Spiritually Gifted: To be or not to be?

I have been listening to Bott Radio Network for some time, though it's important to note that I don't always agree with what is being taught on the station.  As a matter of fact, sometimes I find that what is being taught is in direct conflict with scripture. First, I don't mean to write this to discredit Bott Radio or any of the programs on it.  If you're reading this, I don't discourage you from listening to the station, as I, myself, still listen to the station and do enjoy it.  I stand firm to say that I believe Christians, like all people, can and will be wrong from time to time.  We're not perfect.  Though,...

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Audiophilistic Moment

I love music and I do thoroughly enjoy a good quality artistically-composed song.  At unexpected times this love stands out to me and I'm reminded of it all in a wave of rushing emotion and a super-heightened appreciation for every minute sound within a recording.  The ebb and flow of the melody carries with it my full attention for mere minutes, however my concept of time sort of melts away as my internal clock pauses it's relentless ticking to match the tempo of the song.  Then, the song ends.  A new one begins.  The atmosphere changes with it.  And, I find myself wondering why the composer only made the tune...

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God Fearing Man

A few weeks ago I took a short road trip to Lebanon, MO, to pick up some hardwood flooring that I found for sale on Craigslist.  On the trip, I flipped through an old CD case of ours that has remained somewhat untouched for years.  I pulled out all the CDs that didn't have any writing on them and decided to go through them to figure out what they were. One of those disks was full of Ben Harper's music.  Through the CD swap, it had managed to stay in the 5-disk player even after the trip.  Several weeks later, I would happen upon this disk and inevitably find inspiration for this blog. I found myself listening to Ben Harper's...

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No thanks, I'm good.

I ran across this photo today when I hopped on Pinterest for a minute to possibly gain some creative juices for a project that Jodi will be starting soon.  My Pinterest search didn't result in any good ideas, but displayed some messages like this one.  Which, got me thinking.  And, as you know, I like to think out loud. This button is being sold on etsy.com.  And, i think to myself, it's sad that anyone should feel this way so strongly that they would purchase and wear this out in public.  Though, I suspect that there are a growing number of people who not only feel this way but also feel emboldened enough and secure...

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Back to Eden (part three)

Part three of our Back to Eden gardening style adventure, was the planting! I must admit that we did some major procrastination on getting our seeds for two major reasons.  The first was the fact that this year spring came way earlier than expected.  Everyone was pretty thrown off by it. The second was that we didn't have the slightest clue as to where we should get our seeds from.  We finally were recommended Bakers Creek Heirloom Seeds by the owners of a small natural foods market, Wild Root Grocery. We headed out there attempting to make it in time for a lunch that they serve, but we arrived and made it to the restaurant...

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Deoin Bedell

Members of our church have maintained a long-standing tradition of organizing meals to be brought to couples in the church who have just had a baby. They did it for us when Lyric was born in 2007 and it was a huge blessing. For two weeks solid, we didn't have to worry with the daily task of deciding upon and preparing dinner. It was brought to us ready to serve by a new face every evening. In 2006, we were still relatively new to our church and didn't know too many people yet. Jodi volunteered to make dinner for the Bedells who had just had their beautiful baby girl, Nia Rain. This was when I officially met Deoin Bedell. We showed up...

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Back to Eden (part two)

The second part of our gardening adventure was to put down the covering. We chose to use un-screened wood chips from Springfield Recycling Center. They were $5 per yard which equates to $15 a truckload. They also have screened wood chips which gets out all the big chunks and leaves much smaller wood chips that will break down and compost much sooner. They run $12 a yard. We decided that it was so early in the season that the larger chips would have time to break down before next year and we were afraid that our covering would break down too soon if we used the screened. We'll see how our decision turned out next spring. In case you...

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Back to Eden

Jodi and I recently watched a documentary online called Back to Eden. They have the documentary available for viewing directly from their website. In short, they convincingly show how to garden in a more natural, less toilsome way without the need to till, water, or struggle against dug in weeds. Yes, it does sound too good to be true. But, feel free to watch the video yourself for all the details on why this is NOT too good to be true. We're thoroughly convinced and have already begun the process to build our new garden using the methods that the documentary demonstrates. We'll be documenting our progress success throughout this season...

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