Recipe for a successful VBS: Take an amateur but talented musician with a lot of enthusiasm and have him put together a live band of equally enthusiastic and talented teenagers to play the music and lead songs for the kids. It would even be better if he could take a week off work to hang […]
It has to happen to everyone sooner or later. Hopefully not more than once or twice. And hopefully not serious. Elliot was in a car accident – at 19 years old, his first collision. The first concern is – Is anyone hurt? Are you ok? The most important thing is that there were no injuries. […]
It gets easier, but it’s still not easy. It’s been 2 years since my son started college. When he left Sunday to go back to his apartment, I still feel a wave of sadness. The hardest part in raising children is not the midnight feedings, or the sacrifice of your career, or paying big money […]
At 18 years old, Audrey started working at her first job. Her first paycheck was $20. But the gain cannot be measured by money. She said, “I met some really nice people. And I am not so afraid of approaching people to talk to them anymore.” She also learned to dress a little more professionally, […]
I thought it was all up to me. I thought I was the only one who could do the job. I thought the burden was all on me. I was wrong. God always brings along help. He always provides a way better than what I expected. I witnessed several examples recently: God brought 3 of […]
With great freedom comes great responsibility. We have the whole summer free – no summer school, no schedule to keep, no particularly time to wake or sleep. But with freedom comes wasted time. We’ve slept too late, watched too much TV, read too much forwarded email. So Amy and I made a list of goals […]
Violent persecution [of Christians] focuses the mind on the fact that the kingdom of his world is an enemy to the kingdom of God. When there hasn’t been any persecution for a long time – as in our part of the world – many Christians start expecting the world to be a friend. They slip […]
If you were going to only stay for 3 innings of a game, the game on Saturday between the Angels and the Rangers would be the best game to go to. Amy won a drawing contest that gave our family free entrance to that game. We are not baseball fans, so we decided we would […]
A while back, a friend complained to me that she felt taken advantage of by her neighbor. The neighbor’s work prevented her from picking up her daughter from school a couple days a week. She asked my friend to help her. What began as a small favor to pick her daughter up turned out to […]
We were playing a game called the Unspoken Word, played the same way as Taboo. Mike: What you need to go up. Audrey: Oxygen tank! The word was ladder 🙂
Two things made watching Ratatouille yesterday very special. One, my whole family went to watch it together – me with the best husband in the world and the best three children in the world. My husband’s movie of choice is usually action and sci fi. Rated G movies are never on his list. But he […]
Finally, a rated G movie! An animated movie that is truly for children without hidden adult humor or innuendos (that is why I didn’t want to see Shrek.) Amy and I were at Petsmart looking at the mouse cages and didn’t see anything cute about them. So how can Pixar make a rat look adorable? […]
On Sunday, I asked a pharmacist at our church to talk to the kids about taking care of their health. She said, “After you blow your nose, see if the stuff is clear or green.” A boy said, “Why would I want to look at my snot?” ——— I said, “What’s the matter? Why won’t […]
Within an approximately 2-mile stretch of La Puente Road in Walnut, there are 4 Protestant churches. At least 2 of those churches share their facilities with another church. So that’s 6 churches within walking distance of one another. Some people look at this and see it as Christians being divided. Why can’t all these churches […]
Is this an optical illusion? Did our bunny Smokey shrink in size to be smaller than a zucchini? Or is the zucchini bigger than a regular-sized bunny? It’s a giant zucchini! This is the one from my friend’s garden that we barbecued. It was delicious.
Had one of the best days yesterday: Spent a few hours with my daughters and a couple of friends at church painting posters and backdrops for the upcoming Vacation Bible School. Looks really good! I felt brave and just jumped into the pool without hesitating. That was mostly because I was rushed for time, but […]
This will make you drool – Dinner tonight, especially for my husband, was: King crab legs with garlic in melted butter! Broil tri-tip roast medium rare! Home grown chinese brocoli! We’r taking an extra dose of cholesterol meds tonight!
Today we celebrated Father’s Day with my dad. We had one of the best meals I ever planned. Mike did the actual barbecuing. I am including instructions here just in case you might want to try it. BBQ whole salmon- open it up lengthwise. Mix together about 1/2 cup of mayonnaise, about 1 teaspoon of […]
Employees expect to work at their jobs. Students expect to work at school. But when it comes to personal relationships, people don’t think they have to work at having a good relationship. I suppose when you are dating, you do work to impress the other person. You do nice things for them to make them […]
Art Levinson, CEO of Genentech, on the Board at Google, says, “Here I am, a guy who can afford a good meal, and every time I go to a Google board meeting, I don’t leave until ten o’clock at night because I get a free dinner there.” Google is so known for their food. I […]