finite speck

This morning I'm practicing some thankfulness. Thankful for kids that haven't woken up yet. Thankful for a warm cup of coffee. Thankful for warmth. Thankful for a computer that works. Thankful for the ability to think and type. Thankful for the ability to read and write. Thankful for a clear mind. Thankful for home. Thankful for a loving wife. Thankful for a caring church family. Thankful for a loving physical family. Thankful for family that lives close by and more family that is moving closer. Thankful for ways to communicate with family; phone, email, text, and mail. Thankful for ways to learn more. Thankful for podcasts, for videos, for books, articles, and blogs. Thankful for the people that choose to share what they're learning and making it easy to understand. Thankful for food in our fridge. Thankful for a vehicle to get me where I need to go. Thankful for fuel to make sure that my car will get to where I want to go. Thankful for the people in my life. Tha...

As part of my lunch yesterday I just took a drive. I didn't go far, but I went on some roads I hadn't been on before. It's not quite the same as taking a vacation to somewhere I've never been, but there was still something about it that was exciting. What is it about seeing things for the first time? Discovering things on your own without someone explaining to you what you will see. I can't say I saw anything that just blew my mind... I saw a lot of bare fields, some old and new homes, electric lines and that was about it, but it was a nice change of scenery from the office.

Can some carefully crafted words and clothing have an impact on individuals in a company? I believe they can. At Precision Planting, we decided to create some branded socks as a small internal employee gift and along with it put together a note to give to all employees. The note was carefully crafted with the idea in mind to remind us of the culture that exists within our company. Below is what we want our employees to remember: When things get tough, and they will, remember we... “Do hard things.” When you fail, and you will, learn something new and remember we’re... “Fast to fail.” And here’s a bonus. When you see someone fail, remember we’re… “Faster to give grace.” When your co-workers go through challenges, and they will, remember we... “Care about each other.” Thanks for doing the hard things, being fast, and for caring deeply for each other. So, yeah I believe a little sentiment and a pair of socks can make a difference. And I believe it already is. It gets peo...

What motivates you? How do you encourage others to do good work? We started working on potty training our son and it's so clear that praise is a motivator for him once he's gone on the potty. The other thing that helps motivate him to do it is some candy. With my daughter, it was a sticker chart for every time she went on the potty and also candy. And it's obvious that there is a sense of accomplishment when all of these things come together when I see the huge grin on his face in response to making it on the potty, receiving applause, some high-fives and a piece of candy. Why do you do what you do? What is your motivator? Are you motivated by the approval of others? Are you motivated by a paycheck? Are you motivated by the sense of accomplishment and results? When you motivate others are you motivating them in a way that's motivating to them? Are you pushing them in ways that are also going to be good for them? Motivators can be good and bad. In the example above...

Typically when there's an Apple Event I'm glued. They've piqued my interest and made the event about me and how their products make my life better. I tuned into some of it yesterday and it was still amazingly well done. As few companies but Apple can do, but I didn't feel riveted in the same way. I think it was that really nothing they came out with was "new", it may be better than what currently is available for a price, but it wasn't new. They introduced Apple Card, Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and Apple TV+. Notice anything about all of these? They're services. Not a physical product. I think bigger than this was the people they brought in to convince me that it's going to premium content on their Apple TV+ service. Steven Speilberg, J.J. Abrams, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell just to name a few were brought on stage to talk about the Apple TV+ service and the shows they're working on. It just didn...

This past weekend felt crazy to me... sanding kitchen cabinets so we can repaint them, but most of it was pretty normal. Made me think of this song by Ben Rector. Crazy You ever get tired of turning on the radio And asking yourself, "Who lives that kind of life?" Cause I don't. I need an anthem. I need a song I can sing. So raise a glass if your life is crazy. Crazy normal! Last night was crazy Yeah, we tore it up again Kicked off our shoes And went to bed by 9pm We were ballin' and netflix We turned it up to ten Last night was crazy (hahaha) I threw my hands up in the air At that detective show we watched You drank red wine And I had Britta on the rocks We made some pasta With our favorite kind of sauce Last night was crazy, yeah Yeah we're living fast and free Here on our favorite street So raise a glass with me Oooh! You know we're going hard And that we're living large Right here in our backyard Oooh! This life is c...

