Time With the Boys

I am at home with the boys, having a great time, while our Queen is at a board meeting for an organization that directly impacts our boys. She is there in an attempt to influence a change in the organizational bylaws.

Meanwhile, our youngest little Prince (almost 10 months old) is playing at my feet, jabbering a lot, looking up at me for my reaction as he grabs some new item, masticates on it a bit, studies it, etc. He is delightful to be around. He was quite sick on our recent vacation, and then his voice almost completely went away for a couple of days here at home, but he seems to be feeling a lot better.

The other four boys have two of their young friends over to play, and they are all downstairs. I can hear my oldest officiating and setting down the rules for some make-believe scenario from Harry Potter.

I spent a few hours today in the neighborhood garage. My friend Tiny has a great shop at his house where we often gather to do man stuff (work on cars, make repairs to some piece of machinery, create a new invention, watch a movie on the surround sound theater, make something that goes boom, etc.) Two other friends had lined up to make quick repairs to their vehicles. The first repair went rather quickly - it was done shortly after I arrived. The second repair took longer - we replaced the master brake cylinder and bled it, pulled the rear wheels and replaced the rear bearings, and I had to return back home to hang out with my boys before we were finished.

The Queen and I discussed my efforts and thoughts about change last night. My plan is beginning to come together. I will work hard on having positive interactions with my boys every day, avoiding (as much as possible) anger and other negative emotions. And I will make an accounting for these interactions frequently in this forum, thereby making myself accountable for my progress to all who follow this thread. Furthermore, I am going to encourage the older two boys to post occasionally to the blog. As the project continues, I anticipate that we will write a book about our journey (maybe 1-2 years down the road.)

I fully expect this to be a phenomenal journey, and I expect that we will learn many things that will benefit other people if they are willing to listen.