12 weeks ago I was 265lbs
Would you support a patreon?
If I put a patreon link on this site would that be like a thing that people would be into?
A pondering quandry.
I feel like this kind of question is actually way too early.
Like I’ve just started wanting to put stuff here regularly. The site is about having a creative outlet and a place to experiment and grow so this feels early.
Now flipside dupry time.
If I get more support I can do more. I also wouldn’t have to rely on ads as much and could scale those back.
I know it’s a weird ask but let me know what you think in the comments.
I’m earnestly asking for feedback to feel to make your thoughts lmown
Silly Daddy
When you think of a dad what do you think of?
Do you think of someone that plays around? Makes voices even though they’re not that good?
Do you think of a person that is silly?
For many the answer is probably not.
But you know what? That presents you with an opportunity. Do you want to fall into the groove that was put before you? Or do you want to do something different?
New addition to the squad
After many months we’re happy to announce that Dean is ready for the world!
Our second child Dean Brown was born while I was taking a break from developing the site.
This baby has been such a blessing to our family.
It blows my mind but he’s even more relaxed and chill than our first son. He has to be the chillest baby on planet, no the galaxy, no the multiverse…alright that might be hyperbole but he’s still pretty damn chill.
It has been such a blessing being to see Porter adjust to being an older brother.
From the moment they saw each other you could just sense something special about the two of them. The first thing porter did when he saw Dean was say hello and sing to him.
It was heart stoppingly adorable.
Dean laid there focusing on Porter, which is impressive cause 3 day old babys dont really focus on much.
I know I’m really hammering home the message here but its so rewarding welcoming our new addition to the family.
Sure he cries and fusses but at the end of the day his smile and warm nature make it all worthwhile.
Once more good friends
So after sometime, all be it a lot of time, I’ve come back to the site. Behold friends I am returned tired yet dedicated and renewed all at once.
So, I’m becoming more and more aware of how much I say “so”, I’m so excited to start getting involved again.
I feel like I’ve started the project so many times and each time been defeated by my own expectations of what I want this space to be and by god its stopped me everytime.
So, as a result, I am trying something new and I’m changing it up.
If you are a supporter of the site thank you very much. It’s my hope that changing the format and not over thinking things on here will be a positive effect.
5 Gift Ideas New Parents Need
Disclaimer: I use affiliate links in this article
Parenting is hard. Anyone that tells you otherwise is selling something. New parents need lots of support and help as they transition into their new roles. They are now caring for a human being. That’s a task many of us have never had to do before.
There are a couple of things that you’ll need that will make becoming a parents easier.
In fact they are things that new parents need in order to host a newborn baby in your life.
Crib
Your little one is going to have to sleep somewhere won’t they? Your little one is going spend the majority of their time sleeping and crying. Most newborns sleep 16 – 18 hours a day according to babycenter.com and my own experience.
The catch, they do that time in sprints of 1-2 hours. Here’s the hopeful side of that. All new parents have gone through it so you can make it through as well.
They come in practically every material and style so it comes down to personal taste most of the time. There’s a lot of different types on the market but you want to make sure they have a couple of things.
I’m personally a fan of convertible cribs. They are a great value since once your baby turns into a toddler and is ready to try out sleeping in a bed your all set. As the child grows you can lower the crib so they can get in and out of bed easily.
The main thing you want to make sure of is that whatever crib has unobstructed bars on the side.
This is so when your little one starts rolling around in the crib if they bump up against the side they still can get air.
You’ll see bumper pads for cribs but I’m pretty against those. My worry has always been that if they roll over onto the pad they might not have enough strength yet to get off.
As a parent I just never felt it was worth the risk.
They need to have plenty of room for your little one to grow. At first your newborn will not be moving much however as they grow that will all change. You want to make sure there is enough room for your baby to grow without needing to buy another crib down the road.
You want to make sure there is enough room for your baby to grow without needing to buy another crib down the road.
