Insights From My Time Off Work

I was able to save some vacation time back and am currently in the midst of two weeks off of work, no complaints here! While I will certainly spend some time in the woods, I am really looking forward to (and already have) spent a lot of extra time with my wife and kids. Here is what I have learned so far:

1) My beautiful 1 year old daughter has picked up quite the habit. Several times already she has picked her nose, and held out the guilty finger with it's new prize towards me and said, "here ya go daddy, buger." Awesome, thanks. No really, I'm very thankful. If she keeps this up I won't have to worry about her dating until her mid 40's. I don't see any 17 year old boy thrilled at the prospect of his date picking her nose and offering him the bounty. 

2) I love Iowa, but......but shoveling/blowing snow for 4 hours this morning had me asking God why my parents couldn't have met in California instead of Iowa. Seriously, for those of you reading this who happen to be from central Iowa you know too well that we got around 3 feet of heavy wet snow during the night. 

I do have to say that it is beautiful! My kids and I were able to get out and play in the snow for a good 3 minutes before being blown back inside.

3) My wife is incredible. She cleans a house twice a week, puts up with me, does a great job with our kids, and is homeschooling (insert your own joke and role your eyes here) our oldest. And by homeschooling I don't mean she is locking him in the basement with a bowl of water and food until all of his work is done. She does a great job and I'm extremely thankful for her. I am not ashamed to say that I definitely married up!

4) Home Alone and The Elf  have ousted It's a Wonderful Life in our house. While it's still a good  back up option, a 1930's "family classic" does nothing for my young kids. All of the "life lessons" get lost in the none-HD picture quality. 

5) I ran out of points, but stopping at 4 just didn't make sense. Thanks for reading and hopefully you are going to be able to spend some extra time with your family this Christmas as well. Don't forget that the real reason for the season is Christ. Don't lose sight of the fact that they precious baby was born to die for our sins. 1 Corinthians tells us that He died, was buried, and rose again on the third day. He went to the cross, was punished for our sins, and rose on the third day proving that He was and is the Son of God. 

It's Christmas....don't blow it

Well, Christmas is less than two weeks away which basically means one thing...crunch time for most of us males. In the past decade of marriage I've gained some great insight into really maximizing this time of the year (sarcasm noted)  and I would like to share some of that timeless wisdom right now. So grab your palm pilot and start taking notes :)

Insight #1
DO NOT go hunting on Christmas Eve/Day. Unless you are planning on bringing back a new state record buck covered in gift cards to your wife's favorite store, it's just not worth it.

Insight #2
DO spend extra time with the family. It seems that when we have extra time off, we tend to spend less time with them. Put the kids to bed, make sure the house is picked up, change..........a diaper. Even if it's so bad you have a good idea Santa and his elves are looking to crack a window because with a small breeze from the south they can even smell it....it shows you care.

Insight #3
Surprise your wife with a night out......with her, not with your hunting buddies. This is not the time for you to "slip out" for some me time. Grab a sitter' for those perfect angels and take your wife out for dinner and a movie. Avoid phrases like, "Oh man, it's starting to snow. Those deer are probably moving like crazy with this front coming in" while enduring A Walk in the Clouds 3 or whatever movie she chooses.

Insight #4
Hunt/fish in moderation. I think she will understand that deer season is winding down and while you wish you wouldn't have passed on those "small" bucks back in late October, you did! So go shoot a doe and put some meat in the freezer.

Insight #5
Enjoy life! Take it all in my friends! The sights, sounds, and smells of spending extra time with your extended family. The disappointment of watching your team get crushed in their B-level bowl game. The ability of your kids to get up at the crack of dawn on your only day to sleep in, it's all worth it!

Merry Christmas everybody!

PS - I have a few more chances to try and fill my tags, here's to hope!

The Great Indoors

You don't always have to be camping or hunting to enjoy the great outdoors!

This past weekend my incredibly successful (sarcasm noted) bow hunting season came to an end which wasn't all bad! It meant more time to relax with the family. I needed to give my wife some down time so I gently tossed the kids in the car and we headed to Bass Pro Shops in Altoona, IA to enjoy all of their free Christmas activities that they provide through the month of December.

It did not take long for my kids to notice something new for this year, the carousel. After waiting in line for a few minutes and signing all of our lives away (they make you sign a waiver form, no big deal considering the to speed on this iron horse is around 3.3 MPH) we jumped on and enjoyed a ride there and then did some coloring, racing, shooting, and looking. Again, the nice thing about this is that all of their activities are free.

The really nice thing is that even the old standby's that they have can be free if your one year old daughter thinks she is racing a car even though all she is doing is turning a wheel for a few minutes :) On the whole, we had a great time and whether you have younger kids, or are watching younger kids and aren't sure what to do, you could easily kill a couple hours enjoying all of the extra activities. Just realize that if you go on a Saturday/Sunday you will be joining several thousand of your closest friends. So if at all possible, go on a week day, especially a Tuesday or Thursday so you can watch them feeding the fish.

If you do end up going, let me know what you thought of your experience and post those thoughts to the blog. Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the week!