(Thursday, Dec 30) OK, as a guy, I have to admit that I don’t get the attraction of fancy crystal.  Isn’t it just expensive glass?  Yes, it’s beautiful, but not something I would willingly spend a bunch of money on.  (I feel the same way about a bouquet of roses and, for that matter, diamonds…)  But women seem to appreciate the beauty of crystal. So it surprised me that Melissa was willing to part with a couple of pieces of crystal that we have had on display in the cabinets that overlook our dining table. We had breakfast this morning with Steve and Keri and their kids and afterwards exchanged Christmas gifts.  Over the last couple of days, Melissa had been looking at some of these crystal pieces and considering to whom she might give them.  She explained to Keri later that she had picked two matching pieces, found a smallish gift box, and had prayed to God saying, “I’ll be willing to part with these if they both fit into this particular box.”  It was snug, but they fit.  So she gave them to Steve and Keri.  (Well … right… just Keri, really.) I’m proud of her.  I know it’s tough for a woman to part with a thing of beauty. 

One last thing.  I would be remiss if I didn’t compliment and thank Steve and Keri for their choice of gift for us.  We have not been the easiest to shop for this year – with all the talk of downsizing and packing and moving.  It pretty much rules out anything that is too bulky or purely decorative.  So I thought Steve and Keri’s gift was very clever:  a coffee press.  It is not much bigger than an oversized coffee mug and it makes it possible to make coffee without a coffee machine and without filters.  There’s plenty of coffee in Haiti, but finding and, later, disposing of filters would be a hassle.  There’s no garbage pick-up, even in the compound where we’d be staying.  (They have their own little landfill pit where the garbage is burned on a regular basis.)  So now we can still enjoy coffee in the future without feeling guilty about adding to Haiti’s pollution problems!  Well done.  Must have been Keri’s idea!

I’m caught up on my blogging, including Day 42.  That’s about my only accomplishment for the day!  I am really enjoying the discipline of writing on a daily basis. But when I wrote about the Winnie the Pooh calendar I had used to paint a mural for Dats (now age 9) when he was a baby, it reminded me of an obligation that I had meant to fulfill over Christmas break and had managed to completely forget about (and now it’s Wednesday night and we return to school on Monday!).  Melissa’s cousin Angie had put me in contact with a sweet older couple who have found themselves in the position of raising their grandchildren – a boy and a girl.  This couple wanted someone to paint a mural on the wall of their little grandson’s room to make it his own.  I’ve been to their house to see the space and get some ideas, but have not yet carved out the time to do the actual painting.  (We first talked about this mural before school started in August!)  The latest idea from the boy is characters from Toy Story … but the grandmother would also like some Scripture verse tied into the scene!  Got any ideas for me?  (“And, lo, I am with you always… to infinity and beyond!”??)  I’ve committed to doing this – and they are willing to pay – so I really need to get moving on it.  Maybe New Year’s Day would be a good time to do it… that tends to be a pretty lame holiday. 

Speaking of Melissa’s cousin Angie (and I was, a ways back), today she gave me the best present I got this Christmas:  her old Kindle.  Apparently her husband got her a newer model for Christmas.  (For those who don’t know, the Kindle is an electronic device capable of holding hundreds of downloaded books.)  Although I tend to be an old-fashioned kind of guy, there are at least four obvious advantages to having a Kindle:  1) It’s compact (much smaller than a stack of books) 2) It’s easy to read (you can change the font size if you need to) and 3) You can shop for books on-line and immediately download them without the time and expense of visiting a bookstore (and I can waste HOURS in a bookstore!) and 4) Downloaded e-books are cheaper (and more environmentally friendly) than paper books.  I’ve already sampled some books on learning Haitian Creole. Here’s a funny little coincidence.  I didn’t fully explain this yesterday, but when Bob and I were talking about the book “Radical”, he said he had looked at it in a bookstore not long ago and had almost bought a copy for himself because it was on a table which had a sign stating “$4.99”.  But he was suspicious because it was the only copy of “Radical” on the table.  A salesclerk confirmed that “Radical” did not belong there; it costs $15.  So Bob didn’t buy it. But I so wanted Bob to read the book, I gave him my copy, knowing I would get a replacement copy for myself, even though I knew it costs $15. You know how much “Radical” costs for Kindle?  $5.00! Thanks, Angie!  You made my day. P.S.  Angie’s Kindle came with a stylish leather cover … in PINK.  Melissa suggested she would look on-line for a new cover, but I’m telling her not to do it.  I’m cheap and don’t want to spend any unnecessary money.  I’m secure in my manhood.  Besides, this way I’m not likely to misplace it. 

