I don’t know how many followers I have on my blog – maybe hundreds or maybe none.  But I blog in case anyone out there is interested in hearing about my thoughts or things I do.  I also blog for me, to remind me later of things that happened or to remember my thoughts at the time of those events.   But I sort of suddenly stopped blogging for a while – why?

I have just been busy with things that are higher priority, such as the following:

 LivestockCity 

 I am pouring a lot of energy into this right now.  As we head into our next phase,   after several setbacks, we are nearing a re-launching soon.  LivestockCity now consists of a team of talented individuals working hard to bring a great product to the livestock industry.  As the team has grown, it is becoming busier for me on guiding everyone and conducting meetings, especially because this is still my side gig, and I work full time elsewhere.  

Running

This is the first spring in a while that I have not run a half marathon race, but I’ve still did some long runs of 10-12 miles to maintain my fitness level. 

I felt pretty burnt out in 2016 but still ran 3 half marathons for the year.  2017 has been better, and I don’t feel as burnt out now.  That’s a good thing, because this coming week I’ll begin 16 weeks of training for the 40th Chicago Marathon.  This will be the 2nd time I’m running Chicago.  In addition to the marathon, I’m trying to have 1000 total miles for 2017.  I’m slightly off pace right now but expecting that to change with marathon training. 

Karate

My kids signed up for karate and parents can train free, so I figured why not.  Now I’m on a quest to earn a black belt.  Right now I’m learning American Freestyle Karate,  but due to some odd contract requirements to be able to work towards a black belt, we may be switching soon to another dojo. 

Regardless, I’m not that far into it yet and switching would not be a big deal.  But I really do like learning martial arts and would like to keep learning as much as I can about it for life.  I think it’s pointless to learn until a black belt is achieved and then quit.  It’s something that is “use it or lose it”, I believe.   So my commitment to learning this is for life. 

The Rock Wall

This is a home project I started last summer, and I’m hoping to finish this year. I’m basically learning as I go with this project, after watching You Tube videos on how to apply stone to a concrete wall.  This is real stone that I’m using.  

The Basement

This is another project that I’m doing and learning as I go.  The plan is to create a game room, home theater, karate dojo, living area, and a study.   This is a casual project that I work on leisurely as I have time.  I probably have a year of work left to do. 

Other Goals

I’m going to try to be more consistent with blogging for  the rest of the year.  It might mean short posts and updates, but at least it will happen more regularly.  I like to stay busy and pack a lot into every day.  I typically do not watch much tv, maybe one show a week.  And more and more, I’m cutting out time wasting activities.  This allows me to do all the activities that I do. Rather than watching tv, I’m learning something about coding, photography, martial arts, or business. 

Until next time,

EJW