SchneiderLife

I Misspelled Wisconsin

Thursday, February 4th, 2010 | Jeremy | No Comments

Just wanted to quickly apologize to our friends in Wisconsin. Yes, I misspelled the name of your home state in the title of the trip update that I published this morning. (To my credit, I did spell it right in the body of the post – I just misspelled it in the title and the URL!)

Will I learn my lesson and start using that spell-checker? Probably not! Anyway, it’s fixed now.

Trip Update: Arizona, Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin

Thursday, February 4th, 2010 | Jeremy | 3 Comments

It’s been almost two months since we packed all of our bags into that trusty little Chevrolet Aveo and started driving. We were on the road for over a month – from the beginning of December until mid-January!

It reminds me of a Pakistani family here in Chicago who we know well. We found out just two weeks ago that they’re moving to Florida – and we’re so sad to see them go! But when they were talking about the move, they gave this great comparison about how the trip they’re taking is like your whole life: as you’re traveling, your physical place changes and the faces you see change, but the destination remains the same. And they pointed out that truly knowing God is not just about the love or peace he produces in your heart now – it’s also about the hope of knowing your final destination with certainty. During times of instability or injustice or difficulty this hope is significant. That’s why following God is described as being “completely sure of the hope and certain of the invisible.” And we are definitely looking forward to the next time we see each other!

But I was telling you about a different trip – the one that Erin and I just took! I’ve always had this idea that it would be fun to drive across the United States. Well we wanted to visit Erin’s family in Arizona and I finally got to make that dream a reality!

Route 66 Adventure

It took three nights to get out there. We spent the third night in Flagstaff (Arizona) thinking that we’d stop at the Grand Canyon the next morning. But when we woke up, there were several inches of snow on the ground and even more coming down!! Everyone said that we’d get stuck if we didn’t leave immediately – so we made a break for Phoenix… and after an hour of driving 30 mph we finally got to a low enough altitude that it turned to rain. Definitely not what we expected on our first day in Arizona. But we eventually made it to Tucson where we enjoyed a few weeks of blissfully warm weather!

Tucson Sunshine and Mountains

But most importantly, we spent lots of time with family in Tucson. We stayed with Erin’s mom, visited Erin’s brother Matt’s family and met our new nephew Luke! Sooooooo cute! And of course the family in Tucson got to meet Chai!
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Sharing the Love

Saturday, January 30th, 2010 | Erin | No Comments

Last night, Jeremy and I went to an evening session put on by a group called Love 4 Life, which focuses on encouraging and equipping married couples to continually grow together in love as they go through life.  The topic for the evening was “Mapping Your Marriage,” and the emphasis was on intentionality in planning.  One couple who shared pointed out that it’s not good enough to expect relationship to happen.  Without intentionality in the relationship, you default to giving your spouse leftover energy after work, or else you fall into the relational patterns of your parents (whether or not they’re the same as your spouse’s), or else you move into what you think society expects of you.

To have a lasting, loving marriage demands a counter-cultural way of relating to one another. And that does not happen naturally.  Thus, the evening was not primarily a time of teaching by “expert” couples, but it centered on providing those in attendance with the opportunity to talk with each other and do some planning!  They even set up little tables with cute tablecloths and tea candles and provided coffee and little desserts so it was like a date night! 

Jeremy and I had a blast.  It was really fun to talk with each other about dreams for the future – whether they be practical or far-fetched.  Also, we had a good time analyzing the VERY different methods of planning that we utilize.

Jeremy is the love of my life!

Here are the discussion questions, and selected of our responses: › Continue reading

Blind?

Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 | Erin | 2 Comments

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

Possibly these words sound stale and familiar to you, over-used, over-quoted, and poorly-sung.  In fact, if these words don’t leave you breathless at the reality of transformational, world-changing miracles wrought in this world, then you must – I mean MUST – read this book:

"Once Blind" by Kay Marshal Strom

Oh I knew something about the story of the writer of this song before reading the book:

• that Newton was once a captain on a British slave ship (but not that the melody of the song was taken from the aching laments of the slaves as they were forced away from their homes and families)
• that Newton had a change of heart at some point in his life (but not that this was after his reputation was sealed as the most insolent, disobedient, profane and blasphemous sailor in all of Britain)
• that Newton had become a man of faith and eventually a pastor (but not that he had written 280 hymns in the decades of his pastoral life – many still sung around the world and in many languages today)

The second stanza of this famous hymn begins:

Thro’ many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;

After reading this book, I realized with what little depth I believed those lines for my life.  But John Newton – well, he was beaten with a cat o’ nine tails whip, starved, imprisoned (known as the “white slave” at one point), nearly shipwrecked (one of nine sailors who survived), stricken with malaria, nearly thrown overboard by the captain on one ship (though he can’t swim), and more – all while cursing God to his face and calculating to destroy the faith of anyone he encountered.  Sounds quite a bit like another famous pastor and prolific author, eh?

My suspicion is that John Newton could sing with a lot more conviction than I the last two lines of that verse:

‘Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

Again, I insist that you read this book.  I received a link in my email for a free – yes FREE – pdf download of the book.  I will be more than happy to forward you the link to the organization if you would like.  Furthermore, new and used copies of the book are available for purchase on amazon.com for as little as $5something.  Download it, buy it, go to the bookstore and sit in their cafe until you’ve finished it (I read it in one three-hour sitting this morning), but either way, you MUST read this book.

***

P.S. We’re back in Chicago – whew!  Stand by for an update that Jeremy is due to post with some fun pictures from our many trips.

Thirty!

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 | Jeremy | 7 Comments

You might think that after eleven and a half years of working full-time while taking college classes, I would slow down and take a break for a few weeks. And you would be right, sortof. This month Erin and I drove our trusty little red Chevy Aveo all the way from Chicago to Arizona so that we could spend a few weeks visiting our friends and family who live there! And I spent most of my afternoons in Tucson lounging around and reading books (while Erin napped on my lap). But alas, our stay in sunny Arizona was all too short and now we’re on the way to Michigan for Christmas and my brother John’s wedding!

And what better way to celebrate the last few days of my twenties and the beginning of my thirties than a cross-country adventure? It’s perfect!

As we were driving down to Arizona, somewhere around Missouri we started seeing these giant ice cream cone signs by the expressway. They were for a chain called Braum’s Ice Cream and Dairy Stores and it looked reeeeealy good. So as we were driving back this week, we had an extra-special celebration of the last two hours of my twenties:

The last picture of Jeremy in his twenties

I guess thirty is a milestone. Erin and I had lots of time while we were driving so we chatted about my twenties and about the next ten years. As if we could guess what might happen! And then we celebrated my birthday, which (as I pointed out) technically started at 11:08 PM that night since we were still in Missouri – which is in Central Time – and I was born at 12:08 AM Eastern Time.
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