finite speck

Covid-19 has made a mess of things this year for sure. I've already talked about it some starting back in March and April. I just found out yesterday that the biggest farm show in the United States has been canceled this year. I'm not sure if there will be any summer farm shows that happen this year. With large events like this getting canceled people are getting lots of time back to do something else. Not just the people that might go getting a day back, but what about the people that run events like this? Events this big take months of many people's time. I know there is work that I won't be doing because there is no Farm Progress Show this year. Will the time just get wasted? Will people find other work to do? What about the electricians, caterers, landscapers, and other groundskeepers? There's a lot of lost revenue due to these events being canceled. Then there's the big question of whether companies will see a negative impact in sales because they aren'...

We're almost halfway through 2020! What a year it's been. This was the first year in a while where I set some goals for myself. Unfortunately many of them I still haven't hit yet. Then there are other things that weren't even on my radar that happened. The big one was purchasing a rental property in Gulf Shores with my siblings' families and wife's brother's family. Along with that came learning all kinds of things and we're still learning. Then there's been being quarantined for about 2 months because of COVID-19. With that came working from my in-laws' basement. And this past month there's been a lot of unrest in our nation around the treatment of blacks in our country. And by the end of the year, we will have another presidential election.  Did you have some resolutions for the new year? What were they? How has all that's happened impacted them? Has it made it harder or easier? I know some of the things that were on my list were writin...

As a parent, I'm starting to get better at telling if one of my kids is sick. Yesterday morning Mac woke up and just seemed a little warm. Most of the day he seemed a little off... more fussy than normal. He also had a little goop in his eyes after his naps. So by the time, it was time for bed last night I was already thinking we were going to be up a few times and... I was right. Hopefully, he'll be feeling better this morning.

Yesterday, after we had dinner with my in-laws I got asked to help move a couch and a few other things from my grandmother-in-law's home to my in-law's home. I wasn't planning on doing it yesterday, but we decided we would help and got it done. We could have said no. But we would have missed out on the opportunity to help someone out. Plus, afterward, we went to The Icecream Shack in Peoria which made it all worth it!

I'm learning that a website can be a never-ending work as I build my own and start to see the different areas it can be improved. Thankfully it's fairly simple right now... only 5 pages. Even with only 5 pages, there are things like load time to consider, there's security, there's the way the code is written, there's the size of the images. And I don't have someone that I can just run my website by to examine what I've created from a backend perspective. So, I continue to utilize Google and YouTube as great resources to find other content on how to improve our website.

Our daughter just turned 5 on May 3rd and she could go to kindergarten this year, but we could also hold her back and let her go next year. We were planning to send her, but now with the changes with COVID-19 this year we're thinking we might as well hold off and see how this year goes for others and then have her start next year. I don't think anyone really regrets holding their kid back a year... it's usually the opposite. So, we'll see what we end up doing, but that's our thinking as or late June.

SEO (search engine optimization) is a deep hole with a lot of different facets to it. To summarize it though it's making changes to your website in order to rank higher in search mainly on Google. So you could change your headline words to score higher. You could write more content to create more opportunities to be found. You could link within your website from one article to another article. You could link from your social media accounts to your website. There are also tools out there that can help with SEO as well. Some are expensive and some are fairly cheap or free. Companies like MOZ or SEMrush are just a couple that are fairly inexpensive. This whole exploration of SEO started with some calls from Brightedge another SEO company that's probably one of the more expensive and automatic type options starting at around $70k a year. They seem to have a really good platform and depending on your needs it might be a good option because it doesn't take a lot of time and it...

Does everyone like to be recognized? I think on some level we do. Probably not all in the same way. Some would love for tons of people to applaud them others may just appreciate a note. But I think there's a little bit in all of us that appreciates some words of encouragement. I know I do.  I just received a certificate in the mail yesterday from the parent company I work for. I'm not sure exactly what it means though. It said on it "Above and Beyond Champion". It was sent by one of the VPs of AGCO. I'll have to ask what it's for today at work. It felt pretty good to get that in the mail, but not knowing what it's for or who it's from means a little less. But, I also received 2 texts from my brother-in-laws last night and this morning saying that the website I just built for our vacation rental property "looks fantastic" and "looks so good". Those probably mean just as much as the certificate knowing it came from them. When you have...

What do you show a customer first? What do you show them second? What is the first thing you say? It matters. Have you thought about it like this? I believe there is an order to things and if you can figure out the best things to place in that order first you'll drive more sales from your customers.  For example, if you're creating a website don't put the main driver of sales or conversation with a customer way at the bottom of your homepage or for that matter on a secondary page. Put what you want you offer right upfront. Don't make them work hard. Make it easy.

If it wasn't for my dad... I would not have invested in stocks in high school. I would not have started working at Precision Planting. I would not have taken some really fun vacations as a kid. I would not have learned how to work hard and make money. I would not have learned how to open up a bank account. I would not have bought my first house when I did. I would not have bought my first car when I did. I would not have done the sports I did. I would not have gotten to experience our dog having puppies. I would not have gone to England. I would not be living in Morton, IL. I would not be the hard worker that I am. I would not be the detailed person that I am. I would not have the education that I have. I would not be in the financial situation that I am. I would not value the church as I do. I would not value our country and politics as I do. I'm thankful for my dad and the many things I am, have and do because he's my dad.

What is it with most homes? It seems like every house has a little stack of bricks somewhere inside or outside. It's usually not very many. Maybe 6 to 12. My father-in-law made the comment about it yesterday pointing to a small stack in my neighbor's yard and I had to think he's right. I have no idea why we hold on to them after a home is built. What are we going to do with them? Why can't we throw them away? What can you really do with a few bricks? I don't know that we'll ever know. I'm not going to even bother asking Google because I doubt there's a good answer. It's just an interesting observation.

My nephew broke his Nintendo Switch the other day and I got to fix it. Somehow it fell at his grandparents and the one side broke off and was dangling by some wires. After fiddling around with it for a while I was able to figure out how to get it apart and get the wires connected again. It actually wasn't that hard, but my nephew was so happy that I was able to get it fixed for him. It would have probably been a long next week without it. It was cute to see my nephew who is probably 10 get really thankful all of a sudden because I was able to get his Nintendo Switch fixed. I'd say it felt pretty good to help him out as well and get it to work.

Our youngest kid just turned one last month and he's not walking yet. He's taking more attempts though over the last week trying to walk back and forth between people. He's probably taken about 3 or 4 steps and then he's down. It's so fun to watch him because he gets so excited. Once he gets to the other person we all cheer and he starts clapping, falls, and has the biggest smile on his face while his feet are going crazy. I'd say I'll be writing another post really soon saying Mac is walking.

What kind of things get you excited? I really enjoy learning new skills. I like seeing something that I've never done before and mastering it. For example, I've realized that it's now very possible to create a good website by myself. Not a huge corporate website, but a basic website. There are enough tools out there that take some mastery and skill and use the design capabilities I already have that I can do it. So I'm working on making it happen for our vacation rental property. I also enjoy creating things. Starting from a blank sheet and ending with a finished product. Seeing print ads in a magazine. Seeing social media posts posted by one of our dealers. Seeing signage out as I'm driving. I enjoy seeing something I created or helped create make it out into the world and others believe it's good enough to use to promote their business. These are just a couple things that get me excited.

