On Making Plans

I love making plans for the future. I am constantly thinking about what the next step will be. The flip side of the coin is I hate waiting for events to unfold. You can't plan much while waiting. Right now, we are waiting for our Florida house to be sold before we can plan to buy in California. I caught myself planning ahead anyway.

Then I think of life 10 years plan. I'll then be 45 and my kids will be reaching teenage. My question is what to do with my life that I won't regret 10 years from now.

Many possibilities emerge. Some are radical. Some are status quo. I don't trust my judgment. I want to follow what God wants for myself and my family.

I talked to my friend, Jonathan, about it. His perspective was that he couldn't even see one year ahead, let alone ten. Looking back on my life a year ago, I wouldn't be able to predict what God would do in my life today either.

I think that's where I start to think that I will follow God one day at a time. It's hard to do more than that. Love my kids and wife today. Do my job today. Give and serve today.

An exception would be if God is clearly calling us to do something that may take preparation time. I am thinking of some friends who were called into oversea missions. They took years to prepare.

It's hard to follow God one day at a time. But it may be exactly what God wants most of us to do.

Decaf Lent Over

Tea is from heaven. Coffee is from paradise.

Ed Levin Park

We went hiking at Ed Levin Park not too far from our house. We have made trips up there a few times before. But this is the first time I took the camera.

On the way, we passed a couple of hang-gliders. The kids walked up pretty well. Emi walked most of the time, except the steepest part and on the way down, I carried her.

We settled down at the top of the hill and picnic there. All of the sudden, a small SUV came up and seven para-gliders emerged. We got a special treat of seeing para-gliding in action.

More photos here.

Decaf Lent

I love tea and coffee. At work, we have free Starbuck French Roast-- my favorite. I often have two cups of Joe a day. Yumi loves tea. We always drink English tea at home, with a cloud of milk.

I am going to do a decaf Lent. No tea or coffee till Easter.

Matt:17-18 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

Well, since I post this in my blog, I may not get much reward now. But I will still wash my face in the afternoon when my caffeine withdrawal kicks in the most.

Lake Tahoe

We took a short vacation in Lake Tahoe area. We stayed at a cabin on Lake Donner. During the day, we joined the Wong family at Squaw Valley for winter time fun.

We went skiing the first day. It was the first time I, Noah, and Naomi tried skiing. The kids enjoyed themselves in their kids class. I, on the other hand, had a hard time at the slope. I found it hard to stop, which was not a good thing.

While we were there, we bumped into hundreds of Google engineers. Google is famous for being 'the best place to work'. Well, the perk this time for all their employees was a free day at Squaw Valley. Google put their engineers in buses, and perhaps a nearby hotel. They were then free to ski, skate, snowboard, etc. Many of them wore multicolor scarves. It was fun to be among this bunch of people whose work we have come to rely on so much.


The second day we went sledding. The kids enjoyed climbing, sledding, and having snow party. In the evening, we headed up to High Camp again on the cable car. We then did ice skating on a very special rink. It was special because it was so high up. Too bad it was already dark.

Noah skated okay for a beginner, but didn't find it to be interesting. Naomi took a mini lesson from Jonathan and loved skating. She and Zoe lingered on with me and Jonathan at the rink. We are quite amazed by her progress.


More photos here...