Piano Restoration...sort of

Some time ago we were given an old Hammond piano. Now that we are a bit more settled we hired a piano tuner to come out and see if our piano could be fixed. He looked it over thoroughly and decided that it might not be worth our money. :-(

We guessed that the piano was built some time in the 1920s. I talked with him about taking it apart and putting an electric keyboard in it. He said that was a great idea and offered some suggestions on when to start. So I began taking it apart yesterday. Currently, I have all the keys out and a space cleared for the keyboard. (see pics)

Now I need to find a keyboard to fit in the spot. I will let you know how it goes.
Enjoy!
Taylor

The great breakfast struggle

When I was growing up, most breakfasts followed a common theme - some sort of bread with peanut butter and milk, eaten on the way out the door. My mother is a wonderful cook, but Daddy has never had any interest in eating breakfast, so there wasn't much use making an elaborate meal out of it. Consequently, I came into marriage being reasonably equipped to cook for my beloved...but NONE of my armory of recipes included breakfast ideas. I like hot cereal, so the first year of our marriage, my menu looked like this:

Day 1: Oatmeal
Day 2: Sweetened rice
Day 3: Toast and jelly
Day 4: Corn Meal Mush

Unfortunately, this is the way Taylor remembers that menu:

Day 1: Mushy stuff
Day 2: MORE Mushy stuff
Day 3: Toast and jelly
Day 4: Mushy stuff Again!!!???

Anyway, I've now spent bits and pieces of the last 5 yrs. hunting for other options to breakfast. :) I was really excited today to find a GRANOLA recipe that did NOT require remembering to stir the stuff every 5 minutes for over an hour! This one cooks for less than 10 minutes in a pot on top of the stove, dump it out and let it cool! Hey...this is almost as easy as making "mushy stuff", and I hope it will go over better with one very important diner around here. :)

- P.S. If anybody else is curious, comment and I'll post the recipe.

Wrecking Ball

For those of you who do not know, Levi is a "sturdy" kid. Though he is two years younger than Glory, he is only about 4 pounds less than she is. Mind you, he is not fat, but solid. Much of his weight is in muscle. The other day, I caught him in his "wrecking ball" position. This is where he puffs up his chest, sometimes he then bows his head a bit, and then he charges in whatever direction he is facing (this is a happy/fun game for him). One time I was tossing a ball at him and it bounced off of him and left him unphased. The next time, his Auntie M happened to be in the way...she barely maintained her balance (I do not think that he saw her since his head was down that time).
It is cute now, but what do we do 10 years from now?
Is it too late to change his name to Samson?
Enjoy!
Taylor

Male and Female He created them...

For those of you who were worried we might never update the blog again, SORRY! We have not moved to a third world country without internet access, we've just been busy somehow. Anyway, here are some pictures of the two kids we've been watching grow up before our eyes. (Which is primarily what we've been doing instead of blogging.) Ever since Levi has been born, we have laughed at how much he is NOT his sister. Now that he is a couple of months away from his 2nd birthday, I continue to be amazed at the wonderful gulf between the our sweet girl and our little man. As we once heard a parent say, "I agree with Eve when she said after giving birth to Cain, 'I have gotten a man from the LORD.'" Here she held this tiny, helpless little life, but she knew that THIS was a MAN in the making. :)

Out to Lunch

I have received a few comments about not keeping the blog more updated. Sorry about that...real life tends to get in the way of blogging life. Additionally, I am now teaching an internet-based class for WTC, so, in addition to my software testing job, I have been busy writing notes for my students every day of the week. Due to all of this internet activity, I have decided to take a "computing sabbatical" every Lord's Day...this means that I do not touch the computer for at least 24 hours. No computer, no blog.

Alesha has been kept quite busy taking care of three kiddos and myself. Maybe sometime in August we will pick it back up again.

Enjoy!
Taylor

If the Lord be God...

God's prophet, Elijah, once posed this to the children of Israel: "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow Him. But if Baal, then follow him." (1Kings 18:21)

I think this question was also written for me. The context is a bit different, for I am not wavering between worshiping the LORD, (Jehovah) and another god. I am certain that the LORD is God. I know that He is the creator of all that is, and as such deserves my reverence. Additionally, He is the only Savior of my soul, and therefore is deserving of my love. The emphasis that caught my attention in this verse made it read like this:"If the LORD be God, Follow Him." This is what I make of it...If I know that "the LORD is God" in all the glory that could possibly be captured in that word, why do I continue to weigh decisions by what my extended family, friends, etc. will think, instead of being open to His will? (Even as I type, the stubborn part of my brain is muttering things like, "Yes, but 'safety is found in a multitude of councilors.' And, "But you DO want God's will in your life! If you post this, everybody will think that you aren't following Him..." See...there it goes again, trying to make me wonder what you guys will think of me instead of following Him first. :) Usually, (I hope), another part of my brain is able to kick in and squash this kind of thinking before it goes too far and the decision is decided by better reasons than "opinion polls". What bothers me, though, is that if I know that the LORD be God, why do I waste time worrying about the reaction of PEOPLE, who are not God? (I welcome all comments, but I'm not expecting a painless, 3 step process for mortifying the flesh...just thought you might want to look inside my brain. :)

Levi, eat your broccoli!

O.k. , so we didn't really make him eat the whole thing. In actuality, he was supposed to be posing with the broccoli, so y'all could see the wonderful head the Lord grew for us in our garden this year. By the way, Taylor has my internet set up now, so I can e-mail from home...yeah!!!! Hopefully, this will mean the blog will be updated more often, but we'll see. Somehow, I don't always seem to make time for computing. :)