moving

I'm moving the blog, so if anybody has any links or bookmarks of whatever out there, please update to blog.wiegersfamily.com. I havent put time into the template in the new place and I'll be cross-posting in the transition time. right now I'm using wordpress, but hopefully someday soon I can figure out how to host it myself on the family site. it's been fun, terrablogs. thanks.

I love Lucy

well, not really, but she's darn cute, that's for sure.

Michelle and I got out of the house this afternoon and got to go see the Narnia movie. we both really liked it, and of course the whole experience of getting out for a movie makes it all even better. Lucy is super cute in every scene, and I couldnt help but dream a little about when our kids will be that age. the only let down was that Aslan wasnt as awe-inspiring as I had hoped, but then again, perhaps he could never be. on a random note, I love that we have a cool old wardrobe in our house, and I wonder what the kids might think of it after they read the books.

we took the baby, and mama fed her in the theater before things got started, and she slept through pretty much the whole thing. then off to wally world for the usual necessities. of course it was very nice to come home to Caleb and my parents. I'm surprised how much I missed him after being gone only 5 hours or so, but we've been having lots of good times together lately.

pictures of all the latest fun hopefully coming soon.

google blog search

check it out.

bible study resources?

somehow I've ended up leading our guy's Bible study on Philippians. not being gifted with natural leadership skills (at least not the "normal" ones), it is only by God's purpose and grace that I'm doing this.

so I recently started digging in a bit. we're using Ferguson's Let's Study Philippians as a general guide, and it's quite helpful. I was wondering if anyone knows of good Bible study resources online? here's what I've found so far, especially stuff for Philippians.

Bible Gateway (as well as other online Bibles of course) - good for looking up and comparing various passages in various versions.
Calvin's commentaries
Blue Letter Bible - lots of commentaries here, but I dont know who some of these folks are.
Piper's sermons
Spurgeon's sermons
Henry's Commentary

This is certainly a lot to work with, and very nice that I dont need to buy all the books. Any other Reformed-type resources out there?

iTunes is silly

so I bought a song on iTunes (my 2nd one ever), one that we might play for church someday. I really like the iTunes library, but I dont use it as my music player, nor do I have an iPod, so I have little use for the format that the song came in. I just want an MP3, but it doesnt let me do it on "protected" songs.

but it will let me burn it to a CD, which of course I can rip to MP3. very silly. or am I missing something? at least I had a CD-RW stashed in my desk drawer.

easy cheap diy board book

the birds board book is finally done. it didnt take long at all to make, and I'm pretty happy with the results. hopefully the kid(s) will like it too, and it also helped me learn better methods, which I will soon use for the catechism book that got all this started.

for the images for this book, I found various bird pictures via google image search. the advanced search esepecially helped, as I could get the hi-res full-color jpgs I was looking for. I was going to try to take the pics myself, but our little point-n-shoot wouldnt get very nice results. plus it took me less than an hour to find the ones I wanted online. so once I had the pics, I started up photoshop and did a 4"x6" psd, using a color from the bird as the background. besides putting the name of the bird on the top, I ad-libbed a description of some sort for each one.

then I saved the psds as jpgs and uploaded them to sams for printing. at only 11 cents a print, it cant be beat. I've heard that they're getting antsy about copyright stuff, so I had it shipped to the house instead of in-store, figuring the shipped method is automated. I'm not sure if they would have given me trouble at the store or not? I figure this project is a "fair use" of the images people were giving away (since they were on the web after all). but a drawback of that decision is that they came back glossy, although this wasnt unexpected. apparently they do matte in the stores, and that ends up looking nicer in the final product.

so the pictures arrived, and I trimmed off an inch on each side, as the book I was using is a 5"x5" square (and only $1 from barebooks.com). then I glued them in the pages (with non-toxic gluestick) and put contact paper over top. this last step is where I learned some lessons. with the dog book I did for Caleb's birthday, there was more white space than colored, so little mistakes with the contact paper werent as noticable. but now with solid colors, little bubbles show up. so I learned to take it slower with the contact paper, going from one corner up. and I think the matte finish (on 2 of the prints I forgot to upload and had them done in-store) handles the contact paper better too.

so here are the results of my easy-and-cheap do-it-yourself board book. if anyone would like jpgs of the pages, I've included links here. 10 of the 12 would apply for just about anywhere (the cover references Chattanooga, and the House Finch page refers to our favorite visitors by name). if you have photoshop and would like the psds, or if you just want the bird jpgs, just let me know.

