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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+.

Muffin Tin Monday- April Fooling JDaniel Into Eating Healthy Foods

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Happy April Fool’s Day! Yes, I am four days early. I am just starting a little early. Hope that you get to enjoy a full week of April Fool’s tricks and treats.

The upside down tree tin is filled with tricky foods.  There are mandarin oranges which are low in calories and good for you. Sugar free green jello is in the second cup. JDaniel didn’t notice. He just loves jello. The sandwiches are on whole grain bread and are filled with cheese, turkey, and a sweet potato spread. They were just wonderful. Across from the first sandwich are rice cakes with blueberries. The second sandwich has avacado across from it. JDaniel announced  that the avacado tasted horrible. He picked it out at the grocery store. He will never pick it out again according to him.

Do you try to sneak healthy foods into your children’s food?

What have you done that worked?

 
This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday! 
  
 

Savoring Early Spring Before Pollen

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I lay on the lush green grass in our yard

With my three year old leaning against my legs

Soaking in the sunlight

Staring at up at the white fluffy clouds

Each viewing different images in our imagination

One sees a dragon

One sees a seahorse

Both sure that their answer is true

We savor this moment in early March

When we can spend moments together outside

In a world just coming alive

Soon we will be cloistered inside

Away from the pollen that will coat

The outside world blooming with life

To be outside would lead to suffering and despair

My small son would have watery red eyes

His nose would drip endlessly and bumpy red rashes would cover his skin

While inside we will treat the side effects of the outside world

Remembering the joys of laying outside in the sun

Watching fluffy white clouds float by

Hoping that by summer we will have relief.

JDaniel has had allergic reactions to pollen and several other spring related things outside since he was a baby. He takes medicine and has nebulizer to help him through the spring and early summer. We do spend time outside on low pollen days. It is just hard to have to tell him that there are days we just can’t play outside. Those are the days we go to the library, invite friends over to play, go to the children’s museum, and pretend play at home.

We are hoping that he outgrows these allergies.

 
This post is linked to Mama Kat’s Writing Workshop. The prompt is a poem about hope.
 
 

Xenophobic Woodpecker Left Our Yard!

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Xenophobia is the fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.
We have a lovely flowering plum tree in our front yard that became a woodpeckers favorite spot to peck. He really did a number on the tree. My husband would try and shoo him away. He even threatened to bbq him. The bird could have cared less. Each morning he would arrive and start peck, peck, pecking.
Finally my husband had just about enough of the woodpecker and the damage he was doing to the tree. He went into the bonus room and dug out a lovely  iridescent owl. The owl was carried into the yard while my husband hummed the tune of Dueling Banjos.

Once he was hung in the tree, we waited to see what the woodpecker would do. We waited and waited. He never returned.
  • Was the woodpecker xenophobically afraid of the new bird in tree?
  • Was it that the owl looks so tacky he didn’t want to be seen in a tree near him?
  • Was he really finished gathering sap from the tree and moved on?
We will probably never know. My husband is declaring the owl the winner and is happy to have him gone.

I am glad too. I have no idea how to prepare bbq’d woodpecker.

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

Pause Life for a Moment-Two Bears Farm and Three Cubs

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Pause Life for a Moment

 

Two Bears Farm and Three Cubs and I quite literally met over lunch. Really! We meet over a Muffin Tin lunch! I came across Two Bears Farm and Three Cubs on a Muffin Tin Monday link up. She is a regular there as am I. We started visiting each others blogs and commenting. I love to read her comments on my posts, but it is her posts leave me in awe. She posts recipes, muffin tin meals, amazing creative writing posts, posts on writing marathons and the joys of parenting three small boys. Her posts have depth and detail that will leave a reader hanging on to the very last word.

Today I’ve abandoned my standard mom gear of black yoga pants and an LL Bean quarter zip sports fleece for well-worn barn jeans and my well-loved paddock boots. It’s been a while. Like everyone else with young children in the home (three in my case), it’s not often I get out for a solo moment. My husband is gamely watching the boys this morning so I can get out to lunge Zip. He’s my project horse, a handsome sorrel quarterhorse that was given to me just before I got pregnant with the twins. The lady who owned him before was timid, and he turned out to be too much for her. I was working him regularly and making solid progress, but then I got pregnant with the twins and didn’t want to take any risks working a green horse. It was a worthy sacrifice, like so many others that I made for my boys.

