Daily Life – Page 177

I had the pleasure of seeing Sweeny Todd this weekend with my wife and two good friends. I don’t think I can match the poetry in Rich’s review (warning! spoilers in this link!).

Posted on January 8, 2008 by Doug McCaughan — Leave a comment

The children have returned to school. Yesterday the cost of the Boy Scout ski trip that Noah and I are doing this weekend roughly doubled plus I committed to driving which means I have to put new tires on the van ($$) and maybe a brake caliper ($$) and Noah needs outfitting ($$) so I am focused on my programming although I’d kill to sleep another couple of hours. Hello 2008! (It is going to be a great year!)

Posted on January 7, 2008 by Doug McCaughan — 2 Comments

The zombies have risen!

I’m heading downstairs to lock myself in the basement and have a nervous breakdown.

Posted on January 7, 2008 by Doug McCaughan — Leave a comment

From the mouths of babes

Evan asks: "Is there a mama?"
Dad: "Mama is asleep."
Evan furrows brow and almost growls: "Oooh Man. I want to go {grabbled}. Noah."

The interesting thing about Evan’s speech right now is that it is clear he gets his thought together but sometimes it takes a bit to get out. Noah is often "No" pause "ah"

Posted on January 5, 2008 by Doug McCaughan — Leave a comment

Just want to play with the children today

I want to be building forts, playing games, and laughing with the children today. My brain isn’t working at full capacity today. But I remain focused on my work because before I can play with my children, I must provide for them.

Parents are obliged to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical care, education, and spiritual development for their children. Theoretically, each of those should have equal importance. In reality, they have to be prioritized based on the situation at the time. Single parents amaze me. I do not know I would manage a family without Cathy! That is not entirely true. If I were a single parent, I would build a support system around myself of friends, family and services. As a matter of fact, we have such a support system already. I imagine that as a single parent I would have to use that support system a little heavier.

It is difficult to meet any of those obligations without money. Unfortunately, the amount of money you make/have is rather proportional to the quality of care you can provide your children. That is not to imply that a poor person is a bad parent or cannot give their child a quality education; however, a greater amount of money makes it easier to provide quality services. For instance, food choices are often governed by making ends meet. The quality of services you receive at the doctor’s office can be determined by your insurance carrier. I have observed people on TennCare having longer waits than people on private insurance. Those on TennCare may get interns while those with private insurance get the nurses and doctors. Money definitely impacts the quality of shelter which can be provided. Quality clothing can be had from consignment stores, hand me downs, and sales; however, money may determine how often clothing is purchased. Even spiritual development can be impaired by money problems since time to give spiritual guidance has to be allocated to earning money.

Whoops. This post was supposed to be about how much I love my children. Didn’t mean to slip into "I want to see poverty abolished" (even if I do).

Posted on January 3, 2008 by Doug McCaughan — Leave a comment

2008 as usual

The evening here is pretty typical. The boys are locked in a 9×11 foot room having a pooting contest. It’s eye watering in there! The youngest two are tearing a room to shreds as my wife cleans a different room and hollers threats to the older children that they should be cleaning. The teenage girl hides in the open and pretends not to hear. I am downstairs cursing at my computer because I can’t type faster. The usual.

Posted on January 3, 2008 by Doug McCaughan — 1 Comment

It could at least snow

For those who do not work outside, you may like to know that it is ridiculously cold! Wait a minute… I don’t work outside. Brrrr.

Posted on December 28, 2007 by Doug McCaughan — Leave a comment

Got them post-Christmas blues

Household seems a bit irritable. Too many late nights for the children? Too much time together? The rain? I don’t know.. but for my own sanity, I’m taking the wife for some shopping therapy.

Posted on December 27, 2007December 27, 2007 by Doug McCaughan — 3 Comments

And what a merry Christmas it was!

To all to whom I have not responded, thank you for your well wishes!
To all to whom we did not send a card, you were not forgotten! There was probably a technical reason like needed your address or my mad cow caused me to fail to get you on Cathy’s master mailing list.

Miracles and angels came through to help pull together our Christmas at the last minute. The children were well gifted and very happy with their presents. We had a wonderful visit from both sets of grandparents and Aunt Kelly.Cathy and I promised to be budget minded and agreed to not buy each other anything which is why we are both now the proud owners of new iPod nanos. We both cheated feeling the other was well deserving of a new toy.

Each year it seems one of the children gets a bum deal. This year it was Sarah’s turn. Both Tommy and Sarah received new office chairs for their desks from their grandparents. They were thrilled! I prompted Tommy to hold off on assembly until I could help him. Sarah did not heed my warning and broken open the package of numerous parts in the midst of our unwrapping mess and started assembling without checking the parts list nor understanding the instructions. (She’s going to drive like Cathy! "It felt correct to turn this way. NO! I didn’t take a left turn at Albuquerque this time.") We could not find the screws! 6 screws AWOL. We even pulled the trash back inside and went through every piece of wrapping and package that had been discarded. Tommy learned and quickly went over his parts list only to find a critical piece missing. We quickly discovered his critical piece was already attached to his chair. It wasn’t until a day later that Sarah and I drove to Home Depot and purchased bolts and washers that we realized her bolts were already in their respective holes. We figured this out because we could not get the new bolts to go into them! Doh! She also received a Nabaztag ~~but it still isn’t working. Story to follow.~~ which is finally working! After creating an account at Nabaztag, you can send a message to her rabbit over the Internet or with your phone and it will speak the message to Sarah. Oh, I almost forgot. When assembling the chair, Sarah dropped a heavy part on her foot breaking a toe. Poor Sarah!