Son, you know how distracted and extremely busy I have been this past month.  With excuses put aside I am taking a few minutes to FINALLY post about our trip to the Mid South Homeschool Convention.  Sorry it’s taken so long.  I know how anxious you have been to show the world the picture of you and your friend, Tim Hawkins!  So here it is….

A few weeks ago we are blessed to be able to attend the Mid South Homeschool Convention in Memphis, TN.  It was a great time of encouragement and refreshing for our family.  My parents drove from Northwest Arkansas to meet us there.  This was their first opportunity to attend a homeschool conference.  On Thursday evening we took them to the vendor hall.  There were hundreds of vendors.  We saw Chuck Black, author of The Kingdom Series and spent some time visiting with his wife.  We  stopped by the booth of Todd Wilson, The Family Man.  We met with the Lewis Family from Homeschool Enrichment.  We browsed through booths by Answers In Genesis, Apologia, Vision Forum, Doorposts, Lamplighter Publishing, Rainbow Resource Center, Switched on Schoolhouse and dozens more. 

Friday morning my parents spent some quality time with the children and took them to the Memphis Zoo.    They had a blast with their grandparents. Here are a couple of their favorite pictures.

Dana and I had a leisurely breakfast together and then spent the day attending seminars.   Our first seminar was Homeschoolers:  Ordinary World Changers by Jonathan Lewis, editor of Homeschool Enrichment.  Being a homeschool graduate, Jonathan encouraged parents who are making a difference in this world by the discipleship of their children.  The statistics he presented were staggering.  It is abundantly clear that God is doing a work within the homeschool community for such a time as this!

Mark Hamby from Lamplighter Publishers was the next speaker we saw.  He spoke on The Education of a Child – The Wisdom of Fenelon.  I had heard this seminar before on CD but enjoyed it much better in person.  Lamplighter Publishers is doing an amazing work with godly classic literature.  Many of our all time favorite books and audio dramas come from Lamplighters.

After shopping at the vendor hall some more and enjoying lunch together we heard Doug Philips from Vision Forum.  His topic was The Family Table.  It was an excellent reminder to keep doing the things we are already doing as a family.

After my parent brought the children back to the Marriot we all headed to Applebee’s for an early dinner.  Abigail snapped this photo right before we left. 

After dinner we took the whole family to go see Dr. Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis.  He spoke on Answers for the Most asked Questions about Creation, Evolution, and Genesis.  Dr. Ham is absolutely brilliant in apologetics.  This was the second time we were blessed to hear him speak in person. 

We topped off the evening laughing with Tim Hawkins.  If you need to add some humor to your day, look him up.  This was a highlight for my boys.  Of course we stuck around to make sure Aaron and Andrew got a chance to meet him and get his autograph.  I could not think of a better way to end the conference.