Front cover (Nuthatch)
Cardinal
Chickadee
Goldfinch
Mourning Dove
House Sparrow
Carolina Wren
Titmouse
Woodpecker
Mockingbird
House Finch
Hummingbird

the eye book

not that Dr. Seuss really needs much reviewing, but since it's a family favorite, I figured I would write about The Eye Book for DaddyTypes Baby Book Review Contest (go on over and enter one too). so here goes:

I've been blessed with only one eye, so when I saw The Eye Book at the store, I just couldnt resist (having never shied from joking about my cyclopsness). And much to my delight, it turned out to be our boy's first favorite book. At 10 months or so, he would toss aside the vast array of inferior books, and hand it to one of us with a "dee?" (that I interpret as "please daddy, read me this one.")

It's not just the pictures and words I like, but also the format of the "Bright and Early Board Book" series. Dont tell grandma, but I'm not a big fan of the huge boards that occupy 4 square feet. These are a perfect size for little hands and will stash away in just about any pocket. And they're not annoyingly tiny either. A very satisfying size.

As far as the story goes, it's one of the few I dont mind reading multiple times, as the pictures are engaging and cute, and the lilting rhymes never seem to grow old. I especially like how it builds in the end to an all-out celebration of sight. I'm sure that as our kids start to read that they'll appreciate this one even more.

changes

so the wife, who is experiencing something of a blogging renaissance, has mentioned more than once that I need more color in this space. so I'm working on it. I hope you like the pics at the top. more changes to come soonish. for the geeks out there, I'm old-school, so I'm doing tables instead of divs. I hope this doesnt offend your sensibilites, but it certainly makes me happier. oh and do go check out the latest cuteness from the boy. he LOVES getting into drawers and such these days.

baby catechism book progress, need help

I've finished with the first drafts of the pages for the baby catechism book, as seen below. but I need help with question nine, as I'm having a hard time coming up with a visual. maybe I should leave it without a picture? for question 8, I broke with the photos theme, which I'm fine with as long as it's simple and not clip-arty. here's what we got so far:

any thoughts?

fine art, fine price

KatieK is selling art cards of her original paintings. I've always admired her art, but have never had the budget for it, so we're excited to get some of these framed and hung in mama's new sitting area. being suckers for pastoralish scenes, we especially like The Season. do go check it out, and buy a bunch. heck, buy an original while you're at it.

baby catechism book - initial concepts

so we're running with this idea of making a catechism board book. here are some initial mock-ups of what the pages may look like:

we may not do quite everything ourselves as far as the construction of the book goes, as there are other options, like covering up an old book, or buying a blank board book. so far the idea is to make the pages as 4"x6" images, and just print those at Sams or wherever. then glue them onto the book, cover with contact paper, and viola. we'll see if this works.

I want to use our own pictures as much as possible, but I may borrow some from the internet at large too. some of the concepts arent easy to illustrate, like "For his own glory" so we'll have to get creative, but try not to cross the line into inappropriate. if anyone has any ideas for illustrating some of these concepts, please do share. here are the first 10 questions that we're planning on using:

Q. 1. Who made you?
A. God.

Q. 2. What else did God make?
A. God made all things.

Q. 3. Why did God make you and all things?
A. For his own glory.

Q. 4. How can you glorify God?
A. By loving him and doing what he commands.

Q. 5. Why ought you to glorify God?
A. Because he made me and takes care of me.

Q. 6. Are there more gods than one?
A. There is only one God.

Q. 7. In how many persons does this one God exist?
A. In three persons.

Q. 8. What are they?
A. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Q. 9. What is God?
A. God is a Spirit, and has not a body like men.

