At first blush, the idea seems a bit daft, but after trying it, it’s brilliant: a Web site that lets you create your own custom muesli (granola) mix based on dozens of organic ingredients. Welcome to MixMyOwn.com, where they offer just that capability through a fun and easy interactive Web site. Based in Nevada, I had a chance to meet the company founder at a recent event in Denver, where he hooked me up with…Read More
One of the things I most enjoy about going on a business trip or visiting family in California is that by law all restaurant menus must include calorie counts for everything served. Now this might not seem like a big deal but as someone who likes to know what I’m eating and how I’m balancing my caloric intake, it’s super helpful. Tip: I’m down 35 pounds from my Jan 1, 2013 weight and don’t ever…Read More
I’m English, so it’s a natural that I like tea. Somewhere along the way, though, I decided that hot tea wasn’t so much my thing and now it’s evolved into my preference for iced tea. No soda, just about zero beer, an occasional glass of wine or mojito, but generally if I have a glass in my hand it’s either water or iced tea. And it’s usually iced tea. At the same time, living in…Read More
After our great success with the Snackadium we made — see We Make a Snackadium for the Playoffs — we’ve apparently become master food sculptors and artists. That’s the only reason I can come up with as to why the cool cats at Life of Dad invited us to join in on the Cheetos Mix-Ups Art Challenge! The rules were simple: they sent us a bag of Cheetos Mix-Ups Cheezy Salsa snack mix (a combination of…Read More
I don’t get it. I was at the supermarket the other day looking for a new jar of peanut butter to have in the house (though I’m rather partial to fresh ground almond butter, but that’s another story) and while I’m savvy enough to automatically skip all the regular peanut butter options on the shelf, I did look closely at the “natural” or “organic” brands. Which is how I realized that Jif peanut butter is…Read More
I had the very best of intentions. Week two of my Shrinking Dad project with Nutrisystem was going to take place while I had the kids in Southern California for a week on holiday, avoiding the storm that hit Colorado with 7-10 inches of snow. We ran barefoot on the beach and admired the towering palm trees instead. Much preferred! Oh yeah, we also visited with my Dad — the primary reason for the trip,…Read More
It’s funny but I don’t remember ever having a sleepover when I was young, even with my buddy Mitch when I was in middle school and my buddy Ivan when we were in high school together. I’m sure I had them, especially since I have vague memories of Mitchell’s dad yelling at us late at night, but still, it certainly wasn’t a common occurrence. And yet, my children are constantly having sleepovers, either inviting their…Read More
Our Denver Broncos might have fumbled away the playoffs yesterday in overtime, but my 16yo daughter A- and I had plenty of time to build our snackadium, a stadium made out of snack foods. In fact, we spent much of this afternoon having a really fun time taking a bunch of common foods from the market and transforming them into our vision of a football stadium, complete with the players, a crowd and a parking…Read More
We get all sorts of cool stuff from companies here at GoFatherhood central, and when Frigo asked us if we’d like a sampler pack of their various flavors of string cheese all my kids had to hear was the word “cheese” and they were enthusiastic. My whole family is, um, cheese positive, and my Dad even swears he could live a happy life if all he ever had to eat were cheese sandwiches. I’m a…Read More
A few weeks ago the team behind zpizza contacted me and offered to send a voucher so I could take the kids there and we could try out their pizza. Free pizza? And I have kids? A no brainer, and so they sent $20 in vouchers. Tonight, finally, I took my 12yo son G- and 8yo daughter K- to the local zpizza, tucked neatly between Firehouse Subs and Jamba Juice in what’s become franchise food…Read More
Perhaps I’m the only one, but regardless of what kind of lunch my kids pack they seem to do a poor job of staying focused at lunch time and actually eating their food, so when I pick them up, it’s often to one or more entreaties of “I’m starving! can we get some food?” I mean, they get out at 3pm, it’s not like it’s half a day removed from when they should be sitting…Read More
Check out this fun and cute video from Superchef: The scoop: Josie and Gabe have cooked their way into the Superchef Kids Finals. In thirty minutes they have to prepare an entree using the five ChooseMyPlate.gov guidelines for a healthy diet. They must use chicken, tuscan kale, mascarpone cheese, oranges and quinoa. (could you put those ingredients together and make something tasty??) Each Superchef Kid chef will have the aide of a sous chef for…Read More
If you’ve read GoFatherhood for any length of time, you’ll know I think that it’s tougher to be a boy than a girl in modern culture, and doubly so in school settings. Schools have ended up being designed for more prototypical female behaviors and preferences and the destroy/break/run around energy of boys is increasingly viewed as a disease that needs to be cured, typically with diagnoses like ADHD and drugs like Ritalin. As a result,…Read More
Sometimes being a highly visible single dad blogging about children, parenting and divorce has some unexpected benefits. For one, I get really interesting email messages from people located all over the planet. Groups that are doing great work and that I’m happy to help gain visibility. That’s the case with the following letter from Amy Gridley from La Asociacion Nuestros Ahijados. Read on, see what you think… Dave, I have been sifting through many, many, MANY…Read More
When I was a kid, I have no memory of ever taking vitamins. I don’t know if it’s simply because my Mom did such a good job of feeding us a balanced diet (lots of veggies, 95% of our meals at home) but nowadays it seems like not only are us adults a bit vitamin deficient (I take a multivitamin every day and can tell when I miss a few days) but it also seems…Read More
If we’ve spent any amount of time together, you’ve probably heard me complain about the extraordinary waste of resources that’s represented by the bottled water industry. I predict that within a decade it’ll be illegal to sell bottles of water, actually, and that’d be a great thing. Instead, we’ll have reusable bottles with small, effective filtration systems similar to what’s starting to appear in third world nations. No waste, no fuss, and with the addition…Read More
Had a fun Memorial Day weekend with my kids and Dad in town, mostly focused around the Boulder Creek Festival, a huge outdoors art, food and activity event held annually in Boulder, Colorado. I figure it’s a highlight of living in Boulder, actually, being able to go to the Festival without a long drive and knowing the secret parking spots so you can actually get there without hours of parking hassle. My kids love it…Read More
I get letters. No, seriously, by blogging about my own thoughts and experiences as an attachment parent for over a decade now, I get email from people seeking a sympathetic ear and some advice about a parenting dilemma they have. Sometimes I post these here on the blog asking for your input and other times I just jump in and answer them myself. The wrinkle? I don’t have a degree in child development and the…Read More
Okay, tonight was a great test of my ability to stay focused on the important things and practice that zen-like calm I try to have when things get frustrating. I managed it, but not without a tiny cry of despair inside… I’ve brought my 10yo son G- to Chicago for a week’s holiday with me, we’ve been to the amazing Museum of Science and Industry, the very cool Field Museum, tomorrow we’re off to Navy…Read More
The PR agency behind Jif peanut butter has a promotion where they’re asking for the best recipes that include Jif peanut butter. Okay, not a bad idea. When I got a copy of the query I responded that to me the real question is the quality of the food: two of my three children are on gluten-free diets. To my surprise, they informed me that Jif actually is a gluten-free product. Now, before you say…Read More
A wonderful article in today’s New York Times entitled The World’s Best Candy Bars? English, Of Course where they talk about why those British chocolate bars are so far superior to the crummy American candy we get in this country. Couldn’t agree more. In fact, I’m quite a fan of chocolate bars and sweets myself and my 10yo daughter has definitely inherited my sweet tooth from what we can see. The other children seem a…Read More