Family

We have been looking for a church we like since we moved here. Alright, the look has been half hearted. We spend a few weekends looking a couple years ago, but mostly we have not really looked at all. We liked our church in Gresham and always seem to have other things going on on Sundays.

We have been so richly blessed with our wonderful daughter, this nice little home, the ability to have Elizabeth stay at home and my go back to school. We feel like slackers by not going to church. We need to be filled with God's Spirit and we need the community.

One thing I've been thinking about that might make it a little easier for us is an on-line church. I'm a little mixed on these though. I like them in concept, because they make it easier for some of us to worship. Part of church though is the social aspect that I'm sure is missing from an on-line church. You can't shake hands, hug, or even share a meal. I might try it, just as a way to get my family thinking about church again. It might even work on for the better for us. But I think I really want that social aspect and a congregation I can touch.

What do you think? Do you know any on-line churches or have any comments about them? Please use the comment form below and tell us all about your thoughts.

I'm always working on little projects to make the house a little better. I've added cabinet space in the kitchen, replaced some electrical and lighting, painted, added a closet and more. Now I'm making a big communication center for us. We had a big window looking out onto our carport. We have no reason to be looking out there, so I took the molding off, and added a peice of plywood over it, leaving the window there, but covering it. I'd like to have removed it, but that would have been a lot more time and a lot more money. I'm short on both.

I've primed and painted it the same color as the walls. Now I need to paint half of it in chalk board paint. The other half is going to have some small shelves for knick knacks and CDs and DVDs. We will be using the communication side of it to write up the menu, to do items and chores. We think it will make communicating household needs easier and more compact. I have a lot of hope for it and will post pictures when it is finished.

Yesterday the neighbor boy was wanting to play with Emma. Of course she wanted to play, she always wants to play. This boy has been a little... worrisome. He throws things at the fence when the dog is out and yells at the dog regularly. Once he asked me if he could punch Emma. I thought it a good idea to watch him around her, but he is 5 so I just assumed he had not been taught right from wrong and needed some guidance on proper social behavior.

Well, Emma is no longer allowed to play with him. She decided that she wanted to go play and headed out on her own. I stopped her and reminded her that she needed to ask first, which she did. He also very politely asked if she could go play for a minute. I praised them both for asking so nicely and let her go, following behind.

They went up into the neighbors yard, I stayed down and watched. They headed to a shed in the neighbors yard and started to go behind it. I said "Emma, you need to stay where I can see you. She needs to be where I can see her ----." They, of course did not listen. I headed back there and about half way there she started screaming. She was standing there screaming and ---- was gone out the other side. I will not tell you all the things that went through my head.

I picked her up and walked out. ---- was there and told be that she got pricked by a bush. This was possible, but why would he have run off, if that was the case. I told him to show me where this bush was. He took me back there and showed me a couple of sticks on the ground. At this point, Emma unfolded the arm she had been holding close and I saw the bite marks.

He had planned on taking her back there and biting her. He not only asked my permission to play with her, but took her directly to the most private place on their property and bit her. From the time they went back there till the time I was back there was not more than 10 seconds. This was clearly not the type of thing that they happened to be back there playing and they got a little rough, but he clearly intended on biting her, or something.

I feel awful. I knew the kid had violent tendencies, yet I let Emma play with him. I thought he was just talking trash, because that is what he learned at home. I also did not have any intention of them ever being alone together. I should have started to head up there sooner, not let them get behind the shed. It is my job to protect her, and I failed.

Emma is fine now. The bite did not break the skin, but it was clearly painful. I cleaned it up and put a cool cloth on it. The redness went away within 30 minutes, but it was still raised for a while. She stopped crying about it after a while. Obviously she will no longer be allowed to play with him.

I'm not sure what to do to protect her. Our yard if fenced, so I can keep her in, and usually do, but she likes to go over to the fence and talk to those kids. If ---- is out, I don't want her over there. The other kids are ok, a couple of them are really nice, but not that one. I don't feel right bringing her in the house and locking her away every time he is out, but I don't know what else to do to keep her safe.

