This podcast has been two weeks in coming and should have been posted as a video but alas I had technical problems with the video and truthfully really enjoyed producing my first podcast ever. I understand that successful podcasts are typically 20 minutes or less but the purposes of these interviews are to gather data for a book so you should expect them to last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Listen in give us your feedback and let me know what you like and what questions you have for the dads.

As I mentioned the first episode Drew owns BenSpark.com, Read To Me Dad, and started I’m not a Famous Blogger.

There are a few posts mentioned in the episode. You can check out Gods Promise and Faith is in our hands.

I hope you enjoy the podcast DADvocate Project Episode 1- Drew’s Interview

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Dear Friends,

Most of you already know that at the beginning of the school year one of Haley’s classmates called her weird. That event set off a spark and Haley with the help of Raye Lynn decided to write a book about Cerebral Palsy and explain what it is and how she is not weird. The book turned out to be wonderful so we decided to publish it.

The book is being published as an 8.5×8.5 hard cover.

The time has arrived and the publisher is ready to print. We are taking initial pre-orders for the book.

If you are interested in pre-ordering your copy the cost is $19.95. This is $5.00 off the cover price. We will be donating 10% of the proceeds of the sales of the book to the ALC. The (ALC) Adaptive Learning Center was instrumental in helping Haley achieve her current abilities and confidence and we love the program.

Haley, a first grader, never thought of herself as different because she has cerebral palsy. When a new classmate told her she was weird because she wore braces and walked funny, Haley was upset. She did not know what to do or what to say as a response. With help from her parents and grandmother Haley decided to write a book explaining that she was not weird-cerebral palsy is not weird. Haley tells what cerebral palsy means and tells all that she does, just like everyone else. Haley brought her book to school and it was read to the class to help the children understand. Haley is proud of herself and hopes her book will help others to understand about cerebral palsy

Haley is an incredible girl who’s just like anyone else except she walks differently. Haley’s writing guide is RayeRaye, her grandmother, the director of a pre-school where she helped to facilitate a model inclusionary pre-school in Atlanta. Haley lives in Marietta, Georgia with her parents and sister and brother.

If you live in the Atlanta area and we can hand deliver the books to you choose the local pay pal button. If you are not local, do not know us, and we will have to ship the books to you please choose the pay pal button labeled “With Shipping.” The shipping charges are $2.99 and we will send the book via USPS media mail.

With Shipping	Local

Please note book will be ordered on Monday. Delivery time will depend on how quickly the publisher is able to deliver.

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Today I received a review copy of Deb Ingino’s hot off the presses book “The Discovery Adventure Club” book. This is a children’s book written for children 2-8 years old. The very fist thing you notice as soon as you look at this book is the incredible Illustrations. They are bright, vivid, cheerful and interesting. I’ll admit that I don’t always look at dedication pages but Deb is a friend so I was pretty observant and the second stand out factor in this book is that 100% of the proceeds of the sale of “The Discovery Adventure Club” go to The Prodigal House. The Prodigal house is a wonderful charity and you can learn more about it by visiting prodigalhouse.com.

Before reviewing the story it’s important to understand that the book is written to help children and parents understand where the child’s natural strengths based on the DISC personality profile.

There are two parts to this book. The first part is the story and the second part I’ll call a workbook. I read the story to my three year old tonight and while I feel like the story is a little long for a three year old it held her attention the whole time. She also asked questions about the characters in the story, while she tried to follow along with the pictures. At the end of the story Deb asks the reader/listener a question, “What character are you most like?” Abby listened to the descriptions and identified her personality type easily. All in all it was a good story and I think she’ll ask to hear it again.

When I got to the work book section of the story I was going to put down the book but she wanted me to keep reading. So I read here the statements from her personality type and she listened through that as well.

I think this book will be useful will both my girls and will give us a basis to discuss how and why people act differently and how we can use our strengths to achieve our goals. I look forward to reading it to my older daughter tomorrow to see what her reactions are. I’ll keep you posted.

Finally if you would like to learn more about Deb and The Discovery Adventure Club visit MyWiredStyle.com Please note purchase of the book “The Discovery Adventure Club” is not an affiliate purchase as all proceeds go to the Prodigal House. Also please note that I did a review for Deb’s program back in November and I only became an affiliate this past Friday.

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There are two blogs below. I initially wrote the fist blog, read it, and then re-wrote it in the second. Funny how a change in your point of view can really change how you feel about a topic. I hope you enjoy.

I apparently have set some pretty hefty goals for myself this year and at the beginning of March I’m feeling the pressure. If you read this blog you know I’m dedicated to the DADvocate project and while it’s going well I really thought I would have many more responses to the survey by now. As is I’m 10% of my way to the goal of 1000 participants. I feel like I probably should have had many more responses but the initial survey design which I pushed out to all my old friends was designed poorly and many of them thought they completed the entire survey even though they only answered the first page of questions. I suppose it’s time to reach out again and ask one more time. I’m just hesitant to appear as if I’m being too pushy.

