Deirdre, Author at JDaniel4s Mom

Deirdre Smith writes/owns JDaniel4’s Mom. After twenty years as a elementary school and technology resource teacher in Northern Virginia, she became a stay at home mom in upstate South Carolina. Her blog features ways she and her 5 year old are exploring learning, crafting, creating healthy meals and living life to its fullest. Deirdre can also be found on twitter as @jdaniel4smom and on her blog's FB page. You can also check her out on Google+.

21 Days of Gratitude- Thankful for My Kitchen

November 14, 2012 By Deirdre

Yesterday I mentioned to you the 21 Days of Gratitude Challenge List. Well, during November there are bloggers sharing each day on one of the ideas or items on the list. When I signed up to participate in this project, I didn’t look at what I was signing up to share my thankfulness about. Instead I picked a day that worked best for me. Only later did I look at the topic I was going to share about. By then it was too late to change to a different day.

Did I want to change my day to something else?

Yes! I would like something easier. I can jump up and down and say that I am thankful for it.
Am I not thankful for what was on my assigned day of the Days of Gratitude challenge? Well, I am thankful, but I don’t always express my gratitude for it.What is it I am to share thanks for? The thankfulness is supposed to be for something in my kitchen.

My Focus During the 21 Days of Gratitude

Ever since I walked in the kitchen in the house my husband had built many years ago, I have wanted to change it. It is not a bad kitchen. He chose wonderful cabinets and pretty tile for the room. He had curtains made that are nicer than one I would have picked out. It is a pretty room, but it is tiny.

The house I owned before we got married had a wider kitchen with a wonderful island in the middle. It was easy to move around. One person could prep food on the island while another person got things out of the oven. You could open the dishwasher and the refrigerator at the same time if you wanted to.

We have a one butt kitchen. Only one person can be working in the main areas of the kitchen at a time. Whether it be cooking, washing dishes, opening a door or drawer. It is tight and it seems to get tighter when JDaniel wants to jump in and help.Our kitchen gets super crowded when more than four people try to eat in it too. Literally the person sitting with their back to the backyard has to ask for things to be fetched for them once they have sat down and they have to drink very little. It can be challenge to get around the table and get to the bathroom.

So, I pulled out my bible and I read about thanks.

Thinking about their losses has left me with many things to be thankful for.I am thankful for…
1 Chronicles 16:34 O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His loving kindness is everlasting.Psalm 34:1 I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.
Then prayed for God to show me things in my kitchen to be thankful for and do you know what happened? I turned on the news and saw victims of Sandy sharing about how they had lost everything. Maybe even their one butt kitchens.

Thinking about their losses has left me with many things to be thankful for.

I am thankful for…

A refrigerator that has lasted eighteen years along with the oven and dishwasher that arrived when the fridge did.
I am thankful for new counter that God provided for last year.
The tile floor that has been so easy to clean up after JDaniel’s spills.
The small distance I have to walk to catch a milk cup falling to the ground while I am trying to get dinner ready.

21 Days of Gratitude- Thankful for My Kitchen

The space that was just the right size to fit my hutch.
The fact that I have a place to have friends and family come and share a meal.I can honesty say I don’t love my kitchen, but now I can say that I am very thankful for it.

What about your kitchen are you most thankful for?

Have you joined the 21 Days of Gratitude Challenge hosted by Inspired by Family and many other fabulous bloggers? Join us and take time to count your blessings and read their how they met their Day of Gratitude challenge!

Thanksgiving Kids- Gratitude Turkey

November 13, 2012 By Deirdre

This past Sunday I was teaching a lesson on gratitude and thankfulness to my Sunday school class of kindergartners. We were looking at how filled with thanks giving the Israelites were for all that had been given by God.

When I was brainstorming about how to help the children bring home the concepts I was teaching, the wonderful list of 21 Days of Contagious Gratitude on Inspired By Family Magazine came to mind. The list is filled with everyday items and concepts that children or anyone can be thankful for.

