"Just one beggar telling another where he found food."
My son (youngest) stomped up to my wife, his bottom lip could have been a landing strip for Air Force One, “Mommy,” he whined, “She called me a tattle-tale-r”
Hiding a grin, my wife called out for my daughter (oldest) to come.
“But he IS!” was her reply.
“I know! Get in here anyway!”
When my daughter finally made an entrance, Christi explained that she shouldn’t call her brother names.
“But he IS!” she sighed.
“I know, but don’t call him names.”
Most people I meet now-a-days can dream. They know what they would like to be one day. Problem is, they don’t know how to get from where they are to where we want to be.
I’m not sure we need to dream about point ‘B’ anymore. What we really need to do is figure out how to get there.
Let’s start with something small. Where do you want to be by the end of the week? Let’s say you want to have a clean house - What do you need to do today to move you one step closer to having a clean house?
Let’s say you only have an hour today to dedicate to take the next step - what are you goin to do in that hour to get you one step closer to a clean house?
Break it down. All you have to do to get to point B is take the next step, and the next.
Where do you want to be by the end of the week, month, or year? What are the little daily steps you need to take today to get to point B?
Where do you want to be physically, spiritually, and mentally?
What are you waiting for? Take the next step.
A friend of mine asked me a really good question The problem is, I have one perspective and I know there are thousands out there. So I need your help to get out of my ‘box.’ Here is the question:
If you had a million dollars (and only a million), what would you do to help alleviate the pain of the current economic crisis?
Help me out, I really want to think outside the box.
Then I hope to find some people with a million dollars…
Halloween Art
We decided to decorate pumpkins Mr. Potato Head style this Halloween. We bought the kits at our local WalMart and Christi had a great time letting them choose which pieces they wanted to incorporate into their pumpkins. Remarkably, there were no fights. Each one had a vision and knew what they needed to make it happen. (Fortunately their visions didn’t overlap, in this case!)
I am in Grand Rapids, MI, at an Internet conference. Christi set me this picture from her phone. Thank God for cellphones and digital cameras! At least I don’t feel so disconnected while I’m traveling the globe.
Anyway, I’d love to see some of your family’s halloween art. Take some time and post pictures in the comments, or link back to pictures on your own blog.
When I was little, my dad traveled a lot. This was no big deal, but it meant my mom became the primary disciplinarian while he was gone.
One time, after dropping Dad off at the airport, my mom drove a few blocks before pulling off into a parking lot. My little brother and I had no clue what was going on. After putting the car in park, Mom turned around and said in her scariest ‘mom voice,’ “Do you guys want your spankings now or later?”
Wide-eyed, we stammered, “What do you mean?”
“I have to spank you every time your dad leaves town. I figured that we would go ahead and get it over with rather than suffering through your bad behavior.”
We hastily assured her that we didn’t need a spanking. We were sorry and we promised to be good.
Traveling is hard on everyone. Traveling disrupts the daily routines that help children feel secure. If the traveling parent is the primary disciplinarian, the one left behind can have a pretty rough time. Inevitably, children test the boundaries and patience wears thin.
While Christi and I share the burden of disciplining our children pretty equally, Team Watson is definitely one down when one of us is traveling. My recent trip to Helsinki was no different.
“The kids are being brats today.” she IM-ed.
“Do I need to talk with them?”
“I don’t know…” She launched into specifics.
When she was done, I realized that I needed to step into the mix and let the kids know that Mommy and Daddy were on the same team, even when in different timezones and separated by miles of ocean. I had Christi put the kids on the couch in front of the webcam and pulled up ooVoo. My kids smiling faces greeted me. “Hi Daddy,” they chimed in pseudo-angelic voices.
I put on my sternest face and used my scariest “Daddy voice.” “Children, Mommy has been telling me about your behavior and I am not impressed.” I went on to explain what I expected of them while I was out of town and how they needed to change their behavior.
“Yes sir.” they replied, much more subdued.
The next day, I followed up with Christi. She told me that the kid’s behavior was much better. Technology let us down, or I would have called them via ooVoo and expressed my delight with their improved behavior. Follow up is so important and I wish that things would have worked better for us in this case.
Here are some thoughts about disciplining your children while traveling:
Coming home is my favorite part of the trip. For me, coming home is so much better when Christi and I can support each other and parent our children together.
My daughter has a small children’s Bible. We read it to her before bed when she was little. Now that she knows how to read, she’s taken to reading it by herself before bed. Every once and awhile I ask her a few questions, just to see what is going on inside her little heart.
Yesterday, while we waited for the bell to ring before school, I asked her about it. The last story she remembered reading was about Noah and the Flood. I went through the typical questions, “What does that story tell us about God? What does that story tell us about people?” and so on.
Knowing that the bell was going to ring soon, I asked, “So what are we need to do because we read this story?”
“We need to pray to God and watch the news.”
Curious, I pressed a little, “Why do we need to watch the news?”
Without skipping a beat she replied, “So we can tell if a flood is coming.”
This past Sunday, I found a ping-pong ball machine in our community center. On a whim, I forked over $0.50 for two balls. I grabbed a Sharpie marker and drew a face on each ball - one boy and one girl. Then I chased down my kids and gave them each a ball.
