Chris​Hubbs​.com

This holiday weekend we have left Iowa and headed to Wisconsin to visit my family. Thanksgiving with family is a great time; we have all of our traditional things to eat, games that we play, stories that get (re)told, time spent together. It is a blessing.

Last year when we came for Thanksgiving, Laura was just a 4-month-old baby. Now she’s walking, talking, and generally the center of all our attention. Amazing.

The rest of the family is doing well, too. Ryan generally works long hours and is very busy, which means that when he comes home he sleeps a lot. It’s good for him. He’s so darn funny, too… he keeps us in stitches most of the time. Last night as we were playing cards he made some slightly off-color comment; then he excused himself by noting that he has roomed with guys for the past several years, and, he said “we don’t just push the envelope - the envelope is opened, soiled, and returned to sender!” OK, maybe it’s not so funny in print, but last night we about had to stop our card game we were laughing so hard.

Aaron is the only one that isn’t here; he’s still in Panama working with YWAM. We miss him a lot. He called yesterday for about an hour so we all got to talk to him. He’ll be back home for Christmas - hooray! It also sounds like he’s planning on moving back to the States come next summer. It would be great to have him closer again.

We’re about to head in to Madison to do some shopping. I know, we’re crazy, but we all start to go a bit stir-crazy after being here at the house for a day and a half, so it’s time to go out. Andrew had to work this morning at the lumberyard, but he’ll meet us there once he gets off around noon. I doubt we’ll even buy that much - maybe a new shirt, or a CD, or something in that vein. Mostly it’s the chance to be out and around as a family. Holidays like this remind me that my family is the biggest blessing of all.

Normally I don’t do a lot of “here’s what I did with my weekend”-type posts, but it was a nice weekend, so since I need to update the blog I figured I’d just have to. Oh, first things first: my brother Ryan has decided to start a blog. Don’t know how much he’ll maintain it, but I’ve added it to the list of links on the right.

Anyhow, to the weekend. Friday night we got a babysitter and went out on a date. Nice to have some time to just be with the two of us after a busy week. We went to Chili’s and had ribs for supper, then went to Barnes & Noble to browse for a while. I bought a 2-disk CD album of Thelonious Monk and his quartet, Live at the “It” Club. I’d not listened to any Monk before, but a friend recommended him because of my love for Harry Connick, Jr. I was not disappointed. 2 1/2 hours of live club performance from 1964, digitally remastered so that it sounds great. I’ve been listening to it for the past couple evenings and it’s excellent. Forgot to bring it to work today so I guess it won’t make its way onto my iPod until tomorrow. So, after B&N, we went down to our favorite little coffeeshop and each had a cappucino smoothie. I sat and improvised on the piano for a while and Becky sat and read a book. What a nice way to spend a Friday evening!

Saturday we got up early and worked on an outdoor construction project. Becky has been planning on building some planters back behind the garage for the past several months; the landscape timbers to build said planters have been sitting on our patio for the past 6 weeks or so. Finally we had a free weekend to build. Finished those up by early afternoon. They will be really nice to have.

With the long weekend we got to enjoy Monday off as well. We did a bunch of cleanup in the morning, in preparation for having several friends over in the afternoon. It rained non-stop from 9:00 until 1:30 or so; we were afraid it might be too wet to spend time outside, but no, it dried out nicely and was beautiful. We invited Steve & Amanda and their kids, Ginger came as well (Daniel’s off to Amsterdam today flying freight), and then a new couple that just moved up here, Jeremiah and Rebecca. We had a great time getting to know them - they seem like a lot of fun, hope we can get to know them better. What I wouldn’t give to have them end up making Noelridge their church home… but they’re looking for a home in Monticello (30 minutes away) to shorten Jeremiah’s commute, so I wouldn’t place good odds on them coming to CR for church… oh well.

Now it’s Tuesday and I’m back at work. I’ve got a project certification plan document to update today. Fun fun. But it was a great, refreshing weekend. Thank the Lord for these times to kick back a bit and relax.

OK, I’m excited. I just finished talking to my brother Andrew. He is almost 19, has been playing on the worship team at his church (Richland Center Fellowship, Richland Center, Wisconsin) for a while now, and has the opportunity to lead the worship service in a couple weeks… on the Sunday that the rest of the family is going to be visiting!

We have a musical family. Dad was a music education major, Mom minored in voice, and all of us 5 kids play at least 1 instrument, some of us several. We did occasional special music and such growing up, and I really miss the chances to do stuff with them. We know so much of the same music that it’s ridiculous.

Quick picture to paint: we’re all home at Christmastime, and I’m sitting in the living room just goofing around on my guitar with Caedmon’s Call’s Hands of the Potter. My brother Aaron (age 21) is working on installing a cat door in the porch door, I didn’t even think he’s paying attention, and as I get to the chorus, he just kicks in singing the backup part. It was way too cool.

Anyhow, Aaron is off in Panama doing missions, but Ryan (age 25) and Andrew and I will all be around on that Sunday, and the plan is that we will all help out with the worship time, playing and singing. This is exciting for multiple reasons; first, to get to play music with those guys again is a treat. Second, I’m the worship leader of a church of 150 or so rather subdued worshippers (God’s “frozen chosen” :-)). We’ll be leading at a church of 400 or so more energetic types. Thirdly (and maybe this should be first, priority-wise), I get to help encourage Andrew in his quest to head down a similar path as I’ve gone down, to use his musical talents as a worship leader. That will be the best part, for sure.

I suppose I should get back to work now, but excitement like this needs someplace to be poured out, even if it is just to a window in WordPress. :-)