Hence as I mentioned above I recommend convertible cribs. They are a really great value purchase in my opinion.
If your interested click here to see a list of top 10 cribs on Amazon
Baby Monitor
Now that new parents have a place to put their little bundle of joy the next thing they’ll need is a baby monitor.
When my wife and I were new parents we were glued to this thing. Is the baby about to wake up? How long has it been since they last woke up? Is it time to feed them or do they need a change? All those thoughts run through your head in an instant after a while.
The baby monitor is peace of mind. They let you eavesdrop on your little one without the risk of waking them up.
I recommend a baby monitor with a camera attachment. It’s something that I wish we had sprung for last time and we’ll be sure to do when our next one arrives. Having the ability to look in on your new baby vs. listening to your new baby is just such a game changer.
Yes, monitors with video are a little more pricey but in my opinion they are worth every cent.
There are several styles to choose from so you can feel free to click here to see the top 10 baby monitors
Stroller
Another item that you are going to get very attached to is your stroller.
Other than the crib I think most infants spend alot of their time in the stroller being pushed around.
The stroller gives new parents ease of movement so you can go out to the store, buy groceries, go for walks at the park or beach. A good stroller can be a life saver while a bad stroller can be just a pain in the neck.
A good stroller has 3 things.
One, good carrying capacity. There are a ton of things that you carry around as new parents. Everything from diapers to sunscreen so you’re going to naturally need somewhere to put it. You’ll carry it in the diaper bag primarily but your stroller will be the next storage location for alot of things.
Two, easy folding. One of the most frustrating situations I’ve ever found myself in as a new parent involved a stroller. I was alone in a parking lot with a screaming infant while I flailed with a stroller trying to fold it up. Every moment this thing didn’t do what I thought it should was stretched to eternity. I couldn’t help my son and fold at the same time.
After fighting with this demon stroller I drove over to Babys R Us and I bought a new on that folded sanely. It cost me more than the other stroller but lord on high was it worth every penny.
Third, it should move smoothly. You don’t want a jerky stroller. I’m a fan of strollers with three wheels personally. They always seemed to be more stable and smooth in my experience. The traditional four-wheel stroller is fine as well but that tri-wheel set up just glided like butter when we upgraded.
Please feel free to Click here for the top strollers on Amazon in order to decide for yourself.
Diapers
Hey, it’s an article about newborns so we’re going to talk about diapers at some point.
If your unsure what to get a new parent chances are high they need diapers. They might be doing cloth diapers in which case nevermind.
My advice here is to ask the parent which brand they prefer and purchase that for them. Parents are really particular about which diapers they use for their children. Each parent finds that one brand that hits them just right. Perhaps the straps secure just the right way on their child. Perhaps another brand gave their infant a rash and they legitimately can’t use them.
Point being. Just ask. The parents will be flattered your were thinking about them and spent the time to ask them for their preference.
Headphones
It sounds funny but it’s a lifesaver.
I spent more time laying on a couch with a sleeping baby on my chest than I remember. When you’re awake and your kid is asleep on your chest, boredom is the enemy. You can only wonder at and watch your child sleep for so long. Before long you start counting things around your place to pass the time.
A solid pair of headphones will save your life.
I recommend sleeping while your little one is tired. If that just isn’t in the cards for whatever reason catch up on some TV. You’re a new parent with time on their hands feel free to use it. I’d recommend something mindless that won’t require a lot of brainpower. You’ll be sleep deprived so don’t expect your brain to be working a full capacity.
There was one sleepless night where my wife and I were trying to figure out how much formula to give our son. In our stupor we could not for the life of us figure out the fraction that the instructions what us to give him. We are both college educated individuals but this little bottle of water and powder had defeated us.
Don’t worry we got it eventually but I was so frustrated that it was so hard. Wel,l we were working on minimal sleep and when that happens the brain gets a little loopy. Just make sure to give each other grace, understanding, and love and you’ll be fine.
