Perspective...

Good to keep as we enter the new year...these are all third hand from another post who got them from a book...just thought I would share them as well...

• If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...you are richer than 75% of the world's population.
• If you have a little money in the bank or spare change in a dish someplace you are among the top 8% of the worlds wealthy.
• If you can drink from your kitchen faucet whenever you want...you are more fortunate by far than 1.5 billion people who have no access to clean water at all.
• If you can attend a church or a political rally without fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death...you have the kind of freedom denied to more than three billion people in the world.
• If you can read this message, you are more blessed than two billion people who cannot read at all.

Jude is whistling

Not that Kristen needed another reason to think her children are smart :) but during this last week, Jude got interested in whistling when he heard his uncle whistling a song. So, he tried and now he whistles!

Trip to Boston Science Museum

Yesterday we went to the Museum of Science. We spent the whole day there...or at least the whole day considering the trip to and from as well. To start, we had the enjoyment of sitting in Boston traffic as we went to the Museum (That was a treat! We spent at least 45 minutes in traffic within a half mile of the museum! And of course, we had the treat of dealing with oh so considerate folks in other cars who got so close to our vehicle as they tried to squeeze by us and advance those precious few feet they clipped our side mirror of the van!)
BUT we did finally make it and then spent the next 8+ hours wandering around, looking at exhibits and eating lunch so that we could make it to the Harry Potter Exhibit which was showing and that we had tickets for at 6pm.
(Side note: neither Kristen nor I have read any of the Harry Potter books and neither of us have seen even one of the movies...so we had no idea what we were in for.)
We had a great day wandering around and finally we were headed over to see the special exhibit. I spent extra money for a set of earphones that tells you about the exhibit as you type in the numbers associated with the particular artifacts...and away we went.
Boy were we BORED! There really was NO fascination in looking at this stuff (beds, clothes, etc) since we had no idea what we were even looking at...
Then, as we started ushering the kids further along...we got to "the dark side" where they were exhibiting pieces, and characters that were Harry's enemies in various movies (I think). WOW! It was very dark and scary kind of stuff and we basically covered the kids eyes and walked through the remainder of the exhibit, to the chagrin of Jaden. Live and learn, I suppose.
Anyway, here are a few pictures of the day:

Museum of Science

Family Day! Yeah! However...
NEVER go to the museum on a weekday when apparently everyone took the week off, everyone decided to go to the museum and everyone was going for the Harry Potter exhibit! After an hour trip (~45 miles) to get to within a qtr mile of the museum, we spent the next hour and fifteen minutes trying to get to the museum and parked.
Then we got to elbow our way around the other 8.6B people (the approximate world's population right now per a museum exhibit) to try to let the kids see a couple things AND we had to stick around until a 6:30 show to let the kids see the Harry Potter exhibit.
DISCLAIMER - We have not watched or read any of the HP stuff...but this silly exhibit has been advertised SO much around Massachusetts, that the kids were amped to see it....
After MANY hours at the museum our chance finally came and we went in to essentially see costumes and beds and a few life-size replicas of certain things in the movies. Kristen and I were bored and annoyed and only Jaden was truly interested as he was listening to the little audio tour that told about the things we were looking at...
Of course, that was until we hit the "dark" section or basically HP's enemies...we had no idea how scary and disturbing some of these things were! So we ushered the kids with hands over their eyes as much as possible through the rest of the exhibit and out the door...
Jaden was not happy but we hope we will all sleep better for not having let them see too much :)
Finally home just after 8:30 pm to put the kids to bed and for us to basically collapse as well.
YEAH!
I love family days :)

Finally...

I have made multiple promises to post pictures of what the addition looks like and I have not done a good job of getting them up on the site. Well, here are some pictures of the mudroom, and new dining room as well as a little view of what the new counter top looks like between the two. Also, just to give you an idea of how we changed up the space, you will see that the former dining room area is now a sitting area that we are very happy with. This is where we had Christmas morning and where we have always had the tree :)


Here is the view back into the sitting area that used to be our dining room. Kristen loves the open feel and that the kids can sit and play a game, or I can read a book and yet still be right next to her in the kitchen.











