Yesterday, was a great day and an really bad one too. Why it was great: I attended my first Decoration Day Celebration with my family and was able to ride the Cades Cove loop with my son.  Previous to yesterday, I had little knowledge of Decoration Day. To the relatives and families of those burried in Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Decoration Day is a time to honor their families burried there. They travel to churches in the place there ancestors settled in the pioneer days to decorate their graves and celebrate their heritage. As I sat in a hard wooden pew listening to singing without musical instruments, a bird flew into the room. Then the cicadas kicked it up a notch. It was a visual and audio feast for eyes and ears. I imagined 100 years earlier when the pioner farmers rode many miles to the old church in a covered wagon or horse drawn carriage. It was a treat to meet some of the people for whom history may someday forget. Sadly, the park service is making it difficult for these celebrationt to continue though some of the people who attended lived in the Cove until moved by the US Government.  I heard the old-timers talk on the way out about Decoration Day in the past where there were so many people that the church couldn’t hold them all. It was a great day with my family but a terrible one for one of my best friends. While we were enjoying learning about how people celebrate life, my buddy was questioning why life was so hard. His brother, father of two precious little girls, took his life yesterday.  In doing so, he changed the lives of so many who knew and loved him. Yes, yesterday was a very good and terrible day - a day when many would like a “do over”. Yet another reminder of the preciousness of life. Hug your child a little tighter today. Reach out to someone you know who might be going through a tough time. Write a letter to a friend and tell them how much they mean to me. Pick up the phone and have a heart to heart conversation. Life is so very precious…

Mr. Mom: The Saga continues:

4:30: Wake up

4:45: Mount St. Laundry/plan day (write note that says, “bring towel to gym”)

5:22: Arrive at Rush fitness center

5:49: Disembark from stair stepper (VERY short X-ercise as trip to the car to look for towel shortens workout). Hey even a few minutes is better than nothing even though it’s not X-treme

5:51: Shower (dry of with paper towels and Accelerator hand dryer - the one that can blow your skin off your body)

6:11: Arrive late to Bible study(the group is already praying. I need them to stop and pray for me!)

7:08: Run quick errand downtown

7:32: Arrive back home to wake up kids

7:45: Make 4 quick business calls and check email

8:13: Burn grits (everyone north of the Mason-Dixon cheer in unison)

8:28: Change wet sheets (urgh!!!)

9:03: Began home school till you drop

9:11: Quiet whining of older kids that they “don’t like me as their teacher”

9:40: Wife leaves for doctor appointment, errands and Starbucks

9:43: Miss my wife more than should be allowed

9:49: Send older two kids out to get fresh air (and so I can breathe)

9:58: Hear protest march outside front door led by oldest son

9:59: Screamed something that my mother made me say (it was something like -  you don’t know how easy you have it. WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE …swore I would never say that). Then something about having to walk to school… uphill both ways… in the snow… carrying football pads AND my trumpet (yes I did both)

12:30 - 12:45: Multi-task episode one: listen to Paul Harvey while making lunch (fresh broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, salad and spaghetti (left overs)

1:30: Wash dishes while giving spelling test and more home school till you drop

1:36: Whining and gnashing of teeth

2:37: Wife comes home (Kool and the Gang ‘Celebration’ music plays while confetti falls from the ceiling)

3:30: Think: gotta  get out of the house or someone is going to get hurt. IDEA: P.E. time!!! Go jump on neighbors trampoline (kid hurls…can’t remember his or her name)

4:45: Errands with everyone, including a stop at new downtown men and womens clothing shop Boyd Thomas Clothing (the more words in the name, the nicer the clothes …Exhibit A- Walmart, K-mart, Target - got it?). On the way out of the store, kids are ticketed by fashion police (remember I am doing EVERYTHING this week. What’s wrong with red and pink and UT orange colored shoes?)

5:58: Walk downtown streets of The Ville (I flat out refuse to pronounce my town Maryville like as MURVAL like some do (say Maryville like you  have a mouth full of marbles or more likely Redman)

6:01-6:03: Enjoying Christmas lights until “I’m hungry” whining starts

6:31: Multi-task: the prequel (throw Kashi frozen pizza in the oven, return phone calls wearing head set while fixing kids plates and bathing three)

6:52: Kids whine about having to eat healthy pizza(mom enters my body for the second time: “Don’t you know there are starving kids in Africa who would would love to eat this dinner?”).  Almost 12 and too sassy for his size son says, “Wouldn’t it be spoiled when it arrived there?” My chore load is now lightened for tomorrow! Son whines about it not being fair.

