“The finest men in all the world are not to be found in the warm, genial climates, where the earth has only to be tickled with a hoe, and it laughs with plenty; but the strongest and the most enterprising spirits have been found at the back of the north wind, where there are frosts and ice, and long, dreary winters, and men have a hard struggle for a livelihood. They become really men under that stern training. Now, if there were no thorns and thistles, no struggles and no trials, should we have any brave Christians? Should we have any great and noble souls at all? When did the Church yield her best men for her Lord’s service? It was in the persecuting times, when they had to swim through seas of blood to hold fast the truth of Christ. These are silken days, and we have wretched specimens of Christians everywhere; but if the times of persecution were to come once more, with the rough winds blowing, and the whole sea of the world tossed in tempest, we should then find brave sailors who would put the ship’s head to the wind, and ride safely over the stormy billows in the name of the Eternal God.” Spurgeon, C. H.
From the Thorns and Thistles Sermon, Vol 39.
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Claire wanted to get her ear’s pierced for her fifth birthday. So Jenn started looking around for special places to have it done. We preferred to have it done somewhere more profession. The random mall kioske or store seemed too casual and uncertain. Paisley Haus was recommended by one of Jenn’s friends. It’s a place that specializes in body piercings.
When we arrived, Claire picked out the studs that would go into her ears. She chose 18K gold studs that look like little princess crowns. To our suprise our piercer used her hands to manually push each stud through the ear. Perhaps her experienced hands, and a quality stud made it possible. Whatever the case, Claire hardly made a sound, but she had the look in her eyes as if the tears were building up. We had told Claire that it would hurt, so Claire was not surprised when it hurt. In the video you can see that Claire was ready to be held by Mommy.
I’ll post photos of the studs later. For now, there’s a video.
Family,Saturday, June 02, 2012
You are not supposed to look directly at the eclipse.So I called my dad to see if he had some welding helmets appropriate for staring at the sun. I didn’t realize that, in his garage, he had stored the same hand-made viewing apparatuses that he made for us when we were children.
To make your own viewing apparatus: take a shoulder-width square piece of cardboard and cut a small square window in the center, large enough to hold a welding lens. Tape the lens into the window and hand to child (or adult). Safely view the eclipse holding the cardboard up to the sky and looking through the small square viewing area.
My dad made three of these. We each had our own when we were three young boys. This time we shared with our neighbors. To our surprise, we walked out front to find several of our neighbors outside with the same goal. Tony, our metal working neighbor, and John, our old-school neigbor both had full-fledged welding helmets. Our new neighbors had a soda box converted into a peep-hole camera. The eclipse was ultra-cute and small in the peep-hole camera. They thought it was pathetic in comparison to looking directly at the sun though a welding lens. But in the end it was fun to experience the eclipse in a variety of ways, including the shadows!
The light from the sun filtered through trees casting eclipse-shaped shadows on the ground. The video originally had my unedited narration with redundant statements like “here’s shadows of the eclipse through trees again”. I felt that my voice managed to turn something exciting into something uncomfortably lame. So I redeemed the audio with a song. Although the video doesn’t come close to representing the reality of the experience, and there was a bit of a strangeness to be excited over looking at something as mundane as the sun and the moon, I hope you enjoy. 
To make your own viewing apparatus: take a shoulder-width square piece of cardboard and cut a small square window in the center, large enough to hold a welding lens. Tape the lens into the window and hand to child (or adult). Safely view the eclipse holding the cardboard up to the sky and looking through the small square viewing area.
My dad made three of these. We each had our own when we were three young boys. This time we shared with our neighbors. To our surprise, we walked out front to find several of our neighbors outside with the same goal. Tony, our metal working neighbor, and John, our old-school neigbor both had full-fledged welding helmets. Our new neighbors had a soda box converted into a peep-hole camera. The eclipse was ultra-cute and small in the peep-hole camera. They thought it was pathetic in comparison to looking directly at the sun though a welding lens. But in the end it was fun to experience the eclipse in a variety of ways, including the shadows!
The light from the sun filtered through trees casting eclipse-shaped shadows on the ground. The video originally had my unedited narration with redundant statements like “here’s shadows of the eclipse through trees again”. I felt that my voice managed to turn something exciting into something uncomfortably lame. So I redeemed the audio with a song. Although the video doesn’t come close to representing the reality of the experience, and there was a bit of a strangeness to be excited over looking at something as mundane as the sun and the moon, I hope you enjoy.
Saturday, June 02, 2012
And the Holding Hands Phenomena
Where does it come from? The idea of holding hands between friends is certainly not something that you see boys doing. But girls will frollick allong hopping and skipping with joy and affection for each other. Here we see my daughter Claire and her friend Hannah showcasing this behavior. They rarely see each other, yet they very quickly develop this type of female bond. It’s fascinating and curious indeed. But mostly it’s just so darn adorable and cute! Enjoy.
