Well, I haven’t been to London to see the Queen. I could do I suppose except she’s on holiday in Scotland, so I’d be wasting my time.

I’ve been at Mister Good Guy working on The Mona Lisa Million Project.

I feel an acute time pressure to make it work, so I’m pulling out all the stops.

I will come back here and continue to share my taste in music but just for now I want to make sure I spend most of my time doing the things that will secure my future as a stay at home dad.

If you have the chance to visit me and the Mona Lisa, please do come and say hello. I’m very friendly

And if you could…. but only if it doesn’t hurt the look of your site… I’d be grateful if you could put a link to my site in your side bar or blogroll. It would help massively. I would love to be linked using meaningful terms related to the site, rather than my name. something that describes what i do there and in case you don’t know, I’m focused on using the Mona Lisa, for website promotion and I’m helping good causes.

misterggoodguy.com

Cheers
Dave

Getting straight to the point here. There’s a guy called Tim Gary who came to me highly recommended and now I’d like to pass that recommendadion on to you. Tim has built a reputation for being an all round good egg, and from my dealings with him I can tell you it’s well deserved.

I’m telling you this because I think he might be able to help you.

Some of his many talents relate to the tech side of blogging, blog installation and trouble shooting.

If you go to his site now – Mindcue – he has an amazing offer. Tim is offering free 30 minute telephone consultations free. Yes I said free twice in the same sentence because I wanted you to get the idea that the free consultation is free!

OK I’ll stop doing that now, but seriously I needed an offer like this when I first started out, it probably would have saved me a lot of time and heartache.

I’m pretty sure this would benefit you even if you’re more advanced than a fresh out of the box virgin blogger (that sounded bad, but I’m leaving it), but you’d need to check with Tim.

I suppose if you were bored and lonely you could also give him a call, but he probably won’t thank me for saying that. I just feel a little mischievous today!!

Go.

Go have a look at his offer of a free tech hotline consultation.

And if you don’t want it, I’m willing to bet you’ll know someone who would!

Please be cool and pass this on!

Thanks

Dave

What a week this week has been!! So amazingly busy on the Stay-at-home dad front.

Yesterday was the day of five school runs. FIVE.

I took them all on the four mile trip to school first thing around 8.30, deposited my boys in school and my girls in playgroup.

At 11 I returned to collect my eldest girl from playgroup so that she could visit the big school she’ll be moving to in September.

At 12 I returned to playgroup to collect my youngest daughter so that she could have lunch.

At 1pm I returned to school to collect my eldest daughter.

Then at 3pm I returned to collect both boys from school.

FIVE school runs!!

That’s not to mention the two dog walking sessions. The trip to the post office. The journey into town. The grocery shopping.The cooking and the cleaning.

And I wonder why I find it difficult to make time for my Mona Lisa project!?!?

One thing I did make the time for yesterday was to post my latest featured post over at Mister Good Guy.

Vilate runs a cloth diaper business online and her site Nifty Nappy is the latest addition to the Mona Lisa Million project.

In case you have no idea what the hell I’m blathering on about… the Mona Lisa Million project is a way of promoting other people’s business by providing online exposure through Mister Good Guy and also through Twitter.

People are asked to sponsor a section of my giant Mona Lisa picture and in return I provide some lovely publicity and perhaps the best part of all is that I share the profits with good causes.

So anyway, Vilate sent me a guest post explaining how she started using cloth diapers for her own children and how she developed a business from it. If you click through and have a look at her site, you’ll see that the products look fantastic and you can find out where to buy cloth diapers made by Vilate.

Let me also say a quick thanks to everybody who commented here on this site last week and made this place look more alive than it has done in a long time.

Thanks

Happy Sunday!!

Always thought this was a fantastic song. Billy Joel provides today’s Sunday Love song.

I don’t even need to find the lyrics for this one… they come up on the screen. How’s that for service?

After you’ve listened to the Sunday Love Song, why not pop over and see the Sunday Thought For The Day!

Sublime Music On Selfish Saturday

Today’s offering is from Neil Diamond and of course it’s the classic Song Sung Blue.

Hope your Saturday doesn’t leave you with the blues.