How many things do you rely on every day? That the faucet has water coming out of it. That the coffee maker works. That the computer turns on. That the light switch turns on the light. That the car starts. That the watch tells times. That the shower works. That the refrigerator stays cold. That the microwave heats things up. That the dishwasher cleans the dishes. That the door lock locks or unlocks. That the phone works. That all the batteries that power things are charged. That the toaster works. That all the kitchen appliances work. That the TV turns on. That the speakers work. That the people that you work with, for, or rely on show up. That the... There are a ton of things and people that we rely on every day. This is just what popped in my head over a few minutes. What happens if they don't work? Are you thankful that they do? There's a ton of things that work every day that we just take for granted. Let's choose to be thankful when things just work. We rely on a lot.

I spent a lot of time outside this weekend with my kids. Yesterday we were outside almost the entire day. We rode bikes, played in a kiddie pool, swung on swings, read books outside, ate snacks outside, talked to neighbors outside... I did very little as far as projects and just spent time with the kids.  My wife on the other hand organized tubs and tubs of kids' clothes a lot of the weekend. We've got a lot of hand-me-downs from friends and family. It was time to go through what fits and doesn't fit. It may not sound like much but it's a lot of work. Plus, you've got clothes that say one size, but it's obvious they're bigger or smaller than the size they say. She went through all of the tubs, so we can get rid of clothes that are too small and use the clothes that are the right size for our kids now! So thankful for my wife this morning as I think about this past weekend and all she did while I was with the kids.

The #coffeedadshuffle made famous by Ben Rector, gave us some entertainment over about a week last month. I thought it was an ingenious way to drive excitement around a new song. Ben Rector, a music artist, challenged people to create a music video showcasing their coffee dad shuffle and submit via social media. There weren't really any rules other than try to use sunglasses, a coffee mug, a robe, slippers, headphones, and a microphone and do your dance.  He had over 100 videos submitted and some of them were amazing. Plus, he then had all these people like us watching them with his new song as part of them. Nice work Ben. Way to come up with a great way to share your work and get others to be part of it even during COVID-19!

I heard a good analogy about what burning a bridge looks like when it happens. When you burn a bridge with someone you ruin the relationship where there's no communication or trust and therefore that bridge, or person, is out. You can't use the bridge anymore. It's not just the person, but all the resources and other people that are on the other side of that bridge that you no longer have access to. It's like there's an island that there's no way to access anymore. There's resources, people, information that's on that island, and the bridge it out. So don't burn bridges. If you have burned a bridge with someone try to repair it. Open that communication back up. Ask yourself how it happened. Can it be repaired?

I'm working on building a website and I chose to use WordPress as the platform to build with because so many people use it and it's free. But, I didn't do my homework to realize there are 2 ways to go about doing this. There's WordPress.com and there's WordPress.org. .com is paying for different tiers of the product and was actually kind of hard to use, compared to .org which is totally free. You just have to pay for the hosting and domain name with .org. I've been a little frustrated with the whole process because I probably would have already had a website built if I had gone about it the right way from the beginning. So how did I even realize this? YouTube. I started searching YouTube for how to build a website and ran across Tyler who basically walks you through how to build a website from scratch using WordPress. But it still wasn't obvious that there was a .org and .com until I did some more online searching and realized there are two different WordPre...

There's a gigantic storehouse of stuff to fill your mind with today, but your brain can only process so much. You also most likely have a job to do and maybe a family to take care of so that also limits the amount of time you have. When you think about it though there is so much out there, some really good and some really bad. You have the endless scroll of Facebook, there are more videos than I'll ever watch in my lifetime on YouTube, not to mention other services like Netflix or Amazon. There's the search bar of Google or whatever your flavor of internet search. You could read a book or find anything to read that you don't have at home or at the library through a Kindle. There are magazines, newspapers, oh and then there's the news on TV or online. Plus, the endless array of apps to do just about anything with on your device. There's a lot of choices out there for learning and being entertained. Are you entertaining your life away? Or are you using these thing...

I did some Googling and YouTubing yesterday around building a WordPress website and they really make it look easy and the websites look awesome. But, I can't figure out some of the steps. Maybe it's because the videos are older and WordPress has changed some. Maybe it's because I didn't purchase my domain name in the same way they did. But it feels like there are extra costs for add-ons that they are using. One of the big buzz words that I kept running across is Elementor, the #1 Free WordPress Builder. But it seems like there's still a cost to using it. As I dig more into website building though it feels like it has become a designers game with these tools. Gone are the days that you have to now to code. As long as you have good design sense, can write, and now how to use design tools you can design a killer website. There are a few things that you have to get right from the beginning on WordPress and that might be part of where I started out wrong, but once those ...

Why borrow when you can buy right? But wait doesn't it depend on what it is? How many times are you going to use that tool after you buy it for that project? Twice? A lot of it comes down to convenience and not having to ask someone else for help. Not everyone is like me, but I'd rather not have to ask for help. But there's nothing wrong with asking for help and borrowing from someone or letting someone borrow from you as long as you give it back obviously. The biggest challenge is knowing who might have what you need. I'm not sure how to know other than to ask. Even asking is a good part of this whole process because it encourages conversation with others and builds relationship. Hey, the person might not have what you need but you've started a conversation and maybe they'll feel comfortable asking you for something as well. My point in this ramble here is that we buy a lot of stuff that we don't use that much for one-off projects and we could save that mon...

God is gracious. There are so many little things that happen that I just take for granted. We went to church outside yesterday at Grace in Morton and wondered how it would go with social distancing, wearing masks, and staying apart. When we sat down in our spot the family that ended up coming in right after us and sitting next to us was a family that had been at our old church. It was just nice for my wife and me to see a familiar face there since we don't know a lot of people at Grace. I thought afterward about it and mentioned it to Brittany that God is so gracious. I know it's little and it doesn't mean we're better than anyone else, but God didn't have to sit us right next to someone we knew. Why did he do that? I believe God does things because he loves to see us rejoice in Him. He doesn't do it so we can say look at me... how great I am. Not that God needs our praise, but he rejoices when we see His sovereignty and we choose to acknowledge His goodness. Th...

Today will be the first day we're able to go back to church and it will be an outside service. We're bringing our own chairs and blankets. It starts at 9 AM this morning and we're going to Grace Church in Morton instead of Bethany in Edwards. We weren't planning on making a switch of churches necessarily right now, but with our little kids and it being outside and Bethany being a lot further away, this seemed like a good time to go to Grace. I'm sure there's part of this that will be hard with not being able to get close to people or maybe meet people, but just gathering together as a larger group instead of our family at home watching a sermon on TV will be good.

I am so thankful that where we moved to last year there are young families that have kids close in age to our kids. We have neighbors right across from us with 2 girls and our daughter is really starting to love playing with them. Whenever they're outside she wants to go out and play with them and we heard last night that they're girls are the same way. Whenever they see our kids outside they want to go outside too. It's just been fun to have neighbors that get outside and want to talk. I'm thankful for the neighborhood we live in.

This just popped in my head last night as I was brushing my teeth and I think the story is relevant for what is going on right now. Using a kids book is not an attempt to make light of the situation, but to simplify it. There is no "machine" that is going to fix the mess we're in... the mess is because of sin and the only answer is Jesus. "The Sneetches" by Dr. Seuss Now, the Star-Belly Sneetches Had bellies with stars. The Plain-Belly Sneetches Had none upon thars. Those stars weren't so big.  They were really so small You might think such a thing wouldn't matter at all. But, because they had stars, all the Star-Belly Sneetches Would brag, "We're the best kind of Sneetch on the Beaches." With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they'd snort "We'll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!" And whenever they met some, when they were out walking, They'd hike right on past them without even talking. When th...

