Father's Day Recap: It Goes Fast, Dad!

I spent a portion of today blindfolded. For many of you this may be a common occurrence. For me, it is not. The reason why I endured it is because the kids wanted to surprise me with some Father's Day events today. So, this morning I got in the van blindfolded and drove to our mystery location. I actually didn't drive, that would have made a real surprise, for oncoming traffic!

Amy drove to the mystery location and if we used blind folds on our kids’ mouths, I would not have known we were going to Old Country Buffet. Alas, breakfast covers a multitude of sins, especially when there's bacon!

After breakfast we went to church (sans blindfold) where we saw this video produced, starring and directed by men in our church.

After church, it was blindfold time again. This time when we stopped I had no idea where we were, until Spider Droid handed me a rather large bag and I knew we were at a bowling alley.

The kids had said let's take dad to do something he likes. Amy saw a coupon for unlimited bowling on Father's Day. So we went. Bowling is one of many things I don't do well but am passionate about. I had a B.C. (Before Children) goal of bowling in every state. We have bowled in quite a few. We have much of the Midwest and South taken care of. We hope to slowly but surely hit the rest. (When I say "we" I mean "I.") If HSD ever gets big enough for a speaking tour many of the venues will probably be bowling alleys.


We spent a good portion of the afternoon bowling. We had two lanes: one with bumpers and one without. At one point Spider Droid and I were bowling two games at the same time. I ended up bowling 7 games: 3 over 100, 2 99's, and none under 90. These are not good numbers for most bowling aficionados. For me they are dreams come true.

Like the song says, it goes fast Dad. I am glad I was able to savor some special time with my kids and my wife. I hope you all had a great day.

Next Time: Reading: it’s not just a railroad.

The gift that keeps on giving.

A few Father's Days ago my kids gave me a present: tickets to a local minor league baseball game. A present that is also a family event is, for me, the best kind of present. Especially, since this was at least 3 Father's Days ago, back when I was working full time and family time was harder to come by than it is today. Before the game, all dads and their children were invited to play catch on the field. This was a great moment that I still think about.

During the game there was a drawing for all the dads in attendance. One of the players had signed a bat which I won!

So if you are scoring at home, the kids gift of tickets turned out to be 3 gifts in one:

1) Family time in a busy season of my life.
2) A cherished memory of playing catch with my kids.
3) A tangible reminder of a wonderful evening.

Well this week the gift kept on giving.

The bat had been hanging in my garage since I won it. I didn't really have any practical use for it since it was much too big for the kids to use. Recently, Spider Droid asked if he could hit with it. This is an adult bat and he is a little guy for a nine year old. He had trouble swinging with it at first and when he did connec,t the ball did not go very far.

When we went to home school baseball this wee,k Spider Droid insisted on taking that bat and I threw him a few more while we waited for the rest of the boys and girls to arrive. When the game started, I had to coerce him to use one of the smaller bats rather than the piece of lumber I had brought. As a result, he was hitting fly balls out of the infield all evening, which he had never done before.

Being ever the budding scientist he credits this to practicing with a larger bat. He now wants to practice with that bat to prepare for next week’s game.

So for the past two nights we have gone to the local park taking turns pitching and hitting. Spider Droid might just think these trips are fun and a good chance to improve his game. Someday he may view them as I do: exquisite times of a father with his son.

Happy Fathers Day!

500th Post Proclamation

It's finally here. My 500th post here at HSD over the past few weeks I have been making some tweaks to the blog but have not really announced them.

First of all, I have joined the 2nd decade pf the twentieth century and am now on twitter. Going forward I will be tweeting a link to all my new posts. I will also be tweeting my Next Time announcement that appeared and have now reappeared at the bottom of my posts.

Secondly I have added two new pages to the blog. Earlier this month I hosted the Carnival of Homeschooling with a post about my Top 10 Films of all time. I have made that a page as well as a 500th post page.

There are a few other changes, but you can check those out yourself.

