The 43

About seven weeks to summer, and my goal is to lose weight before then. I'm thoroughly chunky at the moment, and it feels like too much is conspiring against me. I should say, I'm my own worst enemy. Working indoors, mindlessly munching is too easy. Grabbing something to eat when I'm not quite hungry has been too easy. Making a sandwich when I should opt for something with less carbs has been too easy. I felt like I ate better last week, but ultimately, I need to track calories -- it seems the only way I truly stick to not eating stupid. But ... I get lazy with the calorie tracking, even though it's just on my phone. Ridiculous, I know, because every time I've been super diligent with this strategy, I've lost weight. The busy schedule isn't helping. Yesterday we had sporting events spread out all day. I was good about not eating until about 11 (intermittent fasting works for me as well), had Arby's for lunch and thought I was good ... but the Little ...

The weekend ended -- a relatively mellow weekend. No extra work, only one sporting event, and plenty of down time, which all of us need. We watched two Marvel Comics Universe movies ("Spider-Man" and "Doctor Strange") in advance of "Infinity War" next month. Ben and I played a lot the board game Smash Up. Ben's soccer team won their first game of the spring. I put brake fluid in the car. And I never felt stressed or anxious about the week ahead. The weather wasn't great, but that will come. Future weekends won't be like this, but they surely will be great, too. You take what you can and try to enjoy every moment.

Inevitably, some of the songs your parents liked are ones also like today. I'm proud to say, that is holding true for the next generation. In the early '80s, my parents loved listening to oldies stations, at a time when the format was just becoming popular. These stations played oldies my sisters and I had never heard, stuff from the 1950s that we wouldn't occasionally hear on more mainstream stations such as WLS. And my parents loved it, because in the days before MP3s, music videos, and even CDs, there wasn't much of way to relive those memories. I remember their excitement one Saturday night in the car of hearing " Leader of the Laundromat" for probably the first time in a couple decades. Did I pick up a love of those old, old songs? Not really, but I did emerge from my childhood loving the Beatles, just like my parents did. There's sometimes no way around it -- the things your parents love become the things you love. Today, our kids cannot avoid...

Our family has a busy schedule with school, sports, and work. For a few weeks every March, that schedule takes a little break. Break over. Here comes the next crush. Michael had a three-week break from his club basketball team. Although he was playing with his future high school's eighth-grade team, that was just one practice a week. That break is over. His feeder team begins games this week, his club team resumed practice, and he's playing in the first of many tournaments next week. Ben is wrapping a month-long break from swim meets that ends next week. I'm coaching his rec soccer team again, and that has started up for the spring. There was no work break. We went to Pocatello for a basketball tournament for Ben a few weeks ago, and that was the only day off. Spring is always crazy but always encouraging because the weather is warmer and summer is just around the corner. Ben isn't playing baseball, so that gives us a little respite, but that also takes away t...

One of my bigger regrets lately is I'm so far off the writing train. I work with words all day that I get to the evening and don't have the mental energy to pound out several hundred more words. Yet, I know I should be blogging, pursuing the side blog I never seem to find time for, and get the fiction I want to write out of my brain and onto a Word document. I was lamenting this to my boss yesterday, and he came up with the most sage advice/encouragement that I needed to hear (and I'm paraphrasing here): "Before you look at your emails every day, take some time to write. The emails can wait 30 minutes." So that's the new plan, a new course to plot: Writing every morning instead of the afternoon. Everything else can wait a few minutes longer. I already turn the computer on after dinner to finish up the work day amid the crazy busy schedule. Just like exercise, the me time is just as important -- and just as detrimental to miss. Therefore, I'm taking 1...