Day-Long Headache

Georgie at rest

We were awakened early this morning by a work call for Sarah. Neither of us slept well after that. Oh well.

This morning our pastor's sermon wrapped up a series about Christmas, God with us, focused on the work of the Holy Spirit who empowers us to follow Christ. Some major points were:

• Our struggle with sin is not just regarding our behavior, but also a battle of our mind.
• How this new year goes for us relies heavily on whether our minds are controlled by the Holy Spirit.
• Our perception of a situation matters greatly in how that situation affects us... do we pray that God will "fix" a tough situation vs. change our perception of that situation?
• We choose what we give our attention to... give attention to what is good.

After church, Sarah and I stopped at the school to return checked-in library books to the shelves. That didn't take too long.

Bears lost, but the Colts won. Playoffs start next week. Yay!

We all return to our normal schedules tomorrow. Christmas break wasn't as restful as I'd hoped. Not sure why. Oh well.

Temperature got up to 30 today, I think. Pretty windy at times.

Happy New Year, 2011

Winter returned today. Yay! The temperature dropped throughout the day and the winds picked up. I think the daytime temperature was around 35.

I got a good start on two of my new year's resolutions. One of them is to read the Bible through this year. The boys + Olivia had given me a chronological NIV Bible for Christmas. Neat!

Even though I was up pretty late the night before waiting for Tim to return from his party, I didn't sleep in too late. I just don't like feeling as if I'm sleeping the day away, and that's how I feel whenever I'm in bed past 10 AM.  I had a pretty busy day, anyway, and wanted to get started on it.

First, I started my world-famous pizza meatballs in the slow cooker... sauteed some chopped onions, then mixed into that some pasta sauce and my secret ingredients, and poured that over the meatballs.

After my wife's lunch break, I wrapped presents for our extended family Christmas party. Then we all went to that party. It was a pretty good time. Doug & Olivia showed up! And I kind of learned a new card game. I forget its name, though.  Something like "nerf" cards, because when you think you've one a round, you yell out "nerf!" (only not "nerf" but rather the word you're really supposed to yell out).

Here are some pictures:

dinner!

dinner, still! and there's Bennett again! and
Jon sure does turn around a lot!

snowman on the tree, just hanging out

The End of 2010

2010 ended with rain, warm weather and overcast skies. The temperature got up to around 55. Light rain melted away most of the old snow & slush that still remained from the snowstorm we had several weeks ago. We even had some thunder! The picture is of ducks in our backyard creek enjoying the rain.

I had the day off from work today, as did Tim. His last day off. Heh heh heh. We "celebrated" by going out for "lunch" (mmm... Chinese buffet...).

Got some gas for the van at $3.12/gallon.

My wife and I finished our Christmas shopping for the extended family Christmas party tomorrow. After Sarah joined me in the store (I'd started while she was working), I learned that I had been watched for a while by one of the store's undercover security dudes while I was looking at some books. That'll teach me to want to read!

Tonight, TCM was running an Marx Brothers movie marathon. Awesome. Sarah and I watched most of Animal Crackers and a lot of Monkey Business. If you've never seen one of their movies, do yourself a favor and watch one, such as Duck Soup. Though I'll be ringing in the new year by watching The Office.

I'm looking forward to the new year. Unlike most years, this time I have several new year's resolutions. It'll be interesting to see how they work out as the year progresses.

By the way, here are today's Chinese cookie fortunes:

• Good things are coming to you in due course of time.
• Your mentality is alert, practical and analytical.

Digital Story of the Nativity

The Nativity story, told using Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps, and other social networks and web tools.

And Don't Call Me Shirley

Actor Leslie Nielsen passed away November 28, 2010.  Below is a video tribute I found... it contains clips from Airplane! and The Naked Gun.  Enjoy!