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We've always done it that way and it works great. Why do we need to change something that's already working? I put a lot of time into developing this and you're telling me you want something different? How do you respond to a change in direction? I know it can be tough, but it also can be a really good thing. Change just because with no reasoning behind it is very tough. But if there's an explanation as to why we're making a change and what the end results will be it may make it easy for your team or individuals to get behind it. Remember it's tough and have empathy towards those that the change is impacting. Empathy will go a long way.

We had a meeting yesterday with one of our agency partners. They asked for the meeting and they had an agenda. The main focus of the meeting was around generating content/pieces and the main article that would interest our customers. Our agency began describing what the main website page would contain and I really couldn't believe what I was hearing. They were describing the page that had already been created and launched over a month ago. The website page that is on all of the print ads that are now in market and the website page that all of the display and pay per click ads that they have been working were directed to. So... I asked the question. "Have you looked at the website? The one that our print ads are directing to and the display and pay per click ads you've worked on are going to?" In which I didn't get an answer. But they then proceeded to go to and realize all the content is already live and has been written. Ouch. And we had at least 4 people f...

Should our company have an Instagram account? Should we start a podcast? Everybody else is doing it. Is that a good reason to start utilizing a new tactic? I have no doubt in my mind that there is value in the above two tactics and others as well, but I continue to struggle with knowing we have a small team and not knowing the impact that either one of these two will make or another new tactic for that matter. Especially Instagram. I don't think that a lot of our customers or potential customers are on there, but then I see Argentina, Brazil, and Ukraine company accounts with a presence there and I wonder maybe we need to be doing something in this space. How do you know? The other things I've wrestled with is from past experience of biting off new technology and not having the bandwidth to do it well and it just dies. So my answer is, it depends. It depends on what you're trying to do. Is it a test? What are your goals? Do you have enough staff to support it? Do ...

Within the last two weeks, we've started doing family devotions after or even before dinner instead of right before bed. Why? It just seems like our kids tend to listen better and are more focused if we do it earlier. Typically if we read devotions right before bed, Baer can't sit still. If we do it while the kids are still eating they're at least sitting. There's also the other side in which I may have more patience with our kids if we're doing devotions earlier instead of right before bed. I can't really explain it, but something seems to happen right before bed a lot where the kids just get kind of crazy. While on the topics of kids going to bed, another thing that has helped to wind them down is letting them pick out some books to look at before bed. I notice, especially with Baer again, a big difference between when we just put him to bed and when he gets to pick out books and look at them for a little while before he goes to bed.

Some further thinking on what I want our family to strive to be about... We love others more than stuff. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matt 6:19-21 We remember God's word. It is THE way. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Psalm 119:105 We need help desperately. Help us receive it. "Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Hebrews 4:16 We obey, for our good and God's glory. "Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfec...

I get a lot of emails. Especially for work, but also personal, and then there are all the lists I'm on too. So, how do we be more thoughtful about what we send to other people's email boxes? One thing that used to always annoy me was quippy emails that basically told me nothing other than thanks. That feels like a waste of everyone's time. I guess that emails that are an approval, are somewhat unavoidable. But, I guess what I'm getting at is how do we provide value every time we send something into someone else's email inbox? We all get a lot of emails. It's something I dread, but also in a weird way feed off of and even work from. It's something I want to get better at.

This year I ended up having a lot of days still to take off by October and I decided to basically take all Fridays off for the rest of the year to make sure they get used up. Now, the challenge with this is... how to use them? Do we do something as a family? Do I do a home project? How do I maximize these Fridays? So far the last couple I've done a few home projects, like painting and cleaning, as well as did a few things with the kids. And I think this Friday is going to be similar. Today I'm hoping to finish putting together our treadmill and plan to deep clean our showers. I digress. I think the main point of my post is to say. Make sure you use your time off and if it looks like it's going to be challenging to do so, consider taking one day off a week. You still get your time off and it can make it easier on the rest of your team than really big chunks of time taken all at once at the end of the year because you were too lazy to plan ahead.

I was asked, "What do you think?" yesterday as well as some other questions which were basically an opportunity to give feedback on our companies Town Hall meeting. When we ask questions it means we are looking for something. We're looking to get better. We're wanting to know what others think of what we're doing... It felt good to get asked. Especially when you believe it's an opportunity to be heard and have influence. But even if what I say doesn't change anything I still got the opportunity to say it. When you have the opportunity ask for feedback. Don't just assume. When you're asked for feedback and you're looked at as a reliable source. Share it. Asking and giving. It's a way for us all to get better.

What does it mean when you go over on your allotted time for a meeting? Do you care about the other people in the room? What does it say about you? Do other people care? Did you practice your talk? Did you not allow enough time? I sat in a lot of meetings yesterday and there were parts of them that were good, there were parts that were long, there were parts that were irrelevant specifically to me. I can't say I participated in a lot of it. I was actively listening, but I wonder what the rest of the room thought. I'm not sure if we ever ask for feedback or not. It's making me think just in general about meetings, how long we make them, how much I prepare for mine, how closely I stick to the allotted time, how engaged I am. Let's make meetings better.

Our family went to go visit my wife's grandma at the nursing home. And one of her grandma's next-door neighbors brought a meal for all of us. They've lived next to them for a long time. And I've seen these neighbors many times. They've brought over meals sometimes when Ilene and Bob were still living in their home. This is a true neighbor. They were at Bob's visitation and funeral. And I feel like they would have been at many more things as well. People don't generally stay in the same house as long anymore, so it's somewhat unique to have such a long-standing relationship. I hope we are able to stay where we are for a long time now and build relationships with those that we live next to. There's an older couple that is our next-door neighbor and we may have similar opportunities to serve them potentially if we are able to build that relationship now.

This phrase, "this world is not our home" popped up in my head as I thought about a foster girl this morning who this next weekend will be moving to another home. I believe she's 6. And it's very unlikely she'll be back with her biological parents and we hope that she'll be able to stay with the foster parents that she is now moving to, from another set of foster parents. The hope is she and her other sister will be adopted by this new family. But I had to think in this situation and many like this, home is not a place that's necessarily comfortable or happy. It's probably confusing. You don't know if will stay the same or change again. You don't know if you'll sleep in the same bed again or not or even if the people you'll be with will stay the same. It feels very broken and can look really hopeless. And I was reminded by my wife last night that we live in a fallen world and things aren't all going to work out perfectly, for ...

So, I'm home, sick today. I had other plans, but getting sick pretty much cancels everything. Anyway, I watched two movies that I picked up the library that I had wanted to watch for a long time and I had no idea, but it was interesting how they both had similar storylines in that the villain is the "system" of the man-made computer network. They were both the kind of movies that I like where you're not sure exactly where they're going to go and even who the bad guy is. The movies where "Eagle Eye" and "I, Robot". The other thing about them was that instead of the villain being a person it was more of a system that in both cases went out of control and had to be shut down. I had no idea they would be so similar. These two movies were both made before 2010 and at that time a.i. and machine learning wasn't anywhere as complex as they are now. I don't know how probable the storylines of computers taking over really is, but it made for ...

Is the extra effort worth it? How do you know? How do you measure it? Can you measure it? That was part of my discussions yesterday with my team as we looked at a mock-up of an invitation to our conference that I put together. I knew the cost of it was going to be more expensive than in past years, but I also believed that it should get more attention than our typical invitation does. But even in the end, I couldn't prove for sure that the increase in cost will for sure drive more attendance or even get more attention. Yet we did decide to move forward with the design and I'm looking forward to still seeing what kind of notice it does get. Not only was there extra effort on my part, but our vendor who typically produces our invitations had to outsource the design to China because they weren't able to do it in-house and they could find any other printer in the US that was willing to take on the project either. Part of the invitations will have to be done by hand!

