Snippets of Life

So today I decided to try to potty train out third. He is 3 yrs. and 3 mths. and think it time he stop wearing diapers.
This will make the third attempt with him in roughly the last 8 months and this time we are not stopping till it is done.
He is definitely the most bull-headed of our kids thus far. I forgot to mention that he is incredibly goofy and I have a hard time taking him serious.
I guess at this point he is the most like me, but not real sure if that is good or bad yet.

I do have to say though, potty training has to be about the most time consuming and time occupying thing I can think of.
I am tied to him the timer and the toilet till he gets the hang of this.

Just wanted to revive this thread and you guys know what is occupying my time today.

What have you been up to?
 
Big Chris said:
potty training has to be about the most time consuming and time occupying thing I can think of.
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Absolutely. We've been asking our son (27 months) "Do you need to go pee and/or poop?" every 30-45 minutes during the second half of the day for the past 4 weeks. Sometimes he'll let us know, sometimes he won't. Sometimes he sends us signals, sometimes he doesn't. On our end, we might notice his subtle signals, sometimes we don't. We're still letting him wear a diaper the first half of the day for the time being. We've noticed he rarely if ever sends signals if not prompted, so we'll have to incorporate prompting during the first half of the day pretty soon in order to drive home consistency. The good news is, we've been seeing consistent promising trends.
 
I kept telling myself and Mrs. Big Chris reminded me that the first day is the hardest.
Finished off strong tonight, so we will see what happens tomorrow.
 
We made ours wear underwear and feel the wetness to make it more apparent. Also anytime outside (was summer) he'd be naked and practice going outside.. which was easier than facing a toilet.

Then we had a mini toilet outside for him. Basically it came down to a few accidents in the house and poopy underwear to make him want to change his ways.. our 2nd was way faster and easier than our first.. Our 2nd was DONE before he turned 3. Girls apparently train faster :)

I hate diapers... I hated potty training... naps are almost impossible now too... Our first quit naps at 18mos... ugh that was hardcore...

Just think, soon the toilet will be filled with one roll of toilet paper per attempt :D

Oh and hope to see more knives soon :D 4v and m390... go!
 
So, with today being the fifth day of the new year it is pretty obvious to most that New Years has come and went.
Now I am not one to make big resolutions, or typically any at all for that matter. I am generally the same person at the end of a year as I was at the beginning.
This year needs to be a little different though. With years of working in manufacturing and around heavy machinery and equipment I developed a pretty harsh way of talking.
It was never much of a concern until here recently when my 3 year old has decided that my foul language needs to be a part of his vocabulary.
My first resolution for this year is to drastically reduce the amount of cursing that I do.

I a also a very bad procrastinator and will let most anything distract me from working on the job or task that I need to be.
This has become a real issue with my knifemaking as it has led me to miss deadlines that I should not have and has forced me to stay up late and work long hours to finish other jobs. Not to mention the jobs that get neglected totally because I may not be interested in working on them at that time. I used to make lists and schedule out my days or weeks worth of things to do, but in the end they really did not help much either. I think if I had better time management I would also be more productive and have the ability to make more knives.
My second resolution is to improve on my time management skills.

What are some of things that you guys are hoping to work on this year?
 
Hi Chris. Well first off, I need to up my Big Chris collection! :)

But seriously... Same boat: cussing, even the little bad words like damn and jesus.. I need to stop those.. for the kids as well.. not to mention the off hand comments about other people on the road :)

Last year I made a huge change.. so this year I'm going to continue with the huge change and focus on little things to help my kids..

And just being a better person all around. Setting a good example is hard to maintain for the little ones.. they copy everything! :)

Enuff' of that!

SO next time I send some knives off for kydex, even though you don't want to do them, I'll expect a quick turn around! But only 3 this time :D
 
Hey, Chris, one way to look at the time management thing, is if you are better at organizing, you get more time with the kids, which I already know is important to you and the family. And as far as being a better person, I think if we made an effort to work on our relationship with Jesus, and follow His example, and take the time (there's that time thing again) to study our Bible, the better person and everything else will fall into place. That is one thing I plan to do, and trust Him more. Just food for thought, wishing you and everyone a great new year.
 
Well, it is Chris's sub-forum!

