Why I pay thousands of dollars every year for my kids to play sports

I spend thousands of dollars every year for my kids to play competitive sports. I was thinking about the financial burden this places on our family and the sacrifices we make in time and foregoing other financial and time bound opportunities and needs. I started to weigh the pros and cons and the cons were winning.

Then, my pros list made a comeback.
1. I get to spend hours watching them compete at high levels to be the best at what they want to do.
2. I get to teach them how to eat healthy and take care of the body physically and nutritionally to perform mentally and physically at high levels.
3. I get to see them build deep friendships with teammates and battle for their greater good.
4. I watch them battle foes with all the fierce tenacity they can muster and take a knee if an injury occurs and shake hands in victory and defeat.
5. I hear coaches rip into them, challenge them to improve and teach them top level instruction while they respond with deeper dedication and commitment to master their craft.
6. I capture hours with them to and from their activity...talking.
7. I get them out of the house doing and not sitting watching a screen.
8. I get to share the experience of traveling with them to different places.
9. I have the opportunity to include them with adults and teach them how to interact respectfully while having fun.
10. I get my ego stroked when people complement them on their performance both in and out of the competition.
11. I get to fantasize about "what if"....
12. I see them learn to win with grace and lose with pride.
13. I witness moments when they are so tired they want to quit, but don't.
14. I pay to watch them learn to be disciplined.
15. I witness them practice for hours and hours and hours for 1 moment. And, if that moment doesn't end the way it was drawn up-I watch them go back and practice more as they lern success doesn't happen over night or by accident.

I could have kept my list going, but the light came on. ITs not for everyone thats for sure. But I have found a path that my kids love and can't get enough of that provides bountiful opportunities to teach them life lessons through experiences. the funny thing is, I recently had this conversation with 2 of my boys about the resources it takes to for them to be able to do what they do. Their response wasn't about the sacrifices, hardships, loses, wins, etc...it was about the life long friendships and memories they have formed and the irony of knowing that their future holds more of both in store them. 
decision made.

My scouting life by James Anderson

I started scouting when i was 8 years old in 2008. I began in Cub Scouts in Troop 1121 in Carrollton Taxes, I did Cub Scouts for one year, Then I did the two year webelos program in one year to earn Arrow of Light. The Arrow of Light is the highest achievement you can earn in Cub Scouting. This allowed me to ''cross over'' to Boy Scouts with my brother-Wade so that we could begin our Scouting work at the same time.

This is "Arrow of Light" symbol and plaque.

Me and My Brother receiving STAR Rank

I joined Boy Scout Troop 714 in Carrolton Texas in 2013.      <  http://btbfmedia.org/troop714/ >
My oldest brother Wil earned his Eagle rank from this troop so I am so excited to follow his foot steps. I have already earned the life Scout rank which is right under eagle rank which is the highest rank in Scouting. I have already completed my Eagle project in Guatemala. I built two picnic tables for a girls home called Oasis. I only need two more merit badges to complete all of my required badge work. I plan to participate in the Eagle Court of Honor in August with my brother.

Me with my Dad and Brother at the top of Pikes Peek

How bout them Boy Scouts

Have you heard the news? a couple weeks ago the good old BoyScouts of America now accepts transgender girls into the organization. huh? What about the integrity as a boy organization? how can they claim to be upholding the scout law and oath? why would they buckle under the pressure of this movement? how can anyone ever support the scouts again? How can they claim to be a faith based organization? WWJD? etc... 

I've heard them all and so many more. People ranting, raving and casting stones. As a registered adult leader for over 12 years and a dad of 1 Eagle Scout and 2 soon to be Eagle Scouts, I feel I have a reasonable amount of experience to draw an opinion from. 

more to come....

Davids Hockey Decade

 Hello, friends, family, and readers of our blog!!

     I am David the 3rd child. I am here to talk to y'all about my hockey career so far.
 I am 14 years old and I play 14u bantam major AA hockey, the name of my team is the Dallas Junior Hockey Association Penguins

  I started off my hockey career with 1 year of learn to skate classes. After that I moved to 1 year of mini mites and I played 3 years of mites. When I was old enough, I tried out for my first select team, the Dallas junior stars. I played 2 years of A level squirts for them. I moved up onto a better team for my PeeWee years and played for the Dallas penguins A & AA level. I played for the Dallas Stars Elite AAA for my bantam minor year and now I am back on the penguins AA for bantam major. If you have not been counting that brings us to a grand total of ten years playing the wonderful sport of hockey. Two years ago, i had a set back in my development, it was my second year of playing for the penguins just 1 month after practices started and we hadn't even had our first game when I contracted bacterial meningitis. I had to spend a week in the childrens medical center of Dallas getting treatment. it took over a month to recover and I ended up loosing 15lbs and missed Sep through December which is alot of the season. But now I am doing great and I am healthy as ever. This year will be interesting,  I am going to a public-charter school this year called ischool high with 7 other of my friends and we will all be freshmen in high school this year. We are going to go to our classes from 8:00 to 12:45 then we will leave straight from there to a hockey academy where we will play hockey from 1:30 to 4:00 we will do this 4 days a week and on top of that we will have team practices and games. I will also play highschool JV for the Denton County Spartans with my little brother James.  It will be the  first time ever that me and James will play on a hockey team together so me and him are super excited. I hope you enjoyed my story of my first decade of my favorite thing...hockey!

      some links i find interesting:
http://stars.nhl.com/ http://www.usahockey.com/  http://www.djha.com/

