Thanks to much prayer the cold sore is in recession. I may yet reawaken it but I'm doing my darndest to keep it down.
I had a fruitful conversation with a great customer today that really saved me a lot of work. Still not all caught up but time should heal that wound. I can feel things moving smoother all the time.
The framing guy did well today, worked hard and is cool with the work schedule I proposed. I look for him to start making a big difference in '08.
Brummers remain a joy to have in the household. Ben and I continued our Jenga grudge match, I continue to trounce him. He has been close to tears but I will not let that stop me. We built a house together with the blocks after his 3rd defeat. Friendship is a guarantee.
One more day of framing; it needs to go very well. Then.... bring on the Christmas rest-fest.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Progression
We're firing on all kinds of cylinders. Some we did not know we had. Widmo continues to be busy but the light has made itself evident at the end of the tunnel. 1 huge double door and 1 small double door and 3 exterior doors by Friday. then some rest.
I was able to start training on our new employee today. His name, coincidently, is Josh. He's going to fill out paperwork tomorrow and may start working for real in January. Praise God, I need him.
Ben Brummer and I played one intense game of Jenga this afternoon. I won by a slim margin and he was rather crestfallen that we were unable to complete our rematch before dinner. He'll remind me tomorrow, I'm sure of it.
I was able to start training on our new employee today. His name, coincidently, is Josh. He's going to fill out paperwork tomorrow and may start working for real in January. Praise God, I need him.
Ben Brummer and I played one intense game of Jenga this afternoon. I won by a slim margin and he was rather crestfallen that we were unable to complete our rematch before dinner. He'll remind me tomorrow, I'm sure of it.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Hit it running
Nice day today. Started out on the wrong side of the bed... the sleeping-in side. I missed morning prayer but woke with enough time to get prepped and ready for the day without rushing. Kind of bittersweet.
Slow morning, not a lot of activity. Caught a mouse in the glue trap, spoke with Bud Rose, my boss, about hiring a new guy to frame, did a little gchatting and emailage.
The afternoon saw some reorganization of the warehouse by Mickey as well as a very cool conversation with a man whose last name is X. Quite the guy, we had a serious talk.
Headed to Vincent, talked with my friend Gabe about his newborn baby girl (very cool), and hit the framing hard. Polished off two doors and got set to finish the rest of 'em.
Many people for dinner. Brummers, Seitzes, and the household at two large tables. Ruthanne cooked some ridiculous spaghetti and hit the spot that I needed hit. I gave the DL on WDMO. Jeff Brummer talked a bit about his work at a hospice house. We learned that Seth may or may not have beat Carl twice at Jenga. The discussion lacked some finality.
I then headed back to the warehouse on St. Vincent where the framing occurs. I finished the custom hinge and strike preps for one door and tacked on the threshold for an exterior door that I'll need to get a 15 lite insert in tomorrow. I then organized a ton of disorganized items from super glue to hinge screws.
Praise God! I got a cold sore! I'm getting close to the end of my rope! Bring it!
Slow morning, not a lot of activity. Caught a mouse in the glue trap, spoke with Bud Rose, my boss, about hiring a new guy to frame, did a little gchatting and emailage.
The afternoon saw some reorganization of the warehouse by Mickey as well as a very cool conversation with a man whose last name is X. Quite the guy, we had a serious talk.
Headed to Vincent, talked with my friend Gabe about his newborn baby girl (very cool), and hit the framing hard. Polished off two doors and got set to finish the rest of 'em.
Many people for dinner. Brummers, Seitzes, and the household at two large tables. Ruthanne cooked some ridiculous spaghetti and hit the spot that I needed hit. I gave the DL on WDMO. Jeff Brummer talked a bit about his work at a hospice house. We learned that Seth may or may not have beat Carl twice at Jenga. The discussion lacked some finality.
I then headed back to the warehouse on St. Vincent where the framing occurs. I finished the custom hinge and strike preps for one door and tacked on the threshold for an exterior door that I'll need to get a 15 lite insert in tomorrow. I then organized a ton of disorganized items from super glue to hinge screws.
Praise God! I got a cold sore! I'm getting close to the end of my rope! Bring it!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Sunday Sunday
Laura Brummer's family arrived in town today. They're here to visit her and all of us and celebrate a little Christmas and do a little work. Her parents, Jeff and Dikka, are long-time members of People of Praise in Minnesota and have raised 10 kids, 6 of whom (including Laura) are now in Allendale.
We had a household meeting about all that we're planning for the next couple of weeks. Right now the household is working on creating and instituting systems by which we can sustain our life. There are so many areas of life that we want to concentrate on and so few of us to operate everything that we really need to formulate a common practice for many of the operations we need to do. Finances, food, cars and several other things are all slated for systemization.
Lord, help us do this well. Help us plan well, work with you and with each other, do what you do, the way you do it, with you.
We had a household meeting about all that we're planning for the next couple of weeks. Right now the household is working on creating and instituting systems by which we can sustain our life. There are so many areas of life that we want to concentrate on and so few of us to operate everything that we really need to formulate a common practice for many of the operations we need to do. Finances, food, cars and several other things are all slated for systemization.
Lord, help us do this well. Help us plan well, work with you and with each other, do what you do, the way you do it, with you.
Friday, December 14, 2007
A whole new life
A man from the neighborhood stopped by the other day. We've been helping him pay for his diabetes medication. He's been in a bad way; he can't see well, he has almost no energy, he can't work because his energy level is so low he can't stay on his feet. We are very careful with giving out money because it's such a powerful tool. Through serious conversations we've learned that his story is reliable and we've actually gone to the pharmacy with him to pick up his meds.
Unlike most folks we help out he's repaid us every time and even given us a couple small gifts in gratitude. This is totally unprecedented activity and we love to see gratitude like that blossom.
Recently, he called Nathan (the leader of our work here) to borrow some money to pay for getting his apartment room unlocked. Nathan, in telling me this, related that he wanted to help him out in this situation but that he really just wanted to give him a whole new life. The guy is half dead from diabetes, he's got no job, his apartment charges him $25 bucks when he locks his keys in, etc.
So, the guy comes over, after having gotten into his room, and he needs the money for his diabetes meds. He has his VCR with him for Nathan to hold until he pays us back (wow!). Nathan says something like, You need a whole new life and the guy says I'm getting one (again, wow!). Nathan, after 5 years in Allendale has been fed many similar lines, is a bit skeptical and asks What do you mean?
This guy explains: he's been to a doctor to talk about his diet and how he can get this disease under control. He's changed what he eats and has gained 5 pounds. He's drinking green tea with Vitamin C and not sugar (not the favored drink of the urban black male). He shows Nathan his half-empty bottle of the stuff to prove it. He's got a job offer. The world doesn't dissolve into an indistinguishable blur when he takes off his glasses. The Lord is at work!
Unlike most folks we help out he's repaid us every time and even given us a couple small gifts in gratitude. This is totally unprecedented activity and we love to see gratitude like that blossom.
Recently, he called Nathan (the leader of our work here) to borrow some money to pay for getting his apartment room unlocked. Nathan, in telling me this, related that he wanted to help him out in this situation but that he really just wanted to give him a whole new life. The guy is half dead from diabetes, he's got no job, his apartment charges him $25 bucks when he locks his keys in, etc.
So, the guy comes over, after having gotten into his room, and he needs the money for his diabetes meds. He has his VCR with him for Nathan to hold until he pays us back (wow!). Nathan says something like, You need a whole new life and the guy says I'm getting one (again, wow!). Nathan, after 5 years in Allendale has been fed many similar lines, is a bit skeptical and asks What do you mean?
This guy explains: he's been to a doctor to talk about his diet and how he can get this disease under control. He's changed what he eats and has gained 5 pounds. He's drinking green tea with Vitamin C and not sugar (not the favored drink of the urban black male). He shows Nathan his half-empty bottle of the stuff to prove it. He's got a job offer. The world doesn't dissolve into an indistinguishable blur when he takes off his glasses. The Lord is at work!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
New every morning
Hey! I'm back with another rigidly timed daily update! Right, apologies to any and all who have read any previous post and have hoped for further updates. My mind and soul have come to a kind of mellowness, at long last, so that I have not only thought about writing another entry but have actually done so.
I am now the manager of Windows, Doors and More Outlet, a building supplies store at 2119 Lakeshore Dr, Shreveport, LA 71103 (that's for all of you with Google Maps access). I left FedEx Home Delivery to take on the task of running this business. There's one basic reason for that departure: the Lord needs me at WDMO (affectionately referred to as "Widmo").
Since August, much and much has changed here on Yale St. Nathan and Genevieve Barrett have married at a world-changingly beautiful ceremony in South Bend. Mass was packed from front to back and left to right with enthusiastic friends and family of these two missionaries and celebrations across the country reverberated with the power of that weekend.
One week later, with hardly a breath drawn, I made the Covenant of the People of Praise in South Bend. I placed material, spiritual and financial possessions at the service of those with whom I made the Covenant and they did the same for me. We are a family in Christ.
