It’s been a busy few months around Casa de Blundell!
We’re both heading back to work after an extended weekend (3 days for Jonathan – 5 days for Laurie!) so I thought it might be time for another brief.
Continue reading Tuesday Briefs
Tag: Monday Briefs
Monday briefs
Despite the rain (that just keeps coming back), we were blessed with another great time this weekend.
Continue reading Monday briefs
Monday Briefs
Highlights of the week ::
Well it wasn’t anything we originally planned, but Laurie and I were able to celebrate our second anniversary on Friday and Saturday night. Friday night we made our annual visit to Outback Steakhouse and enjoyed some great steak, a bloomin’ onion, a large Foster beer (for me) and a desert sampler (for her – even though I probably ate more than her). We then came home and watched Bride Wars while snuggling on the couch (in case you wanted to know).
Saturday we had plans to go to Fort Worth for the day, but because of the forecasted rain, I did yard work and she did a few things around the house, like ironing some shirts for me (THANKS!). Then we decided to enjoy some Royal Burgers at Red Robin. Then we came home and snuggled on the couch again, watching Slumdog Millionaire.
Hopefully we’ll be able to make our planned day trip to Fort Worth before too long.
Quote I’m diggin and chewing on ::
“A Christian should be able to go to the White House, a crack house, their momma’s house or any house and come out with their integrity, vision, compassion, and commitment to justice intact.
If the Kingdom of God is within you, then everywhere you go you should leave a little heaven behind. People will know you to be a heaven leaver. You can learn to love your crooked neighbor with your own crooked heart because you’re connected to a power and grace greater than your ego.”
I’m wondering and chewing on this: I leaving a bit of heaven or hell online, offline, in your house, in my house, in my car, in my marriage, in my relationships, in my family, in my job, in my church?
Movies of recent days ::
Three movies in three days?! That’s just unheard of around these parts! But as I mentioned above, we watched Bride Wars and Slumdog Millionaire this weekend and then I watched The Wrestler on Sunday afternoon.
Bride Wars was as expected, a “chick-flick.” I think Laurie liked it but said it wasn’t one she’d go out and buy.
Slumdog Millionaire was really good in my mind. Something different and challenging. Showed a side of India that we don’t typically see and also challenged me to continue thinking about how we so often slap labels on people far too quickly.
The Wrestler was OK but as I mentioned on Facebook, not one I’d watch with my parents :-). It was a bit crude at times and having one of the main characters working at a strip club didn’t help the matter. From the little I know, it was pretty accurate to the story of the indie wrestling scene. I think I kept waiting to see the redemption story in the movie but I don’t feel like it ever came. Perhaps (for those who’ve seen it) Ram’s redemption came in pushing through and living out his passion, with a finger to the rest of the world or maybe there was another sub-narrative I missed. Or perhaps there was no redemption story. What’d you think?
#nanowrimo update ::
I finally finished the first edit of my novel, St. Peter’s Brewery. I still have a couple spots I want to re-work, but now I can start making the edits from my read-through as well as the others several other folks submitted. If I can stay on task, perhaps the book will be ready for release by July? We’ll hope so.
Looking forward to ::
I can’t actually think of much right now that I’m looking forward to. Seems a bit depressing? I’ll keep you posted if I can think of something.
Till next week….
Monday Briefs
highlight of the week ::
Sushi night.
While I hated that I had to enjoy the sushi alone, I was pleased with the outcome and surprised at how easy it was to make. I always imagined it being a much more painstaking process. It was time consuming, but not difficult at all.
quote i’m digging ::
“I can’t take the Eucharist and not be cognizant of the fact that I belong to a universal community.
I can’t take the Eucharist and not be cognizant of the fact that my primary allegiance is to God and to faith in Christ.
I can’t do that and then allow myself to go out and have another allegiance claim ultimacy in my life.
That is profoundly threatening if you start to think through the implications of what that looks like for the Christian who lives anywhere in the world.â€
– Dr. Jeffrey C. Pugh referring to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology.
ministry-wise ::
Our group has decided to actively pursue a Laundry Love Project here in Red Oak. I’m excited about this! I hope its a great opportunity for our group to grow and serve those outside our normal walls.
I did some “site surveys” on Saturday and visited two local laundromats. The owners of the one laundromat we’ll likely use were very confused as to what we wanted to do.
Me: Hi, we’d like to see about scheduling a couple hours, once a month, where we come and pay for people to do their laundry. They come in, bring their laundry and we pay for it and provide laundry detergent for them.
Owner: I don’t understand.
Me: Well, we’ll bring several people and a bucket full of quarters. As people come in to do their laundry, we’ll fill the machines with quarters for them.
Owner: I’m still not sure I understand.
Me: We want to help people do their laundry – and pay for it – instead of them paying.
Elizabeth, laundromat customer: You can pay for my laundry!
I think the ultimate quandary for the laundromat owner was that he couldn’t understand why we would want to do this. I think he understood what we were wanting to do – just not why we’d want to.
As I talked to Elizabeth a bit longer, I found out that she spends $25 a week on laundry. Fifteen loads for her and her 3 kids. I can’t imagine!
Visiting the other laundromat, I talked with a guy who said that by himself he spends $7 – $10 a week on laundry.
