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+.

Helping to Build with Couch Cushions

January 11, 2012 By Deirdre

I heard a loud screech an ran downstairs to see what was the matter.

As I came down the stairs I saw a couch cushion creation!

JDaniel was so upset! I couldn’t figure out a first what was the problem and he couldn’t spit out the words.

After getting him to calm down a little, he explained that the cushion in the front kept falling over. When the cushion fell over the calculator and the spoon would fall to the ground.

Cushion Creation- Trying to Get It to Balance

This didn’t seem devastating enough to me to lead to a scream but, it was for him. JDaniel was totally frustrated.

“Let’s think this through,” I said sitting on the floor beside him. “Maybe we can have some of the books stick out a little bit behind the cushion and they can support the pillow,” I suggested.

“We can try,” JDaniel commented. When we did try it worked fairly well.

With the crisis averted JDaniel was able to get back to work on his creation. I decided to stay near creation central to offer more help if it was needed.

Once one keyboard was up, we added a second and JDaniel to add a few other items.

JDaniel told me as we worked on this project that he needs a chair to sit on in the front and a work area in the back for his friend to work in later in the day. Due to all the items in the back, his friend would need to stand I was informed.

We spent a lot of time building this cushion creation but, JDaniel didn’t try sitting in it until after he had gotten dressed for the day.

Cushion creations we discovered are not a stable area to sit in. As soon as JDaniel sat down, the chair he was sitting on started to learn forward. The chair continued to lean forward causing his knees to touch the cushions. When the cushions started to lean forward too, the whole front including JDaniel started falling.

I was able to catch JDaniel and right the chair. The cushions and everything else spilled onto the floor.

Frustration filled the area once more. It is so hard when something you build doesn’t work.

I tried to talk to him about the need for a structure to have a firm foundation and recommended removing the front cushion so the chair could rest on the wood floor. I tried pointing out the building it on the soft area would cause any structure to fall.

JDaniel didn’t want any part of changing the design plan. His idea was to put the chair back on the cushion and just not sit in it again ever.

We left the cushion creation up and walked through the great divide between the chairs until early afternoon when the heating and air conditioning man came to do the semiannual check-up and needed to get to the vent behind the cushion with the hook on it.

It is hard when JDaniel gets creative ideas that don’t seem to come together. The best thing I can do is try to help him work them out. Listening to what it has envisioned and trying to help bring them to reality is all I can really do.

I really love it when opportunities like this come up that we can work on together. I do wish he wouldn’t be frustrated by the challenges that come with creating.

This post is linked to Alphabe Thursday, Mama Kat’s Writing Workshop, and some other places.

Pause Life for a Moment- Being Like Dad

January 10, 2012 By Deirdre

My son wants to be like his dad so much! He wants to do what he is doing and “help” with chores he does around the house. Mostly he just want to be around him.Cold CoffeeAlmost morning my husband fixes coffee. JDaniel has decided that he needs to have coffee in the morning too.There is a problem. He doesn’t like coffee. JDaniel has taken a few sips of my husbands and decided that it is terrible. It is even worse when it is still warm.My brilliant husband has invented a solution to JDaniel problem of wanting to have coffee like dad and wanting something he thinks tastes great. All you have to do is mix cold water, milk, and a little sugar and you have cold coffee! This yummy beverage doesn’t even need to be served in a coffee cup.It is just wonderful in a sippy cup or small plastic glass.Sitting With a BookAt various times during the day when my husband is home, he can be found sitting in this red leather chair reading the Bible or the newspaper.If you are a little boy like Jdaniel, you have wanted to do the same thing. You grab one of the wooden chairs from your wooden table and chair set and you drag it over to where your dad is sitting. The chair is then placed beside your father’s chair in just the right spot.Then you have to scurry to the living room and grab a copy of Frog and Toad are Friends or another favorite piece of literature and bring it back to the reading area. Once you have something to read, you can finally sit with your dad and look just like he does. You can silently look at the pictures in the book and pretend to read it and be just like dad.Doing LaundryEvery Sunday afternoon my husband does laundry. I do most of the laundry during the week but, he does his work pants and shirts on Sunday.Almost every Sunday he has a small boy standing on a plastic white stepstool by his side in the laundry room.They do the same steps with my husband giving him directions as to the next step every week.I can hear these words coming out of the laundry room :“Wrap the pants around the agitator carefully.”“Don’t stuff the clothes in or they won’t get clean.”“If you scrub a little Shout on stains with a toothbrush, you can get rid of the stains. Now scrub carefully but, put a little pressure on the brush.Trimming TreesI trim the bushes in the yard but, apparently boys trim trees.When my guys head out to trim trees, I am told that I can stay inside by JDaniel.He really doesn’t trim the trees. He mostly gathers up the branches and twigs and takes them to the curb.Although there are times he breaks pieces off of low hanging branches or tries to scrape off the bark.How do I know about all these events in my guys lives? I tend to peek around corners or out windows and I listen in to their guy talk.Pausing to see how my guys interact brings me such joy. Yes, I could consider the time they are off together as my downtime. (There are times that I do just let them go off.) There are times when hearing them chat and seeing them together makes my day. I love getting to see and hear these memories in the making.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Don’t Worry Douglas Craft

