My mind was expanded beyond capacity last night as Dr. Myles Munroe discussed the principles of Kingdom. Dr. Munroe is an amazing speaker and minister. But what rally sets him apart is his astonishingly profound messages he delivers. He thinks deeper than just about anybody else alive today.
Anyway, he talked about kingdom principles. That, by itself, is deep enough. But man, it got so deep that today I woke up thinking about it still. Hopefully one day I will be able to put together some thoughts on the subject, but for now, I have some more thinking to do.
So I gave the kids a quick quiz yesterday. Basically it was to see how far along they have come in their learning of the United States and their capitols. And I gotta tell you, I am pretty amazed.
Not that I should be, seeing as my kids have always shown me that they are not your typical kids when it comes to learning. But they were given a list of 50 states and 50 capitols last Friday and as of last night Sarah knew 75% of her capitols and Rebekah knew 85%. Even Adrianna, my six year old, knew about 15 of the 50 state captiols. Is that cool or what?
Anyway, enough bragging on the kids (but really though, is there ever really enough bragging to be done on the kids?). There are things to do and no one else but me to do them, so I should go. Just thought I’d throw that out there.
Today marks the day when cable goes out on the Gonzalez house. No need for the rendition of ‘Taps’. No no, this is a welcomed event.
We have been in this position before. A few years ago we realized that the TV was an insane distraction. I mean it soaked up hours of our lived and neither of us was focused enough to prevent it from happening on just sheer will-power alone. So we disconnected it. And we lived fine for almost two years. Then, for some unknown reason, we got it again. And have had it since.
But recently my wife and I discovered that we really need to focus more time on the important things in our lives, like our marriage, parenting, schooling the kids, bible study… in general doing the things that makes families stronger, not sitting in front of the idiot box practicing for our futures.
So she did it, with my blessing. And as of today (if Comcast does what they are supposed to) we should have no cable in the house.
Now to start planning what we are going to do with all those extra hours in the day…
To all the families and surviving relatives of the men and women that have given the ultimate sacrifice, their lives, service to this great country, God Bless You.
It is not an easy thing to ask, nor is it easy to accept, but when a life is given for the betterment of humanity there has to be a feeling of deep blessing in that. It is not a normal thing to do, offer yourself up as a sacrifice. But the men and women of the US Armed Forces have done it, are doing it and will continue to do it.
I really can’t think of anything else to say about it other than thank you, God bless you and we appreciate all that you do in keeping this country and its people safe everyday.
Yesterday was a very packed day. It started out by me getting up and getting breakfast going. Mmm, pancakes. With lots of flavorful syrups (maple, of course, and blueberry and strawberry). Then I got the kitchen (well, dishes anyway) cleaned up. Then I rested.
After that we took a walk to out closest 7-11 store where the kids got to each get a slushie drink. If you have children you know that their favorite flavor is rainbow: that mixture of all available flavors in the spinning thingers. So we picked up a bag of Funyuns and sat outside the 7-11 munching and planning the rest of our walk. We had a bit going on, so we decided we would take a decent route, but nothing too long.
So we set out on a journey that led us down the big street that the college is on. We walked that for a few blocks and found a few shops we didn’t know were there (but that we will certainly be going to back to visit) before we turned down a side street, hit the little path by the creek and walked home. All in all, it was about an hour and a half of well spent walking time with the family, whilst we talked about stuff and practiced state capitols.
I am truly amazed at how fast my kids can learn stuff. I just gave them the list of states and capitols last on Friday night and they are already picking up most of it. I will be interested in seeing if by next Friday they can have done what I gave them to do. I know they can do it, but I really want to see it.
After our walk we came home and rested a little more, then got our laundry together. You see, our washing machine broke down a few days ago and so we have to go to the laundromat to wash our clothes. That’s OK, I guess. For now. I think we will be getting a new machine in a couple of weeks. That is an expense I was just dying to have, you know?
Anyway, before the laundromat, I cooked us up some turkey burgers and hot dogs, to which my family promptly responded with grubbing the lot of the food. I guess that is what it was there for, but man that was a lot of food to go down like that.
So it was off to the laundromat where we spent about an hour and about $13 doing wash. The nicest thing about it all though, was the fact that the time was well spent with my wife. We are sorely in need of some time together and that little snip was much needed. Of course, an hour is very short when you want the hour to last 10, but hey, I am happy with what I got so I can’t (and won’t) complain.
