Monday, August 31, 2009

Resting when you are tired

Yeah, that title seems pretty obvious huh? Let me explain where it is coming from.

Last night I go to mow the grass. I start the riding lawn mower and it actually fire right up. At this point I am pretty stoked. I then have to move the car and let the mower warm up. When I get to the bottom of the driveway with the car, I noticed that the mower stopped running. I am thinking no big deal. It just stalled. Start it up again and then it stalled right away. Tried to start it again, nothing!

Based on all my knowledge of such things, the motor seized up. Or for all my southern friends, it is all don tore up.

Now I need to back up even a little more. Saturday was a long day, Sunday I had the opportunity to preach at a Church. What I am getting at is by the time that I went to mow, I was spent. I was just plain tired.

When the mower broke, I wanted to die. OK, maybe I just wanted to quit. It was at that moment that I realized that I was tired. Once I realized that, I just had to let it go.

I got a good night sleep. Woke up ready to go this morning. Today was one of those super crazy days. But I was able to deal with it.

I know it seems simple. I know it seems elementary. But, rest assured, God tells us about rest many times. God tells us how important it is. So unless you are better then God, get some rest. Don't tell me that you are better then everyone else.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

My Mom

Actually, today is my mom's birthday. My mom is an incredible person. It is funny, in most circles people don't get to know my mom, they all know my dad, but my mom hides from the spotlight. In fact, getting a picture of my mom is darn near impossible.
My mom taught me so many valuable lessons. Such as when all else fails, just get out of the house. My mom taught me the adventure of just going somewhere just to go somewhere. A theory that I practice today.
I do wonder what ever happened to my mom. She went soft. You should see the things that my kids get a way with that would have never happened when I was growing up. I don't know when she got so soft. I guess she is a grandma now.
I do love the fact that my kids get to enjoy their grandma. I do love the fact that they know when they go to grandma's house they can get a cookie.
So happy birthday mom!

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The Colony

Somehow I became addicted to the Discovery Channel's new show The Colony. I have no idea why. I never had a worry about a disaster. But for some reason that I can not explain, I am fascinated by the whole thing. It is just really interesting. I love the "expert" insights that are offered in the middle of the shows. I also think some of volunteers idea is just amazing. The way they figure out how to do things gets my nerd on. So enough blogging for now, because the commercial is about over.

Monday, August 24, 2009

For myself

Yes, sometimes I blog to remember things. Sometimes it is to share some insight. Sometimes it is just to get a laugh. Sometimes, I have no idea.

Today it is to remind myself of something. Today, I need to be reminded to dwell on whatever is good. I caught myself for a couple of hours being in a bad mood over one thing. I came home and was talking to Heather. Told her I was having a bad day. Being the all loving supportive wife, she asked what happened. Sure enough I told her the one bad thing, and there was nothing else. In fact the rest of the day was good. The rest of the things were positive. Wow! I had to catch myself from dwelling on the negative.

So well I blog for myself tonight, I am sure you can use the reminder too.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Hanging with the Boys

Tonight, Heather had to go to an appointment. That meant guys night out! The boys and I went out to Buffalo Wild Wings. Now, my boys are not quite to the point that they love chicken wings. Soon, I will teach them the art of consuming mass amounts of chicken wings, and creating the bone yard.

I must admit, I had fun hanging out with the guys. As they get older, I am sure there will be more guy nights. Honestly, I love hanging out with my kids.


Disclaimer...In no way is this post meant to gross out any female. In no way is this post suggesting that gluttony is a good thing. In no way is this post meant to say I do not enjoy hanging out with my wife or all together as a family.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Fun Afternoon

This afternoon I stopped by our Safe Harbor facility to make sure everything with the Gas Company working on the building was going good. When I got there my friends from Catholic Charities were just about to go for a run. I remember driving up there thinking "wondering if will run today?" I happened to have my running stuff in my car. So I quickly change my clothes, and the next thing you know I am off and running. It was just a lot of fun. Just was a good time that was totally unexpected. Yes, it was hot, very hot! But still definitely a fun afternoon.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Thought of the day

Just a quick little thought for all of you out there to think about:

Love People. Use Things. Never confuse the two.

Think about it. Makes a whole lot of sense.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

My Weekend

I think, at least in my mind, there are three types of weekends:

  • There is the work weekend. This is the type of weekend were you end up working all weekend long. Now most of the time for me, it involves Lighthouse work. However there is the occasional work on the house all weekend long.
  • There is the party hard weekend. The ones where you just go and go. You have fun doing this and that with the boys. Just one of those event driven weekends
  • Then there is the relaxing weekend. Sure you might have to do a little work. Sure you will have a little fun. But for the most part, it is relaxing.

