Parent friends and the peril of seeing them!

Twice a week, I go to my brother's wife's sister's house, and play games with my brother's wife and my brother's wife's sister's husband.
Now that that's explained, let's talk about it!
Jordan has a lot of board games. Maybe even over a hundred? And most days, we learn a new game, play it, and then play one that we've already learned. Also, if Jess is late, then Jordan and I play a game just between us!
Oh, and there's seven kids hanging around, but they know how to play together very well!

But man oh man, it is hard to keep a diet around friends. Eating is social, eating is FUN, and even back in the heyday of the Sad Woody Diet, if I was hanging out with friends, I let myself forget about the diet. I still managed to lose 30 pounds this way, so it worked all right! But that was back when I rarely hung out with people. Maybe a couple times a month? But a couple times a week? Whew!
Last time I weighed myself, I came in at 199 pounds. That is just inside the city limits of Hundo-Town, and I know this whole board gaming parent thing is to blame!

What I should do is bring my own food, and have a hearty breakfast before coming over.

Well, problem solved! Here's some cute pictures!

I had a picture of Josie smiling, and a picture of Echo smiling. So I put them together!

Jaina is a silly one!

Saturday morning adventure with the Crash Boy!

Thanks to children, I woke up at 4:30 am yesterday. So, when Jessi woke up four hours later, I was already getting a bit of cabin fever. To her, it seemed like I was trying to get her straight from the bed out the door. So, to try and speed things along, I decided that hey, we could split up! So she took DanPar the Magnificent, and I took Echo the Brave and Crash the Unstoppable.

Echo fell asleep almost immediately. He did well on our journey!

The class was for ages 3-6. Crash is 2, but I decided he could handle it. (He only tasted the paint once!)

Crash Boy made a snowflake! It has glitter and everything!

We had some smoothies at Jamba Juice, Echo had his first bottle, and Crash had an early lunch! We'd brought an Uncrustable for him. He only spilled the smoothie once!

After the 2$ snowflake project at Michael's, we went to Carino Coffee for some java! 

Crash opted for a blueberry muffin, and I had some Costa Rican coffee. That face? That's him looking at a glass elevator. We took it up and down a couple times!

There was a dog named Coda, who belonged to the owner. Crash was very shy, but we got him to pet the puppy once!

The dog is fully grown. The Crash Boy, small though he may be, is not!

Crash Boy, up since 5 am, was starting to lose energy, so we went to a familiar place. He played with trains at the library, and I fed Echo again! He was very happy with the arrangement.

Finally headed home, Crash Boy posed with the statue in the entryway!

After a long day of play, they got all cleaned up in green water! They had a wonderful day.

The Wiggles!

Let's talk about music in the car.

I had a bit of nostalgia from the days of singing in the car, so I picked up a CD from the library, "The Wiggles, Nursery Rhymes 2."

I'd heard of the Wiggles, and hey, nursery rhymes, right? So I popped it in the car, and first thing we get is "Aiken Drum." Because what could be more classic?

There was a man lived in the moon, lived in the moon, lived in the moon,

There was a man lived in the moon,
And his name was Aiken Drum.

∼ Chorus ∼
And he played upon a ladle, a ladle, a ladle,
And he played upon a ladle,
and his name was Aiken Drum.

And his hat was made of good cream cheese, of good cream cheese, of good cream cheese,
And his hat was made of good cream cheese,
And his name was Aiken Drum.

And his coat was made of good roast beef, of good roast beef, of good roast beef,
And his coat was made of good roast beef,
And his name was Aiken Drum.

And his buttons made of penny loaves, of penny loaves, of penny loaves,
And his buttons made of penny loaves,
And his name was Aiken Drum.

And his breeches made of haggis bags, of haggis bags, of haggis bags,
And his breeches made of haggis bags,
And his name was Aiken Drum.

So, it was at this point that I actually decided to look on the back of the album to see what other classic nursery rhymes the Wiggles had decided to record for us! To their credit, they had "B-I-N-G-O" and "Sing a Song of Sixpence", but these were overwhelmed by "Sweet Boiled Candy" and "Gregory Griggs" and "Waltz with Dolls and Fairies". But by golly, they were catchy. And perhaps in Australia (where the Wiggles are from), these are what kids grow up singing!

Early morning, back on the wagon!

For the past two days, Crash Boy has woken up just a minute or two after 5:00, the time that we've said is okay for them to be up. I love early morning. It's a great time to sit down and get things done. It's peaceful, and it's a nice way to start the day. But with kids? It's like waking up to a sinking boat that needs to get the water bailed out!