Lyrics – Song Sung Blue

Song sung blue
Everybody knows one
Song sung blue
Every garden grows one

Me and you are subject to the blues now and then
But when you take the blues and make a song
You sing them out again
Sing them out again

Song sung blue
Weeping like a willow
Song sung blue
Sleeping on my pillow

Funny thing, but you can sing it with a cry in your voice
And before you know, start to feeling good
You simply got no choice

Me and you are subject to the blues now and then
But when you take the blues and make a song
You sing them out again

Song sung blue
Everybody knows one
Song sung blue
Every garden grows one

Funny thing, but you can sing it with a cry in your voice
And before you know, start to feeling good

Not everyone gets the humour of Tommy Cooper and I was certainly too young to appreciate him when he was performing, but as soon as I had developed my well honed sense of the ridiculous, I came to appreciate him for the genius he was.

Hope your Friday turns out to be fantastically funny!

My last post: How to be Successful: Be a Jerk
My latest post at Mister Good Guy: Break In At Buckingham Palace

Not withstanding that the definition of success changes depending upon who you ask… and for the purpose of this post accepting that the success I’m referring to relates to status and wealth….

Why does it seem to me that so many successful people have a “jerk gene”?

The thought came to me this morning as I was cut up for the 2nd time while I was driving my children to school. The obvious answer might be that I’m a crap driver, but I can assure you that on this occasion that wasn’t a factor.

I couldn’t help but notice the people cutting me up were driving expensive cars. One was a Lexus and the other a Merc.

The drivers were both men in their thirties one was wearing a crisp shirt with a tie the other was wearing a slobby t-shirt but somehow he had the look of wealth about him.

I just got the impression that they didn’t care that they annoyed me as long as they got to where they were going without having to wait in a queue of traffic.

That got me to thinking about other episodes where people had put their interests ahead of mine even if they had to be openly rude to do it.

I’m basically a nice guy, so the chances of me punching these people square in the face for taking outrageous liberties at my expense is pretty minimal, and maybe they understand this?

Anyway, I was wondering whether I should try being a jerk for a while to see where it gets me?

What do you think? Are jerks more successful in life? What characteristics do jerks possess the I could borrow without being a full-on jerk myself?

Dave

My last post: A Tarmac Path Up Mount Snowdon
My latest post at Mister Good Guy: Train Robber Ronnie Biggs Escapes From Prison

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I caught this piece today about Mount Snowdon, the highest peak in England & Wales, getting a tarmac path. I had to laugh. But I think it will make plenty of people cry. Read the full story here.

I understand why they did it. They want to make the mountain more accessible but somehow it just doesn’t look quite right.

Anyway it made me think that those bloggers walking the 84 miles of Hadrian’s Wall might enjoy the use of a travelator?

Sounds silly… but then I never believed they’d build a tarmac path up Mount Snowdon… and they did!

Dave

Late Addition:

I found this video of two climbers on Mount Snowdon who seem to have avoided the tarmac path completely and seem intent on walking on the razors edge with steep drops on both sides.

So, short and sweet is the way I want to try and work this blog for a while. Check it out to see what the hell I’m blathering on about.

A weight loss update:

Since getting heavily into the Mona Lisa I haven’t been able to concentrate on my weight loss as much. I still eat one meal a day (most of the time) but I find that I lack the discipline I was able to muster before.

I started getting up early a few weeks ago to create the extra time I need to get my writing projects done. It’s a big upheaval and it’s hampered my weight loss efforts.

I take a positive from it though… I’m maintaining my weight and not gaining. That fills me with hope that I can adapt to my changing circumstances and start losing the weight again.

I’m simply juggling too many balls, but I’m getting better the more I practise.

Dave.

Just for hoots I want to try something out here.

Random postings. Mostly short and sweet. Occasionally long assed.

But more frequent.

Let’s see how this works out.

Dave.

Pic

I’m feeling smug because I had to buy a new pair of jeans last week. I had to because my old jeans were starting to look like clown pants as the excess material around the waist was gathered up by the belt.

Dropping a jeans size is a big deal for me. I’ve been wearing a 36 waist for over 15 years and the truth is there were times when I should have worn a 38!

