It’s almost 2010. The new year allows for a fresh start in many parts of our lives. Each year most of us make some sort of New Year’s Resolution. According to Wikipedia, only about 12% of us are successful. Change is not always easy, but sometimes it can be very good for you. As dads we all have areas of life that we need to improve. If you dont’ have any new year’s resolutions here are 10 that you may find you can use as goals towards a healthier, happier and more productive 2010.

1. Get In Shape – I say get in shape instead of lose weight because believe it or not there are those of us who may not need to lose weight, but could use a bit of toning up. There are also many of us that simply do just need to loose weight. This resolution is probably the most popular new year’s resolution out there and is also probably one of the hardest ones to succeed in. The best way to succeed is to do it together and set specific goals. Since everyone can eat healthy and exercise, there is no reason why this can’t be a family resolution. Plan healthier meals and fun activities with your family. Instead of watching that rerun on TV go for a family walk or run. As a family make each other accountable. Once you start seeing results the rest is easy. Push each other to get through the first couple months and then ride the great feeling of getting in shape the rest of the way.
2. Spend more time with the kids – Our lives are very busy with commutes, jobs and household duties. It is important that we spend good quality time with our kids. Make it your goal to read your children a bed time story every other night. Perhaps you can sit down and help them with a math lesson or play catch outside once a week. There are so many activities that do not take a lot of time, but will mean the world to your kids.
3. Eat Together – We already discussed improving your eating habits. This can include more than just what you eat, but where and with whom. Family meals are an important time. Ensuring that your family sits down for dinner together everyday allows of open communication and bonding time. Dinner is one of those times where the word family is defined. In order to know each other as a family should you need to talk. There is no better time than over a home cooked meal. Don’t let busy schedules take away from family dinners. If you can’t get a few family dinners in a week, you probably need to cut back on the extra-curricular activities.
4. Go Green- You don’t have to paint your face green and use leaves as toilet paper to go green. Here is one very simple way to help the environment. DO NOT USE PLASTIC BOTTLES! So many of us grab that water bottle drink our 8-12oz and then toss the bottle. Go out to the store and buy yourself a nice water bottle that can be reused. Get a filter for your tap and drink away. Even if you have to buy water from the store, get the biggest container you can and keep refilling that reusable water bottle, or glasses from cabinet. Those little plastic bottles are completely unecessary and should not exist.
5. Take more pictures / movies – For my dad this is the opposite or what needs to happen as we never get through a family gathering with less than 200 pictures, however for most of us we get so caught up in the moment we forget to preserver it. I’m not one that believes in going nuts taking pictures. I want to enjoy what I am doing and not worry about having to record every detail. That being said, it is important to take a few pictures so that you can go back and remember the moment later. It’s always fun for kids to see what they were like when they were younger, don’t deprive them of that experience.
6. Take more Day Trips – Most of us go on one, maybe two vacations a year. In between those times we do need a break from daily life. Day trips are a great way to do that. Day trips can consist of anything from a couple hour drive to a nature preserver, or another city to a picnic at the park. Taking time to get away from the daily routine will help you stay focused when you need to by relieving some of that stress.
7. Prepare a Disaster Plan- You never know what can happen, it’s always best to be prepared. Preparing for disaster involves a number of different actions. Try to keep at least a 3 day supply of food in reserve. If you are really gung ho about it you can probably find a way to store up to a months worth of dry food. Get together with your family to decide where to meet if there is an emergency. If you live in areas where natural disasters can occur, keep disaster supplies on hand such as boards for your windows or sandbags to prevent flooding. Another thing many of us don’t think about is planning for a computer disaster. While this is not life threatening, we do depend on our computers to store precious data such as documents and pictures. Consider subscribing to an off-site back up service such as iDrive or Mozy to help protect your files.
8. Date more- Yes I know most of us dads are married, or are at least in a committed relationship. Even so, it is important that the two of you get some alone time without the kids. Make it your goal to get at least 1 date night a month. Even if it is just a 2 hour dinner. The time spent together will strengthen your relationship a great deal.
9. Pay off debt – Make it your goal to pay off a medium debt. For example say you have a credit card with a couple thousand on it or a car payment with a little more than a year left on it. Work on paying those off so you dont’ have to worry about it. No one is going to tell you to make it your New Year’s Resolution to pay off your mortgage, but getting rid of a couple of those $100 – $300 a month payment will do wonders.
10. Enjoy Life – Do something this year for yourself. Join a softball team or a bowling league. Get involved with a group of other people with the same interests as you. Find something you enjoy doing and do it. Don’t let the excuses get in the way any longer.

