Things I'm thinking...

- Auburn's offense is really bad this year. The offensive line is not very good. Brandon Cox could possibly be the worst 3-year college starter in the history of football. And, Brad Lester or not...I'm not sure we are going to score more than 10 points against Florida, LSU, Georgia or Bama.
- Quinton Groves is the real deal. I hope he doesn't develop the very common habit of taking plays off.
- My wife does a great job with our children...the kids are so well adjusted, responsible, and independent. Yes, they have natural 'leadership/take charge tendencies', but hats off to her for letting them flourish.
- Information in general really needs to be filtered through a 'negativity filter'. Let me explain. A couple of days ago I went on a rant about the 'Fox news affect'...well, I've seen it apply in other areas: Blogs, group settings like lunch tables, etc. For example...while monitoring the process of our adoption in Guatemala, my wife found a blog called Guadadopt...it has forums and threads for people who want information out of a country where there is none coming out - it is an amazing portal. However, it tends to be dominated by about 20 - 30 people posting their problems with the adoption process. Rarely do you see someone post the contrary position that everything went smooth for them, because they don't want to spit in the face of these folks having problems. So, we have 3000 adoptions a year in Guatemala...30 of them having extreme problems are posting their issues on Guatadopt...500 - 1000 others are monitoring Guatadopt for information of what to expect...and in the end that information comes with a very negative tilt to it. I see this dynamic a lot...not sure what the solution is though.
-My 15 year old daughter has friends who are getting cars now...the three most recent I've heard about - Mercedes, Land Rover, and brand new tricked out Ford F-150 4WD. Now, I'm a big proponent of being able to get nice things...but you ought to be 35 when that process starts.
- On that same topic...we've had this general guidelines for our girls, relative to things, that even though we have moderate wealth...they should be able to 'do poor' if God leads them that way. So if they fall in love with a Missionary, then they shoul be able to be happy with said missionary, and not have that door closed becaue Dad spoiled them as a teen ager...however, how do you have that conversation now, without throwing previously mentioned friends Dad under the bus?
- One of our own at Church has grown up and become a Youth for Christ Missionary. His ministry is very cool...going into poorer neighborhoods and working with at risk middle schoolers. I've been using one of the white pages in the back of my Bible to list opportunities to give as God has laid on my heart...I have like 15 charitable needs, all important...YFC is now on the list. My prayer is that God will give me the abundance to give to all I see here...and reach balance between this and the upcoming vehicle purchase looming.
- I hate my yard. Was asked at work by one of our Millenial associates what my plans were this weekend...and yard work came up. He said his primary tool for yard work is a bush hog...anything else is frivalous and he won't do it...my respect-o-meter for this young man went up exponentially...what would my neighbors think if I let it all go and used only a bush hog? Funny thought though...
- I wonder how close a Cat. 5 hurricane can actually get to a country before they allow you to fly in...do they still run the flights and just fly around the storm?