Howefitz Blog

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A good blog is like a good book. Sometimes you want to go back and revisit posts that meant something to you. One such post by Tim Ferriss has been rattling around in my head A LOT lately. This post was called Real Mind Control: The 21 Day No-Complaint Experiment. In the post, Tim told us of Will Bowen, a Kansas City minister who decided to try an experiment. He would wear a purple bracelet to remind him not to complain for 21 days. If he did complain, he would switch his bracelet to the other wrist and start over at day 1. This is because scientists say that it takes 21 days to form a habit. If you don’t complain for 21 days straight, you’ve just formed a habit of not complaining!

For those of you that are just tuning in, or Googled ‘spiritual enlightenment’ and somehow wound up here, let me assure you that Sunday Sermons here at Howefitz Blog are anything but sermons. Here I explore matters of the spirit in a way that, I hope, inspires thought within others. I am not here to tell you what to believe, and any viewpoint is welcome…

I regret that I need to start this post with some sad news. We recently learned that one of my teenage step-daughter’s friends passed away last Saturday. We don’t know the circumstances of his death, only that ‘he was found in the morning.’ Now, just that phrase sends a parent in to a frenzy. Was he in to drugs? Was it suicide?

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This Friday before Valentine’s Day, let me just join PJ Mullen in saying ‘I hate Valentine’s Day!‘ That being said, I find myself this Valentine season thinking about how I went from a nerdy kid who hated Valentine’s Day because I couldn’t get (read muster up the courage to get) a girl, to a husband and father with four Valentines that hates being told there’s one particular day to celebrate your love. Although I generally do not enjoy planning the future further out than tomorrow, I find myself looking to the future for my 4 Valentines…

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OK, so maybe this post is a little late. As you continue to read, you’ll understand why…

Happy 2010!!! You geeks out there that read this blog know that this is ‘The Year We Make Contact‘!!! Start striking your timpani drums now! So, my first resolution this year is to make friends with some Russians and go to Jupiter to look for monoliths…

All geeking out aside, I have been taking a lot of time to reflect on where I am as a husband, father, employee, and of course, Daddy Blogger. Since you are reading my blog, I am going to focus first on what I will be doing here going forward in this brand-spanking new year, and why you should keep reading!

Tiger Woods: Family Man

The other night, after a very long, very hard day of work, I found myself on the half hour drive home without the radio on. My head was swimming in thoughts of a better life. There has to be a better solution, I found myself thinking. There has to be a better way…

I have fallen victim to looking for ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes before. I don’t think there’s anyone out there that hasn’t entertained the idea of a quick fix to the financial blues. Short of robbing a bank, good natured people buy lottery tickets, go to ‘network marketing’ seminars, and swear if they just blog a little longer, those Google ads will start to pay off…

Yesterday was my fifth wedding anniversary. I used the day to pamper my wife, but I also reflected on how my life is today, and how I got here. But first, I need to go back to before I met my beautiful wife…

I’ve never been shy about sharing the fact that I favor the funnybooks. I guess of any vice one could have, reading comics isn’t all that bad. When I was small, my parents would bring home whatever they saw at the grocery store newsstand (Yeah, newsstands still had comics then!) that they thought I would like. These mainly consisted of comic book versions of my favorite cartoons: Looney Tunes, Popeye, Tom and Jerry, Donald Duck, essentially, kids’ stuff…

Yeah, it's the kids that stress me out. Riiiight...

Have you ever had one of those conversations that aren’t really about what you’re talking about? The true meaning is conveyed through innuendo and subconscious body language, etc. Sometimes we just blurt out a phrase that’s not the truth at all.

This morning, when the teenager woke me because she missed the bus, ‘You kids are KILLING me!’ was what popped out of my mouth.

We’ve all laugh at the sitcoms and comedies that depict a frazzled parent. As I add kids to my own family, that stuff gets even funnier.

This post is a part of the glorious event that is FatherHood Friday. That’s where Dad and Mom bloggers come together on Friday and discuss what FatherHood is all about. Be sure to click the link on the left for more fabulous contributions. Isn’t this header thing like the top of the first page of an old comic? “Bitten by a radioactive spider, young Peter Parker….”

This afternoon I was holding my son in front of me. We had just gotten back from the doctor where I was asked if my perfect baby boy’s poop was yellow. ‘No, it’s still kinda green.’ I answered, being the resident expert on the contents of Tristin’s diaper.

‘Kinda… green…’ the doctor repeated, scribbling the selected hue of my baby’s feces into his chart…

So I’m holding my fully clothed, five day old son in front of me, his big three year old sister oohing and awing over him, when we hear the biggest phooot I’ve ever heard come out of a baby.

It’s no secret that I’ve been stressed lately. I’ve blogged about it, tweeted about it and ranted about it to friends, family, and anyone who happens to be standing close to me at any given time. It’s funny, since for a while I’ve tried to project a fairly care-free, nothing bothers me attitude. But lately, none of the pieces seem to fit.

I’ve already blogged about how my kids help out with all the stress, but there’s something else that helps me when I’m stressed that I hadn’t thought of in a while. Something that you could say began in my teenage years. Something that I can only do when I am alone.