Sorry, but there will be no blog today, due to my crazy work schedule. I am currently in Grand Rapids, MI for an all day customer meeting on Monday. Unfortunately my overwhelming workload takes precedence over a personal blog!
Don't worry, you didn't miss much this weekend!
Hopefully I'll have a more comprehensive blog for you next week!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Successful weekend!
The past 72 hours that made up the weekend consisted of new explorations, new experiences and some successes, especially for Josh. It all started on Friday, when Liesel took the boys to the brand new Cleveland Aquarium, which was opening on Saturday. As a family pass holder, we were invited to a special preview day, one day before the public are allowed access to the venue! This worked out perfectly for Liesel and the boys, since Nathan's school had been given the Friday off! So while I worked, the explored this new underwater realm! They spent most of the morning there, examining hermit crabs, gazing at seahorses and starfish, carefully observing sharks, and wandering through glass tunnels, with sting rays lazily cruising overhead and alongside you simultaneously! That was a really fun, and SUCCESSFUL outing for Liesel and the boys!
We had another snowstorm deliver another 3 inches of white powder over the greater Cleveland area on Friday night. Since Nathan and I had so much fun sledding last weekend, we had to hit the slopes again. This time we took Josh with us, so he could share in the fun. When we arrived we were the only ones at the sledding hill which was ideal. I pulled Josh up to the top in the sled, and then had Nathan sit behind him for the first sled run of the day. He seemed to enjoy the acceleration down the slope, but then the sled made a sharp turn which ejected both boys into the soft, icy snow! With a face covered in snow, Josh indicated that he would prefer spending the remainder of the day in the playground, rather than zooming down slopes! So reluctantly I escorted him to the playground while Nathan continued enjoying the sledding. Fortunately, Nathan's neighborhood friend was also there and the two of them teamed up and had a blast!
On Sunday, the temperature warmed up a bit to around 40F/5C, and the snow started to slowly fade away again. Before the snow disappeared completely, Josh really wanted to make a snowman! So the three boys put our winter gear on and headed outside to accomplish Josh's mission. We quickly piled up snow as tall as Josh, and got to work on shaping the snowman. We found stones for eyes, got a carrot for the nose, and a twig for a smile! We added a couple of sticks for arms, and we were done! All that was left was posing for a few photos, snow angels and a snowball fight! Josh loved his first SUCCESSFUL snowman and snowball fight!
Over the last few weeks, Liesel has been very patiently potty-training Josh. After a bumpy start, he soon started getting the hang of it, especially with number ones! Number two's were much more of a challenge for him, but this weekend something clicked for him! He has started informing us of his desires to go and with a little bit of help in the bathroom, he has been getting the job done! I actually think that he is enjoying himself a little too much now. In the day's that he wore a diaper, he usually had one of two "number twos" a day. Now with this new found freedom, he has sat down, AND delivered SUCCESSFULLY no less than 10 times in about 2 hours! I have since instructed Liesel to cut all fiber from his diet!!!
Monday, January 16, 2012
Alternative workouts
This week, I only managed to put in 3 workouts at work. Before you think that my New Years resolutions are dissolving like a snowball in the desert, let me justify my actions. On Wednesday, I left work at 1pm because I was feeing fluey, so I headed home and hit the bed. Then on Friday, I chose to work from home, and what a wise decision that was! On Thursday night, the biggest snowfall of the season began making its presence felt, leaving the roads on Friday morning a white mess! And the snow did not stop until Sunday morning. So while I spent the day at home on Friday, I did still find some ways to exercise. First bit of exercise, was to head outside at lunch time to clear the driveway with the snow-thrower and snow shovel. My second calorie burning activity was to take on Nathan in a friendly game of baseball football after dinner!
