A Slower Pace

I usually post pictures of our beautiful KY sunsets but tonight we ARE the sunset. A weird combination of sunset and very low hanging cloud cover have tinged the entire landscape first in yellow then gold then red and now violet. The kids were even asking what’s going on.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Yesterday my son excitedly called me at work to tell me that one of our chickens laid the first egg. He was so excited! Along with our abundantly producing garden, we sure are enjoying God’s provision through our chickens.

My wife made the brown egg (see the picture above) for my son for breakfast this morning and he said it was the best egg he ever had. Pretty funny. I can’t wait for more.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Throughout all of the news regarding the Colorado shooting, my blog post of that morning about Jesus being the light in our dark world becomes even more true. Now I take no credit for the timing because when I posted that entry I hadn’t heard about the incident yet. And while the event was the result of an evil individual, God specializes in taking broken, wounded, hurt, thrown away, and seemingly irretrievable people, circumstances and events and redeeming them with His perfect love into things that are loving, charitable, worthy, good and true. And while I have no idea how He plans to do that with this recent shooting, I know — Scripture tells me — that it is in His hands and He will turn it into something for His glory.

This blog piece exemplifies that — http://aminiatureclaypot.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/so-you-still-think-god-is-a-merciful-god/. She is a survivor of this shooting and is being used in His plan.

I love, love, love her statement:

God is always good.

Man is not.

Don’t get the two confused.

I encourage you to click on the link and go read her inspirational blog post.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Last night we had a string of storms sweep through. Some rain, high winds, lots of dark clouds and lightning/thunder every second or so. A few strikes hit the back property and there was not much gap between the flash and thunderclap.

As the storm departed it was very dark all around except for one section in the front yard which revealed beautiful clouds penetrated by light.

My son said that it looked like Jesus was returning to earth. I was thinking the same thing — but more metaphorically in Him being the light in our very dark world.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

This is the scene that greeted me this morning as I made my way to work. God’s handiwork for a new day.

I love living in the country!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I received this email from my wife recently that got me thinking. We all need someone to encourage and motivate us.

D came with me this morning on my walk. He is a GREAT motivator. Yesterday I ran in between mailboxes, today he pushed me to do 9 mailboxes! I thought I was going to pass out. He kept saying things like, “You are one semi truck away from the mailbox. You are one moving truck away. Now you’re one Suburban away. Now you’re only a Corvette away.”

Pretty funny. Had a yogurt and one 1/4 cup pancake, coffee. That’s it. I feel like I have tons of energy even though I had little sleep. Gotta keep this up! I don’t want to fail!!

So who encourages and motivates you?

An even bigger question is…..who are YOU encouraging and motivating?

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

My normal routine is to get up at 5:15am and do some cardio down in the basement on the eliptical machine. However, this morning my wife got up with me and we decided to walk our 2 mile country road. We have done walks together but I have never done one this early or when it was this dark.

We headed down the driveway and I took a look east to be wowed by God’s spectacular but quiet sky show. He had hung the beautiful crescent moon right above the treeline and sprinkled bright Venus and light Jupiter above it. The picture below doesn’t do it justice because in real life they dominated the eastern sky. I actually commented to my wife that I was impressed.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

A fellow co-worker had a great idea a few weeks ago. Our work is very close to the Ohio River and there is a boat launch about a quarter mile away. So he brought in his canoe and we had a maiden voyage back in June. It was so successful and fun that we both brought in our canoes today and took ’em out. We paddled about 1/2 mile down river to check out a barge that was offloading its cargo. We saw lots of fish jumping, didn’t get sunburned because of the nice cloud cover, and were able to get some exercise while we were at it. It was a very nice way to spend a Friday lunch.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

This came directly from my Dad.

How do you tell a Romney supporter from an Obama supporter?
Romney supporters sign their checks on the front.
Obama supporters sign on the back.

And they say that the best humor always has truth to it.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

This year for the 3rd annual Thunder Over Finchville the weather cooperated just a little bit better than last year. Although it was the 2nd hotter day EVER recorded in Louisville at 106F (the all time record is 107F degrees), at least it didn’t pummel down rain like it did last year.

This year’s shoot was bigger and we had the luxury of several remote control firing systems. Last year’s improvement was a control board but this year we took it even further. It is so nice to be able to put something like this on. We had many folks who we were blessed to share it with — family friends, my son’s Scout troop, neighbors, folks from church, friends from Emmaus — and even though the weather was scorching, the pool was full of water and kids, the patio was shaded, our home was air conditioned and the food was plenty.

Below is a short video snippet of part of the intro queue — and that was just the beginning. One of our guests is a local videographer who happened to have some of his professional gear in his truck. He broke it out and captured quite a bit of footage that I hope I will be able to share here soon. Until then, enjoy my lame iPhone vid snippet.

2012 Thunder Over Finchville Introduction – A Slappy McSploder/ dangerson/ Fire Dyer production from suburbanviking on Vimeo.

While it is a few days late, Happy Birthday Lady Liberty and America!!!!!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net