It’s been three months since I last worked Zip. I need to be working him at least twice a week, but it just seems impossible with cloth diapers to wash, meals to cook, phonics to teach and playgrounds to climb. Since it’s been so long, Zip is suspicious when I enter the pasture. I love the freedom I feel as I walk across the just-beginning-to-green March grass in my boots. Even using a calm voice, the same voice I use when rocking a sick boy in the middle of the night, Zip is wary. I use some grain in a rubber tub to catch him – he just can’t resist.

I snap Zip’s halter into the crossties and brush his unruly mane, gently picking out a few cockleburs and he starts to relax and enjoy himself a little. The scent of his dusty, long, winter fur is candy to my nose. I’ve ridden horses my whole life, and breathing them in regenerates my soul.

It would be unwise of me to just hop on a horse as green as Zip after a three month hiatus, so instead I’ll be working him on the lunge line. This is a long 15 to 20 foot rope that attaches to the horse’s bridle and allows him to work around you in circles as he goes through his paces. I use special equipment that helps Zip to learn how to balance himself, and set the side reins at their loosest setting. The side reins help Zip to learn how to carry his head properly, but since it’s been so long I don’t want them to seem too constrictive to him.

The crushed gray stone is soft under our feet as we enter the riding arena. I carefully pull the red metal gate shut behind me, and check all the setting on Zip’s tack for an appropriate fit. Zip is anxious. He’s calling to our other horses, crying to them from across the fields and arena. In the distance, they answer back. Zip snorts and the whites of his eyes show. The second I give him the cue to work he takes off.

He’s refused any chance of a warm-up, and instead breaks away into a rough canter. He starts off on the wrong lead, and I admire his spontaneous flying change – a sign of his innate flexibility. He’s leaning hard on the line, pulling the rope in my hand. He’s fighting the side reins, tossing his head and snorting and bucking on occasion, his tail sticking up in the air in excitement. I find myself thankful that I’m not on his back while he acts this crazy. I have plenty of time to think as I watch his internal struggle. He doesn’t want to give up his freedom. He doesn’t want to settle down into his work. I can empathize. As a mom, I have so many days when I don’t want to do another load of laundry, to cook another meal, to pick up the 5 million toys scattered throughout the house again. I want to fight the chains that bind, to run and flee my obligations. I mentally fight the little hand pulling on my sleeve, making demands; there’s always something else that needs to be done in the endless job of motherhood. Zip is struggling to hold on to his spirit, just as I struggled to hold on to the memory of dining out, unfettered careers, and solo shopping trips.

And just like that, I see it. Zip starts to slow his breathing. His tail drops. The rapid staccato of hooves slows and softens. I see the gentle arch in his neck, the arch a symbol of the acceptance of the side reins. His ears, once back in anger, now angle forward, eager and listening. He stretches his neck and then I see the sign I’ve been looking for. Zip begins to mouth the air. He works his lips and gums gently. It’s a sign that he is ready to work. He has come into his own. He has accepted his job and his place with happiness but without completely losing his spirit, and he has realized that this is what he was bred for, that this is who he needs to be, right here and right now. And I think that this too is like motherhood. This is the moment the baby falls asleep in your arms, the sweet smell of graham cracker face in a hug, the quiet contentment of tucking my boys into bed for the night. The moments that I wouldn’t trade for the world, the satisfaction of a job well done, the knowing that each brick laid in our family is building character and strength and teaching my boys to be socially conscious in our world. There is no job, no career more important than this.

Quietly, I tell Zip he’s done. He stops, and waits for me to approach him. I pat his neck and tell him what a good boy he’s been and he nuzzles me with affection. He slimes my shirt with drooly grass lips and I laugh. We walk back towards the barn, side by side, a mutual respect and understanding between the two of us. Horse and mother, spirit and family, we are one. Next time, I think, we’ll ride.

If you love this post and I know you do, please stop by her blog and tell her.

 

 

Muffin Tin Monday – Spring is Blooming

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Spring is blooming all over our yard. The trees have flowers. The bushes have flowers. The grass has little blooms in it. The only thing that has bloomed is the flowers beneath the mailbox.