This past weekend for me, relaxing! Boy did if feel nice. I like those weekends. I got to watch a bunch of Nascar (that always makes me happy). Just all in all a good weekend. Makes me ready to go for the next week!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

What makes this country great

Today we had a meeting with three different Giant Eagle stores. The point of this meeting was to come up with a plan where they give us their extra meat. This hopefully will amount to about 750 pounds per store per week.
Here is the cool part. They want to do this. They are glad to do this. We are not begging on our hands and knees (though I am not above that). They were excited about being able to help out in their community. That was the managers. The employees were even more excited about doing this.
Granted there had/has to be something worked out. Like making sure everything is safe and all the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed. But we have people willing and wanting to help their community in need.
It does make me proud of our country. It does make me thankful for the resources we have. It is and always has been the people that make this country great.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The great health care debate of 2003

Back in 2003 I experienced the most intense debate I have seen at District Conference. District Conference is our annual meeting of the Western PA District of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. So you want to know the debate?

It all started with the definition of "group" for health insurance cost. We had a plan in the District were we could enter, but did not have to enter. The insurance company then wanted 100 percent participation. That was where things started to erupt. The hard part about the whole deal was that they could not give us a price. They also refused to give us a list of benefits, co-pays, or limitations.

Obviously, that did not sit well with a lot of people. The best explanation was you want us to buy a car that we have no idea what it is, how it looks, or how much it costs. Hopefully, when you make a important decision, you know what you are buying.

Now you might be wondering why I am thinking about all of this six years later. Well, I see the same thing happening on a national level. We will leave it at that.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Thoughts on being a single parent

This past weekend Heather was at a wedding. I was glad she could go. Honestly, I was. That left me with the boys. Now this was an awful weekend for me. I had something Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. That meant that I had to rely on my parents. So thankful that they were able to help me out. But it was weird not having Heather to help me out.

Now in no way do I think that my 100 hours without Heather is remotely in the same ball park as being a single parent. I also know that having my parents right there to help me was a huge benefit. But with that being said, being a single parent is tough. Figuring out how to get everything done with only one parent is tough.

I guess what I will take away from this experience is a little more compassion for single parents. It is a tough job.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

A Women's Purse -- aka how to end up in the doghouse

Now I am not sure where the purse originated from. I am not sure why women outgrew pockets. In no way do I understand why a lot of women's clothing does not have pockets. I mean I don't think I have ever owned a pair of pants without pockets.

Due to the lack of adequate pockets, I can only assume that is where the purse began. Now that we are in the 21st century, I believe purses have reached a pandemic level. Now I want to make sure that I offend all women out there. You think I am just talking about the type of purse where you could fit a two year old child. While those are totally uncalled for, I am also talking about the tiny little purses. The only difference between the two is the little ones are stuffed to the max that when you open it, it could be considered an explosive; while the big ones end up being like a game where you reach in and pull out a prize.

Now honestly, do you need all those things in your purse? I remember watching "Let's Make A Deal" game show and the host would ask people if they had something and give them $100 or something. Now that would be the one time a overly stuffed purse would be acceptable. But as far as I know that show has long since been canceled.

Getting back to those tiny little purses; I ask "why?" Why bother. What is the point. You end up making the guy carry half the stuff that would normally go in the purse just so you can get away with a little purse. So why even go through that work.

Now another thing that I can't figure out (and another thing to make my trip to the doghouse permanent) is the number of purses required. I just don't get it. You know evening purses, day purses, summer purses, winter purses, black, red, green, brown, stripes, plaid, etc... Come on, seriously? You need all of those purses?

Now a purse is supposed to be about the Old Testament equivalent of the Holy of Holies. Guys know that we are just not welcomed there. And frankly most guys if they have ever dared (or should I say forced) to go into a women purse do not want to go back in. They are scared. They are damaged for life. Probably any guy who ever has dared enter a women's purse is in serious need of counseling.

I think I had better stop here. A night or two in the doghouse is bearable. Permanent residency is not.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

God waiting on us

Now you all have probably heard a whole bunch about waiting on the Lord. Waiting on His timing. Waiting for God to show you the way. Now, I am not saying anything against all of that or anything like that.
I just want to think about the other side of the story. I wonder if God ever gets impatient with us? I wonder if He ever wonders "when is Dan ever going to get this?" We always talk about us waiting on God, but what about God waiting on us?

Monday, August 3, 2009

Was it worth it?

I must admit, it was a lot of work. If you are wondering what it was, click here. We worked on the room pretty much all last week. I will be honest, when I say we, I mean mostly Heather and her mom. Now somehow, this ended up being sort of a masculine feeling. But both Heather and I really like it a lot.
Now just to make that spiritual connection. We were working on transforming a room. A room that does not have a will. A room that does not make choices. A room that does not resist change. When we are working on people, it is even more work then a room. A persons has a will. A person makes choices. A person does resist change.
So I am sitting here saying how much work it was to do our room, think about how much more work we have when disciplining a person.