Now I am taking a trip to a foreign land, Belize & Guatemala. I am escorting a group of Kenyon Students, in conjunction with a group from MVNU. Jim Skon, a cycling buddy, is the coordinator/leader of the entire service trip. We will be providing cook stoves and water filtration to families in a small village in Guatemala. We will also visit a computerlab in Belize that Harcourt Parish sponsored. You can follow that trip at my other blog.
Friday, January 03, 2014
The Revolution
Charlie & Luke have entered the age when their independence starts to change the status quo in the Svoboda-Barber household. We have finally moved into seperate bedrooms. The decision to seperate has been in process for months. Even mommy had reservations because of the comfort that hearing all our breathing st night provided her.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Boycott Orlando
Apparently the City of Orlando has an ordinance that bans feeding large groups of people in public parks. A local group, Orlando Food Not Bombs, had started to feed the poor in the city's park. Local businesses and people began to complain, so the city passed an ordinance that bans serving food to more than 25 people. So the group addapted and other groups joined in to support this vital service. Now people are being arrested for feeding the poor. Check out the article on the Beliefnet Blog.
"http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/06/arrested-for-feeding-the-poor.html"
My suggestion is to not support any business in Orlando, and discourage anyone from doing business in Orlando. Heck don't visit Orlando unless it's to help serve food to the poor. Find productive ways to support the people of Orlando who serve the poor.
"http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/06/arrested-for-feeding-the-poor.html"
My suggestion is to not support any business in Orlando, and discourage anyone from doing business in Orlando. Heck don't visit Orlando unless it's to help serve food to the poor. Find productive ways to support the people of Orlando who serve the poor.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Father's Day
I have discovered that when it comes to kids I expect the worse. This weekend my wife, Helen, took a two day class in Fabric Arts in Columbus, which is an hour and half drive from our house. So she was out of the house by 7am and not expected to be home until 7pm. This left me with the two boys for the whole weekend.
Our typical day is me getting up with Charlie after 7am. Then Helen getting up anytime after 9am with Luke. Then she heads to work by 10am. We usually visit once in the afternoon and she is home by 7pm. But a priest does not work typical 9-5 hours, their schedule changes from week to week, depending on evening meetings and services. It demands for more flexibility with the family schedule, but also allows for more family time. For this weekend there wasn't going to be much family time with mom.
Our first plans for the weekend were to all get up with mom and go to Columbus, do something for four hours in the morning, visit mommy for lunch, do something in the afternoon for four hours, pick mommy up after her class, and go home. I just needed to fill in the what to dos. Taking in to consideration Charlie's need for activity, Luke's need for naps, both needs for food, Luke's fussiness for the carseat, plus consider the weather and plan accordingly. On top of these new demands on me, Sunday was Father's Day.
All in all the weekend was pretty pleasant. I decided that getting up early with mommy was too much. So Helen drove separately from us and the kids slept in. Letting your kids get as much sleep as they will take can make all the difference. We didn't have any meltdowns even though mommy wasn't available. Luke got his naps on the trips between Columbus and home, which cut down his carseat fussiness. And even when Charlie got a nap he wasn't up until midnight either night, which is usually the case with him.
Saturday we took grandma to Danville and went to a garage sale in the morning. After visiting mommy, we went to the zoo for a couple of hours. At this stage Charlie dictates where we go, for this trip it was the tigers first and with out stops between. Then the elephants to see how junior has grown. Next was the apes and monkeys to see the new arrivals. Last was the playground. Luke seemed as interested in the other people and kids as he was the animals. After the zoo I had to drive around since the boys fell asleep. Which wasn't so bad since there are parts of Columbus I haven't seen. Once they slept long enough, we stopped by the Laughing Ogre, a comic book store. Charlie is taking after his dad with his interest in super heroes. He takes after his mom, because most of the heroes he is interested in are women, that's whole other post. After we picked up the latest, we headed back to see mommy and then drove home, in which Luke took a third nap, yeah! no fussiness.
