Finished "1 Thessalonians"

Ahh the letters...I found a few nice gems to glean this time around.

"For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night." 5:2

This verse always reminds me to continually prepare my heart for the return of Jesus. I enjoy the time I have on this earth because at any moment it could all be over.

Which brings me to, "Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil." 5:16-22

Finished "Boundaries" by Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend

I heard about this book on the Dave Ramsey show on the radio one day and though I needed to read it, for sure. I was right! I've had it for a while now and finally got to it.

I liked it because it confirmed a lot of ideas I've had in the past. It is Christian based self-help, which I don't always enjoy, but this made sense to me. I didn't agree with all the examples or ideas, but I could see where they were coming from and find ways to adapt them to my own world view.

It goes through what boundaries look like in different relationships, how they may developed and in what stages of life, and how you can make up for a lack of development in your own life. It doesn't just tell you what boundaries should be and then leave. I gives you details and ways to help.

The best thing I found in it though is confirmation that boundaries are a good thing and that we need a loving and safe place to develop those boundaries to be healthy, functioning adults. This is something I had started when I had my first child. I felt instinctively that for him to be able successfully navigate the world, he needed a strong and safe base of operations. This book shows stages from infancy to the teen age years. And it talks about how, as an adult learning boundaries, we need to find a group or just one person that can provide that safe place to practice from. It really hit home for me.

I highly recommend this book. Even if you don't believe you may personally have boundary issues, it will help you deal with others that do. It may even make you a better partner and parent!

Board Games

It's hot. And it's the end of the month...the lull before the storm really because we have a boat load of excitement planned for September. Nowhere to go. Too hot to be outside anywhere. Don't want to spend money to drive and get to something indoors and/or cool. So I pulled out the games. I love board games and I tend to buy them and then they rarely get played. The boys have outgrown them right as they became mature enough to play the games that looked like fun to me. But they are good sports and will play one every once in a while to entertain me!

Today I pulled out "Made For Trade". It's a game kind of like monopoly, set in Revolutionary times. It was made to teach some history and economics of the time. They especially don't like games that are too teachy, like this one. But it is fun when we do play because we tend to take on the characters we choose as pawns. 

This game led us to an economics talk because we didn't think it was quite accurate, but decided it couldn't be unless we changed it a bit and we just might the next time we play. We got into to a heated debate about freedom of speech and where one person's rights end and another person's begin, looked up the Bill of Rights, and practiced some debate skills.

Then the whole thing devolved into a battle on the floor which I tried to take a video of as proof of the insanity, but failed.

This evening, Dad got off work early and we went out for dinner. Conversation there continued about rights, motorcycle engines, the Alien and Sedition Act, WWI, Japanese internment, and the legalization of recreational drugs.

It has been one of those days.

Finished "Ecclesiates"

Believed to be written by Solomon towards the end of his life, I think he must have been a little jaded and unhappy because this book is a bit of a bummer. There are a few uplifting gems, but mostly it says "Life on earth sucks, look to God for relief.". I can agree to some degree, but I think if you focus on the suckiness of life, you're putting your focus in the wrong place. A real relationship with God and His creation can put a positive spin on things. Why would God put you in a place just to torture you? He wants you to love His creation, after all, He created you for it!

"I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted." 1:14-15

Probably right there. I can imagine Solomon, having all the wisdom God had given him and all that time ruling over his people, that he was pretty sick of the whole thing. God probably gets tired of the lack of human understanding in the world He created, but then He's God, so He fully understands what is going on. But Solomon was only human and got very tired of his fellow man. I can understand that. I'm no where near as smart as he was, but I know the more I learn the more I realize how much I do not know and sometimes it all seems futile. Wouldn't it be easier to live ignorance and just sit and quietly admire God instead?

"I have seen that nothing is better than that man should be happy in his activities, for that is his lot. For who will bring him to see what will occur after him?" 3:22

Yep. You'll never know what happened after you, just be happy and joyful in what you are doing now.

"Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, for anger resides in the bosom of fools. Do not say, "Why is it that the former days were better than these?", for it is not from wisdom that you ask about this." 7:9-10

This is hard. Studying history and philosophy does help. You can see that there is no reason to hold on to anger and that times have been harder than they are now.

"When I gave my heat to know wisdom and to see the task which has been done on the earth (even though one should never sleep day or night), and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, "I know," he cannot discover." 8:16-17

See? Solomon was extraordinarily smart and he realized this. I think I'll take his word for it. I'll do what I can to learn what I can, to apply it to my life, but to be closer to God is my main life goal. We cannot know God's plan. Just watch and see what happens!