Saturday's workouts included a second driveway and sidewalk clearing. Not only is it a workout that gets the heart pumping, but your lower back also gets in on the action when lifting the wet snow with the shovel! This was done before 8am, since I was expecting someone to come and install a new Internet service for me. My existing Internet provider pushed their price up by $20 after being with them for one year. So I found an offer from their competitor who actually gives me 50% faster internet for 40% cheaper! Not a bad deal! While my new internet line was being installed, Liesel took Josh shopping and to the library. As soon as the cable guy had finished up his work, Nathan and I packed some sleds into my car and headed for the slopes for our first sledding of the season! Of course, sledding is another great way to burn calories, by walking up a snowy hill after an exhilarating downhill run, over and over again!
On Saturday night, Liesel and I headed out on a much needed date night. We had a peaceful dinner at our favorite Mexican place, before bargain hunting at some of her favorite stores that were having sales! It felt good just to browse the stores without a little voice asking you if you're finished yet!
Snow continued falling throughout Saturday night, so Nathan and I had another snow-clearing chore waiting for us before church on Sunday morning! We had a great church service, but before heading home we had to stop and pick up a new game rental for us. The game, Just Dance 3, is so much fun. The object is to imitate the dancer on the screen. The Wii console judges the movement of the remote control in your hand, and determines how accurate you are, and scores you accordingly! This was my final workout of the weekend, and trust me, this was most probably the most intense! Nathan and I danced together, and sometimes he won and sometimes I won, but that didn't matter, because we were sweating AND having fun!! I leave you all with a video of Nathan dancing :)
Saturday's workouts included a second driveway and sidewalk clearing. Not only is it a workout that gets the heart pumping, but your lower back also gets in on the action when lifting the wet snow with the shovel! This was done before 8am, since I was expecting someone to come and install a new Internet service for me. My existing Internet provider pushed their price up by $20 after being with them for one year. So I found an offer from their competitor who actually gives me 50% faster internet for 40% cheaper! Not a bad deal! While my new internet line was being installed, Liesel took Josh shopping and to the library. As soon as the cable guy had finished up his work, Nathan and I packed some sleds into my car and headed for the slopes for our first sledding of the season! Of course, sledding is another great way to burn calories, by walking up a snowy hill after an exhilarating downhill run, over and over again!
On Saturday night, Liesel and I headed out on a much needed date night. We had a peaceful dinner at our favorite Mexican place, before bargain hunting at some of her favorite stores that were having sales! It felt good just to browse the stores without a little voice asking you if you're finished yet!
Snow continued falling throughout Saturday night, so Nathan and I had another snow-clearing chore waiting for us before church on Sunday morning! We had a great church service, but before heading home we had to stop and pick up a new game rental for us. The game, Just Dance 3, is so much fun. The object is to imitate the dancer on the screen. The Wii console judges the movement of the remote control in your hand, and determines how accurate you are, and scores you accordingly! This was my final workout of the weekend, and trust me, this was most probably the most intense! Nathan and I danced together, and sometimes he won and sometimes I won, but that didn't matter, because we were sweating AND having fun!! I leave you all with a video of Nathan dancing :)
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| From Jan 16, 2012 |
Sunday, January 08, 2012
New Year's Resolutions
Usually, I do not subscribe to the idea that the start of a new year should be your motivation to commit to a bunch of good intentions! However, this year is different. Near the end of 2011, I had a number of reality checks, including, a blood test showing high cholesterol, and of course, my father's passing to glory. These things have made me stop and re-evaluate my lifestyle, and I came to the realization that I need to start looking after myself a whole lot better than I have been!
So my first resolution is to lose some weight. Any person over the age of thirty, knows this is much easier said than done. My plan of attack is to start eating healthier, which Liesel is helping me with! Thus far, I have successfully cut out fizzy drinks from my diet, and have not had a carbonated bubble pass my lips in over a week! Secondly, I have been trying to work out a little each day at work. In fact, this week I have run 1 mile on a treadmill, rowed two miles on the rower, and traversed more than 3.75 miles on the elliptical machine! On top of that, I have been to our local gym twice, which equates to 6 workouts this past week!
Managing my diet better as well as increasing my daily exercise should hopefully be enough to help me realize my first resolution, and also contribute to my second resolution of lowering my cholesterol significantly!
I need to ensure that I maintain this momentum, and not slacking off because I don't feel like working out! This is the hard part, and one of the reasons I am sharing this with you all. By sharing it, I am making myself accountable to you, which should be an added motivation.
