2012 Resolutions – Something Old, Something New, Nothing Blue #SuttonScoop2012

Happy New Year!  Yup – 17 days late.  In 2012, this kind of tardiness will no longer be acceptable, however if it does happen I won’t worry about it.  I will just breathe deeper.  Be presenter,uh more present.  I’ll write more.  Smile more.  Lecture less and go more places.  I won’t shower any more than I did in 2012 but somehow I’ll look better.  And younger.  I’ll solve world hunger without even trying.  I’ll cure all cancers.  Ok…maybe I’m getting carried away with the last few starting with looking better.  Make that look older and the list immediately will be more accurate.  I’ll be at half-life when it is all said and done and won’t worry a second about it (insert age cliches here).  Without further ado, I resolve…

2012 RESOLUTIONS

Marriage:

• More active listening and engaging.  Inquire.  Prompt.  Probe.  Hi-jack the conversation to turn towards me less.
• Smile at and laugh with Cindy daily. Nothing feels better than laughing with Cindy.
• At least 2 kid-free trips in 2012 – keeping pace with 2011.

Fatherhood:

• Be at home eating at the table for 2 weekday dinners – put this in the “beat my head against the wall” category but I’m going to give it a go again in 2012.  Might require a job location change to my living room at this point.  Even that might not be enough – work from the dinner table??
• Find fewer teachable moments and enjoy more non-teaching moments.
• Continue weekly family activity night.
• Golf with the kids 1x per month (Apr-Aug).
• 1×1 time with each kid outside of the home monthly – the kids build the plan.
• Listen more – especially to Will.  It scares me that he has fewer years left in the house than he has already had here.

Health and Fitness:

• Yoga 2x per week – love yoga and it seems to be good for my running.
• Push-ups 3x per week building up to 5 sets of 35 (currently 3x at 4 sets of 32).
• Ab exercises 15 min TWICE  a week (“you love it but you hate it” – 100% increase from 2011).
• Run with Purpose – donate $2 (pre-corporate match) per mile every mile run in 2011; target 1300 miles.
• Run a 50k
• Run at least 3 trail races
• Run my age in marathons – means run at least 2 marathons to get my total to equal my age.

Personal Well-being:

• Smile more; breathe more deeply; look for the positives
• Praise the good in others; Cheer their victories loudly
• Continue to rise everyday at 5 am.
• Read 16 books (up from 14 read in 2011) and continue to document via blog.
• Work: Work less and work smarter, be more confident and have more fun.
• Pursue “presentness” to help better engage with all people in my life (taking all tips/advice here).
• Share more via my blog; capture my “running” thoughts – I do some of my best thinking while running (and showering oddly)
• Travel with our entire family more – a potty trained Charlie is going to return us to life on the go, go, go!
• Attend 4 concerts  Already 2 on the books for 2012 with purchased tickets for Radiohead in Atlanta and The Black Keys/Artic Monkeys here in Charlotte.
• Share the good work the Men’s Shelter of Charlotte is doing with more of my friends, co-workers and family.
• One late add:  establish and maintain a zero-inbox email philosophy (GTD-style) – that’s right.  2 days in action and I’m loving it!  Inspired by this article.

For those die-hard “SuttonScoopers” who like the art of comparing and contrasting you can see my end of year wrap-up from 2011 here.  If you are really daring you can see 2010 here.  Hmmm, these two sentences make me wonder whether my need to chronicle might be getting a bit out of hand.  Maybe a 2013 resolution??  Happy New Year!

Resolutions, First a Look Back at 2011

Not so fast…by now you know my drill here.  First, take a look at last year’s resolutions.  THEN, build the resolutions for this upcoming year.  So how did I do?  I’d give myself a B-.  Good work on some.  Others still need work.  Sometimes a lot of work.  Some were ridiculous and simply need to be removed.  Put them in the “it sounded good at the time” category but not tremendously realistic.  Here’s my year end look (in blue) at what I had resolved to do in 2011.  For the truly mundane view of my life you can look back to midyear 2011 resolutions update and compare.  Then a post on what I’ll do better in 2012.