"If the axe is dull and he does not sharpen its edge, then he must exert more strength. Wisdom has the advantage of giving success." 10:10

Constant study. Lifelong learning.

"Divide your portion to seven, or even eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on earth." 11:2

Preppers!

"So, remove grief and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body, because childhood and the prime of life are fleeting." 11:10

Enjoy it while you've got it!

"The words of wise men are like goads, and masters of these collections are like well-driven nails; they are given by one Shepherd. But beyond this, my son, be warned: the writing of many books is endless, and excessive devotion to books is wearying to the body. The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person." 12:11-13

Hmm...the best thing we can do is live in the moment for God alone. Our lives may be poor, or short, but ultimately for God. But, if we must, study, know the world and the way it works, but know it for God. Don't let study, work, or ambition get between you and God. 

Bathroom Remodel

We finally pulled the trigger on the bathroom remodel! Yay! These are the before pictures.

I'm not sure when this bathroom was put in like this, but I think it's the first bathroom. The house looks like it was a desert cabin at first, with an outhouse. When piped water came out to this area, they added the bathroom.

We had recovered the shower walls to make it useable when we first moved in, but dirt finally started coming out from under the plastic and the divider wall between the shower and toilet was falling apart. It looked like termites were eating it.

They were! The black is the glue that held that find wall paneling onto the drywall. The white around the edges is where termite ate all the paper and much of the dry wall. Strange though. It wasn't from the damp of the shower. It was from the top down mostly. Like the roof may have been leaking at some point.

Luckily, it was old, dead tunnels. The last time someone sprayed for termites killed them all, except behind the tub a little. I found a few there while I was tearing it out.

Tearing out the old stuff was fun. It's a little cramped in there, so I tore out stuff and made a pile and the boys kept coming in and removing things to the front yard. The plan is to take that stuff to the dump when we are done.

The tub and toilet will stay. They are fine. Dan will put in a new shower surround and drywall. I will mud and paint, probably put some kind of texture on the walls. I have already picked out an awesome cabinet and sink!

The linoleum floor isn't coming up easily, but the heat gun is helping a lot! The plan here is to put in that cool new tile that looks like wood planks. I can't wait to see it in!

Finished Reading "The Origin of Inequality Among Men" by Rousseau

I'll start by saying, right off the bat, that this was not one of my favorite books. In fact, I was eager to get through it because it was making me mad. Yes, things I read can make me that crazy. It's part of why I hate reading comments after online articles.

He had some great points about the cycle of government and social order, but I felt like his premise was started wrong and so the rest really couldn't be depended upon.

For instance, he believes that mankind was not always a social being, that we were not created that way but evolved into a society that has created all our ills. He believes the idea of property was invented. I don't believe that. In fact, the way he describes primitive humans behaving doesn't even happen with animals. 

I believe that the idea of property is a law like gravity. You can think "Hey this gravity thing makes you fall, let's make laws about it and stop it from happening!". Gravity just is and we need to work within it. It's the same thing with property. It goes along with human nature. They best laws and governance work with human nature not against it.

On a personal level I feel like I need to respect a persons personal life before I can take to heart their opinions about other things. I wouldn't take marriage advice from someone who had never been married or couldn't keep one together. This guys life seems pretty shaky. He couldn't keep up with any sort of education or hold any kind of office or job, so how can I take his views of human kind seriously?

Here is a quote that I did like, "The investigations we may enter into, in treating this subject, must not be considered as historical truths, but only as mere conditional and hypothetical reasoning, rather calculated to explain the nature of things, than to ascertain their actual origin;"

I can get behind that. When we think about the origins of things, we have to use our imagination. They are never to be considered ultimate truths. And that's what he is doing in this book. The problem for me is that I can't get behind his beginning of mankind ideas.

And this one, "Peoples once accustomed to masters are not in a condition to do without them." I think we're having a bit of that problem in our nation right not. We've given ourselves over to masters instead of thinking and behaving as a free people should. That is not easily reversed.

The big idea I got from this book is this, the idea of the cycle of government, which I've heard from other authors and speakers recently, but in different words. His idea goes like this.

1. Legitimacy (pre-property, everyone is equal, no society)
2. Establishment of laws and right of property (the creation of rich and poor, haves and have-nots)
3. Institution of magistracy (creation of keepers of the law, brings condition of powerful over weak)
4. Conversion of legitimate power to arbitrary power (keepers decide it owns its power, wishes to keep it and passes it on to heirs, brings condition of master over slave)
5. Slave grow weary of condition, dissolve by revolution

And then the whole thing starts over, except that the legitimacy isn't the same as the very beginning because you really can't take us back to that level without killing off most of the human race.