Something else I have started working on this weekend, although it's not a resolution, but actually part of Liesel's and my Christmas gift to each other. We are having our own, Extreme Makeover: Master Bedroom Edition! We have already got new bedding, and last week I installed new Roman blinds on our windows. This week we got some paint samples and painted three different shades on the walls. The tough part now is to choose which color is best. One of the best parts about this, is that we will not be using a cent of our money to buy the paint and paint brushes! It's one of the benefits of having a credit card that has rewards, so my credit card company is footing most of the costs of our bedroom makeover!
On Monday, most of us will be faced with our first full week of work. Don't let the craziness of everyday life distract you! Try to remain focused on achieving your goals, and stay motivated, as the long term benefits always outweigh the short term discomfort!
So my first resolution is to lose some weight. Any person over the age of thirty, knows this is much easier said than done. My plan of attack is to start eating healthier, which Liesel is helping me with! Thus far, I have successfully cut out fizzy drinks from my diet, and have not had a carbonated bubble pass my lips in over a week! Secondly, I have been trying to work out a little each day at work. In fact, this week I have run 1 mile on a treadmill, rowed two miles on the rower, and traversed more than 3.75 miles on the elliptical machine! On top of that, I have been to our local gym twice, which equates to 6 workouts this past week!
Managing my diet better as well as increasing my daily exercise should hopefully be enough to help me realize my first resolution, and also contribute to my second resolution of lowering my cholesterol significantly!
I need to ensure that I maintain this momentum, and not slacking off because I don't feel like working out! This is the hard part, and one of the reasons I am sharing this with you all. By sharing it, I am making myself accountable to you, which should be an added motivation.
Something else I have started working on this weekend, although it's not a resolution, but actually part of Liesel's and my Christmas gift to each other. We are having our own, Extreme Makeover: Master Bedroom Edition! We have already got new bedding, and last week I installed new Roman blinds on our windows. This week we got some paint samples and painted three different shades on the walls. The tough part now is to choose which color is best. One of the best parts about this, is that we will not be using a cent of our money to buy the paint and paint brushes! It's one of the benefits of having a credit card that has rewards, so my credit card company is footing most of the costs of our bedroom makeover!
On Monday, most of us will be faced with our first full week of work. Don't let the craziness of everyday life distract you! Try to remain focused on achieving your goals, and stay motivated, as the long term benefits always outweigh the short term discomfort!
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Hoping for a better 2012!!
The last week of 2011 was an unusually busy week for the McCarthy's. Even though Nathan was on his Winter break, we had signed him up for a Junior Robotics course from Monday to Friday. In this class, each child had access to their own laptop, and a Lego robotics kit. He absolutely loved building the various Lego models, and then constructing a simple program on the laptop to tell the model exactly what he wants it to do. On the first day, he made a soccer goalkeeper that moved left and right in front of a goal post. Then if you rolled a ball at the goalkeeper and it passed him and went through the goal post, you would see the score on the computer automatically increase by one point! Not bad for a first grader!
While Nathan was learning valuable new skills, I waas back at work from Tuesday to Thursday. We were very fortunate to be given a bonus day off last week, so I took Friday off to make it an extra long weekend for us! Friday, however, wasn't too relaxing, as Liesel and I had an agenda! After dropping Nathan off at Tech Camp, we went down to our local Social Security office to change the status of our Social Security Number from Permanent Residents to Citizens! This took about an hour, which Josh didn't enjoy too much. Once that was sorted out, we tried applying for our US passports at two different post offices, but they were not properly equipped to handle these applications. FInally, the third post office could do it, and it was a reasonably painless exercise. Also, one of the things we love about the USA is that we should have our brand new passports mailed to us within 4- 6 weeks! This processing speed is something a former South African is not really accustomed to!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, my sister and her husband attended my father's memorial service on Friday morning. I was unable to be there, due to my lack of a passport, but my sister read out something on my behalf. She said it was a really good service, and she is sure my father would have approved!