Yesterday was a day with the kids. Josie just kind of froze during a game of Duck, Duck, Goose at church and started crying. We don't know exactly why. Baer peed his pants at church and they had to find him another outfit. When I got home Mac had just spit up all over my wife. And I know this was just a few things at the end of the day that I know about. As we were getting the kids to bed I saw a bunch of mismatched socks on the floor in Mac's room and I asked, "Are all of these Mac's?" My wife responded, "That's what my life feels like right now... A bunch of mismatched socks all over the floor." When we look back on our days when we had little kids I'm not sure what all we'll remember. I hope it's not all of the stuff that was so tough. The thing about all of the things that happened above is they're all kind of out of our control as parents. We think we have more control than we do. It's more about what do w...

So, we've started something new. I talked about it earlier on my blog but hadn't done anything yet. Chores. I made a chore chart for each of our kids. On it is four jobs for Josie who's 4 and two jobs for Baer who's 2. It's fairly simple. During the week, Monday through Friday, they need to do their jobs each day and they get to fill in the circles for each job. At the end of the week, we'll do something special with each of them if they complete their chart for the week. Now, the hard part is going to be coming up with something special for the week. Maybe it's a piece of gum or a sleepover with dad. Maybe it's sherbert during the week. I want to come up with things that are fun and memorable for them so that they have motivation to do what they've been asked to do and with having two kids there will be a little fear of missing out if one doesn't do their chores.

Why do you so many people have a Gmail account? Is it that better than the other email services out there? When someone's personal email account ends with @yahoo or @aol what does it make you think? Is there a status in having an @gmail account? Even though it's free? How did Gmail get so many people on their platform? Storage capacity and search. They offered the ability to keep 1 GB worth of storage (unheard of at the time) and the ability to search it all super fast from anywhere you could get on the internet.

I'm thankful for my wife who does the laundry the majority of the time. Friday, Saturday, and today I spent some of these days doing laundry. I'm on my last load as we speak, but there's more in the laundry chute already. It just doesn't stop coming. It's the never-ending pile. I'm also thankful that the hardest part of it is just folding and putting it away. I don't actually have to wash any of the clothes by hand. Instead, I'm able to just throw the laundry in a machine and do something else instead. It's easy to complain about things we have to do. Or to complain about how there's always more to do. But, I want to challenge myself to have a thankful heart about work. About the never-ending pile of things. There's always another side to the pile. At least I'm able to do physical work. At least I don't have to do the laundry by hand. At least I have family around to do laundry for and even do the laundry with.

It's 8:30am and I already needed a break from the kids this morning. I didn't get up earlier than the kids, so... no alone time, which I don't do well with. So my wife graciously asked me if I needed 30 minutes. Which I've taken. Thankful for a wife that knows me well. Just a little time to pray, read the bible and write. Before I left for a little alone time something came up about a camo camel. And my wife said, "Hey that could be your kids' book." Hey, maybe it will be. A quick Google search brings up no results.

As I get ready for my Friday off from work I'm faced with the main task at hand which I believe is going to be painting the hallway. It may change, but I'm hoping I can get it all accomplished today. I would love to do even more than paint the hallway today, but I've come to realize that with three little kids the amount of time you have to do things is just different than what it was like before them. Depending on if they're around for the day or not I may try and listen to some podcasts while I'm painting to try and take advantage of the monotony of painting too. Painting walls is probably one of the most mindless exercises I know. It gives you plenty of time to think.

Right now there's a mouse in our house. I saw it yesterday as I was washing dishes out of the corner of my eye. What is it about having a mouse in your house that just really gives you an unsettling feeling? I guess because you have no idea how they got in and no idea where they are or how soon you'll catch them. Well, my in-laws bought us some traps last night so we'll see how long it takes to catch the one we saw and hopefully there aren't more.

"Can you believe they took away our car?" I think I've heard my grandparents say this at least 10 times in some way or another since their kids talked with them and they all mutually decided that it was best to give their car away. My grandma has macular degeneration in her eyes and my grandpa has some form of dementia. So neither one of them is really fit to drive whether alone or together. But, it's been really tough for them. They've been independent for a really long time. They've been able to drive wherever they wanted to go. Now, they have to call up someone to take them to the grocery store, they need a ride to church, any appointments, or anything else. So, whenever we see them it seems like the not having a car conversation comes up. And whenever they see their empty garage it brings some sadness. It's tough. I can't imagine what it would be like to have had something like a car for so long and then not be able to get around anymore wi...

So we have friends that moved away about 2 years ago and they just moved back to the area last month. They have kids that are almost exactly the same age as our kids. And yesterday they invited us over for dinner. It was pretty exciting for my wife and me because typically we don't get invited over somewhere else... or at least it doesn't seem like it. We had a great time. We just picked up where we left off. Josh and Katie are great and a lot of fun. And their kids and ours played together good too. And they moved super close to where we now live. I would just say that my wife and I came away thankful last night for some friends that live close, that we feel like we'll be able to do things with for years to come. Praise God for hospitality and friends.

This is something that I asked my wife about last night and I want to continue to think on. What is our family about? The one thing we say to our kids a lot is we want them to, "Obey. All the way. Right away. With a happy heart." They know it. And they can tell us these words by heart. It doesn't mean they do this all the time, but at least they know our expectations. This could be one thing perhaps... But I'd like to have a list of maybe 3 or 4 things only that we'd say as a family we're about. Kind of like our core values. I started thinking about this because our company has a few things that we hold on to that we'd say we're about. And I think even more importantly I'd like this to be true for my family. So, a few thoughts from my wife and I talking are here. And I want to have some verses to also put together with them. Love others. (Who are you thinking about?) ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matt 22:39 Remember. (Knowing God...

There are over 700,000 active podcasts as of 2019, so how in the world do you pick something to listen to? And according to a quick Google search in 2018, the number of podcasts was 550,000. That's a big jump. So, there's plenty to pick from for sure... So this is my attempt to help narrow it down to just a few of my favorites as of today. Thanks to others that have made recommendations to me. In no particular order: Fight Laugh Feast Network (particularly Cross Politic) Akimbo Freakonomics Radio The Bible Project Building a StoryBrand American Innovations The Ben Shapiro Show The City And I'm sure there are many more that are super good.

According to the Pew Research Center , "roughly a quarter of U.S. adults (27%) say they haven’t read a book in whole or in part in the past year, whether in print, electronic or audio form, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted Jan. 8 to Feb. 7." The idea that adults don't read or don't read much made me think how much am I reading? I can't say that I've loved reading... not for a long time. I read books to my kids. And sometimes I'll find a book I can really get into, but I typically don't. I've started a few books this year, but haven't finished them. So, how do I get myself back into reading? Reading can be good right? It's a way we learn. I think both my wife and I would say the same thing about reading too in that a lot of times by the time we get to the time of day when we can crack open a book and read we're ready to fall asleep. Although, I have to give my wife credit... I've seen her reading more this year...

