Excali-blog - My first blog-like-evar

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This being my first ever blog I will start with an introduction and then follow with a bit of what I experience on a day-to-day basis using today as an example. I have had assurance that at least one friend will read this so I guess that makes it worth it. This will be a bit of gut spilling event.

I'm a stay at home dad named Jason Caraway (I go by Jay, but mostly by Papa). I've lived in Richmond, Indiana for the better part of twenty years now with my wife. I program and write mostly. I write books, poems, music, jokes, whatever comes from my heart or mind. I spent the better part of my youth studying martial arts, drawing, singing, gaming (role-playing, too), and writing. I had a sophisticated mess of a childhood moving all over the place and having multiple authority figures in my life (dads, step-dads, babysitters, mother, grandparents, etc.) who contributed to raising me (if you could call it that). I've seen the best and worst (mostly the worst) in people and have become reclusive because of this. A lot of weight and regret is carried by me from the dark times of my childhood. The brightest parts of my live come from my wife and children and the family that I'm part of now. I'll elaborate later, but I think this is a good enough intro.

I woke up today having some kind of pinched nerve or slipped disk or something in my lower back. Last night my wife (AKA Kitty) tried to massage the pain out but (in uncharacteristic fashion) it only made things worse. I went from being in excruciating pain to limited leg movement and pain. I managed to twist and pop myself into a less painful predicament so I could get out of bed and my wife could get to work. She's a paraprofessional at a local (very close) intermediate school and a senior in college closing in on a degree in secondary math education so she can work at said intermediate school. I raise the kids in the family! I know this is still (even with gay marriage, employment crisis, markets crashing, etc...) somewhat frowned upon by sexist hypocrites but it's my way. I'm usually up between 7:30 and 8 AM as my four school-aged kids are readying and/or leaving for school. I have two kids in high ability LOGOS school, two kids in a private high school, and two kids that are under the age of three. My two youngest are who I watch all day long until everyone piles in between 3 and 4 o'clock.

From 8 to 8:30 I am watching my 1 year old son and either listening to music with him (he is a very good dancer) or playing with toys (or observing him playing with toys). He likes me to kick a ball and he gets it and either throws it back to me, kicks it, or hands it to me.

Between 8:30 and 9 I take breakfast up to my 2 year old's room (when the 1 year old is weened they will share it as there is a crib there for him already). After she's (the 2 year old) done eating and the 1 year old is done munching (or throwing, stomping, rubbing through hair) his food, I change diapers and give a numbers-and-letters lesson. I've (with the help of my kids and wife) taught my 2 year old the entire alphabet and numbers beyond 10. We go through the whole alphabet and numbers 1 through 10 and then I select random letters and numbers for her to identify. She is 99.9% accurate. After this I will let them play until 10 AM.

After 10 AM everyone goes downstairs to watch roughly an hour of television. We don't have a TV signal so this is either Star Wars :Clone Wars (the animated CGI series), Thundercats (80's episodes), He-Man (80's episodes), or Transformers (80's episodes). Sometimes I will show a kid-safe movie, although we rarely have time to complete one. I will sit with them and surf the web or just relax and watch cartoons (if I'm feeling up to it I may bring in my laptop and program).

Around 11:35 I have prepared lunch for both munchkins and high-chair the youngest and set up the 2 year old. I usually serve a rice-based, gluten-free pasta with added swiss cheese (extremely high in calcium). This is where the 1 year old enters a state we refer to as pasta-coma and is approaching nap time! When the 2 year old is done eating she goes up to her room and waits for me (I am usually having the same pasta and observing the 1 year old who likes to rub cheese into his hair and occasionally dump his drink all over his tray) to finish eating. After I'm done I slink past the little snoring scorpio and go up to the munchkin room to wait for my wife to come home for lunch!

At 12:15 PM my wife comes home for lunch. She often reads to the 2 year old while I relax and chat with her. We may get ten minutes to snuggle before she goes back to work. Before leaving, she or I put the 2 year old down for her nap around 12:30-12:45.

Between 1 PM and 2:30 PM I get to find something to do. I usually take a nap as well, or wait for the mail (I get everything through the mail nowadays). Sometimes I will program in this time, but I have to be careful not to be to tippy-tappy with the keyboard as this will wake up the 1 year old prematurely which throws off the entire schedule for the rest of the day.

Between 2:30 PM and 3:00 everyone is up. The 2 year old is playing in her playpen and the 1 year old is hanging out with me.

Between 3 and 4 PM everyone piles in from school. My oldest and second oldest tutor others after school for service learning hours and one or the other often have sports practice which may cut the crew down one or two members. My oldest is the manager of the girls basketball team (this year they won more than ever in the history of the team!), and my second oldest just started girls softball. My wife goes to college on certain days, so my third daughter (turning 13 TODAY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHOEBE MAE!!) helps out watching kids between me, my oldest daugher (if she's home) and my second oldest daughter.

I wrote this whole blog between cooking lunch and waiting for the old lady, who should be home for lunch in about three minutes!

Welcome to a brief look into my lazy world...

...more to come...

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