Quick Hits

– Really enjoyed my mom’s show Are We There Yet? last night. The puns weren’t always that punny but they at least made you smile! Mom, you did great!
– Did a deep clean of my coffee pot yesterday and the payoff is worth it. Tastes great this morning.
– I am really wanting to get a tattoo right now. Something that incorporates my faith and my family.
– Looking forward to sharing with the Constance Free Church students tomorrow morning.
– I’m thinking I need to get back into doing some acting. I also want to learn some more keyboard.
– Saw Marcus Buckingham on Oprah talking about working out of our Strengths. I need to find more ways to do this everyday.
– It is not looking good for my MN Wild.
– Stephanie has applied for some open elementary school teaching positions in Northfield – her and about 1,000 other people. Please join us in prayer for this.
– Booked our flight, hotel and rental car for The Whiteboard Sessions next month. Can’t wait!

Quick Hits

– We’ve taking care of my in-laws Beagle all week. The wife and kids love it. It is cute to see Jacob try and walk the dog. He’s our animal lover for sure; I’m not quite as into it.

– Bought a nice Casio keyboard yesterday for $1. It is really loud when the kids bang on it, but still kind of fun to hear music in the house.

– Living in Northfield is nice. Our house is in a cul-de-sac and since the weather has been nice the kids have been outside playing almost everyday. Makes this parent happy to watch his kids run and play outside.

– Loving the Stanley Cup playoffs. What a sport!

– Took on a couple new roles at work, learning about organic produce and pest control. Strange combination.

– My mom is part of a big musical production in her school district. I don’t remember her doing much of this when my siblings and I were growing up. She probably could have if she wasn’t so busy giving her life away to us.

– Stephanie blogged about Jacob’s use of the word bisgusting. His other favorite word when he feels crabby is boring. Everything is so boring. Blah, blah, blah. He must have got that from TV because I’m quite sure I never said that growing up.

– Looking forward to speaking Sunday to some students in a seminary friend’s youth ministry. We’ll be getting into the use of bread in the Bible.

– Anybody have tickets for the Twins/Red Sox series May 8-10? I’m available.

Just one of those days…

Today didn’t start very well. Woke up at quarter to seven with my daughter in my face wanting to crawl into bed and bug me. Minutes later the baby’s crying in his crib, coming into our bed and rubbing my back and pulling at my ears for ten minutes. I leave to use the bathroom, hop into my daughter’s now vacated bed and before I even hit the pillow Andrew has the TV blaring in my bedroom. That wakes up my older boy prematurely and he leaves the room to join the TV arguments in my room. Foolishly I thought I might get a quick snooze with everyone gone, but in no time all the kids are yelling and crying and stomping around. Bring the two younger ones downstairs and its whining for food and juice. By 8 all the kids are downstairs moping around because they can’t go outside. Twenty minutes later they are outside, 2 minutes later the daughter and baby are back inside, and outside, and inside, and outside. I’m on the deck and screaming flows through the open windows of the house in between every sentence I try to read. In the last hour I have pitched baseballs, played catch, gone hunting, organized the toys on the deck, taken a wagon away from my daughter, stopped the baby from dumping out sand from the neighbors sandbox, vacuumed the kitchen, washed a load of laundry, disciplined numerous times for attitudinal issues, and somehow drank almost three cups of coffee. Now my wireless network is down!

Can anyone relate?

Where I’ve Been

I got hit with a nasty bug that had me down and out for about 5 days. It was pretty rough working everyday while trying to squeeze in as much sleep as possible but I made it through.

Stephanie wanted me to call in sick to work a couple times but I just don’t have it in me. I feel too much responsibility to my team, my peers and my store. Plus, there were some others things going on that I wanted to be apart of and I believe that if you’re too sick to work you’re too sick to do anything else, so I had no choice but to work.

Sunday night was the worst. I had the closing shift and I actually had to call and ask Stephanie to come pick me up at 9:00pm. She was amazing and she came with no complaint. I married a real good woman!

