Taking that first step...Happy Birthday to me!

Welcome to my first attempt at writing a personal blog. Today (Feb. 1st) happens to be my 40^th birthday so I couldn’t think of a better time than now to get started on one. You could say that I have never shied away from an adventure. When I was younger, my adventures and impulsive decision making probably was more based on being curious and seeing my world as not having much to lose. At age 18 and two weeks out of high school, I used graduation funds to go on a solo trip to Europe for a week. This was experience I could not have gained anywhere else and I will never forget it. Later in college, after a failed attempt of becoming a meteorologist, I packed up all that I owned in my ’94 Chevy Cavalier and moved to California. Well that didn’t work out well and I soon moved back to the Midwest with a new plan and having learned a ton from taking the chance. There was a lot of life in between but it wasn’t until I started having a family and found Christ that my decisions really started to become something that I prayed about and left in the hands of God for direction. This didn’t necessarily make any of my decisions less “crazy” or over the top but as far as I am concerned, were guided by faith and since using God as my compass, these decisions have turned out so much better. Now this blog will find it's theme and purpose eventually, for now, it is an outlet for someone who loves to write, to finally get back in the groove and put thoughts on paper. Writers know that when you get going, you sometimes can’t stop and the theme comes out in the end. Another reason that I wanted to start to blog was a recent decision in my life has really inserted a ton of excitement into my family’s life. In August, 2019, we purchased a new house that sits on a nice piece of land just outside of the small town that my wife grew up in. We had moved back to this small town in 2014 (more to come on this at a later time) but lived in town and actually could see the house that we now live in from our previous back yard. In fact, when we watched the sun go down, we were watching it set on our future home. The one God had placed in our path, the one that with prayerful consideration and a ton of faith, we made the decision to leap into what God was pushing us toward. I am starting this blog because at 40 years old, I feel like we are at the beginning of an amazing adventure, something we were meant to do and I wanted to share our journey and real life experience with you. From “city boy” to living in the country, I can’t wait for all of the adventures that my family is going to have. We have already experienced some new things such as getting to plow a long lane, putting up snow fence, planting trees, getting barn cats (and losing barn cats) and several other things. Planning for the layout of our land and how we can utilize it to honor the gift that God has given us has been very interesting and still a work in progress but implementing this plan is what I intend to focus on with this blog. I’m sure it will provide some humor, some insight and hopefully some inspiration. At age 40, I am taking a class to become a beekeeper. This is something that I have wanted to do since I was a little kid growing up in California. My bees are set to arrive in April so “bee” looking forward to hearing more on this and other "adventures". Never stop learning and never stop praying. Thanks for coming along with us on our journey…