Why I thought couldn’t I create a turkey with feathers displaying each of the concepts covered on the list?

I created paper plate turkey head and placed it on a clothes pin to clip to the front of a basket. Then I gathered together construction paper, clothes pins, and markers to create the feathers.On each feather I wrote one of the concepts on the 21 Days of Contagious Gratitude. I change a few of the terms of their list to words I thought the kindergartners would know. Emotion was changed to feeling for example.When the children arrived in class, we talked about Thanksgiving and what it meant to us. We then talked about the story of the week on gratefulness and I pulled out our gratitude or thanks giving turkey. The thanks giving feathers were spread on floor and the children were invited to come up one at a time to select a feather and tell what they were thankful for.

They nodded their heads in agreement for most things as other children shared. They all agreed that the time of day they were thankful for wasn’t bedtime and the new baby giraffe at the zoo was everyone’s favorite animal. It was fun to hear their answers.

I can’t wait to do this with another group of students. Maybe JDaniel’s preschool teacher will let me share the activity with the class.

Until then I will be putting this thanksgiving or gratitude turkey out on our kitchen table. We will be giving thanks for each of the concepts covered on the feathers. Maybe my husband, JDaniel, and I can pick a feather each night to add to the turkey basket turkey.

The link below is an affiliate link. It was put there for your convenience.

Thanksgiving Kids Book

I love the tie children’s book to activities that we do. I can across a wonderful book to tie to this lesson called Thanks for Thanksgiving. This amazing book by Julie Markes points out that we have things everyday to be thankful for. What a wonderful lesson to share with kids at Thanksgiving time or any other time during the year.

Warning: This isn’t a story as much a a wonderful book that shares reasons for gratitude.It is just a great Thanksgiving kids book.

Teaching Kids- What is Veterans Day?

November 11, 2012 By Deirdre

Every year I take JDaniel to the memorial for veterans in our town. We bring a snack or lunch to eat as we sit on one of the granite benches before the flag memorial and talk about Veterans Day and why we celebrate it. I want him to know “What is Veterans Day ?”

When he was two and a half, I told him the people whose names were on the brick pathway were people who had tried to aid people in faraway lands that needed someone to help them and didn’t get to come back home.

When he was three and a half, we talked about how the memorial celebrates those people from our town and wanted to help others and didn’t make it home. They ended up dying where they were helping. I didn’t talk a lot about death although he understood that what death meant that year. JDaniel’s GranDan died the winter before and he really wanted to see him. I explained to him that while he might want to come see him he wasn’t able too.

This year JDaniel asked me a lot of questions about the soldiers remembered by the memorial. He wanted to know why they died, who they were, and did their families come here too. What is Veterans Day has become more than just a time to visit the memorial for him!

As we started down the path on the memorial grounds to check out all the flags that had been set out, we found someone who could answers some of his questions.

If you look closely, you will see an man down by the tree with rust leaves. We caught up to him and talked to him. He fought in the Vietnam War and had recently moved into our town from Kansas.

He told JDaniel he didn’t know any of the people that are remembered at this memorial. He came because being here helped him remember the friends he had lost in a faraway land. He told him that our country had sent him to help others and that was just what he had tried to do.

JDaniel seemed to understand a little more about why the memorial is important after that. For awhile he just walked down the path by the flags. There were hundreds scattered all across the lawn on both sides of the path.

Eventually he decided walking on the slope of rocks that leads up to the train track on the edge of the memorial was more fun and he was no longer quiet. He giggled and scurried up and down the slope. For a few moments though he took in all that we had told him.

I think our town just decided to put out as many flags as they could. The flags didn’t have a particular soldier’s names on them that had served. But I know that we could probably have covered the lawns up and down our towns main street with flags of those from around the United States that have not made it back.

So many have passed away serving our country though out the years.

I am so thankful to all who have served and to their families. Having loved one possibly in harm’s way has to be a real challenge.

