Chapman Kids Blog

"In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." –John 16:33

Year: 2024 Page 10 of 12

Back on the wagon

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On Tuesday, March 5, 2024

In Health

I was in a really good place, health-wise, just a couple of months ago. Then, after the graduation and the holidays, I gained a bunch of the weight back that I lost (maybe 60%). If one squints their eyes, they might say I had a little bit of a viable excuse through the new year. But now it is MARCH! And there is no excuse for anything after mid-January. Yesterday, though, I climbed back on the wagon. I ate the appropriate amount of calories with zero junk food. Today, I am doing it again and also I put in my first walk in several months. The worst part is that I have move back up into the obesity range. I can get back down. I just need to make sure I do not get distracted again.

Month 6 WEIGHT: 220.4 lbs. BMI: 34.5

Sunday dinner

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On Sunday, March 3, 2024

In culture, Family, Politics

Lorena and I have been living according to an ad hoc schedule since when I finished my degree back in December. We have been at loose ends trying to figure out what to do next. We have finished almost all we set out to accomplish since we arrived in Texas almost three years ago. The only thing left is the thing that is, mostly, keeping us in Texas–that is the finishing of the house on the hill to the point where we can live in it well. We are still six or so months away from that. By that time, we will be close to the end of the year and time to receive family for the holidays, so we are thinking it does not make sense to do something else until early 2025. The election will have occurred by then and either Trump will be president or it will have been stolen again. Either way, that will be at least a little bit of an indicator about what we might want to do and where we might want to live.

I said all that to say that we have decided to try to start living a more ordered life again. To that end, we went out today after our worship meeting and bought fixing for a fine Sunday dinner of pork loin and vegetables. That is one of the little things we hope to continue to do through this period of uncertainty. We want to add other regularities like that to our lives.

Applying for adjunct

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On Wednesday, February 28, 2024

In Retirement PhD, WaterEval

Even after finishing my PhD at University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL), I continue to work there as a volunteer. We have collaborative projects with the ITESM University system in Mexico, a public/private water services company in Australia, University of Nebraska–Kearney, North Carolina State University, and the USGS, with other potential partners on the horizon. My professor, Troy is working to make me an Adjunct Professor at UNL so that I can act as a committee member for appropriate graduate students and have an official, unpaid connection with the university for work I would be doing whether or not they give me that designation. Today, I wrote them a formal letter to request an adjunct professor appointment, so we will see where it goes from here. I continue to work on the GRIME2 software and support the research efforts that use it. It is kind of amazing to us that it continues to attract user and has different applications than what we could have imagined when we wrote the software.

Casa #1: Final touches

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On Sunday, February 25, 2024

In Mexico houses

Lynn is putting the final touches on the apartments and potential buyers have set appointments to come seem them. The top picture is the base for the stairway leading from the main azotea to the azotea on the roof. The middle picture on the left is the equipment room with part of the hot water heater and two of the air conditioning units. Too its left is the asador on the main azotea and the grill that will sit over it is the bottom image.

Blog milepost: 4000 posts

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On Friday, February 23, 2024

In Blogging

Since I started posting back in 2004, I have written almost 4000 posts. There are a handful of guest posts, but the vast bulk of them are mine. By the time I hit the 20 year mark, God willing, I should be well over that 4000 mark. I have averaged just a little over 200 posts per year and plan to keep doing that as long as I can. The two big personal habits I have adopted that have had a monster positive effect on my life are 1) reading my Bible every day as the first thing I do (starting in 2006) and 2) writing in this blog, initially to have a record of our homeschool, but secondarily, to hold myself accountable with respect to many aspects of my life.

Escalera a azotea dos

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On Wednesday, February 21, 2024

In Mexico houses

Lynn’s construction team should finish putting one of the final touches to the apartment construction: the stairway to the second azotea (roof entertainment area). It truly is turning into an amazing rebirth of what was not a very impressive building. At this point, we are trying to decide whether we want to hang on to the building for a while or sell it as soon as we find a buyer. Either way, we want to rent out the all the apartments so we either have cash flow to build a fund for our next project or to make the sale of the building more attractive to investors. Either way is fine with all of us. Lynn will decide.

