Bored this morning

Not much new. I'm at work now and worked Friday and Saturday as well. I'll be working Tues, Wed, and Thurs nights, too. I need to get a few things done early this week, though, so Monday is going to be VERY busy.

I received the certificates for Defensive Driving from a class that my wife, daughter and I took. Now I need to get to the insurance agent to have the discount applied as soon as possible. We need to get that cost down, if for no other reason than being able to afford the gas to run the cars.

I'm running out of time to do the lawn. I need to get the topsoil out there and till it in so I can plant seed before it gets too cold. After that, the projects will move inside.

I've told the boys that their room is to be spotless by the time I get home tonight. Hope they take me seriously. The consequences for not taking care of it will be severe. I'm just SO tired of the mess.
I noticed that my wife did some midnight cleaning last night. It was nice to see some of the counters visible in the kitchen this morning. I'll have to remember to let her know I appreciated that when I get home (I saw it at 3:30 this morning).

Well, off to work.

Rant

Maybe you guys didn't understand...(the ones that commented to the previous post)
I found the job change easy! After a couple more days, I would have had the whole house organized. I did 6 or 7 loads of laundry, plus all the other stuff that mom's do... (insert your list here)

I guess that post was a subtle rant while also informing. I'm tired of stuff not getting done around here. I do my part keeping the ship afloat. Do I have to take care of everything else too!? Usually, I am fairly tolerant of the mess, but I think the cumulative effects are starting to wear on me.

It's not just the wife. The kids (acting just like kids) always seem to "forget" to do their chores. Problem is, when I come down hard on them, my wife gets mad at ME! I don't ask that much of my children. What I want them to do is to help their mother not have so much to handle, but if she's gonna get mad at me for trying to get the kids to do their chores, I can just leave it all to her. I'd rather not have to enforce the work to ensure it gets done, anyway. Why should I always appear to be the bad guy here?!

I've tried leaving enforcement to her before, though. Not sure I want to live in that mess again.

Why is it that the Lord puts such different parenting styles in the couples He matches up?

Mr. Mom

I had the distinct pleasure of parenting solo on Thursday and Friday! *That explains my conspicuous absence from the web and this blog.*
Mom and daughter #3 were on a field trip to Colonial Williamsburg and I was left to hold down the fort. I think I was dreading something that ended up being fairly fun and not nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

I started each day bright and early. I had to get my shower before anyone else woke up or else it just wouldn't happen. (sound familiar mom's?!) Then it was "drag the kids out of bed" time. Followed by breakfast and preparing lunches. Then drive the kids to the bus stop (about a mile away). Then back home with the youngest three... you get the drift. This is the pattern my wife follows most every day. Not an especially difficult schedule, but you have to really manage the time if you want to be able to do anything besides care for the kids.

I was able to get 6 or 7 loads of laundry through the machines (I didn't fold - that's the older girls chore currently), kept all the kids fed and clothed, etc, etc.

So anyway, the wife really enjoyed her time without the extra appendages. She was able to eat at a leisurely pace and not prepare anything for anyone but herself. I told her that she should be good to go for the next 5 years! She's not buyin' it, and I don't blame her.

Needless to say, I was unable to spend much time doing much else. I would like to get some pictures of the deck on here (per John's request). That will have to wait until the weather breaks. I also need to run a few errands and get some material for the next few projects.

I replaced the inner workings of two toilets a few days ago. There was leakage through the valves of both and now there is not. Just doing my part to conserve water (and lower my bills).

Next is spreading topsoil on sections of the back yard, tilling it in, balancing the pH, etc and then seeding and waiting for the perfect lawn. Also need to add some pavers from the deck entrance to connect with the path out of the back yard. Then weeding of the flower beds (actually my wife is in charge of that), and planting new stuff there. Mulching the beds will come about after all the leaves finish falling and are raked up.

On a side note:
There is a man I know who has been an incredible witness to Christ in my life. His wife has been in and out of hospitals and nursing homes these last three years and she finally went home to be with her Savior Thursday morning. When you get to heaven, you will meet these two, I have no doubt. Anyway, please pray for Jim and the rest of the family as they go through the process of all that the death of a loved one entails.

Deck is almost done!

The deck off the kitchen is almost done!! I'm getting kind of excited about it. It's been a long time coming and will set the tone for getting the back yard fixed up the way I want it. Now we can have more room to have the family gatherings, too. That starts this weekend!

Gotta go!

