Little Things

This week I was invited to go to a ribbon cutting ceremony for a Habitat for Humanity home in the township next to my town. I didn't know a whole lot about Habitat previously, but what an organization. I had thought these homes were given to folks, but the commitment is much stronger and deeper. The families that get a Habitat home have a 30 year low cost mortgage with Habitat, and each family member must work at least 160 hours towards the construction. This is a great plan, to the family has blood, sweat and tears invested in the home.

This particular family, has seven children, and were very thankful and humble. The father had a nice tale about the journey back into a home. In 2006 his family lost their home. The family had to live "of all places" in a public housing complex. Raising a family the right way in public housing cannot be easy. So many negative influences around. The couple had a dream to work their way back into a home. The wife wanted something new built, or at least 2000 or newer, and the husband said "yeah right." The Husband wanted something they could afford on their income budget, and the wife said "yeah right." When the opportunity to work with Habitat to build and own a home came up, the family was happy and blessed that God never said "yeah right" to their dream of home ownership. What a blessing to work hard to recover, get out of public housing, and have a nice home for your family, that you built. The family joked they looked forward to upholding their end of the new 30 year friendship with Habitat.

Lots of things can get in the way of appreciating what you have. I am luck to have parents that stayed together and raised my brother and I well, an education, a good career, brothers across the country, great friends, a beautiful and loving wife, two healthy kids and a roof over our heads. During the ribbon cutting it wasn't the family getting the house that should be humbled, it was me. I need to spend more time and effort helping others in need, and realizing the power of giving. Little things in my life may be big things in someones life, and I don't need so many little things.

JDM

Love you and miss you every day buddy. Your sis CGM and new bro CWM both pray for you every day.

Thankful

It seems a bit overdone to post online what you are thankful about around Thanksgiving. Should we not be thankful throughout the year, and tell those we love about it. Just thank folks a little bit more often than we do now. Sunday should be a day of thanks every week. A time where you should wash away the stress of the week, minimize yourself, and pass thanks along for the things you are thankful for. Too often life's little annoyances can overshadow the good things.

Does it really matter if the dog scratches the table? No.

Clients that apparently have no hobbies, friends or family to spend time with;  annoying, but not life threatening.

Can you survive an internet outage? Shock and horror aside, yes, easily.

Yesterday gave me all I really need to keep going. No work emails. No travelling.  No schedules to hit. No meetings. No stress. Just my family.

I was able to enjoy the Thanksgiving Day at my house, alone with my little family. I worked on converting the office into a bedroom for my daughter. My wife worked on an amazing meal. The day was hard for my wife, since she is eight months pregnant, and it’s getting more uncomfortable to stay on her feet that long. She’s one tough woman. Our daughter is a lot like her. A softhearted girl, that loves to laugh and play, and likes hugs when she takes a tough fall. I cannot wait to meet our little baby, what a blessing. I ended my day sitting at a small bonfire with my wife, just talking about little things. A perfect end, to a perfect day.

The chance to work everyday on my husband and father skills is what I am thankful for today. I am not perfect, but each day with my family I work on myself. Each day I make mistakes, and learn from them and hopefully use the lesson the next day. I am thankful to have people in my life, that make me want to be better.

Browns comments, after 4 weeks

Three things I love:
-Scrappy depleted D, balling against good offenses
-T-Rich get’s my blood pumping every time he touches the ball, more on that in a bit
-Team in general does not quit, last year they quit a lot

Three Things I’m hopeful on:
-Wheeden looks to have the skill set to become a big time QB
-Benjamin looks to be little gamer
-DB’s fighting hard without Haden, could be great with him

Three things I cannot ignore:
-2-1 Interception to TD ratio (bad, even for a rookie)
-Drop-R-Us receiving core, not helping the above comment
-Lackluster “Offensive Guru” head coaching/leadership (more T-Rich por favor)

Comments? Disagreements? Discuss…

Sketch More, Play More

Wow, time is flying by so fast. That statement is a bit cliché, but I don’t know how else to describe. I’m not sure any one thing is the cause, but more likely a confluence of events. Baby, busy work, busy Fraternity schedule, busy schedule with my wife. I know I have not taken enough time to process life, one indication being my absentee blog. I have taken a few small steps to keep myself focused and fresh. I have gotten back into a few good books, started a sketchbook, set time aside to write this and made sure I spend time with my wife. As I write, I have also had work email after email pour into my phone. They customer demand never stops. Our society is really skewed, folk demand 100% attention to their matters 150% of the time. It becomes very difficult to truly unplug and have a life, or an identity, outside your work. I am blessed to have a good job, that provides for my family, but I can see how jobs can wreck families if not properly managed and placed in good context. The best remedy for this is to sit on the floor with my daughter, and dive into some playtime. Nothing exists outside my home when in that place. Emails, wait, calls go unanswered, some chores get skipped, but that is OK, the world somehow continues to spin. Normally, I have more of a theme, but today I just wanted to write about whatever. I intend on writing more, sketching more, hugging my wife more and most of all playing more. Talk again soon.

Catching Up

I have been really behind on any blog posts, February was my last brief writing. Needless to say, life has been busy, and I have too much to talk about to capture everything today. Suffice it ti say I feel blessed with a wealth of family, friends and happiness. More to come here on a regular basis.

JDM

RIP baby JDM, I miss you and wish you were here. Your sis CGM prays for you every night.