13 Days - work, wedding, and willow

Somehow life has done one of those snowball effects on me - I am now in the midst of a 13-day stretch of commitments. I got a phonecall last night from our church's wedding coordinator asking, "Can you do a wedding?" I thought to myself, well, normally you ask me during work hours - when is this wedding? It's tomorrow. The rehearsal is in about 10 minutes up in the chapel. I am hosting Connection Point on Sunday. That'll grab about five hours. I'm on call for the church all day Sunday, too. The it's two days in the office. Then four days at Willow Creek in Chicago for the small groups conference. I do have one day off after this stretch - then our big facilitator's event and surgery the following day. I'll be ready for the recovery period after surgery. I may need it more for the missed sabbath rest over the previous two weeks! Ah, well. At least I have all of this to vent about. Hey - I'm still breathing!

A good one to win.

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I'm not cheap, I'm inexpensive

Just because I get most of my clothes preworn, buy a small black coffee at Starbucks, and love the dollar menu at McDonalds - you can't say I'm cheap. Well, I guess technically you could. There is that whole idea of the constitutional right of every American to free speech. But isn't a choice to spend less is more along the lines of being inexpensive? Ah, well. Whatever the case may be, I love being able to pay my bills while having food in my belly and petrol in the gas-tank...

(By the way - this is post #100... Brilliant!)

A scrap of verse

This short verse captured my mind yesterday:

"To go to Rome
Is little profit, endless pain;
The Master that you seek in Rome
You find at home, or seek in vain."

Things don't change inside of our hearts by a change of location. There is nowhere we can go, no calling we can follow that will give us more of God than we have right now. He stands at the door - this door - and knocks. He is not there, He is here and He is not silent.

Picture perfect morning

Today is the picture perfect morning. I keep a snapshot in my head of days like this. During my commute, I drive past about a dozen horse farms, including the historic Ramsey Farm. Today, the sun was just beginning to burn off the fog, the last tendrils of mist clinging to life just above the dew-covered grass. As the sun broke and split through the tree branches, shards of light brought a heavenly glow to the fog. The horses romped or rested at their leisure. As the white fences breezed past, I thanked God for the morning. I sometimes forget to notice how absolutely beautiful the Horse-Capital of the World really is.

"I'm four my old."

That's a quote from my youngest daughter on the occasion of her fourth birthday. We had her party at the local park. Here are some of the highlights of the day:

1 hour spent filling and tying water 250 balloons.

• They disappeared in less than five minutes
• I had great aim, hitting Jason perfectly to make him look like he'd wet his pants
• Note to self - never fill another water balloon. Let someone else do it.

Played on the playground.

• Big kids on the playground, not cool
• Rule #1: If you know and use the F-bomb, you're no longer allowed on the playground.

10 hour cake decorating project.

• Couldn't get the candles to stay lit
• Our four-year-old wouldn't "pretend" to blow them out
• Built a wall of people to block the wind so they'd stay lit for her to blow them out
• Cake was amazing - The Superman ice cream topped it off...

Ate at the Mexican restaurant afterward.

• Burritos were awesome
• They put a huge sombrero on my daughter, sang to her as she looked at them, mouth wide open in astonishment, and took a Polaroid of her (which she smiled for beautifully).
• Quote after the Mexican b-day song, "What did they say?"