We got a visit today from our long-time friends, Bob and Jill.  They live near D.C. but have family in Indianapolis, so they were in the area for Christmas.  We had to pack over a year of catching up into a few hours.  They are about as far from ordinary as you can get – and their past year has been unusual even by their standards.  At the start of summer, Bob’s church position was cut due to budget problems and Jill quit her job.  They sold most of their possessions and travelled Europe for a month.  Now they are living in the basement of some friends’ house while Jill has started work as a teacher’s aide and Bob is preparing to become a school bus driver.  But the bigger picture is that Bob wants to become a missionary, so he is trying to raise support. But Bob can’t be an “ordinary” missionary to Haiti, or Guam, or Taiwan, etc.  No, Bob’s dream is to become a missionary to America.  Right now he is trying to figure out just exactly what that means, what it looks like, and how best to convey his vision to others who might support him in this venture.  You should take a moment and check out his website at http://loveslabours.typepad.com/ .  Bob has been in ministry for years, and I never figured that he would settle into some traditional role within the United Methodist Church … and he hasn’t.  If anyone can figure out how to be an American missionary to America, Bob and Jill can.  I’ll be curious to see how his vision grows and develops over the next few years. So Bob and Jill were not in the least bit interested in taking any of our stuff with them since what few possessions they have held onto are in storage in a 10 by 12 foot room.  They are perfectly happy living the downsized, unencumbered life and they don’t want our giveaways.  But there’s one thing Bob can’t resist.  Books.  He had looked at “Radical” recently at a bookstore and put it back on the shelf because he figured it would “only frustrate him.”  So I gave him my copy.  (Remember, this is the book with the subtitle “Taking back your faith from the American Dream”.  Check it out here.)  It’s not like it’s going to challenge him – he and Jill have never bought into the American Dream – but it will frustrate him to read it because his mind is going to be churning the whole time about how to stir the American church as a whole to get “radical”. 

I don’t know that giving away “Radical” today counts officially in my downsizing experiment to Give, Throw or Sell something each day since I have every intention of buying another copy to replace the one I gave to Bob today.  So just to be on the safe side, we also gave a few more Christmas gift boxes to my aunt.  My aunt Lossie was hosting some extended family from out of town for dinner tonight and so we made the trip to Shelbyville this evening to see everyone.  Lossie goes nuts at Christmas time – she has an unbelievable Santa collection and at least three full size trees up.  She also wraps dozens of gifts every year for a large number of friends and relations, so we figured she might appreciate the gift boxes.

“Laughter for a Woman’s Soul” and “Through the Night with God”.  I wrapped these with a little bow and took them to Rose Ellen’s house while I ran a couple of other late evening errands (including finally getting some Christmas letters into the mail!).  I also took one of the Christmas letters, so she was the first to actually get one in hand.  I spent all day on those letters, so it was good to see them go.  I didn’t know Rose Ellen before the mission trip to Haiti in October (and I had never been to her house before).  She went to Haiti in order to cross “mission trip” off her “bucket list”.  I think it’s safe to say that God surprised her with so much more on that trip than she bargained for!  And the funny thing is, it seems the ripples from that trip have continued to grow in her life rather than diminish.  Only time will tell the ultimate impact of that week in Haiti for Rose Ellen. I would have just left the books and envelope on her porch since it was already 9:30 PM, but since I had never been there, I wanted to make sure I had the right house.  Besides, there’s still snow everywhere and her front step is not covered.  So I got to see her kitchen project.  She has cleaned out her kitchen in preparation for painting.  I think I might be able to help her out with a new light fixture and some aid in getting a bit more storage space built into her kitchen beside her stove.  She’s a single mom and I imagine it is tough sometimes to get everything done around the house AND take care of the kids.  And nobody needs a kitchen project to take longer than necessary!