Now I’m in a 34 and I can honestly see a point in time when I’ll wear a 32.

I’m keeping my “fat pants” though. It’s good to pop them back on for a minute just to see the progress I’ve made with the weight loss. It’s a good motivator.

Have you got any “fat pants”? Do you keep them to remember… or do you keep them in case you’ll need them again one day?

Dave

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I remember being about 6 or 7 years old and my mother dragging my younger sister and I off to the supermarket on a Saturday morning. Back in the 70s we travelled on the bus because having even one car was a luxury, having two cars was practically unheard of. For me it was fun but for my mum it was probably a nightmare.

My poor mother.

Whilst she may not have killed to have a home delivery service I’ll bet she’d have happily maimed to get her groceries delivered to the door.

Fortunately I don’t need to maim anyone, or even hurt their feelings to benefit. Quite a few of the supermarkets in the UK offer this service for a small fee but thanks to the availability of voucher sharing on the Internet the delivery cost is cancelled out.

I’m sure there are some downsides to not walking around the aisles, but I’m struggling to think what they might be.

If only I could get them to unpack my shopping and put it away, that would be marvellous!

Dave

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In months gone by I might have been tempted to think that the week just gone had been the week from hell.

I lost my way with my diet, with waking early, with my online presence and a few of my other goals.

My week was hijacked with the school sports days, cooking food for school events, being a taxi for all and sundry, and commitments in the evenings – some expected and some unexpected.

To add to the mix my computer has been acting up lately. It’s been freezing and turning itself off, and then finally on Thursday it stopped working completely, so on Saturday I bought a new computer – something I didn’t want to do with only one wage coming into the house – but It’s true to say that the computer is on the list of essential household appliances.

Anyway, all of that stuff would probably have sent me over the edge a few months ago but this time, I haven’t worried about it.

I enjoyed watching my children at the sports days, I enjoyed spending the time with my family and friends, I enjoyed eating to excess and I enjoyed the extra sleep that I got.

And whilst I could ill afford to fork out for a new computer, having a brand new one that isn’t on a go-slow and doesn’t crash every 20 minutes is an absolute joy.

I can’t do anything about the week that’s just gone and even if I had the chance to go back in time and do it differently, I doubt that I would.

Sometimes it’s nice just to let life wash over you.

Dave

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Not digging the daily weight loss updates? No worries, I think I’ll look at another way of doing it for a while. Maybe a weekly update or a twice weekly update.

That might suit me better anyway, because I could use the time I spend doing that everyday to doing the thing that might keep me as a stay at home dad past September. And that is my primary goal at the moment.

I needed to write that here to realise it, which I suppose is a bit bizarre, but until I actually typed those words, it hadn’t occurred to me, at least not on any conscious level.

The fat loss is easy to talk about because it’s been the one thing I’ve kept control over during the previous months whilst other things have been allowed to fall around my ears. It has been important to me to feel I’ve had some real control over at least one aspect of my life.

That approach has allowed me to exercise more control over other aspects of my life too, which is how I come to find myself blogging again. I’ve made changes to my life to make the time to do this without impacting negatively on everything else I’m doing.

Reading Plan For Success this morning reminded me that the approach I take with my weight loss goals works well with my other goals too. In the same way I adjust my weight loss plans, I can adjust my other plans.

So, at least for a while I’ll update the weight loss on a weekly basis, and use the time to get my Mona Lisa project flying again – because that’s the project most likely to keep me at home with my family.

Wishing you success with your own plans,

Dave

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BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

The alarm has been going off at 4am everyday this week as I try like crazy to make a difference to my life by seizing the day by the scruff of the neck.

I’ve had some good results this week getting up early, although not once did I make it out of bed at 4am. The best I managed was 4.30 and the latest I got up was 6am.

It’s the first week of trying and I’m fighting against a lifelong habit of snoozing when the alarm goes off, so I can happily live with the knowledge that I’m making improvements.

Actually the early starts have made a huge difference to the way my day pans out. I start out having achieved something and that sets me up for a fantastic day.