2011 RESOLUTIONS

Marriage:

• Plan 1 date night per month – this used to be about getting the sitter but in 2011 this means planning the events of the date. 3 at the mid point of 2011 and finished with 3 at the year end mark.  Lame.  This one gets removed next year – the reality is I don’t like calling babysitters.  They don’t know me.  I don’t know them.  
• More active listening; less one-way talking.  Good days and bad days on this one.  Sleep plays a role.  Less sleep = less listening.   
• Fall asleep on the couch less.  Go to bed instead. I’M CURED!!  Couple lapses here and there but getting up earlier forces me to go to bed earlier which helps keep me from sleeping on the couch.  Success!
• Smile at and laugh with Cindy daily. This is a keeper.  I think I was successful.  Busier or travel days required a laugh through texting or even an email. Look for this again in 2012.  The reminder helped.

Fatherhood:

• Be at home eating at the table for 2 weekday dinners (must make this a priority).Fail…I’m money with Fridays…must. do. better. Need some help here.  Suggestions?
• Re-establish weekly family activity night – don’t limit to only games but also hikes, bike rides, movies, etc…Success!  Regular game nights.  Summer Friday’s at friends. 
• Golf with the kids 1x per month (Mar-Sept). Success!  More like Mid-April – August but good fun.  Stewart even joined in a few times.  Need to keep this up next year.
• 1×1 time with each kid outside of the home monthly – the kids build the plan.  Not so much.  Golf helped but never got to be truly 1×1 time monthly.  
• More laughter and less lecturing with my kids (2009/2010 repeat – still working on it). How do you decide when to teach and when to let things go?  I don’t have this one down.  My tendency is to lecture.  Some of this is fear on my side.  Fear of not getting them all the info.  Fear of how they act when we aren’t around.  I need to let go more – we have good kids.  Really good kids. 

Health and Fitness:

• Yoga 2x per week (get back on the wagon here). Late year success.  100% since October.  Started with P90X version and moved to 5:15am Wed/Fri classes at the Y.  Love it!
• Push-ups 3x per week building up to 5 sets of 30 (currently 2x at 5 sets of 24). 4 sets of 32 right now.  5 sets never seems to happen – 4 sets fit nicely in the shower/shave morning routine.
• Ab exercises 15 min once a week (“you love it but you hate it”). Strong Jan-May.  Weak May – August.  Strong September – December.  Calling it a win.  2x weekly in 2012? 
• Continue no-meat diet (fish/shrimp are ok). SUCCESS!
• Run with Purpose – donate $2 (pre-corporate match) per mile every mile run in 2011; target 1300 miles. 900 mile year due to 2 calf issues in May and Oct.  Exceeded the goal in giving but didn’t get to the mileage goal.
• Run sub 1:30 half marathon (either standalone or in a full) (targeting a fast 13 in mid-Nov) Didn’t run any halfs for time in 2011.  2012?
• Run sub-30 hour BRR with 6-man team (run sub-8 min pace for my 6 legs). Success!  29 hours and 45 minutes.  Back again in 2012?  Hard to think we won’t…
• Register for the 2012 Boston Marathon! N/A yet   Nope.  They wouldn’t have me.  Cutoff was 3:13.40.  I ran 3:14.20 when qualifying was published at 3:15.59.  I’m over it but it took several months.  Not sure I’m terribly interested in it given you never really know what time you need to run to qualify.  This year 3:13.40, next year it could be lower or higher depending on how many fast qualifiers they have that year.  Too complicated to care.  I qualified under the rules I knew and feel great about that.  I don’t feel so great about the Boston Athletic Association needless to say.

Personal Well-being:

