A heavy week of Life Lessons finishes off the last week in January.  Sunday format adjustment includes a more extensive section of stories that will inspire, reaffirm your faith and make you smile.  Stories about family, life 2.0, and Just Because.  We start with a father-daughter bucket list story, and next, why Amazon has turned us all into home repair people, and a 13-year-old now has classified documents.

Laura Carney wrote a wonderful story about finding her late father's bucket list several years after he passed away and setting off on an adventure to finish it.  Reading this sweet and inspiring story made me want to create my own bucket lists and find creative places to hide them for my kids to see.  My lists will be different; I plan on torturing my children!  Carney is a better person than I am, and in her story, she does everything from skydiving to meeting a president.

If you are looking for a sweet story about a funny dad and a grateful daughter, spend five minutes reading about the life of Mick Carney and his daughter Laura.  Then go out and write your own bucket list.  If you want to go deeper, read Carney's book about the list.  My Father’s List. 

A REM song off Fables of the Reconstruction is called Life and How to Live it.  This article from Tim Dowling reminds me of that song.  Dowling is taking the Christmas lights off his hedge in the dark.  His wife asks him why, and he says:

That's all the explanation we need to read this article about things falling apart, the lengths most homeowners go to tape them back together, and the mental jump rope our minds go through with all of it.

You will be satisfied if you want to know how the Christmas lights, a sink stopper, fridge door sliders, and a pop-up rod fit into a long winter's night.  On a related note, Amazon has turned many of us into home repair artists.  The number of items you can type into the Amazon search bar to find replacement things for things that have no prominent name border on the insane.  Bet you can't guess what the image at the top of the newsletter is? Add your guess to the comments, winner get’s a patti on the back.

Take an overplayed current event, and show a related angle.  Classified Documents are everywhere; you should check your basement.  The AP writes a story about classified documents found in a hotel in Cleveland, OH, in the 80s.  Why is it a story?  In 1984 a 13-year-old named Kristin Preble took those documents to Ingomar Middle School for show and tell.  When Kristin's teacher Jim DeLisio figured out what was happening, shock and awe began. 

Can’t play if you don’t stay.

Click on the Apple Music image to listen to the song on Apple Music or on the Spotify Image to listen to Spotify.

Thank you for spending a few minutes with us. Here’s one for the road!

With A Shout newsletter is written by Johnny Christian with the support of a thousand idea bits and the help of many people.

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