Just a bit of bragging...

Definitely time for a post to replace that ridiculous and controversial business Brendan posted! I can't believe people get so consumed with football, boggles my mind. I posted last week about being inspired to share about my awesome (albeit slightly offensive, see afore-mentioned post!) husband. I'm now inspired to share about my awesome kids. They do drive me crazy on a very regular basis, I think all parents say that, but on the whole they're pretty great. Here's a bit of what makes them so great;

Owen is hilarious. He learned from his dad that humor is the best medicine and keeps things light in our family much of the time by being a prankster and a goof. He is in a band here in Hepburn, they are still un-named, but there are some photos and a bit of video at Pauls blog, see link below left. This band is having another opportunity to play in December, so he is pretty excited about that. He is also a pretty good sport and learning what it means to be on a team and how to be considerate of others more and more each day. I'm thinking he might soon learn to be good to his sister! His friends are important to him, and he is helpful and loyal, its awesome to watch him interact with his buddies. (its also downright comical most of the time, no matter what they're doing they make me laugh!)

Sydney is sweet Sydney as always. She recently planned a surprise party for her teacher (with a friend) and they managed to coordinate a bunch of details (seriously, they could have given a professional event planning firm a run for their money!!) She had lists, agendas, schedules, food plans, trophies, baking... unbelievable. She is always looking for ways to bless people and tries to do special things for everyone she knows. Her singing has returned to grace our home after being on a break for a few months, and did I ever miss it! She really sings like an angel, and I'm not just saying that because I'm biased, she has talent!! Lately, she's really been working on her creative and artistic side, spending tons of time drawing, coloring, sketching, scrapbooking and singing.

The green and white shite

There I said it. I feel better now. Living in small town Saskatchewan has been totally awesome. Everybody's friendly, kind of like a "cheers" thing where "everybody knows your name". (except for the fact that this is a dry town and cheers was a bar) It was a kind of utopia...until recently. The dirty looks, the punch in the ribs in the store and the booing as I drive by. I couldn't figure it out, I wondered why the cash register was always under repair at the grocery store, why the gas pumps always seemed to be out of order when I pulled up. As I thought about it I sort of came up with a theory so here it goes.

Let's say you were a rabid fan of let's say a football team, and that this said team was...how shall I put it...embarassing. You know, the kind of team that when you go to watch it, you put a paper bag on your head so that nobody recognizes you.(not that there are many others sitting in the stands to recognize you) Anyways, let's say that this certain team has had a stroke of luck, the kind of luck that comes around..hmm...every 28 years or so. Well you would notice that all sorts of these..let's for our purpose call them "banjo picking inbreds", come out of their soddies and mud huts and invade the streets of our once proud town causing all sorts of trouble for upstanding citizens like myself. Thankfully this is a phenomenon omly occurs every 28 years or so, and by then these mud hut dwellers will hopefully have learned to be proper by emulating one such as myself.

Now I'm a patient man who realizes that there will be a certain end to this madness. It will be a swift and painful end, resulting in many, many, many green tears. But do not be sad Rider fans as you know that you will be able to take your paper bags off before another 3 decades have passed.

Inspired...(by Kelly, but about Brendan!)

We're in a small care group in Hepburn, feeling really blessed to be among such great people! Our gatherings (which include food, hooray!!) right now are focused on Marriage. We watch videos by this very funny man named Dr. Kevin Leman, then we discuss topics and ideas raised. I'm also preparing to write a paper on marriage spirituality, so I've been dwelling on what exactly this two becoming one means - biblically, spiritually, in practice, in my relationship, in other relationships, in the church... lots to think on! Marriage is a hot topic for us these days!

Tonight, I checked out Ben and Ang's blog - they're awesome friends from Winnipeg living in Taiwan. Ang posted about her wonderful husband (Ben) and I was inspired to do the same. (thanks Ang, you're still inspiring me from the other side of the world!!) All this thinking on marriage has made me pretty thankful for mine.. so here is a list of why Bren is so great. (According to me)

He makes our kids breakfast every day. I take longer to get ready, so he takes on the majority of morning get-everyone-out-of-the-house jobs, almost never complaining that the division of labor is quite unfair.

His sense of humor makes it pretty hard to be really upset or mad at anything for long. And now, he's passed that on to our son. Between the two of them, some days I get a stomach ache from laughing. They're both getting funnier with age! (Maybe they'll go on the road someday?!)

