🤯 Guest post: Author Britt Skrabanek, on how to protect your creative mind

A creative mind is a kind of mushy not often found in this world.

Not in a ‘this apple is too old to eat’ kind of way. More in a, ‘you can’t sit on a plate of flan or you’ll flatten it’ kind of way. It’s malleable in all the right ways, and when it’s healthy and strong, the best stuff comes shooting out of it.

Yeah, like sparklers.

Like a new pair of glasses or first-edition Chewbacca figure, it’s best to keep a creative mind protected 24-7 in the box it came in. But what fun is that? And what function? Just don’t sit on your glasses. Or lose Chewie’s crossbow.

10 things grateful, plus a college signing

One week in.

I made it this far. Not gracefully. It’s 1:14 and I promised myself 1 hour, 14 minutes ago to get to bed at midnight like a normal person. Wait. Don’t normal people get to sleep at even decenter hours than that?

Blogging again has been better than any of the high school reunions I never went to.

I’m seeing friends again and spending less time in aimless pursuits. I’m also falling asleep at inopportune times and really need to work on that. I have a fantastic guest post live just before this one that deserves a load of promotion as big as the donuts I dream of.

#J is for Just Zip It, Parents (a Guest Post From Madison)

I took this while waiting to pick up Madison from work one night. I wonder if anyone saw me.

Highway travel.

Vegas. Any weekend convention, if you’re a lot of guys. A wedding reception.

Definitely the parental sideline at any youth athletics event.

These are all places humans have gravitated toward boorish and ill-advised behavior. Today’s guest post is from my oldest, Madison, who, like her sisters, says she blocks out the noise from the familial upline, but what she wrote today demonstrates otherwise.

#AtoZChallenge: D is for designer, as in graphic, as in #GirlsRock: An interview with Amber Lorine

I always told Hayden I thought she’d someday own a business.

I still believe in that. She just has that enterprising spirit, that quiet assuredness to get the job done. Today’s #GirlsRock spotlight falls on a woman who started her own business and gave it her name.

Meet Amber Lorine, the graphic designer behind Amber Lorine Design.

She also works for Rezenerate as a graphic designer. Today, D in the #AtoZChallenge is for designer. (I can be clever like that, and it’s a good way to get this interview in. We finished it a couple of months ago!)

#AtoZChallenge: C is for Courtney Wright, guest blogger

I’m gasping for air a bit in all this #AtoZChallenge hubbub.

Hypothetically, of course. While the entire universe shares its tales of the letter E, I toil away, seeking bits of time to steal to write my C post. And it’s essentially written for me, thanks to today’s guest poster, Courtney, of Blog Me This.

Thanks for the lift, C.

So Courtney is along for the ride as my C-train ticket. She writes a wonderful blog, but even more crucially, she’s an unshakable blog friend who will shine through for you in your darkest or most blog-less and snack-less moments.

Guest post: Josie, of Family Afloat, on their sailing adventures

I love to travel.

And by travel, I mean drive several times a week to Mooresville, N.C. Occasionally exotic locales, too, such as Fredericksburg, Va. The extent of my travel reaches the bounds of club soccer. And I’m okay with that.

If I get a dose of wanderlust, well, that’s what Instagram and Hawaii 5-0 reruns are for.

Or, I can visit the blog Family Afloat. That’s where Josie chronicles the adventures of a family living at sea. Great story, right? Well, only it’s nonfiction. These people really are sailing around the world.

Guest Post: Joey of Big Teeth & Clouds, on Quitting (and Un-quitting)

The blog world is cyclical.

Unless you count those blogs that drop off sharply. Not because of quality, but from lack of posts. Sometimes, it’s not sustainable. Or we forget the password. Either way, the blog floats along in the ether, like a dead satellite.

Most often, we cycle toward and then away from blogs and blog friends, and when the cycle brings us back close, it’s as if no time had elapsed at all.

Joey writes the blog Big Teeth & Clouds, and she’s here today talking about quitters.

Guest Post: Rebecca of Ninja Librarian, on How to Get Kids Outside

One of my players will study in college to become a librarian.

I think it’s quite cool. She’s a studious sort, who found herself determined to try out for soccer in high school – and make it. She did just that and even scored a few goals along the way. She was inspirational to her teammates and to me.

Today’s guest writer is a librarian – but a ninja variety.

Rebecca writes the blog The Ninja Librarian. She’s the coolest librarian you’ll ever know. (Even cooler than that dreamy one at the Mint Hill Library.) Rebecca writes about writing, and of course reviews books for kids and adults.

🔢 Guest Post: Number Recognition Pizza Game from Education.com

nephoto credit: DocChewbacca Pizza Injustice via photopin (license)

They had me at pizza.

Today’s post comes from education.com. They offer learning programs for pre-K to fifth- grade students. I wish there were these things when I was a kid. I was a bit scattered at that age – ‘creative,’ they used to tell me.

The cool thing about the programs: They’re fun.

My girls had fun ways to learn at that age. I kind of wish I had stuff like this to help me learn new stuff at work. This game today combines a nemesis of mine (math) with a love (pizza.) Maybe it’s not too late to sharpen my own math skills.

Guest Post: Tianna, of Storybook Apothecary, on Books She’d Share With the World

photo credit: DocChewbacca Waterbomb ! via photopin (license)

The beauty of Tianna’s blog is far more than skin deep.

Storybook Apothecary is a beauty blog, that goes far deeper than concealers and eye pencils (I might or might not have checked one of her posts to procure actual examples of makeup things. I’m a dad of three girls, but I’m no expert.)

Tianna’s words and wisdom extend to wellness and life at large.

We crossed paths on a blog linkup, ideal conditions for a Gen X dad blogger and a millennial beauty blogger to share some space. She’s a reader and a thinker and you’ll love the way she has about her writing, as I do.