Luke’s Notebook

In April or May, you can catch me raving about springtime — the flowers, the budding trees, the freshness in the air — but I’m starting to love fall more and more. This morning, it was pretty chilly — lower 40’s, I’d say — but by noon, it was absolutely gorgeous. A clear, blue sky with a 75-degree temperature outside. There was virtually no haze, and it just felt so clean and crisp outside. And we haven’t even come close to the peak of the fall foliage, where the leaves turn vivid colors. I like fall.

Thinking of this just reminds me yet again of how awesome God is. It’s amazing all the different kinds of beauty He has placed into this world. There is so much to drink in, so much to enjoy.

Ever since Mark, James and I returned from our trip out west nine days ago, I have just had a newfound appreciation for this scenery and all of the beauty we see around us day-in and day-out. It’s awesome to be alive!

The painting job at Great Grandma’s has continued over the past couple of days, and we are making more and more progress. Tomorrow may be our last day working there, at least for a little bit, anyway. On Saturday, I have a wedding to videotape, and on Monday I’m going to be making a visit to an attorney’s office in Belleville, where I’m going to do some computer and networking work for him. Who knows what I’ll do on Tuesday?

This afternoon, most of the family went to nearby Eckert’s Orchards, where we rode their tractor-pulled wagon and picked apples. We ended up with dozens of Jonathan and Golden Delicious apples. I happen to love apples, so that’s very good news for me. I should be set for quite some time now! They’re tasty, filling and low in calories. So that’s good enough for me.

Tonight, we played a softball game against the Beavers. We ended up losing 19-10, I believe the score was. I batted 2-4 with two singles, a fly out and a ground out.

All this week, my left arm, which is my throwing arm, has really been hurting me. For Monday night’s softball game, it was sore but not really that bad. On Tuesday, however, it just started hurting like crazy. When I would try to make a hard throw overhanded, my left bicep would really hurt. That meant I either had to throw side-armed or short-arm the ball when I throw it, both of which don’t travel very far or very fast.

As an outfielder, it’s hard to have my throwing arm hurting. Tonight it was about as painful as it was on Tuesday. I made a couple of throws that left me hurting badly for a few minutes afterwards.

I’m grateful, though, that this doesn’t seem to really be an injury of sorts. I think it’s mostly a result of not playing softball in about a month, and then trying to all of a sudden really throw the ball a long ways. Even though I warmed up prior to all three games, I guess I could have used a little bit more to kind of get me all set for a real game.

I’m thankful that we don’t have any games for the next three games. I’m hoping that by the time Monday night rolls around, my arm is good as new, enabling me to chuck that ball without pain. Please keep me in your prayers! Thanks a bunch.

The weather has definitely cooled down this week. We had a high temperature of 73 degrees or so, and tonight’s low is 43°. Ahh… fall has definitely arrived! I love this time of year. You’ve got the beautiful, cool, crisp weather, baseball playoffs approaching, the NFL season heating up, the NHL season starting up (finally!), and life just seems to kind of slow down, as the final quarter of the year rolls in. It’s really great.

We’ve definitely kept busy since returning from the trip five days ago.

This morning, Mark, James, Philip and I returned to Great Grandma’s house, where we continued the improvement work. Mark and I started painting her living room ceiling walls. They are looking terrific! Great Grandma was a longtime smoker, and it is incredible what is all stained or damaged from the smoke. For instance, the different light fixtures in the house are a brown or tan color, and when washed they are nice and clear. Another example is the light bulbs. They were literally a bronze color, but when washed they looked brand new.

As far as smoke damage, I didn’t even know this until recently, but certain kinds of woods can be damaged by smoke, and you wouldn’t even know it until you try to wash them. There’s some paneling in her living room, and if you try to wash it with any kind of wet rag, the stain will just start to strip off. It’s really weird, but I guess that’s what all that smoke will do to it. These are just a few more reasons to not smoke, huh?

