Otis Sidekicks

For his birthday Sheff is getting a ridiculously gooey monster cake from the kids, with a side of minnie mouse cupcakes from Lulu. Some snapshots of an amazing father, a fantastic husband and a man who's patience, fair mindedness and enthusiasm make the world a better place.  We love you Sheffer/Dad!! Aug 27 2014 Family first Many little ones have gone to sleep this way:) Teaching 5 sons how to be a man A man who loves holding babies, did our nighttime feedings around here. Working out with babies as weight 2007 A outdoorsman and his ballerina 2009 Date night! One coming up, we will make it happen for our 13th anniversary this year, pinkie promise. And goal to do an overnight away from the kids before we hit 15 years:) We always miss them so maybe 15 is about right but great long walks in the dark to fit it in, runs, hikes, Sunday morning church as a family, the little Japanese noodle shop we love with sake and black coffee ea

Matching in Yellow off to the state fair 2007 Snow cones at the state Fair in 2010 Sate Fair 2013 2014 2014 James now serves as the "adult" to take the little girls on rides!

When Robin Williams committed suicide my first thought, as I am sure many people had, was of his daughter. My worry in the moment was that she would feel that her love was not enough. The way it was covered, the way the story was reported may have been tactless, but it was also very real. There is no glamour in suicide and unfortunately no privacy. I do not believe suicide is selfish and I do believe the first reaction should be compassion. Compassion for those left behind and compassion for the pain in others we are not privy to. I hope this man's death, suffering and legacy creates inlets of change. I would venture to say for the person suffering they are thinking this is the only way to stop the pain, and perhaps this collective societal loss will allow more people access to help. My biological father committed suicide when I was in college. Very few people knew about this at the time, even some of my roommates did not know. I had been living with a friend in Alaska and had to

This year Lucy will have lunch bunch at school somedays for her "Frog" preschool room. If she were to have cold lunch daily and join the ranks of the school age children we would have 40 cold lunches to prepare a week. This week we had our one week of the summer where each child had a camp, and needed a lunch packed. Often during the school year kids will choose hot lunch, but it is not a given and the stress of lunches can bring down an otherwise very sane parent. Nathaniel is very often the master lunch maker A trick we have figured out is much like pre-cutting vegetables on sunday afternoons, hard boiling 2 dozen eggs or making a big cold salad other weekly tricks I do. But this trick is pre packing the basics of all the lunches for the week. We use brown paper bags, write the child's name and date on the bag and put it in a box lined up. The perfect boxes are open, like a Costco box or any open topped box. In that time of day when everyone seems to be mull

This morning I went on my first real run since I was sick in March. After having spinal meningitis I thought I would check back into full swing in about half the doctor's recommended time. That is usually how life works, I get an estimate and I have to change the measurements. For four children it should take twenty minutes to get out the door, five minutes per child of forgotten socks, needing to pee and homework in the recycling (by accident of course). I read this rule at some point and decided it was insane. I could not spend forty minutes trying to get out the door so I halved it, and twenty minutes is about right. Making dinner I need to change recipe amounts, back to school budgets I need to make that dollar stretch four times as far, and so on. So getting sick, and in turn getting better, should be a typical Otis conversion. I was wrong, it is very difficult to get better trying to take care of so many other people's needs while attempting to honor my own. After