"Be Unstoppable: Blazing New Trails" - MONAT Global

"Be Unstoppable: No Holding Back" - MONAT Global

"Black: Intro" - MONAT Global

"Black" - MONAT Global

Good Medium For Starting Seeds

While having grow lights is crucial for starting seeds indoors, everything about the health of a plant is rooted in the soil.

Seeds require a growth medium that provides plenty of nutrition, holds moisture, and provides the proper environment for sprouts to develop. While you could use soil from your garden amended with compost, it isn't likely that you'd see the type of results you would want.

A good mixture that was shared with us a few years ago is:

• One bag (40 quarts) Bruce Miller Nurseries Lite Potting Soil
• 5 quarts compost
• 1 Cup blood meal

We typically add some dried molasses and epsom salt (for the magnesium) as well. 

I'm certainly no expert on soil. For that I highly recommend The Dirt Doctor. I can, however, say that we've had tremendous success with growing plants from seeds using the mixture.

DIY Grow Light

Dallas weather provides opportunities for gardening year round. That doesn't, however, mean you can simply plop seeds into the ground and expect them to sprout into healthy plants. Starting seeds in a friendly, nutrient-filled medium helps them sprout and develop. To do this most effectively, you need to control the environment as well, so an indoor grow light is a crucial tool.

Searching for grow lights, we discovered that this could become an expensive undertaking. Then a fellow gardener shared some plans for building our own grow light—thanks Ms. Becky! Not only was it a simple undertaking, the materials cost us less than $50.

This link has all the details and instructions.

We've started with tomatoes, peppers and some flowers. With several varieties of each, we should have plenty to plant by the end of February when the threat of frost in Dallas has passed.

Rule Number 1: Keep Your Word

For the past decade, I've been told time and again that TheKiddo is a special little human being. I was reminded of this recently when one of her teachers remarked, "Whatever you guys are doing, it's working. You should teach a master class."

Honestly, TheKiddo deserves the credit for being such a special human. We do our best to guide her, support her, and let her find her own way. She is the one filled with kindness, compassion, a competitive spirit, and a keen power of observation (as well as a startling large memory). 

That's not to say we have a laissez-faire approach to parenting. Quite the opposite; however, we avoid being helicopter parents. TheKiddo has to learn to handle both wins and losses; solve her own problems; fight her own battles; and ultimately discover what she wants her life to be.

There are several lessons we reinforce as often as possible—including reminding her, "First, you have to want to. Everything else is details." As part of this, she has been told time and again that Rule Number 1 is "Keep Your Word."

If you agree to something, do it.

If you sign up for something, see it through.

If you tell someone you'll do something, make sure it's done forthwith.

When you don't do those things, when you fail to keep your word at any point, it becomes difficult for people to believe you, or believe in you. Trust and respect are hard to earn, and are incredibly fragile. When they're broken, they can never be the same. 

Of Course Good Dads Make Good Leaders

I recently stumbled across a post on LinkedIn that lays out the reasons awesome dads make great leaders.

As someone who takes his responsibilities as a dad very seriously—even to the point of carrying the pink backpack whenever necessary—all of the reasons make complete sense. They also seem to be rather self evident to me.

Men who take their roles as a dad seriously, will always be careful to treat those that work with them with respect and concern. It's the men who don't take the role seriously that I worry about.

Your Company's Logo Doesn't Matter

On September 1, 2015, Google changed their primary logo and overhauled their identity package.

If you missed what they said on the topic, I recommend reading it here.

There are countless articles, blogs, essays, tweets, etc. on the topic (everyone has an opinion about everything). So I'll stick to two quick thoughts.

1) As a communications professional, I think it's a brilliant piece of work, and their explanation/rationale is well done.

2) It reminds me that beyond the insular world of marketing, design, advertising, whatever-you-want-to-call it, logos don't really matter all that much.

A new logo won't change how many people use Google for search. It won't change how they think of the company. It won't make them uninstall an app (or install one faster) on their favorite device.

It's just a logo. People have already decided what the "brand" means to them. Me? I'm a fan.

Even if I prefer "googol" as the spelling.

Make These Brownies; You Have The Ingredients Already

When someone told us about a three-ingredient, Nutella® brownie recipe, TheKiddo™ and I had to make some that day. We would have done it immediately; however, we weren't home at the time. 

Since the three ingredients are flour, eggs and Nutella (as I'm sure you've already guessed) we always have the necessities on hand. Now we're likely to have brownies on hand constantly, too. 

You need:

1/2 Cup all purpose flour

2 eggs

1 1/4 Cup Nutella

All you have to do is:
Preheat the oven to 350⁰  F.

Mix the ingredients;

Plop (because it's too thick to actually pour) the batter in a buttered pan (yes, we buttered rather than using cooking spray);

Bake at 350⁰  F. Since I used a square pan (no clue if it was 8x8 or 9x9), I baked them for approximately 25 minutes. A 9x13 pan would take about 15 minutes.

Go make these brownies, and make yourself happy. 

Without quantity time, there is no quality time

An inalienable fact perches itself before me daily, and forces my attention. Poking, prodding and imploring me to respond viscerally and instinctively. Calling into question my reality as a man and a dad. This particular, peculiar fact is sublimely simple, while maintaining an irascible inscrutability.

The fact in question: I don't spend enough time with TheKiddo­™ on a daily basis.

Without much hesitation I could provide a litany of reasons, and the vast majority would seem reasonable, logical, and necessary. They would also be completely worthless in the face of a daunting reality that nothing is more precious than the time we can and should spend with those we love.

I've read enough articles, blog posts, or other musings on the topic of the importance of quality time to frequently deceive myself that I'm doing it right. To convince myself that when I'm present, she has my time and attention. To delude myself into the narcissistic view that I'm there for the moments she'll remember.

The singular, obvious, striking problem with that idea is that I'm completely wrong about quality time. So are you. And so is anyone else who thinks quality time is something that fundamentally exists in nature.

You can't plan quality time. There's simply too much chaos in life to allow for it.

That romantic evening you planned with your significant other can be completely undone by a stray nail lying randomly in the road. A shredded tire and a call to AAA suddenly become much more urgent than the gelato you've been looking forward to sharing. Or a sudden fever by one of the kids makes it unlikely that you'll leave the house at all.

Those moments will create memories; however, it is unlikely they will be the fondest memories you have. Worse, when a little chaos is introduced, your preplanned quality time has suddenly become a chore, or something more akin to an unmitigated disaster.

Happily the converse can be equally true. Chore-like sojourns to the grocery store can be moments of discovery and delight when you encounter something you've never seen, or tell new jokes invoking peals of laughter.

So a new inalienable fact now perches before me: The more time you spend with those you love, the more quality you'll discover in your life.