Yes, I am a super-dork. I am participating in Pay-It-Forward, as found on Sarabeth’s Post over at the Clarke blog.

Enter if you dare by being of the first 3 commenters who fulfills the following requirements:

Here it is:

Those 3 commenters must fulfill the following requirements:

1. You must also participate in Pay It Forward on your blog, making this same offer to 3 other people.

2. The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your 3 people *sometime* in 2011.

Let the hilarity ensue!

Aiden and I went to get some wood from a friend on Sunday. We took the “new” truck, set out across town, gloves forgotten. No matter, it was father/son time and we always enjoy our jaunts together. Our friend had lots and lots of wood, because he heats his wife’s over-the-garage office space with an old wood stove. He even has some wood lying around that is getting ready for NEXT year!

I’m encouraged by the love and kindness of friends from church. Instead of paying hundreds for firewood, we got father/son time and a chance to fellowship with our friend in Christ…not to mention my wife is super happy with the new firewood!

We didn’t escape the weekend without paying any money, though, as we woke up to no hot water Monday morning. $730 later we had a new water heater. Same day service! How’d we find the guy to do it same day, you ask? Another friend from church referred us to him. : )

Most days we eat breakfast at home, and I have the joy of preparing that family meal. In fact, Aiden knows what day it is by what we have for breakfast! Leah comes over on the first “Oatmeal Day,” and we go to church after the second “Smoothie-Toast Day,” and Daddy is truly home for the weekend on “Tantake (how he says it) Day.”

This week, I’ve been early to the office for business reasons, so I have left before the household is awake. Consequently, I haven’t been getting that normal, healthy breakfast. Today, the office had that common holiday treat of the Triple-Popcorn Tin. And this was no ordinary T-P-T, this has the HIGH quality stuff! So, naturally, I nabbed some bowls full of grainy goodness for breakfast!

Uh…, happy holidays?

What’s your favorite holiday gift food treat?

There’s this little guy in my life named Aiden. Soon, he will be more than just a little boy. He will be my son. I find myself waiting in quiet anticipation for the moment he is legally mine. We are already past the point of no return with him, in our hearts and in our lives. We made a choice, as many parents of biological children do, to parent.

The challenges of parenthood are many. I find that I am my greatest obstacle to success as a parent. Even at 35, I struggle with selfishness, pride, and a critical spirit. It’s so easy to tell Allyson over the phone that "he’s just 3, cut him a break." It’s another thing to respond to him in love when he persistently questions with no regard for my personal space. Ha! What an attitude of entitlement I have! All of that must be put to death!

Here are a few photos of our trip to Dairy Queen a few weeks ago. We battled through weeks of unbearably bad behavior on his part, and felt at the time that we’d never see the end of it. I think the end of that time has come. He still has three-year-old moments (as do I at times!), but he is beyond the crazy Mommy-torture that had us throwing our hands in the air. He gets rewarded with a single sticker for a good nap time, and after 5 stickers to fill a row on his nap chart, he earns a treat. We’ve been doing ice cream, but now have added other options, such as a small gift.

Yup, coming home… to the VollerHAUS. Allyson and I have decided to consolidate our domains and join forces at vollerhaus.com — There is a tiny something at http://www.vollerhaus.com, but right now it’s just a gateway to get to our blogs.

Reasons for the switch:
1. Since my company, Leapwise Media, provides web hosting, we get our hosting free of charge. Also, centralizing the sites under one domain makes for easier maintenance.
2. I am a WordPress developer, and Allyson’s blog was over at Typepad. Typepad is a restrictive option compared to WordPress, and we were able to import all of her old posts and comments with ease.
3. Unified family front — Our blogs have been separate over the years (nothing really "wrong" with that) and we just wanted them to snuggle up a bit on the web…. so close now… /chad — /allyson — hee hee.

Hope the adjustment of your RSS feeds hasn’t thrown you too much for a loop… 🙂

– Chad

You spend your whole life waiting for something, then you have it, then you don’t want it.  We have an amazing propensity to despise the things we want once they become the things we have.  Yet this may not be a bad thing when you dig beneath the surface.

