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JDaniel4s Mom

growing & learning with him

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+.

Sensory Tubs Stress Me Out!

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I yearn when I see sensory tubs on sites like Counting Coconuts and Totally Tots to create them for JDaniel. The moms add all kinds of wonderful thematic objects for their children to explore to household items like rice, sand or dry beans. There are Easter and spring related tubs all over the learning blogs right now.

JDaniel loves to dig and explore. He would love to find hidden objects in a bin I thought when I first discovered them. I decided I really had to make him one so I did.

I gathered rice and a few object to hide in the bin. Following the directions about sensory bin play I placed a tablecloth under the bin and declared to JDaniel that his was the area the rice would need to stay in. It was okay if it came out of the bin, but it needed to stay on the cloth. The other moms said this would keep the mess in one area.

Someone forgot to mention that my son would think it was fun to see how faraway the rice could get from the tablecloth before his mom announced it was time to put the bin away. The activity wasn’t supposed to be stress out mom and it get rid of the bin it was supposed to be enjoy exploring it.

I decided I needed to rethink this idea. Maybe larger objects would be better. I wouldn’t be stressed out about all the rice I kept finding all over the kitchen for days and JDaniel would get to take part in this wonderful learning opportunity that children across the web seemed to enjoy.

Before I could plan a bin, JDaniel got a hold of birdseed I had placed in a plastic tub with some vases while cleaning out the space under the kitchen sink. He had a wonderful time with the birdseed. It went everywhere including into the vases. Pouring is a basic life skill. He was learning something I thought as I scrubbed under the sink trying to ignore the pinging of the birdseed across the tile floor. I was reminded when I finished under the sink that sweeping is a life skill I will continue to get a lot of practice at.

I finally planned a tub using noodles in the bin and some scoops and construction equipment. He loves construction equipment! I decided noodles were big enough objects to find and clean up. JDaniel played with it a little. He didn’t really get interested in it until his friend Bryce came over and decided he liked it. Maybe playing in tubs just isn’t his thing.

This has led me to an epiphany. I want to be a relaxed mom that doesn’t break into a sweat when I find rice, birdseed and noodles all over the kitchen, but I probably am not that mom. Sensory tubs just stress me out.

I am going to keeping trying to work on this quirk in my personality. It may require playing classical music in the background while sipping on a tall glass of sweet tea to do it, but I do want to be able to have JDaniel enjoy super messy activities and not worry about the clean up.

This link is connect to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday. It is Alphabet Soup Week.
 

Pause Life for a Moment: Jumpin-Bean

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Pause Life for a MomentI discovered Jumpin-Bean’s blog while visiting blogs that had Aloha Friday questions. I loved her layout and her question. I went back week after week not just to answer the questions, but to read about her cute little boy and her husband faraway serving our country.

I realized soon after that I had found a true blogging friend. We e-mail back and forth about our families and visit each other’s sites often. If she lived three hours closer, we would be hanging out and watching our children play many times a week. She is just that much fun.

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Time for a Twix moment?

Nope, just time to enjoy my life.

Let me give you a quick rundown on who I am…

I started blogging while my husband was deployed…

Just “something to do” that has turned into more than that!

I was a first time mom… Talk about scary!

Also dealing with the reality that my husband was deployed to Afghanistan.

(It just happened to be my first time going through a deployement as well.)

I was terrified that I would do something wrong.

I tried to savor any and every moment.

One, to be able to enjoy it to the fullest…

But, Also to tell my husband every single detail.

We had video of daddy reading books to show while he was gone.

We talked on the phone as much as possible.

Our middle names became SKYPE….

Meaning, we Skyped as much as we could.

Although the video was not perfect, we tried to make the most out of it.

I was determined that Broxton would know who his daddy was when he returned from duty.

Of course, his first word?

Daddy.

Was I upset?

Nope, I was happy…

If Marc could not be here for everything…

At least he had that.

Once Marc returned, Broxton immediately took to him…

As if he had not been gone for a single minute.

I loved it, but jokingly reminded them both I needed love too, as I was the one there the whole time! Maybe not the best of jokes.. but still…

While Marc was gone, my life was a whirlwind… 24/7

Luckily, he is home…

Safe and sound…

And although it is not all peace and quiet on the homefront…

It IS wonderful!

The way I pause my life for a moment these days?

I sneak and watch Marc and Broxton playing.

They make up for it, everyday…

Marc teaches him how to wrestle…

and how to count…

How to fly a kite and how to ride his tricycle.

Those are my moments that I pause for.

They get lost in each other…

and I get to enjoy that bond that we were both so terrified would be lost over the deployment!

