Tim Baker

Moving...

2008-04-20T20:44:00.001-07:00

I'm moving this blog to a new home on my website.

Go to blog.timbaker.cc for all my blog stuff!

Sick

2008-03-17T12:13:00.001-07:00

We've been preparing for our Spring Break camping trip with some very good friends and now, last minute, two of the kids are feeling rotten. So, my Jessica (one of the sickos) wrote a cute poem about being sick.

Sick
by: Jessica Baker

Sick is sad, not fun, with all
the throw up and nasty medicine.
As you can see, sick is not fun, it is
merely a horrid virus that takes time
from parents, teens, tweens and kids.
I hate SICK!

One Minute of Wild Pandemonium Noise

2008-01-16T20:36:00.000-08:00

None of us could stop making noise on the way home from church tonight. Seemed everyone wanted to say something...everyone wanted to be heard, to make noise and to jabber endlessly.

So...what do you do in those moments? I walked through the front door, in to the kitchen, set the timer on the microwave and yelled "YOU'VE GOT ONE MINUTE - BE AS LOUD AS YOU CAN!"

And so, all of us did that, and it was fun. And loud. I made noises I never thought I could, and so did the kids, and Jacqui did too. And then, amazingly, all of us got quiet and stayed mostly quiet. The kids tucked neatly into bed fairly quickly, and now I am here finishing a few things. Nice and quiet like.

We're doing that thing again tomorrow. Oh yeah, youbetcha.

Why I can't stand cats

2008-01-14T14:42:00.000-08:00

I'm definitely not a cat person, so I'm a little caught off guard as to why this post, and my previous one were cat oriented videos.

Anyway, this one made me laugh.

Psycho Cat

2008-01-11T20:46:00.000-08:00

Contents of my dresser

2008-01-08T19:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday me and two of my kids were stuck at the airport waiting for Kyle, a college student friend, to arrive from Germany. His plane was delayed, me and the kids hung around the airport, caught some Subway and talked. Good kids, good time.

That left Jacqui at home waiting for Nicole to call for a pick up when she arrived home from her away basketball game. So, Jacqui tackled our bedroom. Over the holidays our room became the Baker Family Closet and the receptacle for homeless piece of family junk. Wal-Mart bags, Christmas labels, receipts and tags. Jacqui dug under the bed and into the corners and cleaned. And, she hung stuff on the walls…new stuff needing a home after being exiled from my office.

That made my dresser a sloppy embarrassment. This morning I stood, my 6:15 am coffee in hand, drooly mouth opened studying my mess-er, which has become the home for the oddest assortment of things...

- An Air Hog remote control helicopter. Gift idea from Dr. Graff. Wasplike at full throttle.
- A spool of blue thread. I don’t sew; no idea where that came from.
- A large African ceremonial sword…about as big as my forearm, a gift from our much-loved missionaries-to-african-youth family Pete and Alice.
- A shark book I've been reading with Jake.
- Finger-cuffs. (I would have said “Chinese Handcuffs”, but I didn’t want to appear culturally insensitive).
- Old socks I need to throw away. Huge holes in the toes, but you never know when you'll need 'em.
- The Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley. A good book I’m struggling to finish reading.
- Change…mine because it’s on MY dresser.
- A How to paint with watercolors kit.
- Ernie Ball Super Slinkies. Nicole got her Aunt’s guitar for Christmas, and I gave one of mine to Jess for Christmas. Both needed restringing.
- Seven candles. The four pink ones are not mine. Promise.
- Manshroom. It's what men wear to make themselves smell better. Man Perfume... manshroom... Jake made up the word.
- A bottle of coke from Mexico. Six years old and never opened.
- An old test paper about how America gained its independence. My oldest's.
- Tire plugs for flat tires. Extras because I thought I was out of 'em.
- Directions to a Spiderman Race car toy.

So, the dresser is kind of a picture of life 'round here. Each one of those things is tied to a memory. They're extremely important reminders of the incredible fun we've had as a family.

And that's exactly what I'm going to say to Jacqui when she wants to know why my dresser is still a mess.

New Year...New Everything

2008-01-07T10:21:00.000-08:00

Sitting in my daughter's room today at my old desk. Nice calm, quiet, peaceful day and Jess keeps her room very neat. Why did I ever get rid of this desk?