The new counter top. Kristen loves the additional space this provides for both food prep and serving, but also for decorating.









The new entryway. Our new front door and the door to our garage.







Looking over the kitchen into the dining room.










Looking into the mudroom from our sitting room area.

Jacob's Birthday

Happy birthday to my buddy who turned 5 today. You are an incredible dude that I am overjoyed to have in my life. Your laughter is infectious and I know that on any given day I can guarantee I will smile at some point because of you. That makes you pretty special and today was just another special milestone in what I think is God's design for the fantastic person He is turning you into! Love you!

Goals time again...

Not posting anything yet...just thinking about them. Sometimes goals for the sake of goals are not really what you should be doing with your time...There needs to be a purpose behind them that is something more, right?
It matters what we do, what we spend our time on...
2 Corinthians 5:8-10
8We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. 10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Both good and bad things done...
I read a quote from someone not too long ago that said that we usually overestimate what we can do in 1 or 2 years, but underestimate what we can accomplish in 5 or more. I would like to have some goals in this next year that not only are good for the year but that work towards something bigger in the 5+ year view...and ultimately, they have to tie back to what God wants me to do and to work on...that is the only way I will actually get them done.

Looking forward to Christmas

4 days to Christmas. Seems like it gets here really quick now that I am getting older....while when I was younger and now watching my kids...it is funny how long it seemed to take for me back then and now the same for them. I certainly know that they are excited to get to those gifts. We have received things from the family in Colorado and the kids are drooling to get at them :)
I just pray that it really can be an enjoyable holiday...one that we remember why we are celebrating and that both the kids and Kristen and I truly are JOYFUL and can love and appreciate one another.
I pray that for the rest of my family and for my friends as well.
Love you all!

Snow last night

We must have got 16 inches of snowfall last night and Kristen was certain that we were not going to church this morning...however, we made it and although there were WAY fewer people at service, it was good to go and we made it there and back safely.
As Kristen spent the day studying for her final tomorrow, I was with the boys all day yesterday and today and I think we had a couple of good days. Yesterday we made cookies to package and give away. We played Yahtzee. Today we played in the snow and sledded with the little girls that are the boys next door friends...even Jude went down a few times on my lap.
It was a good day, though it definitely wore me out.

Happy Birthday Jude

Just putting a quick post out to my littlest man who turned 2 today!
Love you dude!

A couple of books read...

I finished up a couple of books while I was on my business trip to CA during the first week of December. I was surprised to learn of how many books that CS Lewis had written, so when I saw this fiction trilogy, I picked it up at the library. While it was a little hard to get into, I have finished the first two so far...Out of the Silent Planet & Perelandra. I am working on #3 which is titled That Hideous Strength, but even finishing that up won't get me too close to my goal of total books for the year :(
Oh well, I will have to give it another go next year.

Birthday cards and gifts

Just to share with my family that is in CO and to help me remember (since I am getting old and forget things easily), here are the cards and gifts from Wednesday:

Every guy needs pillowcases....and now I have a couple more:)...Also, Kristen gave me this book that is apparently pretty popular right now, so I am looking forward to reading it.


Kristen and the boys got me a "smelly" for my car (maybe a hint?) and they also got me a new game for the PlayStation.





This was my card from the boys...the inside says I was batting 1000%. Not too sure about that, but it was a very sweet card.


My wife always goes for the sappiness, which is very wonderful to get each year :)

Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday and I enjoyed the many calls, emails and messages that I received from everyone. It was a good day!
I have decided that birthdays are great reasons to celebrate and we need to seek out and truly enjoy those things that can be celebrated. I know I spent too many years thinking...it's not a big deal...and it's true. You can make it into 'no big deal', but then does everything turn into 'no big deal'? I want to have things in my life that are a big deal and that I get excited about...otherwise the days will be pretty long and boring.
So, here was to another year, my incredible family and the many, many reasons to celebrate making it through another trip around the sun! See my next post that will show the cards I got from my family and the gifts :)

