A Belated Father's Day Note

-
Ever get the feeling that maybe you've started to neglect honoring the ones you love? Just me? I've been battling a nagging feeling for several months now that I have let down my people. Well, I can call it a naggling feeling or I can call it conviction, which is probably closer to the truth.

We've never been strong on celebrations. I'd rather stab my eyes out than host a birthday party complete with pinterest-worthy decorations and crafts. Our parenting philosophy errs strongly on the side of simple not extravagant, and I stand by that. But 20 years of low-key marriage/parenting has disintegrated into a half-heartedly written card (or not), maybe tossing a little gift (certainly with no wrapping) into the lap of whoever's day it is. And I think maybe the pendulum has swung too far in the opposite direction.

I want Brian to feel like the most honored dad in the world on Father's Day. I want the kids to feel they are the most special 10 and 13 year old in my world. While it's not realistic to live every day with cake, presents, love notes and celebrations, it is possible to memorialize birthdays, anniversaries and even on the dreaded manufactured holidays like Valentine's day, Mother's Day, and Father's Day in a significant, heart-felt way.

So Brian and I are turning over a new leaf in this celebrating thing. We'll continue to be the practical parent and wife/husband every other day, but we're going to be the silly, celebratory parent on special days.

I didn't even take a picture of Brian and the kids together on Father's Day (which was the last straw), but I do have these pictures from late May. You'll find this scenario often in our front yard, especially spring and fall (not as often when it's 95 degrees outside). The way he invests in our kids via quality time is only one of the reasons Brian is such a good dad. He works 2 jobs but still says yes more often than no when they ask for just one more game (paper football and real basketball are the games of choice most days). He loves our kids so well. And if you're lucky enough to have Mr. Brian as your 4th grade reading teacher at school or your Children's Pastor at church, then let me assure you that he loves your kids as well. He puts everything he has into showing God's love to his 4th graders and into discipling kids at church and at home. I am SO guilty of thinking every dad is just like him. Truth is that with the exception of my own dad, he is one of a kind. 

So Happy Belated Father's Day, Brian. You are knocking it out of the park. Or maybe considering the sport you're playing, I should say "You've got a triple-double" instead?

DSC_5421

DSC_5446

DSC_5451

DSC_5452

DSC_5455

Doing what he does best: knowing it all and telling everyone else about it. ;)
DSC_5465

DSC_5474

DSC_5500

This kid does not handle losing well; it is a constant struggle in our house.
DSC_5519

Kicking the ball because he missed a shot. Guess it's time to pull out the belly.
DSC_5523

This is Brian's go-to when he's trying to settle Camden down
DSC_5508

DSC_5509

DSC_5530

DSC_5543

DSC_5598

DSC_5605


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Scoop

-
Our meeting with Dr. W today was fine. Not encouraging, but fine. I don't know why I expected better news, but I think it's hard not to hope that the bad news you hear is somehow wrong; that they've somehow made a mistake. Basically, the cancer is still the same as prior to chemo. Possibly a little larger, but he said it was hard to tell. He was glad that it had not returned to my bowel or colon (because that was a large part of my initial surgery), and my chest and lungs are still clear (apparently, this is the next place the cancer would go). It does not change my stage of cancer (still 3c), and remission is still a possibility, but he said that it would be very tough to get there.  There are several more drugs that we can try, which is good, but unfortunately they each have a success rate of only 25%. It's a little too early to be considering clinical trials because hospitals who hold the trials like for the patients to have tried the more main-stream drugs firs
Read more

Late Night Ramblings

-
Image
1. Thanks to Andrea for driving me to chemo today. I'm always a little anxious on the way in and the very few times I've had to drive myself, it's been a little lonely coming home. But not today. 2. A fellow chemo patient today thought I was in my 20's. Score.  ("score" would be a term I'm borrowing from Becky ) 3. I did not wear a scarf today to chemo, and all the nurses and doctors did a double take since they didn't recognize me. So wierd. I recognize me with hair, bald, and with a little puppy fluff. 4. Dr. W. is adding Avastin , a new drug which will help prevent cancer cells from growing, to my current Gemzar routine. Good news is that it won't make me feel any worse. Bad news is that in a small percentage of patients it causes severe side effects involving blood clots, kidney failure, ulcers, and holes in your bowel. Good times. 5. I've been instructed to head directly to my primary care doctor for blood pressure medic
Read more

Scenes from the Soccer Field

-
Image
So I may not have apologized yesterday about the number of pictures, but I am definitely going to today. Because  coughcough thirty coughcough just might be excessive. And probably my family will be the only ones who look at all of them. But I don't care. :) By the way, we completely lost and did not even score a goal yet again. Rory tried really, really hard. This team was head and shoulders bigger than we are, way more coordinated than 4 year olds should be and their coach kept their A team in the entire game. Even after scoring some 15 goals. Oh, well. Rory still enjoyed herself. Which way is the goal again? Notice her position in this picture. Notice how she passed the girl next to her? No, I am not competitive at all. Not sure where the other team is. Oh, wait. There they are. See how much bigger they are? You'll notice she almost always runs with her mouth open. Either that or her tongue hang
Read more