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My daughter and I decided to do a Haiku challenge this week to push our creativity, challenge ourselves, and have some fun. Each day of the week Autumn is going to pick a subject and we have till the end of the day to write a poem using that format. Here is our first one on "winter":
I reserve a part of the yard for my kids to find fun things to do with a large pile of leaves. This year they came up with "Ultimate Leaf Wrestling." These are the rules, unchanged from how they wrote them:
This all started when Autumn told me a few nights ago as she was sitting in her bed before lights out: "I'm writing a letter to Vietnam."
You just can't walk out on a conversation starter like that. Now, my daughter has perfected the art of stalling before bed-time. She comes at it from many different angles - the slow drag towards the room, finding reasons to come back out, needing a drink, having something important to tell us - you name, she's tried it. And generally it works on me, but her mom seems to be immune to most of them.
But she really had just drafted a chain of two letters that she was sending out. She noticed that the journal she was writing in was made in Vietnam so she wanted to write them a letter thanking them for making the journal that she was writing in. To do that, she was also writing a letter to the company that sold the journal asking them to forward the other letter to the people who made it in Vietnam.
This is what I love about my daughter - she has a why-not, go-get'em attitude. You have to explain, many times and many different ways, why you think she shouldn't do something because she has a lot of out-there ideas. But really, why not let her try? Most of the time she's very effective at getting it done.
And really, why haven't you tried some of those ideas that you've been sitting on but seem kind of out there? What do you have to lose? Life can be an adventure - make it something worth writing home about.
So my seven-year old came home with a paper on what he did the first week of school. It said: "We did adding. We did writing. We did subtracting. We did morning meeting. We did groping." After a little more careful examination we find out that it was "graphing." I know kids are learning lots these days, but I'm thankful he wasn't holding more than his paper and pencil.
At the beginning of the week the kids were arguing and I was on their case about and we were all upset. We have spent a lot of time together this summer, much of it in close quarters and it is bound to happen. Overall, our kids get along very well. But it had been going on consistently lately and we had to do something about it.
I've recently been working on my physical condition. Not too long ago I was running in place with my oldest son using the Wii Fit when he thought it was funny that he left me behind. I tried to make myself feel better by pointing out some flawed techniques with his running style.
My youngest son was emboldened by the spanking I received from his older sibling so the seven year-old challenged me to a race with the Fit. He totally dominated me. I resolved to get back into shape.
I started off by jogging around the track with my ten year-old daughter. Now, she is in great shape. She scampers up the climbing wall and plays year-round soccer on a cup team, the top level for our area. I like a pretty fast pace but I thought I would take it easy on her and stay with her so it could be a bonding thing. Turns out it was all I could do to keep up with her at her pace. She was always five steps ahead and looking back telling me to hurry up. After about a half a mile at her pace I knew I couldn't last much longer, so I thought I would be funny if I passed her. As soon as she saw me coming she took off and lapped me before I could finish.
My daughter and I went again earlier this week. This time I kept up with her for the first .75 of a mile run, and then she just took off. She kept going around until I finished, and on the last lap I was proud of myself because we sprinted to the finish line. While I was leaning over trying to catch my breath, she was adjusting her flipflops. I may need another month to keep up with her if she wears running shoes.
The family and I were watching the TV show Wipeout on Tuesday. There is just something funny about watching normal people bouncing off these huge balls and landing in mud. I don't know why it's funny, but bring me some more Wipeout.
We were right in the middle of pitying the fool that volunteered to jump through moving rings on a small platform high over water when the weather man broke in. I hate the weather man.
He went on for 40 minutes on the possibility that there may be tornadoes a county and a half over. 40 minutes of "Can you hand me that report? Yes, yes, it looks like clouds, and sometimes clouds can make tornadoes. Can you hand me another report? The clouds have moved 5 inches since the last report!" This went on for at least 40 minutes. Apparently, most people can't read the ticker going on at the bottom of the screen. Take 2 minutes to tell me that you haven't seen a tornado yet, and then leave until you really spot one! Avoiding the local news might be worth the cost of cable. I hate the weather man.
My family and I went on a trip across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware over the weekend. We spent Saturday mostly in Philly checking out the historical sights and grabbing a great cheesesteak, and Saturday night and Sunday in Delaware. New Jersey was just an accident (you can fill in your own sly remarks on that phrase), missing an exit and traveling down through Jersey to get to Newark, DE.
It was a personal history trip in many different forms.
My oldest son Jonathan just had done some historical research in his fifth grade class on the American Revolution, so it was fun watching him see the history before his eyes. We stood in the hall where people signed their lives to a cause that might cost them their lives, we saw the chair in which Benjamin Franklin said that sun is now rising, and we gazed at the bell that rang and has this scripture inscribed on it: "Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants" (Leviticus 25:10). But the best part was the people who dressed and spoke as if they were still there in the late 1700s, interacting with people from today. Our kids were particularly tickled when one man, acting the part of a delegate to the convention of 1776, kept arguing with a tourist about whether Washington was a state or a man.