Back to headphones. I’d recommend the in-ear type versus the over the ear. The over the hear type has better sound quality but it could cut down what you can hear. When your baby starts waking up again or your partner is trying to get a hold of you it will matter.
I’ve linked to a best of list here for headphones so feel free to have a look by clicking here for top 7 bluetooth headphones.
Books for Parents
A little bonus item here at the very end.
There are spectacular writers out there publishing great books on parenting. These are the heavy hitters so read up! The can be a gold mine for new parents looking for advice. Improving yourself intentionally through reading is a wonderful practice. I wrote another article on the subject of learning so feel free to click here to read it.
Being intentional about the type of parent you want to become is step one in becoming a great parent.
Conclusion
Becoming a parent is never easy. In my experience there are few people that would honestly say that transitioning to parenthood is a breeze.
I wish it really was as easy as reading a couple books and making a couple plans. But the hard truth is that parenting takes work. It takes grit to parent a child and it doesn’t happen overnight.
I hope that this article was useful to you. If you enjoyed it please feel free to subscribe to my newsletter to keep up with content that I’m making.
3 Parenting Styles you should know
Parenting
Like anything in life parenting requires intentionality. Choosing a parenting style can sometimes be more stressful than actually parenting the child at times.
As parents we have a big responsibility. We are responsible for equipping a future human being for the next 70+ years of life.
I’ll give you a second to take a deep breath. Breathe in, now breathe out.
Are you kidding me! We get to help mold and shape this future human and there is no handbook, no how to wiki on this stuff worth mentioning. When you leave the hospital with your kid no one stops you!
It’s the craziest thing that sarcasm can concoct.
Joking aside it’s a big thing that you’ve been handed. How do we do our best so that we can DO our best.
What are the main parenting styles?
The three big parenting styles are authoritative, authoritarian and permissive.
Authoritative parents are firm, loving and kind. They set boundaries and expect their children to abide by them. Neither overly strict nor overly indulgent, authoritative parents strike a good balance between expectations that are too high and expectations that are too low.
Authoritarian parents 
Permissive parents are indulgent, not wanting to impose their will on their child’s developing personality. They often set no rules and have no consequences. They might cause their child to avoid even natural or logical consequences in order to save him from perceived harm, unhappiness or hurt feelings.
There are many subsets within each of these parenting styles but in general most parents fall into one of these. I personally fall into the authoritarian category even though I am trying to make the transition to authoritative.
If you’re interested in learning more I’d encourage you to dig into each style and see what appeals to you most. You’re not locking into a fixed parenting style but in my opinion it will be easier if you have something in ready to go for when the little one gets here.
If you’d like to learn more about parenting feel free to click here for the Top 20 Parenting Materials
Be consistent with a parenting style
Your little one is looking to you for how to act and what to be.
You are the first and most intimate role model that your child will have. The biggest thing in their life during the most formative time in their life is you.
You are the first and most intimate role model
Consistency is the key in this game. You can modify your style as you go but try not to pivot on a dime. Real talk, I did that with disastrous results.
Try to make your adjustments as smooth as possible. Remember that your little one is playing catch up to the new rules and expectations that your setting for them.
They want to play the game so let them learn how to play it before you start putting them in the penalty box.
Dont be afraid to adjust but know that the longer you’re in a chosen style the more effort it will take to pivot.
At the end of the day you’ll choose the parenting style that is right for you.
No one knows what they are doing
Here’s the earnest truth about parenting. We’re all making it up as we go along. There is no one size fit all guaranteed method to raising your child. You’re going to be up late and you’re going to be tired. In those moments you’ll find a strength in you that perhaps you didn’t feel you had.
We measure what we treasure.
You’ll love your little one so much that eventually you won’t measure of how little sleep you’re getting. You’ll measure how many belly laughs they’ve had. Sooner than you think you’ll measure how many cute faces they make at 2 in the morning. Your treasure will shift and your parenting style will shift with it.