This morning my daughter asked me to write about Papa Bob. She said, "Dad, write about how we all miss Papa Bob." Every day she makes sure we pray for his wife, Grandma Haefli. If we forget she always reminds us. She somehow realizes it must be hard for grandma to be without Papa Bob now. She also told me to write that, "Grandma Jeanie is probably the saddest. Mommy really misses him too." She wants to make sure that since Grandma Haefli has now moved to a nursing home we still go and visit her often. My daughter is almost 4 and it's been interesting to watch her over the past few weeks as she processes the death of her great grandpa that she knew well. There hasn't been a lot of crying sadness, but just a lot of thinking and asking questions.

Here are a few great questions to ask customers that will result in strong testimonials for your company. What was your absolute biggest challenge prior to purchasing / joining / attending? How did that challenge make you feel? What changed after purchasing/joining/attending? What specific results can you share? What would you say to somebody on the fence about purchasing / joining / attending? Anything else to add? Do you grant permission for us to feature your company and this testimonial in our marketing materials? Questions came directly from 3 Ways to Get Authentic, Powerful Customer Testimonials

Why do people in this world have to go through such difficult things? The unexpected loss of a husband and father, when you have 3 kids and they're all under 10. The family member that keeps overdosing on drugs and may not make it next time. The child that's stillborn or born with an unexpected issue that alters the rest of your life. The husband of over 50 years that's memory begins to fade and can't remember anything that happened today. The son that will never visit or speak to his parents because of some hurt he experienced in his past. The family that becomes separated due to mom or dad deciding the marriage isn't worth being in anymore. These are all things I've watched people experience. Some more recent than others. And it's just a reminder to me that our world is broken. It's not perfect... as much as I want my little world to be. As much as I try to control things in my life. This world is broken and it's not just because of o...

Last week I mentioned wanting to shoot at sunrise to see what the "golden hour" hype is about. I believe it's true, in fact, I've experienced it from seeing the results, but not as the person behind the camera. Well, I haven't shot at sunrise yet, but I did take the kids out last night close to sunset. Let me just say photographing your kids is tough! I think I had 2 of 10 photos that were decent... and I'm learning which is the best part. But in the process, my son kept running away from me, my daughter was scared she was stepping in poop (we were walking down a lane in the middle of some fields) and then she had to go to pee. Normally I would have just had her go right there, but there was nothing to keep people from seeing her go. So, we had to rush home! My takeaways. It's tough to get good photos of your kids. It helps to understand the fundamentals of photography well enough so that you can focus on being ready when there is a good shot to take.

The weather is starting to warm up. We're moved in our new place. The kids are starting to play outside. On the other side of our backyard fence is another family's yard that has a trampoline and swingset. Yesterday our kids noticed there were kids out in that yard jumping on the trampoline and they wanted to go play so bad... So I took them over to say hi, thinking we'll see how this goes. How will the neighbors be? How will their kids be? What are we going to talk about? We opened the gate to their fence, walked into their yard, and started talking. Turns out we had some connections of people we both knew already, they were super friendly, but they had no idea anyone had moved in behind them. Who knows, who our family will connect closely with as we move into this new area. What I do know though is most of the time the connections won't just fall in your lap... there has to be a little bit of effort to get to know people to get that at least started, which can b...

We went to Chick-fil-a last night for dinner to take advantage of the FREE chicken sandwiches. And it was packed, but they handled the number of people extremely well. Thanks, Chick-fil-a. But that's NOT what I'm writing about this morning... One thing I find interesting there is the kind of people and conversations I have at Chick-fil-a that don't happen a lot at other restaurants. Especially in the play area. Last night was no exception. I sat next to another dad and we started talking about our kids, which then turned to jobs as well. I learned that the guy next to me is an engineer that works for the Illinois Department of Transportation and analyzes traffic patterns to adjust the traffic lights around the central Illinois area to be most efficient at getting cars where they need to go at all times of the day. It was super interesting. But, the most useful thing I learned from him is that there are no cameras in the central Illinois area that will give you a ticket ...

Reality TV has become a staple type of tv programming in today's world. Whether it's all truly "reality" is another question, but it begs the question. "If we're so drawn to watching people on TV in "real-life" why are we opposed to inviting others into our real-life in our home?" Here's what I mean. And this is not true for everyone. When we invite others over, friends, neighbors, family, why does the whole house need to perfect? It's like we're trying to impress people with how picked-up our life is. That we're really put together when we may not be that particular day. I'll admit this is tough for me... but I think by setting the bar super high for what it looks like to have people over and in our mess, we actually keep ourselves from true community. I'm not saying just leave your house a disaster, but don't stress about the little messes when people come over. Show them it's OK. We're all messy, we...

