Thank You Phil

Groundhog day, 2012.  I'm cheering because fuzzy Phil has seen his shadow and we can now expect six more weeks of winter.  I've always loved winter.  Maybe I've never outgrown the wonderful excitement of snow days.  I mean, I love all the seasons, but winter is special.  I think it's because I've figured out winter's secrets.  Well that and the snow days of course.


So many people think of winter as dead season, everything buried under a blanket of snow and ice and cold.  Asleep and waiting for spring to wake up and come back to life.  Not only are they wrong, they are missing so much.

Eat and Save the World

"Well," said Pooh, "What I like best--" and then he had to stop and think.  Because although eating honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn't know what it was called.






Being Crunchy can mean lots of different things.  I'm not exactly sure how I got started on my own path to crunchiness.  Some of it was wanting to save money, some of it was wanting to save the planet.  Some of it was just remembering the stuff I did with my parents as a kid and wanting to do more of it as an adult.

Things I Want to Teach the Boys #2

I'm sure that many of these 'teach the boys stuff' type of posts will revolve around things my Dad taught me.  That seems to be the natural order of things for sons and fathers.  And, well, my Dad has taught me lots of things and is still teaching me to this day.


Tonight though, I want to share something my Mom taught me.


How to be gentle.

The 3 Best Potty Training Aids Every Parent Needs!

First off- sorry for the lapse.  We've had a run of great winter weather, which meant lots of time spent outside away from the computer.  Had a blast taking the boys ice fishing.  And we spent the last stretch of Autumn's days off doing a project I've been itching for- purging and paring down our kitchen.  I've been on a quest to pare down and simplify our lives, and tackling the kitchen was a big one.  Anyway, those are both topics for future posts.  Today, we talk about potty training.

A Quick One

Definitely a short post today everyone.  For those of you who don't follow me on face book, today was new denture day for me.  I had my last 5 upper teeth pulled this afternoon, and my new denture installed.

Dinner With Friends

It's one of life's simple pleasures right?


We have dinner with the neighbors fairly often.  Have since we moved here.  It's one of the things that makes living here great.


We were going to have crock pot meatloaf.  It's a comfort food favorite of mine.  My Mom used to make it when we were growing up.  It was good on the table that night, and just as good (maybe better?) the next day as a meatloaf sandwich.  This was Autumn's first time, and it was mighty tasty.  Good Job Honey!

Things I want to teach the Boys #1

This will probably be a recurring topic, maybe summed up eventually in one of those '100 things every kid...' type of posts.  I honestly like those.  I always find something neat or thought provoking in them.

And I honestly do dream a bit about all the things I hope to teach my boys.  For the past few days I've been browsing through a site my friend Chris turned me on to.  Called The Art of Manliness, it's a repository of cool and classic stuff guys should know.  So of course it's captured my interest as I day dream about the stuff I want to teach the hooligans as part of the deheathenification process.