matmusic ministries

This weekend was the Play It Again Sports Open (PIASO) in Crowley, Texas.

The format of the tournament was unique in that we played two rounds of 30 holes. Typically, the big tournaments are four rounds of 18 or 21 holes. Apparently, last year’s PIASO was too long in the hot Texas sun and thus, the shorter format.

The other unique aspect of the weekend was that the groups of golfers all started their rounds on hole one at certain tee times. Most tournaments are shotgun starts where players start at different holes of the course. This was nice because I got to sleep in but it also meant that I was stranded in Crowley from 4pm on Saturday until 11:30 am on Sunday. This would have been plenty of time to drive home but the 106 mile round trip at $3.95 per gallon had me looking for other options.

Thankfully, my brother and sister-in-law Pete and Sara live exactly 8 miles from the course. They were going to be out of town camping for the weekend but they graciously offered their house to me. Turns out they did come home on Saturday night around midnight but still insisted that I sleep in their bed. I resisted but they would not take ‘no’ for an answer. Thank you guys SO much for the place to crash!

As for the tournament, I had a bit of a rough first day…9 bogeys with only 3 birdies. What saved me was that I did not have a single double bogey on the day. Also, I finished with 8 straight pars…consistent, yes. After day one, I was 6 over par, tied for 12th place, and in the money.

Day two played from shorter tee boxes but they had their challenges. I was somewhat erratic with my throws and went out of bounds a couple of times resulting in 2 double bogeys for the round…ouch. I did put together some nice holes to obtain 10 birdies including the last two holes which played 345 and 330 feet respectively. I finished the round at 5 under par…an 11 shot swing from the day before.

I finished the tournament tied for 7th place in my division winning $30 worth of merchandise.

Click the picture for a larger size.

In all, it was a fun and challenging course on a very warm weekend but a GREAT time. Chances are good that I will play this one again next year. Next time I hope to bring my family along with me.

On a recent visit to the Pop’s and Nana’s house, Parker wanted to dress up like his cousins.

I don’t think pink is his color.

Look at that snarky look on his face.

I think he’s pretty cute even with a dress on. But Molly Ringwald, he ain’t!

Ashton’s spring recital took place on a recent Saturday in Lewisville. I cannot help but post pictures of my cute little ballerina.

The Nutcracker was the theme of the show. Ashton was the queen of the little mice.

She was joined in the show by two of her ballerina classmates and lots of other little outfitted cuties.

The only drawback to the day at all was that the performance took place in an outdoor amphitheater. It was a nice place but the temperatures were already near 100 degrees.

The ballerinas must have been dying of heat but they smiled all the while.

Thank you to all my family members that are so interested in my kids and their functions. They are so pleased to have your support.

Obviously, this post is WAY overdue. I have had this album in my mind since March but am just getting to writing about it. Albums for April and May will follow soon.

The matmusic Album of the Month for March 2008 is Oracular Spectacular by MGMT.

[audio:04 Electric Feel.mp3]
Click the above to listen to the music as you read the write up.

Falling in close step with artists like the Klaxons and Of Montreal, MGMT (pronounced ‘Management’) deliver a satisfying and trippy blend of music to move to. Much like the more popular artists in this genre, as you listen, you cannot help but sing along. This, to me, is the appeal. It’s not simply about sounds and synths and computers, there are actual words to engage the listener. Often meaningless, they still work to draw you in. The mind bending, ethereal sounds, though, should not be over looked. They, combined with the singing, lend to a feel that wraps the listener is a blanket of good-ole-days memories.

The band has an entirely complete sound for only having two main members: Ben Goldwasser and Andrew Van Wyngarden. Van Wyngarden’s falsetto vocals remind of early 70’s while Goldwasser’s synth sounds complete the decades old feel.

The album kicks off with Time To Pretend which is also the title of their first EP. The high pitched and warbled electric piano hook is hard to forget.

YouTube video here

I am usually not the biggest fan of slower tempo songs. I want something to get me going, not put me to sleep. Track number three, The Youth, while sitting at a slower tempo is actually both infinitely singable and addictive. The country guitar intro kicks off the unique tune by throwing the listener a bit off kilter. Then, when the band modulates down a step at the 2:35 mark, it somehow works to actually take the song up a notch.

Electric Feel is one of the heart songs of the album. The guitar line moves the song along and gives it the real punch. “Ooh girl, shock me like an electric eel” is a perfectly cheesy throwaway line that is nothing but fun.

Finally, the breakdown starting at 3:00 of Kids should be sought out and listened to at a very high volume.

If you like what you hear, support the band and it’s art by purchasing the album.

Happy listening.

When I was a kid, I used to tell Mom that I was a “Worker Man” as I was holding a toy hammer or saw. Often times, I would chant “Ammer, Ammer” as I pretended to drive a nail.

My boys have followed in my footsteps.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Wyatt. No mistaking that red hair. Here he is helping me with the edger as I do the lawn. I think I have posted this picture one other time but I could not find it.

Then there is Parker…

Parker has a toy circular saw that makes a cutting noise and has a red light that would mimic a laser sight. As we were cutting up some branches in the yard, he wanted to break out the same tool Daddy was using.

I do love my cute kids.

This past weekend, I celebrated a wonderful Father’s Day with my family.

I got to sleep in then have a wonderful breakfast with my family. Then I got to sit and drink coffee and read the paper before we got ready to go to church. The message at church was about worship and expression in worship (see blog post below) which, of course, is right down my alley. Razzoo’s Cajun Seafood was lunch and was great. Disc Golf and swimming in the lake took the afternoon. I had a blast throwing the kids into the water as high as I could. Finally, a hockey game (and a win at that) capped off the night.

Thank you family for making my day, and every day, very special.

