Nonsense

So here in New England the flu has arrived.  I am not sure it has touched down in my abode and I am hoping it steers clear.  Although, I did get a lovely gift from my wife:  Her cold!  We can only hope it does not get passed onto our little angels.  I am crossing my fingers, toes, ears and tongue.  (I can't cross my eyes; I'm not that talented)

To make it worse, there's a storm a brewin'.  And I mean a real doozy of a snow storm.  Three to six inches of the white fluffy stuff.  Now I haven't been out to the grocery store today, but I am certain it is pandemonium there.  And why?  If the storm, or any storm for that matter, is that bad you are going to loose power.  And it is always said to get milk and bread before a storm.  So with that rational when the power goes out, you will loose your new milk when it goes bad.  But thank goodness you have bread; at least you can feed the birds!

Ugggg

So since the dawn of the New Year, I have revisited some things I have let go by the wayside last year. One being this blog.  Another is that place where people sweat, lift things, and run in place; the gym.  I have been being active at the gym for about a week and it is really starting to take its toll on my body.  My legs are tight; my back hurts; I'm tired.  These are not the side effects I was looking forward to.  I wanted to see rock hard abs, a chiseled physique, and the ability to run a six minute mile.  It is really true what they say: Rome wasn't rebuilt in a day.

And since this blog is supposed to be centered around my life as a Stay-at-home-dad, I probably should talk about the kids at least once.

The kids are fine; growing up faster than a blink of an eye.  The older one has acquired an attitude that will rival any teenager;  Lord help us when her hormones really kick in.  And all of her bad habits are wearing off on her sister.  That can mean nothing but good things to come.

As a follow up to a prior post, I have started thinking about making a drum.  It is not going to be easy, to say the least.  But I do have a good friend that is a great wood-worker and I hope he will lend a hand and his expertise to the project.  I will keep you posted on the progress, as long as brightly, colored, shiny things stay away.


OOOhhhh, Look at that......

Perhaps I was a little over zealous

SO its been a few days since the last post.  Hey, I'm slowly getting back on this horse.  Rome wasn't rebuilt in one day - or something like that.....

Sometimes I feel the need to pass the time on the interweb and look for jobs.  Not that I need a job, per say, but it fills a curiosity that I could find a suitable job.  That is until I start looking.  There isn't much out there.  Granted I am not looking for a retail job or some other mindless, mundane job.  I am looking for something I will be passionate about.  I have spent too many years of my "adult" life doing a job that didn't do anything for me other than a paycheck.  If I am looking, I want something that I will enjoy, fulfill me creatively, and put food on the table.  (Now I don't want anyone offering me a job for food - its just a figure of speech!)  And since those job are dwindling the search continues, so to speak.

Which brings up another related topic:  What to do when the kids are in school full time.  A whole six hours just by myself?  What to do?  I'm sure after laundry, shopping, faux-job searches, cleaning, errands, goofing off, playing with the kids toys, gym (yea....  right....  the gym.....  isn't that the place downtown with lots of strange weights and things??), and whatever else may come up I will be hard pressed to find free time.  Perhaps I should find something I can do at home that won't take too much of my time.  Who are we kidding?  Anything undertaking I assume will take all of my attention.  That is until something shiny comes along......

The other day I read an article in the local newspaper about a luthier (guitar maker).  This fella, an accomplished musician started making guitars in his basement with his father.  Now I am not an accomplished guitar player, or can play much on the guitar, but I thought I could make my own, custom drums.  I know you can get drum shells from wherever, but I wanted to make my own drums from scratch.  A little internet research later, I found a few links for such an endeavor, but then came along that shiny thing again.  Hey, I am a drummer after all.......

Maybe someday I will start making my own drums.  Maybe someday I will find the time.  Maybe someday I will find something to do when the kids are in school.  But until that day arrives my full time job is my kids.  And we all know that is more than a full time gig.

Its been a while.

As 2013 starts, I figured I should revisit my blog.  That's right, I have a blog.  You probably forgot about it; I did for a while.  I will try to bring you all up to speed on all the crazy things, or just normal things, that have happened since I abandoned this blog like the Titanic.  

I'm not really sure where I left off and I am too lazy to go check, so I will just start where I think I ended.  

The spring was the spring.  The garden showed promise.  I picked up a couple of lawns in the neighborhood to supplement my Stay-at-home-ness.  The garden was doing well.  WAS.  I refer to it in past tense mostly because we went on a few vacations.  But while we were away, the highly invasive party of vermin called weeds moved in and decided they were better suited than all my plants.  But we did get a good harvest anyway.  My loving wife made pepper jelly, blackberry jam, apple butter (not from apples that we grow, but from a lovely day trip to an orchard), froze herbs and other things that grew despite the new undesirable neighbors.  I even think she made stewed tomatoes.  What a woman!  

Bayly started Kindergarden.  Yes.  I am the parent of a school aged child.  That first day, as the bus rolled up she gently walked away, said "Bye mom," and never looked back.  No tears.  No hesitation.  Nothing.  The only tears, and boy were there tears, came from her Godmother and Grandmother.  

And while one of my angels is away learning all the things there is to learn, I find way time to do things that are now som much easier to do with one child.  Grocery shopping.  Banking.  Random errands.  Saving the world.  You'd be surprised how easy it is to save the world while only toting one child.  

Around Bayly's birthday we got a dog, much to the chagrin of my wife.  We found a great breeder of Labradoodles near by that came with a great review from a friend.  We had to choose the less than manly sounding yet hypoallergenic dog because of asthema and other health concerns.  Toby is a great dog, most of the time, gets along well with the kids, and even seems to enjoy life in our family.  But he is growing on my wife.  He knows how to turn it on.  He always finds time to cuddle with here on the couch at night.  I guess he takes after me.  Smart dog.  

Halloween was uneventful, aside from a hurricane/annual October CT storm.  

Then Thanksgiving.  No biggie here.  Same ole, Same ole.  

Newtown.....  My kids were lucky enough to not really know anything happened.  They are just too young.  It was very hard to grasp.  I, like so many other parents, hugged my kids tight that day.  

Christmas was insane mostly because I have a school aged child and a toddler.  Not a bad insanity.  A normal insanity.  If you have kids, you know how it is.  If you don't have kids, you are missing the best time of the year.  Or are you?  

Which brings us to New Years.  My wife and I were saying last night that 2012 was pretty quiet for us as a family.  No major things going down.  Lets hope the next year will be much of the same.  

Happy New Year my loyal followers/readers.  I will try to keep this going longer than last year.  Here's hoping!