Lorena con su familia extendida

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On Tuesday, February 20, 2024

In Cooking, Mexico houses

Grandma Conchita, Lorena, and Tío Lauro visited a restaurant owned by Conchita’s first cousin in Allende, Nuevo Leon, not to far from Lauro’s atelier. The whole family has been there before. I showed the picture to Christian and he remembered the food really well. We are going to visit there a gain on our next trip.

Visiting the houses

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On Sunday, February 18, 2024

In Mexico houses

Toda la perrada fueron a ver las casas, la foto arriba y lo de abajo a la derrecha del mero abajo estuvieron tomados por el hueco que va a estar el balcón de la primera planta de la casa del cerro. Estamos super animados con todo. El hueco como esta ahorita esta en la foto de la izquierda de abajo. Los que fueron so Rigo y so familia, Grandma Conchita, Lorena, Lauro, y Lynn.

Graduation portrait practice runs

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On Sunday, February 18, 2024

In Art, Family, Mexico houses

Lorena is having a great time in Monterrey hanging out with her mom, her brothers and their families, neighbors, and other friends. Last night they went out for cabrito. After church they all got together at Grandma Conchita’s house to eat barbacoa. When they finish and Rigo arrives from the other side of town, everyone is going to drive over to San Pedro to see the current state of the apartment building and the house up on the hill. I am really sad I am not with them. These are the very best of times. Lauro did some practice sketches of my graduation picture and is planning to do both a portrait and an etching to go along with his semi-famous “El Científico” etching. I cannot wait to see the final product. I told him we want to put an etching of this and of El Científico together in a prominent location in the house on the hill.

Knocking out a balcony

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On Saturday, February 17, 2024

In Mexico houses

Lynn is working with Lorena on the financial aspects of our little remodel projects in San Pedro and, today, she is going to do a walk-through of both of them. He sent us this picture of the work he is doing to build a balcony on the first floor of the house on the hill. It is going to change the character of the whole house. It completely opens up the first floor, both in terms of the view and of how much light will come in (that is a south facing window). The thing that is great that you cannot see because of the clouds is the mountains above and on the other side of the valley–the famous ‘M’ formation.

Tío Lauro’s atelier

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On Friday, February 16, 2024

In Family, Mexico houses

Tío Lauro took Lorena and Grandma Conchita to visit his atelier in Loma Prieta yesterday. They are having entirely too good of a time for me to not be there with them. The image on the left is side of the atelier that used to be a complete mess, but honestly looks amazing. With the recent rains, the nearby (one block from the atelier) is beautiful and the Río Ramos runs clear. The inset image is of an enchilada plate from a recent Lorena had never previously visited in the town of Santiago.

All raccoons all the time

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On Wednesday, February 14, 2024

In Science, WaterEval

Almost everywhere we put our GaugeCam cameras, raccoons show up. They are amazing little animals. They have been particularly prominent at the KOLA location in Kearney, Nebraska. They are totally fascinating–I get addicted to watching them.

Valentine’s Day lunch

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On Wednesday, February 14, 2024

In Family, Work

My wonderful bride is headed off down to Mexico to visit her mother who is having some medical issues. She and her brother Lynn are going to go over all aspects of their construction business, investigate plans for their next project, and most importantly, figure out how long it is going to take for Lynn’s crew to get our house on the hill in good enough shape so that we can go start spending a bunch more time down there. Lorena and I went to DQ for lunch to celebrate Valentine’s Day before she left. Notice she dressed all in red for the occasion and I wore my red Nebraska ball cap.

