Work Day

Being the at home-dad, I run the regular routine of household chores, and homeschool. Which sometimes means that my to-do list on the Dad/Husband side tends to get stacked up with small projects. Today I had a large list that I wanted to get done, since we have a big camping trip coming in the weeks ahead. I enlisted the help of both the wonderful wife and Junior. The following is a list of the extras that need to be done, but that I can’t usually find the time for during my regular week.

Checked the chainsaw, made sure it was in working order, done.
We have a wrought iron standing toilet paper dispenser that needed to be repainted, done.
Junior to clean the front bathroom, done.
Quick clean of our bathroom, done.
Get push mower running and mow the high spots in the yard, done.
Kill weeds with weed killer, done.
Have Junior clean up hen house and replace bedding for eggs, done.
Replace water filter and put up well house heater light, done.
Get Juniors tractor running, this took a lot longer than expected, done.
Have mom pull up weeds and remove some plants in front of the house to make room for new, done.
Help wife pull up weeds in front of house in bedding area, done.
Pick up sticks and rake up old leaves and sweet gum balls, team effort, done.
Burn sticks and dried out Christmas tree, done.
Take old trampoline that the large limb fell on to dump, done.
4pm Take wonderful wife to local Nursery for Garden party, we won a $50 shopping spree! WOW!
Pick up a few things in town, head home for burgers on the grill.

I’m tired – thankfully Sunday is rest day!
Monday it’s back to schooling and regular chores and a much shorter to-do list.

Final thought – do your kids ever say something that just really makes you laugh. Today Junior was riding on this tractor, pulling a trailer full of sticks and old leaves, swinging his hat in the air, hollering, “living the dream baby, living the dream”, what a character!

A Painful hand

Today I found myself visiting the Dr.’s office, not for myself but for Junior. Yesterday, in an expression of young testosterone my son decided that it would be fun to punch dad’s hand. Not really thinking that he would give it all he had, I let him take a shot at my hand.

First off, he was trying on some old work-out gloves of my wife’s, you know the ones that have no fingers and are all leather. Anyway, he was trying them on and challenged me to tag his hand first. So, as any father would do, I quickly and accurately tagged his palm, not hard. Then it was his turn, as he put it, so I let him have a go – well it didn’t go so well. After the impact, he hurt. Knowing that for the most part he can exaggerate pain from time to time, but this was not an exaggeration, he really hurt. He calmed down and tried to tough it out. By late evening it still hurt, we administered some Advil and got him to bed, thinking that maybe by morning all would be well.

By morning it was only some better, but still hurt, so we decided to call the Doctor and have his hand looked at, after an X-Ray it was found that it was not broke, just good and sore. He now has an Ace bandage on his hand, and we both learned that we should take it a little easier on the rough housing. At least until we forget about this day. I’m just glad it wasn’t broke.

Living in Lego Land

When I was a boy, I loved Legos, I didn’t have many, not even enough roof pieced to make a respectable roof. But I really had fun with them. When my son was old enough we bought him the Duplo blocks, the large version of Legos. Then when he grew more, we bought him the real thing for Christmas. Now my son has just become a teenager and for the last few years has been purchasing his own Legos with the money that he earns through his chores or odd jobs. He always has his sites set on the next big Lego purchase, of course in no small part due to the Lego catalogs that show up in the mailbox.



I feel as though I live in Lego land, because every part of his room contains a story connected to a Lego scene he has created. He currently has some testing going on with two minifigures, one of which is doing the recording of the tests while the other dangles over the edge of his door chest on about three feet of Lego chains. Jr. says this is a 4 day experiment. I would hate to be that guy!

Sometimes it is hard to have the same enthusiasm that Jr. does for his creations, but other times it’s not hard at all. Take yesterday for example, was able to find him some Stop-Action Animation software. For the past few weeks and maybe even months, he has been using his digital camera to take pictures of his Lego Minifigures moving and basically making a movie. However, the only way he could see that movie was to manually hold down the forward picture viewing button on his camera. Anyway, I installed this new software and by nighttime he had it figured out and was making movies. I'll post one, when I figure out how and have some time.
They really are something. The time he puts into it is amazing.

Has anyone ever said?

Have you ever had anyone say to you and your wife “Y’all have done such a good job with your son!”? Or child, children, just plug it in.

I’m not boasting, to be honest it is probably the scariest thing anyone can say to me as a parent. The reason it is the scariest thing is because I’m not done with my job, he is not out the door, graduated from college, making his way in the world, making a living, not living at home, the list goes on!

To be honest, I figure I’ll mess it up. But the thankful part of me really can’t take credit for the “work in progress” because; the good Lord is the only one who really knows what He is doing. My wife and I just try to follow His direction.

Don’t let it get around, but as a parent there are time I really don’t know what is going on. Every parent has had those days, the good ones, when we feel like we are the best parent that God has created. Only to be followed by a day or two that seems to be the worst. Times when you really don’t know what to do about what is going on in your home or with your child. That is really when I find myself in prayer, I mean really in prayer. Because in all my years at home, I eventually am stumped about what to do, that is when my only answer is found in prayer.

So the next time someone says that your child is turning out fine, just remember to pray that the Lord continues to do His work through you.

TeachingDad