I’m looking forward to seeing what comes of this initiative. If you’re interested in helping with your time or financially, please let me know.
looking forward to ::
Spending some time with Laurie this weekend to celebrate our anniversary. She’ll be out of town for most of our anniversary day so we’re planning to celebrate some time away on Friday and/or Saturday this week. Plus, we’re going to make our annual anniversary trip to Outback Steakhouse when she gets back in town Wednesday night. And… it’ll be all free thanks to credit card rewards!
Tuesday Briefs
The late Tuesday edition…
Seems I’m getting later and later with this each week. Before long we may have to call it the Wednesday briefs. But then if I keep it up we might make it full circle and get back to the Monday briefs eventually :-). I guess we can only hope.
I was trying to find the motivation to do this yesterday, as well as today but I guess writing about my week doesn’t seem near as interesting to me as it might to someone else. I’d much rather tell someone else’s story than my own.
highlight(s) of the week:
On Monday morning I took the day off of work and attending an adoption ceremony for my friends Todd and Monja’s new daughter. It was a small ceremony with candle’s lit in honor of those who made the day possible. Reminded me how valuable and important each and every person – and child – really are.
I was glad they invited us to attend and glad that I was able to take some time off of work to be there. It’s been a lot of fun getting to know Todd and Monja over the last year or so at encounter and even more so over the last six months or so as they’ve been a part of our Saturday night group. Their new daughter will be well taken care of and spoiled by the entire family I’m sure!
quote(s) i’m digging:
“People of faith claim to know the Artist but lack any compunction for protecting the artwork.”
“The closer we are walking with the Creator, the more beauty we will see in life.” – Michael Abbate’ in Gardening Eden
books i’m reading:
I’ve put The New Conspirators on hold for a bit while I try out some new books. Tom Sine’s book is great, its just taking me a long time to read for some reason. So I’m currently (as you might have guessed) reading Gardening Eden by Michael Abbate’. So far its great! Really enjoying what he’s saying and how he’s saying it. So far some great reasons for being good stewards of creation that I think any right-wing-republican-conservative-evangelical person should be able to agree with (or at least find very little to argue about) — it just makes sense.
job update:
Well, I was turned down for the job I applied for. It was a bit of a bummer but when they told me they really wanted someone with great copy editing skills and they told me one of the applicants had worked as a copy editor for 20 years at the local paper – I figured they made the best decision. I’ll be the first to admit that copy editing is not my forte’ or something I strive to excell in.
However, the good news is that they’re still really interested in bringing me on to their team and my current boss is still happy to see me advance in my career so they’re trying a few things to see if they can bring me on in a similar position as the one I applied for. It might be a few months down the road still, so I’m not expecting anything soon but if it happens – wonderful – if not, no biggie.
things you should be listening to:
Our last two podcasts (with Adele Sakler) have added some fuel for the fire of some (or so they think) but that’s OK. Don’t let them (or us) tell you what to think. Listen to the show and think for yourself. As Flobots say, “There’s a war going on for your mind – if you’re thinking – you’re winning.” Listen to Adele’s story, chew on it, think about how you typically respond, how you would want someone to respond to you and then how you think Jesus would respond. And then share your thougths with us and others.
things I’m looking forward to:
I don’t think I’ve read an entire book this whole year yet. Geeze! I’m looking forward to checking at least one off my list. Don’t know how much longer it will be – but I’ll be glad when it comes.
Tuesday Briefs
Completely forgot to post the Monday Briefs yesterday. Sorry about that! In it’s place, this week we bring you, “Tuesday Briefs.”
highlight(s) of the week ::
Wow! I’m not even sure I can remember what we did this last week. It seems like it just flew by. I think the highlights of the week were (again) just hanging out with people who I just really enjoy hanging out with.
Wednesday night is Laurie’s Bible study night at Northwest so I spent some time hanging out at Chick-Fil-A in Cedar Hill eating dinner and editing my novel (I’m about half-way through the first editing round). Afterwards I stopped by to see the Lehmanns and then Aaron and I got to hang out at White Rhino Coffee House.
Thursday night I skipped the gym and decided to rush home to meet Laurie for dinner (at Chick-Fil-A in Waxahachie) and enjoyed just getting to spend some time with her alone before we both rushed off our separate ways again.
Saturday was our regular community group night and we had a great time hanging out with our “small group” of us and the Kiefers.
And then again last night, we had fun hanging out with friends for Aiden’s birthday party.
quote i’m digging ::
“Salt me well brothers. Salt me well.” Balthasar Hübmaier before he was burned at the stake (via Homebrewed Christianity).
work update ::
I had a second interview for the job with the DCCCD Mar/Comm department today. This was a team/group interview and I felt like it went well. Hope they did too. I’m thinking this would be an ideal position for me but we’ll wait till Friday or Monday to see if they think so too.
freelance work ::
Finished part one of a slideshow presentation for coffeehousechurches.com. They’ve got some great resources over there so take some time and check them out.
gym/weight update ::
We’re doing the 20 mile Tour of Dallas bike ride this Saturday (April 4) from downtown Dallas to White Rock Lake. I’ll welcome your prayers :-).
looking forward to ::
Believe it or not (from the statement above) I’m looking forward to the bike ride this Saturday. It’ll be something fun to do with Laurie and Todd and I’ll be glad to say I completed it when we’re done. It’s just one step in hoping to do Hotter’N Hell this year or next.