where did he get this from?

This is Michael's current ambition. Why, I have no idea. If you know how techy I am, this may surprise you, but I have not actually allowed him near the computer yet, except for writing an email here and there. This is, however, on the list of things to change in the near future--now that we have an "old" computer where the kids can't hurt my work.

Never done a video before (we have never owned a video camera and don't actually want to, but I saw a great deal on these little cameras and we got one for the youth group and one for us, I think), so if it doesn't work for you, I apologize.

soccer season

Ever since the season was over last fall, Michael has been begging to play soccer again. We changed leagues because of some friends and Andy is being a "helpful" parent (I may miss some games due to client shoots, but hopefully not many!). I love this new league already and here are some reasons why:

• His coach (one of our friends) says that she (yes, she) would volunteer to coach a team even if her son wasn't playing.
• They are learning real ball handling techniques.
• The coaches (and "helpful" parents) went to an extra coaching seminar last week to learn what they are supposed to be teaching the boys.
• Once a month, the teams attend a special (extra) clinic, to receive coaching from an actual soccer player (well, today he was probably a footballer).

This is all pretty amazing to me. First game is Saturday. But I did take my camera to the clinic tonight and wanted to share pictures of Michael and the girls.

Not sure what Elanor was up to here. But yes, her tongue is always hanging out when she's concentrating.
Michael wasn't smiling at me--Ihad my zoom on. I think he was just having fun.
Normally when there are people in the background of a picture, they are all uncooperatively piled on top of each other. How did I get this lovely V arrangement?
Elanor, doing ballet with an extra ball.
Caroline, also balleting with the ball.
I love her face in this shot. And yes, Dad, I know she's not actually completely in it.
Getting them when they are just happy instead of cheesing it up for the camera is a real thrill.
Oh yeah, there was soccer going on here somewhere, wasn't there?
Dude in front of Michael was the footballer (at least he sounded like he'd say football, not soccer).
I could be wrong, but I actually don't think soccer is that much of a contact sport. Is it?

why is it that...

Caroline is naming all her stuffed animals after hurricanes? Only the girls, though. So we have Wilma, Fay, Josephine, Katrina (ew), and Rita.

on cooking

Most of you know that I love to cook. I've recently been reading Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto (oddly enough as research for a theology paper), and I wanted to share with you a long quote from this simply marvelous little book. Enjoy!

"As cook in your kitchen you enjoy an omniscience about your food that no amount of supermarket study or label reading could hope to match. Having retaken control of the meal from the food scientists and processors, you know exactly what is and is not in it: there are no questions about high-fructose corn syrup, or ethoxylated digliycerides, or partially hydrogenated soy oil, for the simple reason that you didn't ethoxylate or partially hydrogenate anything, nor did you add any additives. (Unless, that is, you're the kind of cook who starts with can of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup, in which case all bets are off.) To reclaim this much control over one's food, to take it back from industry and science, is no small thing; indeed, in our time cooking from scratch and growing any of your own food qualify as subversive acts."

I'll cheat and give you his rules of thumb: "Eat Food. Mostly Plants. Not too much." Breathtakingly simple, and profoundly wonderful. All the best things usually are. Into the subversion!

UPDATE on 9.6.08 - I planted some plants. I think they are growing. Of course - the goal would be to eat them, or rather, eat what they produce. I give myself a 53% chance of it working ...

fay update

Many apologies if you thought we were struggling through floods and lack of power thanks to Fay. Although everyone stayed home on Tuesday (except for the lucky police who got to drive around and encourage everyone to stay home), Fay was pretty uneventful for us here. We got plenty of rain and some good wind, but no damage and not much cleanup.

The interesting thing is that three days later, we are still getting rained and blown on by Fay. Here's a radar shot (look for Cape Coral, we're just east of that).

where we live

See that dot just off the west coast of FL - the black circle with an "H" in it? Yep - that one barely south of the little islands. We were on that beach just last night! Should be an interesting week ...

feels like home to me

I had an interesting chat with a fellow church member the other day (actually I do not know where his/her current church membership is). (S)he said that one day (s)he had gone back for a visit to Covenant, second time since our split, and was sad because both times, it no longer felt like "home". This person went on to say that New Hope "doesn't feel like home yet either". For this person, the sanctuary was what made the church not feel like home at New Hope. I imagine that the only thing which has really changed about Covenant's sanctuary is the people in it (and the numbers), so the difference there intrigued me.

I started thinking about why New Hope does feel like home to me. It is obvious that it quickly felt like home to my children (considering that Covenant is the only church home they have ever known--Michael was a baby when we came here--I kind of expected them to be sad to leave, but they weren't). Why is that? I certainly don't think the building is homey. Is it because the programs have moved over? That may be part of it, but I doubt it, because those of you who know me know that I am happy to tear a program down to its core elements to strip out what doesn't work, and we have been doing that. We started in the new building without programs, actually, and are only now getting ready to start them up for the fall, some with pretty major changes.

The conclusion I have come to is that what makes New Hope feel like home is not the location, the building, or the programs: it's the people. My family moved to New Hope--my church family--and because of that, New Hope feels like home. We could have met in a gymnasium, like some other New Wineskins churches have done, and as long as the people came, it would feel like home. I think this has been true for a fair number of us. I know of at least one family which was not planning on coming to New Hope, but is now here, and I am reasonably confident that their presence can be traced to the fact that the people they loved as part of Covenant's body have come over, too. As a church, of course our first loyalty and allegiance must be to God and his glory, but I think many of us choose our church because we believe it's important to be part of a community. And that community, those people, become family, and family is what feels like home.

So, does New Hope feel like home to me? The building doesn't, I confess. But when I sit in that building on a Sunday and see my family in the pews around me, then I have to say that yes, I am at home.