I have no place to say what is or is not allowed :)
 
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cbach8tw said:
Hey, Chris, one way to look at the time management thing, is if you are better at organizing, you get more time with the kids, which I already know is important to you and the family. And as far as being a better person, I think if we made an effort to work on our relationship with Jesus, and follow His example, and take the time (there's that time thing again) to study our Bible, the better person and everything else will fall into place. That is one thing I plan to do, and trust Him more. Just food for thought, wishing you and everyone a great new year.
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I have a tendency to sacrifice shop time to spend more time with Mrs.Big Chris and our kids, I actually do it a lot more than I should.
There is just so much enjoyment I get from just being in their presence.
Church and our religious experience is something else we have really begun to bring more into our lives. Late last fall we started to attend the church where our oldest son attends preschool, we attend as a family quite regularly have found somewhere that feels like a second home. Mrs. Big Chris and I, just this past Sunday, decided to re-commit our lives to Christ and be baptized.
I have started a pact with myself to try and read the bible cover to cover at least once this year, something I have never done before.
I am also trying to get the plans together to go on a mission trip to Nicaragua after Blade Show this year.
There were quite a few times last year where we were down to our last dollar in the bank and very little food left in the house; and out of nowhere I would get some regrind work, a knife that had set for weeks or even a couple months would sell for full asking price. We do not feel that this could not have happened without The Lord looking out for us.
While we do not have a lot of money to give monetarily we/I do have my time and abilities to give back in other ways.
It is this new relationship with God that has me wanting to reduce the amount of foul language that I am using.
Thank You for this response. It is definitely good food for thought.
 
Thanks for the comments Chris,know that your friends and customers do pray for you too. I may have some more sharpening for you in the future too. One thing I want to do this year is use some of my other knives more, to practice my skills.
 
Yeah, Skills practice is definitely something I would like to work on more.
I was really working hard at a friction fire a couple years ago and almost had it down, but "life" stuff got in the way and I stopped. Friction fire is definitely something I want to work on again.
Trap making and implementation is another skill I would really like to develop.
I also want to put together a small "survival kit" that I can keep on me at all times while in Nicaragua. Not sure if I want a small back pack, cross-body carry bag, or a waist pack yet though.
As far as knife making skills I really want to learn to forge. I have some W2, Blue #2, 1084, and 52100 that I want to maximize their use through forging.
 
Hi Chris,
I think that it has been over a year since you stopped taking new orders. How has that changed your daily routine?
Has it given you more time with the kids or taken off some of the pressure to meet deadlines?
Can you imagine going back to taking orders or does "working on speculation" better meet your needs?
Thanks for all the great knives!
 
Not taking new orders has taken a bit of the worry over deadlines away, but I do still have several knife orders that are waaaaayyyy over due to be completed.

I have been discussing different ways to continue to offer knives without taking orders.

I want to start an email list for one to send out occasional updates, shop happening, what's on the bench, and completed knives.
Members of the email list would be given first chance to purchase listed knife.
The other thing I am really liking the process of is the group buy. Making a number of a single pattern. That makes it easier on me and gives you guys a chance to pick out the knives that you would like to have made.

If I do decide to take orders again it will be in very limited quantities.
 
I just finished my first year of doctoral studies. I have to say it is because of Big Chris' support and you all supporting him. We are so grateful!
 
I am about 12 hours clear of the single worst stomach virus I have ever been through.
Before that was probably the worst 24 hours I have ever experienced.
Mrs.Big Chris is coming out of the funk right now.
We're really hopeful that none of the kids have been infected.
 
Big Chris said:
I am about 12 hours clear of the single worst stomach virus I have ever been through.
Before that was probably the worst 24 hours I have ever experienced.
Mrs.Big Chris is coming out of the funk right now.
We're really hopeful that none of the kids have been infected.
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Chris, you should really check that you had not contracted anything in South America because in that case the kids may need some prophylactic treatment
 
Thanks for your concern ma tumba, thankfully the sickness ran it's course in a little over 12 hours.
I am feeling fine now. The kids however managed to keep us up last night with same sickness we had previously.

On a South American sickness note, we had only one guy come back with an issue.
I can not remember the name he gave but it was due to a bug bite.
He was experiencing a lot of body aches and joint soreness.
Relief was found with copious amounts of Tylenol and told that it should run it's course in 2 weeks.
All seems to be fine and well now.
 
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