As for the New Year's weekend, it was a pretty low key affair in our household. On Saturday morning, I attended an exercise class, while Liesel stayed at home with the boys. We spent the rest of the day at home, and I watched the New Year in on TV. For New Year's Day, Liesel spoiled us by making us Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast. She added some sparklers to the boys' rolls to start of 2012 with some fireworks!
After breakfast, we got ready for out first Church service of 2012. Since we wanted to do something different for the first day of the year, after church we went to a restaurant that had a huge gaming center attached. So after a delicious lunch, we spent an hour playing different games with the boys! This was their highlight of the day!
As I sign off this week's blog, I want to leave you with my sister's words that she wrote to honor my dad. They are powerful, meaningful and really make you stop and think! Take these words with you as you navigate through 2012!
He has 2 children who both know and serve God.
He enjoyed a healthy life and was physically active to the end.
He knew God from a young age and had a new revelation of God’s love for him in the
last 3 months.
While growing up family was so important to my dad, he would phone every day
once we were home from school to find out how our day had been. He loved and lived
for the family holidays at the beach (to Ronel’s dismay he still liked going back to the
same place every year that he’s been going to since the 1980’s)
In these past few months God has shown His goodness and grace to us.
After my dad’s operation to remove a brain tumour he phoned me and shared with
me how he had had a personal, new revelation of how much God loves him. God
had reminded him of the story of the woman with the issue of blood and how she had
touched the hem of Y’shua’s garment and been healed. My dad felt God saying to him
that He had felt my dad touch the hem of His garment and I believe that that promise
resulted in my dad making a miraculous recovery from death’s door a month ago and
that God granted my dad a gift of extra time.
In that time my brother was able to come out from the USA and we spent quality time
with my dad. We were able to express complete forgiveness to dad and he was able
to say he was sorry for things in the past. I know that the power of forgiveness and
repentance is so powerful and am sure that through that God extended dad’s time. I
also see God’s graciousness in allowing my brother and I to be able to phone my dad
on Saturday and to speak and pray with my dad while Ronel held the phone to his ear
and to know that he heard everything we said to him.
We were able to say goodbye to him, to thank him for being a good dad and to remind
him that God had answered his prayer for healing, that God had felt him touch the
hem of His garment and that the greatest healing of all had taken place – a complete
spiritual and emotional healing in dad’s life and in our family. I prayed with him that
God’s timing is perfect, for His will to be done and in that we have complete peace.
If my dad could come back and share a moment with us again I believe he would give
testimony to 3 things:
1. That life is brief – only a minute ago you were a child, you spent a twinkling
of an eye as an adult and then life was over.
2. That family and relationships outweigh all other things in life. That any hurt
or unforgiveness or bitterness is not worth holding onto. That no man stands
alone, that he is who he is because of others and by God’s grace. My dad was
a husband and a father because of the relationship he had with my mom and
because of her love and support of him for 29 years. He was close to Ronel for
14 years and discovered new things in life with her. He was a brother to his
sister Jen and shared a special bond with her. He treasured the relationships he
had with each of you here today, whether on the tennis court or at church or
from his complex.
3. That eternity is a reality. The minute your breathing stops eternity begins and
it is too late to wait until that moment to determine where you will spend it.
I know my dad will spend eternity with the Father. I know we will meet again.
I know my dad would urge his loved ones to search for truth, to realize that
God’s heart is for us and not against us and to walk with the Father WHO
orders our footsteps out of love.
The LORD giveth and the LORD taketh away; blessed be the Name of the
LORD.
While Nathan was learning valuable new skills, I waas back at work from Tuesday to Thursday. We were very fortunate to be given a bonus day off last week, so I took Friday off to make it an extra long weekend for us! Friday, however, wasn't too relaxing, as Liesel and I had an agenda! After dropping Nathan off at Tech Camp, we went down to our local Social Security office to change the status of our Social Security Number from Permanent Residents to Citizens! This took about an hour, which Josh didn't enjoy too much. Once that was sorted out, we tried applying for our US passports at two different post offices, but they were not properly equipped to handle these applications. FInally, the third post office could do it, and it was a reasonably painless exercise. Also, one of the things we love about the USA is that we should have our brand new passports mailed to us within 4- 6 weeks! This processing speed is something a former South African is not really accustomed to!
