according to jeff

I made a 99 cent investment today. Look at what I found at our local grocery:

Do you see what makes this item special? Go ahead, take a moment…

Made your guess? OK, there it is:

This is a 2006 Hot Wheels. It’s labeled #141, Dodge Ram 1500. However, the actual car in the packaging is a Bugatti Veyron; it’s definitely not a Dodge Ram 1500 pickup. The Bugatti Veyron belongs in package 144, not 141. It’s obviously the result of a packaging error, and thus more valuable to a Hot Wheels collector than a properly packaged car.

Though it might be worth tens, hundreds, even thousands of dollars to the right buyer, I’ll think I’ll add it my collection of packaging errors. It will look nice along side my unopened-yet-empty can of Pepsi. The can reminds me:

Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. — 1 Samuel 16:7

And now the Hot Wheel will remind me:

Do not pay attention to every word people say (or write or advertise). — Ecclesiastes 7:21

This past Saturday, the four Wheelers headed to the Home Depot, Best Buy, Michaels, West Music, Lemstone Books, Family Christian Store, and Kohl’s. While at Best Buy, we ran into an acquaintance who asked:

“What brings you all out together?”

That question was quickly followed by his own answer:

“Oh, that’s right. You all do everything together.”

Cool.

Without doing anything out of the ordinary (for us), our family had made an impression. While it really isn’t true that we do everything together (especially as our children have grown older), we do do a lot together. We attend each other’s recitals and contests. We go to church together. We tour college campuses as a family. We attend each other’s sporting events. And sometimes we run errands on Saturday morning together.

Statistics have shown that doing things together is good for the health of a family. In fact, the camping industry once used the phrase, “Families that camp together, stay together.” It was a clever slogan. Of course you stay together when you’re camping, all cramped together in a tent or camper. But it also reflected the statistic that the divorce rate was lower among families that camped. Spending time together is healthy for a family.

So, we’ve chosen to spend time together, to do things together. That doesn’t mean that we do things exclusively with each other. For instance, our kids spend time at the park or in the backyard with their friends in the neighborhood, Matt volunteers at an after school program, etc. However, doing things together is still a priority.

Therefore, our house is always available for our kids to have friends over. We have a badmitten net and a tether ball in the backyard. (Sometimes the grass gets smashed down, but I remind myself that it’s just grass.) We play games, such as the Great Dalmuti), with our kids and their friends. None of this is rocket science, but it is intentional.

It really doesn’t seem unusual to us; we’re just being a family. That’s what families do — they do things together. It’s one of the blessings of having a family.

But the impression that it makes on others is certainly interesting.

In May, I wrote about the Automatic Shower Cleaner, a device that splatters a scrubbing bubbles solution over the shower and promises to eliminate the need for further shower cleaning. You may have seen the commercials — a handful of scrubbing maids are replaced by the automatic shower cleaner.

After six weeks or more of use, the results are in.

The good:

• It’s easy. You just have to remember to press the button after the last shower of the day. (However, if you have trouble remembering to hang up your wet towel (you know who you are), this might not be so easy.)
• The shower does seem cleaner and “sparklier”.

The bad:

• Each bottle of cleaning solution is advertised to last up to 21 days. With daily use, we find that it runs out faster than that.
• It hangs from the shower faucet, making it impossible to use both a shower caddy and this cleaner.
• 1 in 4 people reported that smelling the solution resulted in a headache. ¹
• Since the cleaner is designed to splatter cleaning solution over the surface of the shower, it’s hard to find a spot to put a bar of soap where it won’t be splattered with cleaning solution. (Maybe we should switch to liquid soap.)
• It doesn’t remove iron discoloration.

Our conclusion: we’ll keep using it for a while. While I think scrubbing maids would do a better job, it’s definitely better than me doing the spraying and scrubbing!

1. Survey conducted during June, 2006. 4 total respondents.

What would you give for a better marriage?

How about 5 evenings?

Is your marriage worth that much investment? Sure, you might miss a softball game, bowling night, or favorite show. But isn’t your marriage worth it?

At Immanuel Baptist Church, we think so. In fact, we believe that your marriage is important enough to give up our softball games, bowling nights, and favorite shows for a week, too.

Join us for Marriage Enrichment Week. Make that investment of your time and energy. We think it will be worth it.

Download the brochure and register today!