I've written about this a few times I know. Some mornings I sit and stare at a blank screen for a while. It would be really easy to check my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, email, or something else to distract me from the blinking cursor. But I typically don't. I sit and think and wait for something to write about for the morning. I have my own deadline each morning to have written something on my blog and I've been doing it for a year and a half now. It started as a way to get better at writing for myself and I hope that I'm making progress, but it's become a habit that I do enjoy. I don't remember really liking English or Language Arts classes in school. I wish I took more interest in them. I enjoyed writing some, but I didn't really like the rules part of grammar.

I just needed to put that question out there for myself this morning to get myself started writing. "Is there anything too big for God?" God said to Abraham, "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" in Genesis 18. God also said to Jeremiah, "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?" These were in reference to very different things. But in both instances there was sin involved too. Sarah didn't believe God that she would have a son when she was old, but she did end up having Isaac. In Jeremiah there's was rampant sin in Israel and God handed them over to Babylon to be captured. Those are two specific examples that use that same text, but I think the Bible is full of examples where God shows that nothing is too hard for Him. He floods the entire earth because of sin, yet saves a remnant that is faithful. God sends plagues on Egypt and frees Israel and there remains a remnant of people again. God keeps people from being bu...

My daughter has gotten really excited about running with her mom over the last two days. It's kind of fun to hear it from my wife's perspective. She said Josie just loves it and talks the entire run around the block. Josie only stopped once the first time they did it to tie her shoes. I think Josie wants to run every day with Brittany now... she's motivated. It's been fun already this spring to see some of the little things our kids get excited about. You just never know what they'll be. Riding bikes has been a big one for both Baer and Josie. Also, helping out in the yard is something they enjoy along with playing a little ball in the yard. I need to keep thinking of things to do with the kids over the summer that they can look forward too.

I'm back in the office this morning. It's 7:44 AM. It's fairly quiet, but there's a lot of things that are different. There's hand sanitizer stations, cleaning areas, plexiglass, signs for handwashing, and no tables in the lunch area. There's toe pulls for the doors and many doors are left open. I know we'll get back to more normal, but I haven't been in the office for about 2 months and it's gonna take some getting used to. I just thought I'd write a few things down this morning about it to remember it. I'm not saying of the changes are bad... just different. I'm actually thankful for those that work here that have put effort and time into figuring out how to best take care of our employees. It's also going to be different not seeing my father-in-law every day or going home for lunch and seeing my kids then. I'll miss those things. I'll miss biking and walking to work. Here goes day one back in the office.

Getting around 7 hours of sleep the night before. Being the first one up. (It's tough for me when a kid wakes me up and they're up at the same time as me. That's what happened this morning.) Having a cup of coffee. Having a morning routine. Sitting on the couch with a blanket over me and my computer. Reading the Bible. Reading a blog article. Writing my blog. Having a bowl of oatmeal. (or oit-meal as Josie would say) Having about an hour of quiet really helps me get ready for the day. Even though most mornings this happens, not every morning do I get myself up early enough or my kids might get up early. When that happens sometimes it's tough to have a good attitude for me. I get impatient quick and lose my cool. It reminds me of how imperfect I am and how much I need Christ. I'm not saying that all of the above things make me good or even make my day good. Christ is what makes me good. I'm able to enjoy the things I listed out above because of how God made me. B...

What are the 3 things you need to focus on today? You may have more things and that's fine, but list out the top 3 things. Now give yourself no more than 1 hour to 90 minutes to work on each one of them. And mark them off when you're done. Give yourself time to do other things like check email outside of these 3 things. But try to give uninterrupted time to the 3 things individually once you start working on one of them. You'll also notice that this is only 3 to 4 and a half hours of your workday. That's right. The rest is for smaller tasks, phone calls, emails, conversations, and meetings. I didn't come up with this and won't claim it will work for everybody, but I've found it helpful to focus each day. I'm not sure where it originated from I picked it up from a webinar over the last 2 months.

I started working remotely on March 16th because of COVID-19 and today is May 29th. Over 2 whole months working from my in-laws' basement. I will be going back to working from the office on Monday next week. And it's kind of bittersweet. I've enjoyed working at my in-laws' place. It's been nice to see my kids and wife over lunch. Walking or riding my bike to work has been nice too. I'm going to miss it. The hardest part of this as far as work is concerned has just been feeling out of the loop with my co-workers. Having only a call or two some times a week has made it difficult to know what's going on. What my priorities should be. So I look forward to hopefully more communication. It's definitely been simpler working remotely as well. No major concerns about wiping things down. Or being too close to someone else. Or wearing a mask. I will miss some of that as well. So thanks Tim and Jeanne for letting me work from your basement for over 2 months! You are...

Sometimes I think it's not fair. How do some of these people have thousands of followers and get so many comments, likes, and shares? It's actually kind of blows my mind... even though some, probably many, are putting some money behind their posts as well, which helps. But I believe a lot of what makes a social account grow is consistently showing up, regularly, not when you feel like it, but as much as possible. Knowing that some of your posts are going to be duds. But to keep posting... to not look at the numbers and to respond to people as they interact with you. I've started an account for our vacation rental property in Gulf Shores and it's felt like a slow go, but there have been little spikes in there, which encourages me. Instagram has been tougher for me than Facebook. Facebook got a good boost for us by our individual followers liking our page. I'm going to continue slugging it out adding a few followers at a time on Instagram and Facebook and hopefully, t...

Do you ever get stuck in the middle of something? A project, something your writing, a conversation,... anyway your stuck. One thing to do is just sit there and keep mulling over the issue to get to your end result. The other thing to do is think "what if" the end result was something different? It may not always be helpful, but I think sometimes in problem-solving we get so stuck on what we think the end should be that we forget that there are other possible ends as well. This is a really bad example probably, but maybe you don't have any butter for your toast. One solution would be to find something else to put on your toast, but another could be to eat something totally different. Or maybe you go out to eat. Yeah, that's a really bad example. But I still think the "what if" is a great way to get yourself out of a stuck situation like writer's block or a project that's just not going much of anywhere. What if things weren't like what they seeme...

Yesterday we went to the Giant Goose Ranch with Chad and Julie for a couple hours to fish with the kids. We helped the kids fish for a little while and then went over to where they have some horses, goats, pigs, and chickens. And the kids got to the feed them... well some of them were brave enough to, including Baer. Baer was giving handfuls to the goats and pigs. All of a sudden he pulled his hand away quickly from one of the pigs and he had some teeth marks on his hands. He got bit by a pig! But the craziest thing is he didn't cry about it either. And it didn't keep him from feeding the animals anymore. He kept feeding them, he just didn't feed those pigs though. It's funny because he can be tough, but then he can other times just fall apart. Like when someone takes a toy he's been playing with. His lip goes down, eyes shut, and it's a "tear city".