My daughters book is being published. We are working with Publish America to bring “I’m Not Weird” to market and I’m very excited that the book should be available by the end of the month. However that book should be the biggest thing on this blog right now and because I started the DADvocate Project here I’m afraid that it will lose some of it’s impact. I’m working on designing a new blog for the The DADvocate Project but it seems to be taking a long time and I don’t seem to have all the time I need to get it done. I also want to do a strong media drive on Haley’s book but that takes time as well and I just don’t know where the time is coming from.

Finally I have been training hard for a 1/2 marathon that is scheduled for the end of April. This past week I’ve run a total of 14.5 miles. That is more than I’ve run in a single week ever but i’m still pretty far off schedule and to say I ran 14.5 miles is probably a bit of an untruth. Maybe it’s better to say I’ve traversed 14.5 miles this week most of it running, all of it breathing hard and hurting. I do feel good about the distance but my left leg hurts pretty badly after my runs and I just don’t see the end in sight.

Oh yeah some how I’m trying to maintain my relationship with my wife and kids, do well at work, pay bills, participate in a number of communities, and blogs, occasionally attend services, see my family, maintain friend ships and sometimes get a break and watch tv. Oh did I mention that I maintain another blog and guest post on DADomatic. I also have two dogs that are being neglected but still love me because I feed them. I wonder if I’m crazy?

On Saturday I did my first video interview of the DADvocate project. It was with the founder of “I’m Not A Famous Blogger” crew and BenSpark.com blog, Drew Bennett. The interview was great and I really look forward to the day I have the chance to meet Drew in person. As for the video I’ve had a space issue on my computer. I’ve spent a large part of yesterday and much of this afternoon and evening trying to get files moved to the correct places so I can actually edit the movie. It turns out I’ll probably have to use much of tomorrow evening to finish moving files, formatting drives, and making everything work the way it should. I’m hoping to have an edited video by Wednesday for publishing but it may be Friday depending on how tomorrow goes.

Now looking back at my complaining I’m going to re-write this post:

Wow! We are already 2 months into this year and things are going great. I’m finally getting into the swing of things at work after having been there for 9 months. I’ve been doing a good job of bringing my wife flowers regularly and the flow with 5 people in the family is starting to feel right. As you know I have a few huge goals this year and I’m really on target for achieving them.

First and most exciting – Haley’s book “I’m Not Weird” should be going to print this week! It’s extremely exciting. I’ll post a button for sale on the blog as soon as I have firm dates. I’m also excited b/c she is already lined up for an interview with Deb Ingino from MyWiredStyle.com who has created a wonderful program that helps families learn all the personalities and how to interact. We also have some hopeful meetings set up to publicize the book which really is a must read for every 4-8 year old. The book helps children understand Cerebral Palsy specifically and differences in general. I’m very excited for where this book will go. I’m creating a mailing list for when the book is finally launched. If your interested in joining please complete the following form.

Secondly, I can’t believe I’ve run 14.5 miles this past week. I ran 6 miles last Saturday, 3 miles on Wednesday and then 5.5 miles on Sunday. That’s 14.5 miles in a week. I still have a long way to go before my 1/2 marathon at the end of April but I just might be able to make it there. By the way you can read about my training on the comments at Intrepid Runner.

Finally the DADvocate Project! What an exciting project. We’ve had 100 people complete the survey which means we are 10% of the way there on the survey. This weekend I completed my first video interview. The interview was with Drew Bennett of BenSpark.com and founder of “I’m Not a Famous Blogger” fame. Drew is truly awesome and I really enjoyed the interview. I hope I have the opportunity to meet him in person some time soon. On top of this exciting news I will also be interviewed by the Geek Dads Weekly and Cast of Dad’s pod casts in the next few weeks. Things are going awesomely and after completing The DADvocate Project blog redesign I’ll be making my next moves reaching out for sponsors, and trying to do some traditional PR. I’m also thinking about asking the mommy blogger’s to mention my work in their circles.

I have had a technical set back this week which will hopefully be fully resolved by tomorrow. In the meantime it is pushing back my ability to publish the interview with Drew. Look for it sometime between Wednesday and Friday. Sorry I can’t be more exact but I’m not out of the woods yet with my tech issue.

Thanks for reading this blog and following our progress on the DADvocate project. We appreciate your input and feedback and love your comments. Feel free to post here or on any article on this blog. I do my best to respond to all comments so thanks again for reading and participating.

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As I mentioned in my post The DADvocate Project Branding Contest – Win a free Twitter Background! I wanted to open up this branding process to the DADvocate community at large and and gain some feedback. Admittedly I also want to give my designer some exposure since I think she is AWESOME. So please leave some comments about your thoughts and you’ll have the opportunity to win a free twitter background designed by Havana. Check out her web site Kokographix.com

The design process starts with the interview:

Havana Interview – The DADvocate Project Branding from Kevin Metzger on Vimeo.

After the interview Havana spent some time drawling and brainstorming with me so she could be sure we were thinking along the same lines.

