Netvibes

Do you have a list of blogs that you read everyday? I do. When I heard that there was a way for me to check to see if there was a new post on my favorite blogs from one homepage, I surfed right over. The service is called Netvibes. Like Google's homepage, yahoo's homepage and others, you build the site that you want. Mine, as you'll see below, has feeds from all of my favorite blogs. I also have a tab for news feeds that I like to read--Minnesota Public Radio, Google news, Time magazine. Anything that has an RSS feed (all blogs and most other sites do) can be posted on your page. You can also include cool modules that give you weather, gas prices (see pic below) and many other fun things. It even tells me if I have new e-mail.

So stop wasting valuable company time by surfing all over the Internet to read your favorite blogs and news sites.

Music Blogs

There is a new trend out there called MP3 blogs. It goes something like this. Bobby loves alternative bands and goes to shows and tapes many of them. He then uploads them to his blog with a description of the show. Ideally, the band that he recorded has given him permission to record and to post the show. (Yes, some musicians are more interested in getting their music out than becoming millionaires.) Sometimes though, bloggers post mp3's that they do not have permission to post. This obviously is copyright infringement, but many bloggers put a disclaimer on their site stating that the music is just for sampling. They often put links up to places where you can buy the songs (Amazon, iTunes, emusic.) Because they are such small time operations and because they often focus on indie bands and unsigned bands, they skirt any sort of legal actions by record labels. Also, the links are usually only live for a given amount of time.

I have sampled a lot of music from these blogs. There is a very interesting search engine, The Hype Machine, that searches many of these blogs for songs or artists. You can enter your favorite artist and it will bring up all of the recent mp3's that have been posted. Then you can download them.

A couple of the blogs where I have found good music are the following.
Musicblog (Crown Pointe Church--Yes, the one at which Jon Cavanagh did an internship)
I just found this one today. The irony is thick when a church illegally posts worship music.
An Aquarium Drunkard
Alt-country, alternative
I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS
Springsteen, alt-country, folk
rbally
Lots of great live shows

Check out some of these blogs and The Hype Machine and let me know what you think.

Happy Easter

I have already enjoyed this Holy Week so much. I am looking forward to a good weekend of focusing on God's gift of salvation. One of the ways that we have been focusing on this is by trying to teach the boys about it. We have been reading the Holy Week stories from the book of Mark after dinner and singing "He Lives" for our hymn. Then at night we have been reading from the book about passion hymns, Passion Hymns for a Kid's Heart. I mentioned the Christmas version of this book in an earlier post. These are good books if you've got kids.

Amanda has really been amazing with the boys lately. Sometimes I come back into their world and am amazed at the work that she puts in. Yesterday was one such moment. I got home and found their passion week time line (pictured below) on the counter. I was so impressed and so proud. The best part was when the boys came out and were also very proud of what they had done. It was great to hear them talk about it too. Caleb was hilarious when he would answer the questions about how "Jesus died on the cwoss." As I seek to help the boys know more about Jesus, the Holy Spirit is faithful to also draw me into a deeper relationship with Him. This is the cliche "To teach is to learn twice." Happy Easter to each of you. He is risen . . . indeed.

Dreams=Lament

Whenever you dream, you are disappointed. Who of us has not dreamed of something, only to have that dream dashed. A dream of a child is postponed in struggles to become pregnant; a dream of a fulfilling vocation is stalled in a frustrating job; a dream of growing old with the person you love is ended by death or divorce; a dream of many tomorrows is halted by one sentence from a doctor; a dream of "the perfect family" is smeared by the reality of sin and heartache.

What do we do with these dashed dreams? Where do we take this heartache? Michael Card (who I wrote about in this earlier post) was facing similar questions when he decided to work on an album of songs of lament. I was listening to one of these on my way home from lunch today. On his radio program, In the Studio with Michael Card, he was talking with Pastor Donald Cole about Psalm 73. In this psalm, Asaph, the writer struggles with seeing people all around him doing well, while he struggling.

1A psalm of Asaph.
Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.

2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.

3 For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

This didn't make sense to him at all, until he sought out God.

16 When I tried to understand all this,
it was oppressive to me

17 till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny

23 Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.