This weekend has been so good. Yesterday was really restful. We took our kids to a friend's grandparents' pool for a few hours. Had church at the barn where we've been staying. For lunch, we had Home Run Inn pizza, which was delicious and we picked up Gil's fried chicken for dinner. We played some games last night, while the kids watched some movies. Oh and a few horses showed up in the afternoon and Josie got to ride a horse for a few minutes. It's just been really relaxing and good for our family during this time when we've been in our home a lot to be able to get out and spend time with my sister's family. It's also been fun to see my two older kids playing with my sister's kids. I hope we can keep doing this especially while the weather is nice.

Yesterday was so nice. Our family enjoyed it out here at my sister's. We took a walk down their lane in the morning before it got hot. The kids played on a slip 'n slide. We went down to their creek and stuck our feet in. Our kids played a ton with their cousins. It was really a pretty relaxing day. We sat on the porch swing. I help my brother-in-law build a little rock wall in their landscaping. And we ended the day by watching "Call of the Wild" and a campfire with S'mores. And now I'm up for another day. The sun just peaked over the trees. There's a mist blanketing the valley. I have to squint just a little to take it all in. There are all kinds of wildlife noises. It's good.

Ah. Just getting away for a couple days is so nice... Even if on a Saturday morning all of your kids woke up at 5:30 AM and they usually sleep in until 7! It's just good to get a change when everything has been the same for the last few months. We were able to stay at my sister and brother-in-law's place in their renovated barn for the weekend. It's peaceful (even with kids already up). It's in the middle of a valley, surrounded by trees. And my son and I just went outside, so I'm sitting on a deck watching the sun come up. Listening to all the birds chirping. It's gonna be a nice weekend. And we just looked at the weather and it doesn't look like we're gonna get as much rain as they initially said!

It's not broke. I've used it over 513 times without fail and people can view everything I write. I'm talking about my blog on Blogger. It's kind of funny that I would write this on the service that I'm currently using thinking about whether I should switch to a different service. I really have no complaints. It works great. But you always wonder is there a better one? It's not like I have a huge following, but I also don't want whatever blogger service I'm using to go away. It seems like other ones are out there that have more popularity and more staying power. I may ask on my social feeds what the most popular/recommended one would be for others. Knowing that I don't want to pay a bunch for the service and I want it to be reliable. Should I switch? Well, for now, I'll stay, but we'll see what happens as I learn more.

Do you care about your customer? No. Do you really care about your customer? Or are you only in it to make more money? Are you trying to help them? Or do you just want them to buy? This thinking about what you do as an employee for your customer from top to bottom of the company needs to be about helping them. I understand that there may be some really hard things financially going on right now and you do have to make money, but if how you're making money is not helping anyone it's really just taking money. Maybe you haven't even thought about it before. How are you helping people with what you do? Are you serving others or are you just wanting to be served? My challenge today is to choose to serve your customer.

I'm still struggling to get up as early as I would like to... although I'm still up before my kids. And there's something about the early morning quiet that's so peaceful. To get up and make a cup of coffee. Grab a blanket. Open my computer and read God's word, read a blog, write my blog, and check email. This morning it must be sprinkling outside because I can hear a slight trickle in the downspout. Everything is really green out the window. There's a faint glow from one lamp on in the living room. My wife is on the other couch doing her bible study. This is why I enjoy getting up early. It's time to think. Before lots of things start happening. Before 3 kids are up. Before I'm thinking about what work needs to happen today. It's time to pray. It's time to prioritize the important things of the day if I get that far. I enjoy the quiet of the morning.

Since working from home started for me (well working from my in-laws') I've been having lunch with my family. Instead of 1 meal during the week, I'm having lunch and dinner. It's been good. It gives my wife a little break with the kids and I have another chance to be everyone.  It may be something that I try to keep up even after I go back to the office. Maybe every other week though instead of every day. There's something about being together with your kids over a meal that's good. Even if you don't all eat at exactly the same time. Even if it's a little hectic. It's just good. I would encourage you to do it if you don't eat together.

When I struggle to know what to write in the morning a post about thankfulness is always a good go-to. Today I'm thankful there are still groceries in the store. I'm thankful for a healthy family. I'm thankful we can listen to God's word online and read our bibles. I'm thankful for a restful sleep last night in a bed in a home. I'm thankful for family close by. I'm thankful for a job where I can continue to work. I'm thankful for ways that we can communicate with others that we can't see right now. I'm thankful that it is warming up outside. I'm thankful for music that we can listen to. I'm thankful for a computer that works and a phone that works. I'm thankful for a mower that works (see my post from yesterday). I'm thankful for good neighbors.

Yesterday I decided to get my yard mowed early before all the kids were even up. The grass was wet and after mowing just a little bit the mower started making some loud sounds and so I stopped it. Then I tried to start it back up again and I couldn't get pull the pull cord at all. I tried a few times. Then I tried to look things over like I knew what could possibly be the problem. After no luck, I called my in-laws' to borrow their mower. Later on, I asked my neighbor across the street to take a look and he was able to get the blade to move and get it to start once. Then it wouldn't pull again. A little later in the day, I was able to then get it to start myself too... I have no idea what's going on with my mower. Sometimes it starts and sometimes it doesn't. I guess the next time I need to mow I'll see if it starts or not.

10 years from now when I'm 51 what will I be doing? Will I still be living in Morton, IL? I plan to be. But I guess I don't know for sure. Will I still be working at Precision Planting? I hope so. 10 years from now my oldest will be a 9th grader... whoah! And my baby will be a 5th grader. I wonder how many games and what kind I'll have gone and watched my kids play at. Will I have more aches and pains? Will I pick up some new hobbies? Will I still be writing a blog every day? If so I'll have written over 4,000 posts! How active will I be in the community? Will social distancing be a thing anymore? Will we have any more pandemics? Will we make some new friends in Morton? Will we purchase any more rental properties in Gulf Shores and how will our current property do down there for the next 10 years? Will we have it all paid off? What will my kids be like in 10 years? Will I still be close to them? I hope so. 10 years from now Josie will be 15, Baer will be 13,...

Yesterday was my birthday and I received a lot of messages on Facebook, a few emails, and text messages. There's something about getting messages from people you haven't heard from in a while on your birthday that's fun. And this year with COVID-19 it felt a little more special. So, I tried to also reply back to everyone that wished me Happy Birthday with a note as well. Some people I hadn't heard from in a year or so.

We're 5 months into 2020 and the last 2 have been totally different than we expected with COVID-19. How are things going? Did you have some plans for the year? How are you doing with them? I made some plans and it was good to go back and look at them today because I've got a ways to go. I think it might be good for me to just set some shorter goals than the bigger ones I started with. For one I need to read another book this month. And for another, I need to tackle organizing the cluttered side of our basement before the end of this month. The other things written down were; finalize a family mission statement, regular workouts, bible study with my wife, and write a kids' book. It's easy to get frustrated when looking at these things as I haven't spent much time on them lately at all, but there's still time. I'm gonna do it.

My older two kids helped me plant grass last night from about 7 to 9ish. And they stayed with me the whole time. That may not seem like a big deal, but they're 5 and 3. They were into it and kept asking, "What can we do next?" They wanted to do it all. Getting the ground ready. Spreading the seed. And putting dirt down. When we were done I told my wife they worked their butts off and my kids looked at me like I was crazy. They said, "We still have our butts!" I think they're gonna like using that phrase.

