Yard Work

I cannot believe it has been almost a week since I last posted. My time schedule is all messed up. I finally got word that I will be going back to work this weekend. It looks like Sunday or Monday at the moment. I almost feel bad about not having to work so much, while everyone else has to either work or go to school. Almost, but not really. I really have enjoyed my 4 weeks off!

Gorgeous weather today! A little too windy for my taste, but with the sun out totally bearable. So I got outside yesterday and today and got a little work done. Broke out the chainsaw and did a some man work. I don't know what it is about cutting down and up a tree that is so much fun. But it is. Here are some pictures from the afternoon...

Here is the section of my yard I am cleaning out.

The tree I am about to cut down...

The downed tree. Conveniently felled onto my brush pile.

Me, posing with my downed tree.

The section I am clearing after most of the work is done. Still have some work left.

And there is Gravy. Trying to stay interested. Mostly mocking the fenced dogs next door, that he gets to be out and they do not.

Yes, Gravy is my dog's name, no I did not name him that.

He is a strange dog at times, but he is a good dog.

Jimmy through the years…

I was cleaning my third and final room today and here is what I found… my old baby blanket. Awhile back, mom had made a decoration out of it, tacking it up to the wall with some pictures through the years on it. So I decided to go ahead and post it.


And here are some of those pictures...

I still have the stuffed dog.

Me and my little sister.

Halloween GI Joe!

Me and little brother Ben getting wood.

Studying at the Grandparents in California.

Yes, Jr. High was an awkward time.

Romanian mission trip.

Sr. Picture I believe.

And finally me sporting my High School Letter jacket that I came across.

Running across all these old pictures, knick knacks, and all the other crazy stuff I have saved, really gets me to thinking. I often think of that phrase if you knew then what you know now, would you do anything different? My answer to that is an emphatic yes! I missed so much just by being naive, oblivious, lazy, or scared.

But I have had a great life so far, and God continues to bless me in so many ways. I am nothing but excited about the rest of it.

Ekklesia / The Church

I just finished listening to last Sunday week’s sermon. Wow. What a challenge. It was a reminder of when I first attended Living Hope.

It is awesome to me that we have the technology to go back and listen to sermons again. What a privilege to live in the time and place we do. I will go back to sermons I have even heard, so I can get it better. Reiteration is one of the ways I really learn things.

When I first visited Living Hope, I was looking for a church to go to because that was what you were supposed to do. And being the good kid, that is what I did. I remember very distinctly that Butch said, much the same thing he said last week, “if you are not willing to get involved in the church, find somewhere else to go.”

I liked the church. I liked Butch. I liked the music and the skits. But I only came twice. I took him at his word, because I knew that at that time in my life, I did not want to get involved in the church.

I wanted to go to feel good. To make some friends. To find a girlfriend. To have a good time. I did not want to be challenged.

That was almost 5 years ago. I hope that it was not a complete waste of time, but it does feel like it sometimes. I came back to Living Hope about 2 years ago, knowing that is where I was supposed to be. And I finally came to church for the right reason. Little did I know, that as I slowly relinquished myself to God, He was drawing me closer to Him. I got saved for real this last June, and gave my life completely to Him.

That is the short version, and all I can say is that God has been tremendously good and patient with me. I still struggle with what I want, and with my pride. But it is great to be reminded that Christians, Believers by definition do what the Bible says. For me that is “Thou shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And your neighbor as yourself.” What a challenging commandment.

I have been blessed tremendously with a church body, who corporately, not just from the pulpit, encourage through word and deed, complete obedience to God.

I know that what is here on this blog is piecemeal, and that it probably does not make sense, but even little things like spring cleaning of my house, or exercise, is work on my character, changing my habits to better reflect God. Changing my life, preparing to do what I am supposed to do.

Thank you God, for your tremendous mercy and tremendous grace towards me.

Spring Cleaning II

Well things are coming along slowly but surely. I believe I mentioned that I have 2 junk rooms, when in fact I have 3. I forgot the back porch which houses most of my tools and work clothes. I can proudly announce that 2 of the 3 have been gone through and at least organized to a small degree.

