2006. That was the last year anyone could possibly describe our family as “normal.” 2007 and beyond–not so much. Between June of 2007 and March of 2009, our family doubled in size from 4 to 8. All six kids of ours were under the age of six years old. Four of them were still wearing diapers. Goodbye, normal (*shameless plug* read more about that journey in my book). Not too long after, our family grew by one more. Here’s the ultra-short version of that story: our teenage neighbor found herself in a tough spot in need of a change. That change ended up being a move into our house. Hello, insanity. Our life was crazy, and we loved it. Fast forward to 2015. We now have 8 kids at home, ages 11, 9, 9, 8, 8, 6, 1, and 1 month. Our favorite teenager is living it up in College Station as an awesome Aggie at A&M.  Read more... (821 words, estimated 3:17 mins reading time)

Location, Location, Location.

Why is this real estate rule #1? Forget the usual reasons of resale value and such. Let’s talk about time. When you have a family as large as mine (or a family of any size, really), you quickly realize that time is your most precious commodity. When my wife and I were house hunting, we intentionally confined our search to locations that were in close proximity to my office. I now live one minute from my office. Literally. My daily commute time: 2 minutes. It’s glorious.  Read more... (572 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

My wife and I have 8 kids. As those of you with large families know, one thing that happens when you have a lot of kids (in addition to a higher-than-average number of awkward discussions with strangers at Walmart) is that you find yourself in the middle of tons of conversations about parenting. Throughout our conversations, it has occurred to me that many parents are unaware of the parenting wisdom that lies beyond the “parenting” section of the book store or iTunes or Kindle store. Here are 5 books I’ve run across this year that, while they contain some great parenting wisdom, won’t be found in the “parenting” section.  Read more... (450 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Cliff notes: Please do me a favor. 1. Go here: http://www.smelter.com/79cbb3a. 2. Click the “give feedback” button. 3. Submit an answer (or answers) to one or more of the questions I have listed. 4. Feel free to pass this along to anyone whom you feel would give interesting responses. Thanks!  Read more... (299 words, estimated 1:12 mins reading time)

I was in a rush. I left my little black notebook sitting on our bathroom counter. That night my wife saw it and began reading. She thought I had purposely left it there as a part of some well thought out romantic gesture. Wrong. I couldn’t lie. I had to tell her the truth. I had left it laying there by accident. It was a gift that she wasn’t meant to have received…yet. Argh.  Read more... (396 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

As you might imagine, hauling our family of 10 to Kenya produced a lifetime of stories. It’s difficult to know where to start. For now, I’m going to tell you a couple stories about some of our new African friends, because our new African friends are simply amazing.  Read more... (1627 words, 16 images, estimated 6:30 mins reading time)

My family and I just returned from spending a couple weeks with the people of a small rural area in western Kenya. No doubt I’ll have a number of blog posts about this trip over the coming weeks, months, and years. I have a thousand stories to tell. The trip was absolutely amazing. However, in light of recent events, I feel as though this post is as good a place as any to start:  Read more... (444 words, 17 images, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)