After laundry it was back to the pad where we began the task of drying said laundry, and preparing for today, which was really not a whole lot of anything really, except more housework and laundry folding.
But I suppose it could have been worse. I could be living in a van down by the river.
I gave my kids (the older three anyway) the task of learning the 50 United States (by name) and their capitol cities. I think it is important for them to know the names of the states (after all, we are American so it seems appropriate to do) because in typical educational systems, kids at age 10 usually know their United States. Since our educational system in our home is anything but typical, I thought I would take it to a new level and have my kids learn the names of the States and their capitols. We’ll see how it goes.
To anyone interested in the State names and the names of their capitol cities, here they are:
Alabama, Montgomery
Alaska, Juneau
Arizona, Phoenix
Arkansas, Little Rock
California, Sacramento
Colorado, Denver
Connecticut, Hartford
Delaware, Dover
Florida, Tallahassee
Georgia, Atlanta
Hawaii, Honolulu
Idaho, Boise
Illinois, Springfield
Indiana, Indianapolis
Iowa, Des Moines
Kansas, Topeka
Kentucky, Frankfort
Louisiana, Baton Rouge
Maine, Augusta
Maryland, Annapolis
Massachusetts, Boston
Michigan, Lansing
Minnesota, Saint Paul
Mississippi, Jackson
Missouri, Jefferson City
Montana, Helena
Nebraska, Lincoln
Nevada, Carson City
New Hampshire, Concord
New Jersey, Trenton
New Mexico, Santa Fe
New York, Albany
North Carolina, Raleigh
North Dakota, Bismarck
Ohio, Columbus
Oklahoma, Oklahoma City
Oregon, Salem
Pennsylvania, Harrisburg
Rhode Island, Providence
South Carolina, Columbia
South Dakota, Pierre
Tennessee, Nashville
Texas, Austin
Utah, Salt Lake City
Vermont, Montpelier
Virginia, Richmond
Washington, Olympia
West Virginia, Charleston
Wisconsin, Madison
Wyoming, Cheyenne
And for those interested in a cool way to learn the state capitols…
And just so you can follow along:
Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Indianapolis, Indiana
And Columbus is the capital of Ohio
There’s Montgomery, Alabama, south of Helena, Montana
Then there’s Denver, Colorado, under Boise, Idaho.
Texas has Austin, then we go north
To Massachusetts’ Boston, and Albany, New York
Tallahassee, Florida, and Washington, D.C.
Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Nashville, Tennessee.
Elvis used to hang out there a lot, ya know.
Trenton’s in New Jersey, north of Jefferson, Missouri
You’ve got Richmond in Virginia; South Dakota has Pierre
Harrisburg’s in Pennsylvania and Augusta’s up in Maine
And here is Providence, Rhode Island, next to Dover, Delaware.
Concord, New Hampshire, just a quick jaunt
To Montpelier, which is up in Vermont
Hartford’s in Connecticut, so pretty in the fall
And Kansas has Topeka; Minnesota has St Paul.
Juneau’s in Alaska and there’s Lincoln in Nebraska
And it’s Raleigh out in North Carolina and then
There’s Madison, Wisconsin, and Olympia in Washington
Phoenix, Arizona, and Lansing, Michigan.
Here’s Honolulu; Hawaii’s a joy
Jackson, Mississippi, and Springfield, Illinois
South Carolina with Columbia down the way
And Annapolis in Maryland on Chesapeake Bay.
They have wonderful clam chowder.
Cheyenne is in Wyomin’ and perhaps you make your home in
Salt Lake City out in Utah, where the Buffalo roam
Atlanta’s down in Georgia, and there’s Bismarck, North Dakota
And you can live in Frankfort in your old Kentucky home.
Salem in Oregon; from there we join
Little Rock in Arkansas; Iowa’s got Des Moines
Sacramento, California; Oklahoma and its city
Charleston, West Virginia, and Nevada, Carson City.
I was looking over the ads that appear on this blog from time to time (hey, I got five kids and a wife to support… every little bit helps) and I noticed that once Google gets their hands on some topic within the blog, they run with it for a while.