You would have thought I gave my kids an expensive toy or something. They played with them all day.
After a minutes my daughter tugged my sleave, “Daddy, can I have a quarter?”
“Why do you need a quarter?”
She looked up at me. ”I want to make you a ball?”
I handed her the quarter and a Sharpie. A few minutes later she brought me a ball with a face. Even better were the words written in a shaky six-year-old hand, “I love you, Daddy.”
I carry that ball with me now, even in Finland. Traveling is often a lonely business and I carry small things with me to remind me of my family’s love. They also make great conversation starters.
What do you carry with you as you travel?
I don’t think you can start a series on travel without talking about luggage. Everyone has their own system, so you need to travel with what makes you feel comfortable. That being said, I think the luggage I have matches my level of travel without breaking the bank.
Personal Item ($15-$20 USD)
In the USA you can travel with one personal item and one carry-on. Not bad, except when you land in London and are limited to one carry-on, no exceptions. (During hightened security levels only.) Then your personal item has to fit inside your carry-on. Additionally, I wanted a bag that I could drop my Asus eeePC into without it screaming that I carried a laptop. So I use a messenger bag similar to this one.
When I travel internationally, I pack my carry-on with enough empty space to slide my messenger bag in, if necessary. That way I don’t have to abandon stuff at security checkpoints.
Carry-on ($50-$75 USD)
I use the American Tourister 25″ Meridian as my carry-on of choice. I can pack five days of summer/spring clothing into this bag without busting the seams. It fits into the overhead bins, wheels first, so other passengers have room for their stuff. If I have to take along my Sony Vaio, it has an perfectly-sized external pocket.
Check-in ($150 - $250 USD)
I inherited my check-in bag of choice. It is a hard-sided Delsey my family purchased over 20 years ago. This is the same bag that flew off the top of a van going full speed down a highway in Chang Mai, Thailand. The car behind us was kind enough to hit it and push it to the side of the road so we could assess the damage. Aside from a few scrapes, the bag and our belongings were fine. The locks didn’t even pop! I love this bag and I use it for all international trips or trips within the USA that are more than 5 days long. I’d post a picture, but Delsey doesn’t make that particular brand anymore.
What kind of luggage do you use? Please share your reviews and links in the comments.
I’m traveling quite a bit the next couple of months. This week I’m in San Jose, California. Next week, I will be in Helsinki, Finland. Next month, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
In honor of all the traveling, I decided to write a series of posts dedicated to traveling tips and stories.
First, I’d thought I’d fill you in on my traveling ‘bio.’
My family left the USA and moved overseas in 1985. I was seven. I grew up in Hong Kong (before it went back to China), Malaysia, India, and Singapore. While living overseas, I visited China, Thailand, Indonesia, Nepal, Japan, Greece, the U.K., and Sweden. This year I add Finland to the list.
I also travel a bit in the USA - Texas, Virgina, Washington D.C., Washington State, Arkansas, Tennesee, Oklahoma, New Mexico, North Carolina, California, and Lousianna. Some I know better than others. I’d like to know all of them better than I do.
Anyway, I’m excited about this series. I hope you like this series and that it helps you as you travel the globe.
Going off the theme, “Just one beggar telling another where he found food.” I thought I’d let you in on a little secret. Christi and I use a service called ‘Angel Food’ to pad our grocery budget and add some variety into our diet.
From their website:
By buying food from first rate suppliers at substantial volume discounts, Angel Food Ministries is able to provide families with approximately $65 worth of quality nutritious food for $30. Angel Food Ministries does not use out-of-date food or inferior products.
Each month’s menu is different and consists of fresh, frozen and packaged food. Angel Food is purchased from the nation’s top food suppliers. Providing quality, nutritious food at significant discounts on a regular basis is one practical way to give people a “hand up” during difficult times. The cost for a box of Angel Food is $30. There is no purchase limit for boxes of Angel Food. There are no applications or qualifications necessary to purchase. VIEW OUR MENU
Comparison shopping nationwide in various grocery stores has revealed that the average retail value for the same food items would be approximately $65. Generally, one box of Angel Food assists in feeding a family of four for about one week or a single senior citizen for almost a month
Christi and I found Angel Food during a pretty lean period of our life. A local Church of Christ took care of monthly food distribution. In the two years we used Angel Food in Lubbock, we saw the number of people served grow from 60 to about 400. The church didn’t care if you attended their services or if you even believed as the Church of Christ did. They weren’t pushy at all, but if you had questions, they’d talk with you. You do not have to be a Christian. That has been our experience with churches involved with Angel Food.
Christi now coordinates Angel Food for our small community. Even though we don’t ‘need’ the discounted food like we used to, we still use the service to extend our food budget.
I love Angel Food. I’m pleased with the quality of the products. If you are used to buying the highest quality stuff, Angel Food will probably disappoint you. The meats are good, but they aren’t the best thing you can buy from the butcher. That being said, it hasn’t stopped us from getting a box or two every month.
Check out the Angel Food website. Find a local Angel Food partner and visit them on distribution day just to see what’s going on. If the menu looks good, order a box to try it out.
I hope it helps you as much as it helps us.
