Levi

Levi was born in 1991 in our new house addition that was only one-third finished. He was just under eight pounds of which was mostly length, not fat. Therfore, he and I struggled through that winter as I held him most of the time to keep him warm, but spring came and life got better. I soon discovered that he was blessed with a compassionate nature, an inquisitive mind, and a wiry active body.

His compassion assisted by his agility showed up one time when Levi was nine months of age. I laid him down for an afternoon nap in his crib. I had a bad headache, so I laid down for a nap in my bed which was a matrice on the floor just beyond the end of his crib.

Later, when we both woke up, I was moaning from the headache pain. He climbed up over the top of the high rail of his crib and landed with a plop on the floor. He didn’t cry, but crawled across the floor and climbed up on my bed. He climbed up on the top of my head and rocked back and forth saying “awe, awe, awe.” I was so touched that I wanted to cry and laugh at the same time.

During his childhood his inquisitive mind got him into a lot of trouble. One example of this was when he and his older brother climbed our antenna tower up to the single-story kitchen roof. I came out to check on them and found them up there painting themselves with tar from a bucket that Dave had been using to repair the roof. That was just the beginning of many escapades he endeavored with his brothers.

When Levi reached the age of twelve, I questioned his logical thinking ability and bought him a workbook on logic. He did the first section of it which seemed to fuel his inquisitive mind positively. Another factor that expanded his inquisitive mind was that he had become an avid reader. I added more fuel to that fire by requiring him to read original source history books for his high-school American History course such as; The Life and Times of Frederick Douglas, The Journals of Lewis and Clark, and The Wisdom of John Adams. Later I found out that these books were difficult for many adults to read. One recent law school student stated that the principles taught by Frederick Douglas haven’t been taught in our law schools for three generations.

At age sixteen, he watched a series of DVDs from Kent Hovind on the Creation versus evolution topic. The logical debate inspired him greatly! Later, he created PowerPoint presentations on it and used them to teach a series to one of the adult Sunday-school classes at our church. This expanded to a couple of Wednesday evening services, a camp-meeting seminar, and speaking at a youth weekend retreat.

Also during Levi’s teen years, he developed a line of unique products to sell at our local farmer’s market. He dubbed is business Levi’s Specialty Foods. He started by selling homemade rolls with me and some gords he had raised. Later, he took over the bread roll business and added peppermint syrup, flavored chocolates, and other things. 

After high school, he worked some odd jobs but felt he was missing an important element in his life’s tapestry. He prayed and sought to find his wife to be. Kelly had also been searching for him. She’d even taken a summer job in the area between college years because she knew God had something in mind for her here. Long story short, their first conversation revealed that they were meant for each other.

Now, he works at his brother Zach’s tech business for his day job. In the evenings, he works on restoring his early 1900’s home with the love of his life, his wife Kelly. His son, James, enjoys exploring the new rooms his daddy has opened up and ‘helps’ his daddy with woodworking. James also appears to have inherited an inquisitive, deep thinking mind from both of his parents. They just warm my heart!

If you’d like to follow Levi’s progress on his house restoration, check out and ‘like’ his facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/The-Buckwood-House-Restoration-166456593984522/

You’ll also find more specific information on his blog: https://thebuckwoodhouse.wordpress.com/2018/05/06/leadlight-window-restoration/