3 weeks

That is about how much time has passed since my last post. I am going to post a few things this week to catch up, but...I have been going through a phase again of trying to figure out what I want to ultimately post about. What do I find interest in writing to maintain the blog and to keep up with my family...maybe it has been just a mental block, maybe just being tired from the sicknesses that worked its way through the family...not really sure. I just know that it made it feel like more work than I wanted it to be to post.
So, stay tuned I guess and we will see if anything comes of my deliberations over the next couple weeks :)

Sick Week

I don't get sick very often...ans usually if I feel under the weather, I huddle up under the covers for a day, sweat it out and I am ready to go again. This week has been several deviations from the norm. It started on Monday when I felt flu-like symptoms come on me during the previous night. So, I was down on Monday and did my rest thing for the most part and I figured Tuesday I would be good to go. Well, Tuesday came and I didn't feel too badly but not completely back...so, I wsa down another day. During the course of Tuesday though, I started feeling itchy and by Tuesday evening I was broken out in hives. They weren't gone on Wednesday, so Kristen forced me into the Doctor's office and they decided to do bloodwork...I haven't heard back yet, but I still have the hives today and the Benadryl seems to be making me very tired....anyway...that is just my story this week.
Jacob hasn't been in school this week due to illness.
Jaden hasn't been in school this week and had to get x-rays and bloodwork done as well.
And Jude has a runny nose and cough too.
Kristen has been relatively healthy during this buot and we need her to stay that way so that someone can take care of the rest of us :)

17 Down, 19 to go

The Way of the Warrior: How to Fulfill Life's Most Difficult Assignments by Harry R. Jackson Jr.


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The way of the warrior uses David's life and several of the psalms he wrote to give us insights on how to prepare ourselves, use our gifts effectively through many different areas of our lives. Jackson breaks those areas down as an acronym WARRIOR.
W - Wealth: What influence do you have through the blessings that God has given you?
A - Achievement: Are you a success in the Kingdom of God? Have you overcome the fears that hold you back?
R - RIGHTEOUSNESS: Have you allowed your personal righteousness to be noticed and heard in your sphere of influence?
R - REFLECTION: Have you reprogrammed your mind in order to grow in your ability to think like Jesus?
I - INTERCESSION: Do you pray with authority?
O - OUTLOOK: Do you react negatively to people who antagonize you? Are grace and peace the marks of your daily life?
R - RECONCILIATION: Do you provide help for those who are wounded around you?

It is a good reminder that when we are truly warriors for God and have a strong relationship with Him, we will be prepared for the battles that we will fight. Those battles don't always look like the battles we think of in our minds, but they are nonetheless. Will you keep a stronghold in the battle and not give way, become the beacon of light to those around you, or will you falter due to selfish interests?

View all my reviews >>

New construction pics

I will post some exterior shots tomorrow as well since the painting is done....but here is a status on the interior :)

Looking at our new door that we will normally go through and bring people in....you can see our new coat closet to the right and the garage door on the left :)



You can see the mud applied to the seams in our dining room...he is continuing work tomorrow and will finish on Monday :) Soon they will be ready to paint!



This gives you a good view of the opening we have created between the kitchen and what will be the dining room. It doesn't look as big as it feels with the plastic up...but, it is still neat to see the drywall up on this side as well :)

Flying Boys

I was out playing with the boys before my trip and Kristen came out and took these pictures...just had to share them!


Jacob is a wildman and with him being as small as he is...well he just flew!

















We didn't get as great a photo on Jaden...and he wasn't in the air as long since he is quite a bit bigger than his brother...but I still love the similarity as you get to see them both kicking their feet as they were flying :)

Another Update on Construction

A couple more pictures. I will also post pictures later this week as the painting of the exterior started today!


Drywall up looking into the mud-room area. Note on the left you can see where they are drywalling over the access to the staircase for now since we are not finishing the upstairs.


A view of the drywall done in the dining room area. It is actually looking like a finished room.



Looking from our garage...you can no longer see through to the rooms! Insulation is up and there is even a door now in from the garage to the mud-room area.




See the white space? They tore down the cabinets and will be tearing out the walls starting on Monday. Will definately have to post more pictures with that change!

