How to be a good dad, (or so I've heard.)

1. Spend time with your kids. the earlier in their life the better

2. Be the disciplinarian. It takes effort but shows them you love them.

3. When possible be fair. Again, it takes effort.

4. Only have one hobby. Don't golf and fish and play softball and something else.  Do one thing, and only do it one day a week.  Any more than that on a regular basis and you're spending too much time away. Ask your wife.

5. Read to your kids.

6. Every night, ask your kids their high point and low point of the day. Tell them yours.

7. Don't play Playstation or Xbox, unless you're playing with your kids and even then don't do it too often.

8. Be a grown up, and not a kid. Be a father not their friend.  They will have many friends in their life but only one father.

9. Keep your sense of wonder, explore with them, find out how things work.

10.  Cook, and do it with your kids.

11. Say "I love you" a lot, and sometimes even use words. (Thanks Sarah B.)

12. Love your wife (Thanks Nina)

13. Listen, especially dads with teenage girls, try and understand their drama.  (Thanks Mike H,)

14. Try as much as possible to say yes, saying no comes too easily. (Thanks Brian M.)

15. Lead by example, hypocrisy undermines all other efforts. (Thanks Brad S.)

Any other ideas, put it in the comments.

Rob Barrett, Jr. Father of Two.

How to Throw a Fun 8th Grade Party

Number 1 - Confiscate all Cell Phones at the door. Send out an email before hand to the parents telling them this is going to happen, then have a bin where they can pick them up at the end of the night. Very, very important.



2. Have everyone bring something, girls food to share, guys drink to share.  Good snacks are key to a good party.



3. Have a few different activities. Kids want to mill around, but it's good to have at least one or two planned, structured games to get things started.



4. Take a group photo to show the parents.



5. Two words: Bon fire. 'nuff said.



No blood, no foul. It was a fun night.  The key is to take the cell phones away and make them interact with each other and not text their friends who aren't there.

My Exes

I always try to live at peace with my exes,
to stay on friendly terms.
We don't have to be friends,
just respect each other.
But, I don't want to see them again.
They've done a lot for/to me:
the successes, the failures
the skins and the bruises,
the wins, the loses.
Each made me stronger, longer suffering.
But I'm glad they're gone.
I'm glad they're ex's and not my nows.
For before my final bows
I'll have many more. (I hope)
Every year a new breakup.
Some ugly, some fine
It's how we learn from our time,
from what we've done to what we do.
I just look them in the eye and say,
It's not me, it's you.

So You Think You Can Dance, season 7

There was a rare opportunity last night (and for the next couple weeks) to see a side of art not normally broadcast to the American public. While we get our fill of accessible music and dance (American Idol, Dancing with the Stars) we rarely get to see the hoity-toity side of art. The people that parse the top 2-3% of the form and use terms not in the public lexicon.  It's like going to the Art Building at the State Fair, "Why did this one win, why is this better?" That top part of art is above the heads of most of us (I lived in the music part of that world at Eastman) and is almost never available for public consumption on TV.

But last night was the first episode of So You Think You Can Dance, season 7 and I have to admit I was impressed, entranced and inspired.  While any of us can tell which celebrity does better on DWTS, this dancing was on the very edge of the art form.  The show works because it doesn't coddle to the masses.  Sometimes there are up to 6 judges, all nationally known choreographers who see things in these performers, that personally I didn't or couldn't.  While I've judged my fair share of dancing at the MN State Fair Talent contest, this was a whole 'nother enchilada.

At one point one of the judges commented to a lithe 18-year-old that she was the kind of talent that only comes around once in one hundred years. (But no pressure) I thought she was good, but didn't she in here what that judge did as far as century special talent. That's what I liked about the show.

Check it out if you can. Thursday nights on Fox.

How to Grow a Majestic Palm in Minnesota

[caption id="attachment_16" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Majestic Palm"][/caption]

Like many minnesotans, I left Home Depot this weekend with some new family members, 3 wonderful and on sale Majestic palm trees.  But we aren't a big palm tree climate, so how does one keep them alive. They need a big base to keep them from getting blown over and our climate is a little cool for palm trees.

here are some tips.

1. Buy a big pot, I got this 19 inch planter at HD for only $34 bucks.



2.  Place a layer of rocks on the bottom of the pot to keep the roots from sitting in water, Just in case one of your kids over-waters it.



3.  Place palm in pot and cut one side of plastic bucket with a sharp knife or strong scissors.



4. Remove bucket and fill with potting soil.  Most MN soil will have too much clay for the normally sandy palms.



5. Water, pack down the sides and fill with more soil.



6. Brush the extra soil into your neighbors yard and enjoy.



7. Palms like a lot of moisture so spray with water every couple days and water every other day.



8.  They won't survive outside once it gets too much below 65 so enjoy them while you can. Unless you plan to move them inside, they are like a big annual.  Hopefully you got them on sale like I did.

Rob Barrett, Jr.

www.cookingfordads.net

Thistles

They were right to be afraid.
Though they stood with spiny edge
and momentary pain to inflict,
their end was sure.
Their fathers had failed.
Their grandfathers had failed
and they too would succumb to spade and hale
and lay withering in the sun
like Sherman's wake or the Five Hundred.
Torn from their safety,
pale and naked for all to see,
they had lost the battle,
but not the war
O, not the war.
For in the depths, out of reach
lay their revenge, their seed.
Their children would rise in their stead,
and spring forth again with thorny head
and raise edged spear.
With a snarl they would cry,
We are thus, and thus from God
to stab and prick on hand and sod
for His pleasure is ripe
when we do our acts.
Deny us not our right
to be reveled in His sight.

But to the fire they too will go
for as beautiful in their way
and as passing as the pain ...

well, they're just annoying.

Church spray painted with graffiti, but likes it.

From Bad to Good.

Most churches don't like it when their walls get tagged. New Hope Church is doing it with a purpose.

Tagging - the practice of leaving one's mark on the world by spray painting graffiti on a wall or structure.  This human desire to have significance plays out in destruction in so many cities across the country. But what can be meant for bad can be made good.

This Easter, New Hope Church is using graffiti to illustrate that.  Using the skills of a graffiti artist from the surrounding area, the church is creating a tagged wall mural that illustrates the meaning of the Easter season. Images from the holiday will be spray painted in urban style on the wall facing highway 169. While some of the images might be disturbing, the church hopes to make people think in a new way about the transforming power of the holiday.  If God can take tagging and graffiti and use it for good, what can he do for each of us?

Come see the mural during the weeks leading up to the Easter Services starting on Thursday, March 25th.

New Hope Church, on the northeast corner of highway 169 and Rockford Road, New Hope MN.