Jeff Kerr

Stay Inside, Take a Nap.

There are times when I have flashbacks to my Canadian childhood.  Seeing this picture of Charlie is one of those times.

Question for you Americans out there.  The Canadian Dollar is worth the same as the American Dollar.  When was the last time that was the case? 

Answer:  1976.  This means it’s no longer lucrative for me to use my Canadian coins in American vending machines.  This means Canada is on it’s way to World Super Power.  Our loonies are strong, our water is fresh, our oil is plentiful and our wit is as dry as the cold arctic air.  (Of course our laid back attitude prevents us from actual world domination.)

Question number two…(speaking of arctic air) we know that 0 degrees Celsius is 32 degrees Fahrenheit.  At what temperature are the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales the same?  In other words, there’s a temperature that is the same in Celsius and Fahrenheit… what is it?

Answer: Minus 40. 

Minus 40 degrees Celsius is the same temperature as minus 40 Fahrenheit.

This was the temperature this morning in Edmonton Alberta where my brother lives.  (Actually, it was minus 44) This morning in Edmonton, none of the School Buses would start so parents had to drive their kids to school.  Neither of my brother’s cars would start due to the cold weather, so my nieces and nephew got the day off school.  This is a sign of real winter… you keep your kids home from school when there isn’t a vehicle in town that will start.  That’s a pretty good sign that it’s time to stay home and chill.

There are times when its just a nice day to stay home and relax… sip some tea… take a nap.  We move at a pretty fast pace as humans and it seems that more and more the tendency is to find ways to move at a faster pace so we can be more productive.

I saw an advertisement at the Gas Station last night for “Shock Coffee”.  This is Coffee with extra caffeine and energy boosts to give you that extra step in your day.  The pot has a blue lid with lightning bolts on it.

People… if a regular cup of coffee isn’t doing the trick and you find yourself looking for the blue lid with the Lightning, I believe that’s a sign that you need to take a nap.  There’s a reason your body is telling you it’s tired… it is.

So let’s take a lesson from our Canadian brethren and chill out a bit.

Fish Sticks and God's Promises

Hi,

It's monday at noon.  It's my day off and I'm preparing lunch for myself.  I looked through the fridge and the pantry and decided that the best option for me was frozen Tater Tots and Fish Sticks.  This is either due to the fact that the fridge and pantry are sparse in the area of quality lunch foods, or the fact that on the inside, I'm essentially a 12 year old.  Fish Sticks and Tots indeed sound quite good.  I bought the frozen fish sticks a month ago and tried them out on my kids and nobody liked them.  How can this be?  Doesn't every kid love frozen fish sticks?  So now I'm the only one eating them.

Also, on this monday...  This morning was a beautiful COLD morning.  This was an Alberta morning.  As I returned from driving the children to school I saw a rainbow in the sky.  I don't know that I've ever seen a rainbow on a cold, clear, January morning.  This was indeed a special rainbow because if you understand Scripture like I do, you know that this rainbow is God's promise to never have it be this cold again.

What is the Popscicle Eating Record?

It’s 10pm on Monday Evening.  THE Ohio State University is going Déjà vu with the National Championship game and I’m at the hospital with my 3-year-old daughter.  We arrived here 16 hours ago for a Tonsillectomy.  She’s doing fine, the surgery went well, but with young kids they like to keep them overnight sometimes to keep an eye on them.  She must be feeling fine as she's downed about 9 Popsicles thus far today.

In the last two years, every time we’ve had her in to any doctor that looks inside her mouth, their response has been “Woah, those are BIG tonsils”.  So today, we did something about it… Actually it was the surgeon who did something about it.  If I had performed the Tonsillectomy, this blog would have an entirely different tone.

Kristie is at home with the other three kids including our baby girl that needs to eat every three hours which is why Kristie’s at home when she’d much rather be here with Betty.  Kristie has quite a strong ‘Mama Bear’ instinct, which is one of the things that make her an exceptional mom.

And I am gearing up for a hospital room, fold out chair/bed, sleep over.  We’re hoping for a decent night.  As I sit here, I’m struck by the lack of snack foods at my disposal.  Perhaps there are some snacks in the diaper bag.  Indeed a bag of cheerios sounds decent right now. 

Anyway, we’re thankful the surgery went well and we hope that this will lead to better sleep for our little Bet.

