The other day in the break room we were eating Chinese takeout. We have a tradition to say what the fortune in the fortune cookie will apply to before opening and reading it. For example, you might say, this fortune has to do with my love life, or my money for the coming week.

Renn states that his will apply to the Assembly room the opens this: Great things will come from small things.

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That was good for a larf.

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So, what’s going on the Gately household? The house is a disaster area, we’ve all dropped the ball on our chores for a few days and it shows. We are in relax and enjoy mode. Baby Willow is healthy and happy. She is starting to track people with her eyeballs, and make preliminary movements to get from looking over one shoulder to the other. This morning she dropped her bink into her lap, then when I turned around she had somehow got it back into her mouth. So, she’s bright-eyed and bushy tailed. She is beloved wherever she goes.

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The morning flew by, and somehow we were late for church even though it is not until the mid-afternoon. I was tapped to substitute in my daughter’s Sunday School class so I grabbed some puppets and other visual aids. When my wife and I were first married we were called to teach some kids, I think a typical calling for newlyweds, and that started wearing away at my aversion to dealing with kids. I was able to see how my daughter’s brain is firing on all cylinders; she’s paying attention and then needs one additional thing to be engaged with. She gets that from me.

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I need to redefine my goals for life. I think that I’m going too short-term to short-term. In a way, I’m in a place where I just want some stability. No shocks. I’m in family mode. My life is adventurous enough with just four kids. If I manage to raise the four of them into at least relatively decent members of society that will be a huge score for life. But that can’t be all there is to it, of course.

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When I got home from my mission in 1994 I wanted to be a translator for the UN. Now I realize the UN is a worthless lump. Boy I was lucky not to end up there. So, maybe looking too far out isn’t so useful.

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The major thing missing in my life is some kind of exercise regimen. Nothing has “stuck”. I’m just so sedentary. Swimming is the only excercise that I’ve ever done that I enjoy. Basically, if I don’t enjoy it, I won’t do it for very long. Blarg. I watched myself on the latest “Christmas” video and how I got winded after like seven seconds of prancing around and it was really pitiful. When we moved to Utah I lost five pounds from just having stairs in the house.

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The business has been such a focus, and has taken up so much time and energy, just getting to the next month has been enough for one man to deal with. And the business has slowly bent into proper shape. Slow and steady gains.