Sometimes this life is very difficult.  Sometimes I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning and rather just sleep my life away.  Sometimes even playing with my boys can seem like a chore instead of joy.  But then the Spirit of God steps in and continually reminds you of His grace, mercy, and enduring love.

Step One – Put Me in a Place of Worship: The Song

Tangle sends me videos daily.  They had sent this video a while back, but for some reason they featured it again.  The lyrics are below it.  I hit up iTunes and bought it and now it plays over and over a good portion of my mornings.

Innocent Blood
by The Waiting Kind

I sing of innocent blood,
He spilt to wash my dreadful guilt.
Sorrow He bore in my stead,
covered in all His righteousness.

Sing gloria. Sing allelujah.
Sing gloria. Sing allelujah.

For wondrous love would I sing,
I’d soar to play on heav’nly strings.
with angels I’d dare to sing in,
sweet melodies of love divine.

Oh wondrous cross,
oh glory divine.
You laid down your life
while I held dear to mine.

Oh wondrous cross,
such innocent blood,
the savior of all
born for sinners He died.

Step Two – Put Me Right with My Fellow Man: Humble Me

Lately there have been several times that I’ve had to go to friends and colleagues and beg forgiveness for some insensitive remark, irresponsible action, or intentional words.  I even got thrown out of my basketball team’s final tournament game because I stupidly showed up in shorts and sandals instead of my normal slacks and tie.

God’s been working my pride out of me.  Its painful but at the same time, there’s something great about two grown men that have slight tears hanging behind their eyes as they apologize to one another, hug in fellowship, pray for each other, and even share a Word with one another.

Step Three – Put Me into God’s Word: Teach

I remember my mentor, Pat, once asking me while I was stationed in Japan whether or not I was teaching God’s Word.  It was in response to me remarking that I felt my walk with the Lord lacking.  He was right then and today as well.  When I’m teaching people about God’s grace, mercy, and enduring love then I experience it more in my own life.

I always try to incorporate God’s Word into my history lessons at school, but God has put me in several situations lately that have me speaking His Word and its blessing me.  Today I’ll be teaching the teacher’s “How to Study the Bible”.  Here’s the resource I put together for it. [Image | PDF]  Next week I’m preaching on “Heaven and Hell” at student chapel.  The week after that, one of my students will be preaching his first sermon and I am getting to help him prepare.

Hebrews 12:3 – “For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.”

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If you read me like a book, it’d require two hands.  Though in the past year I’ve slimmed down to just one volume.

Along with the personal voice comes the person(ality).

Jess and I’ve struggled with trying to find our voice for this space.  I cannot count the many times that we were up at 3am with a yellow-pad, shipped from the U.S., jotting down rough sketches of our “About” page.  You notice that we still don’t have one.  Its been a hard thing to pin down.

Are we a personal blog?

Are we a niche blog?

Self-help?

DIY?

And what in the world does “Losing the World” mean?  Put simply, losing the world means not readily accepting what the world offers.

The persons behind our personal voice right now are trying to decide whether we continue in Indonesia for another year or we leave.  If we leave, where to we go?  Home?  New Zealand?  Some other country?

The world is offering us so much.  Coming to Jesus was an easier decision.  The Indonesians would say menunggu.  Right now we are just menunggu. Waiting.

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Today we are Getting the Word Out about Owlhaven, a blog by Mary Ostyn.  Mary writes about parenting a large, multi-cultural family (10 kids, 6 through adoption) and has even written a few books.  She describes her blog as being about,

“making the most of your resources so that you can have the greatest impact possible on the world around you, beginning, of course, with family.”

Why We Like Owlhaven:

I have been subscribed to the Owlhaven blog for a few years and I love reading what Mary has to write. Her posts range from the topics of adoption, gardening, canning, feeding the crowd, homeschooling, and faith. Everything she writes is so real and applicable to life.  Here are a few things that stand out about her blog.

• Very practical. The articles written are about things that pertain to most of our lives (kids, cooking, family decisions) and really have a message of thriving wherever you are in life.
• Informative. I love the articles written addressing different issues. For example, how they began adopting, homeschooling, or gardening, it’s encouraging to read about someone else’s life journey.
• Good web design. The blog site is clean and neat and the categories are organized and clear as well making it an enjoyable experience to visit.

Who Would Like Owlhaven:

• large families
• families that have or are considering adopting
• parents who have children from preschool to college
• anyone looking for advice on how to do much with little

The articles are written in very personal, thoughtful ways that make you feel like you know Mary, just from reading her blog. Definitely useful to almost anyone.

What Owlhaven Writes About:

Owlhaven focuses on the following topics with each section full of resources and daily life.

• adoption
• faith
• food
• homeschooling
• frugality
• gardening

Some Articles to Get You Started:

Here are a couple of Owlhaven’s articles that I have found enjoyable.  After you’ve taken a look at them, come back here and let us know in the comments section what you thought of Owlhaven.

