Three is a Magic Number

This year, we had a hunter, a witch, and a hippy. Samuel - I refused to buy him a new costume, since we have a bin in the basement with lots and lots of dress up clothes.  He didn't start looking until Halloween day.  Paul was actually packing to head north for deer hunting, and Samuel said, "I'll be a hunter!"  Perfect.  He just put on his gear.  Faith - She is wearing a costume that was either made by my mom or aunt Jane for my sister, Colleen.  I know we have pictures of Colleen wearing it.  I am sure I was a bunny that year.  And I am sure it was a hand-me-down which I wore, and now to Faith. Emilee - Emilee found a costume in the basement bin with tags on it!  She was so excited since she only loves "new things."  I must have bought it on clearance one year and hid it away.  The tag said "Flower Power."  She had many questions about what hippies do. 

It's been a long, long time since I wrote a poem--probably18 years.  Two events happened this last week which prompted the poem below to come out of me.  1) Several students got quizzical about my faith and got brave enough bring it up. One said, "You aren't like any of the annoying Christians in my family."  I thought I was supposed to take the comment as a compliment, but now I'm not sure.  ;-)  (Don't worry, I fully understand my limits on church and state.) 2) A colleague assumed a whole bunch of stuff about me when he heard I was in seminary.  It was a bit uncomfortable, I have to admit.  Here's the poem.  I've got a great editor. When you hear I am a Christian, what do you think of me? I hope that one day, I can tell you I am a Christian, and you automatically…. don’t assume I am trying to convince you to believe what I believe. don’t assume I think you’re going to hell if you don’t believe what I believ

We are on the school bus and driving 100 miles an hour!  Boy, this year took off like a rocket.  Here are the first day pictures.  Also of note is that Paul was selected teacher of the year for  his school.  Here is a nice article on him.  http://www.presspubs.com/white_bear/news/article_8ca5456c-f6f1-11e1-9ad0-0019bb2963f4.html

  Unsolicited Letter to My Family and Friends in Minnesota Dear Family and Friends in Minnesota, I’ve had something on my mind for a long time. Because I live just 5 miles east of the St. Croix River, I will not be voting on the Minnesota Marriage Amendment, which would limit marriage rights for those who are gay or lesbian. In some ways, I feel like my hands are tied, so I thought “Hey, I’ll just write down my thoughts to get them off my chest.” People can choose to read them or not. I am not really writing to change anyone’s mind, but instead, just to feel like I have a voice. If you really believe that gay marriage is against God’s will for humanity, I totally respect that, as long as you have done some serious religious study of the issue. Do you understand ancient Israelite purity laws and all they forbid? Do you know which ancient laws you are compromising on and not following yourself? Do you know where the prohibition of homosexuality actually is in the

We have never really taken our kids on a big vacation. We have done what we call “mini-vacations” with them—to Duluth, to Lutsen , to Wisconsin Dells, to Hayward, around the metro, and mostly to the cabin in beautiful Hill City, MN. The decision to delay a big vacation was very intentional on our part. We wanted to wait until they could really enjoy it, and wait until we could really enjoy it with them. We wanted to save up our money so we could do it without worrying about every little decision. Well… we did it right! Our kids were at the perfect age to enjoy Florida. And both Paul and I had a fabulous time.  Our research and saving up was worth it. Here’s the run down. Five nights at Cape Canaveral, which included…   Kennedy Space Center             Historic Cocoa Village         Faith digging at tide pool. Sebestain Inlet State Park (the best part!).  The water was aqua blue, waves were awesome, an

Lots of camping this summer. At Camp Koronis, we led a Teddy Bear/Horse/Trailblazer Camp.  We had an awesome week with a total of 42 campers. Samuel went to Boy Scout camp for seven days.  He had a great time, but was ready to come home at the end. And Emilee and I went to a Girl Scout Discovery Camp.

My kids are so lucky to have such a great set of cousins to look up too.  What a fine group of youth and young adults!  Missing you... Chase, Alex, Alexis, and Luke.  Missing you...Graciela and Elianna, who we will see soon.  And Tony and Nick too, who are are more like uncles.  (Thank you, Anna, for the pic.)  

After my fall semester, I wrote a blog post about how seminary was going for me.  Now that I have finished my spring semester, I thought I would do it again. After my fall semester, I wrote about totally 'getting into' the Bible, since I had been taught what to do with it.  Here's the original post:  http://www.christensenshare.blogspot.com/2011/12/so-how-is-seminary-going.html   My big "take-away" from the fall:  I learned the technique of Biblical exegesis--knowing history, using literary analysis techniques, utilizing word/language studies and grammatical criticism, etc, etc, etc.  But now onto the spring semester.... My big "take-away" from the spring:  Scripture is always interpreted.  ALWAYS.  And usually through a filter of religious doctrine/dogma/tradition. Much of what I thought was in the Bible was actually tradition (a.k.a. religious dogma).  My Bible professor from this semester forced me to release that dogma, harshly getting on my c

We are having a very, very busy spring.  I have finished teaching and learning for a few weeks, so I wanted to post a few of the spring happenings.  Samuel was in a music listening competition. His fifth grade team made it to state, headed to Madison, and received first place finish.  This is a picture of them performing their "project," which was unscored, but still fun.  Samuel is in the middle.  They were recognized by the school board this week too.  Em had a birthday!  Party with friends is happening next weekend at the Children's Museum. Spring biking in MARCH!  Believe it or not.  Yes, Emilee finally learned how to ride a bike, and now after all the resisting, we can't get her to stop. Samuel's band and choir concert. Faith played Jackie Kennedy at her school's wax museum. Piano recital for Faith. Plus, baseball has started, so Paul and Samuel are busy with that.  Samuel has been on two Boy Scouts camping trips (withou