While I admit this subject isn’t something I can relate to or am familiar with, I believe that by sharing this infographic, there’s a possibility I can help someone in my social network who needs to see it. The infographic below is entitled “The War At Home- How To Spot Domestic Abuse.”
As my regular readers of Family Friendly Daddy Blog already know, my family is building a house; closing date in January 29th, 2015.
In the process of planning out the rooms, my wife and I have decided that while we will have a TV in the bonus room, we won’t have one downstairs in the living room; or any other room.
That means in order to watch TV, you actually have to walk upstairs and isolate yourself. Therefore, the temptation is greatly reduced to walk in the door and veg out without spending quality time with other family members.
I believe it’s “little” decisions like that which contribute to health family communication and relationships.
A few weeks ago while reviewing a car here for Family Friendly Daddy Blog, I was sent an iPad and an iPhone to use in conjunction with the vehicle’s 4G LTE capabilities.
I should point out that I’m of the American minority; we have no smart phones in our household. My wife and I both have “dumb” phones instead.
The main reason is because we’re not willing to pay for a data plan. We are on a family plan with my parents and pay a monthly total of only $30 per month. Again, that’s total; not per person.
But even if it cost us no extra money per month to own smart phones, I still wouldn’t be excited.
Here’s why:
I fully recognized that my family’s life is hurried enough. My wife and I both work; our son is in school all day. The commute time in Nashville is longer than the average large city.
We don’t need more interruptions or distractions in our lives. I feel that if we owned smart phones, it would only add to the anxiety.
Sure, I get the irony in the fact that I run this blog from a cheap ASUS laptop and a dumb phone. I was the official daddy blogger for Parents Magazine for 3 years and never once touched a smart phone.
Of all people, I should own a smart phone… or at least want one. But I don’t.
I won’t deny the fact that having a smart phone for that week made certain things more convenient. However, I found myself getting frustrated that I couldn’t use manage my blog with the same ease as a laptop.
Plus, I don’t like knowing that I can check my email or Facebook at any time. I’d rather just “shut it off” during the day.
With that being said, you could imagine I would easily like this book…Growing Up Social, by Gary Chapman (The 5 Love Languages) and Arelene Pellicane (31 Days to Becoming a Happy Wife).
The book causes you to ask yourself, “Is technology bringing your family closer together or driving you farther apart?”
Growing Up Social teaches the five skills that every healthy child needs to master: affection, appreciation, anger management, apology, and attention:
The Skill of Affection – How do you show real love to another person?
The Skill of Appreciation – How do you cultivate a grateful heart?
The Skill of Attention – How do you focus and be a good listener?
The Skill of Anger Management – How do you express anger in a productive way?
The Skill of Apology – How do you mend a relationship after you make a mistake?
The focus is raising relational kids in a screen-driving world. So relevant!
And one lucky reader will win a free copy of this book today…
Just be the first person to post on the Facebook wall for Family Friendly Daddy Blog (not a private message), asking me, “Did I just win Growing Up Social?”
If you’re the first person to do so, I will respond by saying yes… After that, I will follow up by getting your address to give to the publisher so they can send you your won copy!
Update: A winner was found within just a few minutes of this post going live. The giveaway portion is now complete.
Did I just win Growing up social????
Thanks for reading today! And remember, I’ll be giving more books away; so stay tuned…
“Disclosure (in accordance with the FTC’s 16 CFR, Part 255: ‘Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising’):
Many thanks to Propellor Consulting, LLC for providing this prize for the giveaway. Choice of winners and opinions are 100% my own and NOT influenced by monetary compensation. I did receive a sample of the product in exchange for this review and post.
Only one entrant per mailing address, per giveaway. If you have won the same prize on another blog, you are not eligible to win it again. Winner is subject to eligibility verification.”
3 years, 11 months.
