In a previous post, I mentioned my love of pictures and videos that are now containers full of treasures from the past. I pull them out every once in a while as reminders of progress, especially when I am drowning in family chaos. In the early 2000s, and now in the archives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Back to God Ministries, there are video stories about our tribe called Busy Families and Dad’s Home respectively. One story is before we added child Numbe

Parents of active children spend countless hours watching soccer, dance, football, piano and you name it. We sign them up, drive them to practice and then earn the right to complain when our weekends are overcome with busy schedules of who goes where, what clothes and equipment to pack, and how to get the kids healthy, (saying this only for my wife) convenient meals in between performances or games. Yes, I said earn the right. It is a lot of rush and wait; speed across town a

Even though today is St. Patrick’s Day, the day of good luck, I am not feeling it. My adult child recently uttered the phase that made me question every parenting decision I have made over the past two decades -- “Why did (or didn’t) you make me…when I was younger.” In the case of our kids, the dot-dot-dot of that phase ranges from continue to play soccer or take ballet, to read more or work harder at “x.” It is the old parenting conundrum of when to push your children in th

Cleaning the basement storage after more than a decade of accumulation of stuff, I felt like an archeologist excavating through the layers of dust to find artifacts that took us back to yesteryear. Stuff in this 16' & 14' area had gotten to the point that the path to navigate from shelf-to-shelf was only wide enough for our small, canine family member to do a full pass through. Box-by-box we removed the container, the lid and the contents inside. In some cases I validated th

We guys just need to have our own space. I’m not talking about alone time here, but that is important too. I am talking about our own physical space in the house that is ours to manage or just simply enjoy! It’s good for the marriage. Some have a man cave in the garage or the basement; that’s not me. I have my own storage area. Well not really my own, but I have chosen to be in charge of that space, that is until this last weekend. On a cold, blowing snow day, my wife and