7:02: Mop up Niagara Falls in bathroom

7:11: Serve dinner to kids, wash dishes, read bedtime stories, grade home school math. Tell wife how incredible she is

8:33: Eat cold pizza with wife in dining room with candles and romantic music (to drown out three year old’s whining which turns to wailing from upstairs bedroom prison)

9:23: Mount St. Laundry II: The return of Jedi Laundry Warrior (still can’t get ink stains out with hair spray of FAVORITE pants - make up song to the tune of Sleigh bells ring, are you listening. Goes like this:

Heloise are you listening. In my house, ink is glistening, a beautiful day, with plans gone astray, walking in a whiner wonder land

9:45: Check email again, blog and tell wife, “Not tonight, I have a headache!”

10:32: Lights out

10:32: 1/2 fall into kid induced coma

Several years ago, I was intrigued by an award winning recipe I had read about in USA TODAY. It was for Apple Pie, my favorite dessert. There are few things I love more than homemade apple pie and with Thanksgiving approaching, I salivated. We had been at my grandmothers for a fall trip to the beautiful western North Carolina mountains. My grandmother had a small apple orchard on the hill in front of her home, so I picked organically grown Wine Sap apples late in October in anticipation of making a great pie for Thanksgiving. The award winning article included a recipe for whole wheat crust as well as a cranberry strudel for topping. I couldn’t wait to dive into this project and thought about it way more that I want to admit in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. As we traveled to be with family on Wednesday before the great all American eat-a-thon, I thought about the fabulous dessert project awaiting me. I carefully planned and reviewed the ingredients again in my mind. When Thursday morning arrived, I was up with the sun and greeted by my grandmother in her kitchen. As she put the finishing touches on the turkey, I began laying out the ingredients. Then I started washing and preparing the apples. With her much needed assistance and encouraging instructions I began making the filling and pie crust. Since my previous pie experience consisted of visiting Mrs. Smith in the frozen food aisle, I was both anxious and excited about how it would turn out. Although I grew up baking ginger bread men and making oatmeal and raisin cookies with grandma, this was out of my league. Despite the fact that I might have pulled it off without grandma, having her there to help me peel and cut the apples and give me needed instruction on the crust preparation was invaluable. More than anything, I appreciated the company and encouragement, as this pie took about as long to make as the turkey did to cook. Knowing that I had 70 years of baking experience in that kitchen gave me a little more confidence that things would turn out. As I got further into it, I realized a few things-

• Making a homemade pie was taking much longer than I had anticipated.
• The pieces would be pretty small if EVERYONE were to have some.
• I was missing the Thanksgiving Day parade and the great conversation that was happening elsewhere in the house, (I was probably being talked about!).
• If things didn’t progress more quickly, the pie would not be finished before the feast.
• Mrs. Smith would get my business next year.
• The Dallas Cowboy game would be starting soon.

When the pie came out of the oven AFTER lunch, I felt as proud as I have felt about any accomplishment I have had in the kitchen. (I realized that wasn’t saying too much for a guy who has mastered the one course meal, or prepared meals, almost always centered around tuna fish). The accolades were sincere, even if they were mixed in with ribbing from my three older brothers. The very best part of all was the time I had spent talking with my grandmother as she coached me through the process. Though I have only made the pie once since then, the memory of the experience will last a lifetime. That’s what the holidays are about to me; making or starting rich traditions and making lasting memories.

I’d suggest this season would be a good time to start doing both.

In memory of Alta Faye Bunton b. November 23, 1911, d. June 30, 2006

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

We live just off Court Street in a pretty quaint area of Mayberry (what the locals call Maryville, our East Tennessee hamlet). There’s a neat college (Maryville College) across the street that adds to the flavor of our ‘hood’. The college runs along Court Street and we are one house off Court.

One of the things I LOVE about living where I do, is that I can walk or bike almost everywhere I need to go. I wrote about this in a recent post. This morning while walking to church (yes I am still doing my X-365 plan), I heard the deafening and peace disturbing sound of a leaf blower. It’s that time of year where the gas powered annoyances are being used with vigor and I just HATE them. They are loud, pollutants, and are Sunday nap spoilers. To be fair, I own one so what I am about to write MAY sound hypocritical. However, my ox REALLY has to be in a ditch before I crank up one of my testosterone boosting gas-powered accoutrements on a Sunday. I try to use the servants (my kids), to sweep more so the blower blows less.

Until I was about 13, I lived in really small towns (Chattahoochee and Live Oak, FL). In Chattahoochee, the IGA was closed on Sunday, the Western Auto was closed, all the gas stations were closed. Downtown was barren except for the Riverview Bait and Tackle, the Draftwood Restaurant and Chattaburger, the only fast food for miles.

