My Summer "Vacation"

I saw this article Saturday on Lifehacker about creating a Summer Manifesto, which I thought was a great idea. I use to-do lists to organize my tasks, but they are better for chores or things that can be completed in a day. I struggle to track bigger projects using my to-do lists. Hence, the need for a Summer Manifesto. I promptly sat down and wrote one.

Within a few hours, I had learned something very interesting about myself. I apparently don't like to do things I tell myself to do, even though I want to do them. I had written a list of things I wanted to do, and then promptly wasted three hours and broken multiple commitments I had made. Now I am about to try again.

Behold, the list of things I WANT to do this summer (not to be confused with the list of things I am requiring myself to do...):

Personal Stuff

• Spend one hour a day playing with TRE. This sounds easy, but it is harder than it sounds. Verb choice is important... not feeding TRE, changing diapers, or anything else. PLAYING.
• Watch as much of the World Cup as I can. Because there will never be another World Cup 2014...
• Back squat 300 pounds. This should have been accomplished long ago and has always been derailed by injuries. It is happening for real this summer. You can see my program here.
• Read...
• Legacy by James Kerr [15% complete]
• 21 Indisputable Qualities of a Leader by John C Maxwell [10%]
• Solve the computer situation. My laptop is 4 years old and slower than dirt. Since I'm having trouble finding the laptop I want for a price I'm willing to pay right now, the current best solution looks like converting this laptop into a dual boot machine with Windows 7 and Linux Mint 17. I'll let you know how that goes...
• Continue perfecting our blog layout and formatting.
• Meet with SS at least once.
• Buy new Sperrys. I bought my first pair summer of 2006 so it is time to retire them. Not bad for $30.
• Create a syllabus for my club soccer team this fall.
• Prep at least the first trimester of Algebra II.
• Eat...
• at Fox Bros. BBQ. June 15, 2014. Well worth the 75 minute wait...
• at Fogo de Chao. Who wants to go to lunch?

House Stuff

• Fix the clothes washer so that it does not overflow when draining. May 11, 2014. Thanks, Dennis!
• Install a new disposal. May 18, 2014. Thanks, Dad and Grandpa! Old one has been cracked and leaking since March...
• Clean and prevent master bathroom mold/mildew. June 7, 2014. Used Krud Kutter to remove mold and mildew, joint compound to cover texture on the walls (ELE hated it) and make them smooth, then two coats of Perma-White Mold & Mildew Proof paint.
• Remove every kudzu vine from my property. [25%]
• Remove shrubs from front bed and plant flowers.
• There's a lot more to be done outside. I will update the list as I figure it all out.

Happy Father's Day

I have loved watching CLE embrace his role as father, loving on this little guy and especially how they have play-time together!

Post-church family pictures

At Fox Bros BBQ for the first time!  TRE was a great sport even with the 1 1/2 hour wait and of course, we LOVED the BBQ.

Focus

This is what I'm sure of, I can only show love

When I really know how loved I am

When it overtakes me, then it animates me

Flowing from my heart into my hands

So I'm praying, Father, help my heart believe

That right now You're singing over me

And fill me up with Your love

Here's something you didn't know: Steven Curtis Chapman is probably my all-time favorite music artist. I was drawn to him as a kid because we share a name, but also by his songwriting. He uses his songs to tell stories, and I have always connected with that. He hasn't been my fav every day of my life... Britney Spears pulled middle school me away from Christian radio into the world of secular music, and the state of Georgia pulled college me into endless songs about beer, bars, and trucks. But I am pretty sure SCC has spent the more weeks at the top of my chart than anyone else.

His new song "Love, Take Me Over" is another perfect example of why. I was riding back from the pool with ELE Saturday and this song was on the radio. These 7 lines of lyric just slammed me in the face. This realization is not new, but the explanation was so simple it forced a gut check. What a great reminder that the strength of my relationship with God is directly related to the health of my human relationships. Is my focus on Him or things down here?

Relationships are sort of my job. That is true for everyone I guess, but the four words that describe what I do (husband, father, teacher, and coach) all demand that another person (wife, child, student, player) exists. There have been times when I have felt exactly what this song is describing; I have been so comfortable and confident in my relationship with God that I have been bold and shared deeply in my human relationships. I have also been on the wrong side of this dynamic, when the hustle, bustle, and stresses of life rip my focus off my primary relationship. Predictably, these are the times I feel disconnected, tired, angry (not to be confused with hangry... which happens often), and would say I'm getting less out of life than usual.

So, thank you, Steven Curtis Chapman, for once again producing meaningful music and bringing such an important concept back into the forefront of my brain. I'm probably extra sensitive to this message right now anyway. Spring semester is usually crazy because of soccer, but job searching and an infant at home jacked the stress level up way up this year. I will be the first to admit that my actions have not always lined up with what I know my priorities should be. Since I have approximately 150 less human relationships for the next couple months, it is time to refocus on the things that are important. I hope Erica and Theo are ready for all the love coming their way... 

Moving Forward

It took just over two years, but I am so happy to say WE are committed to sharing this adventure of blogging together.  I am excited that this will be a place where we can both write moving forward because honestly, I am still improving my blogging abilities!

So this will be our home...to share the mundane, the wonderful, and the journey of our family.  I will let you know now that sometimes posts will be small novels, while others will be a few short sentences (and we may even continue to just post a few pictures) but regardless...we thank you and appreciate you for sharing in our kind of love.

Welcome Back

ELE and I have decided to contribute our thoughts to the interwebs on a more regular basis. This should be pretty easy to accomplish since our last blog post was August. Yes, that was 10 months ago. And by "our," I really mean "her." I wanted little to nothing to do with blogging or "our" blog back then. So what changed since last August?

Everything.

Not quite, but we've had a lot going on. Part of my newly found motivation is that I have way too many thoughts floating around in my head to remember them all now, and some of them are important enough that I would like to. I love TRE more than I could have imagined, but I think he is making me dumber. There is so.much.more to think about when you have children that I forget half of what I'm trying to do. ELE can tell you all about how frustrating that is. My early adventures in fatherhood were probably enough to start my brain decay, but combining them with a job transition is apparently stressing me out so much that I want to write. That's a strange thing for a math teacher, but not something that scares me. I have my dad to thank for that.

My parents did an amazing job supplementing and supporting my education at home. I wish all of my students had parents like them. They can still recite Dr. Suess' ABCs, we practiced spelling list after spelling list, and when I brought home my first C+ on a progress report early in sophomore year, they didn't blame the teacher or demand a conference... they called the cable company. Anyone want to guess how many over-the-air channels you get when your house is buried in the woods of eastern Connecticut and within walking distance of a place called Mansfield Hollow State Park?

Are you done applauding them yet?

Honestly, I took to school well so I think they had it pretty easy. But there was one thing that I remember generally hating: writing. I tried anything to get out of it, so one of my most consistent memories throughout my school years is my dad stressing the importance of being able to communicate effectively in writing. It shocked me initially; engineers use math, not language. My elementary mind could not comprehend the importance, but my adult mind has never stopped thanking him for his insistence.

Now I have a son of my own. He is a very clear carbon copy of me - he is always hungry and he never does what ELE tells him to. So I know that some day, he will ask me "Why?" Actually, that probably will happen every day, but one day it will specifically be about writing. So I think of this blog as a portfolio of sorts, evidence that I believe writing is important. Because I want TRE to understand that some thoughts take more than 140 characters or 6 seconds to express, and are a little too important to be written in textspeak.

TRE: 6 Months

TRE: 5 Months