By the Numbers

255,555... The number of miles on my car

I'm grateful that my dad taught me to be content with driving old Hondas. They are reliable and get good gas mileage. My parents have never had a car payment. Neither have any of their kids. 

My father-in-law was so generous and for our wedding gave us their '97 Cavalier (less than 2 years old at the time and only had about 40,000 miles). I sold that car for $7K, and bought the '94 Accord with 117,000 miles for $6K. I bet the Cavalier is in a junk yard somewhere. The Accord, on the other hand, is just getting broken in.

Thanks, dad, for reminding me that cars are just metal boxes. Godliness with contentment is great gain.

70 mph... My speed on the Interstate

After Alex's talk on Romans 13, I've been making a concerted effort to obey the law. You can find the message at saltcompany.com

1... The number of farm machines I considered driving under

6:56... The time we put our kids to bed

You can hardly see the time because of all the sunlight reflecting off the clock. We are mean parents.

With our first couple kids, I had this notion that I was depriving them if I didn't let them stay up until 9:00 every night. But we were hanging out with some friends (Scheibe's), and we noticed they were putting their kids, who were older than ours, to bed earlier than we did.

We decided an early bedtime was in order. We found that our kids were much happier, and so were we. 

This early bedtime has also served to save our marriage.

Advice... You don't have to do 7:00, but your little kids probably don't need to be up much past 8. If Benjamin Franklin thinks it's a good idea, then it must be ("Early to bed, early to rise...")

10... The number of garden beds in our back yard

This is the hip way to garden. 

Row gardening is so 90's.

3... The number of books I'm reading

"I'm reading" is code for "books that sit on my nightstand that I look at every night and think, 'that would be a great book to read'...then I turn on the NBA playoffs instead."

Actually, I'm totally loving the Shaara book-it's one of the best WW2 books I've read. It's the first in a WW2 trilogy (thanks, Mikaela!). Mere Christianity is a book I'm trying to revisit on a more regular basis, and 1776 is a book that a friend loaned me (props, Carl). I love engaging history books.

397... Number of my vocal notes that Melodyne fixed

I'm actually not sure how many of my notes were fixed, but if you want to be humbled, record in a studio and have it played back to you without the band. Ouch.

Click here for the technology Todd Wallace has been using to produce the Anthem recording. This stuff is ridiculous. Amazing- especially the bit on changing the notes within a chord (we're still waiting for some of this software to be released).

33... The number of items in my nightstand (i.e. junk) drawer

How many do you count? 

To all the Baptist readers... don't worry, the Swishers only get used once or twice a year.

3... The number of wheels on my lawn mower

Four wheels is over hyped.

It's only fitting to mow with this 3 wheeled beast- it sort of matches the ethos of my yard.

1... The number of items we ordered at the Natural Kind Cafe

Leatha and I happened upon this hippie, organic cafe while we were in Omaha. It's the perfect place to people watch. Believe it or not, this green concoction was our strawberry smoothie. It's not every restaurant that adds chlorella as their secret weapon.

2...the number of people peeking while praying.

 
I have to give Makai credit- he looks very focused on the prayer, unlike me, who was busy taking the picture.

But we all know adults can peek.