No-one worked on Sunday, few if any meetings were held, on Sunday, and no sports teams played, no school extracurricular activities, no shopping, no work, pretty much no nothing (unless you happened to work at the Chattahoochee mental hospital which invented 24/7/365). Sundays were days for worship, for family meals, for talking, for taking walks and for being together. Sundays were usually quiet. I long for that. We have become a society who has to have noise 24/7/ 365. We walk around with cell phone ear pieces that make us look like robots. We wear white Ipod ear buds dangling like earrings. We keep the TV on for “back ground” noise. It’s like we almost can’t handle quiet. I am “guilty” of some of the very annoyances I write about and sometimes sleep with the AC turned when it’s not needed, just to mask the night noises. I long for quiet (in my mind that always seems to be active with new ideas), in my two Walmart town, and on my street - Court Street. I’d love to see more people out walking at night and neighbors who sit out on porches. I’d love to hear about more families gathering to hear grandpa and grandma tell stories and for TV’s to be the lonely ones. I’d like to drive across the town where I live and not see someone yakking on a cell phone as they drive - endangering their lives as well as others whom they might pass along the way. I long, like my wife, for less electronic communication and more personal touches. We’ve taken convenience technology too far with e-birthday cards, e-invites, e-alerts, e-newsletter, e-Christmas Cards, e-shopping … I say e-nough!

Maybe this holiday season would be a good time to start with more silence. I read where a NJ town impacted by 9/11 cancelled all meetings, all sporting events, and pretty much all activities on one night of the week to get families connected - it saved marriages, built relationships, and probably added to the population! Maybe a Silence on Sunday campaign could be implemented in small towns across the USA. Maybe someone should write a Christmas carol about Silence during the night time. Maybe someone should just decree “Silence in (and on) the Court (Street).”

Silent night, holy night, all is calm. All is bright.

Last night, I was the inspirational speaker for an awards banquet for the Independent Insurance Agents of Kentucky. Before my presentation, the association installed their new officers. As the new president took office, he acknowledged several people including Bob Fulwider, the president of the IIAA, his wife, and his father. I was moved by the obvious love and respect that the son had  for his father. His father had been his mentor, his teacher, his confidant, and his friend. The new president had his family including his two young boys in the audience. One of the boys was the age of my son. As I  listened, I thought about my son and how having him speak of me the way this man spoke of his father would be the greatest accomplishment of my life.

Years ago, I started writing letters to my son - letters that I will give to him some day when he’s a man. Perhaps this post will be included with my letters. Here’s one of those letters I wrote when I lived in tranquil Atlantic Beach, Florida.

Dear Russell:

I’m looking north up the beach and in this pre-dawn moment I see a regular flash coming from the Mayport lighthouse.  The rocks on the jetties are visible to any boat, and the water isn’t at all treacherous.  The lighthouse, however, continues to flash as regularly as a heartbeat and as sure as the sunrise.  It happens twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and three-hundred and sixty-five days a year.  Someday, you’ll ask me about lighthouses, and I’ll tell you something like this: “They are to help ships determine safe passage into the harbor.  They keep ships from going into water too shallow and keep them on course.”  This lighthouse I see now continues to advise the ships as it has for years, even though many who use it know the right way home.  My hope is that I can be that kind of lighthouse for you.  I want to be a consistent ray that you’ll look to for guidance, direction, and safekeeping. At times, when you smoothly sail through life, my ever-present light may seem unnecessary.  There will be other times, however, when the waters won’t be so calm.  It will be at those times that I hope my shining lamp will illuminate your life.  At that moment, when you’ll need me the most, I will be glad I had the light on even when I didn’t think you were watching. 

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

I just returned from my son’s Boy Scout camporee (which basically means lots of boys, lots of testosterone, and lots of smelly clothes). When I was a scout, women were forbidden to come on camping trips –there are just some things that we just didn’t want them to know and it just would have ruined everything to have them there. Tonight, as in every troop event I have been on, there were women – gross me out! So I have been thinking both about women and my scouting experience. One aspect of scouting is Order of the Arrow, which is an elected leadership honor. The OA has a motto - WWW which means We Want Women (at least it did when I was a scout!). Actually, if I told you what it really meant, I’d have to kill you. So you’ll just have to keep with the teenage definition we gave it. In truth, I think scouting is probably better with women participating. Our troop has a boy with Downs Syndrome and his mother (or father) is with him at every event and our troop welcomes her and other women as well. If women had been involved in scouting when I was young, I probably would have never gotten a swirlie (if you don’t know what a swirlie is, you can ask a scout from my era. Trust me you are better off NOT knowing). Men leaders in my day either just let it pass (not referring to other things scouts do on campouts) or are just too full from Dutch oven cooked peach cobbler to walk around and see what REALLY happened to young scouts. So I am thankful for the difference woman make in scouting.My friend Kathy Roth, founder of the Jeff Roth Cycling Foundation, emailed me about other women making a difference - Women Writing for (a) Change.This is an organization, a writing center of sorts, located in Cincinnati founded by Mary Pierce Brosmer. Women Writing for (a) Change was initially started with the idea that, through writing and sharing their work, women might make systemic changes in their lives, and thus, the world. Over the past 15 plus years, it’s grown beyond that. There are writing workshops for families and men as well. In the summer, there are writing camps for girls. The biggest focus remains women.I also learned today about Lending Promise another very cool project that involves woman.  I must confess tonight, I feel like a womanizer and the great thing, is that my wife is okay with it….just for tonight.  

