Family Time

Recently, I heard about a call that came in to Dr. Laura. The call was from a man that was disappointed that his kids watched TV all the time even during dinner time some times.  She gave him a horrible answer (in my opinion) but that is beside the point.

It occurred to me how happy I am that my babies don’t talk, they’re furry, little, and obedient.  How interesting that animals (all four of mine are hanging out with me in the living room) want to be with their owners more than kids do with their parents.

Is it the kids? Is it the parents? I wonder how much time that dad spends with his kids…not scolding, not harping on them, … just being with them.

What a huge responsibility that I wouldn’t want to have failed in.

A New RV

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks. They almost seem like a blur.  Two weeks ago, we were in a 29’ TIOGA RV (class C). We thought we’d save money by buying used from a rental company. Unfortunately, while what they told us about the chassis lasting up to 200K miles is true, they neglected to inform us that the boxes (the part we live in) take a beating with the miles. At a lower number of miles, the joints and seams begin to loose integrity and then you have leaks….and leaks we had.

Those of you in California know that we are experiencing incredible amounts of rain and that we aren’t used to the rain. Because of the leaks we had mildew in the air, in our clothes, and I believe in our systems (we continued to have sinus headaches). In addition, the RV was so small that only one person could walk down the hall from one end of the RV to the other. This was incredibly frustrating especially, when this is the way one plans to live (if only for a short time). One day Steve went out looking at RVs. I expected him to want to upgrade to another rig of the same class with sliders (these make the rooms bigger by 12 to 18 inches). Instead, he took me to look at class A RV.

So…we’ve gone from leaks, mildew smell in the air and in our clothes, no heat, to a rig that is rain worthy (as opposed to sea worthy…that’s a little humor). The heat works and…if we run out of LP gas (which we shouldn’t because that monitor works) we can switch to electric! Warm and dry, ahhhhh! J

A couple of Sundays ago, we had four men and two women in here for dinner and a Bible study and we weren’t crowded at all.

Retirement…sort of

It’s been three weeks now in retirement. My last day was Friday, February 18, 2005. Unlike Steve, it didn’t take me any time whatsoever to relax into my new life. I have things I have to do to get ready to leave but I am able to spend time in the Bible, praying, and taking care of things that were never done because I had to work full time.

I thought for a few weeks that I may be experiencing some Diabetic symptoms namely, incredible thirst, blurring vision, and one day at lunch the feeling of being drunk. It may also be stress. One night, I awoke with a chest that felt like my heart was going to explode and unable to have a coherent thought.

I’ve gone to the doctor, since it runs in my family (along with heart disease), and because of my age, the doctor is going to run blood tests. When I told her about the stress level at work, she thought that my symptoms were possibly induced by the stress.

I am so glad to be done with work. I wanted so badly to leave the desk with nothing for the new person to do but go forward. Unfortunately, while what I did is not difficult, it is much and tedious. We still had a few things undone when I left and that was my stress.  I wanted to leave my boss and team in a good way.

I’m doing a lot of walking (with Buddy and Milo). I’m doing a lot of reading. I’m cooking breakfast, lunch, and dinner, except when someone wants to go out to dinner with us. 

I had Sushi!...Twice!  I love it.  The octopus is a little sinewy but I like it.  Steve had Beef Teriyaki (he’s so bold! J).

Recently, one of the things we have been striving to do is to take the plain read of scripture sans the hocus-pocus, mumbo-jumbo acrobatics that passes for modern day hermeneutics  and then obey it. This sounds so simple and so obvious that it astounds us how few Christians actually do it, including ourselves. Numerous examples could be offered to illustrate the above mentioned truth but perhaps that will have to wait for another day.

Currently, we are wrestling with Jesus’ words found in Luke 14:33 which says, “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” We have read this passage many times and we’ve even heard pastors “expound” upon it. But have we obeyed it? We have looked up the definition of the word forsake and it means pretty much what you would expect it to mean specifically to “say adieu, to renounce, bid farewell, take leave, and send away.”

