I confess that I love pop-tarts despite the fact that they have to be just about the worst food you could possibly put into your body. I can’t help it. I love them. My favorite pop-tarts in order would be Chocolate, Strawberry, Smores, and Cherry. I try to only let myself eat them 3-4 times a year–usually when I’m on vacation or a retreat. I confess that I’m having one right now, s’mores flavored, and it’s really good. It’s a leftover from a hiking trip w/my kids. I confess that s’mores has to be one of the stranger spellings for a word I’ve ever seen.
I confess that my garden is growing like crazy, but still not yielding like crazy. My tomatoes are growing so fast they’ve overcome the strength of the little wire cylinders I used to prop them up. In an attempt to keep the vines off the ground I started using stakes and string. This method has worked so far, but I must have knocked a good 35 tomatoes off the vines. I confess that every time I work in the garden I get chigger bites on my ankles. Bug spray seems to be somewhat ineffective in warding off these annoying little buggers.
I confess that I have been playing or practicing golf instead of running everyday. I confess that I’m just going to call this “cross-training” and give myself a pass.
I confess that it creeps me out a little bit when I visit a website and the banner advertisements are all concerning products I’ve recently viewed online. We have some needs concerning music gear at the church, so I was price shopping some gear online. Now, every webpage I visit has pictures of guitar amplifiers.
I confess that I read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell last week. It’s the second time I’ve read through this book, this time on audiobook. Gladwell read it himself. I confess that I am getting a bit hooked on listening to an author read their own work via audiobook. It started with John Jeremiah Sullivan reading Pulphead. Then I went to Gladwell. Both were books I read in print. Both were completely different experiences when listening to the audio book as read by the author. I have several special requests that I’m quite certain will never happen: 1) Wendell Berry reading Jayber Crow. 2) Stanley Hauerwas reading Hannah’s Child, and 3) Chaim Potok reading My name is Asher Lev.
I confess that our family watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty last night and it was really good. My boys and I had a really good talk after the movie about having the courage to take risks and to engage the world around us. I don’t want them to grow up playing it safe. I feel like I might have done this too much, especially when I was young.
I confess that more than ever, the summer schedule at the Suttle house has been late to bed, late to rise. I’m struggling to make 5:30 am wake-up these days, mostly owing to the fact that I started reading The Half-Blood Prince to my boys & we stay up till 10:30 reading it every night, usually after watching the Royals, hitting golf balls, or some other family activity. To do the 5:30 am wake-up well, I really have to be in bed by 10pm, I confess that I’m starting to think that if I’m going to keep getting up at 5:30, I might need to move lunch to 11:15, and dinner to 5:30. That way I’ll still have some semblance of an evening during which to engage w/the kids and with Kristin. Anybody ever moved your whole day forward like that?
I confess that it feels like summer is already coming to a close. I’ve been having so much fun w/Kristin and the boys. I don’t want it to be over, even if I’m not getting any sleep. I love that when I stop by home to grab a bite to eat they are here. When I work from home for an afternoon, they are here. I can play hooky from work for an afternoon and go play golf with them. I think I need to find ways to do this during the year when they have 1/2 day school, or days off. I confess that this will involve advanced planning and discipline–neither of which are a strong suit for me. I think my favorite thing about summer is seeing them wake up all squinty eyed with raspy voices in no particular hurry to do anything.
I confess that I’m still procrastinating certain writing projects.
Okay friends, that’s my confession. Time for yours:
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