Today is kind is a beginning of a new life. I've taught very consistently two wonderful local institutions for years. This year, the High School didn't really need me, and the University doesn't need adjuncts this semester. Honestly, I'm aching over this. I love the High School and University students, and I just do not like not being directly involved in their lives. I have a huge desire to be involved in the process of education, but more than that, I just love interacting with the students at both institutions. I think that, even though you know students you teach attend other churches, you mentally adopt them into your own little mental youth group, and you feel somewhat accountable for their lives. I feel as though I am missing out on experiencing the lives of very good friends.

I also feel a little scared. I'm leading my family through a wonderful time of very little income, weathering comments from several people asking "Why I am not employed" (which I am...by my church, who has been very patient with me in my journey of being octo-vocational, and by a few wonderful publishing friends). It's difficult relating to people that writers write...at home, at stinky restaurants, in closets and in the bathroom. And we write on napkins, white boards, and on little scraps of paper, and then spend time typing those thoughts into horrible machines that too often transform our poetic napkin-sentences into painfully ordinary, highly editable paragraphs. Writing often looks like nothing is happening when really everything is happening, just not in a way that makes sense to anyone else but the writer.

Anyway, I've got a ton of stuff to keep me busy...A lot of writing and editing to do, and then there's that whole plan I had for taking over the planet. I think I'll start with my fridge...then work on the laundry room. Once I get those settled, I'll work on invading Switzerland.

Reflecting...

2008-01-03T12:18:00.000-08:00

Right. Ok. So.

Yesterday it was August 28, 2007. Today, it is January 3, 2008. What happened?

In the past four months, we Bakers have lived through what has to have been the most busiest schedule we’ve ever experienced.

In the past 120 days, I have...

- Graded over 1550 papers, including exams, exegesis papers, genre reports, homeworks, etc. I only had two classes, so that’s a fairly light load of papers, I guess. It felt like a mountain to me.

- Written several chapters for my next book. I’m not done, but I’m close…really really close. My good friend Jay is a saint.

- Edited a 300 page book for a friend, passed it off to another friend for additional editing, then got it back for some tightening. It’s due back to my friend in the next few days. The next phase starts after he makes his changes, which includes layout and design, and then indexing the work. After that, it’s off to printing. I’ll leave the project with another friend for indexing, and part of the design and then jump back in for the printing phase. Lots to do to make his late spring / early summer release date.

- Begun searching for a marketing company to handle the work of promoting friends book.

-Written five columns for the awesome YouthWalk magazine. Laurin has been so fun to work with.

- Written one article for the incredible Journal of Student Ministry. Will Penner will always be my hero.

- Begun work on another book project due to the publisher in August, ’08.

- Sat with friends in the hospital. The most notable trip was a good friend who has dialysis three times a week. The more we talked, the more I was convicted about my eating habits.

- Prepared and delivered about sixty lectures on everything from Biblical Interpretation, Worldview and Biblical History (anything from Genesis through the New Testament letters).

- Taught bible studies and Sunday school to college students. Our Sunday School class has been studying the Judges. Judges is a fairly repetitive book with great stories and lessons about devotion and obedience. I’ve been reminded over and over that God tugs on the hearts of imperfect people.

- Worked on some advance planning with our Jr high and High School Student Ministry point people, Andrew and Gwen. We’re going to Mexico and I’m thrilled for our little group.

- Listened to hours of music, and a lot of it has become some of the soundtrack of my life lately. The first few that come to mind, in no particular order…
-Sinead O’Connor’s Theology
-Iris Dement’ s The Way I Should
-AFI’s I Heard a Voice
-Feist, Frou Frou, Imogen
-Dave Matthews Live at Radio City
-Dave Crowder’s Remedy

- Lived through the oddest series of broken things. Our 1997 Dodge Grand Caravan is perpetually broken. It turns itself off while driving and sometimes won’t restart, which is frustrating. Our clothes dryer. The plumbing under our kitchen sink. The refrigerator. Our desktop computer. Oh, and I lost my watch, too. Broken things stink.

And, finally, there have been incredible family moments. I baptized Jessica last Sunday which was such a great thrill. She did a wonderful job with her testimony in front of the entire church. Nicole has moved into her own room, my office (not my office anymore!). Jess is learning how to room alone, Coley is discovering her own teen hangout space, and I’m back to writing old school for me…writing in the bedroom, living room, kitchen, etc. I was under the baptistry on Saturday, and it looked like a perfect place to write. You might find me there one day soon! Jake is learning how to be the youngest male in the house. He’s five going on fifteen. The other day he handed me a piece of paper on which he’d written “BOOTOKS” (our family word for your behind). I’m not sure what he meant. I’m keeping it, and showing his entire High School graduation class.

