The entire month of March, my 6-yr old son has been counting down the days till the 17th of March. For some reason this year, still unbeknownst to us, he was really excited about that day. He had plans for what to wear, what to do, what to eat. For himself and all of us in his family. It was going to be quite a day!

Well, we had some fun, made a green and white cake and said lots of “Happy St. Patrick’s Day!”-s to each other. And Jen taught a bit about the man named Patrick during the homeschool time for the day.

But this past Thursday also happened to be one of the busiest days for me workload-wise in recent memory. I can not say exactly why… the schedule of the surrounding days necessitated longer hours, trying to get more done on the Thursday of this particular week. And I did! Boy, let me tell you! I accomplished large task after large task – revamping our website, replying to e-mails that were weeks old, and generally conquering every new challenge that I came across that day. I was unstoppable!

About 11:30 at night, an hour or so after the boys had gone to bed, I was in the bathroom, getting ready for bed myself and I realized that the Thursday I had just lived – the busiest one in recent memory – was the day my little boy had been looking forward to all month. Somehow, until that moment, after it was all finished, never to be recovered, I had missed that. Even when I had partaken somewhat begrudgingly in a few of the festivities for the day. I had forgotten. I missed it.

I felt awful. As I do now typing this. Why do we miss things like that??? How do we miss the important stuff? Everything I did that day was important, needed to be done, and hopefully will help our family and lots of people in lots of ways. But, I missed the day chosen by my son to be special.

I know I will get more chances. Hopefully that moment in the bathroom will not be forgotten, and when another special day comes around, I will make that the priority of the day.

So, Ian… Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Sorry I mostly missed this one. Looking forward to our next special day together. I love you! 🙂

(By the way, he really will read this… he’s smart like that… just like his Mom) 🙂

Wait… I forgot the craziest part. There’s a store in the UK carrying my book for £7.79! Ha! Actually, there are several stores carrying the book FROM the UK. Crazy! And, Amazon.CA (Canada) is carrying it as well for CDN $18 something.

It’s gone international!!!

🙂

(This will wear off eventually… but for now… I’m having fun) 🙂

Sorry… couldn’t resist. 🙂

There is a site (FetchBook.info) that searches the internet for books and shows a price comparison chart for all of the places it was found. I was looking for a book we needed to buy, and couldn’t resist looking up my new book… and it found it!!!!!!

Click the link below to see where you can buy my book. (Best deal is still to buy right here at GregsHead.net. 🙂

A Journey Shared: Selected Thoughts on Life from Greg’s Head…: Compare Prices

Studying the eyes of my one-year-old daughter gave me a glimpse of the battle we face all of our lives. One tiny moment in the middle of nothing all that special was a window to truth far greater than a moment.

For the hundredth time that day I was defining her boundaries. You parents know the tireless testing of boundaries by those little hands. There never seems to be an end to the string of “No!”s coming from your lips. At varying volumes according to your current level of frustration with the whole process.

Well, this particular instance was not all that forceful, just another “No” to continue building her fence of restrictions. But this time, I noticed her face when I told her. There appeared to be in her eyes a glint of recognition. Not so much a recognition of the specific limit in question, but of the whole concept of the word “No”. No meant more than a simple boundary. In this case, it represented her standing with Dad. In that tiny little mind, I think I saw the first processings of performance-based approval. Her look made me think, “Oh no, I’m teaching her to understand her worth based on my approval of her actions!” Realizing, of course, that she could not possibly have been thinking that at such a young age, but her eyes just seemed to be conveying that simple cause and effect type of behavior.

To an extent, we want that. We give her boundaries, and she learns that life goes well when she adheres to them. That is better for her and for us. But the problem arises when we learn to perform as a child, and forget to stop the performance as an adult. The boundaries help keep us safe for a time while we are taught what really matters in life. The words “Please” and “Thank You” do not of themselves hold merit, it is the consideration of the worth of the recipient that mirror’s God’s heart. Not touching the special items on Grandma’s coffee table will prevent breakage (and perhaps costly replacement by Mom & Dad), but more importantly, it allows time to learn to honor other people by respecting their stuff.

At some point, we must make a transition from rule-keeping, boundary-obeying living to a more pro-active, humble submission to loving other people around us. Considering others better than yourself. Just like Jesus.

Man, he was amazing. He is amazing. Even when I spit in his face, he stands by my side. Even though it was my stupidity that presented him with the choice of giving up his own life. Even then, he loves me.

I don’t have to perform. I don’t have to get it right all the time. He still loves me. And it is the same for my kids. Ian is learning that, I hope. He is certainly into the transitional years. We don’t have to slap his hand anymore when he touches things he’s not supposed to. 🙂 I so badly want him to understand that just like God’s love is not conditional upon our obedience to Him, that my love will not be withheld for any of Ian’s wrong choices. What a fine line that seems to be.

And yet, after an evening with just Dad and the three kids, I think they get it. We have had some discipline issues today, but the prayers at the end of the night all flowed with big thank yous to God for a night with just Dad. They love me. 🙂 And best of all, they know I love them. I really, really do.

Please know tonight that you are loved. Not because of what you do. Not at all. Just because of who you are. God loves our victories and cheers our successes… but he doesn’t shun you when you mess up. Even a lot.

Oh that you might know how wide and long and high and deep is his love. It continues to rock my world.

I hope it forever will.

The books have arrived! You can now purchase using PayPal right from us, and we’ll ship them to you on the next buisness day!

Click the Add To Cart button to your right and you’re on your way!

We’re having fun! Jen even bought me pizza and wings from Nima’s today to celebrate!!! Whoopeee!! 🙂

I am feeling a bit like George McFly today at the end of the movie (Back To The Future), where his book just arrived and everyone’s all excited.

Yeah. I kinda feel like that.

Now, if my book would just arrive. 🙂

Well, it’s out there. I can’t believe it, but it’s out there. I should receive the first official copies in the next couple days. I will sell most of those from this website, look for a link soon. (Or, we’ll sell them if we are out gigging somewhere). I have compiled the list of links where you can find the book so far. Click on a link below to purchase your copy (or copies!) 🙂

iUniverse.com (the Publisher)
A Journey Shared (at Amazon)
Barnes&Noble.com (there is a wait here)
BooksAMillion.com

Again, link to buy direct from me is coming soon, and WalMart.com will be up there eventually too. 🙂

Oh hey. It will also be available in the next few weeks (I think?) at the Palmyra King’s Daughters Free Library, as well as the OWWL Access program of the Pioneer Library System. You can get my book at the library! Ha!

Whoohooo!! (Just had to get that out!)

So, hope you are able to purchase a copy, or two or three, and share them with folks. The book is all about sharing the journey of life. So, hope you can!

Every time I watch the Weather Channel, I am simply amazed at how many places we have been. When they show the map, I know all of those places. An image, or a memory, or something comes in to my head. Even today, Alex heard them talking about California on the news, and he said, “We’ve been there!”

Perhaps we travel a tad too much?

Heard an interesting story on the news today, so I followed up and found this article.

Press Release

I wrote about this back in November, after traveling the country and finding that there are many residents (perhaps citizens? of this country who do not speak English. I had no idea that there was an entire organization dedicated to making it legislation of some sort that English is the official language of the US. (I didn’t know it wasn’t) 🙂

Just interesting, thought I would pass it along. For those of you who missed my original post, click here.

Well, guess what!!! The page is up, the book is available for purchase!!! They are $14.95 at iUniverse, (I will be selling the 30 copies they send me for $9.95) but they are there! Whoopee!!! There’s even a brief preview of the book available there. Awesome!

Click here to order!