What to say?

My boy had his first football game on Saturday.

That's him, in red, in his three point stance, at nose-tackle, ready for the first play of his football career.

Pretty neat experience.

Nik and the three other kids and I were on the sideline with a couple hundred other 'football parents' hootin' and hollerin' and carrying on.  Yes, I was the loudest.

It was our first trip into the world of 'normal' suburban parenthood, where you're up early on a weekend, coffee in hand, to go watch your progeny get 'ahead' in life.

At 10 years old.

Later that day, me and the boy went to a Ti-Cats game.

Gotta' admit the flag and anthem ceremony got to me a bit more than usual.  I chalk it up to advancing years and increasing life-pressures.

As I get older and more weighed-down by all that life demands I find myself appreciating my home country more and more.  I found myself, standing there in the sunshine singing, feeling very thankful to be alive, to be doing what I do, to have my wee family to be raising, a fun and friendly wife to be raising them with, in a great twin-city setting in a province with great potential in a country that's one to be admired around the World.

"Rah, rah..." you're thinking, and I get it, but I gotta' say it was a 'real' moment for me.

Today is Monday, post-Sunday, and it was a bit of a rough one at THE WELL for a couple reasons that I can't get into here.  It was our one-year anniversary and I was really hoping for a ballistic week.  Instead we got a tough one.  You get weeks like that in church planting.  It just takes time for the thing to stabilize and for you to get to the point where the ups and downs aren't radical and you've got enough momentum and people-power in the system to keep things humming at a consistent rate.

A church planter friend of mine in Miami had his 2nd anniversary and another friend in Omaha had his 10th. I was thinking of them and missing them a bit.

There are some exciting things looming at THE WELL.  I'll speak more about that in the weeks to come.  The trick is to follow the Lord's lead, with hope, tenacity, courage, thanksgiving and perfect love that casts out fear.

For today, I'm going to go see about a boat for a bit (next season stuff) and enjoy the sun and the breeze and get me a 'terminator' smoothie to try and stave off the cold that has taken last weeks stress as an invitation to lay me low today.

T