The year of MORE

I have made a few resolutions as part of this new year that are important for me to follow through on this year.  Before we get too far into 2012, I want to make sure I get them down and share them with others so I can have others helping to encourage and hold me accountable to make certain I complete them:

• Take more pictures.  This one may seem crazy, knowing how many pictures I already take, but I slowed down this past year - mostly because of camera problems.  Now that I have an iPhone, I don't know that I have an excuse.
• Be more grateful.  I was inspired by a friend who resolved last year to post as a Facebook status everyday something she was thankful for each day.  While I am not making mine public yet, I have been writing each day about those things - big and small - that I am thankful for. 
• Spend more time with my kids. Primarily, I mean one-on-one time.  The two oldest are getting to the point where I can see my time with them slipping away faster and faster.  I want to spend more time growing our relationships and staying in touch with who they are and are growing to become.
• Do more for others. This past year I began to feel a real tugging on my heart to do more for others, to get involved in more service and outreach programs.  I want to make sure that I am actively serving at least once a month.  Perhaps even combine this time with my time spent with my kids and make an even bigger impact!

So apparently, 2012 will be all about MORE!  These four resolutions all represent areas of my life that I am already active in, but I am not satisfied with the level of activity or engagement I have had in these areas.  This will be the year that I focus on growing in these specific areas.  Stay tuned for stories and updates as I venture through the year.

Not your typical Sports role model

I've been a sports fan my entire life.  I've grown up admiring sports figures and I am raising kids who are following firm in my footsteps.  As fans, we're drawn to the superstars that hit big shots or the perennial all-star with historical career stats.  We dream of being able to do the super human feats our sports icons are able to do, but most of the time have a difficult time relating to a professional athlete because their world seems so much different than our own.  We rarely have any idea what kind of person they really are, what their real character is and even if we should be admiring these people.  I try and remind my kids that in most cases we can admire their athletic talent, but we should be careful about trying to mimic everything about our professional sports heroes. They too, after all, are flawed people.   So are the officials and umpires, but in the chaos that ensued at the end of the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians baseball game last night a different kind of role model showed himself.

Umpire Jim Joyce made a huge blunder that cost Armando Galarraga, a pitcher for the Tigers, a perfect game, one of the most elusive feats in baseball.  Joyce called a runner safe on a play that he was clearly out and every replay angle confirmed that Joyce missed the call.  So all the talk on the radio this morning and into the afternoon centered around instant replay's role in baseball, and I can understand that being everyone's concern.  For me, however, the real surprise  and point of discussion around the evening's event came in how Joyce handled himself after the game.  Joyce acknowledged his mistake, acknowledged the impact it had on the game and Galarraga, apologized for his error, and accepted responsibility for his mistake.  He didn't just do this with his peers, but he went directly to Gallarraga and then to the media with humility and acceptance of his accountability to his actions.


It is an awesome example for others and especially for my kids.  It's been great fodder for conversations tonight about trying your best and accepting responsibilities for the results, good and bad.  It's hard to be willing to be held accountable for failures, but Joyce showed the courage and humility that it takes.  As a result, it could be argued that people have a lot more respect and higher regard for him today than they did before he screwed up baseball history.  We all make mistakes in our job and as we watched in amazement as Joyce made possibly the biggest of his career, many of us were sympathetic to his situation.  The professionalism he demonstrated and his character and integrity that has shown through in the past 24 hours have given evidence that there are more than just athletes to look up to in professional sports.

Anatomy of a Family Photo

We take a number of different family pictures throughout the year and they are always an interesting experience. The kids are past the stage of being real willing models for Dad’s photography pursuits, so each family photo is a series of crazy events to try and get the kids to cooperate for that one picture we call a keeper.

Unfortunately, the only part of the experience that ever gets captured and recorded for prosperity is that 1/80th of a second for the still shot. In an effort the buck that trend, I hid a camera on a bookshelf to video record the events leading up to the final shot of our annual Easter Day family photo. What the hidden camera captured was 12 minutes and 37 seconds of mayhem and chaos I totally didn’t expect. 

In watching the video back, a few things are clear to me:

1. Our family is crazy.
2. No one listens to me.
3. It’s a lot easier taking pictures of someone else’s family.

The video shows our family just being themselves: wacky, crazy, and lots of fun. When the kids found out I had been recording, their first response was to plead for it not be shown on Facebook and to be honest there are parts of the raw video that just can’t be shared because of the embarrassment factor. The experience, however, has to be shared because a verbal or written description of the event just wouldn’t do it justice. So here’s an edited 5minute and 20 second version.

Enjoy the chaos……

December Days - 12.8.09

For breakfast this morning I warmed up some muffins for the kids. Now, initially that statement doesn't really mean much until you dig a little deeper into our definition of what a "muffin" is. About a year ago, one of my co-workers introduced our family to a recipe of Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies. At first description, I thought the combination of pumpkin and chocolate sounded a little strange, but these are not your normal cookies. They are spongy and more cake-like than typical cookies causing my kids to label them "muffins" instead of cookies. When we make these cookies, I mean muffins, more of them are consumed before 10am in our house than any other time of day - that alone should constitute a "muffin" distinction!

A couple months ago, Caleb wasn't feeling very well at school and had to go to the nurses office. The school nurse asked him what he had for breakfast. Caleb said he panicked at first not sure how to explain to the nurse that he had eaten cookies for breakfast, but he relaxed when he realized they weren't cookies.....they're muffins! So in order to support his claim and justify our occasional breakfast choice, no one in our house is allowed to call them anything other than Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins. If you can't believe we'd feed our kids these muffins for breakfast, well, you've clearly never had them!

Shout out to the O'Connors for sharing the recipe!

Kids and Sports

I have been a sports fan my entire life.  I have those teams that I am faithful to through thick and thin (Blazers, Cowboys, Yankees), and as a relatively recent transplant to the Indianapolis area I have come to really enjoy the local teams here as well.

Nothing compares to watching my own kids play though.  I may talk about how busy life is with kids playing sports all over town, but game days are typically my favorite days of the week.  Whether it’s Caeden making a great cross-over dribble, Caleb making a catch in the outfield, or Makela’s volleyball team winning a tournament, seeing my kids having fun and experiencing success on the court/field is awesome.  Even now, I am sitting watching Caleb in his basketball practice and have a stupid perma-grin on my face because I’m having so much fun.  I can’t help it!

At the same time, I am also concerned with the seriousness of sports at such a young age.  It’s great that we live in a community that has such great opportunities for kids, but it also concerns me that there may be a lot of pressure put on these kids.  Are travel teams too much?  Will they burn out and end up hating sports?  I am fearful of these things, but at the same time want to develop a healthy level of competitiveness which can serve them so well even beyond sports.

I just want to make sure I’m doing the right things for my kids for today and tomorrow.  The sports fan in me is thrilled with the kids’ involvement, but the parent in me can’t help but be slightly concerned.