A Slower Pace

This last weekend while most here in Kentucky were thinking about horses and racing with the 138th running of the race for the roses in the Kentucky Derby, I was working out in the yard. There are several projects that either needed a final push towards completion or that needed to be started and completed. When I started out Saturday morning, I had four staring me in the face. Thankfully, after hard work and family involvement, we were able to completely knock out three of them and make headway on the fourth. Below are some pictures as proof.

The first was “Opa’s Rose Garden”. Many years ago, when we moved into our first home in California, my father-in-law helped me plant a rose garden in the front yard. Those roses flourished in the direct sun and we enjoyed many beautiful blooms from them until the day we left. We moved and unfortunately, my wonderful father-in-law also succumbed to Alzheimer’s. He is no longer the man we all once knew and loved. This rose garden that we worked so hard on this last weekend is our tribute to him and who he was. He loved roses and gardening and we named it in his honor — Opa’s Garden. We added a few chairs and it has become a favorite place to spend the early evening watching the sun go down behind the treeline after a long day. Opa — we love and miss you!

The second project that was completed was more out of necessity than want. You see, about 5 weeks ago we brought home 13 baby chicks from our local favorite country store — Metzger’s Country Store. Those chicks quickly outgrew the Rubbermaid container I had them in and I had to relocate them to a bigger container in the garage. Soon enough, that was also outgrown as well as odorous, not to mention the fact it booted my car outside for the month of April. So putting the finishing touches on the chicken coop was a definite necessity. I am very proud of it because, aside from the $30 roll of chicken wire I bought, I spend $0.00 on the structure. I was lucky enough that a friend of mine informed me of a house build in his neighborhood which allowed my son and I to dumpster dive. We recovered, repurposed, recycled and reused plywood, sheeting, 2 by 4s, 2 by 6s, roof paper and shingles. The whole thing nicely came together with a few modifications to the design in my head. The finishing touches on it will be solar panels for light/heat (notice the perfect south facing sloped roof) and water reclamation off the roof into the whiskey barrel which will provide water for my egg laying hens. The whole project has been very rewarding and self-sustaining and I am looking forward to mid-summer farm egg production for our family.

The final project was getting our garden planted. We put in multiple types of tomatoes, red, green, yellow peppers, banana peppers, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, watermelon, cantaloupe and zucchini — all stuff that my family eats. Along with the eggs, corn planted on the back property, hunted deer in the freezer, and the occasional cow provided by our farmer friend, we have a great bounty of food that we know where it came from. And that is pretty cool!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

Heard today:

God says “You can worry if you can prove that it works for you”.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

May the 4th be with you.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord
the people he chose for his inheritance.” – Psalm 33:12

Your Creator wants to hear from you. He loves you.

National Day of Prayer website

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

It is the second day of May and I am fresh off my second cardio workout — a 100% improvement over April (which isn’t saying much). I was also able to get quite a bit taken care of at work yesterday as well as capture and enter all of our family’s spending for our May budget.

Even though April had some goal failures and May might as well, May is definitely off to a good start.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I gave a goal update yesterday in my last blog post and wrote about some of my goal failure. However, less than 12 hours later I am starting May off on the right foot. I just finished my morning cardio — I am tied with my April workouts of 1. And on top of that I am posting which is more than I can say for the last week and a half.

I read a goal philosophy a while ago about, not only setting goals, but keeping momentum and also retracking them if they fall to the wayside. The main focus of the philosophy wasn’t about the setting of the goals nor the achieving of them. The take home message was on the journey of working on the goals mainly because that is where all the hard work is. And if you think about it, it really makes sense.

In the big picture, setting goals really doesn’t take much time or effort. And basking in the accomplishment of finished goals feels really good but probably comes very natural to most of us. The bulk of the effort is in the journey and work of the goals. And so often we let the failure or off track goals get the best of us. We might give up; we might be demoralized; we might even stop all effort. The key at that time is for us to just pick back up, put our nose to the grindstone and get back to working on the goals. Are they behind schedule? Maybe. But time is only ONE element of achieving a goal. There is only one marathon winner, however, I view everyone that completes a marathon a winner only because it is such a lofty physical goal.

It is similar with goal setting. Time is only one element and achieving a goal beyond a set time limit can often be just as rewarding only because the time factor sometimes is only a guess in goal setting. For example, I need to finish working on a will for our family. Ideally, that should be finished fairly soon. However, as long as I continue living, not finishing that item doesn’t have a negative impact. I should not let that demoralizing goal failure keep me from continuing on from accomplishing that goal because ultimately an in-place will is what I want — not an in-place will by Friday.

So today being a new day, being a new month, I am getting back in the saddle and working on retracking my goals. Cardio was first on the list this morning followed by a new post. Check on both of those. And I am looking forward to a much better end of May goal report.

If you have some off track goals like I do, what are you waiting for? Get back on ’em!

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I haven’t done a goal check since the end of January. But not only is April finished, but 2012 is one third over. A good time to see how I am progressing against the goals set back at the beginning of the year.

