Year / 2007

by Greg

Trailer Listing

1999 Express Cargo Trailer 6 x 10
Hey folks! Don’t usually post our eBay or other such sales here, but this one is different. We have (for the first time on CraigsList) listed our awesome little “basic trailer” for immediate sale.

This is both good, and sad.

I spent the last half of July fixing it up again. It has been our musical storage shed for two years now. We haven’t taken it on the road since 2005. So I did everything. Fixed the broken jack, painted just about everything. Cleaned and waxed and shined. We had the electrical wiring completely replaced. The wheel bearings seem to be in great shape, as well as the tires. (Great tread). We even tested the trailer out this week moving some furniture! Still works great!

We just don’t need to use it in the near future. So, someone else could probably use it more!

Do you need one? Do you know anyone who does? Send them the link to this post (link) or send them directly to our listing on CraigsList. (The trailer photo is linked to the page on CraigsList.)

Thanks!

by Greg

You Read My Mind

I feel like I have shared too many times on this here blog how money is tight for us, or just stories of how we could use a bit more cash. I certainly hope they never come across as ungrateful. And definitely not as a ploy to encourage donations or product purchase. (Though you are welcome to browse any of our stores…) 😉 I generally post stories of little or no money here (and what comes of that) because they are encouraging to me, and I hope they are to you.

The last month or two (or three??) business has been incredibly slow, and so as far as I can remember this has been the lowest financially that we have been. Though I completely trust God is taking care of us, and will take care of us – I admit to several (many?) times of being overly burdened by not being able to pay our bills. It definitely takes its toll on me.

Two times recently I was just wondering why God would let us be in this position. Once I was unloading our trailer (so that we can sell it, so that we can pay some bills) and I noticed that we still have a LOT of our Christmas CD. Tons. And I just thought, “Man! These need to be in bookstores, and Christmas stores across the country… not in boxes in our driveway!” So I began making plans to get them to stores, even though my plans to make money never seem to work… 🙁

As I was taking another load of boxes up to my office (their temporary home) I got an email from our old neighbor. Turns out she is taking over the bookstore in town and wanted to know how she would go about purchasing some of our Christmas CDs to sell at her store! Amazing. 🙂 It’s small potatoes compared to what we need, but was an encouragement that God is listening nonetheless.

Then this week I was really feeling the weight of past due bills, and almost zero income, and I said to Jen, “I just don’t know why God is doing this?” It was a moment of definite fatigue and frustration. I was out to run an errand or something. Within seconds I think of me thinking these things, wondering why God was not providing money, a friend called and said he had an envelope with “some green stuff” in it waiting for us at his office. 🙂 I knew again that it was not going to relieve all of the pressure, but again, the timing was really fun – and did lighten my load just a tad.

So, again, I don’t have any idea why God is letting us go through this. He hasn’t told us yet. Perhaps he won’t. But through whatever circumstances, we do know and trust his love for us… and it was nice to see it (even if only an apparently small gesture) in those two recent perfectly timed responses. 🙂

by Greg

New Macs?

Apple Event August 7th, 2007
Apple announced a special event to be held on August 7th, calling it “a presentation focused on the Mac.” Most speculate that we will see a new version of the iMac with the brushed aluminum look, perhaps bigger screens (at least dropping the 17″ model) and a new keyboard similar to the one on the MacBook. We can’t be sure, but this would make sense with it being back to school time, and the iMac is the best overall value (for the desktop lines).

Stay tuned…

by Greg

Ice Cream Update – Final Edition

Ice Cream MonthIf you can believe it… July has come to an end! It has been quite a run of ice cream consumption for me! Much of it has been enjoyed with my family, and many friends. Here’s the final rundown of the places when and where said treats were consumed…

  • 7/22 – I am pretty certain that we ate at Chill & Grill with friends on this day…
  • 7/23 – I may have gotten more Chill & Grill this day. And, continued to enjoy the ice cream in our freezer!
  • 7/24 – Probably just ice cream from the freezer this day…
  • 7/25 – Bought up several containers of Edy’s Grand Ice Cream, including one of my favorites, Cherry Chocolate Chip!
  • 7/26 – Got some ice cream from Chill & Grill again, and this time free of charge! Thanks, Jeff!
  • 7/27 – We ate some Abbott’s Frozen Custard at Bill Gray’s in Henrietta, NY this day. With the Drakes!
  • 7/28 – Got some more Chill & Grill with LOTS of friends on Saturday night!
  • 7/29 – Chill & Grill in the afternoon with some new friends, and then plenty of Edy’s from the freezer!!
  • 7/30 – Finished off the Cherry Chocolate Chip ice cream… several helpings of ice cream on this day! (Month is almost over!!!)
  • 7/31 – Had ice cream with the Shimps at Dari-an in Farmington, NY. Got banana ice cream on a cone. A perfect ending to a perfect 31 days of ice cream!

