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I've never been into New Year's resolutions. It seems pointless to me to wait for a calendar turn to make changes if I feel they're necessary or valuable. And I generally think I can make those kind of lifestyle changes, it's been done before (like, say, when it comes to diet ). As I say all this here I am writing about a post about resolutions. But I can explain. As with many aspects of my life I'm going to credit my wife. For 2025 she bought, and successfully completed, a s

We all want to share the things we love with our children as they grow, hoping they'll take on those interests for themselves. We also instinctually know reading to our kids is overwhelmingly positive, to bond with them, to stimulate their brains, and at night to help them sleep. Reading has always been something I've enjoyed, in particular when it comes to old, classic stories. There's usually good reason something's lasted decades, or centuries, and I want to be part of tha

When you have young kids life just keeps getting busier and busier, especially after entering real (elementary) school for the first time. I've always known this was the case, how could it not be?, that as you increase the number of family members participating in activities there's more to do. When I wrote a post last year (' First real busy summer ') I was, in a way, a sweet summer child, even if I had an inkling how the future would look. A little over a year later, things

There's this meme I've see online, seems like it's fairly new, about people demonstrating competence and bemoaning that they...

My wife a few years ago introduced me to the idea of 1000 hours outside . The concept in basic terms is making it an annual goal to spend...

At the end of August tragedy struck the family on my father's side. My dad, 'Papa' to the kids, is in his mid 60s now. One of his younger...

I've written twice this year already about our daughter. One of these detailed how she's becoming a handful, thinking she's a princess ...

We moved back to Minnesota in November 2021 and I was very conflicted at the time (see: Leaving home , Leaving home part II , and The...

Kindergarten, and 'real school,' is when most kids truly start learning to read. It's a crazy process to watch, and one that's certainly...

'She's SO cute!' Everywhere we go, our daughter, our youngest and kid #3, gets this response. The comments used to focus almost...

In the past year I've started to feel old. Not elderly, or frail, to be clear, but I think there's a difference from not that long ago....

Our eldest is motivated to make money. Or, I guess I should say, he's motivated to spend money. We don't buy many extra toys, outside...

On Friday we embarked on potty training round three, always a trial by fire, with our nearly two and a half year old little girl. For...

Life doesn't ever slow down once you have kids, or at least it hasn't for us. In fact it seems to constantly be accelerating. While life...

For boy #2 we're in a period of transitioning away from naps. Remember, this is the one I once named ' the baby tornado , ' an apt...

Time flew the fastest this summer and I'm both kinda sad it's over and glad for it. Prior to this year we'd travel a little bit and...

I don't often get sick, and when I do it's not often all that bad or for all that long. Most of the time when I sense a bad headache or a...

Last week we were in Alaska again and, while it's always a good trip, it brings some challenges both physical and emotional. From MSP...

As a kid I was relayed the old wives' tale that men inherit their hair from their maternal grandfather and, since mine was completely...

I'm sure I've said in the past how kid #1, our son, is basically my Mini-Me. It's not a reference to how he looks, it's that he generally...