• Continue to rise everyday at 5 am. SUCCESS! Everyday – 4:45 except for yoga days and Saturday runs where it is 4:30. I love my morning time.
• Read 18 books (up from 15 read in 2010) and continue to document via blog. Fail.  14 read.  Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything” sank me. 
• Work: be more confident, less fearful and have more fun. Definitely having more fun in this new role!  Confidence is an object I may forever chase.
• Pursue “presentness” to help better engage with all people in my life (taking all tips/advice here). Work in progress – I don’t think I can do this enough.
• Write for fun more (via blog) – target 2 entries per week or roughly 100 per year.  Fail – nowhere near it.  More like 20 entries/year.  But I still aspire to write/share more.
• Visit more museums with the kids – target 6 in 2011. 2 down, 4 to go.  I’m calling this a success.  We hit 2 more before YE but visited Discovery Place multiple times for multiple different exhibits (e.g. Mummies, etc.).  This is an easy win in 2012 given our plans to visit DC.
• Attend 4 concerts – I always love seeing live music and therefore I should do this more. 2 of 4 on the year.  If you count school events this one was a success?  If not, fail.  Metallica and Britney Spears?  Wow.  Already 2 on the books for 2012 with purchased tickets for Radiohead in Atlanta and The Black Keys/Artic Monkeys here in Charlotte.
• Exceed 2010 charitable giving levels. We blew this one out of the water.  Yay us.  2012 will be all about more time on top of financial support.
• Call my parents at least weekly – I always enjoy hearing from them. Uh-oh…the most basic of things…3 thoughts: 1) we need to do better – maybe key off of fun events in our lives to share with them?  2)  Mom/Dad – if you are reading this you need to have a resolution here too.  We love it when you call us too.  3) Maybe forgo the phone and walk down the street to visit them?  With 4 of their 4 grandkids in the same town how can they not move closer?  We will never understand – take the plunge.  I’ll put aside my “I never help people of 25 years of age move” rule and help you guys.  If Fort Mill/Charlotte is too much try out Greenville for a bit.  As a smart one at Nike once said:  Just do it.

Well – that’s the year in review as far as my resolutions are concerned.  Overall a great year.  Points of pride:  Charity, early rising, exercise, diet/nutrition, sleeping in my bed vs. on the couch, game night and golf with the kids.  Points needing work:  Presentness.  Dinners with the family.  Patience.

2012 Resolutions are in the works.  Could even go up today.  Keep an eye out – or don’t.  I won’t blame you.  :)

Christmas 2011

 

 

This was easily the longest holiday break I have taken off from work in several years.  With the exception of a few peeks into email I spent 1 week and 4 days completely away from work.  In addition, I did little work on my personal self beyond basic running maintenance, in fact, after shaving for Christmas Eve Mass I even took a full week and 2 days from shaving.  I dare say I almost have what is the early stage of a beard.  Albeit one with more gray than I last remembered.  Much of the time was spent with the kids, family and friends.  It was dreamy.  There were a few logistical challenges with the holidays, but nothing worth words here.  Some highlights:

• Holiday Baking – Stewart and I baked, and baked and baked.  We had enough sweets to last from 12/23 through nearly New Years and we gave a bunch away to boot!  We baked the peanut butter cookies with the kisses, pretzels with kisses/M&Ms, white chocolate pretzel rods, peppermint bark, gingerbread snowmen cookies (she was intrigued that these cookies had pepper as one of the ingredients!), pecan pie and some other items I can’t quite remember.  Some of my most nostalgic memories of the holidays involve baking with my mom and now with my kids.
• Santa!  Seeing the kids on Christmas morning and honestly moreso with their excitement on Christmas Eve is priceless.  At times a bit tiring, but priceless.  There’s nothing like it.
• Our 2nd Annual Baxter Christmas Pot Luck – we were at capacity with friends and their kids this year.  Fun times – next year we need even more desserts as this year they went fast!  Better yet – next year I just need to start with desserts first.
• Baxter New Year’s Day 12k Trail Run – over 7 miles of trails to run on within Baxter – and challenging terrain at that!  Looking forward to the 3rd annual next year!
• We didn’t leave the Baxter Bubble except for a date night or two, a trip to Discovery Place and some light pre-Christmas shopping.  I love not driving places.  Thanks to all of our family who drove to us – with a 2 year old it REALLY makes a difference!
• Charlie moved into a big boy bed.  One of our parenting “lowlights” from 2011 was dismantling his crib in front of his eyes right before bedtime.  He said he was ready (and had taken several naps and slept several nights in his new big boy bed) and we acted…maybe a bit too swiftly for him (and potentially even his mom who even shed a tear or two).  It’s funny to see him in it (there’s a picture of it below) and even funnier to watch him the first night as he was apparently not ready to commit to turning over in it.  If there’s one thing we know about Charlie it is change is not his favorite thing.  It might even be his least favorite thing.  Oh yeah, we have a 9 year old, well-broken-in crib for sale if you know anyone interested.
• Fred the Elf – oddly I miss the 6am rush downstairs to find out where Fred landed after his trip back to the North Pole each night.  We miss that guy.
• Cindy’s Christmas Village – I’d be ok with this thing being up all year but I’m told it would lose its luster…still very cool.
• Golf – Will, Dad and I walked 9 holes at Fort Mill Country Club on the day after Christmas in near perfect weather.  Good multi-generational bonding time.
• “The” Puzzle – this year’s was a doozy.  Charlie picked it out (see picture) and his is now banned from doing so in the future.  1500 pieces as 500 too many.  We BARELY finished it before the New Year deadline.  8:37pm on New Year’s Eve and several of the border pieces did not get placed until the last day of completion!

