I spent a couple weeks with Rachel and her family last month. Joel was busy training new Army officers and my kids were enjoying time with their cousins. Meanwhile, I enjoyed beautiful East Tennessee.

My web site admin was broken while I was there so I didn’t write.

Here are a few posts by Rachel:
Our Shopping Trip - complete with silly photos.
Hiking at Frozen Head

Here are some photos she posted. Click the thumbnail to view an album.

Playing at Frozen Head

Frozen Head June 11 2008

Hiking at Frozen Head… Again

Rachel and I watched Baghdad ER - An HBO Documentary Film last month. As the name suggests, it’s an HBO documentary about a military emergency room in Baghdad, Iraq. It’s pretty graphic, has nudity and bad language… War is like that.

One of our guest lecturers in my military chaplaincy class was a chaplain who served in a Baghdad ER. His stories and photos were a lot more graphic than HBO… He spoke of telling a soldier he was going to die and letting him borrow his cell phone to call home… all while we looked at a photo of his fatal injury on the big screen in front of us.

The young men and women who work in these hospital see things humans weren’t meant to see… over and over and over.

They need chaplains.

HBO’s site: Baghdad ER

It’s that time again… time to post photos of a totally geeky project. I know you’re excited, aren’t you?

This idea kind of came from Unclutter.com. They used the same thing to organize computer cables and called it a card cable organizer.

Ahh… my phone and headset are charging together… How sweet.

Oh look, look… the cords aren’t getting lost on the floor under a pile of um… stuff.

Yeh… that stuff. It isn’t pretty.

There you have it my geeky friends. With some tape, a hole punch, scissors, and a plastic card, you too can be the proud owner of a delightfuly geeky charging station.

I recently mentioned my previous post explaining “How to wake up happy.”

The link and method have changed a bit so it’s time for a remix:

1. Download this free alarm clock software. [That's the old version at a random web site. The new version costs money... and is probably better. Right?]

2. Download some great wake up songs. Here are three I use:

First Song That I Sing by Sara Groves - Lyrics
It’s A Good Day by FFH - Lyrics
Thank You (Album Version) by 33 Miles - Lyrics

[I need four more songs. That way I can wake up to a different song each day. I got SOOO tired of the 33 miles song after waking up to it every morning for months on end. Do you have any suggestions?]

3. Set your alarm to play each of your wake up songs on a different day.

4. Wake up happy.

6:45 came earlier than it did yesterday morning. That might have something to do with how late I went to sleep… or maybe it’s some shift in the Earth’s rotation. I don’t know.

Also, someone tinkered with my radio alarm clock’s volume knob yesterday. I think maybe it reached a new decibel level… one that quite possibly shook the foundations of large buildings in St. Louis. I wouldn’t go up in the Arch anytime soon if I were you.

Anyway, the alarm went off. The music blared. I turned it down… then stayed in bed till 7. When I finally awoke, I postponed my oh-so-spiritual plans of doing devotions long enough to make my man lunch. Oh yeh, I’m rocking the good-wife thing today. Actually… well no. I must confess that while I made his ham and cheese wrap, I begrudgingly gave him one of my treasured Nina’s Tortillas [from Dumas, TX] and judged him for wanting processed cheese wrapped in plastic… which really tastes just like the cheese does. Also… I nagged him about bottled water.

But forget all of that. I woke up, made him lunch and kissed him goodbye. See: Good wife behavior.

Next I made a terrible error in my path to morning devotions. I sat down at my computer. Which means I checked my email, blogs, daily sites not worth reading… and started a research project… I do that sometimes… randomly.

My growling stomach caught my attention. I made a PBJ sandwich and a cup of coffee. [Using my Aeropress... you needed to know that]

Finally, I sat down in my ‘thinking chair’ and read Psalm 4 in Wood’s book. Meanwhile, Jeremiah woke up. I convinced him that he needed to read his Bible or a devotional and journal before playing video games. See… I’m rocking the good-mom thing too. He seemed a little suspicious of seven year olds having to journal in the morning. But I convinced him that it’s a fantabulous idea. I asked him, can you be the world’s strongest man by exercising once a week? No. OK then, you can’t become an awesome man of God by only reading your Bible on Sundays. This line of reasoning worked perfectly. I also convinced him that all the cool guys in my school wish they would have started journaling when they were seven. Surely that’s true… right? Don’t you wish you had notebooks filled with weather reports, pictures of airplanes and overly erased, carefully written explanations of what God was teaching you in the second grade. Of course you do.