When I was younger my family typically spent New Years Eve together. My parents never really went out to parties so we found ways to have a good time at home. New Years Eve was always a fun family experience. Here are some fun ways to make your New Years Eve night a family fun night.

• Homemade Pizza - Grab some pre-made pizza crusts and your favorite toppings. Have everyone pitch in making homemade pizzas.
• Rent a movie - Movies are a great way to pass the time until midnight. Make it a marathon of your favorite movies.
• Game Night - After your movie is over, play some board games or social games such as Pictionary or charades.
• Remember – Watch home movies and look at pictures from the last year.
• Plan the New Year - Put together a family plan for the next year. Where do you want to vacation. Any home improvements to make? etc.
• Read - Everyone take a turn reading their favorite short story
• Video Games - Break out the video game system and play some of those great group games together.
• Puzzles – Do a puzzle. Jigsaw, word puzzles, logic puzzles, etc.

Does your family do anything fun together on New Years Eve? Let us know by leaving a comment!

About a month ago I decided I was going to grow my hair out a little. I usually keep it very short, so growing it out a little is in reality growing it out to a normal length. This morning I was combing my hair and realized it was starting to fill out a little. The other thing I noticed is how many grey hairs I have. I have noticed one or two greys here and there over the last 5 years or so, but now that my hair is a little longer I realize that I am headed in the grey direction on a fast track. Being 30, I’m not sure I am ready for that quite yet. I accept getting old and will not fight it with hair dyes or other such products, but I would rather not show off the grey hair just yet. I will be getting my hair cut next week.

Many people say that gray hair is a sign of maturity and sophistication. I agree with that, but I am only 30. I want to give it a couple more years before I get too sophisticated. How about you? If you are a man do embrace the greys or do you do everything you can to hide it? If you are a woman reader, do you like your husbands or boyfriends to embrace the sophisticated look or does it remind you that your man isn’t the young stud he used to be?

This weekend my wife and I had that talk about whether or not we should get each other Christmas Gifts. We never place all that high of a priority on ourselves when it comes to Christmas. Some years we decide to get each other things, other years we don’t. For months my wife has been bugging me about wanting a new vacuum. Typically for house chores we share the work, however she does use the vacuum more than I do since I typically clean the outside while she works her magic inside. I had to admit our vacuum wasn’t the greatest, but it seemed to do it’s job ok. My one complaint however is that our vacuum was always filthy and got clogged a lot. My wife just got a small bonus from her job. I suggested that instead of buying big gifts for each other we take that bonus and go out and buy a top notch vacuum and limit our spending on each other to $15 – $25. She was very excited about finally getting her new vacuum.

We decided to go all out. We were at Target looking at the vacuums and noticed that the Dyson 28 Animal Vacuum had a temporary price cut and was marked down from $600 to $478 dollars. This price seems to hold true at other stores as well, but we decided it was still a good deal and decided to splurge on what we hoped to be a fantastic vacuum. We got it home and opened the box to find instructions that were simple but uninformative. After about 10 minutes the vacuum was ready to go. In box the vacuum came with 4 attachments including the standard extenders, a pet hair attachment and a flat area attachment. I was a little disappointed there was no on board storage for the later two, but hey we have some shelf space left so no biggie.

My wife took the new Dyson 28 vacuum for a spin first. She commented on how light it felt. The vacuum practically pushed itself across the floor. After about 5 minutes she had our living room done. We recently had new carpet installed in our living room so we have been really good about vacuuming it every week. Since we have dogs we try to get as much hair up as we can as often as possible. After our run through with the Dyson 28 Animal Vacuum, we were surprised that our dogs had any hair on them at all. The vacuum picked up so much hair and dust, we could have created a whole other dog.

