[out of the country...]

So sorry, but I’ll be taking a break from this blog for two weeks while I’m in Mother Russia. Feel free to click over to my Russia blog for updates and details at yurievets.wordpress.com.

Catch ya on the flip side.

[breaking news...]

It’s true… the Marshall family is expecting again! Today Beth is ten weeks pregnant and trying to keep her cookies down.

[Side note] In an effort to raise money for future education, we’ll be auctioning off the rights to name the new baby. Currently we have $500 for the name “Domenic” (thanks, Morelli). Feel free to place your bids.

[4 1/2 weeks till russia...]

If you haven’t heard through the grapevine, I’m heading back to Russia in a few short weeks to spend time with my favorite Yurievets orphans. Yurievets is a small, dying village on the Volga River about nine hours outside of Moscow. It’s a gorgeous little place nestled in the pine forests of Mother Russia. The kiddos here are awesome… full of life and eagar to kick our butts in soccer (they don’t like playing American football… they says it’s for sissys)! At any rate, here’s a blog dedicated to the trip, complete with photos of the orphans and my team of friends.

Yurievets Blog

doing nothing…

My wife and I have been having an ongoing conversation concerning the Sabbath. What does it really entail? Do we really slow down, rest, take a load off, or are we just as busy as we are every other day of the week? Most people consider their Sabbath to be either Saturday or Sunday. However, that’s not our reality. Most Saturdays I’m busy preparing a talk to give at K2 the next day. On Sunday I normally arrive at church at 7:30am and take off around 2pm. The rest of the day is filled with additional work or meetings with K2 people. When do I Sabbath? Monday. That’s my day to decompress and let my hair down… all 1/4 inch of it. But here’s the challenge. Do I work around the house? Do I labor on the lawn, detail the car, reroof the house? Or do I REALLY rest. And what does that look like?

Enter Gordon Atkinson’s article on doing nothing. He took an hour one day and simply stared at the sky. Here are his thoughts on what he saw…

This is what sustainability in life is all about.

[what's on my ipod...]

[mother russia...]

I’m heading out to Russia in June to hang with some rocking orphans in Yuryvets (9 hours outside of Moscow). In preparation for the trip, I often scour the web for fun sites depicting Russian life and culture. Here’s one of my most favorite sites: EnglishRussia. It’s a really unique site that gives a hilarious and sometimes sober look at life in a country that represents 1/6th of the planet.

[us...]

more pics of the lovers romping in the snow