My alarm went off at 4:32 and I was doing sit ups with Becky by 4:50.  We were out the door for our run by 5:10.  After the run, a hot shower, and getting ready I was out the door by 6:45.  At work I jumped into some building maintenance followed by some follow ups form a meeting the day before.  A few minutes in one team meeting and off to a phone meeting before I met with a couple of teammates for planning.  From 9:10 until 4:25 we were hammering away on ideas to move our teams forward in the next few months (with the exception of a short lunch).  After the planning session I jumped into another project and was out the door around 5:20.  Drive home, eat a quick supper, change into workout clothes and off to yoga by 6:12.

Non stop from 4:32am until 6:12pm, my mind was cranking away in overdrive with many thoughts, ideas, and plans.  To be honest, I was feeling pretty mentally exhausted by the time I got to yoga and laid out on my mat.  And that’s when the magic happened…

I felt total repose.  No stress, no noice in my brain, no tasks, no next meeting, no pressure, no timelines, no nothing…  except a focus on my breathing and my body.  My mind was totally still and it seemed as if I hit the pause button on life for an hour.  Extreme relaxation, peace, and chillin’.  Exactly what I was craving to calm for the night.

Tomorrow will also be very full and complete, but I know I will search for and find moments of repose to soothe the savage beast throughout the day.

Thanks!!!

I am so thankful for my Audible.com account.  Over the past few months it’s provided me the opportunity to read several business books and biographies.  With the windshield time I’ve had audiobooks have been an excellent way to utilize my drive time in a positive way.

In between books I often mix in a podcast to change it up a little bit.  One of the ones I’ve really gotten hooked on is Hardcore History by Dan Carlin.  It’s a very different look at history and gives a deep dive into many interesting topics from way back in the day.

Certainly not for everyone, it’s a very interesting way to look back into history.  The current podcast I’m listening to is focused on Julius Caesar’s perspective of the Roman attacks on the Celtic tribes in Europe.  As he clearly explains up front, it’s history as told from the side of Darth Vader and gets into deep discussions of reasons behind the invasion and so on.  Throughout the story there’s a ton of history lessons piled in.  Not only is it interesting to go back in time to learn more history there are certainly lessons to pull forward into the present.  I never would’ve thought I’d enjoy history lessons so much that I voluntarily listen to them!

I’m thankful for an enlightening and knowledge filled ride to work this morning.  Soon I’ll be back to my normal reading, but for the time being I’m enjoying the change of pace.

Thanks!!!

Today has been an incredible day.  Nothing completely out of the ordinary, but so amazingly perfect in its completeness and depth.  There’s been a little bit of everything from struggles to successes to relaxing to working hard to working out.  There was even a little bit of time dreaming about travel and remembering past trips 😉.

My emotions have run the gamut but have largely been focused on the positive.

I’ve had to work through my weaknesses and had the opportunity to rely on my strengths.

There were moments of seeing the results of my past mistakes and failures while also seeing how I’ve learned from them.  I was shown past successes and saw how sometimes they created a false sense of security that I later learned from.

At times I had the stillness of mind to stop and think more deeply about how I live my life, how I should live my life, and how to close the gap between those two.

My morning started off with one on one time with Becky on an early morning run under a beautifully orange moon.  On my way to work I called Becky to make sure she was seeing the sunrise that looked like one of the two suns setting in Tatooine.

I had one on one time with each of the boys and got big hugs and “I love you’s” from both of them without being asked.

I spent time talking with both my brother and my mom.  There were several moments spent thinking of Dad.

It’s been an incredible day.  So full of life, so completely perfect in its imperfection.  I am so thankful for all that happened today, I wouldn’t trade a single moment for anything.

Thanks!!!

Over the past handful of nights I’ve had dreams about past vacations.  Each has been fantastic in its own way, but in all cases they’ve led me to reviewing pictures from them.  When I’ve done looked through the pictures I can’t help but be drawn to other albums of other vacations as well.  A night or two later those albums appear in my dreams and the cycle repeats.

As far as dreams go I’m pretty sure this has been one of the best stretches I’ve had in a long time.  How could I be anything but thankful for dreams with views like these from Alaska, Olympic National Park, Isle Royale, and New Zealand?  I’ve got my fingers crossed that this will continue for a while, but regardless of it never happens again I’ve been thankful for some free mini-vacations while sleeping.

When I was driving him from Rochester today I had an urge for a split second that faded awfully quickly.  The impulse?  To call my dad.  Yup, there was a fleeting moment in which I realized it’d been a while since we talked and I should call him.  For a moment I sat there feeling empty and missing my dad tremendously.

I helped myself out a bit by taking time to think about some of the things I appreciate the most about my dad and the times I’m most thankful to have had with him.  It wasn’t the same as talking with him, but it did help to raise my spirits.  Throw in the fresh memories of dreams of vacations and I thought of the times in Alaska and Washington state when I felt the closest to Dad.  In a crazy kind of way it was a pretty peaceful drive from that point on.

In church this evening we sat a couple of pews behind the guy who looks like and reminds me of my dad.  It made me smile just seeing him and thinking of Dad.  They have so much in common, size, neck, ears, and many other facial features.  Even some of his mannerisms make me think of Dad.

As he walked back to his seat after communion I couldn’t help but smile at him.  He smiled back as he always does…  and then he gave me a wave just like my dad used to.  My smile widened, I felt even more at peace and closer to Dad.  It was a pretty incredible moment.

Thanks!!!

