Triple The Dad

People hate Cam Newton. I'll be damned if I really understand why, but they do. Not in a bullying way like some people hate red-haired QBs , but in a more fundamental way. A Google search for "I hate Cam Newton" returns 5,200,000 results. "I hate Tom Brady" returns a mere 3,970,000; "I hate Bill Bellichick" returned only 838,000. For reference, Tom Brady is one of the best QBs in history. Bill Bellichick is his coach, and one of the winningest coaches in history. Both have been caught up in questionable cheating scandals . There are ample reasons to hate either one. Yet Cam Newton has somewhere between 1.3 and 6.2 more "hate" than the two of them. Combined the two of them can't touch Newton. As I'm writing this a guy on the radio called in and said "I hate Cam Newton." Why? Because he dances too much; apparently. And he smiles a lot. Check out that screen cap above. Cam's teeth are in 10 of the 12. I searched fo...

Its a triplet parents worst nightmare, really. I only have triplets, so most of what I;m about to say about singletons is conjecture and assumption, but here goes: I imagine that when you have three kids of different ages its easy when only one of them is invited to a birthday party. Any younger child is probably interested in where an older sibling is going, but is easily refocused. Older children probably just don't care what a younger child is doing, but to the extent they are invested, I'd think its easy to explain to them. After all, they are probably in different schools, or at least different grades. They have different teachers, different classmates, and while they may share some friends, those are largely different as well. Not so with triplets When you have three kids all the same age they attend the same  school; often in the same class (as ours do). So when only one of them receives an invite, as our daughter did, its hard not  to feel slighted. After all, ...

If you are anything like us, and if you are reading this, lets face it, you probably are, then your grocery bill ranges from pretty damn high, to pretty damn astronomical. This tip can't really help you out too much with the cost, unfortunately. But I'm here to tell you I highly recommend at-home grocery delivery. Its a thing of wonder. You order online, adding and subtracting things - lets face it, its almost all adds - to your list during the week. You can complete an order on Tuesday, set up Saturday delivery, and then add something when you realize you need it on Wednesday, or Friday. Its great because you can sorta price shop as you go. My wife and I compare the prices to Amazon subscribe and save prices all the time. Plus, when you see that sale at Target, you can hop online and see if ordering it from the grocery store makes more sense. And you don't have to leave the house. This can't be underestimated. Getting your kids into the car, out of the car, wra...

First, let me say I don't know how single parents do it. I really can't imagine how single parents of multiple kids do it. I guess at least then you can ask the twelve-year old to watch the kids when you need that occasional time off. I guess. Still don't know how you manage it, but I guess. Secondly, let me just say that my kids are great. During a recent spout of illness by my wife they were quiet and played well and generally made life much, much easier on themselves, myself, and our family - right at a time when we needed it most. Kuddos kids. Thirdly, that my wife is pretty great as well. As a working Mom she struggles with many of the same things other working Moms struggle with: does she spend enough time with the kids; is she being enough of a "Mom." I was surprised that she struggled with that last one. She is a strong, reasonable, rationale woman (normally). But there she was on recent evening, asking me if she was a "good Mom."  Rather t...

So here we are, the first week of 2016. We spent the week reviewing 2015, which is already a distant speck in the rear view mirror. But looking forward, what are the goals for 2016? Post every week:  This ties in to a couple other goals, but I'd love to post at least once every week (every week being 51 weeks - guy gotta take a vacation). I put up 39 posts in 2015. I'd like to put up no fewer than 45 this year, with the absolute goal being 51, as I said. Grow the blog:  This isn't a numbers thing (that is below). I'd like to come up with another feature for the blog. Something like What We Are Eating Wednesday that features pictures of what we ate that week. I've flirted with a "30-Seconds With Triplets" feature that I may break out. Grow the numbers . I'd to write well enough and promote often enough that no single month in 2016 is lower than my slowest month in 2015. That won't be all that hard to accomplish. My bigger goal, and I'm alm...

Everyone  makes New Year lists. And yes, later this week, I too will reveal  my  New Year list. After a few years in remission, Better Bryan will be rejuvenated as Better Bryan XVI. But for now, I wanted to take a look back at how I did on  my goals for 2015 . So each day this week I'll be taking a quick and short look at one of my goals and how I did. Then we can mock how pitifully it all went and later this week I can wipe the slate clean and set up new goals. In yesterday's post we looked at two goals I completely dropped the ball on. Today tees up a more satisfactory result. More reading.   This one is personal, rather than blog related.  I have always been a voracious reader.  But for a couple years there I didn't really much of anything other than directions on formula.  I've gotten back into reading of late and I want to continue this. I'd say its a success, although "more" is both pretty nebulous and a low bar when formula instructi...

Everyone  makes New Year lists. And yes, later this week, I too will reveal  my  New Year list. After a few years in remission, Better Bryan will be rejuvenated as Better Bryan XVI. But for now, I wanted to take a look back at how I did on  my goals for 2015 . So each day this week I'll be taking a quick and short look at one of my goals and how I did. Then we can mock how pitifully it all went and later this week I can wipe the slate clean and set up new goals. In yesterday's post we looked at two goals I completely dropped the ball on. Today tees up a more satisfactory result. More outreach.   I'm very interested in growing the readership here by guest posting and commenting more on some of the sites I read, and generally interacting more with them. I had some of my posts appear on other sites during 2015, and I did some light commenting on other sites. I participated in quite a few link ups. All of which resulted in better page views for me. This blog st...

Everyone  makes New Year lists. And yes, later this week, I too will reveal my  New York list. After a few years in remission, Better Bryan will be rejuvenated as Better Bryan XVI. But for now, I wanted to take a look back at how I did on my goals for 2015 . So each day this week I'll be taking a quick and short look at one of my goals and how I did. Then we can mock how pitifully it all went and later this week I can wipe the slate clean and set up new goals. We start today with two more nebulous goals. The first: More calm.   I'm already a big fan of demonstrating calmness to my kids.  We talk about taking deep breathes when we are angry and going to our happy places.  Not much makes me happier than when my kids are in a high stress place and tell me their happy place is "their home."  But I want to do more.  I don't always model perfect behavior in this realm, and I know that if I want my kids to be on board with this, I have to do better myse...