the unlikely orange

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shiver me timbers. this is a chattering teeth skull head that my son got in his mcdonald's happy meal last night. and, as with all mcdonald's happy meal toys, the craftmanship is remarkable. remarkably awful. and so it broke. last night. approximately 2 hours after he ripped it from its plasticy womb. when it broke his mom offered to fix it. he told her no, and brought it to me instead. this is interesting given that i try not to introduce any kind of gender roles that would make him think this way, particularly since i have trouble fixing anything. still, he brought it to me, so i fixed it. he seemed really amazed (my daddy can do anything) so i told him to go tell his mom that i have amazing skills. he did. ha ha. it was funny. the saga continues. this morning at church he broke it again (why you would bring a chattering teeth skull to church is something i hadn't yet considered). his mom offered to fix it but he told her (and i quote), "no, daddy has...

friends, i won't have access to the internets for a couple of days, so i'll be out of pocket . i should be posting again by saturday or sunday. greg.

it is pitiful how a hospital bracelet looks on such a tiny arm. it is exactly this kind of image that had me really sweating about the decision to have caedmon go through the surgery to get tubes in his ears. this kind of an image just immediately puts in my mind thoughts of knives and scalpels and drugs and large machines that beep and measure things you can't pronounce and gowns that inevitably reveal your butt crack and so forth. i'm not a big fan of hospitals and imagining my little helpless one there with something sharp being shoved into his ear just didn't work for me. but it happened. and he's fine. in fact, i would say he already seems to feel better. he can obviously hear better. the doctor said there was quite a bit of fluid and "gunk" behind his ear drums and so his hearing is immediately improved. he hasn't seemed to be in much pain at all, and he has really been content and happy. he did wake up in the night last night which he hasn...

this is me on a youth group trip in 1989. i was all of 13 years old. i was just looking through some old scrapbooks and came across this gem and thought i would share it with the world. this was taken somewhere in the middle of oklahoma, i think, on the way to dallas. the girl is beth kriesch, who was several years older than me, and who was also the (i think unknowing) recipient of a huge crush. i can't believe i was ever that skinny. greg.

cuteness before church if you look closely they have dinosaurs on their neckties after church mommy and daddy the easter bunny came! (while we were at church) we had an easter egg hunt. some of the eggs were dino heads. this delighted jack. he had so much fun during the easter egg hunt. just look at this face. one hot momma the traditional butter lamb. (it should be added here that shannon made the most delicious easter dinner for all of us). certainly part of the joy of easter for us today was our family. after church, before we looked for our baskets, i asked jack why we celebrate easter. much to my surprise it was nothing about the easter bunny or chocolate dinosaurs or anything of the like that came out of his mouth. what he said was this: Jesus is alive. amen, little boy. jesus is alive. and so we can be, too. grace and peace, greg.

illustration by luc freymanc then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed... -john 20:8

the canvas the first dip the inspection the team the lineup the mvp the mess maker the almost accident they symbol of resurrection

"father forgive us" oil painting on panel james b. janknegt

this is one of cade's ears. they've both been the cause of much consternation over the last several months, since they keep getting infected inside and causing him all sorts of pain. we met with a specialist yesterday who really urged us to go ahead and have tubes put into his ears as soon as possible because he really feels that the poor kid is pretty miserable. he also can't hear as well as he should because he failed his hearing test yesterday. considering all these factors shannon and i agreed that we would go ahead with the "routine" surgery. it is scheduled for tuesday morning. first of all, i've heard about routine surgery before. sure, its routine. that means the chances of complications are slim. try telling that to those in that 1%. not so routine for them. next, i can say that i've ministered to many people who are about to face surgery. i've said all kinds of wonderful peaceful words about God's presence and peace that passes...

jack has been really interested recently in going to work with me. when i leave for work in the mornings and afternoons he often says he's going to go to work, too. so i've been promising that if he really wants to go to work i would take him, but that he would have to get dressed up and bring his computer with him and really do some work. so after a breakfast meeting yesterday morning, i picked him up at home and took him with me to my office. here is a picture of him next to 'his' parking spot. i told him he could sit in daddy's chair for awhile and he really liked that idea. so i took a few pictures of him pretending to work. he brought his 'computer' with him, in which he listened to dinosaur names and noises. he read books. he colored. he watched an educational video. he said hello to the senior pastor, the youth pastor and the secretary. he conned candy from some of them. he went to the bathroom. twice. he wrote on his face. and he got in...

we had a great day yesterday. shannon made an incredible corned beef and cabbage dinner and then we had these green mint brownies for desert that she and jack made together (i feel like crafty p talking about all this food). sunday night i watched m. night shyamalan's "lady in the water." i thought it was just ok. it had his signature "scary" moments, which are just usually surprises that make you jump that then make you a bit anxious about the possibility of another surprise. the story seemed kind of weak, but i did like the theme about figuring out your purpose, and how even the most mundane of our gifts are important in who we are and how we fit into the others' stories. for example, maybe you're an orange-wearing, coffee-drinking, music-loving, blogging, preaching, pastoring, husband and father, and maybe, just maybe, all of those things will somehow all work together to make you who you need to be in relation to others. maybe your personality and y...

i haven't had any pictures of my family here on the blog in quite some time. unfortunatly our digital camera bit the dust, and so we have not been able to take any photos. but we got a new camera this week so the addiction can once again be fed. here are a few pictures of the boys in their palm sunday outfits that my mom got them... they were both being extremely cooperative with the camera. i think this is because we haven't been taking pictures of them for awhile. they will probably soon remember their general rule of thumb: when the camera appears, lose your smile as quickly as possible. so i hope you have an awesome st. patrick's day. and a really blessed holy week. shooting again, greg.

