Man up.

I realize that the title of this post is somewhat ironic.  Ironic in that I expect that most of my readers are female.  Of the 12 "followers" on my blog (followers as defined by google that is) 10 are women.  I do not begrudge that, they likely know me in offline life or they are aware of my wonderful wife's blog.

Speaking of Tara's blog, this week she was at Blissdom Canada.  Don't misread me here, I'm SO glad she went.  We've missed her terribly, but I think it's has been good for her to be away for a bit.  Especially getting to meet Shannon, but also in a place where she can talk blogging stuff with other women who are into this stuff as much (or maybe more!) then she is.  I don't resent her being gone at all.

But I did catch myself feeling sorry for myself a little.  There's a lot going on this week, even had Tara been home.  There's been a number of costume kind of events at the school.  Olivia's class had a costume parade, there was a family dance the other night, and then there was a costume fashion show.  Owen won a prize for the best "look a like" costume at the dance.  Aiden was amazing during the fashion show, and Olivia was just plain old cute!  Cool stuff!  So much fun!  However, it's put a fair bit of pressure on me to get my 'normal' stuff done for the week.
Have you ever got to the place where there's things happening and you feel like you're entitled to something to compensate for all the 'stuff' you've had to deal with?  Maybe you do deserve some recognition.  But the part that I want to zero in on today is that feeling of entitlement.  Who am I to say that I am entitled to something?

Proverbs 25:6,7a

⁶ Don’t demand an audience with the king

      or push for a place among the great.

 ⁷ It’s better to wait for an invitation to the head table

      than to be sent away in public disgrace.

I suppose if I'm honest with myself - most, if not all, of the thing things in my life that I find as a challenge are really quite mild.  The world is amazing and nobody's happy, or so it often appears.  When you start to feel like you are "owed" something - you're really just feeling sorry for yourself.  If I'm just feeling sorry for myself because I did something that has drained me in some way, then why am I any different then the rest of the planet?  Do I really want to be the guy with the edge of attitude every time I do something for someone?  


I love that Proverb.  Don't worry about recognition, because if it's deserved, it'll likely happen.  Time and Truth go hand in hand.  Eventually, given enough time, the truth will come out.  If not in this life, then the next.  


Feeling sorry for oneself doesn't get much else done.  It doesn't help anyone, it doesn't even yourself feel better really.  So Mr. Doug, Man Up and get over yourself and keep doing what you should.  


Besides all that - Tara is home now.  She's awesome.  It's awesome to have her home and really that's all the recognition/reward/whatever I need.  Maybe all we need is just a little more patience.

This week

So this week I'm parenting on my own.  Yesterday we (all of us) drove to Thunder Bay and stayed at the Victoria Inn.  It was great, they upgraded our room without my even realizing it until we opened the door of the room!  (Hence the link love)  Great place to stay in our experience, although we've only been there twice.

The reason for our overnight stay in Thunder Bay was that today Tara was flying to Toronto for Blissdom Canada 2010. She jumped on her plane and flew off into the big blue yonder.  She landed before we had made it halfway home.  But due to the power of technology I found the following video on the computer when we did arrive home showing that Tara has in fact landed safely:




So Tara and Shannon are at Blissdom.  It seems there's a play by play of photos over on Shannon's TwitPic page.

So far, so good.  I hope all goes well in Toronto.

Oh, and just for fun...
Tara you missed Owen pulling that tooth out all by himself.

And it appears to be snowing.