Now with our brand spanking new crop (note the owl keeping guard) and a few farmers, we are very close to our goal of only eating food that either came from our garden or came from a source we can vouch for. With very few exceptions (seafood for example) everything we are eating came from within a days drive of our home.
And in the caring for myself department, having seen one too many proverbial “guy my own age” succumb to a health crisis, I’ve decided to take the bull by the horns. I’m two weeks into a cleanse diet - no caffeine, no cheese, no wheat products, only organic foods - and I’m already feeling like I’ve regained ten years.
So don’t be shocked the next time you see me… if I don’t have that usual bottle of diet coke attached to my hand.
I’m actually paying attention to what people are saying and talking about.
This evening, Twin Princess Number One (on the right) and I will be heading south to DC for Blog Potomac on Friday.
I bring my kids along, not just to show off how cute they are (and they are), but for far more pragmatic reasons.
First of all, they are fun travel companions. Nothing is worse than being alone in a hotel room in a strange city. If you can share a late-night viewing of “The Suite Life of Zach and Cody” with someone, it makes all the difference in the world.
But the main reason is that it’s good for them. My wife and I share a deep mistrust (verging on disdain) for the formal educational system in this country. From what I’ve figured out from our own local school district is that it will do a very good job preparing my children to compete in the job market of 1960.
Exposing my kids to you all is my way of teaching them the paths to success in life are based on what moves and excites them and not on what is the most sensible thing to do. By meeting all of you, they learn that they don’t have to accept the jobs and career paths that will put them behind a desk doing something they dread every day for the rest of their product lives. Their love of learning - which even at their age I can see being quashed by the school system - is re-energized.
For my daughters, they get to see women, who like my wife (already the best role model I know) have built their own businesses and gained success on their own terms.
I wish more folks attending these things would bring their own kids along. The combined smarts of all of our offspring would be something to see and behold.
