love of a father

My husband is a good daddy... This weekend the temperatures are over one hundred degrees, although a cold front may come through and give us 90's... I am sitting in my a/c, heading to the pool and the cool movie theater today with the princess and the professor... but Scott is spending time with the boy scout.

The scouts headed out yesterday to spend the weekend camping and hiking. I would swear that my boy scout's backpack is bigger, taller, and weighs more than he does... Then, I look at Scott's and worry about his back (he swears that his bag at work that he carries daily weighs more...). But nonetheless these two crazy fools have headed outside in this heat to bond.

In this heat, I would be unable to bond with anyone. I hate sweating. I get crabby. I get nasty. I am impatient and hateful. I cannot think of anything that is worth me spending more than a minute in 100 degree heat, much less carrying a bunch of crap and planning sleep outside in it...  I am not a nature girl. It is pretty, and I can look at it from inside an air conditioned room or vehicle. I do not do tents, sleeping bags, dirt, open fires, or bug spray. I would be a horribly cranky lady if forced to do this for one morning... but a whole weekend? I would lose my mind.

Yet, my husband left yesterday evening with a smile. He knows how much my boy scout loves it. I do not know if it is really Scott's "thing", but fortunately, my kid IS Scott's thing. Scott recognizes that all three of our kids are very different. He has to meet them where they are and get involved with their loves and interests...

So the boyscout loves to be outside, build a fire, whittle with his knife, and ride bikes. Scott does it all. The princess loves to snuggle with a good movie, talk out everything and anything, and read to someone. Scott snuggles and listens. The professor loves books to be read to him while he tries to read too, play pretend until it hurts, and explain the world to anyone who will listen. Scott reads, rubs his little back, and is the best dinosaur hunter around.

I look around and see a lot of fathers who provide wonderful things for their families. They work hard. They are not dead beats.... but thankfully, Scott knows that there are more important parts of fathering than just providing... Scott has learned to PLAY.

To a workaholic this is a difficult task. But everyday, we become better at making the

MAIN thing the MAIN thing in our lives.

Right now, the MAIN thing happens to be three main things....

and we love them each differently.