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, my sister and her husband attended my father's memorial service on Friday morning. I was unable to be there, due to my lack of a passport, but my sister read out something on my behalf. She said it was a really good service, and she is sure my father would have approved!
As for the New Year's weekend, it was a pretty low key affair in our household. On Saturday morning, I attended an exercise class, while Liesel stayed at home with the boys. We spent the rest of the day at home, and I watched the New Year in on TV. For New Year's Day, Liesel spoiled us by making us Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast. She added some sparklers to the boys' rolls to start of 2012 with some fireworks!
After breakfast, we got ready for out first Church service of 2012. Since we wanted to do something different for the first day of the year, after church we went to a restaurant that had a huge gaming center attached. So after a delicious lunch, we spent an hour playing different games with the boys! This was their highlight of the day!
As I sign off this week's blog, I want to leave you with my sister's words that she wrote to honor my dad. They are powerful, meaningful and really make you stop and think! Take these words with you as you navigate through 2012!
In honour of my dad
How do you measure the success of a life? When I look back at my dad’s life I realize
he was a very successful man.
He was a good father and made many happy memories with us.He has 2 children who both know and serve God.
He enjoyed a healthy life and was physically active to the end.
He knew God from a young age and had a new revelation of God’s love for him in the
last 3 months.
While growing up family was so important to my dad, he would phone every day
once we were home from school to find out how our day had been. He loved and lived
for the family holidays at the beach (to Ronel’s dismay he still liked going back to the
same place every year that he’s been going to since the 1980’s)
In these past few months God has shown His goodness and grace to us.
After my dad’s operation to remove a brain tumour he phoned me and shared with
me how he had had a personal, new revelation of how much God loves him. God
had reminded him of the story of the woman with the issue of blood and how she had
touched the hem of Y’shua’s garment and been healed. My dad felt God saying to him
that He had felt my dad touch the hem of His garment and I believe that that promise
resulted in my dad making a miraculous recovery from death’s door a month ago and
that God granted my dad a gift of extra time.
In that time my brother was able to come out from the USA and we spent quality time
with my dad. We were able to express complete forgiveness to dad and he was able
to say he was sorry for things in the past. I know that the power of forgiveness and
repentance is so powerful and am sure that through that God extended dad’s time. I
also see God’s graciousness in allowing my brother and I to be able to phone my dad
on Saturday and to speak and pray with my dad while Ronel held the phone to his ear
and to know that he heard everything we said to him.
We were able to say goodbye to him, to thank him for being a good dad and to remind
him that God had answered his prayer for healing, that God had felt him touch the
hem of His garment and that the greatest healing of all had taken place – a complete
spiritual and emotional healing in dad’s life and in our family. I prayed with him that
God’s timing is perfect, for His will to be done and in that we have complete peace.
If my dad could come back and share a moment with us again I believe he would give
testimony to 3 things:
1. That life is brief – only a minute ago you were a child, you spent a twinkling
of an eye as an adult and then life was over.
2. That family and relationships outweigh all other things in life. That any hurt
or unforgiveness or bitterness is not worth holding onto. That no man stands
alone, that he is who he is because of others and by God’s grace. My dad was
a husband and a father because of the relationship he had with my mom and
because of her love and support of him for 29 years. He was close to Ronel for
14 years and discovered new things in life with her. He was a brother to his
sister Jen and shared a special bond with her. He treasured the relationships he
had with each of you here today, whether on the tennis court or at church or
from his complex.
3. That eternity is a reality. The minute your breathing stops eternity begins and
it is too late to wait until that moment to determine where you will spend it.
I know my dad will spend eternity with the Father. I know we will meet again.
I know my dad would urge his loved ones to search for truth, to realize that
God’s heart is for us and not against us and to walk with the Father WHO
orders our footsteps out of love.
The LORD giveth and the LORD taketh away; blessed be the Name of the
LORD.
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