Categories
Ed Unfiltered

My Friend Viktor

For a few weeks now, I’ve been looking forward to hosting a missionary from Kyrgyzstan on his travels through the U.S.  Each time we’ve had the opportunity to open our home, it’s been an incredible blessing.  The anticipation leading up to these visits excites my heart and is only matched in intensity by the sense of longing I experience afterwards!  So it is with Christian fellowship, foreshadowing the hope we have for the eternal community awaiting us at the end of this present age.

Categories
Create Woodworking

Two Recently Updated Woodworking Plans

Updated-Plans

I recently updated a couple of my woodworking plans with more detailed and thorough assembly instructions and updated the cut lists.  Since I wrote the original plans a couple years ago, I thought it might be helpful to post new links to them.

Categories
Ed Unfiltered

A Personal Take on the Refugee Crisis, Part 2

Visiting Clarkston, Georgia was not only an eye opening experience, but a heart opening one as well.  After our morning introduction to Global Frontier Missions and their work training and equipping missionary candidates for cross-cultural ministry, we headed to the local office of World Relief, a non-profit organization which provides humanitarian aid, disaster and emergency relief through assistance programs to victims of poverty, disease, hunger, war, disasters and persecution.

Categories
Create Ed Unfiltered

Don’t Throw That Old Christmas Tree Away!

Make a lenten cross with it!  We started this as a family tradition a number of years ago and it’s become woven into the fabric of our holiday seasons.  I love the continuity of celebrating Advent and Christmas with our Christmas tree, decorated with years of family ornaments, then using that same tree through the season of lent leading up to Easter as a reminder of the reason that we celebrate.

Categories
Ed Unfiltered

A Personal Take on the Refugee Crisis, Part 1

So what’s this refugee thing really all about?  To find out the answer to that question, a group of us travelled to Clarkston, Georgia to see and hear first hand about this “refugee crisis” from several different perspectives.  The first was from Global Frontier Missions, a missionary training organization tucked away in a nondescript basement of one of the many apartment complexes tightly packed into this community.  After a brief tour of the facility, we sat down and talked about the history and mission of GFM.

Categories
Create Learn Woodworking

SketchUp: My Most Valuable Woodworking Tool!

Sketchup Lesson

One of the most valuable tools I have isn’t a woodworking tool at all.  It’s software & it’s indispensable when I’m building a woodworking project!  I’m of course talking about SketchUp, the 3D modeling program that’s available for free.

Categories
Woodworking

Farmhouse Table Plan – 5 Years Later

I recently got a question from one of my readers about how the Farmhouse Table has held up over time.  It’s been 5 years since I built mine and so I thought I’d share the good, the bad & and ugly!

Categories
Date Night Eat

Date Night Dinner: Artichoke and Asparagus Flatbread

Hot and ready, but not Little Ceasars!
It’s hot and ready, but it ain’t Little Ceasars!

Here’s a pizza recipe that rocks for an awesome date night experience.  Don’t settle for Little Caesar’s when you can make your own gourmet flatbread!  For those of you who just want the recipe, I’ll make it quick.  For those who want some tips on making flatbreads, hang with me to the bottom of the post!

Categories
Eat

Episode IV: A New Ibrik or How to Make Turkish Coffee

IMG_5558

I was crushed.  I was using my ibrik to reduce some pomegranate balsamic vinegar for my signature Balsamic Raspberry Frozen Yogurt and somehow the reduction created some kind of chemical reaction that caused the metal on the bottom to actually blister and seared the vinegar onto the inside of the pot.  Just when I was planning on a shot of Turkish coffee to accompany my dessert…

Categories
Create Plans Woodworking

DIY Harbor View Desk & Hutch Knockoff Plan

Harbor View Desk Exploded

Now that I’ve gotten her windows replaced and room painted (lots of funky, girly colors), my daughter has been asking for a desk to do her school work. “This will be easy,” I thought, “a couple file cabinets and an old door on its side will be perfect!” Not exactly what she had in mind… ah, the difference between boys and girls…