Rock Steady

Pro-tip:  If I want to inspire my children, I need only fan the flames of my own passions.

Aria - my daughter (!!) - seems much more like a full-fledged human this week than last week.  She smiles intentionally and in reaction to specific things.  She seems to see much farther and therefore be more interested in the world around her.  

Slowly but surely, she seems to be waking up!  I am so happy about this.

I’m an information junkie.  I want all the information, all the time.  I track a ridiculous number of RSS feeds on Google Reader (switching soon since Google will be taking Reader offline later this year), I have three or four news feed apps on my phone, and I listen to NPR whenever I’m in the car.  

While these constant streams of information might seem like overload (and sometimes they are), I love them for the fact that my world continuously grows larger and larger as I’m exposed to an ever-widening vision of how and why people live.  Strange hobbies, interesting jobs, alternative views on home and family life, and all sorts of cool stuff.  I often feel like my massive info feed can clue me in to mass cultural shifts before the general public becomes self-aware of the change.

But what I REALLY love about my information feeds is when specific items offer something to me personally, whether it’s an upcoming event I’d like to attend or a new project I’m inspired to undertake.  And today’s post is simply to share two items that serve as examples of why I love my feeds:

1. When I woke up this morning I opened Feedly on my iPhone and started thumbing through the recent posts on the various blogs that I follow.  This post about how easy it is to raise backyard chickens made me excited to revisit this topic, which The Ceej and I have discussed before.
2. Later, on my drive to work, I heard a feature on NPR about New Jersey’s (excuse me - the “outer coastal plain’s”) efforts to become a prominent wine-making region.  And now I’m thinking of trying a bottle from one of the wineries up there.  Because hey, why not?  

So I was twice-inspired before 10 am!  Who knows what I might learn during the rest of my day…

I hope that I continue to remember to write for fun sometimes.  

39 weeks.  Almost there.  Baby.  

Live in the moment

It’s better to be loving than to be right

Be a spectator to your own thoughts, especially when you become emotional

Be grateful for at least one thing every day

Help others every chance you get

- Ray Chambers

Nice - I particularly like the second one, though I’ve learned that it’s important to stand up for the “right way” every now and then.  So I guess as with everything else - intelligent moderation is key.

…I was wearing flannel pajama pants

…I had been married to Christine for a year and a few months

…I lived in a cozy, two-story brick colonial that we rented

…I drove a sweet car - a Volvo s40 with a turbocharged 5-cylinder engine and a stick shift

…Christine and I were very happy together all the time, mostly because we could make stupid jokes that made each other laugh

…I had a handsome puppy named Louis Tully who was rambunctious but brilliant

…I was down a few - but not all - of my grandparents

…I was down one parent, but that was old news

…I had a new family member on the way - a 24-week old futurekid named “Lumpy”

…Lumpy was still mostly an abstraction, but s/he was kicking all the time, which made me feel connected to the little one because I’m restless myself

…I was good at my job as a Technical/Proposal Writer, and I was thinking of ways to grow and become smarter

…I felt wealthy and comfortable

…I was somewhat surprised to find myself turning 30 because when I was 24 I couldn’t picture myself being 30

…I was proud of my physical condition

…I owned and rented a house in Delaware

…I felt that my family was somewhat segmented, but hoped that we would all grow back together with time

…I had eggs and Early Grey tea for breakfast

…People called me old that day, but I felt very young and excited

…I thought I might like to live in a house in the woods

…I decided to write a post about it and hope that in some years I’d come back and find the post, and think about where I’d been