thanksgiving

I love thanksgiving!

Yesterday I said,"we should celebrate thanksgiving every month." Everyone in the family was excited about this idea. I'm excited to see what happens.

PS - I was almost at Walmart at 5 AM today. Thank goodness I had a bit of wits before I went to bed.

oh the perplexity

Almost a week ago I went outside on my way to work and there sitting next to our house was very nice Schwinn mountain bike. I was confused at first, but then thought it was most likely Hunter's bike (the neighbor kid). I put the bike behind my three foot high fence that is literally six inches away from the side walk to give is some protection from passerbyers and stopped by neighbors on the way to work. It wasn't his bike.

How is it that the three times we have failed to receive packages through United States Post Office they say, "Well, blah blah blah, theft is and issue and blah blah blah", and that stinkin' nice mountain bike is still sitting in my back yard untouched!?!?!?

PS - the packages were all small enough to fit between the screen and main door.

PPS - concerning the third lost package: After talking with the post office numerous times and being told we were basically screwed, our carrier delivered the package late on a Friday night with a note stuck on it, "sorry, my fault."

PPPS - I know things happen and stuff gets lost, but seriously!

your strengths weakness

I have been pondering as of late how our strongest personality traits are often our weakest link, or, the things that we're good at often give us the most grief. Here's an example:

Someone who is an exceedingly good visionary will often start things, but never finish them because before they finish they're off to the next great idea.

Somebody whose a very hard worker can err on the side of being a workaholic and wear themselves out.

A person who is very giving, can over-give of themselves and wind up empty and wore out.

A fella who is tender of heart tends to get tread upon.

Granted, the scripture calls us to suffer in some regard by way of following Jesus (give in your poverty, turn the other cheek, etc.), but that's not really what I'm getting at.

It seems to me, if we don't temper our strengths with intentionality they can lead to weariness or shortcoming.

What are your strengths? And have they ever been a weak point for you?

thanks for letting me know

Seriously, it's a blessing to us that you care about us! Thanks for reading and being interested in our family!

so who reads this blog anyways?

Seriously, I have no idea who reads this blog. I just heard this week from a number of people who read it, and I was very surprised. If you read this blog, will you leave me a comment or shoot me an email? I'm curious to see who reads this stuff anyways!

Thanks

deer hunting

Last weekend I was invited to the Harm's family annual hunting/Thanksgiving extravaganza. I tell you what, we had a great time. Not only did I get my first deer ever, we got to hang with the amazing Harms family all weekend. There are six brothers, one brother in law, one father, and one guest (that's me), and all of there respective families. So we had 9 hunters total, and when we were fortunate, some of the family members came out with us. Here's the story...

It was Sunday morning at 6:38, one minute after the legal shooting time. I was posted on the south edge of a field basically in a ditch with a gravel road and some wooded area behind me. The rest of my party was north of me posting the perimeter of the field. The night before we had a buck come down through this area and wounded him, but never found him even after and hour of searching. I was in the "clean-up" location, hoping to take a deer down if it made it though to me before it reached the woods. I was looking north when I heard some noise from the south. I got into the squat position and I could see the beast emerging from the woods behind me. He was about 20 yards away and it was still so dark I had a hard time telling if he was a buck. Once I could tell, I started praying he would cross the road. He did slowly. The ditch was pretty flat but had about a 6 foot embankment to get up into the field. I couldn't shoot him across the road nor could my bullet cross the road, so I waited. He walked the road and the ditch, but when he started for the embankment he took off! I stood and fired right as he leaped into the field and I got him through the neck. He fell on his side and never moved again. We are in a slug only zone so the he was pretty much done for.

Five minutes later after finding the blood trail from the wounded buck the night before, we shot and killed him also. He had been hiding out 30 feet into the woods behind me all night. Glad we got him and he didn't go to waste.

Thanks Harms for the memorable and fun weekend!

Corban kept saying "dead deer." He was pretty OK with it even though in this picture he looks a little skeptical.My young Jedi hunter.Ann and Grayden. Grayden was shooting his gun (the stick) and loving it!
Jesse, Julie, and Moses...our old neighbors. Praise God that they were able to sell their house, sad though we lost awesome neighbors.

Casey (Ann's husband, Grayden's dad, Jesse's brother) and Jesse
Sophie (Jason's daughter) with the two deer we got on Sunday morning. Jason is the one who had shot the deer on Saturday night.

my beautiful wife

new favorite CD - Marijke Jane

Hey! You should check out this new CD by our friend Marijke. We met Marijke at Bethel and she has become one of Emily's favorite people. She sings wonderful songs, and she has a really cool name. You should check out her brand new album!

latest corban pics

gender restraint

I heard an interesting statement the other day. A radio talk host was saying that at a young age boys are taught to control their aggression, but young girls aren't taught to restrain their emotions, which can be just as damaging as aggression.

I thought about it for a day or two and I see that here in America. We value being in touch with the emotional side of things, but aggression is seen as a bad character trait from men, especially toward women.

Thoughts?