As I continue making progress towards my goal of 20 books read (or listened to) in 2017 the most recent book I’ve picked up is one that I’m reading for the third time in about four years.  I’m pretty sure it was the first book I’ve ever pre-ordered, the concept had me right from the start.  Of all of the books I’ve read this is one that I refer back to more often than almost every other.

The entire book is dedicated to a simple yet thorough approach to making tough decisions.  They lay out the process in a way that’s easy to understand and remember, all while setting many tripwires in my brain.  When I trip on one of those preset lines my mind pauses and I immediately flash back to this book.

Here’s the process they recommend when making decisions (the WRAP process):

• Widen Your Options – We often fall victim to binary decisions that don’t have to be.
  • What other new options are there?
• Reality Test Your Assumptions – Instead of falling victim to our own biases test first.
  • How can I try on each decision without actually making it?
• Attain Distance – Move past short term emotion by taking a step back.
  • What would I recommend to a friend?
• Prepare to Be Wrong – Even with the most thought out decisions we may be wrong.
  • What are the best and worst case scenarios and how can they be encouraged or prevented?

As I listened to the book while driving this morning it was a a great reminder of how to think through each decision that there is time to think through.  When I’ve followed this process it usually works out.  Not always, but I know I’m more successful when thinking through the WRAP process.

Thanks!!!

When Dominic decided to dip out of soccer for the season and try cross country I was a little nervous.  Knowing how much he loves soccer I was afraid he was going to regret making a change.  After tonight’s meet I’m glad he tried something different!

He was smiling before the race, smiling during the race, and smiling after the race.  No regrets on Dominic’s behalf, he had a great time and enjoyed the event.  On the ride home I asked him how he felt about the decision and was very much happy with it.

Not only was it fun watching him run, it was pretty sweet to have Becky’s parents drive all the way down to watch.  It was great hanging out with Ken and Mary, shooting the bull, and cheering Dominic on.

One meet down, several more to go.  Thanks for kicking butt and making this one memorable Dominic!

Thanks!!!

Our half marathon is only a few weeks away so this morning started with a nice eleven mile run. It’s funny, for all the running I’ve done in the past that was significantly longer, this training plan has been a struggle. Maybe it’s getting older, maybe it’s that I haven’t been on a set training plan for a while, or maybe it’s something else. Regardless, this run was a doozy!

That said, it was mission accomplished! Eleven miles in the books, ready for twelve next week.

There are two thing that I was very grateful for this morning on the run (besides surviving – LOL!)… my running partner and beating the voice in my head.

Becky is pretty awesome as a running partner. She not only helped to get me moving for our run, but she kept pushing me and helping me smile throughout. Without her help I’m not sure that I would’ve finished as strong as I did.

That little voice in my head was really trying to mess with me today. Constantly nagging me with all the reasons that I couldn’t finish the run and why I should quit. That voice gave me a run for my money this morning… and I beat it. I love proving that voice wrong! Without Becky helping me out I’m not sure that I would have beat it today, he put up some pretty convincing arguments!

The run is done, I’m stiff but feeling the sense of accomplishment. Thanks to Becky for being the best running partner ever! Hey Little Voice in My Head… kiss my butt. You lost again and you’ll lose again next week. 😜

Thanks!!!

As I’ve been working on insulating my workshop there’s been a lot of help and it’s been great.  Usually Becky of Dominic are up there helping me out, providing an extra set of hands, or working on a detailed project.  I’m super thankful for their help, it makes life a lot easier.

Today was a little different.  Everyone else was busy, so outside of about 15 minutes of perfectly timed help from Dominic, I was pretty much on my own.  Normally when I work alone I fire up some music, but today I worked the majority of the time in the quiet…  At least it was almost quiet…  There were a handful of times I caught myself talking with Dad as I was working.

It was funny, there were a couple of times that I made a comment to him as I was working when I either did something right or made a mistake.  When I had a question on how to do something I asked.  There was something that felt right about all of it, it was the way I would have been talking with him if was still around – in person, over the phone, or at least via text.

As I kept working I would occasionally hear hime give me advice, answers, or a hard time.  It would be in terms of advice on whether or not I had to make something perfect or not.  Once it was “dude, it’s a workshop…  It’s not supposed to be perfect.”  Shortly after it was followed up with a “really screwed the pooch on that one Bud, didn’t you?” on a spot that I rushed and did a shoddy job on.  After chuckling aloud I spent 15+ minutes fixing my mistake.  There were times when I asked him what he would have suggested, and sure enough, after a minute or two the right answer popped into my head.  It was pretty awesome.

There was one moment in particular that I felt closer to him than I have in a while.  As my head was imagining him telling me “good job dude” I swear I heard his voice in my head… “No, I would’ve said ‘Good job stud’ after you did great work like that.”  I paused, smiled, laughed, and went back to work.

