A little 4th of July fun for you out there in cyberspace. Oh, and you might also like this post about kids and fireworks and delighting in the little things: I'll Have What They're Having. (Click the comic to see it bigger.) …
Jason's Random Musings
What Are the Baby Care Essentials?
This weekend, Kim and I are planning to visit stores like Target, Babies 'R Us, and Just Leave Your Wallet at the Door It'll Be Easier in order to register for upcoming baby showers. (Raining babies, what a concept!) In preparation, I, the dutiful father, have come up with an idea. This could be one of my best ideas ever. Or it could rank right up there as the one I most regret. I thought it might be a good idea to get the advice of our readers on a few things, as I know plenty of parents are following along. We live in an apartment, so we don't have all kinds of extra space for …
Friendly Confines
A friend treated Kim and me to a Cubs game last night. (Thanks Teresa!) It's been forever since I'd been to good ol' Wrigley and it brought back a lot of childhood memories. Things like the glow of the emerald green grass, the barking beer vendors, and the skewed perspective that causes certain "home runs" to fall harmlessly into the shortstop's glove. It was 80º and perfect, and the Cubbies won 10 to 5, but I think the thing I enjoyed the most was the camaraderie. I didn't know how much I missed that. That's one of the few downsides of living in Wisconsin, after having spent all but …
A Manifesto for the Childlike
When Club K&J was first conceived, it was pretty much a modest fan club for people who liked my comic strip, "Kim & Jason." Little did I know that it was the seed for something much greater, and much more important. Over the past several years, as Kim and I have criss-crossed the country to share our ideas with people that are stressed-out, burned-out, and busy, I have begun to grasp the gravity of our mission. Enthusiastic and heartfelt encouragement of people who we meet along the way share phrases like "keep on doing what you're doing" and "the world needs this, hang in …
Strangers in Your Kid’s Bedroom
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I'm sure I'll make a bunch of people angry, but I'm sorry. That's about the only word I can think of to describe what I think about parents who let their kids have televisions in their bedroom. …
My New Favorite Word
I've got a new favorite word. Unadulterated. I used it in a post recently and it struck me that "adult" is smack dab in the middle of the word. (Call me slow to catch on.) Of course, I always knew that "adult" was in the word "unadulterated," but I never took the time to consider the connection between that little fact and the actual definition of the word. …
Traumatizing Your Child
It seems an inevitability that every parent comes to a point where they risk traumatizing their child with the hope of achieving a small sliver of sanity. I have a friend who told her daughter that bees like sticky, sweet things so if she didn't get her hands washed after meals they might come in the house and sting her. I think she's become a big fan of pre-meal cleanliness. You may remember Christopher Noxon, author of Rejuvenile and the feature interview from our thirteenth podcast. (You can listen to all of our podcasts here.) He recently helped his daughter conquer her hiccups via …
Say Cheese
I found this picture on the blog of my buddy John. Hilarious, in a sick and twisted sort of way. People in Wisconsin take cheese very seriously, but I have yet to see any playgrounds featuring this particular piece of equipment. Notice I said yet. …
You’ll Shoot Yer Eye Out
Anyone out there who doesn't love the classic 1983 movie A Christmas Story? Not sure it needs to be played in a continues loop on Christmas, but still. Did you know that you can actually visit the house where the movie was filmed (not sure if the furnace ever got fixed) and buy your very own leg lamp to display proudly in your window? Don't believe me? I'm as serious as a kid with his tongue stuck to a flag pole. Brian Jones makes fishnet-stockinged leg lamps for a living. And the house? He bought that on eBay. Read the remarkable story in Guideposts Magazine. I double dog dare ya. …
Two Truths and a Lie in Monterey (Revealed!)
In regards to my previous post where I listed to truths and a lie about our recent trip to California, I'd like to shed some light for those of you wondering which one was the fabrication. 1) We DID have our program briefly interrupted by an earthquake, the first one I've ever experienced. Although we were about an hour away from the epicenter, we all felt the effects of the earthquake that registered 5.6 on the Richter scale, the largest one in California since 1989. It was weird, but kind of cool. I secretly wished I was in one of the stores in San Jose where items were falling off the …
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