Tomorrow morning, it’s back to work at the house. In the afternoon, I’ll have to get busy on the computer, as I need to edit this week’s edition of “Safe At Home.” Paul was kind enough to edit while I was out of town, but this week I’ve got to take care of it, and since I normally do it on Wednesdays it will be a bit of a squeeze. God will provide, though, I am sure!

Along with editing the show, I was hoping to get a haircut tomorrow. I’m getting a bit shaggy. Actually, mostly I just need to shave. I’ve gone about four weeks without using the razor. I’ll probably cut it all off one of these days, but sometimes I’m just kind of curious as to what would happen if I let it grow for a couple of months. But I’ve got a wedding to videotape on Saturday afternoon, and I like to be clean-cut for those. We’ll see!

Isn’t God inredible with the ways He’ll provide for a need? He is so creative. Sometimes, there will be a great need, but the solution we receive is totally different than what we would expect. I think He delights in providing in unique ways.

Think of when Jesus told Peter, in Matthew 17, “…Go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”

That’s just really neat. Jesus could have handled it some other way, but this was definitely a creative solution to the tax situation that Peter was in. Anyway, I’ve been realizing lately how God will provide for something, but it’s not necessarily the way I would guess it. It’s pretty awesome! God is great.

It’s really been a beautiful evening. Slightly cool, but very pleasant. A perfect night for softball. Unfortunately, we lost our game 20-19. I batted 1-4 with a walk, so that wasn’t the best way to perform after not playing for a month. Oh well! It’s just one game, so it’s not too much to worry about.

I spent a few hours this morning working at the old house of my Great Grandma Arndt. She is staying in a nursing home now, and Grandpa Arndt is getting ready to sell the house. He asked us to help him out in making it presentable. So we’re doing different things like tearing up carpet, washing the woodwork, and putting fresh coats of paint on the walls and ceilings. In fact, tomorrow we’ll probably start painting in her living room. Thankfully, it’s not a very large house, so it shouldn’t be too huge of a task.

Well, I’m going to run. I need to be up at 7:00, so I’m thinking I ought to get to bed. Gotta get some rest!

Keep the peace among Christians.

1 Peter 4:8Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

Isn’t that so true? Every single one of us has our various shortcomings, but if we all have the mentality to choose to exercise an unconditional love with people, imagine how awesome everything would be.

Take, for instance, an argument or a war of words. Instead of a spark igniting into a wildfire by a heated response, it would be quickly extinguished with kind words and quick forigveness. We may have a split-second to make the decision on which response to give, or we may have minutes and even hours to mull over our reply. But let’s try to always remember to return evil for good, evil for evil.

You may be surprised at how much trouble you can save by either biting your tongue, or by fighting the urge to craft a brusque response. Loving words can go a long way.

And remember, it’s a choice. I know many, many times I don’t feel like saying something loving — especially, for instance, if somebody has just really offended me — but be humble, forgiving, and turn the other cheek.

Tonight, I played volleyball for the first time since May. Jude actually played as well, as he was substituting for our Uncle Joe, who was feeling a bit under the weather. This team is comprised of Aunt Jane, her friend Judy, Aunt Greta and Uncle Rob, Uncle Joe and me.

How did we do? We won the first two games by decent margins, but we barely lost the third one, losing 27-25. Most games are played to 25, but the rules state that you have to win by two points, which is why the last game went beyond 25.

I had a really good time! I’m actually not all that rusty, which is sort of surprising. I still have a lot of room to improve with volleyball, so it’s cool to have a goal.

Jude and I have also been batting around the idea of getting our own team together. The only problem is, we need three girls. Three volleyball-playing girls. Is anybody interested? Wednesday nights, most likely. You don’t have to be an incredible player — we sure aren’t!

I’ve got to run. This upcoming week looks like a really busy one.

Really, it’s just so awesome to be back. To see all of the chubs again, to see Mom and Dad, the rest of the guys. It’s so nice to sleep in a bed again, to have stairs to climb, to be back to the normal routine, the daily grind.

I had an awesome time on the trip, and I would say its length was just about perfect. 25 days was certainly enough to give me “my fill” of vacation, and yet it wasn’t too long to where I really felt like it was just dragging on. Thank You, God, for this balance!

