Wordless Wednesday: 16 Years of Pictures from This Blog

 

For More Wordless Wednesday @ Comedy Plus Click here.

Weekly Writer's Workshop: For God So Hugged The World

Here are the prompts for this week’s Writer’s Workshop:

1.  Write a post based on the word hugging. 
2. Write a post in exactly 13 sentences. 
3. How do you cope with days where you’re stuck in the house due to bad weather? 
4. What are your favorite food items to order online? 
5. If evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe were discovered, would it alter your core beliefs or sense of self? 
6. List your five most recent favorite things.

I am combining 2 prompts today, #1 and #5.  It's not exactly one from column A and one from column B, but it gets the job done.

For God So Hugged The World

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)

My older sister asked me once what  John 3:16 meant.  So, I told her what the verse said, and her reaction was, "That has nothing to do with football"

I saw my sister right after Christmas as I was at the wedding of my oldest niece, her daughter.  There was an hour or so between the end of the wedding and the reception.  So my family being who we are, took a side trip to a local library between gigs.  While we were there my daughter Lucy emerged triumphantly from the lobby to say that she had found a 1984 Thesaurus in the free stuff bin,  She spent the next few days of the trip regaling us with synonyms from the book.  I have asked her to read me the synonyms for hug. Here goes: embrace, hold, clasp, press to the bosom, hold close, clutch, squeeze, cuddle, snuggle, nestle, and (wait for it) cling together.

As I contemplated the meaning of John 3:16, especially what it meant for God to so love the world, I thought of hugs.  I thought of a child who seemingly gave up on physical expressions of love to their parents initiating a hug with me for no particular reason.  I thought of how hugs show one's love for another but also leave room for a reply. 

 I thought of Jesus in that sense as a hug from God.  To put it back in the context of John 3:16,  our sins had separated us from God.  We were on a path to perishing without a chance to have that relationship mended. God reached out to us, extending his Son as a way to eternal life.  We must reach back to God completing that hug by accepting Jesus as the only way to God.  

This brings me rather clumsily to prompt 5: If evidence of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe were discovered, would it alter your core beliefs or sense of self? 

My short answer is no.  My core beliefs and my sense of self,  emanate from my understanding of biblical Christianity.  Larry Norman a pioneer of Jesus Music broached the subject in the bridge of his song U.F.O.

And if there's life on other planets 

Then I'm sure that He must know 

And He's been there once already 

And has died to save their souls.

Those lyrics have always resonated with me. I have never meant much of a subscriber to the notion of life on other planets.  I like the science-fiction element of extraterrestrial life but that's where it ends. However farfetched I might find it, if confronted with proof that there is life on other planets, I would lean in on Norman's thought process.  To extend my previous thoughts on John 3:16, I can imagine the Lord of the Universe loving other intelligent life so much that he would reach out and hug them through the person of his Son as well.  

Just like I don't jettison my faith when difficult times come my way, I plan to always trust in God no matter what other things may come to challenge my world view.  

A Snapshot of the pioneering christian rock musician Larry Norman taken following concert in Defiance, Ohio on October 20, 2001.

By Ekiledal - http://upload.wikimedia.org/, Public Domain, Link

Thanks to John Holton of The Sound of One Hand Typing for this week's prompts.  To participate more in this Week workshop click here.

100th Post of the Year

 This is my 100th post of the year.  This marks the 8th year since this blogs inception in 2009, and the 4th consecutive year that I’ve published 100 or more post in a year. 

That is of course, it will be my 100th post of the year if and when I publish it. A few years ago  I wrote a post about having 100 posts in draft status. At the end of the post in the only comment, I had written that I had deleted all but 15 of the posts in draft status and hoped never to accumulate nearly as many post there again. 

Well it turns out that I have been accumulating posts in draft status again. I currently have 77 posts with that distinction. The majority of these are from 2023, but I do have 14 from this year. As part of my 100th post of the year celebration,I will now list each incompleted post of 2024 by title in Chronological order.

Double Library Day

Team Saturdazzle

(Untitled)

Milwaukee Brewers Catcher William Contreras bringing major league streak to begin season

Crystal Lake Library

(Untitled)

(Untitled)

Anniversary vs. Annual

A to Z 2024 Reflections

(Untitled)

What’s most wrong about the 2024 White Sox

The Newfangled Four - A Spoonful of Sugar (Parody)  [From Mary Poppins]

Former Chicago White Sox MVP , The late Dick Allen, elected to the Hall of Fame.

