Four Weeks

Four weeks until the due date will be here. It has seemed like a really long process to get to this point, at the same time I feel like I'd like another 9 months to prepare for this...mostly mentally. I don't know if I should be scared that I have no idea what is coming or just thankful because sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Gum Abuse

Do you ever have prior thoughts or expectations that are confirmed in the early moments of an experience? I did yesterday. I got to visit the dentist office. Yeah I know...its my favorite place too. I hate that place. I hate how after they poke, prod, and stab your gums with a sharp metal object and then follow that up by ripping floss through your teeth like they are sawing lumber. For me, when they get done carving up my gums the dental hygentist usually make a comment about how my gums are bleeding...well yeah, is my usual thought...who's wouldn't be after receiving that kind of abuse. Nothing against the people in the dentist office but I do not like the "dentist", I think its my least favorite place to go.

Just do it!

Here are some verses I committed to memory this week.

James 1:22-27
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

This is what I got out of them after letting my heart marinate in them for a week: It is important to hear and read God's word. It is as, if not more, important that we allow his word to transform us into living out his word and doing it. Just do it...a fitting mantra.

These verses also get me thinking about what my "doing" looks like compared to what I've been reading and hearing. Am I doing all I can do? Do I have myself in a place where I can live out that attitude fully? When I give and do, do I do it with no expectation of a return?

Dreaming about Junior got me thinking about some of the things that shaped me into who I am. I know that when I was in the moment of many of these that I didn't think they were the greatest moments...but now as I look back I can see how they shaped me into me.

Going fishing with my mom on summer mornings and her showing me how to properly remove a bullhead off your line.

Walking on the train tracks behind our house trying to jump from one track to the other.

Climbing a big clump Red Maple in the backyard...each year being brave enough to go a branch or two higher.

Making a lauching pad out of snow in the driveway so that I could perform my Michael Jordan impersonation on our basketball hoop.

Building snow horses in the backyard with mom...they were much better than snowmen because you cold play "Lone Ranger" on a snow horse.

Scrubbing down the horse carriage and decorating it for the 4th of July parade.

Practicing pitching with my mom. She was my catcher and caught my heat until I started bruising her hand. She is the best mom in the world. When I could throw to hard she put up a sheet of plywood and painted a strike zone on it, then would stand next to it and throw the ball back to me.

Sledding in the backyard and seeing how far across the lake I could make it.

Diving for "treasures" in the lake behind my parents house.

Going to Russ' restraunt with my Grandma Versluys.

Riding on Grandpa Versluys' scooter with him. He would go from one end of the house to the other with us on his lap.

Eating at G&G Versluys' house while my parents were away. I had such a huge mouthful of milk that my cheeks were puffed out. I was pretending to hit my cheeks with my hands and my Grandpa said, " Jimmy don't you dare". Yeah, they hadn't figured out you didn't want to dare little Jimmy....milk went everywhere.

Playing Little League baseball in a snowstorm.

Tagging along with a couple of dentist that used to rabbit hunt behind my parents house.

Making forts out of hay bales in my parents barn and slidding down the hay shoot.

Shoveling off my grandparents flat room during the blizzards of '78 and then my dad let us jump off the roof into the snow piles below.

Waking up from a nap when I was four or five and there was a goat standing out my window staring in at me...I've never liked goats since then.

Going to auctions on Saturday mornings with my dad, usually on the way home I fell asleep on him.

Visiting Florida during the winter. My parents had a small motorhome and I loved falling asleep to the hum of the tires on the road.

Camping Labor Day weekends in the U.P. and walking the Mackinaw Bridge every year with my family. On the way home we would stop at a park and play frisbee football with other families from church.

Going Maple Sugaring in Rudyard, MI. My parents friends made maple syrup. We would visit them in the early spring to "help" them. I spent more time eating the maple sugar candy and playing with their frisbee catching dog. They had a bear rug hanging on a door that scared the beejeebers out of me.

Spending a week at Hoffmaster State park in the summers. Catching tadpoles, climbing sand dunes, swimming, making sand castles, roasting marshmellows, playing uno, making smores, cooking Hobo pies, riding bikes, throwing a frisbee, playing catch, and riding bikes to the Whippy Dip for ice cream cone's.

Watching the World Series with my Grandpa while my Grandparents stayed with us while they were on a trip.

Making my Uncle Dick's world famous carmel corn with my sisters before we watched the Disney specials on Saturday nights.

Getting up at 6am on Saturday mornings so I could watch The Lone Ranger. I was usually up prior to it starting and sat waiting watching the colored lines on the screen before they started broadcasting...then they played the Star Spangled Banner...then The Lone Ranger.

Going to my elementary friend Steve's house and his mom making us popcorn in a huge pan on the stove. We got to stay up late on Friday night watching TV and eating popcorn. Satuday morning we would run around his Grandpa's farm exploring everything.

Visiting Hawkersmith Nursery in McMinville Tennessee with my dad. He was excited to see the trees. I think I was more excited to see the Tennesse Walking horses they raised on their farm.

Going fishing with my parents every Memorial Day.

Sitting at the front window waiting for my dad to get home from deer camp. Hoping and praying he had gotten a buck.

Visiting our relatives in Montana: staying on their farm, helping with their cattle, riding with my Uncle Chuckon his dirt bike to check on the bulls and sprinklers, fishing for Trout in their creek, and shooting our matching little red bows at pop cans with my cousin Kevin.

Things I am looking forward to

I went for a walk tonight and my mind started wandering to things I am looking forward to doing with Junior or seeing him do.

• It started with this: pushing him around the neighborhood in his stroller
• Carrying him around on top of my shoulders
• Taking him fishing
• Watching him chase Natasha around the house
• Making a huge pile of leaves to jump in
• Watching him see his first snowflake
• Seeing him crawl
• Reading books to him
• Helping him understand God's love for him
• Teaching him to ride a bike
• Watching him take his first steps
• Wrestling together
• Embarassing him in front of his friends
• Trick or Treating together...I mean watching him
• Spending an autumn morning in the woods with him
• Teaching him to drive a Bobcat
• Watching the bees in our bee hives with him
• Teaching him to swim
• Snowball fights
• Making his first snowman with him
• Building a tree fort together
• Teaching him about archery
• Making an igloo in the backyard
• Having a long distance watermelon seed spitting contest
• Teaching him to climb a tree
• Watching him play little league baseball
• Watching him bite into a lemon
• Going canoeing
• Taking him to NewZealand
• Teaching him to shoot a basketball
• Showing him how to throw a baseball
• Counting the stars with him