Category: Life

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Career Children Fatherhood How I Work Life Parenting Work

Children Are the Best Time Management Tools

via

I thought I was good at managing my time, but having children has made me so much better at it.

That may seem counterintuitive. After all, children suck up all of our time. The moment they finish eating a meal, they’re asking for snacks. They need diaper changes and baths. They’re constantly pulling you somewhere to color or play or read to them. They need to be driven to practice and doctor appointments and friends’ homes. They create an incredible amount of dirty dishes and dirty laundry. They make the house look like it’s been ransacked and looted. They are agents of chaos.

They also want all of your time all of the time.

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Health Life

The Last 20 Pounds are the Hardest

via

“I thought about losing weight once, but I don’t like to lose.”

— Unknown

The Decision

It was not a New Year’s resolution per se. As the ball dropped on the strangest and, in some ways, most difficult year most of us had ever experienced, I didn’t make a grand pronouncement to lose weight. I didn’t write it down or post a status update about it or scream it to everyone I encountered in January. Rather, it was more of a hazy, general goal.

It’s time to get healthy.

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Career Life Writing

I’ve Given Up My Dream of Being a (Full-Time) Writer

“For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

It was always just a dream.

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Children Fatherhood Life Parenting

A Return to the Terrible Twos

A Dispatch from the Trenches

via The New York Times

“Having a two-year-old is like having a blender without a lid.”

— Jerry Seinfeld

This is a dispatch from the war. I’m writing this from the trenches, in the heart of the conflict.

After what has felt like hours of intense battle, the rebel soldier has deployed her ultimate weapon, the one that is unleashed when all else fails: standing in the center of the kitchen, screaming at the top of her lungs as droplets of saltwater jump from her eyes.

What could have caused such a reaction? What did the oppressive totalitarian government do to the people to cause this emotionally-charged attack from the rebel?

Dinner was served.

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Fatherhood Knowledge Learning Lessons Life True Story

My COVID-19 Vaccine Experience

I received the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine yesterday.

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Life

I Love Grey Skies

“When autumn winds have stolen summer’s last kiss I will find you again in my dreams; over and over past thousands of Thursdays, until I can meet you under grey skies and flaming trees.”

Nicole Lyons

As the calendar pages turn and summer begins to loosen its grip on the world, many people become a bit despondent and lament the end of the long, warm days of July and August as they are replaced by the extended darkness of autumn and winter evenings.

I, however, love the shorter days of fall.

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America Children Fatherhood History Life Politics

A Moment for Women of Color – Including My Daughters

Amid all of the reactions and gifs and videos on social medial today, it was a single tweet of thirteen words from a man and writer that I respect that struck me the hardest.

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Life Love

A Full Life Lost

“On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend’s life also, in our own, to the world.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Today would have been my best friend’s 40th birthday.

It should have been.

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Children Fatherhood Life Parenting

Thoughts on My 2nd Child’s 2nd Birthday

My second child, my second daughter, turns two today.

My first, the oldest, is an eight-year-old that acts like she’s 14, and since there is such a large gap between number one and number two – for a very, very, very, very good reason – the past two years have been a refresher course in infant and toddler life.

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Career Fatherhood Life Parenting Work

The Other Essential Workers: Parents

via The Atlantic

One question that COVID-19 has brought to the forefront of our societal conversations is, Who are the essential workers?

The first professions that immediately spring to mind are obvious: doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers. However, the pandemic has proven that there are additional tiers and classes of essential workers, including grocery store employees, delivery drivers, warehouse employees, non-frontline healthcare employees, and teachers.

My wife and I are in these last two categories.

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