I’ll be honest — there was one main thing I was worried about when thinking about my return. That was… stepping on the scale again. I had been weighing myself for every day for the past few months, and I had gone for 25 days without touching a scale. On top of that, I didn’t exactly eat like a bird while on the trip. There were many restaurants, many steaks, a couple of Pizza Hut and Golden Corral buffets, a good amount of junk food, not a lot of exercise. Basically, food was plentiful; exercise was not.

I was scared! I knew I was going to pork up after nearly a month of this lifestyle. Now, don’t get me wrong — it’s not like I was eating everything in sight; it’s just I didn’t really pay attention to what I was eating, when I would have seconds, et cetera. So… I most definitely was not looking forward to meeting up with the scale again.

What was the damage? Well, on Friday morning, I weighed myself, and I was 189, three pounds heavier than the 186 I registered on August 28th. This morning I was 187. I’m not sure what the actual difference is, but it’s probably two or three pounds. That’s really not bad, especially compared to what I was fearing. I thought I might be met with 195 or 200 reading on the scale.

It shouldn’t be too hard to get back in the habit of being a little bit more strict about what I eat. Even if I did gain a couple of pounds from the trip, I’m not too worried about that. What I mainly need to be careful about is what my regular eating habits become. If I always ate like I did on the trip, I would probably gain weight. For the most part, though, I think I “got away” with eating like that on the trip. For that, I am really thankful.

Well, I’d better run. Tomorrow I have my first volleyball game of the year! I’m very, very excited. I wonder how I’ll do after not playing since May. We’ll see!

We are back home!!! Yes!!! Thank God!!!

I had such a blast on the trip, but I am also so happy to be home. I missed everyone and everything, and it’s awesome to be reunited with it all.

More to come later!

Today, we left the RV park in Dewey, Arizona, and drove a good 430, 440 miles. We ended up stopping at this KOA in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We’re about 1,000 miles from home, and we’ll probably arrive sometime late Thursday or early Friday.

Tomorrow night, we should be somewhere in Oklahoma. We’ll be continuing east on Interstate 40, which will take us the rest of the way through New Mexico, through nothern Texas, and into Oklahoma. At Oklahoma City, I believe, is where we’ll hop onto I-40, which will carry us into St. Louis.

I can’t wait to be home! This evening, as I was talking with Mom on the phone, I asked her to fetch David and put him on the phone. He said “Hi, Yuke” and a few different things. It was great to talk to Chub again! I look forward to getting home and playing with him. Mom told me that he has memorized the ages of Seth on down. That’s no easy task, considering that’s seven people!

I’m sitting outside of the RV, on this breezy Tuesday evening. It’s very, very pleasant out here! In fact, I just finished typing a 140-some-page deposition, which I e-mailed back to John. We’ve been able to get quite a bit of work done while on this trip, and we’ve also managed to have a blast. It’s been a good balance!

Time to get going. It’s getting late here, and I’m pretty tired. Hopefully we can get many, many miles covered tomorrow!!

This morning, we are going to start our 1,500-mile journey back home to Illinois. I think we’ll eat up approximately 500 miles today, if all goes well. We ought to be home Thursday or Friday, it looks like.

Yesterday was James’ 17th birthday. For lunch, Mark and I went with him to a Pizza Hut buffet that’s just a few miles up the road. After that, we headed over to Antelope Lanes to bowl a couple of games. I didn’t do so hot, as my high score was only 142 or something, but it was still fun.

We planned on playing disc golf after bowling, but we couldn’t find the course — well, I think we found the ruins of the course. We must have had some dated information about it, and it appeared as though the course had been abandoned.

Monday evening, Grandpa, Grandma and the three of us went out to dinner with their friends, Pete and Barb. We went to this small steakhouse called Cattleman’s. It was fun!

Well, I’ve got to go. We’re going to start breakfast here and then get ready to leave. I look forward to being home and getting to play witht all of the chubs again!!