Thought for the Weekend Answer

OK, maybe this was a hard one. The answer to this weekends quote.

" Its a miracle that curiosity survives formal education", was Albert Einstein.

McMommy was the closest this weekend, but still no winner! However she still gets credit for being the closest! Congrats!

Thought for the Weekend

Time for this weeks edition of "Thought for the Weekend" In particular, I consider this quote rather relevant since my kids are just entering formal school age.

" Its a miracle that curiosity survives formal education".

Who said this? Remember no cheating and looking it up on the Internet.

Hint: One of the most famous 20th century people.

Who can guess it first?

Whoever guesses it first will get a link back to their blog!

Wordless Wednesday

Time for an edition of wordless Wednesday. This is me hiking in the Rocky Mountains.

Adventures into "Play Date Land"

More uncharted fatherhood territory for me here. My oldest daughter is off of school for two weeks (we are on a year round school system here) and I am quickly learning about the concept of a "Play Date".

What is a "Play Date" you might ask? Well, up until recently I had no idea what one was. I mean I understood the concept of it, but never really knew how they worked. How does one arrange a "Play Date" for a daughter of theirs?

In case you were wondering, the whole topic of the two phrases "My Daughter" and "Date" always elicited a response like, "She will never date when she is a teenager, I am going to send her off to a monastery when she reaches 13." So....you understand where I am coming from on this?

It just feels plain weird calling up another Mom from my daughters class and asking if Johnny 1st grader can come over for a "Play Date" with my daughter. Again, re-read the previous paragraph and you will understand when "daughter" and "date" are in the same sentence I get pretty strong negative emotions.......

What is even more weird is blurting out the phrase to a Mom "Play Date".

Again, one of those things and conversations that I never EVER would have imagined I would be having before I became a SAHD/WAHD.

Has anyone else had any experiences or problems with the phrase "Play Date"?

Go Green at Home

Did you hear what happened in San Francisco recently? The city enacted a bill which would give HUGE and MASSIVE rebates to people installing renewable energy, specifically solar energy in their homes or businesses. The major of good ole San Fran signed this into legislation today!

If a home installs a photovoltaic (solar) system, they are eligible for between $3000-$5000 in tax rebates, and for a business the rebate goes up to $10,000. Wow! That is over $3 million worth of tax incentives for renewable energy!

While this is an overall effort that is being looked at across California, San Francisco lead the way with this.

In my humble opinion, there are many other cities ans states which have the potential to benefit even more than this.

Anyone know if good ole sunny Colorado is looking into this?

Fathers Day

This is a day that naturally many of us reflect on our fathers and our relationship with them or what they taught us.

My father always tried to teach me the value of work. In fact when I was young he gave me a copy of this poem to try and put into words what he could not.

It is a poem penned by General MacArthur and yes my dad was a West Point grad as well so he had a natural affinity for great alumni from there. However, this poem still does ring true and makes me think about many things.

I'm posting this in dedication of my dad. Happy Fathers Day!

Build Me a Son
General Douglas A. MacArthur

Build me a son, O Lord,
who will be strong enough to know when he is weak,
and brave enough to face him self when he is afraid;
one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat,
and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishbone will not be
where his backbone should be;
a son who will know Thee-
and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge.

Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort,
but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge.
Here, let him learn to stand up in the storm;
here, let him team compassion for those who fall.

Build me a son whose heart will be clear,
whose goals will be high;
a son who will master himself
before he seeks to master other men;
one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep;
one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his, add, I pray,
enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious,
yet never take himself too seriously.

Give him humility, so that he may always remember
the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom,
the meekness of true strength.

Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, "I have not lived in vain."

Anyone else have any good lessons they learned from their father?

Thought for the Weekend

Here is this weeks version of the Thought for the Weekend. It's from a rather obscure source, but rings very true for those of us who are parents....

"Everybody knows how to raise children, except the people who have them."

How very true! Everyone has an opinion about raising children, especially your own!

Has anyone else had an experience like this or story to tell around this true ism?

So What Do You Do?

I have addressed this in a previous post, however, after a recent comment by another Stay-At-Home/Work-At-Home Dad, I feel this needs re-addressing.



Often this is one of the first points of conversation with a new acquaintance, particularly with other guys. Even with the many ladies I meet at the playground this question comes up.



So, essentially what I do is run a business my wife started out of my house. I help and train others to realize that they can do this same thing too, its really not that hard to do if you know how and are willing to learn. My true passion lies with helping parents live the life they want to lead and spend more time with their families.



