...baby steps.

This weekend was a good one. It's the first time my lady has stayed at the house for the weekend... while the kids were home. It's a big step. One she didn't know if she was ready for. But, if we are going to move forward with our lives together, she can't just go stay somewhere else every other weekend.

It went quite well. My kids get a kick out of her. They respect what she has to say and don't pull the "You're not my mom" crap I have seen other kids pull on adults. My kids respect authority. They also know that they are at my house and that I won't stand for it.

So, this weekend had a lot of things that were different about it and will continue. My kids kind of got the law laid down about the house and how we need to keep it clean. They were shown the chores that they need to do on the weekends they are home and what they can "earn" for doing these chores.

It totally worked.

Right away Saturday morning, they started cleaning without being told. I was floored. Friday night we had told them they should leave a room "better than when they entered it" and I heard my daughter tell my son "no, you have to fold the blankets up before you leave the room!"

The one thing that was great was that I kept the video games to a minimum. They really should be a reward and not the norm when they are here. I get so little time with them. So, I confiscated the GameBoy that they each have and put them away. No "video" games for the weekend. Games were played though. We had a super long game of Sorry! that was quite fun to play. It took forever, but it got all of us talking and playing at the table instead of in front of the TV.

This needs to happen more often. It really sucks that more families don't do this. Eat at the table. Clean together. Reward for good. Play games as a family.

It was a fun weekend.

...I got to hold a four day old baby today.

See this guy, this is William (or Willie as they will be calling him). He's four days old. Quite cool for four days old. He opened his eyes and was looking around at me. He had the hiccups while looking at me and crapped twice (both times NOT while I was holding him) during his trip to the office.

So, congrats to Holly and Billy on their newborn baby.

Holly, I'm sure the older two will be great with him... and Andy seems to like not being the smallest one anymore.

...good things are happening around here (update)

Well, what would it be if I didn't update people on how things were going around the house...

The biggest thing for me is that I see a huge project and I don't know where to start. Then that means I just don't start it. It's work. I already work 40 hours a week. I want to rest.

Well, this shit needed to happen too. I got a lot done over the last couple of weeks. Cat helped with a lot too. She has been a huge motivator along the way in more ways than one.

(And yes, my kids have sheets... they are in the dryer)

Hannah's room

Hannah's room #2

Ro's room 

Ro's room#2

Kitchen 

More Kitchen

The big room

Even more big room

Sanctuary

Ze bathroom

More big room

...I took control of my email again.

That's right - I love me some Gmail

I used to sign up for everything. I was getting offers and deals from everywhere. Then I realized that I really didn't need all that. So, last week, I started unsubscribing from everything.

Since then, I don't get woken up by a 3:54AM message from GuitarCenter telling me about the latest deal, or any of the others that seem to send over and over and over. Apple, you are by far the worst offender. I only need the email once. Two to three times to tell me about the new iNeedthis is enough, thank you very much.

It's great. I don't hear my phone going off all the time any more. It's quiet. I'm not rushing to see what it is. MAYBE I WON A MILLION DOLLARS!

I love having a clean inbox. I have embraced the "Archive" button. Do I need to do anything with this but I need the info for later...archive.

It's so nice having a clean look to the inbox. I don't feel like I'm getting behind anymore.

...I'm teaching people how to add a +1 button to their Blogger site. - Updated!

So, you want to add a +1 button to your Blogger page do you?

It's pretty easy.

Click on the Design tab, then click Edit HTML. Search for the </head> tag.

Paste this in the line after </script> but before </head>
<script src='http://apis.google.com/js.plusone.js' type='text/javascript'/>

Save your template and you are ready to go. You will now have a Google +1 button at the bottom of every post.

UPDATE! Apparently, you can also update and add the +1 button by clicking on the Design tab, then clicking EDIT in the Blog Posts box, uncheck and re-add the "Show Share Buttons" and it will be there as well.