One of those days

Did you ever have one of those days? I just did. I won’t go into detail, but let’s just say it was an up, down, up day. Up — because of a good meeting which accomplished a good bit in a short time. Down — because I was personally attacked pretty strongly due to some recent action I took (which were good actions). Up — because I was personally attacked strongly due to some action I took. What. Yep, the same thing was a downer and an upper. An upper because it meant I was on the right track to get such a strong reaction. Am I right? Won’t know until time goes by. Let’s just suffice it to say that when you strike a nerve, you get a reaction.

Lots to do

Wow, what a busy week. I probably shouldn’t even be taking any time to post to this blog, but I am. It seems that all parts of life are firing at the same time! I’m making sure  I am getting enough sleep, because when I don’t I am toast. Lots of interesting things going on, so I better go…..

My parents house

At this very moment I am sitting at the kitchen table in my parents house. We drove down yesterday, and drive back tomorrow. It is something of a quick trip but we all got to come down, and Ginger (our dog) too! We saw my nephew, Jared, run his car in the Pinewood Derby (he took 4th overall). We got to go eat at MaidRite. My mom, dad, brother and sister have been here almost the entire day. Christmas presents too! Wow. Well, we’re going to eat now, so I’m going to click on publish.

Life goes on

I know it ihas been awhile. Well, actually over a month since I posted to my own blog. I apologize. Sometimes the best intentions get diverted by things like kids, pets, cars, work, friends, housework…uh, wait. Those things are all more important than blogs, aren’t they?

 The biggest thing on my mind right now is Camp Webb. This place was one of the places crucial in my spiritual formation. I am sad to say that it is now in dire peril as the Diocese of Milwaukee Executive Council has voted to mothball the place for now. There’s a lot of history behind it, and I won’t go into it here. But I know that that location is a ‘thin place’, a place where the veil between heaven and earth is almost see through. So many people through the years have experienced God there, I can only trust that there is something good that God has in mind for it. I pray, no plead with God that the 140+ acres of relatively undeveloped land with over 1000 feet of lake frontage wont’ be carved up into 100 foot lots for developers to desecrate. What a loss it would be not only for God’s people, but the whol community of Wisconsin. There just aren’t new places like this popping up these days, in fact there are more and more that are disappearing.

 So please keep Camp Webb in your prayers, that we can use it to God’s glory in whatever way that may be. God bless.

Moving day

It seems like forever since I did this exercise of posting on my blog, and oh, how life has changed! Over the past few weeks my family has moved from Oshkosh to Appleton, about 30 miles to the north. We love our new house and miss our old house (but not as much as we love our new house).

 The move started with packing boxes and movinf them into the spacious garage of our new house. The owners were already moved out and graciously allowed us to store stuff in the garage. Many trips were made and many loads were moved. By last Friday, we had about 85% of our non-furniture stuff transferred.

 Then last friday Two Men and a Truck arrived to move the furniture. It all went smoothly, and by 12noon we had almost everything out of the old house and on the way to the new house. As the movers were unloading (and they loved our ‘move-in-ability’ of the new house), Maggie and I went and closed on the house. It was now officially ours! Yeah!

 The movers finished by about 4pm and we gave them nice tips. They were fun, easy to work with and told good moving stories. We hope they don’t have any about us!

Over the  past few days we have been moving boxes into the house, unpacking them, figuring out where everything goes. We still have some stuff in storage, but it will be a cinch moving that after the big move. Oh and on Sunday we got our Christmas Tree (cut your own) which is now up and awaiting decoration.

Feel free to call us and ask to visit after Christmas (we won’t call it rude  if you invite yourself).

Snow

Well, so much for writing on my blog daily. All the podcasts I listen to say that a good blogger writes every day. I guess I am a bad blogger!

Life has been very full these past few days. We have been working dilligently on getting our new house in Appleton to be  a done deal, have got our house in Oshkosh rented out (with the renters planning to buy), been to the chiropractor a lot for a really bad crink in my neck, attended a bunch of meetings, including one to go to Kenya in late August and another for an interview for the process towards ordination, and then it snowed, like a lot! Snowblower worked, but at the end one of the tines stopped working, so I need to take it in.

The best part of the past few days…sledding with my kids on Sunday. They did the sledding, I watched because of my neck, but we all had fun and went out to dinner to boot.

 Look for more insight over the next few days.

Seconds…

I never cease to be amazed at how much of life is determined by how close you come to something happening (or not happening). Let me provide an examples.

 I love the Packers. I’m not the hugest fan, but I do know a lot of little details that a completely casual fan might miss. Last week my friend Aran called to see if I wanted a ticket to the December 9th game against Oakland. I jumped at the chance, especially since these are 6th row, 50 yard line home side.

WTMJ Radio (‘the biggest stick in the state’) gives away two tickets and a paid overnight trip for each Packer game, home and away. Because this week is a short week with the Packers playing Dallas on Thursday in Dallas, instead of needing to have four Packers’ names they provide at 7:15 a.m. Mon-Thu, you only needed one name given on Monday. I had the name. WR Shaun Bodiford. #19. 2nd year play, acquired from Detroit on Waivers. Played college ball at Portland State. On Tuesday morning, I had the phone ready to speed dial. The announcement for the 16th caller came on and I dialed. Busy. Dialed again. Busy. Dialed again. Ringing! Picked Up! “You’re caller 14.” Click.

I missed an all expenses paid trip to see the biggest game of the year so far by seconds. Why couldn’t I have started dialing a split second later? It seems so random, but it would have changed my life, well for at least a few days. I’m sure you may have your own story when this happens.

When bad things happen, we tend to tell ourselves (or blame ourselves) for our poor timing. When good things happen, we tend to take credit for somthing we may have absolutely no control over. When we miss having somethin bad happen, we tend to say we’re lucky. When something good doesn’t happen, we tend to tell ourselves (or blame ourselves) for our poor timing.

I believe in free will. I don’t buy into a Calvinistic doctrine of predestination. But when things like this happen, I do have to wonder why it always seems to happen to me. Of course, that’s what most of us think too, isn’t it?

Hello world!

 This is the day on which I enter the universe of blogging. I do not know what direction this will take. I may get philosophical, dealing with the great questions of the universe. Maybe I’ll be practical, looking at the simple things of life and ways we can easily work with them. I might be theological, wondering where God is in all this stuff. Maybe I’ll just journal about my daily life. Not very exciting, but easy to do from my end. Whatever I do in these pages, it will be me. So let’s get started.