I promised something very special for 500 posts. To commemorate the occasion, I have written a song. Within the lyrics, there are links to some of the posts that have appeared in HSD over the last 2+ years. So without further explanation and WITH my apologies to the Proclaimers, I present . . .

I Just Blogged (500 Times)

When I wake up, yeah, you know I'm gonna blog
I'm gonna blog about playin' puppy on the floor.
When I go out, well you know I'm gonna blog
I'm gonna blog about a field trip to the store.

If it's Christmas, yes you know I'm gonna blog
I'm gonna blog about how much we like to bowl.
And if it's Easter, yes you know I'm gonna blog.
That it's not a little rabbit that makes us whole.

I just blogged 500 times
And I might blog 500 more
To blog and ask what you guys do
With children screaming on your floor.

When I'm teaching, yes you know I'm gonna blog
About something good that Bunny or Spider did.
And when puppysims come
I'm gonna post 'em here. She's really quite a kid.

When we travel. yeah, you know I'm gonna blog
Whether close to home or Washington D.C.
And when we get back you know I'm gonna blog
With words and pics and videos for all to see.

I just blogged 500 times
And I might post 500 more
Just to be the guy whose 1000 posts
Will make you laugh but never snore.

When I'm fed up, yeah you know I'm gonna blog
I'm gonna blog 'bout how my family drives me mad
But when I think straight yeah you know I'm gonna blog
I'm gonna blog about the super times that we have had.

I just blogged 500 times
And I might tweet 500 more
Just to be the guy whose posts and tweets
reveal the passion at his core.

So that's it for post #500. Unless I get a lucrative contract in the music biz. I will be back very soon inching my way to 1000.

Next Time: Paragraphy for a Monday Morning.

Easter is . . .

Yesterday a neighbor came over and had the misconception that we did not celebrate Easter. This maybe because we do not always celebrate it with chocolate and eggs (We did this year.) Generally our Easter consists of the following . . .





A Family time.

Getting dressed up and going to church.

Playing games. (I guess d.v.d's still have Easter Eggs.)

Getting our families together.

A time for children singing.

These may be the activities of Easter. But the reason we celebrate Easter is in the words the kids were singing. Our Savior Lives!





I hope you all had a great Easter. We did!

Bus Station

Sometimes When Amy comes home from work and the whole house is out of order, especially when the chairs aren't pushed in to the table, she says the place looks like a bus station. 2 weeks ago for April fools day we turned the place into a real bus station.

April Fools Joke

Made ya look!

I usually don't fall for stuff like this . . .

Fragment 1:

I have worked 2 jobs in the past 10 years where at least part of my job was being aware of fraud and fraudulent behavior. So when I received an e-mail today from UPS that said my package was coming and just to open an attachment to get the tracking #, I should have known better.

But for whatever reason I opened the attachment because from time to time I do have packages sent to me for products I am reviewing or free trials I see advertised. However, I should have noticed I was not addressed by name, nor was there any indication of my real address or anything like that.

Bottom Line: this was a malware scheme. The moment I opened the e-mail attachment my security system zapped it from here to Feliz Navidad. However, things could have been a lot worse. If you ever get an e-mail asking you to do anything even just open an attachment don't do it. The best thing to do before even opening a suspicious e-mail is google the subject. If I would have simply googled United Parcel Service Notification E-mail, I would have soon found out it was a scam and not even have to trust my security program to protect me.

Fragment 2: What do you get the Dad/Grandpa who has and/or gives away everything?

My Dad is a hard person to buy for. I have talked in these pages before about how his goal in life is to de-clutter by giving all his junk to his kids. On Monday I realized my Dad was coming over to fix things at my house the next day and the day after that was His birthday. I decided that the best thing to dp was throw him an impromptu surprise party. Bunny made a cake (Puppy and Spider Droid helped.) My Dad showed up slighltly after the cake came out of the oven so we moved it to the desk in my room where Bunny frosted it once it had cooled. I would go in there from time to time to check on Bunnies "Math".

