All Natural Air Freshener

So I woke up at 4:45 AM for the first time this school year. And yes, it's only the second day of school. I see how this year is going to be.

Today, I want to talk about one of my favorite goals for this year: Goal #10.

Why exactly is it one of my favorites, you ask? And why am I talking about it? 

Oh, you didn't ask? Well, sadly, I misheard you, so you're going to have to hear me out.

Allow me to enlighten you:

My Reasons for Loving Goal #10 on my 111 in 2011:

A. It's goal 10, which just an awfully nice number. Easy to remember. Easy to divide. Easy to conquer.

B. It involves my wonderful wife, Kalyn, who is by far my favorite. Except Jesus (most days). And it involves making her happy, which always seems to bode well for me.

C. It also involves flowers, which aren't my favorite thing in the world, but they smell good, and thus help ward off the "there's clearly a dead weasel in the basement" odor that currently permeates our house.

Oh, wait, you don't know what Goal #10 is?

Well, that's tough.

Last time I checked, you didn't even want to know why it's one of my favorite goals.

Just kidding.

Goal #10 for 2011 in my book involves buying my beautiful wife (as already mentioned) a truckload of flowers (sort of already mentioned). Not a literal truckload, mind you, but only because we don't have a truck. More like a truckload in the sense that there is a truck somewhere full of them and I'm supposed to bring them to her, one bouquet at a time.


This week, I chose these flowers. I like them. She likes them. Dillon's likes to sell them to me. So we're all happy campers around here. Except that weasel. Someone really needs to do something about him...

Do either you or your spouse enjoy flowers? What about them do you like? What other sort of nice things have you intentionally done for them this year?

I'd love to hear from you about this (or anything else)! Leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail, and if you enjoyed this post, share it with your friends!

A Goal Near and Dear: Giving Radically

Today is an exciting day for a lot of reasons.

First of all, it's the 29th of November, which means it is almost December, which means that this semester is almost over.

Second of all, it's the only time the 29th of November in 2010 will happen, so I know something crazy could happen.

Thirdly, it's Cyber Monday, so are there some epic deals available to consumers, and they don't even have to leave their homes!

Finally, and most importantly, I've got a chance for every single person reading (including myself) to REALLY make something crazy happen today, since it IS the only time today (November 29th, 2010) will ever happen. And, to boot, it's Cyber Monday, which means you're obliged to spend buckets of money via the internet that you actually already spent on Black Friday. Want to do something crazy with that money while you're spending it? Keep reading - I've got a GREAT opportunity for you...

Time for Some Openness: Small Group Progress Report

About four months ago, I posted about a life goal that I would be embarking on soon: leading a small group. If you missed it, here's the post. Basically, I was very excited, but also very nervous, to start leading a small group here at MCC. I'm here four months later with an update on this life goal that's been in progress for a while now.

A note/disclaimer/warning: I want to be very open and honest in this post. Members of my small group may eventually see or read this, and I'm okay with that. I just want to be transparent in the way that I live, so I figure that I need to be transparent in the way that I blog about my life and about the struggles and joys of attempting to fulfill a life goal. If you are in any way involved with or connected to Small Groups at MCC or my own Small Group, please read this for what it's worth and don't read between the lines, because there's nothing there. What's being said is how I honestly feel and what I'm thinking, and that's all there is to it.

The short version of the story:

Leading a Small Group has gone slightly better than I expected it to. However, I'm disappointed with myself for a number of reasons (see "the long version" for details). I'd give myself a 6.5/10 as a leader, and my group a 9.5/10 for how epic they are. I hope to do better sooner rather than later.

The long-ish version of the story:

I love my small group. I can't say that enough. However, in my own mind, things haven't been a bed of roses this first semester so far. The small groups at MCC were recently asked to evaluate their leaders, so I received a "progress report" of sorts from the members of my small group...

An Attempt to be More Intentional: This Week in Review

In light of what has been on my mind lately, I'm doing what I can to be more intentional about living and about reflecting on life. Right now, I want to focus on reflecting.