My biggest disappointment this week is that I haven’t been able to progress the website promotion at Mister Good Guy. I so desperately want to make a breakthrough with that because if it takes off it just might keep me at home as a full time parent for just a bit longer. I would love that.

Regardless of that it’s been a superb week. My attempt to lose 30 lbs of fat continues and I’m getting closer to my target after finding what is for me, the secret to weight loss, and that’s eating just ‘one meal a day’. It’s not an approach that would suit most people but it’s working for me.

As I ease myself back into blogging I’m starting to look around at what everyone else has been doing over the last few weeks.

Lance has started an awesome new site called The Feel Good Jungle. It’s an extension of his main site The Jungle of Life and so much of his wisdom and warmth carries through as he writes about the journey to peak health. Plenty of motivation to get fit over there. Go take a look.

Glen is a 21 year old guy originally from England who now lives in South Africa. He’s done amazing things with his online career and he’s only half my age. I hate him. Not really… actually I admire him for what he’s achieved and feel slightly envious. Anyway, Glen recently wrote some great blogging advice in an article entitled 6 Things I Wish I knew about Blogging 4 Years Ago. Well worth a look.

Mike Goad has another new site on the go. I’m not sure how many he has these days, I’ve lost count But if you check out Journey Through the American Civil War you’ll see that Mike explains his great concept for going back in time and writing the Diaries of the Civil War.

I haven’t found a genuine use for this yet but as I use FireFox so I’m storing this one for the future. Kim Woodbridge walks us through how to make videos with FireFox.

Selfish Blogger got mentioned on All That Comes With It a few weeks ago but I’ve only just picked up on it. I wanted to acknowledge the mention by linking back to a great piece in which Dan points out the guilt he feels at not being the main bread winner. Something that I can totally relate to.

So, as you may or may not know, I’m busy trying to lose weight ( I think I may have mentioned it a few times) and Tracy O’Connor is busy trying to convince me to eat heart attack food…. And Tracy… thank you for supporting me here and elsewhere with your wonderfiul comments.

Patricia wrote about being stuck, but actually when you read into the article it becomes clear that Patricia possesses the key to making the positive changes she desires. Sheer determination and force of will will prevail. Refusing to quit marks her apart from so many others who would just give up. But not Patricia! And Patricia… thank you for your support with your comments at various websites over the years.

Two of my all time favourite writers are back on the scene after a long absence. They’re the Burt and Ernie of the Internet. Or possible the Statler and Waldorf?

David Wright has been sharing his cooking skills at the same time as posting a review of America’s Test Kitchen: Let’s Get Cooking. Which incidentally he managed to screw out of Nintendo just because he asked. How the hell does that work? I’m going to try it with Volvo UK and see if they’ll give me a Volvo XC90 just because I ask in a blog post.

Sean Platt has written what is by far the best post I’ve read this year. I’m a little biased I admit, but setting that aside, it’s hard not to be moved by the story of a man who turned to the Internet to make his living as a writer, only to lose his house in the process of chasing the dream. This same man has come out the other side and is better for his experience and now he’s on track to make the dream come true.

One last thing…

I’ve changed the name of my Twitter account. You can now find me there as DaveFowler.

Have a great weekend.

Dave

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Welcome to the my Friday update!

I’m still going strong with my one meal a day approach and this is day 5 of me writing about it.

Before I reveal my weight this morning I just want to take a moment to review what I got up to yesterday.

Stats & Stuff

Thursday 10th June 2010 179.2 lbs

Diet:

Several mugs of hot, milky sweet tea throughout the day. They keep me going. I suppose you could view these as snacks as I use full fat milk and one spoon of sugar.

3pm – Chocolate bar.

Main meal at 5pm – Toad in the hole with boiled potatoes, peas, carrots, sweetcorn and gravy. Followed by two buttered scones.

Exercise:

30 minute morning walk with the dogs in the woods.
50 minute afternoon walk.

I didn’t get the eating quite right today. I should have eaten a piece of fruit at lunch but felt I could make it until the main meal.

That was a mistake. At 3pm I felt a little weak and slightly dizzy. I ended up eating a small chocolate bar that I had with me in the car. That resolved it but that situation was slightly too uncomfortable. It’s not a big deal. I’m still trying to work this out and all the feedback is useful.

