Brennan’s Birthday List

Brennan turns 9 in March, and yesterday he presented me with his birthday wish list:

- Cars 2 Wii Game
- Nintendo 3DS
- Lego Police Station
- Lego Fire Station
- MarioKart for DS
- Interactive Globe
- Lego Airplane
- iPod
- Computer
- Lamp
- Binoculars
- Lego Darth Maul Ship
- 80€ cash
- Lego Death Star
- Star Wars Lego Minifigures

( “Turn page over,” it said here. “You mean there’s MORE?” I said to him.)

- Police and Robbers Lego Minifigures
- Star Wars III DS or Wii Game
- Small Notebook
- New Soccer Ball
- Snorkel
- Barcelona or España Jersey
- Cars 2 Cars
- Cars 2 DVD Movie
- Lego City Legos
- Cars 2 Novella
- Webkinz Pet
- iPhone
- iPad
- Watch
- Camera

Wow. Just….wow. Looks like we need to do a much better job teaching him how to be content. But can we at least be proud that he’s showing such a strong interest in electronics already…?

 

5 Great Music Finds in 2011, by Nate

Nate is a music junkie. He has 15,000 songs in his iTunes collection and yet his favorite thing to shop for is still more music. I asked him to write a post for “our” blog about something that mattered to him, and he chose to write about this, the music that grabbed him in 2011.

I am not current enough, or cool enough to choose only from albums released in 2011, but these are the five best albums I discovered last year.

5. Clouds Echo in Blue: Clouds Echo in Blue

Derri Daugherty from The Choir (one of my (many) favorite bands) with a solo project of wonderful and wonderfully relaxing instrumental music.  I gifted this album to my sister, and while she was listening to it one day, my mother apparently asked her when the song would begin.  So, while I recognize that this album may not be for everybody, I love the dreamy music he has created.

4. Stuart Duncan, Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, Yo-Yo Ma: The Goat Rodeo Sessions

A hybrid bluegrass-classical exploration from Stuart Duncan, Chris Thile, Yo-Yo Ma, and Edgar Meyer.  This is simply excellent and beautiful.  I just love hearing gifted musicians making great music.

3. Sleeping at Last: Yearbook – November

This one-man band released a 3-song EP for 12 straight months.  While much of Ryan O’Neal’s music is excellent, this particular EP from November makes the list pretty much based on one song I simply love.  I love the music, the poetry of the lyrics, and the meaning of the song “Emphasis.”  I just can’t get enough.

2. Andrew Peterson: The Far Country

OK – so this one was released in 2005.  I’m not sure why I had to wait until 2011 to discover it, because it is excellent.  I hear echoes of Rich Mullins’ meaningful songwriting in Andrew’s music.  He writes with a combination of faith and wonder that is contagious.  I love great Christian art, and on this album Andrew is creating just that.  His music moves me in ways that most artists don’t.  If you haven’t yet discovered Andrew Peterson, I highly recommend this album as a great place to start.

1. Josh Garrels: Love & War & The Sea In Between

This album is top of the list as one of the best out-of-nowhere completely-blew-me-away-with-how-good-it-is albums I’ve come across for a while.  Within a few days I had seen two people from different walks of life give him high praise on Facebook, and he was featured on www.noisetrade.com (if you haven’t checked out Noisetrade, you need to.  I discovered both Andrew Peterson and Josh Garrels’ albums on Noisetrade, and you can still get both albums there at a price of your choosing – including for free. But I assure you that each album is worth giving the artists a tip for).

This album is so good it’s hard for me to put it into words.  I clearly have a soft spot for Christian artists – 4 out of 5 of the artists on this list might be labeled as Christian.  I find that funny as I would guess that less than 50% of the music I acquire and listen to is classified as ‘Christian’.  But I think that it does show that I form a special connection to music created by Christians who are excellent in both musical skill and artistic expression.  Josh Garrels embodies this.  His musicianship is fantastic – his songs and sounds vary, and don’t get tiring.  His lyrics are artistic and expressive.  And none of it is formulaic.  The album is chock full of great songs, but my clear favorite is “Ulysses.”  And I really, really LOVE it:

“Ulysses” – Josh Garrels 2010 from Josh Garrels on Vimeo.

Do yourself a favor and go find some Josh Garrels to listen to.

Honorable Mentions:

Coldplay – I love me some Coldplay.  Mylo Xyloto may not be groundbreaking, but it’s still really good.  Love the track “Charlie Brown.”

