The week in review

i’m an only child.   i only met one of my grandparents.   the other three had passed before i was born.   i had one uncle and three aunts,  but all of them lived across the country when i was a child.   i had one cousin my age in denver  that i met a couple of times and three older cousins that were each old enough to be my mother.   extended family was non-existent!

wanda comes from a little larger family,  but we were never close with them.   all four of our parents have passed years ago.  we’ve never had family reunions.   christmas and easter and pretty much any traditional holiday has always been just the four of us.

since our boys have gotten married,  we now have a larger family than ever…but it is still small by most standards.   although we have had tons of people at our house through the years…as well as numerous stray kids, couples, and youth ministry interns live with us over the course of our married life…we almost never have family (or near family) come and stay with us for any length of time.

that’s why this past week  (and current week, as well)  has been so different for us.   we have some old friends…kids who grew up in our youth group in the 80’s and became family to us…who are vacationing with their two little offsprings here in the great state and staying with us for the week.

that’s why my week was a little different.

1. we wanted everything to be perfect around the house.

2. that changed to really nice.

3. that changed to okay.

4. that changed to close enough.

5. close enough is a good thing.

6. we ended our winter bowling season on tuesday night.   it was a great season.   can’t wait for next week.

7. it’s amazing how i can struggle to break 100 for the first two games and then bowl a lifetime best of 210 in the last game…

8. i am the picture of bowling inconsistency.   ahh…life metaphors.

9. i finally broke down and bought a really nice weed trimmer.   i’ve never owned a really nice one.   just the crummy, cheap ones that mess up all the time and only last about a year.   i feel complete.

10. worked on the np baptistery this week…trying to find out why it has such a hard time heating.    to make a long story short,  i flooded the baptistery room and the kitchen while trying to change the water filter.   you had to be there…

11. we’ve had to turn the a/c  on in the house this week.   summer’s coming…

12. our house a/c  is celebrating its 24th birthday this year.   hope it lasts a few more.   growing old isn’t so bad.

13. our friends arrived on friday night at 11.   wanda and stephanie made their first trip to our ghetto walmart around 1:00.   they got home at 2:30.   apparently,  there aren’t many 24-hour walmarts in socal.   it has been the trip highlight,  so far.

14. we had awesome north point children’s stuff this weekend…a bunch of 4th and 5th graders on friday night and a boat-load of little ones on saturday morning.   angela, beth and the whole children’s team are rockin’ these days.

15. we met up with our whole family for lunch-dinner at rudy’s barbeque on saturday.   first taste of texas bbq,  creamed corn,  sweet tea and eating on butcher paper for our texas newbies.

16. got to see the great holden walk for the first time.   let the next phase begin.

17. my grandson has awesome parents.

18. great easter sunday at north point!

19. had to put up all the good chairs…and all the folding chairs, too!

20. the band rocked as usual.

21. thanks to angie,  it was a great donut day.

22. i’m not sure it was the best sermon i’ve ever preached,  but it is something i’m more convicted about than just about anything.

23. we all want god to rescue us from our foxholes…to send some kind of supernatural cure for what ails us or the great cosmic fix it for the messes of our lives…but what he really wants is to send strength to our insides and a love that is so powerful that it changes us.

24. is that what you are praying for?   is that what you are seeking after?   or do you just want your problems to go away?

25. do you want god to work a miracle in a situation or work a miracle in your heart?

26. priorities…priorities…

27. had an absolutely wonderful, chaotic, out-of-control, crazy, awesome easter dinner at the farracrib.

28. i don’t have this body-type by accident.   my mother was an unbelievable cook.   she passed on her culinary awesomeness to wanda.   i’ve been doomed for life…

29. living out another family’s vacation fantasies is death for my eating plan.   gotta stay on top of this.

30. the major league baseball season has officially begun.   the padres are tied for first.

31. we went for a drive to downtown dallas last night.   sunday night is a great time to go there.   no crowds.   you can even turn down a one-way street and have time to do a u-turn.

looking forward to a great week.   hope yours is full of answered prayer.