• October Family Feasts Giveaway - She is giving away copies of her new book, Family Feasts for $75 a Week
• How to Make Grape Jelly – Video tutorial
• Fingerprints – About their first adoption
• Also check out her other book The Sane Woman’s Guide to Raising a Large Family.
  

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Aaaaaaaaaahhh………!!!!!!

Okay, that’s out of my system.  That’s how I’ve been feeling lately.  Working, sleeping, working, sleeping, working, playing with my wonderful boys, working, working, working, not sleeping…  Whup, here it comes again…

Aaaaaaaaaahhh………!!!!!!

I’m done…. Aaaaaaaaaahhh………!!!!!!  Now, I am.

Chatting with a friend (who’s worth more than gold to me) on IM today was a rare few minutes.  We swapped marital moments and talked about being fat (sometimes guys do that, too!)  He talked about cars – he likes cars.  I talked about Photoshop – I like Photoshop. And we were both excited that we married women that share (to a limit) that which we enjoy.

And we talked of God.

I love God and I love my buddy.  I love talking about God with my buddy.

So there were good moments today.

Have you let our your Aaaaaaaaaahhh………!!!!!! yet?  Give it a try.

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As many of you know already a major earthquake hit Indonesia yesterday evening. Several of you have emailed us personally to ask if we are alright. We are. The 7.6 quake hit the city of Padang, on the west-central coast of Sumatra, Indonesia’s largest island. We live on Java, the next largest island which is just south of Sumatra.

So far about 500 have been found dead and thousands more are missing. We are praying for the families of both that God would be glorified somehow in this terrible situation. We know that He works all things together for the good of those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. We trust His words and pray that many Christian relief workers might bring the gospel as they also bring physical healing.

My students were supposed to travel to Padang on a field trip next week. We are thankful that they are safe.

We’re watching the news for any updates. Google News is a good place to round up all the incoming information.

[Photo by Dita Alangkara/Associated Press]

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In our family we eat about 16-20 yogurts a week. Since we save most of our yogurt cups to recycle them into something new later on, that makes for a lot of cups. Yesterday The Monkey wanted to stack them all together and by the time they were all attached they were taller than me! I have been wanting to do a project   that would  use a few up and the idea of making letters out of them turned out to work perfect. I used them to spell the boy’s names, but I am thinking about making a whole alphabet set for Jeremiah to play with, we have enough cups to spare right?

What you will need

• Yogurt cups – I used small Activia cups
• Colored paper
• Printed out letters – I used Microsoft Word to customize my letters
• Glue

The Steps

1. Do  quick measure of the paper size needed to go all the way around the base of the yogurt cup and to make a square over the opening of the cup.

2. Cut out all the paper necessary.

3. Print out your letters and cut them out.

4. Glue your letters onto the square papers.

5. Glue the paper around the base of the cup and the squares onto the top of the cup.

I had originally wanted to hang these letters vertically on the wall to spell the boy’s names, but do to the concreteness of the walls I needed to put them on shelves. Since I didn’t have shelves I made some.

To make the shelves

1. Cut two sides off of two -  1 quart milk cartons (box) so that it resembles an “L” and looks like a shelf. Tape or glue these two together.

2. Cut squares of paper into different sizes.

3. Use Mod Podge to glue the paper on by putting the glue under and on top of the pieces of paper all around the shelf.

I am really happy with how my letters turned out.

What uses do you have for old yogurt cups?

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On Saturday our littlest turned one year old. The Puppy (we are still searching for a better nickname for him) had no idea that he even had a birthday, but I think he enjoyed it.  We made it a relaxed day since it came after Evan being gone for three days at a school retreat.

The Puppy’s birthday gift was 100 small ball-pit type balls. He loves those balls and will play contentedly in his pack and play with them for a good half hour, which makes it a good gift for us as well.

We ended the day with a cake made in a skillet pan on the stove-top since our oven is not working properly. The cake, which got a little bit overcooked and cornbreadish, still had a candle in it, which The Puppy had no idea how to blow out.

The Monkey came to his rescue and blew it out for him, since he is an expert at those kinds of things these days.

What we love about the puppy:

• He likes his alone time and finds a closet or corner in every room to be in.
• He can take whatever The Monkey dishes out to him, which includes many wrestling-like tackles, strong hugs, and pushes.
• He makes what he wants very clear by yelling at the top of his lungs (this is not always on the “what we love” list).
• He is so cute.

Happy birthday little, big guy.

To read The Puppy’s birth story Labor and Cultural Pains Part One, Part Two, Slideshow Silas

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Remember buying physical CDs?  Back when you bought the whole album even when you wanted just a song?  We don’t do that anymore, of course, since we have Amazon and iTunes filling our single-track needs, but if you’re anything like us you still have many (Read: hundreds) of CD cases lying around.