January 6, 2012 By Deirdre

Welcome to Read.Explore.Learn.! This meme was designed to be a place for you to share the learning opportunities, crafts, field trips, and other activities you have done this week that tie into children’s books.

I look forward to seeing ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

- Link your activity below.

- Please place the Read.Explore.Learn. badge on your post or create a link back to this meme.

- Please try to visit at least three of the other people who have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment.

- If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

This week we read the book Don’t Worry Douglas! is given a new knit hat by his dad and he is asked to be careful with it. Douglas barely makes it out of the house when his hat snags on a tree and is destroyed. His hat is unraveled and he doesn’t want to tell his dad. David Melling’s Douglas is a lot like a lot of children who are afraid to tell their parents when they have done things wrong.

Douglas tries to seek advice on how to fix his hat from his friends. Most of them would just like the yarn for their homes but, they do try and tell him to talk to his dad.

In the end, Douglas does talk to his dad and his dad does understand. He does remind Douglas to be careful with the replacement hat he gives him right off his head.

Of course, he reminded him of that with the first hat too.

I love the reminders in this book to listen and be willing to share when mistakes happen. JDaniel and I talked about both of these concepts after reading the book.

What did we do?

Craft a Bear and a Mom Lesson

This craft was more about me listening than JDaniel painting his Don’t Worry Douglas! bear.

I cut out a bear out of a brown paper grocery bag and set out brown paint with a sponge to paint it.

JDaniel told me that he didn’t want Douglas to be brown. He wanted him to be blue, green, and black.

I thought about forcing him to paint him brown so that I could have a brown bear for this post and decided that it wasn’t that important. What was important was to listen to what he wanted to do!

When he had finished painting, I said it was time to add eyes, a nose, and a mouth. JDaniel declared the project as done. I said that it would be fine with me.

When he left the room, I seriously thought about adding facial features to the bear. Then I thought about what I would be saying to him about listening. If I had added facial features I might have been telling him that it wasn’t okay and that I had to sneak in a face to have it be right. That is not a lesson I want him to learn.

Sometimes crafts may need to be finished the way I see them. This craft did not have to be that way.

If you like this bear craft, here are some more bear activities.

Printable Bear About Colors Activities

Color Bear Bingo Printables

Bear Shape Activity

White Chicken Chili

January 5, 2012 By Deirdre

The weather here has finally turned cold. The chill in the air has to search the internet for warm comfort foods like the white chicken chili I am going to share with you today that I found on How to: Simplify.

I love that this is simple enough for a family dinner or can be dressed up with cheese and crusty bread to serve to guests.

White Chicken Chili

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon of olive oil

1 medium onion diced

2 cups of baked chicken tenders

2 cans of Great Northern Beans, drained

1 can of corn or a small bag of frozen corn

1 can (4 ounces) of green chilies or as much as your family would tolerate

1/2 tsp of oregano

1 32-ounce box of chicken broth

1 dash of salt and pepper

1 teaspoon of lime juice

1/2 of a shredded Mexican cheese blend.