As I type this, Brendan is making us a cup of coffee so that we can begin the Marriage Spirituality book we're going through together as research for my upcoming paper. The coffee is a nice touch, but the best part is that he is going to spend part of one evening for the next 10 weeks doing a chapter of this book - you've met him. This is NOT his definition of fun and excitement, he does it entirely for me.

He remembers things, thoughtful things, like if we've run out of something, or I said I'd call someone, or that I wanted to run a certain errand.. he helps me keep it all straight.

He works with adults with cognitive disabilities every day - and he enjoys this work, often commenting on what his clients have to offer and the valid contribution they make to our world. He's looking for that, looking for God in them.

He looks for ways to love our kids uniquely. He makes sure our daughter knows she is special to her dad, and he makes sure our kids sense the love that their parents have for them every day. Its really important to him that they know how much we love them.

He's my strong, safe place.

He's growing. The man I'm married to is not the man I married. I love that most of all, I think, that he's evolving as he knows God more, as he knows himself better.

Cool People Care

So my friend Melanie sent me a note on Facebook last week encouraging me to check out this website called Cool People Care.. I did and its got some neat info. I've added it to our link list (see below, left). They don't have any Canadian content yet, but I think its coming...(I emailed them!) You can even sign up for a daily e-update. (use random five digits for the zip code)

It is well with my soul...

This song has been in my head lately. I think I am identifying with the lyrics on many levels...
was recently reminded of the amazing story behind this hymn; the writer had recently lost his four daughters in a shipwreck on the Atlantic ocean. He was crossing the ocean to meet his wife after the accident when (apparently close to the very spot where his daughters had drowned) he was inspired to write these now famous, triumphant words: It Is Well With My Soul.

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross,

and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;

The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,

Even so, it is well with my soul.

--Horatio Spafford

A glimpse

As I'm sitting here on a Wednesday night, trying to concentrate on the course I'm working on, I'm distracted and unfocused... thought I'd share a glimpse of the random thoughts running amok in my head, hopefully inspire, or at least entertain, a couple of people - then be finally able to dig into my reading. Here goes;

• I've talked to so many people (usually the female ones!) who respond to God's near-ness (the spirit of God) with tears; often that's how they recognize Him. As I sit here, I am misty-eyed while listening to my daughter sing herself to sleep. How I love her voice, and I am so certain that her ability to sing is one of the gifts given to her by God's Spirit... I think that's why it makes me cry so often!
• Something has been bugging me lately; it started when we were on a little road trip to Edmonton this past weekend and I'm still annoyed. We brought along The Magician's Nephew, book one in the Narnia Series. I also packed a book I bought ages ago, a chapter by chapter review of all the Narnia books highlighting biblical insights and providing additonal clarity to the text. I read the first few chapters and was mightily disappointed. (maybe thats an understatement) It seemed to me that the 'review' book completely missed the grandness, the beauty, the depth of Lewis' intent and his incredible story telling ability. In the chapter where Uncle Andrew meets Jadis, Empress of Charn, the reviewer focuses on Uncle Andrews swigs of brandy rather than the fact that Evil has just entered the scene and will continue to plague every character and plot for the rest of story. While I don't know that I could adequately capture Lewis true intent, I'm sure that this reviewer completely missed it. This brand of shallow has irked me for as long as I can remember! And while I never knew Mr. Lewis personally, I rather fancy the idea that he spent good amounts of time sitting in some 'upscale gentleman's club', discussing (arguing?) theological points and...drinking brandy!
• Bren posted about the soon-to-be infamous tattoos, but he neglected to mention the Meaning!! This is classic Bren/Kelly dynamic; he's all about the humor, I'm all about the underlying story!! Anyway, to share a bit of the background, we've talked about doing this for over 10 years. We had a different design in the beginning, but in recent years, the design centered around a scripture passage that is particularly important to me - John 15. Jesus is the vine, we are mere branches, and as long as we ABIDE in him, we will be fruit-bearers. The meaning of life now forever stamped on our skin!
• Advent begins on Dec. 2, which means that Christmas is around the corner. I'm praying about celebrating advent and Christmas more simply this year. I do this each year, but hopefully this will be the year I grasp it. Here's one practical step towards embracing holiday simplicity... I'm wrestling with this one!.. there will be no lights on our house this year. We have unfinished items on the to do list from moving in, and we're going to focus on other Christmas-y things, and we don't want the holiday season to be one of stress and neverending things to accomplish... so we decided no Christmas lights on our house. Even though its our first year in a new town? Yup.