With the age of digital music in full swing, having transferred all of our music to our iPods and the discs to carrying cases, what can be done with all those plastic CD holders other than throw them away? The answer: upcycle.

Wikipedia says,

“Upcycling is the practice of taking something that is disposable or downcycled and transforming it into something of greater use and value.”

Upcycle for Artwork

Recently I needed some inexpensive wall art to liven up our guest bedroom before my parents came to stay with us.  The photo frames we can get locally are not even worth the ride to the store.  Plus, why buy when you can do it yourself?

By thinking just a little outside the CD case, you can take those useless pieces of plastic that are cluttering up space in your closet and upcycle them into something useful and even a little bit beautiful.

What You will Need

• Old CD cases
• Paper for the background
• Photos
• Glue
• String
• Small paperclips

The Steps

1. Print out your photos or gather pictures for frames.

I got mine from Flickr’s creative-commons search function.  These are pictures taken (sometimes) by professionals, that you can use for free – as long as it isn’t commercially.

If you don’t want to waste ink printing them yourself, check out your local photo place or an online print shop like Snapfish.

2. Measure the size of the inside back cover of your CD case.

3. Cut out paper to fit that size.

4. Cut your photos to fit the size of the paper (or just a little smaller if you want a border) and glue the photos onto the paper.

5. Using a small amount of string, run it through the small holes at the top and bottom of the CD case.  Once through, tie the string around a small paperclip to hold it in place. Do both sides of a CD case and then adjust the strings as necessary to make the case straight.  Using the string, make a handle on top to hang the pictures.

6. Tape your photos into the back of the CD case, by laying the photo down face first in the case and securing it into place.

7. Hang and enjoy your cheap or free artwork.

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This post is in response to Building Camelot’s Back to School Giveaway contest.  There are over 25 sites giving away well over $100,000 worth of computers and gear.  Check out the details here.

Today of all days, I do not feel as though I’ve grown at all from being a husband or parent.

• Being up working till midnight yesterday made me wake up grumpy today.
• The gift of marriage didn’t work out either because of bad communication on my part.
• The Monkey keeps peeing on the floor.
• His brother, The Puppy, did the other one while they were playing with the water, naked on the back porch.
• And their Mom is a bit emotional right now, which as a man I completely understand the cause, but that doesn’t seem to translate into an understanding attitude, affectionate words, or a more helpful spirit.

On the other hand, I have learned that:

• I’ve got the responsibility as the head of my family to get to bed early enough that I can lead with a good attitude the next day.
• Even when communication fails, its up to me to make sure we don’t go to sleep upset.
• Monkey’s pee on floors sometimes.
• Puppy’s do the other thing too.
• If I can recognize that I need an understanding attitude then I need to choose to have one.  If know that affectionate words are needed, then affectionate words there must be.  And a helpful spirit should be present at all times.

Before we were we and I was just me, that is what all of my thoughts were about: me.  Everything that I did was to serve my own purpose.  But after two became one I was forced to consider another person’s needs and wants.  When the boys joined us that became even more apparent.

I’ll be in bed a decent time tonight so that we can have some good talk time.  She doesn’t like going to bed without me and I can fully understand why: because we’re better together.

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Encouraging you to win some free computers got me thinking about the gear we ourselves own.  About 8 months ago, I received the surprise that every computer geek wants to receive: someone wanted to give me some free gear!  It wasn’t just any gear either – it was well over $6,000 worth of computers (4), a printer, dvds, software, and more.   I was happily one of the recipients of the HP Magic Giveaway.

Since then we’ve given some away to worthy causes and are looking to donate another one to a local student soon.  But for now, we want to give away a testimony of our experiences with some of the best computers we’ve ever encountered.

Eight months is long enough to test out these beasts (and a Mini beast) so its time to share what we’ve grown to love about them.  We’ll also throw in a couple of reviews for computers that we’ve bought in the past, but love just as much.

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll be reviewing:

What We Bought Ourselves

1. HP TC1100 Tablet PC – threw Windows 7 on this baby and its just sweeeeeeet!
2. HP Pavilion Slimline – full sized desktop PC, small enough that we could’ve carried it in our carry-on luggage (and almost did).

What We Won

1. HP Mini 1000 – liked it so much that we bought two more to give away.
2. HP Touchsmart – the Monkey loves doing the paint program on it.  His brother the Puppy is now trying to reach it.
3. HP HDX – at first the pure size of the 18″ screen was daunting; now I don’t know how we lived without it.

You may have noticed that these are all HP’s.  Well, I don’t work for HP (are they hiring?) but I’ve had nothing but good experiences with their merchandise since I bought my first computer an HP Entertainment PC.  They don’t even make those anymore.  They all come as notebooks now.

To start things off, do you have any of these computers?  What are your impression of them?

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