Sick of sicknesses

The house has been ransacked over the last few weeks with coughing, sneezing, stuffiness and overall aching.  Nothing over the top, but nothing that is going away quickly either.  Jaden and Jacob had it, and seem to be better..so they are in school.  Kristen and I are struggling with it now and so is Grandma.  Jude seems good, but has been fussy, so we are watching him.
Unusual as it is...it is a huge struggle for the parents to be sick and the kids doing well...They have energy and we don't.  Bad combination :)

Thanksgiving is old news

Furniture is rearranged and the tree is
about to come out of the box.

The Christmas Village is ready
 to be set up!

Even though it was only a couple days ago, Thanksgiving is already distant in the rear view mirror.  Fall stuff is getting packed away, Christmas decorations and the tree are coming out and Kristen is excited.  One thing that is nice this year is that most of our shopping is already done!  Now if I could just figure out what I am going to "make" for Linda.  

Uncle Eddie

Posting a quick note and we are saying continued prayers for my Uncle Eddie.  He had a heart attack early this week and has been in the hospital since.  Surgery two days ago?  and as of today...off the additional blood pressure medications that they put him on coming out of the surgery.  Not sure at this point how much damage has been done over the last week, but we are praising God for the good news that we have heard over the last 48 hours.

Hott with 2 "t's"

So, the night before last, Kristen was singing what was a somewhat popular song from a little while back...the lyrics go something like this:
"It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes".  Of course, not something that would be on around the kids, or sung with them around...but there you go, culture finding its way in, right?
Well, Jaden walked in and I looked at him and in a typical parent fashion tried to make the best of the situation remarking to him..."You must be pretty hot considering that you are only wearing a tank top and shorts for bed...it is getting pretty close to winter, bud."
So, yes I was covering...not really wanting the nature of that particular song to become part of a conversation with Jaden...but without missing a beat, he said to me:
"Dad.  That is not the kind of hot mom was talking about.  She was talking about the "h-o-t-t" kind of hot."

When a Nation Forgets God

When a Nation Forgets God: 7 Lessons We Must Learn From Nazi Germany by Lutzer, Erwin W.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was a very interesting wake up call. I have read other books (eg The Marketing of Evil) that help call how easily we are manipulated into accepting things that take us away from including God in our lives. This is the same. A great call to action for for Christians to recognize that we can not accept the way things are currently trending...there are ramifications to the decisions we make today and we have seen them in history over and over. Whether you go back to Israel's initial rejection of God in favor of Baal or use a contemporary example like Hitler, the significance of rejecting God is the same...God's favor can be taken away and the country/nation that you once knew...the one that is still in your memory and you harken back to all the time will be gone.

Jacob's letter to Santa - 2010

This is Jacob's letter to Santa this year...for those that can't read 5-6 year old writing....I will try to translate.  Also, I probably won't be able to translate it by next year...so, for my own sake moving forward :)

Dear Santa Claus! (boy he is excited, isn't he?)
I would like a DS! (Meaning Nintendo DS system)
and a PSP! (PlayStation Portable?/Personal?) (Seeing a theme?)
and an X-Box! (Still incredibly excited....!  I suppose I would be too if I was going to get all this stuff)
A Big Nerf Gun! (amazing how much this list is exactly what we have been hearing from Jaden for the last week+...he so much wants to be like his big brother)
And a Star Wars Lego set too!
A PillowPet. (this is the only thing that was Jacob's only...and it is the only one that didn't get the exclamation point?  How does that work?)
I tried to be my best this year. (Love how this skips a bit because he did not leave enough space to write his name.)
Love, Jacob (it wouldn't be Jacob's letter without something being backward!)

Blanket Drive - final tally

Awesome that the church was able to collect 5,143 blankets over the last 6 weeks.  That just boggles the mind a bit.  It was neat to see us blow away the goal of 3,500...and the crazy thing is, there are more blankets to come as many people didn't finish up their no-sew blankets.

I am going to follow up with the people in the neighborhood this week that dropped off blankets so that they know what they were part of.

Perspective....

