A blast from the past

As what may be my family’s last spring break rolls on, here’s my favorite image from the first one, back in 2005. My older daughter–who just turned 18 a few days ago–was in kindergarten at the time, and we spent a week in Arizona. Near the end of the week, we went to a chuck

She fills my heart with joy

My world hasn’t been the same since the girl in this picture entered into it, sixteen years ago this week. She makes me smile, makes me laugh, sometimes make me shake with anger, but at the bottom of it all I’d do anything to keep her happy and safe. Being a parent is like that.

Such a Croc

I have to admit that, many years after they were fashionable (if they ever really were in the first place), I wear Crocs. They were big among children, but somehow adults wore them, too. Crocs now has lots of shoes that don’t even resemble the ugly Crocs of yore. But mine are those ugly Crocs.

The time has flown by

I remember this picture well. It was taken in late December of 1999, as we had traveled to Sanibel Island, Florida, to celebrate the coming of the new millenium. Fears of Y2K were in the air. Remember that? It seems silly now, all these years later, but the idea that computers would get all wiggy

No greater feeling

This picture was taken in about 2001. The girl on my back is now a teenager, and I’ve had the pleasure of being her dad for many, many years. I’ve learned a lot about her, and about myself, and about the world that appears in such vibrant color behind us. The exhilarating part of being a parent

A booyah day

Today started off with some of the best things I know: A hot cup of coffee, an old classic on the radio (Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May” if it matters), and a brilliant sunrise that defies an easy description. I thought of it as Daybreak over Chicago, and it was beyond beautiful. My little one was

Finding some magic in the kitchen

Sometimes parenting takes patience, or creativity, or understanding. Sometimes it requires a combination of all these things, and sometimes it requires something else altogether. It’s an ever-changing puzzle, trying to get a handle on what a child needs. And once in a while, it makes for a good story. Such was the case with my

Sandra Fluke and the Kill for/Die for thing

It’s a typical Saturday morning, and around my house that means ice skating. My older daughter had a lesson with a coach at one local skating rink, and my younger daughter had another lesson at another rink. It’s a good thing that we have two cars and two drivers to acommodate them. After I drove

Not everything will be this way

I remember when the state quarters began coming out back in 1999. Before then, quarters always had an eagle on their backside, with the exception of the bicentennial quarters that were minted in 1976. When I first saw the Delaware quarter, with the picture of a man riding on a horse, I became intrigued and