Pika Pika Perler

By on Jul 24, 2017

    We just spent the weekend at my in-laws house. They live in rural Wisconsin, which has its upsides and its downsides. We used to go alot more often but now we only go a couple times a year. When we were visiting more often I started to despise going. There were a few reasons, one of which was sheer boredom. I have mentioned, with children I am not afforded the luxury of boredom, which is true and amplified there. After we had kids I would find myself working twice as hard taking care of the kids because they were bored. Being as it was my in-law’s house, my normal tools for keeping the girls occupied were no longer available. This made the situation even more frustrating for everyone involved. About a year ago I decided to remedy the situation. It took me a little while to come up with a decent solution but I realized if Grandma’s house had special activities...

Lunch Bag – TwoFer

By on Jul 19, 2017

  The last few lunchbags I’ve done have been pretty bad so I didn’t even post them. My daughter has a field trip today so I took a little extra time and made a nice one. She was pretty excited when she saw it. She was trying to guess what I drew saying things like, “Ugh, it’s probably Moana…” I was starting to think maybe I should stop doing them, but when she saw it she actually squealed. Then she began to frown. I asked her why she was upset and she told me she wanted to keep it. I think that is why I like doing the lunchbags. There is something nice about how they are disposable. They are fleeting and temporary except for a photo. It is something special that I do for my daughter that is only for her and not long for the world.

Mmmmm…Summertime

By on Jul 10, 2017

  Summer is here. Well, it has been here for a little while but Wisconsin decided to take its sweet time bringing in the warm weather. It’s here now and I just want to jump around like Steve Martin when the phone book arrives in The Jerk. We went up North for the Fourth of July but I couldn’t wait to start my holiday. My wife could not stop laughing when she got home from work. I was sitting outside with the most stereotypical Wisconsin snack of cheese curds and beer. I didn’t grow up in Wisconsin but I’m here now so I might as well act like it. This seemed like a good way to start our vacation so I carried the theme throughout. We were able to spend most of our time up north on the water. I probably, no I definitely, spent too much time in the sun. I had more than a couple beers floating in a giant donut tube. It was like living in Homer Simpson’s...

Strawberry Picking

By on Jun 27, 2017

We went strawberry picking this weekend. My mom is visiting for the week so we all went strawberry picking. It was a good thing we went this weekend because it was the last weekend for it. We have been getting alot of rain so the strawberries have suffered a bit. We were still able to get a ton of strawberries. I spent at least 1 1/2 hours cleaning them last night. I think we picked about 11 pounds of them and they were all tiny but delicious.I mentioned my mother is visiting. She is spending the week with my oldest. They are having a great time. I don’t know if my mom is going to survive though. She is running her ragged. We went to the craft store and planned out some themed days for them. They are watching Song of the Sea and then making an owl craft. They are watching Moana and making beaded necklaces and bracelets. My mom doesn’t drive while here so we had to figure...

Summer is here…

By on Jun 23, 2017

Summer is here. It has been a little while since I checked in but it is because I’ve been busy, not lazy. The kids are out of school for the summer and our weekends are quickly filling with plans. I look at the calendar and most of the weekends already have something written on them.So I have been having a strange problem. I have been having a problem with dates. I did not run the Warrior Dash this year because I looked at the calendar and thought, “That’s weird. Why would they do the Warrior Dash on Mother’s Day Sunday?” Of course they didn’t, I just read the calendar wrong. Then I was super bummed a couple of weeks ago because we were halfway through Sunday and nobody had wished me Happy Father’s Day. Nobody wished me Happy Father’s Day because it wasn’t Father’s Day. Father’s Day was the following Sunday. Which is...

And an Anklet…

By on May 16, 2017

Last night we had some thunderstorms move through. I don’t know where my oldest picked it up but she has decided she is terrified by thunder and lightening. Lately I’ve been going for my nightly run and then coming home and listening to music while drawing or doing something creative. Last night I was listening to Ahmad Jamal while making a new anklet for my wife. She used to wear stuff like this all the time but most of them have broken or gotten lost. I made the beads out of Sculpey, if you look close you can see the occasional fingerprint. I was distracted, wearing headphones, looking down at the anklet when suddenly my oldest was standing next to me silently sobbing. Scared the living daylights out of me. I was lucky I didn’t drop the anklet and loose all the beads.We talked for a little while and I showed her the anklet while making her a small snack to get her...