Feist--The Reminder

Here is another unsolicited music recommendation. I have been listening to a little Feist this morning. She is a Canadian singer/song-writer. I really like her a lot. She is not your typical "James Taylor, Fire and Rain" singer/song-writer. She does some very interesting things with this record. Go to Napster and give her a free listen.

Welcome James Crawford Nagel

Yesterday, James Crawford Nagel entered the world. We went up to the hospital yesterday to visit him and Brad and Sarah, the proud parents. He is our first Nagel cousin and we are all excited to have him.

Music for your soul

When was the last time that you heard that good old-fashioned four part Southern Gospel harmony? For me, it had been too long. Last week, providentially I came across The Cathedrals. I had heard of them before. I had seen George Younce (the guy on the left with the sweet pink jacket) with the Gaither Homecoming people on tv and also once live in Grand Rapids. I have been listening to The Cathedrals Southern Gospel Treasury on Napster. (It's not the old Napster that was illegal. It's the new Napster. You can listen to any album for free for a limited number of times. Check it out.)

I am not a huge Souther Gospel fan. But from time to time, I go there. I grew up hearing different configurations of Ripley Blvd. Baptist and Word of Life Baptist quartets. They were fun to listen to and hold some great memories. I believe that my dad even made a few appearances in the ever changing line up. I knew that I had really arrived when I even got an invitation to "sing melody" in the quartet one year. So if you're looking for some great music (Carrie, tell Joe to listen to this.) check out The Cathedrals.

Free HD television?

Amanda and I have entered the world of 21st century television. The TV that we had, had not been working well for a while. We couldn't get the network stations in very well. We haven't had cable since we left the residence hall (where it was free). So on Saturday we went to Costco and purchased a 26" lcd TV.

I had done some research and found out that you can get digital and HD program just from an antenna. The picture really is amazing. The cool part is that many stations not only carry their normal programming on their digital channels, but they also have other programming as well. For instance, our PBS station (channel 2) has an all HD station (channel 2.2) and another PBS station (channel 17) also has an all kids channel (channel 17.3) and PBS create, kind of like HGTV (channel 17.4). So with the investment of $70.00 for a decent antenna (We settled on the Terk HDTVa), we have approximately 20 channels. It rules!

So if you are thinking you need a new TV or if you are sick of paying through the nose for cable or satellite, check this out. To see what the programming in your area would be like, you can go to AntennaWeb. It will ask you your address and then tell you the stations that you could pick up. It will even give you a map and tell you which way to point your antenna to get the best reception. This was a great help. It actually made a difference which way we pointed the antenna. Now we just need to pull ourselves away from another episode of This Old House and take care of our four screamin' kids.

Molly is one month old

Our sweet, sweet Molly is 1 month old. It has been an exciting and tiring month. Molly has been a very neat addition to the Gammons family. It has been fun to see this little person emerging more and more with every day. It is also fun to see her becoming more a part of the family. One of the ways that I see this is every night both Benjamin and Caleb pray, "Dear God, thank you for Mommy, Daddy, Benny, Caleb, and Matty." In the past few days both of them have begun to include, "Oh yeah, and Molly too."

This is where Molly sleeps every night. I went in this morning and just had to take a picture of my two favorite girls.

Excitement addiction

Gregg just sent me a great article about parenting. The main crux of the article is that happiness is more important than excitement in the lives our our children. Most of American families are focused on providing excitement for their kids, not happiness. It described many American kids as addicted to excitement: presents, video games, Internet images and video, exciting music, action films, fun TV. The article talks about how kids who are addicted to excitement eventually become adults who have to meet their need for excitement in more and more destructive ways. It's the classic law of diminishing returns. These are great things to think about as we seek to raise kids that become adults that love people and love Jesus.

This is also something that I can feel some significant conviction about. I have often described myself as a "new" addict. I love new things. For instance, I found myself this morning watching a video of a dude opening a new iMac. I just wanted to see what it was like. I feed my need for "new" or excitement by little things like looking for new music that I think I might like. When my Paste magazine arrives in the mail every month with the sampler CD inside, my synapses fire faster. Sometimes I justify all of this by the reality that these are fairly "healthy" ways of scratching this itch. I think that building in "unexciting" times is very important. Our house is a pretty "unexciting" place, but it is also a fairly happy place most of the time.

Thanks Gregg, for a great article.

Company, coffee and a good fire

Saturday night, Shube's sisters and Grandma Pearl came over. (Molly Pearl is named after her Grandma Pearl so it was special to have them meet.) I always enjoy having company, especially company that I am comfortable with and that I know fairly well. Shube made Caesar salads for dinner with steak and shrimp. Afterwards, we settled down with cups of coffee in the living room. They all held Molly and doted after her. I love moments like these. I think it because of the many evenings that I spent with my parents' friends in our living room. It was always a highlight of our week to have company, sometimes on a Friday or Saturday and often after church on Sunday.

It was a cooler evening so I decided to light a fire in the fire pit. The boys love this, especially Caleb and Matthew. I love it even more than they do. Fires outside also remind me of growing up. Benjamin said to me, "Did you make fires with your dad when you were a little boy?" I told him that I didn't make a lot of fires with my dad, but I made a lot of fires with other people that I loved and that loved me. Most of those fires were out at Ripley Blvd. Baptist/Word or Life summer camp. The people that loved me and that I loved were men and woman like Bill Donovan, Tim Powell, Tim Pollard, Jack Klein, Russ Lewis, Sandy Donovan, Bill Fitch, Donna Pollard. The smell of smoke in my clothes makes me feel like a ten or eleven year old boy listening to "Uncle Jack" pick old gospel songs on his guitar while sitting on a picnic table.

These are some of the things that I value: good friends, good coffee and a good fire.