The journal goes like this:

Date on top corner of page.
Room to draw a relevant picture.
Topic of reading or scripture reference.
What Jeremiah learned.
How he will put it in practice today.

If it works out, we’ll put some of his writing on his website. JeremiahMaxwell.com - Newly redesigned.
—
Ok back to my morning. I came back to my computer once again and read a sweet comment from Beth. Then Rachel called. Yay!

She shared what she had read in the Bible today which cut right through me. She asked me some hard questions too. I love her. Everyone needs a friend like that. It’s occasionally painful, but always helpful. Thanks, Rach!

Oh, and then we prayed together. I love that too. I used to be uncomfortable with phone prayers. Back in high school, I called my youth leader when a friend died. She prayed with me on the phone… I thought that a little odd. When our restaurant closed, I quickly figured out which friends would pray with me when I called them… I then called them A LOT. Having gained a new appreciation for phone prayers, I still didn’t think it was something I myself would be practicing. No reason really… well except for the self-consciousness of it all. [And maybe the worry that possibly the phone call was being recorded for quality assurance purposes.]

Also this morning: The ESV Bible Blog linked to some helpful info on memorizing large chunks of scripture. Which is… well helpful. I’ve been wanting to do that. I spent so much time memorizing poetry in high school, maybe I should spend some time memorizing the Bible now.

And there we go… that brings us to this point in my day. Surely it’s time for lunch by now.

While Joel was deployed, I normally woke up at 4 a.m. to do homework. I’d have breakfast and write a paper or study until around 6:30 a.m. then I’d take a nap. I’d wake up 45 minutes later and get the kids ready for school.

I got a lot done before the sun came up each morning. If I didn’t set an alarm, I’d still wake up by 5:30.

With Joel home and my years of sleep deprivation finally catching up with me, I started sleeping in. When we moved to the new house with it’s terribly dark bedroom I really slept late. Apparently, this isn’t good for me. I can’t get anything done if I wake up after 9 or 10. I start the day feeling defeated and I finish the day having proven that true.

I’ve gotten so much done today! I’ve unpacked so many boxes. I finally know where all of my bathroom stuff is, where all the cleaning supplies are, I found the alarm clock, the dvd player, playdough and my Army boots.

I plugged that alarm clock in right away and set the alarm to 6:45. I’m going to get up tomorrow too, I like this productive not-hating-myself thing.

When are you most productive? What helps you get things done?

I’ve had a good morning. My alarm went off at 6:45 playing FFH - It’s A Good Day. My new song in the How to Wake Up Happy plan.

I went out into the freshly mowed backyard and called a friend. We like to start our mornings by praying together. Ideally that would be by meeting in person over a breakfast burrito… life isn’t always ideal, but mobile to mobile minutes are free.

After praying, I made a cup of coffee and sat at the dining room table to read. I started with Psalm 3 in George Wood’s book, A Psalm in Your Heart. Next I enjoyed a chapter in Eugene H. Peterson’s Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity. For all of my complaints about The Message being confused with scripture, I really do enjoy Peterson’s writing.

After reading a while, I unpacked a few boxes, made the kids some kickball bases out of cabinet liners, talked to Rachel on the phone for a bit and finally started making breakfast.

Mmmm… breakfast… actually I guess it’s brunch. That’s OK, I’m having huevos rancheros typically served as a mid-morning meal. [So says wikipedia.] Lightly toasted corn tortillas, sautéd onions, peppers and black beans. Fried eggs, fresh salsa and as a lactose-free bonus: Kraft sharp cheddar and Sour Supreme. [A surprisingly good milk free sour cream.]

I’m going to go enjoy my brunch while listening to a great CD which will hopefully drown out my offspring’s bad attitudes.