One thing I think we need to do is have more time with other kids that we trust. She needs that experience with kids, and perhaps she would not be running over there to play with kids if she got more time with kids. I'm not sure it will work since she has had plenty of time with kids in the past and still wanted to run over and play with them (after a trip to the Children's Museum, for instance.

Anyway, I just needed to vent for a minute. I need to head out now, I'm supposed to be on the other side of time in 40 minutes and I have not eaten yet.

This weekend, Louis Palau was in town and when he comes to town, he knows how to throw a party! He invited Veggie Tales and had several puppet shows and blow up toys (bounce houses, slides, etc) for the kids. Live music from big name bands like Mercy Me, TobyMac, Kutless, Chris Tomlin and more. And it was all free!

Well, that part was free. They also had food and you could buy merchandise from the musicians and the many of the sponsors had stuff for sale. But the main events were free. It was a lot of fun. I like free and I love to see Emma having a good time. She did. She was singing along with Mercy Me and during at least one of the prayers (this is an evangelical event) she was praying along. My little 2 1/2 year old singing praise and giving praise. It was so wonderful to see.

I'd like to say a thanks to Him for sending me such a lovely daughter. She is a joy and a wonder. She makes me smile every day and I am sure will do wonderful things for His Glory. He is great, yet he loves me enough to send this beautiful joy to keep us entertained. Yes, I'm a sap. I love Jesus and I love Emma. I'm a lucky man.

This weekend, I was working on my new herb garden. I cleared out some brush in the area and was trying to level the area and pull up the stump that was left from one of the bushes that was removed. I dug up a bunch of bulbs, enough to half fill a kitty litter tub. Next, I dug around the stump. Got one side dug down a little and started on the other. About a minute later I felt this sharp pain in my ankle and ran for the door.

I got my shoe and sock off, had my wife go to the car for the first aid kit, with the sting relief pads. Once the pain subsided, I put on the sock and shoe and returned. I assumed that I got stung by a rough bee that I pissed off, so I started digging again, but I kept my eyes open, just in case.

About two shovel fulls when I saw about 10 bees coming out of a hole a right at the fence line. It had been well hidden by the bushes that had been there, now it is right out in the open. I'm unsure what to do.

I can go out there and spray, killing them all, and be free of any potential stings to myself or my family. At the same time, the bees might help to pollinate my garden. I've also read about the loss of bees recently and don't want to add to the low bee numbers by killing an entire hive. What to do, what to do.

I don't know much about bees. I think I need to do a little research and find out what kind of bees they are. If they are yellow jackets, then I guess I should just kill them. If they are a more friendly bee, that would not have attacked me, if I had not been attacking their nest, then maybe I could just figure out a way to protect that nest and let them bee. For now, there is a stick in the fence, marking their nest and the herb garden is places on a temporary hold. It is going in containers anyway, so the containers have been set up, just not in the permanent location.

I want to make Emma a tire swing. I've been seeing these swings on various sites around the web that are tires cut into the shape of a horse, a dragon, or a motorcycle. They come in many shapes. I found these basic instructions for a horse. Or you can click on the image to the right to be able to purchase the dragon from Shop.com. Buying them is of course the easy way. And might be safer, as cutting tires is not an easy business and that knife can slip. I've cut many and may use the plans to make my own, but if I had the money, I'd much rather buy it. It is not easy to manipulate the tires.

I think Emma would really get a kick out of having her own horse in the yard. This also is an easy way to make use of a garbage item that we have far too much of in the land fills. There are a lot of ways to turn your tires into something useful. But most of them work better with non-steel belted tires. Most tires these days have steel in them, so that makes these kinds of projects much harder to work with.

Here are a few of my favorite projects for making things from tires:

• Sandals last a really long time when made out of tires. In some countries, these are very common shoes. I think I'd want to wear socks or moccasins with them, but they will last forever.
• Flowering Tire Pot - This flower pot looks like a flower too. I've seen them nicely painted and can be quite nice.
• Hanging Bird Flower Pot - I thought I'd found plans for this at one time, but now all I can find it this place selling the pot. It is cool though.