Category: mi familia

Family and friends dinner


Tami, Brian and Jen
Originally uploaded by Jonathan D. Blundell.

Had the siblings/friends over for dinner tonight at Casa de Blundell. We had a great time. It was a random meal with everyone bringing some of their favorites.
The menu included spaghetti, taco soup, salad, Chick-Fil-A nuggets, a veggie tray, chips and dips and cookies.
Kathryn also went all the way to Russia and brought back some Russian chocolate and coffee (we haven’t opened the coffee yet).
To see all the photos, as well as a few older ones from this month click here.
We played some Boxers and Briefs, TV Scene It, & Apples to Apples before everyone headed home just before midnight.
49 minutes later, the dishes are done and Laurie and I are heading to bed. Good times.

Holy Discontent

I finished Holy Discontent by Bill Hybels last night. A great read and very inspiring. I almost wish it wasn’t over just because I’m still searching, waiting for some direction and clarity when it comes to my own personal Passion Groove and Holy Discontent. Granted I don’t think Hybels is in anyway attempting to tell you what your own personal Holy Discontent or purpose or passion is – I think he’s just encouraging you to find it and dive into it and live it out in your life.
When I left off last time I believe I was just finishing the chapter on feeding your passion. Rather than running from those things that get our blood boiling or give us our passion, we should run straight towards them.
Rather than running away from Goliath, David said, “I’ve had enough! I’m not putting up with this guy putting my God down anymore! Someone has to do something! And if no one else will – I’ve had all I can stand and I can’t stands no more!” He then takes off with his sling and rock and confronts what he sees wrong with the world. God gives him an unbelievable courage and strength and he gets rid of the giant.
When we find our own passions we need to do the same. Live with and spend your time with the poor, the homeless, AIDS victims. Spend time with the lost. Whatever it is that you can’t stand – run towards it so your fire will burn brighter than ever.
Some other great thoughts from the book:

  • “If your holy discontent decides somewhere along the line to morph, my advice to you is to follow it.”
  • After going to a U2 concert, Hybels noted, “… just how devoted Bono is to his holy discontent. If I had to classify it, I’d call his cause dismantling apathy. He just can’t stand apathy!”
  • The number of times Scripture mentions God’s passionate concern fo the poor, the oppressed the windows, the orphans, those who are incarcerated, and those who have no voice is astounding!”
  • Hybels talks next on the idea of the fundamental state and normal state. “In the normal state, you’re almost entirely self-absorbed. You have a reactive approach to life. And you try to maintain the status quo… ‘When we accept the world as it is, we deny our ability to see something better, and hence our ability to be something better. We become what we behold.'”
  • “In the fundamental state, however, people care so much about getting results that they begin to move and breathe in a totally different realm. They operate with intentionality. They act with massive doses of enthusiasm and persistence. They surrender their ego because the cause simply can’t afford their pride. They open themselves up to any and all new ideas and forms of input – regardless of where those suggestions come from… Their creativity kicks up a notch. Their energy soars. Their passion swells.”
  • Hybels recalls the story of Bob and his wife who were living the typical American life when suddenly his church asked him and his wife to move to Australia for three years to work on church plants in the country. “You may want to take note: this is what chasing your holy discontent with all you’ve got can do to you. In the blink of an eye, it’s very possible that you too will wake up one day and find yourself relocated to a place I’ve started calling life’s ‘lunatic fringe,’ and the only thing crazier than the destination itself is how much you enjoy it once you’ve arrived.”
  • “The moral of the story is that a bad day lived from the energy of your holy discontent is far better than the best day lived anywhere else.” – I love that. I look forward to that and desire that.
  • “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves… Defend the rights of the poor and needy, uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute and rescue the poor and the helpless.”
  • “Part of what it means to operate in the fundamental state is that you care more about the results you want to create than about getting what you want.”
  • “Can you imagine what might happen in corporations and churches and families all over the world if we all got serious about becoming fundamental-state people?”
  • “Beg him (God) to pump you full of Spirit-inspired-holy-discontent-driven, refuse-to-be-shaken belief!”
  • “When you charge toward your holy discontent with boundless passion, optimism and energy, you become the very best kind of contagious!… Erwin McManus says that it is this context that true greatness gets unleashed.”
  • “Don’t forget that there’s a reason why you grew up the way you did. Why you’ve experienced what you have. Why you’ve traveled where you’ve been. And he is looking for someone just like you to start setting some things right in this world.”
  • “Friends, in what other life are you going to go all out? We all have one shot and one shot only to leave a lasting legacy – a definitive mark on this world that reflects our decision to lean into, not away from, our areas of holy discontent.”
  • Finally I love this challenge, “We steward the only message on planet Earth that can give people what their hearts need most, which is hope.” It reminds me of Mark Batterson’s quote, “The greatest message demands the greatest marketing.” What and how are you going to get out and share that greatest message with the least of these? What drives you nuts to see in the world around you? What is it that you see that you know has to be made right? I’m still searching and praying for clarity on those things in my life. As you can probably tell by reading my blog, my heart is tugged in many number of ways and I’m trusting God to not only point me in the direction he wants me to go, but the direction he wants Laurie and I to go together. I ask that as you seek and search for your passion grove, pray that we find ours as well.