In honor of spring JDaniel had a muffin tin filled with flowers and a few worms. There was a cheese and turkey flower, flowers made of crackers,  a flower made of pickles and carrots, a flower made of pineapple and dried cranberries. Flowers wouldn’t grow without worms to work  the soil. JDanie had a pudding cup with dirt and worms.

Can you guess what he ate first? Yes, it was the worms. He wasn’t to sure about eating worms at first. Once he bit into the first one, he was all over the worms.

He liked this meal so much he requested it again the next day.

What could you eat over and over again for lunch?

 
 
This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday. 
 

Read.Explore.Learn.- St. Patrick’s 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 activity below.

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

    Read.Explore.Learn badge

 

  • Please try to visit at least three of the other people that have placed links below and leave a comment. I will visit each of you and leave a kind comment and Stumble your post.
  • If you are not linking up an activity and are just visiting, please try to stop by a few of the links below.
  • I would love a comment too.

 

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

 

 

Jamie wants to march in the St.Patrick’s Day parade with his big brothers. They think he is too young. Jamie gets up early St.Patrick’s Day morning and sets up to prove them wrong. He takes his brother’s flute and heads up to the parade ground with the family dog to show them he is big enough.
Jamie more than anything proves to himself that he can do it. Along the way he greets and meets the other early morning risers in his town. Some even give him an orange soda, a pastry, an egg, and a small Irish flag. By the time he reaches home he has accomplished his task and left a reminder for others to see that he made it there and he made it first. There at the top of the hill is a soda bottle with a small Irish flag.
What did we do?
Experiment
We added food coloring to the water in the colors of the Irish flag along with white carnations. The carnations were slow to change in the large glass vases. The carnations JDaniel requested we try in blue (his favorite) color changed overnight.

 

I love these vases. I won them as a door prize last month. They were perfect for the experiment

 

 If you look carefully, you can see a little green. We will let them soak up food coloring and see what happens.
 Thank goodness JDaniel wanted blue flowers!

 
 

I Did Not Kill A Leprechaun!

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When JDaniel and I were heading home from playgroup on Monday, I realized the road I thought would take me home was in fact taking me further away from home. I don’t usually spend a lot of time in that part of town and really haven’t learned how to get around there yet.

As soon as I realized we were going the wrong way, I looked for a place to turn around. The best place to turn around looked like it would be at the next traffic light. The traffic was heavy and it was going to be hard to get my car heading the right direction without a light.

Right beside the light on the left hand side of the road was empty parking lot. It looked as if a fast food restaurant and once lived on part of the cement pad but, it had long ago been removed. The lot looked perfect for my turn around.

I made my left turn once the light turned green and then made a quick left into the parking lot. As my car entered the lot I heard a huge thud! The entrance into the lot looked like it was clear from the road but, I had obviously gone over something.

“What was that?” JDaniel wanted to know.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “Maybe mommy ran over something. I didn’t see anything though.”

“Maybe you ran over a little man,” JDaniel said matter-a-factly.

“No, I really don’t think it was a little man,” I answered.

“Did he have a wrench? Maybe he was working on the parking lot.” JDaniel surmised. Daydreaming possibilities of what might have made the loud sound.

“I really don’t think it was a little man at all,” I announced.

“Did he bring a horse with him? Is the horse hurt too?” he wanted to know.

“No, I don’t think there was a horse or a man,” I said a little more strongly.

“Where do you think his car is? JDaniel wanted to know.

Possibilities as to what had made that sound filled the car the whole ride home. There were dozens things the little man had been doing and had brought with him to work on the parking lot.

Finally as we approached our driveway, JDaniel stopped sharing ideas and announced, “Mom, I really don’t think you killed a leprechaun. I think he is probably okay.”

I am so glad! I would hate to injure anyone with my car ever but, to hurt a leprechaun on St.Patrick’s Day would be terrible.

Disclaimer: This post is linked to Mama Kat’s Writing Workshop. The prompt is daydreams. The story is almost one hundred perfect true. I don’t remember all the things JDaniel said  due to the fact that I was trying to drive home and listen at the same time.

