The Beginning of Reflection...

I am beginning a journal of life where I get the chance to reflect on each week. It's nothing too profound or anything. It will just give me a chance to reflect on the week and remember and journal some of the moments and "lessons learned" of the week. I think it will be fun and insightful to record some of the memories and lessons I learn each week in order to grow into a more developed, spiritual, mature husband and father. Here are some of the things I learned this week:

- I need to carry God’s peace with me and show it to others. Be that non-anxious presence in other’s lives.
- Don’t expect plans to stay the same. Changes happen. All the time. Adapt or let it eat away at you.
- Some annuals (plants) are not annuals. They will continue to come back every year. Each year a little thicker and a little taller. We were those neighbors with the overgrown weed garden in their front yard. It was supposed to be a butterfly garden. So much for that.
- Don’t forget people’s last names. Especially ones that know you. Also, don’t expect for the person you are asking to see this person that you forgot their name to not make you feel stupid when you obviously got the last name wrong, but you had the first name right. Beckie Miller, Beckie Hitch. Very close.
- When you hear about a single mom whose ex-husband flees the country and leaves behind their two kids with a baby on the way and a job that just got cut back from 40 hours to 12, you realize just how good you have it and how very blessed and favored you are.
- When Kroger has a 2 for $5.00 sale on half gallons of organic milk, you buy at least 2. Another good lesson is don’t decide to start drinking organic milk when your child just gets to the age where she is drinking milk instead of formula and drinks roughly 20 ounces a day. With those figures, Lorelei drinks a half gallon every 3 days. On sale, that is $2.50 / 3 days or $0.83 per day. She drinks that $0.83 in about 6 minutes if you add up her three feedings. That’s 13.8 cents per minute, but who’s counting.
- Listen to my wife when she insists that I need help when putting together tables. If not, you end up doing something wrong and getting tendonitis in your elbow and unable to lift anything for 1 to 2 weeks.
- Expect to spend at least an hour at the Varsity before a Falcons football game. So many people in line for hamburgers and hotdogs. Really? It’s a burger with some American cheese (probably Kraft singles), and chili (probably canned). Somehow, all together, it’s magically delicious.
- Hold the Sabbath sacred. It’s so special to spend the day with family and keep it simple. What a way to end the weekend.
- Don’t be so quick to give yourself a pat on the back. Keep your expectations high. Never settle for an okay job even when it may be extraordinary to someone else. Character is everything. Do the right things even when no one else is looking because God always is.

Here's to another great week with little ability to use my left arm.