On Tuesday night I saw that the first 100 primes were still written on a dry erase board from our history unit on Pythagoras. This gave me an idea. I rewrote the primes and stopped at 73 which is how old my Dad was. I then draped my Sox Throw (No it is not a 1919 reference) over the dry erase board.

After the cake was frosted. I took my Dad out to the shed to ask him some question. This of course was a ruse so Spider Droid could remove the throw revealing this . . .

Bunny and Puppy brought out the cake and we had a celebration.

Fragment 3: Rainbow connection on C.D.

Today, Puppy went in her room and saw a rainbow on her wall.

The sun was shining through the Window reflected on a c.d. on a bookshelf and the rainbow was visible on the ceiling.

Fragment 4: Crazy Video.

On Tuesday, I was helping Spider Droid make a power point presentation. I kind of went stir crazy and made this video . . .

Well that's all the fragments for today. click here to head back to Half Past Kissing Time.

Dr. Seuss and More.

Yes, today is Theodor (Ted) Geisel's birthday and the beloved children's author best known by his pseudonym Dr. Seuss has been well celebrated today in the blogosphere. He was born on this day in1904 and died on September 24th 1991. At least 3 blogs in my blogroll have broached the topic. Check those out here, here and here. My post is going to be less about Seuss and more about others who share common bonds with him.

First here is a short list of a few other Theodore's who were known by other names.





Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt. 26th President of the United States.

Born: October 27th 1858. Died: January 6th 1919.



Other nicknames: The Trust Buster, The Hero of San Juan Hill (among others).



Quote: No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man's permission when we ask him to obey it.

Theodore (Ted) Samuel Williams. Hall of Fame left fielder for the Boston Red Sox

Born: August 30th 1918. Died July 5th 2002

Other nicknames: Teddy Ballgame, The Splendid Splinter (among others).

Quote: Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.

Rev. Theodore "Ted" Martin Hesburgh. President, University of Notre Dame 1952-1987.

Born 5/25/1917.

Other nicknames: Father Ted.

Quote: The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.

While there are many famous Theodore's (One of them is even a Chipmunk) to choose from. I picked these 3 to accompany the good doctor for these reasons:

1) They all at one time went by Teddy or Ted.

2) They all were alive at the same time. For about 18 months from May 1917 to early January 1919 they all breathed the same air.

3) Like Teddy Roosevelt the other 3 would be on the Mount Rushmore's of their chosen professions. Seuss made the Children's book what it currently is. Hessburgh is a revered figure in religious, academic and political circles. He is Guiness world record holder for honorary degrees. Ted Williams is the best baseball player of his generation.

Here is a quick video from: The original Cat in the Hat television special. The cat is voiced by Alan Sherman (Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah) also born in 1924.

And now 3 videos featuring other doctors who really weren't doctors at all:

1. Dr. Johnny Fever (portrayed by Howard Hesseman in WKRP in Cincinatti 1978-1982

2. Dwight "Doc" Gooden Major League Pitcher 1984-2000

He still owns the record for strikeouts as a rookie.

3. Dr Pepper

The soda was invented in 1885 at a drug store in Waco,Texas by Charles Alderton. It was introduced to the country at large at the Worlds Fair in St. Louis in 1904, the same year Geissel was being introduced.



Others born on March second include: Desi Arnaz (1917), Mikhail Gorbachev (1931), Karen Carpenter (1950) and Jon Bon Jovi (1962)

People of note born in 1904 Peter Lorre- Actor (Casablanca and Maltese Falcon), B.F. Skinner - Behaviorist ( or as psych 101 students call him, the rat man), and Johnny Weismuller. Olympic Medalist and Tarzan actor.

So that's it for me. No time left to tell you that when Amy and were getting married we registered for a copy of Greens Eggs and Ham. (See how I snuck that in.)

I haven't posted since last year!

Happy New Year!

If you would have told me a year ago that in 2010 that I would be visiting Thomas Edison's and Earl Hamner (AKA John Boy Walton's) home towns I would not have believed you.

