I took a break to sleep train my 7 month old three times in the last 3 months. He might be our last. I can’t deny my wife that bittersweet joy.

Pacifier’s are an anti pattern. Give them to less than one year olds for something to do. Never use them as long term comfort. Pull that shit out of your 2+ year old it is destroying their jaw, teeth, and speech.

The Avalon Q was worth every sat. Home is heated entirely by firewood and miners now. Even turned a 3 season sunroom into 4, now my office.

5 months old, waking 3-4 times a night. Wife exclusively breastfeeds. I dropped the hammer on that little baby last night. He moved into his room, the 3 yo boy moved out of the girls room in with him. And so did I, for a few days anyway. This is my 5th child to sleep train. I can literally do it in my sleep. Wife is showing renewed energy, signs of life. We waited long enough. Yeah he cried for 30 minutes while I progressively backed off my verbal re-assurances, sleeping in the unused top bunk that will be his someday. Yeah the 3 year old slept right through all of it. He startled once to a new room confused, I laid with him back to sleep. They won't even really remember their old sleeping habits in 3 days. The first night is always the roughest but when you hold the line it's over before you know it and you have good sleepers. (as long as they are together)

As a Christian, I am called to share my wealth with neighbors in need. She’s running the local 4-H meeting today while I’m at home with the youngest two. Truly the jewel of my crown. (Proverbs 12:4) #dadstr How has your wife brought Christ and you glory today?

Update on moving back home to work near kids: The second grader can do math sitting next to the 5 month old. Next to me. Holy shit this is the exact answer to all of the dread we had about how to scale our homeschool. It was under my nose the whole time!

I got a tiny rural office building to get away from my homeschoolers several years ago. Coding means holding a ton of fragile context in my head and the little interruptions here and there were truly destructive. However, I've recently started working from home again and I realized the job is completely different now. LLMs hold the fragile context, I just hold pointers to the architecture in my head. It's 100x easier to drop in and out of flow state. So I'm thinking about moving the office back home. The school-age kids get to do their work by daddy while he works. It certainly eases the weight of my wife, the teacher, who is also exclusively nursing a baby (no bottles for us, that's a different thread). Her job will only get harder in the years to come. I kind of can't believe I'd move back home.... my precious little space with the bookshelves and desk and vibe. My little work sanctum, my "territory". Screw it. Give me the messy papers, the school books, the little faces, the break moments to teach basic math and science. I'm running back as fast as I can now that I realize it's possible now. This homeschool is going to scale so well. Is this dying to self and living #ToChristAlone in my journey? #dadstr #dadstrong

I've sleep trained all prior kids at 4-5 months old. This 5th baby smiles so much and I'm a completely different man with a lot more freedom... I don't have it in me yet. Might just bring him into bed for a few weeks. (Could totally change my mind in a week) I'll do a note on sleep training if someone asks for it.

He lived in Christ, and his death is gain. Philippians 1:21

je suis Charlie Except I’m not, I’m a fuckin coward laying low compared to him.

Checking my nostr feeds after my first code review session on my new @Daylight Computer Co outside in the sun and… I’m gonna go back outside now. I might just be outside the rest of this reset.

Look with 5 kids 9 and under homeschooled by mom, that means I am the school custodian. This is one of the greatest #wifehacks There’s no other way but to love them and their messes. It’s a relatively short season of life. I’m certainly not going to give them away to other teachers or caregivers… or live in filth. So here’s how I scaled it: 1. Heavy duty grabber arm thing from home improvement store so I don’t have to bend over a thousand times 2. Speed run picking everything up with grabber and chucking it onto couch or table, one pile per room 3. Tell kids to process “sort pile”, this is psychologically far easier for them than picking up and sorting. Even the 3 year old can pull his toys out and put them in basket. 4. Headphones in + podcast/book on. 5. Bissel Zing vacuum the hardwood floors, far quicker than sweeping and better at corners. (Kids still working sort piles) 6. Once a week the Tineco vacuum/mop combo to clean the floors of grime, after a quick dribble of water on any odd spots to let them break up as I mop The routine takes 20 minutes, is done every other day on average. My oldest kids are eager to do the vacuuming now. I haven’t allowed that yet because I know they’ll miss crumbs that I don’t, but soon enough I’ll ease them into it. #dadhacks

With the elimination of all of my debt (except mortgage), I'm officially switching to Strike + Bill Pay on a 1.5% flat cash back card with local credit union. One step further off the dollar.

Put the dish cabinet right next to the dishwasher on the ground level. Now even the littles can help unload dishes. The simplest of #dadhacks