A XXXL guy bopping up and down on a riding mower — yeah, no. I never liked the optics of that scene, so I never painted it. Instead, I’d walk behind a push mower with a modest 21” cutting width, going back and forth and forth and back every 5-7 […]
Ten is 99.44% pure. Ten is clean-as-a-whistle knock knock jokes on repeat and dirt beneath fingernails with hands in cookie jars. Ten is clean but needs to get cleaner every night to remove the smell of ten. Eleven, thus far, a few weeks in, isn’t offering much relief from that […]
Here are 7 life lessons to teach and behaviors to model that will produce good, happy, empathic, kind and organized kids. Every single parent has a wish list of adjectives they hope to use in describing their future grown-up children. Some of the words may change over time, as we […]
It’s a joke, but not really. I invited you over not for the cheery conversation bubble you’ll pull me into or because your presence will undoubtedly fill our humble home with good spirit. No, you got that precious invite because having guests over is the kick-in-the-butt I need to clean […]
It’s over. The fat lady has sung. The dust has most definitely settled. The summer is over. Summertime is a memory now, fading slowly in the dying sunlight. School is on again and the associated paperwork is already taking over every flat surface of my home. The furniture in the […]
There are many synonyms for “parenting”. “Careful Captain” is one. That’s what I called my wife for the first, hmmmm, 8 years or so of our oldest daughter’s life. It was a parade of “Oh sweetie, be careful!” and “You’re too close to the street, be careful!” coming from her, much […]
It has become one of my most cherished traditions. Every year, I take one gorgeous spring day, when the sun is bright and warm as it enters the house from the windows I’ve enthusiastically opened in every room, when the birds have returned to sing me the songs they’d been […]
Ever since the popular writer Malcolm Gladwell opined his 10,000-hour rule in Outliers, that very denomination of deliberate practice to excel in a field and become an expert in any profession has become part and parcel of our culture, but did you know that habits form in a much shorter […]