Q. 10. Where is God?
A. God is everywhere.

if anyone wants to share any ideas for this little project, feel free. Michelle also wants to do a family book, and she's planning on doing a "quiet" felt book too.

make your own board book

oh the possibilities! I've wanted to make my own board book for a while, but wasnt sure the best way, or if it would be worth it. I'm still not sure if it would be worth it, but it'd be fun to try. no telling how much it would be able to hold up to being chewed on and used as something to help scoot across the wood floor.

in his example, the guy makes a counting book. but we've got a ton of those. what we're really lacking is a board book of the kid's catechism. never too early, right? any other ideas?

check it out here (via Daddytypes).

questions about star wars

I had star wars sheets when I was kid. ET pajamas. subscription to Odyssey. astronaut wallpaper. all my legos were of the space variety. I was into it.

but I have some questions about the latest star wars installation (most, if not all, of which have been asked elsewhere, I'm sure):

do wookies not really mind it if, for no apparent reason, you jump up and decapitate your own men? you'd think they'd at least take a step back and let out a quizzical yawp.

if you were about to deliver a dramatic retort to the bad guy, wouldnt something like "I'm for freedom" be a tad better than "I'm for democracy" ? or alternatively, go all the way and shout something like "I'm for bicameral legislation!"

did they not have ultrasound technology? and if you were pregnant with twins, wouldnt you look at least 6 months pregnant (with one)?

did the filmmakers not realize how terrible samuel jackson was? did they tell him to deliver each and every one of his lines in such a way as to make a college freshman who signed up for a bit part in south pacific just because the girls talked him into it look like a pro? ugh. he didnt die soon enough.

with a film and franchise so clearly intended for the senses and sensibilities of pre-teens, why include enough on-camera violence to score a PG-13 rating? or perhaps it was for those of us who were pre-teens in the 80s, and have been so captivated by our happy memories of zooming around the living room with our x-wings, that we stopped caring if the movies are terrible or not?

tv kids = fat kids?

it's all-too-tempting to use TV/videos as a digital babysitter. now that Caleb is crawling, sometimes we'd just like a break from all the craziness, although he usually does quite well with his toys in his room. now there is yet another reason that we shouldnt use the TV a lot, as watching too much (8 hours or more a week) has been cited as a factor for childhood obesity. check it out here. plus it'll melt his brain, and he'd much rather go outside and eat the grass anyway.

fever pitch

Michelle and I caught Fever Pitch last night, and we both enjoyed it. The last few movies we've seen didnt meet expectations, so it was nice to have one exceed them, and walk away happy to have seen it. Michelle especially kept saying "wow, I really liked that movie!" as she's the kind of person to verbalize her happinesses...like when we painted the bedroom, every time she walked in it was something like "I LOVE this color!" anyway, drew was cute, jimmy was funny but not annoying, and I thought the whole Red Sox thing was done pretty well. while I do consider myself a fan of baseball, we're both glad that I'm not quite as obsessed as your average citizen of the Red Sox Nation.

thanks to Mom and Dad for babysitting AND paying for the popcorn. when your houseguests cook, clean, do home repairs, babysit and even sleep somewhere else, can they still be considered houseguests? they really do spoil us, and enjoy spoiling Caleb all the more.

sometimes I hate computers

really I do. yucky hardware failure on the server. clients freaking out. genious bossman's wife goes into labor. midnight call to come rescue. I'm underqualified. crappy backup software is behaving crappily. and slowly. server shrieks like a windstorm for 8 hours as windoze is reinstalled. tissues in my ears after 6 hours. havent slept in forever. miss my baby and my baby. curse you hitachi hard drives. curse you veritas "recovery" software.

on the bright side, Isaac Michael Sunder is now with us. a bit early, but just fine.

done with Alias

we dont watch much TV, but it has been fun getting together somewhat regularly with some friends for "Alias night." in case you dont know, it's what I call a "techno-spy soap opera." lots of CIA secret mission stuff, some hokey evil-twin kinda stuff, and some somewhat intruging x-files stuff thrown in. it's usually well written and well acted, if you're able to suspend disbelief for a while.