I'm not good at being social with those I work with outside of work. I don't think I can really recall a situation where I've done something semi-regular outside of work with those that I've worked with. Sure, I've gotten together before in different ways. For example, I had an old co-worker that helped me learn how to change the oil and filter on my car. I've gone to a co-worker's wedding. I've gone out for dinner or to watch a movie with co-workers before. But all of these are few and far between. Not even a semi-regular occurrence. Ironically, at the same time where I work currently, I would say is the best place I've ever worked in my life. I don't know where all of this stems from. And I don't know that I like it. I'd like to get together with some of the guys that I work with just to hang out. Not to just help me to do something that I couldn't do without them. As I think of two of my co-workers specifically they have kids...

October 2nd marks one year for me of regularly blogging. My goal was to write something every day. I haven't done that, but I've managed to write 296 posts. That means on average I've missed 5 days per month. When I decided to start a blog I wasn't thinking about how many I might write I just knew I wanted to start writing and wanted to get better at writing. I wasn't out to get a bunch of people following me (believe me there aren't many reading what I write). I really wanted to get better at writing and have a way to do that on a daily basis. I think having a blog that I write almost daily has really helped me in accomplishing my goals in writing and I plan to keep it up. So, if you're interested in learning what's in my head, follow along. If you want to get better at writing yourself, start a blog and keep showing up every day. If you want a bunch of people to start following you... good luck!

Yesterday I was at work and was prepping for some interviews when I got a call from my wife. She said, "I can't find my wallet anywhere. Did you put it somewhere when you emptied out the groceries? Is it still in your car?" I had about 45 minutes or so before the first interview started and I had a choice to make at this point. Would I respond lovingly? Would I choose to help? Would I figure out a way to solve her dilemma? Sure it's inconvenient and I wasn't planning on it, but how was I gonna respond? Well, I said I'd go look in the trunk of the car and then call her back. So, I checked the trunk and found her wallet in there. So, I gave her a call and found out she needed to get gas in her car and was heading to a friend so she really needed her wallet. And I still had time to be able to meet her and get her wallet and still get back to work for the interview, so I said I can help. Notice there's no blame in any of this? There's no shame. She...

Yesterday I went on a walk with our youngest for about an hour to just let my wife rest while the other two kids were sleeping. I walked on some roads I hadn't ever walked on before. But, right at the very end of the walk, I saw this animal walking through a big open grassy area only a block from our house. It looked like a dog, but as we got closer I realized it was a large fox. So, like most people anymore when you see something you don't normally see you whip out your phone and start taking pictures or a video to document it and share it with other people. I think it's about the closest that I've ever been to a fox out in the "wild".

So you're going to interview someone for a job. What kind of questions do you ask? Obviously, the interviewee needs to have a certain skill set in order to do their job, but beyond that how do you get at their personality, their motivators, what they would be like to work with? I think where I'm landing is you want to ask questions like... "Tell me a time where you failed at your job. What was it like? What did you do?" or "What are things that you value in a team culture?" Asking questions that are personal in nature and get to how they interpret a question versus something that is leading and seems to maybe have a right and wrong answer. Ultimately you don't want the person you're interviewing to just give you answers that you want to hear, because that's going to blow up later if it's not true for them.

I've written about this before. I'm a task-oriented person. I can easily find value in accomplishing a task. And I don't think that getting tasks done is a bad thing. The challenge for me is taking a break from tasks and spending time with people. Many times when I come home and if I look around I start to see tasks that I'd like to get accomplished. The yard needs to get mowed. The ceiling needs to get repainted. I should put the rest of the things in the garage away. I'd like to reorganize a closet. Or I want to pick up things in the basement. My list gets long really quickly. It's challenging for me. If it get it that mode it's easy for me to keep going and after accomplishing one task and I want to do another one. But, going back to spending time with people, my wife has helped me see the huge value in people... much more than tasks. People have an eternal soul, something that a task will never have. And I want to make sure that I keep that in mind a...

When something is brand new there's an element that's exciting about it, but there's also an element about that new thing that's scary as well. What made me think of this was my son last night as he went to a new kids program at a local church in our area. He's two and half, but he understood that he was going to a place that his sister had been a few times before and he knew it was similar to the nursery at the church we go to. He knew he would have teachers, but he didn't know exactly what it would be like. He was excited to go. When we talked about it throughout the day he wanted to make sure that he got to go. He asked questions about it. When we got there there was excitement about getting to go to this new program. But, once we got my son into the room he got scared. He started crying. He wanted me to hold him. What happened? The room wasn't that different from other rooms he had been in before in nursery. But, there wasn't anyone in the room h...

How many apps do you have on your phone? Do you know? How many should you have? I have 127 apps, plus the apps that came on my iPhone from Apple. That's a lot of apps. I'm surprised actually. There are only 4 screens that all of those apps fit in I believe. Do I use all of those apps regularly? No. Which apps do I use the most? Which ones are my go-to apps when I'm "bored"? Typically it's Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter first. Then Marco Polo if there's something new that someone's shared... or I might check my personal email to just see if there's something I need to respond to. I might then go the stock app, or my banking app. The other apps that I've gravitated more to have been around habits or points. Like Virgin Pulse where I receive money for reporting information on my health or the Habit app where I can keep track of things like whether I blogged today or anything else that I deem as important to keep track of. So what's my ...

The worst part of vacation is going back to work and having 100s of emails to catch up on. I've been dreading it. So yesterday I got in at normal time and started cranking away at it. I've still got over 200 to go through as of this morning, but I made some progress. I don't know if I've complained about email before on this blog, but I wish there was a better way to handle email. To clean it up. To prioritize it. A way that was so smart that email knew if it was something I had any interest in or not. That is was smart enough to prioritize my email based on what had to be taken care of and what didn't. I don't know if email will ever get there. It seems like a long way off. Maybe there's something that's already out there, but it seems like it will have to be a totally new system. I've been using Spark because I liked how it worked and it seemed like maybe it would save me a little more time. But, I'm not sure that it's any better than G...

We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express & Suites on our way home from Gulf Shores this past weekend and when I walked in the lobby I was surprised to see my name on a whiteboard. "Guest of the day Alex N." is what it read. So, I said why is my name on the whiteboard? What does "Guest of the Day" mean? So I found out the staff has an app and everyday anyone who is an IHG member gets put in to be randomly selected to be the guest of the day. Not all hotels do this, but they do it to try and get more people to become members as well as to get good reviews. At least that's what the lady at the front desk told me. I think it's a great idea though. Coming in after a day of travel with little kids and seeing your name on a board with guest of the day, getting some extra points and an upgrade to a nicer room where all welcome perks to being an IHG member. I'll take it. Thanks, Holiday Inn Express & Suites! The other thing that I'd never seen before ...

My mom turns 69 today. So thankful for her life. I can't imagine how different it would have been to be born in a rural area in the 1950s. As I sit here in our condo with most of our family, my sisters, parents, and our kids it is so different in 2019 than 1950. I'm thankful for the faith of my mom and her care for our families. I'm thankful for her prayers for me and our family. I know that she prays for us every day... there is no doubt in my mind. Also thankful for the marriage of my parents. They are in their late 60s and still devoted to one another. Again 2019 is a lot different than 1950 in America, where there is now much less commitment to marriage and even the attempt to redefine what marriage even is. I'm thankful for the way that my mom shared the gospel with us as kids through her life and reading God's word.

