My Weigh In - Week 4

OK, not for your benefit but for mine, I'm going to record my weekly weigh in here on my blog, as well as a weekly journal of my health-preservation activities.

For the past 4 weeks, I have been working out daily.  And if you know me, you know I hate working out.  So, this is a genuine accomplishment.  I have been to the gym every day, 6 days/week, missing only one of those days in the span of the 4-week period.

When I have friends there, I play racquetball for about an hour.  When no comrades are present, I spend an hour doing cardio on the machines and about 20 minutes with light, free weights, performing multiple reps. I have been minding my diet, but not counting calories with any measurable accuracy.  This week, with friends in town, I did consume several spoons full of ice cream (with hot fudge... duh).  Otherwise not indulging in treats outside of a couple of grande toffee-nut mochas over the 4-weeks.  And when I had those mochas, they replaced my regular, high fiber breakfast cereal.  My goal is a generally low calorie, low fat, high fiber diet.  I have not measured those things systematically because I am hoping to accomplish a new lifestyle that I can live by long term.  If I measure them, I'm afraid I will think of it more as a diet and go back to my old ways when I reach my optimum weight/size.

Today's weigh in:
220 lbs.  A loss of 5 lbs. in 4 weeks.
(I wish I had lost 10...)

Bachelor Father Weekend

Rhonda is going to SoCal to help host a baby shower for our sister-in-law, Stephanie this weekend.  Stephanie is expecting her first child after living in fear of labor and delivery for a decade or so.  Pretty exciting stuff.  It is a baby girl and they have chosen the name Holland in honor of Stephanie's Dutch heritage.

All that to say, that I am a bachelor father for the next couple of days.  Rhonda in her infinite grace has made the trip as short as possible and will return in time for our epic worship gathering on Sunday.  But guess what has transpired since Rhonda's plans were put in place.

A friend of my family passed away this week after a full and good life at the age of 80.  The memorial service will be held this Friday while I am Molly's primary care-giver and during the time that both Merritt and Mason will get out of school on the last day of school.  Then on Saturday morning, we have closing day ceremonies for both of the boys' baseball teams, followed in the afternoon by a little BBQ for 22 people at our house - to host our super cool missionaries from Uganda... And oh yeah, I'm baking dessert on Saturday for 30 people at Merritt's baseball team party to be held on Sunday afternoon.

Now, I am not one of those guys who looks to avoid time with the kids alone, or who won't allow mom to leave town without the young one, or who can't get anything done while I have a kid or kids in tow.  But I have to admit, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed in preparation for this weekend.  So, I have assembled for myself a Bachelor Father Survival Kit.

Bachelor Father Survival Kit Contents:
1. an extensive supply of starburst for a burst of sugar energy whenever needed;
2. a voice recorder prerecorded with the message, "I'm not mom and I don't have to do things her way."
3. either a GPS homing devise with transponders for each child OR 15 inch neon yellow cone hats glued to their heads so that they cannot get lost an the large crowds of closing day ceremonies;
4. a bag full of marbles for all of my marbles that I will undoubtably lose during the weekend;
5. McDonalds gift cards for each child, so that they can be dropped off at playland when I need some alone time and I won't have to feel guilty for not getting them some food first.

Well, I figure that will get me through Friday...  Maybe you have some suggestions for my Saturday.

Life IS a musical!

We watched the re-run of the Madonna episode of Glee recently...  After we stopped laughing... the next day, Mason (who obviously was NOT allowed to watch that show) started singing to me out of the blue.  I picked up on it and began to sing my conversations with him and the other kids, explaining to them (in song of course) that some people lived in song instead of speaking.  I reasoned that I could show them movies to prove it.

Well, they laughed for a while (like 2 minutes) and then they got annoyed.  After about 30 minutes (probably less, but that sounds better for the story) Mason was so annoyed that he yelled at me, "Will you please stop singing!  I don't know how to think like that!"  And so came the conclusion of Les Kanerables.

Happy Spring!

So we missed the whole Christmas card thing.  But here we are in Spring still thinking of all of you and thankful that you are our friends.  Happy Spring!

New Family Tradition

On Easter morning, during our family egg hunt, Mason noted that his basket was less full than his older brother's basket.  He was a little disappointed, but he is a kid who shakes things off quickly.  A few transfers from Merritt's basket to Mason's and all was well.  (Meanwhile, Molly was ecstatic about the whole experience and quite satisfied with finding her handful.)

When we got in the house and Mason began to open all of his plastic eggs, he came across one that was completely empty.  After the previous egg-hunt setback, this was quite discouraging for him.  I tried to be brilliant and rescue the situation by explaining that since Easter was really about Jesus' empty tomb, the empty egg was really the best egg of the day.  It was REAL Easter egg.

Well, that do too much to make Mason feel better at the moment, but ever since then, I have been thinking about that and about how to make the empty egg the best egg to find.

I think we'll make some kind of special party hat for the person who finds the empty egg, or let them eat off of the "special person of the day" plate at lunch, or something else special to help the message of the Easter "empty" stick...