Jump rope a-thon is a priority

Well, for the first time I had to make a decision to have my daughter skip a basketball game in favor of her dance team practice. Did I like to make this decision...no. Was it the right decision...yes. I say it was the right decision, but I am not sure I really believe that. For me, I would rather have her play basketball, but I guess it isn't what is important to me...right?!

The way it works in Elkhorn is the tryouts for the next season of basketball take place about a week after the basketball season ends, which is in April. The season doesn't start until October. Madison really didn't want to play basketball, but both my wife and I encouraged her to tryout and she could decide if she wanted to play if she made one of the teams. Well, she made the second team and decided that she did want to play. Then, later in the summer, around July, she also decided she wanted to be on her dance studio's dance team. This is where it gets sticky...

Both dance and basketball are on Saturdays.

I am friends with the Director at the studio and she has been very good to me and our kids(our youngest son, Logan, also dances on the team). When this conflict became evident, I was quick to talk with Sandi about our conflict. She has been good about trying to schedule around our kids other conflicts, but just couldn't do it this weekend. So, my dilemma was, does she skip her dance number and get an unexcused absense or does she skip her basketball game and possibly leave her team short handed. I decided to have her miss her game, but wasn't happy about my decision.

My wife disagrees with trying to do so much on Saturdays for Madi and has talked about her quitting basketball. I have told her that that is not an option. I have seen the effects of kids quitting team sports and the pressure that puts on other kids that stay with the team and I won't be part of that. This decision making goes back to when I was a kid and has stuck with me ever since. When I was a kid, I participated in a jump rope a-thon with a team of friends. Shortly after signing up for this event, I found out that baseball tryouts were at the same time! I wanted to go to the baseball tryouts in the worst way! I wanted to drop out of the jump rope a-thon. My parents wouldn't let me! " You can't let down your team," they told me. I knew this had to be hard for my dad too as he was a huge supporter of me in baseball and a great baseball player in his time. I would imagine he felt much the same way I did!

So, I am going to do my best to manage these sports going forward, communicating with both coaches and trying to make the best of a stressful situation. Quitting is not an option. I am going to continue to make decisions that are in the best interest of my daughter and not those that would make me the happiest. I am hoping by operating this way, that my daughter can learn a valuable lesson that will stick with her as my jump rope a-thon did for me. Next April, maybe we will skip the basketball tryouts all together. That was really hard for me to type!

How I came up with the blog name

I know it is kind of early in this whole process to tell you all about how I named this blog, but I thought it was important to do so. This blog takes most of it's title from a book that was written about me and my role as a full time at home dad. If you think that is the best part, it isn't. You see the book was written by my wife as a way to honor me as a full time dad! That is the best honor I have ever received! In a small way, I want this post to be a way to say thank you to her for doing this for me!

When she finished the first book, she didn't stop there, as she wrote two more books about me as a positive dad in our kids lives. This turned into quite a family affair as her sister illustrated the three books for her and we self-published them, with some financial assistance from her parents.

After publishing these books, we had boxes of them in our garage. Now...how to get them to the people that would want to buy them. That proved to be a task that was harder than I thought, and to be honest, life was an excuse as to why I didn't have more time to market these books to publishers and consumers. I talked last week about the Stay at Home Dad Convention. As part of my involvement, we decided to donate books to all those who attended the convention. I am really glad I did as I got great feedback from the dads and it has renewed my interest in getting the word out about the books.

Sure, it would be nice to recoup the money that we invested into the project and get rid of some of the boxes that fill our garage, but more than that, I want my wife to write again! She says she has a couple more book ideas already written down on paper and we already know a great illustrator, so we really just need a little capital influx to get this all going again. If you are a publisher reading this, we would love to talk with you. LOL.

Some of you that already have the books, I am sorry if this next part is old news, but I wanted to take a few sentences and write about each book.

This was the first book my wife wrote and this one is specifically written about me as a stay at home dad. This is also where the first part of my blog title comes from. It is called Daddy Does the Dishes and Other Daddy Deeds. It tells about all the things Dad does while Mom is at work.

This next book came from something my kids said during the summer Olympics. It is called, My Daddy Can Touch the Moon. It had to do with the still rings in men's gymnastics and they thought that I could do the routines as well as those gymnasts. This is a story of those things dads can do and the special powers they possess.

The third, but certainly not least book is called, My Daddy is Supersillious. This book is all about how much fun it can be to be silly with your kids and how those are things that they will remember.

Ok, well that is a quick run down on the books. Thank you for reading all the way to the end. If you are interested in getting a set of your own, I think I can find a set or two around here. LOL. Please email me at homedaddio@cox.net or through the blog. $28 gets you all three books, shipping included. I will even have my wife sign them for you and include a personal message. My friend Robb was mad because his copies weren't personalized like that. We have learned from our mistake, so Robb I owe you a new set, dude!

Thank you for letting me take the time to tell you about this special tribute that my wife has paid to me. My hope is that by raising our kids the right way, I will be able to honor her and her commitment to this family!

Stay at Home Dad Convention was Awesome

Waking up at 7:00am on Saturday was not an easy task for me. It was Oct. 10th, and there was about an inch of snow on the ground!!! Our bedroom is freezing(which probably will be another post) and all I wanted to do was crawl back into bed. I did that for about 10 minutes before I decided I didn't have a choice. Saturday was the Stay at Home Dad Convention in my town, Omaha. I really hadn't done anything to help the local guys out. They had worked extremely hard on this and I wanted to be there to support them. After my shower and putting on warm clothes I felt much better. Still kept complaining about the weather and the driving conditions, which got me a very unsympathetic response from the other side of the bed. With that kick in the butt, I was off.

Driving down was like I thought it would be. Omaha forgot to get their snowplows ready on time or they just didn't believe it would snow. I saw a car spin out and get hit by about 3 other cars going the other direction. Glad it wasn't on my side, because I was running late and didn't need an accident to slow me down anymore. I got down to the Durham museum a little after 8:00 and helped to get everything set out for registations. My involvement was minimal, but I was glad to help out where I could.

Guys arrived by 8:45 and the convention started pretty much right on time. Right from the beginning I was impressed with the work and the thought that went into this convention. You can tell these guys really wanted to do this up right. Afterall, we had dads come in from all over the country as well as Canada. The speakers were knowledgable, the breakout sessions were helpful and the food was great! Everything was top notch. I was really proud to be part of the group that put on such a great convention!

I think for me the best part is meeting new dads from across the country and also right here in Omaha. Getting an opportunity to share stories and get connected really makes you feel a part of something. In fact, I came home after the convention and looked up a lot of these guys and friended them on facebook. I looked up dad blogs and now follow them. I went to Vista Print and made my own business cards to hand out when I meet other stay at home dads. The convention was a great opportunity for me to recommit to the stay at home dad movement. Well, movement might not be the right word, but I want to be more involved in this group and as my wife would say, in this space.

I would like to thank all the Linomaha Dads that worked so hard to put this convention on. I would also like to thank all the dads that traveled to Omaha to be part of this last weekend. I know some of the dads already said they are coming again next year. If we get all of them to return and can add to our numbers, it will only help more dads out there feel connected and a part of something bigger than their own home and family.

This weekend has inspired me to start blogging about my family and our life. I have had this blog set up for over a year, but never knew how to start it off. This weekend was the perfect way to get it going. Besides, I am waiting for my laudry to finish. Good timing, just heard the buzzer. Guess the clothes need to get folded.