I know that technically is not “pausing my life for a moment… “

But that is the best pause for me…

I get to see my husband being a wonderful daddy …

and I get to see my son basking in the love that only his daddy can give him.

I love it and I am so thankful that I get to steal the moments of sneaking a peak at that love.

How do YOU Pause your life?

Please stop by Jumpin Bean’s blog and share with her your thoughts on her special post.

 
 
 
 

Muffin Tin Monday- Spring Cleaning

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While cleaning out my pantry, I pulled about a few cans of vegetable and a bag of soup. They had been in there for awhile and needed to be used before their end dates. I decided that that the cans would all go together with a few other items to make a vegetarian chili. The bag of soup would make a great alternative to place in the muffin tin if JDaniel didn’t like the chili.
 
 
I pulled out an old copy of Real Simple (January 2011) and used their Slow Cooker Vegetarian Chili with Sweet Potatoes recipe as my inspiration. I didn’t follow it exactly. My husband thought the magazine version was too spicy last time I made it. He claimed it cleaned out his nasal passages all the way from the crock pot. I made a much milder version this time.
 
My Version of the Chili
Ingredients
1 medium onion, chopped
 
1 garlic clove, chopped
 
1 tablespoon chili powder
 
2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa power
 
¼ teaspoon of cinnamon
 
1 28-ounce can of diced tomatoes with Italian seasoning
 
1 15.5 ounce can of black beans, rinsed
 
1 15.5 ounce can of pinto beans, rinsed
 
1 small can of Mexican style corn
 
1 medium sweet potato cut into small pieces
 
1 cup of water
 
Directions:
 
Place all the ingredients into a crock pot.
 
Cook on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours
 
Serve with corn chips or plain yogurt.
 
JDaniel had both soups in the center of his tin. Since there were two soups in the tin, JDaniel asked for cheese with crackers and toasted cheese sandwiches. He explained they were two different kinds of bread to go with the soups.

 
 

 
This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.
 
 

How often do you clean out your pantry?
 

Tissue Box Challenge Begins April 17th

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Do you have tissue boxes sitting in cabinets waiting to be reused and recycled? The Activity Mom and I have wonderful opportunity of for you to celebrate Earth Day, create something with your children using tissue boxes and win a prize. We are calling it the Tissue Box Challenge.
How does it work?
  • Reuse a tissue box to create something fun with your children.
  • Create a post about your creation that includes a link to the Tissue Box Challenge or the challenge badge.

Tissue Box Challenge

 

What are the prizes?

The first prize winner will receive a learning kit from Time for Tots.

The second and third prize winners will win book collections from Tiger Tales Books.

 
We can’t wait to see what you create!
 

Read.Explore.Learn- One Rainy Day

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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-in to children’s books. I look forward to seeing the ways you have learned with and explored books.

Steps:

  • Link your book-related activity below. Please make sure your post has a book in it.

 

 

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

One Rainy Day.

What did we do?

Color Matching One
We took a leftover lick and stick color stripes from a Sunday school lesson I taught a few months ago and cut them into small squares that would fit on the bottom of little rubber ducks.

ABCs of Exploring Books with Reading Activities : I-Q

JDaniel helped me lick the squares and place them on the ducks. Two ducks each received the same color. Then we tried to find the ducks with the matching color.

Color Matching Two
I took out an old egg carton and put different colors at the bottom of each egg cup. JDaniel then tried to match the color on each duck’s bottom to the color in each egg cup.

 

If you really knew me, you would know that…

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I am not a manual reader.
My husband is the ultimate manual reader. Thank goodness! He can read to me how to fix the things I have put together incorrectly.
I am not as patient as I want to be.
My son has inherited this quality from me. He wants things to come together quickly and when he wants it to be done. I think that means he isn’t going to be a manual reader either.
I am distracted at times and start things only to move to something else that has come up that seems more important.
I will find my dust rag later in the day waiting for me just where I left it before I went to take meat out of the freezer to defrost before dinner.
If JDaniel looks content playing something on his own, I will slip off to check e-mail.
He always notices and comes to find me or does something to draw me back like bang his hammer loudly on the carpet. I need to remember that.
I read “high fiber” non-fiction books to increase my knowledge and put me to sleep.
I really due learn something from biographies of presidents and deep theological books. I benefit from them, but not in ways the writer have sometimes intended for me to.
I stash candy in my top dresser drawer to eat during naptime.
My husband has just found location after almost five years of marriage. The stash is going to have to find a new spot to hide in.
What is something I don’t know about you?