Random Comment

I found this comment in a messageboard community that I participate in. It gave me a chuckle :-) I'll link it to the thread as well.

"Why can't I catch a fart and paint it purple?"

A day off? No not really.

I have the morning off, basically. That's fine, though. They need me to help out at work from 4-Midnight today and from 9-9 on Sunday. The pay will be very helpful. I think we got a little used to the extra pay I was getting over the summer and now it seems too lean. I'm working on a new budget to get us back to limited spending. That means when the Solstice comes in, the S2K has got to go. I'd much rather keep both, but it is better to not have any more expenses than we already do. I haven't figured out whether I'll trade it in or try to sell it on my own. Maybe I'll put it on eBay. It seemed to sell successfully there before...

I'm hoping to start making a dent in the mortgage debt as well. Once I pay off the car, I'll just start adding that payment to principal reduction on the mortgage. It's a better rate of return than I'd get at the bank anyway. Not to mention the extra equity if and when we find a bigger place to move to.

I had a guy come to the house today to give me an estimate on replacing a window in the basement. The kids broke this one in the summer playing baseball in the front yard. I had been trying to decide whether to put an "egress window" in or just a normal slider. Since I'm putting a bedroom in the basement, I really should put an egress one in, but the cost is huge. Besides, the boys are still small enough that they can get out the slider in an emergency. I think they would be more inclined to sneak out with the egress than with the slider, so that pretty much made my decision easier.

We're also looking at replacing the back door with a sliding glass model. That will make the new deck much more usable. I'm waiting on the sticker shock of that investment. I need to get outside an move a pile of firewood and take down railings on the old deck to prepare for the new deck's installation. That is something I need to do this morning. I guess that is why I'm on here. Procrastination!

All in all, progress is slow, but consistant. The house should be looking great by the time we're ready to sell. Why is it that I haven't made it nice while we can enjoy living in it? Hard to say, but cash flow probably has a lot to do with the delay. We're doing better now than before and can afford to get more work done. Hopefully I can accelerate the progress so that it will be nicer sooner.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

Midweek update

No one else is updating their blogs, so I thought I would try to find something interesting.

I was strolling around the net this morning and "stumbled" upon my daughter's MySpace page. Actually three of my daughters have accounts. Viewing my oldest's site was kind of depressing. She seems to have totally abandoned the faith of her youth and embraced the sin nature that we all attempt to control with the help of the Lord. It's sad, really, but when I examine the way my life has been recently, I don't see a whole lot that would draw her back. Time for repentance...

My other two daughters' pages are innocent enough. They haven't done a lot of exploring on the net and I hope to influence them to stay close to home. There's really a lot of junk out there. You'd be amazed at where you can end up just by clicking on links to other people's "friends". Don't try it unless you are prepared for some shock.

It's all a good indicator of where the world is without Jesus.

Days like today (when you find out things about your kids that you don't really want to know) can really send you down into the depths of depression, or turn you to the Father who wants to heal you of all hurts and forgive you of all sins. Pray for me as I attempt to get back on track with my relationship with my Lord and my kids. I love them more than they will ever know and I need to show it a lot more.

Day Shift Week :-(

Once again, I'm working day shift this week. It happens every month, but I just have never enjoyed it. There's just so much garbage that happens when so many people are in the building. I prefer working off hours when I don't have to deal with all that stuff. Oh well, 5 1/2 hours down, 42 1/2 to go.

For all you pet owners, don't forget to lock up your knives. Story here.



I never would have thought this would happen!

Not a whole lot going on. The kids are off from school today and tomorrow. Got a rash of last minute requests to go places and have friends over. I'll try to accomodate, but I still have to get up at 3am, so I don't want late night activities to keep me from getting sleep. We'll see what happens. I guess I can sleep next week.

The states I've visited (as best I can recall)

create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

Roughly 74% of the country. Looks like I need to take a trip out to see Emily and pick up a few more states!
Thanks for the link, Emily.

She didn't come.

My oldest didn't come to the gathering tonight. We missed seeing her, but apparently she was at a funeral today for a friend that she knew fairly well. He died of a drug overdose. She didn't even know he did drugs, but apparently he was a regular user. Yet another reality check for her. Hope she really thinks about some of this stuff.
Pray for her. She is hurting right now.
Thanks.

Family Get Together Day!

Every month or so we try to get all the local members of the family together to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and stuff like that. We are a little behind, so we are combining a few months. I've got to fire up the grill for chicken, hamburgers and hotdogs soon, but wanted to update a little here first.

