Natural Children

I am starting to get sick of the phrase "natural children" because it seems to imply a lesser-than status for the adopted child. As if this adopted child will be somehow leeching off of the "natural" children. We have just as much responsibility to take care of those that have been entrusted to us by "natural" means as by "unnatural" methods. There is no difference. To make a distinction is favoritism. It's like somehow non-adopted, "natural" children don't abuse their siblings, and are perfect angels, while all these free-loading adopted kids are taking advantage of their siblings and their loving naive parents.

Our responsibility is a responsibility to follow Christ. Only then will we be able to truly protect our "natural" children. Any other method of "protection" is simply planning for evil.

It Has Begun

The Harvest.


Small now, but not so small in a few weeks.

Yay!

Garden Gone Wild

So the garden is doing rather well this year so far...

I put that shovel in the background right next to the zuccinni plant to provide a little perspective. I planted this, and everything else on March 28th.

This is the watermelon plant. It's still small, but it's much bigger than last years (which never grew at all).

The tomato plants. 10 total. Way to many for proper spacing, but who cares, I'm having fun. :)

Let's see here. In the background, the giant plant is the zuccinni plant again. Next to it is a bush cucumber. In front of the bush cucumber is a regular vine cucumber and next to the vine cucumber is an acorn squash. In front of the acorn squash, at the foreground of the photo is a delicata squash (everyone wants to know what a delicata is; I have no idea, it just sounded cool.) And next to the delicata is one plant that I am looking forward to more than most; the ocra. Yay!


And here we have the Big Ben pumpkin plant in the front, bell peppers in the middle (I'm still not sure if the pepper is going to make it, it doesn't seem to be doing much growing (it was purchased from a nursery, not from seed). In the background is the watermelon plant again. I am quite proud of that little guy.

A new park

So last November some friends of ours were moving and we purchased their playground that they had in their backyard for our backyard.

It's a really cool playground and nice and big and sturdy. It took me about 6 hours just to disassemble the thing.
















Since Thanksgiving, it has been laying unassembled in our backyard. Until this week. The kids are super-excited that I am finally putting up their "park" and really want to help. So my son gets to use his plastic hammer and bang on things. And the girls kick their "bouncy-balls" at me, and we play soccer while building a park.

It's a great life.

Sweet!

So I finally got the project that I have been working on completed last night.

This program will record a webstream (in the wmp format) for a specified number of minutes. When the recording is complete it will transcode to iPod video format and mp3 audio simultaneously. When the transcoding is complete it will transfer the files to their appropriate directories. When the 'mv' is complete, it will remove any files that are in the directory that are older than a certain number of days. When the 'rm' is complete, it will then generate a podcast for the audio files and a vidcast for the video files.

Separately from that my iTunes is setup to download from these *casts that I have just created.

So automatically I get webstream programming downloaded onto my iPod when it's ready.

Sweet!

Overheard at the dinner table, part 2

This time it was our two-year old boy. As his five-year-old and three-year-old sisters head upstairs, he was heard to say "Do I have to go upstairs to bed with the kids?"

Overheard at the dinner table ...

Last night, as we were beginning our meal of Sesame Fried Chicken, Buttered Rice, and Boiled Fresh Spinach, our three year old was heard to say, "I'm going to wait for my food to get yummy."

Extravagent

When Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus' feet just before his Crucification Judas suggested that the expensive perfume would have been put to better use by being sold and given to the poor. Jesus replied "You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me" (John 12:8). It was extravagant worship on her part; the nard that she poured out was probably her inheritance. She gave all she had.

From the Eternal perspective however, it was barely anything. That doesn't mean that it was despised. Just as parents don't despise the childish drawings, but instead place them on the refrigerator, the Eternal doesn't despise this small gift. He instead, places the act in a place of honor as an act that he encourages us all to emulate.

When He was on with us, it was appropriate to give Him everything, and allow Him to give the five loaves and two fish away. Now that He is not with us, but in our hearts, we still submit our will to His, giving everything that we have to Him, and allow Him to distribute it. The only difference is that now He uses our hands. But are they really our hands, or are we simply His hands extended?

The Life I Lead

The life I lead. The sentence makes me stop to think. What life do I lead? By trade I am a programmer (currently Ruby on Rails). I garden (vegetables). I barbeque (just about anything). I enjoy movies (occasionally). I love my family (my wife, four! kids, and my sister). I study the Bible (currently John 14-17).

But is that the life that I lead? I mean, that's what I do, and how I spend a significant portion of time. But is that really the life that I lead? Am I leading my life, or am I following someone else? Am I blazing a trail for others to follow or am I walking well-trodden paths of old?

I don't know the answers to those questions, and I'm not even sure it matters much. I do know one thing, I love Jesus and I follow Him.