As always the New Year’s Resolution edition of the blog is forthcoming.  Per usual a recap of 2011 performance and then the 2012 goals.  Geekfest, I know.

Enjoy the pics – and my apologies in advance for the quantity.

Click here for a slideshow of the pics and videos from our 2011 Christmas Holiday

Click here for all of our pics a la Flickr

Hola! Vamanos! Viva La Mexico! #suttonscoop

 

The screams of a potty-training 2 year old?  Mild bickering between siblings over important stuff like who asked first and who had it last?  Making 3 school lunches a day?  Nope…none of that on a kid-free vacation but oddly after 2-3 days you realize that you really do love those things and you actually start to miss them.  Perspective we wouldn’t have had we not taken a few days without the kids to enjoy time in Mexico.  While there we did novel things like:  reading during the day, talking without interruption, swimming to bars and yoga.  And I conquered a fear:  the fear of the all-inclusive.  It isn’t such a bad thing after all to have everything paid for when you get to your vacation destination.  After stopping into a few of the “sister” locations we definitely learned that the price-point is a key driver.  Pick wisely.  We’d highly recommend Le Blanc on the north end of Cancun as a good choice.  All said, still not sure I’m up for a cruise just yet but have likely taken a step in the right direction.  A special thanks goes out to my parents for doing a stellar job of watching the kids which essentially enables the trip to occur.

Click here to see a slideshow of our Mexico Vacation at Le Blanc

Click here to see any and all of our pictures up on Flickr

Where did 2011 Go? #Suttonscoop

 

 

I find myself saying 2012 at work much more often and that can only mean one thing: I blinked and 2011 is nearly gone!  There is huge truth about time passing faster after having kids.  It feels like yesterday school was starting and I just got back from a race in Utah.  The latter was 6 weeks ago!  Since then we have been on our 2nd camping trip of the year, enjoyed what seemed like a month-long celebration of Halloween, sent Cindy back into the workforce, watched the University of Florida lose every game they played and even traveled out of the country without kids (that’s right, kid-free vacation in a tropical location – cliffhanger! as this gets its very own post.).

With the brightest memories often come tough ones and this held true in October.  We lost several members of my extended family, the company I work is just simply waiting for a bright spot, The Boston Marathon informed me that even though I qualified, I didn’t get accepted as an entrant, and my running has been hampered by a chronic calf issue that is finally going to get some professional attention.  All of which reminds me how important it is to cherish all of the bright spots.

So I kind of blew by a few key topics.  1) Cindy went back to work in October.  Full time. Charlie may just now be showing signs of acceptance.  Maybe.  It has been great for Cindy as she really seems to be enjoying it.  I feared big life changes in our household that would selfishly impact my lifestyle but alas, not so much.  I do make more school lunches than I have in the combined 4 years prior but that’s the biggest difference.  Truly shows you how amazing Cindy is.  You would expect this to rock our family and at minimum impact her a bit but no.  She takes it all in stride without missing a beat.  Pretty amazing.  2) Halloween.  We had planned on a big family Star Wars theme.  And we had it for the most part except for the last minute cancellation of Yoda.  He apparently couldn’t stomach the idea of all that Candy.  We did however get a five minute visit by a lion that looked oddly like the one Will dress up as when he was one.  Can you say dusts mites?   Five minutes after donning it were were back to the 2 year old going as a 2 year old without a costume.  Great outfit Charlie.

Anyways – look for more details in a forthcoming post about international travels without kids.  Until then enjoy slideshows of random October events, one of Halloween and one of our 2nd Adventure Guides camping trip of the 2011/2012 season.  Did I mention we have over 100 dads and their kids in our Adventure Guides groups (3 tribes!) this year?  Pretty cool stuff.  I owe my buddy Rick K. from work and my Dad for the inspiration here.

