Ah, life! Ah, kids! Ah, everything! Time skips by more and more quickly as we grow older and

our lives become fuller. Right now I’m flipping through the pictures on my phone and thinking

about the worlds of difference and occurrence that have transpired since the last post on here.

Let’s skip the sentimentality and run through where we’re at now.

Jack is almost 10 and continues to grow more unique and personable with his likes and dislikes.

This is the first time Chels and I have gotten to see one of our kids get this big, so the fact that

he thinks and ponders and reads and decides and shares opinions and argues is pretty

amazing to us still. That being said, his attitude has to get shut down sometimes but all I have

to do is think back on my behavior and thoughts from ages 13 to (fill in the blank) and I tend

to be a lot more forgiving. He loves Legos, every book ever, Star Wars, and slow jams.

He’s a great kid. He needs a haircut.

Julia seems to be destined to be an artiste. She draws every second of her spare time, and her

sketches are getting better and better. She has begun ballet again for the season and practices

her moves up in her room constantly. She loves combining clothes to make strikingly colorful

outlets and she always seems to be involved in some craft or creation. She’s like her mother in

so many ways and I love it. Now if only she’d quit growing vertically. She’s going to look like a

Q-tip before long.

And then Adeline. The funniest kid I have ever known. I don’t even know what to say about her. 

She is perpetually into every single thing in the house. She will methodically tear out pages

from her coloring book, spread them out on the living room floor, and then select which ones to

color throughout the day. She will steal candy and hide behind the washer to eat it. She yells as

loud as she can at Jack and Julia when it’s time for dinner, and if they’re not quick enough she

calls them both “bad dogs.” The past two nights when it’s time to get ready for bed she has

thrown her diaper and pajamas off the bed and then spin naked, laughing at herself. I can’t

even get going on all that girl does, but she’s funny, and smart, and I love her.

Finally, I won’t take too much time on Chelsea and myself because we’re mostly just adulting all

the time and that’s exhausting for anybody. My narration has been rolling along as always, and

this continues to be a blessed year at school, which is a huge answer to prayer. I don’t get to

game or play music as much as I’d like but it’s usually swapped for being with the family so I’d

say fair trade.

Chelsea continues, rather annoyingly, to be good at absolutely everything. She was recently

accepted into the 2nd largest wool show in the country, which becomes even more notable

when you realize that they only accept 4-5 people every year out of hundreds of applications.

She’s a true Proverbs 31 woman in every way, and I’m still humbled that I got to team up with

that awesome lady.

Our love to everyone, and hope you enjoy the videos/photos below. Cheers!

Chain reactions and butterfly effects

I was laughing inwardly as I came up with the title for this post because although it represents my recent thoughts well, the title is also comprised of the names of two really awful movies. One starring His Dudeness Keanu Reeves and Morgan Freeman, the Voice of God; the other, a grand attempt by Ashton Kutcher to become a real actor in a move that would prove resoundingly unsuccessful.

All that aside, I've been thinking a lot about how one thing leads to another and sometimes the most trivial of matters takes on cosmological significance upon reflection. I love Chelsea so much and feel incredibly privileged to have partnered with her over the last twelvish years. The other night I was thinking about population statistics and remembered that, at last check, the U.S. hovers in at about 330 million people. And I met her. And she liked me. And that's still going on today. And HOW? It hurts my brain to think about it. Chelsea is so closely tied to my soul, someone I'm so blessed to know. And yet the odds against us ever having met at all are so monumentally stacked against; it seems impossible to have happened. And yet here we are.

And what has come about due to that meeting? The creation and gifting to us of three children, people I just kind of watch in fascination as they grow and become more and more themselves. I won't bore you with all the specifics of Little League and Boy Scouts, new music mixes and daddy date nights, but I feel less like a Figure of Authority ™ and more like somebody who got to sneak in the backstage of a concert by my favorite band; I just feel lucky to be here.

I've made a video of some of the things we've been up to since last post, which was quite a while ago. I hope it blesses you. I find it hard to watch; my heart can only hold so much.

Click here to view it on YouTube.

Click here to view it on Vimeo.

White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.

Here we come to the end of summer. Work and school loom their heads within our view, although I won't call them ugly. I look back over the past idyllic months and just love my family more and more as I sit and review our time together in leisure. Jack and Julia continue to grow into the beautiful people they are, and every day God uses them to teach me humility, patience, and a host of other desirable character traits. I pray that He uses me to teach them how to live in love and kindness. I've been fortunate enough to relive the summers of my youth through them; right as I'm in the middle of hard work, moving wood, clearing brush, or any of a number of other things, they run by laughing and singing and I remember what that's like. It also blesses my heart to feel a resonation within me as well, meaning that not all of that whimsy is gone or dead within me, either. I'm blessed with a partner who is in many ways much stronger than I am, and we support each other through the myriad changes and adjustments that life continues to bring. It's amazing that in the midst of all this, we get to enjoy seeing our children grow as well.

Click HERE for a YouTube video of our exploits.

I've spent it in good company.

Today is a special day. For one thing, it's a snow day, which means that I've gotten to play with the kids today, read, relax, and generally catch up on whatever it is one does when one isn't working. Another reason today is special is because we received the paperwork giving us ownership of this house in the mail today.

And so another few dozen pounds of pressure are lifted from my chest. Life is absolutely a cycle of hills and valleys, and the valleys usually only end when you roll the stone all the way back up the mountain. It feels like we've finally got the stone up there, and are able to enjoy the view to some degree. I am able to sit down and look through the photos of the past few months and relive some of the wonderful things that have happened. We've seen family and strengthened the ties that bind. Seeing those you love is such a beautiful thing, and seeing as many as we did was truly a blessing. We've celebrated the holidays, gone back to school, and grown into our home here.

Our children, as always, are the centerpieces of our interest. To quote Bill Murray from 'Lost in Translation', 

Bob: It gets a whole lot more complicated when you have kids.

Charlotte: It's scary.

Bob: The most terrifying day of your life is the day the first one is born.

Charlotte: Nobody ever tells you that.

Bob: Your life, as you know it... is gone. Never to return. But they learn how to walk, and they learn how to talk... and you want to be with them. And they turn out to be the most delightful people you will ever meet in your life.

And that's how it feels nowadays. Jack is such a funny guy. He's constantly coming up with jokes and sharing them with me. Yesterday he put his coat on while it was still on the hook and then kept pretending to try to run, saying, "Why can't I move? What's wrong?" and the whole time he was stuck on the hook. He was cracking himself up. He reads all the time, creates games, and reacts genuinely and emotionally to people. I adore him.

And Julia continues to be a can of Chelsea concentrate. She's just like her mom--beautiful, funny, caring, sweet, and kind--but it's all in this tiny little package that doesn't have to worry about bill payments or renovation or an annoying husband yet. She's just a wonderful little girl. Today was the first day she felt better after a 4-day fever and she just couldn't stop walking around hugging and kissing everyone in the family and telling us that she loved us. Her joy at health expressed itself as affection to others.

Chelsea and I have no regrets; a family is a cup that runs over. I've included some pictures below that you're welcome to peruse. I've also made a video with some music for you to enjoy. Here's to our loved ones.

Click HERE for the YouTube video.

Click HERE for the Vimeo version.