Discovering Dad - Friday Round-up, March 14

As a parent, it's hard to get caught up on everything that needs to get done each week. Between work, kids, eating and sleeping, there isn't much time left to accomplish extra projects. I had a lot on my plate this week, so I decided to squeeze as many tasks as possible into every day. I sacrificed sleep and other personal activities in favor of knocking things off my 'to do' list.

My daughter Chani is flying in this evening, so I am very excited about seeing her. It's really tough not having your child with you for weeks at a time. We make the best of things, but I wish she lived closer and was able to come more often. We're still trying to get used to a modified visitation schedule, since she moved across the country with her mother and stepfather last summer.

One of the projects I've been working on at home is redoing Chani's room. It was very "kid"-like, so Lori picked out paint and furniture that was more age-appropriate. Here's a picture of the finished product (I wish I would have done before-and-after photos, but I didn't think of it until I was already done):

The new furniture for Chani's and Ty's rooms came at the same time on Thursday, so I had to quickly do all of the painting and removal of furniture in his room this week too. Here's a picture of Ty's finished room (also shown on top left of this post):


The trim alone in Ty's room took me 8 hours and 6 coats to do it right. I'm not an expert painter, in fact I hate to paint, but I could not believe how hard it was to paint his trim. Chani's room took me less than half that time to complete. I guess it had something to do with the color and type of paint.

I also redid the kids/guest bathroom, but I don't think many people will find that very interesting.

After all of the painting, my arms and neck were killing me! I still have baby Caitlin's room left to do, but we need to give Ty a few weeks of transition time between a crib and QUEEN size bed with safety rails. We're planning on starting with his naps and working toward overnight. I don't want to do that while Chani is here though, as I'm sure it will be an adjustment for Ty.

At work, we continued to promote the recent upgrades to the site, which inspired many artists to submit additional content. One part of my job right now is to approve all content and ensure that it meets our Terms of Use. This also gives me a chance to evaluate submissions for monthly rankings of artists who will win cash prizes. It feels like we are on the verge of breaking out, but as it stands now, we are growing at a moderate pace. If you're an artist, writer, filmmaker or model, you can check out the site here.

I had several meetings for City Council this week. On Saturday, I inadvertently missed my first engagement since taking office. The volunteer fire company had its annual banquet and I got so wrapped up in things at home that it slipped my mind. I went to a charity auction the next day, and a fellow Councilmember asked why I wasn't there. I felt like such a jerk!

I called my friend who is the Vice President of the fire company and apologized. I promised to bring a check for the cost of my meal to the next meeting. We also had a regular meeting of the Mayor and Council on Wednesday night and a Finance Committee meeting on Thursday night. I went to community meetings on Monday and Wednesday nights as well.

In between all of this craziness, I managed to have the best week yet at Discovering Dad. Site traffic was up, and the comments and responses to my articles in the social media were phenomenal. I also managed to make several new connections with dads this week through cre8Buzz - you can link to My Profile here.

I also started (or announced) two new series for the site: Tip of the Week and Spotlight on Dads. Please continue to provide feedback on the site, as your comments are what inspire me to create these new ideas and continue to evolve the site.

Finally, I was happy to get a chance to talk with Dana Glazer, who is working on a documentary film called The Evolution of Dad. It was interesting to hear all of the cool stuff he is doing for this film, and it sounds like something all of us dads will enjoy. Dana will be one of the dads featured in an upcoming Spotlight on Dads post. Click here to visit Dana's blog.

It was a busy yet fulfilling week. It was stressful to constantly be working 'under the gun,' but everything got done. Chani will be here for a week, and I'm sure her visit will inspire some great posts. I have a lot to be thankful for in life, including all of the connections I continue to make with fellow dads through this site.

Feel free to share how your week went in the comments section. Your feedback keeps me motivated and working hard on Discovering Dad, even when there are a ton of things competing for my time. This site is extremely rewarding for me (and I hope it is for you too)!

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