1. Work with people you feel you can trust.
2. Meet with several Realtors separately over lunch before selecting one. Ask yourself "Is this someone I want to spend hours and hours in the car with?".
3. Never ever plan to buy a lovely old home, move it to a new site, and fix it up. Never.
4. Get two mortgage companies ready to process your loan and pick the one with the best rate right before you lock in. It will cost an extra $70 bucks for the other credit report, but it would be well worth it. We had a "misunderstanding" with our primary lender a week before closing. They raised the rates above market. We were about to switch back to our secondary lender, when all of the sudden the rates went back down.

1. Follow through.
2. Keep your eye on the [  ball   or   puck   or   whatever  ].
   (OK, I'm not a big sports person).

1. Invest with the voters - it's the paranoid long term strategy. If you and half the voters invest in a Roth IRA, the Congress of 2020 is unlikely to change it and make it taxable. But if you invest in Platinum mines overseas, and Congress needs money in 2020, how many voters will squeal if they tax overseas mining?

1. Take your wedding pictures before the wedding. I know it spoils tradition by seeing the partner before the ceremony, but your guests will thank you.
2. Skip the reception line thing. It wears out the wedding couple and forces your hungry guests to queue for too long. Just mingle at your own pace with your friends during the reception.
3. Have someone encourage your guests to start eating before you get to the reception.

-3/4 to 0 years

1. Get the crib, changing table, diapers, etc... two or three months before the due date. Some babies know you're unprepared and come early.
2. Read about taking care of infants before they arrive. I read mostly about pregnancy and the birth process before our child got here. Then after she got here we had little time to read about taking care of a little baby.

0 to 1 years

Enjoy your new born baby.

1 to 3 years

1. Teach your kids to obey the first time. It's just as easy to teach them to obey the first time as it is to teach them to obey the fifteenth time. Whatever the consequences are going to be after that fifteenth time, make sure it happens after the first instead. If they do not obey immediately, make sure they heard you, and then have the consequences. Everyone will be happier.
2. Discipline isn't enough. We need to deeply love our kids with lots of affection and fun times.
3. You must treat every statement of consequences you make to your child as a sacred promise. If you say, "Scream one more time and we are leaving the mall, and going home." make sure you always follow through - always.
4. Pray for your kids. Lots.
5. If your child picks a battle to establish dominance, you need to win it always.
6. Nutrition. Don't give young kids much juice, especially apple juice. Apples have been breed to be almost like sugar cane. The resulting juice is too sugary. Limit sugar intake.
7. The kitchen is a very dangerous place for small children. We don't allow Sarah in the kitchen. She learned fairly quickly not to step on the linoleum. This helps too by providing a quick storage area where kids are not to go(well,.. not suppose to go). Sarah's car lives in the kitchen when it's in detention.
8. When taking them into a public restroom where everything is filthy, have them fold their arms. This reduces the temptation to touch the floor, wall, etc...
9. If they ask more than once to turn up the car radio, we turn it off.
10. At McDonald's they get 1/3 of their French fries up front, 1/3 after they finish half their burger, and the last third when they finish the burger.
11. Always finish all that they are going to eat of their McDonald's meal before going to the playground
12. If you expect your kids to respond to you on your first request, you need to do the same for them.
13. Teach your infants to play by themselves in a playpen for a small amount of time. They will learn to entertain themselves so you can get some things done.
14. Try to encourage you kid to attach to a washable, commercially available doll/teddy bear/blanket. It's nice to be washed, and perhaps replaced (or purchased on a trip if forgotten).

4 - 5 years

Shepherding a Child's Heart

1. If a child whines or cries for something we tell them "You know our rule: if you whine or cry for something you never get it." and stick by it. Children whine because it buys them something.