Studio711.com – Ben Martens

You know you’re getting old when you get excited about something as mundane as a kitchen table, but that’s where I’m at. When I moved out on my own, I got Great Grandma’s small table and four chairs. It wasn’t really an heirloom as she bought it after Great Grandpa died and she downsized to a smaller living space. But it was fun to think of her when we ate at the table.

Anyway, the table was nice (and free) but it was small. We just got in the habit of dishing up straight from the kitchen and then eating at the table. When there were four people eating there, you had no chance of getting any extra dishes on the table. Plus, the ends folded down and weren’t very sturdy so it wasn’t great for having people over to play games, etc. And when we have Tyla’s family over, we’d have to set up the folding table just to fit everyone. I’m 34 years old but I still have a college kid’s table.

Finally Tyla and I decided that we were in a position to buy a new table. We were somewhat discouraged when we tried this last year and couldn’t find anything in our price range. We saved up some extra money and then went for it again this year, but to our happy surprise, we found a crazy good deal! This new table comes with six chairs and can fit all six chairs without the extra leaf. Or we can extend the table and fit two extra chairs. It’s big enough to seat a bunch of people but it fits perfectly in our smallish kitchen eating area. (Our formal dining room is Elijah’s playroom.) The leaf is pretty cool to. It folds down inside the table so you don’t have to store it in a closet.

The table and chairs came from Don Willis Furniture in on Lake City Boulevard. It’s an odd place but they have some really nice furniture (no particle board.) They have some furniture that is unfinished and you can either have it finished in the exact color you want or finish it yourself to save some money. We’ll be checking them out again when we need more furniture.

The first time we used it was while my parents were still here. Mom had asked if she could do anything to help while I was outside grilling and I said, “Yeah! You can set the table!” That’s something we never did before! I got a ridiculous amount of joy out of seeing the main course, side dishes and condiments all sitting there on the table while we ate dinner. I’m an old man.

PS. Thanks Don for lettings us borrow your truck! Dad and I got five of the six chairs in the back seats in the cab and the rest fit easily in the bed. You saved us a $99 delivery charge!

At the beginning of February, my group at work moved into a new building. Technically it’s an old building but it was completely gutted and renovated. Instead of most people having their own office (or sharing with one other person), we now sit in big open areas. The only personal space you have is a rolling desk with your computer on it. The idea is that you can easily unplug and roll to sit next to whoever you’re working with. There are no walls between you and your teammates so you can chat more easily.

I have to say that I loved having my own office and I’m not a huge fan of the change. There are definitely some advantages especially when it comes to pair programming or just asking quick questions. But overall I find it pretty distracting and it also makes it more difficult to handle the quick personal phone calls like scheduling doctor appointments, etc.

It sounds like all of the buildings on campus are moving toward this so there’s no getting away from it. This stuff goes in phases so I’m sure in 10-20 years we’ll all be moving back into our own offices because that’s the cool new thing.

When Tyla and I started making our first trips to Woodland Park Zoo together, we always made it a point to stop and see Simon the siamang. He seemed to enjoy interacting with guests and we got some great pictures with him.

Tyla visited the zoo a few weeks back with Elijah and was sad to learn that Simon died in mid-December. An article from the zoo says that he was 34 and succumbed to a long-term chronic illness. (I had no idea that Simon and I were the same age!)

We’ll miss seeing him there!

On a recent episode of the Making It podcast, the topic was “how do I quit my job and build stuff for a living?” Bob Clagett chimed in with some very thought provoking comments. (Note that he says these come from the book “Quitter” by Jon Acuff.) Bob doesn’t make stuff full time. He still has a day job. So how does he divide up his time? Here are the three work categories he uses along with my thoughts on them.

1. Day job. I like my job but if I could do anything in the world, I wouldn’t be doing my current job. If you’re in the same boat, it doesn’t mean that your job needs to be a complete waste of your time. What can you learn from your job that benefits your passion? Also remember, that depending on your situation, your day job is probably what you do to make your passion possible. It generates the income and provides you with health insurance.
2. Spend time with family. Having a good family life isn’t something that happens by accident. It takes work and you should be accounting for it when you’re planning out how to spend your time.
3. Do what you love. This can be the easiest bucket to fill, but it’s also one that we can misuse easily. This isn’t a bucket for surfing Facebook, reading random internet sites (ahem, like this one), or staring at the TV. Pick one or two things that you love and really want to focus on and devote your time to them.

Few things in my life had made me more conscious of how I spend my time than having a child. These three buckets are a great place to start. I’m still trying to work out how things like paying bills, making dinner and cleaning up fit into this but I suppose that could fit into building a good family environment. And of course, as a Christian, my faith is the most important thing to me. That should weave it’s way through all aspects of my life but also deserves it’s own bucket of dedicated time.