JDaniel and I also talked with a lady who had stopped by the memorial to take a picture to send to her husband in Kuwait on our way to the car. Her husband will be serving there until just after Christmas. She said he would be thrilled to see how their hometown remembered its veterans. She also said she can’t wait for him to get home.

My sister Kate’s husband is heading to Afghanistan right after Thanksgiving for six months. This isn’t the first time a member of their family has been to the Middle East. My sister Kate has been there twice. I prayed for often while she was away. I worried about her often while she was serving overseas although she was on bases both times

If you have would remember to hold my sister and her family in your prayers while he is gone, I would be so grateful.

How will you be celebrating Veterans Day?

Turkey Trouble- Read.Explore.Learn

November 9, 2012 By Deirdre

The turkey in Turkey Trouble realizes that he is in trouble and decides to disguise himself as other animals on the farm. Every time he thinks he has found a winning costume a different farm animal recognizes him. He then tries to pretend he is one of them.His disguises work for him in the end! What is he at the end of the story? He is a pizza delivery man. Thank goodness the family likes pizza.

I love the turkey’s disguises. He uses upcycled costumes to keep him off the table.

Turkey Hat

We glued a set of yellow turkey legs, a turkey head with face, and a bunch of turkey feathers to a brown band of construction paper and made the cutest turkey hat.

Paper Bag Turkey

We gathered together newspaper, construction paper feathers, wiggly eyes, a turkey head and facial features made of construction paper, a paper bag, and a bread tag to make the paper bag turkey.

Then we stuffed the bag with newspaper and closed the bag with the bread tie.

The feathers were attached next to the back of the bag just above the bread tag. The opening of the bag spread out made a great support for the feathers.

JDaniel added the eyes and beak to the turkey’s head before I attached it to the front of the bag.

We ended the craft by adding his feet. I think he came out really cute.

If you like the Turkey Trouble crafts, here are some more wonderful turkey themed activities you will like:

Lantern Turkeys

Building Words with Turkey Feathers

Paper Plate Turkey Crafts

Thanksgiving Themed Sink and Float Activity

Thanksgiving for Kids- Homemade Table Settings

Cornucopia of Prayer- Craft and Activity

Science Kids- Exploring Turkey Basters

Gratitude Turkey- Each Feather Shares a Blessing

Please link your book exploration posts below.

Yes, Giving Benefits The Giver!

November 8, 2012 By Deirdre

All week long I have written about giving and yes I am writing about giving for one last time this week.

I started the week my asking you to leave comments on my posts. Each comment would be added to all the others left during the week. The total number of comments will be translated into monetary donation to Samaritan’s Purse’s effort to help the survivors of Sandy. You can read more about it in my post called Doing Something about Sandy! Helping Others.

On Monday I wrote about all the All Stars that have helped and are continuing to help the survivors of Sandy. I shared a tribute bento lunch I had made in that post.Yesterday I wrote about another Samaritan’s Purse project called Operation Christmas Child and the fun we had in putting a special box of treasures for a little boy to have a Christmas time.

How does all this giving benefit the my family and other givers?

Seven Ways Giving Benefits the Giver

Giving open our hearts up to others and their needs.
Giving allow us to see all the treasures we have been given in our lives as we shift through them looking for items that you can give to others.
Giving allow us to bestow some of our treasures on others.
Giving leads you to pray for those who will be receiving the items we are giving.
Giving shows our children that their wants can fulfill others needs.
Giving takes our everyday worries and sets them aside while we think of others.
Giving changes our hearts and allows us to see the world as a place you want to make better and not just take from.I know you are givers! I am blessed by you everyday. I hope that when you give you remember the seven things I have listed above. Realizing them as really blessed my life.
This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday!

Operation Christmas Child #OCCGiving

November 7, 2012 By Deirdre

I usually take JDaniel with me when I am gathering food items or gifts to give to charity. This year I rushed around and gathered things for the Operation Christmas Child Project while JDaniel was in school. It saved me a lot of time standing beside shelves while items to being looked over and gave me the opportunity to select items he might not have picked.

