As Ring Luck would have it

  There is something magical about the way that young children can find great joy in even the simplest things in life. Through innocent and inexperienced eyes, even a basic trip to the store can be full of fun and happiness. Their excitement levels can only be matched by the amount of destruction they leave in their wake.   If you’ve ever seen one of those shows about people who chase tornadoes and hurricanes, then you have some idea of what it’s like to take our kids to the store. Sometimes, when we forget how… energetic our children can be, we decide to take them with us on a supposedly quick grocery trip or short errand. It usually seems like a good idea at the time.   Our twins are at an age where they do not necessarily need to be pushed around in a cart. They usually ask to walk around. And, of course, when I say ‘walk,’ I mean ‘run’ and when I say ‘around,’ I mean ‘around crazy.’ This isn’t to say they don’t want to ride in the cart. In fact, they will ask to ride in the

  There’s nothing like sitting down to a piping hot, freshly prepared dinner after a long day, and enjoying a quiet and peaceful meal. Or so the legend goes.   These days, I have difficulty believing that such a thing as a relaxing meal exists. First off, there is the surprising fact that despite our incredible good looks and amazing talents, my wife and I both need to work full time jobs in order to make ends meet. This means that by the time we get the kids picked up and dinner prepared, we are already fairly worn out.   After a hard day at work followed by us frantically slaving over a hot stove, we are usually rewarded for our efforts by hearing someone say one of the following heartwarming phrases that make all our hard work in the kitchen worthwhile: • I don’t like this • This is yucky • I don’t want this • What is this? (said with a facial expression normally reserved for when you are handling a dead skunk, possibly one dipped in radioactive waste.)   Apparently some of our

The contents of this post happened during the bitterly cold winter of 2010.     Last winter, my wife and I set up a date night. We made the mistake of trying to actually plan it. Fate is very amused by our attempts to plan things.   Our son was out of town for the weekend, and my parents were keeping the girls overnight. The idea was to catch an early non-animated movie (I had forgotten they even made those any more,) then maybe have dinner somewhere that didn’t involve plates and forks being thrown to the floor in 10-second intervals. We were also looking forward to being able to sleep late the next morning, possibly even as late at 6:00 a.m. I know what you’re thinking, especially if you have young children, “That’s crazy talk.” But sometimes you have to let your hair down and get reckless.   However, an emergency came up with our son and we needed to pick him up a day early. We had to drive an hour or so to get him. Suddenly our plans were off track, which is a HUGE surprise, I