family

2 Comments Posted on November 5, 2014November 6, 2014 marriage, People, Uncategorized

My Conference Call With Kirk Cameron Today

I kept assuming it wouldn’t actually happen- that somehow there would be some kind of technical difficulty get the call through.

Fortunately, I was wrong. I indeed was on an hour long conference call with Kirk Cameron today.

Obviously, I’ve been reviewing movies for a while now, from a family friendly perspective. That means that sometimes, like with 23 Blast, I am even asked to review the movie before it even arrives in theatres.

That is the case this week with Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas.

While the majority of the call revolved around his new movie, he was able to speak a lot about other things.

He spoke a whole lot about his family; his wife and 6 kids! I could tell Kirk is truly a family orientated guy.

That’s what he talked about more than anything, actually; his family. Oh, and he loves Christmas!

He mentioned how living out in California, or as he calls it, “the land of fruits and nuts,” (a reference to food, not people) his family is definitely health-conscious, but referenced his loved for Southern style biscuits; as he recently visited the Duggers (19 Kids And Counting) as well as the Robertsons (Duck Dynasty).

Kirk contributed a lot of his health consciousness to his wife; Chelsea Noble. He loved talking about her; explaining how they met on the set of Full House.

His mother who happened to be there because Kirk’s sister Candace was there for taping, encouraged Kirk to find a girl like Chelsea who was “even more beautiful on the inside than the outside.”

Eventually Chelsea played Kirk’s girlfriend on Growing Pains and a year later, he proposed.

When asked if Kirk missed the days of Growing Pains, he laughed, with no relectance, to say no; comparing that part of his life to high school.

I could tell he wasn’t at all annoyed by the Growing Pains mentions, but his focus is clearly on his family and his faith. He has moved on with his life.

Kirk does, however, keep in touch with Jeremy Miller, who played Ben; and occasionally Alan Thicke and Tracey Gold.

The main takeaway from my conference call with Kirk Cameron was that he’s far from a has-been. It’s evident he’s doing much more meaningful and remarkable things in his life now than ever before.

He’s humble. He really is. I heard him talk for an hour.

It wasn’t about him; it was about family and God the whole time.

Now, it’s time for me watch his new movie Saving Christmas so I can write a review for it here on Family Friendly Daddy Blog; which is sort of the whole point of my conference call with him!

Stay tuned for that…

Leave a comment Posted on November 3, 2014November 4, 2014 book review, marriage, parenting, Uncategorized

Growing Up Social: Family Friendly Book Review

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.

Matt Wright ‎Family Friendly Daddy Blog

Just now ·

Did I just win Growing up social????

Family Friendly Daddy Blog

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Family Friendly Daddy Blog Yes sir! Send me a message with your address. It will be in the mail tomorrow.

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.”

1 Comment Posted on November 2, 2014 Nostalgia, parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Making Cool Party Favors By Baking Crayons In Lego Man Molds

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

1 Comment Posted on October 27, 2014October 27, 2014 parenting, Storytelling, Uncategorized

Walden Farm (Pumpkin Patch): Family Friendly Review

This past weekend my family visited Walden Farm in Smyrna/Nolensville, Tennessee. (It’s a 30 minute drive from downtown Nashville, TN.)

I have a feeling I could pretty much type anything I wanted to and no one would notice, because obviously, the pictures really tell the story here.

In the process of seeing these 14 picture collages below, you’ll get a good idea of why your family would have a great time if you were to visit Walden Farm.

But in the event there’s actually anyone actually reading the words to this story, not just checking out the fun pictures, I’ll do a quick narrative.

Parking is free and so is admission, but you do pay a couple of bucks per activity. We spent a total of $18 on all you see below, including the pumpkins.

I think my son Jack’s favorite activity at Walden Farm is the hayride.

It’s sort of like a mobile scavenger hunt, as your family tries to find all the semi-hidden spooky objects; like an eyeball, Frankenstein, a spider, etc.

There is also Toddler Town, a place that I am convinced Jack could hang out at all day and never even think about food.

It’s basically like a backyard, equipped with a gravel-filled toy table. Jack enjoyed scooping up the rocks in bulldozers, alongside dinosaurs.

There is also a dirt hill that he enjoyed rolling the bulldozers up and down.

Like any good pumpkin patch/farm, there are animals to see and feed.

And a tractor pull…

And those cut-outs where your family can transform into farm-themed characters.

Don’t forget the hay maze!

Jack wanted some pumpkins, so we paid just $1 and he was able to choose 2 really strange-looking ones; which he used as “lasers” the whole ride home.

As we were loading up back into the car, I pointed out to Jack a hedgeapple tree.

In case you’re unfamiliar, hedge apples (also known as Osage oranges) are basically a prehistoric fruit that no longer serve as food for animals today.

Hope you enjoyed learning about Walden Farm. Maybe your family can check it out in person!

1 Comment Posted on October 21, 2014December 1, 2014 new house, Uncategorized

Dear Jack: Our New Home Is Now Being Bricked And Insulated

3 years, 11 months.

Dear Jack,

This past weekend our family checked in on the progress of our new house being built in a ‘bedroom community” outside of Nashville.

As you can see from these pictures, the bricks are being put into place on the front. We had no idea which color the bricks would be, but I’m happy with the selection, which is obviously matched to the bluish-gray siding we also chose.

Our new home is also being insulated right now as well.

And as for the piles of dirt you see in our front yard, the pipes are being installed for the sewage drain.

Something that I was particularly happy about was to see how the sidewalk is being set for the wooded area around the neighborhood.

Just the thought of that makes me feel like I’m truly going to be a real American dad. I know that probably sounds weird, but seeing our new house built really makes me happy, as your Daddy.

I already envision that sidewalk is where I’ll be teaching you how to ride a bike.

It was also exciting to see you meet one of our future neighbors, a fellow 3 year-old boy, named Aiden.

You guys obviously got along just great, running around the lawn of the model home and sort of sword-fighting with balloons.

While we were there, Mommy and I also signed more paperwork with our real estate agent David Stanley, as we are currently in the process of selling our current home, a townhouse in Nashville.

As I should be, I’m not getting my hopes up too high that everything will go effortlessly and as scheduled: I’m keeping my expectations low where they should be, particularly in regards to the move out of our townhouse.

But so far, this has been a very enjoyable process.

I can only imagine what must be going through your mind right now. It’s pretty exciting times for our family right now, but I bet that’s especially the case for a nearly 4 year-old boy!

Love,

Daddy

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