Not everybody needs a college degree (Writers Workshop)

That’s the 14. Some of these may see the light of day and most will be discarded. One of the drafts from last year  is scheduled to post tomorrow for the next edition of Wordless Wednesday. I also hope to share the story behind that picture in a subsequent post. 

Tomorrow’s post won’t be the last post of the year as I have a Michael Card Christmas Concert video scheduled to drop on 12/25. I’ll probably land somewhere between 103 and 107 2024 posts before the New Year and the whole race to 100 begins again.

A favorite gymnast and a favorite library

What do you think of when you think of Summer? Do you think of Summer Bartholomew the 1975 Miss America who was the hostess of the game show Sale of the Century?

Or do you think of Summer Glau who played  River Tam om Firefly?

Initially when I think of Summer, I don't think of people whose names begins with Summer as much as I think of events that happen in the Summer.

I think of Summer Reading programs and Summer Olympics.  Olympics are one of my favorite things.  I especially enjoy the team sports, swimming, diving, cycling, track and gymnastics. I love gymnastics.  My favorite current gymnast is  Simone Biles.  

I love few things as much as I love the Summer Olympics. Libraries may well be one of them. Not only because  they have the aforementioned Summer Reading Programs.  I am here right now at my local library using their computer for this post.  7 years ago my family moved from one town to a neighboring town. We were very familiar with the Gail Borden Library at the time of our move and were glad that we would now be walking distance from it.

Today at the library I was delighted to be  directed to my libraries facebook page and see two of my summer loves combined in 1 place. 
 

 Total disclosure, I have not read any James Patterson books so my total jump height is currently greater than stacking up all his books that I've read.  This will probably no longer be true if I ever read even just  of his books.  

Thanks GBPL (Gymnasast Biles Patterson Library Gail Borden Public Library)

Poetry Alive 2024

In late December 2022, my daughter told me about  a poetry group that  met the first Monday of the month.  She and I went in January both enjoyed it so we have been attending ever since.  The group meets both in person ad remotely.  Emma and I have only attended in person so far.

The structure of the group is that the poets share any poems they are working on the the moderator leads us through the theme of the week and then gives us a prompt to work on.  After the group is finished composing, they share the work they just completed.  n

In 2023 several poets shared one poem about Elgin, the city I live in, o Valentines Day. Our group was asked to participate in that.  In April of last year we all participated in a event called Poetry Alive where we all read several of our poems at a  public meeting.  My daughter chose not to participate last year i the event but went with the rest of our family to see me read.

Many of the poems I have submitted for Poetry Friday have bee written during or shared at our monthly poetry meetings .  For today's Poetry Friday I would like to present the You Tube video of the 2024 Poetry Alive presentation.  This year Emma participated as well.  We are the 2nd and 3rd poets.  There were 4 rounds of recitations.  Poetry Alive 2024 took place on the night of my 26th wedding anniversary, so in honor of the occasion, I adapted a song I wrote for her into a poem and recited it in the third round.Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise. 

A to Z 2024: R is for R R R Very Funny. if You think I'm going to respect Lima Beans.

 For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together. 

April 20th is National Lima Bean Respect Day.

Lima beans the well deserved Rodney Dangerfield of vegetables

I do not need an entire day to respect lima beans.  For me a minute would be too much time.  To misquote Snoopy in Your A Good man Charlie Brown:  I am a Lima Bean hater, a Lima Bean despiser and a Lima Bean loather.  Or to misquote Greg Brady in the Brady Bunch episode," My sister Benedict Arnold": Lima beans are on the top of my bad vegetable list, the bottom of my bad vegetable list and every bad vegetable in-between.  

I grew up in the 70's and we were all members of the clear your plate club.  If my parents served it we ate it, or we hid it, or we fed it to the dog.  I've always been a big fan of food, and there's hardly a food I don't enjoy.  Growing up, I was not really big on most vegetables, I could eat corn or carrots but anything else was a stretch for me.  But the worse of the worst was the lima bean.  

I absolutely hate lima beans.  I would not eat it on a bet.  As I've got older I've learned to enjoy most vegetables and tolerate the ones I don't enjoy.  I am actually a big fan of most beans black, pinto, kidney, garbanzo.  Generally I lead the league in legumes.  But I can not bring myself to eat a single lima bean.  It is probably the only food I won't eat.  I have strong preferences against some food like olives, but in a pinch I can eat one.  Luckily my wife loves olives, so it never comes to that.  