Small update on addition

Thought I would throw up a couple more pictures. We now have garage doors and we have steps up to our door. Very soon we will give you some interior pictures as well :)


We are happy to have these up and we think they look pretty good. We don't have power yet active in the garage, and the workers still have a lot of their stuff in there...so we are not using the garage yet...but it will be soon!
Kristen is very happy with the wrap around step and the look of this. We do think it turned out nicely. With painting the exterior, placing some gutters on the roof and getting the outside lights up, the exterior front will be completed.

Halloween Pictures

You gotta love our boys. They are so willing to just enjoy dressing up that we have used our normal play costumes for our Halloween costumes for the last several years. We haven't had to buy anything new at all. That is just awesome! And, of course, the kids are too cute anyways :)

K-LOVE - Matt Maher "Alive Again" LIVE

This song has been a theme song in our church during the last 6 weeks as part of what is called the synergy series. I love the song and have enjoyed singing it every week. I found this version of it on YouTube and thought I would share it with everyone.

May God call and shout and break through the way each of us chooses to ignore, not see and not hear Him.

What's Hot at our House right now?

Thought I would share this as Kristen has been raving about him and we are playing his music in our house all the time. Even Jude is yelling out "Coffey" and "All Ye!" every time he hears the music right now.

Over a year of posts!

Just noticed that I have 367 posts before this one. It just caught my eye as I was on the dashboard page. I started this blog, I think (based on the oldest date it has listed for it in January of 2008...that means I have actually averaged about a post every other day over the last two years. That is pretty good :)
Some of you may be pretty bored with it and the overall theme for my posts are all over the place, but, I am still pretty happy with keeping up as well as that.
So, hopefully I can improve on that and see if it doesn't take 2 years to get to post number 730!

A good Sunday

Not much to tell today. Went to church, we went out as a family for lunch and then we spent the afternoon taking naps, playing and studying. The boys and I even played a game this evening which was very nice.
Not positive that I am really ready for the week to start, but it will be Monday tomorrow whether I am ready or not :)
I did also get to play a little WGT ( www.wgt.com ) with my dad and brother which was a bonus!

Totally wiped out

Kristen and Jude were sick in bed all day yesterday. I took the boys to church, brought them home for lunch and then took them to a friends for the afternoon. I spent the rest of the day working with people from our church to cook, serve and in some cases deliver a dinner to a group of senior citizens in Hopkinton. Totally worth it, but I was totally wiped out!

16 Down, 20 to go

The Leadership Lessons of Jesus: A Timeless Model for Today's Leaders by Bob Briner


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a short book in that it is 150 small pages of content and it could be read in only a few sittings, however, I think that the value of the book would be lost.
Jesus was a great leader and that can be seen in the incredible way He changed the world and those around Him. He established the church which has run for around 2,000 years and it has grown an incredible amount in that time. Can we glean insights that we can use on a regular basis to model His leadership style, to the best of our abilities, and make a difference to those people around us and the organizations we are part of?
Through the 52 chapters in this book, you will see great thoughts, activities and principles of leadership as demonstrated throughout the Bible as Jesus ran his ministry. Take the time to digest the material and work on applying it over the course of a year maybe (which woud be 1 chapter a week...looking to work on that application/activity that week) and see if you are not truly changed as a leader.

View all my reviews >>

Construction Update

Not too much news really to report, BUT, we are happy to have the final two windows in place. Now, assuming that the weather turns back to fall so that it is warm enough, we will be able to get the siding up, the exterior painted and the garage doors in place.
One other note is that they did come put some new pavement down leading to the garage and the door...so, while the coloring is different than the rest of our driveway (Kristen does not like that), it does make it so that soon we will actually be able to drive into our garage!
I will try to take a picture of the driveway and show everyone, but still it is progress, even if it is slower than we would like :)

Snow

SNOW!
Really?
Really?
I know that Colorado has already seen snow...and I know that when I woke up this morning that it was gone, but, let me still lament for a moment that I am not ready for the snow and cold to be here yet.
I don't feel like we had a real fall yet! In fact, I still have an air conditioner in the window!
And yet, despite my protests and lamenting, as my small group left last night, the first flakes of the year were falling.

