Invite

Anyone who happens to be around Sioux Falls this Sunday morning is invited to come check out Mercy Church. I'll be speaking at our traditional service at 8:00 and our contemporary/emerging service at 10:45. It's been awhile since I've done a sermon, so a few friendly faces would be quite welcome.

Wasn't daylight savings time last week?

DST may have been last week, but I lost my sleep this week instead. We've been really fortunate with our neighbors since we moved to Sioux Falls who have always been courteous and easygoing. But, in both places we've lived (both duplexes) they have had the habit of going out on Saturday night and coming home in the wee small hours.

In our first place, Alyssa's room was right above ours, so when she came home late, we'd hear her overhead getting ready for bed, stumbling around or (just once) having a shouting match with someone. It's been a little better in our current residence with the exception being that Brady and Tamra's garage door opener is right below our bed.

Last night at 1:42, the garage door opened and startled us out of a deep sleep. I actually drifted off again very quickly, until the garage door closed. I stayed in bed, awake, for the next half hour before getting up to get a drink and read a bit. I finally went back to bed about 3:15 and was asleep soon after and am having a bit of trouble getting going this morning.

Ironically, DST really didn't effect my sleep patterns or feeling of rest, but this may be my week to adjust to a lost hour of sleep.

Dad would be proud (I think)

Every once in awhile we will have some merchandise at work that shows up in the break room that employees can bid on for the chance to take it home. Items can range from blemished clothing to gift lodge items and usually sit there for a week or so before bidding ends.

I headed to the break room the other day and there was a print from Terry Redlin (South Dakota's most renowned "artist") up for bidding. Deb asked the question, "What's wrong with it?" to which I responded, "What's wrong with it is that it's a Redlin." Thankfully, Deb and I have had conversations about movies, culture and the performing arts before, so I knew I didn't really need to put the filter on. She argued the "artist giving the people what they want in order to make a living" angle and I argued the "artistic integrity thrown away in order to cash in by creating cheap, pop-art crap" angle.

It was fun and I finally got to vent about one of the gift lodge's cash cows in a way that I have refrained from doing since starting at Scheels.

A bit ironic

Yesterday our temps finally broke free making for a beautiful spring day in the 50's. The fact that it coincided with a day off of work should have been the perfect recipe for a ride. Alas, it was not to be.

With Xander's school musical yesterday morning and Amy's role as make-up artist, Maia and I got to hang out for the day. While we had a good time, it did derail any plans that I might have had for a ride.

Ironically, we went outside and Maia rode her bike for a little bit before we went to pick Xander up from school. When we got home, Xander and I went out and played some catch before he decided to ride his bike for a bit. Perfectionist that he is, we're still working on getting him off of the training wheels. With the training wheels, he's unstoppable, but the second we take one off he gets gun shy and rides so slowly that he can't help but tip over. We'll get there or it will be a long summer with the neighbor boys wanting to ride and Xander retreating into the house.

So, for the first time ever, my kids rode more miles than I did for the day.

All work and no play...

I am exhausted. Today is my day off after nine days in a row at the store and I've decided I'm doing absolutely nothing until rehearsal tonight. I'm finding it a little hard to follow through on doing nothing though. I seem to have such little free time lately that I feel the need to squeeze everything I can out of what little time there is.

Things that I'm having a hard time not doing today include preparing for my March 30 sermon and filling out a doctrinal questionnaire from the Christian & Missionary Alliance for the denomination's ministry licensing process that I kicked into high gear last week. Both are things that are very important to me. Both are things that I will need to devote time to in the near future. Both are things that I need to refrain from doing today so that I can get some rest.

I will get a bit more rest this weekend as we go to visit Mom and Dad's tomorrow night and Saturday. This will be the first time we've had a chance to get over there since they finished converting the chicken coup into an art studio. The photos I've seen look fantastic and I can't wait to take in the finished product. We'll hang out, rest and come home in time to get a good night's sleep (minus daylight savings time) before church on Sunday.

Speaking of, worship at Mercy has been going really well lately. I think I'm finally starting to push into some of the areas that Shelby's been pushing me toward over the last year. We had coffee this morning and agree that two of the last three weeks have been Sundays where the power of the Holy Spirit has been evident and we have engaged as a worshipping community. Now, Shel hinted that while he's pleased, I've really only reached the "moderate" end of the scale as far as charismatic worship goes. I'm very encouraged that things are progressing and I'm growing. I'm also trusting that God will bring about the changes necessary for me to reach my full potential as a worship leader for the community at Mercy Church.