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

I am almost finished reading a book called The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. If I am able to implement what I am reading, October will be a much difference month than September. I probably worked 15 days in a row in some form or fashion and for many more hours that either my wife or I would have liked. I must confess I haven’t been working smart and on more than one occasion I have lamented that I should have been doing things like playing with or reading books to my kids, spending quality time with my wife, having devotional and quiet time, or exercising. I set a goal (and a blog) to exercise every day for one year and until last week, my X-plan wasn’t going as well as I had hoped. Though last week, I achieve a goal of doing seven different types of exercise in seven days. But I digress. 

Ferriss synthesized things for me that weren’t new but the context in which he structured it has caused me to re-think some things. I am making a note to post in one month with the results - results that IF I follow through on, will make my work and life more rich. I’d like to do more of what I talk about in my Living Rich speech and give away my time and talents. It will take awhile to get to the 4-Hour Week but I’m planning on working more efficiently and I think my family, my clients and I will all benefit. Plus implementing some new procedures and new thinking will create time for the things that matter most.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

By now, you have seen and heard the response of Miss South Carolina as she answered a question on why 1/5 of Americans can’t find the US on a world map. I must admit, at first I laughed too…and couldn’t believe what she said. Her response has been shown all over the world and it’s topping You Tube’s view list. I think the real alarm shouldn’t be about a teenage girl who lost her focus answering a simple question (put yourself on national TV with millions of viewers, lights, contest pressure, etc and try to spell your name!). Why isn’t there an outcry about about why we just don’t know much about our own country? My sixth grader knows more than I do about geography and probably more than 90% of  Americans. Incidentally, presidential candidiate Bill Richardson (of no relation to yours truly) gave almost as lame an answer to a question asked of him lately. Who hasn’t said something stupid or made a statement that doesn’t make sense. We were just lucky no one was rolling a camera.

 It seems that You Tube has turned our society into this large mass of Candid Camera watchers. We like to see someone else stumble. So instead of encouraging young people like Lauren Caitlin Upton, who worked hard to be in a national televised pageant, we  laugh at the expense of an eighteen year old girl who likely just got nervous. So now we are not only ignorant about geography, we are also ignorant about how to treat other people. Having been an escort in a nationally televised pageant (MANY years ago) and now as a professional speaker for almost twenty years, I feel her pain. It’s not easy to be up in front of people while trying to make the butterflies fly in motion and communicate your thoughts. While we laugh at this humiliated young girl (btw, she did a masterful job on Good Morning America this am laughing at herself) what are we teaching our kids about failure and risk taking?  Let’s let little Miss Sunshine off the hook…and go teach some civility and while we’re at it, some geography to US Americans everywhere.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies, associations, and national conventions. He is the founder of the The Worlds Biggest Blog Party an event which will connect bloggers from all over the world to raise money for charity. He is also founder and president of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com

I am just bursting with pride. My eleven year old son and I just returned from his first scouting outing an accomplished scouter. The trip was to Damascus, VA to ride on the Virginia Creeper trail. His task was riding 51 miles on the trail to complete one of the requirements for his cycling merit badge and he did so on a bike a little too big for him. When we left yesterday morning, I watched him mount his bike. The trip coordinator commented that he was concerned he wouldn’t make it since we had only done one ten mile ride in preparation and the bike wasn’t ideal for his size. Most of the first 17 miles were downhill. The next 17 were at a slight uphill and that’s when it got a bit difficult. We stopped for lunch at mile 34 and I told him that he didn’t have to finish if he didn’t think he could do it. There was a sag vehicle that could take us both back. I didn’t want to discourage him but at the same time, I wanted him to know that there would be other opportunities. Charge on was his response. At mile 38, he was off his bike and near tears. I suggested I ride back to the lunch spot and get help though I reminded him that was 4 miles back and that if we rode four miles in the direction of our destination, it would mean we were half done with the last third. Onward again. I told him I was so proud of his persistence and that he had set a goal and was going after it. We finished the ride yesterday afternoon and he was so glad he had finished. The surprised scout leaders said, “Russell, we expect great things from you now we know what you can do.” I expect great experiences for both of us in our scouting years together. Though I never earned the cycling merit badge myself, I suspect I will complete all the requirements with my son. Maybe by the time you read this.

Tim Richardson is an inspirational speaker who speaks about how giving increases employee morale, lowers employee turnover, increases customer loyalty and creates higher profits for Fortune 500 companies. He is founder of the Bill Walter Melanoma Research Fund. For more information on Tim, go to www.TimRichardson.com