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Good Words on Repeat
For a few weeks as the possibly of our son not being able to remain at Teen Challenge became more likely I’ve had a few phrases cycling through my mind. Good Words. True Words. This is the work He has given us to do. (from the final prayer of our Sunday liturgy) And it’s ours. We were made to do this work. The pain and endurance and figuring out how to do all of this.. it’s ours. (see Interior Freedom, a small but impactful book) From the perspective of heaven everything is going according to plan. (from Deeper by… a…
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Round and Round We Go
We got the call on Wednesday. Our son, now 17, is continuing to disrupt the Teen Challenge program and the staff and leadership of the program are throwing in the towel. Last week we told our son that if he didn’t pull his act together and get average or higher on his daily behavior scores there, they’d kick him out and this was his last chance. If he gets kicked out I’m going to just be there one day to get him and he won’t be coming back to Denver, I’ll take him to my high school home in Indiana.…
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Why did the Israelite wander?
Mom, when helping clean up a room with our 5 year old daughter who was complaining about the work : “do you know why the Isrealites had to wander for 40 years?” Daughter : “Because they never cleaned up.”
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Giving Myself A Break, Part 4: Leaning into Rest
A continuation of Part 1: The Fall Part 2: The Doctors Part 3: Post Surgery I never give myself a break. I never get enough sleep. In college I regularly went on 2-4 hours of sleep all week long, cramming my days and nights full of extra classes, studying, starting a business, leading and volunteering in ministries. As a working dad of six kids, responsibilities are different, but my pattern has been the same. Work work work, and only rest enough to work more. I get up early, rotate laundry, go for a run, rotate laundry, get myself ready while…
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Giving Myself a Break, Part 3: Post Surgery
A continuation of Part 1: The Fall Part 2: The Doctors 7am : Hey, look, I can wriggle my toes a little! My nerve block began to wear off as I woke up on Thursday. Our babysitter was able to do school drop off. My wife and I ran some errands with me sitting lamely in the passenger seat. Everything I do is lame now! I’m so lame! Sigh. 11am: As the morning wore on my discomfort increased and I’m leaning toward more time off work. I think I’m mostly going to need to be on my back with my…
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Giving Myself a Break, Part 2: The Doctors
(continued from Part One: The Fall) After the Denver blizzard on Sunday, Monday was a pretend school day (remote learning) instead of a snow day. They decided to do the same Tuesday for no reason at all. The weather was warm, the roads had been safe and clear by the end of Monday. So after we got the kids ready, we swung by the grocery store for a scheduled pick up then over to an urgent care, me still in my running clothes… base layer (tights) and all . Though they said they were busier than normal, I didn’t have…
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Giving Myself a Break, Part 1: The Fall
As my ankle rapidly twisted back and forth I shouted in pain and fell on the snowy sidewalk one mile into my 5 mile run for the day. All I could do was lay there and shout out of the pain. I had twisted my ankle. Maybe more. I couldn’t move. This really really hurts. Not my right ankle again. Oh wow this hurts ow ow ow. My wife is asleep at home, if I call I’ll just be yelling in pain… Then she’ll have to get ready and the kids will wake up. I’ll just text. While I try…
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Six Kids and No Microwave
My wife and I have NEVER owned a microwave. The two most common questions in asked are : How do you eat? For time immemorial people survived without microwaves. I’m sure we eat more quality food making most things from scratch with our stove and oven. How do you reheat leftovers? It’s possible. But with 8 of us, there’s rarely leftovers.
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Parenting Advice: 3 Cautions and 3 Questions
Christensen, a new father and good friend of mine posted about Parenting Advice from Strangers. Strangers can say the strangest (and most offensive… and most condescending…. an most plain ol’ incorrect) things. I assume they’re well meaning, and I hope sometimes people have walked away thinking, “I can’t believe I just said that to a stranger!” Living in Korea, Christensen has a window into the myths and tales that can become assumed wisdom of good parenting, both there and from his origin culture in America: One difficult part of living overseas is that you quickly find out that there are…