And, skipping over the 24 guests for the Lord's Day after Thanksgiving, door framing training from David Zimmel, arrivals and departures of Bud and Sharon Rose, Chris Vieck, Ellen Reed, and Brian Couch, the two new useful sturdy lovely tables in the dining room of 1442, the common office with it's glass-topped tables that we made in 2 days we arrive at now.
Praise God, for his unification with us here, for his interest and involvement in our lives, for his patience and faithfulness to us, for his endurance, for his true and constant love. See you all later.
I am now the manager of Windows, Doors and More Outlet, a building supplies store at 2119 Lakeshore Dr, Shreveport, LA 71103 (that's for all of you with Google Maps access). I left FedEx Home Delivery to take on the task of running this business. There's one basic reason for that departure: the Lord needs me at WDMO (affectionately referred to as "Widmo").
Since August, much and much has changed here on Yale St. Nathan and Genevieve Barrett have married at a world-changingly beautiful ceremony in South Bend. Mass was packed from front to back and left to right with enthusiastic friends and family of these two missionaries and celebrations across the country reverberated with the power of that weekend.
One week later, with hardly a breath drawn, I made the Covenant of the People of Praise in South Bend. I placed material, spiritual and financial possessions at the service of those with whom I made the Covenant and they did the same for me. We are a family in Christ.
And, skipping over the 24 guests for the Lord's Day after Thanksgiving, door framing training from David Zimmel, arrivals and departures of Bud and Sharon Rose, Chris Vieck, Ellen Reed, and Brian Couch, the two new useful sturdy lovely tables in the dining room of 1442, the common office with it's glass-topped tables that we made in 2 days we arrive at now.
Praise God, for his unification with us here, for his interest and involvement in our lives, for his patience and faithfulness to us, for his endurance, for his true and constant love. See you all later.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Weekend and week
The weekend whirled by leaving us with more to do and less time to do it. Praise God for helping us stay at the end of our rope.
Those of us who could attended the birthday party of one of the kids in the neighborhood. He's 13 now and insisted on sitting with the adults now that he was one of them. His parents were very grateful to us and made it clear that they viewed us as the guests they most wanted to attend.
We had an excellent ham and rice and beans and coleslaw-type-dish and biscuits and cinnamony carrots Lord's Day prepared by Brian and Laura and followed by sweet potato pie for dessert. It tasted very good. We then proceeded to the room designated, though not currently laid out like, the Library. We played Traffic Jam which is a game where you have to get the red car out of the parking lot without breaking any of the other cars in half. Jeannette and Brian played some piano too.
Sunday we had HH meeting about the common spaces in our houses and how to best organize them for our lives. Many subsequent discussions will trace their origins back to that one. Dan Dal Pra arrived on Saturday night and he and Ricky Thomas accompanied us to the volleyball court where some serious comebacks were staged and the side facing the street never lost.
Then we came home, showered, the women met about Genevieve's shower and the men went out on some missionary work. The shower is now in a much more organized state than it ever has been and we made some real progress in the neighborhood as well.
Breakfast this morning was buttermilk pancakes, hardboiled eggs, and assortment of fruits, and French pressed coffee. The Lord is afoot here, going to WDMO, the clinic, '34, and elsewhere.
Those of us who could attended the birthday party of one of the kids in the neighborhood. He's 13 now and insisted on sitting with the adults now that he was one of them. His parents were very grateful to us and made it clear that they viewed us as the guests they most wanted to attend.
We had an excellent ham and rice and beans and coleslaw-type-dish and biscuits and cinnamony carrots Lord's Day prepared by Brian and Laura and followed by sweet potato pie for dessert. It tasted very good. We then proceeded to the room designated, though not currently laid out like, the Library. We played Traffic Jam which is a game where you have to get the red car out of the parking lot without breaking any of the other cars in half. Jeannette and Brian played some piano too.
Sunday we had HH meeting about the common spaces in our houses and how to best organize them for our lives. Many subsequent discussions will trace their origins back to that one. Dan Dal Pra arrived on Saturday night and he and Ricky Thomas accompanied us to the volleyball court where some serious comebacks were staged and the side facing the street never lost.
Then we came home, showered, the women met about Genevieve's shower and the men went out on some missionary work. The shower is now in a much more organized state than it ever has been and we made some real progress in the neighborhood as well.
Breakfast this morning was buttermilk pancakes, hardboiled eggs, and assortment of fruits, and French pressed coffee. The Lord is afoot here, going to WDMO, the clinic, '34, and elsewhere.
Friday, August 24, 2007
The best laid plans
Now, the end of August, our household has taken a look at itself and found that half of us were not in Allendale for the last few months. And no one in that group has spent more than 9 consecutive months here at any time. So we have a situation where we need to start making some plans and laying some new foundations.
That's all good fun though. The newest folks in the HH are Laura Brummer, Jeanette Zimmel, Genevieve DeCelles, Brian Couch and Tom Duddy. None of them could described as rookies to this kind of work. We have a high powered group here, in fact, and all of us are in search of ways to out do the others in love and service of one another. It's a friendly competition, involving only nominal amounts of pranking and struggles for control of the throw pillows.
Brian took an amazing picture of a wasp caught in a spider web.
Tom has started attending nursing classes.
Nathan's been working on action items for the HH to discuss.
He and Genevieve are planning their wedding with great fervor.
Joan's got two kinds of school going on at once.
Cathy has been working on a new menu plan for a new year.
And I'm behind on everything. That's what lunch time and days off are for though.
That's all good fun though. The newest folks in the HH are Laura Brummer, Jeanette Zimmel, Genevieve DeCelles, Brian Couch and Tom Duddy. None of them could described as rookies to this kind of work. We have a high powered group here, in fact, and all of us are in search of ways to out do the others in love and service of one another. It's a friendly competition, involving only nominal amounts of pranking and struggles for control of the throw pillows.
Brian took an amazing picture of a wasp caught in a spider web.
Tom has started attending nursing classes.
Nathan's been working on action items for the HH to discuss.
He and Genevieve are planning their wedding with great fervor.
Joan's got two kinds of school going on at once.
Cathy has been working on a new menu plan for a new year.
And I'm behind on everything. That's what lunch time and days off are for though.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Couldn't think of a good reason not to do a short post. After all, this is the 4 month anniversary of the blog that I started. The long absence will go basically without comment.
The newest things around here include a heightened awareness of the importance of serving my brothers and sisters in People of Praise. In a conversation at the recently concluded Company convention Nick mentioned realizing in prayer that serving the body of Christ was a way that he could serve the Lord. I took a note on that and forgot about it until my prayer time today when the Lord suggested that I serve others as a way of serving him. I think we're on to something here...
My money-making work continues to surprise me. I've interviewed for my bosses job over the weekend and hope to hear the result of that interview within the next week. Wild.
Joan, Brian, Cathy and I went shopping for emergency supplies for the household. In compliance with PoP suggestions regarding disaster preparedness we're packing away enough stuff to keep us alive for a week in case we suddenly become cut off from all grids and infrastructure. We're not done yet but major progress has been made.
By the way, if you ever get a chance, Szala's on Archer Ave in Chicago, just a half mile away from Midway airport, is a nice place. It has the taste and spirit of Europe, primarily Poland, and includes some pita bread with lard and cheese as an essential appetizer. Pope John Paul II, I kid you not, penned a letter to the proprietor of this fine establishment and gave it his blessing. As if authentic pierogi was not a good enough reason to go already!
The newest things around here include a heightened awareness of the importance of serving my brothers and sisters in People of Praise. In a conversation at the recently concluded Company convention Nick mentioned realizing in prayer that serving the body of Christ was a way that he could serve the Lord. I took a note on that and forgot about it until my prayer time today when the Lord suggested that I serve others as a way of serving him. I think we're on to something here...
My money-making work continues to surprise me. I've interviewed for my bosses job over the weekend and hope to hear the result of that interview within the next week. Wild.
Joan, Brian, Cathy and I went shopping for emergency supplies for the household. In compliance with PoP suggestions regarding disaster preparedness we're packing away enough stuff to keep us alive for a week in case we suddenly become cut off from all grids and infrastructure. We're not done yet but major progress has been made.
By the way, if you ever get a chance, Szala's on Archer Ave in Chicago, just a half mile away from Midway airport, is a nice place. It has the taste and spirit of Europe, primarily Poland, and includes some pita bread with lard and cheese as an essential appetizer. Pope John Paul II, I kid you not, penned a letter to the proprietor of this fine establishment and gave it his blessing. As if authentic pierogi was not a good enough reason to go already!
Sunday, April 22, 2007
4 teeth lighter
That's right, no more wisdom. I had oral surgery on Friday afternoon to remove all four of my wisdom teeth. Getting knocked out was a pretty wild experience. I snapped out of it pretty quickly though and Nathan drove me home along with 2 of the 6 movies I've watched in the last couple days. Recovery is going quite well and I'm learning how to manage the pain and encourage the healing.