I hope this was helpful and if you would like to hear from me more please feel free to subscribe to the newsletter for posts direct to you.
I wish you the best of luck as you become a parent.
Learning: The Best Self Care There Is
I firmly believe that books are one the best way to train your mind for learning.
Books allow us to go to different worlds, learn new skill or concepts, and to expand our minds. They are keys into the realm of possibilities that we perhaps never imagined. Reading can inspire new ideas, hopes, and new lives. If we open ourselves up to the stories and narratives that they can evoke in us.
However many of use are crunched for time during our busy lives. Whether you’re a parent, student, or entrepreneur acquiring, comprehending, and implementing knowledge is crucial.
So then let’s ask the next question how do I maximize getting the most of what I need? How can we get this important content and experiences into ourselves best?
One way is with audiobooks which are a great way to get all of that goodness that you can get from books while you’re doing other tasks. Having an audiobook at the gym or while I’m driving through traffic has been immensely beneficial to me personally.
There are several benefits that you can glean from reading and by association listening to audiobooks.
For starters, studies have shown that people that read are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s and Dementia. I don’t know about you but I’d like to be just as sharp at 80 as I am today. For my own quality of life but also so that my children and grandchildren can enjoy their time with me.
Another benefit of reading is a broader breadth of knowledge. Many people want to be specialists in a particular field. That can have benefits, no one is knocking that but there is such a thing as specializing too much.
If you only read one point of view then that all you will be able to imagine. Absorb information that looks at issues and problems from different angles.
You could be radically inspired.
Who knows reading about business services planner turned CIA asset could give you the eureka moment. Diversify your knowledge, expand your mind through imagination, get inspired!
I remember listening to an audio version of Ender’s Game and Game of Thrones while I was at the gym. Those were hours of pumping iron that I started to look forward to since it meant that I could enjoy these stories. All while my body was improving itself.
My mind could escape into these worlds and I wasn’t a man trapped on a treadmill. I was along for the ride as Ender commanded fleets and the schemes of Game of Thrones in Westeros unfolded.
What then is the most useful thing that we can be doing right now the most? In my opinion learning how to learn is a great place to start.
For many of us we develop methods of learning while in school or even younger. However, this is a process that I believe should be done throughout your entire adult life. We should be constantly exploring, poking and prodding things that excite and fascinate us.
The ability to learn and then turn that knowledge into real world applications are two of the base abilities for success in this world. They are foundational for pursuing your goals both relationally and professionally. If you aren’t willing to learn you will only understand what you already know.
Secondly, you need to be able to do something with what you’ve learned.
Acquiring knowledge is good however acquiring it is not the end goal. The end goal is to do or make something that will make the world better. It’s not rocket science but if you’re teachable and can learn. You could become a rocket scientist or a criminal defense attorney someday. All because you had everything that we’ve been talking about. You could even become the best criminal defense lawyer in Arizona if that’s your dream, skies the limit folks!
There are a couple of different services that offer audiobooks however the most ubiquitous is Audible.com. Audible is an Amazon company that specializes in providing audiobooks to Amazon customers. Because Amazon leverages so much market publishers want to have their audiobook available on Audible. The service is pretty good and they do offer a 30 day free trial to test it out.
I would at least give them a try and see how it goes. If you like it keep listening if not just cancel and you’ve really lost nothing in the bargain.
I hope that this helped you and inspires you to be encouraged towards lifelong learning.
Together we will leave the world a brighter place than we found it.
Gospel Reading For Those That Struggle
Reading and understanding are so important as Christians now more than ever.
It is so hard to stay encouraged and inspired day to day. It’s not a new observation to state that our world has become increasingly loud and overbearing. We have our attention split so many different ways managing so many different facets of our life that it’s hard to carve out dedicated to just sit and talk with God.
We talk a lot about intentionality which makes sense our time is a finite resource and so moving towards using that resource strategically makes sense. We are intentional with our friends, we are intentional with our career, we are intentional with our health well then why wouldn’t we be intentional with our relationship with God and intentional with our spiritual health.
