Missouri Vacation

I wanted to post a few pictures from our trip to Missouri, but then realized we had so many good ones! Therefore, I'm going to upload some of them to our picture website, Hawkins Abroad. You can click on the "Travel" gallery, then "Missouri 08" to see them.
Here, I'll just give a short rundown of our days and you can try to match up the pics with where we were :).

Thursday, June 12: Drove to Springfield, MO. Josh's cousin Benjamin's wedding was the following weekend. Ate at the church where the wedding was to be held with our cousins.
Friday: It POURED torrentially much of the day--serious flooding in the Springfield area. We still managed to get out to Mansfield, MO to visit Laura Ingalls Wilder's house. *I* really enjoyed it. That evening was the wedding rehearsal and dinner.
Saturday: WEDDING!! Then Josh's parents and we went to Bass Pro Shop.
Sunday: Our family and Josh's parents drove up to St. James to my parent's house. We had a Father's Day cookout with some extended family.
Monday: Josh's parents drove back to OKC. We took the kids to Rolla to a big indoor water park.
Tuesday: Six Flags over St. Louis! My cousin's wife and daughter (who is 7) came with us. We had a great time! (I don't have any pictures of this up yet but as soon as I get some from my mom, I'll put them in the gallery as well.)
Wednesday: Met my aunt and grandma at a park in Rolla. Went to eat; Aislinn had a seizure. Spent the rest of the day at the ER.
Thursday and Friday: Stayed around the house monitoring Ash.
Saturday: Went to Maramec Springs, where they raise trout, for a picnic. We like to do this every time we go to my parent's.
Sunday: Drove home.

Cowboys and Cowgirls

The kids were thrilled when our neighbors asked them if they would like to ride a horse. They have never gotten to ride one before and I wondered if they would be a little scared once they saw up close how big the horse was. But our neighbor did a really good job of first acclimating the horse to the kids and vice versa. The horse is a four-year-old paint named "Sky" because of her rare blue eyes. The kids did so great and had a wonderful time. In fact, they didn't want to leave. But our neighbors assured them they could come ride anytime (and they do live right across the street with the horse behind their house in a pasture!)

The Existence of God

From "The Existence of God" by Thomas Paine:

It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the author.

When we examine an extraordinary piece of machinery, an astonishing pile of architecture, a well executed statue, or an highly finished painting, where life and action are imitated, and habit only prevents our mistaking a surface of light and shade for cubical solidity, our ideas are naturally led to think of the extensive genius and talents of the artist. When we study the elements of geometry, we think of Euclid. When we speak of gravitation, we think of Newton. How then is it, that when we study the works of God in the creation, we stop short, and do not think of GOD? It is from the error of the schools in having taught those subjects as accomplishments only, and thereby separated the study of them from the Being who is the author of them.

The schools have made the study of theology to consist in the study of opinions in written or printed books; whereas theology should be studied in the works or books of the creation. The study of theology in books of opinions has often produced fanatism, rancour, and cruelty of temper; and from hence have proceeded the numerous persecutions, the fanatical quarrels, the religious burnings and massacres, that have desolated Europe. But the study of theology in the works of the creation produces a direct contrary effect. The mind becomes at once enlightened and serene, a copy of the scene it beholds: information and adoration go hand in hand; and all the social faculties become enlarged.

Read the rest here.

So we have a few books...

I've taken on the bold task of cataloging our home library. I've been wanting to do this for a long time but it was such a daunting prospect, it kept being put back to do "later." Well, I guess later is here, because I jumped in with both feet after discovering a program that would make the job easier and more enjoyable (I had originally planned on--and started--just an excel sheet). I researched online and found four possibilities for software: Readerware, Collectorz, Delicious Library (DL) and BookPedia. They all have a free 30 day trial, so I downloaded all of them and spent time with each of the programs to find out which one would work best for our needs. Readerware and Collectorz are very popular and get rave reviews, but I just could not figure them out and they seemed very cumbersome. Of course, they were both made with PCs in mind and then adapted for Macs. The latter two, DL and BookPedia, were created especially for Macs. That is a big plus. They are also more appealing to the eye and seemed to be tailored more for the younger crowd. So, after using them both extensively I opted for BookPedia.

There were many features I liked about Delicious Library, but overall, Bookpedia fit what I was looking for. The interface is very similar to iTunes so I was familiar with how to navigate around in it. There was not much of a learning curve involved--I just opened the program and started scanning/entering books. Another thing I like is that you can use the built-in iSight camera to scan the bar code on books and all of the information is entered automatically (DL has this function too). That doesn't work for bar codes that are too small or for older books that don't have bar codes so in that case I just enter the ISBN and voila! all the book information appears--including the retail price for most books. You can also take a picture of the cover of the book with the iSight camera, if it doesn't come up automatically (most older books don't). I am planning on printing out a report with all the books and prices listed that I will store in our fireproof safe for insurance purposes. We have a lot of money invested in books!

I am also very impressed with the customer service. I sent an email to the company (I think it's a husband and wife team) and within a couple of hours I received an email from the owner herself. Another neat aspect about the program is the statistics tool. It lists in bar graph form all manner of statistics of your library. For instance, after working for about 4 days here is our statistics report:

Number of Books: 740 (and I haven't even ventured away from the bookshelves directly around the computer!)

Author with most titles:
CS Lewis - 13
Laura Ingalls Wilder - 10
Henri Nouwen - 9

Genres: Religion & Spirituality - 205
Children's Books - 159

Other interesting books I've discovered:
-1st edition "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" - worth between $100-$150. Yeah, it's just been sitting on the kid's book shelf all this time! ha!



-1st edition "James and the Giant Peach" - worth $55+



-"Poetical Works of Felicia Hemans" - a lovely gilded book from 1866 - worth about $80. I picked this book up for $2 at a used book store because I thought it was beautifully-made. The interesting part I found out is that even though we'd never heard of her, she was a very popular poet during that time and was a friend of Sir Walter Scott.



I found quite a few books that were worth more than I though they would be ($20-$50) and a number of first editions.
I'll update you with other interesting tidbits as I go along on our book cataloging journey!