Take for example, the current string of bad marriage related ads showing up. I have posted a few times recently about some things that I have discovered in my marriage and ways to try to improve my relationship with my wife. No, we are not perfect. Not by any stretch of the imagination. But we are not nearly as jacked up as Google would have you think based on the ad links that are showing up. And it has been at least a week since I have posted anything marriage related at all, and Google is still serving ads related to marriage. What the fucili?
So I am now on a mission to turn things around with my ads. Since I am getting about 40 unique visitors a month on this blog, I figured I could turn it into my main money making stream so I can spend more time finding cool things to blog about. That means I need to get some ads on here for your 40 people to actually click on. Which means I need to actually blog about something cool that you 40 people might like.
Ouch, my head hurts just thinking of all the vicious circles I just went in. Anyway, I will hopefully be posting more useful content now that American Idol is over. Hopefully, anyway.
Well, I couldn’t be happier to end my season of American Idol following. Not like it plays any important role in my life (or in yours for that matter), but it has allowed me to fill up three whole days a week on this blog with stuff that, as of next week, I will not have as filler.
Anyway, I was happy to see Jordin Sparks win. Happy because for the first time in a while I feel as though as America got it right. Blake didn’t really deserve to be on that stage with Jordin. Melinda certainly did. Lakesha perhaps did (if it wasn’t for Latin music or Country style music). But not Blake.
But alas, it is over, so I now I need to move on to more important things like more PHP snippets, CSS tips or anything else I can get my hands on. But for the time being, I am going to be relishing in the fact that someone I actually wanted to win American Idol finally has.
Well, I suppose I should have seen it coming. And I still think my prediction will stand, but Blake put on a good show last night so the voting could be tighter than I suspected it would be yesterday around this time.
Blake did a very good job with ‘You Give Love A Bad Name’. Jordin followed up with ‘Fighter’ and did a very good job vocally, though the crowd did not seem to react to her the way they did to Blake. Both performances were good, and from an entertainment value position, Blake torched Jordin in the first round. But without a doubt, Jordin sang better than Blake. She just did not perform as well.
In the second round of action, Blake took on ‘She Will Be Loved’ by Maroon 5. Although it was a somewhat well performed rendition, it was not the type of song, or performance, that the crows has come to admire out of Blake. It seemed almost like he was protecting himself in that song. On the other hand, Jordin’s rendition of ‘Broken Wing’ tore it up and inspired the crowd and those of us watching at home. It was another smash vocal performance by Jordin and it certainly redeemed her position from round one.
Round three was the deal maker for me, though. Both Blake and Jordin had to sing the song ‘This Is My Now’. This was a song picked by fans in an online contest of sorts. It had all the makings of a chance to really show the love you have for singing. Blake didn’t show it. Jordin did. Big time.
After tearing up at the end of the song, it was pretty clear to everyone (except maybe Paula Abdul) that Jordin had clearly won the competition last night. I hope America gets it right (which I think we will), but without even a shred of doubt, I would say that Jordin owned Blake last night and tonight she will be crowned the next American Idol. At least that’s what I think. We’ll, of course, have to see how it goes.
So I know last week I said that I would be boycotting American Idol, but I think I am addicted, so letting go is not going to be as easy as I thought. Of course, there is only two more days left, so I will be in a state of forced recovery, but for the time being, I have to weigh in on what I think is going to go down.
I think that Blake is going to beatbox himself straight into the losers bracket. Yes, he has somehow managed to dethrone the best of the competition so far in Melinda Doolittle (though I think that had more to do with America thinking she was safe no matter what). But there is no way that tonight he will be Jordin. She is too good to fall to beatboxing.
Of course, stranger things have happened (looking back to when Chris Daughtry went down to Katherine McPhee and Taylor Hicks or when Jennifer Hudson got bopped earlier in the competition that she should have). But I honestly think that America gets the final right. We have shown that can do that year in and year out regardless of what happens throughout the show. And I think that is what is going to happen tonight.
I think Jordin will come out and sing her heart out. And I think Blake will come out and perform well and entertain well and hide his so-so voice behind the beatbox he is so good. And when all is said and done, I think America will remember that American Idol is a singing competition and the best singer should win. That best singer is Jordin, without a doubt.
Anyway, we will just have to see how things go tonight. I am pretty sure I already know, but I would rather have a reason to watch the show.