The evening meal was a big one again, but as always, I’m not trying to starve myself. I’m aiming for a significant calorie deficit, I’m not trying to survive on 500 calories a day.

I had lots of veg with my main meal but honestly I missed the fruit throughout the day and after the main meal.

Even though the day didn’t quite go to plan I still had a good day.

Today

Friday 11th June 2010 179.0 lbs

(Down from 179.2)

If your goal today is to lose some weight, I wish you well… have a great day!

Dave

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Yesterday I got up at 4.30am having had only 6 hours sleep, I felt hungry quite a few times because I’m dieting, I only ate one meal because I’m dieting, I had to make 3 school runs, I spent an hour and half walking dogs, I looked after my wife who is recovering from knee surgery, my afternoon was blitzed by having to deal with an iframe attack at Good Guy, and I was late to bed playing catch up with the housework.

Sounds like a crap day doesn’t it?

No way!

It was a brilliant day!!

Perhaps now that there’s the real prospect of me having to return to work in September, even though I really don’t want to, I’m starting to find the real joy in being a full time parent?

Here’s a highlight from my day just to prove what a brilliant day it was:

I arrived at playgroup early with my two daughters yesterday so we went to play on the swings and slides. All of their little friends arrived in the playground and they started doing their own thing getting the social order sorted out for the day.

There was plenty of chatter and conversation and they decided upon the theme for the little game they were playing on the climbing frame. They settled on ‘Barbie’. Half way through the Barbie conversation my eldest daughter turned to me and declared, “Daddy! You can’t listen to this, this is a ‘girlversation‘!”

LMAO. A girlversation. I haven’t heard that one before.

Clearly I was excluded because I’m a boy. Yuk! Boys! Awful creatures!

What moment to be part of. You can’t buy that sort of joy.

There were plenty of other highlights too. I woke early enough to write in the peace and quiet of the dawn – I lost weight – my one meal was delicious and totally satisfying – I made my wife laugh long enough to forget her sore knees for a while – I did 90 minutes of fat burning exercise – and I resolved the iframe attack without losing my cool.

No I didn’t get to do half of what I’d planned but that was an amazing day.

I’m still laughing about girlversation today.

I hope you are having an amazing day too.

Dave

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If you love me (and you might, it’s worth a shot)… if you love me, you’ll visit me at MisterGoodGuy.com where I’m gearing up to do some fabulous website promotion.

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One meal a day? I must be out of my mind?

It turns out that for me, getting the mindset right is crucial. I mentioned yesterday that while I’m eating just one meal a day I tell myself I can eat whatever I want, whenever I want, and that’s true. There’s nothing stopping me.

And that’s exactly what I did yesterday, but I feel no guilt or regret because it’s all part of the plan!!

Stats & Stuff

Wednesday 9th June 2010 179.6 lbs

Diet:

Several mugs of hot, milky sweet tea throughout the day.

10.30 – Banana (A banana, again!? Because there are still a ton of them in my house and besides they’re sweet and delicious!. I wouldn’t normally eat at 10.30 if I can avoid it because a big mug of tea usually sees me through, but today I got up much earlier at 4.30 am and I walked an extra ten minutes with the dogs in the morning.

Midday – I couldn’t help but finish off the few strands of grated cheese, a small piece of breadstick and a carrot stick left on my daughter’s lunch plate. It’s tough to throw food away, and bizarrely it’s harder if it’s only a few morsels.

Main meal at 5pm – Beef and Ale pie, with baked potatoes, peas, sweetcorn, and onion gravy. This was the biggest meal I’ve eaten this week.

It was followed by – Strawberry jelly and cream with 2 scoops of ice cream sprinkled with hundreds and thousands. Followed by a thick slice of home made banana bread (got to use those bananas up) and a 3 small squares of chocolate (the fruit and nut variety)!!

That was a brilliant meal. In all honesty it was more than I might ordinarily have eaten but the occasion called for it.

We have a little family tradition of “Jelly Wednesdays”. As a (loose) rule the children don’t eat desert on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday, which makes weekends and Jelly Wednesday a big deal!

