Little readers! (and headbangers)

 

 

 

Kole had his friend Matthew over today for a bit of sledding in our yard. They have been in the same classes in school for the past three years and are quite good friends...but unfortunately Matthew's family is moving to Florida in July.

 

 

 

 

My baby girl is getting so big.

 

Kole decided his loose tooth was ripe for the picking, and thought it would be fun to get creative with the removal.

 

 

New Years Resolutions

For the most part, I think New Years resolutions are BS. People don't take them seriously or even care about them for more than a week or two into January. I also feel that the usual "resolutions" are self serving, superficial and don't do anything to make our lives truly happy. That said, having goals to strive toward and working for positive change in ones life is a vital and important part to leading a fulfilling and satisfying life. I try not to make mine unrealistic, if I make them at all. Keeping them within our means and not making them overly stressful can ensure better results. Here's the short list of positive things I'd like to see happen in 2010.

-Eat slower. Eating is a great time to practice mindfulness meditation. Rushing through meals out of breath like you're mad at your food is not a healthy way to eat, or live.

-Be more patient with my kids. Sometimes it is hard to remember that they're children, and not miniature adults.

-Take my running less seriously than I did last year. I'd like to run just to run, not to place well in a race or log big mileage. That's the sort of false pride that has caused me to over train and, as a result, hurt myself.

-Be less of a grump. I don't feel grumpy often, but Nancy says I am. If it will make her happy, then its something I will look into and work on.

-Don't pig out on junk food late at night. There has never been a single instance where I wake up in the morning and say to myself  "wow, I'm really happy I ate six cupcakes and a plate of nachos last night".

-Tell my wife that I love her every day.

-Live life one breath at a time.

“Live your daily life in a way that you never lose yourself. When you are carried away with your worries, fears, cravings, anger, and desire, you run away from yourself and you lose yourself. The practice is always to go back to oneself.”

-Thich Nhat Hahn 

The past 10 years in *brief* retrospective:

The years 2000-2009 in the life of Jay Prince:

-Quit my job with a marginal future in lieu of an artistic job that paid crap.
-Played in a great band with a bunch of awesome guys.
-Moved into my first apartment.
-Broke edge.
-Played a ton of awesome shows and met a ton of awesome people, some of which became life long friends.
-Met Nancy in the beginning of 2000
-Ended a relationship with a very nice girl.
-Drove a car without a rear windshield for an entire New England winter.
-Fell deeply, completely, and hopelessly in love.
-Got pepper sprayed by pigs cops a few times.
-Moved in with Nancy.
-Got arrested for dumpster diving/learned valuable life lessons.
-Quit my band.
-Had a Baby Boy.
-Got a job doing body piercings full time.
-Worked long miserable hours.
-Lost my Dad.
-Became very depressed.
-Quit my job and got my life back on track.
-Took a wonderful, mind cleansing trip to California.
-Read hundreds of books.
-Discovered my love of long distance running.
-Discovered Buddhism, and Buddhist meditation.
-Got married.
-Confessed to Nancy I really did want another child.  :)
-Had a Baby Girl.
-Lived life.
-Loved.

Various New England Proverbs

"You can't keep trouble from coming, but you don't have to give it a chair to sit
on."

"Small circumstances produce great events"

"Wishing isn't doing."

"The world is your cow.  But you have to do the milking."

"It won't be warm till the snow gets off the mountain, and the snow won't get off
the mountain till it gets warm."

"You can't always tell by the looks of a toad how far he can jump."

"Talk less and say more"

"He who feels the benefit should feel the burden."

"One today is worth two tomorrows."

"A good word now is worth ten on a headstone."

"A deaf husband and a blind wife are always a happy couple."

"The hardest work is to do nothing."

"Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves."

"Money is flat and meant to be piled."

"Cut your sail according to your cloth."

"We have two seasons: winter and the Fourth of July."

"In New England we have nine months of winter and three months of darned
poor sledding."

"Take off your flannels before the first of May, and you'll have a doctor's bill to
pay."

"Thick and blue, tried and true. Thin or crispy, way too risky." (proverb about
the safety of ice)

"An ounce of experience is worth a pound of theory."

"The quickest way to do many things is to do one thing at a time."

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