For years – probably since I graduated from eighth grade, in fact – I've felt guilty about not getting enough exercise. (My junior high actually had a rigorous physical education program; high school P.E. was a breeze in comparison.) I've tried things here and there, but nothing has really stuck.

My biggest problem has been time. Yes, I could always get out of bed an hour earlier, but I'd ultimately have to get to bed an hour earlier, which wouldn't leave much time after the kids go to bed. Besides, I'm not a morning person, so maintaining a morning exercise program is pretty much impossible. (I've tried.) I could get home an hour later, but then I'd miss dinner, and that wouldn't work well at all with the evening meetings that Julie and I attend once or twice a week. I could try to exercise in the evenings, but my motivation is sapped by the time the kids go to bed. So, basically, I'd all but given up hope.

However, a few weeks ago, a coworker of mine mentioned that he was going to go swim at the downtown YMCA – at lunch! Suddenly it all fell into place; instead of taking a lunch break, I'd take an exercise break. To make a long story short, I've signed up for a membership at the YMCA (through our company, which is a pretty good deal). Almost every work day the last couple of weeks, I've either swum at noon or played racquetball with my boss at 4, thereby getting the exercise I need without taking any more time from my day. (I now eat a quick "working lunch" instead of a leisurely lunch break, but it's worth it.)

I had to sign up for a whole year to get the good deal, so I'm hoping that my fiscal frugality will help motivate me to keep this up (there's no refunds). I'm enjoying it so far – I don't expect any big life changes, though it would be nice to be able to get up and down the stairs without feeling winded. Here's hoping.

There are few things in this world that can break through my seemingly impenetrable heart like music. Church hymns are some of the most moving pieces of music for me; this morning, we sang one of my favorites, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. I can never remember why I like that hymn so much until I get to the third stanza:

Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love;
Here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.

I can barely sing the words. Faith and doubt are constantly at war in me; my greatest fear is that I would leave the God I love. I know that only God himself can draw me to him, and I pray each day that he will continue to do so.

Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.” (Luke 18:23-27, NIV)

If you've got the patience (or the bandwidth), check out this video clip of Rebecca laughing... (Try to ignore her father.)

RebeccaLaughs.avi (1.64 MB)

Of everyone in our family, Rebecca is certainly growing the fastest, so you'll see pictures of her here from time to time, for no reason other than to see her taking her next step (metaphorically speaking, at this point).

With a little assistance, Rebecca can now sit up and play nicely. She's also learning the joy of having toys in her mouth...

Of course, at the moment she's screaming her head off because Mom's at church. You take the joys, and you take the sorrows. That's parenting for you. :-)

I sent in my 2003 Federal Income Tax return yesterday; it's always good to get that done. I filled in the same blanks as last year, just with different numbers, so it wasn't too bad. I'm getting a good-sized refund this year, though I had adjusted my withholding somewhat so that my refund wasn't quite as big as last year. Yes, I know that I should do a better job of matching my withholding to my actual tax burden. Yes, I know it's basically an interest-free loan to the government. Even so, I find great joy in getting an “extra” check every spring to save or spend. I suppose it's just a little enforced saving. It's certainly better than the alternative – having to send in a check – so I'm happy to leave a decent-sized buffer zone and live with the theoretical loss of interest.

Speaking of taxes, even though it's fairly common to complain about the federal government taking away too much of our money, I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that we personally have nothing to complain about. Politicians, and thus tax laws, are these days very kind to single income, married with children families. Our tax “burden” is less than 3% of our total income, thanks in large part to the $1,000 per kid that we get through the “child tax credit.” Still, I'm happy to complain about big government taxing us too much, at least for the sake of my bachelor friends and coworkers, who are paying a much, much larger chunk of their total income, I guarantee.

I forgot to mention; my truck was in the shop last week.

My 1987 Nissan Pickup with over 200,000 miles is still running strong, but it has its quirks, particularly in the electric department. For example, the dome light doesn't work, the stereo won't work unless the headlights are on, etc. Anyway, I had to stop on a dime last week and shook some wire loose somewhere, because I lost power to my dashboard. Fortunately, the engine kept running, so I drove carefully home. I turned off the engine, and, to my surprise, it started up again, but I had no accessories, no headlights, no brake lights. The generous fellow that I carpool with helped me coordinate getting the truck to and from the shop as well as myself to and from work for a couple of days.

The damage was less than $100, amazingly enough – some after-market circuit breaker had failed (or something like that – I don't pay as much attention to the mechanic as I should), so he just took it out and rerouted the power. Everything works as well as it did; unfortunately, it works no better, because I still can't listen to the radio without the headlights on. But, the bill was less than the value of the truck (by a few hundred bucks), so I'm happy. The cheapest car you'll ever own is the one you're driving right now. :-)

I'm really enjoying our new dishwasher. (And lest you snicker, know that I do more than my fair share of dishes around here.) The coolest feature is the delay button, which automatically starts the dishwasher in two, four, or six hours. Maybe this feature has been standard on dishwashers for years, but I've never had it.

Why is this feature cool? Well, the salesman said that the primary benefit is for areas where electricity is cheaper in the middle of the night, so people could delay the dishwashing until then. Our electricity costs the same all day, but it's still a cool feature. For one thing, even though it is a much quieter dishwasher than our old one, it's still nice to delay the noise until after we've gone to bed. My favorite part, however, is the fact that I can set the dishwasher when I'm done with the dishes, and if I inadvertently missed any dishes – a pot on the stove, perhaps, or a glass in the family room – I can add it without stopping the process.

(Hey, this is my blog, so I can talk about whatever I want!)

Yes, Bethany fell asleep watching a video that Sarah picked out. (It's an old desert life documentary that Disney put out years ago; for some reason, our church library has a copy, and she checked it out.) Bethany didn't sleep for very long, but even if I had not seen her asleep, I would know that she had fallen asleep at some point today. How would I know this? Because she is still awake, and it is almost 10 p.m. She's generally pretty good at falling asleep well before 9, but if she sleeps even for a nanosecond during the day, she can't sleep at night. That's just the way it is; another small adventure in parenting.

It’s true; our kids love the television. We limit their TV time to quite reasonable amounts (at least in our opinion), but sometimes it’s nice for them to have a bit of calm entertainment so that the parental units can more easily get stuff done. VeggieTales has always been a big hit at our house – I had already purchased a tape or two before our oldest was born! Even at her young age, Rebecca is no different; here she is, taking a short break from wailing for dinner to watch a few minutes of VeggieTales:

Has it really been a whole week since I’ve written here? I guess so. Well, I just wanted to give an official online “Congratulations!” to my brother and his wife on account of their new baby girl! I’ve seen pictures, and she’s a sweetheart, though I’m pretty sure they pulled this picture from Eric’s baby album by mistake...