I'm having a hard time because I don't get any solitude. For a solid week and a half, all I wanted to do was sit down and write for a stretch of time, and I don't think I got the chance. Now I'm no longer in the mood to write, and I feel bad about it. It isn't often I feel motivated to do much of anything, so it's a crummy feeling to feel like I let myself down.


One thing that I'm back to doing is dieting. I count my calories, which apparently brings out a competitiveness in me. Yesterday, I had just over 1000 calories. I made a soup that's 70 calories per bowl, and it's filling! Now, it isn't called the Sad Woody Diet for nothing, though. I'm hungry, and, if all goes according to plan, I'm going to be hungry for a good stretch of time. The reason I'm doing this again? I weighed in at 199 a couple days ago, and I think it's time to put some serious distance between me and 200.

I love coffee. For a few days I turned to hot water with lemon and benefiber. But that was after a crazy party night.

Crash Boy is a wonderful little guy. This whole time I've been writing, he's been bringing me over little cards from a Cars matching game. I think he's earned some play time from his tired old dad.

Suddenly: ROMANCE

By now, I'm sure you know I got a gig editing books last year. Out of four, two have even been published, and they have been romance books! Suspense romance, but still, just because the buff good guy needs to knock some heads around doesn't make it any less of a romance novel.

I started talking to a friend who reads romance, and we decided to read a book together. The book was Call Me Irresistible, and not more than a few chapters in, I thought to myself, "Heck, even I could write a better romance than this.

One thing led to another, and now I'm writing a romance book as well! It's probably going to be pretty bad, despite my delusions of grandeur. Especially because the one that I was reading turned out quite sweet at the end, although she sure could've used an editor!

The end result is that I am a man who reads, edits, and writes romance novels. And I love how weird it all is, because it's nothing I'd actually picture myself doing! But who am I to let something like that stop me?

---

It's been a good few weeks, although stressful. It's hard to keep up with some household chores, and the winter weather means more inside time, which means more messes! But every Tuesday and Thursday we've been going over to the Ingrams, which has been great for all of us. DanPar gets to spend time with Jaxton and Jaina and they share their imaginative worlds with each other in beautiful ways. Crash Boy tries to keep up, but is learning to rely on himself more than just on DanPar, and he's been talking more and more fluently. Echo is a blob. He doesn't really mind where he is. And I get to spend time with other parents and play board games and relax just a little.

---

I like parties, and I'm good at parties. Last Friday I celebrated a friend's 30th, and found myself talking to everyone and having a wonderful time. I've got two secrets:
One, I bring a photo of me and my kids around. A physical printed photo is so much more fun than a phone to look at.
Two, the best kind of humor is good-natured humor. Maybe it's human, maybe it's my generation, maybe it's just that my first friends were my brothers, but I naturally poke fun at people for humor. But I try not to, because I'm betting it's not everyone's cup of tea.
Three, greenlight every conversation. If someone wants to talk about something, let them talk about it or join in! Doesn't matter if it's important to you. Sometimes I try to get the ball rolling by talking about something of mine. After I'd boldly read a passage or two from my own romance novel, I like to think I cleared the way for everyone else.

---

Life is good! Here are my boys!

Decorating Valentine's Day cookies!

DanPar teaching Crash how to build a rocket!

Me and the boys. (I was trying to take a newer photo to bring with me to parties.)

Getting ready for a nap!

Happy Little Echo Guy!

Little bouncy goobers!

My idea of a good time

I need a break. I'm stressed out, and unfortunately, I have a hard time telling how stressed I am until I find myself more angry than I need to be at my boys.

Here's my remedy for being sad or depressed.

Warm tasty non-fatty food (like ramen noodles), time to be alone (away from home), and some mild exercise (a walk).

To me, it's just enough to get me out of rock bottom. It's no major solution, but it's enough that when things seem dark, I can get high enough to see  a glimmer of light. Get my blood flowing, get my thoughts together.


So, what can I do when I'm stressed out?

Obviously, I'd love to be alone. Jessi needs to go to the DMV at some point, and for some reason, I couldn't help but daydream about it. I'd have a place to sit and I'd bring a book and a small baggie of peanuts. It sounds heavenly to me.

More sleep. I don't ever intend to stay up late, just as I don't ever intend to wake up early, but I find myself doing both. I need more sleep.

I want to rant. I don't have anything but papercuts to complain about, because my life is pretty great, but if I could drink a few glasses of wine and just complain, well out of earshot of my family, that would be terrific.


It's a real shame that getting out of these moods takes time. If I could solve being stressed out in a matter of hours, I would. But it's all about making a positive routine, designing a new paradigm to get my nerves back from the edge.

Well, Echo's waking up now! I've got to get that dude. Here's some cute gifs of my boys!