For the first time in a long time, my oldest will be joining us. I'm glad that she will be coming. It's been a long time since all the siblings and I have seen her. I don't know how much has changed (if anything). We haven't been on the best of terms for years. I'm hoping that she has had a chance to grow and see the reality of living. I tried to help her avoid some of the pain. She chose otherwise. Maybe I'll not appear so old fashioned and ignorant to her now. Hard to believe that she has been out of our house for almost 3 years. Good thing she has softhearted grandparents. That's where she has spent the majority of the time living. Her siblings miss seeing her (most of the time). They remember the hard times and are apprehensive when she is around, but still love her and want to be a part of her life. Me too.

Work for the weekend got cancelled. They were planning to do a major check on the backup power generators. That means pulling the plug and seeing if everything works according to plan. They've never done it before even though we've requested it frequently. You really can't be secure in your power systems until you know that they will work when you need them. Anyway, the rain scared them off and they will try again next weekend. I'll still be able to pick up about 20 hours of overtime. I need a little extra cash, so this will be good.

The boys football game got rescheduled as well due to the field being a total mudpit. I used to love playing in mud (although that was tackle football, not flag football). The kids were disappointed. They were already wet from the rain. The coaches felt that the field conditions could cause injury and I agree. No sense in hurting themselves. They will play two games next weekend. I will miss one, but still see one.

If you watch college football, you probably have already seen this picture. Apparently this play was unnecessary since Alabama was already up by 20, but football is a contact sport. Career ending? You decide...


Sorry! Hope you didn't lose your lunch looking at that. I know that it looks painful. I can't even imagine.

Oh well. Time to fire up the grill!

Don't Waste Your Life

So I've been reading this book by John Piper off and on for a while. It's called "don't waste your life". It's a good read if you are interested in being convicted. Really makes you look at where you put value. Anyway, in Chapter 7, Piper relates a story from a book called Flags Of Our Fathers by James Bradley. This book is about the battle for Iwo Jima in World War II. Apparently it has recently been made into a movie as well (which I just found out from Google). James' father, John Bradley was one of the six men who raised the flag in that famous photo:


So here is an excerpt that I will type out. It is from page 188 of Bradley's book. It's a little graphic, so I am cautioning you now if you are squeamish.

As rainy morning wore into afternoon and the fighting bogged down, the Marines continued to take casualties. Often it was the corpsmen (medics) themselves who died as they tried to preserve life. William Hoopes of Chattanooga was crouching beside a medic named Kelly, who put his head above a protective ridge and placed binoculars to his eyes -- just for an instant -- to spot a sniper who was peppering his area. In that instant the sniper shot him through the Adam's apple. Hoopes, a pharmacist's mate himself, struggled frantically to save his friend. "I took my forceps and reached into his neck to grasp the artery and pinch it off," Hoopes recalled. "His blood was spurting. He had no speech but his eyes were on me. He knew I was trying to save his life. I tried everything in the world. I couldn't do it. I tried. The blood was so slippery, I couldn't get the artery. I was trying so hard. And all the while he just looked at me. He looked directly into my face. The last thing he did as the blood spurts became less and less was to pat me on the arm as if to say, 'That's all right.' Then he died."


Then Piper goes on to say:
In this heart-breaking moment I want to be Hoopes and I want to be Kelly. I want to be able to say to suffering and perishing people, "I tried everything in the world....I was trying so hard." And I want to be able to say to those around me when I die, "It's all right. To live is Christ, and to die is gain."

My comments:
Are we really so comfortable in our non-wartime lives that we forget that folks are supposed to be drawn to Christ by how we live? When was the last time someone asked you about "the reason for the hope that is in you"? (1 Peter 3:15)

Piper continues:
"Why don't people ask us about our hope? The answer is probably that we look as if we hope in the same things they do. Our lives don't look like they are on the Calvary road, stripped down for sacrificial love, serving others with the sweet assurance that we don't need to be rewarded in this life."

Me again:
I know that there are many times lately that it would be difficult to tell the difference between me and my non-believing neighbors. Am I just holding on to my salvation as a get out of hell free card? Do I truly reflect Christ to those who I interact with? Can they tell that I am a Christian?

That is enough to chew on for a while. I am such a baby Christian most of the time. This is the stuff of true living. Putting away the old man and putting on the new. Striving to become more like Christ. It seems so easy and so impossible at the same time.