anyway, our friend Mateo is really into the show, and he got us into it too, so we get together with some folks and make a fun night of it. but I've recently realized that I shouldnt watch anymore. the recent season premiere had a prominent scene (which they managed to show twice) that caused me some difficulty. it featured Jennifer Garner's character 90something percent nekkid. the last thing I need seered into my lustful brain is an image of this woman in a negligee or whatever other skimpy outfit she'll don in the next episode (or after the next commercial, for that matter). I needed to ask God and Michelle for forgiveness for my lustful attitudes.

so I was struggling with these things, when I came across this verse: Galatians 4:16: "Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." I couldnt reconcile walking in the Spirit and intentionally filling my head with lustful images. so it was a pretty easy decision to turn it off.

but now I've got to live with the decision. Michelle still likes the show, so she watches it without me, which is weird for us. they recently moved the show from sunday to wednesday, so the plan has been to tape it on wed and get together with friends (at our house) on sun. do we still have them over and I go hide in the other room? I hope not. or will they be ok with us not watching the show but still hanging out? I hope so, but somehow I would be surprised if it worked out.

so I guess I'll stick with occassional sports on TV. and no, I wont be going to see Elektra.

kids bible

Caleb isnt quite reading yet, but we already have a bunch of kids Bibles. some are better than others, and I think the whole category is better named "books that contain Bible stories" but I guess "children's Bible" is a lot easier to say. I really dont like it when they water down or obscure the gospel, like when one of them says something like: "God said dont eat from the tree, or bad things will happen." yikes. "bad things?!" more like "you will surely die." but that's a soapbox that I wont stand on too long right now.

anyway, Caleb just received as a gift (thanks gramma and grampa!) what must be the best kids Bible ever, called The Big Picture Story Bible. it was just published by Crossway, and it is beautiful. it's not just a collection of Bible stories, like pretty much every other kids Bible I've seen. they weave how all of scripture points to Jesus through the entire book, in simple words and simply beautiful pictures.

some other cool stuff about it: it's a coffee-table sized book and a whopping 456 pages. the illustrations are bright, fun and very well done. I love how the artist uses different perspectives throughout. and, it is super cheap (for what you're getting) at only $20 list (and even cheaper on amazon). check out the PDFs for a couple chapters at the link above.

Caleb seems to like the bright pictures as we read it to him, and I'm sure he'll enjoy it as he grows. so go buy it for a kid you know.

finally

I am so very glad that the word series is finally over. sure it's nice that the red sox won and all, but I'll be happy to go to bed at a decent hour. yes, it was my choice to stay up. chalk it up to the draw of "history" (I always chuckle when sports are framed in "historical" terms), and a fond farewell to a good season, even though my team got beat: hurricanes, injuries, lack of timely hitting, so-so pitching, and, most importantly, lack of pudge. gotta have pudge.

I'm a fan of the NL, so I'm pretty dissappointed in the cards. maybe I'm wrong, but I think even the marlins would have won at least one game. give me small ball, speed, defense, pitching, timely hitting, and all that kinda stuff. but the sox beat the crap out of such play, so good for them. it's funny how the yankees are framed as the "evil empire" b/c they outspend everyone, but let's not forget the sox outspend every other team. even though the world series was lackluster, both LCS were stellar, so no complaints.

I think I'll take a break from sports until spring. it's been fun and all, but back to life. less tv, more Bible, mandolin and such.

turn off their TV

I like to rant about how bad the TV is for you (although I've been watching a good bit of baseball these days). now there is a clever invention that is perfect for ridding the world of the conversation-killing omnipresent idiot boxes at places like restaurants and airports -- the tv-b-gone. it's a universal power button for almost all TVs, so you can turn off any tv at a whim. check out the article in wired.

in some ways, I'd love to own one of these (only $20 delivered), but since I dont get out much, I doubt I'd get much use out of it.

google desktop

google desktop search is very cool. if you're geek enough, check it out. I wonder when google will come out with an operating system?

