Catching Up

I was calculating in my head how many hours I've been in the office or working since Tuesday morning vs. How many I've been home. I am doing this NOT because I am burned out or feel I've been working too much. I LOVE my job and would do it for nothing if I could still feed, clothe, and shelter, my family. I am doing this because I sincerely miss my wife and son. If it keeps up like this, I am afraid Pam's gonna start wondering whether I love her anymore. I also want to point out that I fully realize that there are a lot of people that work longer, physically harder, and get paid less. I guess I want EVERYONE to know that I am in no way complaining. That being said, this is the story of my last two days.

I arrived at the office at 6:30am on Tuesday took an hour for lunch with Pam, Gabriel, and Nancy, then an hour giving blood (not at home with Pam and Gabriel, but not work either), then a half hour for supper. I got home at 9:30pm Tuesday night. I worked a grand total of 12.5 hours and was with Pam and Gabriel for 1.5 and was home for .5.

I was home from 9:30pm to 9:00am we went to bed as usual at 10:30pm. That takes our totals to work 12.5 hours and home 12 hours. Awake at home (having woken up at 7:30 because I slept in) 3 hours. Seeing Gabriel awake at home (him not waking up until 8 all week) to 1.5 hours. Then I didn't actually start work until 10:30 because Pam and Gabriel and I went for a walk in Davenport and stopped at Menard's to look for some stuff. Now total time at home is 12 hours, total time with family is 15 hours, total awake time with Pam is 4.5 hours, total awake time with Gabriel is 3 hours. I got to the office at 10:30 took .5 for lunch and didn't come home again until 8:30 this morning because some of the youth, who are on spring break, stayed at the office overnight to watch movies and play video games, and eat pizza. Total work time now is 34.5 hours. I got home and showered and went back to work (this time escaping to Mojo's) I was home for 1 hour. Now I've been working for .75 hours and
.25 hours writing this. Our Grand Totals are as follows:

Work = 35 hours 15 minutes
Home = Home 13.5 hours
Awake at Home = 5.5 hours
Awake at Home with both Pam and Gabriel awake with me = 4.5 hours

A couple of points:

*I may have the only job in the world where eating pizza, watching movies, and playing games can be called work.

*Counting Sunday's 6-7 hours and the hours I do today, tomorrow, and Saturday I'll have worked a relatively normal amount of hours for a person.

*I love my job

A couple of more important points that I want to reiterate:

*I miss my three family members a lot. If you miss a day of Gabriel's life at this point, it seems you are missing BIG things. I also wasn't woken up last night by my up and coming child kicking me through my wife's belly (that doesn't mean I wasn't woken up by someone else's child kicking me). I also miss my wife and just hearing her tell me about what's going on. Apparently she is meeting some people from her "Care of Candidates" committee to talk about not being a "Divinity" student anymore or something like that. "Care of Candidates" is in "" because it's been 3 years + some and they haven't really seemed to "Care" at all until Pam decided to change direction. Ask any one of them and I'll bet you that they wouldn't have a clue as to what mine or Gabriel's names are without having to look it up. Anyway, that is a whole different blog.

*I am not upset about the way things have been this week at all. I just like to inform people that the leaders of the church sometimes work on days other than Sunday.

*I know that Doug has had many weeks busier than this. I definitely don't want people to think that this is a typical worship/youth pastor way of being. Doug does 10 times the array of stuff that I do.

*Did anyone notice that my blog look is different. I made it up completely on my own. Yeah. That's right. I should start my own site called coolestblogontheblock.com.

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Toothpaste

This is a blog that is long overdue. Three weeks ago Pam and I purchased a brand new, fat bottle of toothpaste. We use the tubes that you squeeze and roll up because I think they're cheaper. Anyway, we are still using the old toothpaste. Every night I have to seriously squeeze in just the right places to get just a tiny bit of toothpaste out onto my brush. I have had to start squeezing so hard that my knuckles turn white, then purple, then a gross gray color that makes me think that I may lose my finger.

Some might say, "Joel, why don't you just change the old to new?" I consider this Pam's call. She is in charge of the books and has this thing for the challenge of trying to make toothpaste tubes thinner than paper. I even saw her using a rolling pin the other night on it.

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It Only Takes a Spark

So I got a rather odd song request this week after church. I was asked if we could sing "It Only Takes a Spark". They said that the song is their favorite and they would really love it if we could play it at church. Typically I would laugh and think "NO WAY AM I PLAYING THAT SONG". But more and more lately, God is revealing to me that my opinion on song selection is obviously not shared by everyone. In fact, I am realizing that there are very few people that REALLY appreciate the things in music that I do. Now, I don't think that my appreciations for things in music are any better than anyone Else's what-so-ever. I do think that they tend to be vastly different. That being the case, and my strong convictions that style of music matters zero to how a church should function in worship, I am considering doing a special music with this song. NOT for that person of course, but for all who think that Chris Tomlin and Paul Baloche are the very people God sent to this earth to teach us what TRUE worship is. I am putting a poll on the side of my blog. I would like your votes. I will put a number of songs, each with somewhat different styles, and you pick the ones that you would prefer in church. Your opinion will matter as much as mine, which is not much, but it will be fun in any case. Thanks.

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