When Jesus visits your home, He'll ask for you, dads.
Well, it happened!
We enjoyed our 100th picnic at Island Lake Park with 4 other families (with 20 kids).
Want to see proof?
Some trivia:
Number of Locations :77
Number of Families Picnicked with: 13 – not including today, more or less, depending on how you count it.
Number of New Picnic Spots: 26
Picnic Spot most visited this year: Long Lake Park in New Brighton – 12 times
Yes, we’ll probably still go on more picnics whenever the weather is nice and we have some free time.
At the beginning 2010, the JamFam, after setting a record of 92 picnic in 2009, made the goal of 100 picnics this year.
If all goes according to plan (and if it is God’s will) we will be going on our 100th picnic on Sunday (Oct 17). And we would love to share this historic picnic with others.
If you have a free afternoon on Sunday and would like to join us, please email or call us.
We’ll bring dessert!
Sometimes when I am pleased with what a child has done, and I say something to encourage them, I use a tone of voice that is (apparently) similar to when I’m upset with them. So for the first few seconds of my excited encouragement they fear that I am about to reprimand them. This is not good.
I thought this might be true of other Dads, so:
Dad’s, when you are expressing your happiness with what a child has done, don’t start with their name, start with the encouraging word.
For example, don’t say, “Adelyn! I’m very glad to see you help Foster like that!”
Instead, say, “I’m very glad to see you help Foster like that, Adelyn!”
Do any of you other parents experience this?
Dads, ask yourself about each of your children:
Does he think I like him? Does she think I want to be around her?
If you’re not certain the answer is ‘yes’, fix it.
Dads – after giving your kids a bath, if they don’t like the process of getting their clothes put back on, distract them by making them laugh. This can be done with funny faces, funny sounds and moving their arms up and down.
This tip suggested by my son Barrett, who recalls me doing this to him and his brothers when I used to give them baths, and who now does this when giving his youngest brother a bath.
For those of you who are interested (and I hope many of you are) you can now purchase the Fighter Verse Song Set E (which our team has been working on for nearly a year) from the Children Desiring God Website.
It’s good stuff! And if you don’t like the style of one song, just wait – you’ll like the next one. You’ll learn the Word of God and so will your kids.
Dads, want to take your wife out in a inexpensive (perhaps free) manner?
1. Look through your wallet (and her purse).
2. Find all of the partially used gift cards (like the Borders book store card with $1.27 on it).
3. See how many of them you can use in one night.
Treat it like a scavenger hunt.
Dads, do you want to hear the new hit single from the newly finished Fighter Verse CD?
Go here:
And you can also go see the new Fighter Verse Song Blog.
More information about how to get the new CD is coming soon.
So earlier this year we were invited by Uncle Vern and Aunt Kathy to go to the Minnesota Zoo with them. As it turns out, it’s actually cheaper for our family to get a yearly membership than to get tickets for ourselves once. So that’s what we did.
Fairly early in our visit we went to see the Prairie Dogs. They’re so cute and funny as they scamper around, aren’t they? But look closer:
Bottom Left: Two ‘cute and cuddly’ prairie dogs.
Top Left: A distant Bison out on the hill
In Front of the Rock on the Left: The Results from the last time a bison wandered into the prairie dog den.
Moral: Hope you and your kids aren’t there to witness this bloody slaughter when it happens again.
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And then, of course we went to see the large aquarium.
Wait a second, how did she get in there!
Dads, let’s say you want to clean up the clutter around your house, but it’s everywhere and it’s overwhelming. Use the handy tool that almost everyone owns: the Card table.
Step 1: Set up the Card Table in the middle of a room where much of the clutter is.
Step 2: Go around the entire area, bringing all of the clutter to the card table.
Step 3: Now that the clutter objects are in one spot, briefly sort them and disseminate them to their proper locations.
Step 4: (Very Important) Put down the Card table.
Comments –
– It makes things less overwhelming to split up the ‘Find the clutter’ and ‘Put away the clutter’ steps.
– Get your kids to help with these steps. One time we played a game to see if Daddy could find clutter faster than the kids (with Mom’s help) could put it away.
– This may make it so you have to go to the garbage can, or the Lego bin, or the crafts supply box only once.
– Just like you shouldn’t go to bed angry. You should also not go to bed with a clutter table in your living room.
Does anyone have any tweaks to suggest for this list?
Responsible Father 