Holy Spirit

I am reading a book on the Holy Spirit that has changed my thinking on how the Holy Spirit works. For some reason I always thought of the Holy Spirit mostly as a guide and someone who gave me strength in my daily life. This may be partly true, but this book has a focus on obeying the Holy Spirit. I knew that I was supposed to obey the Father and the Son, but I didn't think about obeying the Holy Spirit. Little by little we get better at obeying the Holy Spirit. I am becoming more aware of how patient I need to be as the Spirit works to change my life. It is apparently a very slow process.
It maybe seems slow to me because this idea of obeying really challenges me. This is true for a number of reasons. First of all I don't really like obeying. In particular it is hard to learn to obey other people, but that is an essential step in learning to obey the Holy Spirit. If we aren't able to surrender our will and our opinions in order to obey a person we won't be able to do it in response to the Holy Spirit. Also I find it hard not to rely only on my own will. Old habits die hard. Anyway it at least seems like the beginning of something new in my own faith even though it is a very old idea.

This and that

Softball is sadly over. We had a great time. We even ended up in first place! We had one loss, but apparently that was good enough. Now I have to find a new activity to rid my mind of thoughts about school. I shouldn't complain too much about school. The students have been a lot of fun. It has been really nice getting to have some of my students for the second year in a row. 5th and 6th graders also can make me laugh more than just about anyone. Some of my students makes my laugh so hard that it is difficult to respond to his off-task behavior.

We recently celebrated our 1st year anniversary of living in the same house. I even got the "let's move somewhere, Cali" itch, but I think it has mostly passed. I still do love looking at other houses. Last Sunday we went to an open house that was down the street. I thought it was fun, but it kind of depressed Cali. The house had a huge master bedroom with a walk in closet and a master bath. This prompted us to go home and rearrange our bedroom and make it look bigger. It kind of worked. We created a bit more space.

This week has been busy. Cali and I have had trouble getting to see each other. I have had parent teacher conferences and she has had some after school classes. We have used much of our free time to fill our brains with too much information about this year's campaign. There have been a few days that we got stuck in front of MSNBC for hours. It's amazing how they can keep presenting the same information too us in so many different entertaining ways.

Gotta go, special live coverage of the final president debate is now at hand!

ha ha

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Radio

Perhaps one of the marks of a true nerd is their love of NPR. Perharps the mark of a nerdier nerd is one who calls NPR shows to comment. From time to time I am sure everyone thinks about calling a radio show and I actually have before, but I never got through. Today on my to Cali's school I got a little excited and dialed the number for "Up to Date" on KCUR. It was weird because the phone actually rang and the woman I talked to asked me what to comment on. I told her and then she told me that I was 4th and line so I might not get on. She put me on hold and I got super nervous. Fortunately I had enough time to sort of calm down so that I wouldn't sound terribly dumb. Here is the link. It is the show dated 8/1/08. Once you are there download the file because then you can fast forward. Obviously I am the caller "Jeremy from Shawnee" about 30 min or halfway into the show. Pretty nerdy, huh.

Lazing and exploring the West

Summer days have been a bit lazy. Shower time has gotten later and later and Cali, Amanda, and I are alternating between reading, playing video games, watching tv, and going to the pool. I don't think I have had a summer like this since I was 12. So far the reading has been quite good. Cali and I went and saw Leif Enger talk about his latest book, So Young Brave and Handsome, a few weeks ago. This is his second book. Peace Like a River was his first and it is one of our favorites. We have trouble keeping it stocked because we tend to recommend it and give it away. This latest book ended up being quite good, but I didn't like it as well as the first. His books have kind of a Western feel and fantastic characters. When we heard him speak he talked about how the characters always come to him first. He generally has several characters floating around in his head and eventually he gets to the point where one or two won't leave him alone and he has to tell their story. Interesting.

