I’ve been doing some phone banking for local political candidates over the last few months on a volunteer basis, and I’ve learned several things from this experience. For one, one big reason that campaigns do it is simply for name recognition. The more times you hear or see a candidate’s name, the more likely you

Over the last few months, I’ve been involved in the design and development process of a board game. It’s been an interesting experience, to say the least. For starters, a good game is simple to play, yet whenever you find a rough spot in the rules of a game you’re making, there’s a desire to

The walls of my office are slowly becoming covered in child art. First, I hung up a rather nice comic strip that my six year old son drew. Then, my daughter drew an enormous rainbow heart with the word “Dad” on it and asked me to hang it up. This opened up the floodgates. Now

It’s easy to have a child. It’s not nearly as easy to raise one well. The key thing to remember as a parent is that children need to push boundaries sometimes. They need to do things wrong and discover the consequences of doing so. It is incredibly easy to get frustrated with this when your

Lately, my children have been spending their evenings catching insects of various kinds. They run out into the field behind our house, try to catch crickets and grasshoppers with their hands, and run back to show me the things they’ve captured. This has been a wonderful chance to teach them about being kind to living

My oldest son is progressing like crazy with his reading skills. He’s reached the point where he can piece through a lot of picture books, only stopping every once in a while to ask abou a word. He seems to be devouring almost every printed thing he can find. Sarah and I are encouraging this,

For those who’ve missed the hints over the last week or so, I’ve been working on the Couch 2 5K program. I’ve tried going through it before, but I pushed myself too hard through it and wound up with an ankle injury. This time, I’m taking it slower. If I can’t execute a week without

After my article last week on free online books, I wound up downloading all of the novels by Charles Dickens to my Kindle with the intent of re-reading all of them in the near future. I read them all so long ago that I only remember bits and pieces of the plots and some of

My two oldest children are starting school in a week or so. My oldest child is returning to school, but it’s a new thing for my daughter. In any case, school supplies and such are starting to become a noticeable expense. Both children have a nice long school supply list and their fall clothes (which

Over a three-and-a-half week period, our family is jamming in a trip to northern Iowa/southern Minnesota, a trip to Seattle, a trip to Chicago, and a trip to Indianapolis. This means a lot of traveling. A lot of time spent in cars. A lot of time spent sleeping away from home. A lot of children

I read a lot of personal finance and personal growth sites, a list that changes all the time. My weekly links for this are harvested from that reading. For the most part, I like articles that have an angle I haven’t thought of, have a nice human touch, or else express an idea very well,

I try to eat breakfast each day, but I try to not eat it right when I get up. Instead, I wait until I actually feel hungry for it (mid-morning, around 9:30) and then eat a late lunch. I’ve found this works really well for me. It actually results in me eating a smaller lunch

I enjoy dressing well when the occasion deserves it, but one of the real perks of working from home is the ultra-casual dress I can get away with most of the time. I can work in my pajamas. I can work in a wrinkly t-shirt. Not only are these things comfortable, they also cut down

I’ve been struggling for several months with a novel I’ve been working on. It’s been hard to make any progress, mostly because I was having a very hard time with the motivation of one of the primary characters. Suddenly, on Saturday, it all clicked. I had a giant breakthrough. Now, I almost can’t stop working

My natural tendency when I’m in a big group is to clam up and avoid people. I often remember going to professional conventions in my previous career where I would just lock up and look for a way to avoid eye contact, often ending up back in my hotel room. Over the years, I’ve mastered

My office is slowly being decorated with art from my children. It started simple. I had a Post-It note on my computer screen from my two oldest children in which they each wrote “DAD I LOVE YOU.” Then my oldest son spent a very long time drawing an elaborate scene in which various superheroes were

While preparing for our family’s trip to South Dakota and Wyoming this summer, I spent a lot of time researching how to save money on vacations. This week, I thought I’d share some of the best articles I found on that topic. Planning a Debt-Free Dream Vacation This actually echoes many of the things I

By default, it’s easier for me to relate to and understand my two sons than it is to relate to my daughter. I was once a little boy myself with a personality not too different than my own sons. I was raised in a household with only brothers, no sisters. This means that understanding and

Recently, I learned that U.S. quarters minted before 1965 are actually almost pure silver, meaning that due to the high price of silver, the value of the metal in those quarters is far higher than $0.25. For fun, I’ve been going through a jar full of collected quarters, removing any old ones that I find