This morning we found out we had ants in our condo. And not just in the condo, but in a couple of the beds. Earlier this week my son had what kind of looked like a couple of small bites a couple different places on his body. Then this morning my sister showed us some bites in a similar spot that looked basically the same. We found out that they were the ants that were in their beds. Ants bite in bed. Who knew. So, we opened up the covers and my sister's bed had a probably a dozen running around under the sheets. After that, I did a Walmart run for some ant bait and ant spray. You never know what you'll wake up to in the morning. Hopefully tomorrow morning no one wakes up with any new bites on them.

Why does a vacation with little kids feel more like a marathon? We're halfway through right now and each day is so good, but also at times it's a lot of work... Spit up all over you, changing poopy underwear/swim diapers, tired kids that go to bed later and get up earlier, some of the biggest smiles I've ever seen, some of the cutest laughs, some of the saddest cries, learning to swim better, fun conversation late at night, wanting to get up early to have some good alone time but struggling to make it happen later in the week, walking on the beach,... It really has been a good trip. So thankful that we can do it with our kids and my sisters' families and our parents. And yes, it is a gradual wear down over the week. Like our General Manager says at my office, "It's not a vacation, it's a trip." It's work, but it's worth it. And somehow with young kids, you still survive.

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses Well... I had written some good stuff and it didn't save. argh... But, basically, I was reminded of this quote when I watched my son experience the ocean on his feet for the first time. He had the biggest smile on his face yesterday and it made me think that I could have never convinced of him of the joy of that moment by talking about it. He had to experience it. And similarly, but not exactly, we can't hardly imagine the joy that is offered to us through Christ. We are far too easily pleased by the pleasures of this world. Help me know what is meant by a h...

It's the second day of our vacation, but the first day where we're actually at our destination. We're staying in a condo with 3 full baths and 7 beds I think. We have my family of 5, my sisters' of 5, and my parents here right now and it's tight. But, it's also quiet right now at 6:45am. I'm just waiting to hear the pitter-patter of little feet coming down the stairs, but for now, I'm enjoying the quiet time. I'm about to grab a coffee. It's a fight to get up on vacation with 3 little kids when one is a baby so you also got interrupted sleep and the other 2 didn't wind down until about 10pm. It's worth it though once you're up and it's quiet and you can read, or relax a little before the day really starts... God help me in this week to love my wife, kids, and family well. To think of others, not myself. To talk about you and to grow in relationship. Help to use the quiet times well.

What makes a good host? We're staying at my sister's for a night and they are great hosts. You can tell they do it based on how they have things set up. My wife and I stayed in their guest room and even though we didn't need it, they had snacks in the room and new toothbrushes in the bathroom. It feels almost like a nice hotel or bed and breakfast, but better. My sister also knew our family gets up early and so she had donuts sitting out and a note letting us know where everything was for breakfast. I think when you think of what makes a good host. In my opinion, a good host makes you feel at home in their home.

What to write? After being up since 2am this morning and driving for about 10 hours and it now being 9pm I'm not sure. I've listened to maybe 5 different podcasts, made multiple fast food stops, and to top it off after we got to my sister's place my son pooped his pants... twice. My wife and I are wiped tonight and ready for some rest. Thank God for rest. That he designed us to be able to be refreshed after exhausting days and wake up renewed. Looking forward to tomorrow.

It's always tough for me to get out of the office on time the day before vacation... But, today I had a doctor appointment at 2:05pm, so there was a push to get out on time. You can't be late for a doctor appointment. So, it was still a push to get things done before I left and there were still things that came up even on my way to the doctor, but I made it out on time and I'm sitting in the waiting room right now after my appointment waiting to have my labs done. In less than 12 hours we'll be on the road heading down to Gulf Shores. I'm ready. We'll see how a week with 12 kids and 6 adults goes. It's two kids to each adult and the oldest kid is probably about 10. Gonna be a wild week! Hopefully we a couple hours of relaxation.

Monday morning the local Morton Pumpkin Festival parade was 6 days away and I saw people beginning to put out chairs, ropes, tape, and anything else to reserve their spot along the road for watching the parade. This year I even saw a lawn chair with jumper cables attached to it and the jumper cables attached to another chair reserving someone's spots along the parade route. These people in the town of Morton are crazy about making sure they have a place along the parade route to watch the parade.

Well, I said I'd help switch out some light fixtures. And I'm still working on switching out some light fixtures. So far I've been over, switching out light fixtures 3 different days I believe. It's not something that's super hard, but you do run into issues like not having the right screw, losing a small piece, or the fixture after hanging it not being the one that your mother-in-law likes. I'm glad I'm able to help and it really doesn't bother me, but like just about any house project I've ever worked on, and this is no exception, it always takes longer than you think. Because the unexpected always ends up happening.

Yesterday at church there was a family that came in and sat a couple rows in front of us. The youngest son had his button-up shirt on totally inside out. And as I saw it, I thought to myself maybe I should offer to help him go somewhere to get it fixed. A couple minutes later I saw him leave with his older sister and then they came back and his shirt was fixed. Maybe this seems like a silly story and I myself am wondering why it got my attention yesterday. I think part of it is that this family lost their dad earlier this year. And also that this young boy has down syndrome. I'm sure that this year has been challenging. A shirt that was put on inside out isn't that big of a deal in comparison to the things they've faced in this past year. Should I have offered to help him with his shirt? Maybe instead of worrying about his shirt I should have just introduced my family to this family and been friendly after the service. The other thing that stood out with this sister...

Our life is much more documented even if we are blogging, journaling, podcasting, or doing something else on a daily basis... We have years of emails (most likely), we have years of calendar events (unless they automatically get deleted), we have many things digitally that people used to not have. We have years and years of photos on our phones and/or online. We may forget in our heads, but a lot we can go back to. I was trying to remember how things were for me about 10 years ago. And they were a lot different. I was working at a large agency in Chicago on TV commercials and I was dating a girl up there. I had a ton of free time and did basically whatever I wanted. Fast-forward 10 years and I'm married to a different girl from central Illinois, living in central Illinois, have 3 kids under the age of 5, working for an agricultural company and living in a small town that I was born in of around 15,000 people. Now, I don't have a lot of free time and definitely, don't ge...

I'm sitting in our living room and kitchen space this morning and it's mostly empty except for a couple couches and a recliner that need to get moved. We have a couple guys coming to redo the finish of our ceiling. I'm sure they're not excited about doing it, but they're redoing it. They do really good work and we had them do a ton of plaster and drywall work at our old house. But, in this instance, they took a short cut and tried to feather in some texture on the ceiling where we had knocked out a couple walls and it's very noticeable right now. I called them up and asked if they'd come to take a look at it after we'd painted the ceiling. They did. And they agreed that it didn't look very good. So, we're going through the redo right now for the next two days. Hopefully, it looks way better this time. Oh, and instead of taking a short cut again... this time they're going to do the entire ceiling, so it all looks the same. Sometimes shor...

Solve interesting problems. I heard this in a podcast by Seth Godin yesterday in reference to how to we help our kids succeed. And I think there's a lot to it. I'll summarize by saying that the thought is most of the learning that goes on in academia is memorizing things that have an answer that is easy to just look up and doesn't necessarily help in figuring out a solution. There's just one answer and the teacher knows what it is. Seth's point was, give your kids problems where the answer isn't clear. Even where there might not be a best answer, but a lot of good answers and they need to be proved out. Where your kids can fail. It got me thinking, that even with my young kids I need to give them things where the project isn't just all prescribed for them, but they have the freedom to try different ways of doing it... so they learn. I tried this out last night and asked my daughter to come up with a way to count down the days until we leave for our tri...

