zutroy.net

From my 4 year old:

A family is kids and parents… That love each other… And eat food.. And breakfast… when they wake up in the morning.

So my son just started blogging. Real blogging that is.  He’s had a BlogSpot blog for quite a while and has been fairly casual about it but he writes pretty good posts.  I recently added adsense to some of my sites and he’s excited to be able to earn a few extra dollars the same way.  So we setup his blog tonight and he has been copying all his posts over from his old blog.  So far he says he really likes WordPress compared to BlogSpot.  Can’t agree with him more.  I can’t stand BlogSpot.

Tomorrow I’ll show him how to setup analytics and adsense and he’ll be on his way.

So please take a minute and check out his blog (www.jonathancurtis.com) and don’t forget to support him by visiting a sponsor or two.  He’ll be thrilled to see his site getting traffic and earning a few cents.  And don’t forget to check back to see his updates on his stories he’s writing.

I have 3 kids, a 4th on the way.  Jonathan is 10, Cari is 8 and James is 3.  Normally getting ready for bed is like most households. There’s some instructions given and then ignored. Then there’s some voice raising and a little more voice raising until one or two of the kids comply.  Then there’s some yelling and some half empty threats and then they are ready for bed.  Well, dressed for bed is more like it, they’re ready for rough housing because now everyone is worked up.

Getting them to do chores is completely different.  Not in a good way.  There’s threats and bribes and many a time there’s punishments.  Some times though, the chores get done.

Well it all changed yesterday.  I met the Continue reading

I like to point things out to my kids when I drive like my dad did with me when I was a kid.  He always had this uncanny ability to see 14 deer hiding in the scrub oak as we cruised down the winding highway a little faster than we should have been.  “Where?” was usually the response.

I have no idea how he managed to see them and stay on the road at the same time.  He explained it to me when I was old enough to drive and I’ve always tried to master it like he did but I doubt I’ll ever get to the level he was at.  Just to be fair, he’s not at that level anymore.  We have to remind him that he’s officially “too old” to do it safely.  It doesn’t stop him of course but we still remind him.

So a couple weeks ago I was driving along with my kids and I saw the small remains of our local herd of antelope.  I pointed them out to the kids and got the most excited response from my 3 year old.

“Antelopes?!?!?! I LOVE ANTELOPES!!!”

“You do? ” I replied.  I knew he had been learning about the cycle of life in preschool and how chicks hatch from an egg and grow in to little chickens and then when they are big enough either they give us more eggs or we eat them.  So I figured they must have learned a little about antelopes. And I caught myself thinking “that’s kind of a weird animal to showcase for preschoolers, you would think they would have chosen cows or horses or cats or dogs or something that would be a little more familiar to the kids.”  And then it all became clear to me.

“I love antelopes AND watermelons.”  And I couldn’t correct him, I was laughing so hard under my breath.

He’s clear on the difference between cantaloupes and antelopes now though. I even went and bought one so I could be clear that he knew what I was talking about.  A cantaloupe, I bought a cantaloupe, not an antelope.

Jonathan had to do a report on a random county in Utah.  He chose Wasatch county because it’s close and there’s lots of good things to shoot video of.

I have a friend that is taking a class on guitar making and he is making his own custom acoustic guitar.  I have the honor of designing the head for him.  A relatively small task but an important one.  And I was thinking about it, “How would I love to build my own guitar?”  Man, that would be my pride and joy.  But really, I don’t have the time for it.  I have chosen not to.  Am I missing something that is more valuable to me that what I have chosen? I don’t know. I think I’m right but only time will tell.

I also recently launched a photoblog.  How would I love to carry my camera with me everywhere and find one fantastic shot every day. I am also getting all the equipment for my own darkroom donated to my cause.  I just hope that I’ll have the time to develop a handful of photos each month.  There’s nothing like watching your print come to life in the developer.  I always over-expose and carefully watch my developer times.  Then yank and into the stop bath.  Most of the time it turns out with a little bit more contrast.  I love the contrast. Continue reading