So Many Blogs

It all started out with one little blog. Maybe this one. Then you started one. And so did your brother/sister/-in-law. Then they all started putting up link to their favorite blogs and you started finding your own. You might have even started returning a particular website to read their headlines! The number of articles and blogs to read just keeps on growing. If this keeps up you'll end up going nuts! We'll find you huddled in a corner of your closet with a laptop you stole from Best Buy strung out on caffine pills mumbling and typing what you mumble into a series of increasingly incoherentblogsthatyoujUSTCAN'TSTOP!!!!! DO YOU WANT THAT?! DO YOU, PUNK!? ...sorry, i think i need a time out from blogs!

Wouldn't it be great if you could go to ONE website and have all the articles and blogs you like to follow posted right there? You can! Recently a friend put me onto a cool service by (who else?) Google ... the Google Reader. It can take all the blogs you read and combine them into one list of articles. (The techie name for this is a "Feed Aggregator".)

If you don't already have a google account (your "blogger" account is one) you can start by setting that up. Then go to http://reader.google.com and start adding subscriptions - click "Add Subscription" and type or paste in the address of a blog you like. Most of the time this works with out a hitch. Give it a shot - you'll be glad you did!

A Little Quiet Time

I'm not the most disciplined man in the world in any realm of my life. Spiritual disciplines included, I have to confess to a high degree of 'flux' in all of my routines. Still I know the value of quiet time and try to get some in before leaving for work as often as possible.

Coincidentally, Isaac often gets up early. We normally send him back to his room to lay down. But, recently I've started letting him come into the living room with me. The understanding, though, that I try to make with him is that mornings are for Quiet Time. I'll let him come out 15 mins early, but he has to spend that time looking through his picture Bible. Somewhat to my surprise he has accepted it readily. The photo was one I snapped just before sitting down with him at the end to pray. We pray together on these mornings.

If my greatest fear is that I'll not lead him properly, somehow cripple him emotionally or, worse, spiritually, my greatest joy is when I see him growing, maturing and best of all moving toward a spiritual life.

Proverbs 22:6 Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

The Joys of Home Maintenance

Cheryl and I have been putting off some home improvements and maintenance for quite some time now but this weekend we got started in earnest! We recently had the siding replaced and need to get the painting finished but that meant power washing some parts of our house. So we borrowed a pressure washer and got to it. While we had the machine we decided we might as well wash the brick ... and the walk ... and the driveway, patios, etc. What began simply enough turned into an entire day of pressure washing just about everything! I have to admit though, it is pretty cool to see the concrete gleaming now. It is rather noticeable - so much so that we had fun 'writing' with the washer!

Prayer for a Portal

I'm filing this one in under odd, funny, faith builder. A little backstory: I've been working on the "Topical Memory System" from Nav Press in an effort to grow in the area of scripture memory. Currently I'm working on "Prayer" and the verse that I'm memorizing is Phillipians 4:6&7.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known to God. And the pease of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (NAS)

At work I have a major project - our 'portal' website - to get off ASAP and we're having LOTS of troubles with it. I sat this morning at my desk after a frustrating round of calls and meetings with people trying to get this up and running. I looked at my memory card and read over it a few times when I realized that this is what that verse is talking about. So, I prayed. When I looked up, there was the log on screen where only gray had been before.

God sometime chooses the oddest places to reveal himself to me. I was humbled and yet again in awe of Him.

Little Helper

Isaac is at the age where he is interested in just about everything. I love that. If there is one thing that I really hope I can share with Isaac through our lives (beyond a love our Savior), it is a profound curiosity about the world around us. He has a good start already!

The other day I was changing the oil in my car and you know where Isaac wanted to be - right in the middle of it! ... Literally! I had to warn him a few times to back up or he was going to get oil dumped on him. He wanted to work the jack, turn the plug and filter, pull out the dipstick, ... anything Papa did, Isaac wanted to do. And within reason, I let him. Yes, the job took quite a bit longer, but who cares. I can vividly remember when my dad would let me in on the mechanic-ing. Great times. I hope Isaac has some of those same memories.