"Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power; might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of."
I forgot how much i love Speed Scrabble. Spent most of last night trying to remember the rules. Here's what we came up with...
1. Speed Scrabble is played with out the actual Scrabble board. It uses just the tiles.
2. Each player gets seven tiles (all tiles are placed facing down in the center of the table.)
3. One player says "Go" then each player turns over their seven tiles and tries to form words in front of them. (You will have your own scrabble layout in front of you) So say your letters are C T A F R O N So you could spell FRONT and then using the T spelling CAT (you can spell more then one word a turn, hence the speed part)
Here's the fun part
4. The first person to use all seven letters yells GO
5. Each person then grabs two more letters and continues to spell words on their own scrabble set up.
6. This continues until all letters are used once the last letter is used in a word the game suddenly stops. Everyone adds up their letters and subtracts any letters they have left over.
*tip sometimes the game will get stuck once that happens everyone verbally agrees to take two letters and the game continues. For additional tips wiki speed scrabble.
Not bad while driving??? Just kidding Lisa is I'm in the back keeping Abbie entertained.
So for my 701st post I simply say this... I'm on vacation and loving it. Headed to Pittsburgh with the family for the week and plan on eating lots of turkey and pie.
If you haven't found mint.com yet you need to. It's a practical place for financial education. This morning they have a great post on why someone should spend hundreds (maybe thousands) on a coffee maker. Here's how to justify the numbers...
Does it pay?
At my house we bought a Gaggia Synchrony Compact. Our preferred way to enjoy coffee is to express about 2-4oz of coffee and then add an ounce or less of milk or creamer to cut the acidity of the coffee. In Spain and Latin America, this is often called a cortado.
We paid $650 in 2005, so our beloved little robot just turned four. Over that time, this superautomatic has required very little maintenance and only weekly cleanings. It grinds and brews perfect cups of crema at the push of a button, and then cleans up after itself. After four years at an average of 5-6 cups per day, the machine itself has cost us less than 7 cents per cup.
Besides the coffee-maker, of course, you will be spending money on coffee beans. We use Peet’s Espresso Forte blend, which we buy fresh for $12.95 per pound. Using—believe it or not—the IRS’s estimate of 60 shots per pound, we’re paying a little more than 21 cents per cup. So for about two bits per cup, we’re enjoying the best coffee I’ve ever had anywhere in the world.
Compare that to about $1.45 for simple shot of espresso at Starbucks. If we invest the time in steaming some milk or adding a flavor, our investment only goes up by a penny or so. Compare that to Ruffel’s $4.27 venti mochas.
Here's the link to the rest of the article.
Last fathers day my wife surprised me with a great espresso machine that has proved to be worth it's weight in coffee. As far as our budget goes it's really helped us (by us i mean me) cut back on the monthly coffee expenditure.
"Tis not that I did choose Thee,
For Lord, that could not be;
This heart would still refuse Thee,
Hadst Thou not chosen me...
My heart owns none before Thee,
For Thy rich grace I thirst;
This knowing , if I love Thee,
Thou must have loved me first."
We're testing out some new ways to communicate to students via text messaging and facebook. If you want to keep up to date with our high school ministry text "fan impactmtp" to FBOOK (32665)
Ran across this quote again while doing some seminar prep for Regenerate 09.
"An hour of great discussion displays trust in our own ability to be culturally relevant. An hour of active leaning displays trust in learning styles. An hour of hot media displays trust in opinions about what teenagers will pay attention to. None of these approaches is bad in fact each is quite need. But if today's youth offerings are any indication of what we trust, a case could be made that we trust everything but the Word of God."
This is from a blog "Responsible Father" I recommend it to all dads. It's super practical and encouraging. Here's the post from today...
Tuesday Tip: Computer Prayer
10 11 2009
"Dads, do you find yourself praying with your kids and your wife and at church and in men’s group but never by yourself? Because you don’t have time? Try this.
You use a computer every day, right? I mean, you’re reading this.
So, everyday, the first time you get on a computer, the first thing you do once you get it on, open up a notepad file (or a Word file or Visual basic or power point or wherever you can type) and type out a prayer.
Do it every day. Confess things (we don’t do enough of that, Men, do we?). Praise God. Thank God. Ask for what is important like (wisdom and peace and salvation for your kids) and less important (that a child’s cough go away).
Don’t be afraid to repeat things. Focus on God while you type.
And then, when you’re done, just close the file without saving.
Typing out your prayer requires you to focus on what you’re praying about and prevents you from getting distracted. I recommend it."
This past Sunday I had an interesting experience as Lisa and I attended our normal service at church. Abbie (our daughter) is old enough to go to the nursery now so we headed down for our second experience with a great children's ministry. When we arrived at the room Lisa went in and decided to say with Abbie seeing how this is only her second time there and we really want her impression of the place to be a positive one. I hung out for awhile then headed up stairs as the service began.
After being stopped several times I got to the ministry center late and decided to instead of trying to scope out a seat hang out in the back. One of our leaders was working at the welcome desk so i talked with him briefly and then something interesting struck me. I was surrounded by teenagers. The worship service was in full swing. In the lobby there was a group of middle school girls at a table watching the service on the screen, A second group of guys were sitting on the stairs, another couple of teenagers wandered back and forth from the glass doors to the coffee table. What really struck me was i really didn't know most of these students. ( a few i have a great relationship with to be fair) Most of them had never darkened the door to a small group, a retreat, or even youth group. They just were there floating around the lobby as everyone else attended to their business.
Here's some questions i've been pondering about these "fringe kids"
Some thoughts I'm praying through this morning.
"O God thou has taught me that Christ has all fullness
and so all plenitude of the Spirit,
that all fullness I lack in myself is in him,
for his people, not for himself alone,
He having perfect knowledge, grace, righteousness,
To make me see,
To make me righteous,
To give me fullness;
That is my duty, out of a sense of emptiness
to go to Christ, possess, enjoy his fullness as mine,
as if I had it in myself, because it is for me in him
That when I do this I am full of the Spirit,
as a fish that has got from the shore to the sea
and has all fullness of waters to move in,
for when faith fills me, then i am full;
that is the way to be filled with the Spirit...
To this end, O God
Do thou establish me in Christ,
settle me, give me a being there,
assure me with certainty that all this is mine,
for this only will fill my heart with joy and peace. "
Yup she's that cute.