4 Days on the Bike

Saturday and Sunday were family bike rides on the bike trail to Riverscape in Dayton.  Both rides were 3 mile in and out.  We let the kids play in the fountain at Riverscape both days.

Monday and Tuesday I got to spend time riding with Mira on the back of my Bike while Katie and Wally were at soccer camp.  She has a Wee Rider tandem bike.  This is a single wheel trailer that attaches to the back of Penny or my seat.  Over all she got in 16 miles in the past 4 days.

The Hunger Games, Batman and The Lorax

The news out of Colorado is obviously on my mind.  My prayers go out to the victims, their families and the killer's parents.

I pray the family of the victims keep in mind that per reports there is only one person responsible and he has been caught.  Thankfully, James Holmes will not be breaking back out to act like the Joker.  The theater and the responders are not to blame.   Both the right and left side of the media are jumping on a tragedy like this and calling for more gun control, or blaming Obama and the economic situation.  It was Holmes.

This tragedy also is not a sign that we live in an age where people are capable or more violent. The Bath School disaster which took place in May 1927 in Bath Township, Clinton County Michigan Near to Lansing.  Here was a case where a man killed 38 3rd and 4th graders.  We hear about tragedy much sooner and we learn about tragedy from far off places much quicker.  Be sad, be tearful, and be engaging when you are out in public.  Engage with people as just saying something to someone can change what a person is doing.

After getting rained on Thursday at Kings Island my wife and I took our oldest daughter to the Hunger Games.  We are happy we read the book as the movie was good, but it left many gaps that we were only able to fill in with the knowledge we had from the book.

We took all 3 kids to see the Lorax Friday morning.  It was a nice spin on Suess's classic tale.  I came away with the fact the Onceler was not set up to handle his success in that movie.  He finally sold his thneed and it was a hit.  His mother comes in and says harvesting the tufts is taking to long.  Lets break your promise and cut tree's down.  The Onceler was already successful.  He was sustainably making thneeds.  In the race for more he left his principle's behind and his company followed.  On a journey it is just as important to define where your going as planning how you will get there, and then enjoy and celebrate when you get there.  

Intrinsic Motivation

There was a wonderful TED Talk (Technology Entertainment and Design) discussing motivation in business.  It was given by Dan Pink who was Al Gore's speech writer.  All I could think at the start of the speech was great a Democrat talking business.  But as I listened there were the same idea's that Dave Ramsey has presented in Entreleadership.  People are not motivated by money.  People want money to survive.  People are motivated by the thought of doing something greater that matches up with their values.  Now the one activity where this did not hold true was mechanical mind numbing task in Dan Pink's speech.  But as Dave points out in Entreleadership researchers who had people come dig a hole and fill it up paying them more each day eventually had no one show up.  There was no perceived value in the task even though there was more money for them each day.  I am embedding the video here.

Financial Peace Testimonial

So I have been hitting the "Inspirational" reading/podcast really hard.  It started In January when  Penny and I started Dave Ramsey's "Financial Peace University".  We are working on becoming "Debt Free" Baby Step #2 on Dave Ramsey 7 Baby Steps to Financial Peace .  We have a Home Equity Loan left to pay off for baby step #2. Once we get that paid off we are going to work on saving a 6 month emergency fund for Baby step #3.

Sadly we had this money.  We were debt free except for our mortgage.  But then we started spending the money we had without a plan.  We bought our dream house (that needed a lot of work) in our dream neighborhood.  I don't feel we were ready for the work.  We didn't have a set plan we followed and when problems arose we financed them and moved on.  We got to the point we were living paycheck to paycheck and didn't have any more financing we wanted to get.  We could have increased the spending limits on our credit cards but we knew that was just going to continue the spiral.  In 4 months after starting Financial Peace University we paid off the credit card debt, and have budgeted our money well enough that we are not waiting for the next paycheck to be deposited so we can pay our bills, or buy food.

We had been told about Financial Peace by my Cousin and Her Husband many year before we actually attended.  One thing they warned us about was not to be trying to diet or starting an exercise program while we were going through the course.  I understand where that advice had come from, but it could not have been more wrong.  Amazingly I have also lost 30 lbs since January with out being on a diet.  I am eating smaller portions but I am not limiting what type of food I eat.  I am exercising the same that I have been for the last 3 years.  2 nights of basketball a week and soccer on Sunday's (spring and fall).  Setting a budget has helped my weight loss as we are eating out less and not over eating.  I have tipped the scales under 230lbs for the first time since college, I can't be more excited about this.  I attribute it to the principle set forth by Dan Miller that winning in one area of life leads to winning in other area's of life. 

At my Brother's wedding Nov 2011

At the pool July 4th (See I am still eating and I am thinner)

So my life has been better than I deserve since starting this process in January.  I am truly inspired by "Life's a Happy Song" from the movie "The Muppets".  As I have my family by my side and we are moving in the same direction.

Some musings after a night of a swim meet:

Track and swimming are difficult spectator sports as a parent.  I think swimming is worse as it's hot.  There's water right there.  But you can't get in.

Hat's off to my kids for completing a successful swim season.  My kid's aren't speed demon's in the pool  (which means I won't go to the semi-finals this year).  But they have learned to swim and they are strong swimmers. Our 5 year old went from not even swimming a stroke 3 feet between her mother and myself, to going off the diving board on her own.  She swam her whole 42 foot race on her own tonight.  I believe it goes to prove you toss the kid into the water and they'll learn to swim right quick.  My older 2 are going to attempt the mile swim with the team this Wednesday. 

I listened to an interesting Podcast today about the Future of Cities.  It was a TED talk Podcast from NPR by Robert Neuwirth on Shadow cities In Mumbia, Rio, Istanbul, and Narobi.  It talked about how a squatter's camp/shanty town is better for the people living there than living out in a small village.

Also Jon Acuff had a great tweet tonight as well

People on the sidelines never catch a lucky break. They catch foul balls. http://dld.bz/b8htS

Of course this Blog is my attempt to get out there a bit more.  Send any comments along.

Father Ned had a great sermon today.  Though he cursed in the middle of it.  I am hoping he doesn't get to much grief for it.  But as he pointed out today, it is his sin to bear. 

Sunday dinner's at the pool are nice and relaxing.  I didn't even swim tonight.  My wife made up meatball and bacon calzones that I grilled at the pool.  My five year old continued trying to master the belly flop off of the diving board.  Hopefully back to normal this week. 

We'll see if any surprises are waiting at work.

Hopefully we'll get a couple of combined heat and power projects off the ground.