Lehmann baby 3 on the way

Well Keri and Aaron made it to encounter this morning, but it wasn’t long before they were headed out the door and heading to the hospital in anticipation of baby 3.
The latest from Aaron around 1 p.m. CST is that they are going to induce Keri today. So we should see a new addition to the Lehmann family before too long.
Laurie and I will be heading to the hospital before too long so we’ll be sure to grab some photos of the going-ons.

New reading

We picked up a couple new books at Mardels today (as if I really need more books to finish :-)). I feel like I’m reading four books right now – which is pretty close to the truth. I read different ones at different points of the day.
Laurie wanted to get Don Miller’s book, Searching for God Knows What and I was hoping to get Rob Bell’s latest book, Sex God.
We didn’t find Sex God but I got Bill Hybel’s book, Holy Discontent, which Brian’s been reading lately. I’m looking forward to reading both.
In the meantime, I think I’ll throw out a couple tags…
I want to know what Michael Robinson is reading, my mom, my dad, Thomas and Walker. So tag – you five are it.

Power Uno

Laurie and I just got back from Kara and Tim’s, we kind of invited ourselves over to hang out with my sister and her husband. They went to the Dallas Farmer’s Market today and picked up a bunch of fruit and veggies, so they provided the sides and a great blackberry cobbler and we brought the meat, sirloin steaks.

We had a great meal, a strawberry summer salad, green beans and new potatoes and the steak.
It all went down great with the hot cobbler and Blue Bell vanilla ice cream. MMMmmmm….

Afterwards we played a couple games, Imagine If, and Power Uno.

I think Imagine If maybe Kara’s new favorite game – but she cleaned house the first round we played so that may have something to do with it.

We ran into a couple snags though with Power Uno, since Laurie and I had only played it once a couple week’s ago at our Community Group meeting (it was a very spiritual week :-)).

I’m going to try and remember the situations and see if anyone has an answer to them. I can’t find any “official” rules or instructions for Power Uno on the web, although I did find some instructions for Super Power, No Sissies.

Just to set up the game/picture we were playing in this order, Jonathan > Laurie > Kara > Tim.

Situation 1: Going around the circle, it was my turn and I played a Draw 2 card. Laurie was next and she drew 2 cards from the deck. I then played another Draw 2 card (same color – identical card to what I laid down originally). We were confused on who would draw the next 2 cards. Would it be Laurie since I jumped in (out of turn to play a duplicate card) or would it be Kara (next in the circle after Laurie) since Laurie had already drawn two and I played at the end of her turn or the beginning of Kara’s turn?

Situation 2: When a duplicate card is played (as in above) who plays next? If I played a red 5 and Kara played a red 5 (out of turn) does she get to play again or would Tim play next since he was next in line after Kara?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated – any Power Uno players out there let us know what you think.

Anyone else find any new games or variations on old games they love playing?