The latest character I read about was Hondo, the star of an old Louis L'amour (that can't be his real name right?) book. Has anyone read him? It was actually kind of good. Maybe sometimes borderline sexist and occasionally borderline racist, but all in all good clean fun. Hondo was a tough hombre. And of course their was a woman. Not just any woman. She was "all woman" (that's how Hondo described her). Anyway if you are looking for something fun and a little silly to read, I recommend it. I think maybe sometimes I like books with a bit of a Western feel. It is an escape from the trials (or lack of trials) of suburban life.

Pictures from New Orleans

We had a great time in New Orleans for our 5th year anniversary. I have included pictures of some of the highlights. We went on a swamp tour and saw some interesting trees and many alligators. The sunset picture is from our steamboat dinner cruise. The best thing about New Orleans is definitely the food and the music. Although we went to some fancy places our favorites ended up being Acme Oyster house, and Cafe Beignet. Cafe Beignet had great outdoor seating and music going every night. They also had some great musician statues (Cali with Benny Goodman).

Peace

I just finished this really terrific book on interior peace. It mainly talks about being peaceful within which allows God to speak to us. The author gives the analogy that calm water is able to reflect the sun while water in turmoil does not. In the same way when we are worrying about things and are minds and hearts are full of clutter we don't hear God's voice. Trying it out in my life I have found it to be very hard. For instance, with our condo I want to just trust God, but instead I find myself fretting over every detail. It is difficult to trust that God will take care of us.

One of the other challenges of this book is to be patient. I was struck by the fact that we can desire good things but fall into sin by desiring them in the wrong way:

"Because the thing that we want is good, even seen as desired by God, we feel justified in wanting it with that much more impatience and displeasure if it is not realized. The more a thing seems good to us, the more we are agitated and preoccupied to realize it!"

Another quote from the book....

"That is to say that our wanting must always be caring, peaceful, patient, detached and abandoned to God. It should not be an impatient wanting, hurried, restless, irritated, ect."

Interesting, eh? The book is real short and it is called Searching for and Maintaining Peace by Father Jacques Philippe.

Maintenance

Today I realized that I will have to do body maintenance for the rest of my life. I went for a jog. I thought it would be a little rough, but I have been playing softball and starting to get in shape. It turned out to be terrible. I was breathing heavy and my heart was struggling to keep up. What is the deal? It seems that anymore I will have to do more than just some summer maintenance. I may have to exercise fairly regularly forever just to be able to recognize my body.

We tried hammocks today in the back yard and it was about a five minute success. I set it up for Cali and she started to sit down and then was instantly bit by a mosquito. Next time we will be better prepared. For now on going outside=putting on bug spray. Still, for a moment it seemed like such a romantic idea; lying in the hammock doing some summer reading. I am little worried that when we outgrow this house it is going to be hard to convince Cali to leave. She has already declared that she is not trading down for a smaller yard. The real challenge will come when our strawberry plants start producing.

Catholic!

A little late on the news, but I became Catholic. We had a bbq to celebrate. The best things about being Catholic so far:

1. Eucharist
2. Not going to RCIA anymore
3. Catholics are nice
4. Sports: I have gotten to play all kinds of sports with youngs adults of the Catholic church
5. Education, no seriously we have had some great classes as part of our young adult group
6. Being part of the same church as Cali
7. Rich and colorful history
8. Seeing my kids from school at Church
9. Being part of the music team

We finished our softball season. We finished with a loss, but we had a great year. By the end of the year it only took my legs one day to recover from the running. I feel like they had atrophied or something. The first week it seemed that I had not actually used my legs in years. They couldn't seem to understand what I was trying to do. When I ran from one base to another it was like the running in a cartoon where the first few steps I didn't actually go anywhere. When did I become so slow?! I think I am going to try to keep up with the movement. Cali is encouraging me to take tennis lessons this summer and I think I might. Now that my legs move again I don't want to lose them.

Last day of school! Yeah! Of course I start summer school soon, but that will be fun. Cali is not thrilled that my summer starts sooner than hers so I have to keep all my excitement to myself. Soon we will both celebrate. Have a great summer everybody!