What choices would I have made, faced with those circumstances? The search for meaning is a large part of my ponderations these days, and if it is true that a life worth living must be worth dying for, then: What do I fight for, and at what cost? (You could argue against the assertion that you need to be willing to die for something to have a meaningful life, and maybe we'll do that in a different post.)
This would be a interesting fill-in-the-blank: [Your Name] is fighting for _______.
But let's continue on the trip. Delaware is where I spent, as a local friend puts it, my "misguided youth." I was able to see people that I had not seen in up to twenty years, learn the happenings of people that I spent time with as a teenager, and catch up on local tales.
I spent a lot of time thinking about how my choices turned out, decisions that I should have made, actions I shouldn't have taken, what could have been and what is. The problem is that any one choice would leave me in a different situation now, and I can gladly say that my wife and kids are worth the pain and lost moments.
But it all comes at a price. Looking back, I sometimes feel like a bull in destiny's china shop. And it reminds me of the importance of decisions, actions, and most of all ideas.
My friend Joe and I had our first real tournament game in doubles pickleball last Thursday. We played two housewives who were very nice, and very new to the game. Both of us are tennis players, so there wasn't a whole lot of excitement until the last game. In fact, we only lost one point in the two games that meant something.
My form of entertainment during the games was talking to Joe about how we could use mental tactics to win the games against these very nice ladies, such as yelling at them while they are swinging at the ball, hitting the ball hard at one of them to send a message, hitting the ball way out of bounds and insisting that they get it, etc. Needless to say, we didn't actually do any of that, but it was funny talking about it.
For the last game, we decided to switch partners so that it might be a little more even. During the game, Joe hit a ball moderately hard at me when I was at the net. We both laughed about it. At the end of our time, when there was less than a minute left, Joe came to the net and hit the ball to me. I decided to have a little fun as well and just whaled the ball directly at him. Watching him flail at this high-speed wiffle ball that hit him was the highlight of my evening, and I couldn't stop laughing about it. Joe, fortunately, is good-natured.
Found out later on that Joe and a different friend were hanging around, and through conversations found out that one of the ladies was a elementary school teacher of Joe's friend's kid. When the teacher found out that I was a minister, she jokingly asked if I got my degree online. She admitted that she had an enjoyable time playing with us, but I thought the "online degree" comment was a great line.
I am way more excited about this than I should be - this evening a friend and I are joining a league for pickleball doubles at the local YMCA. I know this shouldn't rank among top events to celebrate in one's life, but it is at least above getting a new book, which is a big event for me but not too big because I get one a month, definitely bigger than watching the superbowl (although it was a pretty great party) and even bigger than going to my favorite restaurant.
Perhaps you've never heard of pickleball? It is a mix of tennis and pingpong on a badminton court - a swell combination if you ask me. Somebody was bored, had a paddle and actually wanted to do something with it than mash a sibling.
So what, do you do when your bored? What have you been excited about lately?
I've been out for a bit, but I think I have a good excuse this time. My wife left the kids and I in Pennsylvania and headed back to Texas to finish packing. I know it had to be done, but it still wasn't very nice of her but I'm sure I'll forgive her the moment she walks in the door.
So I've been playing the single dad for the past 11 days, and it has been tough. I've loved the time that I've gotten to spend with the kids, but my schedule is pretty whacky - get computer time for emails and calls, 8:00-9:30a; breakfast and chores, 9:00-10:00a; playtime, plan day, 9:30-10:00a; work at the church, go to a park, eat, run errands, 9:30a-5:00p; try to finish off something whether it's play or work or eat, 3:00-10:00p; actually put together my public speaking stuff, 10:00p- ;worry that I'm missing something, 2:00a-8:00a.
The kids have been great. They have been swapping days to see who works on the kitchen, trash, and laundry (Autumn actually folds the clothes, us boys are lucky to put them in the right room). But so far I consider my job as a the single father a success. Here is my criteria:
House not lit on fire
Underwear not hanging on living room furniture
Color check the fridge - get rid of anything green once a week
House not flooded
We've even set up a system to water the plants - put the brownest one outside until it rains, then wait till another starts to turn brown. The magic to our wonderful system!
Anyway, we will try to keep our sanity until she gets back by
Autumn's creative juices have really been flowing lately. Check out her latest creation - I just computerized exactly what she drew.
We have gotten to spend a lot of time together. Every moment has been special, and I am continually amazed by my kids. Autumn just helps reinforce my idea that when we were created in the image of God, it was the breath of imagination and creativity that separates us from the rest of creation. Thank you God for that blessing, may we use it wisely.
"Room 999 has a broken robot. The robot said that a human scum is taking his gold-plated socks that had spike attachments!"
Autumn ran into the room wearing a cape and yelling that. Also, apparently you have to do a dance when you say, "room 999." Must be Nancy's genes...