Directions:

1. Saute onion until clear.

2. Add onion, shredded chicken, Great Northern Beans, corn, green chilies, and oregano to a large pot.

3. Stir to combine and then add chicken broth.

4. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for 30 minutes.

5. Add salt, pepper, and lime juice.

6. Sprinkle cheese on top of the chili once it is in individual bowls for serving.

This post is linked to Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop and

Disclaimer: I did not feed this to my in-law but, I did take some to my mom’s house.

Getting Back to Our Pre-Holiday Schedule

January 4, 2012 By Deirdre

During the holidays I tried to keep JDaniel on schedule for his quiet time in the afternoon and meal times, but I would be the first to admit they veered a little of course.Many of the things that fill our daily schedule were not available during most of December and we had to find different things to do.

What Changed

There was no school, library story times, or playgroup for all or part of the month.The boy next door and his family went away for two weeks. That means there wasn’t a call at four o’clock to see if he could come to play and we couldn’t head out to see if they are out playing after lunch.

Other changes:

It rained cold rain for days.My husband was home for a few days. We loved having him home, but it did change our routine.We tried to spend more time with my mom who lives in the same town we do. We see her on Fridays every week, but I tried to go over more. She loves seeing us despite the fact she has to hunt for her comb and brush after we leave.JDaniel decided to start sleeping later in the morning. Hooray!We rushed to try to get Christmas shopping done before everyone started their Christmas vacation.I didn’t have my mom’s group at church to meet with.

Back to Our Scheduled Activities

While we enjoyed spending time together as a family and JDaniel and I had a great time together ( except for occasional meltdowns) , I am ready to get back to our regular schedule.Yesterday was JDaniel’s first day back at preschool. He really didn’t want to go. I think he believes I get lonely. He just wanted to play with me in his room.

When we absolutely had to go. He went happily. I was so worried he would have a meltdown. I am so glad I was wrong.

Today we will head back to story time at the library. I have really missed seeing the story time librarian Amber. She is expecting in March and should be close finally looking like she is pregnant. I can’t wait to see how she looks.Tomorrow we have preschool again. I hope it goes as well as it did on Tuesday.Next week playgroup and my mom’s group will start back up. Our schedule will be back to its pre-holiday routine. It was hard to leave the routine behind for the holidays, but I will cherish the memories we made and the return to the routine completely next week.
How did your children do with returning to the old routine?

Pausing Life for Moment- Thinking About This Series

January 3, 2012 By Deirdre

When I first started Pause Life for a Moment last spring, it was supposed to be a short series of guest post leading up to Easter. Well, it didn’t end when Easter came. It has continued to be a part of my weekly line up of posts.

During the month of December and a few other times during the year instead of having guest posts, I wrote the posts myself.

I found that I really enjoyed sharing ways to pause life along with lessons I was learning during pauses. It occurred to me that I could change the series to being my posts with a link up for others to share that Pause Life for a Moment post. After a lot of prayers and pausing about making this change, I decided that it is a great idea, but not the right time to make that change.

The reason the series started in the first place was to share with you bloggers that you may not have read before.

I don’t tend to have specific blogging niche that I follow when reading blogs. The blogs I am drawn to cover a wide spectrum. There are a few things all the blogs have in common. They are that they are written by amazing women that love their families, love writing, and are passionate about what they write about.

If you have followed the series from the beginning, you know that there have only been a few Pause Life for a Moment posts are even about the same theme. Those that have been similar are different in that the teller brings to their post their own life experiences.

Due to my indecision about the direction of this series, a line up of guest posters hasn’t been set up for the new year. I will be e-mailing several people this week to see if they are interested in sharing in the coming weeks.

I know some of you are thinking I hope she contacts me. If that is what you are thinking, I would love to hear from you. I can’t 100% promise that you will be picked. Why? When I contact someone about guest posting, I have read their blog for a while. This has given me a sense of their writing style and way of approaching writing. If you let me know you would like to guest post, I will start to follow your writing for a short time and see if we would be a good fit.