Here are 4 books that I have found helpful in my journey as a Christian and I really hope that they are encouraging, inspiring, and helpful for you as well.
More
More is a spectacular book about cultivating an intentional intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit and dispelling weirdness about prayer. More is written by Alan Kraft who has served as lead pastor of Christ Community Church since 1990 and he has a passion for helping people to experience the freedom of the gospel and the fullness of the Spirit.
Again speaking from my Catholic background I feel like Holy Spirit is the most mysterious and least understood component of the Trinity. It’s often described by people in a couple different ways but at its core I believe that it’s one of the most intimate avenues in which the Lord speaks to us. It’s like if you were on a road trip Jesus in the form of the Holy Spirit is your road trip buddy. The spirit is your companion on the road trip that is your life, sharing your experiences and pointing out rad spots along the way. Whether we allow the spirit to be the driver of that car is really another question.
Kraft gives practical structured advice on how we can better hear the spirit in our life. Whether that is hearing the spirit speak to us during prayer or when the Lord uses someone in our life to convey a message from the spirit to us More helps us to, as the author says, not be weird about prayer. Many Christians that I’ve talked to have a rocky relationship with the spirit largely in part due to overly charismatic church movements including the lie of the prosperity gospel.
Do not get me wrong spiritual gifts are biblical there is nothing wrong with them, however, there is something wrong with trying to use those gifts from a wrong heart perspective.
A Praying Life: Connecting With God In A Distracting World
A part of “A praying life” is Paul Millers fervent refusal to separate your spiritual life from the rest of your daily life. Just like any relationship that we have with anyone communication is key. If we meet someone and then never talk to them ever again what would you call that? Now if you meet someone and you share your life with them and they share theirs with you and you talk intimately daily what you would call that? Which would you prefer? Miller makes a case for constant and intimate communication with Jesus Christ in everything that we do in this book.
Married life? You’re going to get in an argument so talk to Christ about that. Stressed about money? Lay that anxiety down at the feet of Jesus while you contempt what life he is calling you to. While I haven’t finished the book it has come highly recommended to me by many church leaders in our community.
Author Paul E. Miller is Executive Director of seeJesus, a global discipleship ministry which he founded in 1999 to help Christians and non-Christians alike “see Jesus.”
Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary
Gospel is an amazing book by JD Greer, a church favorite author, shows how moralism and legalism have often eclipsed the gospel even within conservative churches. Greer explains how moralism and legalism can strangle the message of Jesus Christ when we forget God’s gracious pursuit of sinners.
The book deals with many topics however the goal is attempting to reshape our heart into on the one the actively desires more of God in every aspect of our lives. The early church was possessed of a radical concept. That God loves sinners, he loves us so much that he sent his one and only son to die so that we could be reconciled back to the father’s love. Then he desired us so much that he instilled in each and every one of us the holy spirit in order to constantly point us back to the truth of God’s love.
Timothy Keller, another Christian author once wrote “You are more sinful than you know and more loved than you realize” and I believe that is true. Jesus loves us more than we hate our sins and isn’t that incredible.
Jesus on Every Page: 10 Simple Ways to Seek and Find Christ in the Old Testament
Jesus on every page is a book that was very interesting as it puts forth the big picture that everything in the old testament foreshadows Jesus’s story.
Dr. David Murray is Professor of Old Testament and Practical Theology at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He was ordained to the ministry in 1995 and has pastored two churches in Scotland for 12 years.
As I’ve mentioned before I previously had a very academic perspective on the bible and the teaching of Jesus and this led me to consider the bible to be telling two stories instead of one grand and wonderful narrative. The old testament was one story and the new testament was the sequel taking the story in a new direction. However, Murray says that’s not true. It’s all one story with one hero in the form of Jesus.
I hope this guide was helpful in encouraging you to read more and to have a closer relationship with God.