Family Matters

Now that the kids are older it’s a different dynamic. I’m proud to see Will getting involved at his school and with the ECPC youth. Anna has friends she likes to spend time with, but she also plays like a child. Matthew is different, but he gets wrapped up in playing with toys, drawing, outdoors, and occasionally sports, like I did…so he’s fun to watch and play with. I need to play more baseball, basketball, and Wii with Will. Anna doesn’t like baseball, so I need to do different things with her…she’s the hardest. She actually likes to wrestle. Matthew is still huggable…I need to read with him like I did with Will and Anna.

We need to talk everyday, not just about that day’s activities, but also plans and finances. She wants to talk about feelings and stuff first, which I’m not good at. Neither of us are big talkers, and we both expect the other to carry the conversation. As a couple we’re going to go back through the Intimate Encounters book, but we need to start. We have been going out on more dates, since we don’t need a sitter any more.

I have to remember what intimate Encounters (and Andy) have stressed…I don’t need to focus on changing Ceil, but instead accepting her for who she is, and instead focusing on how I can serve her. Selfish as I am, that last part is hard. Ceil is quite similar to me in many ways…strengths and weaknesses wise. We both wanted to get married and looked forward to raising kids.

Friends…it’s interesting the old Second-Ponce crowd has kept up with each other. It’s mostly been once or twice a year…some keep up better than others. I actually don’t keep up as good as some. The recent deaths of Steve and Ginny brought people together, and there have been some other deaths of parents as well.

There’s really no one from high school I keep up with that much. I went to three high school reunions before I figured out that my best friends weren’t going to the reunions, so I doubt I’ll go to my 25th reunion in October (but this year they’re having it at a football game). I’m a much better emailer than phone caller. One friend has had some health issues and I haven’t done a good job of keeping up.