Every time I came home with a bag of items to put in the shoe box I had JDaniel inspect the items. The fact that he wanted to add most them to his Christmas list filled me with hope that the little boy that receives our box will be happy with its contents.

When I had gathered everything we were going to give, we placed them in shoe box that once held my husband’s sneakers. It didn’t seem fair to give a child a box that once held my tiny shoes. (I only wear a 5/2 sized shoe.)

Each item had to be reinspected and placed into the box in just the right place. JDaniel thought the practical stuff should go on the bottom. He felt a child should get to see the good stuff first. I thought that was a great idea. We ended up with most of the toys and candy on the top.

What did we put in the box? There were toys, a flashlight, a notebook with pencil, a throw to snuggle under, candy, a tooth brush, a comb, a brush, coloring pages, crayons, and an inflatable globe.

When the box was filled, we took it to a church in the town right next to ours. Mauldin United Methodist Church was the closest drop of site to our house. What a pretty entrance they had to their office area.

The church secretary there happily lead us to the drop off area and told me that their church passed out 400 plastic boxes with presents last year and they hoped to donate the same amount this year. I am so glad our box will be surrounded by so many other boxes when it is picked up. JDaniel was thrilled to see all of the boxes that have been dropped off already! I am thrilled that he understands the importance of giving.

This holiday season build a box with your family to teach kindness, compassion, and generosity.

Operation Christmas Child and influencer marketing platform BlogFrog have teamed up with 200 bloggers like me to spread the word about this great cause.

If you like this Operation Christmas Child project, here are some more giving to others projects:

Planning a Food Drive

Giving Others a “Heart Attack”

Disclaimer:BlogFrog will match the first 200 boxes that are built. Pledge your commitment below to build a box today on Facebook or Twitter! This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Operation Christmas Child. The opinions and text are all mine.

Taking Time to Play- The Educator’s Spin On It

November 6, 2012 By Deirdre

We are excited for the opportunity to share our Time to Play with you as a guest post on JDaniel4’s Mom. We both share a love of books and how to incorporate them into our children’s lives through play.

Balancing life with a 2, 6 and 19 year old can take to prethinking to make sure everyone has their playful moments with Mom. Since we share share a weekly ideas of after school activities on The Educators’ Spin On In It. I want to share with you how important it is to take the opportunity for some afternoon play with your child after school. Luckily my two year old has been napping as we come home from school so, we get a chance to have some one on one time together and then the girls love playing once homework is done. Children don’t get anytime at school to just be kids and playtime is such an important role in childhood.

The Educator’s Spin on It

Now here’s comes the fun! Did you see JDaniel4’s recent Own Post? We loved it especially since it’s Owl Week at The Educators’ Spin On It! I’m excited to share with you our playful afternoon moment we had! We’ve been spending more time walking home from school together. We’ve even made some fun discoveries of plant life and animal life! We brought home tons of leaves from our walk one day and decided we were going to do something with them together. We sat and looked at the leave together and sorted the leaves. Something I’ve observed about my daughter is that she likes to categorize things during playtime. Even as a toddler she would find pairs of things and line them up. It doesn’t surprise me now that she’s in love with math. I’m so glad that I’ve observed that about her play over the years.

Link below is an affiliate link.

While playing with the leaves she had a moment where we remembered a special book,Look What I Did with a Leaf! by Morteza E. Sohi that creates pictures from Leaves.

Look What I Did with a Leaf! (Naturecraft)

She ran inside to grab the book and then she came up with the idea of creating an owl from the recycled cereal box. So we gathered all our supplies and got to work. She glued on the feathers, beak, nose and wings. Once the owl was dry it was showtime!

At the very end of the day she used the owls she made to put on an Owl Puppet show to practice her lines for the Owl Play that we were practicing for. Sorry I was part of the show so now pictures from this part but it was such fun to talk in character with her and just see into her imagination. Plus what a fun way to play with words to get ready for her performance!

I was so proud of my little owl! We hope you’ll stop by for more Owl Inspired Fun at The Educators’ Spin On It!

