Penny Peddling... The Next Generation!

Hello, friends!

If you are new to this blog, you may not know that back in the day, I had another blog to go alongside this one, called Penny Peddling. I had purchased a bike and wanted to see how long it would take me to "make back" the money I spent on it via not having to pay for gas or parking. A few years, a few stolen bikes, and one kid later, I did eventually end up "in the black" but decided to retire that blog for the sake of time. I still ride and it's still awesome, I just don't write about it.

Honestly, I have no intention of starting the blog up again but what IS really exciting to me is that earlier this week, as part of a father-son outing, Ezra and I got matching bike helmets. Here's the photo.

Don't we look great?! In the summer of 2015, Ezra was first born, so of course I wasn't going to take him riding with me yet. In 2016, he wasn't quite one yet, so his neck control wasn't the greatest. He was still crawling and could just barely take a step or two.

THIS year though, Ezra is as rough and tumble as they come. He's nearly 2 and can run and jump with the best of them (so long as jumping doesn't require having both feet leave the ground at the same time). With Baby #2 on the way, I figured it'd be a good idea to get him a helmet so we can go riding when Meg needs a break. I'll be doing the heavy lifting (or pedaling) and he'll be riding in the trailer. 

We bought the helmets (it was his choice to have the yellow ones) and on Monday he went for his first trailer ride. I was concentrating on the road but Meg said that he had a mesmerized look on his face. He was definitely a fan.

My hope is that Ezra will become as big of a fan of biking as I am. I love the efficiency of the bicycle and the feeling of the wind on my face as I'm riding. I love being able to travel where cars can't tread. I love not having to pay for parking downtown. Here's hoping that Ezra and I can enjoy some of those joys together. 

So, if you're around CoMO this summer and you see a father and son in matching bike helmets, there's a good chance that it's Ezra and me. Make sure to wave... and give us plenty of space. =0). 

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Final Preparations!!!

Hello, friends!

Any day now, Meg and I will welcome our second child into the world. Meg's due date isn't until Star Wars Day (May 4) but we have a feeling our daughter will be coming early. Because of that, we are in full on nesting mode, trying to get everything ready before she arrives and everything gets all sorts of crazy.

Honestly, I needed until the turn of the calendar to April before it really felt like this birth thing was going to happen. When Meg was pregnant with Ezra, someone told me that women feel like mothers as soon as they find out they are pregnant. Men, on the other hand, don't feel like fathers until they actually see and hold their babies. I know that was mostly true with Ezra. I knew in my head that I was a father before he was born but it didn't really hit me until after he was actually out and in my arms. Because of this phenomenon, I'm a little late to the nesting game. Meg has been preparing for months; I'm not getting around to my part. It's led to a few reflections.

Like I've said in a previous post, Meg and I definitely nest differently. When she came up with the list of things that need to be done before our daughter is born, I didn't understand why a lot of the things were on the list. Once explained, they made a lot of sense though. In my mind, I said, "we have enough money to pay for the birth, the bills are paid so we won't have to worry about having the utilities shut off, and we're going to be recycling the birth plan we used for Ezra. We have plenty of clothes and we'll be buying diapers soon. We're ready for this baby!" How very wrong I was. =0).

Can I also say that nesting for your second kid is WAY harder than nesting for your first? You'd think in some ways it was easier. You already have some sense of what you need to get and you already have a lot of it from the last kid. But there was one thing I hadn't taken into account... Ezra.

Understand, I love my little boy to death. I would do anything for him and spending time with him is always the highlight of my day. Still, that doesn't change the fact that he is exhausting and actually not all that helpful in terms of nesting and getting the house ready for the baby. Instead of just focusing on the tasks at hand, we also have to make sure that the little guy doesn't run into the street or jump off the couch. It makes for some interesting adventures in multi-tasking. There's some stuff we just can't do while he's awake, so we have less time to do stuff too. Of course, he's totally worth it, but it does make things harder.

So, friends, if you have a moment in these next two weeks, please be praying for us as we make these final preparations. We are working on relying on Jesus in the midst of these preparations, while also trying to get as much stuff done as we can. Also, if you live in CoMO and want to watch our kid (or clean our house!) for a few hours, we wouldn't automatically turn you down. =0).

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

The Ladder Theory...

Hello, friends!

I was on campus at Lincoln yesterday, eating with a pastor friend of mine and some students. One of the female students was talking about how there was a guy who was interested in her but she wasn't interested in him. The pastor asked, "did you tell him that you're not interested?" Her reply was, "I told him that being friends is really great." He turned to me and say, "you should tell her about Ladder Theory." From there, I proceeded to share with the students Ladder Theory and subsequently blew their minds. The women at the table looked at me like I had just unlocked the mysteries of the universe. The men at the time shook their heads in kind of sad understanding. It was a pretty beautiful thing.