So, good fall. Busy fall. Lots more happened, but I guess that’s those are the highlights.

What now?

I don't have any university classes this term, so, I'm going to write most of January, and hopefully, all of February – May. I've got a load of stuff that needs to happen at Hope, and writing projects to finish and flesh out.

I'll hopefully have more time to blog.

New Media

2007-09-04T08:34:00.000-07:00

Weekend Magazine has a new radio/Mp3 radio show available on their site. A portion of my interview appears on this show. So far, this weeks is my favorite. You can read more about that and get the free download here.

Writing...writing...writing...

2007-08-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

Years ago I did an interview for an author info site. One of the questions was "Describe the process of writing..." I remember quoting from Louis Sachar, the author of Holes who (I think) said that writing was like pushing words off a table.

That's how I feel right now. I've been working this week to get the first few chapters of my next book in shape for the publisher. Holy cow...what a drag. I feel like I'm finding one good word every five minutes, and one good thought every two hours. With each good word I shove off my table, I rethink it ten minutes later, examine it, change it three times, then reexamine it. It's frustrating. I think I've spent much of the entire day on two pages. Well, it was four, but I deleted a ton of stuff.

So, there's a picture of my next book. Right now it feels like a black hole...sucking words out of me and ending up in a jumbled mess. This is the frustration with writing they don't teach you in school, and it's the agony that no book about writing effectively captures.

When it's done, it'll be marvelous (we hope!). Right now it feels a lot like torture.

Life Without Kids

2007-08-28T07:41:00.001-07:00

So, this is the second day that all three of my kids are in school all day long. About the middle/late of the summer, I thought I'd love the peace and quiet of them being in school all day. Truth is, I miss my kids. The pool is quiet...I'm not used to a quiet pool. My home office (aka, the kids hang out room) is quiet...I'm not comfortable with my quiet office.

Don't get me wrong...it's also incredible. There's room to spread out my class notes. I can actually have a thought and then write it down...flesh it out, or draw it, or brainstorm it, or bounce it off my wife. I can more freely lunch with a student.

I guess that freedom is good, but I still miss them.

New Media

2007-08-24T10:56:00.000-07:00

Focus on the Family has a new edition of their Weekend Magazine available. You can search and search to find a broadcast station in your area, or, you can just download it to your Mp3 player and listen. A portion of my interview about divorce is in there somewhere. Their page (along with information about downloading the show) is here. Downloads for the current show are available beginning tomorrow morning.

Encouraging Day

2007-08-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

I had a few different people in a few different situations today tell me they either owned a book I wrote or saw my book somewhere and looked it over, or read a book I wrote and thought what they read was pretty good.

I'm not real good at accepting compliments. Still, it was good to hear some peoples reactions to my books, and it was neat to hear that people read stuff I've written. Very encouraging.

It starts with two words...

2007-08-22T21:29:00.000-07:00

My son read two words of this book tonight. Two words from Chapter 7. I was thinking as he read them...you know, it starts with two words, then a sentence and a paragraph and then a page, a chapter, a few chapters. If he just digests and lives just a tenth of the meat of this book he'll be an amazing man.

God's Bio

2007-08-21T09:57:00.000-07:00

Not that I think human language comes close to describing God. And, not that I believe everything about God is knowable in our human form. I thought this was interesting.

As Ben was speaking on Sunday, he referenced the passage in Exodus 33 & 34 where Moses is back up the mountain getting the 10 commandments again. It's not a passage I find myself reading a lot. Well, I do read it at least twice a semester in my classes at the university. Other than that, not a whole lot.

Anyway, I was reading the passage and was struck by how God describes himself as his glory is passing in front of Moses. Here's what God says about himself...

"The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation." (Ex 34:6b-7)

God can say anything he wants about himself to Moses. He chooses to say this. What an interesting snapshot of what God wants Moses to know about him.

I'll be thinking about this passage a lot this week.

2007-08-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

Focus on the Family is airing an interview I did with them way back in March. Segments of the interview began airing in July, and they'll air various segments on different weekends ending sometime early September, I think. Early on we made the choise to travel to Focus and do the interview in person. I'm glad I did. There's a link back at my website to the Focus Weekend Magazine page.

Anyway, I got word today that they're also releasing the interview on a parenting CD. Actually, on three different parenting CD's. It'll be released sometime from November '07 - January '08, I think. You can read more about their stuff and that CD here.

I feel really honored to get to work with these folks. And, it's been neat to talk about the Broken book with kids and adults. I wrote that book hoping to reach kids broken by their parents divorce. It's good to know that the word is getting out!