Here is another brief list of things I ran across: mini-collections of old photos, baseball cards, maps, stamps, money both foreign and domestic, media such as CD’s, DVD’s, 3.5 inch diskettes, paper, notebooks, pens, file folders and such. Personal items such as love letters, (with an embarrassed grin), old ID cards, tools, work clothes.

It is a trip to me to see how much stuff I have collected. I often think how I would love to be my own grandkid going through my stuff in 50 years. And that thought often goes along with wanting to see my own funeral, etc.

On a side note, I must mention that I have been extremely encouraged to work on my house by the Hendricks. I have been fortunate to be able to help a little with the 2-room expansion of the upstairs of their beautiful 100+ year old house. Aaron’s work ethic is pretty amazing. He and Mike stayed up until 5:30AM one morning. And that is after several nights of midnight plus. I figure that if he can do what he has done with a full time job, wife, and kids, then I should be able to do something to my house, with my schedule of days off in a row, and few other distractions.

So that is what I have been up to for the last 4 days. And quite honestly I am enjoying it. The next part is the hard part – re-flooring and possibly re-plumbing the bathroom. I hate plumbing. Maybe I will avoid that and work in the yard. :)

Spring Cleaning

I have been lazy in updating my blog, and I apologize. The last couple of weeks have been… for lack of a better word… lazy.

I did do a couple of things, but that did not balance out the nothing I did on my stuff I should have been doing.

So I started yesterday, and I am quite pleased with myself. I still realize that I am one of the slowest, most inefficient people in the world, and that is a humbling fact.

I started cleaning out one of my two junk rooms. Yes, most people have junk drawers, but I have junk rooms.

Here is a brief list of what I found…

My old diaries…

I have been keeping it since September 13, 1989, when I was 11 years old. That is crazy! Almost 20 years have passed, and I have record of it. I am a little proud of that though. It might be a little embarrassing to some that I have kept a diary, but I am not the least bit embarrassed.

I have not kept up with it like I should have the last several years. Usually just an entry every 4-6 months, but I am going to change that with a commitment to do an entry every day for 30 days, so that I get back into the habit.

I also found, my sports equipment for soccer, tennis, golf, (still need some golf clubs though) baseball. I have nearly countless notebooks of notes, to do lists, and goals for the future. It is really funny to me to realize that I have been doing the same things over and over the past few years. I have my old school books, notes, and papers.

In short, I am a pack rat. I am a history major, so I can blame it on that. I don’t want to lose any of this history!

For some strange reason, I really enjoy going through all this old stuff, reminiscing time gone by.

The goal as it stands is to get everything out of my two junk rooms, consolidated into plastic boxes with lids, get all my tools and supplies together for the back porch, so that I have the room and organization to start working on my fixer-upper house.

It’s a good start. I will keep you all updated.

Exercise :(

So here is another suggestions needed post. Thank you so much for the suggestions for long road trips. I will definitely be taking advantage of those.

And here is the situation. I work 12 hour shifts from 6 at night until 6 in the morning. I have been pretty good with switching my sleep schedule. But most of the time during my shift, I am sedentary. Sitting, watching my computer screens to make sure my tool down hole is working fine. Not intently, but at least every few minutes. (Which allows me to do blog)

I usually go to sleep pretty quickly after my shift, and wake up about 11:00, and go back to sleep about 2:00. So I usually have 3-4 hours in the middle of the day to do something.

Some of the limitations that I have is that I cannot do too much in the trailer I am working because the other shift is sleeping while I am working, or if during the day, my co-worker is sleeping.

We also move around a lot across the state of Arkansas, so joining a gym is at times unpractical. I guess I could go and get a day pass. I really do not know too much about gyms.

Now that I am thinking about it, I am only about 20 – 30 minutes from a state park that my family visited a few years ago. I believe there are some hiking or trails over there. Now I could go just after work, and then come back and sleep. There’s an idea.

So if you all have any suggestions on avoiding complete loss of all physical attributes gained from the last year of hard manual labor, it would be much appreciated.