My how time flies. So what's new? ... lots. The time has come to reignite our life log. The lack of updates on our journey can be attributed to many things. Time, Focus, Frustrations and Failures to name a few. All valid reasons with merit and all worthy of introspection. So as we kick off 2016, why not give it a whirl?
Speaking of 2016, like most people I contemplated my annual resolutions. Screw that, this year I ain't making any. I'm tired of year after year trying to make a better me. Be a better me (husband-dad-friend-co-worker-employee-Christian), Lose weight, get in shape, read more, be nice, study the Bible, make more money... blah blah. What usually happens is some temporary (well intentioned but not really meaningful) change that leads to long lasting frustrations. I've realized that I am always going to be me with all the same struggles and triumphs that make me-me.
Instead, my simple 2016 motto. Therefore, if anyone is In Christ he is a new creation". 2 Cor. 5:17ff. I want to learn to trust the fact that I have been made exactly how my savior Christ wants me to be. I want to accept my faults and fears and learn to proclaim them for what they are-namely satans attempt to convince me that his lies about me are insurmountable so that I will forget the truth of who I am In Christ. I want to learn to battle his lies with the truth of Gods Word and celebrate my ever evolving newness In Christ. I am working to shed the grave clothes that keep me in the tomb of death and darkness and walk in the newness of light and life In Christ. If Christ is in me, there can be no room for satans lies to take hold. Oh it wont be easy, I need to see someone different when I look in the mirror, I need to see other people differently, I need to see God differently. Lets see where this goes.....

Sunday, July 20 - Zacapa

Wifi has been spotty - going to try to jot down the high points of the last week.

The kids and I finished language school strong.  The girls and I finished and graduated book A.  Wil finished book A but didn't "graduate"  whatever that really means.  Our last week of language school we buckled down and really plowed through our lessons and homework.  We didn't take any more excursions or tours so there wasn't much to write about.  We just went to school, found a cool place to eat and do homework and then went to bed and did it all over again the next day.  We checked out the other language schools and questioned the students of the other schools and we all believe that CSA is truly the best in Antigua and worth the extra $$.

We left Antigua on the afternoon of the 18th and found Steve at the Barcelo that evening with no problems.  We had a nice family reunification dinner and swim.  It was the first night in two weeks that the kids and I didn't freeze half to death during the night - Antigua gets really cold at night and the houses don't have complete roofs so the rooms get really cold.  And, we had really missed having pillows.  If we get to return to language school next year, we are bringing a gift of pillows to the host family.

Sarah Mae came down with a troublesome guatebug over that Thursday night (our first hint at any troubles this entire trip) so we had to change our plans up a bit to accommodate her recovery time.  We ended up leaving her in our room under the supervision of the hotel manager while the rest of us went ahead and traveled to San Lucas to meet with KidsAlive Guatemala director Corby Dukes.  Now, reflecting on that simple statement "we traveled to SanLucas" I feel I must expound on that a bit.  Unless you have been in a 3rd world country you can not possibly appreciate the "we traveled" part.  And really to arrive anywhere safely is a cause to take a moment and send praises up to our Father in heaven.  For lots of reasons,  we simply can not get out of Guatemala City without undue duress and hassle.  We have been coming here for 10 years and we have come to accept the fact that we will never be able to leave the city without narrowly escaping death or calamity,one time we even ended up driving across a pedestrian skybridge.  Anyway, I digress, we did make it and we spent the better part of the entire day on the pristine and beautiful campus of Oasis in San Lucas.  Wow, what an amazing operation that they run there.  Their facility is at maximum capacity with 50 girls who have all been rescued out of the human trafficking trade.  In the US we hear a great deal about the trafficking in Cambodia and here in Guatemala it is just as prevalent and organized.  It is truly a victory to celebrate when you can find a facility that is doing the rescue and rehabilitate operation well.  Some of these girls were 5 years old.  Really, let that last sentence sink into your head for a moment . . . more than one little girl we saw with our own eyes was 5 . . . 5 years old . . . not through kindergarden yet.  www.KidsAlive.org if you want to read more about the work for the Kingdom that is taking place there.   Sorry no photos for obvious reasons.
When we got back to the hotel we found Sarah feeling much better.  We all walked to a local Guatemalan restaurant and then back to the hotel for a swim.
Saturday we were up and around by 5 am checking out and heading through the mountains to Zacapa.  (see note above about trying to leave city . . . yes, yet again, we ended up lost in the dreaded zone 1 - murder capital of the world)  It took us 1.5 hours to get out of the city.  Then the always hair raising drive through those mountains but we made it to the government orphanage in Zacapa and through answered prayer we were admitted inside to see Dulce for the first time since last year.  She was pretty quiet when we first saw her but through the blessing of Sarah Grace's violin talent she warmed right up to us.  The girls had her giggling and laughing and the whole experience was a blessing to her and us.  She looks amazing.  She is eating well and her hair is a rich dark color again which is a great indicator of her overall health.  She remembered us.  We were able to spend about 2 hours at the orphanage.  Sarah Mae and Sara Grace were even allowed into the infant room to help hold babies.  After we left there we went with one of the missionaries here to a traditional Guatemalan lunch and then she took us us to an aldea that we had never been to before.  It is a little village slightly behind LaFrogua (where we were last year) and the entire village has no water.  None.  I guess I will never be able to comprehend in my American raised brain how these villages form around no water.  No clean water anyway.  They do have a dirty brown stream running behind the aldea where they get their water, bath, and wash clothes but seriously the water looks like chocolate milk.  Anyway, we met with pastor in his home.  What an amazing guy.  They don't have a church but they are raising money bymaking

muey fabuloso pics