The Rewards of Fatherhood, Fitness and Frugality

Author Michael Lewis tells us how it’s inevitable that we will mess our kids up, no matter what we do.

It’s Monday.

I try to motivate myself. I try to get going and do something. But I continue to find myself only planning for and anticipating their arrival and dreading their departure. When The Babies are home, I’m on point. We all eat a good meal, everybody is in bed on time and bathed. Bedtime stories come with wicked quickness. The next morning is usually a mad dash but they’re to school on time, clean and alert. Everybody has taken their vitamins. My day is productive and orderly.

They go to their mom’s today.

Flickr @ yummyinmytummyblog

When they’re not around, I lose it. The time in between their stays at home is strung together with Futurama reruns, piled up dishes in the sink, Facebook marathons and several orders of Papa John’s Chipotle chicken wings. I don’t want to admit I’m that guy. You know the guy with no real direction unless he’s ushering kiddlings to a ballet rehearsal or a karate class or the next playdate. I need to get in the gym, do some yardwork, do some real work, call a friend, go to church, join a cause, do something for God’s sake.

I’ve really been trying to get better. And I have made some progress. I don’t cry anymore when they’re gone. [Read more →]

I know I’m not supposed to say this but I don’t give a yak’s ass what I’m not supposed to do. DAMN I have some gorgeous kids! Deal with it people. Being the wonderful person I am, I thought I’d let you enjoy The Babies’ brilliance. Check them out in their Easter best.

The Babies

I’m sure your kids are gorgeous too. Or you know some kids who are. They’re just not as gorgeous as mine. Don’t fret. It just is what it is.

The "White" Wiz (source: San Franciso Sentinel)

A few weekends ago when I had run out of activities for the girls and I to partake in together, I passed the local high school on the way home from swimming lessons. The drama department was putting on a production of The Wiz. The Babies must have seen the movie starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Nipsy Russell about 30 times with their mom. Not the greatest movie but hey, they love it. (I saw the Broadway musical for my fifth birthday and I still remember how awesome it was.) Now I don’t keep a running tally of their cinematic viewings. These numbers are more guesses gauged from how well The Babies know the theme songs of movies and how often they sing them in the car or the bathtub. The only thing in heaver rotation than “He’s The Wizard!” right now is “It’s A Hard Knocked Life” from the Annie movie. Maybe they’ve seen Annie 40 times.

After seeing the sign for the play, I thought beautiful! I had mentally killed another few hours of entertaining the girls. I would just take them to see The Wiz. When I excitedly shouted to the girls, “Who wants to see The Wiz at the high school?”, C-Thunda predictably says, “Meeeeeeeee!!” But then T-One party-poopingly says, “Dad, you can’t take us. Mom is going to take us next week.” I must have given out a sigh of disappointment or something because C-Thunda immediately consoled me by letting me know I could take them both to see the “white” Wiz instead.

“The ‘white’ Wiz? Baby, what’s the ‘white’ Wiz?”

“You know. The one with the white people in it.”

“Ahhhhh.”  [Read more →]

I have been really trying to get into this metaphysical thing. You know. The idea tha we are all connected. The idea there is a reality beyond what is perceptible to the our tangible senses. The idea we need only ask for what it is we want and we will receive it. Sometimes it’s called the Philosophy of Success or Quantum Metaphysics. Sometimes it’s called religion. I simply think of it as something greater than me.

So, I reread The Secret. The first time it didn’t take. Apparently I missed a step, or two. (Hardy, har, har. I crack me up.) In rereading the book, one thing jumped out at me I had forgotten annoyed me the first time around. It’s the basic premise of The (so-called) Law of Attraction. This law states everything in your life, you’ve attracted. Bascially, you asked for it.  Consciously or unconsciously. The universe is going to give you what you ask for whether or not you know you’ve asked for it. Another tenet of this law is it doesn’t distinguish “don’t” or “not” or “no” and other words of negation. So according to The Secret, the universe eliminates certain words from the English language and only listens to the others. “I don’t want a bad haircut” becomes “I want a bad haircut”.

Really? Horse-kaka! While I believe in the basic premise of Ask, Believe and Receive I don’t buy the part about everything we ask for we get and everything we’ve gotten we’ve asked for. [Read more →]

Flickr by fergusonjlf

C-Thunda: We learned about grasshoppers today at school. My teacher taught me about them.

Granddaddy: Oh yeah, baby? What did you learn about them.

C-Thunda: We learned they like to hop around on the grass.

Granddaddy: Did you see any?

C-Thunda: Yes.

Granddaddy: It’s a good thing no birds were around. Birds eat grasshoppers.

C-Thunda: Yeah, and the grasshoppers don’t like that.