I wear plaid. I'm a blogger.

Shock absorbers are wonderful things. You would never know that they are there until they aren't, and you never appreciated them so much until you had the alternative.  Do you remember riding in your favorite Radio Flyer wagon as a kid? Let me take you back to that experience: you and a friend grab the metallic wagon and start heading up the colossal hill in the backyard (which was really only a rise in the pavement when you went back to visit last summer...they must've knocked it down since the last time you were there). You are forced into a shouting match all the way up the hill because the wagon is bouncing and chattering all the way along the rough asphalt driveway. There are likely a couple pebbles in the wagon from the time you were transporting your latest rock and dirt collection from the side yard to the backyard at your father's request and the remnant rock collection is only adding to the din. Once you reach the top of the slope, you both hop in the wagon a...

The other day I was listening to 93.3fm in Cincinnati and a song came on called " The Motions " by Matthew West. If I may add my interpretation, the lyrics represent Matthew West's own challenge to live more passionately and vibrantly for Jesus Christ everyday and not just getting by with second-rate Christianity. The chorus reads like this: I don't wanna go through the motions I don't wanna go one more day Without Your all-consuming passion inside of me I don't wanna spend my whole life asking "What if I had given everything?" Instead of going through the motions Pause. I have been training to run my first marathon, the Cincinnati Flying Pig . It is a fun way for me to push my limits and challenge my body (especially in light of Katie carrying twins right now and experiencing the same challenge of reaching physical limitations in her body...in many ways, the marathon is my twins--metaphorically). Through the training I keep tellin...

I had an epiphany today. I'm still trying to hash it out so bear with me, but here's what I'm thinking: relationships are built on, structured around, and dependent upon shared experiences. From a Godly perspective, every instance of our lives is spent creating memories that we intend to share with people. Picture the following familiar scenario: "Hi honey, how was your day?" Good, I got a lot accomplished today: attended this meeting, ran that stat sheet, had lunch with this group of people, blah blah blah.  "Wow, sounds like you had quite the productive day! I ran such and such errands and put our child down for a nap at this time but then he woke up at that time and we have been nonstop ever since!" Oh man, that sounds like quite the hectic experience! I don't know how you do it, but I sure am glad you do. What would you like to do this evening? And on goes the evening of our productive little hypothetical couple. You see, they spent...

Ever heard the adage: you're only as good as your tools? Well it's untrue. This past week my family and I had the enjoyable opportunity to visit some friends in San Diego, California. While we were there we were able to visit the Taylor Guitar factory and get a guided tour of the factory. They showed us everything from how they cut the wood, glue it, dry it, cut it some more, shape it, sand it, and finish it. The tour was a very cool experience and very worth your time if you ever have a chance to see it. During one part of the tour our guide gave us a story about how Bob Taylor chooses the type of wood that goes into his guitars. Naturally, Bob likes to choose the nicest, most resonant woods to go into his product in order to make a better guitar. But our guide told us that Bob is also more concerned about sustainability in his company than he is about making sure he is using the most high-end woods. The guide explained that Bob would tell other guitar manufacturing com...