 
 
 

Zillions of Toys in Bed

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Do your children sleep with zillions of toys in bed? Until last fall JDaniel had never had anything in his bed. I was afraid he would lose his pacie in the night and not be able to find it under toys and blankets.

Last fall he asked for a blanket to be added to his crib. He noticed that we had one on our bed and wanted one too. A blanket sounded like a great idea.

I brought JDaniel a Build-A- Bear teddy bear back from the Type A Conference last fall. He really loved Teddy and asked if he could have him in his crib at night. That was fine. Two objects in bed weren’t too many.

Over time more and more things seemed to appear in his crib. It was getting really crowded in there. I cleared everything out one afternoon and let JDaniel place six things back in. He chose his Pillow Pet, two blankets, and three stuffed animals.

Months went by and those six items remained in his crib. He didn’t take any away or add to their number.

Right before he turned three at the beginning of March JDaniel moved to a twin bed. We moved all his lovies to the big bed. Every now and then a new toy or blanket or pillow would appear and we would narrow the number back down to six.

Just last week we started hearing JDaniel’s bedroom door open and close along with footsteps in his room after he had been put to bed. The walking around never seemed to go on for long. By the time we got up stairs to check on him, he was in bed again.

In the morning I noticed that some of the animals in his bed had changed and that there were now books in his bed.

I asked him about how they got there and if he was walking around his room at night.

“Yes,” he said.

“Isn’t it dark in here when you are walking around?” I questioned

“Well, I turn on the light so I can see,” he replied.

“Then what happens?” I asked.

“Well, I get what I want, turn off the light and go right to sleep,” he said.

“Why do you open the door?” I inquired.

“I want to make sure you are not looking,” he answered.

We are in such trouble. I can just see him waiting up and trying to go get a midnight snack.

What mischief are or were your children up to at night?

This post is linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday. It is Z week.
 
 

Pause Life for a Moment- A Nut in a Nutshell

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Have you ever had a friend that knew everyone and yet made you feel like the time that spend visiting with you was important. Blueviolet of a A Nut in a Nutshell is just that kind of friend. She knows everyone. If you go to a conference with her, you will see her talk to everyone. She knows veteran bloggers and newbies. She not only knows them she has visited their blogs, left comments on a ton of their posts, and probably e-mailed a response to a comment you may have left on her blog.  I am pretty sure that if Blueviolet hasn’t found you yet she will and you will be blessed.
Pausing Life

It was Father’s Day nearly three years ago.

My husband had very little time off from his job so we headed out of town for the day on a fun-filled adventure with our son.

On the way, I called my dad to wish him a happy Father’s Day and tell him that I loved him.

Then I carried on with my day’s activities.

The whole week slipped by in a flurry of do this and do that chaos.

And then I got a phone call that stopped time.

“Elizabeth, it’s your dad. He fell and he’s unconscious. The ambulance is on the way, but it doesn’t look good. Please hurry.”

I raced to my mom’s house but the ambulance was just leaving for the hospital. I headed straight there myself.

My dad never regained consciousness.

I remember walking into the emergency room where I saw my brother, and I just collapsed into his arms and sobbed uncontrollably.

I lost my daddy.

I will never forgive myself for losing that one last chance on Father’s Day to hug my dad and tell him how much I loved him.

If you have been touched by this post, please stop by a Nut in Nutshell and let Blueviolet know.

Muffin Tin Monday- April Showers

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April can be a time of great rain. I decided to create a muffin tin this week that could represent a spring rain. Since there are all types of rain that fall I decided to include as many kinds as I could.

When the rain falls, you need an umbrella. JDaniel was given a cheeseburger umbrella. He ate half of earlier. The remaining half had the bottom part of the roll removed and made into a handle. You may have assumed that both a top bun and bottom bun were a part of the umbrellas canopy. If you did, I was able to trick you with my amazing tin creation skills.

There are a lot of chemicals in the atmosphere now. JDaniel was given acid rain represented by pickles in the second cup.

The next three cups feature rain as it sprinkled down on various foods with various intensities. There is the light sprinkling dirty rain that fell on sugar-free applesauce. The sprinkles increased in intensity on strawberry yogurt and became infiltrated with more of an acid color. Finally the sprinkling got long and stringy much like shredded cheese as it fell on cheesy broccoli.

The final cup displays hard rain or hail. Dried apricots represent the freak hard rainstorms that can arrive and depart quickly during some rainstorms in the spring.



This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.
 

Once Upon a Sugar Tree Winner!

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The winner of the Once Upon a Sugar Tree pendant is aeris321. I have contacted her via e-mail.

 
 
 

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