I was just thinking...

As 2008 came to a close I was reminded in a very painful way the importance of rest.  It is a simple thing and yet I struggle with it.  During my younger years I could go for days without stopping to rest, and I used to pride myself on the fact that I could get by with only 4 hours of sleep, anything more than that seemed like a waste to me. Even when I would lay down to sleep, my mind would be hard at work, laying out plans for the next day. 

Well that was more than twenty years ago when I could get away with crazy things like that.  These days it's like my 40 year old body is telling me that it needs proper rest.  Most of the time I ignore it though, and for a short time it seems like I can still get away with just a few hours of sleep...but then it all catches up with me and before it is all over I end up spending several days in bed trying to recover.  Such was the case the past few weeks.

I had been suffering from a sinus headache, the doctors gave me some antibiotics and decongestants to take, but it seemed like I just couldn't shake the sinus infection.  When my condition seemed to be worsening, my wife (who is always right) told me what the real problem was/is, and that was lack of proper rest.  I wanted to disagree with her, but I couldn't come up with anything to prove her wrong (besides, she is always right), so I went along with her diagnosis and cleared my schedule for the next day, didn't bother setting any alarms and simply slept in.

It's amazing because I actually felt better after getting some rest.  Rest is a good thing, and from here on out I am going to make sure that I get plenty of it.  Now that I think about it, I wont be able to do anyone any good if I allow myself to become run down to the point that I am unable to do anything, so it is in my own best interest to get plenty of rest.  Besides the body is a temple and it's time I started treating it like one.

How about you, do you get enough rest?

I just stood in line for more than an hour to cast my vote for change...it was beautiful to see every age group represented! You could feel the excitement in the air! I hope that you took the time to cast your vote as well....did you?

We were out working in the yard a few weeks ago and I noticed a large bug buzzing around. It was much larger than a bee and when it's wings were moving it looked like a flying dart.  It was so busy buzzing around my daughter's head that it didn't see me creep up on it with a Badminton racket in my hand...that was the end of his buzzing around.  I snapped a quick picture of it with my cellphone.  Looking at the bug triggered memories of a few of our Home school adventures.  

Wanting to give my children more than just text from a book my wife and I decided to do as many hands on interactive lessons as possible.  When it came time to study insects we invested in a Bug Viewer so that our children could study live bugs and get a better understanding of their anatomy as well as see how they move and function.

One of the first bugs we managed to capture and study was a wasp.  We knew that our study lessons would take a few days so we wanted to keep the wasp alive for the duration, so we began feeding him 100% Grade A Maple Syrup.  It took us about a week to finish up all of the lessons and to our amazement the wasp survived.  In fact he seemed to be quite healthy and active.

Since our lessons were done we decided to release the wasp.  So one morning while we were on a break from classes we took the wasp outside, said goodbye and set him free.  We went out later on that day and ran a few errands.  When we returned home we were shocked to see our wasp friend hanging on one of our front windows.  We decided to leave him alone, figuring that eventually he would get back to his old routine or return to his original home.  He didn't!

Day after day for about a week that wasp hung right there at our front window looking for some way in.  We had corrupted him...turned him into a maple syrup crack-head.  I can't say that I blame him though, why fly around being a busy doing wasp type things and fighting with other bugs when you can just sit and look pretty while getting stuffed on Maple Syrup.

Our encounter with the wasp provided a perfect segway for me to talk to my children about addiction, and how it strong and devastating addictions can be.  I explained to them that the best way to beat addictions is to never get addicted.  It was the start of many talks regarding the subject.  A lot of parents avoid the issue altogether or they wait until it's too late to talk about it.  Some parents just want to believe that there kid(s) are so good that they will never fall victim to addiction...me I am just thankful for the wasp incident and that it provided me with a perfect opportunity to explain it to my children in a way that they could understand.   Hmmm...imagine that all these thoughts triggered by catching a big but bug! :)

Thanks for reading!

Two weeks from now the family and I will be attending our first Cards game together. Besides having a chance to hang out and have fun with each other this trip is kind of special. It's special because my children earned the tickets by doing something that most people take for granted...reading.

Earlier in the Summer my Children signed up for the Summer Reading Program at their Local Library.  One of the top prizes was a Laptop, which each of my children had their eyes set on.  They thought it would be a much needed addition to their budding entrepreneurial dynasty.  Still no word on the Laptop, but so far they have won quite a few prizes from the program.  Prizes ranging from free food and drinks from the Local Sonics (yummy) and other Miscellaneous items such as pens, notepads, message boards and gadgets.

Since my children were toddlers I have been trying to instill in them the importance of reading.  I can remember my daughter Emm tagging along with Junior and I to the Library.  She was in kindergarten and he had just started the first grade.  Junior was off to visit the Library and receive his very own library card.  I wish I had a camera at the time to capture the disappointed look on Emm's face when she asked if she could get a card to...the Librarian told her that she needed to be able to write and sign her own name, and unfortunately she could not.  Emm went home empty handed that day.

Immediately upon arriving home from the library she hunted down a pencil and some paper and began practicing writing her name.  Two weeks went by and it was time to return the books to the library. I didn't think anything of it when Emm asked to tag along again.  When it was time to check out, Emm asked the librarian about the card again.  I thought that maybe she was thinking that the librarian would have changed her mind since she asked nicely, but she didn't the librarian gave her the same answer, she needed to be able to write and sign her name.  I was shocked when Emm pulled out her pen and demonstrated to the librarian that she could write her own name.  (She never was one to be undone by her brother)  She had spent the entire two weeks practicing to write her name.  She was grinning from ear to ear as she walked home with her own stack of books.

Since that time the youngest Mei Mei,  has progressed into quite the reader herself, when I look around the house if I don't see her right away, I usually find her curled up with a pile of books.  Their reading selections are actually pretty aggressive, and they have actually suggested some books to me that I have read and we have been able to have some pretty good family discussion over, most recently it has been the works of Patrick Carman, author of The Land of Elyon Series and The Atherton Series.

Taking the time to make sure my children were avid readers has probably been one of the best investments of my time.  Things like winning baseball tickets just help reinforce all that I have been saying to them all along.