parenting

Leave a comment Posted on new house, parenting, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: 6 Months of Living in Our New House

4 years, 8 months.

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Dear Jack,

As they say… time flies when you’re having fun.

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That must be why it definitely doesn’t feel like we’ve been living in our new house for 6 months.

A week ago made 6 months that we began moving in our stuff and began sleeping there; but it took a solid week after that before it felt like we truly living there and not simply still moving in.

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As of today, I wanted to document what our house looked like at this point in history; so I walked around room to room, taking pictures.

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One of my proudest decisions in staging our house is that we purposely don’t have a TV downstairs in the living room. It’s important to me that conversation is not stolen in our house.

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If I could come up with a theme for our house, it would be this: Quality time.

That’s so important. We have to make the most of our time together despite our busy schedules as individuals.

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As you read this years from now, I want you to hear me say this once again:

We worked very hard to get into this house.

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It required paying off all our debts (including cars and student loans), then living by an extremely strict budget (including no smart phones), in order to start saving for the down payment on our house.

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Something that was very important to Mommy and me was to make sure we raise you (as well as any future siblings) in a good school system. To do that, we had to move to the “right” county: Williamson.

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We pour our lives into you. We want the best for you. Being able to live in this house makes me feel like our family is exactly where we need to be.

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Living in this house has truly made us happy, content, and at peace. Our quality of life has never been better.

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But again, this wasn’t handed to us.

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And it’s not simply about how much money you make, as much as it is how you manage the money you do make. We worked very hard to get here… and still do.

Love,

Daddy

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Leave a comment Posted on movie reviews, parenting, Uncategorized

Is PG-13 Rated Ant-Man Suitable for Younger Children?

Is PG-13 Rated Ant-Man Suitable for Younger Children?

Something I’ve pointed out over the years in my family friendly movie reviews is that most movies these days are rated PG-13. That happens by default, since PG rated movies scare away adults (thinking the movie will be too cheesy), while R rated movies prevent many teenagers from being able to buy a movie ticket.

So since most movies are rated PG-13, I think it’s important to recognize which of those movies land closer to PG and which are closer to R. Because if this were about 30 years ago, Ant-Man wouldn’t have been rated PG-13. It would have been rated PG.

Let me begin by saying this movie is awesome! My son Jack and I loved it. My favorite Marvel movie up until this point was Captain America: The Winter Soldier. But there’s a good chance Ant-Man may be #1 in my book now.

It’s quick-witted, different, and yet warm.

Ant-Man is rated PG-13 due to action and fighting scenes; which are ultimately the equivalent to Power Rangers violence. The most intense violence actually comes in the form of fierce punches to the face.

It’s almost a theme in the movie: Face punching.

The only time my nearly 5 year-old son (4 years, 8 months to be exact) jumped in brief freight was during a few of the face punches, but it was mainly because the sound effects.

Other violence includes the main villain using a shrink-ray gun that shrinks a man as well as a sheep into a pink glob of mucus; therefore killing them both.

I think that in my son’s perspective, watching Ant-Man was like seeing the action violence of Power Rangers with the creepiness of Goosebumps on Netflix, with The Lego Movie type of humor.

There was no sexual content in Ant-Man or even innuendoes.

However, the assumed most “offensive” language in Ant-Man is one use of a word used for cat; but is used to refer to female genitalia. It is used briefly as an insult slang from one man to another, not in an explicit sexual content.

The other strong cuss word is one use of the phrase “S.O.B.”; only they don’t abbreviate it like I just did.

Other than that, there are definitely what I call PG-rated cuss words throughout. There were no uses of the f-word or “g.d.”; which are the ones most American parents seem to find the most offensive.

The reason the language didn’t bother me was that my son is too young to recognize those words as “bad words” yet.  He doesn’t hear them in our house or at his school, so it didn’t worry me for him to passively hear them in Ant-Man.

He thinks stupid and “oh my gosh” are bad words; neither of which I remember being in this movie.

I don’t think my son would have been able to handle the intensity of Jurassic World or the new Ninja Turtles movie. But Ant-Man was PG enough for him.

So would I recommend Ant-Man to younger children? I say yes, if your child is accustomed to Power Rangers, Goosebumps, and The Lego Movie.

If not, Ant-Man may be too intense, and too serious, for them to appreciate.

Please feel free to let me know your thoughts on my analysis on the “family friendly” factor of Ant-Man, as well as allowing me to answer any further questions  you may about this loveable movie.

Also, here’s my video review of Ant-Man:

Leave a comment Posted on funny, parenting, Spirituality, Uncategorized

Saving Your Family Money by Buying Retail at the End of the Month

Saving Your Family Money by Buying Retail at the End of the Month

I’ve spent nearly a decade working in the transportation industry. (I do that in addition to blogging and making videos for my YouTube channel.)