Believe it or not, I am not in the least bit sick of ice cream. This was not a hard thing for me to do! In fact, I’m looking forward to our next visit to Chill & Grill, or the grocery for some good ice cream. I am hoping we are one of the eleven luck folks who will win some free ice cream from Turkey Hill!!! One person gets a year’s supply… ten people get a month’s supply! Fantastic!

Of course, I will let you know here at GH if we are selected as one of the winners! 🙂

Thanks for following along on my ice cream journey this month! I’m sure it’s the beginning of a long-standing tradition! 🙂

by Greg

Spirit-led Praying

I have trouble with prayer a lot of times. Especially when I call it prayer. I very much enjoy a steady dialogue with God throughout my day, but when it comes to “praying for someone” or even just asking for myself… I’m still not certain how best to do that.

See, it seems to me that many of my asks are from my perspective. I see something a certain way, and have a certain desired outcome, and so, I ask God for that. I don’t think that’s wrong in general, but often I feel under qualified to make such decisions. I mean, why am I asking God for something specific when clearly he knows the best thing for me and/or those around me for whom I am asking, right?

Right.

But does that mean we can’t pray? Certainly not. God asks us to ask him. (I still don’t get that, but he does.) So I continue to ask, and I continue to struggle with the asking.

As I was chatting with a good friend tonight, (who leaves in the morning for a 10-day trip to the Dominican Republic with his entire family, including a one-year-old!) I wanted to let him know we’d be praying for them. But then all of these thoughts came up. I mean, once I start asking for something, I usually find a way out of asking. It’s very strange. But I know there is value in asking God for stuff… so I just began trying to say what I wanted to say in other words.

I told him we’d be thinking of them often. That is very true. We’ll miss them, and I’m sure they’ll come to mind quite often. We do a lot of life together. So, then I said, “…asking God whatever he might put on our hearts as we [think of you].” As I hit return in iChat, I thought, “That’s it. That’s how I want to ask. I want God, Holy Spirit, Jesus… any of them… to tell me what to ask!”

And that was it. That was my answer. That relieves the burden from me. I can not know what they need. I was going to say I would pray for protection, but perhaps that is not the best thing. I was going to pray for a “fruitful” trip, but that word is so subjective there are not two people who would completely agree on how that word is defined. What I really want to do is, as I think of them… I want Spirit to lead me in my askings.

Isn’t that how we should pray? Doesn’t he know all of us best? He is right with all of us who are his Church. He is in our midst, and right with each of us. And, he is building his church, so he knows best what we need to do, and ask for.

Perhaps that was a little piece toward opening up my conversations with God. Not really opening up more words, just opening up the freedom of “praying” for people, as the Spirit leads me to. That’s a crazy phrase, and perhaps some of you reading this just cringed a bit. But, if we really believe that Jesus is building his church, then maybe we need to let him prompt our askings, rather than coming to him with an agenda already planned out.

What if he doesn’t “prompt” me? What if I don’t feel “led” in any specific direction??? Chill out. If I think of something… good. If not, then just relax. Trust that if God wanted me to ask something specific, he would have led me… since he is the one who’s leading. That has been a recurring theme in my life of late. Really trust God to lead. Lead me, lead you, and lead his church.

Of course, since he is so good at leading his church.. I could just be hearing what he wants for me, and not at all what he wants for you. 🙂 So, listen to him… let him lead you where he wants to.

Follow the Leader.

by Greg

Living In America

Earlier tonight while I was cleaning off our table after a meal, I just thought how crazy lucky we were to have it. It’s a great table. I hope it’s in our family for a long time. No matter where we may roam.

Then I thought… how crazy is it that we got to be born here?? This country where I can have this table. This time, where life is so incredibly wealthy, materially speaking. We are so, so lucky.

As far as I know, it’s not within our control to determine where we are born… 😉

Then I was struck by the fact that I was thinking these things when financially, things have never been less certain. Strangely, I am not overwhelmed by it at the moment. It’s certainly not peachy keen. (Like that great sweet tea with peach I brewed up tonight!!) It’s very uncertain. But, knowing God will always take care of us… we’re ok with it.

OK enough to be blown away with how amazingly great we have it.

So, perhaps just a touch of perspective for me. And as I post it here, perhaps it is also that for you.

by Greg

By George, You May Be Right!