My family and 3 other families purchased an 8 bedroom home in Gulf Shores about 2 months ago now and we've been booked every week since we put it up for rent. Which is awesome. But I'm curious now about what type of people are renting our place. Who the decision-makers are. My brother-in-law who is doing the bookings said he's not seeing a trend yet, which is a little hard for me to believe, but it may be too early. My guess is that those that are heavily influencing the decision are women that are moms or grandmas. It's a hunch, not a fact. But looking at those that are following us on Facebook it's heavily older women and not many men. This is just a curious thought for the day... maybe by next year, we'll have a better idea.

I'm over halfway to 80 now. The average life expectancy for a male in the U.S. is 78.5 years. So I'm over halfway home. But, am I living like it? I'm not talking about did I accomplish some great task. Or earn a bunch of money. I'm asking myself the question at the end of each day what was my life about? If I only have another 40 years to live what am I spending my time on? Typically it's a lot of tasks, stuff, myself, what I want. How much time do I spend thinking about my kids and my wife? What should I be teaching them? What about my neighbors? Am I sharing the good news of Jesus with them? Or am I focused on work? Am I wasting time? God, today, help me to be more concerned about others than myself. Help me to think about how my family can serve you and others better and more. Help us to be more generous with what you've given us. Let us not be hoarders of what you've given us, both materially and spiritually.

Yesterday I did a bunch of tree trimming in the front and back yard until I had a huge pile of branches in the driveway. I might have gone a little overboard. But I'm thankful for help once I got to that point. I called up my boss to borrow his trailer to haul it all away and that worked out great. I also called up my father-in-law to help cut up branches with his chain saw and he was willing to help out with that. It was a full morning of working in the yard, but we got it done. My oldest 2 kids helped out too, carrying branches to the driveway and then loading them up on the trailer. I always enjoy having a couple jobs like that and getting them totally knocked out. Oh, and the best part was in Morton this was the last weekend to be able to haul away yard waste to the dump.

How do you decide what to do on Saturday? Do you spend time with the family? Do you work in the yard? Do you help someone out? Do you veg out all day? Today I'm hoping to get some yard work done outside and spend some time with the kids. But there's plenty of things to do inside as well. But there are only so many hours in the day. And our youngest just woke up... we'll see what the day brings.

Today marks 500 posts written on my blog. It's kind of hard for me to believe. Starting this blog I knew things like this would be possible, but I also knew it wasn't going to start on the first day. It was going to be a long daily grind of continuing to write every day. Some days it's hard to think of what to write, and other days it's really easy. A lot of times I look at the stats on my blog and they're nothing to write about. I didn't start this blog for anyone else except to get better at writing. I'm actually surprised at the number of people that do read what I write. I guess today's post is more of an encouragement to anyone who might be considering a blog, a podcast, something where you show up regularly. Do it and keep doing it. With consistency, you'll end up creating a lot and learning a lot.

Yesterday was a rough day. You get them when you're mostly isolated from other people and you don't know when things will change. It's hard to also know what sources to trust. But, I got a note yesterday in the mail from my boss at the end of the day. It was encouraging. Saying hey I don't know when things will get back to normal, but thanks for doing what you're doing to help our company. Keep it up. Also, a text from our pastor asking, "How can I pray for you today?" came yesterday. These little things brighten my day. Today, somehow send a simple note to someone.

I didn't know it was going to happen today, but the software I use for writing my blog got updated today. It all feels new. Cleaner icons. Maybe a slightly different color. But at the same time, it's mostly the same.  Nice job Google updating Blogger and not doing in a way where it's hard to figure anything out. I just started a new post and I'm off to the races. This is how updates should be. Don't change everything up. Slight improvements with the ability to go back if a customer wants to. I also tried Facebook's new update last week. Although it was super clean and simplified. They have so many different parts to their app that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to find things so I went back to the classic version. I used to always be ready for the latest software release, but depending on what I'm using it for anymore I may wait a while. I need to update to the newest Mac OS, Catalina, for my computer as well, but I've been dragging my feet because ...

It probably takes me 20 minutes to mow our yard... 30 max. So what do I think about during that time? Sometimes I'll listen to a podcast, but I haven't lately. And I can't tell you what I usually think about while I mow. It seems like a lot of times I'm looking at the yard and thinking about things I can't do anything about at the amount. Like hoping that the weed killer I put down kills everything that I'm seeing. Hoping the grass is going to come in thicker this year. Thinking about the mulching that should happen. Or the tree trimming that I should probably do. And then it's over. Then I think about similar things the next week as I mow. What if I just tried to focus on something else other than the yard while I mow? Pray for my family. Make some plans for what we should do with the kids that evening instead of adding more things to my yard to-do-list. Or I could just start listening to podcasts again.

Are you happier if you get brand new things versus used things? Would you ever give your kids used toys for their birthday? What if they were your olds toys? We have. I'm not sure how much longer we'll do it. Our oldest just turned 5 and we gave her some doll clothes that were my wife's as a kid along with an unopened Barbie from when she was a kid as well. And we gave her some play furniture that was also my wife's. I don't think that she was any less happy about her gifts than she would have been if we had spent a bunch of money on her gifts for her birthday this year. Now when she turns 10 we probably won't be trying to repurpose gifts from my wife's childhood still, but for now and for how short of time they usually play with toys I think it's ok. I think I may have written a post before about this because if it was up to me I probably would go out and by new. But why?

5 years ago today we weren't sure what was going to happen. Our first baby was taken from us and quickly brought to the NICU. She had ingested meconium into her lungs and they weren't sure how she was going to do. We're glad that we made it through that and that she's healthy and doing well. It's hard to believe that was 5 years ago. This morning she made breakfast all by herself. Josie is a very determined woman when she puts her mind to something. She learned to ride a bike in a day. She was potty-trained before she turned 2. She's also becoming a good artist. She's also our little mom to the boys. She likes to make sure they know what mom and dad would want them to do. We love you Josie and I hope you have a Happy 5th Birthday today!

It's tough to stay motivated when you don't see any of your co-workers. What should you work on today? The days run together. There are tons of distractions even if you stay at your desk. You can check your email. Your social media. Google something. How do you stay focused? Two things have started helping me that I picked up off of some webinars. Only check email twice a day for a block of 30 minutes each and stay focused on answering emails and filing away quickly. Secondly, pick 3 things to focus on for the day. Write down the thing and what you need to do to accomplish it along with how much time it will take you to do it. Set a timer when you start each one and give yourself that much time of interrupted work time. I really like this idea as it helps me stay focused and have goals for the day versus working from my email.

You don't hear that a lot. We hear a lot more of you can do anything. What I mean is we all only have so much time each day. At some point, you have to go to bed. We all have to take breaks at some point to eat. There is only so much each person can accomplish in a day. Whatever that means to you. Tasks or interactions with others. I've been challenged lately to try to focus on a few things each day instead of trying to look at everything that I may think should be done. Do those few things really well and then focus on the few things for tomorrow. Our brains get tired at some point each day so focus on the things that really matter. What are they? Write them down. Do them. Review how it went. Try again the next day. And one other thing in all of this. Ask God for help. How do you really know what the best things to focus on are? This is just as much for myself as it is for anyone who might read this. Ask Him.

