This picture reflects A LOT of progress as it is a picture of my wife doing part of the installation of a ceiling fan in Ben’s room WITH ME.  The most significant part of that sentence is the “with me” too.

In truth, I have a lot of talents when it comes to home repair.  There are some things that I will not do, like get up on the roof, but things like plumbing, electrical, and construction are fine.  And I work and play well with others, meaning the kids.  We have built tons of stuff and repaired things too.  It is never a challenge with them, but if you want to test your relationship try doing any kind of project like that with your wife.  It can be a challenge.

But of course that is part of why we do things like this, because of the challenge.  We should be able to work together in these situations (which can be often difficult) AND, it is important to me that she and the kids know how to do these things too.  It costs a TON of money to have an electrician come in and put up a ceiling fan or rewire a switch.  It costs just the amount of the fan to do it yourself.

But the good news is that we made it through this project AND we did it TOGETHER.  AND…….we are still married too.

But the best news is that the fan and the light are working fine and Ben s quite pleased.  It is good for him to see us do this together successfully too.  It is so much better for him to share than something like “mom hit dad with a hammer right before they called the paramedics…….and the electrician.”

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yeah right……just like any other time, by the time you set dinner in front of a hungry child you are proving him to be either a liar or grossly misunderstood.  I am betting on the prior however as I have never seen him not eat at Panera.

But prior to our arrival, he WHINED about how he wanted to eat at the “country club” or the “Hibachi Grill” (and Supreme Buffet!).  But I was the evil giant who took him to meet his mom at Panera.  Granted, hundreds of children are tortured there with their kids meals and caffeine free soda, but it has never stopped us from taking him there as we love to torture him and we like the food.

AND he bemoaned the whole experience up until that very moment that his food arrived. And from then we stopped talking about it.  He ate a lot of chicken noodle soup, in which he LOVES to dip his bread, and his mom bought him a chocolate chip bagel (I wouldn’t have) because she is the mom.

So Ben ate all sorts of stuff and I choked down yet another stupid salad, which is better than normal at Panera.  And Amanda kept the peace.  It was not ideal, but it was dinner.  And with diet and bootcamp, I figure in about 30 years I will lose all the weight I want……..probably at my embalming.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Well among the many things I am pleased about today……I am back at bootcamp, there is a new Pope that I really like, and the snow is melting, I am also reminded that my youngest does love me, but he loves his mom more…….and yes, I am happy about that.

Tonight’s picture is from a couple of days ago.  He had a chair up against the wall in my office and wrote “I love you” (meaning his MOM) on it……then for some strange reason he also wrote “The factory of love.”  I am not sure what in the world that means, but I am pretty sure that whatever it is, I am not involved in it.  Any type of loving for a guy my age either requires my wife’s permission or my doctor’s.  In truth, it sounds like the title of a questionable movie, but all he watches as far as I know is “Ben 10” and “Transformers.”

But he thinks he is pretty cool, and I just let him go at it.  He is fun to watch and listen too and he is more full of bull than a cattle farm.  BUT he is my son, so I will keep him.  And although I was about to also say he is cheaper than cable, reality brought me to my senses.  He is however in a long-term contract with me and will be staying regardless the cost.

For now however he is downstairs with his mom and I am apparently not worthy enough to merit a visit.  Of course he goes to be in 15 more minutes and the closer we get to bedtime the more important I become!  (I am his regular delay for bedtime.)

But for now I will just be pleased with my day.  I am done and it is in the books as they say. But of course I do not say that……I was an athlete and books give me hives.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+ 

WOW….I left the house tonight and forgot my cell phone and I have to confess that it was DELIGHTFUL.  I didn’t feel tied to it, I didn’t look at it, and I knew it was waiting for me back at home (which it was).  I had about an hour of total freedom.

And this capped off a great night.  I am VERY tired as I got home very late last night after a long travel day.  I didn’t get a nap, nor did I get ANY rest, but I did drop Ben off and pick him up from school and he and I made dinner for his mom yet again.  This time he made his very own cheese pizza and I have to admit it was very good.  He told me that tonight I could be the waiter, but I had none of it.  But we had a great meal (I did not eat the pizza but tasted it….it was delicious) and a great night.