So what are we to do with this verse? The importance of obeying it is abundantly clear for all those who desire to be a disciple of Christ. For without obedience to this verse discipleship is impossible (Jesus specifically says … he cannot be My disciple). But, we love our ‘stuff.’ We work hard to be able to buy it; and what we can’t purchase outright we finance on the credit card. Is Jesus really asking us to bid farewell to all of the things we’ve worked so hard to obtain? Could Jesus really mean what He’s saying here? If we apply our man-made hermeneutical interpretive principals to this passage, I am sure we can find a way out. Perhaps with a little massaging, we can conclude that what Jesus is really saying is that as long as we are willing to forsake all; that is all that is required. Thus, we maintain a firm grasp on all of our precious possessions.

Ultimately, we will all one day stand before our God and Judge to answer for every choice that we’ve made.

Hence, the dilemma. To spend our money to build our castle when we ought to be about building God’s kingdom is not an option we would really want to consider. But this still leaves us with many choices. Should we buy a little home and keep the payment as low as possible to afford us the most time to minister to others? Or, perhaps we should give away our money to one less fortunate and rent a small property? Or, even give everything away and live in the streets. I (Yvonne) personally hope it’s not the streets but, His will be done and not mine. Whatever the answer is, it can only come as we genuinely die to ourselves and are led by the Holy Spirit, this much is for sure.

Well, Monday ended in with an interesting surprise. When we lived in our house, we had a kennel that Steve built in the garage. The boys could go in and out of the garage at will. Food, water, and beds were inside, in the cool (during summer) or warmth (during winter)…and if they needed to; they could ‘go’ outside.

Since selling the house and moving into the RV, we have had to go out on regular walks. The park rules are such that you cannot leave a dog outside unattended (that’s not a very good idea anyway). So, the boys have to wait for us to get home to do their thing. Except that Monday, one of them couldn’t wait.

Fortunately, Steve is a little compulsive about some things, like covering the coaches. That means we could clean the cover off, throw it in the wash and voila; no mess, stain, OR STINK!

That took care of the immediate issue…but we were left with what to do about our long days. Steve has until the end of January to complete his commitment to work and I have until mid-February. I planned to come home at lunch and let them out for a little while and coming home a little early. Saturday we will check a couple of doggy day-care facilities. Then, we’ll be the yuppie family taking our babies to day-care like the rest of LA. I wonder if I should pack them a lunch, snack, and change of clothes. Maybe not the clothes (although Milo does own a couple of really cool sweaters).

Steve is wrestling with a difficult verse in the Bible that has huge implications on our lives but that is for the next entry.

We had a fun day yesterday. We played tourist. We went to Los Angeles to the California Science Center to see the Body Works Exhibition. The exhibit is a collection of real human bodies that have been processed and preserved with plastic. To quote the brochure, “Body Worlds is unlike any exhibition that has every come before. It’s anatomy, physiology and human health. The exhibit explores the very essence of bodily performance at a depth never before possible on such a comprehensive scale. Thanks to the breakthrough process of plastination, more than 200 real human specimens are displayed to reveal the complexity and elegance of the nature inside. Explore the wonders of the authentic brain that guides us, the organs and muscles that propel us, the skeleton that supports us. See how disease develops and learn how lifestyle choices affect good healthy and well-being."

Ususally, this is reserved for medical students, researchers, and professionals but, for a limited time it was open to the general public.

I have added some pictures that I took off the net. They are really small but, you may find some on the bodyworlds site. I didn’t go there. The address if you are interested is www. Californiasciencecenter.org, or www.bodyworlds.com. Check it out!

It occured to me that I didn't mention Steve's contribution to getting the RV repaired. After the RV handyman left, he got up on the roof and sealed all the seams and made sure that we would be dry in the coming rain. What a great husband. He is so smart and so handy.

I love you, Steve!