And now there’s one more reason to love this place - FREE BIRTHDAY MEALS FOR KIDS!  

I signed up on Pachanga’s email list back in the spring, and the week before their birthday I got an email redeemable for free meals for both of them.

Then during our dinner, the boys were given a sombrero and maracas (to borrow, not keep) and a complimentary fried icecream complete with candle on top!

It’s a little thing, but one more reason we’ll keep coming back!

For those of you who live locally, Pachanga’s address is:

Their hours are:

Just finished this book after hearing it mentioned in a sermon at my aunt’s and uncle’s church over the New Year’s weekend.  John Ortberg tackles the topic of how much we “play life to win” but mis-interpret what “winning” is.  We miss things along the way, opportunities and relationships we have in the present, because we’re so busy focusing on the “next big thing” we think we “need.”

His writing style is easy to read and witty, yet he gets his point across.  One of the images I’ll take with me for a long time to come is an exercise he does when leading seminars.

He points out that on grave stones or in obituaries, we see something like this:

                                               [Name of Person]

                         ______________ – ______________

None of us has any say about our birth; our parents don’t ask us if we’d like to come.  It happens to us.  Likewise, none of us knows our “end date.”  Some day that, too, will just happen to us.  The one thing over which we do have some decision-making power is the dash mark.  And the question he poses is “What will you do with your dash?”

Lest it sound like the book is a morbid mess, it isn’t.  Quite the opposite: it’s inspiring.  But he does write the whole book with the truth in mind that we are finite beings, we do eventually leave this life.  And despite how we may try to fight that reality by anti-aging interventions, accumulation of stuff, or whatever it is for us that makes us feel significant in the temporary sense, those things fall short.  Our “game” ends, and we will (most of us literally!) get “put back in the box.”  But there are other places we can invest our energy that do last beyond our earthly existence.  His encouragement is to start shifting our efforts there now, rather than waiting till ____________ (fill in the blank with the good excuse or significant milestone we want to achieve first).

This book is going to be a re-reader for me, and I’ve already started my campaign of nagging Fred into reading it.  Check your local library (or buy it … I personally just prefer to let the public library system do my storing for me). 

Well worth the time spent.