The Hawk in Paris - Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay released a side project with another guy or two.  It’s another 3-song EP, and two of the three songs are fantastically catchy and pleasing.

The Civil Wars – Seemingly everyone loved The Civil Wars in 2011.  And it’s because they are really arresting and engaging.  It’s good music.

UPDATE: Because I didn’t get the digital booklet when I downloaded Josh Garrels’ album off of Noisetrade, I never knew that our friends, Tim and Laurie Thornton of The Blackthorn Project, played strings on it. Tim and Laurie put out great music of their own and are well worth a listen, especially the songs “Reckless” and “Mud Song” on their latest album.

 

Ryan is 7

Ryan turned 7 on Saturday. His grandparents pitched in to get him his heart’s desire, the Lego Police Station:

(Side note: Why are Legos so doggone expensive?!)

He also wanted pizza and doughnuts for his birthday lunch:

(Side note: When the recipe calls for 18 doughnuts and you end up making 51, something went wrong somewhere.)

That night, he had an indoor soccer game. His front tooth is about to fall out, and he spent the entire game with his hand in his mouth, wiggling his tooth. So he didn’t do much out on the soccer court because he was so preoccupied with it, but his teammate scored 6 goals and his team won anyway.

And at church yesterday, the Sunday School class sang to him in Castellano and in English. It was a fun birthday weekend for him and he felt special. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been 7 years since he was our newest little squirt:

It’s also hard to believe that he’s had his blanket for 7 years. When it was intact back in its prime, it was a rectangle, yellow, and clean:

These days it’s 4 gray, dingy strips that he carries around with him everywhere and kisses before he goes off to school. He has literally loved his blanket to death and it will be a sad day for him when the last strip has finally deteriorated and melted away, like Mother Gothel in Tangled:

Happy Birthday to our sweet, precious Ryan. We love how you whistle all the time when you’re happy, say the funniest things, give hugs and cuddles freely, take care of Matthew, and get angry when you see injustice. You’re a force to be reckoned with, and we love having you in our family!

 

The Best of 2011

2011 is going out as softly as it came in for us, low-key and with both Nate and me at our computers. Earlier today I was reading through last year’s post, The Best of 2010, though, and it was a bit mind-boggling to think how much had happened this year: we moved from La Coruña to Santiago, we survived a road trip to Switzerland and back, we acquired two new future teammates, and we watched Matthew turn from a quiet newborn into a toddler with the nickname “Mr. Destructo.” It was a full year.

The highlights from our 2011:

1. In January, my parents visited to celebrate Ryan’s birthday and their 40th anniversary. That was the last time we saw them, and we can’t wait until they come again:

2. My brother, Clement, and his wife, Tracy, had their first child, Ethan. We haven’t met him in person yet, but it’s been fun to see him on Skype and watch him grow into a very round, very stoic little person:

3. In July, we said goodbye to our beautiful and beloved La Coruña:

…and moved 45 minutes southwest to Santiago de Compostela:

Even though this move was the natural next step in the Pilgrim House project, it was hard to leave our church, our good friends, and the kids’ school.

4. The transition to Santiago was made so much easier by the Walters’ visit. Nate’s parents came to help us unpack, build Ikea furniture, entertain the kids, eat lots of Nutella, and explore more of Spain:

5. In August, we survived a road trip to Switzerland and back. We attended International Teams’ European Regional Conference near Interlaken:

6. Brennan and Ryan learned two important skills this year:

Riding their bikes:

…and playing the piano. I have the privilege/ burden of teaching them, and though I’m not a natural teacher, it’s been so gratifying to see them play the piano and enjoy it:

7. Something finally clicked in Kathryn’s brain this year, and these past couple of months she’s been saying things like: “In Spanish we say, ‘Hola,’ and in English we say, ‘Hello.’ In English we say, ‘Moon,’ and in Spanish we say, ‘Luna.’” We had been worried about her verbal development, and everyone always said that she was processing all these languages at once and that’s why she was taking so long to talk. Now it’s all finally coming out, and in quite an organized manner! Otherwise, she remains our little girl who loves all things princess:

8. And Matthew well deserves his nickname “Mr. Destructo.” He disturbs and upsets everything in his path, but we’re all enamored of him and think he’s the cutest button around:

9. It was a big year for the Pilgrim House project. We became an official NGO called Terra Nova; we hosted Gale S. and Anne H., two new teammates who will join us in 2012; and we finally got our business plan written. We loved celebrating these milestones this year, and even found unexpected encouragement through driving through a bunch of tunnels.