3 days ago we had our biggest sales week ever and also our biggest one day of sales ever and I had no idea until I got back into the office on Tuesday. I was kind of surprised to not have heard anything about it, but the sales totals came together at midnight on Friday (I was fast asleep) and it was Labor Day weekend, so I wasn't back in the office until Tuesday. Plus, I didn't check email over the weekend. But, what would have changed had I known earlier? There would have been some excitement. I would have wanted to tell someone about it. I'm glad I got to hear the awesome company results. I'm glad I also didn't stay up super late. And I'm actually kind of glad that I got to hear it from someone else and was surprised... it made the event of hearing the news a little more fun than just looking it up myself.

"Dad, do you know what you're doing?", my daughter said. I stopped what I was doing and looked at my little 4-year-old girl, shocked that I heard those words come out of her mouth. And I can't remember exactly what I said next, but I think it was something like... "Josie you should never say that to a man when he's working on a house project." My next thought was where did she pick that up from? I know I've heard my mother-in-law say it before and I think I've heard my wife say it before too. But I never expected my four-year-old would already be saying it. Did I look like I didn't know what I was doing as I was hanging a new light fixture? What is it about someone questioning us when we're doing something that just gets us? I know pride plays a big role and when I know what I'm doing (I've done it before) it's even tougher to hear. I think part of it is in the questioning of knowing what you're doing that hints at m...

Well, I spent a good 30 minutes just scrolling the social slot machine after I got up and kicking myself now because my kids are up and I didn't make time to write. I can so quickly get sucked into the infinite scroll and really not gain much of anything at all. Motorcycle stunt driver video, photos from some random talented photographer, recipe videos, the list goes on and on and at the end a lot of times there's really very little gained. What if instead of the infinite social scroll on the social slot machines we worked on work that our families could benefit from? What if we instead thought about how we could lead our families well? I know I don't spend an exorbitant amount of time on my phone, roughly an hour a day, and much of that is probably social media, but what if I got that hour back and instead dedicated that to leading my family spiritually?

I got a thumbs up from my wife yesterday. Multiple times. And I've got to say it feels good. A couple days ago she had talked about cutting down a bush in the backyard that was just taking up space. So, yesterday I borrowed my father-in-law's chainsaw and cut it down. While I was working on it a couple different times my wife popped her head out the window and gave me a thumbs up and said, "Looks good." And I agree. It feels like we a lot more yard with the large bush cut down. So what's my point? Give somebody a thumbs up. Give someone encouragement. I know not it's not everybody's thing to like encouragement... or a thumbs up, but I believe most people appreciate it.

We're still in summer. 23 more days until fall officially starts. And today is the last day of summer days at work where we can get half of the day off on Friday if we stack up our hours earlier in the week. Kids started going back to school this past week. One year from now our oldest will be starting kindergarten. Things keep changing. I heard an interesting podcast yesterday from Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was talking about New York City public schools and the government's desire to make school education equal for all ethnicities. My understanding from the podcast is that the government is looking at doing away with all public gifted school programs because too few black and Hispanic kids get into them. Instead, the gifted programs are mainly comprised of kids that are Asian and white. This recommendation came from a 2-year study trying to figure out how to solve this problem of inequality in New York City schools. No matter...

I'm starting to work on our entries for NAMA, the National Agri-Marketing Association's advertising competition. We've been entering our work in the competition for the last 4 years. There is definitely good work entered, but the competition is definitely not the same as that of the AAF or Cannes. But why do we even have these awards ceremonies? What fuels the desire to put forth the effort to enter into this type of a thing? There's a cost for every entry of time and money. Then there's a cost if you win of more time and more money, plus travel. So, why do it? I think there's a couple pieces to it. For one, it costs money to have an organization and I think of all events the awards piece helps fund the organization. Second, people like to be recognized by their peers for good work. It's a way to be seen and show others in your industry that you're doing good work. Third, and I think this is the one we've seen the most value in actually, is that ...

Have a conversation. Send an email. Pick up the phone. Send a text. Walk up to someone and ask a question. I was at a tradeshow yesterday for the full day and being more of an introvert I had to psyche myself up somewhat to start engaging with people in booths. I wanted to experience what "farmers" are experiencing at the show as much as possible. So really I didn't have to initiate most of the conversations I just had to answer people in a way that would keep the conversation going. I enjoyed it. I learned new things. I even saw someone that I recognized and took a risk and said, "I know I know you from somewhere, but I can't put my finger on it... I knew it was someone I was related to." It ended up being my Grandma Neukomm's youngest sister, Joan. I also talked to a kid from Ontario, Canada that was familiar with our company for a while and he helped me figure out how Pioneer was doing their hat giveaway. I sit behind a computer a lot. I can e...

I'm trying to figure out how to "best" make a change or maybe I won't... I'm not sure. I want to have all of our family photos in one place and we currently have all of our photos backed up to Google Photos. Then all of our originals currently reside in Apple Photos. But, I want to start doing editing in Adobe Lightroom and I've heard it's a pretty good way to also organize and store your original photos. So, I'm debating, but it's challenging because I want to make sure I don't lose any original photos in the process. And I'm not sure the "best" way to do it if I make the switch.

Do you have a smartphone with you? If so it's really amazing what you have with you at all times. You are connected. You can look up information on anything. You can even just ask the virtual assistant on your phone instead of even typing it in. You can schedule appointments. You can set reminders with just your voice. You can have a moment that happens and capture it in video or with a photo. Need some light at night? Just turn the flashlight on your phone on. Set a timer while cooking a meal. Look up a recipe. Order anything and get it delivered the next day. Get a cab to come to pick you up. Make payments from your phone. Check your email. Check stock prices. Check your bank account. Play just about any song you can imagine. The list goes on and on. Never until the last 10 years or so was all of this available in the palm of your hand.

How much time do we spend looking at the stats? I get sucked into this somewhat regularly and I think there's the aspect where I can learn, but there's another part of it that just wants to know. The stats of how many likes, shares, views, how much time, opens, clicks, forms filled out... But, if there's no benchmark what's the value? Why do we care what a stat is if we don't have a goal? Maybe you have goals as to what you're shooting for, but if you don't what's the driver for looking at your stats? If they don't perform to the level you think they should will you do something differently or is it more of a comfort that something is happening? I think I've blogged about this before already, but I think there's something here. We're all driven by the stat and social media especially is driven by these stats. What if we didn't have visibility to them?  Are we putting things out into the world for the stats? Or are we putting thing...

What do you do when the unexpected happens? You have plans in your mind for the day. Or you at least believe it's going to look a certain way. There are things on your calendar. A list of to-dos. But, then you get an email... you get a phone call... someone stops by your desk or your home... you receive a text... What do you do? How do you respond? Are you ready to help out? Or is it an inconvenience? Do you see it as an opportunity to show love? Share the gospel? Or do you have more important things for the day and you want to try to find a way to pass the person or request off to someone else? Do you think this isn't "my job" or do you think "I can do that"? The unexpected happens a lot where I work. It also happens a lot at home. I think I respond better when it's at work then when it's at home. But why? Shouldn't I actually respond better at home... after all these little kids and my wife are my family! And their unexpected is way mor...

