I would be broke if . . .

I would be broke if I tipped at restaurants commiserate to the mess my children make. Today at Chili's, Lil'er E managed to toss his 1) milk, 2) water, 3) oranges, 4) corndog, 5) multiple spoons and forks, 6) coloring page/menu, 7) some french fries, 8) chips . . . I felt a little guilty, as I ran out the door.

Feeling blessed (even though its been one of those days)

My last 24 hours, starting with the most recent events:

• Driving home from wok in the rain this afternoon. It took me twice as long as normal - nearly an hour. Arrgh!
• I had to walk through a cold rain to get my lunch - brrrrr.
• I got in to work at 9:00 (two hours late). As I'm walking in from my car I notice that my pants had ripped, along the seam from my right front pocket down about three inches. I just had to deal with it (subtly letting my arm hang down and cover the hole and keep it from gaping open to show my undies). It probably happened when . . .
• I was finally ready to leave for work at 7:00; walking out to my car I get in and back out of the driveway. Something was wrong - I could feel it by the way the car pulled. Sure enough, the right front tire looks like a pancake. I get the tire aired up, check to see if it'll hold long enough to get to the shop, and head out. Discount Tire gets me a whole new set of tires (the one had a slow leak for a while, but finally went out on me, and the others we nearly bald). So it makes me two hours late for work; but that's okay because . .
• Lil'er E woke up at 5:20 this morning. Mrs. E tried first to get him back down, then I took a turn. By the time he was in bed again, I was running late to get ready for work. Luckily, I had only had to stay up with him until 11:30 to get him in bed. But the day had already been a long one because . . .
• I found out the company I used to work for, and left at the first of December, just had it's second round of layoffs in my division in the last month. Several people I know are now looking for jobs. I feel bad for them, and from what I hear it's like walking though a morgue over there - no joy, everyone wondering when the next bomb is going to hit. But it does make me feel blessed. I wasn't looking for my current job - they came looking for me. If they hadn't, I would still be in my old job, either with a pink slip or wondering when one was coming my way.

An overall crappy day, but I'm feeling blessed. God's been taking care of me and the Euphrony's. Thanks - I know we don't deserve it, but we do appreciate it, God.

Music Monday: Sandra McCracken

I really first listened to Sandra McCracken and her music when I got a sampler from artists on the Arts*Music*Justice tour last October. Based on the two songs on the sampler, I loved her music and her voice; this was only reinforced when I heard her live at the AMJ concert. I got her latest album, Red Balloon, for Christmas and love it. This is perhaps one of my favorite songs off the album - "The High Countries". Just beautiful.


This song actually appeared on the Caedmon's Call album Back Home, a few years ago. Here's what she has to say about this song:

This song is based on C.S. Lewis’ book "The Great Divorce." It borrows Lewis' spiritual analogies of the things that would keep someone from salvation. The term "high countries" represents heaven and a chance to be reconciled with God. The lyrics are pulled out of the book with detail and description, but even for those who are unfamiliar with the text, the song circles universal themes of brokenness, spiritual indecision and the human heart's natural resistance to salvation.

Just another song for your Monday enjoyment. Have you listened to Sandra McCracken's music? What's your opinion?

Tags: Sandra McCracken

I want this for my birthday

This would be the perfect cake for my birthday. It would be even better if it were Galaga instead of Space Invaders. But still, pretty awesome.

Cake courtesy of Hello Naomi
HT: Cake Wrecks

Tags: Cupcake Cake, Awesome, Space Invaders, Galaga

Goodbye, Brad

Today, my friend Brad Wims was called home to be with God. I asked you to pray for him last week, and now I ask that you pray for peace and comfort for his family. He leaves his wife, Jenny, their five-year old son Zeke, and their two-year old daughter, Kaelyn. Here's a pictuer of him from last Friday, napping with his little girl.

Goodbye, Brad. See you on the other side. Or, since I know how much you loved your Aggies - see you at the 12^th Gate.

Music Monday: Pierce Pettis

This is "Something for the Pain", from Pierce Pettis' recent album That Kind of Love. The lines below, from the second verse, I have had running through my head since I first hear it.

You can go to church on Sunday
You can put on your best clothes
But God always sees you naked
With all your sins exposed
Down here with the savages
In a world of freed Barabbuses
Where nuns carry guns
To protect themselves from rape
Let me give you something for the pain

Cutting. The whole song, in lyric and mood, is just so melancholy (the whole alum, really) and shines a harsh light on the reality of modern life.

At least, that's what I think.

What's your opinion of the song? Do you know much of Pierce's work? Personally, I am a pretty big fan - I think he's one of the best song writers out there these days. But that's me.

Tags: Pierce Pettis, Music Monday, That Kind of Love, Lyrics

2y (24m) (731d)

Yesterday was a big day - Liler'E turned 2 years old. That is, 24 months, or 731 days (last year was leap year). Just look at how happy he is! (Of course, if you had that much food on your face, you'd be happy, too.)

Big party today - Elmo themed, for the Elmo lover. A few friends (as "friendly" as a kid just turning two gets) and some family. At least, everyone who isn't sick. But he's happy today, and having fun.

No more computer for me today - it's all party from here on out.

Sometimes there is no happy

I read this post in The Rabbit Room last week, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. The writer, Jonathan Rogers, is amazing in his honesty with this post. Here is an excerpt from that post.