Sunday went even smoother. We went to church, without mommy, crazy. Luke was a model child. And Charlie is showing more signs of being okay with other adults. He chose to hangout with Megan Aebi, who was filling in for the usual kid summer attendant, instead of hangin' with dad and Luke. After church we headed to Columbus to visit mommy, Luke napped. Then we went to COSI, science museum. Charlie was very understanding and patient when we had to wait for Luke to be done playing, before we could do something Charlie wanted to do. Both kids enjoyed watching rats play basketball. Both slept afterwards on the trip home, so no Luke carseat fussiness. I probably did more whinning in my head thinking about the weekend then the two boys actually did all weekend. It was a pretty good Father's Day. Oh yeah, my wife got me the cordless grass trimmer I've been looking at.
Our typical day is me getting up with Charlie after 7am. Then Helen getting up anytime after 9am with Luke. Then she heads to work by 10am. We usually visit once in the afternoon and she is home by 7pm. But a priest does not work typical 9-5 hours, their schedule changes from week to week, depending on evening meetings and services. It demands for more flexibility with the family schedule, but also allows for more family time. For this weekend there wasn't going to be much family time with mom.
Our first plans for the weekend were to all get up with mom and go to Columbus, do something for four hours in the morning, visit mommy for lunch, do something in the afternoon for four hours, pick mommy up after her class, and go home. I just needed to fill in the what to dos. Taking in to consideration Charlie's need for activity, Luke's need for naps, both needs for food, Luke's fussiness for the carseat, plus consider the weather and plan accordingly. On top of these new demands on me, Sunday was Father's Day.
All in all the weekend was pretty pleasant. I decided that getting up early with mommy was too much. So Helen drove separately from us and the kids slept in. Letting your kids get as much sleep as they will take can make all the difference. We didn't have any meltdowns even though mommy wasn't available. Luke got his naps on the trips between Columbus and home, which cut down his carseat fussiness. And even when Charlie got a nap he wasn't up until midnight either night, which is usually the case with him.
Saturday we took grandma to Danville and went to a garage sale in the morning. After visiting mommy, we went to the zoo for a couple of hours. At this stage Charlie dictates where we go, for this trip it was the tigers first and with out stops between. Then the elephants to see how junior has grown. Next was the apes and monkeys to see the new arrivals. Last was the playground. Luke seemed as interested in the other people and kids as he was the animals. After the zoo I had to drive around since the boys fell asleep. Which wasn't so bad since there are parts of Columbus I haven't seen. Once they slept long enough, we stopped by the Laughing Ogre, a comic book store. Charlie is taking after his dad with his interest in super heroes. He takes after his mom, because most of the heroes he is interested in are women, that's whole other post. After we picked up the latest, we headed back to see mommy and then drove home, in which Luke took a third nap, yeah! no fussiness.
Sunday went even smoother. We went to church, without mommy, crazy. Luke was a model child. And Charlie is showing more signs of being okay with other adults. He chose to hangout with Megan Aebi, who was filling in for the usual kid summer attendant, instead of hangin' with dad and Luke. After church we headed to Columbus to visit mommy, Luke napped. Then we went to COSI, science museum. Charlie was very understanding and patient when we had to wait for Luke to be done playing, before we could do something Charlie wanted to do. Both kids enjoyed watching rats play basketball. Both slept afterwards on the trip home, so no Luke carseat fussiness. I probably did more whinning in my head thinking about the weekend then the two boys actually did all weekend. It was a pretty good Father's Day. Oh yeah, my wife got me the cordless grass trimmer I've been looking at.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Thursday, June 07, 2007
The Second One Is Faster
Luke is going on ten months now. He already has four teeth. He's crawling, but working on the pulling himself to standing and walking behind push toys. He talks up a storm, baby talk that is. Doesn't mind when others hold him and doesn't seem to have seperation anxiety, unless he's tired and spots mom or dad peeking in on him. He will play on his own for large blocks of time, definitely more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time; more like thirty minutes. Life is different with Luke and it seems to zip by.