Most of the time my posts are fairly upbeat or flat I think. Like photos and videos, people post to show things are going well. Well, last night had some rough spots. One of my kids spilled a whole glass of milk right before we sat down to eat. Stop. What's your response? I'm actually curious how that hits you. Does it cause frustration? Would you raise your voice at them? Would you be compassionate and say it's alright because it's not like the did it on purpose? As you can imagine based on how I started this post my response was not pretty. It was ugly. And my wife has a hard time knowing how to confront me in those moments. And these moments happen more than I'd like to admit. I do realize it and I know I need God's help to step back and not get angry about things and instead have compassion, help clean up, and talk in a normal tone. This is tough for me. But I know it's possible because of Christ working in me. I'm writing this post to help me ...

I texted Tom yesterday. Our next-door neighbor in Gulf Shores. And within minutes I got a phone call. He's probably around my parents' age and instead of just texting me back he wanted to give me a call. I simply asked him how it was going down there with our renters so far and he could have replied it's going pretty good or something short and sweet. But, he gave me a call and talked for about 10 minutes filling me in on how great they have been. He said, "I don't know where you're finding these people or how you're deciding who to rent to, but they have been great people so far. We are so thankful." He said they've introduced themselves to every family that's stayed there so far and they've really enjoyed getting know them. He did mention that we had a mechanical failure (our dryer) went out he was told by one of the renters. But it's great to know we have someone down there that's watching what's going on at our property!...

It took me and my wife bribing my son first with the promise of a couple bites of chocolate to get him to try. But what put him over the edge was the cheers of the neighbor girls. Our 3-year-old son learned to ride a bike last night! It took more work with him than it did with our 5-year-old a couple weeks ago because Baer didn't really know how to pedal. But, once he started getting the hang of it and once he knew the neighbor girls were watching he was all in and he started riding his bike. It's been interesting to watch the motivations of our two oldest. Josie got in her mind she was going to ride a bike and she did it. No coaxing from us at all. Baer on the other hand needing a lot of persuading, bribing, and cheering. I noticed he said, "I can't do it." I lot through the process of teaching him to ride. But he could and he did. Another big thank you to some other neighbors of ours, Ben and Sarah, for giving us the bike that both Josie and Baer have now ...

It's just stuff, right? My daughter said this last night, "God is more important than things." It was in response to my mother-in-law's family feud around all the stuff that they have to divvy up. It's been over a year since they started and it's been extremely emotionally charged. Many things have been said among the siblings about each other and who gets what. Some are upset that others don't value some things as much as they do or want them. Some think some have taken too much stuff. Some feel like they don't get anything. Some think it's not fair. Some just want it all done. All these things are important to all of them for different reasons. And they're not the only ones that value stuff. I do. My kids do. My wife does. Not everything, but there are things that we place value on. But, my wife and I want to work to instill in our kids that people and God are way more important than things. I find myself saying things like, "Don...

I remember as a kid loving them, but as an adult, not so much. But about every 6 months or so I say it's time to pull out the inflatable mattresses and let the older kids sleep in a tent, the basement, or the family room with me. They love it! Usually, it's a day of excitement for them where they can hardly contain themselves. For me, well I need to learn to enjoy their excitement and channel that energy into more than something that annoys me. I should be glad their excited... that I came up with something that they enjoy. We watched a movie, had sherbert, and then told silly stories for a little bit. It always takes a bit for them to wind down. Then they are out... and I usually am able to sleep for a while on those mattresses and then I'm usually awake, not able to sleep well. But I made it through another one and 6 months or less from now we'll probably do it again. Hopefully this next time I can better enjoy the moments leading up to it as their excitement bu...

So you're married, you have little kids, you're both in bands that are touring, and COVID-19 hits. What do you do? You keep showing up every night with a cover from your kitchen instead of with your band from the stage. You use the tools you have like Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook to share the music you and your wife recorded in your kitchen. You play live shows from your home to your fans via social media. And then you release multiple albums from these kitchen covers to your fan base. At least that's what Drew and Ellie Holcomb have done. Way to make something out of the hard situation this pandemic has brought the music industry. Thanks for showing up every night. Our oldest 2 kids (4 and 3) ask if they can watch the newest kitchen cover every night now before bed. You can check them out here or find them on most social media channels.

So I write this blog post just about every morning. It's one of the ways I start my day and I enjoy it. It helps get my brain going. It's my best time to write. I could write a bunch of posts all at once and then schedule them out ahead of time. It might be more efficient, but I like the idea of writing every day and there's always something from the previous day that comes to mind that I can write about. I've also started handling social media for our vacation rental property and throwing that in as part of the morning routine, but being consistent with it has been challenging. Because it involves images, text, hashtags, etc. there's more to it and to do it on a whim in the morning has been a challenge. So I've started scheduling them out on Facebook and I've found some tools for scheduling on Instagram as well that I'm going to look into which allow me to already have the posts ready to go and then the posts just release when I want them to. That...

I have another neighbor story. Yesterday a neighbor I hadn't introduced myself to yet was out grinding stumps in his front yard with a stump grinder. This got me excited because we cut down a bush last fall but there was still a stump in our backyard which I had planned to grind out this spring sometime. Well know was the perfect time I thought. I went over to talk to him to see how much it costs to rent and where he got it from. To my surprise, after talking for a bit he said he had until the next morning, and when he was done he would let me use it to grind out the stump. I offered to pay him something for it and he wouldn't take anything. And then he ended up just grinding it out for me! Plus, my father-in-law came over to help me. And we ended up also doing some yard work in the front pulling out another dead plant and reworking one of the front beds. Plus, during lunch yesterday, my mother-in-law came over and did some yard work as well. But, back to my neighbor, Pa...

There's one thing that's changed this year for sure. You know when you incorporate a new thing in your life and you're not sure how it's going to go? Are you going to stick with it? What all will it impact? Well, my wife and I both started using the 1 Second Everyday app at the beginning of the year to compile, 1 second of every day of this year. And the result of using this app has been that we take way more videos of our life on our phones than we used to... in a good way. We're not constantly whipping out our phones to record. But, when those little moments happen and we have a phone on us we're getting a few seconds. I think I used to think getting those videos needs to kind of be planned or that certain things aren't worth getting my phone out for. But looking back on the year so far I'm thankful for the idea behind the app of just capturing little moments. A lot of it is of our kids, sometimes super happy, sometimes sad. Sometimes it's be...

Do you disagree with what someone is saying? How do you handle it? Are you right? Are you sure? Is there are a right to the argument? Why do you get so uptight? These are all questions for me. A lot of this is my personality. I don't enjoy conflict. Many times I might even sit back and listen instead of jump in. And it depends... I'll give my input if asked or even if not asked. But, if I strongly disagree I sometimes lose my tactfulness. Especially with my family or people I'm around regularly. But why do I take it so personally? I think it's because I want things to be fair. If it doesn't seem fair or there are rules that have been established and they're going to be changed and I've been following them I don't like it. Writing this down seems silly, but I think there's truth here as to some of what goes on in my head around conflict. I'd say another part of it is just sin. I want to be right. I want to be a hero. I want to be the one peo...

Well, I wasn't planning on it. No one was yesterday. We didn't even have the bike until this weekend. My neighbor across the street asked me this weekend if I would want to borrow their beginner bike for our son because he thought my son was doing awesome on his balance bike. So I said sure. But, my daughter had other plans. She's a little older than my son and has been practicing on his balance bike and her bigger bike with training wheels. So yesterday, my daughter decided that she wanted to try this smaller pedal bike with no training wheels and within a matter of about 30 minutes she was riding a bike! It was a super proud moment for me filled with a lot of running beside her and encouraging words. And she was stoked. So much so we had to show her grandparents and all she wanted to do the rest of the evening was ride that bike. Thank you Ben and Sarah Hawkins.

