One thing about Tennessee that we've experienced that has never been a part of our lives before are hurricanes. Now, by the time they reach us they're nothing more than strong storm systems, but they reach us, nonetheless. I think it rained for almost a week, off and on, at the beginning of July when Hurricane Dennis struck. Now, with Katrina having hit this morning we are looking at it reaching us sometime early morning. Some reports say we could get as much as 4-5" of rain overnight. Winds are expected to be around 35-40 mph in the morning around rush hour, in the midst of the rain. It's not supposed to slow down until after noon.

We made the obligatory Wal-Mart bread & batteries run earlier, and filled up the van (a whopping $50, and it wasn't even completely empty!) while we could. They're predicting gas prices to rise at least 10 cents in the next few days due to the impact on oil production/refinement in the gulf region where Katrina drove through earlier today. I'll be working from home tomorrow, as well. All the schools around here have closed for tomorrow and I really don't feel like fighting 35 mph wind-driven rainy traffic on I-40. It's a mess on normal, dry days, as it is! Hopefully we can get a couple of decent photos in the morning once the sun sort-of comes up.

UPDATE: Well, I wound up waking early and coming to the office about a half hour before I usually do, to beat the traffic. The storm blew through west of us, so things didn't wind up being as bad as predicted. Had to dodge a few fallen branches on the way out & I think it has been raining straight since about 11pm last night, but that's the worst of it.

It's been a nice day at the Ediger house. We had a pretty lazy morning (much needed). I did finally get out to mow our ankle-high yard, which I had neglected for a couple of weeks. Felt good to not have to wake up to an agenda or rush around in the morning for once. I think I appreciate weekends more now than I ever had.

After lunch we took a trip downtown to the library. It's somewhere we like to go at least every other week since discovering it early in the summer. The kids really enjoy it as well, and we always have a hard time limiting what we bring home with us (there's a 25-item checkout limit). Libraries are such great places! We were literally blown away the first time we walked into the Nashville library. I can easily say it is the most amazing library I have ever been in. They remodeled it several years back, I believe, and it is beautiful! We usually get our share of books for the kids, books for us, books on CD or tape (for us or the kids), CDs, videos, DVDs and software. We've even taken the kids there for marionette shows. Good stuff.

This week has been a busy one - busy with homeschool, took in the county fair, work deadlines, church programs, and other outings. Josiah would have had his first fall soccer practice last night, had it not been cancelled due to the rain. Like I said, today was a much needed break from the busyness of the past week.

Well, today ranks up there with great days we've experienced as a family. Josiah's baptism went off without a hitch - he came out of the water all grins (as you can see in the video). We managed to have 2 digital cameras & 2 digital video cameras capturing the event between three different people. Our friend Craig & Barbara leant us the use of their cameras and help shoot video/pics as well. Choose a format to the left to view the video from "behind-the-scenes" viewpoint. We'll get the other video and pictures compiled and probably burnt to DVD sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Micah was cute - Andrea had gone to get him out of extended session so he could come and see his big brother get baptized. He was so excited! Hopefully some of his enthusiasm made it onto one of the videos as he was virtually cheering his brother on during the whole thing. I am so thankful that our pastor, Bruce, allowed me to baptize Josiah and for my first baptism it turned out pretty well, in my opinion. It was really a blur to me as I was so emotional during the whole thing. It was neat to watch it back when we got home to see everything that happened. Enjoy!

We had a great time last night. Spent the evening with our friends Craig & Barbara. They had invited us to go to Centenneal Park with them to celebrate their anniversary this week. We picnicked before enjoying an evening of Shakespeare in the Park ("The Winter's Tale"). It was my first non-Mel Gibson Shakespeare experience and it was a good one. We truly had a great time!

Today has been a pretty easy day. Kids swam, I wrote quite a bit, and we're just now sitting down to finish watching "Return of the King," which we began several days ago. Tomorrow morning I'll be baptizing Josiah at church during the children's emphasis service. Many others (children & adults) are going to be baptized. Not sure that any of them are going to be as nervous as I am - and I'm not even going to get that wet! I've married one couple, buried one person, but never baptized anyone. Josiah and I practiced in the swimming pool today (for his sake & mine) and I think we're good to go. We'll see how things go in the morning! I've got two video cameras lined up (just in case one doesn't work for some reason) - both digital so that I can take the footage and post it here for everyone else to share in this experience with us.

Emerie is her mother's child when it comes to singing. Just from hearing songs sung to her over the course of her short life thus far, she now enjoys breaking into her own renditions at any given time - everything from nursery rhymes to classic hymns. From the budding star ...

Old MacDonald

The ABC Song

'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

Our church is beginning a new eight-week emphasis in September entitled "50 Ways/50 Days to Grow Your Faith." As part of this series each family will be receiving a 'faith can' filled with 50 family devotionals - one to do each day during the emphasis. The devos are being written by several members of the church, including yours truly. Each are relatively short and are focused on some aspect of faith. I had no problem getting the first one done. For some reason I just can't seem to keep my head in the game long enough during the course of a day this week to get the second one I am responsible for done.

I think the thing that struck me a couple of days ago, as I was pondering about what I should write about, is the reality of Hebrews 11:1 ~ "Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen." Man! That emcompasses a lot in my life! There are so many things that I hope for - that I will have a steady (or growing) job at LifeWay for years to come ... that I will grow deeper in love with my beautiful wife over the next ten years as much as I have these last ten years ... that my kids will grow to be deep people of character with a passion for the God they serve. My revelation, of sorts, was the fact that life itself is really all about faith - we simply can't escape it!

