Saturday, July 21, 2007

We're Courting....I simply must say something.....

24 years ago Mike made this call to my father in the Philippines to ask if he could marry me. He had not asked if we could date, we simply didn't think about it back then. I was in college, they were in the Philippines. We still laugh at how "bad" the connection was requiring Mike to scream over and over "I love your daughter. May I marry her?" Dad kept saying, "What, I can't hear you!" ::snort:: Last night we got a call from Nicholas asking if he could court Krista. As I listened to Mike, I realized I was witnessing history. I ran and grabbed the camera. Mike seems to be more at ease for THIS call. Note the checklist. We are honored that Nicholas and Krista value our opinions enough to welcome us into this process. We covet your prayers for them as they explore where God may lead their relationship.
I've written several posts but will leave this as is for now. I realize some may have questions about courting, about what Mike said etc....um....ask and we'll see if I think I can answer. We value our children's privacy....Nicholas is not used to living life in the fish bowl. We certainly don't want to betray any confidences...but this call was a highlight of our week and had to be shared. LOL
Brief Recap

Thursday afternoon/evening ended up taking an unexpected twist when the 22 month old daughter of one of our chaplains fell off a dining room bench. God was good and certainly in all the details – allowing Ch. C to be home before surgery, quick healing, Christian neurosurgeon….and Sarah is home today!

Friday we were back in the saddle again with produce co-op. Our numbers were low but we found it was MUCH less work to have only 12 shares. ::snort:: We did have less variety and we miss that. I continued to work on my filing project. By Friday night I had everything in folders and the folders on my desk. My problem has been that the movers decided to just dump all out of drawers the last time we moved. Ugh. Hmmm….what else did we do Friday. We were exhausted. I ran errands in the afternoon. Mike got home late from work. We watched Happy Feet. Mike talked with Nicholas – I’ll write a separate post about that.

Saturday the older boys planned to pick up Matt, a friend, and head to the paint ball fields. They were to meet Steve and his boys there. Turns out the paintball field had changed their hours. The boys ended up going over to Steve and Debbie’s for a bit. Mike worked on his sermon all day. I continued working on files. We compromised on what had to be saved. I went and bought some “bankers boxes” and filled them with the bills etc from past assignments, the paperwork from home sales and purchases and statements from old bank accounts. Nolan and Zander occupied themselves shredding reams of papers that I thought could be shredded – 2 13 gal bags full.

Mike took me on a date tonight. We went to ZooKinis (are they local – sounds local). I was able to have soup and salad and he had a calzone that he said was really good. We walked along the river and talked. We got a call that we were out of milk again. Ouch. It hurts when I forget to buy that and Sam’s is closed. It’s 3.88 a gal at Sam’s and 4.48 at Wal-Mart. I bought 2 gal and will make it to Sam’s tomorrow…..I finished organizing files when I got home. We bought the current issue of the Consumer Report. Thanks, Liz, for the tip. It's on digital cameras.

I'm too tired to post pictures. I'll work on another post with pictures.

That’s the day……
Summer Reading Challenge Give-away!



If you would like to own this book post a comment and let me know. Please let me know how to contact you (either a blog link or an email address). I'll select a winner sometime on Wednesday - to be safe comment by Tuesday midnight if you want to be considered.

You must be a participant in the challenge - defined by having added your link to Mr. Linky or commented to the original post. It doesn't matter WHEN you sign up - you just need to be a participant. If you aren't a participant now, and would like to be, click above and go sign up. ::snort::

I'll mail this book domestically or internationally.

*The Cost of Discipleship* by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A brand new copy. I ordered it and then remembered that I'd assigned it to the boys and we already had a copy. I really need to get that database set up. LOL

From the back of the book:

What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the solider, the laborer or the aristocrat? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace". "Cheap grace," Bonhoeffer wrote, "is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship...Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know...It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."

The Cost of Discipleship is a compelling statement of the demands of sacrifice and ethical consistency from a man whose life and thought were exemplary articulations of a new type of leadership inspired by the Gospel, and imbued with the spirit of Christian humanism and a creative sense of civic duty.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in Breslau in 1906. The son of a famous German psychiatrist, he studied in Berlin and New York City. He left the safety of American to return to Germany and continue his public repudiation of the Nazis, which led to his arrest in 1943. Linked to the group of conspirators whose attempted assassination of Hitler failed, he was hanged in April 1945.

This is not an easy read, but since reading the biography I posted about earlier, I'm determined to read through some of Bonhoeffer's writings. LOL

Summer Reading Challenge Book Give-Away Rules!

I'm getting back into a routine after the trip.

The rules are simple. You must be a participant in the Summer Reading Challenge. It doesn't matter if you're a new participant. You must have a link to your blog on Mr. Linky, or if you don't have a blog you must have let me know in the comment section of the original post on the challenge, that you are participating.

I will post books on Saturday and randomly select a winner on Wednesday. I'll post a summary of the book so that you know if you would like to own it. You must leave a comment on the post by Wednesday a.m. when I draw (could be a.m. or after school - give me some grace here LOL). You'll need to leave your blog address or be sure I know how to contact you to get your address so that I can mail the book. DO NOT POST YOUR ADDRESS ON MY BLOG! I'm not sure how often I'll do the giveaways but I'll always post the book on Saturday and draw on Wednesday.

Some weeks I may say that you have to be a US resident for the book because I'll be paying for postage...just read the posts and you'll have the info you need.