Lutheran Grilled Cheese » Meme

I Miss My Kids

Joe — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 09:16:26 +0000

Our family just ended a week’s vacation. My wife and I saw it as a vacation not only from work and from home but from our kids as well. This was the first time in our six years of marriage that we did not have at least one kid with us for more than one overnight. My parents took our two kids and two of my brother’s three kids (my youngest brother is there as well) to Camp Calumet for the week.

So my wife and I enjoyed some down time in Vermont.

Monday we celebrated our six year anniversary with dinner at Table 24 and we saw the movie Inception (which was awesome by the way). Tuesday we went to Burlington, Vermont and had lunch at Al’s French Frys and took a walk up and down Church Street. Wednesday we took a tour of the Ben and Jerry’s Factory, and Cabot Cheese Farm. Thursday we hung around the house and started to prepare ourselves for our trip home, we took a tour of the Wilson Castle and awaited our kids arrival home. Friday (today) we are headed back to our home.

It is great when you can go out with your wife and see sites like this:

It has been wonderful to reconnect with my wife — kidless. We have talked about a lot of things that we usually don’t get to talk about because usually we are dealing with one thing or another with our kids. Another reason we don’t have “adult” conversations is because we are so consumed with day to day life that we don’t have time to talk with one another, or we forget what we have to say to one another because something comes up.

These conversations have been great. They also are going to lead to some major changes in our lives over the next six to eight months. I won’t go into detail about them now but I will blog about them soon.

Even though we have enjoyed our time together we missed our kids. We missed cuddling with them, we missed talking with them we missed how we experience what they are experiencing. We missed so much about them and we are glad that they are home with us again.

But it warms my heart to have parents who care about their grandchildren so much that they take them out into the woods to camp for a week. I was never really lucky enough to get to know my grandparents or my cousins that well because of I lived in Vermont and they lived in Pennsylvania. I am glad that my kids get to know their grandparents and cousins on trips like this. Thank you mom and dad.

Even though being a parent of two active kids can be tough at times– how could you not love faces like these:

If you would like to read about other dads out there, and the experiences they have with their kids check out www.dad-blogs.com

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Cousins Playing

Joe — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:25:11 +0000

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Waiting for Fireworks to Start

Joe — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:10:31 +0000

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A Boy and His Uncle

Joe — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 01:49:56 +0000

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Saturday Fun

Joe — Wed, 26 May 2010 11:46:27 +0000

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Say Hello To My Little Friend

Joe — Fri, 21 May 2010 14:59:53 +0000

He doesn’t have a name, a voice, or a personality yet — but I love him anyway. The tag that he came with says his name is Sunny but I don’t like that name. I will be using him during the children’s sermon on Sunday morning. I did a little (VERY LITTLE) ventriloquism in high school. My dad had a puppet and I would use the puppet some, but I did not get into it too much. But ventriloquism has intrigued me over the years.

I have talked with my friend and fellow blogger about the use of storytelling in church. She has blogged about her experiences of memorizing the Gospel lesson and telling that rather than reading the Gospel. I love that idea and perhaps that muscle memory will help in memorizing my sermon as well.

But I think using puppets during the children’s sermon will A) Help with children’s sermon preparation B) Engage the children in Biblical Stories C) Engaged the congregation in the Biblical Stories and D) Bring a new dimension to our worship.

I love the fact that we have a number of families in worship on a Sunday morning, it warms my heart every time I am able to look into the eyes of a child at the communion rail and put my hand on their head and give them a blessing. I love hearing the sounds of children in worship. I hope this brings us an opportunity to expand the role of children in worship.

I am giving myself until June 6th to create a character for my little friend. Any help that you can give me would be great!! Like I said, I need a name for him, a personality, a voice. If you have heard a voice of a cartoon character lately that you think would fit please let me know.

The story that I have thought of so far for my little friend is that he is the “forgotten” the disciple, he claims that there were in fact 13 disciples and since 13 is an unlucky number, he was the one that go cut out. He says that it was all political and he is mad about that. His overall personality may be grumpy disciple and he wants to tell “his side” of the story. Grumpy is usually pretty funny….I like funny. But I am open to changing that, I want this to be good stuff. So I have two questions……

1) If you were to bring your child to church (or if you already do) what kind of character would you like to see?

2) What other ways would you like to see children involved in worship on a Sunday morning?

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Talking to Elmo

Joe — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:17:04 +0000

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On a Stick

Joe — Fri, 14 May 2010 11:58:17 +0000

Food in the U.S. is so abundant, both in quality and variety, and there are many ways that we are able to eat our food. We have the more conventional way in the United States of using a fork, knife or spoon. Then there are the ways we have adopted from other countries like chopsticks. Then of course there is the all famous use of sporks, wraps, bread, and of course our hands. But the one way that is fun for the whole family, especially kids……is eating food on a stick.

What makes food on a stick so appealing to kids? Well, to be completely honest, appealing to adults as well!!

It seems that whenever we go to Friendly’s for dinner we get food on a stick. Cheesewiz loves his hamburgers on a stick. He has asked for them in other places that we have gone for dinner but he has had little success. Cheddar loves her food on a stick as well, but she is less picky about what it is and where she gets it from. I don’t know why kids love food on a stick but they do. Do you remember when you first ate something on a stick?

I don’t believe that there was food on a stick available when I was a kid. I do remember using sticks for food only when I went camping. As a kid and now as an adult I love eating food off a stick when I have a chance to start a fire and we take time to cook hot dogs or marshmallows over a fire.

Recently, I have put beef, chicken, and vegetables on a stick cook them on my grill and it has become an instant classic.

With all of this I have learned that we are not the only family who loves eating food off a stick. I think part of our love comes from our connection with what we eat. Perhaps we love using our hands, so we can get close to our food. Almost every night at dinner I have to remind Cheesewiz and Cheddar to use their forks when they eat because they love using their hands. Perhaps they want to become one with their food. I don’t know.

All I know is that no matter what it is……deep fried pizza, deep fried mac and cheese, or the classic corn dog. We love eating our food…..on a stick.

This post is made possible by the wonderful people over at Dad-Blogs and Fatherhood Friday.

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True Love

Joe — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:15:50 +0000

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May the 4th Be With You

Joe — Fri, 07 May 2010 18:47:50 +0000

And then all the Lutherans out there say…….and also with you. (okay I know I am a few days late with this….but I had to write something about Star Wars today).

I love how Cheesewiz (my son) is really into Star Wars. He was not even born when the last Star Wars movie was released. Here is the time line of all the Star Wars releases:

Episode I - June 19, 1999

Episode II- June 16, 2002

Episode III -- June 19, 2005

Episode IV- June 25, 1977

Episode V -- June 21, 1980

Episode VI- June 25, 1983

I am not really sure where his obsession comes from. I do love the movies but of all the things that I have tried to introduce him too, Star Wars was not part of that. But what little boy doesn’t love Star Wars?? It has all the elements that little boys love….spaceships, light sabers, laster guns, fight scenes, wookies and ewoks just to name a few.

For Christmas we got Cheesewiz Star Wars the Wii game……he loves it, and he knows more about each character than I could ever imagine. I love how my son gets into things like this, and not only does he like it, but he immerses himself in anything that he does. It doesn’t matter if he is playing video games and he wants to be every level, or if he is building with Legos…..he puts everything he has in whatever he is doing. I just hope and pray that he keeps this passion throughout his life.

On this Fatherhood Friday please enjoy the music video “Yoda” by Weird Al.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPyxstgk8oM

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