If you would have told me that my son's robotics team would qualify for the state tournament, I would have asked "what's a robotics team?"

These and many other things did happen . In many ways, it was a great year. In many ways, it was a horrible year. I guess you could say that about any year.

My new year's wish for all you loyal readers is that 2011 is heavy on the great, light on the horrible!

Six Word Savior Day

I was going to title the post "six word Santa day" which sounds more like Six Word Saturday taking place at Show My Face dot com . I was also going to have my six words be simply: Merry Christmas from Home School Dad.

But, then I discovered another six words bounding down the chimney of my thought process:

Without the Savior; There's no Santa!

The legend that sprung out of the life of St. Nicholas is only possible because Jesus came down to Earth to become Immanuel (God with Us.)

Have a fantastic Holiday!


For more Six Word Saturday click here.

Pilgrim Hat Cookies

We were finally able to buy orange frosting and thus able to make some cookies that Amy read about in Working Mother magazine.



Here is what you need . . .


Fudge Striped Cookies
Cream Cheese Frosting
Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
Orange Frosting Tube


Step 1. Set Fudge Striped Cookies Stripe side down on cookie sheet





Step 2 spread frosting on top of peanut butter cup .Step 3 affix peanut butter cup on cookie. Enough frosting will run over to make brim for hat.


Step 4 with orange frosting, make belt buckle on side of hat.


Step 5. Voila.

You don't have to be Einstein.

To be 1 step ahead of the Holidays Half Past Kissing Time has started Friday Fragments early here are mine . . .

Our home school co-op ended this week. One of the teachers was teaching a physics class for 1st-3rd Graders. Earlier in the semester she asked me to speak the last week of the class as Albert Einstein.

So I donned a wig (cotton balls taped to a stocking cap) and my best German scientist accent and had a lot of fun with it.

It turns out you don't have to be Einstein to play Einstein. I was able to perform an experiment that illustrated what Einstein discovered about light having gravity.

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My parents came to the closing festivities for the co-op for the first time this year. I think it was the first time they ever got to see my kids in action in a true home school setting. I shared the emceeing duties with two of the speech classes. The presenters went up in pairs and they were very polished, so it had a real awards show feel to it. At the end of the evening I handed the microphone to puppy and she told this joke . . .

Who was the most important knight at the round table?Sir Cumference

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As I posted Sunday, Christmas shopping has seemed to begun in earnest all around us. If you make it out to the malls and big box stores take the sales advice with a grain of salt. I have noticed that some sales people through ignorance, poor listening skills, or just to sell more product don't always give correct product information.

For example, I wanted to buy Amy something she could listen to radio programs with when she is out and about. On several occasions we looked at ipods and we asked several associates if those ipods would play pod casts. Each time we were told no. Sometimes we were told that only a Zune would play pod casts, sometimes we were told that only an ipod touch would play them. Both those pieces of equipment cost more than what I had to spend on her birthday present. We then decided to just buy an old fashioned Walkman type radio and were told by an associate that the store no longer sold radios like that.

I walked back to where they "used to be" located anyway. They were still there and we bought out. We found out later that day through the miracle that is Facebook. That ipods do indeed play pod casts. (I mean they are called "pod" casts for a reason.)

I marched (figuratively) back to the store returned the Walkman radio, and proceeded to buy Amy an ipod; at a different store.

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Those are all the fragments I have. I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving. For More Friday Fragments click here.

Thanksgiving Cancelled

Today was a strange day. I spent several hours on errands that should have taken 1/3 of the time. We've all had days like that, I'm sure. What was the most frustrating was when I went into a craft supply store called Michael's this afternoon. I had to get a few pieces of card stock for Emma's scrapbooking class. That was easy. I then went to look for some orange frosting for some thanksgiving treats we are going to make for Thursday. I found the cooking section very easily but then I realized they only had Christmas colors. I then realized (I am not the most visually observant person in the world) That the whole store was filled with Christmas products. The store was packed with people. I have been at Michael's many Sunday afternoons this Fall and there is usually 1/5th of the people there. For a minute I thought I had time jumped from a week before Thanksgiving to a week before Christmas. (I have been watching some of Season 1 of Heroes this week and that may account for the time jump theory.)