My hate for lima beans is legendary in my family.  Just like my kids grew up knowing that I love The White Sox, Randy Stonehill, Libraries, and diving off the high dive, they also discovered I hate lima beans.  So each Christmas for several years I could always count on that they would wrap up a can of lima beans for me.  

I'm not sure why April 20th is National Lima Bean Respect Day.  If it were up to me I'd ban the Holiday all together.  If I can't do that I would just make it 19 day earlier.  Because a day honoring lima beans has to be some sort of April Fools Joke.

******************************************************************************

The song of the day Is Road to Zion by Petra

Here is a snippet of the song performed live ...

 

Here is the entire song ... 

The A to Z mix tape now contains 18 songs.

****************************************************************************

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A to Z 2024 - B is for Books for Children

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together. 

Yesterday, I created a new made up holiday by making one up.  Today I will regale you with info regarding a Holiday that someone else made up.  Today is Children's Picture book day! 

Here is an informative video from the  Champaign Library.

 

Like many of these made up Holidays the day we celebrate it is based on a relevant birthday.  The birthday in this instance is Hans Christian Anderson who was born on this day in 1805.  

In preparation for this post I watched the Danny Kaye Film Hans Christian Anderson.  I will review the film sometime shortly after the challenge is complete.  Here is the trailer.  

Exactly 98 years and 11 months after  Han's Christian Anderson's birthday Theodor Geisel much better known as Dr. Seuss was born on March 2nd 1904.  Geisel became a pioneer in children's picture books.  

The book, “The Cat in The Hat,” by Dr. Seuss, sits on a book shelf at West Elementary School during a National Read Across America Day event Mar. 2, 2017 at Yokota Air Base, Japan. National Read Across America Day is a holiday to share the fun of reading with children of all ages, and is celebrated on Dr. Seuss’ birthday. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Donald Hudson) Unit: 374th Airlift Wing DVIDS Tags: Japan; Yokota Air Base; 374th Airlift Wing; Dr. Seuss; National Read Across America Day

One of my favorite kinds of picture books is what I call Alphabet books.  These books much like the A to Z challenge take a subject and then devote 1 page and 1 picture per letter of the alphabet.  On a recent trip to the Beloit Public Library (which I will also be reviewing after the challenge)  I was reminded of my love for Alphabets and took pictures of several of them

Not sure why that pen is in all the pictures, it's nothing to write home about.  

Among other holidays occurring today is Autism Awareness Day.  

*******************************************************************************

Today's song of the day  is Broken Things by Julie Miller

The Leap of Dave A to Z Spotify Playlist is now up to 2 songs.

Time to close the book on the letter B.  I think you get the picture.  As you head back to more of the challenge or just your regularly scheduled life feel free to leave a comment.  Maybe you can let me know what your favorite picture book is/was and why.  

 To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

A to Z 2024: A is for Adult Children

For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate.  Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day.  I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.  At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter.  At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify.  Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together. 

When I first started this blog in 2009 (click here for the inaugural post), I had 3 children between the ages of 3 and 9)

Back then they looked like this ...

Since then ,life happened  at a brisk pace and  my wife and I soon  had 1, then 2, and then  (for 9 glorious months in 2018-19) 3 teenagers.  Now we are down to one teenager and we find ourselves  the proud parent of 3 adults.  Babies having babies is one thing, but adults raising adults is quite another.

Today is the first of 5 days that I will make up a new holiday.  It is going to be called Adult Children Appreciation day.  Here are some facts about the Holiday that I am making up right now.

Adult Children Appreciation Day was created by David Roller in 2024 to commemorate that all his children were now adults as the youngest had turned 18 that winter.  Adult Children Appreciation Day was first celebrated on April 1st, 2024.  Adult Children Appreciation Day is held the Monday after Easter.  Mr. Roller (That's Me.) says he chose that day because it had been a family tradition for him to go to Walgreens the day after Easter and buy Easter products for 1/2 price or less.  Dave's oldest daughter loved Bunnies and this was the most cost effective time to buy bunny themed gifts,  

Even though the first Adult Children Appreciation Day was on April 1st, it is not associated with April Fools Day at all.  Mr. Roller chose Springtime to celebrate this holiday as spring is associated with growth and all growing things mature to some sort of adulthood.

Since The original ACDA was on   April 1st and April 1st  is also National Greeting Card Day, the creator of Adult Children Appreciation Day gave greeting cards to each of his adult children telling them about qualities they are developing that He appreciates.

