Hannah at 8 weeks old tells a story to Mommy.
Hannah tells a story from Ben Lowe on Vimeo.
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Tags: Hannah
But they are very good.
Sister Winter by Sufjan StevensPlant a Little Fir Tree by Half-handed Cloud
Plant A Little Fir Tree by Half – Handed Cloud
Download now or listen on posterous
Download now or listen on posterous
Plant A Little Fir Tree.mp3 (2620 KB)
(Note: This is my (Ben) first post on our combined blog. Cheryl has been getting after me to get something on it, so I decided to connect it with my posterous blog and thus share a few things from time to time. Sorry for the delay.)
So I thought I would share a bit. The last few months have been a little crazy. The dust is finally starting to settle though, just in time for the busy holidays! In October, we had a Boy's Camp-out for Mission: Possible as the second half of our Fall Retreat. The Girl's Camp-out was earlier in September. Both went pretty well, and it looks like a good option for the future, as it immediately takes away the distraction of the other gender, giving the time a more personal and one-on-one feeling. Cheryl finished her last month of pregnancy (woo-hoo!!) in October as well. Our little girl Hannah came just a few days after the due date on October 26th, and we're so glad she's here! We've been taking the last four weeks getting to know our little girl, as well as learning to operate on a lot less sleep, how to deal with diapers, visitors, animals, and all those times where everything seems to be a priority and has to get done right away. It's been tiring but oh so wonderful. It has been so great to share this little one with friends and family, and we look forward to many more people meeting her as time allows. My little collection of little musical instruments has been growing, as I now own a toy accordion, an inverse ocarina and a stylophone. I also managed to snag a little 4-track cassette recorder off of ebay for $20 so I'm convinced that I'll be able to pull together my bunch of disparate instruments and sounds together to form some amazing original songs… (Ukulele + stylophone anyone?) It's primarily a hobby of course, but I'm convinced that Hannah will be able to play some strange instrument by at least two… This month I have tackled NaNoWriMo again. For those of you that don't know about it, it stands for National Novel Writing Month, and the idea is to write a whole novel in a single month. The "winning" word count is 50,000 words. So far I'm at 36,000 and climbing. A little more behind than I'd like, but I'm really going to try and win this year. I have been drinking a lot of tea recently. It is good weather to drink tea! (I've recently discovered Pu Erh and man it is good. Smells like a barnyard, but for some reason it is really enjoyable to drink.) Our little apartment is really taking shape and feels very much like home. The incoming cooler weather is a welcome change for Cheryl and I as we head into the winter and the holidays. We feel so very blessed to be in a place so close to our friends and family. We are also so thankful for the evident and moving hand of the Lord in our lives. We pray that we would continue to heed his call! I decided to throw a few pictures into the mix as well. Here they are:
I find the Frozen Peak organic oolong I got from Tea Embassy to be much better than the Ti Quan Yin I got from specialteas.com. I’ll have to do a post on the tea samples I got sometime.
Tags: tea
Today I took a trip with some friends to the Tea Embassy for the first time. It is a little shop in downtown Austin off of 9th and Rio Grande. They sell loose leaf teas from all around the world, and today they had a special on oolong tea and related products. We sampled four different oolongs, and witnessed a demonstration of the Gong Fu method.
I got to speak with Jonathan, one of the owners, for some time. He was very kind and told me about himself, the shop, and teas. I ended up buying some Frozen Peak Organic Oolong that came from Taiwan. I also bought a little teapot, which I believe is called a Gaibei. I will use it almost exclusively for oolong tea, and will be able to do the Gong Fu method with it.
The Gong Fu method basically consists of steeping the tea multiple times, with each successive infusion lasting longer than the previous one. The different complexities of the tea can be tasted with each infusion and it is quite a wonderful experience.
I will definitely be going back to the Tea Embassy soon. If you’re in the Austin area you should check them out. They also have an online store at TeaTreasures.com.
Tags: tea
I may be going down to the Tea Embassy today. Apparently they have a deal on monkey picked oolong (which is really good stuff.) I’m excited because I haven’t been down there yet.
Tags: tea
Every year, the Nikos Camping ministry at Mission:Possible! has a Spring Retreat that happens during the first weekend of Spring Break. The campers came this year on Saturday morning, with most of the leaders arriving the day before. Camp extended through the weekend, ending on Monday just after lunch. Because of the cold weather and rain, there were several campers that didn’t come, but we had a few last minute children that came in their stead. We also had an overwhelming turnout of volunteer leaders this year, making the ratio of leaders to campers very good. This allowed the leaders to devote individual time to each camper and made the first step in building relationships a little bit easier.
The theme for camp this year was the “Nikos Olympics.” We talked about running the race for the Lord, and the campers were able to participate in a lot of fun activities that revolved around the theme. We even had a closing ceremony that the campers were able to perform a “movement” routine to music that they really enjoyed.
The Lord’s hand was evident as the leaders and campers interacted throughout the camp, and God provided just the right amount of adults to run games, activities, and serve food throughout the weekend. It was an exciting and praise filled weekend that all involved will not soon forget.
Tags: Nikos Camps
My parents bought me this awesome pasta maker for my birthday, and I finally got around to using it today! I found some semolina flour at the grocery store and made a basic pasta with it. For my next batch I will probably try to mix half and half semolina and all-purpose flour, since I hear that many people like to do that. The pure semolina was fantastic, but its a little more expensive.
Tags: food
I have had this blog up for about a half a year. It’s interesting how my phases in posting go. As I’ve started to follow other personal blogs, I have noticed that posting is often few and far between. People do not often make a post unless something major is going on in life, or if they have the time to make a time-worthy post. On the other hand, there has been a jump in popularity of things like Twitter, which allows for simple updates similar to the “status updates” on Facebook. People just post what they are doing, or some short little phrase about what’s going on in life. I can see the value in this, but it lacks a lot of flexibility. If you want to post pictures or media of some kind, you have to link to it. Also, you are limited in word count and in other ways.
So I found myself in a strange conundrum. I would like to post in this blog more often, but I usually don’t find the things I want to post as being worthy of a full blog post. But, they also seem out of place on Twitter or the status update in Facebook. So something that was more in between seemed like a good solution. Fortunately, I recently found something that seems to fit the bill. So I made a new website on Tumblr. It allows for quick and easy posts, like Twitter, but also is quite flexible with media, links, and other things, like a regular blog. I hope to keep more regular posting on my “tumblelog,” but still keep this blog for longer thoughts or posting multiple pictures, etc.
We’ll see how things go. =)
Tags: Blogging
Ben’s Posterous Posts
- Gmail is so awesome. February 25, 2010
- fawm January 31, 2010
- Hannah tells a story December 23, 2009
- Hannah and Penny pic December 7, 2009
- Two Christmas songs you probably haven't heard... December 5, 2009
- Whew, finished my novel (yeah that's right) November 30, 2009