Archive | August, 2009

Five things you’ll never hear me say

By on August 28, 2009 in Friday Fives

After a long hiatus, I figured Friday Fives was due for a visit.

Five Things You’ll Never Hear Me Say

  1. “Can you keep it down? I’m trying to watch 3rd Rock from the Sun!”
  2. “Why would I use Roundup when I can just bend over and pull the weeds with my hands?”
  3. “The producers of the Today Show are doing a fantastic job.”
  4. “Should I wear the cowboy-style string tie or just leave the top three buttons undone?
  5. “Where’s my Nickelback box set?”

Your turn. What would we never hear you say?

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10 weeks old and she’s cooler than me

By on August 27, 2009 in Music, Parenting

I’ve mentioned this on The Twitter and The Book of Faces recently, but it’s worth mentioning here, too.

My youngest daughter, at 10 weeks of age, is into cool music.

A few months ago, I put together a new playlist that we play in the kitchen while we’re getting dinner ready and whatnot.

As a rule, the baby is not very fussy. She’s an introvert like her parents. Doesn’t want to call attention to herself, I guess.

But on the occasions when she feels the need to whine a little, all we have to do is walk over to the iPod dock player thing, turn on some music, and she’ll calm down.

In fact, she’ll usually settle down during the first song, which is Mat Kearney’s Closer to Love. If that doesn’t get her, Hillsong’s Mighty to Save almost certainly will.

Our friend Emily left a comment on my Facebook page saying that Coldplay is like a silver bullet for her little girl. What do your kids like to listen to?

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Choose your own adventure, Sunday School edition

By on August 19, 2009 in Church

A couple months ago my church put out the call that it was looking for new Sunday School teachers.

I’ve been retired from heavy involvement at church for a couple of years but had considered the ways I’d be willing to wade back in for a while. Among the things I thought I’d like to do was lead a Sunday School class.

Now, before we get too far, let’s establish a few things first:

  1. Am I qualified to teach Sunday School? Probably not.
  2. Is that stopping me? Apparently not.
  3. Does the church seem very concerned about that? Not yet.

Anyhow, we got the class up and running several weeks ago. Right now, we’re studying Proverbs.

The class is open to everyone, but so far has drawn folks from my demographic: young-ish, possibly with kids, members of the church for a while.

All of that is setup for the part where you step in. I want to hear about your Sunday School class. I’d love responses to a few of these questions:

  • Do you go to Sunday School?
  • What format do you like – lecture, discussion, structured curriculum?
  • What extras does your class have that add to the experience – coffee, comfy chairs, materials to take home?
  • Does your class have a blog or website? If so, is there any conversation outside of the Sunday School hour?
  • How did you start attending your class? Were you invited by someone? If so, what made you feel comfortable or uncomfortable about that invitation?

And here’s where I’ll let you choose your own adventure (remember those books?):

  • If you could design a Sunday School class or group from scratch, tell me what’s a MUST DO for you and what’s a NEVER DO for you

I’d love your feedback. And if you’d rather email me directly, let me know. I’ll get you my addresss.

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School, babies, fisticuffs

By on August 12, 2009 in Daughter

A couple quick things:

1) My daughter’s first day of kindergarten went very well. She came home radiating excitement. She starts full-time tomorrow.

2) I’m an uncle! My brother and his wife welcomed their first child into the world on Monday. Thanks to Skype, we were able to visit from our kitchen with the three of them in their hospital room in Celebration on Monday night.

3) Need a good chuckle today? This cracked me up this morning. If anyone is up for the challenge, I’ll meet you in the desert tomorrow at noon.

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Milestones: kindergarten

By on August 10, 2009 in Daughter, Milestones, Parenting, Uncategorized

Slowly but surely, I’m becoming a grown-up:

  • I’m married
  • We own a home
  • Our closets are stuffed with junk
  • I have IRAs
  • I have three kids

This morning, I got another shove into the world of grownupdom.

Our daughter started kindergarten today.

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Book review: The X and Y of Buy

By on August 8, 2009 in Books

A few weeks ago, I joined Thomas Nelson’s Book Review Blogger program. I’ve done a little reading in the days since, so here’s my first review:

The X and Y of Buy: Sell more and market better by knowing how the sexes shop

By Elizabeth Pace

This shouldn’t be a shocker to anyone, but I’m going to say it anyway: men and women are different.

Even though that truth is glaringly obvious, it’s surprising how often we overlook it. In her book The X and Y of Buy, Elizabeth Pace makes the case that marketers can increase their effectiveness by understanding the unique differences between men and women.

As someone who needs to communicate effectively with both sexes to be successful, I found the premise of Pace’s book engaging. I’ve certainly finished appointments with clients or prospects thinking I’d knocked the cover off the ball, only to have the folks go elsewhere with their business. Reading The X and Y of Buy made me almost certain that I’ve missed some opportunities by not working hard enough to understand the way my customer makes decisions.

It wasn’t far into the book that Pace began to show that men are highly task-oriented people, while women are more process-oriented. Men buy and women shop, she says. Men are data-driven, while women are relationship-driven.

If I had to point to a weakness, I’d say at times I felt the book leaned a little too hard on the idea that gender traits haven’t changed that much since prehistoric times. I felt like I was being told that men are hunters and women are nurturers a few too many times.

I thought the book was engaging, and would be especially helpful for folks in sales, marketing, customer service and retail. I’m keeping it on the shelf as a reference book because there’s a healthy dose of practical, street-level advice for implementing gender-specific communication techniques.

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Redirection, part five

By on August 7, 2009 in Uncategorized

This is the fifth and final post in a series titled Redirection.  The series is based on a talk I gave recently to a group of Christian business women. You can read Part One here, Part Two here,  Part Three here, and Part Four here.

There’s life beyond our quirks, hurts and habits. There’s life beyond the traps we keep falling for over and over again.

Like I said previously, if we want things to be different, we have to do different things.

So what would it look like if, instead of entrusting our emotions and decisions to our knee-jerk response, we leaned into God’s direction and spoken instruction?

What if we trusted Him enough to try His way in our work, in our marriages and with our kids?

For me, at least, that would be doing different things.

To get there, I’ve got to wander from the paths that I know. The ones that are so comfortable to me. The ones where I think I’m safe.

But I can do that when I know that when God shows up, and when He redirects, He is glorified.

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