Saturday, November 24, 2007

Thanksgiving 2007

Thanksgiving 2007
I am not sure who did all that cooking, but I sure did love that "spicy" turkey and the seafood dressing! Thanks Rick and Katrina! I don't know why I wait one whole year to eat that dressing!
It was amazing to see all those kids of ours running around, especially knowing that not that long ago I was one of those kids. It must be something to be one of the great grandparents watching these little ones climb around.

Caleb is getting pretty handy with that BB gun. He better watch out because Ethan was trying his hand at it also (with a great deal of Daddy's help).

And paddling a canoe with Caleb in the back and me in the front on a (cold) windy day racing PawPaw and Ethan in the Pirogue was fun! We put Caleb in the back of the boat since he weighs less than me and the back is where the leaks were (I know what you worried parents are starting to think... trust me it was safe). I tell you what... it is hard to steer a canoe from the front! Caleb really showed some muscle and was doing a great job of paddling and he really began understanding how to steer the boat from the back. I was very proud, especially if you know what it looks like to paddle on Iatt lake through all the trees.


This was a great thanksgiving!

Monday, November 19, 2007

Test your SKILLS

I was following a trail of links... and ended here:
http://www.mensa.org/index0.php?page=12
Now you can test you mental skills on the MENSA website.
I scored 24 out of 30. Let me know how you do.

The trail of links that led to that test started with Caleb, who has been asking about how to make a time machine. So we end up doing some research at the library and we got this book, Time: A Traveler's Guide
So instead of reading one of the books on my "list"... I have been reading this. It is a pretty interesting book, I am barely on the edge of understand it, at all . No I am not planning to build one or anything. But it has been fun to read something that pushes my understanding of how the universe works.

Friday, November 2, 2007

The Reading List

My goal will be to read these 4 books over the next year. (see earlier post) So here is the Official List(in no particular order):
- "Cost of Discipleship" Bonhoeffer
- "Manana" by Justo Gonzalez
- "Knowing God" by J.I. Packer
- "For the Life of the World - Sacraments and Orthodoxy" Alexander Schmemann (I just love saying his last name for some reason) You can read a sample here.

Unfortunately Soul Survivor by Philip Yancey got kicked off the list. I have already read one of his books and you(the voting audience) didn't give him enough votes.

I started reading Schmemann's book by accident. I entered into conversation with Joey Koskie about this reading list of mine. He hands me the book off his desk and I just intended to sample the book and then decide. While it is a harder of a read than I am used to, I was drawn in by the first chapter. So It is on the list. I had to read the first chapter twice to really understand it and it is taking weeks to only be on page 63, but it is a good book. It was first published in 1963. He walks us through the sacraments and I would say Liturgy of the church to answer this question: "When, we Christians , confess that Christ died for the life of the world. What life is both motivation, and the beginning and the goal of Christian mission?" What is this abundant life we claim to offer to this world?

Pictures Pictures Pictures

Halloween and "Scanner Fun" pictures for you to enjoy.


Unfortunately for Caleb, he got sick Halloween night. Not because he ate too much candy either. :) He came down with fever. We did have a good time.

Stomp

Well, the Murphy's went out to see STOMP in Monroe Tuesday night. We had a great time. We were joined by Ethan's Friend Reese and his Dad, Rudy. We all really enjoyed it. Ethan woke up the next morning begging to go back. It was late so I think the boys were getting tired by the end of it. Steve's favorite part was the "walkers". They had boots strapped to 55 gallon drums and they were 'stomping' around. It was cool. Here are some video clips from the Stomp website.
Fastcut
Combat
Matchboxes
Walkers