In particular, I concentrate on teaching a system and "non-selling" technique in my business and marketing which focuses on on-line lead generation for any business. Its a technique of becoming the hunted instead of the hunter in your home business, applicable to anyone.



I can teach you that marketing your business or any business can be as easy as passing out DVDs.

Renewable Energy

Major development here! Duke Energy just announced that they will be building a 20 megawatt solar power project in North Carolina. All I can say is WOW!

The overall cost will be close to $100 Million overall. However, the really cool part is that this installation will not just be at one or two solar stations, but at over 850 sites across North Carolina. The sites will include homes, offices, and factories. Anywhere where there is spare roof space.

The project is supposed to take two years to complete and provide enough electricity for over 2600 homes.

Of course, you can Go Green in your own home with great Eco-friendly cleaning products! Go Green!

A Rather Surreal Day

It has finally come to this. Reflecting upon it, this has been one of the most surreal days I have had as a Stay-At-Home Dad. You know it is really one of those days when I say, "I never ever thought I would be doing this." I really had to catch myself and ask, "How did I get here?"

The culminating event, or events, was at a swim lesson for my four year old daughter. We go with a Stat-At-Home Mom neighbor of ours to a local swim place where both of our kids take lessons.

I was chatting with this Mom about what my daughter and I were going to do for the rest of the day, and I replied, "We are going to the grocery store and picking up a few things. You know, we use the 'Grocery Game' and it saves us a ton of money." We then proceeded to talk for a few more minutes about the Grocery Game and how it saved us a ton of money. Several other moms were sitting nearby and they also chimed in their own comment and questions, "Does that game really work?" or "I've heard of that and always wanted to do it". Another question was, "I hear that you need to go to like 10 different stores in order to do the Grocery Game." I then proceeded to tell them all that it was easy and that we only went to two grocery stores and yes it does save a ton of money.

I then had a moment of absolute clarity. Did I really just have a 10 minute conversation about the Grocery Game with 4 moms? How did my life become this?

Several minutes later I sent my 4 year old daughter to the changing room to get out of her wet swimming suit and into dry clothes. Little did I know that she had another plan and proceeded to completely strip down in the changing room.....and then run around the pool area without any clothes. Of course I chased her all around until I caught her and promptly brought her back and got her dressed. It took me about 5 minutes to get her back in the changing room.

Again, another moment of clarity. Did I really just have to chase around my stripped down daughter in a public place? Again, how did my life become this?

To top it off, when I finally got home I discovered that the dog had pooped AND peed on the carpet upstairs. I found myself very quickly cleaning up the mess.

I just never imagined a sequence of events like that would ever happen to me. All in one day, all in one hour. How did I get here? Well, I believe my wife and I decided that this arrangement would be best.

I just laughed it off. How many Dads get to have a day and experience like this?

Thought for the Weekend

The person who said "It's like Deja Vu all over again" is Yogi Berra, the former Yankee catcher. (As apposed to Yogi Bear, the Jellystone Bear).

Congratulations to The Mom at Cheaper Than Therapy Blog for being the first to guess!

OK, I made it a little too easy this time!

Thought for the Weekend

It's time for this weeks version of "Thought for the Weekend". Who said this famous quote?

"It's like Deja Vu all over again".

Hint....its not Yogi Bear. Remember, no cheating and looking the answer up on the Internet!

Who knows the answer?

Blog promotion for you, the reader!

Today's post is all about you guys. Do you have a blog you want to promote? Comment here! Tell the universe about it! Just keep it clean!

I love to see what others blog about, tell me about it.

Go Green by Going Smaller Cars

It seem that consumer purchasing power is having a huge impact on the auto industry. Have you all heard the news that Ford and GM are going to focus more on production of smaller cars vs. bigger SUVs. Definitely a win for the wallet and for the planet.

Another big sign of this changing world is GM's announcement that it will close 4 big SUV manufacturing plants and is thinking about selling its ailing line Hummer. Wow! No more Hummers? Holy Cow.

The company doesn't seem to be burying its head in the sand either: “We don’t believe it’s a spike or a temporary shift. We believe it is, by and large, permanent,” said GM chairman Rick Wagoner.

Lets hope they learned from their $51 billion loses over the past three years and are really serious.

What about you? Have you been driving less? Looking at smaller cars? Let us know!

Thought for the Weekend Answer

The answer to who said, "He who knows what sweets and virtues are in the ground, the waters, the plants, the heavens, and how to come at these enchantments, is the rich and royal man.", is Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844.

No one guessed the answer this week. Thank you to those who participated.

I'll try and make it a little easier next week. ;)