window panes and could see nothing, so she puffed her breath on a space and made a hole to look out by erasing it with the sleeve of her nightgown.    There was the woodpile, just a few steps from the house, but it was covered in snow. 

 She didn't want to go out there and so one by one, she lifted each sleeping child and put them in her bed, including the baby, whom she placed next to her own space in the bed.  Then she got every coat and jacket in the house she could find, and put those on top of the blankets, on the children. 

 She climbed back into bed.  After a few moments of shivering, she remembered the dog and the puppies, and wondered if they were cold, so she got back out and went to another room to check on them.  They seemed fine, in fact, very warm.  I don't know what kind of dog it was, but the puppies were short haired, heavy, fat, and blonde.

  She took 3 of the sleepy puppies and placed them on the feet of 3 of the children.  We must have had a very warm night, because we didn't wake up and the baby didn't have his usual middle of the night cry.

When we did wake up, mother was not in the bed, and some of the children began to cry, not knowing where they were. I was about 5 years old and I looked around in wonderment at this new world. 

 I had never been in mother's room, and never slept in her bed.  Beds were small, by comparison of today's mammoth mattresses, and I suppose there was no way she could have had us all in there all the time.

This was a special treat, and when she came in, she said, "It was cold last night, so I moved you all in here so we could keep each other warm."  Hereafter, it was called the "Three Puppy Night." 

 This may seem like a corny story to you, but many people in Alaska who lived in the log cabins let their dogs lie on the end of the beds to keep their feet warm at night.

  With the dogs, they didn't have to get up in the night and rebuild the fire if it went out, although my parents did take turns keeping the fire going, waking up every few hours to check on it.  If it went completely out, the water would freeze, and the furniture, clothes, dishes, floor, and other things would be as cold as ice, almost as though you were camping in the snow.

Regarding the use of coats and jackets for blankets at night, it is still something I do. I did it for so long, that I can only get warm if I have a coat on my bed, so I put the prettiest coat in the house on the end of the bed, making sure, of course, that it matches the decor of the room ;-)

May I repeat that although this story seems romantic to some, in reality it wasn't very comfortable, and I wouldn't repeat those days on purpose, for anything. I do think, however, that everyone ought to know how to do it, and how to manage, in difficult situations like this.

I saw the series "Brat Camp" which was supposed to cure kids of their addictions and destructive behaviour, by taking them to the wilderness and making them camp out, free from modern conveniences and trappings.  Although they had to take lots of hikes, and do many other tasks, I think it would have been better if they'd been required to do something more constructive, such as build a house together. It would have given them some skills to take home.  I suppose the labor laws forbade them to make the kids work, so all they did was hike.  If I'd been in charge, they would have had to build a house, dig a well, and learn to make a road, or something like that.

I'd just like to make a note that the Family History post will be added to every now and then as memories surface, and so I want you who are interested, to check it every so often.

Today I'd like to talk about the value of endurance.  We live in an era where people don't want to put up with anything, go to any trouble, or survive anything. They want to have their lives guaranteed and planned for them. 

I was like this when I was a teenager. I thought you got ahold of an idea or a goal, and pursued it and then it would all come true and life would be gloriously happy and perfect.

As God began to thwart my plans when they were wrong, and shut doors on me, I often felt humilated and bitter and unhappy because I couldn't get where I wanted to go in life.  Even years later when the memories of failures replayed in my mind, I became depressed and sad.

As a young mother I seemed to worried about our future. I worried about many things, even though I was a Christian. You have to understand that most of my life was spent in the instutitions of public education, where my faith was being both slyly and boldy broken down.  As I saw more and more failure of my own goals and plans, I began to trust only in things that I knew would be "for sure."

If it hadn't been for homeschooling, I would never have learned the lesson of faith and endurance.  Endurance is that clinging to a principle and not letting go, even if you suffer. This was the best lesson of my life, one that I had not learned when I was younger, in spite of my colorful upbringing.