I love my family.  There is an amazing comfort and confidence that comes from my marriage.  Union with Allyson is my foremost treasured relationship on earth.  Scripture paints a picture of my unity with Christ that mimics marriage.  It is a wonderful, marvelous mystery that holds, heals, challenges, teaches and grows. 

But even in the strength of a strong marriage, I want to get away from it sometimes.

Then there are the children and the incredible responsibilities of raising a family.  Added to that are the difficulties of the foster-to-adopt process.  I love the boys we now have.  I will love whatever boys or girls may come in time.  Fathering them brings great joy to my heart, though you all know parenting is filled with hardships and heartaches.  Even though the toil and laughter combine into a rich personal experience, still I long to be away from it all sometimes.

Do you ever feel that way?  Even though you have a blessed life, a family you love, or perhaps you are in a situation that just works for you… you still want to leave it sometimes, even if for just a little while?  Do you feel guilty because of that desire?  I don’t think you should.

Relationships need to breathe, they need space.  Even daily.  What I choose to do with my space when I have it, is of utmost importance.  I admit I’m not always functioning at a high level at 3 a.m.  But I know that it may be the only alone time that I get today. 

So, here I am, in my alone time.  The middle-of-the-night baby feedings often happen around 3 or 4 a.m., and it may take the baby an hour or two to settle in and get back to sleep.  There are nights, like this one, when going back to sleep doesn’t make much sense.  I’ll be getting up in an hour or two, anyway, so why work hard at sleeping when I may get but a few moments with dreams?

But what to do during the alone time?  Or is it really alone time?  I’m not convinced that any time we have is ever spent truly alone.  It may be, however, that only when we remove the distractions of daily existence, and yes, people can fit into the category of distractions, are we able to see what is with us when we are alone.  We have our thoughts, and we have input, even if we are sitting quietly.

My goal is to spend my alone time together with God, thinking about him and the world, getting refreshed by his presence and his word.  In that way, my heart and mind will be ready to re-engage in those ever so important relationships I mentioned above.  Alone time really should be together time.  Together with God in conversation, in meditation.  I need more alone time.

Mark 1:35

Writing is… well, hard to describe.  I am certain that I am not the only one who struggles with writing or creativity.  Some of the time, though, I think I over-think it.  Again, I am probably not alone.  Lately, though, the process of just getting something written down has been arduous.  There are days when I think, “Just write something…anything!”  Still, even with that, there are still times when just makes it to the page.  Lonely page.

Over the years I’ve written poems, songs, music, hymns, letters, blog posts, articles, speeches, sermons, and the like.  There have been periods in my life where these freely flow from soul to sonnet, but the well of late runs dry. 

What to do when the well runs dry?  Put something on the page?  Literally?  Even if it’s just an admission of failure?  Even if it’s just the sentence, “I have nothing to say.”  What stands out to me, though, is that during the drought there are still so many ideas, so many things that spark thoughts, of, “Oh, I should write on that…” or, “I was just thinking about that the other day in the car…” or, “So and so brought up that idea in conversation a few minutes ago.” 

It isn’t as though there are no ideas, concepts, or stories to write about.  Not at all.  They are all around.  I can’t get away from them.  Still, nothing.  This post is the most I’ve been able to utter with any coherence on the matter.  I really don’t know where to go from here.  Where do YOU go if and when you arrive here, where so much surrounds and yet so little gets created?

Even when nothing results from the inner writer, I comfort myself with, “At least the desire is there.”

So, there’s this cute little guy who has lived with us for 1 week.  He’s just 9 days old, and we’ve already become quite fond of him.  I don’t have a LOT of pictures of him, but I do have some fun ones here.  Enjoy!

Day 1 or 2, Can’t Remember

With Big Brother

Middle ‘O the Night a couple days later

Been a few crazy awesome weeks… here are some photos from recent days.  We recently had a special visit with Grandpa and Grandma Voller, who were in town from Texas…

didn’t wanna wear his hat for me

somehow convinced him (and Ally coaxed a smile!)

making faces and fund with friends at Bob Evan’s

taking pictures while driving (it was just too beautiful)

Grandma and Grandpa (games with his stuffed kitty)