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+.

Fortune Cookie Predictions and Groundhog Dreams

February 1, 2011 By Deirdre

If you were a groundhog would you want to have to wake up from a long winter’s nap to check out your shadow?

While Phil has loved to wake up and take part in the spectacle in Punxsutaney, PA for many years. Last summer he started making plans to do something different this year. It took him a little bit of soul searching before ultimately made his decision. He really struggled with whether it would be letting down the people of Punxsutaney if he didn’t show up. He was also concerned about the effect his plan might have on the local economy. Would people return to Punxsutaney if they weren’t sure he would make an appearance?

He continued to wrestle with his decision most of the fall. The other animals in his neighborhood noticed that he was a little distant with them. Phil would walk past them and barely notice they were there. Even when his friends stopped by his burrow to visit he appeared to be distracted.

Phil really wanted to share his plans with his friends. Maybe they could help him work on the clinks in his plan, but if he told anyone what he was thinking of doing would they understand. Some of the traditionalist would say it was important to keep things the same, but they never liked change. A few of his more radical animal pals would cheer him on, but might try to put their two cents in on how the plans should be carried out.

Despite his misgiving in sharing his idea, Phil was dying to tell someone. One afternoon he scurried to his friend porcupine’s house to ask him what he thought about his decision after all it was while flipping through one of porcupine’s old calendars that the he had first noticed that there was a second holiday celebrated during the week on Groundhog’s Day. When he arrived he noticed a small sign hanging from porcupine’s door knob. The sign read Gone to Visit Mom!

Phil took this as sign that he should keep his plans to himself and returned home.

Just before tucking himself in for the winter Phil made the phone call he had been planning to make all fall. He placed his order and let the person on the other end know that he would be placing the money he owed in his mailbox.

When February 2nd arrived, a crowd gathered just outside Phil’s home. Some in the front row closest to the door noticed a note tacked on to the door and a small bag from the local Chinese restaurant.

Dear Groundhog’s Day Followers,

I know that each year you look forward to my telling you whether winter will be ending soon or continuing for a few more weeks. I have decided to enjoy a complete winter’s nap without a break this year.

While I have enjoyed seeing you in the winter year after year, this past summer and fall were extreme exhausting for me. This spring will be super busy too. More rest will be needed so I can gain the strength and stamina I will need to work on all the tasks I will need to complete.

I hope you will find the predictions you seek in the fortune cookies contained in the bag by my door. Happy Groundhog’s Day !

See you next year!
Phil

Muffin Tin Monday- Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox

January 31, 2011 By Deirdre

I found this wonderful book about a groundhog that encounters a fox when he wakes up to see his shadow called Brownie Groundhog and the February Fox. The fox is excited to find lunch while out on a walk. The groundhog invites him to spend time wandering the woods and have a picnic with him. Of course, the groundhog never plans on being lunch his plan to outfox the fox.

Since Groundhog Day is this week, I thought JDaniel would have a groundhog and fox picnic. I wasn’t sure that a fox and groundhog would eat for lunch so; JDaniel and I explored the reference section at the library. We pulled out the F and G encyclopedias and searched for what they would eat. He is way too little to totally understand what an encyclopedia is, but I thought it would be fun to show him a new section of the library. He enjoyed looking in the big books for a few minutes then he wanted to go look for machine movies.

What did we learn? Foxes are omnivores. They will eat meat and plants. They really prefer meat. Groundhogs like to eat plants and tree parts. They like nuts, berries, and grains the best.

JDaniel’s tin contained split pea soup, blueberries, cornbread, pears cut like trees, Cheerios, and a blueberry muffin. Most of the contents were things a groundhog would eat. The ham in the soup was for the fox.

What would you serve at a winter picnic?

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Mom.

Winter is a Time for…..

January 29, 2011 By Deirdre

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home. ~Edith Sitwell

Lately, it has been much colder here in South Carolina than it normally is. We have had more snow and ice. There have been many days it is too cold to go out and play so we stay warm inside.

We have been finding more ways to have fun in the house. There have been hours of playing with construction equipment, building train tracks, and playing in a fort beside JDaniel’s bed. We have played shape dominoes and worked with pattern blocks at the kitchen table. Each week we have devoured a new bag of library books under a throw snuggled together. We have danced to Laurie Berkner and Ross King so that we can move and get exercise.

Unlike my son who loves to run around the house sockless, I hate being cold! Even inside the house with the heat on I feel the cold. Each morning I pile on layers of clothes. I have sweaters of all weights and thicknesses along with turtlenecks and thick socks. As it warms up during the day I start to shed layers but keep them near to pile back on as the sun goes down.

New soups have been explored this winter. We normally stick to meals of meat and vegetables with a casserole thrown in every now and then. The cold winter weather has motivated me to make minestrone and vegetable soups. I am going to try homemade tomato soup next. We have also inhaled pots of creamy macaroni and cheese. I don’t know why it has always been a cold-weather comfort food for me. Both my husband and JDaniel love homemade macaroni and cheese as I do. It has been fun to try several different recipes for it.

Cold weather also leads to long talks in our living room huddled under fleece blankets. They are great opportunities to share not only our days but our dreams for tomorrow.

It is the cold of winter that reminds me that our house is a home.

