Small Victories

One of my favorite courses and topics has been Organizational Development and Change Management Principles. As our world continues to change faster than change itself, being able to keep up and ahead of the curve is near impossible. A great book by John Kotter titled, The Heart of Change, walks through eight critical steps in implementing wholesale change. One of those steps is all about creating short-term wins during long-term projects. The idea is that small victories create momentum and in-turn keeps the motivation going to tackle the next project.

Today was one of those days. For the first time in over 9 months, both of our cars were able to sit in our garage. Silly? Yes. Mental victory? Without question! :) Having finally gone through almost all of our things, sorting out what to keep, what to give to friends, give to charity, and what to pitch, we were able to consolidate our stuff and our garage is all but clean. Here's to a little victory, and one small step closer to the goal.

Oh, and the irony of it all? My poor little car still had to sleep outside for one more night as I have an early morning coffee appointment with a friend and don't want to wake the kids. I felt bad for her as I rolled her out of her long lost home!

Preparing For Rain

A week or so ago, we watched a very inspiring movie titled "Facing the Giants," written and produced by a church in Georgia. We would highly recommend it to everyone to see! http://www.facingthegiants.com/

Though certainly not a Hollywood production (which actually was rather refreshing), it had a very powerful message to share that has both encouraged and inspired us. As the title indicated, facing the giants is about trusting in the Lord and believing in Him when the "giants" of life come before us and we want to shrink away. There are obvious connections to the story of David and Goliath.

In this movie, there was a great illustration of faith in action that really stuck with us - It was the concept of "preparing for rain." It's illustrated in this story: "There were two farmers, both praying for rain for their crops. After praying, one farmer believed and waited for it to rain; the other famer believed and began to prepare his fields FOR the rain."

It is one thing to pray and say "God make this happen." It is another to believe God will answer, and to prepare for His action; being ready to receive what we prayed for.

For us, that principle has really encouraged us lately! It is clearly illustrated in our desire to move. We love and are so grateful for our current home, but we've been feeling led for quite some time to move to a different place. We have two main reasons for feeling moved this way - more space and location. Obviously we've got a growing family we need to accomodate, but we also are passionate for the ministry of community and would love to have a more ideal space in which to host small groups, get togethers and the like (maybe a basement and a slightly bigger living room?). And of course it would be wonderful to be all the more closer to church, work, doctors, etc. And with that same passion for community, we would also be closer to the people we fellowship with.

With these things, we are purposing to begin that journey - A journey that we probably rushed last year as it crashed and burned since we did not wait on God's timing (and now looking back, we are thankful He didn't allow us to rush, although it was a painful lesson for us). But now we feel called to prepare for rain. If God is leading, He will bring it to pass. We simply want to be ready for the day the rain comes. How are we preparing? Currently we are attempting to get our house ready to list, consolidating our stuff and clutter, moving some things to storage for a temporary time, painting, and doing minor maintenance and repair. For several years now, we've felt a strong leading to a new community here called Banning Lewis Ranch - it looks like our oppotunity may come in the next couple of months with it. When it opens (it's only been in planning stages for years now) we feel we will probably have a clear answer of where to move. For now, we are simply waiting, trusting, and preparing for His rain to fall.

Baylie's First Haircut

Sniffle! I had to give Baylie her first hair cut today! Her hair was getting so long and pretty, but the bottom was real fuzzy and of course it was all different lengths since it had never been cut. So it's now just above her shoulders and so cute! It makes her look older. I can't wait until it grows out again, but at least it will be healthy and strong now!

You Went Where?

As we are in the habit of occasionally doing, this past weekend, we picked a place on the map and decided to check out what was there. The place for our latest adventure? The John Martin Reservoir in South Eastern Colorado. Most of our trips tend towards the mountains and so we decided to head east for a change.