Kim is the co-author of The Educators’ Spin On It. As an early childhood teacher and a mom of three, she’s learned many tips and tricks of parenting and teaching along the way in the past 20 years. She shares her “Educator’s Spin” on parenting issues and how make learning playful and playtime meaningful. You can also find The Educators’ Spin On It on Facebookand Pinterest.

Bento Lunch for Kids- All Star Lunch

November 5, 2012 By Deirdre

When I was planning this week’s lunch, I was thinking about Election Day and how it is wonderful time for Americans to get out and give their opinions on who they want for president. I decided having an all star themed lunch would be perfect. The bento lunch would literally be an all star lunch.That was before Sandy arrived and made it difficult for people to get out and vote. Some are displaced. Some don’t have polling places available. Some have more important issues on their mind like finding food, keeping warm, and trying to rebuild.

With that in mind this post is not going to be about getting out to vote. It is going to be about how proud I am of the people that I have heard about reaching out to others. People that were first responders. People who called friends up and invited them to stay with them. People like a blogger who lives not far from me who is gathering supplies to be taken to New Jersey. People that are trying to teach their children how to make it through each day without knowing what tomorrow will bring.

All those people are all stars! They are in my thoughts and prayers!

Oh! I am hosting a special Surviving Sandy event this week. Every comment on any post left this week will be translated into a 50 cent donation to Samaritan’s Purses’ relief effort for Sandy’s victims. You can read more about this event in a post that went up on Sunday called Doing Something About Sandy!- Helping Others.

If you like this all star lunch Bento lunch , here are some more bento lunch ideas:

Apple Chicken Salad Bento Lunch

Lunch Ideas with LEGO

Minion Lunch with Blueberry Overalls

Bento Lunch with Cracker Sandwiches

Summer Sunshine Bento Lunch

Little Owl’s Night Craft and Snack Ideas- Read.Explore.Learn.

November 2, 2012 By Deirdre

As you read the story Little Owl’s Night, you get to travel along with Little Owl as he travels through the air watching all the other nocturnal animals. There are fireflies dancing, moths fluttering toward the moon, and so much more. This tale takes you from the beginning of the night to the end of an evening just as Little Owl goes to sleep.The picture and words in this beautiful book flow. We were introduced to this book during a local story time. I loved watching and listening to this story unfold.

Owl Craft

We created a torn paper owl with cupcake liner eyes! The torn paper was added to cut-out of an owl to make him look like he has feathers. Then a piece of orange paper was used to give the owl a beak and claws. After gluing on two cupcake liners yellow circles and smaller black circles were added to complete the owl’s eyes.He looks ready to take in all the late night creatures and events. I love the texture the torn paper adds to the owl!

When the owl was dry, he was glued to a piece of black paper. The paper makes the various colors of the owl pop!

Owl Sandwich

JDaniel had an owl sandwich created with Colby Jack cheese and whole grain bread to celebrate our study of owls. The cheese used for his feathers has tiny triangles cut out of it to give it a feathery effect. The owl’s ears, feet and beak are also made of cheese. His eyes are small round tomato pieces with tiny pieces of olives on top. He loved his Little Owl’s Night lunch!If you like these Little Owl’s Night activities, here are some wonderful ways to explore books that people linked up last week:

Train Up a Child shared a wonder post on pumpkin exploring done after reading the book The Pumpkin Gospel called Carving Pumpkins with Kids.Reading Confetti linked a post called Easy Dress Up Hate {Paper Plate Craft}. The hats were made after reading a book called Halloween Hats.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links.

Carving Pumpkins From the Pumpkin’s Point of View

November 1, 2012 By Deirdre

My life started in patch just as it did for many of my pumpkin relatives. I heard the farmer and his farm hands talk one day about how one day many of us would be taken to large brightly lit stores where people would look us displayed on shelves and decide if we were right for them. When the right person came along, we would be taken to their homes for a time of carving pumpkins.

