My favorite part of 2020 was all the extra time with family. Changing schedules at work and a closed office for a while gave me a chance to be more involved in reading with them, watching them learn and do school with Stacy Fowler, reworking our date night routine for better interactions with Stacy, and having the kids work alongside me on some projects for home. With every year they get more capable, and it’s fun to anticipate what 2021 holds!

I also loved the way the kids were able to engage in activities this year:

Eli started soccer and had a great season with a team of kids he really enjoyed playing with. I think his coach, Danie, did a great job of encouraging them, and they learned the way you can accomplish things with hard work personally and with good coordination as a team. 

Lizzy participated in gymnastics and really found a sense of accomplishment learning in a realm that was entirely hers, without competing with her older brother, and under the coaching of someone other than her parents. 

Due to ear infections for all 3 kids, a fractured leg (Lizzy), an ear injury, and some non-Covid sickness, we took six trips to the Urgent Care/ER this year…that’s on the top of my list of things I hope we don’t repeat, but I do expect it to become somewhat normal as the kids continue to age, and become more and more ambitious with their adventures. 

I got serious about learning some of the tricks of the trade in stocks this year, investing a small amount in the market after some extensive reading, so that I can work harder to ensure our investments really get the long term gains that we want over the next few years. Jim Cramer and the Motley Fool have been unique resources for my education this year. 

I’ve been out of touch with everything going on in politics for several years, but with a need to better navigate Covid, racism protests, and the election, I’ve been reading, listening, and surfing the news a lot this year. While the Democratic viewpoints have been easy to find, getting a conservative opinion has really helped me gather perspective. I really enjoy the coverage of the Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro’s podcast, and the book, Blackout by Candance Owens. I wish Glen Beck would make his networks’ coverage partially free, because he always seems to be the most detailed and data driven. I really wish the major networks would be more fair in their coverage, but the amount of stuff they omit, the lack of good data in their articles, and the disrespect for leaders has left me very disappointed in them. 

Family Matters has been a great addition to our kids’ TV lineup this year, along with Superbook, Sid the Science Kid, Wallykazam, and Tumble Leaf. It’s really amazing how well it has illustrated some key teaching points for their behavior this year. I wish more shows today would embrace such a short format and regularly teach issues. In terms of movies, they absolutely fell in love with Mulan (the animated movie), Trolls World Tour, and the Land before Time movies–I’m still waiting for them to embrace watching the Muppets and Shrek. 

Eli began to grasp football this year, and despite our omission of NFL (because of it’s over the top political stance) it’s been quite entertaining to see him follow the games with a passion, and jump up during each commercial break to act out fictional team plays with equal vigor. This kid can truly talk for hours on end!

Eli and I also branched out from science and nature programming, like Fierce and Planet Earth, to watching history. Our favorite show of the year is America, the Story of Us. 

Stacy drug me into a new TV routine as well–but an active one. She found several 15 and 30 day Yoga programs on Amazon prime with Julia Marie, and we’ve been doing them nightly after the kids go to bed. Paired with the twice a week, 20 minute, intense workout that Pastor Craig recommended earlier this year, I would say that I’m in better shape and closer to a six pack than I’ve ever been in my life! 

Most of our TV programming comes from Amazon Prime, and despite the number of shows I’ve mentioned, we really watch very little TV–one or two programs for kids a day (20 minutes long) and 1 yoga video is about all that we have time for. Stacy and I only have one miniseries we like. We’ve appreciated how simple and free from drama or sexuality the Mandalorian has been.

I do love movies, and I have missed seeing shows at the theater this year! 

The one thing we expected to do, but didn’t get into, is buying or building a house. We have rented for the three years we have been in Tulsa, and while we have a great home, we hope one day to have a space of our own to customize. I would also love space to park our vehicles inside. I’ve waited to purchase a nicer family vehicle the past year or so, because I don’t want to invest in one if it’s subjected to the weather all the time. Alas, real estate, including land, is crazy expensive, and great homes that meet our criteria have been in short supply or too expensive. So despite our desire to have our dream home, we are content to save money and enjoy the great relationships we have with our neighbors and family. 

Finally, the greatest blessing of our year in 2020 has been the people. 

One reason why Stacy and I are so picky when it comes to buying a home, is because we want to stay close to family and friends. This year we grew tomatoes, cucumbers, blackberries, cherries, strawberries, cantaloupe, watermelons, squash, peppers, and weeds…but we could not have done that without the teamwork we have with Stacy’s parents and the Knutsons. That’s on top of great time together working on projects and sharing the burden of keeping 40 acres in manageable shape. Maintaining chickens, catching critters, and even re-homing a dog who got dropped off nearby. 

Stacy and I are blessed with great people next door, and great people at church. I have a close-knit, hard-working, caring team of pastors to work alongside, making ministry at Life.Church possible. They make every day fun, and make the ministry we get to do in our community amazing! Stacy has been blessed to serve on a great ministry team too this year, helping BSF transition from in person meetings to online for 2020. Her Bible study has deepened our kids love of Scripture beyond what they learn on the weekend and allowed us to form some great friendships too. 

Random thoughts: 

This year I bought and repaired a tractor, to ensure I was able to get a great cut on the grass.

We trapped a record # of skunks in our area this year–one of which got loose and nearly sprayed both me and Eli. 

Eli and I enjoyed several boat rides on our pond this year, and I hope to find a non-inflatable alternative for the pond in 2021. 