Some of this I can see, but again, my problem is this idea that man in the state of nature has no sense of property. I don't see this as the case.

Here is one I liked as well, "Nature lays her commands on every animal, and the brute obeys her voice. Man receives the same impulsion, but at the same time knows himself at liberty to acquiesce or resist: and it is particularly in his consciousness of this liberty that the spirituality of his soul is displayed."

This is the free will gift of God. It is what makes us "in the image of God". It is what sets us apart from animals.

I had lots of notes in this book, but these were the most important to me. I don't want to go over the entire thing. You read it!

Another fine track day

Another very early morning. I can't wait until the weather cools and we can leave at decent hour instead of getting up at dawn. This time, the boys woke ME up. We left at 6:45AM, and that fifteen minutes was crucial for not hitting traffic when we got closer to the city. It wasn't too bad though, and we still arrived before 8:30AM.

Unloading the truck is the boys' job. I'm in charge of helping them dress and bringing water and food!

Sweaty boys!

By 10AM, there were considerably more people at the track that day. We had neighbors at our camp! That's always fun because the boys like to look at other people's bikes and talk shop with the other guys. Jake didn't spend as much time riding this time because he has decided that he wants to sell his bike and get a bigger one, like Tom's. They shared Tom's bike a lot.

This is Jake on Tom's bike.

And Tom watching Jake and trying to coach from the side lines.

Tom spent a lot of time on the bigger track. It's not the Main. He's not comfortable there with the really big bikes and jumps. He had me time him on a few laps and take video of his jumps.

Here's a good one! I can't see the whole track from the stands and it's pretty far away at some points, but my iPhone does a good job with the zoom.

 

This was one of my favorite pictures of the day!

Even though it got pretty hot by noon, we had a good time. There were a couple guys with old 70's bikes that the boys talked to for a bit. The guy next to us, with his son and wife riding, was taken aback at the boys' ages. He thought they were 15. Jake was happy about that. I was proud because after I packed up the snacks and helped them out of their gear, I sat in my truck while they loaded up and tied down the bikes. Then we drove off to have some Subway for lunch before heading home. 

Finished "Colossians"

I've decided to write about each book of the Bible as I finish them, like I do other books. I don't read a lot of Bible commentary, but I do look for it when something strikes me as strange. Also, I once did a bible study that had a lot of the meaning of specific words. It was amazingly eye opening. I'd like to do that again. Every morning, I read three chapters of the Old Testament, one chapter of Psalms through the Prophets, and one chapter of the New Testament. It takes me about 20 minutes each day and I get through the whole bible in about a year. As I read, I underline things that I'd love to remember in detail and add a note or comment here and there. That is what I will write here for each book.

Colossians is not a long book, only four chapters. Two verses that stuck out for me this time around.

3:23-24 Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.

Even if we work for Walmart, or in our own home as a housewife, our goal as Christians should not be a large paycheck or praise from our children, but to please God with our effort to care for what He has given us.

4:5-6 Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.

This is something that really spoke to me because it is something I've been working on. I want to be an example of God's love to others. I want to share with them the joy I find in God and His creation. I think this verse speaks to that. After all, when you find something that really lights you up, don't you want to share that with the world? God is Love! I want to be the kind of person people see that through.

Castle Rock - Big Bear

An adventure! Thursday night we (the royal we) decided that we were in need of an adventure. The forecast called for an unseasonal 90 degrees in the desert, which means that the mountains would be at least ten degrees cooler, so I figured we needed to get a hike in ASAP! The boys and I had been working on tearing out our old bathroom for a couple days and we needed a break. The last time we were in Big Bear, we had planned on hiking to Castle Rock, but couldn't find the trail head. It was hot anyway, so we picnicked and messed around on another trail. We did find the trail head for next time though, on the way home.

Friday morning, we headed up the mountain with our Geocache supplies and a few bottles of water. I have yet to figure out a good way to carry enough water on a hike. We all don't like the camel backpack things, and the boys don't like my water bottle carrier. We need to get some manly canteens or something.

Anyway, it was 70 degrees when we arrived...in AUGUST! We stopped for lunch at KFC. The boys love KFC, probably because we don't go there very often. I'm not a fan of the chicken and it's more expensive than El Pollo. They were thrilled to find a new $5 deal and have informed me that since we can now find lunch there for under $20, it needs to become a regular part of the choice list. Seriously, this discussion happened.

