Congrats to us on making it to 9 years!!! We both feel that things are much smoother in day-to-day operations (which is a good feeling to have).

We are going out to eat at our favorite restaurant shortly, and with grandparents in town, we have some free babysitters, which is nice! We are hoping to do something extraordinary for our 10th anniversary.

Lindsey and I have been married for 8 years, woohoo!

She is truly my PIC for life, and I love her dearly. She is a great mom, “human”, and future companion on our 700+ year journey around the galaxy in our nano space ship filled with VR.

Lindsey and I have been married for 7 years!!! Congrats to us :)

I tell her I look forward to the next 700 years as we eventually fly around space in our nano spaceship when our brains are pulled into nano quantum computers (if we aren’t already).

Love you darling!

Lindsey and I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary today, hooray :)! I am looking forward to another 6 years and hopefully way more after that!

Love you, Lindsey!

I was a nomad for a really long time and it did not bother me to not have much of a “home”. When I was renting rooms or apartments I slept on a mattress on the floor, kept things pretty minimal, and never felt a desire for much more. As I got older I got some cheap legs for my bed so people wouldn’t make fun of me… but I never felt a big desire to create a “home”.

In 2014 something changed and I didn’t feel weird about buying pots and pans and more than one spoon. It was a good change. It was after a few years of traveling and moving around a lot and I guess I was at a point in my life that I was ready for a “home”.

Fast forward to today, I’ve got a family (which is 90% of my home), but we also bought a house in Boulder, and along with Mrs. Fox, we have turned it into a real home that I love. I have a really comfy Wave mattress on my bed, I’ve got a veggie steamer that works great, pots and pans that make it easy for me to stay on my diet, I’ve got a big comfy bean bag to read in, I’ve got a comfy couch to watch movies in, I’ve got an indoor bike setup I love, a mountain bike so I can jump on trails, and so on. And, when we come back from long trips I am filled with pleasure to be “home” which is a feeling I’ve never really had before.

We are on a 3 month trip to Malta & Spain and after a few nights at an AirBNB with a really shitty bed/mattress, I started thinking about the tension I have between enjoying comfort but fearing the weakness it causes. I’ve got a strong belief that hardship creates meaning in life. So, what have I been thinking about?

As I get older it seems like I enjoy having a comfortable mattress more, is that a weakness? And, if so how much should I fight it? I used to sleep on hotel floors under tables at ultimate tournaments, and now I sleep in a bed every night. What impact does this have on my well being?

I miss my vegetable steamer, that seems like a stupid annoyance, am I making my home too easy and what impact does it have on my psychology and passion for life if things continue to get easier and easier at “home” as I get older?

These might sound silly but they really bug me. I worry a lot about how easy everyone wants to make life and how that seems to drain the pleasure & meaning from it. Don’t like vacuuming? Have a robot that does it for you 24/7. Don’t want to wash your own dishes? No worries, get a machine to do it and buy way more dishes then you need. Don’t like missing TV when you are pooping? Put TVs in every room of your house. Don’t like cooking? Have a service send you ingredients for 5x the price. Don’t like cleaning? Hire someone to do all of it. Weird kitchen machine that does x just 10 seconds faster but only has a single purpose? Buy it even though you make that thing only 2x a year.

I don’t think making something easier is bad, but I think it needs to be done selectively. If you don’t like cleaning toilets outsourcing it is great, but I think it could be bad for my life if I start outsourcing all hardship. It just seems like the entire USA tries to outsource anything that requires a little hardship as an ideal.

Anyway…

I’ve decided a comfy bed is important, sleep is crucial :). That said I also think it is great to go sleep on the ground, or in the back of a truck, or a bad Airbnb bed for a time. It is nice to remind yourself the other way isn’t so hard, and you value the enormity of what you do have.

On the rest of the stuff, I am going to cut myself some slack as I can be hard on myself. I just don’t want to end up one of those people who doesn’t travel because they fear a less comfortable environment. The idea scares me. I’d like to be 75 years old and sleeping in a seat on a rickety old train in Russia and enjoying life. Or the same goes for going camping with just the basics and not bringing all the comfort of home with you.

And, I am going to try to stay aware of my home and being careful to draw a line between comfort and superfluous comfort. As well as big questions like do we need a TV, can I go a month without hot water, or y, or z. Such a weird 1st world problem, but one that seems intrinsically linked to basic human happiness and fulfillment.

I just launched a new site that collects and shares advice for Entrepreneur Parents and their spouses. Lindsey and I received some great advice from fellow Vistage members and their spouses last year on balancing marriage, becoming parents, and entrepreneurship. When I looked online I couldn’t find much beyond the typical “top 10 ways entrepreneurs put on their pants”, so I decided to start a site to collect advice from real entrepreneurs on a variety of questions. Plus advice from and for spouses on how they tackle it all too.

Check out the site here, it is brand new so the advice is slowly being collected :)

The date was April 23rd 2017, a quiet Sunday evening. My wife and I had been married for 855 days plus another year on top of that during which we were dating. During that time we had a baby, traveled the world living in studio apartments, and so much life. But, for all that time my wife had not tooted one peep… but on April 23rd a magnificent thing happened, as she walked up the stairs she let out the cutest little toot in front of me :).

