Chad Norman » Parenting

MacBook Pro Packaging is the Apple of my Sustainable Eye

Chad Norman — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:04:04 +0000

When you have a MacBook Pro delivered, the nice shiny white Apple box comes inside a less shiny brown shipping box. In fact, the Apple box is suspended inside that shipping box by paper corner pads. While I’m stoked that these packaging pieces are recyclable (Apple does pay attention to the impact of its products), turns out they’re reusable too!

I noticed the spacing between the edges was the same width as Thomas the Tank Engine tracks, which are everywhere in my house. When I put the two together, they fit perfectly…then I thought about how I could use them. Sure enough, they are nearly the perfect height to work with the standard Thomas riser tracks. Very cool, and something new for the little ones to be creative with!

The Tunnel

Chad Norman — Mon, 30 May 2011 23:11:08 +0000

Is it a surprise to anyone that the two-year-old is far more brave than the eight-year-old when faced with the dark, twisting tunnels of Fort Moultrie? What a great place to take the kids on a hot summer day – those bunkers are nice and cool!

Just A Few of Our Favorite Things from 2010

Chad Norman — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 06:46:24 +0000

We have a new tradition emerging here at the Norman house: on New Years Eve/Day we create our favorite things tag cloud! *here’s 2009′s* This year during dinner, we each wrote down some of the things we liked from 2010 (we help the little ones). Then I typed them up and sent them through Wordle.net, and whoop – there it is: a few of our favorite things from 2010!

Happy New Year everyone!

Hello Goodbye

Chad Norman — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 03:40:29 +0000

That is what my kids always say when they see a plane fly by – like this one.

Fleeting Footprints

Chad Norman — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:48:31 +0000

Playing front porch dodgeball with the kids delivered these sweet little prints across the beaded planks. I couldn’t resist a quick photo between rounds…

At Home on the Marley

Chad Norman — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 01:22:48 +0000

Last weekend, we got to spend some family time together at the studio. The kids always seem right at home on the marley, and I wonder where their feet will take them. Here’s a shot of Zoe and her mom…

Just A Few of Our Favorite Things from 2009

Chad Norman — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:25:36 +0000

First off, a huge happy new year to you all!

Today at lunch, Jen, Cooper, Graham, Zoe and I sat around our kitchen table, writing down all of our favorite things from 2009. It was fun reading them out loud, hearing what we had in common, and telling stories from throughout the year. Being a huge geek, I naturally thought a word/tag cloud might be the perfect way to visualize the year’s goodness, so I went to Wordle.net – because they rock.

Here’s the 2009 Norman Family Favorites Cloud:

Driveway Hopscotch

Chad Norman — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 02:58:03 +0000

I took this shot during a family game of hopscotch in the driveway.

Ahhhhhh, Grasshopper

Chad Norman — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:32:23 +0000

Hey, have a look at this dead, ant-filled grasshopper. Spiky legs!

This, My Friends, Is Hail

Chad Norman — Wed, 21 May 2008 03:10:46 +0000

While I knew there was no tornado, tonight’s hail storm still impressed me. The white wall coming in off the marsh was cinematic, but the real star came seconds later when the hail arrived.

I could tell right away that the chunks were big, and they looked like broken snowballs bouncing into the windows. It made me think about density, and how if this hail was made from rock, every window in my house would be broken.

It lasted a good 10 minutes, so we waited, listened, and suddenly it stopped. Out I went with a bucket for the kids, which is now in our freezer. Cooper ate some, and said it tasted like water.

This was big hail…maybe the biggest I’d seen since I was a kid. It was easy to spot actual golfball-sized hail, but it was melting fast.

Most of the big pieces had a distinct cloudy ball in the middle, about the size of a raisin, which was surrounded by thick, clear ice. This pattern was enhanced as they melted, and they began to look like sliced kiwi.

Here are some pics of the aftermath…