4:38 A.M.

Well -- that has been the problem with the blog this year. This time, I did not wait until January to make a fitness resolution -- I started back in the end of August. At that time, my family joined a gym and I decided that I would go to the gym, or work-out in some fashion, every day. The guidelines for exercise that you read about indicate that we should exercise something like five or six days a week. I know that, if I give myself that one day off, it will cause a problem: every morning that I would wake up and if it was cold or I was sore, I would be looking to take the day off. Therefore, I committed to every day.

I am simply better getting this exercise in first thing in the morning. Thus, that is where the 4:38 a.m. time comes in to play. That time for my alarm to go off so that I get to the gym by 5 a.m. and back by 6:00 a.m. Time to eat, shower, and dress -- and get to Woodbury.

What I have lost has been my typical blogging time. Over the course of the years of blogging, I have found that I gravitate to the morning. My habit was to wake, check e-mail, complete a blog entry, etc. I was managing okay this year without this morning time for blogging -- until basketball season hit. My work at school requires a decent number of night time commitments, but now there has been the added juggling of the basketball shuttles. We have been getting four kids to five different basketball teams since November. With whatever other work (home or school) that has to get accomplished, the blog has been taking a back seat.

So -- no promises. I am pleased that I have found a routine that has been working in terms of my fitness plan; that has to stay. There have been a few other factors that have impacted my work on the the blog this year -- and I will cover that in an additional posting or two this week.

Stay tuned! Have a great week.