It's Been A Bit Chilly

Cali and I were excited yesterday when we went into the yard and finally spotted a few buds in our garden! We thought maybe the birds had eaten everything. They are constantly in there rooting around and pecking at the ground. Stupid birds. Cali and I both have an aversion to birds for some reason. Maybe because they are dirty and stupid. And they eat stuff that isn't theirs! Anyway, mustard and radish buds are protruding, but I am a little worried. Can those guys survive this weekend? Today was really cold and it is supposed to get worse tomorrow. When I got out of my car today the door flew open and I thought it was a gonner. I was picturing myself pulling up to school for the rest of the year with nothing but a plastic sheet protecting my left side from the elements.

In other news, we managed to win a basketball tournament. I fell asleep. I was excited, but couldn't make it through the second half. I felt a little old when I found out that many of my 5th and 6th grade students had stayed up for the whole game.

Been a while

It has been a long time since I have written an entry. For lent I decided to limit my at home internet time to 10 minutes per night which makes it very hard to blog. Normally I just have time to check my email, some sports scores (Illinois is terrible this year), and the latest election results (go Obama!).

A quick update on the cats: As Beth predicted there are lots of them. They still make themselves very scarce. We haven't seen them often, but we have confirmed sightings of at least 5. I have tried to limit how often I feed them because I don't want them dependent, but I still want them hooked. This weekend I hope to try to start catching them. We have a program here called catch, neuter, release. That basically sums up our plans for these cats. I am a little concerned that only one is eating off our porch, so I am not sure how we are going to catch everyone.

We had a great time visiting Amy and Paul this weekend. Amy played in the pit for the King and I, which I thought was a great show. It was one of the best Carousel productions I have seen. Paul did some fantastic cooking this weekend. I have to say that he cooks meat better than just about anyone I know. We had fabulous steaks, homemade sausage, and awesome meatloaf. While there (or before) I picked up a bit of sickness, but not bad. My voice is a little rough, but that actually helps with teaching. Students listen better when you sound sick.

Baby Kitty (or Sister) continued.....

Last Monday was when I started investigating baby sister. After that things took a downward turn. We put out food that night and there was no response. In fact for the next three days we didn't see her (or him, who knows) and the food wasn't touched. Cali started getting worried as these were some of the coldest days of the month. I tried moving her food to the other side of the porch just in case she wasn't finding it. We started to think maybe baby sister was gone.

Friday night I took her bowl in and put some fresh food in it. I went out with my brother for dinner and returned late that night. I saw for the first time in five days that someone had eaten the partially frozen food. I went to bed and felt a little better. The next morning all the food was gone. This trend continued through the next several days. She has now cleaned her plate four days in a row.

Last night we decided to grill because the weather was great here. Later I went back out to cover the grill when it had turned dark. Something quick scattered from underneath our porch out into the yard. Baby kitty then turned and stood there. Cali joined me on the porch and I motioned her to shut the door quietly. I couldn't see much but as Cali and I mewed and made smoochy sounds sometimes I could see a pair of eyes reflecting our porch light. This morning when I went out I heard some quiet mewing, but couldn't see anything. I tried to converse, but then didn't hear anything else.

This evening I had one more spotting as she trotted away from our house. When I called she would turn and look each time, but then keep on trotting. I think she didn't like that I had turned on the flood light to the yard. I keep wondering if she and Malachi talk during the night. I mean surely he is aware of her, right? I guess I wouldn't put it past him to sleep through it all.

The Investigation of Baby Kitty

One day Malachi was yelling like he always does, waiting to get fed. Cali was ignoring him until she started hearing an echo every time Malachi was yelling. Somebody was responding outside the door! Cali went to check it out and a small black cat ran off. Since then we have been keeping an eye out for him and today because it is so snowy, I did some research. Here are my findings......

