Dads living in a rose-colored world.

TV makes fatherhood look like a joke

Movies often make dads look like plain ole idiots

But Mom ... sacred! It's become akin to "holy mother of God" status. 

Don't get me wrong. I love me some lovin' on moms. Thank you very much. 

But Dads.

A Dad and his kids... so long ago.

Not every father is an idiot.

Not every father is absent

Not every father is void of love and loving and providing.

Sadly, there are those. Too many. Absent. Unloving. Idiotic. They've missed out on so much. They have blown it. And disaster is often left in their wake.
-But there are guilty moms too-

For all the Dads who love ... Yet who's love is interpreted through the female mothering lense that culture seems to place over its view of fathering. That rose-colored filter interprets your actions and your heart, and I think that's a shame.

A dad and his girl

You are not rose-colored, you are not a Mom or deserving of judgment solely from a woman's perspective.

Don't give up Dads. You are needed, so desired, so longed for. When you're misread, please keep trying, please keep talking and expressing and doing what you do so well.

Families need more heroes that are clothed in the skin of a Dad.
Please be brave. 

Please be present.

Please be emotionally connected, even when you may feel emotionally rejected... be brave.

A grandpa, a dad and the boys

Be the doers.
Be the often silent strength, but very present safety.
Be consistent and honest and hardworking warriors-of-families that you were created to be.

And when the womanized culture screams at you to be perfect, a woman's kind of perfect, please understand its often spoken from fear, or disappointment, or even ignorance.

Lead as you were destined to lead.
Nurture like a Dad.
Teach like a father.

And don't forget to laugh and to play and to hug,

and to be a Dad.

This.

I got nothin'

A couple mornings ago I went for a walk
(No running for me ... Try Screaming, It Helps Sometimes)
What else was I to do on a day when my brain had seemed to stopped, my heart was in overload, my mind was numb.
Numb brain ... I just decided that's a thing.

STUFF has happened lately... hard stuff.

What to say about it .... ??
How I should react ... I got nothin'
Feelings to feel, actions to take ... crickets I tell ya'

Just knowing what to make for dinner tonight? Now we're laughing!!

Have you ever had one of those days, weeks, months ... years??
Haven't got a clue what to do next, what to think, how to react?
      without acting and sounding like a raving lunatic mad woman...
          There's that!

This is a season of I got nothins'  And I have to tell you, it's not cool.
I am a person that needs purpose.
I mean I need direction for absolutely everything...psyched up for the simplest of things.

That can be very good.
I become tenacious, and great follow through.
Once I have a plan then look out world, this blog will go viral!!

But when I don't know what's next,
   or why something's happening
      or what the out come might be for my kid if I don't have a plan or an answer or ....

That's when my brain throws in the scary what-ifs, the unknowns.
Those little minions of possibility, of pending doom and disaster.

These last few months I have felt less Knowing and much more "raving lunatic mad woman".
These last few years I have felt more unprepared and uncertain then I have in maybe my whole life.

I was the Queen of the IEP
  (Individual Education Plan for those who don't know...
  for those who do know, sorry for bringing that up during summer vacation)
I had so much medical knowledge (thanks WebMD) I should have been a doctor.
Mama Bear... hear me roar!!

So ... if you have any of these answers written across your forehead or tattooed on your arm feel free to share them with me. For goodness sake with the whole world! I'd love to do a Google search and find out why parenting young adults makes me feel like an idiot. I'd love to ask Siri and have her tell me "You'll be fine Kathy. You're doing just fine."
I'd like Bing to just tell me how or at least explain why?

But today... I got nothin'