The first wall is fully insulated, progress was made today.  That said, I’m most thankful to have had time working alone in my workshop today…  almost alone anyways…

Thanks!!!

 

This was a pretty wild week.  Between Becky being gone, a lot to get done at work, and a pretty ambitious set of goals for the week and month it’s been a lot of non-stop action.  Between my normal weekly planning and sitting down with Becky to go over everything on Sunday night I had quite the To Do List.

Each morning started with reviewing it, each mid-day included reviewing it, it was checked when I got home from work, and it was the last thing I read each night.  As my eyelids are getting heavy it’s a great feeling knowing that almost everything is checked off the list for the week.  Sure, there’s a couple of more things to cover, but they’ll both be done by the end of the day tomorrow.

I’m not a fan of details,  I’m not a fan of a super tight schedule, but I am feeling a pretty awesome sense of accomplishment today!

Thanks!!!

I can’t help but chuckle when my memory of last year’s blog pops up on Facebook and it seems eerily familiar to how I’m feeling that day.  After all these times I’m not sure if it’s just history repeating itself or if The Big Guy Upstairs just knows I’m a slow learner.  Either way, I’m thankful for how it works out sometimes…

With Becky gone I’ve been pretty task focused, moving from one thing to another for the boys.  I have a pretty aggressive task list at work this week too so I’ve been hammering away on that as well.  Throw in some of the personal goals I’ve set for myself this month and year and it’s been non-stop go, go, go.

Between last night and today I could tell I was getting a little overly worked up.  I decided to head out and run an errand over break and I shut off my audiobook and listened to some music.  One of my goals for the week was to finish my audiobook and I’ve been firing it up every drive to make sure I get it in.  Once the music was playing I could feel my tension drop immediately.  After dropping mail off at the post office I took a sec to check my phone to see what the ding I just heard was.

Turns out that the ding was my Facebook memory from last year…  How fitting is this?

As I paused and thought about it I realized that I’ve been cramming so much in that I haven’t had time to just chill out and think.  Smiling, I kept the music on low, didn’t worry about any tasks, and just enjoyed the ride back to the office.  When heading back to La Crosse today I did the same, just chilling and thinking…  And it was just what I needed, just like it was on this same day last year.

Thanks!!!

In between picking up and dropping off the boys for their various stuff tonight I had a Facebook Memory pop up that left me smiling.  Initially, I was a little sad, but then my feelings quickly went to joy.  Here’s the memory from two years ago (from before the blog!):

It was interesting as I initially talked about the idea with Dad.  Gavin had “Build a Treehouse” on his dream list and I wanted to help make that come true.  Dad was just about as giddy, if not more so, as Gavin was!

We all had so much fun working together to get it built.  Between giving each other a hard time, helping each other learn new construction skills, and just laughing as we spent time together it was pretty awesome.  The tree may have since been removed and a fourth leg and some paint added, but there’s not one time I’ve looked at that treehouse and not thought of Dad.

After seeing this I just kept smiling and thinking about some of the projects that we worked on over the years.  I had forgotten that this was before I started blogging and searched up old posts that contained “treehouse.”  When this one popped up I smiled even bigger and had more memories flooding back:  Day 61 – Thankful for Time in the Workshop with my Oldest Buddy

So many great times and memories with my dad, so many of them while were were building something.  As I said in that blog long before I had any idea he’d be gone, we weren’t just building things, we were building memories.

Today that memory popped up and I’m thankful for building the treehouse with Dad and my boys.  Not for the sake of the treehouse, but for the moments I’ll cherish forever.

Dude, I had so much fun building that treehouse with you!  You had so many great ideas and did a wonderful job of getting the boys involved.  While I wish we’d had more time for more projects I’m so very thankful for the ones that we did.  Love you and miss you tons!

Thanks!!!

How’s that for a mouthful?  I was thinking of a couple of different blogs, but it really only made sense to make the title as epic as Becky.

With Becky in the field this week it’s been a solid learning experience for me.  I know she does a lot to keep our house running, the kids in the right places, and me headed in the right directions, but…  HOLY CRAP!!!  The number of little things that I don’t always notice is crazy!

I had to sit down with my planner and map out EVERYTHING with her.  Seriously, my calendar for the week includes things like turning Gavin’s palate spreader twice, paying quarterly taxes, checking homework daily, running Gavin to soccer, taking Dominic to church classes, taking out meat to thaw for a sleepover later in the week, and many other things….  It’s been insane!  I’m just happy to have time to blog, chill for about 20 minutes and go to bed.

She does all of those types of things every week, and it seems totally effortless.  Becky just picks us all up, puts us on her back, and carries the load.  It’s wild that she hasn’t lost her mind yet!

