I've been thinking about this for awhile; just haven't got to the place where my thoughts are organized enough to really put it into words. I still haven't, but decided that maybe I should just start writing and see what happens.I know some really incredible people; people that are so willing to go beyond what most people do in order to help those that are so much less fortunate than most--especially when it comes to kids. At my church there is a family that is in the final stages of adopting their fourth child from China. You can read about...
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Twenty-four hours later and not a single nomination for "The Last Remaining Honorable Politician."Either nobody read my post (likely) or nobody knows of an honorable politician (equally as likely). In either case, I offer a humorous respite from the political madness that is going on in the capitol of our economically troubled nation. This was posted to my Facebook wall by my cousin from Down Under:A cannibal was walking through the jungle and came upon a restaurant operated by a fellow cannibal.Feeling somewhat hungry, he sat down and looked...
Saturday, 23 July 2011
You know that I try to avoid political posts, but lately I've found myself being drawn into the political cesspool surrounding the issue of raising the national debt ceiling ... and I hate it.I hate it because it takes a relatively simple issue and creates a hugely polarizing debate. Why wasn't it an issue the seven times a Republican dominated Congress voted to raise it during the Bush Administration? For the same reasons that it shouldn't be now.The problem is that Congress continues to approve spending money that it doesn't have. In every Administration,...
Friday, 22 July 2011
It's been 17 days since I started my latest weight loss quest. I was at 261.4 pounds (how did lbs. get to be the abbreviation for for pounds?), the heaviest I've ever been. I am a little bit behind my set goals, but not too bad. I am really considering skipping the scheduled "cheat days" each week. I realize that there is a benefit to having these days, but for right now they seem to be more of an anchor than a help. I suppose that I could be less indulgent on cheat days, but what's the point in having a day to indulge if...
Sunday, 17 July 2011
As always, I love being at Hopedale Baptist Church on any given Sunday. Today was no different. I want to share a few observations from this morning.First of all, I slept in a little later than normal on a Sunday morning with the plan that I was going to skip the early service and only go for Bible Study and the later service (I'm usually at both services).The GoodArriving at church for Sunday School, I was pleased to see that there were some new faces in the youth group. This small group continues to grow in both number and spiritual...
Saturday, 16 July 2011
I was extremely proud of our youth kids this past week as they took time from their summer evenings to go help a small church with Vacation Bible School (VBS). Because of work and teaching a class at church on Wednesday night, I was only able to go Monday and Thursday nights. I think that there was 15 or more youth kids every night.It would have been pretty easy to make excuses after the first night ... there were more of our youth kids than there were VBS kids! In fact, that was the case every night! Our kids did pretty...
Sunday, 10 July 2011
In his sermon this morning, Pastor Terry was talking about the people that had been with Paul and supported him throughout his ministry. Paul names some of them at the end of his Letter to the Colossians. Pastor Terry mentioned some of the people that have been there to encourage and support him throughout his ministry and went on to describe the ways that the people mentioned in this chapter supported Paul. Even before he came to the part where he asked us to reflect on the people that are our "unsung heroes" and have quietly encouraged, inspired...
Friday, 8 July 2011
Okay, so that's an incredibly long title for a post. So what?Along with a couple of other guys from church, I've been putting off getting started with a small accountability group. You know how it is ... summer is busy for all of us and trying to find a time for four guys to meet on a regular basis is difficult (especially when one of them works the crazy hours that I do!).One of the first things that we'll have to do is set some guidelines. The main thing has to be confidentiality. Everybody is going to have to trust one another if...
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
If you've been reading Out of My Hat since its beginning, you've read more than one post about how much I love my family. In spite of the miles that now separate us, the differences in religious beliefs, the extreme political differences, the healthful life practices and the not so healthful ones, we are family!I've always felt that we have been unusually blessed in this area. I can't explain why God has favored us, but I definitely believe...
Sunday, 3 July 2011
It's a quiet Sunday morning and I'm enjoying a cup of coffee while Hannah and Chris continue sleeping. I've been reading a few blogs, FB posts, managed a short chat with my cousin Down Under (as she was ending the Sunday that I'm just beginning!), and made a decision that I want to share.One of the blogs I read is Billions of Versions of Normal. Mike blogs daily and always has something interesting to share. This morning's post shared a letter to the editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I found it online and was going to share...
Saturday, 2 July 2011
I wanted to take a few minutes this morning to write a short post since we'll be doing the Holiday thing with family over the weekend. My family has two birthdays to celebrate on the Fourth of July: my dad's, and our country's. (The latter is a little older than the former.)So before anything else is said -- Happy Birthday, Dad!As for celebrating the Independence Day part of the Fourth ...I enjoy watching a good professional fireworks display. I also enjoy an evening with friends or family and watching the fireworks that people have...
Friday, 1 July 2011
I'm not talking about ads for my blog, I'm talking about ads on my blog.I get solicitations for running ads weekly when I get my updates from Lijit and ads are also available through Google. These ads would run on the sides of the normal blog body and be generated based on a number of factors that I have only limited control over. It's like having a bill board on the side of my blog. Bloggers get paid for this service based on the number of times readers "click" on the ads displayed on their pages.I know that a number of blogs that...
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