Saying Goodbye to Blogging

I can't keep up on blogging. As much as I'd love to continue to document all of our endeavors in parenting, as much as I want to continue recording all the funny things, silly stuff my daughters do and say, lessons I've learned, I fail miserably at it.

Over and over again, I tell myself I'll blog more. I try, I fail, I try again, and I fail again.

If blogging were my full-time job, maybe things would be different. I don't generate enough traffic on these things to make that happen. Maybe my stories aren't that interesting. They matter to me, and I write these to keep records of what I can as my kids grow up, but I feel like the more I fail to write, the more I do a disservice to my kids and to myself.

My hope is that one day Evie and Izzy will stumble upon this blog and know forever and always they were loved.  In spite of all of my failings as a dad, they'll know I gave it my best and that I always put their wants and needs ahead of my own.  My wife wants to print these off and give them copies when they're older.  Maybe we will.

I'm not deleting this, I'm just going to stop. Rather than recording memories, I'm going to dedicate more time to making them with my kids.

I suggest one thing to every parent before I go. Put down the cell phone, take a day off of work, and spend a little more time with your kids.

Goodbye.

It's been 6 years...

It's been six years since my oldest child was born. Well, give or take a couple of days. Today we celebrated it.

I am so proud of the little girl she's become, and can't wait to meet the grown woman she will one day be.  Evelyn remains positive in the face of so much negativity - whether it may be kids at school, negative circumstances in her parents' lives, or even when she's just having a bad day - the kid just stays positive and as happy as she can.

She did not inherit that from me.  I don't know how she became that way, but I'm so glad she is.  I admire people like that, and I'm very happy that she's growing into one of those people.

Happy birthday, Evie. You're growing up to be even more awesome and amazing than I ever thought possible.

Sick Day.

I'm not a panicky parent. I don't freak out too often about stuff.

At least, I don't think do.

Sure, if a kid walks in the room with a staple driven through her gums (like my sister once did), I'm going to freak the freaking freak out!  If Eliza, our 4 month old, were to hover above our bed, covered in blood, then I'm going to lose my mind.  Not saying I see that happening, but you know, babies are weird sometimes.

Today, Evie had a sore throat and complained that her neck hurt.  Immediately, my wife made a doctor appointment and called the school to let them know she would not be there today.

I took her to the doctor because, to quote my wife, "any time a child complains about their neck hurting, you should take them to the doctor because there could be a spinal injury!"

Now, it isn't like Evie's been playing full contact football. She barely watched half of the Super Bowl.  But, she does get dinged up as kids do, so I agreed to take her.

Nothing was wrong. She's got a cold.  That's it.

So she stayed home with me for the whole day for no reason, and it was fun.  We went to Burger King and got a little snack. We binge-watched some tv on Netflix.  We drove to Mandan so I could see about trading my iPhone for a Galaxy S6 (ended up backing out on the deal because the seller's phone was a little too scuffed up).  It was a good day, overall.

I'm not complaining that my wife was concerned.  I'm glad she is. It evens us out when my attitude is, "Meh, she's probably not gonna die from it."  I'm pretty grateful she keeps our kids from "probably not dying."

Considering some new endeavors

It's easier for me to sit and talk about stuff than it is for me to make time to type everything out. That's just the way I function. Editing a video on YouTube is just easier for me than sitting down and making sure everything I've just blogged is grammatically correct.  I have a YouTube channel (two, actually) that I'd been working on and abruptly stopped working on once kid #2 came around.  It's just sitting there with nothing going on.  So, I'm trying to decide which direction I want to take it.

I've thought about doing it like some sort of podcast.  That would be fun, but do you want to sit and just watch me talk for 30 minutes about stuff? I don't. So then I thought, instead of watching me, maybe I should just do a podcast?  Once a week, sit down and ramble for a while about stuff that's interesting to me.

I don't know. The jury is out on that one but it's something I'm considering because, what the internet needs is more podcasts and blogs and people blathering on about stuff, right?

Why not mine?

Oh, and if you wanted to check out my YouTube channel, search for SpreadTheWordNerd.

Ah, Time to Rant a Little

I admire single parents. I do. I know it's cliche to say they're "so brave," but I cooked dinner tonight for the whole family while my wife worked late, and let me tell you, people are either already crazy, going crazy, or some of the strongest willed people on God's green earth.

Seriously, respect.

Here's a breakdown*.

5:30 pm: I get home with Evie and decide to make dinner.

5:32 pm: I text my wife and tell her, "Hey, don't stress about food tonight, I'm going to cook since you're working late." Wife is happy.

5:45 pm: I make the final decision on what I'm going to make; Chicken breast sandwiches with a side of shells and cheese.  Sure, simple enough, but wait.

6 pm: I have beat the crap out of the chicken breasts to tenderize them. I'm a man, I have a blunt object and I just hammered some dead birds' chest meat for five minutes straight.  Punk had it coming to him.

6:15 pm: Chicken is cooking, water is boiling.

6:30 pm: Wife gets home, looks at chicken breasts that have are done. Tells me they aren't done. I cook them again.

6:35 pm: Shells & Cheese are done and thickening up nice. Chicken is done again (almost). Buns are being toasted.

6:45 pm: We sit down to eat.

7:15 pm: Dog poops in floor. I clean it up. Wife is changing a poopy diaper.

7:30 pm: I put the dishes in the sink and declare I'm going to write my blog.

7:55 pm: Still writing blog. Evie just mysteriously said "Ow" after what sounds like she was running around the living room. Wife is probably nursing the baby.

If I were one person doing all this, I think I'd go crazy. That's just one meal. So yeah, props to moms and dads who do this act solo and never once think of selling off their kids to pay their student loans off or something like that.  Not that I've though that, I'm just saying... I've heard parents think that sometimes.


*Time are not accurate, I'm estimating. Sort of.