We had another birthday this week, another chance to celebrate another year gone by, and another chance to get the family-favorite “Birthday Banner” down from the closet. A few years ago, banners like these were all the rage, and I knew this would be a perfect project to work on with my oldest daughter. She got to choose the fabrics and trace the triangle from the template I made her. I remember it was the first time I let her use “adult-sized” scissors! My joy-filled memories of making this with her probably bely how it really went down. I was probably frustrated because her choice of fabrics wouldn’t have been what I would have chosen, I tend to be too matchy-matchy you know! But those are distant memories now because this silly banner is now the most anticipated birthday event. The kids wake up on their birthdays and just know the first thing they see once they bound down the stairs is the banner hung high, announcing their special day. It’s always the small things, isn’t it? The things you’d never plan on being the biggest hit, the things that didn’t take a bunch of money or weeks to execute just so. The things, well, that aren’t so matchy-matchy after all.

Introductions are a funny thing. You realize how quickly you get labeled. I pretty much labeled myself here – “artist”, “whimsical”, “husband”, “Christian”, “dad”, so you can imagine that in these blogs I’ll be musing about creativity, the arts, parenting and what it means to me to follow Jesus. I could have chosen a whole different set of labels to present to you (“football fanatic”, “dude who always gets spaghetti sauce on his shirt”, “5 minute late guy”). My hope for this space is to share (at least once a week) some thoughts that get past the labels – or at least expand our thinking about them. Maybe soon I’ll be “only 2 minute late spaghetti sauce free guy.” You’ll have to come back and see.