Family & Parenting – Page 3

In Family & Parenting

Why we had kids: Part 4

August 27, 2009 2 Comments

So, every one always says man you guys had kids early! Yes I guess we did. But… I’ll tell you what, it has never been better than this! I guess about two weeks ago now our dishwasher broke. (I know that there are a handful of you crazies out there who don’t have one… Yes you are spiritually stronger than I, and yes You are closer to God…) but man, I’ve been feeling the pain of not having that bad boy. My hands are softer now than they have ever been thanks to palmolive… My patience with Dishes has grown so thin you could almost see right through it… Every night I look around for one more paper plate so that way there is assurance that the dish load tomorrow will be light… (Good news is that the part is on it’s way)

But then I thought… hmm here’s another classic example of why we had kids!

Noah happily washed dishes with EXCESSIVE amounts of soap… Hey, you won’t hear me complaining…

~Peter

Here’s part 3, part 2, and part 1 of why we had kids…

In Family & Parenting

Friday Foto Fever

March 6, 2009 2 Comments

This week has been a fun adventure with the kids! Tiffany started a new job and I had the opportunity to spend more one on two time with Noah and Grace this week! We had a blast. Tuesday night we went chick-fil-a and had a great time. Noah fell asleep in the car on the way there, but when we got there, he wanted to go down “that” (the slide). We romped around in the play area for ever! Then the next night we stepped up our game and went and played at Chucke Cheese’s. They loved every second of it!

Noah playing air hockey My good buddy Matt Thompson came and hung out with us! Notice, Noah is beating him at air hockey!

Driving! (sorry tiff, her hair was all static electricitied! I promise it looked cute before I took her out of the house.)

We had a great time laughing and being silly.

~Peter

In Family & Parenting

Update

February 18, 2009 2 Comments

So life has gotten better. You could say that life has been restored. We are not slaves to the washing machine and the drier anymore… There was a point in time where the word Diarrhea was an integral part of every sentence that flowed from my mouth. So, this is about what life looked like for the last week and a half or so…

Honestly, this was just about the best way to describe it. Plenty of caffeine needed. This morning I am happy to tell you that Grace is doing well. She is up and about as usual.

Thank you for your prayer support and all of your calls and emails and such! We appreciate it! I’ll throw up a cute picture of grace that way the last one in your memory isn’t that sad picture…

Stomachs thankfully settled,

~Peter

In Family & Parenting

Please Pray

February 11, 2009 8 Comments

Today is the 4th day that Grace (my daughter) has been sick. She caught the stomach virus that is going around… Last night Tiffany had to bring her to the hospital because she was severely dehydrated. They gave her 600 cc’s of fluids. Unfortunately we called the doctor today, and they want her to go back to the hospital. Please pray for Grace to get better! It is hard to watch her sit there in pain.

grace sick

And it doesn’t help that yesterday I got whatever she has… So… EHH!!! You can pray for us both. Right now, I am on disc 4 of season 3 of the office. It hurts to laugh. I feel terrible for Tiffany as she has 3 kids to take care of now… Definitely pray for her.

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

2008

January 6, 2009 1 Comment

What has God done in 2008? (in no particular order)

God Has…

settled Tiffany and I here in Doylestown.
broken my heart for the need’s of people.
poured out blessing after blessing during times of serious financial need
kept each one of us safe and healthy
seen us through the creation of a Junior High and Senior High Youth Group.
grew those groups spiritually
grew those groups numerically
worked in the lives of over a hundred teenagers here at FBC
placed a burden on the hearts of people to give over $20,000 to the youth ministry
cultivated rich friendships in my life
grown my relationship with my wife to the degree that I didn’t know was possible
stretched Tiffany and I in ways we couldn’t have imagined
freed my dad from the limitations of sickness, disease, & brought him to the place of wholeness, and perfection
allowed me some very special and intimate moments with my dad in the last few days
gave me the strength to give testimony at my Dad’s funeral of not only who Dad was but who the very God that Dad served is
given our youth ministry 21 solid youth leaders who not only love God with all their hearts, but also have a passion for students
given me an anxious anticipation for the ministry that is to come in 2009!

What has God done in your life in 2008? It has been pretty quiet around here lately, through the holiday’s I have been spending extra time with my family and loving it! Let’s keep up the conversation in 2009! Thanks to each one of you who come back and read everyday! HAPPY NEW YEAR…

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Old and Tired… ???

December 18, 2008 1 Comment

It strikes me as interesting that every year Christmas rolls around and here we are doing the same things, over and over again. You know… like traditions? I just wrote a post about christmas traditions that I have/had. But anyhow, traditions, they can become old, tired, boring, and even empty and lifeless.