So our container was full and it was time to empty it. My wife pulled out the container and was trying to figure out how to open it. There was a button that cued her to push down. She did and it all came out….of the bottom…all over the carpet. My wife laughed and was excited because she got to use her new vacuum again. After getting used to it, emptying it is extremely easy. Just hold the container over a garbage can and press the button. All the dirt comes out of the bottom directly into the can.

The one place where I personally feel the Dyson 28 stands out is the ability to do stairs. My old vacuum allowed for me to remove the base unit from the stand so that I could walk up the stairs. This was helpful yet, the base unit still contained all of the power components of the vacuum and was heavy and awkward. The Dyson 28 Animal has a hose that extends up to 17 feet allowing me to get all of my stairs without having to move the vacuum. this makes doing the stairs a much simpler job and in my opinion is worth the price alone. We also tried the vacuum on bare floors. Where most vacuums seemed to just move the dust around. The Dyson 28 did a better job that we would have done sweeping.

Overall I think the Dyson 28 Animal is a great vacuum. The only drawbacks are the price which is very steep. I am also disappointed to not have the ability to store all the attachments on board. The excellent power and and versatility however make up for these drawbacks. If you can afford it and are in need of a good vacuum, the Dyson 28 Animal is definitely a great solution.

Lunch is one of my favorite parts of my day. It marks the end of the morning and the half way point of my day. By lunch time my stomach is screaming at me to feed it so I am happy to oblige. Lunch is also typically a meal in which I am not constrained by the tastes and preferences of other family members. During the week I eat what I want when I want as do many people out there. The one thing I almost never do however is eat out.

I typically live life in a pretty healthy way. I try to eat those foods that are good for me and help me to stay in shape. When I do eat out I try to stick to chicken and healthy sides. If I do have some french fries I always order the smallest size or share with my family. Trying to keep up with this nutritional plan is pretty good motivation for not eating out, however even if you aren’t concerned about the nutritional values consider the amount of money you spend every year on eating out.

Lets say you eat out lunch every day. when I was a kid that usually meant $3 to $4 dollars a meal. Nowadays if you eat at a fast food restaurant you are looking at around $7 a meal and for restaurants with wait staff around $10 – $15 dollars a meal. Even if we stick with the lower end of $7 a meal you are looking at $35 dollars a week. For my family of 3 that is roughly equivalent to 1/3 of our weekly grocery bill. Ok so $35 a week doesn’t make you stop and think, well that $35 a week comes out to around to $157 a month. Multiply x 2 for your spouse and you have a whole additional car payment to put unhealthy food into your bodies 5 days a week. Ok maybe I am not being fair about the unhealthy thing. Maybe you eat at Subway, however the cost is still growing. OK, so over the course of a year if you eat out 5 times a week at $7 a meal (remember that is on the low end), you are spending $1820 a year eating out, and that is not counting your spouses meals if they are doing the same.

So here is the big question I have for you….

How many of you dads out there want that new 42 inch LCD TV at $1500 but figure you can’t afford it? How about that trip to Disneyland that will run you around $1600?

I know I know, in the real world, it’s unrealistic to bring your lunch every day. Co-workers probably want to go out and that is fine but here are some suggestions. Treat yourself one a week. By going once a week you will only be spending around $500 a year on lunches at restaurants. This will still save you around $1300 a year. Also, encourage your coworkers to brown bag it as well and enjoy each others company in the break room or outside if it’s a nice day. I also realize that bringing lunch can cost money as well. Try to stick to leftovers and simple lunches like sandwiches. I’ve also found that Zip Lock Zip and Steam Bagsare a great way to cook up some of that frozen chicken at the office. Remember all the estimates we have made were based on the low amount of $7 a lunch. In reality you spend much more eating out. Take the numbers I present here to heart even knowing it will still cost you some money to bring your lunch.

You may be surprised that by cutting down on your daily trips to the fast food joint you may just feel better as well. You will have more money in your pocket as well so you can enjoy some of the finer things in life.

Earlier this week a good friend of mine posted on his Facebook account about his lost innocence when it comes to Disney movies. Along with this post he shared this clip which shows some off some of Disney’s methods to increase productivity in their animation. Who would have thought? This doesn’t really change my mind about Disney however. I still love their movies, cartoons and theme parks!