So tonight’s picture is of what we in the culinary world call “the presentation.”  If Chef “LITERALLY BOY” RD, wasn’t such a goober, perhaps the whole thing would look a bit better, but he is what he is, and his mom was happy to oblige.  He is only 5, but he is learning and he does a pretty good job.

Of course I wish I could confess that his whole night went well, but he actually got sent to bed an hour early for being a bit of a snake.  He was not happy, but then again neither was his mom, and IF I have a choice in who I am to please in conflicts such as these, he is clearly going to be disappointed every time…..as he was tonight.

But he needs to sleep.  He has been sick and is on antibiotics.  Even with tubes, he has an ear infection. But that did not hold back his culinary masterpiece.  Chef Ben is now asleep and his mom has been fed his pizza of the heart.  You would think I could get some traction out of this, but I would not bet on me.

I am just happy to survive the day!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yes, yet another gratuitous picture of our trip to West Virginia, as I have been gone all day to the far side of Illinois to take the Novitiate vows of Father John Hellrung at Grace Anglican Church in Edwardsville, Illinois.  I was too involved however to remember to take any pictures, so I had to use this one instead.  AND, this sleepy little monster is actually what I found in my bed and ON my pillows.  He told Amanda before bed that when daddy gets home if we did not want to move him that it would be okay…..that he would be “one happy boy.”  SO I may let him stay, but I have yet to make a firm decision.  If he were wearing the eye black tonight, I would most like let my fear of him guide my decision…..but he doesn’t look so tough tonight.

But the big thing is that it is great to be home.  Father PT and Deacon Jon Back traveled to Illinois with me.  It was a great privilege to be with Jon especially as next Sunday he will be ordained a priest here in Indiana.  So PT and I saw his last Sunday as a deacon and will be a part of his first Sunday as a priest.

And what made it even more special for me (in addition to that and the vows) was that 23 years ago TODAY I was ordained a priest.  I was just 6 years old at the time, but I have learned a lot through the years.  Father Kelly Irish delivered the sermon at that service, and we were once known as the “boy priests.”  Now of course we are known as those “two guys that ought to retire.” But at our age we rarely listen to good advice.

So it has been a busy and productive day, and a meaningful day as well.  What an honor it is to do what I do!!  It is a real blessing……..a real blessing just like coming home!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yes my bribe is this, a gratuitous picture of Ben and Steph (after her game last Sunday and her shower) with Ben wearing some of Steph’s eye black and carrying her old phone.  It hopefully will make up to my readers for my being behind.  I have been out of my routine coming from WV and heading right to Chicago.

In truth, nothing throws me off more than getting out of my routine…..I, in fact, hate it.  It seems as if it takes me days to catch up with things, and if you are a regular reader you can plainly see it also means reconnecting with stuff I have just plain forgotten.  And if there is any reason in all of this to be thankful I think it should be to be thankful I am not your doctor.  If I were, you just might be in trouble.

But alas, I am home and figuring it all out.  I was able to get my office all cleaned up and am prepared for tomorrow.  I hope there is nothing that I am forgetting in this apparently smooth running day, but I think it is Saturday, so I am sure Ben is not standing in the parking lot of school wondering where I am.  In fact, I saw Ben here not too long ago.  I also saw my wife, which makes me feel mildly in control of things.

Of course like many people in middle age, I can get confused sometimes, and when you add the stroke to it then I can make the most forgetful middle aged person look pretty sharp.  But I can only do what I can do, and it is what it is.  It was good to be at Anglican 1000 in Chicago this week, and although it put me in this little sanity delay, I think it was worth it.  It is far better however to be here at home.

One of the things I have learned over the years is that Dorothy was right, there really is no place like home, and being away makes returning even better.

I am just glad to be here, content, prepared for tomorrow and probably just plain old delusional as that never happens.  I am probably forgetting something!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Apparently I have become a “snow magnet.”  I thought it was odd that the trip to Chicago seemed so easy.  The roads were clear and the weather, although cloudy, seemed fine.  But growing up in the north, all I knew was that I was scheduled to come up to Chicago and that it was winter and that it snows in the north.

