David and Sara Shepherd

Recap of January

1. I am one day late on this blog post. :(  However, I am here posting ....so Win!

2. So I began the makers diet. I started strong and successfully completed the makers diet cleanse. I lost a whopping 7lbs in a little over a week.  Great success!! Then I went to Germany and gained it all back. No worries. I am going to redo the cleanse starting Tuesday the 10th of Feb. Then I will continue on the diet. Only issue is that I return to Germany in March... Dang. I love German food,

3. I have earned $0 money outside of my job.

4. I am on track with my reading. I am doing the 90 day gospel challenge and I read it aloud to Walker at night. He is picking up on some of the names. I am happy with this. We are also reading 2 of his stories at night. We are reading Hulk and Iron man at the moment. I do need to pick up an additional book for myself.

5. So we have actually begun our Homestead. We now have 5 baby chicks living in our kitchen. We have 3 Cukoo Marans and 2 Delawares. We believe that they are all female, we are unsure since they were given to us by an old schoolmate of mine. Walker has enjoyed having them and has named each of them. They are all named after the avengers. He is also learning responsibility. We feed and water them twice a day and he seems to be liking the structure of this process.

6. So Walker and Summit's Funland, the purchased large playground is still sitting and awaiting to be reconstructed. I am happy to say that an additional outdoor playground was purchased at a steal and I have assembled it. Walker told me he loved it! It is a little tikes commercial playground that was being taken down and replaced at an apartment complex. It still needs a good power washing and a more permanent location.

We will get the larger playground assembled and add some type of swingset.

7. no progress as of yet.

8.Travel more. Well I did spend a week in Nuremberg Germany on a work related trip.  I felt as if I had actually taken a business trip and a pleasure trip. I was able to do a lot of sightseeing, personal visits with some of my German friends/colleagues and eat a lot of traditional german food. In addition to going to Germany, I added a 23hr layover in Paris France. I was able to spend a full day touring the city. I was also able to purchase french chocolate and macaroons to bring back to Sara and Walker. The Eiffel tower is pretty spectacular to see in person.

I will be returning to Germany in March. After this second work trip, I will absolutely have to take Sara on a grand vacation.

9. Sadly, we have not canoed or kayaked yet. SOON!!

10. Do better. As I said this will be difficult to measure, but I will note some things that I feel
I am doing better at,  Work, I received a lot of praise on how well I am doing in my job. Dad, I have made a more conscious decision to come home happy and willing to play. It is very easy to come home tired, stressed and exhausted from work. Sometimes it takes the entire drive home to change my focus from the days woes into utter excitement to see my boys and Sara. It is worth the effort...They are worth the effort. Christian, we have been very consistent on attending church on Sunday and I am keeping up with my gospel reading. I have yet to make a mens breakfast....It is really early in the morning... I would have to get up 3 hours earlier than on a usual work day. It is still a goal. Uncle, I missed Alex's Birthday, but I was able to spend the next saturday playing paintball with him and his friends. Walker and I also attended Alex's Basketball game this past Saturday.