Thinkcage

I found these great vintage Christmas cards in some things my dad sent me when he moved out of his house in Wisconsin.

They are in a neat decorative box, complete with envelopes. The set features a few different designs of wintry scenes in a watercolor style complete with a shiny gold stripe at the bottom. The message inside wishes the recipient an “old fashioned Merry Christmas…”. I think it’s cool that these were meant to look old fashioned years ago when they were made.

I’m going to try to convince Holly to let us sent some of these out next Christmas — I think they’re wonderful.

Just wanted to give a quick update to yesterday’s post about Brett. Holly took him up to the doctor this morning and it turns out he is much more sick than we thought. Last week a case of strep throat was mis-diagnosed as symptoms of seasonal allergies. That infection, left unchecked proceeded to his lungs for a case of pneumonia. He’s home resting now, filled with a herculean amount of antibiotics, so all should be good in about 24 hours. Nonetheless, please keep the little guy in your thoughts and prayers in the interim.

You know when your kids are sick and you know that it’s just a matter of time before you get it? That’s me today. Normally, when you get sick it’s a surprise - but not when you’re a parent. You get to see, first-hand, what you’ll be contracting in the near future. You spend the next few days wondering when it will start.

Brett was sick–throwing up and fever–all weekend. Grace went to bed with a fever last night. Both of them are home from school today.

And I’m just waiting for the symptoms to start. I keep thinking I feel a little nauseous.

Sometimes as a parent, your kids do things that completely amaze you. Things that you didn’t teach them, things that are outside of you and your parenting. Yesterday Brett ran a 10K in a local event, the Redbud Classic. Not only did he run the entire 6.4 miles, but he really ran well and loved every minute of it. According to the results, he finished 28th in the under age 15 category, though only he and one other boy were under the age of 10.

He ran with his mom who had been planning on running in the event for several weeks. We were surprised when Brett expressed an interest but completely supported him in giving it a try. Holly made him stay with her because it was his first time running that far and because he’s only nine. But she felt like she probably held him back and that he could have gone faster had she not asked him to stay with her. Next year we’ll have to give him a little more freedom. Maybe I can participate - it’s been awhile since I did any distance running, though I think I could probably get in shape to do a 10k without too much effort.

All-in-all, great job, Brett!

More pictures…

Today is our ten year wedding anniversary. Words cannot express what spending the last decade with Holly and our family means to me.

Here are a couple of my favorite photos of us together:

And here is to many, many more.

I’ve been busy. Yeah, well who isn’t? After a truly trying stretch over the past few months I’m able to exhale and think about life again. Much of the pressure rests on the shoulders of a very demanding freelance work schedule — you know, in addition to the full day I put in at EF? While the extra income, unique projects, and opportunities to work with people I like and respect makes freelance a part of my life, the amount of my life that it has taken up over the past few months has been far too great.

That said, it is a tremendous relief to have finished up a couple of large projects (and many smaller ones) and start thinking about life again. It is fascinating to me how an inbox full of mail, a desk full of papers and magazines, a news aggregator full of unread posts, and a ever-expanding list of household projects can really add to the stress.

So now it’s time to come down, a get back to normal life. For me that means: Catching up on information (blogs, mail, messageboards, etc.). Finally getting to play World of Warcraft. Taking a little time off and spending it with the family. Working on my long-neglected personal project (like this blog). Restart the book on my nightstand.

It’s good to have the weight lifted.