Abby’s ambition to talk has added another chatterbox to the family this fall, which is challenging, since we often can’t understand her very well. 

Loosing Charlie Daniels this year was quite sad. I really respected and will miss his legacy. 

I’ve got a six year old (today is his birthday!), a four year old, and a two year old in my home, and they are pretty media-starved.

And that’s not to say that we are not tempted! We home school and Stacy works part time from home, so the kids spend a lot of time around the house–a single story ranch home.

On a daily basis, they watch a 20 minute morning show when I leave for work, and they often get an episode or short movie as a reward for doing school. When we go out, the kids often watch a movie in the car on long trips, but I can only count about a dozen times that I’ve set them in front of a tablet or computer on the go. It’s a necessary thing from time to time, but Stacy and I both try our best to exhaust our other options first. It’s harder with three of them than it used to be!

When they do watch shows, however, I love to leverage the best content I can find…and free content at that. Stacy and I only pay for an Amazon Prime membership, so everything else we watch comes from the free web, for the most part. Here are my favorite media resources to push my kids to.

For Spiritual Growth:

We always start with the amazing free content created by Life.Church. It’s easy to get to on computer or phone (just go to life.church or the LC app and click media…then scroll down), reinforces what our kids are learning at church each week, and my kids love it. The only time I’ve seen them dance and yell at the TV is in response to the Bible App lessons. There’s also a memory verse that we review at night with them in each lesson. Currently Eli uses the Crosstown material, and Lizzy and Abby use the Bible App lessons, but at home they will watch each others. My only reservation when it comes to using this content is: practice those dance moves! Worship is a full-body experience, and if I am watching with the kids, I am leading the way in dancing!

For our Bible Time together, the kids and I have enjoyed Louie Giglio’s Indescribable Devotional these past few months together. We bought it off Amazon here, and it looks like there’s a sequel now too. This may not be “media” in a video sense, but its highly engaging and applicable.

We also love the Biblical print media available at Dollar Tree stores in their book section. I have found everything from board books, to sticker books, and paint with water resources, all inexpensive and engaging to help reinforce the things the kids learn about God everywhere else. I recently found a few short character books that we will read at bedtime this next week.

TV Shows:

My favorite TV resources come through Amazon Prime:

• Superbook is a great show with two kids who journey into Bible stories to learn life lessons. The first season was a bit rough (you could definitely tell it’s the first season), but season two is excellent. My kids love to watch this show, and each episode is under half an hour too!
• Sid the Science Kid is a great show that promotes education and science through the eyes of a young, curious kid. I love the extended family that is represented in it, and the many things my kids have learned about. Eli and Lizzy are adamant recyclers after a great key lesson in season 2.
• Tumble Leaf is a show I checked out after it won some awards. It really is a nice, low key show about figuring out how things work. I like the fact that it’s not about epic action sequences of events. Sometimes you need a show that keeps the kids calm and let’s their imagination think more about a unique way of doing things than grand fantasy adventures.
• Wallykazam (YouTube, not Amazon Prime) I fell in love with this show long ago, after my kids rejected Seasame Street. I wanted to make sure they were taught literacy basics when they watched TV, and this one does a great job of illustrating letter sounds and words. I also think it passes along pretty good values and friendship examples. After Nick Jr. made the episodes pay related, I opted to pay for a few of them and found others here.

Shared Media:

One of the greatest challenged I find in my own experience, and one I feel my generation is often failing on, is picking appropriate media that my kids and I can watch together. I constantly meet young kids who have too great a capacity for violence at a young age, and I struggle with that. I want my kids first impression of guns to be as tools that must always be used responsibly.

My kids haven’t seen me play video games (and when they do, I’ll start with Mario and other animated games). They haven’t gotten to watch Harry Potter, Star Wars, or any of the Marvel movies made in the last few years. They only have a few nerf guns they keep outside and play with only for target practice.

That random tangent aside, the thing I love to watch with the kids most is nature shows. We LOVED the science and visuals behind PBS’s show, Earth: The New Wild. And with our Disney Plus subscription, we frequent the National Geographic content available on that platform a lot too. I now own Planet Earth seasons one and two, and Blue Planet is also in our collection. The thing I love most about nature shows, is how the wonder, complexity, and way everything works together intricately reminds me of how great our God is and how powerful and wise His plans are. I’m astounded by His works, and I love to pass that sense of wonder onto my kids.

In addition to our Amazon Prime membership, I do pay for a premium music subscription through Amazon, because I let my kids have free reign with our Echo devices around the house. I’ll admit that we primarily use these for music and weather updates, but I find that the kids also ask great questions to Alexa from time to time, learning about animals, or discovering whether a random fact is accurate (like are watermelons fruits or vegetables?)

Stacy and I also make use of the local libraries in Tulsa and Coweta. We have tons of books we use for school. The kids get to pick out one book each time we go themselves, which usually ends up being an animal book. I have successfully gotten Eli interested in the Fly Guy books, Berenstain Bears books (best ones for teaching values), and Elephant & Piggy books.

I Am Second Logo

I don’t wish to spoil this with words…all I have to say is: If you have not seen this campaign, you are missing out.

I believe that the most powerful thing about God’s people are the testimonies they bear regarding what God has done in their lives. It’s powerful to see it on video. It’s even more powerful for those people to be givng their testimony to the church that they have come to be a part of.

I hope this concept is one that finds its way into all of our churches, and into the hearts of the unsaved.

www.iamsecond.com