Work continues to improve. A bit more pressure than I was expecting for the first couple weeks at my new position but the rewards in experience and boosted paychecks are very helpful. It's good that I had been making enough money to start out with so that I dont have to rearrange my finances. I'll just increase my stage 12 payments and create a small "professional" category to pay for things like work lunches and the maintenance of a less hole-ly wardrobe.
Next big item on the schedule: Naomi's college graduation. I'll be flying to Portland on May 4th and staying out there til the 10th. Looking forward to it.
Work continues to improve. A bit more pressure than I was expecting for the first couple weeks at my new position but the rewards in experience and boosted paychecks are very helpful. It's good that I had been making enough money to start out with so that I dont have to rearrange my finances. I'll just increase my stage 12 payments and create a small "professional" category to pay for things like work lunches and the maintenance of a less hole-ly wardrobe.
Next big item on the schedule: Naomi's college graduation. I'll be flying to Portland on May 4th and staying out there til the 10th. Looking forward to it.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Bleary-eyed and smiling
Not quite like those famous Irish eyes, but you get the idea.
On to my daily update: Here's what's been happening since yesterday(here "yesterday" means "approximately 1-2 months ago when I actually wrote a decent-sized update on this here blog thing"): (editor's note, we have now been double-coloned. I'm not sure what that means for the future of English punctuation) (also, too many parentheses) (way too many) I got that new job title!
and worked lots of hours!
and Easter!
and saw a bunch of cool people at Jack and Teresa's wedding like Sean Connolly and Debbie Mixell and the Murphys and Slatterys and Reinhards and Pingels and many more!
and I did my taxes early!
and we have a lawnmower that works!
and I'm out of good update material but expect more in future as my hours begin to shrink down to sub-60 hour weeks and leave more time in the evening!
God bless you all
On to my daily update: Here's what's been happening since yesterday(here "yesterday" means "approximately 1-2 months ago when I actually wrote a decent-sized update on this here blog thing"): (editor's note, we have now been double-coloned. I'm not sure what that means for the future of English punctuation) (also, too many parentheses) (way too many) I got that new job title!
and worked lots of hours!
and Easter!
and saw a bunch of cool people at Jack and Teresa's wedding like Sean Connolly and Debbie Mixell and the Murphys and Slatterys and Reinhards and Pingels and many more!
and I did my taxes early!
and we have a lawnmower that works!
and I'm out of good update material but expect more in future as my hours begin to shrink down to sub-60 hour weeks and leave more time in the evening!
God bless you all
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Quick progress update
I've gotten into the habit of working ridiculous hours at FedEx. Strictly speaking, this is not a habit but rather something I have defined as a necessity due to my strong desire to see to it that everything gets done right as soon as a possible. To accomplish that goal I must work 10-12 hours per day (sometimes more, unfortunately) during my Tuesday-Saturday week. This week, has thus far been particularly hectic.
However, and this is an enormouse "however", I got the new position that I have been looking for! If you were to run into someone today and say "Hey, close friend or acquaintance, do you know anyone who is a Service Manager at FedEx Home Delivery in Shreveport?" it is likely that they will say, "Why no, close friend or person I dont remember meeting, I don't know anyone who is a Service Manager at FedEx Home Delivery in Shreveport, especially if you're refering to the Shreveport in Louisiana." And then you could say, "Well let me enlighten you to the service managerial positions at FedEx HD in S'port, LA. This dude, Josh, my bud and long time homie, is currently the numero uno fulltime salaried getting paid a thoroughly decent wage guy there in Shreveport, LAlaland" and you would not be lying.
Praise God! He's blessed my work, given HD a great overall manager in Tim, my boss, and kept me sane throughout the trying month of March. Now we just need to get someone to fill my position in the week or so to get things back to normal.
However, and this is an enormouse "however", I got the new position that I have been looking for! If you were to run into someone today and say "Hey, close friend or acquaintance, do you know anyone who is a Service Manager at FedEx Home Delivery in Shreveport?" it is likely that they will say, "Why no, close friend or person I dont remember meeting, I don't know anyone who is a Service Manager at FedEx Home Delivery in Shreveport, especially if you're refering to the Shreveport in Louisiana." And then you could say, "Well let me enlighten you to the service managerial positions at FedEx HD in S'port, LA. This dude, Josh, my bud and long time homie, is currently the numero uno fulltime salaried getting paid a thoroughly decent wage guy there in Shreveport, LAlaland" and you would not be lying.
Praise God! He's blessed my work, given HD a great overall manager in Tim, my boss, and kept me sane throughout the trying month of March. Now we just need to get someone to fill my position in the week or so to get things back to normal.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Forgive, please, I am but a man
So soon in the game i need to rely on the tired old "i was so tired and it was late and...plus i was tired..." excuse. But I'm not tired now so here's a little peek at life in the 'dale.
Widmo is safely ensconced in the new warehouse on Lakeshore Drive. It's a far superiour location with easy freeway access and within a 3 minute drive of our houses on Yale Ave. David, Tom, and Brian are very happy with that, as are we all.
I'm going to be officially moved to a new, higher position at FedEx this coming Thrusday. The Lord has really blessed my work for this company and I am most grateful for that.
I turned 24 last Wednesday. Me and Jack Bauer are good buddies. Friends and family from around the US let me know of their love and that was great. Also, I recieved several phone calls from fellow members of the Company wishing me happy birthday and it was good to be able to share some time with those guys.
The work in Indy continues to move forward. Nick, Rus and Jon recently hosted Abe Olson for a brief but productive stay. He was out there to look into some grad school possibilities and was, from what I understand, successful.
The lawnmower's in the shop, so's my bike, but no cars so that's good. now i am tired. 4:30 is still early the 16th time. praise god!
Widmo is safely ensconced in the new warehouse on Lakeshore Drive. It's a far superiour location with easy freeway access and within a 3 minute drive of our houses on Yale Ave. David, Tom, and Brian are very happy with that, as are we all.
I'm going to be officially moved to a new, higher position at FedEx this coming Thrusday. The Lord has really blessed my work for this company and I am most grateful for that.
I turned 24 last Wednesday. Me and Jack Bauer are good buddies. Friends and family from around the US let me know of their love and that was great. Also, I recieved several phone calls from fellow members of the Company wishing me happy birthday and it was good to be able to share some time with those guys.
The work in Indy continues to move forward. Nick, Rus and Jon recently hosted Abe Olson for a brief but productive stay. He was out there to look into some grad school possibilities and was, from what I understand, successful.
The lawnmower's in the shop, so's my bike, but no cars so that's good. now i am tired. 4:30 is still early the 16th time. praise god!
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Life loves back
I love life, I really do. Some parts of it and all of it. And it loves me back. When I tend to my life and to our life it returns the favor. What I mean is, when you declare Christ into the world He declares you back. What I mean is, when I declare "This household, these people, this community, this Lord, is the foundation of my life!" they all say to me "Be Josh as hard as you can and we love you for it!".
We've grown close down here in Allendale. Brian and Tom and Cathy and Liz, Gretchen and David and Joan and myself, Val and Ruth and Connie, Carra and Terry all went to watch a movie on a big screen at a Methodist church just outside of Benton, LA. We had muffalettas and pop (or soda, i forget which) and some excellent potato/fries/goodness. We all, from kids to adults, had a really good time.
Our life in household is so joyfully reaping the benefits of the life that has been and continues to be lived in the People of Praise. We are lead by leaders who have learned from leaders; we have been raised to pray by men and women who pray constantly; we know and love God because our forerunners in the People of Praise have been following his lead for decades. Only our dedication to Him and to our life do justice to the depth of our gratitude.
Hmm, that sounds pretty, well, heady. Oh well. I mean it.
We've grown close down here in Allendale. Brian and Tom and Cathy and Liz, Gretchen and David and Joan and myself, Val and Ruth and Connie, Carra and Terry all went to watch a movie on a big screen at a Methodist church just outside of Benton, LA. We had muffalettas and pop (or soda, i forget which) and some excellent potato/fries/goodness. We all, from kids to adults, had a really good time.
Our life in household is so joyfully reaping the benefits of the life that has been and continues to be lived in the People of Praise. We are lead by leaders who have learned from leaders; we have been raised to pray by men and women who pray constantly; we know and love God because our forerunners in the People of Praise have been following his lead for decades. Only our dedication to Him and to our life do justice to the depth of our gratitude.
Hmm, that sounds pretty, well, heady. Oh well. I mean it.
Neuron smashings
I wish to liken my past week with the particle smashers in this world that scientists use to discover what really small particles are comprised of. Primarily, they find that they are composed of really really small particles. That is cool. Some of the really really small particles are very useful to expanding our knowledge of how really big stuff works. That is also cool.
So, I've been smashing my neurons for a week. The service manager at HD has quit, leaving a gaping hole in our staff. Precisely one third of our total mass is no longer present. Therefore, in the interest of puting my best Josh forward and also making my life easier (believe it or not) I've been working very hard.
I'm learning everything I can about everything that it is, or might be, my responsibility. I've been smashing my neurons, finding out what I'm capable of. I'm learning how fast I can learn and how well I can learn at that speed. It's real work. And I like it.