I learned one thing yesterday about getting more people to follow you on Facebook yesterday. We just started a business page on Facebook for our rental property in Gulf Shores about a month ago and I was having a really hard time getting much engagement at all. I started doing some reading on ways to get more eyeballs on our page and one that "seems" to have helped at least in getting people to notice us was to reach out to all of our friends and request that they like our page. We went from about 10 likes to over 100 in one day. Now what I don't know is if that group of people is really the "best" group of people to start with or not to get the word out about our rental property in Gulf Shores. Are they themselves interested? Do they know people that may be interested? We'll see. Here's how to invite all your friends to like your page: Go to your Facebook Page. On the right-hand side, under Community, click on “invite your friends to like th...

Yes. It was announced for the state of Illinois that schools will be closed for the rest of the semester. I don't know what exactly that means for kids getting ready to graduate or even for those that are in a different grade. We don't have kids in school. But, it's a huge disruption for our state. So many unknowns once things begin opening back up. Will companies start hiring again? What will the job market be for kids that did graduate? Will there be graduations this year? I don't know if something like this has ever happened that kids were not allowed to go back to school for about 3 months and they instead were taught remotely from their homes.

Do you want to have a solid workgroup? Communicate. I can't think of anything more important than regular communication with your co-workers. Let them know what you're working on and encourage them to do the same. Have meetings when it makes sense. Ask questions in a group setting. Don't hide things unless there's a reason to. Some of the worst things that can happen if you don't communicate are multiple people working on the exact same thing. I'm all for people having autonomy and not having to report everything they're doing, but I'm also for working as a team, so you don't have overlap or time wasted. So, today as you think of your fellow employees, when is the last time you talked to them?

As I was sitting here thinking about what to write about this morning I'm thankful that at my age of 40 I have people I can go to for different things that I have a personal connection with somehow. I'm thankful for Craig Moore who handles our insurance. Thankful for Travis Critten and Todd Sauder who are our financial advisors. I'm glad we have Scott Sauder for electrical work. And Nate Kern for plumbing work. I'm thankful for my brother-in-law, Chad Herman, for just about any kind of home advice. Thankful for my parents and my in-laws for just about anything. I was originally thinking this morning and the last few days that with how bad things have gotten with COVID-19 that if there are ways for me to support those that help me and my family I want to. And I was thinking about writing short posts about how they support help us... maybe I still will. I know testimonials/reviews are really helpful, so I'll see what transpires here.

For those out there that want to be better at writing, I would encourage you to start a blog and write every day. Don't think too much about what to write or how good what you're writing is, just write. Don't worry about how many people, if any will even read your blog. Just write. Don't concern yourself with how well your grammar even is. Just write. It's all about practice. And all about the number of words that you can churn out regularly in my opinion. It doesn't mean that because I write a blog every day that I will become the best writer that ever was. But it does mean that I'm showing up every day for a few minutes and practicing the craft. With time the skill will get better. It's like anything. The more you do it the better you'll become at it. Do you want to be a better writer? Find a way to write every day. Create a blog. Create a social account. Create PDFs. Create emails. Just write.

At our life stage, once our kids are in bed we're right behind them. There's always plenty that we could do, but rarely are me or my wife motivated to keep going much after their bedtime. Last night I was ready to watch a show, but my wife was ready to talk or do something else. So we compromised and talked for a bit and I got some ice cream. The downside is getting up the next day is tougher... even though we really didn't stay up that late at all. When you have little kids when do you get things done? It's tough. I've defaulted to realizing that it's more important to enjoy my kids when their little than try to do a lot of projects and "get things done."

Yesterday was so good. It was different not to go somewhere for Easter Sunday, but it was good to be at home with our little family and celebrate together what God has done. And teach our children about the forgiveness of sin that comes from God through Jesus' death and resurrection. My wife found something really awesome online that I hope we do every year from now on. On Good Friday we had our kids go outside and pick up a bunch of rocks and put them in their Easter baskets. We talked about sin. How each rock represents sin. How the more we have the heavier the basket is to carry. Then we went inside and talked about what sin is. We had our kids' name different sins as they pulled out rocks. And we did as well. Then we covered the basket of rocks with a red blanket representing Christ's blood that was shed and covers our sin. Then on Easter morning we got rid of the rocks and filled their Easter basket with good things and covered the baskets back over with the red bl...

I can be such a perfectionist. I want to do things well to a fault. I have picked up photography over the last year or so and I've learned a lot, but I still feel like I have so much to learn. Case in point yesterday we decided to take photos of our family and I had in my head we're only gonna take 10 photos or so and they're gonna be really good. Well, they turned out OK. I used a timer and had it only take one photo each time, where I probably should have had it take at least 5. And I shot manual. They weren't bad, but maybe they could have done better. I drive my wife a little crazy with it all because she just wants me to shoot automatic and just shoot a ton of photos. That drives me crazy. Then in the middle of it all, I think am I actually doing this right? Are my settings right? I still feel like I have a long way to go. But I'm gonna keep trying. I have learned a lot and I like to think I'm getting better.

God Rested Andrew Peterson So they took His body down The man who said He was the resurrection and the life Was lifeless on the ground The sky was red as blood along the blade of night As the sabbath fell they shrouded Him in linen They dressed Him like a wound The rich man and the women They laid Him in the tomb Six days shall you labor The seventh is the Lord's In six He made the earth and all the heavens But He rested on the seventh God rested He said that it was finished And the seventh day, He blessed it God rested So they laid their hopes away They buried all their dreams about the kingdom He proclaimed And they sealed them in the grave As a holy silence fell on all Jerusalem But the Pharisees were restless Pilate had no peace And Peter's heart was reckless Mary couldn't sleep But God rested Six days shall you labor The seventh is the Lord's In six He made the earth and all the heavens But He rested on the seventh God rested H...

I really enjoy music. I haven't been to many concerts in years with having little kids, but it's something I really enjoyed doing in my 20s and 30s. But lately, I've been thinking about all of the music artists. They make the majority of their money off of concerts I believe. Definitely not from being on streaming services. And right now there's no way to have a concert with COVID-19 going on. I'm sure it's tough. I also believe the whole landscape of concerts may change in the future some with the lasting impacts of this virus. Maybe it won't, but I can't imagine we're going to have people flocking to huge concerts any time soon. What I am encouraged to see though is the generosity of some artists on social media as they are just playing music from their kitchens and living rooms regularly. Especially during this time. I think of artists like Andrew Peterson who's been reading his books and is playing music tonight. Sara Groves who did a c...

At least until April 30th (I believe this is true) in the United States, social distancing is still in effect due to COVID-19. That means... No more dates for those that were dating and not living together. No more hanging out at bars. No more parties. No more athletic games. No more church activities. No more family gatherings. No more bowling. No more arcades. No more restaurants (other than take-out/drive-through). No more retail shopping that isn't essential. No more movie theatres. No more conferences. No more trade shows. No more school. No more nonessential use of mass-transit. And there's a lot more that there is "no more" of for the time being. It is a very different world that we live in right now. I've heard that the highest spike in Illinois for COVID-19 is predicted to be 4/12/20, this coming Sunday. We'll see what this weekend brings.

