starting again

Well another semester is getting rolling. I'm taking a couple of classes I am really excited about, and a couple that could go either way. The ones that could go either way are "Preaching" and "Baptist Identity and History." Preaching can go either way because I've never had this professor, and am not sure how the class is going to work, so it could be great, or could be a major pain. Baptist Identity and History is going to help distinguish what some of the Baptist distinctives have been over time and history for Baptists. I am excited to learn some of it, but I think that some of the reading will be dry, and I may come out of the class shedding even more of my Baptist skin (which if you know me, you may wonder if I even have any Baptist flesh hanging on).

I am really excited about Historical Theology III which is the third of my historical theology classes, where we will study the European Reformations up through the Enlightenment. It is with one of the best professors I have ever had, Dr. Tarmo Toom. I am also taking another class with Dr. Toom called Mystical Theology: Spiritual Formation in the Early Church. It should be awesome. I'm also taking Theology of the Psalms with Dr. Bill Smith, pastor of a local church near my seminary who did his Ph.D. work on the Psalms, so this should be another great class.

It should be a great semester, but it is always intimidating to look at a fresh batch of syllabuses and wonder how all the work will ever get done. Here's to hoping for the best.

so I think I'm going to start hunting

Because deer suck.

They ate most of my corn.

And I think that the time has come for me to learn how to shoot a gun, and take care of my antler-induced problem.

gardening, pickles, and the latest harvest

So I've sucked at posting lately, partially b/c the lovely civics-teaching wife and i traveled to see my youngest brother and family before he heads off to college, and partially b/c i have felt like i have too much to say, yet can't say anything. sometimes that's how things are you know?...the garden is doing well, though i'm having some big japanese beetle problems. they are making me want to leave my organic ways behind, and go on a high-speed, all-encompassing insecticide mission with all the pesticides and little tiny tweezers that i can find to spray and squeeze them to death.

below are some pictures of our first attempt at canning, we made pickles with a great friend Joel Lindsey, and there are some pics of this mornings harvest, along with some pictures of the garden before i left for MN to visit family. to be honest, what really makes me want to blog the most though is reading Wendell Berry. I'm currently working through Fidelity, a collection of five (short) stories, and i feel like the world is right again when i read Berry. i hope folks are well, and if anyone has any organic solutions to killing japanese beetles, please let me know!