Author: Stuart

  • Overthinking Things

    The kids started asking me riddles that they had learned in a joke book.  It was clear that I was in a different state of mind than the kids… Child: Daddy, what can you eat, but not for dinner? Dad: Your words. Child: Um, no. The answer is ‘lunch.’   Child: What can be served,…

  • Fun on the Farm

    We have been having many day trips to visit various parts of New Zealand and we try to find learning opportunities in them.  We learn about birds, habitat, electricity, fluid mechanics.  Fun stuff.  Then, while driving by one of the numerous paddocks where cows are grazing, we hear a squawk of delight from the back.…

  • The Bitter Aftertaste

    The kids are excited for my wife to come home in the morning after working a night shift.  They want her to make them breakfast as they all hang around for an hour of social time. As with most of us, some mornings are less perfect than others for my kids.  And sometimes parents don’t…

  • Coincidence?

    Coincidence?

    As I’m setting up the blog again after a few years of, well, life, I noticed that the top three topics have been: Alcohol, Housekeeping, and Tantrums.  Coincidence?

  • A Moment of Inspiration

    It’s early morning and I’m organizing the kids’ school lessons for the day while the house is blissfully quiet. (Side note, quiet is only blissful in the context that the house will filled with ear-splitting noise in a couple of hours, otherwise, the quiet would be depressing).) While preparing, I flash back to a memory…

  • The Year of Living Sequeiralously

    There have been so many stories to tell since our journey began that I have struggled putting enough words to any single one of them. More so has been the challenge to find a good ‘first’ story, one that kicks off appropriately this Year of Living Sequeiralously. Many have come close – the (almost) $400…

  • Maybe Don’t Sign Your Name Next Time

    Got the stretch washed for the first time in years. We can now see clearly the writing etched with a stick in the hood. Someday soon my child, whose name begins with H A R, as shown in Exhibit A, will get smart and write something other than his name, and then we are in…

  • A Shitty Way to Sell a Home

    …so one of my other kids didn’t want to be outdone apparently. Last weekend I was at our house mowing the lawn and keeping up the yard so it looks nice for showing (we are selling it). Said child has to do some business so I take him inside to one of the pristine bathrooms…

  • The Fury

    Hell hath no fury like the morning after spring break

  • Nap Time Reflection

    As my youngest takes a much-needed nap, I feel compelled to lay next to him for a while. With each passing day, a phase of our lives as parents to newborns-toddlers-preschoolers wanes and, for all the excitement of what lies ahead, there is also a sadness of letting go of the chaos with all its…