So much to do and my office is such a mess! Help!

Whoa. Kael's Screaming has left Owen and I feeling shell shocked.....eeeech.

I am in awe at the devastation one toddler can unleash on a home. Shocking..

time to get a new iMac I think. Anyone looking to sell an aluminium/g6?

Hilarious

This is Mike writing here. I couldn't resist it's just too funny not to share.

Jessi woke me up in the middle of the night last night shouting..."Mike, Mike ahhhhh, ahhhhh!" Then she leapt out of bed and turned the light on. I thought she had went into early labour or maybe her water had broke. Then she started saying "There's a spider in the bed. There's a spider...it fell on me!!" So naturally being the awesome husband I am I started looking for the nasty beast so I could destroy it and protect my bride. I asked Jessi how big it was and she said it was about the size of her hand...then I thought....she must be dreaming....is she dreaming? There is no way a spider of that size would be in our room. Then she went on to say that it had fell from the ceiling. Ahahaha lol yup she was totally dreaming. Its was hard not to laugh even at 2am.

Mute

Lately I feel like my life is on mute and I think its due to the absence of community. Its become increasingly clear to me that a lot of who we are is best expressed in community. We are designed to live with others, to interact, to serve and participate in other peoples lives. I feel like there is little opportunity for those things in my life at the moment. Outside of Jessi, Kael and the one friend I've made here, Jeff (Thanks Jeff for making the effort). I don't really have much of a community. I don't like that. It probably doesn't help that I work from home either. I need human interaction. I am not really sure how to change my life so I do have community. I probably don't even have time to change and find community. Blah... I heard someone say recently that "A life that is given in service to others is the only one worth living." Sounds good to me. God bring me a community.

Death, The fear of dying, losing control and surrender...

For the last couple of years I have feared death more and more. Not just death, but sickness, or the death of loved ones around me. I suppose they are all normal fears. I used to try and come up with reasons for why people were dying...oh they have cancer cus they were a smoker or he had heart problems cus he had a terrible diet, but then I noticed that perfectly healthy people got sick take for example Lance Armstrong who was diagnosed with cancer when he was an elite athlete. Those kind of cases blew my theory out of the water and fear crept in further, but God reminded/challenged me the other day to surrender myself, my health my everything to him again. Surrender isn't a one time deal. Its a continual choice or state of mind. There are so many things going on in my life right now that are out of my control that I would change in a second if I could, but I think that's why surrender is so great and so hard for us at the same time. We hate it when things are out of our control. My neighbours love to blast music...it drives me nuts, but I am even trying to surrender that to God because I can't control it. I remember when I had my genuine conversion experience. I knew that God just wanted me to surrender everything I was to him. The peace that came after I surrendered was the thing that I had craved more than anything, I just didn't know it. You can't put a price on that. I guess salvation and surrender are almost synonymous. We taste the beauty of salvation only after we have surrendered. I don't think we are supposed to carry burdens with us, that's God's role

So I felt like my fear of death left and peace returned when I surrendered again. Maybe we can always live in the peace that comes with surrender. That would be awesome. I know lately as I have become weary of religion/religious people I have cringed at the word surrender and probably missed the the true blessing and power of it. Thanks God for bringing me back.