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It’s weird to know that we’re living in one of those moments that will be permanently etched into the pages of the history books, isn’t it? Even more, it’s weird that this event has escalated to the point that it won’t be relegated strictly to the history books. No, COVID-19 will find its way into virtually every other textbook as well: science and biology and finance and management and IT and economics and supply chain management and political science and psychology and journalism and education and nursing. It’s our kids’ “Back in my day…” story. It’s our “Remember when…”  Read more... (1091 words, 1 image, estimated 4:22 mins reading time)

1. Create an Apocalypse List #Apocalist

2. Absent a label-maker, use a sharpie to pointlessly label your food.

3. Play dress-up with your pet. Warning: your pet may loose all respect for you as seen below.

4. Play hide and see…without anyone else…with candy.

5. Send an Amazon care package to a friend or family member with young kids. For example, LEGOS! (Thank you, Nana!)

6. Dance party!

7. Read my book. I’ll send a free copy to a couple people at random who comment and/or share this post on Facebook.

Was that plug shameless enough? I think so.

8. Overreact to trick shots.

Now, on a more serious note…

9. Have your kids draw some pictures for or write some notes to local nursing home residents.

10. Buy a gift card or two to a local business.

Background

For those of you who don’t know us, 2019 was the worst year of our lives. On May 4, a series of severe, uncontrollable seizures forced us to induce our son, Isaiah, into a coma. For two months, every attempt to bring him back was met with a return of persistent, relentless seizure activity. We spent every second on edge as we watched our son fight for his life. In the search for answers, we worked with doctors from Pediatric ICU, Neurology, Rheumatology, Nephrology, Infectious Disease, Immunology, Endocrinology, Pulmonology, Palliative Care, and Hematology. In addition to countless blood draws, IVs, tests, EKGs, x-rays, and constant EEG monitoring, Isaiah endured three spinal taps, two CT scans, four brain MRIs, two full-body MRIs, three days of hypothermia, two high-dose steroid treatments, three feeding tubes, a blood transfusion, four failed attempts at burst suppression, five rounds of plasmapheresis, 37 days on a ventilator, 41 days in ICU, and 89 days total in the hospital. We watched his vitals crash time and time again and came very, very close to losing him more times that I can count. It was by far the deepest, most prolonged, and most consuming suffering we’ve ever experienced.  Read more... (3560 words, 3 images, estimated 14:14 mins reading time)

It’s been two weeks since the release of the book. Here’s the latest.  Read more... (706 words, 1 image, estimated 2:49 mins reading time)

As many of you are aware, we have quite a lot of things going on in our life in 2020 (well, we’ve always had a lot going on…but especially in 2020). Yes, I’ve recently released my book; but despite this blog and my social media accounts functioning as annoying and repeated pop-up ads for my book (sorry, it’s the only way I know how to market it), my little book is actually one of the least important things in our world this year. Sure, I’d love for it to do well; but our son’s ongoing health issues continue to be our priority (the book was written prior to his health issues).  Read more... (1065 words, estimated 4:16 mins reading time)

I hate promoting things, especially myself. 1) I’m not good at it. 2) It makes me uncomfortable. So, when the time came to market my book, I studied as much as I could in an effort to, well, not fail miserably. Perhaps some of the lessons I learned will help you in your marketing efforts. Here are 5 Facebook marketing tips that will hopefully improve your own marketing endeavors.  Read more... (973 words, estimated 3:54 mins reading time)

Two of my favorite books of the last decade are Love Does and Everybody, Always. Bob Goff ranks among my heroes. There are several reasons Bob’s stories resonate with me so strongly, but here’s the biggest one:  Read more... (405 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)