A remarkable record as she swears she is nothing internally but sugar, vanilla and all things nice.

Lindsey and I have been married 2 years and we had a pretty low key celebration as Lindsey is super pregnant and in a mere 8 to 10 days will have a new edition to our family :). We are so excited and I think Lindsey is super excited to get this little soccer player out of her tummy so he stops kicking her bladder.

Busy and fun times :)

Update – Meet Calico Jack Fox here :).

Happy new years!!! I am really looking forward to 2016 :)!!! Lindsey and I get back from our year abroad in January, and after a month in Fayetteville we are moving to Boulder or Denver for a year. I’ve lived 3 of the last 4 years abroad, and 2 of those years I was moving to a new place every 1 to 3 months. I am ready to settle down a bit, and have a little more routine (crazy I know!!!).

I like to plan and I wanted to share my 2016 goals. I am trying one new thing this year, I am building out a weekly / monthly plan for how I am achieving these goals. I read a book that suggested this so I am going to give it a shot. In previous years I did this but in a very haphazard way.

For 2016 here are my 10 goals:

Two Major Focuses:
1. Make my new business a success!!!
2. Do yoga 3x a week.

And, eight more:
3. Further build my morning habit of rehab and meditation.
4. Read two books with Lindsey on marriage to spur discussion and to improve/learn.
5. Update: In January the doc told me i need to stop running due to my back. So I am shifting this goal to: Bike 3x a week and see if I can shift over to that.
*Previous goal: Be able to comfortably run 3 to 5 miles soon.
6. Build up to 10 minutes of non stop ball rehab workouts by the end of the year.
7. Go mountain biking or sledding at least once a month.
8. Read 100 books.
9. Make sure to make time for friends & family in Arkansas & Colorado.
10. Join Vistage and EO once I am living in Denver.

2015 In Review…
2014 was a very bipolar year for me… it was the most difficult year of my life, and also one of the best (because of Lindsey). 2015 was very challenging as well. A lot of the chaos and anxiety of 2014 leaked into 2015 and my list of goals was super focused because of this pressure. I accomplished a lot, and a lot changed. I learned a TON in 2015, especially about being married.

So, what happened in my 2015?
Lindsey and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary in December! Lindsey likes to joke that we spent this year 18 inches apart because of the super small apartments we stayed in :). We had some very challenging moments this year, and we learned a lot and are stronger for it. After one year of being married I am amazed by the depth of feeling and reward that it can bring. We also had some tough moments that made us both feel like utter shit, but thankfully they didn’t last very long, and we are trying to get better at resolving them fast and nipping them in the bud.

Joel and I sold the business we started back in October 2008. It was a very difficult decision and occupied a huge swath of my focus from February 2014 to June 2015. I am glad it is over and ready to move on. And, I started a new business along with some great people.

Lindsey and I spent the year abroad since I work remote and she was applying to grad school! We spent 3 months in Nice France, Split Croatia, Nottingham England, and Vienna Austria. It was a great year and I am thankful we got the opportunity. We did some amazing hiking in the woods of France, along the coast, and stumbled upon a lemon festival.

– Sandy (Lindsey’s mom), Lindsey, and me did a road trip through the Austrian & German alps. It was a blast!
– Lindsey and I visited Budapest for a weekend. It was only a few hours away from Vienna via train.
– Lindsey’s dad and stepmom visited us in England and Scotland and we saw a ton of London that I had never seen before. We had a good drive in Scotland too :).
– My dad and stepmom visited us in Nottingham for 3 weeks and we had a blast! We visited Ireland, parts of the UK, and even got tortured.
– I did a 56 mile bike ride from Nottingham to Sherwood Forest! I idolize Robin Hood and even did archery growing up in case he was a career option.
– Lindsey and I spent a week disconnected from the internet up in the Scotland Highlands for my birthday. It was beautiful and much needed after a difficult week telling the team about the sale.
– Lindsey and I visited a bunch of Croatian islands while living in Split. Croatia is tied for my favorite place in the whole world. Check out the pictures and then book a trip. I want to move there.

I walked all of Hadrian’s Wall which has been a long term goal. In 6 days I walked a total of 98.5 miles :). Pictures of Day 1, Day 2, Day 3,Day 4, Day 5, and Day 6.

I fulfilled a trip I’ve wanted to do since college too! Lindsey and I took a trip to the Cathar region of France. The castles there are mind blowing and I had such a good time hiking and crawling around them. It is a super remote area and one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. I hope I get to go back and do more exploring one day.

The world lost an amazing person in 2015, Ying passed away in June. I miss her. She keeps popping into my dreams every so often to say hello.

I am glad it is 2016, and looking forward to another exciting year. I hope you are too!

Lindsey and I are celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary today! It has been a good year for us, definitely some challenges in the processes, and we have learned a lot! We like to joke that we have spent this year only 18 inches apart due to our close proximity while traveling and living in very small apartments.

This pic cracks me up everytime I look at it :).