So, I was thinking as I have been posting updates on my reading lately that over the last few years it has seemed I have been in the neighborhood of 20+ books per year that I have been reading (24 in '08, 20 in '09, 18 YTD '10).
It is not as many as I would like...but it is what I have been doing.  With that being the case, I looked at my shelves today...my to-read piles...I have 3+years of books sitting here!  All stuff that I want to read and wish I had finished yesterday.
Goodness.
And, of course, the biggest issue is that I will continue to see stuff I want to read at a faster rate than what I am actually reading and it is only going to go up from there.

This is basically me just whining...but, it also shows me that despite my best intentions at the beginning of each of the last few years....what I have actually done, reading wise, has not really changed too much.

Boys on a cold autumn day...

Just a quick picture of the boys from this weekend...just because.

It was cold outside, but we still got them to sit still for a minute to snap a couple of shots :)
This was the only one I got:

Blanket Drive

We have been working on a blanket drive for the winter with our church and a local charity.  Our church put a goal out there to collect 3,500 blankets in 5-6 weeks to support this charity.  That is a lot of blankets!
So, we spent some time going through our neighborhood and asking people to help and we have been buying some on our own.  (the charity requests new blankets only)
Well, we have been blessed to see several neighbors drop off blankets to help, which was awesome...
My mom has been taking some fleece blankets we bought and sewing them up...so she is did 4? of those great  fleece blankets and our church put together packets for a "No-sew" blanket...where you cut the fabric and then tie the fleece together to create a blanket.  We purchased a bunch of these kits and the kids helped put one together, and I have done one so far as well.  All in all, I am pretty sure that we gave more than 30 blankets to the church over the last 4 weeks.
The church with the help of the community has collected more than 4,000 before today!  WOW.
You can see our handiwork below:

At the church.....

The bags we had to take to church today

Grandma Cindy's handiwork...

One of my No-sew blankets....
see all the knots tied on the edges

Captured by Grace

Captured by Grace: No One Is Beyond the Reach of a Loving God by David Jeremiah




Not a short read....a pick it up and can't put it down, read it in a day read. This will take a bit of time.

That being said, it is not dense or difficult. It is just a book that seemed like it needed time to get through it. Going through the verses of the song, Amazing Grace, Dr. Jeremiah parallels the lives of Saul and John Newton...at least multiple times drawing comparisons. However, the real story to me was ultimately how, through God's grace, we can all be used in incredible ways in His kingdom.

The very person who sought out all the blossoming Christians of the first century becomes one of the strongest advocates, leading authorities and largest contributor of the Bible.

John Newton, a slave trader, becomes the person who befriends the man in political office that can ban slavery in Britain and pens the lyrics that form the basis of the book that is the rallying cry in America years later to start the civil war and end slavery in America as well.

God's grace is an amazing gift and Dr Jeremiah does an admirable job going through multiple facets of it as he discusses God's grace in the past, present and future and weaves these stories throughout.

"What must God do to captivate your attention and make you realize that He is alive, gloriously alive?"...a great quote as Dr. Jeremiah discusses the fact that being saved is not the end goal of God...
Feel like you have been in/are in crises? Well, there are good words for you as Dr. Jeremiah talks through how Paul viewed what John Newton later refers to in his lyrics as "dangers, toils and snares".

So, what can you say of your walk with God and His grace...? I will leave you with one other word from the book that tells you why you should also pick it up and read it:
"If you can place your trust totally in His love and His promise to work all things for your good, then you will have taken a step toward embracing the mysteries of His grace"

Have you taken that step?

Catching up on my reading....

Courageous Leadership by Bill Hybels


















I could spend quite some time if I wrote out all the things about this book that are worth reviewing. It really just needs to be read.

If you are a church elder, pastor, lay leader, etc - read it
If you are a leader in the business world - read it
If you are a leader of a family - read it.

While Bill is targeting church leaders and much of it focuses in that realm, so many of us that have leadership potential allow it to flounder...to dissipate because we don't recognize it, don't build it up and don't use it. The passion in this book and the useful points will be items that I will be working on and wrestling with for a very long time.

I imagine that anyone else in a position of leadership or wanting ultimately to be in a position of leadership would benefit from many of the chapters.

Get it. Read it. Work on it.

What a sunset

It was very cold today, so I hardly wanted to go outside to take the picture, but it turned out pretty good :)

Jacob has lost 2 teeth

All I want for Christmas is my 2 bottom teeth!

And he also left a really great note for the tooth fairy because he had lost the tooth...see if you can tell where Jaden decided to step in and help him :)