A New Birthday

Liam is so obsessed with his birthday, mostly for the attention he gets and the presents he dreams about getting. He bugs us everyday, asking us when his birthday is and how many more months does he have to wait. But today, we have a new day to celebrate. My son became a Christian last night. He's been asking Katie about it for a couple of days. When she was reading the story of Lazurus he told her he wanted to be baptized. Katie said that usually you become a Christian before you get baptized, so he said he wanted to do it. Katie knelt down with him and prayed a prayer with him and explained to him about forgiveness of sin and Christ's death, and repentance. Then Liam asked Christ to live in his heart. Just a simple prayer, then a quiet celebration of his new birthday, January 28, 2012. I cried when I heard it, it is beautiful that our son is responding to the soft nudges of something beyond himself and that his decision to follow Christ was organic and has altered the course of his life. I have so much hope and thanks for the promise God has for my son's life.

Cottage Industry

It has finally snowed here, two times in a week's time, about six inches.Here in Galewood there is a little cottage industry, shoveling snow for money. Maybe people are too busy to shovel their own snow, that is certainly the case with grass during the summer. So, kids in the neighborhood capitalize on this fact, and have been shoveling in the dough, at five bucks a pop. Yesterday i saw a crew of cousins, shovel four homes in the time I shoveled mine.

This morning I saw the same kids coming home from work on other blocks. I also noticed a few middle age and older men roaming around ringing bells on this block and the one to the north. I called one man over, " Are you trying to get shoveling jobs?" I asked. "yeah, I haven't got a job yet." he said. I said , " those kids over there are charging $5 and getting all of the jobs." " I charge $10, I got a family." clearly annoyed that I had stopped to talk with him, " you got a job for me?" " Sorry, I just shoveled my place." i replied. He walked away.

To me, this is a small picture of the economics of the city. Low skill jobs are scarce, there are too many competing for those jobs, wages are depressed based on the fact there those that will work for a fraction of cost that labor demands to take care of basic needs.

Riis Park Sledding Hill

Just went sledding with Liam at Riis Park. This hill is slightly better than Humboldt Park's. You can still see the skyline and the decline is at a steeper angle, so you fly. Some teenagers were sledding with Pam cooking spray sprayed on the bottom of their sled. Awesome! We had a fun time