I waited and grew and waited and grew. Finally one day I was harvested from the patch and placed into a really large cardboard box. Many of my relatives were placed in the same box. Once the box was filled to the brim, we could feel ourselves being lifted by a machine someone outside the box called a forklift. The forklift carried us over to what another person outside the box called a truck.

I think they were lots of boxes of us on the truck. I could hear the almost silent cries of pumpkins on the bottom of the boxes. They were feeling the heavy weight of the pumpkins that were in the middle and top sections of the box.

I was blessed to be near the top of my box. I couldn’t tell where we were going as we traveled, but I knew we would eventually end up in a store glowing with light.

Finally my box was taken off the truck and moved into a store. Aldi is what I heard the people in the store call the place. Apparently Aldi isn’t a place with shelves for foods to be displayed, because I remained in the box as did everyone else I had traveled with in the box. Not a single pumpkin was removed from the box for awhile.

After a couple of hours, pumpkins started to be lifted out of the box. I could look up and see the bright lights I had heard about back on the farm.

Not every pumpkin stayed out of the box. Some were lifted up and placed back in the box. Some were shifted so other pumpkins beneath them could be selected.It seemed to take a couple of days for my people to come into the store and select me. Thankfully they selected my cousin too. We both ended up in this metal box with bars and wheels that carried us around the store. Soon there were other foods in boxes, bags, and cartons that surrounded us. I didn’t recognize any of them but I bet they were happy to be going home too.After waiting in line behind other foods in their moving metal boxes, I was placed on a black moving strip with the other food in the cart. It was a short trip down the black metal stip and then I was back to the moving metal box. There must have been a reason for the moving trip, but I didn’t really understand why I had gone on it.The moving metal box was then wheeled outside. It was great to see the sun again. My glimpse of the sun was a brief one. I was then picked up and placed in dark place at the back of my people’s car. It was a little scary there. I prayed that I would be back in the sun soon.My prayer was answered a lot sooner that I thought it would be. The lid above my head was opened and I was carried to the front to the front of my people’s house and placed on a step. The small person in my people’s family complained that I should go in the house and not put on a step, but the big person said it wasn’t time for carving pumpkins yet.I sat on the step soaking in the sun for many days. Other pumpkins on the street had been transformed into jack o’ lanterns, but I remained as I had always been. I started to wonder if I would be changed. Maybe the big person and convinced the little person I need to stay the way I had been born. I hope that won’t happen. I longed to have decorations carved into me and display a bright light from inside my shell.The little person and his friend the little person from the house next store talked of Halloween often as they rode back and forth on the sidewalk just below my step. They seemed to be counting the days until its arrival just as I was.Finally the big person came and carried me in the house. Whew! I was relieved. The little person looked relieved too. He said something about there only be one day left until Halloween and that he really wanted to see what I would look like carved.I was taken to a place they called the kitchen and placed on a table. Beside me knives, carving tools, and spoons were all lined up. A sheet of newspaper was placed beneath me to cover the table.Before the pumpkin carving could be done, I had to have a lid placed in the top of me and my gooey insides had to be scraped out. My seeds were removed from the goo and placed in a bowl beside me. The orange goo was placed on the newspaper not to far from me.As I sat there being cleaned out, I tried to guess what I would be transformed into. Would I have design like R2-D2 placed into my thick orange skin? Would I have moon or stars on my belly? There seemed to be a lot discussion going on between the big person and small person. The little person had big plans for me and the big person was trying to get them to compromise. The big person wanted a simpler plan . After much discussion, they can up a design the big person was able to do.Finally knife was picked up and the big person started in on the plans that had been decided on. I waited patiently as they carved to triangles for my eyes. Soon I had a toothy smile too. The little person commented that I looked great, but five teeth would have been better than four. The big person said they had tried to do five, but one tooth had broken when the pushed my mouth out of my skin. I was thrilled with how I looked. I was happy to be a jack o’ lantern and my happy face would share that with everyone that would walk by me once I was back outside.
There was a long time between leaving the field and becoming a jack o’ lantern, but the wait had been worth it.