#AtoZChallenge: E is for is he EVER going to catch up?

It’s never too late to be thankful, right?

I’ve tried to tie my weekly Go Ask Daddy posts to the Friday gratitude attitude going around the blogging world. The combination ranks higher than, say, those KFC-Taco Bell duos you find sometimes out and about.

It’s been a while since I’ve sat down to jot the good stuff in my notebook, though.

I’ve been thankful for, you know, a job that offers benefits and enough dough to get my kids off free lunch. This feels like the American dream to me. But I want to make this list not just about that because I’m almost kind of tired of writing about it.

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#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.

#AtoZChallenge: B is for Boy without a job

Note: This is part of an occasional series about my journey to find a job.

This is a story about a boy.

This boy has a story to tell. He hasn’t been allowed to tell it. Then, he thought better of telling it. Because it’s a story about losing a job and feeling lost and helpless. He usually tells stories of enchiladas and bad-ass soccer girls.

But he’s standing here now, wearing a hair net and smelling of bulk scallops, wondering who he is right now.

Only, that thought lasts less time than it takes to bag up a pound of scallops (or wrap a whole salmon without dipping your sleeves in salmon slime.) When an employer tells you you’re unfit to write any more, out of the blue, you can do one of two things:

#AtoZChallenge: A is for Approachable

Easter, baseball, the Final Four, disc golf weather. Clearance Easter candy. Life is good.

The #AtoZChallenge snuck up on me.

Like, big-time. Like heartburn after 1 a.m. hot wings. Like your first gray eyebrow hair. Not that I know anything about that. One minute, I’m searching for Tums, and the next, I’m reading my friend Tamara’s Facebook post about her first post.

Ah, hell.

So, without officially signing up, and without a theme reveal post, and without, really, anything that even smells like a plan, I’m off. Two hours, 15 minutes from Day 2 of the challenge (it’s already tomorrow in Australia, so I’m way behind already.)

Who we’d pick to take our place, in 6 words

My actual shelf with getting-ready stuff. The badge has since been retired. The Star Wars figures never will be.

It’s not easy to be me.

It’s hella fun, as the kids used to say. (Some kids. Somewhere.) So, when I shot out the prompt for this month’s 6 Words post (which actually went out in 2017, but it’s taken me a while to post), it wasn’t easy to come up with an answer.

Every month, I ask friends, bloggers, strangers and strange blogger friends a question that they will answer in exactly six words.

Ernest Hemingway inspired it when he asserted that any story could be told in six words. The prompt for this month: If you had to pick someone to be you for a day, who would you want it to be, and why?

Guest post: Emily(2) Fundraising for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

It’s like, still cold in the Carolinas.

Finding the time to blog lately hasn’t been easy.

Sometimes, you have to rely on friends to pick up the slack. I’d intended to publish a #GirlsRock interview with Emily Meintzer, whose sister plays on Camdyn’s team at Lake Norman Soccer Club.

Emily and I have become sideline friends, watching her sister and my daughter mixing it up on the soccer pitch.

Today, I’m featuring a cause Emily and her friend, Emily, are working to raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Many of you know my father died nearly 18 years ago of leukemia.

Go Ask Daddy about education, aviation, and chocolatization

C’mon. Christmas can last all year. Especially when you take a boatload of Christmas-themed photos for your blog and then don’t write for a month. Happy Holidays, y’all.

I’m grateful for dreams.

No, not the ones with January Jones and bacon cheeseburgers, although those are also everything. I’m grateful for my kids’ dreams, the ones of becoming a vet tech or playing college soccer or getting a kickass role in the school play.

Hayden has a chance to play at the next level and is fortunate enough to have choices.

We visited Wingate University today and I think there were some love sparks. They invited her to an ID camp this summer. She’d stay on campus for several days and be immersed in college life there.

Go Ask Daddy about penalties, pucks and pills

Yeah, I know it’s past Christmas. But do Baby Jesus and camels really ever go out of style? This stormtrooper just discovered this isn’t the camel they’re looking for. Move along.

It was *such* a great interview.

I am hoping just as hard as I do about the Colorado Rockies or free pizza or running into Hope Solo in the self-checkout at the Harris-Teeter in South Park. (I will come up with something witty to say. I just know it.)

I’m grateful for the chance to interview at this awesome company and I have some good news to share soon about it.

After my 10 things to be grateful for, I’ll answer some of my daughters’ random questions. Three deal with sports, which is a monumental surprise. One could have been a blog post on its own, and the last one is one of those, “huh, so that’s why” sort of deals.

Coach Daddy Review: The Cupcake Rack

 

We planned a cupcake party.

It was opening weekend of the NFL playoffs. A Saturday devoted to watching the Titans vs. Chiefs, then the Falcons vs. Rams turned into a day of peek-ins to each game whenever we could. Soccer matches and toting kids about cut into viewing time.

Sunday felt much the same – only the games had changed.

And by the time I’d finished a themed dinner for the main event of the day – the hometown Carolina Panthers matchup against hated rival New Orleans Saints – both games were in the books. And it wasn’t a good look for the home team.