I looked in vain for 5-10 minutes for Thanksgiving decor while I wandered through the crowded store, I finally asked a staff person where I could find it and He said they had taken down all the Thanksgiving merchandise in order to prepare for Christmas. I reconsidered the time jump theory for a split second and then inquired if Thanksgiving had been cancelled? I don't know if he knew for sure, so I just bought my card stock and left.



As I exited the store I read a sign on their window that they would be open 5 hours on Thanksgiving. So I'm thinking why would they be open on Thanksgiving? They don't have any Thanksgiving stuff! Then I read the sign further and it said that there would be door busters.

So that was it, with almost a week before Thanksgiving they had remove all traces of it from their store but are trying to lure us back there on Thursday afternoon when the triptifan is supposed to be kicking in just so we can buy Christmas stuff!

This was not an isolated situation. My SIL had the same experience yesterday, She went into Kohl's, TJ Maxx, and a dollar store looking for Thanksgiving decorations and came up empty.

I read a joke in a letter in the mid 1980's. It said that when you see all the Christmas decorations up you can tell that Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I remember reading it that it was an exaggeration of the truth. In the past 25 or so years, that joke has become the reality; and the reality is not very funny, especially when you need orange frosting.

Big 40 minus the birthday boy

My brother Keith would have turned 40 today. He died 18 months ago so he never quite made the milestone.

When My Mom turned 40, my Dad put a banner across our garage that read "Jeanne's 40 today. But don't tell anyone!". We lived across from the local library at the time and man people people became aware of the event.

When I turned 40, Amy had a surprise party for me and had one of my favorite musicians, Alan Levi, fly in from Alabama and sing at my party. He performed the following song among others .

When Amy turned 40, relatives teamed with me so I could give her 40 rolls of quarters. (Amy love quarters)

Keith died 18 months ago, so he never quite made the milestone. Keith was born on veteran's day and loved that his birthday was celebrated by many people even though they might not be aware they were doing so.

Today as you reflect on the men and women who served our country in the military. Reflect also on the men and women boys and girls who left the party before we had a chance to throw them one.

Birthday Traditions

It's a certain Spider Droid's ninth birthday I thought I could celebrate it here by telling about a few family birthday traditions.

Technically Speaking

Spider Droid will wear out a phrase every few months. Back this Summer it was technically speaking. Every other sentence would start with technically For example "Technically Speaking Star Wars Episode I was really the 4th episode that came out." If he were here, he might tell you that technically speaking he has only had one birthday is and this is the 9 year anniversary of that birthday.

Almost Birthdays

A relatively new birthday tradition is the almost birthday. It's a pretty simple tradition that is celebrated the day before the actual non technically speaking birthday. Click here to see a video of the almost birthday song.

Birthday Party in Bed

A Roller Family staple is starting the birthday off with cupcakes, singing, and present opening first thing in the a.m. Breakfast is optional. This is done regardless of any other celebrations that may ensue.

The Chuck-E-Cheese Birthday.

The age of 4 is a special year. It is essentially the upperclassmen year of pre-school. When each of our children turned 4 they had a Chuck-E-Cheese Pizza Party. It is special because it was always their first friend party. Our Kids can still be kids but they have all now aged out of their 4 year old rite of passage.

Birdthday Immunity.

All our children were born during the school year. We usually take school off on the Children's birthdays. Sometimes we do a special field trip, sometimes we just stay at home. We Home school, we can roll that way. Technically speaking, we are not taking Spider Droid's birthday off because it is on Monday, our co-op day. However, tomorrow Amy is taking the day off and we are going on a family field trip to the aquarium. The birthday boy is even bringing along 2 friends.

Birthday Shopping.