So, I've been smashing my neurons for a week. The service manager at HD has quit, leaving a gaping hole in our staff. Precisely one third of our total mass is no longer present. Therefore, in the interest of puting my best Josh forward and also making my life easier (believe it or not) I've been working very hard.
I'm learning everything I can about everything that it is, or might be, my responsibility. I've been smashing my neurons, finding out what I'm capable of. I'm learning how fast I can learn and how well I can learn at that speed. It's real work. And I like it.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Coming back up for air
I dont think anyone will be surprised if I point out that my life has gotten more busy since the whole "Star of the Week maybe new position" thing happened. I've essentially taken over all of the daily acitivities of myself and the co-worker on suspension and, as I may have mentioned, it's impossible to add more to my day and expect to have it all done in 8 hours or less. So I've been working longer days. Oh well, you got to give a little to get a lot.
This weekend was wonderful however. We had a birthday party several weeks late for Gretchen on Saturday evening and really had some fun. We brought our fire pit to the river and grilled some burgers and brots and so forth. Much fun was had.
We also had a very nice brunch on Sunday morning at Columbia Cafe. There was some news to shared and some fellowship to be had and some very very tasty food to devour. We proceeded to chill for a bit and then play 5 games of volleyball and have a serious calendar meeting. We have a meeting at the beginning of every month to plan out as much of the up-coming three months as we can. It's tiring.
David and I invited to Brian to join us at S'port Port for some indoor soccer on Sunday night. We played an intense gaming, bringing home a "W" after a couple very fine halves of play.
I began the process of scheduling oral surgery to remove all 4 of my wisdom teeth yesterday. Looks like it might not actually happen for about a month and a half due to work and home scheduling conflicts but the ball is officially rolling.
And now I can cross one more item off my list: "write a new blog post"
This weekend was wonderful however. We had a birthday party several weeks late for Gretchen on Saturday evening and really had some fun. We brought our fire pit to the river and grilled some burgers and brots and so forth. Much fun was had.
We also had a very nice brunch on Sunday morning at Columbia Cafe. There was some news to shared and some fellowship to be had and some very very tasty food to devour. We proceeded to chill for a bit and then play 5 games of volleyball and have a serious calendar meeting. We have a meeting at the beginning of every month to plan out as much of the up-coming three months as we can. It's tiring.
David and I invited to Brian to join us at S'port Port for some indoor soccer on Sunday night. We played an intense gaming, bringing home a "W" after a couple very fine halves of play.
I began the process of scheduling oral surgery to remove all 4 of my wisdom teeth yesterday. Looks like it might not actually happen for about a month and a half due to work and home scheduling conflicts but the ball is officially rolling.
And now I can cross one more item off my list: "write a new blog post"
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Quite a day
So "quite" was this day that this is going to be a short post so that I can get some sleep. I was nominated for the Texas Region of Home Delivery's "Star of the Week" by a member of the Region staff. In other words, on the men that came to our terminal last week took a look at all the work I had done to get files and processes where they needed to be that he decided to recommend me as the best employee of the region. Pretty neat. It's actually a decently big deal to be singled out like this. Star of the Week doesnt actually get awarded every week and it takes someone important thinking you've done a really excellent job to get nominated for one. It's like getting an A+ on a test you thought no one else knew you were taking. And it portends good things for my near future here. Odds of getting a promotion incline steeply when the region staff thinks you stand head and shoulders above everyone, even if only for a week. Praise God!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Tuesday's Gone
I've fallen a bit behind. My excuse is that Tuesdays are always full of life. The beginning of the week, everyone's getting their balance back at work, including me, and there's always something going on around our house when I get back. My morning consisted of tracking down some rental info and getting that taken care of. I'm working at anticipating problems and solving them before that need to be solved.
We had a meeting for men in our neighborhood in the evening. Several folks showed up though fewer than had said would come. We had a fine meeting anyway, some good thoughts were shared, we prayed together and kicked off this phase of our life in the neighborhood well.
After that we came in to a wonderful meal prepared by Gretchen; some amazing white sauce and chicken and mashed potatos. It was a sight for a sore stomach, I can assure you. We chowed down and cleaned up and then sort of lounged into the evening. The women were doing women's group and their taxes and the guys did some reading and then watched a cheap-thrills action flick.
We had a meeting for men in our neighborhood in the evening. Several folks showed up though fewer than had said would come. We had a fine meeting anyway, some good thoughts were shared, we prayed together and kicked off this phase of our life in the neighborhood well.
After that we came in to a wonderful meal prepared by Gretchen; some amazing white sauce and chicken and mashed potatos. It was a sight for a sore stomach, I can assure you. We chowed down and cleaned up and then sort of lounged into the evening. The women were doing women's group and their taxes and the guys did some reading and then watched a cheap-thrills action flick.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Slow to rev
I had a pretty slow, pedantic day today. Pistons did not fire in unison, chemicals did not produce the expected solution, the package did not make it to the right doorstep the first time. Not to say that there was failure; "no failure in Christ" is a phrase we like to cling to down here. However, it was not like last Monday.
No doubt I've become accustomed to a fairly high level of productivity over the past weeks. As I planned for today over the weekend I knew it was going to be slow. I was prepared for lots of empty space in my day and I was prepared to fill it. Several wonderful books have recently come into my sphere of influence and I planned to do a lot of reading today.
Love and Friendship by Jules Toner, Choice Theory by William Glasser, The Adventures of Tintin by Herge, Gear by Doug TenNapel, the Bible by...well, lots of people. These all recieved a great deal of attention from me today as I swapped them out, one after the other, with a great deal of help from coffee.
I was eventually involved in some more active pursuits. I took Mickey to Widmo for work, went out with Nathan, Tom and Brian to invite men to a meeting tomorrow and then made my way to dinner. We had some encouraging encounters with some men in our neighborhood and I'm optimistic about our meeting.
Joan did excellently well on her final, 96%!! This brought us all great joy. We rejoiced. Together. And with her. We also had a good meeting with the Allendale folks, hashing out some details on our message as the People of Praise to our neighbors. Everyone was tuned in and we ended the meeting by praying for Ruth's leg and saw some results! We hope for much more on that front.
No doubt I've become accustomed to a fairly high level of productivity over the past weeks. As I planned for today over the weekend I knew it was going to be slow. I was prepared for lots of empty space in my day and I was prepared to fill it. Several wonderful books have recently come into my sphere of influence and I planned to do a lot of reading today.
Love and Friendship by Jules Toner, Choice Theory by William Glasser, The Adventures of Tintin by Herge, Gear by Doug TenNapel, the Bible by...well, lots of people. These all recieved a great deal of attention from me today as I swapped them out, one after the other, with a great deal of help from coffee.
I was eventually involved in some more active pursuits. I took Mickey to Widmo for work, went out with Nathan, Tom and Brian to invite men to a meeting tomorrow and then made my way to dinner. We had some encouraging encounters with some men in our neighborhood and I'm optimistic about our meeting.
Joan did excellently well on her final, 96%!! This brought us all great joy. We rejoiced. Together. And with her. We also had a good meeting with the Allendale folks, hashing out some details on our message as the People of Praise to our neighbors. Everyone was tuned in and we ended the meeting by praying for Ruth's leg and saw some results! We hope for much more on that front.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
The sigh of relief
Aw yeaw! The day of rest. This morning Nathan said that God knew what he was doing when he started that tradition. I actually had a hard time adjusting to relaxation today. It took me a while to figure it out but by 1400 i realized that I was just too keyed up. I wanted to have an agenda to attack and there wasnt one. I did fine though, did a little reading, ran some errands and that helped out.
We had a barbeque with a family in our neighborhood today. Sausage, ribs, chicken, lovely. Liz made some scrumptious potato salad and we had beers and pops and Nathan's mom's mac & cheese too.
It was nice and warm, sunny, and a bit of a northerly wind. I played catch with Eric, a kid who's friends with us. He's pretty good as it turns out, though he did throw one that i followed, blinded by the sun, into a big bush. I got a little bloody but the bush is fine, dont worry.
The guys and Ruth left for the branch meeting while the women had women's group with Lacondra. At the meeting Ron gave a talk about personal prayer that got a very positive reaction from the branch. I liked it too.
The Missionary Company, of which I'm a member, had a conference call at 7:30. Nick recently put up a wiki for us to use and we had a kind of walk-through session on how to work with the website. I bumbled through our side of it, made a few mistakes, but we've got a lot of smart people around here and I think they learned everything they needed to know anyway.
Wrapped up the evening with some Winnie the Pooh followed by Hot Chip, my new favorite band, as well as some Ratatat. Michael Busk has told me I must check out Broken Social Scene so that's on the list as is the Rhapsody "Lollapalooza 2006" playlist which features several bands that I already like.
We had a barbeque with a family in our neighborhood today. Sausage, ribs, chicken, lovely. Liz made some scrumptious potato salad and we had beers and pops and Nathan's mom's mac & cheese too.
