No Grasp of Your Reality

Well, it’s done (again?). The Session has handed over their jurisdiction to the Presbytery. The gist of what they’re asking the Presbytery is contained the following paragraph:

Therefore, we petition the Heritage Presbytery to establish a commission and to assume original jurisdiction, and to examine the issues involving Thomas Albrecht III and Sarah Albrecht in the “Bondage for Beginners” Shower Gift Incident of June 19th, 2004; and that the commission investigate to determine if Biblical repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation have been achieved; that they investigate whether charges should be made against Thomas and Sarah Albrecht; and if so, that they draft the charges and prosecute the trial on behalf of Immanuel Presbyterian church.

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Rather than reposting the whole article, head on over to The Parchment and read Rev. Bob Vincent‘s article entitled “Ruling Elders Who Cannot Teach“. (DISCLAIMER: Rev. Vincent was a good friend and adviser during this whole fiasco with our church.)

The whole article is excellent, but I’ll leave this little cherry with you:

[I]n the Church, men should not be nominated for the office of elder unless they are already doing the work of the ministry, freely, because their hearts are in it. If a man never teaches Sunday School, never gets involved with people helping them with their problems, never speaks up in the face of error and rebuts the error from the Bible, then it’s deadly to put such a man into the office of elder. I’ve know a lot of men who were just such Satanic plants on church sessions. At the time of my ordination, I vowed to be in subjection to my brethren in the Lord. But I will never submit to people who cannot evaluate decisions by using the Scripture, and it would be sin to do so.

Sarah-and-Tom/sarahtom2 Last night, I learned that many lit candles and incense sticks in an enclosed area lead to nothing more than fits of coughing, stuffy noses and sore throats. I would add lots of laughs, but that doesn’t happen until the day after.

micah/IMG_0469.jpgMicah had his two month check up on Friday. He’s up to 13.5 lbs. He’s been smiling a little more, and is doing a good job of holding up his head.

Tom, can we keep him? Pleeeeease?

We can’t do it. Our family just cannot do this early afternoon worship service thing. Two of our four kids are physically used to napping at that time, and I don’t feel right discipling overtired children in the service.

It’s sad, because I like the afternoon service. No pressure to get up Sunday morning… I can enjoy a nice breakfast, etc. But, it really isn’t fair to the young children or their parents, especially if the parents expect their children to be able to pay attention through the service. It’s one thing to expect your children to obey and listen, but we should also be sensitive to their physical limitations.

I uploaded the pictures from the camera today:

MKWedding/IMG_0421

Beer Making – April 16, 2005

Matt & Kate’s Wedding

Tom’s Travel Pics – Australia – March, 2005

Still need to edit thumbnails and assign text.. but thought it’d be better to get them online rather than wait till I have time to make the albums look pretty

From Charlie Papazian’s The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.

Mit hefe (with yeast), this is the real thing, and now homebrewers can make a superdeluxe version of this brew with barley and wheat malt extract. Not only does the ease of wheat malt extract make this superpopular beer style part of your beer cellar, but even the unique Bavarian wheat beer yeast is now available to homebrewers. Ask your local homebrew supply shop to special-order it for you if they don’t carry it regularly.

Have you ever been to Bavaria and sipped a tall, cloudy Weizenbier with a twist of lemon or at home had imports such as Ayinger, Paulaner or Spaten Weizen or Weissbiers? If you enjoyed their spicy, clovelike and bananalike aroma and flavor along with the special and healthful yeastiness, then bud, this beer’s for you.
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I guess I should probably give an update as to where our family is in regards to our ongoing conflict with the IPC Session.
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There’s something happening here
What it is ain’t exactly clear
There’s a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it’s time we stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

There’s battle lines being drawn
Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

I think it’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side

It’s time we stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, hey, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, now, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down
Stop, children, what’s that sound
Everybody look what’s going down

April13/IMG_0449The day had apparently just begun when I posted earlier.

As I was cleaning up the clothing spilt from Thomas’ dresser, I heard a loud crash downstairs.

Aiden knocked over a pole lamp and shattered the florescent bulb.

As I was vacuuming the glass, Aiden emptied a deck of cards onto the stairs, and then Tabitha came running down the steps naked except for the poop on her legs, and said “HELP! I went potty!”

Poop smeared all over the bathroom upstairs..
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Just found out that the Ikea in Conshohocken is having a tax-free sale this weekend. From the Ikea website:

Don’t miss the IKEA Tax Weekend Event from April 15th to 17th. For just three days, buy anything in the store and get a discount on your entire purchase equal to the sales tax. Sure it’s a little unorthodox, but it’s our way of celebrating the end of tax season. So come in and get a discount off our already affordable prices. Visit IKEA in Conshohocken or Philadelphia.

Offer valid while supplies last. See store or IKEA.com for details. Not valid on prior purchases or at IKEA Direct. Excludes all restaurant, Swedish food market and Bistro items. Cannot be combined with any other offer. Some exceptions apply. Some products require assembly.

I love that last sentence. It’s the perfect understatement.

I received my new set of golf clubs that I got off EBay this week. There is a fundraising golf tournament coming up next week, and I was invited to play. I told them I didn’t have clubs, and I wasn’t any good. My team didn’t mind, as long as I brought some of my beer.

I think it’s a fair trade.

Great. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. For two evenings in a row now, Comcast has been having some serious DNS issues. It’s so bad, Sarah and I couldn’t surf the web at all for the past two nights. In this case, though, there are workarounds… I just need to find an alternate DNS server.

misc/jackjacksitter Within 20 minutes of getting out of bed, Aiden has already unplugged the telephone in the computer room, dropped Tom’s laptop and pulled his brother’s dresser down on top of himself – pinning him to the floor.

If there is a sharp object, it will be found by Aiden. Laura was over for lunch the other day. I was getting almonds out of the pantry for a salad. Within seconds, he was weilding a large knife in the kitchen, waving it around and smiling.
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misc/skippy…all over the living room.

A Nintendo game controller, two couches, a coffee table, a television screen and two throw rugs were unwillingly participants in an apparent fun-spreading this afternoon.

The moment I stepped out of the bathroom and towards the stairs, I smelled peanut butter. When my footsteps were audible on the stairs, Thomas yelled, “Tab did it!”

Tabitha apparently got into the pantry and brought out the bulk-size jar of Skippy and plopped it down in the middle of the rug. Beginning at the PB Base, she and Aiden were eating and running around with fistfuls of peanut butter and touching everything they could during their five-minute spree.

Clean-up took much longer than five minutes, and I’m sure there’s some that was missed for a future clean-up, because it still smells of peanut butter.

It could smell and be (and has been before) worse.