There’s always a good chance that matching outfits with your kids will land you on awkwardfamilyphotos.com. But it’s worth the risk when the payoff is 20 minutes of pure joy jumping and playing around with your son.
Archive for the ‘ Life ’ Category
Joie de vivre
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012Happy Easter!
Monday, April 9th, 2012If there was a ever a day that deserved unreserved joy, it would be Easter. It was Easter when hope was born to man from Jesus’ victory over death. So we wore our brightest pants and played and celebrated life. Happy Easter Monday!
Side effects vs net effect
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012For the last weeks I’ve been on various medicine to combat some respiratory illnesses. Despite the promise of modern medicine, my recovery has been slower than advertised.
Obviously that’s not ideal. For countless reasons I’d like to have fully functional lungs back again. But it’s given me a great chance to weigh the costs of side effects vs the promise of net effect.
Over the time I’ve been on these meds I’ve experienced many of the listed side effects: Nausea, vertigo, accelerated heartbeats, insomnia, acid reflux, uneven body temperature, moodiness and a general haze over my mind.
The illness I’m trying to fight off caused breathing difficulties and fatigue.
Which is worse? Generally we accept the side effects because wellness is the worth the brief costs. But it’s not something we accept by way of specific decision each time. In my particular instance the side effects were only a part of the discussion in that they were listed on the meds.
So the question I keep wrestling with is whether I would’ve recovered naturally. Clearly, I haven’t recovered yet with meds so perhaps if I’d done nothing I’d be worse off. But if I’d avoided the meds I would’ve had a few weeks of insomnia-free sleep. I would’ve likely enjoyed slightly more regular body function and metabolism too.
Most of the time this isn’t something that comes up. You take the medicine, you get better, you stop taking the meds and the side effects and illness are both gone. But with my fifth visit to the doctor on Friday there’s a good chance I’ll get to decide whether the hopeful net gain is worth more side loss.
We should all spend more time at the beach
Sunday, March 4th, 2012In 45 minutes we can go from our home to the beach. Over the last 5 years we’ve made that trip nearly every month. It’s hard to imagine a place where our whole family finds more joy and release and love than in the time we spend running and building and toppling and swimming and bird chasing. Four sleepers on most drives home doesn’t hurt either.
As the weather warms and the days lengthen, we’ll start going from monthly trips to weekly trips. By the time summer strikes we’ll probably need all our fingers to count our waterfront back-and-forths. For now we’re just happy we could finally take the year’s first proper Atlantic excursion.
Par for course
Saturday, March 3rd, 2012
Someone’s usually upside down and it’s par for course that we’re all looking in different places.
Three problems with Netflix
Wednesday, February 29th, 20121. Compare what’s at Redbox and what’s at Netflix. Which has more films you’d prefer to watch?
2. Compare what’s at Netflix and what DVDs are available… at Netflix. It’s a problem when your best service is the one you hide.
3. There’s almost always something better I could do with my time than watch anything. That’s not a truth I should receive from a company that only makes money if I prioritize watching videos. But every time I look at their top 10 recommendation, I can only imagine someone in their engineering department really wants me to spend more time reading.
When intent and need conflict
Friday, February 24th, 2012On Tuesday when Jenn and I were thinking of the upcoming Zero Week Challenge the only thing I could imagine really stopping us would be someone getting sick. For almost all of 2012 someone in our family has been sick so that possibility wasn’t out of the picture. I didn’t expect the reality to appear quite so immediately.
Excepting perhaps 5 hours, I spent Ash Wednesday sleeping, fighting off some resurgent bug. Sebastian also stayed home from school, clearly carrying something in his lungs. We soldiered on and I felt restored enough on Thursday to come in for a half-day. But Thursday night Augustin and Arden both came down with something. After a long, sleepless night we trekked to the doctor this morning, where we heard confirmation that they both have some respiratory virus.
Our goal was a week without spending anything: A week where we could focus the energy of buying on thanksgiving and giving instead. But can’t we ignore four sick people and responsibly take no action. So our zero week has turned into a $30 week owing to a pair of co-pays. We used a gift card to pay for their medication. It’s possible that’ll run higher because whatever intentional spending we need to do to make sure we tend to our kids, we will. But excepting the exceptional needs, for the rest of the week we’ll be keeping on a zero week focus.
Sick
Thursday, February 23rd, 2012Nothing slows thinking down quite like being sick.
Zero week challenge
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012This year Jenn and I are trying something a little different. Starting tomorrow we’re starting the Zero Week Challenge. For the first week of Lent we aren’t going to spend any money. None. $0.
Why are we doing this? Well, besides looking for a way to recalibrate our approach to spending and money in general, Lent starts tomorrow.
In the history of the Christian church, Lent is typically a 40-day season where in preparation for Easter Christians would adopt certain attitudes or prayer or repentance, or sometimes fasting or giving up of certain behaviors. Often a combination of new attitude and abstinence are combined, so that if you give up chocolate for lent when you crave chocolate you use the craving as a trigger to pray.
It’s a great spiritual discipline or practice, though by no means does it impute any special holiness or Christianity+.
For this Zero Week Challenge, there’s a two-fold idea. First, that we’re setting aside unintentional consumption and buying for Lent. Secondly, that in those moments we usually buy, we can turn to moments were we pray or give or reflect or any number of other practices.
Clearly there are big challenges to this. We need to have our family provided for in advance. A week without spending isn’t intended to be a week without eating or driving. So we’re filling up the gas tanks tonight and our grocery runs are complete. We’ve tried to ensure that what needs we have are covered for the next week.
I’m not sure if we’ll succeed. And I’m not sure what the impact of success would be. In fact, I’m not even sure what success would look like. Spending less money? Spending less often? Reflecting on the gap between real and perceived need?
But I am sure that for this week we’re going to try and spend no money at all. Bills that are coming up have been paid. Upcoming needs have been planned for. And whatever else comes up we’re planning on just passing on. Then we’ll see what happens. If it’s healthy and has a positive impact on our lives, we’ll probably do this again.
If you’re looking for something to try this Lent, you’re welcome to join us. You can try a Zero Week Challenge too, or just resolve to abstain from casual spending for the season. If you do, let us know.
Parties and parties
Monday, February 20th, 2012This year we’re trying to cut down on presents. For one, our kids don’t have a tremendous amount of need. But even more I’m not sure the best way to celebrate birth and to say “I love you” is to shower that child with gifts. There are surely better ways, or at least more moderated ways.
For the older kids we’re going to cut back on parties too. But for Arden, turning three, we didn’t want to trim back against her expectations too much. Especially since at three it’s hard to hear anything but “no parties”.
So she had three: One with our family, one with friends and one with Jenn’s extended family which happened yesterday.