I’ve had the opportunity to read through the story of Jesus’ birth several times this year already. Thinking back on bible college, high school, church, sunday school, youth group, boys brigade, home, and all the other places that I have heard/read this story, it is amazing to think of the amount of times that I have read it and been exposed to it.

One would think that it could get old or routine by now. Yet it doesn’t. It still proves to be an incredible story that honestly I can’t wrap my mind around. God becoming like me, only so that He could die for me. Weird! I’ve been loving John 1 this year. I know it isn’t our traditional donkey, inn keeper, wisemen, manger scene depiction of the Christmas story. Yet at the same time, it is unbelievably amazing to think that Jesus is God, was God, never has not been with God, and all of a sudden He becomes the very expression of God to each one of us. Unbelievable. Check it out. John 1.

What do you think? Do you find yourself tired of the story, or continually amazed? What new insight have you picked up on?

Let’s hear your thoughts… Continue the conversation…

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

High Aspirations

December 16, 2008 No Comments

So, I guess you can’t blame them for having high aspirations. The other day we were walking through Toy’s R’ Us to get a couple christmas gifts for our Christmas Gala Project. Noah and Grace meandered around and found their way to the mother of all big wheels. To the great kahuna of tricycles. They found the power wheels. Noah made sure that he sat in every single one, and that he checked out the interior, the radio’s, the door locks, the trunks, everything… He made sure that they were going to be as tricked out as possible, and then he settled on this one here below. UNBELIEVABLE! Grace saw pink and she was googly eyed! She is such a girl… Come on… no taste in Power Wheels. AH WELL, there’s time to teach her.

What crazy thing are you asking Santa for this year?

~Peter

In Faith in Real Life

Lets do this together

December 5, 2008 1 Comment

This morning I was driving in my car with Noah and Grace in tow behind me. We were driving from the house to the church. Today was going to be a special day! We were going to play at the church for the morning. We brought their bikes and we were going to play! It was going to be fun. We all willingly put our coats and shoes on, and we headed to the car with excitement on our faces. ALL OF US! So, we get in the car and something magical happened. We were descending the hill on West Street passing by Doyle Elementary school and I noticed what was happening in the back seat behind me. We were having a little school lesson.

This is the conversation I heard.

Noah- “Grace. Say tree.”

Grace- “Twee”

Noah- “Good job Grace. Say car.”

Grace- “Kar”

Noah- “Good job Grace. Say Baby Doughnut.” {In our family munchkins are known lovingly as Baby doughnuts…}

Grace- “Bebe Dowgnuts”

All of a sudden it hit me… Shouldn’t this be what the Christian life is all about? Shouldn’t we be helping each other grow in our faith? Shouldn’t we be there living life along side of each other helping our peers out when they are struggling? In this situation, there was no paid teacher, there was no professional. Believe me, Noah has lightyears to go in his sentence structure and word pronunciation. However, for whatever reason, he saw a need in his sisters life. He stepped up to the plate and was there to help Grace develop in her speech, and her abilities to communicate. I was one proud dad.

This is what we are trying to do at Youth Group. We are purposefully leaving 10 minutes at the end of every evening for students to spend that time with each other, praying, talking, counseling, laughing, and crying. This has everything to do with helping each other.

I’m a pastor. True statement. However, I don’t want to be the only one leading students. I want to see youth leaders leading students. I want to see students leading students. There will be much greater growth in church’s, youth groups, small groups, and sunday schools if we would work together and follow the example of a 3 year old. What if… What if we practiced this?

What do you think? Can you be apart of this type of a movement? Who do you think that you can be reaching out to? Or, have you had anyone do this in your life?

What do you think?

~Peter

In Family & Parenting

Mt Creek

July 31, 2008 2 Comments

tomorrow marks the first of my adventures at Mountain creek water park. The stories have been passed down from generation to generation, and have been told to me over and over again. I hear that at one point in time an unnamed individual was left behind at the water park. That’s unbelievable. Do you think that is an urban legend or did it really happen?
So hopefully tomorrow we won’t leave anyone behind. Do you have any fond memories of water parks?
When I was little we used to go to this place called the family fun spot. It had two different slides but it was so much fun. I loved that place. I used to try and figure how I could get down the slide the fastest. My method is slide on the heels of your feet and arch your back and ride on the shoulders. Less drag! I’m totally going to try and bring that back tomorrow. Let’s see what happens!
What was your fondest memory of water parks?
-Peter