apologies

apologies i haven't been very diligent with updating this thing. i know you don't really care, but i feel badly anyhow.

here is the latest news from the shillington house:

1. i've been ordained. you must now refer to me as "reverend shillington."


2. we're having a baby. july 23 is the due date and it is a boy.


3. we had an awesome vacation in Florida in March visiting family and missing two feet of snow in one day at home. ha!


4. I am currently seeking a full time pastoral ministry opportunity. enjoy this pic.

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disciplines

i almost shut this thing down. i haven't had much in the way of motivation to write. my apologies to those of you who have been looking for updates into our lives. here's a quick summary of what's going on right now:

- gabe took his first steps. we are having a blast watching him grow. he's such a toddler now.
- i went with garry to the 2007 international rock paper scissors tournament in toronto. we both went out in the first round, but our friend nathan made it all the way to the top 16 (out of about 500). we had a blast cheering him on and living vicariously through his victory. pictures are here.
- karen has finished her maternity leave and is in full swing teaching grade one again. she is commuting to belleville (about 45-50 minutes) and is not really enjoying being away from gabe.
- i quit roofing to stay home to take care of gabe. i do not miss roofing. i do enjoy spending my days with the boy. i am still working part-time at rustle.
- the band i'm playing in had our first gig this past friday night. it was a blast and there was a good crowd. hope they enjoyed it!
- my cd is almost finished. about time! i'll let you know more when i know more.

i'm struggling to get back into some kind of spiritual discipline habit. it's tough. i'm going to try two things: 1) reading scripture, although instead of just reading a bit every day with no rhyme nor reason and getting bored i am going to try sticking with one book for a while. reading a bit at a time, sometimes a verse, sometimes the whole book, sometimes a commentary, sometimes some study into it. i find i enjoy understanding how context helps with understanding. i enjoy seeing ideas fit together in helping me understand God and life. i am hoping this approach helps breathe some life into a discipline that at times has been very dry for me. 2) i am going to try to journal my thoughts through this process here, at least 2 or 3 times a week. this will help me process my thoughts by the effort of putting them into sentences and paragraphs, and hopefully be a beneficial discipline. you are invited to help keep me accountable to this by reminding me if i haven't posted in a week or more.

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update

1) i have some amazing friends that helped me finish the patio. huzzah! thank you each one...seriously, i was getting pretty tired of working on it and your encouragement and help really helped finish it off.

2) i worked my last day as a roofer wednesday. i have been looking forward to this day for a long time. it was a little sad saying goodbye to a guy i've worked with for almost two years though.

3) next week i go on holidays for two weeks. we are going camping, then visiting karen's family for a few days, then hanging out at home. i am in dire need of some rest as i am feeling drained.

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exhausted

today was the day. we were going to finish the patio. it's been hanging over my head for too long, i need to finish this thing. karen arranged for mady to come watch gabe so we could work on it together.

then life happened. we decided to go to some gospel concert at john wesley's green acres last night to visit with my aunt and uncle that were up from pennsylvania visiting my grandfather. we didn't get home till after 12. then they wanted to go to breakfast this morning to visit before they left. we didn't get to the patio till 11. i spent an hour taking the cement saw i borrowed from my boss apart after the pull cord snapped and the spring uncoiled. finally after much struggling my nerves were about as fragile as the pull cord but i had it together and running. of course it wouldn't end there. it's not running well, so it won't cut the stones very well. i tried laying a stone or two, but my nerves couldn't handle the fiddling around that's required to get it right. the lack of sleep got to me and i had no patience left. plus it was about to rain.

karen and i moved most of our pile of dirt into the garden and called it a day. we spent the rest of it shopping for plants that will hopefully produce something edible by fall.

i'm beat. i need to finish my sermon but i'm not even going to try tonite. i'll get up early tomorrow. today's meals were a healthy mix of bacon and eggs and greasy home fries with mcdonald's chicken mcnuggets, fries and a milkshake.

yesterday wasn't much better with bacon and eggs for breakfast, no lunch, and a wendy's burger with fries for supper.

fast food isn't whole grain. i'm too tired to care.

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