jason evans

Paige and I found this cool site called odosketch, which allows you to "paint" online Some people have done some pretty cool stuff. This is Paige's first attempt:

My kids and I are digging Storybird. We made up a story together yesterday morning and Paige is working on another right now. Check out our first storybird here:

Since the whole family has been home sick this week, we've ended up watching a lot of movies in bed. The kids got to pick out a lot of them. We've really enjoyed several of Hayao Miyazaki's movies-My Neighbor Totoro is amazing! But a series that we all really dig is Pancake Mountain. It's like a dance show meets the Muppets. It's got great humor and good guest bands. Our kids don't get why other kids don't know about this. When they have friends spend the night, they'll often want to watch something in the morning and ours kids will enthusiastically offer up Pancake Mountain. Most other kids just stare at the screen with an odd look on their face. For some reason, our kids love it and so do we. Heck, their theme song is performed by Anti-Flag! Come on! Citizen Video now carries all of them. You should check it out.

To give you a taste, here's The Evens performing "Vowel Movement" on Pancake Mountain:

I almost always get up before everyone else in our family. While it is still dark, our little ones crawl out of bed, walk down the hall and crawl into our bed, faces snuggled as close as possible to the smell and sense of their mother's hair. Matty will ask if it's a school day and fall back to sleep. I then get up. I walk into the kitchen. I pour a cup of water to drink and start the water to make coffee. I will sit down, sip my water, journal/read the morning office/check email in no particular order. I then make my coffee and start what I have found to be a wonderfully fulfilling spiritual practice: I make my kids' lunches.

I pull out the bread from the cupboard and the peanut butter from the fridge and I remember what it was like to be a child. And through the whole methodical process I find myself remembering and praying, praying and remembering. Every time I finish I feel so complete and privileged to be father to these two children and to be a child of God.

I realized just a few days ago that I've started to get up before everyone else for a reason, I want to make lunches. I don't want Brooke to do it. I want to do it. Because of the experience it has become for me. It nourishes my soul. It starts my day rooted in who I am and what my purpose is. I am a son, I grew up got married and with my bride we created these two people. I am now the father, the teacher of these two little ones. I often tell new parents, "Your children are your greatest disciples... Don't forget that this is your calling, to disciple these children in the way of Jesus." I remember those words for myself when I make lunches on weekday mornings.

What about you? What nourishes your soul? Farrington writes that these things that nourish our souls are spiritual disciplines or practices that must be incorporated into our routine. How often are those things that balance us just a "treat"? How often are those things excluded or un-prioritized simply because they do not fit with our ideas of the American Dream or a "healthy" work ethic or your busy schedule? This isn't some new Evangelical twist on spiritual practices. Read Brother Lawrence's, The Practice of the Presence of God and you will find much the same principle as Farrington's.

Stop and reconsider today. Let your soul be fed.