It’s simple common knowledge to me but I have to remind myself that most retail consumers are probably unaware of it:

You’re typically more likely to find better sales during the end of the month; which is when retailers are most desperate to move out inventory before the new month begins, because then they have to pay taxes on the inventory they didn’t sell.

I refuse to be the guy who pays full price for anything. And I don’t simply want a sale, I want the best sale.

Granted, there will obviously always be exceptions, like certain holiday clearance sales; but I have made and do make a living of off of this principle that retail stores typically save their best sales each month for those last 2 weeks.

So be at the right place at the right time. Wait until the next to the last Tuesday of the month before you buy what you want.

That’s what our family did last Saturday when we made a trip to Old Navy.

I created this “Old Navy Haul” video, which explains this concept, in addition to showing what I bought and for how much. It ends which my son hosting a “pants party”; a concept he invented recently.

My video features my newest song, “The Mandatory Dance,” which I wrote and performed for an upcoming episode of my super hero series, Jack-Man.

So keep this in mind the next time you plan a shopping trip. Make those coupons count more by buying when prices are predictably lower. Take advantage of the situation instead of letting it take advantage of you.

Please feel free to share any similar tips with me here. You may teach me something!

Saving Your Family Money by Buying Retail at the End of the Month

1 Comment Posted on Nostalgia, parenting, Storytelling, toy reviews, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: You’re Not Growing Up Way Too Fast

4 years, 8 months.

The Reason You’re Not Growing Up Too Fast

Dear Jack,

I’ve never felt that you are growing up too quickly. I think you’re growing up at exactly the right speed.

The metronome in my head works just fine as it measures at what rate you should graduate across the sliding scale of baby to boy.

Maybe a good reason I feel this way is that I’ve written at least one blog post and/or letter to or about you since before you were born. That’s more than 5 years now!

There are now hundreds of stories and pictures of your life story that I have preserved in time. (And they all can be retrieved by clicking on the Blog Archives tab on the left side of the screen.)

So maybe I am the exception to the rule of feeling my kid is growing up too fast. I never find myself missing any younger version of you. I have warm nostalgic thoughts about those days, but I don’t miss them.

Because I so appreciate who you are now.

You’re perfect. You’re exactly everything I could possibly hope for in a son.

You are a beautiful, intelligent, and creative young boy.

It is a gift each day that I get to see who you are becoming.

Maybe I’m being too pragmatic here, but if I really wanted to relive the “baby days”, I should focus getting you a brother or sister…

That seems like the best way to relive that time period, but at the same time be able to appreciate the nearly 5 year-old boy you are.

But no, you’re not growing up too quickly for me.

You’re my genius son who just entered his Lego creations into the upcoming county fair. But you’re also down-to-Earth enough that you fully appreciated the “pooping moose” key chain I brought back from Grand Rapids this week as a souvenir.

Love,

Daddy

j1

2 Comments Posted on parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

This is Not a Facebook Pregnancy Announcement, Just a Social Commentary about Them…

This is Not a Facebook Pregnancy Announcement, Just a Social Commentary about Them...

I want to be extremely clear. I am definitely, absolutely not (!) hinting at all that we are having another baby.

Just to be clear, there is not another baby on the way. I promise.

At least not one that I am aware of…

But I do admit, that having been in our new house for 6 months (as of next week) and having been debt-free for over 2 years now (other than our mortgage), life in the new house has created an environment in which having another baby can now be… considered.

It’s now a conversation that takes place. There’s now logic behind the reasoning, in my mind.

It wasn’t a conversation before. It wasn’t practical, then. But now that our son is nearly 5 years-old, the thought of expanding our family, in a 4 bedroom house as compared to our 2 bedroom townhouse, sounds less intimidating. At this point, unless we had twins, we wouldn’t have 2 babies or 2 really young children at the same time.

Instead, we would have a Kindergartner and a newborn.

That thought doesn’t terrify me.

I’m sure I could expand more on the why, but for now, I simply want to usher in the subject by acknowledging the culture behind announcing a pregnancy over Facebook.

These days, even if you’re just simply a casual Facebook user, there is still a social expectation that you’re supposed to do some kind of clever “Facebook pregnancy announcement” for everyone.

I created the meme above to demonstrate what I mean.

So now that that sort of thing is the norm, I feel like it’s part of the process of considering having another child.

You have to decide the boy and the girl name.

You have to decide how you want to prepare the baby’s room.

And you have to decide how to make a Facebook announcement, which is sure to get at least 75% of your Facebook friends to “like”.

This is Not a Facebook Pregnancy Announcement, Just a Social Commentary about Them...

I should close by once again making it clear I have no official announcement to make here.

The future holds possibilities because of where we are at in life now; whereas before, we weren’t ready.

If there is any kind of announcement at all, that would be it.

Well, actually, publicly realizing I am open to having another child is a pretty big deal- to me, at least.