Food Chain

Do you ever feel like your whole life is just waking up and going to work to make money to buy food, to cook for an hour or two, so that you can feed the people you love, and then clean up for an hour or two, and go to bed, just to get up and do it again? I had no idea that would be the purpose of my life, but I guess that's it. 

Taneycomo 20

Last week was the 20th annual Troutslayer's spring get together. When I'm dead and gone, you'll always find a piece of me on the docks at Ozark Beach on Taneycomo. Part of me will always live there. 

Invisible

I'm helping out at church with a program called Edge, it's for the 7th and 8th graders.  Tomorrow is my turn to present the information for the night.  Tomorrow's theme is "Visible and Invisible".  One of the things I will talk about is guardian angels.  I guess guardian angels are something we Catholics are supposed to believe in.  I'm not 100% sure about any of it, but I do have a guardian angel story that I am going to share with the group.

A few weeks after Robby died, Angie and I were probably at the lowest point of our lives.  Sadness, grief, confusion and anger filled our days.  It was a lot to move through and we were both feeling totally overwhelmed by it.  One afternoon during this time, we were in the front yard raking leaves.  As we were raking we were approached by a man.  Neither of us saw him coming. He just kind of showed up right in front of the house. He was a door-to-door salesman, selling liquid cleaner. We got talking to him, then laughing with him, then telling him our story.  This guy probably spent 45 minutes talking to us.  We both forgot about our pain for a little while.  We both started feeling some hope that we'd be ok. We ended up buying the jug of cleaner that he had with him. I took the cleaner into the garage and came right back out.  He was gone. We looked up and down the street and saw no one.  We've always referred to that guy as our guardian angel.

Peace-
Matt

Frost

Questions

Sunset

Fishin'

Sitting at my favorite fishing spot.

Transition

Yep, still here. 

Peace-

Matt

Deepstar

Yesterday, we returned from our annual Miller campout at Lake MacBride State Park.  Last year we had a ton of rain.  This year it was heat and humidity.  We all decided that we will be skipping the MacBride campout next year and will be taking a trip to Colorado instead.  

We are replacing our kitchen countertops.  They are long overdue.  We decided to go with laminate.  It was way cheaper than any other option.  The color we chose is called Deepstar Glaze.  Menards called today.  They're ready to pick up.  I guess I know what I'm doing this weekend.

Peace-
Matt

Surpassed

My youngest daughter has finally surpassed her mother in height. I guess that's what happens when you keep feeding them. 

It's going to be a fun next few weeks. Dave Matthews Band on Tuesday and then our annual family camping weekend 9 days after that. Fun times. 

I'm posting from my phone again. I can't figure out how to make it post higher quality photos. They just don't look right. 

Peace-

Matt

Petty

"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things"
  - George Carlin

Peace-
Matt

Advice

"Our life is frittered away by detail… Simplify, simplify, simplify!" - Henry David Thoreau

Great advice from a man who was anything but simple. I've had an audio book CD set of Thoreau's "Walden" in my car for several years. I'll pop in a cd every now and then.  It's really good stuff. He sure gives you a lot to think about. I find myself pausing it after just a few paragraphs because it's so much to process. 

I really need to take his advice. Sometimes enough is enough already.

-Peace

Matt

Testing again

Testing again. 

Testing

I've always only posted from my desktop computer. This is a test post directly from my phone. I'm curious how this will look from a real monitor. 

Full

We have this white board on the refrigerator that we use mostly to write notes and reminders on. Occasionally, I'll write a note to one or all of the kids. Sometimes it's overly passive-aggressive. Last week I was off of work and had a few mornings of free time (I could really get use to that!) to myself. One morning I spent probably an hour writing and erasing a bunch of notes. I photographed a few of them with my phone, and have put them all together here:

How to be an Adult (in 8 easy steps)
1) - Clean up your messes - expecting someone else to do it is childlike thinking
2) - Pay your bills - we all have to work hard and no one feels sorry for you when you have to.
3) - Take responsibility for your actions - mistakes happen, learn from them, never pass the blame
4) - Realize that your actions have consequences - not just for you, but for others, "how will what I do affect others?"
5) - Respect your parents - Yes, they might actually know what they're talking about.
6) - Don't take things that don't belong to you - shouldn't you have learned that in 1st grade
7) - Be a contributor - to household (chores, etc.- without being asked), to community (volunteer, donate blood, etc), to each other (if you see someone in need, help out)
8) - Above all - TREAT OTHERS LIKE YOU WANT TO BE TREATED

Emotions run high around here, lots of drama. I miss being bored.

Life is full - time to simplify

Peace-
Matt