DADvocate Header Design Brainstorming Part 1 from Kevin Metzger on Vimeo.

One of neatest things about this process was her introduction of children into the design during her creative process. It was something I would never have thought of but I really like how she worked it in. What do you think?

DADvocate Header Design Brainstorming Part 1 from Kevin Metzger on Vimeo.

There is a third page of work shown here which i hav not posted video for.

All this work resulted in the four following ideas. What do you like about them? what would you change?

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Last weeks contest came to you from my friend Deb Ingino at My Wired Style. She offered to give away her My Wired Style E-Kit on parenting and communication in the household. I recorded this video about the product back in November. I am now an affiliate for this product. Last week I was unaware that she was offering an affiliate program.

This is a great product to help you learn how to communicate as a family based on your different personality types. I believe it is a valuable course to complete even if you feel you have great communication within your family because of the insight it provides about who you, your spouse and your children are. Strategies for communication are much easier once you understand how all the personalities in your household perceive what the others are saying.

The winner of the My Wired Style E-Kit is Nathan Greenberg from ProActiveDads.com Is a great blog that focuses on the value of being a dad and is a great resource for dads.

One of the questions we like to ask our dads at The DADvocate Project is what is your parenting philosophy? Nathan Shared his: “I’m suddenly finding it difficult to summarize my approach. Hard to briefly explain raising a future adult for 18 years. I suppose it could be this: Teach the value of respect, the importance of discipline, the necessity of curiousity, and the benefits of determination. Due all of that teaching with love and you should reap the rewards of a wonderful child. ”

I love how Nathan expresses his philosophy even if he did find it “difficult to summarize.” Congratulations Nathan on winning the My Wired Style E-Kit. I hope you enjoy the benefits.

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It feels like there is never enough time to spend with your kids. I imagine that’s true even for stay at home dads, but I know it’s true for most working fathers. We work hard to provide for the family, go to work, do our best to do a great job, and then come home and enjoy the kids for a few hours before we sit down and go back to work for the night, play on the internet, exercise, watch tv or hang out with the wife or even all the above. The weeks fly by and the weekends are even faster. As you can see from the above data we by a large majority are spending 1 -3 hours or less on weekdays with our kids, but it looks like we try to do our best to make up for it on the weekends.

Despite what these numbers indicate I still think we are tying to find ways to be more engaged with our children during the week. I know I try to be diligent about spend time with each of the kids at night, talk about there day and be present. I also try to find some fun game to play like hide and seek or something of that nature. What do you do during the week to deepen your involvement with your kids?

Have you taken the DADvocate survey yet? If not click here and participate now!

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WOW! things are going fast now. Today we received the layout of Haley’s new book and I’m very excited to see it come to press soon. We already sent back our edits. Hopefully Publish America will make the changes tomorrow and we’ll go to printing this week. I’ll keep you posted.

We had a number of users take the DADvocate survey this week too. I hope to get all their answers into the spreadsheet I use to build the data tomorrow so I can get more current statistics. The drawing for the MyWiredStyle.com will be held tomorrow.

Finally we had more people take the survey this week than we have yet. The numbers are beginning to excellerate and I’m very excited.

Here is a quick video interview I did with Haley about her book.

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This is the first in a series of videos that I’ll be posting. This video is of Havana interviewing me on the DADvocate project so she could get an idea of what I’m looking to do with the DADvocate projects for design purposes. I’m looking for feedback from the folks who read this blog. This particular contest is open to both men and women. All you have to do is leave feedback on the video’s and you’ll be entered to win a Twitter background designed by Havana.

I hope you enjoy this series of videos. This is the first video a second one will be posted tomorrow. There will be at least one additional video probably scheduled next week.

Havana Interview – The DADvocate Project Branding from Kevin Metzger on Vimeo.

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Arcadian Rhythms

I’m writing this post at 1:15 AM on Friday Morning February 19, 2010. I fell asleep on the couch around 9:00 PM and just woke up. I’m frustrated because I was hoping I would only sleep for an hour and then I could get up and run but that didn’t work out so well. I’m going to have to try and run tomorrow morning as a last ditch effort to prep for my first 5k ever on Saturday. I’ve been running a lot lately at least for me. I think however that the arch in my left foot is beginning to fall. I’m not quite sure what I’m supposed to do about that, I guess I should talk with a doc.

Panties and Business
Panties and business is the title of an article I wrote over at Dad-o-matic this week and it seem to have gotten a lot of attention. I know why and it has little to do with the article, go check it out I promise you’ll enjoy it. I almost forgot to mention Abby is completely potty trained now. She got the hang of it by Saturday evening. It’s been a few days since I wrote the post over at DAD-o-Matic so I’m not sure if I mention it there.

Sorry this is such a short post but I’m going to go and get some more sleep.

Oh one quick note, I spoke with Drew from benspark.com very briefly today and I’m excited to have conversation with him next week about the DADvocate project. We’ll be recording the conversation and posting for all to hear.

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