Category: family

Here’s a highlight video from Paul’s first soccer game. If you look closely you’ll see him doing some sweet karate moves. 4 year olds playing soccer closely resembles rugby at times with a big pile of kids tackling one another and then someone emerging with the ball to score. Good times for everyone.

This is probably only a big massive deal to Kristen and I. But yesterday I took our checkbook over to the Village of Romeo and Bruce Township offices and paid our summer taxes. Just because we were so proud that we were actually ready to pay a little early, we decided to actually pay a week early to alleviate the stress of September 15th for us.

September 15th is a cuss word in our house
Kristen and I learned a valuable lesson about buying a house, one which we hope we’ll never repeat. We closed on our house on September 15th, 2005 and that happened to to coincide with "tax day" in our community. Practically, what that means is that we have a lot of bills due on the same day. We pay our annual homeowners insurance, quarterly IRS tax payment, village and township summer taxes, and all our regular monthly bills on September 15th. It equates to about 3 months family wages due on the same day. It’s not stressful for us anymore because we know about it and plan for it. (Like this year, we’ve paid early) But it takes a year’s worth of saving to make sure we are ready for September 15th… (you have to say it with hushed tones.)

Celebration
So last night Andrea came over to watch the kids so we could go celebrate. We didn’t do anything spectacular, just dinner and walking around a bookstore for a couple of hours… but we had an extra spring in our step. I absolutely love accomplishing a goal. And to accomplish an annual goal even 1 week early feels especially good.

From the moment that we found out we were pregnant (OK, Kristen was pregnant) with Megan we’ve heard the phrase "It goes by so fast…"

Today Paul has his 4th birthday party. (He turned 4 on August 8th) And it has gone by too fast. I’ve never claimed to like the "baby stage" of life and I’m greatly looking forward to doing dad things with a "big boy." But at the same time I look at him and think, "Man, you were just born a few weeks ago!"

Here’s a couple of things I love about Paulie.

• I love wrestling with him… he’s got cool moves.
• He loves his mommy… maybe too much sometimes.
• He tells great stories.
• He’s infatuated with growing up and being "big" like dad. He always wants to do stuff on his own right before he’s big enough. That shows some emerging character.
• He’s super smart. He can write his name, he’s working on what letter makes what sound to spell stuff and loves math!
• He loves music. Both our kids like music… but Paul loves to sing the songs from KidsTown, privately.
• He’s got the most infectious laugh.
• He loves to climb stuff… he would be a mountain climber when he grows up, but he doesn’t want to leave mommy.
• The thing he loves more than mommy… eating. We’ve joked since the day he was born that the only reason he wakes up is to eat. Just about the first thing he says every morning is, "Mommy, what can I eat?"
• When he gets excited, he pants like a dog.
• He plays with his sister. Sure they fight sometimes… but I love watching them play together.
• He is very teachable. We have two "McLane things" about competing. When we race, "Winner don’t look backwards." And when we wrestle, "We never give up."
• He’s very funny when playing the Wii. It needs to be seen to believe.
• He will play dress-up with his sister. This won’t last long, but we’ve got pictures!
• He makes super silly faces. A lot of people think he is shy. But at home, he’s got some serious acting potential.

I could list stuff I love about Paul all day! He’s my favorite little boy in the world and I love telling him that I love him best. (Of course, I tell Megan I like her best too!)

This week my kids tagged along on my favorite youth group trip of the year, we just call it "Michigan’s Adventure." Actually, it’s a camping trip where we spend one day at a small amusement park and one day canoing in rural Michigan.

Kristen and I spent all day Monday at the park hanging out with our kids. What was so fun is the expression on Paul’s face as he experienced his first roller coasters. He went on all the rides they would let him on and just squealed with joy as they twisted, turned, dropped, and spun. When we got off the big swing thing I asked Paul about it and he said, "This is my favorite, I felt my butt go in the air." It was then we knew we had created a monster! Later, I took Megan on the kids roller coaster called "Zack’s Zoomer." As soon as we were done we decided to try it with Paul… and he loved it! In fact, he made us get right back on it and do it again.

Being a youth pastor is unlike a lot of gigs out there in that my "work" needs to see my family. It may seem like a cheesy excuse to bring my kids, but it is clear that it is healthy for my kids to be around my work. I don’t do it often but this is one trip they get to come on.

Having them along for the ride (and other events where we invite the whole family) is helping me see the importance of this thing called "family ministry" and it’s relationship to a healthy youth ministry.

My dad was visiting this weekend and left earlier this afternoon.

Next thing I know, the entire family fell into a spontaneous nap. I woke up an hour or two later to find Kristen, Megan, Paul, Stoney, Explorer, and Lovely all crashed in various places in the living room.