I had the thought as we drove to the hospital this morning that we have it about as good as you can have it when it comes to medical care.  Of all the people in the world, I have to rank pretty high at the quality of medical care available to me.  And there are a number of reasons why…

Let’s start with the fact that we have a great hospital that we can drive to.  In many other countries in the world, a clean hospital with an open bed and medicine on the shelves is something that you couldn’t find on this Monday evening.

We have health insurance.  At no point today have we been concerned about what this will cost. I have a great job that gives great health benefits.  It’s a shame that on top of all the medical concerns people are dealing with today, many of them have the financial burden of wondering how to pay for it.

We have great heath care. Betty has been given every opportunity for good health in her first three years, which puts her ahead of about 99 percent of other three year olds in the world.  For most other three year olds living in a world infested with poverty, malnutrition, AIDS, neglect and abuse… large tonsils are the least of their concerns.

So I’m thankful for good health today.  As we waited in the waiting room this morning, I wasn’t concerned about a bad prognosis.  It was a routine Tonsillectomy and after about 35 minutes the surgeon appeared to say that everything went very well.  The two brothers sitting next to us were not as fortunate as they waited for news on their mother.  For them the Surgeon brought to a worst-case scenario in to play.  “It’s what we were afraid of…” was the first sentence out of his mouth.  We didn’t hear much as we weren’t listening in on their conversation.  But we heard “Cancer” and after the surgeon left, we watched several tear filled cell phone conversations, which I’m assuming had a heavy dose of “What to do now”.

So, I sit her watching my little girl sleep.  She’s doped up a bit, she has an IV and a pulse oximeter, which makes her thumb glow bright red (which is pretty cool stuff for when you’re a three year old). In spite of a long day, we know that we are blessed.

Blowing Your Mind and Rocking Your World

Happy Saturday Morning to you.

We’ve had a mind boggling week here at the Kerr house which all culminated at the dinner table last night as we dined on Pork Loin, Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans.  As we ate, we began discussing the issues that were blowing our minds.

Lucy was first as she tried to wrap her seven year old mind around the idea that God created the World and that He existed Before the Earth.  “That makes my brain hurt” she said.  “If nothing was created yet, and God existed, where did God come from?”

Kristie was next as she tried to come to grips with the reality that she’d been doing laundry for 6 straight days and the pile of dirty clothes isn’t any smaller than when she began. “Sure, God created the earth in 6 days, but he probably didn’t have to launder clothes for 4 kids while doing it.”

I wrapped up the deep items for discussion when I brought up Sweet Potatoes.  “I don’t understand the idea behind the sweet potato.  Why make them sweet?”  was my question. “This is how they are… God made them this way” Kristie assured me. Which led to several “WHY” questions on my part. Why potatoes?  Why pick this one vegetable and make a normal kind and a different ‘sweet’ kind?  And why stop at potatoes if you’re going to venture down that road?  Why not sweet lettuce?  or sweet beans?  My childhood would have had a lot less deception on my part if there were sweet brussel sprouts, for I may have eaten them rather than feeding them to the dog or flushing them down the toilet while on one of my feigned potty breaks.

The Kerr’s have had a bit of a crazy couple of weeks with all the stuff at Church.  Usually we hibernate at home for the week or so following Christmas but that was not an option this year with the construction at church and the new campus in Faribault.  But we are enjoying our Saturday morning.  Kristie is out shopping for sheets for the new bed we ordered yesterday.  This morning, by the break of dawn, our current queen sized bed was filled with all the Kerr girls, Charlie was in his bed and I was on the floor in a sleeping bag.  “I’m glad we have a king sized bed on the way” was my first thought this morning.

While Kristie is shopping, Lucy and I are honing our skills at Guitar Hero 3 ‘Legends Of Rock’.  And with Kristie out of the house, the volume is able to reach levels that are really offensive.  “Welcome To The Jungle” is just better when its loud.

At Rob and Becca's New Years Eve party, I was playing Guitar Hero with some 14 year olds and I saw that they had unlocked ‘Even Flow’ by Pearl Jam and my comment was “Cool, Even Flow, that’s a great song”  and their reply was “How do you know that song? Have you unlocked it on your game?” I then realized that these songs that I grew up with, are known by these 14 year olds exclusively within the world of this video game.  I then realized that I’m old and that I was a Sophmore in college when that Pearl Jam album came out. 

Anyway, I tell you this so you’ll have a deeper level of understanding regarding my behavior while leading worship at church this weekend.  So you wont have your own mind boggling “why” questions, know that when you see me thrusting the neck of my guitar up in the air violently, that is simply my attempt to reach ‘star power’.