Jovie’s Room

Monday, April 5, 2010

I’ve promised (for months now) to post pictures of the baby’s room. The rocker is actually my grandfather’s (Dad’s dad) so it has a lot of sentimental value. And, yes, those are real birch trees. I finally feel like most everything is in it’s place, sans baby of course.

Enjoy the pictures! Click to enlarge the photos…

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By Lauren in Baby, Design, Faith, Life, New Place, News

Bored Birdies

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

I think this might reflect my attitude this afternoon. I was so busy with projects up until a week or so ago and I’m experiencing a slight lull in work. I’ve been freelancing on my own now for over a year (13 mo) and history proves there will be weeks like this. So, instead of sulk about lack of work this afternoon I decided to do a quick painting. It only took about 20 minutes. I penned the lines and birds in prior to painting the sky. I found out quickly that it was a mistake…ink bleeds when you put water on it! You can see a few places where I got too close, but I wasn’t really in the mood to be too precise. I definitely like the look of the black ink and watercolor over it. The birds on electric lines concept is overused, but I think it was a good starter project for this style.

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Look at the birds of the sky: they don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? - Matthew 6:26

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By Lauren in Design, Faith

The New Year

Thursday, January 8, 2009

So I’m a little more belated than usual with a contemplative New Years post, but I figure it’s better late than never.

2008 seemed to go by extremely fast in our world, no doubt due to the many changes that took place for Lauren and I last year. I shifted to a different role at work. Lauren left her stable job to enter uncharted waters in the world of full-time freelancing and growing our little business. Oh yeah, we also sold our old house, lived with my family for two months and finally moved in our new place. What a busy year!

Looking forward, I think 2009 is going to be an interesting year. Normally I feel like I have a good sense of what to expect year after year, but my usual hunches elude me for this one. The world is seemingly a much more turbulent and unsure place than only a year before, with the economy in shambles and new leadership taking the reins in a matter of weeks. Every day I see friends and family losing their jobs, people losing hope and it seems the “bad guys” throughout the world are flexing their muscles and testing the waters more and more (whether or not my observations are the result of an increasingly “doom and gloom” peddling media is a topic for another post) .

You know, surprising even myself, I’m becoming more and more optimistic as I wade deeper into adulthood, even despite the current climate. Although I was formerly very pessimistic by nature, I feel like God is doing a work in my life over the last few years that has solidified my trust and dependence on his sovereignty.

Although everyone is telling us the sky is falling and the economy will be in the toilet for years to come, I’m hopeful that Americans will lead the charge in innovation and strong business practices that used to make our economy so strong (Palm for example, on the verge of irrelevance, showed off some gusto today with a product no one saw coming from them… we need more of that). Although I disagree with almost all of President-Elect Obama’s political views, I’m hoping that he’ll surround himself with wise people and provide solid leadership going further.

Perhaps most of all, although things may get worse and there could be a rough few years ahead, I’m hoping and praying that the impermanence of all the material things we trust in will shake us up and return our focus to the things that really matter: loving each other and spreading the Good News. The stock market may crash, retirement accounts may implode and our nation’s enemies may strengthen, but God is good all the time and nothing can separate us from His love.

Here’s hoping for a good year.

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By Eric in Faith, Life

Creating and Enforcing a Perimeter

Monday, November 3, 2008

Whether you’re watching a military movie or playing something like Halo or paintball, one of the first things smart leaders do when establishing a base is to create and maintain a perimeter of safety. You fortify the interior with needed items, get rid of any trash inside, and station guards along the edge to enforce the integrity of the perimeter. As guys, this is a macho, universally understood strategy.

So why don’t more of us do that with our spiritual lives and our homes? I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately thanks to our small group discussions and some good time spent in God’s Word.

First off, my interior. For the last few months, I haven’t spent a lot of quality time in God’s word. I’ll normally try to read a chapter of scripture along with breakfast in the morning, but most days I just rushed through this and said a quick prayer so I could get along with my day. I was being spiritually lazy, and was just passively engaging God’s word.

In our Small Group time over the past few weeks, the following verse keeps coming up and hitting me hard:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” - Deuteronomy 6:5-9

I definitely wasn’t binding God’s word on my forehead… heck, I was paying more attention to my Fruit Loops than what I was reading. I decided that the first part of setting up a perimeter for myself was to really try to fortify the interior or my heart with more scripture. As part of this, I’ve been following this Bible-in-a-year plan I found through You Version. It’s pretty cool, taking you through a chapter or two out of three books a day (the goal is to have you read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice a year). I can honestly tell you that taking the time to turn off the TV and spend some more time with God has been huge for me over the past few weeks. It feels good to cut off the steady flow of junk and feast on some truth for a change.

Speaking of cutting out the junk, the second part of my plan has been to enforce the perimeter we’ve set up for ourselves at home. We’re trying to cut down on the types of movies we watch, and are striving to be better about turning the channel instead of just subjecting ourselves to a lot of the junk on TV.

Probably the biggest change we’ve made is putting a strict filter on our internet connection to keep out the junk. I was always bad about making excuses about this since we do so much online (both of our fields are internet related) and filters can be an over-protective pain; I can say with certainty now that I was wrong. As a guy, it feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders knowing that I’ve simply cut off the availability of that junk in my house. Why give the enemy a chance at a foothold when it’s possible to eliminate the temptation all together?