Next weekend my wife and I are watching the neighbors kids while they go to a company holiday party. When we babysit we like to come up with ideas that are fund for our family and our guests to help pass the time. We have decided that for dinner instead of ordering pizza, we would make pizza. The best part is everyone gets to make their own. If you would like to do this, here is what you need.

• An individual pizza crust for each person. These can be just a couple dollars each at the store.
• Some pizza sauce and perhaps even some alfredo sauce for a white pizza option
• Various toppings (Sausage, pepperoni, pineapple, etc.)
• Lots of cheese

Have each kid pick their pizza crust and let each spread out some sauce. Sure it’s going to be a little messy, but that’s the fun (Make sure to protect any valuables). Allow each child to choose exactly what toppings they want for their pizza. Sprinkle some pizza seasoning and allow the kids to top with cheese. It ends up being a great edible pizza art project. Encourage the kids to make designs with toppings, a smiley face for example. Have adults put them in the oven and serve them up when finished.

This is a great activity because the children get to cook their own meal, get exactly what they want and have a good time doing so. Don’t forget to have the kids wash their hands and pitch in cleaning up at the end.

This is an old but great video of a dad. If you are ever having a bad day, watch this video, you are guarenteed to be crying from laughing so hard. This video has become so successful that there is now a laughman iphone app.

Have you ever wanted to have a cool family e-mail that consists of your firstname@yourlastname.com. Now you can. Google has opened up a free version of Google Apps. Google Apps allows you to create e-mail addresses using any domain name available, that’s the second part of the e-mail address after the @ symbol. Among other things, Google Apps also allows you to create calendars which you can share with your family as well. To get started go here:

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html

You are going to want to register a domain name, you can do it directly through google apps or you can choose a variety of other registrars such as Godaddy.com, NameCheap.com or enom.com. Once you have your domain name, sign up for your google apps account at the link above. If you have created an account and registered through google, all of the following items will be done for you. When you log in for the first time there is also a step by step setup as well. If you would like to setup with the minimal amount of baggage, follow the steps below.

Once you’ve created your account you are going to have to verify that you own the domain name with Google. Here are instructions to do so:

http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=47283

After you have verified that you own the domain name. You want to make sure you are getting e-mail at that email address. In order to do that you have to edit MX records. MX records tell the Internet where to send your e-mail to. If you bought your domain name through Google this will be done for you. If not go to the following link which will show you how to edit your MX records. Make sure to go through the three steps.

http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?answer=33352

Finally you are going to want to create a simple way to access your mail. To do so we need to make sure that mail.yourdomain.com points to your google apps account. To do so Google has provided instructions for setting up url mapping using cname records.

http://www.google.com/support/a/bin/static.py?page=guide.cs&guide=22229&topic=22391#149095

Overall google apps is a great way to get personalized e-mail and share family calendars for free. I would like to see the ability to share contacts as well. I’ve read that this version is available in the paid version, however, the paid version is very expensive for everyday family use.

Teaching your child to read is a daunting task that requires a lot or patience and practice. Here is a great activity to help your kid pick up some of those site words to begin the process.

First thing to do is find a book or two that has around 10 pages and about 5-10 words per page. Choose a book that repeats some of the words a few times throughout the book. Remember to pick a book that your child will have interest in. Our son loves sports so we chose a book about sports. For a couple weeks, read the book to your child while pointing to the words as you read them. After a few times through start prompting your child for some of the easier words.

Eventually your child will become very familiar with the book and begin to recognize some of the words. Do not worry if your child seems to just memorize the words and isn’t phonetically learning. The ultimate goal is to just recognize some words and begin to learn to use them in a sentence.

Once you feel your child had remembered a good number of words make a flash card out of every word in the book. Start going through the flash cards. If your child has trouble with a word, open up to the page the word is on in the book so that he or she can see the word in the context of the pictures in the book. Once the child can get through most of the cards, not necessarily all of them, take about 16-20 cards and place them in rows on the table. Make sure the words that you choose make a sentence that is in your book.

Tell your child the sentence and with your child help them find each word in the sentence. As they find the word, put the flash cards in a row to make the sentence. After you have all the words, have your child read the sentence by pointing to each card in succession. Eventually use these words to make sentences that are not in the book and if possible even challenge your child to make up their own sentences.

There are a number of books out there that work well. Here are two that we use with our son. Good luck and have fun with this rewarding activity!