It was nice and warm, sunny, and a bit of a northerly wind. I played catch with Eric, a kid who's friends with us. He's pretty good as it turns out, though he did throw one that i followed, blinded by the sun, into a big bush. I got a little bloody but the bush is fine, dont worry.
The guys and Ruth left for the branch meeting while the women had women's group with Lacondra. At the meeting Ron gave a talk about personal prayer that got a very positive reaction from the branch. I liked it too.
The Missionary Company, of which I'm a member, had a conference call at 7:30. Nick recently put up a wiki for us to use and we had a kind of walk-through session on how to work with the website. I bumbled through our side of it, made a few mistakes, but we've got a lot of smart people around here and I think they learned everything they needed to know anyway.
Wrapped up the evening with some Winnie the Pooh followed by Hot Chip, my new favorite band, as well as some Ratatat. Michael Busk has told me I must check out Broken Social Scene so that's on the list as is the Rhapsody "Lollapalooza 2006" playlist which features several bands that I already like.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
The work-week ending
Ah, the sweet smell of Saturday night! I know few better; maybe bacon and eggs and toast on a cold, snowy morning with a hint of the fire burning in the fireplace would beat it but it's hard to say. For sheer reliability Saturday night's smell is nice.
I'm assuming our Saturday morning breakfast with the Seitzes went well. I was unable to make an appearance because of my work schedule so that's too bad. It was a pretty exciting workday actually. A storm rolled through our area that beats out every other storm of the past two years in terms of ferocity and damage. There were high winds, gallons of rain, and at least one tornado. I watched from the second story of our office while rain was whipped over the ridgelines of near by buildings. Thick and heavy as waves over the gunwales of a ship it snapped and curled over corrugated tin sheds and around trucks in our parking lot. Tim's wife called him to say that she woke up late and looked out the window to see house in their neighborhood without roofs, privacy fences replaces by red-clay trenches. The tornado left some traces of its passage.
Gretchen and Cathy held the second Camera Club during this part of the storm. It wasn't nearly as bad in our part of the city. They stayed inside '46, out of the rain, for the first part and then took advantage of the corruscating sky as the jagged tail of the storm crinkled its way across this part of the globe. Cathy was glad to dive into something she loves. It's been a rough week at the office. Her camera arrived via FedEx (though not very smoothly; I need to look into that) and that was a great blessing for her as well.
Joan's been studying very hard. She's got a final on Monday and has to bear down on her material to make this class relinquish the "A" is been guarding until now. She sort of holes up in the back of '46, does her version of Emo Phillips' cramming, and emerge on the other side of Monday with an excellent grade.
Gretchen's been steadily plugging away at her work in the office. I believe the latest version of the Partners in Service newsletter is nearly finished. She takes no small joy in the Camera Club that she and Cathy founded.
Brian spent today working on a coffee table that he's putting together with material from Widmo. He's had the opportunity to use several of his favorite tools: the planer, the router, the hammer, the brain. He was the subject of several Camera Club photos.
Thomas and David worked their tails off through the storm down at Widmo. I recieved and gave a call to David regarding the weather; whether he and Tom ought to stay at work was up for grabs. They did, had a productive day, got home on time. David came home for lunch just after I did and told Nathan and I a story about the headaches that can accompany retail business. He had a horror story of an insane but monied customer making an incomplete and therefore intenall inconsistent order. That, I can assure you, and so could David, is extremely frustrating.
Nathan's been working hard at the coordinating-lots-of-activities business. We had barbeque planned for Saturday; then it was on Thursday; then it was next Saturday; then it was back to this Saturday; and now it's Sunday. He's a marvel of flexibility and level-headed leadership. I've been fortunate to have some good conversations with him during my lunch breaks this week.
We had a nice, easy pizza dinner. Homemade pizza of course. And beer. It was nice. A bit of tense conversation about the broken public education system during dinner was ended smoothly and we all relaxed to a movie and some dessert. It was a nice way to end the day.
I'm assuming our Saturday morning breakfast with the Seitzes went well. I was unable to make an appearance because of my work schedule so that's too bad. It was a pretty exciting workday actually. A storm rolled through our area that beats out every other storm of the past two years in terms of ferocity and damage. There were high winds, gallons of rain, and at least one tornado. I watched from the second story of our office while rain was whipped over the ridgelines of near by buildings. Thick and heavy as waves over the gunwales of a ship it snapped and curled over corrugated tin sheds and around trucks in our parking lot. Tim's wife called him to say that she woke up late and looked out the window to see house in their neighborhood without roofs, privacy fences replaces by red-clay trenches. The tornado left some traces of its passage.
Gretchen and Cathy held the second Camera Club during this part of the storm. It wasn't nearly as bad in our part of the city. They stayed inside '46, out of the rain, for the first part and then took advantage of the corruscating sky as the jagged tail of the storm crinkled its way across this part of the globe. Cathy was glad to dive into something she loves. It's been a rough week at the office. Her camera arrived via FedEx (though not very smoothly; I need to look into that) and that was a great blessing for her as well.
Joan's been studying very hard. She's got a final on Monday and has to bear down on her material to make this class relinquish the "A" is been guarding until now. She sort of holes up in the back of '46, does her version of Emo Phillips' cramming, and emerge on the other side of Monday with an excellent grade.
Gretchen's been steadily plugging away at her work in the office. I believe the latest version of the Partners in Service newsletter is nearly finished. She takes no small joy in the Camera Club that she and Cathy founded.
Brian spent today working on a coffee table that he's putting together with material from Widmo. He's had the opportunity to use several of his favorite tools: the planer, the router, the hammer, the brain. He was the subject of several Camera Club photos.
Thomas and David worked their tails off through the storm down at Widmo. I recieved and gave a call to David regarding the weather; whether he and Tom ought to stay at work was up for grabs. They did, had a productive day, got home on time. David came home for lunch just after I did and told Nathan and I a story about the headaches that can accompany retail business. He had a horror story of an insane but monied customer making an incomplete and therefore intenall inconsistent order. That, I can assure you, and so could David, is extremely frustrating.
Nathan's been working hard at the coordinating-lots-of-activities business. We had barbeque planned for Saturday; then it was on Thursday; then it was next Saturday; then it was back to this Saturday; and now it's Sunday. He's a marvel of flexibility and level-headed leadership. I've been fortunate to have some good conversations with him during my lunch breaks this week.
We had a nice, easy pizza dinner. Homemade pizza of course. And beer. It was nice. A bit of tense conversation about the broken public education system during dinner was ended smoothly and we all relaxed to a movie and some dessert. It was a nice way to end the day.
Friday, February 23, 2007
Oh the goodness of Quicken
Yes, another day has gone by and I am tired. Today got a little extra kick in the pants for me because a couple of guys who work for Home Delivery on the region level were in our terminal today. They gave out some good advice, fixed some problems and generally added more to my list of daily tasks. This is a great blessing because I'm basically learning how to take care of every piece of information that is worth taking care of and in the process I am learning what they all mean.
Over the lunch hour I was able to have a conversation with Nathan about finances. We have been doing some pretty cool things of late, such as buying a minivan!, and this requires some extra-special attention on the money end of things. Yesterday I discovered a heretofore unknown and extremely powerful tool in Quicken: The Analyze Button. I use Quicken to keep track of our finances and it has been very good to us up til now. From this point forward it is going to make our financial lives much smoother.
The Analyze Button reveals a bar graph containing month-by-month totals for the expenditure in any one budget category as well as calculating a yearly average. In other words, with a couple clicks you can see how well your budget matches your actual expenditures as well as which months were closer or further from your initial budget. This is wonderful; it accumulates and organizes the data into terrifically useful categories and allows me to get a feel for how well we're budgeting with just a glance.
So that's great. Also, David and I recieved a package with some books we'd ordered from Amazon. A telling collection I think: The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun with Paul Hattaway, Gear by Doug Tennapel, and Love and Friendship by Jules Toner. Search away....
I prepared a meatless dinner that was very tasty. We had black beans and rice tortillas with some cumin and oregano and salt and pepper and two cheeses and avocados and tomatoes and sour cream and salsa and chips and salad and olives and it was nummy. Nathan wrastled up some drinks and we had a good conversation about our days and enjoying our meal in between bites. Joan and Liz needed to meet during dinner because we dont have any more time to spare.
Then we cleaned up and headed out to Party Central for some put-put under the lights. We had fun, especially Cathy and Liz and myself. And especially Brian and Liz and I when we drove home and beat the minivan with everyone else in it and cracked open some beers and skipped ahead on a DVD so it would look like we'd been home for a while and had just been lounging around because it took the other car soooo long to get back. We had a good time with that.
Now we're all convalescing, ready for a new day tomorrow and a Lord's Day barbeque with a family in the neighborhood. People of Praise: Changing the World One BBQ at a Time.
Over the lunch hour I was able to have a conversation with Nathan about finances. We have been doing some pretty cool things of late, such as buying a minivan!, and this requires some extra-special attention on the money end of things. Yesterday I discovered a heretofore unknown and extremely powerful tool in Quicken: The Analyze Button. I use Quicken to keep track of our finances and it has been very good to us up til now. From this point forward it is going to make our financial lives much smoother.