Will we always google when we need an answer to a question? Or will google.com, someday be gone? It's something that I've never really thought about before. Once something arrives you think it will last forever, but history would tell us that most things will rise and fall at some point. Only time will tell. And I look forward to time telling and being able to look back and say remember when... I can't imagine ever not having Google to quickly go to and ask a question, but maybe there will be something better someday without privacy concerns or that's maybe even faster or has other reasons to make a switch. So I just googled "is there a browser that will overtake google" and the first result was Brave . I know about nothing about this browser, but it's interesting that it claims to be faster than Chrome, blocks ads, and has a way to reward websites that the user wants to reward. It's gaining in popularity quickly and it's also utilizing blockch...

My grandparents live just a block from us and my wife and I have started trying to make an effort to visit them once a week. We've probably made it the last month or so. They love seeing our kids and I think it's a break from the long days for them. They don't have a car anymore because my Grandma has macular degeneration and can't see far away very well and my Grandpa's memory is extremely poor. So they don't get out a lot unless someone drives them somewhere. So last night we brought them dinner and just hung out with them for the evening. My Grandma especially seems to really enjoy it. My Grandpa I believe does too, but he's tougher to read and talk with, he tends to be fairly quiet anymore because he realizes he can't remember much in the short term. My wife has taught me a lot as far as reaching out to the elderly. She did this same thing with her grandparents when we lived in Peoria. It gets her out of the house, but I know she sees the value...

My computer has a 1 TB hard drive, but I have less than 100 GB of storage space left. Where did all the storage go? At first, my answer was I don't know, but Apple has a nice way of reviewing your hard drive and it was interesting. Applications 55 GB Books 8 MB Documents 514 GB iCloud Drive 18 MB iOS files 25 GB iTunes 28 GB Mail 23 GB Messages 102 MB Music Creation 1 GB Photos 107 GB System 150 GB Total is 903 GB that's used up... Not that my computer is running super slow, but I think they're a lot of files that really could just be backed up somewhere, that I probably won't need or reference ever again. I'm going to challenge myself to back up photos in a different way and try to clean up my Documents a lot more as well to free up more space to work.

We experience this most times we have people over in the evening. Especially when it's our parents. Our kids get wound up. The later it gets the crazier they get. We were with both sets of grandparents at different points this weekend and both times it got crazy. I don't know how you get them to settle down. I haven't figured it out.

What do texts, emails, blogs and podcasts all have in common? They are all great ways to reach out regularly to an audience that has said I want to hear from you. Are you using one of these formats with those that want to hear from you? Different from social media, you own the channel and you own the audience. There are no algorithms to work through your audience just subscribes or they don't. You just need to continually show up with content knowing that they gave you the privilege to communicate with them. So how can you use these mediums better? These thoughts were inspired by a question asked on Akimbo a couple weeks ago. Artificial intelligence is neither

How much will you micromanage? Feedback is good. It can make things better. It can also slow things down. It can derail a project. It can make others extremely frustrated. How much of what you ask others to do is super specific? Does it put all the ownership on you and just makes those you work with feel like a monkey pulling levers looking for approval to make sure it's done the way you want it? Or do you lay out a vision and let those you work with create? There's a place for feedback and critique. Just make sure it's pushing the work forward not catering to your preferences. Is it meeting the needs of the end customer or is it making you happy?

We went swimming last night and my daughter made all the way across the shorter distance of the pool. Maybe 15 feet, but she's only 4. And she was determined to do it. She jumped in and after that, she used everything she had to move forward to the other side. It wasn't pretty, but she did it! It's really fun as a parent to see your child make so much improvement in something over a short amount of time. Just 2 months earlier she took some swim lessons and had very little confidence in the water. Now, she's probably a little overconfident, but the likelihood of her drowning is way less than before. It's also amazing how kids just figure things out. I have helped her some to figure out how to keep herself above water, but a lot of it she is just figuring out by practice.

Some times I sit at home and start thinking about all the things I should do and it gets overwhelming really quickly. I should... finish painting the ceiling fill holes in the trim in the kitchen paint our bedroom put up some pictures hang a curtain go through stuff in the basement clean the bathrooms call the guy back about the insulation call the guy back about the ceiling schedule a dr appointment schedule an eye appointment trim our landscaping out front clean up some of our closets talk to someone about investments install the last light in the basement ... and that's just a small list from a few minutes of thinking. I don't know the best way to get away from this kind of thinking that I have to get something done. Especially with 3 kids under 5, it's tough to get much done in a regular day. God help me to prioritize what's important and realize that not everything that seems like it should get done needs to get done. Help me to be thankful f...

Two nights ago my wife let our youngest cry it out for almost 2 hours, and she graciously allowed me to go sleep on the couch, while he cried in our room. Last night we all had a really good night sleep. He slept for about 7 hours. Maybe we're going to get out of the waking up in the middle of the night stage soon! Uninterrupted sleep feels so good in the morning. I feel so rested today.

My daughter got some new shoes yesterday. And all she wants to do is where them anywhere she goes now. In the house and outside. And she wants to make sure that everyone knows about them too. If we'd let her she'd wear them to church this morning too. She went to a birthday party yesterday and there were pink and purple cupcakes to choose from. She said she chose a pink cupcake because it was the same color as her new shoes. She obsessed with them right now. When something is new to us we all get a little infatuated with the new thing. But, it's crazy how that new thing loses it's luster quickly. It doesn't stay clean or something else comes along. We are easily discontented. Very few things never lose their luster. I believe when we have a relationship with God that He has a never-ending newness and because we are created in His image, people have this ability in a much smaller way as well. I don't think the second part is maybe a perfect example.

My daughter has said thank you many times, but last night was really sweet and I could tell she meant it. I took my oldest son and daughter to see the movie Trolls in the park in Morton. It was a late night and it wrapped up around 10:30. The kids loved it, but my daughter as we were packing up to leave and started walking back to the car said the best words of the night without any prompting... "Thank you, Dad, for taking us to the movie tonight." I'm thankful that this was her response. We don't do things like this that often, so when we do she doesn't feel like she's entitled to it. I think she somehow realizes that in how she responded last night. God help my kids to be "thankful people".

It's no longer there. I just looked it up. But, the shaved ice stand in the Hartland shopping center in Lexington, KY was a favorite of mine as a kid. I don't remember the name of the stand. It was just a small stand in the middle of the parking lot with a drive-up window on both sides of the stand. And they had just about any flavor of syrup you could imagine. The two favorites I can remember were Blue Hawaii and Tiger Blood. I would ride my bike over with some change, I don't remember how much they were, and you could pick from 3 styrofoam cup sizes. I think it was our family bike ride last night that made me think of this memory that I haven't thought about for a long time, but it's amazing how some experiences can stick with you so well. I can picture right where that little stand was and remember riding my bike from my parent's house to the stand. I just looked it up to see if it's still there and now there's a coffee stand there called Common G...

Sometimes we start things and (gasp) we don't finish them. Sometimes we start things, finish them, and then never utilize them again. Sometimes we start things and we just keep them going and going. Reading an article around podcasts got me thinking this morning. We started a podcast a few years back. Lined up enough content for about 5 or 6 episodes and that was it. It died. It's still on Google Play, but it hasn't been touched since. We also started a testimonials page about 6 years ago... it's still live, but hasn't been touched since then. We also created a Twitter account for a mobile marketing truck and it hasn't been tweeted from in over a year... I say we because it was me and our marketing team. But, I'm partly responsible for the start and sputter. I think in all of these cases it's hardly a sputter and more of a stop. These things really need to just be done. I don't believe that they were failures, but they helped realize the effo...