My wife's Mom takes the kid's out on or near their birthday for a special time of Grandma bonding. They go out to eat and then she takes them shopping to the store of their choice where they can buy a present or two. She even allows them to pick out a little something for the sibs left behind.

The Birthday Pole.

A now multi-generational tradition takes place at my parents house each year. It started when I was a kid at my Grandpa's house. At the visit closest to our last birthday, my grandpa would measure us grandkids on a pole in his basement and then our name and age on a label maker and stick the label where he had marked our height. Being 1 of 29 grandchildren, this was always a special time between me and my grandpa. I am glad my Dad continues this for his grand kids.

Preventing Birthday Spoilers

Our kids get very excited about giving their brother and or sister(s) gifts. So much so that they often spill the beans long before said beans are unwrapped. We do our best tricks to keep that from happening. This year any time the beans were in dang er of spilling, Amy would redirect by saying: Lovely weather we're having.

These are just a few ways that we celebrate birthdays here. I'd love to her how you make family birthdays special. Happy Birthday son, we love you!

There will be a few changes to the ye-olde blog this month. The first one is that I am discontinuing the next time notices for the month. This month my youngest Brother would have turned 40. To honor him in these pages I will be linking to posts I have shared about him in the past. I call it . . . Keith Time.

Today's edition: A Bet I wish I lost.

Six words after Christmas

2 New Cameras 1 New Phone

Had a very merry Christmas. We did something new this year giving each other only 1 gift per person from each person. We knew that between grandparents, aunts and uncles the kids would be lavished with gifts and we did not need to pile on.

Each kid spent their own money for the gifts they gave. Allowing Amy and I to get what my dad used to call "the biggie."

Charlie and Emma received cameras. So if you ever happen over to their blogs (Emma, Charlie) expect to see lots of pictures of bunnies and Star Wars Lego Sets respectively.

I wasn't totally surprised to receive a telephone this year. We had washed my last one and I was in need. However the type of phone floored me. We have never had any kind of phone with a contract before it has always been pay as you go. My new Samsung has internet access, a camera (that also takes video, a GPS, a pastry chef, and a word processor. Amy wanted me to have something that I could use when I got a blog or other creative idea that worked better than a Taco Bell Napkin.

I have to go now and register for the graduate school course I will need in order to master the intricacies of this phone. Hope every one's Christmas was as good as ours. Skip on over to showmyfacedotcom to see more of Six Word Saturday.

Next Time: A Cool Use For A GPS

Christmas Eve at the Bowling Alley

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Amy, Siblings and Cousins on 23rd

One of the things I really enjoy about Christmas is continuing family traditions. On Amy's side of the family there are 2 such traditions that I enjoy partaking in each year.

The first takes place on the evening of the 23rd. It is the celebration of my MIL's birthday. Being born so close to Christmas sometimes can seem like the short end of the stick. My MIL's family certainly made it work for her. They gather the relatives for a great dinner (these day's it's an outstanding pot luck). Then after dinner they gather round the table and the birthday girl is celebrated. She is sung to and she opens a barrage of presents. When that is finished the Christmas presents are handed out and everyone opens presents from youngest to oldest.

My 2 favorite parts of this evening are the themed gifts and the clapping. Not every year, but many years some of my wife's relatives will give everyone the same type of gift. One year it was slipper socks. What is really cool about this is how the family pulls it off. After a few people have opened their gift, and the pattern has emerged, people begin chanting the name of the item while it's being opened. If you've never opened slipper socks while 15 people are chanting slipper socks you are missing out!

After each gift is opened there is a moment of gift appreciation and clapping. This is no golf clap either. These are heartfelt moments of appreciation, the clapping is really more from the joy of Christmas and time spent family and less the celebration of the material.

The second established tradition is also on my MIL's side of the family. Each year on Christmas Eve they go bowling. I am not quite sure how or why the idea started but as a guy who loves bowling I don't question it.

It's such a nice tradition that I just penned a ditty to celebrate it.