Have you ever given a gift to someone that others were offended by? Maybe others were offended by who the gift went to. Or offended by what the person given the gift did because they received the gift. Have you ever thought about how what you give could impact others other than the one you are giving the gift to? I don't give it a lot of thought. Should we? Or is it the person that is offended's problem that they are offended by the gift? What is the root of being offended by the person receiving the gift and what the receiver did with it? Why does it even matter? I think when there are these thoughts we really wish we were either the one giving the gift. Because we would have been fairer. Or perhaps we wish we would have received the gift. I think in both of these instances we think we know better than the giver of the gift, but the problem is we aren't the gift giver. And there aren't any real hard and fast rules on gift-giving. I think that's really the natur...

While I sit this morning in the back of my mind I know I need to move. I wish everything was put away from moving. I wish everything was moved over from the old house. I wish there weren't a few more things to do in the old house. I wish settling in at a new house didn't mean lots of decisions... But that's not how moving is. So, this morning, God help me love my wife and kids well today, help me tackle the projects and be OK with where we're at right now. We don't plan to move every year and so this is a temporary thing.

I've gotten the itch to take some photos again and get better. A few things have played into this. One, having a decent camera. Two, a class I'm currently taking online. Three, my co-worker who is doing a lot of video and photography for our company. I'm thinking about taking some photos of our kids at sunrise tomorrow, at 7:00 AM. We'll see what actually transpires. I want to see what the hype is about shooting during the golden hours of sunrise or sunset.

Do your kids ever want to help? And you're thinking, "That's great, but I don't know what I'm going to have you do." Or you're thinking, "Yeah, you can help me. Go play and let me just get this task done on my own." This is how my brain works anyway. I know it would be better to get the kids involved, but I know it will take longer, there may be fighting or crying, and there will probably be more to clean up in the end. Yesterday when asked the question, "Can I help?" I chose to respond with, "Just go play and Dad will take care of making dinner." But, what if I instead used a little more brain power and tried to think of how do I involve my kids in what I'm doing? Even if it was small. Instead of just thinking about my comfort and control of the situation thinking about how I can help them learn something new. It's a daily struggle with little kids. They usually want to help when you don't want them to and t...

We talked to my parents in Israel last night on FaceTime as they were starting their morning and getting ready to fly back home to the United States. Amazing! And we did it on my phone from home. 10 years ago FaceTime technology didn't even exist on a phone and now it's totally normal to do a video call with someone. Not only were we able to talk to my parents and see them in Israel, but we also were able to let our kids show them their new rooms at our new home since we moved last week.

We now live only 6 blocks or so from my parents, my wife's parents and only 1 block from my grandparents. I never would have imagined I would have ended up living so close to family ten years ago when I was living in Chicago. But there's something about it that I look forward to... Yesterday I took our kids and we just popped in on my grandparents to say hi for a few minutes. And they loved it. They didn't know we had moved in yet, so it was a big surprise for them. They even came over to our place, later on, to check out our place. After my wife's grandpa passing away about a week ago and seeing her relationship with them over the past five years when we lived closer to them I see the value in spending time with family, especially those that are getting towards the end of life. A lot of times they're stuck at home and don't see people that often, so to see some crazy little two and three-year-olds running and around and talking can really be a pick me up ...

My wife mentioned yesterday as we were driving home from church to our new home in Morton, "It feels like a dream." Referring to the feeling that we live in a different town than we have the last 5 years that we've been married. Change does have a weird feeling. With it comes finding new routes to get places. Meeting new people. Doing things differently at home. Having a different routine. Re-evaluating. You end up having to put thought into things that normally you wouldn't think twice about because you didn't have to. I'm thankful for the change of moving to a new town and a new home and all the changes that brings.

I could see the keys through the window of the door, but I had just pulled the door shut with a brand new doorknob. Locked out. My mind raced as to what to do now. The only keys for that door were just on the other side of the door. Thankfully we had just had a new key made for our front door, but there was only one and we gave it to our realtor. It was pouring down rain, I had no phone, no keys, no wallet and no one was with me. So, I ran to my neighbors to borrow a phone to call my wife. I was totally dependent on others at that point. From there my wife called my in-laws. They picked me up. My wife called our realtor to get our only working key. My father-in-law to me to our realtor's house. He then took me back to our house so I could get back in. How many times a day do you have the feeling of being totally dependent? How many times are you locked outside of the house, in the cold, with nothing but a T-shirt, pants and some shoes on? As I reflect on that moment it ...