Over the last year or so I've started to enjoy the car rides with my co-workers. Especially my boss. Part of it is probably because I typically don't drive, but a lot of it is just the conversations for a few hours... a lot of it about work, but other times just life. I guess my point in this thought is when you have an opportunity to share a ride or drive by yourself choose to ride with someone else. You never know what you'll learn or what it might bring up that you wouldn't have thought about on a solo drive on your own. I've got another drive with my boss today to St. Louis to meet up with our ad agency and promo supplier. Looking forward to the ride time.

I need it. You need it. We all need it. Grace and mercy. Undeserved favor of God and forgiveness though we are deserving of punishment. As I read parts of some of the latest stories within the American church today I think how could these things be? I'm surprised. Yet, God is not surprised. And I think what's to keep anyone in the church from being in similar situations? I'm so thankful for God's grace. And I pray that God would make me humble and not proud. Romans 2:4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (ESV)

I get these feelings of losing control of what I have had control of in the past and it's going to continue to increase as our company grows. We hired someone to do video internally for us, where before I headed it up and outsourced all of it. We're getting ready to hire another person that helps with digital efforts where now I handle or help outsource all of that. And our culture is awesome in the sense of when something is your job, it's your job, and you own it. There's a level of trust, not total just do whatever you want, but a high level of independence that comes with any job. But, it's unsettling to be giving up some of the "jobs" that I've had and handing them over to someone else to do and to help manage someone else. It's also a good sign though that we're growing as a company and investing in more people to do more work to reach more people. I think I can be somewhat of a control freak and like to know what all is going on. Mos...

Two days ago, based off of participation in marketing programs I was feeling pretty defeated and circling around what do we do differently to get people to participate in our programs. Are they not good? Are they too involved? Are they too expensive? Are they not the right ones? Participation was way lower than we had hoped. But, that was the last day of the program and the final results weren't in yet... We got the final results for our program yesterday morning and we actually had our best program ever! Was all of the worry worth it on Monday? No. Except for what helped drive some action on our part to make some more calls potentially and remind people to participate. My boss and I were still a little shocked yesterday at how well the program did after the numbers being so low just the day before. Don't stay down. Get back up.

What good does it do to check how many people are participating in a program before it's over? I guess it depends if you can do anything about or not. I know I'm always curious in the middle of a program or specifically during the last few days, how many people have participated. But, not until the last year or so have I realized there's not a lot of value in doing it if I don't share the information with the sales team which are the ones that can help push if numbers are down. Otherwise, I just watch the numbers and nothing else really can happen. Don't just check and check again. Check and then share what you're seeing.

The other day I stumbled across what my wife said is her new favorite ice cream flavor... and my kids love it and I think it's good too. What is it? Unicorn Swirl from Kroger. It's a cookie batter with blue icing covered animal crackers and it's blue and pink. I have no idea if it's good for you... but, what ice cream really is? Our family gives it two spoons up! We actually bought two more of them. And the funny part is I bought it for our kids not thinking the adults would like it.

What makes a person enjoyable to be around? Why are there certain people we'd much rather hang out with than others? When you get invited to do something with someone else what makes you not even hesitate to say yes? I believe there are a couple things that really make a difference. One is how engaging the person is. Do they ask questions? Or do they just talk about what they want to talk about without engaging others? Second, do they have a breadth of knowledge giving them the ability to talk to just about anyone about something that interests the other person? Third, are they pleasant, positive, enjoyable to talk to? Or are they always pretty negative in their tone? As I think about it number one is asking questions of others you're hanging out with. Two is having that good attitude, tone and three is just having some well-rounded knowledge. I'm sure there's more, but these definitely help in being someone others can enjoy being around. One more I just tho...

My daughter who's now four got her own library card this week and she's super pumped about it. Yesterday she checked out her first library books. And it was really fun watching her get her library card out of her little billfold and hand it to the librarian. I enjoy seeing our kids get excited about little things and want to take ownership of a task or a thing. I see the desire to do things that I and my wife do in our kids even though they're mostly not ready to do them yet.

So, we have an IHG account membership that gives us a free night every year as part of the membership and this is the first year that we're attempting to use the free night. I thought it would be super easy to do, but I've now learned that there are some tricks to using it. For one the further out you can book your hotel the better. They only have so many free night rooms each day at each hotel... so the closer you get to the day the less likely you'll be able to get something. Secondly, the more specific you are in what you are wanting to get the harder it is to find something. For example, we were hoping to find a  suite that would fit our family, with an indoor pool and free breakfast. That's made it even tougher. Lastly, there's really no way to search online for the free night. You have to call in order to find out what's available for this perk and have them book the free night for you. Not the greatest experience IHG. Now that we know all of the rules...

Well, yesterday I had a prior Houston Astros minor league baseball player originally from the Dominican Republic drive me from the Houston airport to my hotel. I could have said the pleasantries and just looked at my phone or stared out the window for the 25-minute ride, but I decided to start asking him some questions. I found out that he was born in the Dominican Republic and was one of probably thousands of kids that trained with hopes to play baseball in the major leagues in the United States. He was a pitcher, but due to a car accident, he injured his arm and was not able to get back into the game after the accident. He still gets tickets to all Houston Astros games for free, but after the accident, he started driving cabs and now drives for Lyft and Uber. All of his family now lives in Houston. I think the most interesting about our conversation was that he spoke mostly Spanish and in order to communicate better with me, he used Google translator. He would speak into Google t...

I'm bad about it. My wife is way better at it. What is it? Keeping that connection with people where you meet up in "real life" with them. For that matter, even the texts or phone calls to friends I don't do a good job with. One of our friends from Peoria now lives in Pheonix and he and his wife are in town for a few days over the 4th of July. My wife has done a great job in coordinating a get-together with them and some of our other friends this morning for a little brunch. If it was up to me I don't know if it would have happened or not. I'm thankful for a wife that is good at staying connected with people and it's something I pray God will keep working on me in to think more about other people and how I can stay connected with them. Not for myself... so I have friends... so much as just because He has worked in me to care more about others than just about me. When I have spare time. I rarely think things like, "Who haven't I talked to...

It's new release Friday and I ran across this great song this morning by JJ Heller. Doing a quick search I couldn't find anything about the story behind this song, but I know this quote from C.S. Lewis and it's part of why this song struck a chord for me this morning. "It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased." - C.S. Lewis And here's the lyrics to the song. I'll just leave at that instead of trying to add anything to it. You Want More For Me I've been thinking about the way my life turned out How nothing's really gone the way I planned How each blind curve, each twist and turn, brought me where I am now And looking back I...

My oldest two kids just saw fireworks for the first time last night. They had never experienced them before and they spent quite a bit of time yesterday talking about going to see them and asking questions about them. They knew they would be loud. They were told they were all kinds of colors. They even watched a video of what they looked like. They knew they would be in the sky. But, they really didn't know what it would be like. They both had ear protection because they were scared it was going to really be loud. Once we got to the park it was quite a while waiting until finally, the first fireworks went off. I had no idea how they'd respond... Their faces lit up with smiles and they just stared. I don't know if it was anywhere close to what they had imagined it would be like, but they now knew from experience what fireworks are really like. We can know a lot anymore about stuff because of the access to information that is around us, but there's still something...

I was just thinking someday it'd be fun to take my kids out at night to see a lot of stars. But, how far away from our place would we have to go to see them well? I found a website called DarkSiteFinder.com that has a map that shows light pollution and it looks like we would have to go about an hour and a half away to get to a decent place to see a lot of stars. Looks like near Macomb, IL. It wouldn't be totally black, but better than right where we live. Looks like we'll have to take a little road trip sometime or use this website when we travel to find some really good spots to see the stars.