Tis the season to go bowling

Fa la la la la la la la la

Gets the Holiday fun a-rolling

Fa la la la la la la la la la

In the peaks and in the valleys

fa la la fa la la fa la la

We have fun in lighted alleys

fa la la la la la la la la

Some have t-shirts with their names

fa la la la la la la la la

Some are bowling Flintstone frames

fa la la la la la la la la

Some are striking some are sparring

Fa la la fa la la la la la

great experiences all are sharing

Fa la la la la la la la la

Here at Home School Dad I wish the happiest of holidays and the merriest of Christmas and the least amount of gutter balls possible.

Next Time: Six Word Saturday

And The WInners Are (Not Me) . . .

It's time for Three Things This Thursday . . .

1. HSBA Winners.

I was nominated for the 2009 Home School Blog Awards at the HSBA Post. I was nominated for Best Homeschool Dad Blog and since the name of my blog is Home School Dad, I thought I was a shoe in.

My victory was not meant to be, as Families Again took that particular category. Congratulations to him, and all the other winners. In honor of all the winners, I will have links to all of them on my blog until the end of the year. I am only halfway through putting them up now, so if you won and don't see your blog, a link will be up soon.

2. Snow!

The kids were a little disappointed when they woke up this morning and there was no snow. They had heard, (or read or seen) a weather report that said it would snow overnight. They don't know what we know that weather forecasters are basically guessing! Well, they guessed a few hours late and it is now snowing. The kids are playing in it now as I had some light yard work for them to do as well. Let me look out the window and see how they are at multi tasking. Not bad, better than I multi-task.

They are excited as this is the first snow of the season here's an as it's happening picture of kid's playing in snow.

I know you see the kids playing, but where's the snow? The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. The snow is blowing in the wind. It's almost time for them to come in for hot chocolate, so I'll move on to ....

3. Carving out Time

Today after school Charlie and I are going to carve a bar of soap with a dull knife as practice for how to handle the pocket knife he is going to use at cub scouts tonight. Let's see that's Cub Scouts tonight, dinner plans tomorrow, A party and an outing Saturday, Church and Lucy's Birthday Sunday, Awana Monday, Bible Study Tuesday. Wow! We are busy! How do we carve out time as a family among the business of the holidays and just plain everyday life?

Amy heard an idea on the radio of reading one chapter from the book of Luke each day in December. So at dinner each evening after opening the advent calendar, we read a chapter.

How do you carve out time during the Holidays? I would love to hear from you. Consider putting in on a post and linking it below to Three Things Thursday.

Next Time: 74!

It's Not Even Thanksgiving!

The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, so they say. In our house, if the tree is of the Christmas variety this phrase is especially true. Over the past few weeks there has been a proliferation of Christmas decorations everywhere our family has been. They always bring out the same reaction from my oldest daughter, "It's not even Thanksgiving!" Now our youngest daughter has joined in on the refrain.

On October 1st I blogged here about how Halloween displays had been up since early September. It seems that holiday preparation (read commercialization) extends every year. Today, I heard long time Chicago radio voice Garry Meier talking about how it is too early to play Christmas music and suggest to hold off playing them until the Friday after Thanksgiving. He is absolutely right! I was glad to hear someone other than my own family members suggest it.

I don't have the exact dates but by mid to late July the back to school sales had already begun near me. Labor Day was September 7th, and I saw Halloween displays on the 10th! As soon as those Halloween displays were removed they were replaced immediately with Christmas! I often see Easter displays a week before Ash Wednesday. 40 days isn't enough to sell a Holiday?!?!

In my opinion marketing these holidays for such a long time has a number of adverse effects:

1) It takes away from the meaning of other "lesser" holidays. Thanksgiving has been changed from a day to thank God for his provisions and has now been marginalized to an old McDonald's ad slogan: food, folks and fun. Actually it's more like food, folks and football. I ate dinner at an excellent restaurant last night that was advertising their Thanksgiving buffet. But instead of the traditional cornucopia and the like, they are already dressed in full Christmas mode, tree and all. One would hope they won't be piping in the Frank Sinatra Christmas album as they were tonight, but one can never tell.

