We got a few more decorations put up on the front of the house this evening. Joey's yard deer from last year got dug out of their box again and the wreaths from our wedding look good on the front door. We bought the little tree at wal-mart for $15 and I already had the flood light to light the door and a timer to hook them all up to. Not too bad for just a few bucks (no pun intended) and the house looks a good deal more festive as a result. I planned to put a few lights around the roofline, but time will tell if I can get that done and if the weather cooperates. They are calling for freezing rain this weekend, so it may or may not actually happen.... But so far, so good! (Thanks for the delivery, Terry and Sharon!)
Friday, November 30, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Estate news (or not)
This morning was another hearing on the status of my Mom's estate. I didn't even bother to go this time. I did have some commitments here in Wood RIver at the church and nothing ever seems to happen at these things anyway. After I got the word regarding the hearing, I was not dissappointed. As I suspected, no progress was made other than approving more bills being paid. Hopefully, we will see some movement in time so this whole thing can be wrapped up... I told my sister again today what I have been saying for a far too long now... All I want for CHristmas is this estate settled so we can get on with our lives. The family of origin has already crumbled and only after we are able to close out this current fiasco can we ever get back to some sort of new normal. Nobody seems to get this, but the best we can hope for is to find a new normal and learn to live with it. So, I cannot understand the reason for the constant delay tactics and pettiness. Enough already... Well, it was enough already a long time ago. Mom has been gone for 19 months now and we are still hung up in court over the most ridiculous little issues. This could have... no SHOULD HAVE been over months ago. And sadly, the vast majority of people don't even seem to realize that mom is even gone, just worrying about what they can glean for themselves out of the mess that is left. Is it just? no... but to have it over would be enough for me!
Hop on pop!
I was laying on the floor tonight playing with the kids and resting my back as well when I picked Ian up and then Joey joined us for a fun filled round of Hop-on-Pop... Good times! (at least for the kids)!
Christmas tree
We decorated the Christmas tree last night and both of the kids were there for the event. We only really got pictures of Joey helping as Ian is still a bit young to help hang ornaments. But it is still cool to see both of their responses to the tree and to the events of the season. Joey is starting to figure out that the season is about the birth of Christ... But there is a definite strong interest in Santa Claus as well ;-) What a blessing they both are!
Friday, November 23, 2007
The day after thanksgiving
Instead of going shopping today, we stayed home and cooked all day long. Jenny's family has their annual family Christmas gathering on the Saturday following thanksgiving each year, so we are planning on going to that tomorrow and there was food to get ready to take with us for that. We also got a picture taken of the kids for our Christmas cards this year and had that sent off for processing. Other than that, it was a low-key day. Still seems strange not to be going to see my mother on Thanksgiving, but things do change and there are new traditions being forged to make the holidays meaningful. We had a fantastic day here with Jenny's folks and my sister coming to our home and had the whole spread with turkey and all the trimmings. The kids had a good day and we simply enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere without all of the stress that used to accompany holiday gatherings for me. Sort of a nice change of pace and something that I am looking forward to for manny years to come. It is nice to simply enjoy the spirit of thanksgiving without worrying about who is going to say what and who is going to try to read beetween the lines. Not a bad way to live life I would say!
Still feels a little strange to be in new community and a new home this year. I talked with a young woman from Stonington today whose wedding I am going back to Stonington to perform in December. I am looking forward to that chance to see the Stonington folks and enjoy being back with them for a couple of days next month. WIll feel like old times again. I was thinking tonight as I ran to Wal-Mart for a couple of things about how this all feels a little bit like we are visiting a new town still. I wonder when it will feel like this is "our" town. I am sure it will eventually, but after so many years in one place, it is going to take a while to get used to new environs again I suppose.
I klnow that I have rambled on about how all of the change is hard to take and I don't want to imply for one minute that we don't simply adore the people here in Wood River. Because we do think the world of them and we have been awed by the love they have shown to us. We look forward to many years of ministry with them and think they are the cream of the crop. If we didn't think they were pretty good folks to begin with, we never would have come to the Wood River church. It would obviously have been much easier to stay put in Stonington, but it was clear that God was opening doors for us in this corner of the world, so we responded and are looking forward to great things from this church and community! Attendance has been steadily growing at the church and we are praying that this continues for many years to come. Not for the sake of having a larger church, but for the sake of having a larger group of fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ to do his work in our communities! As I look at it, there really is much to be thankful for this year and the list would get quite long if I actually started putting pen to paper to list all of these things!
Still feels a little strange to be in new community and a new home this year. I talked with a young woman from Stonington today whose wedding I am going back to Stonington to perform in December. I am looking forward to that chance to see the Stonington folks and enjoy being back with them for a couple of days next month. WIll feel like old times again. I was thinking tonight as I ran to Wal-Mart for a couple of things about how this all feels a little bit like we are visiting a new town still. I wonder when it will feel like this is "our" town. I am sure it will eventually, but after so many years in one place, it is going to take a while to get used to new environs again I suppose.
