My Life, an Update

A few items:

Parchment and Pen: One Year Later
It has been one year (give or take) since I started the Parchment and Pen blog. Many people said “Don’t do it!” It will eat up your time. They were certainly right; It does eat up a lot of time. But I think that it has been worth it. Blogs are odd. It is a scary thing to put yourself out in the public in such a way. Sometimes you say to yourself “Why did I hit publish.” For compulsive personalities like me, blogs are dangerous. Nevertheless, when at their best, there are not many better ways of communication. Special thanks to Michael Spencer for all his support. I am not sure we would have the audience we do without him.

To all our readers: Thank you.

My Mother
I have not given much of an update on mom recently. I guess that it is one of those things that may come across as pouting, and I don’t want it to be seen as such. Mom is still the same. Two years after the stroke (this month—can you believe it has been so long?) she still can’t really speak, no walking, and has the mentality of a 5 year old at 58 (at least it seems that way most of the time).

Since she is too young to get the financial assistance for a nursing home, we divide the time between me and my sisters. That is why I moved here in Oct. I spend Fridays with her. It is “my day.” It is not really, as of yet, a burden. I enjoy spending time with her and my sister. We go to Old School Bagel in Okla City EVERY Friday at 1pm. (If you are in town, come by and see us. We sit at the booth.)

Dad is bad, but that is just dad. He needs to get mom in a nursing home, but he will still not accept this. He would have to sell his house and change his way of living in order to afford it. He won’t. Mainly he is just in denial. I don’t blame him, but I am hard on him about it. He will not listen. Hence, all of our backs are out and getting worse. Mom has gained a lot of weight. She is hard to lift and it is awkward trying to get her to the bathroom. Kristie, my sister, was rolling her down the road in the wheel chair today and my mother’s coat got caught in the chair. They were going down a hill very fast and the wheels stopped and my mother went flying out. She is OK, but my sister has cried all day about it. Sigh…

Reclaiming the Mind Ministries
We sent out a plea last week for support for Reclaiming the Mind Ministries. The response was incredible. We made up our dept in one week. This puts me in a better mood. My wife is relieved, although I have learned to keep most financial stuff to myself.Â

RMM has been incorporated for two years now and I have yet to miss a payday….well, completely miss. Thank you all much for contributing. It is hard being in a ministry such as this, but I am really learning about how the Lord works—slowly, but faithfully.

I started teaching this week at Crossings Community Church. What a great group of people. I think I scared them, but hopefully in a good way. I think I scare everyone at first. The first class of Introduction to Theology is scary, but that is another story.

The Theology Program is expanding into many more churches. Our biggest problem, if you want to think of it this way, is how to moderate the growth. Rhome spends most of his time dealing with other churches, while I am the wild-eyed visionary that has 12 new ideas a week. We consider .05 of them. Buggers. (Oh, and “Buggers” is my new word).

Personal odds and ends:

• I think I love the Lord more this week than last. I hope. I sure have been talking with him a lot.
• I drink one of those Starbucks bottled coffees each day. My daughters love them. They are supposed to be able to get one every Friday for rewards for doing their chores WITHOUT BEING TOLD. They have not achieved this goal yet. I usually give in as Kristie serves as their advocate.
• We are all obsessed with American Idol around here. We talk about it every Friday over bagels. Me, my wife, and my two sisters all think Michael …. Something (can’t remember his last name—from Australia) should win, but that other guy Whatshisname that sang Billy Jean was awesome last week.
• Connection Gate, our online communications program, is due out in the next couple of months. We will see.
• Let me see if I can get some recent pics of the family.

Ok, here are the most recent pics of all of my kids:

Katelynn (8 years old), by first daughter and her dog Muffin.

Will (4 years old), my first son.

And finally, Zach (1 year old), my second son.

That covers it.

One more thing. Considering my obsession with super heroes, I could not resist.

I thought that this was supposed to be secret?