Grandma Conchita and her endless bragging

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On Tuesday, February 13, 2024

In Family

Lorena is taking a framed copy of the picture in this post down to Grandma Conchita. We would like to say it is for worthy reasons, but the reality is that it she has more things to brag about. She is totally sin vergüenza when it comes to her family and I am wildly grateful that I get to be counted in that august number. She currently has my dissertation on a little stand in a cabinet in the living room and are hoping for a prime location for the portrait alongside the dissertation. She drags anyone who comes into her house over to look at her shrine in the cabinet which include pictures of Kelly and Christian. I know I will never arrive to the high level of appreciation as her grandchildren, but it is kind of nice to at least be featured on a shelf on level lower.

Dr. Michael Brown, Jewish Objections Volume Two

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On Sunday, February 11, 2024

In Christianity

I finished reading “Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus–Volume One” by Michael Brown just a few minutes ago. It covered what Dr. Brown titled “General and Historical Objections” and was (trying not to be hyperbolic) enlightening, to say the least. I am now moving on to Volume Two which covers Theological Objections. I can only hope that the second volume will be as good as the first. If nothing more, my improved understanding of my place as a gentile in the spiritual ecosystem God created is very, very helpful to me in my understanding of how to worship better and to advocate for Jews and gentiles both.

Watercolors, day 2

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On Sunday, February 11, 2024

In Art

Lorena is on day 2 of her watercolor painting ambition. It is kind of amazing that this is only her second watercolor. She plans to go through this same video tutorial a couple more times before she moves on to another. Not a bad plan. In addition to doing a painting per day, her plan is to save all of these paintings and write the date and the chapters she read in the Bible for that day. I am wildly optimistic that she is going to be very, very good at this over time. I really do not want her to give up on her pottery wheel ambitions to just do watercolors, but I am very impressed with her watercolor skills. I am looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Lorena buys watercolors

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On Saturday, February 10, 2024

In Art

Lorena has wanted to start painting watercolors for a long time. Today, at long last, she started. She did not want to start too big so she ran down to Michael’s and bought only a small set, a few brushes, and a pad of watercolor paper. Her first painting was based on a training video and it came out really, really nice. The idea is to practice for a while before starting to paint landscapes, animals, and maybe even people in some future. Honestly, though, I think she mostly wants to paint landscapes.

My Hebrew Bible arrived! The Tanakh

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On Friday, February 9, 2024

In Book, Christianity

I went way too cheap by far ($26)–the writing is very small. I could read it, but it would be a painful process. I think I am going to give this to one of the kids and spend enough money to get a hardbound version with bigger print. Just reading that first paragraph in Genesis makes me wish I spoke Hebrew (almost as much as I am now wishing I could speak first/second century Greek. I am really glad I got it though because it is pretty much like looking at art with the different alphabets. And, because it is Hebrew, the book starts at what would be the back of an English language book. I should have thought of that.

Troy’s first textbook

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On Thursday, February 8, 2024

In Education, Retirement PhD

Congratulation to Professor Troy, Gilmore for the publication of his first textbook with co-author Kip Solomon. I am very proud to have gotten my PhD under his tutelage. It is great to be volunteering with him still at University of Nebraska. In addition to the University of Nebraska projects, I am also volunteering with Troy’s old North Carolina State University professor. It only takes a handful of hours per week and it is very enjoyable. I am hoping to continue to work on this for the foreseeable future, God willing. There are a number of opportunities I want to explore with universities in Mexico, too. The connection between UNL and ITESM Guadalajara continues with new initiatives cropping up. It is odd that I am working in an area way outside what has ever previously interested me and enjoying it a ton. In the end, it is the people of good will who make it worthwhile.

Thinking expat

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On Wednesday, February 7, 2024

In Family, House and home

This is a nice view of the Huasteca from our house on the hill. The new Tesla plant is being built toward the left side of this photo and the large buildings right in front of the Huasteca, off in the distance, is the center of Santa Catarina. With the passing away of our next door neighbor and the funeral we attended this weekend, Lorena and I have been giving a lot of thought to what we are doing living so far away from family right now. Our idea is that we want to make the house in Mexico our primary residence while we still have Grandma Conchita and, maybe, while we are there start figuring out how to downsize. We have to figure out where to go before we can do any downsizing, but it is definitely on our mind.

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