Weekender

Today began early once again, as I headed over to the church to sort through email and mail that I neglected last night and work on my sermon.  When I was in high school, and at Moody, to some extent, I used to really like writing biographies, but I've really struggled with sermons based on people in the Scripture, first with Genesis, a few years ago, and now with both Timothy and Epaphroditus, although I think this week went better than last week.  It was a really busy service as we had our worship team leading, the Lord's Supper, and anointing at the altar for healing.  Rod also anointed me (at my request) for my trip to Liberia, now just a few days away, and the service ended with the laying on of hands and much prayer on my behalf. I'm grateful.

We got lunch from Bob Evens, which was really good except that I was gipped my lemonade.  Twice in a as many days!  We added streaming to our Netflix account and I dropped DVD's only to discover, with Chris' knowledge, that the films Netflix is able to stream are greatly limited.  So for now, we have both, but in the long run, when we have fewer resources to work with, things will change significantly.  The girls watched a Nemo-esque movie about a sea turtle, which held Elinor's interest, but lost Daisy's.  Chris left in the early evening, ahead of freezing rain and ice predicted overnight.  Rachel and I watched a movie called Ghost Town, Ricky Gervais' first starring role.  It had it's moments, but was kind of sluggish for a comedy and could have been much more.  The Invention of Lying was better; it was well made, if rather sacreligious, or at least was coming from a thoroughly anti-Christian perspective, which it has the right to do.  If we can't be questioned for our beliefs what good are we?  The evening ended quietly.

January 26th

Today I was responsible for the girls for the most part while Rachel and Chris went to Pittsburgh for an engagement session.  I helped Elinor build a little bird house in the morning.  Then I spent time cleaning up the kitchen, cooking lunch, listening to Talkin' Baseball, and dealing with all manner of laundry issues.  In the afternoon, I installed the new bluray player with internet connectivity.  I threw out the VCR (which had been broken for some time), but set aside the DVD player hoping for a make a few buck at our moving sale later this Spring.  How many audio/video cables does a person need?  I took the girls to McDonald's for dinner, making use of Christmas gift cards from the Chittester's.  For the second time recently, I was gipped a double cheeseburger.  I bathed the girls early and then spent some time doing more kitchen work and managing our finances.  Just as I was sitting down to sift through mail and email Rachel and Chris came back home, so I went to bed with Rachel instead.

If I may release my inner nerd for a moment, there's been news recently that JJ Abrams will be director of Star Wars Episode VII.  I've got mixed feelings.  While I think he will be great for Star Wars, I will miss his direct influence on Star Trek.  His first effort there is one of my top 5 movies, and I'm highly anticipating the second.  I guess we'll see how things shake out.

January 25th

Took the girls to the YMCA in the morning.  The weightlifting part of my workout has, lately, seemed very unproductive.  I finished my third sheet, which represents dozens of weightlifting sessions, but I have not moved forward or added weight to much of anything in quite some time.  Perhaps over a year.  I think it stems from a lack of consistency.  I need more of that multiple sets a week type of lifting.

Feeling frustrated, I came home and tried to find ways to help with Elinor's 7th birthday party, the planning and execution of which was already well in hand.  I felt like I was mostly in the way.  The party itself was a wild time.  There were 7 or 8 kids from Elinor's class.  I never got a good count because as soon as they came to the door a mob gathered screaming the new arrival's name as if he or she were one of the Beatles.  After that, it was constant running; upstairs, downstairs, a whirlwind of activity.  I can't imagine how some families deal with so many children, so close in age, but it was fun to see them all together and Elinor was given a bunch of fun crafty gifts.  It was exhausting and satisfying at the same time.  For her birthday, we let Elinor and Daisy stay up as late as they wanted and it took Elinor especially quite awhile to settle down comfortably.  Whew!