There were many forces against us in 1983 when I began homeschooling.  If you can imagine this as a movie, it would actually be quite funny.  I started home schooling and would go to a store, to church, or any public place, see people I'd been seeing for years, and suddenly they wouldn't talk to me.  One matter that gave me reason to hope, was that they still let me give them money for groceries, and did not refuse my contribution at church ;-)

We were not extended invitations to people's homes or other events, and we were not included in anything anymore. We were "different." When we invited others over, we got lame excuses, as people didn't want us to influence them, and were afraid their own children would also want to be homeschooled.

Yet is interesting that the pressure was never so bad that I felt I needed to give up homeschooling.  We were extraordinarily lonely in those days, and we didn't know anyone else who was doing this. I later learned that there were other homeschoolers who thought they also were all alone. 

Let me get back to "endurance."  People don't understand this concept of life, and sometimes God will put them through something  in order to allow them to experience it. Now that I'm older I'm feeling more and more happpy about the trials, because I can look back and see something that ordinarily I would have thought a terrible tragedy, and say, "Oh, NOW I SEE why that happened!  It was so we would do this, instead," or "I know why we didn't get that job--it was so we would go in this other direction, " etc. 

Now that my children are grown, and the busyness of life has changed into a different area, and I have more time to collect my thoughts, I'm finding that the memories that used to be bitter ones of great disappointment and grief, are now great sources of joy, as I see God's hand in it.

Someone will come to my house with a terrible problem, and I'll be thinking, "Good grief, how should I know what the answer is," and then, suddenly, a memory, like a little film clip, will flash through my mind, and then I'll know that it was an event that would help me with some future event.

Or, I'll be working around the yard or house and some sight of something will trigger off one of those memories, and I'll just smille and know why it happened. 

Sometimes we don't know why things happen --whether they be hardships or unhappy events, until years later when we connect them to something that we are doing right now.

That is one of the values of endurance. If you cling to the principles you believe, knowing that resistance from others is part of the territory, that endurance will one day pay off.  Our family endured a lot for homeschooling, that many today may not ever experience, but the end result is that we are able to see more clearly God's hand in our lives. When we feel the weight of some heavy task, we can look back and see how our previous endurance has paid off in the lives of children who are following the Lord.  When disappointments come, we recognize it as God's guidance, and look forward to seeing how things will end up.

I was so surprised when I was growing up in a family of 7 children, at the comments that were leveled at our family.  There was a trend at that time to have smaller families, and people made all kinds of rude remarks.  One of their assumptions was that it was an awful lot of work to take care of 7 children.  What they didn't understand was the inner workings of the family.  By the time the 5th one was born, the first 4 were fairly independent and knew the ways of the house.  The older ones could cook and clean house.  They often entertained the little ones.  As the eldest, I started the youngest on reading lessons.  It is fun for the older ones to do grown up things like this, and those outsiders peeking in, do not understand this.  After I married, I was blessed with only 3, but still received the rude remarks about children and family.   Marriage is held in contempt, and families in derision.  Isn't it awful? 

Written  and spoken by George Washington:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor. . . . Now, therefore, I do appoint Thursday, the 26^th day of November 1789 . . . that we may all unite to render unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection.

The Pilgrims' 1621 Thanksgiving

The tradition of the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving is steeped in myth and legend.  Few people realize that the Pilgrims did not celebrate Thanksgiving the next year, or any year thereafter, though some of their descendants later made a "Forefather's Day" that usually occurred on December 21 or 22.  Several Presidents, including George Washington, made one-time Thanksgiving holidays.  In 1827, Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale began lobbying several Presidents for the instatement of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, but her lobbying was unsuccessful until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln finally made it a national holiday with his 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation.

Today, our Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday of November.  This was set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941), who changed it from Abraham Lincoln's designation as the last Thursday in November (which could occasionally end up being the fifth Thursday and hence too close to Christmas for businesses).  But the Pilgrims' first Thanksgiving began at some unknown date between September 21 and November 9, most likely in very early October.  The date of Thanksgiving was probably set by Lincoln to somewhat correlate with the anchoring of the Mayflower at Cape Cod, which occurred on November 21, 1620 (by our modern Gregorian calendar--it was November 11 to the Pilgrims who used the Julian calendar).  