Goodbye Mr. Squatter

Stephanie blogged about a visitor we had in our house just over two weeks ago. That visitor is no longer here. Cheese didn’t work, but some fresh peanut butter did the trick. Snap. Jacob and I escorted the squatter out of the house this evening. He’snow awaiting a free ride to the county garbage dump.

I feel no sorrow.

Out With the Old

Had the day off from work so I decided to try and make some progress sorting through the piles of boxes in our garage since the move. Motivated by all the Clean House I’ve been watching lately my goal today was to go through all my old college notebooks and binders. It was a big job!

Two observations:

1. Dang, I kept everything! I had papers, homework assignments, quizzes, and 3 ring binders galore. A personal habit I need to continue developing in 2008 is the ability to throw things away.

Warning: Mom & Dad – DO NOT READ WHAT FOLLOWS!

2. As I scanned through some stuff before tossing it I was stunned at how little I remember. Given any of the tests I took 5 years ago I would fail all of them; which makes college seem like a colossal intellectual bust. I know that college is about developing skills and building a foundation for later in life but for all that tuition I wish that I would have retained more of what I was supposed to be learning.

New Year’s Eve

Did you have a good New Year’s?

Things were going great at the Balvin’s. Got home from work. had a great dinner and a fun time with the kids. Was looking forward to some time with Stephanie. Put the kids to sleep at 8:45.

8:55 – Jacob tells us Andrew puked. Checked. Yup. All over the crib.
9:30 – Andrew is puking all over my shirt as I try to watch Fergie sing on TV.
10:15 – Jacob and Izzy are still up. They come downstairs to watch a movie.
11:00 – Try to put all the kids (3) back to bed. Andrew pukes in the bathroom sink.
11:15 – Everyone is now sleeping. I’m waiting for more puke.

Poor little kid. Being sick sucks.

Not how Stephanie and I planned our night. Glad no one came over.

My birthday tomorrow. I’ll probably spend it puking. Sweet.

The Struggle to Find a Church that Fits

For the past 18 months Stephanie and I had been attending Church of the Open Door. We both loved the size, the teaching and the worship there. It was a church that fit us well. Since we moved to Northfield, however, we haven’t been able to find a church that really excites us.

There are only a handful of churches here that we would consider attending because of their theology. That list narrows even more when we take into account the musical style that fits us best. Finally, almost all the churches here are very small and both Stephanie and I would like to be part of a church that is larger than 200. So what do we do?

There are a few churches that we would be open to trying but they are 20-30 minutes away. We’ve done the ‘drive to church’ thing (that was a big negative for me when we were going to Open Door) and we’re not really pumped about doing it again. We’d like to be a part of something in our own community that we could invest in and be excited about inviting and bringing people to.

Northfield is a very intellectual and liberal community. It will be interesting to see what kind of a church God rises up to make a big impact here. There is definitely a need – maybe we’ll just have to start something?

Since We Moved I Have…

• read a book
• spent less time and gas money driving to and from work
• overdosed on ESPN and sports
• learned that Hippopotamus mark their territory by pooping in the water and propelling it at perceived threats with their tails
• learned there are only 2 species of alligator (American and Chinese) and 2 species of crocodiles in the world – both of which are highly endangered
• learned about the perils a young wildebeest encounters during its first years of life
• decided to use air dryers for my hands in all public bathrooms whenever possible to conserve paper
• learned to survive without a microwave
• enjoyed playing with my kids and hanging out with Stephanie
• thanked the Lord over and over for his favor

Living to Hear God’s Voice

I have heard many people ask this question – and I have asked it myself many times – why doesn’t God speak to me more clearly? Have you ever wondered that? Have you ever been in a position where it seemed like everything would be so much easier if God would just speak more clearly? Most people have.

But before we question God’s speaking to us, maybe we need to turn around and ask ourselves, “Does my life look like I want to hear the voice of God?” I would offer that many times we don’t hear God clearly because the way we live plugs our ears or cuts us of from the very source of the sound we say we so desperately want to hear.