Thoughts that might turn to blogs but probably not:

*This past week it was a year since Bev's brother Delwyn died. I was reading a children's book called "Tear Soup" that explains some of the real and difficult emotions of dealing with grief:

"Sometimes Grandy yelled at God and asked why this happened. And sometimes she demanded to know where God was when she was feeling all alone. Still, Grandy trusted God, but she didn't understand God. She sensed that people believed that if she really had faith she would be spared deep sorrow, anger and loneliness. Grandy kept remindng herself to be grateful for ALL the emotions God had given her."

A brilliant kids book that helped us express some of the emotions we were feeling.

* It is Spring Break and for that I am thankful. I emailed in the first copy of my thesis to my Advisor. If I can somehow manage to be finished with my Master's by the end of summer, I will be overjoyed and relieved. I'm doing my Master's on an integrated approach to teacher evaluations. What are we going to do? Not much. Parks, walks, bike rides, aquarium, ice cream, White Rock, visiting Oma and Opa, watching movies, and just being with each other.

* A few of us had a chance to have supper with author/speaker/missional leadership expert Alan Roxburgh and his wife Jane and their family. He's brilliant and challenging and blunt, and at times left me angered and at other times inspired. More than anything, the disucssion was rich and meaningful, even though most of it was over my head.

* We are heading to Seattle in a couple of weeks to listen to Brian McLaren speak for a couple of days. I am excited about the road trip and am pumped about hearing him again.

* My nephews and brother-in-law and I had a run in with a police officer last week that left me really cynical about police officers; actually, not really police officers, but it made me cynical about that one. He took a really small thing and heightened it in the first 10 seconds of the conversation. It made all of us want to disagree with him and lie to him although we knew were in the wrong.


*We really love watch American Idol as a family. We almost never miss it. I totally understand why people hate it and think it demonstrates everything that is wrong about reality TV, but we still love it.

*My daughters have really gotten into hockey in the last month. This bodes well for my future...and theirs. This morning one of them said something to me that almost made me cry: "Dad, what time does the game start tomorrow?" Yes!

* Our elderly neighbor had a stroke on Saturday and it really left me thinking about what that would be like to be older to watch the person yo love be hurt like that. It made me think of friends suffering from Alzheimers, cancer, and all the other things that just remind me that things are not the way they should be.

* A tradition that my sister and brother-in-law started years ago that we joined since moving to B.C. is Easter morning at Crescent Beach. Read the resurrection story, have some bread and fish, and just hang out with each other. I am really hoping for some sun this year. Hallelujah, Christ has Risen! He has Risen indeed!