Host Foreign Exchange Students and Make Lifelong Friends

When my older brother and I were in high school, he was sold on the idea that we should host a foreign exchange student. I have four brothers, and at that time our family had two in high school, one in junior high, and two in elementary school. I think my parents' response was something along the lines of, "That would be a great experience for all of us. Let's do it." But, being a parent now, I can only imagine the internal monologue went something like, "There are already five of you. I can't imagine life being any more chaotic, so why not?"

A Life Changing Walk

As a school administrator, my weekly schedule is insane. My mornings are a whirlwind trying to get my oldest daughter and I out the door while my wife is busy with the other two kids. I often have one or two evenings with school events, a Saturday event, and the following Monday comes before I have a chance to blink.

While I get quite a bit of time with my oldest, since we go to the same school and spend time in the car together, my younger two need a little more time with me. But between dance lessons, piano classes, performances, competitions, concerts, and school events, I never know if I'm coming or going, and that special time can be difficult to find. 

Every Tuesday our two girls have piano lessons, lasting thirty minutes each. My middle daughter gets dropped off at her teacher's house, and I bring my oldest after school. I often spend the half hour waiting for

Renaissance-Dad Tool Review: GreenWorks Pressure Washer

I have owned a GreenWorks electric pressure washer for several years, and it has been a great tool to have. It has also made me quite popular, as family and friends without pressure washers regularly borrow it. So when I recently had the opportunity to get my hands on the newer version to see how it compared, I jumped at the chance.

Right out of the box, I saw the same quality that I've experienced with all of my GreenWorks tools. It took less than ten minutes to put together, the components were solid, and the instructions were easy to follow (not that I actually read the instructions. I'm not Lord Business...). 

The GreenWorks pressure washer is a 2000 PSI, 1.2 GPM beast. If you're unfamiliar with what this means, the PSI (pounds per square inch) refers to the pressure of the water coming out (cleaning power), the GPM (gallons per minute) refers to the amount of water coming out each minute (1.2 gallons), and beast refers to the fact that this will be able to tackle just about any chore on my property. 

Homemade Calzones: Give Your Kids Whatever They Want

My family has a wonderful tradition. Every Friday night is family movie night, and for family movie night we eat one of two things: nachos or pizza. For those that either know me or have been following Renaissance Dad for any amount of time, you can safely assume that we have turned these two family movie night staples, which are typically considered junk food, into semi-healthy meals. We make our own nacho cheese, and our pizza has a made-from-scratch crust.

Long ago we gave up trying to come to a consensus as to what toppings we put on the pizza, since everybody has their own variation of what the perfect pizza is. So we generally have one cheese or pepperoni pizza, and one with a mild assortment of vegetables that at least one kid will eat.

But this past week I had an epiphany. Lightning struck my brain (Movie quote? Anybody?). What if I give in and give every kid exactly what they want? And what if I make them put their own pizza together?

Knots and Wormholes: Why I Like Working with Imperfect Wood

My wife's grandfather spent his entire life in Fonda, Iowa, which is a lot smaller than it sounds (and it sounds pretty small). He and his brother had a portable sawmill, and when a storm would pass through the area, they would go around milling up wood. He had an incredible supply of black walnut in his basement, and often, when my wife and I would visit, I would spend time just looking at the lumber. What can I say... I'm a wood junkie.

He passed away several years ago, and none of his sons were into woodworking. So one summer, my father-in-law loaded up his boat with hundreds of board feet of black walnut and drove it out to Arizona (you may be asking why he loaded up his boat. Many of the boards are twelve feet long or longer, and the center of a boat is the best way to transport that much lumber of that length).

As we were unloading the walnut from the boat and stacking it up in my workshop, I noticed that quite a few of the boards had knots, rough edges, and wormholes. The knots and the edges are something that I'm used to working with, but the