New Toys

The day after Christmas we went to see family and exchange some gifts.  Not surprisingly, the kids got some new toys and wasted no time trying them out!

An Exposition of James

I have translated, studied, taught, and preached my way through the book of James, and along the way I've written a commentary on it.  If you're interested, you can download it as a PDF file from my website.  But I've also decided to self-publish it as a book, and so now you can buy a copy of the book for yourself, if you're the type who prefers good old-fashioned paper books.  I published through Lulu.com, who can print on demand.  If you order a book, then they print one, just for you.

The book is a very typical-looking book.  The paper is decent quality.  It's soft cover.  The binding is just like a normal book.  I am very pleased with how it turned out.  The cost to print is around $6.  I added no markup (no profit).  The cost for shipping and taxes is about $4.  So you can have a 226 page commentary on James for about $10.

If you want, you can order it from my (very simple) page on Lulu.

This commentary would be useful to anyone who is looking to study James for themselves or preparing to teach a class; it's also good for seminary students who are looking to try and translate the book of James for themselves.

If you get a copy, let me know what you think!

Photo for Book Cover

Yesterday I finally finished my book, a commentary on the book of James.  As part of the cover, I had to submit a small photo, which I took myself.  Here's how it turned out:



If you're interested in the book, it might be a couple weeks.  I ordered a proof copy for myself; if it turns out, I'll open it up to whomever.

Christmas Gifts (Part 3)

This year we got the kids one big gift, a 15 foot trampoline.  It's huge.  I had planned to assemble the thing in our garage, but it was way too big for that.  It took 2 hours to put together and required the help of a couple guys in the neighborhood.



Perhaps the biggest challenge was our yard:  It slopes downhill.  We had to dig out a couple spots to level the trampoline.  But it's a blast.  And a good workout, too!

Christmas Gifts (Part 2)

Emilee bought her own iPod Touch earlier this year, so Jacen thoughtfully gave her an iTunes card to buy more games.  Her first pick?  Plants vs Zombies!

Christmas Gifts (Part 1)

We spent a nice day together as a family for Christmas this year.  We began the day opening some gifts.  One of Jacen's was Season 3 of the Clone Wars cartoons.

Gingerbread House

Another Christmas tradition at our house is making gingerbread houses.  This one was my favorite this year; I liked the blue decorations on the tree in the yard:

Under the tree

One day I discovered an unexpected "present" under the Christmas tree.



We never did figure out why she crawled under there with all the presents.  Maybe she was looking to see if she had any for her?

Decorating for Christmas

Just after Thanksgiving, we began to decorate the house for Christmas.  Following the tradition of my parents, most of our Christmas tree decorations are small, and many have some connection to something we've done or somewhere we've been.

Thanksgiving

I had been serving as the Interim Pastor at a church, and right at the 6 month point they hired a Pastor.  The timing was wonderful, because I finished the week before Thanksgiving, which allowed me to spend a lot more time with my family over the holidays.  Ann, unsurprisingly, was amazing.  We had turkey, dressing, potatoes, green beens, and cranberries--all delicious!

Delicious smells filled the house the moment Ann and Emmy started sautéing the onions and celery.



Ann grew up on cornbread dressing; I grew up on oyster stuffing, which she stuffs in the turkey.  She makes both for Thanksgiving; my wife is amazing!  And it's really good.



Ann's fine china hasn't seen much action the last few years, so it was good to bring it out to host our friends, the Parks family.

Fishing

While in Illinois we did some fishing in the ponds on the Meyer farm.  We caught a mess of bluegill and small bass, and Emmy even got a crappie.  Fishing from the shore of a small pond on a nice day is one of my favorite ways to fish, especially when the kids are catching them, too.

Target Practice

While in Illinois, Jacen and I also took a bit of target practice with shotguns.  I used a 12 gauge and he a 20 gauge.  I think it kicked more than he was expecting.  ;-)

Target Practice

I own a couple guns, but we don't have many opportunities to use them around here.  So when we when to see my grandmother in October, we took them along.  After some instruction in gun safety, everyone took a turn firing the revolver.









And some times we even hit what we shot at.

Galatians 5

I've finished my translation and interpretation of Galatians 5, which you can download as a PDF file from my NT page.