Dear Jack,
In addition to making you feel special by taking you to go get tater tots at Burger Republic back in September for the “The Great Food Truck Festival”, you also had a lot of fun that same weekend by helping Mommy and me make some of the party favors for your upcoming birthday party in just two weeks.
For your appropriately themed Lego party at Bricks 4 Kids (A Lego-themed party place), we are giving out homemade Lego Man crayons as part of your party favor bags.
Mommy found the Lego Man mold on Amazon. From there, we found a few boxes of old crayons; some of them having been baking in our cars for the past couple of years!
My main job was to take the knife and cut off the paper wrappers. Your job was to organize the crayons by color (which you did with great pride) and throw away the wrappers for me after I cut them off the crayons, which was actually very helpful for me.
From there, Mommy crushed them and fit them into the molds, baking them for a little while. After that they went into the freezer to cool off.
Too bad we only had one mold tray, which yields 8 Lego Man crayons at a time. Mommy was basically baking batches for about 6 hours straight in order to produce a total of about 64.
So as you can see, as long as you use as least 2 different colors of crayons, each Lego Man crayon is guaranteed to look unique, like a snowflake or a fingerprint.
My favorite one looked like the Earth. I named him Captain Planet.
Without surprise, you immediately chose your favorites to put in your own goody bag.
Making those Lego Man crayons was definitely a fun family activity for us. Granted, Mommy’s role was the most tedious.
But we all a great time. It was such a unique and “Pinteresty” thing for us to do.
I guess we get cool points now or something…
Love,
Daddy
Let’s found out about James Hardy’s 7th week on my challenge:
Journal entry date: November 2, 2014
Let’s found out about James Hardy’s 2nd week on my challenge:
Journal entry date: September 21th, 2014
I have officially gone over a week with no dairy or eggs. This has been a very tough week for me. I never knew how many things needed eggs, or milk and how much of the food I purchase had eggs and milk in it.
In this week I have had all kinds of things happen to my body that were out of the ordinary. I had a very harsh sinus drain on day 4. I wasn’t sick, it lasted only a day, and it was very clear. Since then my breathing has had an improvement and something else improved that I didn’t expect. I have had hearing issues in my left ear since I was 16 years old. I qualified for a hearing aid but after that sinus drain I have noticed a very noticeable improvement in my hearing.
The last weird thing I have had happen is my stomach some crazy issues on day 7 and 8. These weren’t normal bowel movements and I feel my body was moving out all of the nastiness that doesn’t get moved due to all of the dairy. Things are back to normal now.
Day 6 was a big test day for me for how no dairy and eggs would affect my asthma and allergies. On day 6 my wife and I went to visit her parents and brother for her brother’s birthday. Her parents have cats and dogs all over the place. Normally when I go over there I take a total of 6 Benadryl throughout the time there and will have to take many puffs of my emergency inhaler.
This visit I only used 2 Benadryl and 1 puff of my inhaler but I don’t think I needed it. I could breathe perfectly fine and wasn’t having allergy issues but my brain was freaking out like it was. My body is starting to have positive reactions to this new diet but my brain has yet to make new connections to what is going on.
On day 4 I had felt like I was having an asthma attack yet I could breathe perfectly fine. I took some deep breaths and it stopped. I have a few theories as to why my brain is doing this but for now I am having less breathing issues, less allergy issues and I can calm my body down from these fake reactions through deep breathing.
I plan on another expose test to an allergen on day 16 to see what my reactions. This will be a controlled test, with medication ready and my focus will be to see how my eyes, nose and skin reacts to cat allergens.
So far this diet change has not affected my workouts. I have been using a pea based protein for after gym protein intake. It taste like I am drinking rice when I mix it with water but when I mix it with vanilla almond milk, it taste great. So far I have not physical changes to my body.
Still at the same weight and I seem to be the same body fat percentage. I am hoping other than my asthma and allergies getting better I am hoping to finally lose my love handles.
Family Friendly Daddy Blog 