First of all I had to track him and see where his hangouts are. He appears to spend most of time in various buildings formally owned by our neighbor. She passed away and so the house and the surroundings sheds have become the perfect hiding place for baby sister (as Cali calls this cat). Here you see the footprints of baby kitty as I followed them throught the snow.


I next found one of the sheds that they kitty had gone under. You can see where the kitty went under the shed (there if plenty of space as seen below). Cali also maintains that sometimes he/she is sleeping under our porch. She likes to keep the dryer running just in case to provide some extra heat.









The house has not been lived in for at least a year and you can tell by the shape that it is in. The side porch is torn up and there is additional space for a kitty to slip and and sleep for the night.

I decided to talk to the neighbors about this kitty. The neighbor on one side says that she has not seen this black cat, but has seen its paw prints. She also told me about all the other interesting critters she has seen back there. Apparently a family of foxes was birthed under her porch last year and they got footage of the little babies by videotaping from and upstairs window. She also has seen groundhogs and we certainly are aware of moles in the back yard. This woman and her husband say they call it a mullet house, city in the front and country in the back.

When I talked to the neighbor on the other side, he said that he is pretty sure this cat is a stray. He has seen it several times and even saw this cat catch a squirrel! Just as we have been checking out the kitty she has been checking us out. I found several prints around our driveway, front door, and side door. Malachi seems to enjoy watching this cat, although we have only spotted her three times. I put food out tonight on the porch and Cali and I are excited to watch and see what happens.

Cincinnati, not so bad

The reports I got about Cincinnati from everyone but Max had been mostly negative. Tom let me know that is was a pit of a town while others including my Dad had gone to visit only to find little or nothing to do. Therefore I approached the city with apprehension, but have concluded that it's not so bad. But don't come here for the chili. The unanimous consensus among the Parkinson's that the chili is not great. We went the the famous Skyline chili to try true Cincinnati chili. What separates this chili from the chili everyone else knows and loves is that it is served on spaghetti noodles (pretty good), and it contains cinnamon (not good). What amazed us the most about Cincinnati chili was the shear amount of it. Skyline restaurants are separated generally by about two blocks in this town. They apparently can't get enough of it.

On the positive side of the Cincinnati food front was Jungle Jim's grocery store. This place was amazing. It appeared to be a Mecca for food and public bathroom lovers (they won an award for the nicest public restrooms in the country). When we walked in there was a greeter with a map who had to describe the layout of the store to us. I've never been in a grocery store that requires a map. This is because they have a huge selection of everything! I was most impressed with the beer selection. There was a wall display of domestic beers from all over the country. Max and I each selected a six pack to try. Hers was a java stout (brewed with coffee) and I picked an outmeal stout. I still haven't tried out the outmeal stout, but the java turned out to be quite good.

It has been fun hanging out with Max and I am glad we got to see where she lives and get a better understanding of what she does. Her place is kind of funny because it is converted offices running the length of a hallway, so it reminds me a little of the dorms. Our room turned out to have a gorgeous view of the Ohio river and the towns of Kentucky that lay beyond.

Tomorrow we head back to Macon and from there to Kansas City.

Date Night

Cali got me tickets to Kurt Elling for my birthday and we went on Friday night. Elling is a jazz singer and is best known for his scatting and amazing ability to sing just about any jazz lick that a saxophone could play. I was really impressed with him and his band. I spent most of time watching the drummer who was extremely intense. He even managed to break one of his drum sticks at the conclusion of the concert. We also sat next to a guy Cali knew from college. He was pretty funny; he brought a date and never really introduced her to us. He also spent most of the time talking to us instead of her. We sensed he might be in trouble later.

Before the concert we went to a restaurant called Fritz's. Cali located this restaurant on the internet because she was in the mood for something salty. Fritz's definitely fulfilled that craving. There are two of these restaurants in the Kansas City area. One is posh and it is located in Crown Center. The other is not very posh and it is located in Kansas City, Kansas. We went to the latter. For those of you who don't know, there are very few beautiful parts of Kansas City, Kansas. However, I think this Fritz's probably has more character than the other one. It was clear Fritz's was a local favorite and it seemed like a great place to take kids. You order on a telephone and then a train delivers your food! It was so cool, the train car traveled around the restaurant on tracks that ran over our heads and then it dropped our meal onto a metal tray just above our table! The food was similar to Winsteads or any other diner, but we decided to try their special which was a burger with hash browns on it. If I were Max I would have had a camera and I would have taken a picture of it, but since I didn't you will just have to picture it yourself.

