John Cave Osborne

I just got done working on the coolest campaign with a group called TakeMeFishing.org. Great site. Great message. It’s all about spending time outside, particularly with your children. So I put together a post on 13 steps you should follow if you’re wanting to take your kids on a backpacking trip.

I hope you’ll check it out by heading over to Babble to read it by clicking HERE.

This post is sponsored by Disney Story. To find out more about this brand-new story-creation app – and how it puts the power of storytelling in your hands - click here.

Alli’s been bugging me forever to take her backpacking. Here’s the deal, though — I wasn’t sure she’d like it.

Don’t get me wrong. I know why she thought she’d like it. Because she like Cadillac camping. But Cadillac camping is a piece of cake. Backpacking is a grind. So, I gotta admit, I wasn’t 100% sure how she’d do.

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Thanks to Take Me Fishing for sponsoring this post. To check your state’s regulations and get your fishing license and boat registration please visit www.TakeMeFishing.org. Click here to see more of the discussion.

Marriage. Lotta hard work, no? To have a successful one, much compromise is needed. At least that’s what Caroline and I have found. And the most amazing middle ground we’ve ever reached just might be the one we sleep on each and every summer.

You see, I’m an avid camper. I go at least four times a year. One of those excursions is my annual section hike of the Appalachian Trail. When we first met, Caroline thought such trips sounded miserable. Or so I gathered from her now-famous quote:

“My idea of camping out is ordering room service from the Ritz.”

Yes. Well.

Secretly, I vowed to change that because I wanted my crew to be the type that went on plenty of family camping trips. And I had a plan. The vehicle of change? Alli.

Find out how I converted Caroline and find out how easy it is to take your entire family camping by clicking HERE.

Sadly, this is like a week’s supply for my crew.

I am being compensated by The Clorox^®Company to share a new language about messes for the Clorox^® Ick-tionary.

Have y’all ever heard of a sniglet, by any chance? It was a term was coined by comedian / actor Rich Hall during the 80′s on HBO’s Not Necessarily the News. So what’s a sniglet? It’s a made up word that describes a common-but-unnamed phenomenon. And even after all these years, there’s still one sniglet which has totally stuck with me.

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This post is sponsored by Disney Story. To find out more about this brand-new story-creation app – and how it puts the power of storytelling in your hands - click here.

So here’s the deal. I used to be fantastic at documenting the various activities of my family. And, what’s more, I was good about doing it with both still and moving pictures. But something’s happened over the past couple of years. Namely, my enthusiasm for documentation has waned. Don’t get me wrong. I’m wired creatively, and part of that creative wiring is attached to my family. Which means I’ll always be pretty good at documenting our wonderful life.  [Read more...]

I’m working on the coolest campaign right now over at Babble with TakeMeFishing.org. It’s all about encouraging parents to become more active with their kids — something which my crew and I are all about.

Anyway, my first piece for them is about an activity that I genuinely believe was one of the coolest outdoor things I’ve ever done with my kids. Yes. We went fishing. But it was way more than just going fishing (which, in and of itself is obviously an incredibly cool thing).

Head over to Babble to see what I mean and to also see step-by-step instructions of how we got ‘er done by clicking HERE.

Yes. I used the phrase “got ‘er done.”

I know this is probably a super uncool thing to say, but I just don’t care.

I feel incredibly sorry for the Delta Gamma email girl and I wish people would give her a break.

You’ve heard about this whole deal, right? The Delta Gamma sorority member who lit into her sisters via an impossibly profane email that was chock full of hateful language? Someone — presumably one of her sisters — leaked the politically incorrect diatribe to Gawker and BOOM! we had ourselves a good ol’ fashioned Internet fire.

It’s been all over the place. And while Gawker never referred to her by name, the piece was read millions of times. Which, naturally, meant that her name got out soon thereafter. And lots of entities decided to use it like HuffPo, Yahoo, the Frisky (which has had a flat-out field day with her) and countless others. And overnight, this young lady became a villain.

Read more over at Babble by clicking HERE.

I knew when to talk to my oldest daughter about the Boston Marathon bombing. On the way to school. But I didn’t know how to talk to her about it. So I gave the matter some considerable thought, not just the tragedy, but also marathons in general.

* * *

Like so many, my life has been touched by the marathon experience. I ran my first one – the Portland Marathon – when I was a Seattle resident back in 1997.

What made you enter? my friends would ask. The truth was, I didn’t know.

My dad had recently been diagnosed with the cancer that would eventually claim his life, so that was obviously part it. It was part of everything in those days. But to say that was the sole reason wouldn’t have been accurate.

Continue reading over at Babble by clicking THIS LINK.

NO. Not now. Soon enough, though, for we all know how quickly time travels. Next fall will be upon us in the blink of an eye. And while Caroline and I are most excited about what we perceive Kindergarten will do for the triplets, we’re also excited about the streamlining that’s about to go on.

See, as it is now, Caroline and I take five children to three different schools. And next year, the triplets will be attending the school our oldest goes to. And I gotta admit, the concept of dropping four kids off at the same place fills me with peace.

But do you know what fills me with angst? How the school will choose to split the triplets up.

Read more over at Babble by clicking HERE.

I tried to post this once before, but it got away from me. The preface that I tried to write, that is. So I’m trying again to write this preface which laments a common scenario I run into about town. The one where people come up and talk about this site in ways that make it clear to me that they cannot and do not perceive a difference between JCO the dad and JCO the writer.

I obviously understand why. The world sees me as a dad blogger, and, of course I also get why that’s the case. Even so, I see myself as so much more. (Which is probably why I started a profane, edgy, irreverent sports site that, in just six months, is already drawing far greater numbers than this site ever has — even when I posted here all the time here. Oddly, none of the readers over there have EVER come up to me and said “You must be the best sports fan.”)

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