The Importance of Finding a Park Beside a Railroad Track

The Importance of Finding a Park Beside a Railroad Track

I’m sure things like having an important job and fancy cars and a lot of money are nice, but they certainly pale in comparison to finding a park that is right next to a railroad track.

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The Art of Making My Son’s Bed Without Being Found Out

The Art of Making My Son’s Bed Without Being Found Out

Well, sure, there are many things you have to hide from your children, but making beds isn’t one of them, right? Wrong.

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The Art of Taking Pictures in Front of Other People’s Decorations

The Art of Taking Pictures in Front of Other People’s Decorations

You might remember that one of my children’s shared passions used to be wandering around the neighborhood looking at children to stare at. Well, we’ve taken our game to the next level this holiday season. Their new passion? Wandering around the neighborhood after dark and stopping to pose for photos in front of other people’s decorations.

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A Walk in the Woods

A Walk in the Woods

Around these parts, school is out for the entire week of Thanksgiving. Kids have it so easy these days. Back in my day, we got Thursday and Friday off. That was it.

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Show-and-Tell? More Like Show-and-Dominate.

Show-and-Tell? More Like Show-and-Dominate.

For most families, preschool show-and-tell is an afterthought. Typically, the children at our school bring an assortment of seemingly random toys and items that might or might not have any connection to the weekly themes. For our family, show-and-tell is also an afterthought, but a very competitive one.

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Bare Minimum Parenting with Author James Breakwell

Bare Minimum Parenting with Author James Breakwell

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to sit down with James again to discuss his new book. And obviously, what really happened is we emailed each other using our phones while sipping on beers.

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Reconnecting with My Mountain Roots: Day 2

Reconnecting with My Mountain Roots: Day 2

Our second day in the mountains started with me picking sopping wet trash off the gravel driveway and placing it in a fresh trash bag. Apparently, we had a visitor during the night. The entire wooden container that housed two trash cans was turned over on its side. After I had cleaned up the trash, I went to flip the container up off its side, but it didn’t budge.

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Reconnecting with My Mountain Roots: Day 1

Reconnecting with My Mountain Roots: Day 1

The kids had a couple days off for fall break last week, and so, because we are rugged people, we made a dash to the mountains of North Carolina.

Having grown up and lived almost my whole life in Florida, you might not expect me to be a mountain man, but I most definitely am. In fact, many years ago when I went away to law school in Virginia for six weeks, I bought a pair of hiking boots, which still sit in my closet under a pile of pillows to this very day. It’s not so much that you live in the mountains, it’s that the mountains live inside you.

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Driving by Houses in Cars: Passing Down a Favorite Pastime

Driving by Houses in Cars: Passing Down a Favorite Pastime

One of my four-year-old’s favorite activities is driving by houses of people we know. Not going to their houses, of course, just driving by casually. Peak drive-by time can vary, but it is typically right before or after school.

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I’ve Never Juggled Bowls While Riding a Unicycle, But I Do Have Children

I’ve Never Juggled Bowls While Riding a Unicycle, But I Do Have Children

An acrobat known as Red Panda has been a staple of basketball halftime shows across the country for more than twenty years. I once saw her in person at an NBA game years before I had children. I was stunned by her simple in concept, yet seemingly impossible in practice, act. In short, she rides a very tall unicycle, places an increasing numbers of bowls onto her foot and leg, flips the bowls into the air, and catches them in a stack on her head.

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A Tale of Two Treasure Hunts

A Tale of Two Treasure Hunts

My six-year-old made me a treasure hunt to complete one afternoon recently. Making a treasure hunt is the kind of thing you do on hot, stormy afternoons in August when it’s impossible to go outside and your dad finally makes you turn off the TV and electronics for a few minutes.

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I Changed a Flat Tire, So I Can Do Anything Now

I Changed a Flat Tire, So I Can Do Anything Now

There are a few key items every dad has to check off his dad list and perhaps the most important one is changing a flat tire on the side of the highway with your family in the car.

And, as of this weekend, I have checked it off.

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A Different Kind of First Day

A Different Kind of First Day

This year’s first day of school felt different. Perhaps it was because of our three first days so far it was the only one that had no true firsts. No one was starting school for the very first time or starting at a school we didn’t know.

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Sometimes Parenting is a Train Wreck

Sometimes Parenting is a Train Wreck

We took a short ride on the city train yesterday just to have something to do on one of our last days of summer vacation.

What I didn’t bargain for was that after we messed around the park and shops near where we got off the train, when we returned to the train station, the attendant told us that there had been an accident and the trains were shut down until further notice.

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Tell Us What You Did This Summer

Tell Us What You Did This Summer

If I had to stand up in front of the class and tell everyone what we did this summer—and thankfully I don’t have to do that—this is what I would say.

We did a little bit of everything and a little bit of nothing.

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Did We Start the Fire or Not? (First Concert Memories)

Did We Start the Fire or Not? (First Concert Memories)

I went to my first concert in July 1990 when I was nine years old. For those of you who know me, it might come as a surprise that I was so young. However, the concert was Billy Joel, so now it probably makes more sense. 

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Fulfilling Our Destiny: A Solo Road Trip with Children

Fulfilling Our Destiny: A Solo Road Trip with Children

I recently took my three kids (ages six, four, and two) on a road trip from Florida to North Carolina without my wife because I am a crazy person. A funny thing happened, though; it turned out okay. Maybe I’m not so crazy after all (nope, my wife has confirmed that I’m still crazy).

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Sameness

Sameness

We must have been hanging around by the muddy lake for at least two hours, but it might as well have been four hours or six or ten. We were well-equipped with two plastic grocery bags filled with Cheez Its, a few bananas and apples, thermos cups filled with water, bread for the minnows that swim near the lake’s shore, and two plastic cups to catch the minnows. The essentials. 

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