Thursday, March 7, 2013
You can’t underestimate your child’s need to process something that’s life-changing.
Greetings from the Sunshine state! As we unpack and begin a new chapter in life I can’t help but think about transitions. We all have them in life, moving to a new town or state, moving up a grade or even graduating. And how we handle these natural transitions in life either helps or hinders our children’s ability to do so. Our daughter is in 5th grade. So not only is she transitioning to a new state and new school but getting ready to move into middle school. That’s a lot for one kid to handle. But she’s doing a great job. She has her moments and will continue to do so for some time but she’s rolling with the punches. In my time of working with families I’ve been able to observe a few things that we put into practice several months ago …
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
I have come to deeply love this community and the people in it. And I will miss it.
As you read this I will be on some highway heading south. This past week has been a busy one, trying to see as many people as possible while trying to finish up the packing. If you’ve every moved out of state then you know how crazy stressful that all is! As my time here was coming to a close something strange and unexpected happened. I took the time to slow down and look around me. And what I realized is that I truly love this community. I mean that. I love Wentzville. Leaving her feels like leaving a close family member. Let me explain. I’ve watched her grow. When I moved here in 1984 she wasn’t so big. There wasn’t a lot to do here so you had to go into other towns. She had lots of cornfields and open expanses. She had terrific …
Saturday, February 2, 2013
You will begin to see that in the end we are all human and we are all longing, searching for the same things.
Dear High School Joe, Finally through middle school! Whew—we made it. Just barely, but we did. These next four years are going to be amazing. But while they’ll be amazing you are going to learn some really hard lessons over this time period. First let me start with your greatest joy but your biggest downfall—girls. Dude, you have got to relax. Slow down and little and breathe man. You don’t have to date all of them. I mean you certainly can try but don’t! Here in a short while after dating a few girls you will meet one that will sweep you off your feet. There’s something about her that you find irresistible and you won’t want to be away from her for even a minute. You are going to get in your first serious dating relationship. I’ll be …
Sunday, January 27, 2013
There are things that I wish I would have known growing up, things that I wouldn’t take for granted now that I’m an adult.
(READ MORE: Dear Younger Self, There Are Some Things I Need to Tell You) Dear 7th & 8th Grade Joe, By now you’ve seen how crummy middle school can be! But you made it through 6th grade. The worst is behind for you but no so much for others. While you are somehow able to side step some of the “popularity” issues, others aren’t so lucky. You are going to start really noticing how other students start segregating themselves by different standards. Some will separate according to status, others will according to race, and others will segregate based on a certain lifestyle. These groups will live for each other. They will accept you as long as you look, dress, act, and speak like them. All the while they will proclaim their uniqueness and …
Sunday, January 20, 2013
There are things that I wish I would have known growing up, things that I wouldn’t take for granted now that I’m an adult.
The other night my family sat at a large table with my parents and had a great dinner. We laughed and talked about our upcoming move to Florida. We talked about all the craziness going on in the news and just had a really good time. We said our goodbyes and got in the car. As we buckled up my wife turned to me and said, “I love your parents.” And I looked back and said “Me too. I’m going to miss this when we move.” I am by nature a nostalgic person. I often look back over my life and think about all the good and bad. I can hear a song and recall a specific time I heard it or look at a picture and know exactly when and where it was taken. And because I’m naturally that way as our time in Wentzville comes to a close I have started looking …
Saturday, January 12, 2013
We are raising a generation to be selfish, lazy, and narcissistic with an attitude of entitlement.
My daughter came home crying that day. I asked her what was wrong and at first she didn’t want to tell me. So I asked her a few more times. And on the millionth time of me asking “Are you sure nothing is wrong?” the dam broke and out poured incoherent tales of elementary school woes. Nothing serious mind you, but to a little girl who just happens to be drama queen, everything is a big deal. She explained that her teacher had called her out in front of the class for a wrong answer on an assignment and then went over how to correctly do that problem with the entire class. And our daughter wasn’t the only one that got called on that day. Several students were called out on incorrect answers and the class was given a lesson on why that …
Saturday, January 5, 2013
I have been sickened by the places the human mind can go when it's allowed to.
My dad had to sit with me every night for a solid month. A MONTH! If those lights went out, I was terrified! No amount of rational or sane thought would drive out the images clawing through my little brain. I knew, I mean I just knew that if I went to sleep that he would get me. And when I say he… there’s only one person I could be talking about: Freddy Krueger! Oh he paralyzed me with fear. I was about 10 the first time I watched A Nightmare on Elm Street. The only problem was that I wasn’t allowed to see movies like that. And now I’m having horrific nightmares about him? Even at that young of an age I knew that this equation didn’t quite add up. So I told my parents that the huge cardboard cutout of Freddy at the local movie store was …
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
We can either allow them to hold us back or we can use them as momentum to follow our dreams.
2012 was a bad good year. There were many things that happened that I loved and just as many that I hated. The things I hated were mostly of a national aspect but a few were personal, such as: Some on my list were humorous blips on our cultural map and others were game changers. Newtown shocked us to our core and started a spirited debate on how we move on. The word rape coming up way too many times by men that have no idea when to shut up, changed entire political races in our country. A reality family that should be reported was instead given a TV show and blew up the ratings. The ever-growing fiscal cliff that threatens to derail our economy is how we end this year. For me personally, the loss of two loved ones that were near and…
Saturday, December 22, 2012
We live in a broken culture . . . There is much goodness out there but there is just as much bad.
3 a.m. comes awfully early. When that alarm goes off like that it doesn’t wake you up, it scares you up. My wife and I got out of bed barely into December 15 and proceeded to get ready for our flight to Florida. We were flying to Orlando to interview for a position in Gainesville. Our flight left St. Louis at 6:25 A.M. and so we got up earlier than anyone should be made to. I also made the strongest cup of coffee in the history of coffee. We had an uneventful flight to Florida. We went to pick up our rental car for the 2 hour drive north and as we headed onto the turnpike we made phone calls home. During the drive we heard just glimpses on the radio about another school shooting. Our hearts sank at the scattered news reports that we were …
Saturday, December 15, 2012
They loved each other like a husband and wife were meant to love.
The woman that sat in front of me was an amazing person. I wish that I could describe to you the amount of courage this person has. She has been able to move forward, sometimes just inches at a time, during a period of trial most will never know. And she does so with integrity and a brutal honesty that can make you uncomfortable if you’re not ready for it. So if you ask her “How are you?”, just be ready for a real answer. Several weeks ago I wrote a post entitled “The World Lost a Hero Today”. And by the fact that my good friend Wil was such an amazing person it was the second most read post for November and one of my most read posts ever. He was a great husband, father, son, brother, mentor and friend. And after the celebration and…
Susan
7:56 pm on Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Beautiful Joe! And you're so right, she never leaves you! more ›