It’s been a couple of months since we’ve had time to chat. I assure you that this doesn’t mean I don’t love y’all. It’s just that life has been really busy. I mean really busy.

Three nights a week, my son has Little League. Reece loves playing ball, and he’s really good for his age. Friday night, while playing 2nd base, he made all three outs in one inning, catching two pop flies, and snagging a grounder and beating the runner to second. He’s a non-stop chatterbox on the field (sometimes too chatty), and knows the game quite well (but not as well as he thinks he does). He’s in the Under-8 Coach Pitch League this year since he’s only seven, but his coach thinks he should be bumped up to AA next year (insert Proud Papa grin here). I’ve been coaching first base for the team, and helping out with warm-ups and practices. It’s fun, but it’s also tiring, especially when we have a game on Wednesday, a practice on Thursday and a game on Friday. But there’s only two weeks left of the season, so I’ll probably survive.

Work wise, my hours have been a lot more reasonable lately… back to about forty hours a week, which is the only way baseball and everything else have been possible. The commute is still hard… plenty of hour and a half trips home at the end of the day, but I’ve also had the flexibility to leave early in the afternoons before traffic get’s too bad and finish the day from home if all my meetings are done. I still work from home at least one day a week, and that helps a bunch. Employers, I can’t stress enough how important having flexible work arrangements is for your employees. Not only does it help me manage my health, it also allows me to participate in my kids evening activities. And I know I’m more productive because of that.

As for my health, it’s been pretty good, at least compared to where I was in January and February. I still have down days, especially after I push through busy weeks. Sundays are a key day to get some rest. This three day weekend will include a lot of recharging time.

My eyes continue to be the biggest issue I face on a day-to-day basis. They’re worst first thing in the morning. On days where I work from home and jump straight onto the computer after getting up, everything is blurry for half an hour or more, and then starts to come into focus. I don’t know if this is old age or GBS related. Could be a little of both. I’d love to hear from other GBS’ers as to whether or not they’ve had the same issue with their vision. I still have the ‘jumping-eye’ symptom in the early morning. I wish I had more time to do my eye exercises, but by the time I get home in the evening, my eyes are so fatigued that I can’t get them to focus for long enough to do it. Doing the exercises in the morning means I wouldn’t be able to do anything else for an hour afterward as they tire out my muscles that much.

As for writing, I am starting to toy with some ideas for my next book. I’ve bounced around on the big “What if…?” question a lot, but I’m starting to get closer. I’d still like to write a new book this year, but I’ll need to figure out how to work it into my current work and life schedule. I’m feeling the need to write something though, so I know I haven’t left that desire behind. It’s just been dormant for a while.

I’m looking forward to a summer filled with baseball games, family trips and the PNWA Conference coming up in July. Between that, work, and writing, it’s going to be a busy few months. I probably won’t be blogging a lot, but stop by frequently, as I do expect to be making several big announcements before the end of the summer. Can’t say what they are, or when they might come, but I do have some things in the works, and I can’t wait to be able to start talking about them!