Doodle Notes

As I mentioned a post or two ago, I recently poked through the crawl space at Mom and Dad's and came up with some interesting treasures from my past.  One of these treasures was a stack of old sermon notes from my late high school years.  I was about to toss them in the recycling box when I thought I'd take a peek through them first, and it was then that I discovered why I'd kept them in the first place.  These weren't just thorough sermon notes; they were thoroughly illustrated sermon notes.  Along the margins and scattered across the pages were sketches and doodles of a widely varied character.  Some were poignant illustrations of the sermon topic, others were slightly off-topic but somewhat related images visualizing some remark the pastor must have made, and still others were completely off topic, often off-the-wall, and even downright strange pictures stemming from the creativity of a delinquent mind-wanderer.  I pondered whether or not I should reveal these pictures to my blogging audience; although I find them quite hilarious, they are also somewhat embarassing in their bizarrity at times.  I have decided to share them after all but on one condition:  thou shalt not judge!  Yes, I know it's obvious I wasn't always keeping my mind on task during the sermon, but these sermon notes are from well over ten years ago, and a surprising number of the doodles are actually quite topical, if not a little off-colour at times.  Also, you should note that I had an exceptionally speedy writing hand, and often wrote down the majority of the sermon as well as take the time to doodle in the margins.  That all being said, here we go, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did! (click to enlarge)

First of all, to prove that my sermon note papers were indeed 

plenteous in actual sermon notes, here's a quick overview of a few of
them.  See?  Lots of writing.  I'm positive that much of the
message sunk in. 

To start you off slowly, here are a few artful illustrations for you.  

Based on 1 Peter 1:4,5, these are definitely sermon-related 

doodles.  Not so bad eh?

Here are a variety of church/Bible personalities.  We have Paul,
Dorcas, and Peter as well as a several anonymous Christian
characters preaching, teaching, or bearing fruit. 
Oh, and one "bad guy".

I put together a bunch of doodles loosely categorized as "Christian Life"

Filling your heart up with the Holy Spirit, sacrificing your life on the
altar of service, and bearing fruit (again).  And don't forget to
spread that fertilizer of life as you travel on the Way!

 Several illustrations possibly connected by common themes of 

the Holy Spirit and the early preaching of Paul.  Tongues of fire, 

Paul preaching great change to the sinful and crooked generation 

(Acts 2:37-40), and we cannot refrain from singing His

righteousness, even praising Him in the storm. 

 I seemed to have a lot of sheep illustrations.  I suppose this would be 

because it is such a popular idea used in scripture, with us being such

drifting and fickle followers of our great Shepherd.  I'm not really

sure why it appears that a sheep is pulling the ark, and I'm positive

that Super Sheep and Fluffy were not mentioned in the sermon. 

A variety of sinful and idolatrous images, showing the power of sin and

different ways in which we are sinful.  I think Bob and Fluffy belonged 

together, gnashing their teeth.  

A frame-by-frame of Eutychus falling out of the window
in Acts 20:7-12.

 Some random pictures that didn't seem to belong with the other
topics.  The seed of David is sitting on the throne, the horse and
rider are thrown into the sea, our living hope and captive thoughts, 

and we see the Fall of Adam. 

Hmm.  I'm really not sure if I should have posted this one, because it 

might be a little disturbing.  These pictures are the abherrant ones
which have no relation to the sermon, and were strictly the product
of a wandering mind.  There seems to be a theme of unsuspecting
stick men about to meet their doom, or being chased by lions, bears,
or dragons. I particularly like the bottom right-ish picture of the
"Pointless wandering of gifts"... I wonder if these pictures are in
a way a pointless squandering of gifts as well.

Well there you have it.  I hope I haven't made a mistake in posting these...I haven't taken sermon notes in several years, but perhaps I should to make up for all these drawings.  I'm not so much of a doodler anymore, and I hope my attention span has increased in strength and longevity and my sense of humor has matured since then.  Anyways, please remember that I posted these purely for humor's sake, and don't read too much into them!

Underwear Overhead

Apparently, it's a "wear your underwear on your head" kind of morning at the Vander Deen's today :)

Split-Pea Sanity

This bag of split peas has been a sanity-saver for me this morning!

 It's been keeping these GRUMPY boys occupied for a while now!

Transferring peas from one container to another

 Pretending to be an excavator

Of course, not all boys are equally as good at keeping all the peas on the
table...but the quiet, happy playing is well worth the cleaning up later on!

Window Washing

 I have been looking forward to doing a good window-cleaning 

for a while now... can't stand those grimy windows!  

Just have to wait till the temperatures get a little bit nicer!

Pack Rat

I just had a hysterical time going through my parents' crawlspace... oooh man, how did I ever collect so much JUNK?  It was quite a trip down memory lane (and much more amusing to me than anyone else, I'm sure) and I think I had a grin on my face the whole time - as I write this, my face kind of hurts.  Old toys, stuffed animals, journals from the primary grades, pieces of rock or wood or string etc that were for some reason very important to keep from whatever trip they were found on, right on down to tacky art projects, sermon notes, little notebooks half filled with scribbling, and even my wisdom teeth (eww!).  I was a little grossed out to find those. 
Now that I know how exactly much stuff is still down there, I guess I have to make a plan to go through it all and do a major "toss" session.  However, today will not be that day, as I'm a little too nostalgic at the moment.  Besides, I might just need that handmade picture frame someday...

Photo Update

I've been thinking it's about time for a photo update.  However, when I sat down this afternoon to browse through the latest pictures and select a few for your viewing pleasure, I discovered that I have not been industrious in the picture-taking department lately and I don't have too many treasures to share.  I guess it's just been a little too busy for photography!  Here are a few for you to enjoy:

Three boys reading on the couch - I love it!

When the younger boys are sleeping in the afternoon, 

Peter loves playing with soybeans and tractors. 

We had Rachel and Michelle over with their little ones... altogether we had 
five little boys and two twin girls.  It was a busy but very fun play date! 

I suppose this could be called "baby-led weaning".  Nate doesn't

want to have anything to do with a bottle, although I wouldn't

mind a little bit of freedom now and then. 

 It seems that whenever I put this onesie on him, 

Nate decides to explode out of his diapers.  

"This is how much I love you, Mommy"

He's six months old now... he was sitting for well over a 

minute on his own when I took this picture.  He's still pretty

tippy and needs what I call "pillow insurance" 

when he's sitting, but it's fun to see him growing up!

How can you resist those eyes?  Mom VD took a few

great shots of him when we were down for the weekend.

Yeah, I know I'm cute... what are you going to do about it?

Bible Stories

Peter:  "Mommy!  Aaron said he is going to hit me, and throw me in a hole, and sell me to a bad guy!!"
Hmmm... can you guess what our suppertime Bible stories have been about lately?

Wondering what this day will turn into...

9:00 a.m. 
"Mommy, Aaron wanted to hit me, and he wanted to take this blanket away, and he wanted Nate to puke on the table, and he wanted to take this bucket away, and he wanted to take it away and hide it away.  He did!  He wants to take everything away!  Watch him!  He's going to hit me!  No, he's not going to hit me now but he will!"