Fire drill. 
Earthquake drill.
Tornado drill.
Hurricane drill.,
Active Shooter drill.

Over the past several weeks, the news has been filled with reports on the schools response to the Sandy Hook shooting. Schools all over the world are conducting special trainings and drills to prepare children for the unthinkable. Recently Cary Grove School in suburban Chicago participated in an Active Shooter drill where simulated bullets were fired to prepare students to recognize real gun fire. In many cities like Chicago, government officials are attempting to make these types of drills mandatory for all schools. 

Over a month ago my five-year old daughter’s school had their first drill. As a parent it was unsettling but necessary, she is now aware of the realness of unnecessary violence. This situation has stolen a little of all of our children’s innocence and given them worries we didn’t have as children. 

I want to hear from you. What do you think, are Active Shooter Drills in schools excessive or necessary? Leave me a comment. 

L.T. 

Wishing you the best year yet!!

This a great blog post by Jon Acuff. Success always feels so far away and many people give up before they actually reach extraordinary, but if they kept on pushing and striving, they would have realized that they weren’t so far away from their dreams. This inspired to me to go a little further, and I hope that it inspires you also. Shoot for beyond the stars, and continue to Chase your kids and your biggest most wildest dreams! 

How to close the gap between ordinary and extra ordinary by Jon Acuff

We usually think the distance between ordinary and extraordinary is a thousand miles.

When we survey where we currently stand and where we’d like to land, the journey feels massive.

The gulf between who we are and who we want to be seems impossible.

The distance between what is and what could be seems overwhelming.

It’s not though. It’s a lot smaller than you think.

And two cups of yogurt reminded me of that recently.

I got the one on the left one morning at a restaurant. You’re supposed to put a handful of granola on top of the yogurt. But, even so, the cup was literally only half full. In their defense, there were a lot of people in line, things were hectic, and it’s just one cup of yogurt.

The cup of yogurt on the right was from a hotel I stayed at that same weekend. I had low expectations for the hotel yogurt. They’re not a restaurant. They’re first and foremost a place to sleep and not a place to eat. And yet, the cup was full.

The difference between the two cups is maybe two inches. Perhaps only a single extra scoop of yogurt. But those two inches made the difference.

When we see people we admire, we tend to assume they arrived at the platform they’re on via catapults. They cleared a million miles of life experience in a single bound and probably don’t even have any cavities.

That’s not true.

They got to where they are the same way you will. Inch by inch. Step by step. Yogurt scoop by extraordinary yogurt scoop.

A single action might not seem like much today. But whether you’re eating yogurt or trying to publish your first book, it can make all the difference.

Check our Jon’s blog at jonacuff.com