Then, just as if it couldn’t get any better, she talks me into going to yoga tonight because she knows I’m stressed and busy and that it helps me chill.  It’s awesome, I have a coach to help push me in the right direction!  Again, another one of those little things that would’ve been easy to overlook that had a profound impact on the trajectory of my night.

For all of those reasons, and many others, I am so thankful for Becky’s ability to figure out a way to get everything done, while making it look effortless.  I’ve married a superhero, and I’m super grateful for that!

Thanks!!!

 

With Becky out in the field doing research this week, it’s the Dad Show in the Kreiling house.  Almost nothing went as planned, it all got done, and it all got done with a smile.   As I write this post I’ve started typing and then deleted it as one thought starts to turn into another, and another, and so on.  After several attempts I just sat back and smiled…  Today was a crazy thrill ride of non-stop fun and excitement…  and I loved almost every moment of it (you’ll see why shortly!).

After dropping Becky off at work and getting Dominic up for the bus I took Gavin to the orthodontist to get his palate spreader.  While it may look like a medieval torture device it’s really to spread his mouth wider to create room for his teeth.  Back in the day I also used to sport one of these bad boys.  Gavin took it like a champ, smiled the whole time, and was super pumped to be able to take home the mold of his mouth that they had made last visit.

Work started off with me fixing and cleaning up an overflowing toilet.  When people joke about being the owner and the janitor – it’s true!  As gross as it was, there was a moment in it when I smiled and remembered a quote from The Book of Joy:  “I am but one of 7 billion on this Earth.”  If my ego ever starts to get too big, I’ll be sure to find a toilet to unclog and clean…  It grounded me quickly.

The rest of the work day was pretty awesome.  I was able to spend a good chunk of productive time with one of my work families, and it was exactly what I needed.  Most of the tasks were checked off today, the rest will be done tomorrow.

After work it was an evening full of rushing to school to pick up Gavin, take him home, get him to soccer practice, stop at Menards with Dominic to pick up plywood, drop Dominic off, pick up Gavin, and make supper.  Non-stop, but so many moments of joy and happiness mixed in.

I had fun talking with my mom… twice…  she was patient enough to let me end one conversation early to get Gavin ready for practice, and then call her back once I was on the road to the fields.  Our schedules haven’t lined up well over the past couple of weeks, it was great to spend time talking with her.

While driving home from Menards Nick and I were able to connect and shoot the bull.  Laughing and enjoying the conversation I was surprised to see we were on the phone for about 40 minutes – time flew by (& yes Nick, I know I just totally teed one up for you there!).

Once we got home from practice I fired up supper.  It was a concoction that I had dreamt up last night.  An homage to the Monday evening meals cooked by my dad when my mom had to work.  While he was more of a Hamburger Helper kind of guy, I put my own spin on two of the boys favorite foods…  Yup, I made Bacon Mac & Cheese.  Not going to lie, it was GLORIOUS!  The boys loved it too, so I was sure to remind them that if we ate this too often we might see Grandpa Pete much sooner than we want to!  It tasted great and it was pretty awesome knowing that Dad was smiling somewhere above.

While I was cooking Gavin wanted to FaceTime his Uncle Nick, so there we were having a ton of fun with Nick, Jenn, Lauren, and their dogs.  It was almost as if we were all together having fun at a family event.  Dominic threw out some pretty sick burns on Uncle Nick…  I have a feeling that he (Dominic) will regret that in the future! 😛

At a little before 8pm I was able to sit, chill, and eat my incredible Bacon Mac & Cheese.  After 15 minutes of chill time alone Becky was able to FaceTime us and we closed up the night talking with her.  Now it’s time to wrap up my blog, finish a couple of more things, and off to bed.

Looking back on today there was just so much awesomeness for which I am thankful.  In addition to the above mentioned stuff there was also a lot of residual gratitude from things that happened yesterday – setting times to meet with old friends during flurries of texts, getting to know a relatively new friend much better, and so on.  Today was pretty awesome and I’m thankful for the BacMac (maybe a name for the dish?) and all of the other things that made it amazing.

Thanks!!!

 

How do you follow up a day of running ourselves ragged?  You do it again! The alarm went off at 5:30 this morning and it took some coercing from Becky to get me off the couch (while she fed the cat I went from upright to laying on the couch) and off for our run.  It started off rough, but by the time 10 miles were in the books I was feeling better than I should have.  A shower afterwards and we were off on our next adventure!

We met up with a couple of families of great friends and headed up to the Renaissance Festival.  The weather was perfect, the food was great (seriously, a BLT Hot Dog followed up with Chicken Shwarma?), the entertainment was… entertaining, and the people watching was epic!  By the time we headed back to the car everyone was totally exhausted.

The best part was spending time with my family and friends.  There were many great conversations, jokes, and experiences shared.  It’s always nice to have an excuse like the Renaissance Festival to get us all together for a day.  Thanks for the fun memories today!

Thanks!!!