Riding the rails

My kids love to play with trains.  So for the past couple of months, I’ve been working on making them a train table as a Christmas present for their Thomas the Tank Engine trains.  Most of the ones for sale in stores are too expensive and rather small anyway.  I wanted something that all four of them could use at the same time and have plenty of room.  I used a 64″ x 32″ piece of plywood as the table top; some 1″ x 4″ wood planks for the sides, support beams and part of the legs; and 1″ x 3″ wood planks for the other part of the legs.  Here are some pictures of the work in progress and the finished table.

First, I penciled an outline of what I wanted the top to look like.  Since just having land would be rather boring, I made a lake with a river “flowing” through the land.  The outline of the water area can be seen below.

After the top was finished, I painted the legs, sides and braces a bright red.  Here is the bottom of the table complete with sides and braces.

Now to make sure the legs are lined up correctly…

And here is the finished table, complete with trains ready to roll!

From the top

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!

“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. ¹⁰And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹²And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

¹⁵When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. ¹⁷And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. ¹⁸And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. ²⁰And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”

Praise Songs vs. Hymns

(too good to pass up)

An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the big city church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was. “Well,” said the farmer. “It was good. They did something different, however. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns.”

“Praise choruses?” asked the wife. “What are those?” “Oh, they’re okay. They’re sort of like hymns, only different,” said the farmer. “Well, what’s the difference?” asked the wife.

The farmer said, “Well it’s like this . . . if I were to say to you, ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ well that would be a hymn. If, on the other hand, I were to say to you,

‘Martha, Martha, Martha, Oh, Martha, MARTHA, MARTHA, the cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the black cows, the white cows, the black and white cows, the COWS, COWS, COWS are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, in the CORN, CORN, CORN, COOOOORRRRRNNNNN.’

Then, if I were to repeat the whole thing two or three times, well that would be a praise chorus.”

As luck would have it, the exact same Sunday a young, new Christian from the city church attended the small town church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was. “Well,” said the young man, “It was good. They did something different, however. They sang hymns instead of regular songs.” “Hymns?” asked the wife. “What are those?” “They’re okay. They’re sort of like regular songs, only different,” said the young man. “Well, what’s the difference?” asked the wife.

The young man said, “Well it’s like this … If I were to say to you, ‘Martha, the cows are in the corn,’ well that would be a regular song. If on the other hand, I were to say to you,

Oh Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry
Inclinest thine ear to the words of my mouth.
Turn thou thy whole wondrous ear by and by
To the righteous, glorious truth.

For the way of the animals who can explain
There in their heads is no shadow of sense,
Hearkenest they in God’s sun or his rain
Unless from the mild, tempting corn they are fenced.

Yea those cows in glad bovine, rebellious delight,
Have broke free their shackles, their warm pens eschewed.
Then goaded by minions of darkness and night
They all my mild Chilliwack sweet corn chewed.

So look to that bright shining day by and by,
Where all foul corruptions of earth are reborn.
Where no vicious animal makes my soul cry
And I no longer see those foul cows in the corn.

Then, if I were to do only verses one, three and four, and change keys on the last verse, well that would be a hymn.”

(HT: James)

Music Monday – Mary, Did you Know?

And the winner is….

Congratulations to Gabriel R!  You’ve won a free copy of N.D. Wilson’s book, Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl.

Stay tuned for more book giveaways hopefully next month.

Book Review – Big Truths for Young Hearts

They say the true test of understanding a subject is being able to teach it to others.  I’ve discovered through parenting that being able to teach a subject to children is an even greater test.  You have to strip concepts down to bare basics in order to build further understanding on top of this foundation.  For many topics this is a challenge, perhaps none more important and challenging than theology.  We want to instill a knowledge, love and understanding for the things of God in our children, but quite honestly often stumble and search for the right words to teach them.

In Big Truths for Young Hearts, Bruce A. Ware does a phenomenal job of presenting these truths of Scripture in a manner that is understandable to children.  The book, targeted to children ages 9 and up, covers the following topics:

-God’s Word and God’s Own Life as God
-God as Three in One
-Creator and Ruler of All
-Our Human Nature and Our Sin
-Who Jesus Is
-The Work that Jesus Has Done
-The Holy Spirit
-Our Great Salvation
-The Church of Jesus Christ
-What Will Take Place in the End

Each topic is covered in six, bite-size chapters, with a couple of discussion questions and a relevant memory verse at the end of each chapter.  While Ware writes from a more Reformed theological perspective, much of what he presents is very basic doctrine and does not go into doctrines such as election, predestination, or various interpretations of eschatology.  Because of this, he is able to focus more on the fundamentals of the Christian faith without getting bogged down in what, for the target age group, could be very confusing nuances.

I appreciated the respect that he shows to his young readers and their parents by not watering down each topic with the overuse of illustrations.  Too many children’s books oversimplify the truths of Scripture to make the book more appealing. Ware goes straight to the Scriptures in patiently discussing and explaining harder-to-grasp truths.  I will say that this book is probably not one that an average 9-year old could sit down to read alone and understand completely.  I would recommend, as Ware does in his introduction, that parents and children read it together, allowing time for “discussing these rich truths.” (p.14) It is also good for discussion in group settings such as in a Sunday School class.  Our church uses this book for a Wednesday evening children’s class and both teachers have commented to me that the book is an excellent resource.

Big Truths for Young Hearts is an excellent book for teaching the fundamentals of faith not only to children, but for any person seeking to get a better grasp of Biblical doctrine.  I would highly recommend this book without reservation.

