Equilibrium

There are two spheres of my existence. One sphere is the domain of me as a person and the second is me within the domain of the world at large. Let's talk a little bit about each today.

In the limited world of Jim as husband, father, employee, occasional athlete there is equilibrium. I guess you could say I'm failing in all aspects equally. I don't believe that, but I do feel it. As husband I'm batting .500 because of a paltry two achievements. The first was two hours of folding laundry last week in order to facilitate a ladies night out for Karen and the second was a brutal attack on the downstairs powder room which finally yielded an A- Monday afternoon.

One of the areas that I really need to work on is my give-back and charitable time. Last year, I worked on a Habitat House, built a playground and did several other events supporting charities that were primarily focused on children and young students. Since my place of employment really supports this, my only goal for this year is to do more than I did last year. There's an idea to carry forward :) Simply do better than last year.

In order to meet my obligation to those that come here expressly for the kiddie updates I offer the following.

Camden is doing very well. His moments of progress come in small steps and in sudden bursts of, "Where the fuck did that come from?!" as well. Small steps are exemplified by the improvements in communication with us and with word mastery and comprehension. He continually builds bridges of cognition and perhaps the best example of this recently was his sharing with us that he wanted to watch Thomas The Tank Engine (TTTE) on TV and then subsequently heading upstairs to play with the TTTE toys. This is a HUGE deal cognitively. It is something we wouldn't even have noticed with David, but it is something we celebrate intently with Camden and these moments are worth their weight in gold.

David is knocking it out of the park from every perspective save his challenges to control his energy and occasionally his focus. Four of five days a week David reports 'green' behavior and one day he's 'yellow'. Something I didn't understand as a young parent was to pick your battles and further to recognize the spectrum of performance versus expectations. Said simply, we could choose to focus on the one day a week that he is sub-green or we could celebrate the 90% goodness and see if that inspires him to address the remaining 10%. What I know now is that the latter is what works for David. If I knew then... Here's a chuckle via the transcript between David (7) and I (43) while I was folding laundry and he was playing on the iPad. Setting: I was having trouble distinguishing the ownership of a pair of sweatpants; were they David's or Camden's?

Daddy (holding up the pants in question): Are these you or Camden?
David (crisply): Camden's
Daddy: Are you sure?
David (sternly): I'VE SEEN HIM WEAR THEM.

At least he didn't call me a dumbass.

Karen and I get closer every moment of every day. We have our challenges as individuals, as human beings and as members of Team Preis Family, but when one of us falls short, the other is quick to recognize it and pick up the slack either by helping or forgiving. I'm not going to go on and on like I usually do, but I'll end with this: If Oprah ever needs a couple to share the secrets of how to make a relationship work - where neither partner has a net worth of a billion dollars or more - we're ready for the interview at any time. And one last thing about my wife quickly. She gives. She not only takes care of our household without fail, but she finds time to volunteer AND tutor at David's school.

As for Jim one of seven billion I am encouraged and discouraged at the same time, thus the title of today's entry.

Encouraged: Rick Perry exposes himself for the forgetful, shallow, pay-for-play non-candidate that he is.

Encouraged: Ron Paul's still in it!!! VOTE YOUR CONSCIOUS PEOPLE!!!

Discouraged: Thousands of people with no coherent message driving up municipal costs, and spewing venom on the very things that provide them with the ability to protest. The occupiers are no Civil Rights marchers. They've no shared platform unless you consider, "My life sucks and it's someone else's fault" a platform.

Discouraged: Thousands of Penn State students acting like ignorant, knee-jerk-reacting imbeciles, lamenting the firing of Joe Paterno at the additional expense, insult and injury to the young victims of the crimes at the root of the issue. There is so much that can be extrapolated from this behavior.

Encouraged: I continue to work hard and hold myself accountable for my failures and for half of my successes. I help others where I can and somehow life treats me well in the end. I do find that the more I consider others, the better off I am somehow.

I hope whoever you are and wherever you are, it's a great day for you.

Cheers!

Jim