Having had grown up in a family with five daughters, we often heard the words “Your poor father!” In my youth, I never really understood what people meant by that – I had a house full of people and lots of love and toys and books, how could it get any better? Eventually, I kinda ‘got it’ -sure, Dad sometimes got overshadowed by the overbearing estrogen that radiated through our house, but I don’t think he ever felt sorry for himself. And even though him and my Mom had originally wanted a house full of boys (true story), in my biased opinion, I’m quite positive that he feels he feels he got a pretty good deal with us girls. I’ve learned a lot from my Dad over the years, and here is some wisdom from my Dad to share with you.

1.) ‘Loser’ is a swear word. My Dad would NOT permit use of this word in our house. He would look past a few eff bombs before he would let this one by. Maybe he was the original anti-bullying campaigner.

2.) Love is the most important possession. When us girls were just wee curly haired bleach blondes running around in our underwear, we lived in a trailer on our grandparents property. That means five rambunctious children and two adults living in a small trailer – can you say cramped? This was while my parents were preparing to buy our Farm, and I’m pretty sure we lived off of love at the time. To this day, my Dad says these were some of the best years of his life, and he would give anything to go back to then. We didn’t have much, but we had each other and that was the most important thing.

3.) If you can’t say anything nice then don’t say anything at all. I heard this so often during my childhood that I can actually hear my Dad’s voice saying this in my head when I write it down. I still try to live by this rule.

4.) Bribery works. When we were teenagers, Mom and Dad told us they would pay us each $500 when we turned 18 if we didn’t smoke. Let’s just say they are $2500 poorer and our lungs have a clean bill of health. Dad says that it was a waste of money because none of us would have been smokers anyways, but I think he just doesn’t know how often I have used that excuse in my younger days while turning down a cigarette…

5.) If you have a plugged up nose, sleep on the opposite side. When you wake up your nose will be drained and fresh as a daisy. This one is slightly random, but whenever I fall asleep with a stuffed nose I think of this and make sure I follow Dad’s advice. It works, trust.

People always comment on how terrified our boyfriends must have been to pick us up for dates, etc. In reality, our Dad was a little bit starved for conversations about sports, farming, etc. so when the boys did come get us they were usually greeted  by Dad who would subject force encourage them to sit down and talk to him – maybe this was his pre-screening.. Really, he’s harmless – it was our mother, ‘The Dragon Lady’, who the boys were afraid of (there were threats of castration involved…). Then there was that time Micaela got picked up for a date on a motorcycle. Oooh, that was a funny night in the Blonde household.

So thanks Dad for many years of love and lessons, here’s to many, many more to come.

We love you very much.