Lessons we all can learn from my daughter. She is wise beyond her years.

Since my wife is in Florida, Kylie wanted to go out to eat. While the cat’s away, the mice will play is what we say. We don’t eat out much, mainly to save money but we also eat healthier at home. My wife is a personal trainer and health coach and she is an excellent cook. We eat a lot of healthy meals but we will still have pizza and other not so healthy foods occasionally. We even have had some meatless weeks. Try it. I feel so much better after the week of having no meat.

Kylie said she wanted to try buffalo wings since she has never had them. I said, “so do you want to go to BW3’s?”

Lesson 1:

She said “no, that’s more like a bar and it is too noisy. I want to go somewhere where it is quieter and we can talk.”

Hmmm. That kind of floored me. Someplace quieter so we can talk. That’s something we as adults don’t do enough of. At least I know I don’t. It also reminds me my wife and I do not go out enough to just spend time with “us”. We need to work on that.

We decide to go to TGIF’s because of endless appetizers. Mom would NOT approve. Kylie orders the buffalo wings, Memphis bbq style. I order the smoke-stacked burger and fries. (1800 calories in one meal. I had water to drink. It was good but not worth about 10-12 miles of running I would need to lose those calories.)

We start to talk and I text Kim to tell her what we ordered and Kylie says “give me your phone.” I thought she was going to text her mom also but no, she puts it on the outside of the table.

Lesson #2

She then says “no more phone during dinner.”  I did use it to take pictures though. How many times have we gone out and spent the entire time on the phone and ignoring our families. The few times we have gone out to eat we are amazed of all the people doing this. We went out to dinner for our anniversary and there was a grandma with her two grandchildren and from the time they sat down, ordered the food, and then got the food, she was on the phone and her grandchildren were just sitting there doing nothing. How sad that in this world we choose to be connected to our phones, to sports scores, to news, to work -when we are off work- that we neglect the ones we should be connecting to. I’m not perfect. I have done it also. Next time you go out to eat make the no phones  during dinner rule.

What did we talk about? We talked about our summer, school starting, the upcoming football season, and God. We talked about her being baptized soon. She wants to finish reading Discovering Jesus before she gets baptized. She has once chapter left then review. She said she does not want to do it in front of the entire church on a Sunday so we will need to schedule another time. I told her that’s what I did also.

Kylie eats plate #1 and gets plate #2. I believe she ate 11 or 12 of the 18 wings. When did she start putting food away like that? Plus she ate the celery (“because mom would be mad if I didn’t eat some vegetables.”) I guess we are all allowed a cheat day. It is when we do it every day that we gain weight, become unhealthy and start a downward spiral to health problems. Mom did not approve of our dinner.

We then come home and head up the stairs for Kylie to take a shower. As we are going up the stairs she says “I feel like a fat cow. I can’t believe I ate all that. My body is definitely not liking me right now.”

Lesson #3

Recognize when you have done something you shouldn’t. Whether it is eating too much (or not enough), or not exercising (or exercising too much), or drinking too much alcohol, pop, sugary drinks (and not drinking enough water) or whatever it may be. One extreme or the other. Recognize it and make a vow to yourself that you will remember this and not do it again.

 “I think I ate too much.”

In summary: find someplace quiet to talk and talk, put away your phones and connect to the humans in your life, and recognize if you have gone to one extreme or the other and correct it. Break bad habits and start new ones.

Bonus lesson :

When you cook, or do anything, together, don’t leave the other person to clean up the mess. In case you were wondering, I am not the one that left the mess for someone else to do.

From our third night without mom.

These are some of Kylie’s favorite songs:

Diamonds by Manafest – 

Til I Forget About You by Big Time Rush – 

Eyes Wide Open by Sabrina Carpenter – 

My Lighthouse by Rend Collective – 

Lift Your Head Weary Sinner by Crowder – 

Blood Brothers by Luke Bryan – 

Somebody by Bridgit Mendler – 

Runnin Outta Moonlight by Randy Houser – 

I Need A Miracle by Third Day – 

Fight Song by Rachel Platten – 

Southern Comfort Zone by Brad Paisley – 

Had Me At Hello by Olivia Holt and Luke Benward – 

and some daddy/daughter songs

Daughters by John Mayer – 

You’ll Be In My Heart by Phil Collins – 

Daddy by Beyonce – 

Walk With You by Edwin Mccain- this is more a wedding song but it can also be the slow sweet walk from baby to adulthood