The Analyze Button reveals a bar graph containing month-by-month totals for the expenditure in any one budget category as well as calculating a yearly average. In other words, with a couple clicks you can see how well your budget matches your actual expenditures as well as which months were closer or further from your initial budget. This is wonderful; it accumulates and organizes the data into terrifically useful categories and allows me to get a feel for how well we're budgeting with just a glance.
So that's great. Also, David and I recieved a package with some books we'd ordered from Amazon. A telling collection I think: The Heavenly Man by Brother Yun with Paul Hattaway, Gear by Doug Tennapel, and Love and Friendship by Jules Toner. Search away....
I prepared a meatless dinner that was very tasty. We had black beans and rice tortillas with some cumin and oregano and salt and pepper and two cheeses and avocados and tomatoes and sour cream and salsa and chips and salad and olives and it was nummy. Nathan wrastled up some drinks and we had a good conversation about our days and enjoying our meal in between bites. Joan and Liz needed to meet during dinner because we dont have any more time to spare.
Then we cleaned up and headed out to Party Central for some put-put under the lights. We had fun, especially Cathy and Liz and myself. And especially Brian and Liz and I when we drove home and beat the minivan with everyone else in it and cracked open some beers and skipped ahead on a DVD so it would look like we'd been home for a while and had just been lounging around because it took the other car soooo long to get back. We had a good time with that.
Now we're all convalescing, ready for a new day tomorrow and a Lord's Day barbeque with a family in the neighborhood. People of Praise: Changing the World One BBQ at a Time.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Thursday, The middle
Not for everyone, surely. But the middle of my work week. The halfway point. All downhill from here. The fulcrum on which turns the week. It's appropriate at this time to note that I collect idioms. A conesieur one might say, a sampler of linguistic oddities. A peddler of the melded craftwork of etymology, tradition, and common sense. I like words. Tons.
So this day was full of activity. The morning consisted of some intense prayer for our neighborhood and our neighbors and our work to lift them up. We planned on going out to visit some of the folks who live near us and we prayed for them and for us that we'd be able to make more and better inroads into their lives and that they would speak the word of the Lord to us. Then we parted ways for our jobs and looked forward to the time when we could be back together.
From the sounds of it Widmo had another good day. David told us a story of how he got a door at the shop and sold the same door to a customer 2.5 hours later! What a salesman. Joan was able to have a successful conversation with a fellow teacher and clear up some confusion that the two of them had been experiencing. Nathan invented a good meal: scalloped potatoes, white sauce, ham and chicken layered in a 9x13 pan and sprinkled with cheese. It was delish. We've floated a few names: the Delish Dish, 2/22 (today's date). Any other ideas?
Of course this meal was enjoyed only after we had all gone for our walks in the neighborhood. We talked to a whole bunch of our neighbors; we made some new connections, solidified a few more, and generally proclaimed ourselves and Christ into the neighborhood.
So this day was full of activity. The morning consisted of some intense prayer for our neighborhood and our neighbors and our work to lift them up. We planned on going out to visit some of the folks who live near us and we prayed for them and for us that we'd be able to make more and better inroads into their lives and that they would speak the word of the Lord to us. Then we parted ways for our jobs and looked forward to the time when we could be back together.
From the sounds of it Widmo had another good day. David told us a story of how he got a door at the shop and sold the same door to a customer 2.5 hours later! What a salesman. Joan was able to have a successful conversation with a fellow teacher and clear up some confusion that the two of them had been experiencing. Nathan invented a good meal: scalloped potatoes, white sauce, ham and chicken layered in a 9x13 pan and sprinkled with cheese. It was delish. We've floated a few names: the Delish Dish, 2/22 (today's date). Any other ideas?
Of course this meal was enjoyed only after we had all gone for our walks in the neighborhood. We talked to a whole bunch of our neighbors; we made some new connections, solidified a few more, and generally proclaimed ourselves and Christ into the neighborhood.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Not a lot of newness
I had a chance to give one of our neighbors a ride to work this morning. Thanks to Nathan I woke up for MP and was there when she came to the door needing a ride. I headed to work right after dropping her off, arriving just a bit ahead of schedule and in time to get a jump on the day.
I was glad I did as the day wore on. My boss was sick as was my compatriot on the Ground side. Also, the other full-time member of our staff needed to take some customer service rides with two of our drivers as a way for us to keep them sharp on their customer service skills. So, three office folks out for the day leaves who in the drivers seat all day? Moi. I relished the opportunity and got down to business, finishing up several projects as well as keeping an eye on the phones, putting out a few fires, and generally being able to multi-task like I love to do.
Joan and I had made plans to meet with a woman in the neighborhood to talk about what we could to together to help this place out. She's very impressive, seems to be firmly rooted in the neighborhood but not brought down by its poverty. Unfortunately she had forgotten about some church obligations and was unable to meet today. However, we've rescheduled for a meeting with her, her mother and one of their friends next week. It looks promising.
We returned to find preparations for our Allendale dinner well underway. David was cooking, as usual, but in a more supportive role. Val has taken the reins on the last two dinners and that's been fun. She's a pretty good cook too and it gives David a bit of a break after a long day at work. We had some new folks over, a friend of Mickey's and a friend of Val's. Mickey's friend was great, started dividing the guys into football teams within about 20 minutes of sitting down at the table. I like that kind of thinking.
Tonight is, as everyone knows, chores night so we all pitched in. David's the master and commander of that operation and he divied up the house into shares of chores. I got bathrooms. I love bathrooms. We got done in good time and now it's time to take a break before the next day starts.
I was glad I did as the day wore on. My boss was sick as was my compatriot on the Ground side. Also, the other full-time member of our staff needed to take some customer service rides with two of our drivers as a way for us to keep them sharp on their customer service skills. So, three office folks out for the day leaves who in the drivers seat all day? Moi. I relished the opportunity and got down to business, finishing up several projects as well as keeping an eye on the phones, putting out a few fires, and generally being able to multi-task like I love to do.
Joan and I had made plans to meet with a woman in the neighborhood to talk about what we could to together to help this place out. She's very impressive, seems to be firmly rooted in the neighborhood but not brought down by its poverty. Unfortunately she had forgotten about some church obligations and was unable to meet today. However, we've rescheduled for a meeting with her, her mother and one of their friends next week. It looks promising.
We returned to find preparations for our Allendale dinner well underway. David was cooking, as usual, but in a more supportive role. Val has taken the reins on the last two dinners and that's been fun. She's a pretty good cook too and it gives David a bit of a break after a long day at work. We had some new folks over, a friend of Mickey's and a friend of Val's. Mickey's friend was great, started dividing the guys into football teams within about 20 minutes of sitting down at the table. I like that kind of thinking.
Tonight is, as everyone knows, chores night so we all pitched in. David's the master and commander of that operation and he divied up the house into shares of chores. I got bathrooms. I love bathrooms. We got done in good time and now it's time to take a break before the next day starts.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
The work week begins!
I could have had an easier morning. One of the trailers full of boxes that arrived at our door this morning was mislabeled. I decided to throw boxes from one belt to another over a set of rollers for about 90 minutes to alleviate that problem. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing though. A bit of paperwork, two great conversations about our work and our life with a couple of smart businessmen, and then a nice heaping dose of fun with the HH. I figure, the more of the People of Praise I can spread around the better and that certainly happened today.
This evening Val and Ken joined us householders for a Mudbugs game. The Bossier/Shreveport Mudbugs are a semi-pro hockey team whose home rink is in Bossier, just across the river from Shreveport. It was a very fun game; we saw three fights, 4 regulation time goals, and polished the whole thing off with a victroy via shootout. And we got more Mardi Gras beads!!
To tie up the evening, we retired to the women's house for some Death by Chocolate. David narrowly escaped death, I think I've been mortally wounded and Brian is barely conscious. It was wonderful. Now, having laughed at death in the face, I'm prepared to face some slumber.
Oh, and we have a minivan. For keeps.
This evening Val and Ken joined us householders for a Mudbugs game. The Bossier/Shreveport Mudbugs are a semi-pro hockey team whose home rink is in Bossier, just across the river from Shreveport. It was a very fun game; we saw three fights, 4 regulation time goals, and polished the whole thing off with a victroy via shootout. And we got more Mardi Gras beads!!
To tie up the evening, we retired to the women's house for some Death by Chocolate. David narrowly escaped death, I think I've been mortally wounded and Brian is barely conscious. It was wonderful. Now, having laughed at death in the face, I'm prepared to face some slumber.
Oh, and we have a minivan. For keeps.
