Life is gorram hard. Schedules are crazy, people have needs, and more importantly: people need to eat.

The way it is around here has been a bit difficult locking down a meal plan for the week. Breakfasts and lunches are pretty easy, as we’re not picky. We are a family who is perfectly fine with having the same things every morning, and even for lunch (although sometimes we mix it up with dinner leftovers, when there are some). The issue has always been dinner. The same text happens every day:

Wifey-Face: Whatcha think about dinner?

Me: No idea. We have food, we should probably make something.

Wifey-Face: Ok, we’ll figure it out.

Eventually, after she gets home, we do figure it out. Sometimes we just end up getting pizza, some days we just throw something random together or go through the list of what we have and pick the one that we most prefer.

It’s been a bit tough for me on a psychological level, having grown up in a family that had a fresh cooked meal every night. I also grew up learning how to cook and have spent hours upon hours in professional kitchens cooking from scratch. So clearly the whole cooking thing shouldn’t be beyond reach.

But I have to repeat a particular mantra at this point. One that I figured out very quickly once we became members of the parenting population: WE DO THE BEST WE CAN

Despite all the things that we THINK we have to do, in the end, we do the best we can. We eat. We eat good food. What it is exactly on whatever particular night, we don’t know offhand. We figure things out on the fly with the tiniest bit of preparation on the weekend while we’re shopping.

We eat well, we’re generally healthy (the kid is especially eating great), and we do the best we can. Having that set up is #1. Now we can start whittling things down to what we want them to be, shaping them as we go along, and making the best with what we got.

We can do this.

-Ben

@pbdadcast

@bkmullen_

For 48 hours one weekend however, we had a bit of a reprieve from the little devils inside. We were able to get out for a bit, and it was rewarding to say the least.

We live in a small town in Pennsylvania, the one where my Wife grew up. I grew up in a couple of towns nearby and my teen years were in a place quite similar, although in a different state. We both grew up generally the same in a way, just a few miles apart. Because of this we both enjoy not only the small town life, but the refreshing feeling of being out on a farm or in the middle of the woods.

The Fall brings classics with it, Apple picking, hay rides, corn mazes, Halloween et al. Now with our little one 3 years old, we get to enjoy these things again as we once did. One of the perks of being a parent, you get to re-live these little things that make life sweet. Our sweet little girl has been asking us for a pumpkin, and that day we were going to make good on our promise to go pick one.

So we bundled up a bit, packed into the car, and headed North to one of the local farms that hosts “U Pick Em” every year. We made it to their store just outside of town, picked up directions to the pick em site, and wound our way through some down-home classic country roads till we scraped our car into the “parking lot”.

It wasn’t crazy cold, just generally cold. Cold enough to need a sweatshirt and a hat, but warm enough to keep comfy. A few car-ports were set up alongside some small barn looking buildings where they had pre-picked fruits, baked goods, and their homemade hard cider on tap. Quarter of a football field was cleared out adjacent to the small barns. Some hay bales were stacked for kids to climb on, a few lawn games and benches were put out, and an older fellow with a guitar played on a tiny little stage at the top of the hill.

We picked two pumpkins and paid for them, along with a bag of pumpkin cookies made from scratch. It was a great, comfy day in the life of a small-town family, and that was just the start.

Every year the town hosts a Halloween parade. It’s such an event that people from all the surrounding towns come out for it. Either because they live out on farms where they live too far apart to have a parade, or from the busier more economy driven towns where they just don’t do it anymore.

This year the content of the parade was no different. Boy Scout Troops, Marching Bands, the Mayor perched on the back of an old convertable, fire trucks etc. Even the Rotary club hobbled their way down the street. But one thing was different: this was the first year Emma sat out for candy.

As with any small town parade, as the floats, bands and trucks pass there are people walking along side tossing out candy to the kids. We’ve been to this parade every year since she was born, but for the past two years she’s been bundled in our arms having not yet learned the safety involved in being near a road and certainly not big enough to weather the cold for too long. This year though she’s a bit older, wiser, and has a dependable winter coat that doesn’t render her immobile.

She sat along the side of the street in my Wife’s lap and had an absolute blast. She’d get up to collect candy thrown in her general vicinity, put it in her bucket, sit back down in my Wife’s lap, count her candy, then place her hands over her ears. I don’t blame her for doing so, it was quite cold. It is however a sign of when she is frightened. The bands and the trucks and the whole crowd on both our and the the other side of the street made the night feel as if we were standing in the middle of a stadium while a game was being played. And if anything spooks a little one, it’s consistently loud situations.

But the warmth of her fuzzy jacket, the love of her family, and the excitement of it all on this annual holiday in our little slice of the world kept a smile on her face.

And that’s what really counts.

-Ben

Facebook–Twitter

In case you missed us announce it on Twitter and Facebook this week or on the Monday Conference Call from Dad 2.0, Ben has been announced as a speaker at the Dad 2.0 Summit in San Francisco. We’re pretty damn excited about it, too! Ok, MOSTLY excited. Why? Nick can’t go, so he may be a tad upset that he can’t go, meet all of our dad blogger buddies, learn, and just have an awesome time at the summit.

In all seriousness, this is a huge honor for us, as a show and a team–and especially for Ben. We consider ourselves relative newbies in the dad blogging and podcasting games. After all, we’ve only been at this for a little more than a year. From the sounds of it, he’ll be leading a roundtable discussion on podcasting. There’s going to be a lot of work to do between now and February 19. That’s for damn sure.