There are only two contemporary accounts of the 1621 Thanksgiving:  First is Edward Winslow's account, which he wrote in a letter dated December 12, 1621.  The complete letter was first published in 1622, and is chapter 6 of Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth.

Our corn [i.e. wheat] did prove well, and God be praised, we had a good increase of Indian corn, and our barley indifferent good, but our peas not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sown.  They came up very well, and blossomed, but the sun parched them in the blossom.  Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors.  They four in one day killed as much fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week.  At which time, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain and others.  And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

The second description was written about twenty years after the fact by William Bradford in his History Of Plymouth Plantation.  Bradford's History was rediscovered in 1854 after having been taken by British looters during the Revolutionary War.  Its discovery prompted a greater American interest in the history of the Pilgrims, which eventually led to Lincoln's decision to make Thanksgiving a holiday.  It is also in this account that the Thanksgiving turkey tradition is founded.

They began now to gather in the small harvest they had, and to fit up their houses and dwellings against winter, being all well recovered in health and strength and had all things in good plenty.  For as some were thus employed in affairs abroad, others were exercising in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store, of which every family had their portion.  All the summer there was no want; and now began to come in store of fowl, as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degrees).  And besides waterfowl there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, besides venison, etc.  Besides they had about a peck of meal a week to a person, or now since harvest, Indian corn to that proportion.  Which made many afterwards write so largely of their plenty here to their friends in England, which were not feigned but true reports.

The following is a fairly complete list of the foods available to the Pilgrims during the three-day Thanksgiving harvest celebration. As can be seen in the above two quotations, the only foods specifically mentioned by the Pilgrims are: "corn" (wheat, by the Pilgrims usage of the word), Indian corn, barley, peas (if any where spared), "fowl" (Bradford says "waterfowl"), five deer, fish (namely bass and cod), and wild turkey.  

The Plimoth Plantation Museum has a nice recipe page that includes a number of modernized recipes to closely simulate the actual foods likely eaten by the Pilgrims during this harvest festival.

Foods Available to the Pilgrims for their 1621 Thanksgiving

FISH:  cod, bass, herring, shad, bluefish, and lots of eel.

SEAFOOD:  clams, lobsters, mussels, and very small quantities of oysters

BIRDS:  wild turkey, goose, duck, crane, swan, partridge, and other miscellaneous waterfowl; they were also known to have occasionally eaten eagles (which "tasted like mutton" according to Winslow in 1623.)

OTHER MEAT:  venison (deer), possibly some salt pork or chicken.

GRAIN:  wheat flour, Indian corn and corn meal; barley (mainly for beer-making).

FRUITS:  raspberries, strawberries, grapes, plums, cherries, blueberries, gooseberries (these would have been dried, as none would have been in season).

VEGETABLES:  small quantity of peas, squashes (including pumpkins), beans

NUTS:  walnuts, chestnuts, acorns, hickory nuts, ground nuts

HERBS and SEASONINGS: onions, leeks, strawberry leaves, currants, sorrel, yarrow, carvel, brooklime, liverwort, watercress, and flax; from England they brought seeds and probably planted radishes, lettuce, carrots, onions, and cabbage.  Olive oil in small quantities may have been brought over, though the Pilgrims had to sell most of their oil and butter before sailing, in order to stay on budget.

OTHER:  maple syrup, honey; small quantities of butter, Holland cheese; and eggs.

One thing the web had done, is opened my eyes to what is really going on among people and the damage that the public education system has done our society--how it has changed the flavor and personality of our country, in cooperation with the media and many other things.

I couldn't believe a blog I ran across where a girl was asking what the point of Thanksgiving was, and who cared, anyway. 

It made me more determined to have an extra spiritually minded Thanksgiving for my family.

You can watch a ball game any day.  You can sit around the meal table and say trivial things to your family and friends any ol' time.  You can eat a whole lot of food until you are stuffed, even on days that are not special.  So this year we are going to have a Thanksgiving Day and make an opportunity to learn from it and appreciate it.