Monday, February 19, 2007
My day off
Mondays are days of wonderful productivity for me and today may be the crown jewel of them all. Here's the timeline:
6:10 - prayer
6:30 - MP
7:35 - drive Cathy to work
8:00 - Dentist appointment
9:30 - drop off prescription order
9:40 - drop off The Marine and Insomnia at Hollywood video
9:50 - make oral surgery consultation appointment
10:01 - exchange one broken wireless router for one new one
11:15 - pick up prescription
12:30 - lunch with Ken Kuehne, Nathan and Gretchen
1:45 - pick up Toyota minivan at Broadmoor garage with Gretchen
2:00 - meet Gretchen at WiDMO on the way back to Toyota dealership
2:45 - drive back to Yale street
3:00 - help figure out how to make thousands of dollars move to the right places
4:10 - go with Ken and Nathan back to Broadmoor to pick up the Civic and the Maxima
4:25 - arrive at WiDMO to get check from David that needs to be deposited before 5
4:44 - deposit check
5:10 - go to take Cathy home from work
5:55 - go to Seitzes for dinner
6:45 - help with dishes
7:15 - help set up for the Allendale meeting
9:00 - pay credit card bill and start finances
9:30 - meet with Nathan, Tom and David to talk about the book of Judges
10:20 - finances
What a day!
6:10 - prayer
6:30 - MP
7:35 - drive Cathy to work
8:00 - Dentist appointment
9:30 - drop off prescription order
9:40 - drop off The Marine and Insomnia at Hollywood video
9:50 - make oral surgery consultation appointment
10:01 - exchange one broken wireless router for one new one
11:15 - pick up prescription
12:30 - lunch with Ken Kuehne, Nathan and Gretchen
1:45 - pick up Toyota minivan at Broadmoor garage with Gretchen
2:00 - meet Gretchen at WiDMO on the way back to Toyota dealership
2:45 - drive back to Yale street
3:00 - help figure out how to make thousands of dollars move to the right places
4:10 - go with Ken and Nathan back to Broadmoor to pick up the Civic and the Maxima
4:25 - arrive at WiDMO to get check from David that needs to be deposited before 5
4:44 - deposit check
5:10 - go to take Cathy home from work
5:55 - go to Seitzes for dinner
6:45 - help with dishes
7:15 - help set up for the Allendale meeting
9:00 - pay credit card bill and start finances
9:30 - meet with Nathan, Tom and David to talk about the book of Judges
10:20 - finances
What a day!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
It was a fun day
Going to church is great. We get up, read a little something over a cup of coffee, chat sleepily about nothing in particular and drive to church in two different cars. Today, Monseigneur Provenza asked us to come up and stand behind him at the end of mass during the announcements. As he's done in the past, he invited the congregation to give us money at the end of mass after an explanation of our work in Allendale. They were generous to us again.
Brian, David, Tom and I arrived home just in time to get on the Company conference call at noon. It was great to hear news from almost every one. Even Jeremy, in the midst of his busy time in MN, was able to join us long enough to give a light-hearted account of his work with one:ten communications. What a great work that is! Praise God for our wonderful businesses. And for the Company; we have a member in Italy, two on the West Coast, four members who are running companies, and the potential for changing the world being realized on every front.
The four of us then moved pretty quickly to 1446 for a household meeting. We talked about finances, buying a minivan, plans for using our money in other ways, and the MishCo conference call that evening. We brainstormed for a while, did some work on our calendar and readied ourselves for Lent with some plans for what we can do together. Putting life in common takes a lot of planning and flexibility. Fortunately we have almost 40 years of experience doing life in common in the People of Praise and can put that experience to good use. One of the things we talked about was negative humor and how helpful it is to avoid. Our interactions with one another are such unique opportunities to build each other up that we would do well to avoid any harm caused by negativity. We need to die to ourselves and change our minds on a regular basis. And the beauty of it all is that our individual needs, and even some of our individual wants, are taken care of and our household is always on the lookout for ways that we can serve one another and love one another better. Glory!
After the conference call (for the second time in one day an excellent, if occasionally hard to hear, experience) we celebrated Tom's birthday. To help the celebration along we had a fire in our fire pit, made smores, and honored Tom. He's a great guy and has contributed so much to our life and work since moving in here. He's got the Lord's heart for our neighbors and is keenly aware of opportunities for bringing Christ into our lives. A story: when Tom was in Dinkytown one his friends got a letter from a group of powerful people. They invited this guy to join their group because they could make him powerful and influential. This was uncomfortable with the invitation and Tom's immediate reaction was "Throw it away; we don't need that kind of thing in our house." What a great response!
As we wound down for the evening we all trouped inside and finished up the dishes left over from the wonderful dinner of chicken burrito stuff that Brian put together. Some of us stayed around the fire; Joan and I went inside and watched the last third of a Poirot mystery with Liz (very cool; we had no idea who the murderer was) and then started to make our way into the backs of our houses. Brian and Tom are now doing updates to their blogs so my guess is that whatever I left out they'll have covered.
Brian, David, Tom and I arrived home just in time to get on the Company conference call at noon. It was great to hear news from almost every one. Even Jeremy, in the midst of his busy time in MN, was able to join us long enough to give a light-hearted account of his work with one:ten communications. What a great work that is! Praise God for our wonderful businesses. And for the Company; we have a member in Italy, two on the West Coast, four members who are running companies, and the potential for changing the world being realized on every front.
The four of us then moved pretty quickly to 1446 for a household meeting. We talked about finances, buying a minivan, plans for using our money in other ways, and the MishCo conference call that evening. We brainstormed for a while, did some work on our calendar and readied ourselves for Lent with some plans for what we can do together. Putting life in common takes a lot of planning and flexibility. Fortunately we have almost 40 years of experience doing life in common in the People of Praise and can put that experience to good use. One of the things we talked about was negative humor and how helpful it is to avoid. Our interactions with one another are such unique opportunities to build each other up that we would do well to avoid any harm caused by negativity. We need to die to ourselves and change our minds on a regular basis. And the beauty of it all is that our individual needs, and even some of our individual wants, are taken care of and our household is always on the lookout for ways that we can serve one another and love one another better. Glory!
After the conference call (for the second time in one day an excellent, if occasionally hard to hear, experience) we celebrated Tom's birthday. To help the celebration along we had a fire in our fire pit, made smores, and honored Tom. He's a great guy and has contributed so much to our life and work since moving in here. He's got the Lord's heart for our neighbors and is keenly aware of opportunities for bringing Christ into our lives. A story: when Tom was in Dinkytown one his friends got a letter from a group of powerful people. They invited this guy to join their group because they could make him powerful and influential. This was uncomfortable with the invitation and Tom's immediate reaction was "Throw it away; we don't need that kind of thing in our house." What a great response!
As we wound down for the evening we all trouped inside and finished up the dishes left over from the wonderful dinner of chicken burrito stuff that Brian put together. Some of us stayed around the fire; Joan and I went inside and watched the last third of a Poirot mystery with Liz (very cool; we had no idea who the murderer was) and then started to make our way into the backs of our houses. Brian and Tom are now doing updates to their blogs so my guess is that whatever I left out they'll have covered.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Last day of my week
On Saturday mornings our household meets with the Seitzes to talk about our upcoming week and our plans for the day. As People of Praise events go, this is pretty standard. However, I was dragged away from out meeting by a call from my boss. Since I work Tuesday through Thursday I often have to leave these weekly meeting early. Tim, my boss, expected me to come in at 7 but I wasn't planning to come in until 8. He is a good manager though and gave me a call on my cell to express his confusion. I went in. Oh well, none of Ruthanne's breakfast for me.
Wrong! Joan showed up about an hour later with a plate of eggs and an English muffin. It tasted great. I was able to eat my fill and work for several more hours on a satisfied stomach. I got home for lunch in time to see Brian and Tom working on the floor for the shed we're going to be using behind 1446. They were busy cutting plywood and nailing it onto the frame and I left them to their work.
Nathan was preparing David's birthday dinner and we chatted for a while about what we needed to do to make that happen. He was preparing a meal of salmon and some crazy yogurt/mint dish at the time and I needed to do some shopping so I left.
Shopping completed I returned to work. There was some filing and organization left to do at the terminal and I needed to lock up for the evening so it took me a while. I finished up and headed home...just in time to head back out with Liz. We've been tracking down leads for used minivans in our area and had found a pretty good deal we wanted to check out. Liz and I drove over to the local Toyota dealership and had a conversation with James, the sales guy, and took a test drive of the Sienna minivan we were thinking of buying. Things went well and we are going to take it into a mechanic that we trust on Monday for a check-up.
When we arrived back at home Nathan was still preparing dinner. That's a good sign. At 7 we started our celebratory Lord's Day of grilled salmon, vegetables, and a wonderful salad complete with carmalized walnuts. The food was amazing; Nathan is an excellent chef. We had a good conversation at our table and then proceeded to 1446 for the donut cake. David' favorite dessert is donuts and we made a pyramid of them with a candle on top that he was man enough to blow out.
We honored him for his imagination, his creativity, his dedication and his love. He's an essential element of our work and our life and I think we all spent some time wondering what we'd do without him.
We wound down. We had some more donuts and some ice cream and watched a movie and relaxed. Tomorrow is a day of rest and we intend to keep it that way (as much as we can).