But as we got to the hotel and I watched the news I saw something for which I was ill prepared……people in the north using words like “ground zero” and worrying about how the area would handle it.

This is to say that we came to Chicago at probably the worst time of the year.  It snowed, and it snowed, and it snowed.  And then as I talked to Amanda I found that it was snowing there too……and when I say that, I mean it was snowing.  So our drive back will not look a thing like, or go as quickly as, the drive here.

But it is what it is I suppose.  I am blessed to be here among some of the most talented minds in terms of church planting I have ever known.  But even more than that I am blessed that the good Lord had me grow up in the north………sure it is Chicago, but after all it is only snow.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Tonight I am writing this in Chicago, Illinois where I am attending the annual Anglican 1000 Conference in Wheaton, Illinois.  It is an annual gathering surrounding the planting of Anglican Churches in North America.  It is always a fruitful time and I was pleased that this year we were far closer to home.

But of course I have already been traveling too much over the past week.  Visiting Steph was great, in fact a lot better for me than work.  And now I find myself without my family, a bit lonely, and really wishing I was home.  Don’t get me wrong, I think it is important to be here, but the timing for me just makes it hard.  I was home for less than 9 hours.

While I am here though I am able to test out my first real trip with my iPad.  It seems odd to me that I have this cutting edge technology, as I am really much more than technologically challenged.  I am a technological moron.  But…….I was able to see a few things when I plugged it in to charge as apparently pictures taken on it automatically transfer to my computer.

So what you see is evidence of BEN getting a hold of my iPad and taking some pictures, and t be very honest, it was just what I needed.  I will be home in a few days, and everything will be fine, but tonight I am thankful for my goofball son who took about 10 pictures of his lap with my new iPad just for me.  Or at least that’s what I would like to think……but either way, it made my day!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

Yes, the heck with everyone else…..this is a picture of ME and my daughter Stephanie today in West Virginia before she got on the team bus and headed back to Missouri.  We got to see her play in two games, one I posted about yesterday, and another today….both big wins.  They are currently undefeated, although none of these teams presented any significant challenge.

But I made a radical decision……take a picture with ME IN IT.  And although we are home and my hair will be cut in just a few minutes by my wife, I thought I would post this of Steph and me, my bad hair and all.  I have no regrets.

In fact, going to see her play was exactly why I gave up (I retired) from coaching high school women’s lacrosse.  You cannot be a high school Head Coach and take time off to travel to see your daughter play…..BUT I WANTED TO SEE HER.  So today I post the proof.

Thanks for the great weekend Steph, and although Amanda and Ben enjoyed seeing you, I want you to know I got the most out of it.  You are playing lacrosse at an extremely high level AND majoring in CHEMISTRY.   I can barely get out of bed in the morning and to even spell chemistry, I had to use spellcheck.   But thanks for being a great daughter!! You make me VERY PROUD!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+

As an ice hockey player, I cannot tell you how offended I was to see this picture……it seems like everyone wants to muscle in on our sport.  It looks almost like an ice rink from afar.  But this picture is actually from Phillipi, West Virginia and is the home field of Alderson-Broaddus College, and this picture in particular is of them playing the Lindenwood Lions, the NCAA Division II team my daughter plays for.  And yes, there she is in the middle.

But I couldn’t believe how much this looked like an ice rink from above (AND FAR AWAY).  The ABC field was “under construction” and there were NO SEATS and we were all forced to watch the game from the side of a muddy and snowy hill.  It was a mess, but the Lions got up 10 real quick to make it a running clock and the game then went far faster than it would have been.  (Although I am sure the other team felt like it went on forever!)

But it was great to see her and the team play.  Regular readers will know that being able to do this was one of the primary reasons I retired as a high school women’s lacrosse coach.  Steph has this year and next, and then maybe I will hop back into it again, but for now I am enjoying just being the dad!!  It is pretty cool, I do not have to yell at anyone!!  All the refs seem to like me again!

John Denver used to sing that it was almost heaven here, but I am sure he never stood in the middle of the mud and the snow just outside the scope of his vision.  I have, and I therefore believe that almost is a stretch.  But seeing Steph is what makes it worthwhile, and I can get that vision anywhere we see her.    And I am glad we did!

Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+