Simple Pleasures

Being the net-cruising, blog-writing, website-building, geek that I am, I find that the moments in life that I enjoy the most are the simple pleasures that have nothing to do with high tech gadgets or anything I do while I’m sitting at my computer.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my computer.  Built her myself (yes, it’s a “she”) part by hand-picked part.  Although my computer is an awesome tool, the substance of life is found in the simple pleasures of real life.  Here are some of the simple pleasures that grabbed my attention today:

0.  Losing my cell phone in the console of our fancy-schmancy car. Okay, this wasn’t fun at all, but I managed somehow let my cell phone slide under the fancy-shmancy retractable cover of our car console.  Guess what… you can’t remove the center console or its cover.  No screws to even mess with.  Just wonderfully molded plastic.  It was time upgrade the phone anyway, right?

That’s how the day started.  It got better.  Way better.

1.  Playing baseball and duck-duck-goose with my boys in the school gym. It’s been windy and cold for the past several weeks, so playing outside is pretty much out of the question.  Fortunately, I have keys to the school, so Brody, Brock and I can go run ’til we’re all tired (me more than them) in the school gym.

2.  Watching my boys as I turned on the Christmas tree lights. All three gave oohs and aahhs.

3.  Cutting Wood. I took my pups and my Husky chainsaw out to restock the family heat supply.  The brisk wind, my two wolf-dogs, the whirr of the chainsaw, sawdust flying everywhere, and a full pickup load of wood will make any guy glad to be alive.

4.  “Mommy, let’s do that right now.” I got home kinda late from cutting wood expecting to be in mid-level trouble with my wife… but instead she was glowing.  It turns out she and Brody were reading a book about the birth of Jesus.  Brody started asking questions about the other books advertised on the back cover when Jodi felt prompted to ask him a few questions.

Jodi: Brody, have you ever asked Jesus into your heart?

Brody: No.  Mommy let’s do that right now.

As a Jesus-follower, I can’t ask for anything more than to see my four-and-a-half year old son want to have Jesus in his life.  Sure, there’s a lot for him to learn.  There’s tons he doesn’t understand and won’t for a while.  The amazingly simple truth is that his journey has begun.

Fun at the Playground Before the Big Change

Jodi and the boys leave tomorrow for Denver. I’ll be joining them in Denver on Sunday afternoon. The gameplan is to hang with her parents until the baby is born and stay up there a few days after the little man arrives before heading back to Branson. I’ve let her and the boys go up north without me before, but this is different. This is harder.

I Found Spring Time!

That’s a quote from Brody.

A few days ago, I was out in my office working on something during my boys’ afternoon naptime. When I came into the house after naps, Brody ran up to me with an excitement in his eyes.

“Dad, I found spring time!”

“Where?” I asked. We raced into the living room to look out the big window.

“Right there,” He said, pointing out into our front yard.

As I looked out with him, I noticed that he did find it. Little shoots of green grass were beginning to grow. (Let’s hope I water them well and they keep growing…) The snow has pretty much melted. Our neighbor’s cows have had their baby calves (which we can see from the big window).

Brody has been itching to get outside. So have I. Winter is okay. Snow is okay. Warm weather where you can play outside for hours is where its at. Anyone who says otherwise has rich parents and grew up skiing.

This is the time of the year where the anticipation nearly kills you, but the hope keeps you going. The weather is almost warm enough, but it could still snow on you. You begin to think about planting a garden, but plant too soon and a frost will surely do you in. If you go out for a walk, it could be incredible, or it could be a two-mile mud trek (I did that was last week – talk about a cardio nightmare). This is when the desire to get outside and live outweighs the desire to stay warm behind the big window in the living room.

I think we’re at a similar place in our town. We’re seeing growth. Signs of spiritual life are there if you know where to look. The timing for God to do some amazing, large scale life changing things seems just around the corner. Parts of this point in the journey are exhilarating. Parts feel like there’s mud waiting around every corner. Parts of the journey are about cleaning up the mess after I’ve gotten a little muddy. Mud means you’ve gone outside to live.

Its time for all of us to get out from behind the big safe warm window in our spiritual “living” rooms and live where we might get a little muddy. I think Jesus liked playing in the mud.

Spring time is waiting for you to find it and to come out and get a little muddy. Have fun.

Grilling With Ski Gloves

I hear Alaska is nice this time of year.

2008 in Branson is starting out on a cold note. For those of you here in Branson, you know that. For you out-of-towners, it’s flat out cold here right now. The snow that fell several days before Christmas is still on the ground. I’ve learned how to handle the snow in several fun ways that you can try, assuming you have kids, huskies, a naturally cooled office, and ski gloves.

1. Build a snowman with your kids. Here is a fun picture of Brody and Brock on Christmas Eve day. Brody had fun building the snowman, and Brock had fun chasing our new outside kitty. He’s a very friendly kitty… if a mid-sized orange kitty shows up at your house in Branson, just give me a call and I’ll come get him.

2. Go sledding with your huskies. I’ve biked with my dogs, now I’ve added sledding to my list of dog-powered adventures. Sledding with the pups wasn’t nearly as dramatic as biking was. I guess you really need a sled team to teach dogs to “mush” — they just didn’t quite get it.

3. Patch the hole in your office wall. At one point in the distant past, my office was a bunkhouse heated with a propane heater. The heater has aged, and I just don’t trust it. As much as I like things that go “boom”… The heater’s exhaust pipe has been sticking through the office wall since we moved in (over a year ago). The hole in the wall makes for a chilly office in cold weather. Today I finally pulled the exhaust pipe out and patched the hole. Oh baby, baby! My office stays nice and toasty now, even when it’s 12 degrees outside (like it is right now).

4. Grill with your ski gloves on. Yep, Jodi wanted flank steak, so I donned my ski gloves, fired up the outdoor grill, and got to work. Eskimos would be proud.

Now that I have my Jodi back (she was an interim K-1 teacher for the past 6 weeks), I have time to update this blog, update the church and u-turn websites, run with my dogs, visit people, skydive… just basically do all the things that I didn’t have time to do when my main duty was watching the boys 24/7. I wouldn’t trade my time with Brody and Brock for anything – we had tons of fun – but I have gained a new appreciation for stay-at-home moms. You women are incredible.

Stay tuned.