OK, what is Ladder Theory? I'm glad you asked! In a nutshell, Ladder Theory is a helpful analogy I like to use to show that men and women think about the opposite sex differently from one another. I don't remember if I developed it in high school or college. I don't remember if it was told to me or if I came up with it on my own. If someone knows the answers to these mysteries, please let me know. What I do know is that ladder theory has helped me explain to many a student that men and women are very different creatures when it comes to relationships. Let's dive a little deeper, shall we?

Women have 2 internal ladders when it comes to men (note: I am using hetero-sexual men and women in my explanation for the sake of simplicity). Ladder One is the friend ladder. On this ladder is every guy she knows who she would never consider dating or being in a relationship with. Men can move up and down the friend ladder based on their actions (or lack of action) but the woman will only see them as a better or worse friend. Ladder Two is the potential partner ladder. This is the ladder where she puts the men who could possibly be her partner. Again, men can move up or down this ladder based on their action or inaction but if you're on this ladder, there's always a chance. Women have the full power and authority to move a man from one ladder to the other ladder and to do that as many times as they please. It's their ladder. If a man tries to make the jump from Ladder One to Ladder Two, he falls into the Abyss, where his best case scenario is that he goes back down to the bottom of Ladder One. See Jason Chu's video "DTR" to see this in action.

Men have one ladder. It's the "yeah, I could see it happening" Ladder. Every woman they've ever met is on it.

Conflict and confusion arises because men and women don't know that they are operating with different ladder structures. Men don't know that there is a friend ladder. Women don't know that there isn't. Here's a common scenario: Gal is nice to guy. Guy sees this as evidence of attraction. Guy talks to all his guy friends who confirm this and encourage him to pursue a relationship. Guy goes for it. Gal is blindsided. Awkwardness ensues. Why does this happen? Ladder Theory.

There are a few caveats to make here. The first is that once a man gets married, he may be able to develop a friend ladder. I haven't worked out the mechanics of this quite yet but I do know that once Meg and I got married, the prospect or desire to be with anyone else went away and it won't be coming back ever. I should also note that it's just a theory and that I'm sure anecdotally we all know a guy or gal who has more or fewer ladders than the theory suggests. And, it should also be noted that this theory does not take into account members of the LGBTQ community. I could see some potential nuances and differences but I haven't explored them in great deal. Finally, this is just a fun theory of mine. I have no real scientific evidence to back this up. =0).

Either way, it was fun to share with students one of my crazy little theories. I've found it to be helpful for students. Feel free to take it as your own.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

More Workers for the Harvest

Hello, friends!

Last night, Mid-MO had its first ever Volunteer Recruitment event. Our staff team invited people that we know that love Jesus to partner with us by donating their time and expertise to joining us in the work that we're doing on campus. We had a student testimony, a panel discussion of current volunteers, and tons of great food. As I was reflecting on our whole process today, I had a few thoughts:

The Calendar Matters: We had a fundraising dinner last year and we put it in June, which was too late in the year because we had a lot of people travelling during that season. This year, we decided that if we were going to do something, it needed to be in April. Because of other calendar conflicts, we chose April 1, which happened to be Spring Break in CoMO, meaning a lot more people couldn't make it because of scheduling. We'll definitely have to be more aware of these things in the future.

The Team Matters: I was telling our team this before the event got started, how excited I was that I actually had no intimate knowledge of the fine details of the event besides my own small portion, and that I was totally excited by that. Everyone did a great job on the team and it was great to see us all working together. Even just a few years ago, an event like that would have probably meant me being in charge of every little aspect. Instead, everyone had a role, everyone did their job, and the night went on without a hitch.

The Vision Matters: My job was just to give a 10-15 minute overview of what InterVarsity is and then do the pitch for folk to consider volunteering with us. As I was putting together my piece, I was reminded of how much God has done already in Mid-MO and yet how much He is still planning on doing. I could have gone in a bunch of different directions for the talk; the hard sales pitch, the "we need you desperately" line, the "this is so much fun" train, or something else. Instead, I felt like God was saying to remember that He was the one doing all this, and to tell the people of His great works, inviting them into that process. We'll see how it worked.

If you're someone who is living in CoMO and are interested in maybe being a part of the work that we're doing, even if just for an hour a week, we'd love to talk to you! You can email me here and we can set up a time to connect.

Have an excellent day!

~Adam

Our volunteer staff panel! Hooray for volunteers!