There is just something about Sunday’s.

After some drought conditions, the last several days have been quite rainy in the Romeo area. I still think we are behind on rain for the year but we are back on the right track.

As a result, this morning the grass was noticeable perkier in the backyard. Instead of seeing patches of green among the brown we can see greenish brown grass and darker green grass.

I’ve nearly given up on making the front yard look as nice as possible. With the easement looking like a playground in Baghdad, other than keeping the grass cut and stuff like that I don’t really see the point.

Paul, not quite 4, has taken an interest in learning math. This week he’s worked hard on addition and subtraction. While he is still very young I am excited that my little boy is showing a sincere interest in learning. (Spurred on by a mommy who loves reading and going to the library.)

Megan, just turned 6, is starting to pick up the McLane communication structure. Yesterday when Paul and Bradley were acting foolish Kristen jokingly called them "geniuses" and Megan instantly picked up on the sarcasm. All day long Kristen and Megan shared the joke that the boys were geniuses.

I am a very sarcastic person. I try to keep it under control as I know a lot of people don’t like my humor and some even consider it rude. I remember Kristen struggled with my sarcasm when we first met and I kept telling her "wait until you meet my family and then you will see real sarcasm." Sarcasm is a communication trait in our family. It’s probably the one thing we all truly share.

I think for me, sarcasm is just how I coped with things growing up. It was so much easier to laugh things off than to get swallowed in the circumstances.

And for my kids, I think sarcasm is purely learned behavior. My kids are going to be sarcastic because Kristen learned it from me and I am sarcastic.

Conversely, I think our kids are also picking up the family trait of curiosity for learning. We are all constantly reading, digging, innovating, and trying to discover something new.

That’s how high Paul (not quite 4) counts. he used to get stuck in the 15 range but it seems like numbers and letters are starting to click for him.

Kids say funny things. Paul has been telling us he’s going to be a mountain climber when he grows up and I believe him. He is fearless and brave to a fault. He also told us that he only wants to climb mountains with snow on them and that what he likes most about mountain climbing is that you don’t have to do it everyday. Some days you can just lay in bed and not go to work. (If it weren’t for the heights, I’d have the same goal.)

Megan doesn’t know what she wants to be when she grows up. She doesn’t want to be a gardener or a farmer. Nor does she want to be a vet like I would guess. She just knows she wants to get married and have kids in a house of her own where she can make the rules. If I had to put money on what Megan is going to do when she grows up, I’d put her in the education field. She loves school, she loves her teachers, and she really loves learning and reading and being around other kids.

One thing I try not to do is paint my kids into a corner. I want them to be whomever God creates them to be. It wasn’t like Megan popped out and I said "Megan, my doctor!" And Paul popped out and I said, "Paul the police officer!" I just want them to serve God in whatever they do. I want them to love who they are and to love their life as much as Kristen and I love ours.

One frustration I see a lot of in youth ministry is parents who are unwilling to allow their children to grow into who God is creating them to be. It’s as if mom/dad are God and they get to decide what their children will do with their lives. It’s an odd thing to be a third party to as well.

I wonder how much of that I’ll do.

A couple weeks ago we picked up two baby kittens. Both 7 weeks old, Lovely and Explorer are quickly growing up. While this isn’t a big problem for us that they are growing up, they are a growing annoyance to our dog Stoney.

While Stoney tries to nap they climb on his back, bite his tail, and nibble on his ears. They clinch their sharp claws on his neck and bite his ears when they play. Stoney is very patient to not kill them. Think about it… they weigh about 1/100th his weight! It’s the equivalent of a full grown horse to an adult. He could accidentally swipe at them and send one of them flying for miles. He could sit on one and squash it like a bug.

Another thing that Stoney has been good about is his health. I had been buying him cheap food. I mean, how tempting is it to buy the cheap food when the dog eats more than 50 pounds of food per month. Over the winter he developed two ugly black spots on his back… each about the size of a dish towel. At first we thought he had just worn a spot bare by laying around all winter. But the more I read online about it, the more I became convinced that it was the cheap food I was buying that had caused this.

So about 6 weeks ago we started him on a new diet of high protein "expensive" dog food and daily vitamins.
While he has enjoyed his "treats" he has really benefited in a lot of ways. He has more energy and is his old ornery self. (Complete with leg humping!) And his black spots have progressively gotten much smaller to the point where they are barely noticeable.

Stoney joined our family about 18 months ago. What a great addition! It’s hard to imagine our family without the big goofy yellow lab.

Now, if only he could catch that squirrel. We can all dream.