America isn't just any ol' place and Thanksgiving isn't just turkey day.

I'm passionate about my country, and I'll explain why as time permits.

According to the preserved diaries and letters of some of those who came across the Oregon Trail:

- the variety of meals was not so much in the different foods, but in the different ways of cooking the same foods.

-some people said that the simple diet actually agreed with them more than their rich diets in the east.

-one woman wrote that upon seeing their final destination after a very eventful trek across the Oregon Trail, "the Israelites coming into the Promised Land were not happier than we were upon seeing the end of the trail."

You can read more about it here http://www.isu.edu/%7Etrinmich/00.n.dairies.html

My favorite is the entry of Narcissa Whitman in 1836.

Continuing on my Oregon Trail historical research, I came across the "leeverites."  This term was sometimes applied to people who went along after the wagon trains and picked up a lot of the things that the pioneers left, to lighten their loads.  Since it was common to say, "Leave 'er right here," the plunder became "leeverite" and the scavengers, which people despised, were not well liked at all.   What was most dispicable was their practice of selling the cherished items back to the members of the wagon train, at various trading posts or "jumping off" places along the trail.  People who "jumped off" were those who didn't go any further, and settled somewhere like Independence.  In some letters preserved from the past, people wrote that "those  who sell leeverites don't care about anyone but themselves."

Since I live in Oregon, I've done a lot of reading about the Pioneers who came across the Oregon Trail to settle here. I thought this was interesting:

The Legend of the Four Braves  (http://www.ncbible.org/nwh/OrStart.html#braves

Elements of this story surface frequently in the literature of mid-1800's. There were certainly many who believed it to be true. We reproduce it here in full detail from the Oregon Christian Church - a History by Charles Addleman.

The story begins with the Indians in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest in 1832 who had heard from the trappers about a white man's "Book of Heaven." As a result, some of the braves made the long journey to St. Louis seeking the book.

The story of this search is summed up in these words: "We came to you over a trail of many moons from the setting sun. You are the friend of our fathers who have all come a long way. We came with our eyes partly open for more light for our people who sit in darkness. We go back with our eyes closed. How can we go back with our eyes blind to our blind people? We made our way to you with strong arms, through many enemies in strange lands that we might carry back much to them. We go back with empty and broken arms.

The two fathers who came with us -- the braves of many winters and wars -- we leave them here asleep by your great wigwam. They were tired in their journey of many moons. Our people sent us to get the white man's book of Heaven. You took us to where they worshiped the great spirit with candles but the book was not there. You showed us the image of good spirits and pictures of the good land beyond, but the book was not among them to tell us the way. You made our feet heavy with the burdens of gifts and our moccasins will grow old with the carrying of them, but the book is not among them.

We're going back the long, sad trail to our people. When we tell them, after one more snow and the big council that we did not bring the book, no word will be spoken by our old men or by our young braves. One by one they will rise up and go out in silence. Our people will die in darkness and they will go on the long path to their other hunting grounds . No white man will go with them and no book of Heaven to make the way plain. We have no more words."

Even though two of the braves died in St. Louis and the other two sadly returned to the Northwest, the story was published in a newspaper, and Jason Lee, a recently ordained minister in the Methodist church, read the newspaper report and responded to the challenge.

   First Came the Preachers

C.F. Swander, quoting Harvey Scott, the editor of the Morning Oregonian says:

"It was not until the American missionaries entered and possessed the country that a foothold was gained for the occupation of Oregon by American settlers."

Let us not misunderstand the meaning of family. If you were brought up in a Christian home, your family probably paid special attention to your spiritual growth, by watching for your soul. Mothers and fathers who really care about their children's souls will correct bad attitudes and teach good habits. Many children grow up and think that they are "self-made," but much of the credit belongs to the parents, and it is wise to honor them by living the values they tirelessly imparted to you.

Family doesn't end just because a child has grown up. Adult children continue to give those who benefitted their lives, a good reputation, by living up to the scriptural standards they were taught. Because time goes so fast, it is impossible to teach a child within the span of 20 years or so, what they need to know for life. Therefore, a parent tries to give the a set of values by which to measure their thoughts, decisions, plans and activities.