Click here for a slideshow of random October happenings

Click here for a slideshow of Halloween

Click here for a slideshow of our Adventure Guides Camping Trip to Camp Canaan

Click here to see any and all of our pictures up on Flickr

October 2011 – St. George, Utah: A Marathon Chronology #marathon #stgeorge

 

Couple of quick thoughts on running in Utah:  a) Utah is hilly…might even be mountainous.  Who knew? b) Utah people have southern-like niceness. c) Utah is very scenic. d) even though a race course profile shows a drop in overall elevation you will still run up a lot of hills. e)  your face grows longer as you run a race (ok, maybe this isn’t a Utah thing but it is fact).

Last weekend, John, Jason and I flew west to meet Dave and Kara at the Vegas airport and took a quick trip to Utah where we spent a short bit of time in Zion and Bryce National Parks, hung out in Springdale (neat town just outside of Zion) and eventually ran the St. George Marathon prior to returning to Vegas for our flights back east.  It is great to get out west and run a marathon – so far, all of the races I have run out west have been incredibly majestic.  Miles seem to pass faster as the scenery is a bit bigger.  Although I am an easterner at heart (and really a southerner), the west has obvious appeal – I’ll always love visiting out west.  I learned that my family needs not ignore Zion and Bryce National Parks on one of our eventual National Parks tours…Surreal beauty.  The Hoodoos in Bryce were nothing short of breathtaking.  The cliffs and canyons of Zion too.

We had a great trip.  I was able to complete the race in 3 hours and 34 minutes on a bit of a bum right calf (hence the KT Tape – this stuff really works!) and enjoyed the last 13 miles of a marathon like I never have before.  Ran 10 minutes faster for the 2nd half than the first half and felt pretty good at the finish – I actually felt like I could have kept running.  50k in my future?  The Bomb Pops (aka Rocket Pops, red/white/blue popsicles) they passed out to the runners were nothing short of amazing.  This race is one of the top 5 best organized races I have run and could have competed for the top spot had it not been for a bus snafu before the start (more buses next year please!).  Pictures are below.  A full race breakdown will be posted on the Run tab eventually.

Click here to see pictures of the mile-by-mile deterioration of a runner.

Click here to see non-running slideshow of our trip (Zion, Bryce, Vegas).

 

A Birthday (9 years old?!?), A Relay and Potty Bribery #suttonscoop

 

What do 9 year old birthday parties, a 208 mile running relay and potty training have in common?  If one’s honest they can all be a bit smelly.  Seriously, six 9-year olds sleeping over and our playroom may never be the same.  A combo of morning breath, hilarious bodily functions (if you are 8-9), and minimum two days since their last shower makes for an interesting aroma.  Running relays?  Well, they are far worse on the nasal passages.  6 runners alternating 6 runs each for just under 30 hours without more than a baby wipe cleaning between runs can get ugly.  Couple in the hanging sweaty clothes in the van and some pretty awful processed foods and their impact on the human body and you get something, well, let’s just say special.  The good news is you don’t realize how bad it is until you are clean the next day and returning said van.  Potty training is the oddity – it isn’t actually smelly until the child hits the milestone.  In the case of our youngest child, this is taking its sweet time to manifest.  It wasn’t until yesterday when he ran around the house saying “my body hurts” that the big moment came where he could hold things no longer.  Dam breaks are less dramatic.

I’ll hit some brief highlights here:

9 Year Old Birthday - tends to last about 6 days with 2 parties, 2 cakes (one cookie, one homemade) and a bunch of cookies for school.  This party was of the sleepover variety with bowling and movies added to the mix.  8-9 year olds bowl very consistently with the highest score being 93 and the lowest being 84.  Target gift cards were the most popular gift – our family could likely live off of the amount of money our 9 year old received in gift cards for about 4-5 months.  Best we can tell, the parents have not yet come to terms with the fact that they have a 9 year old!   2 Dozen donuts and 24 donut holes is one dozen donuts too many for six 9 year olds to eat.  All told, Will had a great birthday event!