This will be the first time in 6 years that my wife and I haven't traveled to Minnesota for the week of the 4th of July. We have typically taken this week off and visited her parents there for the week, but since they live 6 blocks away from us in Illinois that trip will probably not ever happen again. There were a lot of good memories made up there. It's really where I first got to know my wife before we got married. I went up there with some of our friends and her for a long weekend trip. It's also where I first got to know her parents as well and I thought I could see myself enjoying this family. It's where my daughter first got in a pool. It's where I got mono! It's also where I've done more fishing than anywhere else. We're gonna miss those trips.

I've missed them over the past few days. I've gotten up a little later. Not a lot. Maybe one extra hour of sleep, but the time between around 5 and 6 when no one else is typically up yet and all is quiet I really enjoy. This is the time that I read the bible and get some blog writing in as well as do anything else that I can get done while the kids still aren't up yet. I think I've gone the longest stretch without writing that I have since I started and I don't like that I've taken four days off (not on purpose). Over the past four days, one thing that I really enjoyed was working with my daughter on learning to swim. She gained a lot of confidence since taking swim lessons and right now she wants to listen to me give her instructions on how to swim. And she making progress. She's not afraid to stick her head in the water and hold her breath. She almost seems to have a little too much confidence, but I'm not going to complain about that. She trusts...

What if someone asked you to go last minute on a work trip to Germany from the U.S. and you had to make it happen in less than a week? That's what two guys within our product support team did this past spring. The way I understand the story, the two guys were asked if they would go on Friday and I believe they were there in the country working on a planter on Monday the following week. This was all done in order that a grower could see a Precision Planting planter running and potentially make changes to some of his existing fleet for the next planting season. What if our team said, "No."? There would be no story. Even though the storyline isn't finished... we're not to the next planting season yet, the story has been started. The grower saw the dedication our team had to make sure he had the opportunity to see one of our planters running. I also left out that our 2 guys had to locate parts and build the planter in two days in Germany so it was ready to run. ...

We just had a baby 4 weeks ago and I just signed up for an online class for the next year. It's an online course on how to take better photos. And I'm really excited about taking it. But, I'm hoping I can figure out some time to do it regularly. I have a tough enough time having energy once the kids go to bed and there's not a lot of other time to make it happen. Looking forward to seeing how much more I'll learn in the next year with the help of the classes and online community.

"Of course I do." Would be everyone's response, right? Because to say, "I have no friends" is to feel like a total loser. But how do you define a friend? How often are you able to be with them? What do you talk about? I'm not sure that I would say I really do have a friend or friends. I definitely have acquaintances. I even have people that I get together with very regularly as a family. But, an individual that I regularly show up with and can talk about anything with besides my spouse I would have to say no. Why is that? Well... I don't think it's other people's fault I'm sure it's just as much my fault. I've heard it said, "To have a friend you need to be a friend." And I believe there's a lot of truth in that statement. It takes work of following up with someone, showing up and not thinking the other person needs to do all the work. I believe it's also not thinking the other person needs to be someone that t...

I get a few cold calls most days at the office and typically I let them give their initial ask and then I decline and say I'm not interested. Many times it's because the company that chose to do this hired someone who speaks very poor english for an American to understand. The other reason I decline is due to the ask being trying to get our company to sponsor a high school athletic event. In both cases, you may say that's a poor excuse to decline to talk further, but when you get a couple a day and you've declined before you may start to understand why. So, when do I keep the conversation going? Typically it's when I can tell the person on the other end has done their homework and they ask about what I'm doing or what my needs are. They at least seem to genuinely care (whether they do or not) and they've made the call about me, not the ad they want to sell or the email they want to send me. There's a big difference. One call I'm willing to entert...

One thing about having kids is it makes having conversations with neighbors easier, especially if they have kids as well. When our neighbors are out in the front yard our kids always want to go over. Our kids don't usually say a lot, at least not yet, but they just want to see what's going on and it forces me and/or my wife to head over and have a conversation with our neighbors. I'm thankful for this. And my point here is that when your neighbors are out, make an effort to say hi and try to start a conversation. You never know where it might lead. You may get an opportunity to share the gospel. You may become friends. Your kids might become friends. You may be able to help them through a tough time or they may do the same for you. Your neighbors are the closest ones to you in proximity and you have a choice to either get to know them or act as if they aren't there. Which will you choose?

Just ask. The worse thing that can happen when you ask for something is the other person says no. And then you'll at least know they don't agree or that what you're wanting to do may not be possible. But, if you don't ask you'll never know if what you want to do hinges on someone else's approval or permission. Just ask. You might be surprised at the response or it may get you moving in the direction you want to go sooner than being timid and waiting.

I was just thinking about this last night as I thought about the amount of free help we've received from my mother-in-law and my mom over the last month, especially with our new baby. I can't put a price on it and am so thankful for it. I know my wife really appreciates it! So, when I get to the age where my kids are having babies will I help? I know it won't be easy, but I hope I'll remember how hard it can be when your kids are really little and I'll pitch in and want to help as much as I can. Hopefully, I'll look back at this short post and remember what things were like with 3 kids under 5. Thankful for Grandma Jeanne and Glenda.

Last night I rode my bike in Morton for the first time since living here when I was 7. Compared to riding in Lexington, Chicago, and Peoria it definitely has a small town feel. My in-laws rode with me and the kids and we went from our house to the library and back. There were no stop lights and really no traffic and it didn't take long at all. I think we're going to really enjoy living here. It's funny because I don't know that I would have ever pictured myself living back in the town I was born 40 years ago, but here I am and it's good. Thankful for God's sovereign way in my life to bring me to where I am today.

Every day I have a choice. Do I show up and write something on my blog again or I do close up shop and just quit? Sometimes I think to myself, "Why am I doing this?" and "Who reads these anyway?" But, then I think I'm not doing this for others. If this blog ever becomes something people want to go to and read it's not because that's what I set out to do. I started this to show up every day and just become a better writer. And, hopefully, that's happening. I haven't shown up every single day since October, but pretty close. And it's been fun to record in written form (instead of photos only) the things that are going on my life as well as some of what I'm learning. And along the way maybe someone will find something here valuable too.

I tend to be pretty optimistic, thinking I can pick something I've never done up pretty quickly. But, it always takes longer than I think and more time than I think to really master it. I'm working through understanding a new marketing automation platform and it's been kicking my butt. I'm having to memorize all kinds of new things and think through all kinds of if/then scenarios. It's also stretched me even more as far as writing. This new skill has probably taken up 25% of my work days over the last month at least. I believe it will be huge once we get it all implemented. But it's taking a lot of practice.

We've had our third swimming lesson and after the second one, my daughter said no to jumping off the diving board. I wasn't surprised. I figured it would be a while until she decided she would jump. But, yesterday we got there early and I had her and my son just climb up the ladder on the diving board and stand at the back. Then I told Josie, "You can do it." and offered her some fruit snacks if she jumped this time after swim lessons. My son and I both didn't think she would and she told us she wasn't gonna do it. But then her teacher asked her if she wanted to and she said she would and she jumped! It was a proud moment for me. I figured we'd be waiting until the end of swim lessons at least. There's something good about doing things in a group where there's some pressure to perform I believe. To see others doing something and thinking hey maybe I can do that too. I could teach my kids to swim on their own, but I believe at least in the beg...