We’re enjoyed Power Uno, Imagine If and another game we played on July 4 with the Treadaways, Sequence. We haven’t purchased that one yet but we’ve been meaning to. I think we have a hard time justifying paying $15 for it when we saw it at Half Price Books for $6 :-). We’ve also enjoyed Boxers or Briefs but I think Imagine If may beat that one out as a top game. And if we can find it in a store, we’d like to purchase Dirty Laundry.

My eighth great-uncle

Now here’s something interesting. I’ve been poking around with some genealogy in my spare time over the last few weeks and found a great website that gives history of my mom’s, mother’s side of the family.
Turns out we’re related to the Pendleton’s, a “distinguished” American family. Hmmm. Wonder where the line went bad 😉 Ha. I kid.
As of right now, I can trace our family back to Capt. Henry Pendleton (May 15, 1683 – May 1721) and his wife Isabella Hurt.
Pendleton was an officer in the militia in Virginia and is the apparent father of the “distinguished” family.

“This 13 year old bride and 18 year old husband became the ancestors of a number of distinguished Americans. Of his five sons, the oldest, James, and the third, Nathaniel, were for many years Clerks of the Vestery and Lay readers at the small chapels of St. Mark’s Parish; and Philip, the son of James, was Clerk in 1782, when the Vestery books closed. His two daughters married brothers, James and William Henry Gains. His youngest son Edmund, though without a father’s care, made for himself a name which will be known and remembered as long as Virginia’s sons read her history. By his large circle of nephews and nieces, many of them his own age, he was loved and revered, and the tradition of his kindness and every ready help is handed down through nearly every branch of the family. Almost all the Pendletons of Virginia trace their decent to Henry Pendleton and Mary Taylor. (Genealogical and Historical Notes on Culpeper County, VA).”

I found this on Capt. Pendleton’s youngest son Edmund Pendleton (who’s my eighth great-uncle) on Wikipedia:

tn_pendletonedmundi3594_jpg.jpg Edmund Pendleton (September 9, 1721-October 23, 1803) was a Virginia politician, lawyer and judge, active in the American Revolutionary War.
He was born in Caroline County on September 9, 1721. When he was 14 years old, he was bound out as an apprentice to the Clerk of the Caroline County Court. In 1737, Pendleton was made clerk of the vestry of St. Mary’s Parrish in Caroline and with the small profits made there he procured a few law books. In 1740, he was made clerk of the Caroline Court-Marshall. He was licensed to practice law in April 1741 and his success before the county courts caused him to become a member of the General Court in October 1745. He was appointed a Justice of the Peace for Caroline County in 1751. He helped raise and school his fatherless nephew John Taylor of Caroline, who went on to be a U.S. Senator. From 1752-1776 he was a member of the House of Burgesses. In May 1766, Pendleton discovered the John Robinson Estate Scandal which involved his mentor. Pendleton was on the Virginia Committee of Correspondence in 1773 and was a delegate to Continental Congress from Virginia in 1774.
Pendleton served as President of the Virginia Committee of Safety from 16 August 1775 to 5 July 1776 (effectively serving as governor of the colony) and as President of the Virginia Convention which authorized Virginia’s signing of the Declaration of Independence. After the Declaration, he became the first Speaker of Virginia’s new House of Delegates although a fall from a horse in March of 1777 dislocated his hip and caused him to miss the first session This crippled him so that he used crutches the rest of his life. He, along with Thomas Jefferson and George Wythe, revised Virginia’s law code. He was appointed Judge of the High Court of Chancery in 1777. When Virginia created a Supreme Court of Appeals in 1778, Pendleton was appointed its first President where he served until his death. He served as President of the Virginia Constitutional Convention in 1788.
Pendleton died October 23, 1803 and was buried at his estate, Edmundsbury. In 1907 he was moved from this location and buried inside Bruton Parish Chapel in what is now Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia.
Thomas Jefferson said of Pendleton: “Taken in all he was the ablest man in debate I ever met”.
Pendleton County, West Virginia was formed in 1788 and named in Pendleton’s honor. Pendleton County, Kentucky, formed in 1798, is also named after Pendleton.

Crazy stuff I tell ya. You never know what you can find on the Internet.