Numb3rs

Ever watch the show Numb3rs? I am a big fan and both Kristen and I enjoy watching it whenever we get the chance. I have been TIVO'ing it for awhile and it tends to be the show that Kristen and I will lounge and watch together. I kind of wonder what it is that draws me to the show.
Both Kristen and I have certainly been drawn to crime dramas and such as I think that we both want to see the good guys win...but outside of the fact that I like watching the geek play such an important role (since I know I was/am? a bit of a geek) I feel like it is something more than that. Every episode you watch shows how this mathematician is able to draw these elaborate correlations and produce these equations that give him this new perspective on the situation and ultimately he helps solve the crime and we move on. And I think that it is in those equations that I kind of really love the show.
He is able to help find truth amidst all this stuff that tries to point him away or that seems to obscure it...and I think maybe I see that as what many people are going through as they are looking for God. I may not have a math equation that answers the problem, but I think in searching for truth, you see these patterns that are there that prove out God's existence and then you see it more and more, a lot like Charlie does for each case.
He has saved a bunch of people in these shows and maybe someday (yes here comes the cliche finish), I will help save some people too :)

Orphans

We are studying the book of James at church and all our sermons for 6 weeks as well as our bible studies dive into James to understand how our faith will bear good fruit and that God has specifically called us to engage to take care of those that can not care for themselves. Our church is outfitting over 200 children with winter coats, feeding people at the salvation army and at a senior center and donating used clothing to groups over the course of the next few weeks. While it is exciting to see the piles of stuff showing up a I witnessed on Sunday, it also made me sad as I realized that while our engagement will make a difference, there is so much need out there that goes unmet that it just breaks my heart. The scriptures specifically call out orphans and this group below has started a site that they are aggregating people's energies and activities towards working on this problem...they have a number of 143 million orphans in the world on their site. How they came up with it, I am not sure...but regardless, what an incredible number. The population of the US is just above 300 million, just to put it into perspective...
It is easy to be overwhelmed by that number and not do anything, but I am glad we are starting with the local area and helping out in a few small ways and hopefully we will see a revival across the world and see that number tumble dramatically.
http://143million.org/

Leadership and discipline

I have been reading a book called the Leadership Lessons of Jesus. I will finish it in the next week or so as I have been taking it very slowly for a small book. It is very challenging as each chapter is a lesson with scripture references that really makes me question how I feel I play out that particular trait, role, activity, etc...
This one has stuck with me for quite a while as this was back in chapter 7...Leadership requires discipline. And of course, you say "yeah, and?"...it is not that this is a new insight or anything...the authors reference Mark 1:35-39: Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed..."
Jesus disciplined himself to a time of prayer and solitude...and it should not be a question of whether we do that, it should be a requirement. If Jesus needed time regularly to prepare himself for what was to happen that day, we do as well.

15 Down, 21 to go

This has been on my to-do list for a long time. I had picked it up and read part of it many months back and just didn't get through it. Now, it came up as part of our congregations suggested activities for October as part of a growing deeper opportunity for people's faith...it was a good and quick read and I am glad I finally made myself get to it.



The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence



Brother Lawrence sets an example that we should all strive for in how we are to perceive the world, our relationship with people, work and ultimately our relationship with God through this simple and short book that includes letters that the Brother wrote to various friends and other things that were collected from him or written about him.
To acknowledge that God is sovereign and that we truly exist and take each breath because God wants us to and that our greatest joy and fulfillment in our life comes through our relationship with Him which goes against everything that you see on earth...that was what Brother Lawrence accomplished and what he pushes everyone who reads the book to understand and embrace. That we might find joy in the constant presence of God while doing any and every task according to His will and desire...that we might embrace God truly being with us in everything we say and do and that it would have such a profound impact on who we are as we become more like Jesus...what a truly remarkable achievement.
Many of us are Christians and we exist in a state much as Brother Lawrence did at the beginning of his walk...with trepidation, miss-steps and agony as we fell and started again and fretted about being good enough for God...even when we knew in our head that being good enough is not what we are called to be...May we all progress as Brother Lawrence did to an entirely different realization and relationship with God where we truly embrace God's love and forgiveness and want to spend as much time with Him as possible.