Snow day!

Most people don't get the luxury of a snow day, but that is one of the great things about being a teacher. It is crazy icy outside so we are stuck at home again. Cali of course loves being stuck at home, but I am kind of indifferent. However, I am enjoying the scenery. I wish I could take a picture of our back yard because it is beautiful. The trees are covered with ice and icicles hang from every surface. Of course this is kind of scary also because our power line looks pretty weighed down. Cali is worried we will lose power so she has worked herself into a frenzy to get as much baking done as possible while she can use the oven. I have mainly been organizing cd's, reading, and doing other frivolous work. I have a hard time working on anything of any importance on days like today. They seem like such a gift so I hate to squander them by doing actual work. I got started on the latest Nick Hornby book which so far is great and I also am reading the Barak Obama book, Dreams from My Father. His story is fascinating. It reads like a novel and as I am reading it I keep forgetting that it is someone's actual story. It just seems so fantastic. My life story I am afraid wouldn't be nearly as entertaining. It's probably more exciting then Malachi's though. He spent today's snow day sleeping in various chairs. He is even more of a bum than I am.

Frustrated

Recently I have been frustrated with many things at my schools. Especially with my 6th graders. I have tried to give them more responsibility and choice in my strings lessons, but so far it only seems like it has opened the door for more complaining. I keep trying to emphasize what things are their domain and what sort of things are my decisions, but we are struggling to find that line. Cali has noticed some of the same problems in her schools. We have some kids who seem to think they are the teacher and that they should make the decisions. Somehow I need to find a way to balance giving them some choice and input into the classroom, but still having them respect the decisions that I make.

Another difficult issue is at home practice. Some students will go weeks without practicing at all. They will come in and say, but Mr. Martin I had a lot of homework. I keep trying to tell them that they had homework for my class as well, but orchestra is put on the back burner when it is pitted against spelling and math. My latest plan is to get them to practice during Hannah Montana. I figure if they practice during every commercial break they will get a total of 10 minutes worth of practicing which is just enough.

These issues may be coming to light because we have concerts coming up. I just want them to be really good and to be successful. I only hope that I am not pushing them for my own selfish reasons, but instead to see them accomplish something great.

Choir Extravaganza

"Jeremy if you keep taking pictures you are going to run out of batteries"


What a great Mom!

Flight of the Concords

Anybody hear these guys? I think they are crazy funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5tmnBeNv18

Dropouts

I guess I don't normally talk that much about my experiences at school. For the most part I really love my job. It isn't stressful and the kids are fun to work with. However, one thing that is always difficult about teaching strings is that sometimes kids drop out. Even if you are super fun and creative and you give out donuts every day some kids just decide to quit. It is hard to not take this personally.

Two kids have dropped out so far out of about 70, but both drops were a little hard on me. Since I am not a terribly mean teacher most of my kids drop because of "the workload" that is involved with strings. Kids have to practice for my class and that gets in the way of other things. Now is when I am particularly nervous about my kids leaving because things are getting a little harder. At the beginning of the year in the music they wrote the names of the notes on the note heads. They don't do that any more. Now they have to actually read music! That gets some kids a little frustrated. Especially the ones who don't practice.

The other thing that I am worried about is that I don't give out candy. One kid in particular is always telling me how the band gets candy and that they get metals when they learn certain stuff. I don't give out candy because we aren't supposed to at my schools in order to teach good health habits. Does that make me a lame teacher? Maybe. But they are starting to sound quite good and I am excited about what they are going to show their parents in their upcoming concerts.