If you and your adult children are together on Easter Sunday that is a good time to give them a note or a card showing how much you appreciate them. The Next 3 ACDAs will fall on April 21, 2025, April 6, 2026, and March 28, 2027

Here is what my kids look like now ...

**********************************************************************************

I happen to be typing this post at a local library a few days in advance of the challenge.  In the past 2 months I have  visited 14 local libraries as part of the Library Lover's Expedition.  I mention this because April 1st is also Library Snapshot Day an annual day that celebrates the importance of libraries.  I am planning on writing apost for each of the 14 libraries I visited for the challenge later this year.  For today I will just post a few of the snapshots I took at some of the libraries.

**********************************************************************************

 Today's Song of the Day is Any Other Way by Andy Gullahorn

Andy Gullahorn and Jill Phillips

I am a big Spotify guy and have soooo many playlists that  I have created.  I have made a special play list for the A to Z challenge.  By the end of the month it will contain all 26 songs featured here.  For now it just contains the A song.

Every good beginning must come to an end. Hopefully you have appreciated Adult Child Appreciation Day. There are still (at least) 25 more holidays to enjoy and a few more for me to make up. In your comments if you have adult children let me know what you most appreciate about them. I will try to make some guide comment solicitations for each day, but feel free to comment anyway you want.

To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!

Timber-Lee closing and Trinity College and grad school going virtual only.

 Two places near and dear to me are ending their work as we know it in the coming months.  These places are Camp Timber-Lee in East Troy,  Wisconsin, and Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois.  Both of these establishments have long histories, both recently celebrating a milestone.  In 2022 Trinity College celebrated its 125th anniversary and Timber-Lee celebrated its 75th.  If this were the Electric Company short, Letter Man, The villainous Spellbinder would take out his magic wand and change the first E to a  second L making milestone, millstone.  I'm not sure what to call the millstone. Perhaps it was  Covid, perhaps a change in the culture of education, perhaps a change in the paradigm of Christian camping; likely a combination of all 3.  But the millstone around Trinity International University whose umbrella is around both Camp Timberlee and Trinity has caused business as usual in the college's case and possibly business altogether to come crashing to a halt in the very near future.  

 I was never a student at Trinity, but I have visited their campus on multiple occasions over the past 40 years.  I have slept in their dorms, eaten in their cafeterias, and played frisbee in their courtyards.  I have attended classes, visited students, and borrowed materials from their library.  I even at one time had a Trinity library card. 

In 2016, Camp Timberlee was gifted by the Evangelical Free Church Association (EFCA)  to Trinity International University (TIU).  I have a long history with Camp Timber-Lee. I was baptized in their lake in 1986 at a church picnic. I did a polar plunge in the same lake in January 2020. My wife Amy and our children once attended a home school camp there and our family slept in one if their famous cabooses. I have visited friends who worked there on multiple occasions. I even flipped over a snapping turtle  who had was trapped on his back bicycling near their grounds while visiting a staff member. I was bicycling near the camp, I'm assuming the snapping turtle was a pedestrian. 

Over the past 15 years, I have chaperoned a half dozen or so arctic blast and winter X-treme trips with our church kids groups and youth groups which has included at least one of my children on each occasion. 3 of my favorite things to do at those winter retreats are

1. A trip to their nature center where there is always an obligatory snake pic taken of one of my children.

2. To spend hours playing gaga ball with students.

3. To spend hours playing nine-square with students.

There is a multitude of other things to do at Timber-Lee: Ropes course, rec room, x-country skiing, zip line, sledding, tubing, tobogganing, horseback riding, broomball, and karaoke, just to name a few.  Of course, camps are a lot of fun and make lasting memories.  But Timber-Lee was all about sharing the gospel and promoting Christian growth.  This spiritual aspect of their ministry is the main reason why so many people are shocked and saddened about its demise.    

When camps like these go under there is often talk of getting new funding and continuing the ministry.  Sometimes something comes out of it like the recent change of ownership of what used to be called Cedar Campus in the upper peninsula of Michigan.  Timber-Lee has a plethora of staff, campers, and alumni who would love to see the ministry continue to grow.

As for Trinity College the class of 2023 seems to be the last class as a residential college as they make the transition to distance learning only.  TIU sees this as a new beginning that fits with its global strategy.  I, for one, hope that is true, but need time to reflect on the past and what will surely be missed.  

Love,

Dave