Black Holes
Tonight as I listened to a podcast about black holes and the research some folks are doing surrounding the somewhat theoretical existence of such things, I thought, “What if we get to heaven and the guys who work so hard to figure out how stuff got started actually turn out to be more right than wrong? That’d surprise AIG a bit…”

I am certain that once things are no longer seen “through a glass dimly“, many will be shocked at how things really are. Including me. And I really think it would be neat to find out that God in fact did somehow create these super enormous galaxies with black holes inside of them to somehow balance all that needed balancing in them.

And, regarding the billions of years… what if somehow God did take that long… but somehow also did it in a day? The Bible does reference God being unhindered by time (1000 years is like a day is like 1000 years). It’s entirely possible that it is both things simultaneously. I still contend that we just can’t know.

But I do love to see all the stuff we do figure out, or at least… sort of figure out. If you’d care to read the article, click the photo above. Pretty cool stuff. (The piranha thing is a bit strange, though…)

by Greg

I Love The Sky!

Full Moon over Palmyra
I am simply captivated by the sky. I always have been. I love looking at the night sky the most, I’d say… but really anything that happens in the vast expanse is just mesmerizing to me. Various cloud formations, beautiful colors at sunset (not too many sunrises in the ol’ memory banks…), and I do especially love the slightly transparent looking moon in the bright blue daytime sky.

Over the past couple weeks there have been some stunning sky-scapes. From the aforementioned dazzling sunsets, featuring a darkening blue sky splashed with orange and pink and purple fades that I would have a hard time duplicating in Photoshop, to some just astounding sun rays. When you have a clear sky except for one fantastically puffy, white cloud… which floats directly in front of the sun… and it’s a hazy, humid day… you can get some phenomenal sun rays blasting out from every side of that cloud!

Beautiful Rainbow!
We also saw that rainbow! After a late evening shower, the sun came out again in full force and as the rain passed to the east, the sun setting in the west dazzled all around with a full rainbow that was as vibrant as any I have ever seen. The contrast against the dark blue/gray sky was incredible. I literally was transfixed upon it for the entire 25 minute highway trip home. It was probably a bit dangerous… I couldn’t take my eyes off of it!

Then tonight, I took a bag of trash outside and happened to see the nearly full moon. (It’s full tomorrow.) Spectacular! Super clear night… the moon was lighting up everything! I decided to try and snap a couple photos, and the above as well as the two below were the best of the bunch! It’s pretty hard to get a good clear photo of the moon, I guess!!! I tried various shutter speeds, and the auto modes on the camera… finally got the best photo (I think) when I stood under the street light! Ha! Must have balanced the brightness of the moon somehow.

Well, I don’t usually post so many photos, but… had to share these. Hope you enjoy them. Photos can not capture the grandeur of the real thing though.

I do love the sky. 🙂

Beautiful Rainbow!
Full Moon over Palmyra
Full Moon over Palmyra

by Greg

Visitation Hours Are Over

This weekend, we spent time with so many people!!! And I LOVED it!!!

I actually figured out that we spent twelve straight hours with friends yesterday. From 11am (ish) to after 11pm (ish) we were with three different families! Two of those were planned, then the third was a super cool surprise. And, you could even throw in our neighbors, too! (They were at Chill & Grill with us and our surprise visiting friends!)

You see, there are some regular readers to this blog (who usually don’t comment…) who know more about what’s going on or been going on in my life than I do! (Or, so it seems at times…) 🙂 These friends are some of those people.

So, they knew from my recent blog post that we were headed to Chill & Grill to end our day. Well, the stopped at our house first, and upon seeing our parking space empty (and confirming with our neighbors, who as I mentioned, happened to be also headed to Chill & Grill) they met up with us in the ice cream line at Chill & Grill!

Super fun times. 🙂

Well, we haven’t seen them in over a YEAR, so it was too short to just hang out at Chill & Grill! They came back to our place. We chatted. We chased kids. We chatted. We talked about kids. We chatted more, then had some Skyline. They are very easy people to be with. It was a fantastic end to a great evening. We were super beat, but it was all worth it!

So, when you count up the hours, I believe that we were visiting with people other than our immediate family for at least 22 hours from Friday to Sunday. Even for me, Mr. Social… that’s a lot!!! 🙂 Oh man! And if you throw in helping our friends move on Friday morning… we’re at least up to 24 hours!! 🙂

It was really a fantastic weekend!!! I don’t know if we’ll pack that many visits into such a short calendar space anytime soon, but the final weekend of July 2007 was a fun one for me! If you were part of that whirlwind of visits, thanks for spending part of your weekend with us, and we’re looking forward to the next time!

(If you weren’t, well, there’s always next weekend!) 😉