PERSONAL – 2012 reading list – started 12/27/11
My reading has plummeted although I did finish my sixth book of the year. I am on book #7 but should be on book #9. While I am behind, I plan on pushing through with the expectation of not finishing all 26 books this year as I had planned. However, at this point, I am way ahead of my book reading from last year. So this goal, while I am failing at, was a stretch goal that I am OK with progress on so far. The key is to keep going.

SPIRITUAL – Read through the Bible in a year – started 12/28/11
I am about three weeks behind my daily readings. Combine this goal with my daily morning devotionals and 2012 book reading list and you see that I bit off a lot of reading this year. However, this goal like my book reading list is even more so one that requires persistence and perseverance. Along with my morning devotions, I will continue on with my reading through the Bible in a year. Currently, I am in 1 Samuel and Luke (my readings are one from the OT and one from the NT each day).

FINANCIAL – Future proof my life

Meet with an attorney and have a living will for me and my wife. – COMPLETE 1/26/12
Meet with an attorney and have a will for our family created. – started 1/24/11 and in progress
Implement Financial Peace Jr. for our kids. – COMPLETE; implemented 1/02/12 and functioning flawlessly
Review of life, home, and auto insurance plans. – still outstanding

I have made no progress on the legal side of my financial goals but our Financial Peace Jr with the kids is right on target and my wife and I are doing OK with the cash envelope system.

PHYSICAL – Exercise routine that maintains 190 lbs – started 12/27/11
I don’t need a screenshot to demonstrate my failure on this goal. I have only had one — yes, 1 — cardio workout for the month of April. Technically, the few times I have gone outside and played soccer or baseball with the kids counts because it sure got my heart rate and breathing up, but I’m not counting it. Total fail on this goal.

So my goals are not exactly on track and I obviously have not been putting time into frequent postings on this blog. So what HAVE I been spending my time on? Here is a short summary list:

• building a chicken coop out of free materials
• getting all the landscaping prepped for Spring
• prepping the garden
• hosting dear friends from Texas who RVed up here to hang out
• dealing with challenging work issues
• running up to IWU — my oldest daughter’s school — twice for a total of over 1000 miles
• hosting my boss, boss’s boss, and work team during their visit
• miscellaneous honey do’s that, alone, don’t qualify for a bullet point, but if left undone make lots of noise

Now back to work on my goals. I hope to have a better report next month and at 1/2 year point.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

My last two morning devotionals have contained some real gems for spiritual growth. In addition to Scripture, it was the notes from my Life Application Study Bible that positively impacted me.

John 1:35
(This particular note is even highlighted in my Bible) — We may find that words of faith come easily, but deep appreciation for Christ comes with living by faith.

2 Peter 1:5-9 — “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.

Faith must be more than belief in certain facts; it must result in action, growth in Christian character, and the practice of moral discipline, or it will die away. Peter lists several of faith’s actions: learning to know God better, developing perseverance, doing God’s will, loving others. These actions do not come automatically; they require hard work. They are not optional; all of them must be a continual part of the Christian life. We don’t finish one and start on the next, but we work on them all together. God empowers and enables us, be he also gives us the responsibility to learn and to grow.

So my summary would be:
Living by faith:

• results in action — loving others
• growth in Christian character
• practice of moral discipline

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

I was following my normal protocol and listening to Dave Ramsey’s podcast on the way home from work and he went into how to buy a used car for the best deal. He went into specifically how he bought a used truck a while ago and shared his experience. However, it was the verbiage and direction this talk took that cracked me up.

“Do you remember when gas shot up to 5 dollars a couple of years ago? I bought a killer Chevy Silverado used; it was an older truck about 5 years old and it had 90,000 miles on it. But it has the big engine in it; my goal is to personally mess up Al Gore’s life. And so I want a big carbon footprint; I want to burn big engines, lots of gas. I’m a gas hog, I like big engines. I’m a boy. And so I want a truck that I can put a Prius in the back of it. OK, that’s what I want. And so, you drive what you want to drive. You want to drive a Prius, that’s ok. I’m not mad at you. That’s just what I was after. And I got the biggest honkin’ engine that Chevy makes and puts in there. It’s awesome! And I was looking for a red truck. Yes, I’m a redneck. I’m a hillbilly. I wanted a red truck and I put so much chrome on it that it’s ridiculous.”

Dave Ramsey has done a lot of good, not only in my family, but in his financial ministry and community giving. But his stock just went up tenfold when he said that statement about Al Gore. I actually laughed out loud in my car.

…..Dan at aslowerpace dot net

To the woman who completes me,
who has shared our family journey,
who is yoked with me as a team for Christ,
who bore the three blessings I call my children,
who dwells in our blessings and perseveres in our trials,
who overlooks my flaws and boasts in my talents,
who exudes beauty and grace and love,

Thank you for choosing me and saying “yes”,
for honoring our covenant and bringing joy to my life.

I love you!
…..D