Hiatus Complete

We've been out for a while with the aforementioned work and school challenges. I am happy to announce that I am no longer working the third shift, and have been hired on by my church as the adminstrator and pastoral care associate! This will allow me to assist the church in an area of talent with things (administration) and with people (pastoral care). Furthermore, I will be able to spend more time with my wife and oldest son, as well as net more overall sleep, reduce total travel time, and increase study opportunities. All in all, even though the move is a pay cut, we are excited about the change.

I recently had the opportunity to spend three days and two night with all three children, minus Mrs. Hammer. I survived the ordeal, as did they, and I leave some advice for Dads who are presented with this kind of opportunity:

1) Get them out of the house. No, not just into the yard, but away. Bring them somewhere outside of the property for three hours. We went to the seminary and the mall on Friday, the local privately run forest / park on Saturday, and church on Sunday. This removes that dreaded extended time of entertainment that the great moms of the world fill with crafts, teaching and training and the slightly less great moms fill with a lot of "lighted box" time. Dads, don't be in a spot where your answer to what you did with the kids was "watched TV"!

2) Recognize needs vs wants. When the toddler falls down and busts her lip, she needs to be held. When she is bored of hitting the dog with a wooden sword, she does not. If you are doing a family critical job, like cooking dinner, you are not capable of simultaneously holding the toddler and cooking without burning someone or something. Moms can pull this off, we can't. A firm, "Daddy is busy cooking, we'll play later" is key here. She may whine for a minute, but she'll head over to the power tools for entertainment soon enough.

3) Physical activity reduces household stress. Tired kids go to sleep easier, and running around the forest like a madman guarantees this state.

4) Notre Dame football is an acceptable kiddie show.

5) It is always the oldest one's fault. This may not always be true, but it makes punishemnet decisions easy and makes the older one motivated to avoid fighting with the younger.

6) Punish early to avoid more of it later. We had a "naughty stick" incident Friday, and no further ones were required.

The Mrs. and I have been planning the direction of the blog, though we haven't had time for implementation. Now we will, as final exams are next week and I will only have school for one week out of the next ten. Some things we'll cover:

A) The first of an intermittent series on people in the military that made a lasting mark on me.

B) A series on church membership.

C) A post or short series on the doctrine of hell.

D) An exchange of posts regarding Hyper-Calvinism and my disagreement with it (Robert, are you up for it?)

E) A series addressing the Trinity, a lost doctrine in many of our "low churches", of which I am a member.

And whatever else may come from you all.