Its getting late, too late to work on the stuff I'm supposed to be doing... at least I've cleared the air and made some room in my head!

Thanks for stopping by....

The Pic-man & I (by Brendan)

Have you ever had a time when you had to "walk the talk", even though you were really, really scared? I recently had such a time.
Kelly and I have always talked about getting matching tattoos, as corny as that may sound. We thought it quite a romantic idea. As all of you who know me understand, I have a very real fear of pain, but I always talk the talk with the best of them. (for any Hepburnites reading, I'm lying to make the story sound better! Of course I'm not really like that...) As I was saying, as long as we were talking about getting a tattoo I was in, but when the proverbial rubber met the road I wasn't really all that serious. Kelly on the other hand was serious, serious enough to ask an artist for help with a design and make an appointment to get it done. Only problem here was that she didn't make an appointment for both of us, but only for herself. Being a man, I had to save a little face and let her know how insulted I was that she was going alone, that she didn't think I was serious about it...preposterous! Well, it worked, she felt bad, but in spite of her efforts, the tattoo place couldn't fit me in...sweet! I save face, look like I wasn't a chicken and I don't have to go through with anything painful.
The day of the appointment, I accompany my wife to Pic-man, she feeling a bit nervous and scared, me smiling inside holding my Starbucks takeout. At this point I will skip past the fact that Kelly looked like she might cry, and I also won't mention the blood, but I'll jump ahead to the part where we were supposed to be going home...Much to my shock Marc ("pic-man") offers to go ahead and do my tattoo because Kelly's didn't take as long as expected. Being of sound mind I came out with the first and best and only excuse I could come up with...the design was too girly, soI wanted to go home and "man" it up a bit and then come back. Yeah, that didn't fly, in no time I was in 'the chair' waiting to experience something that I can only describe as letting someone draw on your arm with a steak knife. Now to my credit I will say that I lasted a full 2 or maybe even 3 minutes before he had to stop and get me some water as I was passing out, only to restart and finish with no problems.

Now I have not written all this as some kind of whimsical tale of a modern day hero...no, there is actually a lesson to be found in this story. Please share the following with others you meet, who knows who might need this advice! "If you feel like passing out while getting a tattoo, ask the tattoo guy for a lollipop"...saved my life and I saved face.



PS: (this part is by Kelly!) We are official Saskatchewan bloggers! We've met many people who have blogs and we've even been added to someone's blogroll on their site. Guess its official.. we're starting to feel like we belong in this new place! Check out Paul's site, (see links on sidebar below) -- he's O's youth pastor. There are some good shots of Owen on the site ... and one of a bunch of boys in our bathtub!

Well, I was once again contemplating a post in my head over the weekend, it had something to do with community, friendship, .. I was also reflecting on our human desire for authentic relationship while at the same time being afraid to personally submit to it... and then I thought, what the heck, I'll take my husband's often given advice and lighten up for once. (don't get used to it, though!) So, I found some very funny and cute comic clips below, enjoy!

Everyday Spirituality

For years, I've dreamed of taking a course or two at Regent College, I'm not sure where I first heard of their course offerings, but I've looked longingly at their webpage many times. I finally signed up for one of their Con. Ed. Distance courses a couple of weeks ago, and I am really enjoying the lectures and coursework. I now have a reading list as long as my arm - thankfully, I already had some of the books and I happen to have access to a pretty great library at Bethany :o). The course I'm taking is called Everyday Spirituality, and its focus is on helping particpants live out an inviting spirituality - not only in the context of their traditionally "religious" activities, but particularly in the context of their day to day experiences.
I have a few big assignments that I'm looking forward to: a research paper on Consumerism, another on Couple spirituality (Brendan has agreed to work on this with me!), and yet another (I hope) on spirituality as it is lived out in rural contexts. (like Hepburn) - I have to get special permission to adapt the assignment for that one, so it may not materialize... I also have to journal and share about 'spiritual conversations', which should prove to be very interesting. I'm sure there'll be more about this educational journey in the days and weeks to come...