To my dad:
I am grateful for all the love and support you have always given me. I remember fondly you teaching and coaching my athletic teams as I was growing up. I learned proper sportsmanship, fairness and desire from you and from your instruction. To this day, I love to spend time shooting hoops or playing golf with you. Thank you for the love that you always show to my wife and my kids. I count it a blessing to have you as my dad.

To Jim:
Thank you for all you mean to my family and to my mom. You taught me hard work and being excellent in the things I do. I learned that from your example. Thank you for showing love to my kids in special ways. I think it is wonderful how they call you “Jimmy Boy.” You are a blessing to me.

To Pops:
I could not have asked God for a better family to marry into. It is wonderful to see your love for your kids and how that love extends to your in-law kids as well. Thank you for all the time and effort you spend in making us happy. Your generosity is so wonderful and such a blessing to all of us. I am blessed to have you as a father-in-law.

To Papa, Clair, and Grandad:
You are a wonderful example of Christ to me. I am so grateful to have you as my grand fathers.

Happy Father’s Day to all!

There is a series called Worship Mythbusters (WMB) on a blog that I read over at Rich Kirkpatrick’s Weblog. His latest post is about expressive worship. Since my upbringing was in the Church of Christ (acapella, mostly non-outward expression) and my current church is considered charismatic in worship (instrumental, loud, outward worship), I have seen both ends of the hereby made up by me “Expressiveness in Worship” spectrum. Some of Mr. Kirkpatrick’s blog post was interesting to me so I wanted to share it with you and give my two cents.

WMB 5.0 — How does expressiveness fight against legalism in our liturgy is where I am going today in this WMB post. This is part of a series here

MYTH: Loud, expressive, extravagant, joyful worship is not as holy as quiet, still and austere worship.

Of course the goal is not to enjoy your expression of worship, or to reach a certain decibel level. The goal is to offer our lives, and in the context of liturgy, our communal life as a church. What happens in a church is a person who has some tattoos walks in, and begins “feeling” it while some of the staid-suburban-Dockers-wearing-Christian-veterans in the pews begin to feel something else–resentment.

It does seem to me that, as a whole, the quiet and still worshipers are downcast or depressed in some way. Maybe it is awe or reflection but those worshippers seem sad to me. I’m certainly not saying that for every song, you should be jumping, shouting, clapping but there are times when the awe I feel naturally makes me want to raise my hands. To fight that feeling seems fleshly to me.

Often, today I hear people say that corporate worship is not necessary if we are feeding the poor. Well, feeding the poor is not optional. Neither is coming together as believers to worship Jesus in a grand way. We need to sit at His feet, in order to learn to be His feet. It is a “both and” not one or the other. We cannot assume we are devoting ourselves to God by filling our need for altruism. That emotion is not worship any more than being entertained by a rousing worship band.

I like the line, “we need to sit at His feet, in order to learn to be His feet.”

Expressive worship has problems for legalists. Remember King David’s wife? She despised her husband’s expressiveness in worship. She wanted him to be solemn and was embarrassed by his crazy dance of worship and celebration. David loved God. How often are we critical of mature Christians or leaders who are expressive? We would rather things be quiet, not loud or expressive or joyful or big or in public!

David knew the grace of God, so he worshiped as a grace-filled soul. Sometimes we scowl and frown at grace-filled people because we have yet to know and accept that we cannot earn favor with God. We like being scared, guilty and prideful that somehow we can earn points with God. So, our worship at times has to reflect that.

While I don’t think that all people who despise expressive worship are legalists in the pure dictionary definition of the term, I would question their motives for their despising those worshippers. Why would a person feel angry toward a person who is obviously so happy or touched by worship? I think it may be that they fear visitors or other church members will think their church is strange. But first of all, if you are worried about what other humans are thinking, then you are concerned with the wrong being. That’s called Fear of Man. Second, I would say, if worshipping God with your whole self is strange then I am a weirdo!

Above quotes are from
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/RichKirkpatricksWeblog/~3/308609008/worship-mythb-1.html
if you want to read more.

Some interesting stuff to ponder, for sure.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Kara was out of town this weekend on a girls trip. That means that it was Wyatt, Ashton and Parker’s weekend with their Dad. Contrary to popular belief, we did not have cereal for dinner or chocolate cake for breakfast. But we did do some fun stuff.

We went over to Mom and Jim’s house on Friday night for dinner (thanks for the steaks! yum.) AFTER dinner, we went for some sno cones at this great sno cone stand that is within walking distance of the house.

YUMMY

I got Cotton Candy with cream, Ashton got Lime, and Wyatt got a flavor called Frog in a Blender. No, there were not actual bits of real frog in the sno cone, just a mixture of Lime and Cherry. And of course, Wyatt could not resist a flavor with that name.

The Lime was sour

The infamous Frog in the Blender

Saturday, we went to help Aunt Jessica with her house. (Sorry, I was working too hard to take any pictures.) We hung two new light fixtures that look fabulous.

Sunday breakfast was pancakes…mmm. Then it was off to church…you should have seen Ashton’s hair which was done expertly by her father! Afterward, we played outside in the water and swam in the hot (cool) tub. That night, our babysitter, Rebecca came over to watch movies with the kids so I could go to my hockey game.

Somewhere along the way, Wyatt decided that Roscoe needed to hear the video game he was playing through some headphones that Noni gave him.

(click for full size)

Finally, we made a great marble track using Wyatt’s ladder.

This really worked well and went all the way to the floor. Everyone helped and liked watching their marble make the descent.

Kara, please don’t think all this fun means you can do this every month, we sure missed you…but I did have a great time all weekend with my great kids.

Kara went out of town with her friends and I can only hope that she has the camera. When I get it back, I promise to post lots of pictures.

Stay tuned…