It has already been useful to think of my time in terms of these buckets. Instead of thinking “is this a worthwhile activity”, it’s better to think “is this the most rewarding/important thing I can do right now?” I do try to set aside one evening a week to just veg out and watch a movie or something, but most nights, I need to take advantage of my limited non-work time to fill up the other buckets!

No, I’m not retiring from my job, at least not from the one I get paid for. For the past six years, I’ve been the “property deacon” at church. Basically it’s like a property manager. I’m responsible for the physical property (grounds, buildings, etc.) I’ve enjoyed the volunteer position, at least most of the time. The last six years have seen some major projects including a huge renovation of the parsonage, a new fire alarm system, a new church sign, an irrigation system and many other projects. More recently, I’ve felt like I’m unable to devote the amount of attention to the job that it deserves so I’ve decided to step down and not sign up for another term. Due to some reshuffling of the bylaws, there will be a few people taking over the property work. I think that’s going to work out better. TimS is one of the guys doing the job so I have no doubt that he’ll rely on me as much as I relied on him (which was a lot!) I’ll still be involved, but honestly, I’m looking forward to not being the guy in charge.

Big things in my life have happened on a four year cadence

• 1990: Moved to the “upper grade room” (5-8 grade.) It was a big deal in our two room school.
• 1994: Graduated 8th grade and started high school
• 1998: Graduated high school, started college at Purdue
• 2002: Graduated Purdue, moved to Jersey
• 2006: Finished grad school at Drexel, moved to Washington
• 2010: Got married

So 2014 should have been another major, life-changing event… but it wasn’t. And for that, I’m thankful! This year was, predictably, all about raising our little man. I watched him grow from a bump on the carpet to a jabbering ball of energy that runs around the house. That’s not to say that we didn’t do anything though.

At the start of the year, I took my first remote controlled airplane flight. It was a new hobby for me and one that I kept up pretty well throughout the year, building a few planes myself and then getting my first “real” plane for my birthday. The other hobby that really took off (how’s that for a segue?) this year was woodworking. It started with building some baby gates. I also built him a toy with lots of latches and family photos. Then later in the year I built a helping tower for Elijah (and five more for Tyla’s friends), and I’ve just finished up a table and chairs for Elijah too. The woodworking is a great hobby because I can do it in little chunks of free time and I don’t have to go anywhere to do it. The third hobby that I nursed along was shooting. We only went trap shooting a few times, but the last time there I shot 24 in a row before choking on the last shot that would have given me the elusive perfect round. I hope to get back there more in 2015.

In April we took a family vacation down to Portland. It was a short/close trip, but it was educational for us as parents. We were surprised by how much time we spent in the hotel watching Elijah sleep, but it was still fun and worth the trip. I also got to reconnect with Pastor Johnson. The last time I saw him was in 2004 in Minneapolis.

For Memorial Day, we flew back to Indiana to visit family and to attend the Indy 500. While it would have been a lot easier to go when I actually lived in Indiana, it was a blast. Dad, Luke and I went to a NASCAR race a few years back so it was fun to attend an Indy Car race with the same crew. Maybe next is Formula One?

Most of my summer was spent in the yard with Tim. I won’t bore you with yet another recap (read the back yard and front yard details), but this was a huge undertaking. Tyla made it all possible by watching Elijah way more than normal and many of you pitched in to help with the yard work. Thank you to everyone who pulled together to make this happen! I’m still amazed at what we accomplished. Mom and Dad were here for the demolition part of the front yard project and it was fun to work side by side with Dad again.

While Mom and Dad were here, we also spent a couple nights at a rented house on Lopez Island. That was a relaxing trip (it helps having extra people to watch Elijah!) and a fun opportunity to explore the island.

One thing we didn’t do much of was hiking. We took short hikes on Cougar and Squawk mountains. We’ve already said that we’re not undertaking ANY big projects next summer. So hopefully the combination of more free time and Elijah being a little older will mean we can get out and do some more hikes. I regularly think about how different Elijah’s youth will be from mine since he’s growing up in a subdivision. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I’m putting a focus on making sure he spends lots of time out in nature. I would love it if he grew up to be a good hiking partner!

I feel like I’ve always done a reasonable job of managing my time, but that skillset gets even more pressure when you’re raising a kid. There are two ways to survive: be more efficient with your time or do less work. This year I was about as efficient as I think I can be. Next year, I want to take on less work and enjoy this special family time. Elijah is growing so quickly and I know I’ll look back on these days and wish I could relive them. It’s good encouragement to live in the moment.

Previous Year In Review Posts: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013