A Rule of Life New Year’s resolutions, SMART goals, systems, and “bingo cards”… We’ve heard of them all at the end of the year and no matter what you call them, we want to argue that there most definitely is a place for habit-forming new beginnings in the New Year. Before we get into our version of New Year’s resolutions, it feels like it’s something we have to convince you of, well maybe some of you… Ask an audience of 100 people if they do resolutions and what do you think you find? Maybe...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
HOW TO FIX THE “CHRISTMAS KRANKS” I love Christmastime, I love the lights, the shopping, the cooking, the weather! I love just staring at the Christmas tree in our study while I work early in the morning. I love staring at the lights and the lopsided ornament array (when you have small children who are prone to constantly ripping them down, their haphazard pattern begins midway and travels up from there). Yes I truly love all that warm and fuzzy stuff… But this morning, staring at that tree,...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
5 Life Lessons From Coaching My Kid’s Team Last month, at my 1st & 2nd graders basketball game, I paid my penance. Whatever sins have accrued over the years, and they are many, have now officially been paid… as a coach… of 1st & 2nd grade basketball. Lemme back up for a second, lets start at the beginning. About 6 weeks ago we showed up for our 1st practice at shoreline church in fountain valley-best little developmental sports league around. The coach doesn’t show. Well I’m there, I’m...
about 2 months ago • 7 min read
Thankful for hard things We’ve just got back from Boston this week. Selah (our 9-year old) had major surgery (she had an 8-inch benign tumor removed from her right leg; the incision goes from hip to knee cap). Here is a list of discoveries when walking with your child through pain: They do not have an adult-level concept of pain… At least for me (Ben) as a wanna-be macho man, the philosophies of ‘no pain, no gain!’ ‘Suck it up!’ ‘Embrace the pain!’ ‘Pain is weakness leaving the body’ ‘what...
2 months ago • 5 min read
A Post-Election Prayer (For a People in Exile) 12 MIN READ “He regarded abuse suffered for Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for his eyes were fixed on the reward.” - Hebrews 11:26 NET Sometimes it’s easy to think that America is the promised land, but I want to argue that it is closer to an “Egypt” or a “Babylon.” Whether it’s the slavery that grew up around our feet (Egypt) or the slavery we were driven to (Babylon), both are closer to reality for American...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Taking Pains 12 MIN READ Everyone has a favorite podcast, but few change the quality and direction of your life, like this Charlotte Mason-inspired resource (laying down the rails) that we listened to a few years back. In it Lanaya Gore was talking about “taking pains.” The broader context was habit formation in young children. Part of it that was so challenging and good was the difference between nagging and asking… Remember Pavlov’s dog? The whole experiment for conditioning animals that...
4 months ago • 4 min read
Experimentation with “The Carnivore Diet”… *Ignore the French fries Someone once said that Adam and Eve were placed in a garden with 1000 “yes’s” and 1 “no.” The carnivore diet is the opposite of that. So about a year ago we posted about the nutrition and fitness challenge called “75 hard” (where, for 75 days, you 1, stay on a diet; 2 workout/walk twice a day; 3, read; 4, drink a bunch of water, etc etc), and wouldn’t you know one of our elders from church sent out the invite the same time...
4 months ago • 4 min read
5 Rules for “Soul-care” (not “self-care”) 12 MIN READ The other day I (Ben) was sitting in the car, parked in the drive way, just biding my time for bringing in yet another haul of groceries… and I felt just flat out exasperated. My soul was trying to tell me something, it was pointing me to something deeper… Could it be that we need a new system or routine? No that can’t be it, because, as new subscribers already know, the grocery-agenda-meal plan routine does actually work! However, does...
5 months ago • 4 min read
Parenting… a growing up opportunity The year 2023 was a doozy for us. We had surgeries (Ben’s Achilles repair). We had a really serious (and still ongoing/unknown) medical health scare for one of our kiddos. And we welcomed a newborn to boot! And we maintain that all trials and circumstances and even suffering have a really really important place in God’s purpose for growing us up as spiritually mature mothers and fathers. But sometimes what we perceive to be a “full frontal spiritual...
5 months ago • 2 min read