free .info domain names

not that .info is a very good TLD, but hey, free is free. go to dotster.com for your 1 year of free .info domain names. make sure to disable autorenew, because next year isnt free. of course if you dont work for a web company (like some of us) you'll need hosting or at least URL forwarding to make things work.

so I present: www.calebwiegers.info

tv will kill your kids

or at least watching it will help kill them faster. yet another reason to turn it off.

spirited away (far away)

we're still watching more movies than is probably good for us, although we've balanced it out a bit with a few settlers games.

so last night we watched "spirited away" which is a japanese animation about which I've heard great things. we dig on animated stuff. we've even dabbled in claymation. but I submit "spirited away" for my nominee as "the strangest movie ever."

I admit I am clueless about japanese spirituality, but I dont think my ignorance can account for the completely random plotlines. and the super annoying voice of the girl. the characters did and said stuff that I kept hoping I would understand as we moved along, but alas, I was left confounded. there were some genuinely funny and clever elements, but they were few, and most contributed to the randomness of the entire experience. add to all this the fact that our hero looked like a monkey whenever they did a profile shot. at least it killed 2 hours for us.

to conclude, I borrow a phrase from one of the great film critics of our times: "japanese cartoons are weird, man."

gospel of john

we just watched the dvd of the 2003 movie The Gospel of John. I haven't yet seen The Passion, so I cant make the obvious comparisons, but having the entire gospel read and acted out was very good. the entire Gospel, word-for-word, is narrated and/or acted straight through. there is zero dialogue besides what's in the Good News translation (my biggest complaint is the use of this translation, but oh well).

I wont go into the difficulties and quirks of adapting the gospel to film...for that you can check out this review. but the Word of God is indeed powerful. having taken an entire class on the Gospel of John back in college, it was very good to see and hear it with new eyes.

no comment

for some reason the blog wont allow comments now. I guess it's tired of conversation. it's trying to blame me, but I didnt do a thing. JQ???

turn it off

yet more evidence for the case against TV: the more you watch as a kid, the worse off you'll be as an adult. so turn it off.

tired of CNN.com

(warning: this is a bit of a rant. I try to keep these to a minimum, but sometimes it's gotta be done.)

I'm so very sick-and-tired of the Communist News Network trying to normalize perversity. for a while there it seemed like every other day in their "entertainment" section there was a headline involving something about porn and/or homosexuality. so I sent in a complaint to stop the madness. and they actually did for a while. probably a coincidence.

today there's a headline about certain employees of a certain home-improvement store appearing in a certain naughty magazine. LIKE I SHOULD CARE!!! why oh why do they do this every time?!

so I'm done with the commies. I guess I'll try npr.org for my daily news bites. sure they're as left-leaning as the rest of them, but I dont think I'll be inundated with this kinda crapola.

media

I'm not in the habit of recommending books and cds and whatnot in this space, but I've found a couple gems recently.

the first is a CD by Indelible Grace called "For All the Saints." I havent enjoyed an album this much in a long time, and it's something better than enjoyment. Indelible Grace is more of a collection of artists than an actual band. their mission is to set old (old) hymns to new music, which has a long tradition in the church. this is their 3rd album and by far my favorite. it's mostly folky, with a little blues and some pop/rock influence. overall it's very nice, although my first listen was tough b/c I'm attached to some of the old tunes. but taken on their own, I think the new tunes are very nice, and have given new life to some of the old hymns. hopefully we can do some stuff like this at church sometime.

I just finished reading "Shepherding a Childs Heart" by Tedd Tripp, and it is awesome. of course I'm not yet a parent, but still I would think this is a MUST READ for any Christian parent. it simply blows Dobson away. I really think this book would be worth reading at least a couple times a year as we grow as parents. one of his main principles is that you want to look after your childs heart -- how he is oriented toward God -- not just correct behavior. it's very humbling and at the same time encouraging.

he unpacks what the scriptures have to say about parenting, and unflinchingly sets a biblical and impossibly high standard. and I love it, because I know I cant do this without Jesus. He will make this impossible task possible.