Category: family news

Pictures of Liam – bathtime and tool time

Liam loves bathtime!

This kid really loves bath time! I’d love taking baths if I had cool rubber duckies like that, too.

Daddy shows Liam how to use a hammer
“Liam, this is a man-toy. You’ll grow up to love it. Maybe we’ll get you a little one some time,” daddy says by way of gender-typing his progeny.

Robbery in progress

Last night I stopped a robbery from happening.  I went to the studio late to take care of some things (late being 9 pm for us).  I heard a harsh metal-on-metal sound out my back door and opened the door to see what it was.  It was a young man in a gray hooded sweatshirt, and I must have scared the heck out of him.  He ran like crazy.  Naturally, I gave chase (but not too far).  I yelled at him, which only made him run faster.

I called the police and my neighbor.  I talked with the police once, then after my neighbor arrived I talked with them again.  The metal sounds I heard, we found, were the hinges being taken out of my neighbor’s back door.

This kind of thing makes me nervous.  Makes me want to get a better back door and maybe a security system.  Makes me want to hold more tightly to what is mine, especially since I know there are people willing to take it unlawfully.  A little paranoia is not bad.  But I know that fear and holding tighter to material things are not healthy responses.

So before I left work, I prayed for the guy who was trying to break into my neighbor’s church.  I prayed that God would end the destructive and unhealthy patterns in his life.  I prayed that if he was trying to steal to support a drug habit, God would set him free from his bondage to chemical substances.  I prayed that God would bless him, and that it would end the practice of violating other people by stealing.

Abundant Harvest Organics

Lisa and I are excited to be chosen as Abundant Harvest Organics’s (how do you pluralize that?!) hosts in Reedley! Abundant Harvest Organics (new window) is a family effort that brings the farmer’s market to your family on a weekly basis.

I received our first box of food this week, and I’m overwhelmed by the quality and selection. I ate my first raw beet today, and I’m ready to swear off wasabi peas for good. We have so many good vegetables I’m not sure what we’ll do with them all. Luckily, each week’s box come with a few recipes suggestions.  If you’d like to preview Abundant Harvest’s produce, join Lisa and I tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) at our house from 3:30 pm to 5 pm for a tasting party.  It’s an informal affair; please don’t bring gifts for the fruit. (They’re so hard to shop for, anyway!)

Born a pirate!

I’m sure you know, if you’re a regular reader of this blog, that today is my birthday.  What you may not know, however, is that it’s also International Talk Like a Pirate Day (I am not making this up).  How ironic that my grog-swilling twin brother and I should be born to such a lexical legacy!  In light of this, I expect all subsequent birthday greetings to be appropriately piratey.  In case your sword or your wit is feeling dull, here are a few sample birthday greetings:

“Ahoy, birthday boy!”

“Here’s hoping your treasure chest is loaded with booty!”

“Is that a parrot on your shoulder, or is that Liam?”

You’re all much more clever than I, and have probably swilled less grog this morning.  Feel free to add your own (piratey!) birthday greetings in the comments.