Every Monday, my wife and I will take this time to reflect through all the weekly struggles, frustrations, screaming children, unplanned expenses, surprise bills, disappointing date nights, speeding tickets, challenging co-workers, and whatever else the week throws our way to highlight what we're both grateful for.
Read MoreLet me just say I am a huge fan of any activity that allows my son to play quietly. Ha!! But truthfully as much as technology is a part of our world, I dont’ want that to be the only way he learns. I’ll admit there are some really great apps out there (we’ve downloaded a few) and learning programs on the boob tube, but they don’t allow you to truly interact with your child one on one. I try my best to avoid battery operated toys because I’ve found them to be, in my opinion pretty useless except as noise makers. I am really partial to those that also are truly learning centered and create interactive “play”.
Read MoreAll I know is it's about high time we started counting our blessings a little more consistently than we currently do.
So every Monday, my wife and I will take this time to reflect through all the weekly struggles, frustrations, screaming children, unplanned expenses, surprise bills, disappointing date nights, speeding tickets, unbearable co-workers, and whatever else the week throws our way to highlight what we're both grateful for.
We know too many friends and family who lost every single thing they owned, but still got away with their lives to complain about the bullshit.
Read MoreMy wife and I couldn't believe it - our firstborn's first day of kindergarten was upon us already. It seems like not too long ago we were witnessing his first steps, now here we are spending an arm and a leg on his school supply list.
Like what kind of kindergartner needs 4 boxes of Crayola brand 24 count crayons, 2 cans Play-Doh Classic in assorted colors, a box of gallon Ziploc bags, and not to mention 24, that's right - 24 Elmer's glue sticks? What adult needs 24 glue sticks for that matter? I mean who the hell can afford these school supply lists anyway? Just for clarity, if there's 15 students in the class, that's three hundred sixty glue sticks. 360 glue sticks! What the hell are they planning to build this year? Trump's Wall?
A few days prior, we had the chance to meet our son's new teacher during the school's meet-n-greet night. At our son's previous Montessori, he learned a ton, up to and including how to kicked out of a Montessori. So during his time out of school, at the suggestion of his now former Montessori, we took him to see a behavioral therapist who confirmed our concerns after a few weekly hour long sessions. Our son was diagnosed with ADHD as well with another mental disorder we won't get into today.
Read MoreMy husband is pretty much a regular guy. He works, helps take care of the little people, enjoys the outdoors and loves a good hot plate. His sense of humor can run the gambit of a Family Guy episode but he can be just as serious when the situation calls for it. He has a unique world perspective because of his background as a military kid having lived all over the world and as a person of mixed race. I will say he has some pretty good qualities about him. So much so, I once looked at him as someone far superior than anyone I had ever dated and kind of even myself in some ways. But over time, particularly over the last year, I've come to realize, he's not so extraordinary. Let me explain.
Read MoreSaturday, August 12, in Charlottesville, VA, a white nationalist group, Unite the Right, exercised their right to protest the renaming of Emancipation Park from Robert E. Lee along with the removal of the Robert E. Lee Statue.
Protesters arrived as early as 8AM.
Counter-protesters arrived against the direction of Governor Terry McAuliffe who urged, "...Virginians, no matter how well-meaning, elect to stay away from the areas where this rally will take place."
Before noon, due to increasing violence, Governor Mcauliffe declares a state of emergency after law enforcement declared the gathering unlawful.
Shortly after 1PM, James Alex Fields, Jr., a protestor from Ohio rams his vehicle into a crowd of counter-protestors killing 32 year old Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. He's currently charged with 2nd degree murder.
Heather Heyer's final public Facebook post read, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention."
Read MoreIn no world where the internet doesn't exist where any human privileged enough to have access to wi-fi and products designed by Steve Jobs, and can self publish their elementary ramblings to the world, would I be considered a writer.
But that's not the world we live in. And people pay me to write the thoughts in my head on the internet. So I've been criticized as a writer, but that would be unfair to every human who's taken the craft of scribing words serious enough to study and practice getting better at it.
Because my writing style is more or less, get lost in my feelings about some subject, smoke marijuana, and spew it all out - guts and all - unfiltered, in one long rambling medicated rant that only makes sense to myself at the time, but almost always leads me to shame if I dare to go back and read my own thoughts aloud.
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