Wrong! Joan showed up about an hour later with a plate of eggs and an English muffin. It tasted great. I was able to eat my fill and work for several more hours on a satisfied stomach. I got home for lunch in time to see Brian and Tom working on the floor for the shed we're going to be using behind 1446. They were busy cutting plywood and nailing it onto the frame and I left them to their work.
Nathan was preparing David's birthday dinner and we chatted for a while about what we needed to do to make that happen. He was preparing a meal of salmon and some crazy yogurt/mint dish at the time and I needed to do some shopping so I left.
Shopping completed I returned to work. There was some filing and organization left to do at the terminal and I needed to lock up for the evening so it took me a while. I finished up and headed home...just in time to head back out with Liz. We've been tracking down leads for used minivans in our area and had found a pretty good deal we wanted to check out. Liz and I drove over to the local Toyota dealership and had a conversation with James, the sales guy, and took a test drive of the Sienna minivan we were thinking of buying. Things went well and we are going to take it into a mechanic that we trust on Monday for a check-up.
When we arrived back at home Nathan was still preparing dinner. That's a good sign. At 7 we started our celebratory Lord's Day of grilled salmon, vegetables, and a wonderful salad complete with carmalized walnuts. The food was amazing; Nathan is an excellent chef. We had a good conversation at our table and then proceeded to 1446 for the donut cake. David' favorite dessert is donuts and we made a pyramid of them with a candle on top that he was man enough to blow out.
We honored him for his imagination, his creativity, his dedication and his love. He's an essential element of our work and our life and I think we all spent some time wondering what we'd do without him.
We wound down. We had some more donuts and some ice cream and watched a movie and relaxed. Tomorrow is a day of rest and we intend to keep it that way (as much as we can).
The day before the weekend
Friday is a good day in Allendale. We always manage to pack a lot into it. Today we made some serious gains on the housing/building front. The Lakeshore warehouse has moved closer to completion as has 1434. Brian spent the day tidying up the electrical messiness of '34 and it is now ready for the official inspection. Also, we had Pioneer Heating and Cooling out to install HVAC at '34 which they did in short order (1 day just does not seem like enough time but they did it).
We were hoping that all the Civic needed was new park plugs. After a couple days of not securing the proper tools we finally borrowed a set from John Thomas and replaced the old ones. Unfortunately, it still won't start. So we now have two cars in the shop, the Maxima as well as the Civic, and boy are we glad that we got AAA coverage! Free towing is a nice feature and we have needed it this past week.
And, best of all, the post-work week relaxation began! I made some chicken pot pie for dinner which turned out pretty well. Without even taking time to finish the dishes we all went down to Val's for evening prayer. This was a first and it worked pretty well. Brian played some old J-T favorites and we sang and prayed together. Mickey and Larry wanted to show Brian and I their weight set so we went to their room to check it out. Brian got back there first and started doing some bench presses. Eventually they put every weight they had on the bar and Brian was able to do one good rep. Then I tried. I'll try again some time.
We all trooped back to 1442 to finish dishes. We've got 4 people on dishes Friday night to speed things up so we can have more time to hang out. Gretchen and Joan went to the store and picked up ice cream (Tin Roof!), some toppings and libations. David was earlobe deep in a jigsaw puzzle all night, Dominoes were played, I perused the last Popular Science and shouted out fun facts over the famous "Howl Along" mix. Tom, Brian and I wrapped up the evening with a movie and then hit the hay, eagerly anticipating pancakes from Ruthanne at our meeting tomorrow.
We were hoping that all the Civic needed was new park plugs. After a couple days of not securing the proper tools we finally borrowed a set from John Thomas and replaced the old ones. Unfortunately, it still won't start. So we now have two cars in the shop, the Maxima as well as the Civic, and boy are we glad that we got AAA coverage! Free towing is a nice feature and we have needed it this past week.
And, best of all, the post-work week relaxation began! I made some chicken pot pie for dinner which turned out pretty well. Without even taking time to finish the dishes we all went down to Val's for evening prayer. This was a first and it worked pretty well. Brian played some old J-T favorites and we sang and prayed together. Mickey and Larry wanted to show Brian and I their weight set so we went to their room to check it out. Brian got back there first and started doing some bench presses. Eventually they put every weight they had on the bar and Brian was able to do one good rep. Then I tried. I'll try again some time.
We all trooped back to 1442 to finish dishes. We've got 4 people on dishes Friday night to speed things up so we can have more time to hang out. Gretchen and Joan went to the store and picked up ice cream (Tin Roof!), some toppings and libations. David was earlobe deep in a jigsaw puzzle all night, Dominoes were played, I perused the last Popular Science and shouted out fun facts over the famous "Howl Along" mix. Tom, Brian and I wrapped up the evening with a movie and then hit the hay, eagerly anticipating pancakes from Ruthanne at our meeting tomorrow.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
First One
Today began and ended with prayer. We held a vigil to pray for our neighborhood, each of us taking one hour from 10pm Wednesday to 6:30 am Thursday. My handoff to Liz went better than it had last week during the vigil and prayer was better for me too. After morning prayer we talked a bit about something...it might have been the Howells' house. I got to work a little late, 7:15 or so, and started off the day well. By lunch I had caught up with most of my filing and was ready to soak up info on machinations of the region from Greg Grimes and Tim. After I got back I finished up some work, made a complete list of my morning responsibilities since I had forgotten to update the graphs this morning and didn't want to make that mistake again.
At about 4:30 I left work and went straight to the Powells to see if they still needed a space heater. Shauna, their granddaughter, was there and she told me that they did. I said I'd be right back with one and went home first to pick up the wireless router to return to Best Buy. I told Nathan about my talk with Tim and Greg and then left for Best Buy and Lowe's, where I hoped to buy the heater. I did not check for the CD in the router box so I couldnt return it and Lowe's was out of heaters. I went to Wal-Mart and they were also out of heaters so I was on my way to check out Home Depot and the other Lowe's when Liz called for a ride. The Maxima died just as we got onto 49 so we called David, then called AAA. I waited for the tow truck and David picked up Liz. The tow truck driver was a nice guy and I tipped him 5 bucks.
Brian picked me up at Broadmoor Garage where I left the Maxima and we got home in the middle of Nathan's presentation on "Words that Work". The household saved me some dinner (great soup and bread and salad!) which I ate while listening to Nathan prepare us for our foray into the neighborhood. Joan and I went to Marilyn's house on Maple and had a good conversation with her. Joan was able to connect with her because of their shared teaching experience and their continuing education. She mentioned the neighborhood "fading away", talking to the elderly, talking with the whole community. I offered to come by next week when she was more free and she was happy to make that arrangement. Liz and Brian talked with Ethel and Carolyn Hawkins. Both were fairly full, good conversations. Carolyn was excited about a neighborhood newsletter and prayer meetings. Gretchen and David did not meet with Miss Illinois and Cathy and Tom talked very breifly with Linda through the door. Nathan walked and prayed around the neighborhood.
We had a powow about the whole thing and then various configurations of us talked about what we wanted to do in the future in the neighborhood. I mentioned wanting to do more with kids which turned into us thinking about younger kids (playtime kinds of stuff), middle school kids (more hanging out with us less playtime) and high school kids (quality hanging out and joining PoP).
At about 4:30 I left work and went straight to the Powells to see if they still needed a space heater. Shauna, their granddaughter, was there and she told me that they did. I said I'd be right back with one and went home first to pick up the wireless router to return to Best Buy. I told Nathan about my talk with Tim and Greg and then left for Best Buy and Lowe's, where I hoped to buy the heater. I did not check for the CD in the router box so I couldnt return it and Lowe's was out of heaters. I went to Wal-Mart and they were also out of heaters so I was on my way to check out Home Depot and the other Lowe's when Liz called for a ride. The Maxima died just as we got onto 49 so we called David, then called AAA. I waited for the tow truck and David picked up Liz. The tow truck driver was a nice guy and I tipped him 5 bucks.
Brian picked me up at Broadmoor Garage where I left the Maxima and we got home in the middle of Nathan's presentation on "Words that Work". The household saved me some dinner (great soup and bread and salad!) which I ate while listening to Nathan prepare us for our foray into the neighborhood. Joan and I went to Marilyn's house on Maple and had a good conversation with her. Joan was able to connect with her because of their shared teaching experience and their continuing education. She mentioned the neighborhood "fading away", talking to the elderly, talking with the whole community. I offered to come by next week when she was more free and she was happy to make that arrangement. Liz and Brian talked with Ethel and Carolyn Hawkins. Both were fairly full, good conversations. Carolyn was excited about a neighborhood newsletter and prayer meetings. Gretchen and David did not meet with Miss Illinois and Cathy and Tom talked very breifly with Linda through the door. Nathan walked and prayed around the neighborhood.
We had a powow about the whole thing and then various configurations of us talked about what we wanted to do in the future in the neighborhood. I mentioned wanting to do more with kids which turned into us thinking about younger kids (playtime kinds of stuff), middle school kids (more hanging out with us less playtime) and high school kids (quality hanging out and joining PoP).
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