This post is not my ordinary Pause Life for a Moment post but, I did want to pause and let you know where I think this series is going.

Kids Lunch Ideas – Clemson and the Orange Bowl

January 1, 2012 By Deirdre

I didn’t grow up in South Carolina. I grew up in Virginia and went to college there. The people in Virginia love their colleges, but I don’t think they get into displaying their school spirit like the do here in South Carolina. Despite there being several colleges in South Carolina, there seem to be two big ones. There are USC and Clemson. Cars in our area carry symbols of one of the other. People dress in the colors and school logos all year around.school pride. JDaniel started asking about why there were paws on so many cars. I told him that they were proud of Clemson. He really liked that idea. Clemson is going to the Orange Bowl this year so, I decided to make JDaniel a Clemson tiger paw lunch.

Kids Lunch Ideas

I made JDaniel had a ham football with Swiss cheese laces, I wanted him to have some protein in his lunch. Next he had plain yogurt dyed orange with a sprinkle and Smarties tiger paw in his lunch. If your children don’t like plain yogurt, you could serve them an orange flavored yogurt instead. Then I added a mandarin orange bowl (pun intended) to his lunch, Finally dyed cream cheese orange and spread it on bread. A Swiss cheese tiger paw was placed on the spread. Oh! JDaniel had milk in a Clemson water bottle. He loves having his own tiger paw bottle.

He really enjoyed the lunch! Yes, he is eating with his fingers. No, I am not happy about it. Yes, he is wearing Star Wars pajamas he got from his Aunt Kate for Christmas. He never wants to take them off.

If you like these kids lunch ideas, here are some more you will want to look at:

Banana and Orange Messages

LEGO Lunch Ideas

Apple Filled Bento Lunch

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday!

Mary Lee and New Year’s at Grandma’s

December 28, 2011 By Deirdre

This is my fourth Mary Lee Tale. The first was Over Near the Tree Sits a Memory and the second was Starting School and Apple Turnovers with Mary Lee, and the third was Mary Lee Remembers a Xanthous Haired Boy. If you like this story, I hope you will give the other three a read.It had been a long semester of college. Mary Lee was so glad to be away from school for the Christmas break.Mary Lee and her family usually spent Christmas at home and then spent the week after Christmas a Grandma Hetty’s. It was a time filled with Grandma’s Hetty’s wonderful cooking, exploring her attic for memories and treasures, and walks around her neighborhood visiting with old friends.After a busy day, Mary Lee and Granma Hetty loved to sit in the kitchen by the fireplace in age-worn rockers and get caught up in the events of the fall. The rest of the family tended to spend time in the parlor playing games or reading books. Mary Lee loved this special one on one time with her grandmother.Grandma Hetty was a little concerned about Mary Lee. She was always studying. Yes, that meant she did well in school, but Grandma felt is was time Mary Lee met a special guy. Maybe this special guy could get her to enjoy her time in college before it ended next year. Maybe he would become something more.Grandma had been hoping and praying for the right time find out if there was even a guy on the horizon to pray for. She waited until the second evening of her visit to bring up the conversation.“How was school?” Grandma asked her rocking slowly.“Things were busy, but I think I did well on my exams!” Mary Lee had answered.“Your mom said that you kept busy with classes, helping with the nursery at church, and tutoring this fall,” Grandma said.“Helping them in the nursery was such a wonderful escape from my studies. I loved getting to spend time with the little ones at church. They truly are precious. There is a little boy named Joseph that just loves to sit in my lap and listen to book after book,” Mary Lee replied.“Did you go to any dances or social while you were at school?” Grandma answered trying to make her question sound innocent and off the top of her head.“Not this semester. I kept my nose to the grindstone. The high-level accounting class took a lot of work to be successful in,” Mary Lee answered glancing over at her Grandma to see if she were really innocently asking the question or had a serious probing looking in her eyes.Grandma looked so peaceful rocking slowly back and forth in the firelight. Mary Lee guessed Grandma was just trying to keep the conversation flowing and wasn‘t digging for any news of dates and boys.Grandma rocked quietly for a few moments trying to decide on just the right words to ask before forming her next question.“Well, I am sure that there were some fellas that tried to draw you away from studying?” Grandma stated as if she were just thinking the question out loud to herself.“There were actually a couple, but I really wasn’t interested in any of them. They wanted to go to football games and socials but weren’t really into studying. If I could find one that likes to spend time in the library and wanted to help out in the nursery at church, I would love to spend time with them,” Mary Lee had answered.“Oh! Football games were such fun when I was in school!” Grandma had said as casually as she could. “Wasn’t there a football player you were tutoring?” Grandma asked.“Yes, there was a guy named Frank. One of the math professors asked me to help he review his notes after each class and get ready for tests. He is a smart guy, but he needs a little help with his notes and processing what he is learning,” Mary commented back.