Blue Ridge Relay - my 6th annual in this event and Cindy’s 2nd.  We finished the event happily married.  We likely run it again next year.  Each year after it is over I find myself oddly sad that it has ended.  Sad on top of very, very sore – like plan-what-you-will-need-downstairs-for-the-day-so-you-don’t-have-to-go-up-or-down-again-before-bed sore.  This race has uniqueness.  Lots of miles, 6 very different runs per runner, running in the wee hours of the night in the deep NC/VA countryside, much camaraderie with many other teams and some pretty wide-ranging emotions.  Excitement and near euphoria at the start.  Significant fatigue and grumpiness in the early morning stages, happiness (yet not elation) at the finish and oddly mismatched memories across the 6 runners in our van (we all see 6 very different races and experiences since no one person on the team runs the same legs as the other.  Each runner has their “<fill in the blank here> scared the crap out of me in the dark” story.  Stomach discomfort is not uncommon and the lack of desire to eat or drink after about 4 legs sets in heavily for most.  Doesn’t sound great while I am typing and yet when you finish you tend to miss it very quickly thereafter (maybe more after getting a few solid nights sleep).  The only real downside to this year’s race was the enjoyment the elite teams seemed to get out of logging their “kills” or the number of runners from other teams that they passed.  This irked me only in the sense that they found enjoyment through taking away from the accomplishments of others.  It also got to me because many of the teams logging “kills” had 4-6 more runners than our team did…pretty easy to run faster than someone else when you have run half the miles of the person you are passing.  Questionable sportsmanship, but not enough to tarnish our overall view of this race.  If this leaves you wanting to know more check out our team blog here.

Potty Training - Charlie, not me.  These days nothing likely feels better for the little guy than putting on a nice dry diaper after holding it from spending the morning in “big guy unders.” Unbelievably absorbant diaper technology just might be the truest definition of relief.  The little guy has a big-time fear of putting his #1 or #2 in something other than a diaper.  Cool to see him proud of himself when he does overcome the fear.  Frustrating to not be able to capture this pride via camera.  Also odd that Charlie prefers going commando to wearing “unders” on most days (he’ll outgrow this right?).  It’s only a matter of time until it is mastered, right?  It is a foregone conclusion that these photos will be used as bribery when he reaches high school.  ”Dear yearbook editor…”

Anyways, pictures are below – enjoy!

Click here for a slideshow of Will’s Birthday

Click here for a slideshow of the 2011 Blue Ridge Relay

Click here for a slideshow of Stewart’s Weekend with her Class Pet Woody

Click here for all of our pictures a la Flickr.

July 2011: Columbus Trip and Helping Hands Summer Event

  

School is back in and summer is unofficially over and yet I’m only now getting to post the pictures from Stewart’s TWO WEEK trip to Columbus, GA in July where we joined her for the last week of it.  It was great to hang out in Columbus – Mom and Dad’s place, although about 5-6 hours too far away (still baffled why they remain in Columbus when their 2 kids live within a mile of each other, but stubborn is as stubborn does, I guess…) is a great place to visit and relax.  Cindy, the kids and Grammy and Poppy stayed busy with activities, golf, good food while I worked and shared some meals for most of the days.  Cindy and I got away to Atlanta for an evening with her friends Deirdre, Linda, Corina and Tom from her college days at Wake.  Overall, a great last trip for the summer before schools started in mid-August (check back for these pics in the coming days/weeks).

On the day after returning to Fort Mill from Columbus, Cindy and the Helping Hands group she helps organize stuffed 300+ pounds of school supplies into 60 backpacks for kids in need as they start back to school.  The Fort Mill Care Center was thrilled at the work of this great organization and community.  I couldn’t be prouder of the stuff Cindy does for the Fort Mill Care Center – she’s pretty amazing.

Anyways, pictures are below – enjoy!

Click here for the pictures (and a video or two) at Grammy and Poppy’s house.

Click here for the Helping Hands Pictures.

Click here for all of our pictures a la Flickr.

2011 Resolutions – The Mid-year Update

Well, nearly 8 full months have passed since I publicly set my goals for the New Year.  To borrow a Covey-ism, a “sharpening of the saw” if you will.  I fear that I’m not doing well, but if the saw was already sharp would I need goals in the first place…exactly.  It should also be noted that Cindy still refers to this as the year of “less is more” – although not sure I see that as much as aspire to see it.