Continue reading "The Nature of Faith" »

Beginning with today's post I've started linking the small image to a larger version (800x600) for those of you who want to view/print it

Well, I did it - I survived giving blood this past Sunday without any problems whatsoever. I did my duty and cooked everyone a big breakfast: pancakes, toast, eggs, etc. I can't remember exactly what all I ate that morning, but I was sure to get some food in my body (to avoid the "5am cereal only trying to give blood at Noon" problem from before). It was a pretty cool setup. The Red Cross had a bus equipped with everything they needed inside and they had opened a 10am-3pm window for church members to give. Great idea, I think - and they were giving on behalf of someone a lot of people knew who had been in a car accident a few weeks back. I played hooky from the service since I didn't get done giving until about 11:15am or so. Spent some time visiting with Michael, the youth pastor.

After church we ate lunch at the home of a couple we met a few weeks back when I taught the "Bible Characters with Character" Wednesday night study at the church. Found out that night that they had recently retired (about 3 years ago) to Nashville from Independence, KS, where they had lived for 30+ years. We had a great time eating & visiting with them. It's feeling good to begin to know more people & actually see some familiar faces when we walk into the church each week.

Continue reading "All Blood, No Faint" »

It's been a good day. Had a lot to do at work this morning, but was able to take off a little early when I finished. Of course I actually worked overtime this week due to having to work a little a night to try and keep up with some projects I had. Nevertheless, it was still good to get home early afternoon. Relaxed in the recliner for awhile, until Emerie woke up. Now I'm sitting here posting this while Emerie watches her favorite show, "Dora the Explorer."

I tell you, it is a totally new experience having a baby girl after watching both the boys go through this age. When the boys would watch Dora, or Blues Clues, or any number of the other semi-interactive childrens shows that are so popular these days, they would do just that ... sit and watch. Emerie does just about everything but sit there and watch! Just a second ago she was bouncing on the couch (sorry, hon) saying, "I'm dancing! I'm dancing!" When Dora tells her to say something or do something she obeys whole heartedly! So much fun!

Continue reading "A Whole New Dora" »

Well, we were supposed to be somewhere else right now. Tonight was the night we had determined to begin going to our church's Wednesday night programs. Those plans changed when Micah got sick yesterday and continued to not feel 100% today. Now Emerie is complaining that she has an 'ouwee' while she points to her mouth and throat. Rather than one of us having to go to the church alone with the other kids for our first Wednesday night, we decided to wait until next week when we can all go as a family. It's just as well as everything really doesn't get started until then, anyhow. Tonight was to be a kickoff, of sorts.

I wish I could say that I can now just sit around and relax this evening, but I've got to take advantage of the extra time to make some headway on a web project for work. I've got too many things on my plate right now and the extra couple of hours of work will hopefully put me that much ahead for the remainder of the week. Oh well, guess I have the weekend to look forward to.

I think the only place to begin is saying how great God is! A few weeks ago we were sitting around the dinner table having our family devotional time we try to have after we eat most nights. I was beginning to read through our devotional book we use a lot of times when Josiah interrupted me. He asked, "Dad, are you a Christian?" This isn't the first time he had asked Andrea or I that question, and the ensuing conversation was also not a new one. He wanted to know how old someone had to be to ask Jesus into his life. We told him that we both had done so when we were about 12-13 years old, but that it is different for each person and that he would know when the time was right for him. Again, while we were talking, he interuppted and said, "I just did that - I prayed to God." We asked Him what he said to God and he replied: "I told Him that I was sorry for sinning and that I wanted Him to give me a clean heart and come into my heart."

Continue reading "Another Child in the Kingdom" »

Left a little later for work this morning then usual. Because of this the traffic was heavier than it is only thirty minutes earlier at my usual drive time. Perhaps the only good thing about moving through slow traffic is that it provides me with more time to listen to some good music, and think and pray about where my day is headed. I think this week has got me by the ankles. I feel it tugging, trying to trip me up, determined to loosen my sure footing and send me spiraling downward into stress, anxiety and worry. It's a typical week - just a busy one. And all of these things are crowding in on me. Luckily I'm noticing it, rather than reacting to it, and hopefully that will give me an edge up. I don't know.

Did have a couple of moments this morning that God moved the curtain a little and gave me a glimpse of Him. The first came from a Todd Agnew song entitled "Unchanging One" from his upcoming album Reflection of Something (releases 8.16.05). The lyrics just struck me, enough that as I was mesmerized behind the wheel, half listening to the music & half watching out for crazy drivers around me, that the words caught my attention & caused me to restart the song to listen closer. Here are the words from the chorus...

Continue reading "Thoughts for the Day" »

After a month of not posting anything here, we're back! We've been busy enjoying life, catching up with our many sets of company over the past couple of months, and just, generally, taking a break from feeling guilty at not posting things here as much as we felt we should. At any rate, here we go again...

You'll notice a few things have changed (unless you're viewing this post somewhere other than our home page - if so, check out our new design at www.theedigers.com!). When I put together the last version of our blog I didn't know half of what I do now as far as web design goes. The new version will be streamlined & incorporate more personalized backend code than we have ever had before. What does this mean for you? Probably nothing at all - other than noticing a new look to the site.

Continue reading "We’re Back!" »

Andrea has been asking me for months if I could add a section to our blog where we could post everyday fun things that happen with the kids. These are usually small things - something funny one of them said or did during the course of the day - that would be fun to share with everyone.

Kid's Corner will be that place. Be watching here for the latest quips and quotes from Josiah, Micah and Emerie. Hopefully they will bless your day as they do ours!