What’s he gonna discuss? Probably “how to survive–and thrive–with a co-host like Nick. A man of all jokes and no substance. And laziness abounds. But, man, can he grow a creepy mustache that I love so much”. Yeah, that about sums it up.

We’d like to thank Dad 2.0 for allowing us the opportunity to have Ben speak at the Summit! If you don’t know what the conference is all about, go and check out their site!

Sometimes, you need a friend. Sometimes, you need more than one friend. And sometimes you need a jellyfish. Our fellow Dad Blogger and children’s book author and illustrator, Chris Routly from DaddyDoctrines.com is working on completing his third book. “Sometimes You Need a Jellyfish” is a “charming, hilarious story of how –with a little imagination– a jellyfish might be the most useful friend ever to two brothers.”

Chris launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to help him get the book finished, printed, and shipped. Right now, there is one week left for him to get to his $10,000 goal. And at this writing, he’s getting close, but he needs more help! We’ve backed him and now we’re asking for your help in backing Chris, faithful readers and listeners!

Go check out his site, read over the rewards for pledging to help finish the book, and give him some help. We’re planning on having Chris on the podcast as a guest to talk about the book very soon. Hopefully, we’ll be talking about a very-successful Kickstarter campaign and a book on its way! You can also follow him on Twiiter and Facebook.

Here is a quick round-up of those posts. As new ones come, we’ll add them in. They are all great reads–and well worth the time spent. The theme that ties them all together–It’s Not OK To Beat Your Kids.

Nick wrote about it over at Papa Brownie. Here is a quick excerpt:

“I want to talk about how we, as a society, discipline our kids. Peterson doesn’t believe what he did was wrong. He even said so in a statement he released. This is the way he was disciplined by his father growing up, and this is the way they did things in the south–where he was raised. We all live in different cultures in this country. Things are very different here in Philadelphia than they are in Texas, or Arkansas, or California, or even in New York. And things were completely different when it comes to disciplining kids when I was a kid, or when my parents were kids. I got spanked. A lot. If I misbehaved, I got spanked with a wooden spoon. Not to the point of bleeding. Not the point that I was scarred physically or emotionally. I got the point. Did I ever get hit with a belt? Nope. A switch? Hell no. Now? Spanking in general is frowned upon in society. It’s what happens over time–things change. Ideas change. The way we carry ourselves in general changes.”

Here is an excerpt from Aaron at The Daddy Files‘ take on the whole story:

“It is never acceptable to beat a little kid bloody with a weapon, because that is always child abuse. I can’t believe it’s 2014 and I have to spell that out for people. Yet in the wake of star running back Adrian Peterson’s grand jury indictment for reckless and negligent injury to a child, it’s clear there are grown men and women out there who still think it’s OK to strip leaves off a tree branch and whip a 4-year-old until he bleeds. To stuff leaves in his mouth. To cut him on the legs, thighs, buttocks, and scrotum. To whip him between 10-15 times, leaving defensive wounds on the poor kid’s hands that were still readily apparent even a week later when photographs were taken.”

John Kinnear from Ask Your Dad Blog also hits the nail on the head:

“And I am angry. I am disgusted. Not just at Adrian Peterson, but at any context in which this becomes acceptable and defendable. It is not. No child should endure this. If we did this to a prisoner it would be considered cruel and unusual punishment. And yet, because it is “tradition” it is OK. In some families it is OK to beat a child with stick.”

David Stanley at Dads Roundtable says it’s time for him to quit the NFL for a while, in light of the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson cases. And the NFL’s poor handling of these cases:

“It’s time for me to quit the NFL. I’m gone until Commissioner Roger Goodell steps down. Any organization which is so unwilling to repudiate a culture of family abuse doesn’t deserve our money. I’m willing to accept a fair amount of dumb behavior from men in their twenties. We all did dumb stuff at that age, we made it right as best we could, we learned from it, and we went on to lead positive lives. But the NFL, led by the Roger Goodell, refuses to accept that they have a significant role in shaping important discussions in the US.”

Mike at Puzzling Posts says it’s never okay to hit a child–and he’s right:

“Well, being a human, it turns out this topic isn’t as hard to write about as I thought it might be.

It’s wrong to hit a child.

It’s not right to hit a child.

It has always been wrong to hit a child.

It will always be wrong to hit a child.

There’s no lesson here to teach my children. There’s no, “it’s important to know that some people are allowed to whip children and some aren’t.”

Russell at Day Parent Dad tells the NFL there is no rational argument for hitting a child:

“Dear NFL,

There is no rational argument to hit a child. There is no rational argument to keep a player who admits to hitting a child so hard that he breaks the skin in multiple places.

The recent NFL domestic violence incidents and past history reveal a terrible culture within your organization. You need help and I hope you find it quickly. 

Sincerely, 
A Fading Fan”

Last week, Ben had the chance to join some of the other great dad podcasters on one of LifeofDad.com‘s #dadbloggerchats. He was joined by Tommy Riles, Art Eddy, and Ryan Hamilton from The Life of Dad Show and The Life of Dad Aftershow, as well as Chris Read from Creative Minds Podcast, Matt Schneider from The Modern Dads Podcast, Josh Aronoff from Super Dad Show, and Jim Highley from Bobblehead Dad Parenting.

If you want to learn how to start a podcast, what podcasting is like, and just hear some entertaining and funny guys talk about being dads, among other things, then check it out.