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Baileigh's letter and picture!

I am sending out via this blog a BIG Thank you to my niece for sending us this wonderful letter and picture!
Baileigh, I was very impressed with your cursive writing and the picture is beautiful. It made me smile when I received it and when I showed it to Aunt Kristen, she smiled too!

Windows and Siding and Doors, Oh my!

A few more pictures since things look different now that they have some of the windows, doors and almost all of the siding up...


They have installed the shower and the bathtub...and Kristen has a beautiful window above her tub :)

The sliding glass door that will someday go to a back deck...

You can see that one more window has to go in on the back of the house and then the siding can be completed...

A door! Very soon they will have the front porch area put up and it will even be usable :)

Almost looks finished, huh? Definitely looks nice with the windows and siding done right there...and the view from those windows is awesome.

Great quote from class tonight

"Bibles that are coming apart
usually belong
to people that aren't.

Gotta love that :)

So, yes...back at my Bethel class tonight. 3o scheduled classes, 5 tests and 2 weeks of a four part final and I still have to write up a book report from the summer session that I didn't complete yet.
Add to that the fact that we are apparently going to start teaching at some point this session some of the classes to the congregational level classes as well as everything listed above and this has the making of a very full upcoming year.

Starting Bethel Again tomorrow

Looking forward to doing the New Testament this year. I will be interested to see how everyone does and where we end up from a teaching perspective since that was the goal of the class...to create new teachers. Certainly a lot of time and energy has been invested by everyone so far and with a whole year left to go, much more still to come...
maybe I will have to create another video ;)

Another Construction Update

As promised, here are a couple more pics from me this week. It is definitely coming along, though as you will see from the pictures...it starts to get less obvious how much work is being done as you go along. Things like plumbing and electrical aren't quite so distinct as framing is :)


This is in the new bathroom. You can see that we are set up for a double vanity!


Here is the new sub-panel that is in the garage. We are not running the 200 amp service now that we will need if we ever get A/C for the house, but we did have them set it up so that the wiring and the box can accommodate it when it is time.



You can see that they finished up the roof and that it looks great. Definitely starts to make you see how it ties into the rest of the house.




On Friday they started putting up the siding. They could only do so much since they really have to wait for most of it until the doors and windows finally arrive...but, it is cool to see the little bit they did get up as it really gives it a finished look.

A blossoming flower

A post from my devotional this morning that I thought was worth sharing:
When a wife feels undernourished, underappreciated, and underloved (because the husband does not give her his time and attention) she wilts into a bland nothingness instead of blossoming with life and excitement.
the passage comes from a book called Every Man's Marriage

What a great reminder of how important our time is to our spouse. I pray that I give Kristen my time and attention so that she is nourished and able to blossom.

What determination can accomplish...

Just thought I would share this story...I have read about this guy and then saw this speech as well. I think it is an awesome reminder of what can be accomplished when the effort and determination is there. If I had half his ingenuity and drive...

http://www.ted.com/talks/william_kamkwamba_how_i_harnessed_the_wind.html

Jaden's Soccer

Initially, we were not thinking of putting Jaden in soccer this fall since we were going to try to find a piano teacher and let him do that. We haven't succeeded in finding a piano teacher at a price we are willing to pay, so at the last second, Kristen got him into soccer. As it is on Saturday's and Tuesday nights, it is all Dad, all the time...as it conflicts with Mom's class or Mom's time to study :)

Here are a couple of photos from Jaden's game on Saturday...he even got to play goalie for awhile (when he was in the yellow jersey).

Goal Kick and Jaden sends it down the field!

The boys lounging in the sun while Jaden plays his game...they did not sit for very long, so I am glad I got the shot when I did...

Jaden warming up for the game...he also ran a lap around the field like he does at school. He is so much like his dad. He takes the game and the practice very seriously :)