Oh, Heidi-O! This totally reminded me of your family’s “Grey Poupon” fun! I laughed so hard …
I laughed so hard at this video. What joy! What fun!
Heidi-O? This TOTALLY reminded me of when you pulled our car up to your parents’ (and brothers’?) car in college, rolled down the window and said, “Pardon me? Would you have some Grey Poupon?” And they DID!! You guys handed MUSTARD to one another right there at the intersection. H.Y.S.T.E.R.I.C.A.L. I never knew families could be so fun.
Love you, friend!
t
PS
For old times’ sake …
Redeem Church Conflicts by Listening to LAWYERS? Really?
Who’d a thunk it? 
Why You Should Not Listen to Me
A few of you have expressed your loving concern over my lack of blog posts. Thank you for that! It means a lot to me that you would reach out to me in real life and make sure I am OK. I think that is very kind.
But please know that I am doing very, very well. God has graciously given me much grace re: certain areas of my life that have been in severe need of repentance and change. For a little over a month or so, I was blessed with the great gift of work as a Christian mediator (on a difficult case) and three speaking events too. But mostly, I have just been home. In my real life. Present with my family and friends. Serving in my church and community. And the writing projects I am currently working on are being done in a different forum—so that’s a little bit of why this blog has been so quiet.
(Plus. Honestly. When I do want to share a fun family photo or experience, I have to agree with Carolyn McCulley that FaceBook really is faster. It’s just so easy to upload a quick post, rather than having to be on my laptop to do an official blog entry.)
There is a little more to the story, though. It has to do with me taking a little stock of whether I should even be blogging at all. So much of my motivation for blogging started as a way to stay in touch with my family, since we don’t have any relatives in Montana. Over the years, especially when I do a substantive post, I have a sweet little consistent group of readers around the world. And that is humbling and I’m honored and I always try to do my best to serve well.
But just like the world of “the author” (Tara Barthel) and “the speaker on the video series” (Tara Barthel), the blogger Tara Barthel is not really Tara Barthel. In real life, I live an extremely quiet and unnoticed life and I’m grateful every day for it.
So I guess I just wanted to let you know that I am doing well and that I hope any fluctuations in posts on this blog will not cause you any concerns.
Oh. And one last thing—I really resonated with this post by Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile:
Why You Should Not Listen to Me
Big hugs,
Tara B.
Two Elements of Redeeming Church Conflict: Intentionality and Contentment
One of Dave’s best!
Two Elements of Redeeming Church Conflict: Intentionality and Contentment
Was this REALLY 25 years ago? Amazing!
If you LOVED “The Michael Jordan Years” of the Bulls, you will LOVE this video.
I don’t really care about sports but I still remember this game as though it were yesterday. I think I watched this at Dr. James Lambrecht & Cindy’s home babysitting when “Paully” (now and adult!) was just a baby:
Sophie’s Gospel Map
(Just in case my event this weekend needs to find the file … here is a repost of six year-old Sophie’s “Gospel Map” … )
Sophie’s Second “30 Seconds of Fame”
What a fun morning we had watching Sophia on television!
In addition to serving Ms. Nancy and MMI (The Montana Music Institute), Sophie got to see “Ed the Weather Guy” whom she hadn’t seen since got to yell, “Hey, Ed! How’s the Weather?!” as a three year-old:
Totally worth having to wake up at 5:30AM.
Could this be the most convicting verse about peacemaking?
I can’t stop thinking about what I read this morning in Jude:
“Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way …” Jude 1:14-15
What could have been so awful? So sinful?
“These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.” Jude 1:16
I can’t stop thinking about this. What is so awful? Complaining and being ungrateful.
“The kind of things that came out of this savagery …”
Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis:
“Four days ago, my city was ruthlessly attacked. There’s no explaining the savagery involved here. . . . I’ve spent the last several days looking at hundreds of hours of videotape. I got to see how brutal the attack was, over and over and over again.
“More important,” he said, he watched how first responders and ordinary citizens put people back together. “Tourniquets,” Davis said. “Stemming the bleeding with their hands. Putting a man who was on fire out with their hands. These are the kind of things that came out of this savagery. It makes me proud.”
So worth the read:
Police, Citizens and Technology Factor into Boston Bombing Probe