Outside

Spring is on the way, which will be nice because it brings some great things like golf, warm weather and fresh air. The downside is that it also brings yard work. That neverending effort to make your house look nice from the road so that the neighbors don't complain. You can spend a lot of money on a nice house marker or tons of mulch or lots of other things, but doesn't it just boil down to keeping the neighbors happy? Obviously you take pride in your own house and having it look nice but couldn't it be said that it means a lot to you because of what you imagine that other people think when they look at it? Not that I'm championing a cause for 5 foot tall grass or anything, I just think it's funny sometimes how we justify things. Even things that seem important. I'm not going to neglect my yard, but I might scowl at my neighbors when I see them because it is all their fault that I have to do all this...

Trunk Please

So for those of you that have a car with a trunk. Do you have any idea what's in there? If you do, when was the last time you used any of it? I'm sure some people have tons of Emergency Supplies that they will probably never use. In my case I have my golf clubs. I don't have room for them in the garage and I'm too lazy to take them in and out of the car every Tuesday during the summer so I just don't. So basically I have a trunk that is completely useless should I ever need to....well... ok so I don't really need it. The only time it has ever been a problem was when the van was in the shop and I forgot to take out the clubs until after we had already bought our groceries. Talk about creative stacking. Ok well I guess I don't really have a point today. That happens sometimes.

Silly Arguments

Have you ever gotten into a silly argument that you never really cared all that much about but once you got started, you just didn't want to back down out of principle? It seems really silly to fight about the thing in question, however you don't want to "lose". My wife and I had one of these silly tiffs recently about Pens. Yes pens, we both wanted the same pen for yahtzee and like any good husband I eventually gave in, but it was just silly in the first place. Why do we care so much about being right, or "winning" an argument no matter how silly? It seems like we could do a lot better to just let things go sometimes. Pick your battles so to speak. Easier said than done, I know...

Beware: Work Ahead

It will be nice once we get moved. Assuming that we find the perfect balance between usefulness and frugalness. I just hope that I can find a way to be happy in both areas but I doubt that that will be the case. The down side is that we will get to do House Painting again. The most dreaded task of any new home owner. The wall must always be repainted because once you are moved in, it becomes extremely hard to justify moving everything around to get it done. I think I hate doing it so much just because it's such an arduous task and there is very little of it that sparks my interest. At least we don't have to do it that often, and I guess the joy of being moved and having that behind us will make it a little easier to deal with so I won't complain that much. Ok so I probably will...

No Vacation For Me

Unfortunately, but smartly, we have decided to forgo a vacation this year. We are taking our trip to Nashville for me to run the half marathon but we hopefully won't have to spend much to do that and it will only be for a weekend. The big discussion is were to go next. A friend of mine goes to the Outer Banks a lot. No idea if they use Outer Banks Rentals or not, but he really does like it. We both would love to go out west although my wife is very interested in a beach vacation as we haven't done one in a while. I'm ok with that as long as there are some golf courses nearby. I'm not a big beach guy but it is her turn. At least we have plenty of time to decide and plan what we are going to do.

We Will ShamROCK You!

We went to Old Navy yesterday to try and find the girls' Easter dresses. Unfortunately they only had summer clothes in stock which of course makes perfect sense for mid February... But they did have plenty of irish gifts and clothing out on display. One of the things they had was a shirt that had "I [shamrock leaf] you", like "I [HEART] You" might look. I couldn't determine what this should mean exactly. "I shamrock You", or just "I 'rock you". I have no idea. I guess any shirt that confuses those around you is cool and interesting these days. At least it wasn't a spade symbol..

Good People

I was really proud of our church in the last week or two. We had a family whose house burned to the ground in a fire. Fortunately, they weren't home and they got there in time to get their dogs out so there was no loss of life, but there was a total loss of all things material. Our church took up an offering for them to help until their insurance money kicked in and we raised sympathy gifts of over $3000 in the first week. I was pretty proud that our church was able to respond in that way and it made me glad to be part of a church family that will help to hold each other up in that way. When my wife was on bed rest a couple of years ago and couldn't work, we received similar gifts that helped us greatly and taught us to be better givers to those around us. We aren't perfect but we definitely try to show compassion a lot more these days. The trend has been set so hopefully we can keep it going.