My daughter's writing is cracking me up lately. She has also been objectionably honest as well. Check out the acrostic she made of her brother Jonathan's name (I left in the original spelling):
Jumpy
Open to others
Nice
Arigant
Ten
Honest
Aranged
Nodle eater
I'm not sure I want her to do an acrostic of my name - I'd probably love 70% of it.
I wonder if your relationship with your siblings ever change much. I am in the mountains of New Mexico visiting my parents with the kids, and saw my brother and sister-in-law for a few days before they left this morning. The routine with my brother didn't deviate much:
* We tried to dunk each other in the pool
* We played video games late into the night (conquering new territory, albeit electronic)
* We discussed the things that are coming up in our immediate future - his building a new house and my move to Pittsburgh
It doesn't take us long to fall into this pattern when we are together, and we enjoy it as it usually good-natured and seems to reinforce the bonds that are there (even the time we were wrestling in the winter, trying to force the other person into the yellow snow left by the deer). I can imagine us, me about 75 and he 65, as we throw out our backs seeing who can lift the heavier weight (ala Manenbaughns on Seinfeld).
This pattern of life is comfortable, but when things change, or maybe even when they need to change, something always seems to be lost as the patterns shift, there is a time of uncertainty as both sides feel their way around again, and new patterns emerge.
I've been thinking about discernment lately. Seeing the patterns of relationships, the intertwining of the paths and the open spaces where we tread with other people. This is one of the areas of the stories of Jesus that fascinate me, how he could see to the heart of those patterns. He could understand the motivations and the perceptions, and then challenge those connections that we have with each other. He was a disturbing and destabilizing force.
Discernment. I believe some people are just naturally better at it, and some better because they work at it. I think we who try to follow in the footsteps of Jesus are called to work on their discernment. The problem is that it is so easy to use what we know about the patterns around us to manipulate them into strenghtening our own position. I suppose that is where wisdom comes in, being able to challenge the patterns around us so that it benefits all, even at our own expense. That may be the toughest when it includes looking at the ones that are closest to us, and the patterns will affect our own.
There are some forces in life that challenge us. My brother and his wife are expecting their first child, and that no doubt will mess with the patterns of their life, and those of us around them, from here on out.
So, tell me, how do you think we can get better at this discernment with a tad bit of wisdom thrown in?
My daughter wrote the following poem. She is always writing something, and this time she chose to do something clever and funny (she's only 8!):
Little Lilly Licker had the hic, hic, hiccups.
She hic'ed all day and she hic'ed all night.
Little Lilly Licker had the hic, hic, hiccups
And that is all that she could hic, hic, say.
We have officially accepted a job! I will be working with the North Hills Church of Christ in Pittsburgh, PA. Honestly, I had no idea how gorgeous it is out there. We will be moving this summer - more to come!
Within thirty minutes we spoke of ear infections, lice (I was scratching my head for most of it), throw-up, etc. That is what first graders will do to you! At lunch, no less. To top it off, one kid brought cupcakes for his birthday, which the kids promptly rubbed all over their faces and showed me what it looked like in their mouth. The only saving grace was that I handed them over to the PE coach right after lunch when the sugar high would be at its worst. Good kids, but if you ever want a challenge then try herding six year old kids around.
A while back ago I got to supervise a trip of this same age while in DC to the Smithsonian Museum of Art - I am not a violent guy, but wanted to monkey punch someone for that idea. We were chasing kids through the artwork, security guards had their hands on billy clubs, and you heard yells such as "Don't lick that artwork!" I had to rush the kids through the room full of nudes and say, "No questions!"
No wonder I started to turn grey the day I had kids...
Another great 4-year-old moment: as we were driving home from a state park this evening, my youngest son chose as his new song "Come Sail Away" by Styx. Imagine hearing the chorus "Come Saiw away, come saiw away, come saiw away with meeee!" over and over from a 4-year-old as his older brother and sister croon away with odd background vocals. The nick-named him "The Artist Known As Hunter". The artist part might be stretching it a bit, but boy were we laughing. His previous favorite he called "The Pants Song": Daydream Believer by the Monkees, referring to the chorus line "Sleepy Jean". He would sing that one just as loud.
So I haven't been real faithful to my posting lately, but hopefully that will change soon. We've had lots of stuff going on. But never fear, faithful participants in the exciting world of reading-stuff-on-the-internet, in the meantime I have lots of ideas sitting as drafts. Right now I'm trying to decide if I just post them all in one day or string them out. I have:
Reviews of more books, including The Secret, Who Needs God, and several others
The Ecosystem of Me
An old hymn that scares the bejeebers out of me
In the meantime, I'd love to hear from you on what you collect. I've been thinking about what it is that I think enough of to collect and it is pretty easy to figure out once you see our house. I have books everywhere - next to the bed, in bookcases in the my bedroom, in bookcases in the living room, in my car, in boxes in the garage, in boxes in the attic, etc.
So what is it you collect?