Gale, our new teammate, on her “vision trip” back in April:

10. When we were still looking for apartments in Santiago, I happened to see a place online that was for sale. The kitchen had beautiful red cabinets that I fell in love with and drooled over for about two days. But since it was for sale and not for rent, I knew it wasn’t for us. So we kept hunting. We contacted our realtor about an apartment for rent that she had talked about previously – she didn’t have any photos of it but it was in a good area. We set up a time to visit it with her. The first thing I noticed when we stepped into the apartment was the kitchen – it had red cabinets, the same color and style of the apartment for sale I had seen online! It was like the Lord was saying once again, “I see you, and know what you like, and here it is, just for you.” We ended up renting this apartment, and the day we moved all of our stuff into our new red kitchen was one of my personal favorite moments of 2011:

We’ve now lived here for six months, and we see how the Lord went before us to prepare such a great home for our family, even before we knew what we needed. Our new apartment is close to the Camino, the local school had space for all three of our kids, we can easily walk to stores and parks, and the boys were able to join a great soccer club that practices within walking distance from our home. We’re grateful to be here.

 

So that’s a whirlwind tour of our 2011. I wish I could sit down with each of you and hear your highlights! Here’s to a 2012 where we feel the Lord’s presence before, behind, and beside us through all the good and the bad. Happy New Year!

 

The Golden Years

Recently we’ve been sad, even in the midst of it being a happy season for our family. A few weeks ago, my friend Carolyn’s father died. I’d known Uncle Paul ever since I can remember, and even though I hadn’t seen him in years, him passing away is like part of my childhood slipping away. I will always remember her dad as the robust, handsome, kind man that he was.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, our good friend Tricia’s brother was killed in a car accident. Neil was only 35, and the crazy thing is that he was preceded in death by his young wife. His parents and Tricia had to watch him go through losing her, and now they’re going through the hell of having lost him as well.

It’s funny, this thing called death. We spend our childhood and early adult lives meeting tons of people – everywhere we go, we’re adding new friends from school, work, church, traveling. The circle of people that we know is ever expanding. People from this bubble might pass away, but death is rare and normally doesn’t touch us.

Now that we’re getting older, I feel like people are dying with more frequency than I perceive they ever did before. Our grandparents are infirm and passing away, several of my friends have lost their full-term babies, and young parents are dying of cancer. And it’s hitting me more and more that it’s not going to end. One by one, people will be taken away from us, and the list of people who have died is only going to grow. I hate that.

On the other hand, I’m living in the golden years right now – both of my parents are alive, my brother is here, Nate’s parents are alive and his siblings are doing well. We haven’t lost any of our children. Our immediate family circle is complete.

But it’s all going to slowly fade away. Eventually we’ll hear news that our parents are sick or have died suddenly. What especially terrifies me is the thought of losing one of the kids – how in the world do you go on after that? How would you not feel like your best years were behind you? I look at my kids and I can’t imagine ever burying any of them. And I really don’t want to have to ever bury Nate. Sometimes I feel pretty morbid.

So I have to remind myself that death is not the end of the story. The Lord promises that for those who know Him, the true Golden Years are coming, where there will be no more tears, no more pain or sickness, and no more death. Though we have to watch people slip away here on earth and though I worry about losing my kids, a time is coming when no one can ever slip from our grasp again.

It’s amazing that this is why Jesus came to earth, so that the sting and the permanency of death would be abolished for us. One day we’ll be freed from this prison of death and mourning.  But we still have to go through this world to get to that freedom. Living in this tension is just so strange: the day is coming when I’ll have to say goodbye to my parents, BUT the day is coming when I will see them again. From here I don’t know what to make of it.

Yesterday the Lord reminded me of a great verse, Psalm 27:13-14:

“I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.”

This verse is encouraging as well:
Psalm 112:6-8

“Surely the righteous will never be shaken;
they will be remembered forever.
They will have no fear of bad news;
their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the LORD.
Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear;
in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.”

It’s still sad to think about Uncle Paul and Neil. And it’s hard to think about the losses that are still to come as we keep getting older. But I don’t want to be afraid of bad news – I want courage to face mourning and death head on, and to have joy in spending time with family and friends while we’re still all together. I suppose peace – and not dread – would be an operating word here.

“And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

‘Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.’”

Emmanuel, God is with us! Merry Christmas.

 

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