haseldens.com

Home

Welcome to the brand new haseldens.com. We’ll have the most recent posts from everyone displayed here on the front page. If you’d like to have your blog added to the list, be sure to send an email to admin@haseldens.com

sean’s musings

02
Feb 10sean
Top of the Mile

This shot was taken at the top of the magic mile. On of my favorite places to be on a clear day!

Random Musings of a Beautiful Letdown

01
Feb 10Amanda
Lessons on Fear

Well…I “promised” a blog, and so here it is!

So I’ve been SUPER stressed out lately. Stressed at work, at home, at play It just seems neverending. I’ve been emotional and grumpy, and yet at times quite kind and unusually quiet. And all this time I’ve been praying that the Lord would reveal to me what is going wrong. He is always so faithful to answer, if we ask with an open heart Some of His answers have been tough, and others have been relieving.

Here’s some of what I realized. Some of you may be in the same boat, and I hope this helps! But I realized that I live in fear. The old me was ESPECIALLY bad. I lived in fear of everything. Fear of failure. Fear of what others thought (and still- what they think) of me. Fear of not fitting in. Fear of what I weighed and how I looked. Fear of letting my parents down – of not being a successful adult. Fear of losing friendships – of never being good enough for others to care about my life. Fear of the past. The list could go on! As I’ve gotten older, some of those fears have been conquered, but not all.

The question becomes - where have these fears gotten me in life? Nowhere! They’ve caused stress and tears, fads, excuses…Nothing positive has come out of living with these fears. And honestly, which of these things could be more important than knowing the Lord and what He has done for me? Knowing that He loves me and sent His only Son to die so that I could spend eternity with Him? I should be repaying Him with a life of worship (thank you, John Mark ) and not by caring about the fleeting things of this life. All these cares and worries do is hinder my ability to live my life for Christ, to its fullest!

Weight will come and go. Yes, I need to take care of the Lord’s temple, but not obsess about it!

Friends will come and go. The Lord will strengthen the bonds between myself and those He has intended me to connect with in this life – to have solidarity with (thanks again, John Mark!) Yes, I have to be proactive in cultivating those relationships, but I need to know when to let go of the unhealthy ones as well! I cannot be everything to everyone (uh…thanks Art Alexakis? Hehe).

And what does it matter if I fit in?! Jesus certainly didn’t fit in! Nor did many of His disciples. They lived a life solely focused on the Kingdom of Heaven. That certainly didn’t involve trends and cool music?

And who defines success, that I should live in fear of failure? The Bible is clear on what the Lord requires of me for success, and that’s all I should be worrying about. Not what I do for a living or how much money I make. Not whether or not I have children or become a missionary. First and foremost, I need to live my life, obeying God’s commands and striving to have the character of Christ. This I do fail at time and time again. But I know the Lord is working there.

Lastly, the past is gone. What is there to fear? I need to be looking forward…running the race that is BEFORE me. Not looking over my shoulder. It will slow you down EVERY time!

So having said all that, I am so thankful for the work the Lord is doing in my life! I’m thankful for the people He’s brought into it, the fresh perspective, the CONSTANT blessings that I don’t and never will deserve.

If, at some point in your time knowing me, you have been directly affected by one of these fears in my life, I apologize and ask that you will have faith in the work the Lord is doing in me. Uplift me in your prayers. Pray about whether or not the Lord has called us to somehow share in this journey together!

And now…to move forward and on. That will be the test as to whether or not I truly learn from the things that God has revealed to me.

Little Heart

24
Jan 10Nixie Pixie
i’m doing it, too!

here is my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days!

http://dayzeroproject.com/user/awlear

Gompers Growing Up

18
Jan 10sarah
Christmas Time!!

Hello

I was looking forward to Christmas this year for one reason; to see how Beth was going to respond. She did not disapoint. When we got her up in the morning, we had to show her that there was new things in the living room for her. She found her new blocks first, which surprised Dan and I both. It took about 10 minutes before she even saw the kitchen that was sitting there for her, but once she did, we could not get her away from it to eat breakfast. She had such a good time playing. After breakfast we went out to the living room and Daddy started to bring the wrapped gifts over to be opened. She thought it was the neatest thing to be able to tear the paper off the boxes. Every last piece of paper and tape had to be removed before she would move on to anything else and if she did not have a box, she was there to help Mommy or Daddy open theirs. Here are a couple more pictures of gift opening.

I can do it. 011202-R1-17-7A

Sometimes the simplest toys can be the most fun. She got a set of little tops from her cousin Allison and kept wanting Mommy to spin them. I wish we had different flooring so they could have had a better surface to spin on. 011202-R1-15-9A

There was so much to do and so many costume changes that she wore herself right out

and had to take a break from the action.

Brain of Dane

12
Nov 09Dane
NaNoWriMo is eating my soul

NaNoWriMo couldn’t have picked a worse month for me. I’m sure that’s what I would say if it was in October, or January, or June. But this month is still a bad month. For instance, October was extremely sparse. I had nothing on the calendar, and I was playing World of Warcraft much more than any grown man should be. But then November rolled around and I got a callback from two different companies that wanted to interview me. Both are out of town, so that’s two days where I should be writing for each trip. A total of 4 days that I got hardly any writing done.

And then there was my one class this semester. I’m not complaining, since it is only one class, but my professor decided that he wanted to drop a couple of projects on us, since “I haven’t given you enough work”. My point exactly. Why didn’t NaNoWriMo come last month?

My story is coming along pretty well. I will have a TON of editing to do after this is done, since a few people want to read my convoluted fantasy. There will be a lot of plot twists, I think. And none of them will make sense. What matters is that I have been enjoying myself, and I really like my characters so far.

If you want to track my progress, just come back here daily and check out my word count on the top right side of this page. I am currently far enough behind that I need to write twice as much as I have just to catch up. But so is everyone else. It’s the beauty of NaNoWriMo. Now that this word count is well over 200, bordering 300, I must go and write some more of my novel. Wish me luck.

mumblings of a humble servant

19
Oct 09sarah
Kate and Amanda

Sean and I took the lovely kate and amanda out on a photoshoot and had a blast. It was a little cold but thats oregon for ya! It took me forever to finally finish these but here they are! ah1 ah2 ah3 ah4 ah5 ak4 ka1 ka2