(Many thanks to Crossway for providing a review copy of this book.)

Books, books & more books!

I am rather pleased with myself.  At the beginning of 2009, I made a goal to read at least 12 books during the year.  I just finished #30!  This achievement was partly fueled by the availability of audiobooks at our local library.  Since I have about a 25 minute commute to work each day (one way), I decided to make the most of my time by listening to books.  Of the 30 books this year, 14 of them have been audiobooks.  Another contributing factor is the prospect of free books.  This year, I joined several different book review blogger programs with such publishers as Thomas Nelson, Bethany House, & Crossway.  If you like to read and write book reviews, I’d highly recommend checking out each of these publishers’ programs.

The topics for my books have mostly fallen into either theology or history, especially around the period of the founding of America.  A few of the books have been about the Civil War period or events/people surrounding the Civil War.  The best book by far that I read this year was David McCullough’s Truman.  This is an excellent biography of our 33rd president.  In addition to Truman, I was able to read books on Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, and Reagan.

In addition to matching this year’s book count, I want to specifically read more on our presidents.  So, 5 down 39 to go!  My reading list for next year is already starting to take shape.  Here’s what’s on it so far:

1. Finding Darwin’s God, by Kenneth Miller
2. On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetary, by Robert M. Poole
3. Sacred Friendships: Celebrating the Legacy of Women Heroes of the Faith, by Robert W. Kelleman and Susan M. Ellis.
4. Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America’s First Civil Rights Movement, by Fergus M. Bordewich
5. Housing America: Building Out of a Crisis, edited by Benjamin Powell and Randall Holcombe
6. Abigail Adams: A Life, by Woody Holton
7. Where is God? Finding His Presence, Purpose  and Power in Difficult Times, by Dr. John Townsend
8. The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith (I’ve been working on recording this one for almost 3 years now and hopefully this will be the year it will be finished!)

That’s all I have for certain right now.  Are there any books on U.S. Presidents (or any for that matter) you would recommend?

Music Monday – Rose of Bethlehem

Continuing the Advent theme, here is Selah’s Rose of Bethlehem.

Book Giveaway – Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl

In Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl, N.D. Wilson has written a book unlike any other book I’ve read.  Analogies, metaphors and colorful descriptions fill the book in Wilson’s feeble attempt to describe both the wonder of creation and the glory of the Creator.  I say “feeble” because that is exactly how Wilson would describe it.  Throughout the book, he is awestruck by the glory of God and wants to pull everyone aside in his unorthodox, sometimes irreverent manner to join him in his reverie. But it is this constant “wide-eyed wonder” that will leave you breathless, laughing, and dumbfounded at the sheer amazement of the world and the God whose glory is only dimly reflected in it.

I’ll be giving away a copy of Wilson’s book next week.  The deadline for entering the drawing is Thursday night by midnight, December 10, 2009.  To be entered in the drawing to win Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl, you can do one or more of the following.  For each method you use, you’ll receive one entry into the drawing (3 entries possible).

1. Post a comment below.
2. Link to this post from your blog.
3. On Twitter, RT “@Eskypades: Book Giveaway! Enter to win at http://wp.me/pzfPF-8X”

I’ll randomly select the winner sometime Friday afternoon, Dec.11, 2009.  (Giveaway is open to US residents only.)

If it’s worth doing…

It’s amazing the things that can turn into object lessons.  Take, for example, a house remodeling project.

A few months ago, we decided to put some tile in our two bedrooms in the basement.  “No problem,” I thought.  Considering the other projects I’ve embarked upon in our house, I should have known better.  See, sometime in our house’s past, some remodeling was done by the previous owners and, well, let’s just say the result sucked.

Anyway, I went to work pulling up the old, smelly carpet along with the padding and tack boards (or whatever they’re called).  So far so good.  Except that in one room, a closet had been built and framed ON TOP of the carpet.  Slightly peeved that I could not get ALL the carpet out, I took pliers in hand and worked to pull as much carpet as I could out from underneath the closet wall.  Then I noticed that the baseboards (which had to come out too) were ALSO framed in by the closet.  After giving it some thought, I decided to just tear down the whole closet, take out the carpet and base boards and then put the closet back up.  Once I got the drywall off, I also noticed that the wood used to make the closet was dirty, rotten, and generally looked like it was pulled off a scrap heap somewhere.  So much for a simple tiling project.

All this time, Carlos had been watching the progress in the room, making comments, asking questions and helping out whenever he could.  He asked “Papi, why do you have to take the closet out?” or “Is that supposed to look like that?”  I seized this opportunity to try and teach him that when you set out to do something, you should try to do right the first time.  If not, either you or someone else will have to fix the mistake.  I pointed out the rotten wood and showed him the kind of wood that should have been used.  “Do you think if we do something lazily that we are doing it with all our strength like the Bible encourages us to do?” I asked.  Carlos looked at me as if I were nuts and said an emphatic “No!”

Sometimes I need to be reminded of such a lesson.  Last night, after building the closet frame and putting it in place, I noticed that I had repeated an error from the previous closet – not aligning it with the stud in the wall.  I considered trying to rig it so that I wouldn’t have to take the whole frame down but my own words came back to haunt encourage me, “Do you think if we do something lazily that we are doing it with all our strength like the Bible encourages us to do?”  I was basically being lazy in not wanting to rebuild part of the frame, even when I had enough wood already.  But I knew that fixing the problem and not just covering it up was the correct, albeit harder thing to do.  And by doing this, I’ll hopefully provide an example to my kids of practicing what I preach.