Triple The Dad

I'm old. I turned 39 in April, so I guess it shouldn't be that much of a surprise. And a million things could have triggered it.  Like the aches that linger a bit longer than they used too or the pains that don't quite subside.  The mornings that are harder to face than before.  There was the time my eye doctor told me my completely harmless eye condition came as the result of age.   But nope, none of that did it.   A little baby did. When I started hanging around with my wife's family we were the youngest of the group.  While I'm the oldest sibling in my family, my wife is the youngest of hers.  She had a couple nephews and a niece, but they were just entering their teen years.  So we were the ones finding  first jobs, and then second jobs, and exploring the world.  We were the ones living in new places and buying homes and then having kids.  And we didn't just have kids, we had triplets.  We were always the young u...

I spent most of last week trying to live on $29 per week; the equivalent of what an individual on government benefits typically must live on. I honestly thought it wasn't going to be that hard.  I didn't really do any planning.  I'm a relatively healthy eater, and we don't spend extravagantly on food.  So, I really believed it wouldn't be that hard.  And in some ways it wasn't.  The food was fine.  It was tasty and yummy and generally filling. But the rest of the challenged was a mess.  I consistently eat about 3,200 calories per day, and during the challenge I capped out at about 1,500.  That isn't unsustainable for a human.  Its probably fine for most women, and its probably in the ballpark of healthy for most men.  But I have a high metabolism and it just wasn't enough food.  I have the benefit of a desk job, at home, and can't imagine if I was trying to do manual labor or needed more than 3,200 calories.  I was also onl...

*This article originally appeared @ thebabyspot.ca I had a Cabbage Patch doll as a child.  Go ahead and get a snicker in about that if you want.  Got that out of your system?  Ok.  Good. Because for Easter, the bunny left one of my boys Magic Clip Dolls.  Not one, either, but 8 of them.  This wasn't some some strange experiment or a stunt to get a nice post for the blog; Rand asked for these for literally months.  Every trip to Target resulted in Rand telling us he wants Magic Clip Dolls, and which ones he wanted.  He would ask us at random times if he could have Magic Clip Dolls.  And at a recent birthday party he spent probably an hour in the basement playing with the two Magic Clip Dolls he found. Pure Joy What is a Dad to do?  Well, if you've posted in the past about why you gave up your opposition to your daughter wearing the  color pink  and why you think hating on pink  may actually be doing more ...

So, today starts Day 1 of my SNAP food challenge. You see, there is a meme going around where people try to live on $29 of food per week. I suppose the purpose of the SNAP Challenge or Food Stamp Challenge  is to raise awareness.  Though its been going on in some form since 1999, so its impact on awareness is questionable, I guess.  Anyway, lots of people have participated.  It hasn't gone well for some , and some participants have actually gotten pretty harsh criticism, like actress  Gwenyth Paltrow , for instance. I thought the idea was interesting and that I would try it out, so starting today, I will "live" blog all my meals here every day for this week.  Living on $29/week is a pretty tight budget of $1.30/meal.  Several politicians have tried living on $4.50/day, which is a slightly more forgiving $31.50/week.  If push comes to shove and I hit that higher number, I'm fine with that. Regardless, its certainly a bit tighter of a food bu...