I really think that part of living the fullest life possible means taking time to stop, be still, and reflect. So, in an attempt to encourage myself to do this regularly, I'm going to steal an idea from a friend's blog (yes, I'm aware that stealing is counterproductive to the whole reflecting idea).

So my friend doesn't hate me, and because I love her blog, this is my shameless plug to her. Check out her blog at http://littlethingsbigstuff.com/ and blow her up with comments about how amazing her blog is. Because it is and because I said so. Either way.

On to the idea stealing (did you visit her blog? because you were supposed to!)...

An Ambitious Goal (to say the least): Read Every Book We Own

As you can imagine, this post is going to be about books. It is not, however, going to be about A Critical History of the Mission and Ministry of the Christian Church in Hawaii.

I know, I know. You're disappointed. Unfortunately, my fingers just don't have the stamina to type that title more than once. Plus, I don't have a clue what that book is about - I've never so much as touched it except to put it on the shelf. And herein lies the reason for a life goal I hope to eventually accomplish: I want to read every book we own...

A Snippet from School: Trying to be the best student that I can be

As this itch to blog persists, I have decided to scratch it.

Yesterday, I went to school and was, for the most part, sick. I had some nasty chills and a killer headache. However, because I worked my bottom off to finish a project/paper the night before and because we had Greek homework and a quiz (which I was destined to bomb), I decided it was in my best interest to ignore my body and go anyway. I didn't expect to learn much in my zombie-like state, but this is where God surprised me...

A Mind-bending Goal: Learn to Read Greek

Wow. So it's been about a year since I have blogged. Or three weeks. Depends how you look at it. Either way, it has been a while. There are many culprits to my lack of blogging, namely...

• Moving
• The start of school
• The start of small groups
• Marriage (it takes up time and I love it!)
• Sleep
• My friends

However, one culprit has slowly taken over my life in the midst of the chaos of life. This culprit will be stealing time from me for the next year (at least), and will surely haunt me for the rest of my life. This sinister thief teases me with the idea that someday I might understand it, but also with the fact that the "someday" could be centuries from now. The lousy criminal who has been stealing away my life is...

In Progress and Done: Care for Orphans

I'm thankful for my school, Manhattan Christian College (MCC), for a number of reasons, but namely because of our professors. I'm thankful that 95% of my classes are about things that I want to learn about, even if they bore me at times. I'm seeing more and more as I get older that the "basic" classes I took were some of the most important and some of the "busy work" given in those classes has taught me a lot...

Another Forever in Progress: Be Kind to Every Person I Meet

My time here at THOGL and in Taiwan has taught me a lot of things that you usually learn when you go overseas for an extended amount of time, whether to do missions or study abroad, or whatever you may be doing. Mostly, though, I have learned to appreciate the little things. Naturally, I'm thankful for a refreshing swig of Coke in the middle of our shift, just as I am thankful for the family who left us with an abundance of Macaroni and Cheese. I'm thankful for cold water, because it is sometimes hard to come across. But what I find I am most thankful for is this: kindness...

A Long-Shot: Go to the World Cup

With all of the World Cup frenzy winding down, I figured I'd touch on the subject a little.

First of all, I'm excited at how the U.S. fan base has grown this year. Sadly, this was the first year I have ever actually watched the World Cup, so you can count me in as part of the "new" fans, but I really enjoyed watching my country and others play on such a large stage in South Africa, even if I did have to find some "bootleg" streams to watch it on while working the night shift in Taiwan (ABC doesn't stream their games!)...

A Goal Forever in Progress: Be(come) a Good Father

This year, June 20th passed without much fanfare in my life. I spent the day sleeping, because, by then, I had switched to the night shift with Kalyn here at The Home of God's Love (THOGL). I woke up around 5 PM, and the day progressed as usual. We didn't eat dinner, because dinner never sounds appetizing right after waking up, and we took care of babies for the remainder of the night. Later on that night, while the babies were sleeping, Kalyn and I Skype'd (is there a "proper" way to spell that?) with her family because it was June 20th - Father's Day...

Goal in Progress: Lead a Small Group

Alright, here's the deal. This is the first goal I'm posting about that I haven't actually completed. However, I'm posting because I'm looking for some input...