Projects and Daddy Day

Guest Columnist and Photographer:  Pat Clark

Ever since School has started for Tiffany and Olivia, and since the kids have been going to daycare a few days a week this fall, I’ve been yearning to do some projects with Olivia. For those of you who know me really well you’ll know that I love to do projects. I’m not sure exactly what it is that draws me into it. If it’s the challenge to see how well I can build something, or if it’s seeing the final end result and knowing that I built it, or if it’s the fact that somehow when I’m in the process of working on the project that my mind is finally at rest. No thoughts or worries about work, family, finances, the world’s problems, etc. I’m totally engulfed in that moment, the task at hand. Somehow it is so freeing. It’s why I get restless when I haven’t done a project in a while.

More on projects in a bit, but first one other important part of this story, that part is “Pat Day”. Yep. I said it “Pat Day”. A day of the week just for me, to do whatever I want. “Pat Day”. Now that I say it, it sounds a little narcissistic, but that wasn’t the intention. It was more about my day to get things done around the house and to do projects that needed to be done. You see I’m fortunate enough that I work four ten hour days and that my job, at this point, is fairly flexible so I work four days a week and get one day off . On that day off, Olivia (remember this is last year before Henry was born) would go to day care and Tiffany would go off to work all by early morning and whapow, “Pat Day” has arrived.

Then came this fall, and now having two kids go to daycare. Financially, it just didn’t make sense to have both kids go to daycare while I was at home. Tiffany and I are blessed to have such a flexible daycare that we were able to get it so that the kids would stay home with me. It saves us money and I get to spend time with the kids. However, I have to admit that initially I did kind of miss “Pat Day”. I know it sounds silly and selfish, but I missed it.

There is no more “Pat Day”; it’s now “Daddy Day.” What I’ve come to realize is although “Daddy Day” has its challenges, it’s so much better than “Pat Day”. You see what I realized this fall is how fast time flies. It seems that just yesterday Tiffany and I brought Olivia home, but it’s been almost four years. Whether or not we like it, time keeps on ticking and somehow I feel that before I know it time will have passed and this time will be gone.  I didn’t want to live with regrets of not spending enough time with the kids. So gone with “Pat Day” and “Daddy Day” is here.

Like I said before “Daddy Day” is not without its challenges, but being able to spend time with Olivia and Henry is such a blessing. I get to learn more and more about them with each day. Their nuances, their quirks, their personality’s, all the blessings that God has given them.  Like how Olivia is not the happiest camper right after she wakes up, or how she has such a quick wit of humor at times, or how fun it is to go into Henry’s room when he wakes up and is waiting for you in his crib with this huge smile that just makes you smile yourself.

While I have so enjoyed this time with the kids something still was missing. Projects, I still have this urge to work on projects. I’m not sure what it is, but somehow I must just be built that way. Initially, however, the idea of doing projects (at least the kind that I have normally done) with the kids did not seem too appealing, but then I thought back to my memories of being a kid. As a kid, my dad had summers off and we would spend hours  (and I mean lots of hours a week) at the baseball field and he would hit me fly balls, or my mom and I would work on school projects together, like the 6 ft. tall Statue of Liberty that we built in 6^th grade. I have fond memories of those times with my parents and that’s what I hope to have with Henry and Olivia, so I started projects with the kids, well really just with Olivia for the moment.

I started by pulling up a website of different woodworking projects to do with your kids and I asked Olivia to look at some of them and to figure out what she wanted to build. She decided that she wanted a step stool and that she wanted to paint it pink, of course.

We started from scratch and she helped me make a stencil for the sides of it using some scraps in the garage and then we both put on ear muffs and she sat a safe distance away while I cut them out. She helped me to sand them and then we ran over to Papa and Grandma Sticha’s and picked out some old reclaimed flooring to use for the steps. We cut those and then attached the steps. One more time of sanding after that and then the first coat of white paint. Then a coat of pink paint and after it dried we took some sand paper again to the pink paint to sand it down to the white paint so that it would give it a distressed look. It’s not the best looking step stool, and to be totally honest, as I am somewhat of a perfectionist, when I first looked at it, I was thinking about all of the things that should have been done differently, but then I remind myself that this is part of “Daddy Day” and it’s about the process and the memories, not the outcome of the project (well at least when I am working on projects with the kids).



In addition to the step stool, Pat and Olivia attened a Daddy and Me Tool Time event sponsored by ECFE.  There they made this "tool box".  Pat had her paint it recently.  Not sure what it will be used for yet.  Mom would like it to store Olivia's art supplies, Olivia insists on sticking random toys and books in it.  We'll see.  

 Editor's Notes:  I have enjoyed "Daddy Day" too, but for other reasons!  I get to hit the snooze button an extra time, catch up on blogs in the morning over a nice cup of coffee, and not be stressed about getting two kids dressed, fed, and out the door by 7:00.  Plus, the house usually gets cleaned up a bit, and dinner gets made.  PLUS, we save money.  What's not to love!