Yesterday I mentioned something about the chairs in our kitchen and how I see more scratches continuing to show up on our floor from them. I know I've mentioned it quite a few times because yesterday my daughter said something to me about having said it many times. To which my wife also agreed. So, why do I keep saying something about it? I know this isn't the only thing on repeat for me. Why not just take care of it? Or stop talking about it? It makes me think of the Israelites in the wilderness as the complained not about scratches on the kitchen floor, but about the food, they had to eat. And God called what they were doing sin. And they were punished for it. Why do we complain? Does it make things better? Does it make me feel better? Does it make anyone else feel better? Sometimes it might make us feel better about ourselves, but it really never builds up. Most of the time I don't even think I notice it sadly. But, what the antidote? Is it to just take care of the...

What will things look like in 2 weeks? Will we experience a lot of death? Are there going to be a lot of people I know that get sick? How much is COVID-19 really spreading? I don't know the answer to any of these questions personally. And I'm not writing to scare anyone. More for my own recollection of this event in history. Time passing will be the one thing that truly tells us what is happening. One bright spot in this (there have been many), but a little girl named Molly has been hiding painted rocks around our neighborhood with little messages on them. Our kids have loved going on walks and looking for them. Yesterday she hid one right in our front yard and Josie was super excited when she found it. What are ways during this COVID-19 pandemic that you can brighten the days of others like Molly?

Zoom. I'd never heard of it until about a year ago when one of our clients we work with started using it. And since then I've loved it. And our company has incorporated it into all of our meeting rooms and we use it all the time now as we moved to work from home. But, I'm not the only one. They've seen crazy growth. My parents have used it now. My sisters. My Aunt Barb even... she's in her mid-70s. I think it's just easy to use and it works well. I know they've experienced some issues in the last few weeks due to the huge success on their video conferencing platform with "zoombombing", where people jump on a call that is supposed to be private and they are working through those privacy challenges. But it seems like they're really doing it well in general. They have to have a huge percentage of the market today compared to Skype, Hangouts, and WebEx.

There's an aspect of COVID-19 that's been good. I've been challenged many times to reach out to others. I've video chatted with people I never would have before. Like our pastor and his wife. And we've done it just to encourage others. Have you called someone today just to see how they're doing? Just do it.

Of any time in my life. Now is a time to give thanks. To think of others. I still find myself very selfish, even during these times. I'm thankful for my neighbor across the street who manages a Lowe's and has figured out how to keep it going and provide people with home needs even though many of his employees have taken time off and he's having a hard time finding others to fill their spots. I'm thankful for my inlaws that have graciously allowed me to work in their basement as I work remotely since I think I would have a really hard time with 3 little kids working from our home. I'm also thankful for all of those that are working from home while having kids at home too and are able to make things happen, like Caleb Smith or Bryan Jackson. I'm thankful for lunches with my kids during the week. I'm thankful for those that are working the tough jobs. Like another co-worker's wife who is working with COVID-19 patients at OSF. And for others that are...

My kids are 4, 3, and 11 months. The older two have heard the word Coronavirus many times and in some ways understand what is going on, but yet they still don't totally get it. They know that we aren't going places like we used to. We're pretty much at home, other than me going to my in-law's basement to work. I typically have been coming home for lunch with my family. It's just so different. We talk to our neighbors from 6 feet away right away. We ask questions like, "Are you still working?" and "How's your family doing?" and "How are you doing with your kids' e-learning?" I look at my kids with different eyes right now. I think, our world may never be quite the same as it was before. Will that be a good thing? My wife says it's all kind of depressing. The news just talks about the virus 24/7. Talking about what the government is doing. What healthcare is doing. How many cases there are now. This all makes me want t...

My wife asked me what day it was last night. And that's when it really hit me that this stay at home thing has changed things. It's tougher to even know what day it is. Every day seems similar when you don't get out. My wife asked that I lead our family more and think about what we can do as a family since it's just us now. It's tough for me when I get criticized. I don't like to hear I'm doing things well. Yet I realize I could do way more. I could think of ways for us to do some things as a family regularly that point our kids and my wife towards God... and myself. It's easy for me to get engrained in a task, in work, and now on our vacation rental property. It's tougher for me to think about how I really help my family grow. God, today, help me think about my family. Help me love my kids and wife. I want our kids to understand the gospel. I desire for our kids to know you and follow you. Help me get creative like I am for work, with my fam...

I've been thinking about ways to start building up a following on social for our vacation rental property. I've mainly been on Instagram so far, but I want to start posting more on Facebook as well as getting our website up and running. But, this Coronavirus has put a real damper on things. There are positives and negatives. The positive is that people are probably spending even more time on social and so the likelihood of being seen if you're using good hashtags and spending time writing things well is higher. The downside is that the chances of people traveling right now are getting lower and lower for the next month or so though. The one thing I wish I had done while I was down at our rental property though was to take even more photos. I got some beautiful ones of the rooms and property, which I believe is most important. Now that I'm Instagram and getting likes by other beautiful rental properties I'm noticing the little details that they've taken photo...

So you're not going into the office for a while. You're working from home. How is that going when you're used to being around others regularly to check-in, to review work, and keep things moving? I think it can be really challenging, especially for those that are motivated by others. The video conferences are helpful, but it's not the same as being in person with others. But, this is an opportunity to really get a lot done too. Fewer interruptions... unless you have kids at home and can't get away somehow. This might be an opportunity to learn more as well. If you have some more free work time, maybe you sit in on some webinars or online classes. When things change we have the opportunity to complain about them and wish it were different or get creative and find ways to work with what we have right now.

Well, we are back home. And the last couple days of travel and realizing that my actual blog website is down kept me from posting. I still need to figure out why my blog website isn't loading. But, back to the new normal. It sounds like most people at my office are working from home. Which means I'll be back working in my in-law's basement for this week. Today will mostly be catching up on email and figuring out where to pick up since I left on vacation over a week ago. We'll see how the new normal goes.

Over this past week, I've realized we have all the right players on our team. We have Chad with tons of construction experience and running a business. Helping us with the numbers, how to be profitable, making projections, making sure all crucial projects get done and knowing what to get done. We have Julie with the interior design eye and knack for what looks good. We have Amanda, the pharmacist, who just knows how to help get things done, has some design sense, and isn't afraid to give an opinion. We have Chris, a physical therapist, that knows how to use a lot of tools and has knowledge of how to run a pool. Then there's Traever, our pastor/engineer, how is meticulous and knows how to make stuff out of nothing and fix things that no one else probably would, but people would totally notice. Plus, he's got the skills of staying up late and being on the internet all the time. Making him great for corresponding with renters. Andrea, has tons of real estate experience s...

I've really enjoyed learning more about photography over the last year and it feels endless. And I believe it truly is. After talking with a friend that's a professional in the photography business yesterday he mentioned the same thing about photography. He continues to still keep learning in this field.  As I've been evaluating how to best photograph our rental property over the last week I've learned about bracketing. Which is basically taking 3 photos that are merged into one photo to get the best photo. Basically the more difference in light that you have the larger difference in stops you want to have in order to capture everything. So you can see the view outside through the window as well as everything inside of the house. I'm a little nervous that I'm not going to take these photos well, but I'm gonna give it my best shot and we'll see what we come up with.