The trail head! This place does not have a parking lot. It's a turnout area along the road. So, if it's a busy day, you may have to park up to a mile away and walk to it. The trail head we were at last time goes over to Castle Rock by a longer route, but they have ample parking. I prayed that we would find a spot because I really didn't want THAT long of a walk. There was one last spot!

Geocache! We haven't done this in a while. I really love it. The boys come along for the ride. If you Geocache too, keep an eye out for us. We're BunnyButt! :)) My Dad gave us a bag of great things to leave in caches we find. We only take something out if it really calls to us. We have found some neat stuff that we leave in our bag for other caches. I love it when we find Trackables! Some day, I'm going to start my own!

In this one, we found an invitation with an address on it. Tom was concerned.

This is view about half way up the trail!

Trees and rocks. We had a lot of fun climbing this. It's a very steep trail. Yikes. Luckily, we had a reason to stop every 300 feet. Geocache!

Tom and Jake recreating scenes from "Princess Bride". I gave them lines, but they refused to act it out.

How's this for a good geocache find? I think Tom has found a new personality!

Whenever we get to a high place, both the boys strike this pose and say "Take this one for Grandma Shelly!". I have trained them well.

I love this forest. Lots of different kinds of trees. We had fun ID'ing them. Really. The boys are getting good at it. Tom has been reading a survival guide and was telling us about which plants they could eat.

The views from where we found the caches were spectacular!

Sugar Pine?

We love hiking! It takes us a good bit of initiative to get going. The gravitational pull of the couch is pretty strong for all of us. But once we get out there, we all swear we should do it more often. It's so beautiful in the forest. It's a great chance to talk about things. We have loads of fun and always come away feeling closer somehow.

Did I mention that I love this forest?

Tom has a new friend. Her name is Annie. Annie Oak Leaf. He carried her in his belt and brought her home with us.

This is Tom treating Jake like a dog. And Jake behaving as one. Stay. No. Stay.

The view from Castle Rock! We made it!

 

We need to relax here for a while. That was quite the climb!

Jake fell asleep standing up!

Tom at the top of the rocks. Meditating. We tried to be patient but Jake and I were getting tired and thirsty. He loves to sit on top of things and take it all in.

Jake was lower down the trail, doing an impression of Jean Val Jean. Tom joined in!

We made it down the hill. I only stumbled a few times. My poor legs hate that down hill run. We wrapped up the day with a visit to the music store and ice cream!

Theater Camp!

This is a little late, but yesterday I realized I hadn't blogged about our two week adventure. So here it is!

We go to see shows at Theatre29 fairly often and last spring both the boys said they might like to try working at the theater. We have volunteered there before and worked the concession stand. We found out that they were going to have a two week theater camp in July and I asked if they would like to try it. They did! I had to hide my excitement. We went to the information meeting and signed up after we found that it was going to run daily from 1pm to 5pm. Yay! No early mornings!

Their first crew shirts!

After the first day they found out they would definitely be on the crew and not in the show. They had requested this. They just aren't the type to want to be in the light. Tom could probably be convinced. He thinks he might like it, so I'm sure if someone there said "Hey why don't you audition for this part?", he'd do it. But Jake is dead set against ever going on stage.

First they learned to build flats and paint. They volunteered to go back over the weekend and finish painting the set. Every time I went to pick them up, they were wild and excited about what they did that day and full of stories about actors, directors, and others.

Tom doing some detail work. He learned about cartoon shadowing that day.

Discussions with the scene designer.

Jake doing more painting.

They worked for eight straight hours painting that day!

Then they found out that Tom would be running the light board and Jake would be running the spot light. They came running out to tell me! I was pretty excited. There is just something really cool about your kids getting so much excitement out of something you loved so much when you were a kid.

So they did it. Every day for two whole weeks, I drove to Twentynine Palms, dropped them off, and came back four hours later to pick them up. And every day they chatted all the way home about their day. They had loads of fun and can't wait to do it again. Motocross is back on their minds now, but they think that theater may be what they do over the summer when it's just to hot to stay at the track all day. I'm just thrilled they like something that I like!

Tom at the light board! He looked up the manual and learned out to do some basic programming and some other tricks.

Show night!

Jake behind his spot. Yep. He's there.

Jake's work.

Jake after the show. He's pretty proud.

The booth.

My two techs. Seriously. I don't think I could be any prouder than at this moment!

Their first cast photo. Up in the back, just like Mom!