"Just do it." It's what popped in my head as I was sipping coffee and trying to get myself psyched up for the day today. My plan is to move some larger pieces of furniture and appliances as well as hopefully get some housework done on the old house today. I don't feel ready to knock things out at all, but it has to get done... so here we go. I think "Just do it." sums it up well. Sometimes it doesn't matter if we feel like doing something or not. It just has to get done.

As an Art Director, I don't think I ever thought I'd think this in the past. But, I really believe that one of the most valuable things people can learn is how to write words well. I used to think that I just couldn't do it, but like anything else it takes practice. Words put in the right order to communicate a message are like a superpower, whether they are spoken or written. Words have the ability to influence others positively or negatively. Just think about this. God used words to create. And God used words to record His plan to redeem people. It's even called "the word of God".

What do you want your kids to remember? What are the things you should remember? How can you help get them in your head? I keep thinking about this as I think about our company culture and have been jotting things down that come to mind, but as I was driving this evening I thought what about my family. What do I want them to remember? The one thing I think my oldest can recite by heart now, she's almost 4, is about obedience. In our family, we say, "Obey right away, all the way, with a happy heart." But, I want to spend more time thinking about the things that I repeat often and why. I know another one is, "No." and "Don't do that.", but that's not the kind of thing I want to teach my kids. I desire to instill things like. "As a family, we care about each other." And, "We need God's grace." Things like that and I want my wife and me to repeat them so that these truths get instilled in our children. I see tremendous...

It feels great to be moved into the new house, but that first night sleep is a doozie! Especially with a 3 and 2-year-old. I don't think any of us slept great. I know I got up twice with our older one and then ended up crawling in bed with our younger one from 3am until about 6am while he played in his bed for a couple hours until he finally went back to sleep. But, we did it. We're moved in and hopefully our sleep tonight will be all night.

The day was a whirlwind. One more packed minivan and a full trunk of our car and we moved from our place in Peoria to our new home in Morton. We got some unpacking done at our new home, but we've got a ways to go. The best part of the day today? I think it was just feeling of being moved into one home now and knowing that for the most part, we'll be starting to make this home versus going back and forth between the two.

We have photos taken of our house today and our house is ready. What does that mean? It's clean for one thing, but also it's fairly empty as well. No rugs on the floors. Nothings setting out. Lots of extra furniture has already been moved to the new house. No artwork is hanging on the refrigerator. No toys all over the floor or clothes. And no dust bunnies either. Now hopefully we have really good sunshine when the photographer comes so we get lots of light shining into the house. It's interesting seeing what goes into getting a house ready to show when you're able to move out before you try to sell. We'll if it helps it sell quickly by not living in it while we try and sell.

My Fitbit said I hit 19,000 steps yesterday, which is about 9 miles, from all the packing and unpacking. I'm feeling those steps today. Our bodies can get used to whatever we do repetitively, but when we do more than we typically do our bodies have a way of telling us that. I'm sure some of it is also a sign of getting older, but some of it is a sign of a sedentary lifestyle. Sitting a desk, typing on a computer, driving in a car, and just not getting much exercise. Will this feeling of 19,000 steps make me want to change? I don't know. I've written a few other posts about having a more active lifestyle and I haven't gotten there yet, but I'd like to.

We were able to get another full minivan of stuff out of the old house and into the new house and we got some dishes and glasses put away. We're both exhausted, but we're getting close. We're hoping to do some major cleaning tomorrow at the old house and get a little more boxed up and ready to move to the new house. Monday afternoon someone is coming to take photos so we've got the old house all cleaned up and ready. Hopefully, we'll be living in the new house by the middle of this coming week. There's something about getting a lot moved from one place to another that feels really good. But it doesn't feel so good that I want to do this for my day job.

You never know when your last interaction with someone might be. We had this happen to us today. We were getting ready to head home from the car dealership and my wife wanted to stop by and say hi to her grandparents with the kids. So we all stopped and ended up eating Taco Bell at their place and spending the evening with them. It was pretty low key but towards the end, of our time there her grandpa started rubbing his chest and not acting normal. He decided he needed to take a nitro. We decided it was time to head home, but her aunt stayed there with her grandparents. That was about 7 pm. We got a call at about 7:30 pm that her aunt was doing CPR on him and he was going to the ER, he wasn't breathing. He passed away at about 10:30 pm last night. It's surreal that we were just with him and saw him as he was dying. I didn't realize it. My wife didn't realize it. Had we known what would we have done differently? I probably wouldn't have joked about him seeming li...