A list might look something like this:

1. Would this grieve my parents?
2. Would it give the church a good reputation?
3. Would it destroy my testimony about the Lord in my life?
4. Is it good, pure, honest humble or praise-worthy?
5. Will I be ashamed of it years later?
6. Can I use this situation to launch my profession as a Christian?
7. Will it influence others to honor their parents and those that care and protect them?
8. Does it inspire others to live a victorious life?

These are just a few, to give you an idea of how to develop a set of values. There are probably dozens more lists like this. If something doesn't quite balance or weigh-up, as good and positive, then it is best to set it aside and walk away from it. When unsure about something, we try to leave it alone until it can prove to be a valuable spiritual asset.

Their consciences should be ultra-sensitive to their parents and family's spiritual investment in them. How should they pay them back for the time and money that was sacrificed? By using these values in the choice of mates, and then reproducing these principles, laws, statutes, testimonies and examples they were taught from the scriptures, in their own children, in the churches they belong to, and in their own lives continually.

People worry about "getting somewhere" in their lives, but the most important thing to get, is the character that only a strong commitment to the laws and principles of the Lord, can produce. So, remember the time and the effort that was spent on you, and re-invest it back into your family and the church. If you haven't got a family yet, helping your parents achieve their goals in their lives (ministry, house, home, other family) is a tremendous blessing.

In other words, inside the mind, there should be an imaginary little set of balance scales where you determine how to live. When you are presented with a problem or confronted for a decision about a belief or an action, your mind is trained to filter the problem through a set of questions or standards. These then help to eliminate anything that you should not do, and spur you on to the things you should.

I once heard that if you just taught a child to have a clear conscience (so that he does not do things which offend, and makes things right when he does), a feeling of personal responsibility (so that he does what needs to be done when he sees the need, and doesn't pass it off to someone else), a learner's attitude (he is willing to listen to wisdom, and seeks truth, and does not stop up his ears), and to be a minister's heart (that is, looking at all things--whether work, play, sympathizing, counselling, serving, etc. as a personal ministry) that they would be equipped for life.

A thorough knowledge of the contents of the Bible will develop the conscience so that it will be pricked when he does wrong, and prompted to do right. If it seems difficult to get into Bible study, just begin with Proverbs. Choose a chapter a day corresponding with the day of the month. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, and most people say it is amazing how each chapter applies to their lives that day.

Being from a family is more than just being related to them. It is a bond of values that you share and uphold. It is honoring each other by not breaking that bond. Parents especially know that just because their children are grown, their spiritual responsibilites must still be exercised. They continue to be examples, pray, and be available to give good counsel. They didn't invest all those years in their children only to throw all care to the wind and abandon their offspring and let the world take over. There is still much to be done.

This is the most recent picture of our family, taken this year. Our daughter is married with 3 children, and our two sons, 22 and 30, flank both sides of my husband. We try to pass on good things to our grandchildren, and be best friends with our children. As a family, we bear one another's sorrows, and rejoice heartily with one another's triumphs. We continue to pray for God to be gracious to our sons and send them wives who will help bear the responsibility of having a strong marriage, home, and family.

Continuing on the subject of identity, I'd much rather hear a person identified by descriptions of their family and homeplace, than by their college or sports team. It puts different people in authority than God intended, and fails to give credit to those who really invested in the lives of these young people.  I rarely hear anyone tell where the person they knew lived, at first. Instead, they immediately refer to the ball team they played on, or the college they graduated from, as though it were a substitute for the family.

I was unsure what title to give this.  I've been noticing when listening to conversations, how many people identify others by the school they went to, or the class they graduated from. Instead of saying, "He was from the Walker Family and his father owned the tire store; the family attended the Bay Street church of Christ, and his sister married Steve Snow.  He liked art, and he was very much involved in restoring old cars,"  they are apt to say, "He was a student at Oak High School."  The news media is particularly disresepectful of families, failing to mention a person's family heritage, but always pointing to the school the person comes from.  People have come to identify themeselves by their schools, which seem to be their families.