“Laughter for a Woman’s Soul” and “Through the Night with God”.  I wrapped these with a little bow and took them to Rose Ellen’s house while I ran a couple of other late evening errands (including finally getting some Christmas letters into the mail!).  I also took one of the Christmas letters, so she was the first to actually get one in hand.  I spent all day on those letters, so it was good to see them go.  I didn’t know Rose Ellen before the mission trip to Haiti in October (and I had never been to her house before).  She went to Haiti in order to cross “mission trip” off her “bucket list”.  I think it’s safe to say that God surprised her with so much more on that trip than she bargained for!  And the funny thing is, it seems the ripples from that trip have continued to grow in her life rather than diminish.  Only time will tell the ultimate impact of that week in Haiti for Rose Ellen. I would have just left the books and envelope on her porch since it was already 9:30 PM, but since I had never been there, I wanted to make sure I had the right house.  Besides, there’s still snow everywhere and her front step is not covered.  So I got to see her kitchen project.  She has cleaned out her kitchen in preparation for painting.  I think I might be able to help her out with a new light fixture and some aid in getting a bit more storage space built into her kitchen beside her stove.  She’s a single mom and I imagine it is tough sometimes to get everything done around the house AND take care of the kids.  And nobody needs a kitchen project to take longer than necessary!

OK, another book – I’ve got hundreds of them.  I saw this title and immediately thought I should tag this one for one of my Honor students … I will call him Nerd Supreme here, since I don’t want to publish his real name here on the internet for privacy reasons.  I don’t think he’d take offense to the title of Nerd Supreme either, so don’t worry – he’s not going to get mad at me (I hope).  For one thing, he knows that I myself am a proud fellow nerd.  Besides, he is one of those rarest of creatures in America’s high schools: an individual who relishes, even celebrates, his uniqueness and does not seem bothered by anyone else’s opinion.  Now several other students in my classes would fit that description as far as it goes, but what makes Nerd Supreme unusual is that he does this in a positive, rather than negative, fashion.  (e.g. He doesn’t dye his hair some funky color – He enthusiastically talks about the books – plural – he is currently reading to anyone within earshot.) I figure Nerd Supreme would appreciate this particular book partly because, hey, it’s about Lord of the Rings.  But also because NS has an obvious interest in church and spiritual matters.  I hope he finds something of interest in this book. Here’s a quote from the final chapter of the book that’s worth a ponder.  But it’s from C.S. Lewis rather than Tolkien (they were good friends, by the way): “Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists.  A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food.  A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water…. I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.”

I got this book last spring and flipped through quite a few pages now and then.  There are tons of good, creative ideas in it which would apply to kids of varying ages.  But the book doesn’t inspire me to do fun, creative things with my kids … it just makes me feel guilty.  I mean, we don’t even seem to have the time and energy to do even mundane, ordinary things with our kids.  We have a garage full of bicycles and how many times did we go for a bike ride together this past summer or fall?  Exactly zero!  Now that’s not to say that we don’t do things with the kids at all – we’re a pretty active family – it’s just that our family time ends up being “spoken for”.  So I’ve had this book for 8 or 9 months and haven’t used any of the ideas yet.  Sounds like a good candidate to be given away.  The only down side of giving a book to someone is that nagging fear that he or she will place it on a shelf and ignore it.  But I gave this book to Keri, our friend, neighbor and small group leader, so there’s a very good chance this book will actually get used.  Keri homeschools her kids and she’s really good at proactively planning activities for her kids – they are always going to visit a farm or help a neighbor with chores or something (and that was even before she started homeschooling this fall!).  When I stopped by her house and gave her the book yesterday (Christmas Day), she said that Melissa had told her about it when I first got it and she had almost bought a copy for herself at the time because it sounded like such a good book to have handy. I figure this will be a win/win situation.  Our kids now have a better chance of benefitting from the book than if I had kept it here.  Here’s how:  if I’m right in guessing that Keri will actually make use of the book and “test-drive” some of the ideas with her kids (who are roughly the same age as ours), then she’s also bound to pass along the most enjoyable ideas to Melissa – and warn her about the flops – since they’re always swapping stories over the phone. We’ll get the ideas that are “keepers” without having to read the book ourselves!  Anyway, that’s the way I’m hoping it works out.  Pretty selfish Give, huh?