**Mustard Seed Distributed**

Well, today marks the beginning of the 40's for T$. Yes, I was just talking about myself in the third person, and that's dumb. Yesterday, I got many birthday wishes from so many friends and family-thanks to all of you that shared well wishes with me. I got to go watch the HS football games with my bro, dad, and mattsy. We enjoyed an afternoon together in and around the D. What a great way to spend your birthday, no matter the number. So as we were winding up the great day, I wanted to be sure to be back to my parents' house by 7-7:30 because that's when superstar said we would eat dinner. I knew some of her family was coming over, and I caught a ride with JW. As we pulled in to the driveway, for a moment I thought to myself "that's a lot of cars", but nothing more because I wasn't sure who all my mom invited over. But when I came to the door, people were waving me into the house, particularly superstar. Unbenounced to me, friends and family h...

So you have seen the signs out on the yard, the advertisements in the newspaper, the painted sheet hanging from the pole barn, whatever. People inform us of the big four-o in many ways. Forty always seemed like an 'older' adult to me. Until you actually hit it yourself. Now, forty doesn't seem old at all. It feels pretty fantastic to be honest with you. I am (I think) the healthiest I have been since I was in high school-unless of course you want to talk about my back hurting me this week. I feel like I have hit a sweet spot in my life, and I am enjoying nearly every aspect of my life like I have never enjoyed them in the past. I don't feel like forty is old anymore. I feel like it is the best age to be. Top that off with being able to return to MI for Thanksgiving-spending time with family and friends being thankful together. What a treat for your birthday weekend, and what a way to enter the next decade of life. I am thankful for the last 39 years. Each mo...

Yes, it's true. I'm still a gigantic NASCAR fanatic. I love racing. I so appreciate the amount of work that goes into what most people dub: "driving around in circles". Yeah, that's why Ford, Chevy, Dodge, and Toyota pour millions and millions of dollars into the sport. Anywho, a few of my compadres have had a fantasy league for a few years now, and that makes it even more interesting. Again this year, I came up with the championship with a margin of 269 points. I felt kind of like Jimmy Johnson at the end, and here's my post to my competitors that donated their money to the championship purse: I can't say enough about the crew, my sponsors-Red Bull and Belvedere Vodka, Starbucks, and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. Without them, we would not have been able to have the season we did. Although I did feel a bit like Jimmy Johnson during the chase, it was another great year of racing with y'all. Can't say how I'll spend the winning pur...

It is not very often that I get to the movies, and it's only a matter of time availability, because I do enjoy the movies. But this week, the girls' school had a movie night that was put on by the PTA. They showed the movie "UP". So superstar was at an open house for a middle school-yup-we are in the process of finding a middle school for Alli next year-YIKES MORE TO COME-and so I took the girls to the movie night. If you haven't seen UP, you need to. THe amount of parallels to real life are overwhelming. As I sat in the cafeteria with a bunch of students and parents, I couldn't help but be thankful for the school community that our girls ended up at. It was so cool to look around at the people there, say hello to the principal, and of course Liv's awesome teacher, Mr. Tantillo. It was a nice evening to say the least. But I am not sure that anyone else was crying like I was. The emotions I felt as the story line unfolded, and the connections I mad...

Alright. So you're sitting in front of your computer right now. And you're saying to yourself at about 8:00 pm: "Huh. It's been dark out for nearly three and a half hours now. What else can we do for fun?" Well, sir, we have the answer. Take a look at this.

So many things that happened this week, it's hard when I don't take the time to blog about what is happening to keep it all straight in my head. But I can tell you that I did visit Michigan this week, and you would think that it would have been 'like going home'. But it wasn't. It was actually an odd feeling to be there, and only having officially lived in nyc since June, you would think that nyc would not feel like home already. But it does. This is my home. This is my city. This is where I live. This is where I stay. And I love it so. But a couple of observations from my trip-first the boy is so cute, it's sick. It was nice, even if it was only for a few minutes, to bounce him on my knee, to hear him say 'ma', and to hear him giggle. Another observation is the very clear reminder that God gave me the entire time to there and fro that He has put me here for a reason. I helped a guy that shared the row with me on the plane, he was a first tim...

At our school, we provide a 'moral focus' aspect to our students' education. We teach a moral virtue each month, and provide students some guidance on what those aspects look like in our school, in our community, and in our world. As part of this learning, we have an assembly daily where the entire school community gathers to focus on this learning. This month, as would be expected, is 'GRATITUDE.' (Shout out to tmp for thanksgiving thursdays this month.) And over the last three weeks or so, our communitas planning team challenged each other, or was it pastor that challenged us? Anywho - here is the gig. Wake up each day and pray the prayer "Jesus, reveal yourself to me today." It's a simple prayer when you say it out loud, in your head, or write it in your journal. Anyway you look at it, it's simple. And why is it surprising to me that Jesus doesn't respond to my asking over the last few weeks with some gigantimous event, but putting...

So this morning, superstar, pastor, the razorback and I made our way over to prospect park. Star, pastor, and I participated in the 'Fuggetaboutit 5k'. No-I mean for real. That was the name of it. I have the shirt to prove it. Razorback is a little more ath a letic than we are, so he participated in the duathalon. That was a 5k, a 14 mile bike ride, then another 5k. He came in fifth overall, and it was really cool to cheer him on, I think he enjoyed the competition much. I also thoroughly enjoyed the competition....with myself. My time this race was 30:57-the last one was 34:06. So much improvement. If it weren't for that gigantic hill in the last mile, I think I could have cut even more time off. So here is a photo of the three winners. Notice the trophy in superstar's hand-she won first overall for the women. You don't see the pedometers we all three won for being first in our age division. But you can see the medals we are wearing. Those are actually meda...

You would think that with a post title like that, this would be a 'dark' and gloomy post. But it isn't really. Moving this far East has changed the dynamic of so many things in our lives as we traverse this grand city daily. One major difference that is quickly realizable from the earliest moments of the day to the latest moments you can remember laying in your bed is the fact that we are located on the Eastern end of the Eastern time zone. Living in MI, we were on the Westernmost end of the Eastern time zone. So, particularly during the summer months, daylight could last until nearly 11 pm. But the late fall/through winter stages of daylight savings really didn't mean much on the savings end. But here in Brooklyn, even when I awake at the early morning hours I keep, I am not greeted by complete darkness from the moment I wake until later in the day when I happen to look out a window at school. No. I am greeted by a glorious sunrise in the Eastern sky out out b...