. . . Looking at Susan O’Farrell’s notebook I was struck by something so obvious I couldn’t believe I had never noticed it before: that second ‘r’ in her last name could easily be made into a ‘t’ so as to read O’Fartell. Get it? Fart—right there in the middle of her name! I pulled the pen out of her spiral binding and scratched the ‘t’ in its place, a little larger than it needed to be, just to be sure my efforts wouldn’t go unnoticed. . .
Susan’s eyes widened when they fell on her notebook. Then they filled with tears. . .
But as Susan scanned the room, I made a very mature calculation. I realized that I was literally the last person in the room Susan would suspect of such a meanness. If I played it cool, she would never know I was the person who had hurt her. . .
So I never told Susan what I had done. I let that suffering girl believe that, on top of the rejection she felt every day, she had an unknown enemy actively seeking to hurt her. I felt the cowardice of it, but I couldn’t bring myself to do anything about it. . .
I don’t suppose I even heard her name mentioned until one day in high school an old classmate from Miller Elementary asked, "You heard about Susan O’Farrell, I guess? Dead. She had some disease. Had it for years."

Man, do I ever relate with this. I was the good kid. To this day I do my best to make people feel included and not outside the group - Mrs. E is the same, and it is one of the things I love most about her. And yet, like everyone else, I pulled stunts like this. I've grown a lot since childhood; now I can see more clearly how best to act and do so with courage - but I'm still that little twerp sometimes.

The thing of it is, I can't forget these things. I remember the time this stupid, clumsy kid got a nice box collection of records with lots of stories on them - got them from some friends of my parents who were big time antique collectors - and leaving their house I sat them in the car and sat myself on top of them. Broke every one. I never told my parents, though I imagine they knew, and hid the broken collection away for years. I remember with crystal clarity the taunts I casually tossed (with bravado as my "friends" did the same") to girls in junior high. I know every detail of the time I got really mad at my parents for inviting a boy to my birthday party that I didn't want to invite - and the way I ostracized him the whole time. The list goes on.

All this from me, a kid whose last name is synonymous with feminine hygiene.

I should have known better how to treat people, because I knew how I did not want to be treated. And most often I did good - but the rest of the times I carry with me, not so much as a burden of shame (I'm past that, though regret will always linger) but more the polish of wisdom from experience. It's one reason that I feel so strongly about Matthew 5:23-24 and the desperate need for men to be reconciled, to each other and to God.

It's also a big reason that I (and Mrs. E) want our children to learn that there is a better way to act, a better way to treat people, than what seems so common - in children, of course, but also in too many adults I know. We don't try to burden Lil'E with more responsibility and maturity than she can handle, but we do try to get her to think about what her actions mean to other people.

Because, sometimes, there is no happy ending. No reconciliation, no amends made. Sometimes, we just have to live with ourselves and the knowledge of our sin. And that can be a heavy burden, indeed.

There's an app for that?

The mighty iPhone. To some a symbol of pure excess. To others, an invaluable tool for everyday life. To others still, its a new way to make rude noises.

Apple, famously, discourages people from hacking the iPhone - as a way to us it with a different wireless provider than AT&T or as a means to write your own apps. They have all the apps you would ever need, they say, in many a recent commercial. View an MRI - there's an app for that. Drink a virtual brew - yep, there's an app for that. Digital flatulence - they got you covered!

This video is from some people at the Houston Chronicle. It made me laugh.


Do you use an iPhoney or a CrackBerry? Or are you more simple than that?

Tags: iPhone, Apps

"Mighty to Save"

¹⁶On that day they will say to Jerusalem,
"Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.

¹⁷The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."

Zephaniah 3:16-17 (NIV)

Isn't it funny how some phrases can become so oft repeated that they become cliché? The frequency with which I've heard "mighty to save" used in recent months brings this thought to mind. Literally everywhere in religious circles, this phrase is en vogue and everyone seems to be using it. I hear it in sermons, I heard it used multiple times in recent concerts. The song by the same name (now up for a Dove Award) has been on the radio. The phrase so permeates Christian culture today that I almost wonder if it is becoming a lip service to those who use it so glibly.

And yet, this is an old, old truth. I just recently realized that a favorite hymn uses this same line, "Rescue the Perishing", written by Fanny Crosby in 1869 - "Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.". These words, spoken to give hope and comfort to the people of Judah that, despite the coming wrath of Jehovah, He will always be their strength and refuge. These words, which still give peace and hope today. They meant so much to Laura Story as she and her husband dealt with his recent cancer that she included the popular Hillsong song on her recent album - the only song on the album she did not have a hand in writing.

No, these words are not cliché.

I pray these words for a friend today. Like Laura Story's husband, his body is wracked with cancer. Brad has been fighting this for some two years, now; he has been under Hospice care since just after Christmas. Read more about his fight and his family at his wife blog. I've mentioned Brad before and his and his family's struggles. Brad's had some good days and bad days in the last couple of weeks. He's still praying and believes in God's mighty power to heal him.

I don't know God's will in this. I know Brad has been through much, and his family have cried with his pain and rejoiced in the triumphs. Please pray with me today that God sees fit to bring health to Brad, and that in these days of struggle every moment with his wife and two young children be moments that will last a lifetime.

Jehovah is mighty to save.