Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

Today is a day to celebrate fathers, the mostly unsung heroes of the household. Dads are usually relegated to the background, yet they don't seem to mind. I bet some dads actually prefer it.

When you start to look at commercial greeting cards for dads, the cards seem to have a few recurring themes. Napping on the couch, hoarding the remote, golfing, making bad jokes, and maybe some sort of tool. Sure, those things might be true, but Dads are so much more, at least in our house.

Quite frankly, my husband is a gift from above.

Before we had kids, my husband used to worry about being a father, and what kind of father he would be. He is an amazing father to our kids, and sometimes he was a father figure to some of my kids' friends.

He works hard to provide for us, he takes care of the outside year round including snow removal (and if you remember that we live in Buffalo, that's no small feat some winters), he takes the time to show our kids how to do things, he does any maintenance that needs to be done, and he picks up my slack when I have my bad days; he has no problem doing the dishes or vacuuming. At the first sign of heat, he's right there, putting in the air conditioners for us. He does the literal crappy jobs; he picks up the dog stuff in the yard and unclogs toilets. I honestly could go on for a long time, but you get the idea.

A couple of years ago, our front porch succumbed to dry rot, which meant that we had to replace it. Two years ago, my son was 8 and my daughter was 10. We had to demolish the crumbling concrete before we could begin to replace the wood. My husband taught our kids how to use our small jackhammer (with ear protection), showed our kids how to use the drill, and how to measure the boards. All four of us worked on replacing the porch.

His head is constantly full of concern for me, the kids, our future.

We have a tendency to poke fun at dads, but maybe that's because they are so good-natured.

Despite all the pressure my husband must feel, he does everything mostly cheerfully. Mostly cheerfully because he's not a saint. He's human. But he's our human, and I wouldn't trade him for anything.

The picture that I used today was taken on our Florida trip in 2009. It's one of my favorite photos ever because to me, it just screams “I'm a Dad”. To me, that picture is fatherhood.