Author: Family Friendly Daddy Blog

2 Comments Posted on fatherhood, food reviews, Health, parenting, People, Storytelling, Uncategorized, vegan

Louisville, Kentucky is Definitely a Vegan Friendly City: Officially Endorsed by The Manly Vegan (That’s Me, Obviously!)

Fact #1: I am the manliest (and most humble) vegan on the Internet- and the entire world refuses to refute my claims.

Fact #2: Your family will have no issues finding plant-based, cholesterol-free food in Louisville, Kentucky.

Just a little over a month ago I proclaimed that Destin, Florida is still not a vegan-friendly town; after my 2nd visit there in 2 years. But being the emotionally intelligent man I am, and being a man who understands how the free market works, I quickly acknowledged that it’s not Destin’s fault they don’t cater to vegans:

There is simply not a demand in Destin for vegan food. Destin instead attracts a lot of families with young kids who are okay with feeding their families fast food.

Louisville, Kentucky is the complete opposite. It attracts enough crazy people like me; people who depend on veggies, fruit, beans, grains, nuts, and seeds for their nutrition; as opposed to animal products.

I was extremely impressed by Louisville’s Whole Foods. One of the best I’ve seen, actually! Not only was it conveniently close to the Louisville Zoo where my family was visiting, as we ventured in the ever-manly 2017 Toyota 4Runner, but the Louisville Whole Foods had the most impressive array of vegan baked goods; including vegan donuts, which I have found are rare beyond the West Coast.

By the way, my wife and kids are vegetarians; not vegan.

Something peculiar, in a good way, that I noticed about the Louisville Whole Foods was this:

There were are lot of older people shopping there. I have never seen so many healthy, fit senior citizens in one place.

It was such a delight. Because that will be me in 20 years. I will be the healthy, fit 56 year-old vegan jogging man. Forget migrating to Florida when I retire! I just need to find my way back to Louisville!

My only regret is that I didn’t get a chance to try the alluring vegan jerky of Stan Chase’s Louisville Vegan Jerky Co.

I did, however, manage to quickly snap pictures of his vegan jerky options for future reference. By the way: Stan, if you’re reading this, and want to send me some samples, I would be honored to do a special blog post, and YouTube video, featuring your product…

After all, I am the manliest vegan on the Internet, as we’ve already well established. I am clearly the perfect demographic fit for your jerky.

So yes, fellow vegans of America… go to Louisville, Kentucky.. You belong there.

There are plenty of options of places you can eat, like Chuy’s, where I enjoyed the veggie fajitas; which I ordered without sour cream or cheese.

Ah, I am just so happy. So happy to know that despite my major disappointment in Destin, the ying to the yang exists in Louisville.

Fact #3: Louisville, Kentucky is man enough for the Manly Vegan.

Fact #4: Destin, Florida is not.

Fact #5: I am very curious about vegan jerky now.

Leave a comment Posted on car reviews, fatherhood, marriage, parenting, People, Storytelling, Uncategorized

This is 36: We Celebrated Our 9 Year Wedding Anniversary by Taking Our Kids on a Road Trip to Louisville, Kentucky

Yes, it was indeed nine years ago today that my wife and I were married at Brenthaven Cumberland Presbyterian Church. We purposely got married right next to a holiday (July 4th) so that we’d sort of always have a built-in day off for whatever we ended up doing for our anniversary.

For our 9th anniversary this year, we decided there was no better way to celebrate, than the load up our 6 and a half year-old son and our 1 year-old daughter and take a random road trip to one of my favorite cities in America:

Louisville, Kentucky.

Perhaps a more normal couple would have ventured there without the kids- and checked out some venues that are little more anniversary-ish and perhaps not so focused on catering to the attention spans of children.

Nah. Not us.

If we’re going to spend the money on a road trip, even just a 3 hour one across the state line, we might as well make it a family affair.

Being the world’s most famous vegan family friendly daddy blogger, Toyota helped us out by sending a 2017 4Runner; which proved to be ideal for our laid-back adventure to the Blue Grass State.

Because we’ve got our annual family zoo pass from Nashville, we were able to get in the Louisville Zoo for half off.

