Day 256 - Roundup

Greg is off to pick up the kids from their weekend at the grandparents so I wanted to use this bit of quiet time for my update. Had a nasty head cold yesterday and the incredible, much appreciated luxury of spending the whole day in bed, which means I'm probably 88 percent back to normal today. I'm convinced sleep is the greatest cure!

Marriage - Must admit I've not been as good as I could here. I need to step it up a bit. We missed our date night last night as I was coughing and sneezing and generally looking and feeling like something the cat dragged in. Hoping to make up for it in the weekends to come.
Parenting - Kids getting back tonight. I set up a new Leap Frog game I got at a thrift store that focuses on letters. It can be hard to find things that challenge Kirk at all that Kai can still sort of get. I also ordered new off Amazon a book called "How to Behave and Why" that got excellent reviews. I worry Kirk isn't as polite as he could/should be - though a good kid - and thought maybe a more direct approach to what it means to behave well would be helpful. Will report back;-).
Business - Emailed all my mentors for an update on what we've done for the week.
Book - Spent almost the entire day in bed reading about the philosophy of Star Wars. Early on I mentioned I wanted to "star -war -ize" history - to make it a great story and also to get kids excited about history - so I'm working on that.
FI - I struggle with this a bit. The entire idea for this blog was to get to FI as quickly as possible and to date, that had been done by spending little and saving a lot. With the company, we are often faced with the challenge of paying for high quality - or going cheap - not always sure which is the right choice. For example, we had originally planned to hire a college kid to design our website. Since then, we've talked to people in the industry who say it's not as easy as it might seem to grow a website that is going to have not only a store, but blogs, links to helpful hints about parenting, and search engine optimization among other things and we should pay "to have it built right in the first place."
Garden - Actually spent a bit of time with a garden book today - how fun. Greg wants to have his office here at our house this summer for a big outing, so planning pots and containers and garden things is pure joy.
Health - Lunch pretty good - salad with almonds and cranberries. Breakfast not so good - Panera bagel and soda. Dinner will be salmon patties and veggies. Snack was whole grain tostitos, organic cheese and a diet Coke. Two out of four not bad;-). I was going to take a picture at Panera of my meal - as suggested by the weight loss article - but wondered if that would look a bit odd - like I was setting them up for a lawsuit that I found a nail in my bagel or something;-).
House - The picture of the mess on the floor is just inside the back door. It includes Kirk's backpack from school, a box of stuff I had gotten from a thrift store, books from the library, games I exchange in and out of the car for the kids, coats, etc. My dream of the immaculate home in which you walk into to a scene of cleanliness, beauty and order, with the sound of a running fountain and lovely smells of burning candles or pot pouri is still in the act of creation;-).
Bus. Vocab. Will have update tonight.