Category Archives: Daily Life

Sunshine, Park, and Friends

When the sun comes out here in beautiful Washington State, it is time to head outside. By ten am this morning, I was determined to schedule some park time for the kids. Yes, I was only thinking of the children.

I have no words...what were these silly kids thinking?

I knew David and Sarah needed some play time with friends. It was purely a selfless act upon my part that I messaged, Facebooked, texted, and cajoled as many girlfriends as I could to come and join us at the park for some Sunshine and Fun!!

Wonderful friends and lots of laughter.

I am continually amazed and overwhelmed with thankfulness at the unique, godly, encouraging, fun, and beautiful women God has put into my life.

I am so blesssed!

I’m sure today was just a hint of the wonderful spring and summer coming…

There was time for one round of chase before leaving the park.

Kathy

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No Picture Tuesday

Today I went straight from work to a meeting at church, and didn’t arrive home until 10 pm or so. It was a long day. After nabbing a fresh, hot Mesa Manna roll with butter, I went looking for my family members.

No one was on the ground floor. Apparently the Rapture occurred, but the rolls were still warm from the oven, so it must’ve been recently. This was a relief, since I had been meeting, just fifteen minutes prior, with our senior pastor and a bunch of the church leaders — it would be kind of embarrassing if Jesus called all the believers home, and none of the elders were taken. It would have been particularly embarrassing for our Pastor, who has been preaching on Revelation lately. I can just see him in the pulpit, next week:

“Well, I notice that our congregation is a bit smaller this week. I have some good news, and some bad news. First the good news: the prophecies about the Rapture were all true. Now the bad news … ”

Of course, since I was apparently also un-raptured, I was now facing seven years of tribulation — but at least I had a warm, buttered roll. But (as you may already have guessed) it was a false alarm — my family members were all uncharacteristically in bed or otherwise occupied upstairs. Thanks to Kathy’s recent phase of pretending she is a morning person, our household is much quieter in the late evenings.

“Did you blog?” I asked my wife, accusingly, when I tracked her to her lair.

“No,” she admitted, shamefaced. “By the time I remembered, I was already in bed. It was either blog or read my Bible … ”

Kathy often tries to hold the moral high ground in these little interchanges. I charitably refrained from asking her why she didn’t read her Bible in the morning, now that she is “such a morning person”. (I am often charitable that way, leaving unsaid those snippy little comments that lesser men would blurt out, or, even worse, mention in a blog.)

“So, did you at least upload any photos of our fascinating and meaningful life?” I wasn’t very hopeful, by this point. Kathy snuggled more deeply into bed, and shook her head.

No photos, therefore no fascinating and meaningful life. As we often say, “If it didn’t make it to the blog, it didn’t happen.”

Today did have a few interesting events, though. I had my annual review at work, in which it was discovered that I was ‘High Achieving’. This is, apparently, not quite as good as ‘Low Exceeding’, but considerably better than plain ‘ole ‘Achieving’. They used to have a numerical range, from 1 (“here’s a cardboard box, pack your stuff”) to 5 (“you walk on water and found a way to double the company’s annual profit”). Apparently the numerical rating scheme was too hard, and some of the managers were having trouble with the math, so they went to a three-tiered scale: “Not Achieving, Achieving, and Exceeding”.

Personally, I liked the old scale better. When you got a 4.2, you knew right where you stood. I guess after six years working for the same company, in the same team, I probably know where I stand. I was disappointed, though — I really would have liked to get some form of ‘Exceeding’ in my annual rating. Maybe next year.

Tim

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Lost Days of 2011 — When Time Lies Heavy

Last April, Daniel played the part of a blind Prince in a spoof of Beauty and the Beast at our homeschool co-op. Rachel played a peasant girl in the same show, and as the date of the performance drew near, she began to be concerned about Daniel’s lack of facial hair.

Now, of course, we know that I (with my ‘lush beard’) am the true expert in the art of manly beard-wearing, but in those days, I was not yet revealed to the world in my full glory. So Rachel took refuge in her make-up skills, starting (as does any responsible artist) with a curly mustache on herself, just to try it out.

Apparently there wasn’t a lot going on that day, because first Sarah, and then David were swept up in the general dramatic make-over, that was originally intended only for Daniel.

Rachel, the maniacal make-up artist, strikes again.

Browsing through the photos on Kathy’s computer, I came across this picture, and it cried out for explanation. Half an hour later, hearing the story of how it came about, I’m still not sure I understand. But I knew it was a perfect candidate for the ‘Lost Days of 2011′ series. Some may think it should have stayed lost, but their opinion doesn’t count.

Let’s just be glad they didn’t find a hedge trimmer or a can of spray paint while time lay so heavily upon their hands.

Tim

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Tarah Comes for a Visit

Sarah’s dear friend, Tarah, came for a Double Night Sleepover this weekend. Sarah and Tarah have been friends since they were three years old. They were born a day apart and have delightfully rhyming names.

Sarah, David and Tarah spent some time coloring and writing this afternoon.

Sarah
Tarah
Tarah
Sarah

I'm not sure we'll let Tarah go home - we might just keep her!


It just flows so nicely.

We had a lovely Saturday – W2Connect Mentor tea in the morning, cleaning in the afternoon, a quick run to Costco (new glasses ordered for Daniel), home to grab the kids for a matinee. Throw in a handy man who replaced our kitchen faucet, the knob and locks on the front door, AND brought us an amazing dinner, and you can see life is good.

David played frisbee with Daniel and then hung out with the girls - he's a busy guy.

Just another busy day in this crazy thing we call life.

Kathy

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A Quiet Sunday Afternoon

With Kathy and Rachel still away in Michigan, our Sunday afternoon had a bit less structure than usual. Kathy often comes home from church with a bee in her bonnet, as it were, to ‘get some stuff done before the week starts’.

I, on the other hand, view Sundays as a day of rest, especially after teaching Sunday School, which always takes a bit out of me. I’m usually thinking in terms of:

  • A nice lunch, maybe grilled sandwiches
  • Some good computer-game playing
  • A read-aloud (these days we’re working our way through some of Tolkien’s work, courtesy of Joshua)
  • Pancakes or other breakfast food for dinner
  • A family movie

Cats know how to get the most out of a Sunday afternoon

Sarah asked me about the ‘meetings’ we’ve been doing with each child, lately, on Sunday afternoons. “We can’t MISS a week, can we?” She sounded rather plaintive — Sarah really enjoys the focused attention of her parents.

“Nope — can’t do it without Mom,” I assured her, breezily.

After a couple of us got back from helping some friends move from one apartment to another, Joshual and Daniel worked on their school, while David and Sarah amused themselves with the dress-up chest. Joshua did read us a chapter from The Fellowship of the Ring, but mostly we just snacked on leftovers and played computer games. The younger set watched Cars 2, and I logged in some serious hours on my new Civilization V game. It was a good Sunday.

Charles and Margaret paid us a brief visit.

At some point, preferably BEFORE Kathy gets home, someone is going to have to do some dishes and laundry. But the sink faucet is broken again, which makes things a little tricky with respect to washing dishes. Or at least, that’s my excuse.

Tim

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