our van is in the shop today for "routine maintenance." between that and the price of gasoline these days, i'm pretty sure i'm going to stop driving. i bought a bicycle last year to ride to work when it is nice outside, so i am eagerly awaiting spring so that i can do that. but there are times i just have to drive. i mean, i can't ride my bike the 10 miles down to the hospital for visits. can you imagine me, stumbling into the room of someone who has just come out of surgery? i'm sweating and panting, still wearing my helmet. i just don't think that would work. so i'm going to have to drive. but i really need to drive only when absolutely necessary. i guess that's what we should have probably all been doing all along. it is fascinating to me that in a culture of commerce, we literally have buried ourselves into a situation where it costs us to move around. i think we will eventually be 'buying' the very air we breath. conserving, ...

i think i found an entwife! if you don't know what i'm talking about, go read the The Lord of the Rings.

for my birthday shannon designed business cards for me for my ongoing journey as an artist. i am going to have my work displayed at a few upcoming art festivals this spring and summer, so she thought it would be a good idea if there was a way for people to get in touch with me or see my stuff online, too. so she designed these for me and i am very proud of them, so i thought i would share them with you. as she said, they're like business in the front (above) and a party in the back (below)!

"new york at night" paper collage on cardboard panel gregory a. milinovich we live outside the town of clinton, new jersey, only about 20 miles east of pennsylvania. it is a affluent area, clinton, folded in the pennsylvania-style hills, draped in woods and dotted with oversized houses. as we drive from our home into the town of clinton, at the crest of one of those hills, you can see across the clinton valley, home of the restless raritan river, to another large hill just west of clinton. it is a hill of commerce, home to a large grocery store, a wal-mart, a tj maxx, and several other stores, not to mention a motel and restaurants. at night this gaudy corsage of commercialism is particularly an affront to the countryside around it, lighting up the otherwise dark sky. recently, as i was driving the boys into town one night and we were on that particular hill, jack pointed at the light polution and excitedly shouted, "daddy, look! new york city!" i didn't...

"Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." -luke 15:8-10 ... i've been losing things quite a bit in the last 24 hours. last night i took the boys out because i needed to go and shop for a suit for myself. shannon was at a youth group meeting so i thought it would be a good time to go out (see what i mean? i apparantly lost my sanity...). well, as it turns out, the whole evening was a complete bust and so i finally decided just to load the kids in the van and go home. we were in flemington so it is about a 15 minute drive. during the drive cade was cranky, so i was glad i had decided just to go home. when we pulled into the garage and ...

if you were considering dying, i would encourage you to check out your local municipality's laws first: you could be breaking the law and facing some sever consequences! ... French Mayor Bans Villagers From Dying The mayor of a village in south west France has banned residents from dying. And Gerard Lalanne has threatened "severe" punishment for anyone who disobeys. The mayor issued the unusual edict when it became clear that there was no room left in the overcrowded village graveyard in Sarpourenx in the Bordeaux region. In an ordinance posted in the council offices, Mayor Lalanne told the 260 residents that "all persons not having a plot in the cemetery and wishing to be buried in Sarpourenx are forbidden from dying in the parish". It added: "Offenders will be severely punished." story from sky news ... you cant be too careful, greg.

as you may remember, i lead a monthly film discussion group called Reel Life: discussions on film and faith that meets the first friday of each month at my church. this has been a bit of an experiment of mine to see if people are interested in such a format as a way not only to engage the stories that our culture is telling, but also to respond to them communally as people of faith. we've been meeting since september, and so far it has been pretty good. we have watched movies from a variety of genres, but mostly they've been pretty 'safe,' if you know what i mean. ... tonight, not so much. ... tonight we are watching crash. if you've seen it then you know that its a bit rough. so i'm interested to see how it goes: watching this movie with a bunch of church folks. it should be fun! in all seriousness, though, i was just wondering if any of you had anything of interest you would like to contribute to our conversation tonight by way of this blog. if you s...

a good friend from high school who blogs with his wife tagged me here to list 10 things about myself that you might not know. i found this exercise to be extremely difficult because, as a pastor, my life is so often lived in public ways, but i did my best. so here goes: ... 1. okay, i'm kind of nervous about how this list is going to go, so let's start off gently: i have two webbed toes. the 2nd and 3rd toes on my left foot are connected by a flap of skin like you would see on a frog or a flipper. it goes about 3/4 of the way up the toe. you would think it might help me swim faster, but it only helps me swim in circles (since i don't have one on the other foot!). ... 2. i love words. okay, you probably know that, but you might not know the full extent. for example, when i watch a dvd at home, i almost always watch it with the subtitles turned on so that i can simultaneously read the dialogue and watch the movie. this is not because i want to imagine i'm watching a fo...

ed. note: so i have been asked to lead opening devotions this morning for cbs (community bible study) which meets on wednesdays at our church. cbs is made up of about 80 women. as i imagine myself standing in front of 80 women, i begin to squirm. that's alot of estrogen in the room for one guy! -- to make matters worse, they have been studying the gospel of luke and this week their studies brought them through chapter 16, which i find to be one of the most difficult chapters in the gospels. so, in 10 minutes or less, i have to try and share some of my own reflections on something from luke 16, as they begin their day of community study, and i have to do this for 80 women! a daunting task! here is basically what i'll be saying... --- i understand that you have all been reading and studying luke 16 this week, which is a difficult section of scripture. i mean, doesn't Jesus say the strangest things sometimes? i have this love/hate relationship with the stories Jesus...