2007-08-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

What I ate...

it was good too (ok, it might not look so good here, but...wow!) Mom taught me how to make potato soup a few years ago. We make / freeze this often. It's wonderful.

2007-08-08T15:50:00.000-07:00

This just in...

My daughter sold her first ebay thing today.Yeah...it was a book. Uh-huh...it was Treasure Island. Youbetcha...you missed it. She's thrilled. You missed a bargain.

In other news....ew...boring day. Just sitting here, staring at the laptop and wondering how to translate my great thoughts into good words on the page.

2007-08-04T20:57:00.000-07:00

Funniest thing in the world...

Watching CNN (why? have no idea!) and catching a bit of the Republican / Democrat debate on earmarking money for defense spending. It might have been the most boring thing I've seen on TV in a long time (and so...again, why was I watching it?).

I'm not the only person who thought the whole budget exchange was boring. Just to the right of the Republican podium, a few rows back was someone's aid who was texting stuff. Had to be funny texts too because she'd text, then look around and laugh and then look down and text again. It was funny to watch.

2007-07-31T07:53:00.000-07:00

"Dad...I'm a bad guy. Bad guys wear long jeans and boots and sunglasses. Promise!"

2007-07-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

A short video about idols and how they affect you. I loved this short.

2007-07-23T11:33:00.002-07:00

A recent family slideshow!

View Photo Slideshow

Make a Free Flash Slideshow

Tonight...

2006-02-08T18:09:00.000-08:00

Tonight was dinner-with-dad at Chik-Fil-A. My kids are just too wonderful. Jacob and I did our buddy handshake about ten times throughout dinner. And we all laughed as Coley and Jess sang Veggie Tale songs. It’s good to be with the kids and not feel stress about anything. Sometimes, when you’re a parent, you can be around your kids, but never really see them. I remember countless times when I’ve been around my kids…even near them for an entire afternoon, but I’ve never really seen them. I’ve not realized their beauty or creativity. I’ve missed their wonderfulness. Tonight, I was completely aware of how wonderful my kids are. They are three individuals…they are not the same. They are fun and good and kind people too. Parents are supposed to love their kids, I guess. But I love my kids because of who they are. They are good people.

It’s a challenge, I guess, to be the best steward we can be of what God has given us.

Fifteen years ago today, I asked Jacqui to marry me. I knelt behind a stage where thousands had knelt for years accepting Christ or standing to cheering on their favorite rock group. I took her out for the best meal I could afford and gave her the most expensive ring my finances would allow. I still remember how her face looked, just across the table from me and lit only by a single candle. I still remember how scared and excited I felt, knowing that this woman had claimed me as her future husband.

Fifteen years ago feels like yesterday. What will life be like fifteen years from now? I’ll be fatter, I’m sure. Balder too. But, Lord willing, I’ll still be married to that girl who dared to say yes. And, we’ll still be working hard to be God honoring stewards of our three precious gifts.

A Wonderful Life...

2005-11-05T11:23:00.000-08:00

Happenings at the Bakers….

• My kids are writing their own books due to be released whenever they finish them. Coley’s story is about Ashley who goes on a treasure hunt. Jessica’s is about her dog who put on Jess’s dress and makeup and tried to hop a taxi into town. Jake made a family picture today and drew me as this fat guy with no hair.

• Yahoo music is really neat. I hate them for raising their rates, but I love them for that cool open time they allowed current users to lock in at the low – low – low price of not too much to put on your credit card. I’ve been listening through CD after CD of the best music.

• The van threw the serpentine belt the other day when it rained. I need to fix it.

• Jacqui’s grandparents are hopefully coming next week. They’re in their 90’s and I love them a lot. When they’re here, grampa usually does projects around the house for us. We always eat most meals at her parents when they’re here. I never really had grandparents that I knew and I’ve adopted Jacqui’s as my own.

• I have the worlds most patient editor at NavPress. They’re waiting for more chapters and not complaining. I should say I think they’re being patient because I have not heard from them today. I write…I cry…I write…I cry…it’ll be done very soon and so I can hopefully stop crying on and off like I have been since…ohhh….say….a lot earlier this year.

• I need to mow.

• I need a haircut.

• It’s time for me to move this to a blog site where 40 year olds blog (no offense if you’re under 40). Maybe here? Maybe something on my site here. I like WordPress but don’t have a clue about how to set it up. Help?

2003-05-03T00:27:00.000-07:00

This is my blog.