Info AquaScape

Happy new year! Was your 2017 as crazy as mine? Last year I... Stopped being a full-time stay-at-home mom and started working again Sent my first kid off to kindergarten Celebrated our 10-year anniversary Burned out on work-life balance and had to relearn how to fun Took a break from fish keeping and then came back again Despite all the trials and changes, it's seriously been the best spiritual season of growth and transformation I've had in a while, and my relationship with God has been so sweet. I've become more confident in who I am, more chill with my expectations and workload, and just... more able to relax and do nothing again. God let me dig myself into a low, low place of my own making – a slave to my to-do list – and then began "Operation R&R" to heal my soul. I'll talk about it sometime later, but as a result, it's shaped (and shortened) my new year's resolutions for 2018: Get 8 hours of sleep Start a habit of family devotions T...

How to explain this one? I think all new fish keepers generally know that fish need food and clean water to survive. But beyond that, it's kind of a mystery why things die. Maybe there aren't any obvious signs like white spots or wounds. Your fish just slowly gets lethargic over time, stops swimming around, doesn't feel like eating, and then poof, it's gone. This silent killer is known as improper living conditions . In order to fight against its deadly trap, let's talk about a couple of key tenets for setting up a comfortable habitat for your fish. Try to Replicate Your Fish's Natural Living Conditions We've all seen those extensive care sheets for each type of fish where they list recommended tank size, temperature, food, etc. While many fish have been raised in captivity for so long that there's some leeway with the requirements, try to match the natural living conditions and environment of the species you keep. We want to emulate their life in...

If you post an online picture of a beautiful hobbyist-owned aquarium packed full of fish, you'll probably get several reactions: OMG, that is the coolest thing I've ever seen! (＾▽＾) OMG, that is the cruelest thing I've ever seen! ((╬◣﹏◢)) OMG, how did they accomplish that? I must know! ლ(ಠ_ಠ ლ) That's because there are sooo many differing opinions on how many fish in a tank is too many. Asking "How many fish can I keep in my aquarium?" is like asking "How many cats can I keep in my house?" – it totally depends on each person's preferences and lifestyle. Clearly, five cats is not enough. You need at least six in a school or else they start getting nippy. Huge props to the Real Fish Talk: How Much Is Too Much? video for breaking it down like this: The more fish you have, The more food they eat, The more waste they create, The more work you have to do to keep the tank clean. In other words, more fish = more time you'll have to in...

All this time, I've proclaimed the wonders of the Friendship Funnel and how great the method has worked for meeting people and making new friends . Today's where the rubber meets the road. Let me tell you about four different friendships in my life and what it really looks like to put these relationship tools into practice. 3 Decades and Counting Technically I met my best friend at age three, so this counts more as a childhood friendship. However, in adulthood we went to colleges 800+ miles apart, started our first professional jobs in the same city, and then split up once more a couple of years after getting married. And most likely, I'll never live in the same state as her again. So why is she still my BFF to this day? I can't remember who started it, but in college we decided to become accountability partners in our walks with Christ. Ever since then, we've maintained a weekly call, hangout, or video chat to ask how the other is doing and pray for one ...

In this series so far, we've talked about the Friendship Funnel and how to make friends by meeting, filtering, and investing in people. Part 2 focused on where and how to meet potential friends. Part 3 explores what it means to filter and invest in people. These two steps go hand in hand because in order to determine if someone is a friend worth keeping, you need to invest time to really get to know him or her. Spend Time Together If you've met an individual several times in group settings and your personalities seem to click, now it's time to test the waters and find out what kind of friend she is. For me, that involves hanging out on a one-to-one basis. Conversations tend to deepen once you get past the small talk and you find out what the other person actually thinks about his boss, spouse, and even political and religious views. Take the Initiative You need to make the first step, not wait on the other person. People get busy with life and may not make fri...

Last week I introduced the Friendship Funnel and how you need to continually meet, filter, and invest in people to make new friends. In this article, let's focus on the "meet" part of the equation – how do you intentionally encounter new groups of people? Top 4 Places for Finding Friends There are a ton of situations and gatherings where you can meet new people, but the groups where I've had the most success had these things in common: An area of interest for you Regularly occurring meetings that happen at least once a month (or are supplemented with active social media channels, chatrooms, or forums) Growing membership with both new and longtime participants Here are a few examples of where I have personally found and made friends despite not knowing anyone: Church Churches encourage fellowship, community, and love for your fellow man, so usually members have a culture of being very open to making new friends. (If not, try another church.) Upon find...

There's an art to making friends as an adult. Many studies and articles have been written about how easy it is to make friends in school because you're in constant proximity, but as adults we get busy with life – work, travel, the kids' soccer games, family commitments, etc. Our social circle (I'm talking about real friends, not social media followers) get smaller and smaller, and before you know it, your life has somehow become more isolated and, well, boring. Starting from Square One When Mr. Gamer and I moved to another state to be closer to family, I was suddenly dropped into a world where I worked from home and knew no one except my husband and parents-in-law. Video chats with my old friends back home weren't cutting it; I was painfully lonely and desperate to meet new people. Over the course of three years, I developed a systematic method for finding and making friends when you're starting from zero. Obviously, this technique may not be for ever...