I klnow that I have rambled on about how all of the change is hard to take and I don't want to imply for one minute that we don't simply adore the people here in Wood River. Because we do think the world of them and we have been awed by the love they have shown to us. We look forward to many years of ministry with them and think they are the cream of the crop. If we didn't think they were pretty good folks to begin with, we never would have come to the Wood River church. It would obviously have been much easier to stay put in Stonington, but it was clear that God was opening doors for us in this corner of the world, so we responded and are looking forward to great things from this church and community! Attendance has been steadily growing at the church and we are praying that this continues for many years to come. Not for the sake of having a larger church, but for the sake of having a larger group of fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ to do his work in our communities! As I look at it, there really is much to be thankful for this year and the list would get quite long if I actually started putting pen to paper to list all of these things!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Between the "Now" and the "Not-Yet"
Greater theological minds than mine have come to this understanding. We live our entire lives as disciples of Jesus Christ hanging in the balance between what we presently live with in this broken world and our yearning for the Kingdom yet to come. I do believe that Christ's kingdom is at one and the same time a present reality and a future promise. However, forces of evil do permeate much of our world. While we have the ultimate hope in the Kingdom that is yet to come, we certainly gain mini-glimpses of the Kingdom in our daily lives if we have eyes that are open to it.
Lately, I have come to realize that this concept of waiting for the "not-yet" is not merely something that applies solely to our eternal hope in Christ. Rather, it is something that is fairly cyclical in nature. We start practicing for this understanding in our earliest days of childhood. Watching Joey has reminded me that patience is learned (or more often NOT learned) by having to wait for things that we want to happen. Joey, like all children I know, is fairly determined to get what she wants and has a difficult time understanding when mommy or daddy says, "not yet" or asks her to wait. I am sure she will eventually grasp this lesson, but until then she lives in that moment between the present and the future reward for her patience.
In 41 years of life I have also been faced with numerous experiences of this constant tension between the now and the not-yet. Waiting to find the right avenue of service for Christ... Waiting to find the right woman to marry... waiting to find the right house to make our home... waiting... waiting... waiting... How much of our life is just a cycle of waiting for things to move along. So many times in my life, I have felt like I am in a "holding pattern" of sorts, just waiting to land. Or to carry that air travel analogy a bit further, more accurately, it seems that much of my life is spent sitting on the tarmac waiting for clearance from the tower to take off. Until then I sit with my engines idling.... knowing that above the cloud deck blue skys are there to be enjoyed. Until then, I keep my engines tuned up and turned on just waiting for the tower to speak the word.
On this Thanksgiving eve, I am finding things to be thankful for... but I know that there are even brighter days coming, both in the short term and for eternity. I am learning again that there is always a part of me that is torn between the now and the not yet... I yearn for the day when the "not yet" becomes the "now".
Lately, I have come to realize that this concept of waiting for the "not-yet" is not merely something that applies solely to our eternal hope in Christ. Rather, it is something that is fairly cyclical in nature. We start practicing for this understanding in our earliest days of childhood. Watching Joey has reminded me that patience is learned (or more often NOT learned) by having to wait for things that we want to happen. Joey, like all children I know, is fairly determined to get what she wants and has a difficult time understanding when mommy or daddy says, "not yet" or asks her to wait. I am sure she will eventually grasp this lesson, but until then she lives in that moment between the present and the future reward for her patience.
In 41 years of life I have also been faced with numerous experiences of this constant tension between the now and the not-yet. Waiting to find the right avenue of service for Christ... Waiting to find the right woman to marry... waiting to find the right house to make our home... waiting... waiting... waiting... How much of our life is just a cycle of waiting for things to move along. So many times in my life, I have felt like I am in a "holding pattern" of sorts, just waiting to land. Or to carry that air travel analogy a bit further, more accurately, it seems that much of my life is spent sitting on the tarmac waiting for clearance from the tower to take off. Until then I sit with my engines idling.... knowing that above the cloud deck blue skys are there to be enjoyed. Until then, I keep my engines tuned up and turned on just waiting for the tower to speak the word.
On this Thanksgiving eve, I am finding things to be thankful for... but I know that there are even brighter days coming, both in the short term and for eternity. I am learning again that there is always a part of me that is torn between the now and the not yet... I yearn for the day when the "not yet" becomes the "now".
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
more on the farm
Got a phone call on Saturday from the one cousin who still is in touch with me to let me know that the farmhouse in Butler has been torn down. Of course, I knew that it was likely that new owners would probably do that, it is still hard to think that the home that I spent so much time in as a child with my grandparents living there and then as an adult with my mother living there is gone forever now. THe timber that I used to hunt in has also been pretty radically altered as the man who purchased it is buldozing a large number of trees to make room for building sites rather than using it for the purpose of hunting and recreation that we used it for throughout my life. It is just hard to sit back and know that among everthing else that has changed, those things as well will never be the same... Life does bring change. Not all change is good. However, we have no choice but to deal with it as in so much of life!
at the zoo
We've taken Joey's picture by this sculpture at the zoo several times to watch her grow. I will have to dig out those older pictures and put them in a series to see how much she has grown. I do know the first time we went, she was barely sitting up on her own!
Monday, November 19, 2007
finished with the reconstruction!
That went faster than I thought it would... things should be up and running now!
Blog reconstruction
I am having to reconstruct my blog from scratch after a snafu with some pictures not getting accross the great divide between flickr and the blogger site. Luckily I was able to save a copy of things on my hard drive. Security attemmpts on my part messed the whole thing up! Hopefully, now it will work better and look better!
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Raking Leaves
Joey and Ian "helped" with the leaf raking project in the front yard yesterday... Jenny took some great pictures of them in the leaves. I will get them up and open for public display sometime in the next day or two... until then, I think this one is pretty good!
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