YONDER BREAKS

I used to be fairly active...even with kids! I surfed nearly every other week, skated on days in between. We would walk a mile or two to various parks, sometimes twice a day. At the park I would climb poles and do dips on the handrails, chase Ellie around or whatever I could to do little " Dad workouts ." But then we moved, and now I am probably the weakest I've been since I learned to love surfing. I like to blame it all on my lack of surfing, but I know it's not true, and today was reaffirmation of that. My car was acting up, and in an effort to not get stranded, we walked the same distance to a park that I used to walk while in Redondo Beach (0.5 miles). I also climbed the jungle gym, hung (hanged?) upside down on monkey bars, and chased my kids around. It felt good, and I had to wonder why I quit doing those things. The answer is that the park we prefer  to go to is a whopping 0.7 miles away, much  too far to walk, right? And so we drive. While there, I do chas

Kind of the whole purpose of this blog is to try to be a really good dad, while also pursuing the passions that drove me before fatherhood entered my life. I remember when Ellie was first born I had a friend who marveled at the fact that I still was able to surf every couple weeks. "When I had my kid I didn't do anything ," he said. It made me feel good, of course, and hopefully not in a vain way; but I hope this whole blog relays that message well, and inspires some dads out there to do the same. But one thing I haven't mentioned enough is where this whole drive came from: my own dad . My dad is really remarkable, and the older he gets, he still never ceases to amaze and inspire me. He taught me to surf, bringing me out when I was probably only 7 or 8 years old. I have a memory of the 80s-style heavy glassed board flying up in the air and hitting me in the head, causing me to run to the beach in tears and essentially putting a major pause on my surfing "career

I have been very irritable with the girls lately, and asking God why it is happening. As far as I can reckon, it is a mixture of not getting enough rest and dealing with the same problems over and over again, day after day. Oh yeah, and this stupid poison ivy ! I don't mean to keep writing about it, but this ivy has taken over my life! I can't touch the girls without fear of spreading it to them. It's painful and a constant irritation. I really wouldn't wish this on anyone, and as I mentioned in the first ivy post, I can't imagine a lifelong illness like this. Anyway, I doubt this is the only reason I have been short with the girls. I remember working at a high school and about a few weeks after spring break most of the teachers were pretty checked out, along with the students. It then became a collective rally to finish the year strong, which most did; but I can totally understand why. I think I may be hitting my post-spring break slump as a parent, and I'm n

I wrote the last two weeks about poison ivy , and then our family camping trip . Well, it turns out the two were intertwined in a way I did not expect... The family that came on the camp with us were some friends from Los Angeles, and so naturally they are into a more "natural" lifestyle (as is everyone in LA, right?). So when I shared my poison ivy woes with them, Anel, the wife and mother, went immediately to essential oils to try and help. My wife is into these oils as well, and we use them regularly around the house aromatically and topically. It is difficult sometimes to really say if they work or not, but it seems pretty sound to me, and is certainly more natural than Western medicine. (What is funny about it is that I can cite several couples where the female is really into this stuff, and the male just goes along with it, retaining some level of skepticism. I can see the same thing true in our household too. I guess men are just cynical sometimes...) Before I kne