Golden Anvil

I guess it's been a while since I posted, so it's time to fill you in on my peaceful little life (Are you jealous? You should be!)

It surprises me every year how difficult it is to get back into a regular schedule after the holidays. I still am running around, trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing! Slowly though, things are settling down, and I'm finding myself with some new projects that I'm excited about.

It looks like I may spend about 4 hours a week teaching preschool one-on-one with a kiddo from our church. He has some developmental delays, and Mom would like him to have a jumpstart before possibly entering a group preschool experience. I spent some time ironing out the details with her today, and it looks like we are going to start the first week of February. I'd appreciate prayers for wisdom and guidance as I prepare, and then begin working with this little guy.

On Friday, Mrs. Kheldar and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. As you can see from the image, we went to Outback to get some steaks. I ordered a drink called "Wallaby Darned". I thought I should share the receipt with all of you. Either I'm weird, or it's funny.

Anyway, 11 years! Wow! The time sure goes by fast. I am so lucky to be married to Mrs. Kheldar. Sometimes I stop and think of where I might be if I hadn't gotten married right out of college. Ugh... It's a horrid thought. My wife brings out the best in me. She loves me, and she takes wonderful care of me. We make a great team. She is my best friend. I'm looking forward to many, many more years together with her.

We have no idea where we might be in 11 more years, but God willing we know that we'll be with each other.

So, here I've been complaining about my crazily busy schedule, and how I'm trying to find room in my life to do all that I want to do... Well, let me just provide a small example of why fixing my schedule is probably a hopeless task.

I'm writing this up at this moment because I happen to have a half hour or so until I start a new roleplaying group. That's right, as of tonight I'll be GMing two different gaming groups at the same time (well, not exactly the same time, since one group meets on Monday and the other meets on Friday, but you know what I mean).

How did this happen? Well, I happened to start talking with a friend of mine from church about roleplaying. He'd played D&D when he was young, and he expressed some interest. Next thing you know, he was explaining how he though his 14(ish) year old daughter should play in order to help her develop her creativity. Then all of a sudden he was asking if I wanted to run a game. How could I say no?

I suppose you probably noticed that I haven't posted in a while. Life has been pretty full lately, and I haven't found myself with the energy to blog. Fortunately (for those who like to read my blog), I've backed off pretty significantly on my computer game playing, and have started a monthly project (since I have so many interests, I'm going to try seeing if I can stay focused on just one each month and kind of rotate through them). This gives me a little better sense of organization in my life.

Of course, I've been kind of going through computer game withdrawal, so I have to finish that adjustment first before things completely settle down.

Sorry for the long post. I couldn't find a good place to cut this one...

Let's take a look at my normal weekdays. I usually wake up at 5:00am. This gives me time to get ready to leave the house, have a sit-down breakfast with my wife, take an hour to study the Bible, read whatever devotional material I'm currently going through, and pray. Then I'm out of here by just a little after 6:30am. Between commuting and work, I usually get home anywhere between 3:30pm and 5:00pm (usually between 4:00pm and 4:30pm though). Given the fact that I get up at 5:00am, I usually get to bed around 9:00pm. So, that leaves 4 to 5.5 hours in the evening that is "free" time. Knock about a half hour off that for various e-mail and website checks that seem to eat up my daily time. That leaves 3.5 to 5 hours.