2) It takes away from the meaning of the holidays they are promoting. The over saturation is so much that some people are ready for it to end weeks before it gets here. I can understand that in a political campaign, but when celebrating such special events as Christ's birth, resurrection or the founding of America we want the days to be special not something to be endured.

3) Running from holiday to holiday creates more stress than good will. Rest is good. A few weeks between celebrations is a good thing. Rest gives us the opportunity to celebrate holidays all our own. Yesterday Lucy declared to Amy you're the best Mom ever. Tonight is Mommy night. When she woke up this morning, Lucy furthered her proclamation and decreed today Mommy Day. Mommy Day so far consists of Lucy coming in our room every few minutes with a new gift or card for Amy. The latest was a folded up piece of blue construction paper which Lucy called a laptop. This freedom also gives us the opportunity to celebrate something equally important, everyday life.

Next year I plan to post about what in my perfect world is the best way to celebrate each holiday as they occur. Let me just say now that getting back to traditional observances and time lines would be great. Advent generally runs from December1st to the 24th. I would be perfectly fine if I didn't see any decorations or hear any carols before then. I would also be okay if "Black Friday" was the official "unofficial" start of the season. Any sooner and hey I've got daughters to contend with! etiquette

Three Things This Thursday

Hi! Welcome to another edition of 3 Things This Thursday. I'm Dave I'll be your host.
Welcome also to October. Which brings me to my first item which I have titled
#1 (catchy huh?)

Our family does not celebrate Halloween. Other families do and that's just fine with us. What really bothers me is that there have been Halloween displays up since late August early September. I mean early September. The kids and I were shopping for Amy's birthday (which is 9/10) and Walgreen's already had a full display of Halloween candy up. That was at least 52 days before Halloween! I mean how in the world are you going to keep Halloween candy around 52 days without indulging? Or perhaps that is the point of putting it out so early. I think that October first should be the first official day for Halloween displays. 30 days to sell costumes, candy and other finery should be enough!

2. Glee
I watched the premiere of Glee this week (The premiere was about 3 weeks ago, but I've been busy.) Glee is a new show on Fox this year about a high school show choir. It is supposed to have biting humor and good musical numbers. I liked the first episode although I am not sure I liked it enough to watch a second. It did not surprise me that the meanest and nastiest of the high school girls was portrayed as a hypocritical Christian girl. The musical numbers were good but unlike Fame I'm not sure that this show will live forever.

3. This year has been cycling intensive at our house and we have had some difficulty getting our oldest on the bicycle bandwagon. Emma was never that much into biking when she had training wheels. It was always like pulling teeth to get her on her bike. This year however she showed a little more interest especially when Charlie's training wheels came off before hers did. Within a week she was biking training wheel on free on Charlie's bike.

Emma has grown a lot in the past year and the bike she's had since she was 6 just wasn't cutting it. So we bought her a new bike that was just a tad too big for her. It was possible for her to ride it but she was so scared of falling off that it was becoming too difficult to coax her to ride it and put up with all the angst. So we tried this: we let her use her take turns using Charlie's bike and she took a real shine to it. She has been riding it almost everyday for the last two weeks.

So today with about 20 minutes left of daylight, I told her it was time to give her bike a try. She was far less than thrilled. What I expected to happen, happened. Over the past few weeks she has been learning how to balance herself, and when she tried her bike today, she was mastering it within seconds. Before we started biking, she insisted that she only have to ride once around the parking lot. We biked until dusk and even then she wanted to stay longer. On the way home she actually thanked me for insisting that she try her bike again.

As parents we often have a plan for the well being of our child. This plan is not always embraced by the child at the time. It is very rewarding when occasionally the child can get a glimpse that the parent has a pretty good grasp on what's best.

Those are my Three Things for This Thursday. Now it's your turn just link up below.

Next Time: Penny Winners Revealed