Howefitz Blog

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OK, so maybe this post is a little late. As you continue to read, you’ll understand why…

Happy 2010!!! You geeks out there that read this blog know that this is ‘The Year We Make Contact‘!!! Start striking your timpani drums now! So, my first resolution this year is to make friends with some Russians and go to Jupiter to look for monoliths…

All geeking out aside, I have been taking a lot of time to reflect on where I am as a husband, father, employee, and of course, Daddy Blogger. Since you are reading my blog, I am going to focus first on what I will be doing here going forward in this brand-spanking new year, and why you should keep reading!

I have been a fan of Kyle Baker‘s for a while now. Actually, it’s been a decade. I remember seeing a lot of Y2K-themed books in 1999, but ‘I Die at Midnight’ popped from the shelf. It was how I ‘found’ Kyle Baker. The artwork looked more like animation cels than a comic book. And the story of a man who wants to end it all after getting dumped must have struck a chord in my 21 year old heart. The subsequent return of the girlfriend with our hero attempting to vomit the pills he just overdosed on, well, pure comic genius! It is the only Y2K book that I will still pick up and read and enjoy. (You can read the entire graphic novel for free at kylebaker.com!)

I am happy to announce that Jason of The Devoted Dad is the recipient of a $20 Wal-Mart e-gift card as the winner of the Paying Forward A Random Act Of Kindness Giveaway!

Although the winner was chosen through the use of Random.org, I would like to repost his comment here:

This is a great way to keep it going! I love the pay it forward idea. I’ve waited all day to post about this because I wanted to give it some thought. The idea that I came up with was to have my 3 year old go to Walmart and look for gifts to place in the local giving tree at the hospital for a child in need of a christmas gift.

This post brought to you by Dad-Blogs' FatherHood Friday. Be sure to swing by for all the other great Dads and Moms who love to share their lives online!

I’m not going to lie. I started this blog to try to make money.

A year ago, I discovered guys like John Chow and Shoemoney. I saw sites like Problogger and thought, ‘Man, I could do that! Let me at it!’

A year ago this month I started the Howefitz blog, and I have not made one cent. In fact, I’ve lost a few. (I’m lookin at you, aweber!)

Look at that face. Poor homeless thing is miserable...

By now, I’m sure you are all aware of the blogosphere’s outcry against Gwen, the homeless American Girl doll.

If not, than essentially what you need to know is that Gwen’s deadbeat dad left her and her mom to live in their car. She meets a girl named Chrissy, who enjoys keeping the bullies from picking on Gwen’s sad plight.

The following post is part of a much larger project called Blog Action Day. Every year, bloggers unite to discuss a single cause. This year’s topic is Global Climate Change. I hope that you enjoy my humble offering, and that you’ll click the graphic on the left to learn more and read other great posts.

This past Earth Day, I blogged about how I felt that having kids was just about the worst thing you can do to be ‘sustainable’ or ‘green’. I still feel that there are a lot of things about the way we currently live that makes it increasingly hard to stay green when kids are a part of your life.

So here’s the thing: last week I twisted the theme of Back to School from Dad-Blogs‘ weekly FatherHood Friday to my own ends, promising to have a more traditional Back to School post this week. I planned on blogging about preparing the teenager for school this year, but the high school is going through renovations and school doesn’t actually start for her until the 21st!

Registration is on the 10th, so even though Wal-Mart is already pushing the last of the school supplies out the door, it hasn’t even sunk in for me that it’s back to school time at all!

I’m up way too late, but I have to tell you about a giveaway going on over at the Jolly Mom! They have partnered with Delta Children’s Products in order to give away a toddler bed to one Mom (or Dad, I hope!) of her choice, either featuring Disney’s Fairies or Disney/Pixar’s Cars! Personally, I’m hoping to win the Cars bed, but feel free to enter anyway!

Mine! Mine!

Good Luck! Make sure to stop by JollyMom.com to see how you can get up to eight entries in this giveaway!

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I claim to be a blogger, but with that comes keeping in touch with the world around me. On this front I have failed. I just noticed that Jason over at Ramblings and Run-Ons has given me a Keepsake Blog Award. I just saw it, and feel terrible because that means I missed one of his FatherHood Friday posts, which I usually try to keep up with. But now that I know, I would like to say ‘Thank you, thank you very much’ to Jason and I am flatterered to know that my blog stands out as a keepsake in your mind. The feeling is mutual. Now, as with any blogging award that I’ve seen, this one comes with a couple of caviats: 1) I must pass this prestigious honor along to ten of my favorite bloggers. 2) I have to share a keepsake moment in my life. When I learned of this, I started tracing the award back, trying to find original blogs that had not already been given the award. That effort thwarted, here is my list, in no particular order, some of which someone beat me to honoring them. You can blame my day job!

It’s no secret that I’ve been stressed lately. I’ve blogged about it, tweeted about it and ranted about it to friends, family, and anyone who happens to be standing close to me at any given time. It’s funny, since for a while I’ve tried to project a fairly care-free, nothing bothers me attitude. But lately, none of the pieces seem to fit.

I’ve already blogged about how my kids help out with all the stress, but there’s something else that helps me when I’m stressed that I hadn’t thought of in a while. Something that you could say began in my teenage years. Something that I can only do when I am alone.