Although, perhaps, not our most exciting trip we did enjoy lunch in La Junta, walking out on a large dam holding in the reservoir, and playing on the toys. Oh, and of course, an outing wouldn't be quite complete for Mr. Hunter if we didn't take along the baseball gear and go a few innings. Somehow he always manages to rig the rules in a way enabling him to win.

Here are a few pictures from our day (remember to click on the picture to see it bigger).

Standing on top of the dam

Matt playing baseball with the kids


Baylie loves to swing!!

Hunter Turns 4!!

Though not quite Carmelo Anthony, Hunter has been working on his jumpshop of late after receiving a basketball hoop for his birthday. There is some debate in the Lindell houshold as to who plays with the hoop more (Hunter or daddy). They've developed quite a game; seeing who can score 12 baskets first (Hunter chose 12)...and yes, Hunter wins about 80% of the time, not bad for a four year-old (real bad for a 29-something).

Speaking of being 4, Hunter had a whale of a day as only he can. We started off with the basketball hoop, and of course, momma's famous biscuits and gravy. In addition to the basketball hoop, Hunter also got a soccer goal; basically a sports theme if you hadn't guessed. So, we spent most of the morning alternating between basketball and soccer, and at times both. Our living room is feeling really small! The good news is that we haven't broken anything...yet.

That evening we had pizza, it was going to be mac&cheese and hotdogs but Hunter decided to upgrade. Oh, and of course cake and ice cream. As you can see, the CARS movie is still a favorite. The last big surprise of the day was the anticipation of a new swing set that should arrive later this month as the weather finally turns warmer.

All in all, we daily thank God for Hunter and the passion that he brings to each day and each situation. We marvel at his joy and enthusiasm and can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for this year.

Jinxed

Riding a 30-game home-winning streak, the USAFA Falcons were looking to close out their regular season with a win. Unbeknownst to them, they'd run into their toughest oppenent yet; the bad luck coming from high up in the rafters... that of the Lindell boys.

Having been given the free tickets earlier that day, and never having been to a Falcons basketball game, Hunter and Daddy found their place in the line of hundreds of cars crawling up to the top of a bluff that houses Clune Areana. What we didn't know was that we'd be parking nearly a mile a way, and we'd get to hike through the cold and snow (ok just flurries but it adds an element of drama). Inside, and through the metal detectors we found our seats just a few rows from the top. Once situated, it took Hunter a while to adjust to the noise eminating from the sell-out crowd and all of the activities going on.

Oh, and there was a basketball game going on, and a pretty good one at that! Everytime the crowd cheered, Hunter asked "who scored?" to which I typically replied, "no one, the ball just went out of bounds" - which was another concept I got to teach him. The hardest lessons were attempting to explain why, especially in the second half when the Falcons fell behind, everyone kept "booing" the refs. Hunter didn't think it was very nice that the crowd made a ton of noise and waved their arms while the other team shot free-throws. But I did get him to belt out one of his world famous "ROOOAAAARRR!"'s towards the end.

Final score: BYU 62 - USAFA 58

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Musashi's

Though typically not "exotic" in our food choices, and especially restaurant destinations, we let some friends talk us into a Japanese experience at Musashi's. The dining experience is built around the chef preparing the dinner at your table and putting on a small show in the process; throwing knives, playing with fire; that sort of thing. Our chef was definitely from the JV roster and a bit nervous, but we enjoyed and appreciated his efforts nonetheless. In addition, the other wild card is that if you don't go with a large group, you may get sat next to any strange yahoo that might have had the same idea of dinner locales. What is the proper etiquette when put in such a situation? Do you engage them, ignore them, or merely tolerate them; esp., as was our case, when they (or the chef) say some pretty inane things? Fortunately for us, the "weirdos" weren't sitting directly with us but at the table next to ours.

The gals; Tina, Melissa, Michelle (oh and Nathan's water glass for effect)



The food; fried rice, veggies, chicken, and steak.




Matt, eating (and enjoying) the fare with chopsticks. (Brian on the right and Nathan on the left trying to stay anonymous).