For the Record – Back of the Head, originally uploaded by B.Marty.

For your review; this should fulfill most of the requests for further documentation of the beautiful hair!

The hair – you can sort of see it!

It is plentiful and dark, the way Marty hair should be!

Molly Marie Marty, originally uploaded by B.Marty.

5:57 AM
21 1/4″
8lb 13oz

This year’s farm party was a little more subdued on account of the weather, but the kids managed to have a good time nonetheless!

Dr. Meg Meeker’s Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know is required reading for anyone that has a daughter and probably-better-read-anyway reading for those of you with just boys.

Also, on the subject of spoilers, don’t run out and buy this book if your name is Joe. There is a high probability that someone got you this as a baby present but couldn’t give it to you Saturday because the store didn’t have it in stock and it had to be ordered.

Back to business! I don’t know why the “10 Secrets” tag line is on there. It seems like books anymore can’t be content to just have a title. They have to have a summary built into the front of the book as well. Most of these principles aren’t really secrets anyway, but they do provide a lot of encouragement and reassurance that you’re doing (or are going to be doing) the right thing.

That reassurance is important as you bring up a daughter because if you are raising her right, you will be going against the cultural grain. Pop culture would have to back away from all of the challenges of child-rearing. If you and your daughter aren’t seeing eye to eye, you just need to give her space to explore and express herself. Or ruin herself.

A new born baby doesn’t know anything about money, drugs, sex, faith, clothing, culture, or anything else. Someone is going to teach her. It is going to either be you or the world outside, and that is the main focus of this book. It’s guidance for fathers that are facing the daunting task of raising children in a culture where masculinity and paternal authority are increasingly frowned upon – a culture where being the man of the house is painted as oppressive behavior.

The book isn’t all doom and gloom by any means. Dr. Meeker breaks up the pace a little bit with anecdotes from her personal practice. Some are pictures of life done right and some wrong, but nearly all of them are emotionally moving. When culture cries out for you to let your daughter be free, they are deceiving you. They don’t want her to think for herself, they want her to think like them… instead of you. Someone, somewhere is going to have the dominant influence in her life, so who is it going to be? Will it be her father who has loved her from her very first breath and for whom she is his whole life? Or will it be a consuming culture for whom she is just another abused statistic?

Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters comes highly recommended no matter where you are coming from. I already felt pretty confident about where I was going to lead my own daughter, but even so – it’s nice to get some encouragement from the pros!

The ranch used to be a 7 hour drive if we kept moving and only stopped for fuel. When you add in kids, it turns into an 8 hour trip. When you potty train one of those kids it turns into a 9 hour trip. And when you stop in Grand Island to do some grocery shopping it comes in at a nice round 10 hours. We left on Monday afternoon and settled into our beds at about 1:30 AM on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning was Aunt Elaine’s funeral. It was about 1.5 hours back the way we came so we got to get up nice and early to make it to the church by 10:00 AM. The service was good – lots of family and it featured some excellent music. We got back home later in the afternoon and the relaxing was able to begin.

Wednesday was an “open day” where the kids got to live the ranch life without interruption. They are both big fans of cows now. Thursday was the Thanksgiving celebration which was met with much feasting and watching of the Style Network. Style Network? Not football? Yes, the Style Network. Friday saw more ranching and some pizza with friends. Saturday we hit the road again and made it home just in time for the KU vs. MU football game.

It was a good week with the obvious exception of the loss of a family member. We were blissfully disconnected from the cell phone and the internet which I found to be extremely therapeutic. We talked a lot with the brother in law about the pitfalls facing the church in this culture and got to sort our our long search for a church to call home a little bit. We got to sleep in, take naps, feed cows – I don’t think anyone could really ask for more.

Now, as soon as the computer at home is back up running there will be pictures. We even have one of Hayden hiding in my lunch box, so keep an eye out!

Abby is very excited as you can see! There is an entire album full of pictures for you to peruse. I’m hoping to have some video up soon as well. Enjoy!