We don't seem to take as many pics or video footage. I know we have two kids now, but Charlie doesn't require as much oversight. We ae splitting our time between two now. I think we love him as much as Charlie. Maybe it's the newness of having a child, being a new parent has warn off. It definitely is getting easier.
I find more time to ride these days. With Charlie it took two years before I could even think about starting a regular riding schedule. Luke is nine months along and I've riden more this Spring than the past three years. And hey, this my second posting this Spring.
We don't seem to take as many pics or video footage. I know we have two kids now, but Charlie doesn't require as much oversight. We ae splitting our time between two now. I think we love him as much as Charlie. Maybe it's the newness of having a child, being a new parent has warn off. It definitely is getting easier.
I find more time to ride these days. With Charlie it took two years before I could even think about starting a regular riding schedule. Luke is nine months along and I've riden more this Spring than the past three years. And hey, this my second posting this Spring.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Eight months later
Luke is 9 months old now. He is trying to better the marks set by his brother, Charlie. He has three teeth in or coming in. He's crawling on all fours. Talks up a storm. Sleeps thru most nights, Charlie just started sleeping thru the night.
It's only been recently that I've been able to get more done around the house, other than laundry and general cleaning. These guys can keep a person busy. Then add a mother-in-law to the mix, and ther isn't much extra time left. Now that Luke gets around on his own, he tends to play on his own longer. Just have to keep a close eye on him, and put the gates up. The nice thing about that is you get a lot of exercise doing high stepping. But they both still like to be carried, so the weight lifting routine continues.
Well off to catch the kid before he reaches the stairs.
It's only been recently that I've been able to get more done around the house, other than laundry and general cleaning. These guys can keep a person busy. Then add a mother-in-law to the mix, and ther isn't much extra time left. Now that Luke gets around on his own, he tends to play on his own longer. Just have to keep a close eye on him, and put the gates up. The nice thing about that is you get a lot of exercise doing high stepping. But they both still like to be carried, so the weight lifting routine continues.
Well off to catch the kid before he reaches the stairs.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Do I Start a New Blog?
We are now a family of four. Luke Andrew was born Aug. 23. Should I now start a new blog titled "Raising Sons"?
As the doctor pulled him out of his mommy and passed him over to the nurse, my first impression was that he looked like a tree frog. His limbs were kicking and flailing in all different directions, and his long fingers and toes were spread out. And as babies are naturally all torso and head to start with, his arms and legs are very skinny looking in comparison, much like a frogs. Thus his first nickname is "Froggy".
So now the family begins the process and getting to know Luke, and Charlie begins to learn what it means to be a big brother. He's already off to a good start. He loves to hold his brother and claim how "cute" he is. And when Luke cries, Charlie tells us he needs to rush off and check on the baby, or if Charlie is holding him when Luke cries, he quickly wants to hand the baby off to a parent. It's hard to find words to convey these awe-inspiring new occurances in our family, experiencing it is so much better.
As the doctor pulled him out of his mommy and passed him over to the nurse, my first impression was that he looked like a tree frog. His limbs were kicking and flailing in all different directions, and his long fingers and toes were spread out. And as babies are naturally all torso and head to start with, his arms and legs are very skinny looking in comparison, much like a frogs. Thus his first nickname is "Froggy".
So now the family begins the process and getting to know Luke, and Charlie begins to learn what it means to be a big brother. He's already off to a good start. He loves to hold his brother and claim how "cute" he is. And when Luke cries, Charlie tells us he needs to rush off and check on the baby, or if Charlie is holding him when Luke cries, he quickly wants to hand the baby off to a parent. It's hard to find words to convey these awe-inspiring new occurances in our family, experiencing it is so much better.
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