 
 
 



Pause Life for a Moment: Ostriches Look Funny

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Pause Life for a Moment

There are times when you come across a blog and you think that this blogger has read your mind. Not only have they read your mind but, they have written down what you have been thinking about better than you could have expressed it yourself in writing. Ostriches Look Funny is that kind of blog for me. I love her writing style, her photo choices, and her love for God.

The posts on Ostriches  Look Funny are funny challenge me to a better mom, make me laugh and or cry, and lead me to pray all at the same time.

Below you will find Ostriches Look Funny’s take on the phrase Pause Life for Moment. If you like it and I know you will, please stop by her blog and read some of the other wonderful posts she has created.

It was a day when the sun and the wind get together to blow kisses on your arms and everything feels perfect and looks green. I herd my children down a dirt path, away from church and bible study, away from the bathroom that my pregnant body suddenly needs, and I march forward with a secret goal to get home and eat a peanut butter sandwich before one o’ clock.

I pause and glance behind my shoulder, and my ducklings are not following me. They both had stopped, squatted down like children do, staring intently at foxtails and nondescript wildflowers.

“Look! MOM! Look! Look at this purple flower! Can I take this stick to the car?” my three-year-old queries.
My bladder grumbles and I sigh and say, “No! I don’t have time for this.”

And as soon as the words leave my mouth, my heart asks the question, “If you don’t have time for THIS, what do you have time FOR?”
If I don’t have time for stopping to look at the green and whispery foxtails, if I don’t have time for examining minuscule purple wildflowers, if I don’t have time to watch my little boy’s golden baby curls wave in the breeze, what am I here for?

Time is a gift, and no one is guaranteed a particular amount.

It is a gift, given for a brief period and then, vapor-like, it runs out. My sons are growing by inches and miles, my wrinkles are multiplying in the night. Right now I am in a beautiful season, my children are small and Spring has made everything pink and green. But, they haven’t found a cure for cancer or car accidents. People die, and children suffer, and waves wash over entire cities. I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. I am only guaranteed this breath, this beat, this miraculous moment.

What is my moment for then?

The answer is different each time I ask. There is a time for everything; a time to cry and a time to laugh, a time to look at wildflowers in the sun, and a time to rush home to use the bathroom…but I don’t have time to be impatient with my children. I don’t t have time to be selfish, or quarrelsome, or bitter, or faithless. The great gift is not for such things, such things waste a life.

It’s hard for me to live in the moment when my house is a bomb, which it usually is. I feel tinges of guilt when I start a project only to lay it down for twenty minutes to address a paper airplane emergency. There have been days where the dishwasher has remained halfway unloaded for four hours straight (I think maybe my son has Dishwasher Radar, and if he sees me walking towards it he goes into Mommy Emergency Hug and Kisses Me Mode…but that’s just a conspiracy theory) and it makes me a little crazy. The point is, in order for me to savor each minute, some things aren’t finished when I want them to be.

I can look at my house and spiral into a depression over the lint and dust and crumbs that have taken over while I was on a walk with my kids…or I can remember that it is good to rest from my works. Following Jesus is about freedom, even freedom from housework. As crazy as it makes me, I give my half washed dishes to God and ask him to sort out my time for me.

“There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God, for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from His.” – Hebrews 4:9-10
I pause my life by changing my perspective, by savoring the moment, by noticing the foxtails and the baby curls. I pause my life by remembering the Lord is the one who makes me holy; not my broom, and not my mop, and not my schedule. So, rest friends. God will take care of you.

Muffin Tin Monday- Saint Patrick Needs Fruit

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Saint Patrick is weary from chasing all those snakes out of Ireland. His eyes are bulging from lack of sleep. His hair is need of a red dye job. It has gone turkey colored beige due to the snake removal stress. Pat’s lips are chapped from having to outside in the chilly night air searching under rocks for the slithery animals Ireland no longer wants.

What Saint Patrick needs are a great fruit salad and a wonderful night’s sleep!

JDaniel really wanted a turkey sandwich to go with his fruit salad in his muffin tin. Turkey doesn’t make the most attractive hair, but St. Patrick and JDaniel both got turkey anyway.

Saint Patrick also got a reward for the hard work he did in the form of Sweet Hearts. JDaniel gets them for peeing in the potty and Patrick got them for snake removal.

 
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