the unlikely orange

chalk art by shannon  hey friends.  i have had a couple of comments from some folks recently about why i haven't been blogging as much.  even if no one was asking, i must admit that i sometimes wrestle with some inner voice which tells me that i'm not doing enough, not contributing enough, not writing enough, not being enough. to which i say "bull pucky." it's true, i haven't been writing as frequently here as i have at times in the past, but further reflection on the reasons for that lack of writing has led me to remember that being a dad is a full-time occupation.  i am in the wonderful throes of helping three boys become young men, and it takes just about every bit of energy that i have.  and i get it wrong at least as often (if not more) than i get it right.  and then i have to undo, or redo, and that takes even more energy. i went with jackson's class to the metropolitan museum of art on thursday.  my so-very-well-behaved son (i was so ...

i've been so blessed with an abundance of great mothers in my life.  i suppose that's why mothers day seems like such a natural time to truly celebrate the nurturing, maternal spirit of the mothers in my life, and motherhood in general.  so today i celebrate my own mother, my mother-in-law, my grandmothers, as well as those who have acted like mothers to me when i was away from home. but as i help do whatever i can to raise up three boys into young men, i am especially aware of the difficult job of being a mom, as modeled so beautifully and gracefully by my wife, shannon.  and i want to foster in my children a kind of awareness of and gratitude for her and all she does and who she is.  so we've been making videos for 7 years now to try and cultivate those things, and honor shannon with a tribute that, if it doesn't capture her doing her mom thing, at least captures the fruit of her labors (literally) in this particular moment of their growing up. so, without furt...

yesterday i posted about how our mothers day videos got started, and i shared the first three, from 2009-2011. today i want to continue to the series starting with our 2012 installment.  we were having major problems with our video camera in 2012, so the quality was extremely poor this year, and is really my least favorite of all of them.  i was trying to show how the boys are growing up, with an athletic theme, showing the physicality of their growth and talking about how Shannon leads and demonstrates for them how to grow up strong and healthy.  she inspires each of us in that way.  so that was what the 2012 video was meant to show.  here it is: 2013 brought a new era in making videos.  as the kids get older, we have more ability to be creative and make the creation of the video a collaboration.  jackson and caedmon were able to contribute ideas, and we were able to expand the amount of shooting, even with the addition of a new cast member, q...

this will be our seventh year making a video to celebrate mother's day, and to try and honor and bless shannon with a short video meant to capture a moment in the life of our children who, like all children, are growing up way too quickly.  the videos are meant to feature her, but to showcase her life's best work:  our beautiful children. i'm not really sure how the idea got started back in 2009, but i thought it would be fun to make her a video in which the kids (just two of them at that time) could express their own love to her in their own words.  so here is our first effort, back in 2009: when the next year rolled around, i thought we could try again, but this time we would let the boys hold papers that did the talking for them.  only problem was, i was terrible at shooting and editing video, and so most of what was written down is illegible.  sorry about that.  you'll have to take my word for it that it was all kind words for their mommy.  ...

happy cinco de mayo!  it's taco tuesday here at the el milinovich casa!  ole!