After pausing for a moment, she continued.

“Frank is so kind. He always walks me back to my dorm from the library and has even brought me an apple or two just like I am a school teacher. I am crossing my finger and sending up prayers that he did well on his exams,” Mary Lee replied.

“I send up prayers for Frank too,” Grandma smiled.“If you would pray that he would math easier, that would be wonderful,” Mary Lee said quietly rocking with her head back. If she had been looking at Grandma she would have seen a huge smile on Grandma’s face as she silently prayed that Frank would not only do well in school but would be the answer to her prayers for Mary Lee’s future. After a time Mary Lee looked over at her Grandma’s silent chair, Grandma had fallen asleep with the sweetest grin on her face. “She must be thinking about Grandpa,” Mary Lee thought. If only she had known the truth! This post is linked to Mrs.Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday!

Pausing Life for a Moment- Praying for Christmas Card Senders

December 27, 2011 By Deirdre

I really look forward to getting Christmas cards every year. Some come from people I haven’t heard from all year.

The photo cards display how much friends’ and family’s children have grown, the vacations they have taken, and their wonderful homes.

Other cards contain updates on what they have been doing or changes in their lives.

These wonderful cards share give me something else too. They give me the opportunity to know how to pray for these special people along with the reminder to pray for them.

At our house, we put Christmas cards in a basket that we keep in the kitchen. From time to time we reach in, take out a card, and pray for its sender during our dinnertime prayer.

Here are some of the cards we received and prayers I have for their senders:

This card came from my one paternal uncle. He lives overseas. I last saw him at my wedding five years ago.

My prayer for him is safety abroad and good health. ( I have other prayers for him too!)

This lovely card came from a friend in Northern Virginia.

My prayer for her is that she would finally get to get married. She has been praying for a long time to have a family or at least a spouse of her own. If that isn’t God’s plan, I pray that she will find contentment in her singleness.

This beautiful card with an amazing creche came from a dear friend and her husband. She lost her mom this year. She wrote in her card about all the amazing support she has received this fall.

My prayer is that she will find peace and comfort in this difficult time. I also lift up praise that she is surrounded by amazing people who love her.

This last card came from my former pew buddy. Before I got married I sat with two widowers at church. I had grown tired of sitting with the singles after a while and sat with a lovely older couple. When the wife passed away, I ended up sitting with the husband and another widower. They were my Sunday pew buddies. One of them still sends me a card every year.

My prayer for Walt is for good health (He isn’t doing well at all.) and safe travel home from his winter stay in Florida.

I hope you will take a moment today to pause and pray for the people that send you cards this year.

Muffin Tin Monday- Layered Christmas Tree

December 26, 2011 By Deirdre

Merry Christmas! I hope you and yours had a wonderful day yesterday! I have been seeing all kinds of Christmas crafts with strips of paper and other craft materials. I decided to try to make one with food that we had at home rather than buy special foods. Next year I may try other foods that look more like strips. This one is okay, but it isn’t what I pictured.This year’s tree has plain yogurt with a star made of sprinkles, cheese bells, multi-grain crackers, ham cut to look like Christmas lights, red grapes in festive cups, and truck of a cracker.JDaniel really enjoyed this snack! He really enjoyed placing the cheese on the crackers. The grapes were also dipped in the yogurt. The remaining yogurt was eaten with a spoon. This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.