I highly recommend the Safe Eyes software from Internet Safety; it’s cheap, works on Macs and PCs and it’s extremely flexible. After only a few minutes of configuration, we had it set up and configured to block only certain things and allow others. If it’s blocking something it shouldn’t, you can easily white list certain pages or entire sites (it was blocking our blog as porn(!), for instance). Have accountability partners? It can also be configured to send logs to them if you slip up.

Coming from a geek who’s tried this stuff out, there’s really no good reason why you shouldn’t man up and get a filter now. The speed impact is imperceptible, and you’ll barely notice it’s there unless you try to access a blocked site. Fellas, I don’t care where you are or how much you struggle, you need this software. Don’t give me the “we should just trust each other” speech; it’s time to quit making excuses like me and eliminate the threat.

What if you have other ways of getting to the internet throughout the house besides your computers? We have a few video game consoles with full web browsers, so I’m going to play around with OpenDNS tonight to filter the connection even further from our router to everything on our network. For now, I’ve just had Lauren lock us out of those browsers through the parental controls built into those systems.

Am I being too over protective or paranoid? Maybe. But God’s word says we have an enemy that “prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour.” I’m going to take every precaution to build a perimeter and keep that garbage out of home.

Want a good deal on the Safe Eyes software mentioned above? They’ve given Long Hollow a promo code to use online that’ll drop the cost to about $37 out the gate (use the coupon code “LHB” when checking out). By the way, one license will cover three computers, so no excuses there. Guys, have you wife be in charge of the administrator password so you can’t be sneaky.

Also, if you’ve got an iPhone, you really should check out the YouVersion Bible on there. It’s got that daily reading plan built in, so you always have a Bible in a lot of different translations on you.

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By Eric in Faith, Geek Stuff

Trying It Again

Friday, October 31, 2008

Hey all! Despite Eric and I being “burned” from giving candy on Halloween (it only takes ONE kid to ruin it for you), we’ve decided to pass out some this year. Instead of doing just candy I made these little cards to print out. I thought about doing tracts or something similar, but it just seems so cheesy. These are super kid friendly and colorful and best of all they have God’s message of LOVE on them :). I’m printing mine on some thick card stock and they look sharp. You can download these printable cards here. Let me know how they worked!

Fall Cards

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By Lauren in Design, Faith

Mass Media Burnout

Monday, June 23, 2008

If you’re like me, you probably have quite a bit of exposure to the media throughout the day. I see live news on my phone shortly after waking up. I check all sorts of news sites and blogs throughout my work day. As I drive around, I’ve fallen in the habit of listening to talk radio over the last year or so. Even now, as I settle down for the night and reflect on my day, the evening news is just cranking up and I’m tempted to check another site or two before I hit the hay.

The truth is, I’m kind of sick of it.

I\'d probably leave the TV on if more stuff like this was on there.

Now, I know it’s an election year, and it’s pretty obvious that there’s a wide difference of opinion out there on just about every conceivable topic. Whether it’s just a sign of the times or not, I’m just sick of being told what I should feel and think about everything. It seems like the American media (although I’m sure it’s more widespread than just us) has quit reporting the facts, and has instead decided that there’s a certain way we all should feel and that’s how they’re going to manipulate us. I’m tired of putting my brain on coast when I watch and read all of this garbage.

Before I get too riled up, I need to clarify that it’s coming from more than just one political side of the fence. Although my politically conservative beliefs immediately single out the overwhelmingly leftist American mass media, the right-wing hold outs are also pulling some biased puppet strings.

I know, I know… I’m pretty much just stating the obvious. I’m just afraid our culture is losing the ability to think critically and develop our own opinions, all while trading our souls for some poorly executed celebrity endoresments. I’ve noticed lately that when I take the time to shut off the idiot box and drive around in silence for a change, the volume of the world (PANIC, DOOM, THE SKY IS FALLING!!!) has greatly dimenished and the Lord’s voice (Be still, and know that I AM GOD) has become much clearer.

I’ve recently rediscovered my love of reading. I’ve found it’s much more refreshing to read and hour before cutting the lights rather than wasting away in front of the tube. I just wrapped up a great read in Desire by John Eldridge (of Wild at Heart fame). In just over a few hundred pages, he tackles the various desires God has placed on our hearts and sets up camp on the fact that no Earthly thing can really ever fulfill those desires (nor was it ever meant to).

The thought that has stuck with me the most after leaving the last page is how much expectancy I’ve placed on this life to fulfill my desires and purpose; I’ve allowed myself to become so manipulated and shaped by the media and commercialism that I’ve bought into a whole host of lies, all while missing the true life that God has for me. Happiness isn’t safety and comfort. Happiness isn’t a well paying job, a house and a fully funded 401k. Happiness isn’t more stuff. Heck, happiness isn’t necessarily being “happy.”

Happiness is loving and relying on the God that made us all and finding opportunities to love each other. You know, the stuff I listed above isn’t bad at all; all of those things are tremendous blessings. It’s just so easy to get caught up in keeping our hearts on those things as the end goal, placing them on a pedestal as a poor substitute for eternity.

I need to spend more time soaking up some true wisdom rather than empty knowledge.

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By Eric in Faith, Life

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