So, without further ado, wish me luck.  The full original link can be found here.  Here it goes (updates in blue):

 

2011 RESOLUTIONS

Marriage:

• Plan 1 date night per month – this used to be about getting the sitter but in 2011 this means planning the events of the date. I think I have planned 3 total dates.  That’s roughly 5 shy.  Two of them were to the same restaurant (Passion8 Bistro). Do I have 9 in me to get to the average by YE?
• More active listening; less one-way talking.  I’m trying harder hear.  Success is likely in the eyes of the speaking…Cindy?
• Fall asleep on the couch less.  Go to bed instead. I’M CURED!!!! Basically, I stopped sitting on the couch.  Amazing what a chair can do.
• Smile at and laugh with Cindy daily. 6 days a week?  I think so.  The reminder to strive for even more was worth including this one…

Fatherhood:

• Be at home eating at the table for 2 weekday dinners (must make this a priority). Fail…I’m money with Fridays…must. do. better.
• Re-establish weekly family activity night – don’t limit to only games but also hikes, bike rides, movies, etc…Friday fun night with the neighbors helped here.  Friday game night is back strong with school being back in.
• Golf with the kids 1x per month (Mar-Sept). SUCCEED! Will and I are playing 9 holes nearly weekly.
• 1×1 time with each kid outside of the home monthly – the kids build the plan. Each kid? Fail.  2 of 3?  Winning!
• More laughter and less lecturing with my kids (2009/2010 repeat – still working on it). WIP – can always do better here…I just have so much to say.  Maybe this one should read “say less”?

Health and Fitness:

• Yoga 2x per week (get back on the wagon here). Fail – not sure why.  
• Push-ups 3x per week building up to 5 sets of 30 (currently 2x at 5 sets of 24). I’m at 4 sets of 30.  Getting there.
• Ab exercises 15 min once a week (“you love it but you hate it”). Strong through May when I strained a abdominal muscle…still not 100% (or it’s a hernia/early appendicitis…).
• Continue no-meat diet (fish/shrimp are ok). SUCCESS!
• Run with Purpose – donate $2 (pre-corporate match) per mile every mile run in 2011; target 1300 miles. 1300 Miles may be tough with having to take 6 weeks off in May early June.  
• Run sub 1:30 half marathon (either standalone or in a full) (targeting a fast 13 in mid-Nov)
• Run sub-30 hour BRR with 6-man team (run sub-8 min pace for my 6 legs). (3 weeks out)
• Register for the 2012 Boston Marathon! N/A yet (Sept 19 is my registration date…please, please, please be kind BAA!)

Personal Well-being:

• Continue to rise everyday at 5 am. SUCCESS!
• Read 18 books (up from 15 read in 2010) and continue to document via blog. 12 books down, 6 to go.
• Work: be more confident, less fearful and have more fun. Definitely having more fun in this new role!
• Pursue “presentness” to help better engage with all people in my life (taking all tips/advice here). hmmm…I’ll get back to you here.
• Write for fun more (via blog) – target 2 entries per week or roughly 100 per year.  About 60 entries off pace…maybe a touch aggressive? 
• Visit more museums with the kids – target 6 in 2011. 2 down, 4 to go.  Need a strong finish.
• Attend 4 concerts – I always love seeing live music and therefore I should do this more. 1 of 4 so far…unbelievably, Britney Spears (without kids…what am I doing?) will get me to 2…Must find my man card…
• Exceed 2010 charitable giving levels. On track and potentially already exceeded!  Yay!
• Call my parents at least weekly – I always enjoy hearing from them. Uh-oh…need to do better.

I reserve the right to edit these through mid-January… Happy New Year!

Alright – good to see where I stand.  Some bright spots (reading, diet, work, charity, golf and Cindy) and some definite areas to focus on (family dinners, museums, date night planning, less lecturing to name a few).  Re-focus starts now…

Safety First!!

We live in a different age then when I grew up.  One of the more noticeable differences is how safety conscious kids are today.  I didn’t own a bike helmet as a kid.  If I did, I would have been laughed out of the neighborhood if I wore it.  I remember that when Will was a rider in the bike trailer he used to cry if we accidentally left without putting his bike helmet on.  Their first instinct when riding scooters and bikes is to put their helmet on.

We might be witnessing the act of taking something too far.  One of our kids, who will remain nameless, has decided the 5-point car seat harness in a car that rivals the size of a small tank is not quite safe enough for his liking. Either that or he’s sending us a message about our driving.  The good news is he has taken the matter into his own hands.  It should also be noted that not enabling this latest measure of safety may result in some serious tantrum time.  This may explain why I rarely drive without my own “safety device”:  earplugs.

Clearly it could be worse.  It could also get interesting if this turns out to be anything more than a phase.  Can you imagine the scene 14 years from now as he approaches his driver’s test?  Picks his date up to go to Prom?