This morning started off in a great way.  The weather was nice enough that Becky and I headed out for a run with the girls.  It felt awesome to be outside and enjoying fresh air instead of being on a treadmill.  The thing that made it even better was spending time with Becky early in the morning to start the day.  With as crazy as our lives are it’s nice to have a little time to ourselves to kick off the day.

Over the past few days our Regional Developer has been in our Menomonie office helping with training.  This morning we touched base on the past couple of days and she had some excellent advice that will help us a lot.  The ideas are fantastic, the team will love them, and it will improve our business.  I always appreciate advice like this from someone who’s able to jump in from a 30,000 foot view and help me see from the same perspective.

I had a conversation with our insurance provider and after some insurance conversation we somehow slid into a conversation about investing and rental units.  I greatly appreciated the thoughts and ideas he had and how openly he shared his experiences.

Our basement stairs are now done!  One more thing on the checklist completed in the house, only a small handful of projects to go.  I would have enjoyed doing it myself, but based on how much available time I’ve had lately it was so nice to have someone do it while I was at work.  I’m so thankful for having a contractor help us on this project.

Over the past week I took Dominic’s book advice and picked up the book series he recommended to me.  I’ve been reading at night before bed and it’s been a great way to chill before calling it a night.  Last night I finished the first Magnus Chase book and it was AWESOME!!!  Whoever thought a book about Norse mythology could be so entertaining?  Dominic – great call on this book, I’m pumped to start the second one.

All in all, it’s been an awesome day and I’m thankful for all of these moments and so many more.

Thanks!!!

Argh!!! Today was one of those days when nothing quite seemed to click like I’d wanted it to. There was a steady grinding of things that just get slowing my progress on certain projects. At times I caught myself becoming increasingly frustrated and as I look back I can see that I let certain things dictate my attitude instead of me consciously choosing my attitude. Sure, some of the things were pretty infuriating (like check fraud), but most others were mild annoyances I should have just taken a deep breath on and moved on (all i ask is for my Wi-Fi to work with regularity, is that too much to ask? 😉). Instead I let each of those little things become tinder and I was pretty torched by the end of he work day.

At one point I realized how foolish I was being and decided to do something to make me smile. As luck would have it there was a small piece of one of my favorite things in the world that I’d been holding onto for a while for a moment just like this. Bubble wrap! And not just any bubble wrap, but the giant one inch round bubble kind of awesome bubble wrap.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, popped a bubble, and smiled. Ahh… remembering the therapeutic power of bubble wrap I continued to breathe deep, pop a bubble, and smile. Only one at a time, I was feeling tremendously better when I was done with the sheet.

Throughout the day the LEGO Movie 2 soundtrack has been stuck in my head. As Becky and I were trading stories of the frustration from the day (not often we are both stressed like that) one of the songs popped into my head and I couldn’t help be chuckle to myself. The song? “Everything’s Not Awesome.” 🤣

Yup, in hearing the overly depressed lyrics I just couldn’t stop smiling. Seriously, if you haven’t listened, check out the start of the song:

Right? The LEGO Movie writers just nailed my feelings during part of the day… and found a way to make me smile. Hearing Batman sing “love’s not real, I just wanna eat carbs, pass the ice cream” cracks me up every time.

Even as I write this I find myself in a much better mood. Yup, the day wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot, but nothing I’ve encountered today is insurmountable. Heck, almost all of it isn’t worth spending any emotional energy on. Thanks to a couple of ways to put a smile on my face and pull me out of my funk I know that the rest of the night will be better and tomorrow will be amazing. Not because of any specific thing or action, but because I choose for them to be and will find the positives in them.

Thanks!!!

This picture popped up from eight years ago yesterday…

I had taken a couple of days off of work and my dad came down to help us install our cabinets and remodel our kitchen.  We spent a few days putting in cabinets, installing the countertop and sink, and hooked up the dishwasher.  Left on my own it would have been an epic disaster.  With my dad here taking the lead it was instead a great father and son time that I’ll never forget.

It’s funny, but I still remember some pretty random details like the long conversation we had about his demolition experience in Milwaukee as he showed me how to use a crowbar “the right way” instead of just “muscling it around.”  He then proceeded to make the removal of an old piece of cabinetry seem incredibly easy after I’d been fighting with it for a while.  There were so many little moments of joking, learning, and just working together.  Just yesterday I wrote about a time like that with my boys from the perspective of a father and here I am today on the other side remembering a similar moment (on a much smaller scale project) as a son.  How crazily awesome is life sometimes?

As I look through our small house I almost can’t help but run into a project Dad helped me with here.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to miss something but he helped me with the garage, kitchen remodel, bathroom floor remodel, living room floor, and countless other projects along the way.  If I add in all of the projects he provided advice on I’d be hard pressed to find a room he hasn’t had an impact on.

Looking through the house I’m remembered of so many great times we had working with each other.  After seeing the reminder of working on the kitchen from eight years ago I caught myself just standing in the kitchen looking around at the cabinets and thinking about when we put them in. There’ve been so many smiles on my face over the past 24 hours as I’ve gone in and out of that room and had reminders of Dad.  Even in typing this a couple of other memories from that project have slowly reappeared and I’m smiling even bigger.

Dad may be gone but there’s something so therapeutic and joy inspiring about being surrounded by projects we worked on together.  Sure, it’s just stuff and someday we’re bound to move on to a new home, but for now I’ll continue to enjoy memories of my dad all around our house.  How awesome of a gift did he leave me in the memory of those moments?

Thanks!!!