And because we’re cool adventurous people, we even took an unplanned stop at Dinosaur World in Cave City, Kentucky on the way back home to Tennessee.

Thanks to some points we’d earned, my wife was able to cash in a free stay at the Marriott Courtyard Louisville East, just a few miles from the zoo.

I must say we were quite entertained by the “New Japan Pro-Wrestling” tournament that happen to be on, while we enjoyed our dessert treats from Whole Foods Louisville; which was also just a few miles away too.

Two queen size beds between the four of us…

You can imagine how it must have been getting our daughter to sleep too; in the pack-and-play bed next to ours.

It was around 10:30 PM by the time both our kids were asleep. To ensure we didn’t disturb them, we laid out a towel on the bathroom floor in front of the sink, and enjoyed our gourmet vegan cupcakes from Whole Foods.

This is 36.

Leave a comment Posted on fatherhood, parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Fun Parenting Idea for the Beach: How to Make a “Buried Treasure” for Your Child to Discover

Last month our family traveled to Destin, Florida for our summer vacation. The week before we left, I put together a “buried treasure” kit for my son to find.

I started out by driving over to Party City on my lunch break, where for $4, I was able to find a metal lunchbox shaped like a treasure chest. A few aisles down, I picked up a pack of plastic casino chips for $6 that look like gold coins.

Next, headed over to PetCo and for another $6, I found an actual buffalo antler.

Knowing that my 6 and a half year-old son was already preoccupied by the idea of finding a dinosaur bone or a saber tooth tiger’s tooth, I then headed over to PetCo and for another $6, I found an actual buffalo antler.

Lastly, I found a paper bag in the recycle bin at work, and tore part of it into the shape of a sheet of paper.

Now that I had all the supplies, I finalized the items.

I got a hold of some matte black spray paint to cover up the Disney cartoon theme of the metal lunch box. Then I threw it down several times on the concrete, to give it a more rustic look.

Afterwards, I wrote a letter, as a pirate from 1700’s, explaining that my treasure was buried nearby. Using a lighter from a friend, I then singed the edges of the letter, then splashed it in water to help make it look a couple hundred years old.

Fast forward a few days and several hundred miles later: I threw the items in my old Gap backpack from college. As my son played in the sand just about 15 feet away, with his back turned to me, I dug 2 separate holes in the sand, about 6 feet apart; one for the treasure chest filled with gold coins and the pirate’s letter on top of them, and the other one for the “saber tooth”.

As you can imagine, it was quite an adventure!

And that’s how it’s done.

Now, if you found this blog post to be interesting and relevant, I hereby invite you to read another blog post I did, which shows the pictures of the actual event taking place.

Click here to check it out.

 

6 Comments Posted on Health, Recipes, Uncategorized

I Used Rosemary Essential Oil for Hair Loss for 6 Months and This is What Happened…

On a daily basis from December 25th, 2016 until June 25th, 2017, I faithfully applied rosemary oil onto my scalp. I also included other oils as well, along with pumpkin seed oil in pill format.

1 ounce almond oil (carrier oil)

18 drops rosemary oil

3 drops rose hip seed oil

3 drops sage oil

3 drops lavender oil

-Plus one pumpkin seed capsule daily (but 2 daily for the first month)

The results? Inconclusive.

6 Months Before…

New hair did not grow in. However, there is no obvious evidence that my hair continued to thin either. So I can’t prove it didn’t maintain and keep the hair I still have.

But obviously, no… it did not serve as some magical cure for hair loss that people on the Internet want it to be.

6 Months After…

Believe it or not, I’m now technically more popular as a YouTuber than I am as a daddy blogger. For the past year and a half, I have been making about 3 videos a day about hair loss on my YouTube channel.

My original intention was to create popular videos for children to watch with their parents, like my Jack-Man series…

 

As well as my Uncle Nick series…

 

But the free market decided otherwise. What people actually chose to spend their time watching were videos where I casually talk about hair loss.

I hit the 1,000 subscriber mark back in February, and now I’m over 1600. What that means is this: I make supplemental income now, as a YouTube. It’s currently over $50 a month, as YouTubers get a cut of the revenue from the commercials that play right before my videos.

And that number of subscribers is growing daily.