I love Jelly Wednesday!!

Exercise:

40 minute morning walk with the dogs in the woods. Added ten minutes to the walk just to vary what I’ve been doing lately. I wasn’t under any time pressures and it seemed like a good opportunity to do a little extra.

50 minute afternoon walk with the dogs at a challenging pace. I have no idea how far I went but I felt fit and happy so I put in the extra twenty minutes. The opportunity was there so I took it.

In total I walked for an extra 30 minutes!

-

Thursday 10th June 2010 179.2 lbs

-

Having got three good days under my belt, I feel good about the rest of the week.

The weight has dropped everyday this week. But I have to tell you I don’t trust the scale and I’m not hung up on what it says. Had it registered an increase in weight this morning I still would have been pleased about the first three days.

Right now I’m in a very positive frame of mind about my weight loss. I’m not depriving myself of the things I want, I’m eating fruit and veg and wholesome home-cooked meals, I’ve eaten desert every day and I’m still losing weight.

If losing weight is your goal too… I hope you have a fantastic day today.

Dave

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Ready for another day of eating just one meal?

Oh, hell yeah!

I’m within sight of my reaching my goal to lose 30 lbs of fat and I’ve decided to blog about it here.

This is the third day of the latest phase of fat loss using the ‘one meal a day’ method, which if you’ve been lurking, you’ll know I’m yet to properly describe. Don’t worry, I’ll get to it, but I’m fairly sure if you used your imagination you’d be able to figure out how it works.

Stats & Stuff

Tuesday 8th June 2010 180.2lbs

Diet:

Several mugs of hot, milky sweet tea throughout the day.

Main meal at 5pm – Shepherds Pie with lots of carrots and gravy. This is an adult sized portion, not a weight watchers portion or a child sized portion. It’s good food made myself from fresh ingredients.

Followed by – a sliced banana with half a small meringue nest and a splash of fresh double cream. I actually wanted to eat pineapple with a scoop of ice cream but we’ve got so many bananas and so much cream I couldn’t bare to see it go to waste. The pineapple and ice cream will keep.

7pm – 2 “Jubbly Lollies” (I have no idea whether that translates outside of the UK). And the tiniest bar of Green & Black’s Organic Almond Chocolate you’ve ever seen. It was about the size of your thumb. So… Eating chocolate on a diet, is that allowed? Most certainly!

I felt hungry at several points during the day, but most noticeably at 3pm(ish). I was out on the school run so I couldn’t do anything about it except tolerate it. If I’d been at home I would have eaten some fruit or veg because this is not about starvation or denying myself food, in fact the opposite is true. I tell myself there’s plenty of food and I can have it if I want it.

Exercise:

2 x 30 minute brisk walks with the dogs in the woods. Probably 2 miles each time.

Wednesday 9th June 2010 179.6 lbs

-

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post eating one meal a day is not a way of life, it’s a means to an end… and it’s working!

I am so pleased with the results of the last two days and I’m looking to put in another good effort today.

Hope your day goes well too.

Dave

Two years I made the move from being a career man to a full time parent, and was the best decision I ever made.

Previously I mentioned that there were certain freedoms I enjoy as a stay at home dad but these days I’ve come to take those freedoms for granted.

Yesterday after I’d been for a very pleasant walk in the woods with the dogs (which incidentally was something I used to see as a chore – but now something I see as a way to guarantee daily exercise to help me lose weight), I popped along to the chemist because I needed to pick one of those wart freezing kits for my daughter. She’s only five and has a wart just under her knee. Poor soul keeps knocking it while she’s charging around at playgroup, doing all the rough and tumble things that 5 year olds do.

Anyway, after I picked up the treatment (called Wartner – perhaps you’ve already tried it? – I’ll let you know if it works), I got to thinking how wonderful it was not to have to pop out during work hours, not to have to ask a boss for permission, and not to feel guilty for taking a bit longer because I wanted to speak to the pharmacist to get the right treatment.

The sun was shining there was a lovely warm breeze blowing and I actually stopped just to enjoy the moment, something I haven’t done for a long time.

I wonder how many more things about being a stay at home dad I now take for granted?

Dave

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