Things I Learned (or relearned) by: Marc

1. My wife is so smart.

2. It is not possible for our driveway to be big enough to prevent delivery drivers from finding their tires in the front yard.

3. Time is the most valuable thing even if sometimes I don’t remember that.

4. My dog is such an emotional, sensitive creature. After working from home for two years, I apparently need to give her more advance notice for my work trips.

5. Sometimes it is easier to not change the clock and just subtract an hour all winter.

6. Continual learning is essential and good. That also means being wrong can be good when recognized.

7. The engineer at Ecosmart that decided to design LED bulbs to randomly fail and turn into disco lights after 3 years obviously didn’t realize how much my daughters like to dance. Also, next time I build a house I’m going to diversify my lighting selection and not rely on 42 Ecosmart recessed can lights, 18 of which have already prompted the dancing.

8. It’s 2021. Saran wrap hasn’t change since its creation in 1949. We have to do better.

8. When planning DIY projects, I need to exchange “weeks” for “hours” in my estimates with Stephanie.

9. Being comfortable in a career is good for a bit, but that bit can turn into too long and result in less learning/growth unless changes are made.

10. Patience is kinda like Albanese gummy bears. The first bite is kinda “eh” but then you need more and more.

11. The House on the Rock in Wisconsin is the weirdest tourist trap ever. I can’t explain it, but when you visit you’ll agree and also not be able to explain it.

12. Our well-work kitchen table is the sign of great family time over the past two years.

13. Cutting down pine trees near our house in the woods was worth whatever they wanted to charge us. Also, I’m glad they didn’t know that.

14. The most fire-resistant house insulation is actually made of lava. This learning is credited to a daughter whose 8^th grade science fair project won 2^nd in the state!

15. When sharing a single bathroom in a hotel room, it is actually impossible for our family to wake up too early when we have to be somewhere at a certain time.

16. Ten gallons of fence paint sitting in the garage tends to stay at rest purely because of Newton’s first law of inertia. I can’t do anything about it.

17. Mud-stained concrete patios should never be cleaned with any manual methods. Better living through science and strong acidic chemicals!

18. Watching our girls coach younger girls in soccer is even more gratifying than watching them actually play soccer.

19. You gotta watch out for the shy one. You never know what she is thinking or dreaming. When she lets you in on it, it’s usually pretty hilarious.

20. Teaching our oldest daughter to drive has to be the hardest it’s going to be. Not because she doesn’t learn well but because I don’t teach well under stress caused by the high likelihood of physical harm. Also, her sisters wearing bicycle helmets when they first rode with her was hilarious.

21. Broccolis are just little trees.

22. It took me until I was 43 to read through the entire Bible chronologically. I should have started much sooner.

23. Indiana Dunes National Park actually has nothing to do with quicksand from Indiana Jones. And yes, there are really big sand dunes in Indiana, and they move.

24. My suggestions for a mullet hairstyle for Homecoming dance were not well received by the two teenage daughters. However, they did enjoy the Albanese gummy bears as they got ready!