 

So while you know me as the daddy blogger, there are over 1600 YouTube subscribers who know me as an accidental expert on hair loss. Pretty weird, huh?

 

Did using these oils help my hair loss? I provided pictures though, so you can be the judge.

And in case you’re interested in trying out some shampoo that contains some of the oils I use everyday, here’s a link to Amazon.

1 Comment Posted on fatherhood, parenting, Uncategorized

Everything is in Place- How To Perfectly Organize Children’s Birthday? (By Guest Blogger Angela Berry)

We all know how much children love birthdays and how much they look forward to them, and parents are those who try their best to make it all happen. Every parent wants their kid to have the best birthday party there is, but usually, they don’t know how to begin organizing it. Here are some elementary things you should start from, so better grab a pen and paper and take some notes.

Space

Before actually choosing the space, you have to decide on how many guests you’re going to invite. Are you planning on having a children-only party or are their parents going to be there as well? Do you want kids to be in one room with an entertainer to take care of them, and parents in another where they can chat and relax together? When you decide on the guest list, you can start thinking whether you want to have the party at home or out of the house. If you decide on your home, the advantage is that your kid will be on their own turf, so they will be in a good mood. Also, at home you know where everything is.

You can stop kids from wandering around by defining party areas with balloons and decorations, and keep other rooms locked. If you don’t want all that creative mess happening in your home, so you can decide on renting a play room, having a party in a restaurant or at the park (if weather permits). Again, make sure to define different areas, keep an eye on them and put safety first. Additionally, it’s always good to have a contingency plan in case of bad weather or another unforeseen event, just don’t cancel everything and disappoint your child.

Entertainers will turn the party into a Fairy Tale

You have a big variety of entertainers to choose from today. You can hire a balloon artist, a magician, a clown, a dance instructor, professional storytellers, DJs, hairstylist (check the local hair salon for a recommendation), finger or face painters and many more. Sometimes you will know right away who to hire, but sometimes you will need to ask them about their show. Remember to ask about the age of the kids the show is designed for and how long it will last. You can gather references from other parents, or you can ask about the best entertainers in children’s museums and libraries. Also, if your kid loves animals, in some places you can rent a petting zoo or have a mobile petting zoo brought right to your backyard. Kids usually love those.

Quality food is equally important

Your guests (kids as well as grownups) are going to get tired pretty soon, so you have to prepare some refreshment and some nourishment. Make sure that the food you prepared is fun, creative, healthy and nourishing. If you don’t have time (or skill) to prepare the food by yourself, you can get fun, tasty and colourful food from companies dealing with finger food catering and they will prepare everything for you. Of course, you mustn’t forget about the cake. The cake should be the centre of attention when it comes to food, and make sure it gets nicely decorated. You can opt for your kid’s favourite cartoon character, hobby, sports team, car, musician or actor.

Fun decoration is the key

When it comes to decoration, first visit a party store. You can practically spend hours in there. There you can get piñatas, flags, party hats, balloons of all sizes and shapes, confetti, costumes and sculptures. You can also buy straws, party cups, plates, plastic forks and tablecloths there. Some stores rent bouncy castles and slides, so you can book those if you have a big backyard. Basically, you will be able to get everything in one place. If you’re planning on having the party out of the house, prepare balloons and everything to decorate the place. To put everything up, use something that won’t smear the walls, such as low-tick tape, string, and removable adhesive hooks. Here you can go back to your childhood days and just be creative with decoration. Also, you can prepare a nice outfit for your kid. Make sure your kid can easily move in it, and that it can get dry-cleaned.

A professional photographer

Maybe your kid won’t care about this aspect of the party, but you will. You want to keep memories of that happy day and remember all those smiling faces forever, so it’s best if you get all that on camera. You can tell the photographer to concentrate on some things you want to see on photos, but it’s best if they focus on emotions rather than setting and decoration.

We believe this little guide will help all of you who got stuck with planning and organizing your kid’s birthday party. What’s important is not to leave everything for the last moment and always have a contingency plan. This way, you’re going to throw your kid a perfect fairy tale birthday party they will remember forever.

photo
Angela Berry
Editor, Ripped me
E angela.berry@ripped.me W  https://ripped.me/