24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

27 Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

28 But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.

In an interview with Christianpublicity.com, Michael Card described his eventual conclusion about shattered dreams and lament. "'We think we need answers from God for life’s struggles,' says Michael. 'But in actuality, we just need Him. The answer is His presence. God moved off the throne to meet Job face to face, just like Jesus left heaven and came here to feel our pain. He was a ‘man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.’ Like Job, our theology will fail us in times of intense sadness. But the presence of God, made plain to us through Jesus, is exactly what we need in the midst of our suffering. He is the only One who truly understands how cruel life on earth can be.'"

Whether you are in a place where all of your dreams seem to be coming true or whether you are in a dessert of frustration, God can be with you. It is up to you to offer him your pain and your heartache. Michael Card's song "Come Lift Up Your Sorrows" from his album The Hidden Face of God is a great place for that to begin.

If you are wounded, if you are alone,
If you are angry, if your heart is cold as stone,
If you have fallen and if you are weak,
Come find the worth of God
That only the suffering seek.

Come lift up your sorrows
And offer your pain;
Come make a sacrifice
Of all your shame;
There in your wilderness
He's waiting for you
To worship Him with your wounds,
For he's wounded too.

Download "Come Lift Up Your Sorrows" at emusic.

Where have the Falders gone?

My daily blog ritual contains visits to the following blogs: everything nagel (Amanda's brother Gregg and his wife Allison's blog), The Falders (my sister Tricia's blog), Alpena to Naples (my mom Sharon's blog) and lazylightning.org (my friend from work, Bill's blog).

Lately, there's been a HUGE hole in my ritual. Tricia has been out of the blogosphere for quite a while and she has been missed. She has been a new mother for five months and while that is obviously and should be her #1 priority, we are hoping for a resurgence in blog activity. To that end, I will suggest some topics that might be of interest to her readers.

1. What are you thinking about? Dreaming about? Wondering about? Scared about? For instance, I have been thinking a lot about the misogynistic view of girls in our society. I am nervous, scared, disgusted by the way that girls (especially 11-22) are only viewed as having value because of their sexuality. This came up when I was reading an article about Wynton Marsalis in Paste Magazine. He was talking about the 5 things that are most frustrating to him about today's society. Misogyny was on the list. I have also been thinking about how I will try and overcome this when our daughter is born. What do you think about this Tricia?
2. What is it like to live in Pennsylvania? What do you like? Dislike?
3. What are you reading? Listening to?
4. What is it like to be a mother? Is it what you thought it would be? Best part? Worst part?
5. What do you think about the price of tea in China?

Anyway, just some ideas. We hope you're back soon.

Parenting

We returned last night from a whirlwind trip to Chicago. It was great to see family (G&A, Shube, the Shumates, the Fjellanders). Trying to take two little boys (we left Matthew with Dave and Joni) on a weekend trip like that was probably a mistake. The boys did a great job in the car considering, but the drive was not real enjoyable for anyone.

When Amanda and I were debriefing last night, we talked about the difficult decisions that will come down the road. If we are going to have a large family (at least four kids), then there are going to be certain things that we simply cannot do. Here are a few of which I can think.

Load the kids in a car for a quick weekend trip of six+ hours: This is the first one that comes to mind. To do the Chicago trip (or longer) with our whole family wouldn't make sense. We talked about only driving a long distance if we can stay longer than a few days. If we can stay a longer time, it makes the long drive more manageable.

Fly: For us to fly a family of six anywhere, this would be the equation.
$1500= $250 x 6 airplane tickets
$300= car rental of minivan (six people do not fit into a compact car)
Those are good deals too. The price would more likely be higher.

So this means, like I wrote, some difficult decisions. What do we do when our whole family is going somewhere for a holiday? What do we do when someone dies or gets married? God has led us to have a larger family and so I guess that God has also led us to miss out on some things and for us to stay home more often than not. In order that this doesn't sound like a "poor me," we are so glad that we have the boys and this little girl coming. We wouldn't want it any other way. I guess "its all about trade-offs."

New Video Bar

Check out the new video bar at the right of the blog. You can click on a video and it will play at the top of the blog. You can watch a bunch of great Gammons videos without even leaving out blog. Enjoy.