Nate Houge

7April2007

crucify the bunny

Posted by nate under: fact.

God I’m so confused by easter these days.

 Last night our family had an interesting first.  Lydia (3 1/2) walked down the toy aisles of Target.  Up to this point she never knew these aisles existed in this or any store.  I’m not sure how we avoided it for so long – we probably succeeded by never trying not to.  When she saw the rows of dolls at one point she said, “Daddy, this is the best day of my whole life!”  Kid you’re breaking my heart.  I quickly checked my back pocket to make sure I had a credit card on me (we never actually use it and as a result every couple months they up our limit so I think we’re up to 2 billion or something equally unfathomable).  I did have my credit card and so I proceeded to buy the entire toy section of target, all 11 1/2 aisles.  Or at least that’s what I wanted to do. 

I’m so sick of consuming – literally.  Today I was in a funk (and who knows why, it’s been a great day) and I told Jodi the only way I could think of feeling better was selling everythng we own.  She said, “Cool, start with your studio.”  Aye, that’s the thorn in my side.  I used to own a guitar and a little sound system.  In fact for a brief period of time everything I owned on this earth fit in a 2 door hatchback, with a bike on the back.  Now I barely fit in a 2 door hatchback.

I blame the easter bunny.  A couple years ago i got an e-mail about protesting outside wal-mart (where i developed photos yesterday) during holy week because they had easter baskets with war toys in them.  At the time I was much more active as a pacifist (now I’m just passive with a heart teetering on violence) and at first I thought it was a good idea – let’s go show the corporate giant a little power of the people!!!  But the more I thought about it the more futile it seemed.  Sure war toys are an overtly horrible thing to associate with easter, but isn’t the whole idea of going into that deplorable store to buy any of that plastic shit in the name of the living God a little sickening?  Maybe I should’ve started a protest outside my Church instead, it seems we are the ones that bring about our own demise. 

My friend Jim has got me reading a blog about this guy who’s living impact free for a year.  In an article about him he (or maybe it was his wife) said something along the lines of, “if i was a college student i’d be marching against myself at this point.”  I really want to march against myself. 

I’m not sure how the resurection fits into this – I think it used to be a lot clearer.

We left target without buying any dolls.  I think it was harder on me than on Lydia.  Today when she brought it up again for the umpteenth time we came up with a plan involving chores, sticker charts, and rewards.  It’s more legalistic than I’m comfortable with but it serves a practical need.  Plus it gives Lydia goal setting skills that she can use for the rest of her life.  Measurable, attainable, and deserving of a celebration.

Good luck measuring or attaining the goal of the cross.  But tomorrow lets all do our best at celebrating it.  I know we will.  We’ve got 2 dozen plastic eggs filled with crap to prove it. Enjoy your vigils, congrats to all those being baptized tonight, peace, be still, rock on, etc…

5April2007

pet seminary

Posted by nate under: fact.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could ordain cats and dogs?  Wouldn’t it?

My kiddo can’t wait to get a puppy.  She loves puppies and has a couple stuffed ones that she cares for as best she can.  Of course for awhile she only wanted a pet pig and we’d set out food at night and try to catch a wild one.  Even today she mixed up a batch of mush that we put in the freezer should a wild pig stumble upon our house anytime soon.

We’ve been practicing a share save spend approach to money and the first thing she spent her ’spend’ money on was a pink leash and collar.  It’s the first time her money has gone somewhere besides the offering or the bank.  The clerk at fleet farm was really nice and asked if she got a new puppy and Lydia said no, her parents only let her have a stuffed puppy.  And the clerk gave me a look of death.

But today it all changed.  Lydia claimed her first pet.  A dead ladybug named polka-dots.  I’m not sure if it was dead to start with, but if not the bath surely did her in.  Even though we put a yogurt lid in the water – a sort of life boat – I didn’t see a lot of hope for the poor thing.  But Lydia has been taking really good care of her all the same.  Washed out her cardboard shoe box in the kitchen sink, put a couple rocks and apple peelings in there to make it feel like home.  She even walks around the house calling out,”Polkadots! Where are you?”

It’s kind of heart wrenching to watch your child fall in love with her first pet when it’s a dead lady bug.  But it sure beats a dead puppy.

3April2007

gathered

Posted by nate under: Uncategorized.

the gathering was great fun.  the kids were well behaved if not a little girl obsessed at times.  Rachel Kurtz did great as did Agape of course.  The kids really dug them both and thought it was especially cool that Rachel called us up to lead actions and then to have 600 kids sing happy birthday to me.  This is what it looked like:

In the spirit of hip-hop I gave all the kids rap names and used them through out the weekend which worked towards my end goal of embarassing them – not unlike my continued over the top enthusiasm for all and any actions we were taught.  And the thing is, once I was a total embarassement they realized there was nothing to lose and they all totally partictipated and they all totally had a blast – it was awesome.

here’s a shot of the posse – we dubbed ourselves “da crazy 8’s”

that’s a shot of us at Mickey’s diner where i took them for midnight devotions and where our server used every foul word under the sun which didn’t seem to affect the kids until i pulled out my bible for devotions and they said, “maybe we shouldn’t do those here.”  I got a kick out of it.  And we did the devotions.  And won our server to our savior.  Not really, Jesus already took care of that.

And now it’s snowing.  Dang it.