What is your favorite part of winter?

Read.Explore.Learn.- One Snowy Day

January 28, 2011 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-in to 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.

<center><a href=”http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/”><img alt=”Shibley Smiles” src=”http://69.195.124.116/~jdanielf/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/ReadExploreLearn.jpg” alt=”jdaniel4smom” width=”150″ height=”150″ /></a></center>

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.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

One Snowy Day by Tammi Salzano is a wonderful padded counting book about a penguin and the wintry objects he encounters. He has one hat and two mittens. There are three penguin friends who join him in riding four sleds. The book continues with the penguins creating a snowman, eating snowflakes, making snow angels, and throwing snowballs. After a day of play the penguin takes nine steps home to have a cup of chocolate with ten marshmallows.

One Snowy Day -Read.Explore.Learn Activities

I love counting books and JDaniel does too. One Snowy Day has been a fun counting book for JDaniel and me to read together. With all the snow we have had recently JDaniel has been able to do alll the fun things penguins got to do in the snow. It has been fun to have him point to a page and say, “I did that too.” The illustrations by Hannah Wood are perfect for the book. The muted colors fit so well into the winter scenes she has painted for each page. The silvery snowflakes that reflect light give a 3-D effect to the pictures.

What did we do?

Number Practice

I found pictures online that matched each of the objects counted in the book. I had JDaniel match the pictures I printed to the pictures in the book.

Then we arranged the pictures by the number of objects in the pictures.

Craft

I found a really cute penguin craft on DLTK. We printed out the pieces and then JDaniel tried to trace my hands. We used the hand prints to make the penguin’s wings.

Disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book to review by Tiger Tales Books. I was sent a box of all their fall releases to review. The opinions of this book are my own.

Pruney Fingers and Pickled Toes

January 26, 2011 By Deirdre

Many years ago my sister Michelle asked me to give her oldest son a bath. I asked her about the water temperature and she said he liked cold baths. I thought it was odd, but filled the tub with mildly cold water.

When the tub was ready, I lifted my nephew into the tub. He screamed loudly about ice cube water and stood shivering in the tub with his arm wrapped around his body. I grabbed him out of the water and wrapped in him in a towel.

My sister came running into the bathroom wanting to know what was wrong.

“Ice cold water is in there!,” my nephew told his mom.

“She put in super cold water!” he pointed accusingly at me.

“Why did you do that?” she asked.

“I did what you told me to,” I announced.

Jump forward from the past to the present day

When JDaniel is ready for a bath, I always try to draw a warm bath for him. The water is not too warm and not freezing. Every time I put him the water he complains it is too hot. I remind him that it will lose all its warmth by the time he gets out of the water and encourage him to sit down.

By the time he has been bathed, shampooed, and has played with his bath toys the water is frigid. He protests that he needs more time. He hasn’t tried to swim in the water yet or he hasn’t squirted all the water out of the toys. (Bath toys that could now start growing icicles.)

I let him stay in the tub until all the water has drained out of it. He tries prevent the water from exiting the tub by sitting on the drain and to keep the water in the tub.

When he finally gets out of the tub, his fingers are pruney and his toes are pickled. Wrinkles cover his hands and feet.

I don’t know how he stands it. I do know that long ago when the water was that frigid another little boy couldn’t even stand in it.

This post in linked to Mrs. Matlock’s Alphabe Thursday!

These Mittens Don’t Fit

January 25, 2011 By Deirdre

Last year I brought JDaniel fleece mittens online on sale. They were a little big for him even though they were size 18-24 months. He has little hands.

This year I pulled out the mittens when we got snow at Christmas time and tried putting them on him. They were still too big. I had hoped that his hands would have grown a little in a year.

The more I looked at the mittens the more I thought that they really should fit his hands. I decided to investigate the mittens and JDaniel’s hands in the mittens. First I tried placing his fingers in a mitten as far as they would reach. This was super easy. Next I tried placing his thumb in the mittens. This required my pushing my fingers into one of the mittens while it was on his hand. It was a tight fit in the mitten with both our hands in there. His thumb won’t push up. I really tried and it wouldn’t go up more than half way into the thumb section of the mitten.

After removing my fingers and his fingers from the mitten, I turned the mitten inside out. I tried stretching out the thumb section to its full length and the inside layer won’t extend. It didn’t make sense the out layer would extend, but not the inner one.

My inquisitive mind wanted to know if this was true about both mittens. It was true the inner layer of the thumbs on both mittens only extends so far.

JDaniel’s mittens were too large for the finger section. That I could fix by pulling them down further on his hands. The thumb issue wasn’t something I could fix. The thumbs were just not put together well in these warm yet defective mittens.

Do you think that is why they were on sale?

Muffin Tin Monday-Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Lunch

January 24, 2011 By Deirdre

The theme for Muffin Tin Monday today is big, little, short, and tall. I decided to go with small and call the meal the Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weenie Lunch. I borrowed the name from the song about the itsy bitsy teeny weenie bikini. There are no bikinis in this lunch or anywhere in my house as a matter of fact. I just thought it would be a cute title.

JDaniel feasted on wintertime comfort foods this week. The tin contained beef vegetable soup with tiny letters, tiny bits of turkey hot dogs, mandarin oranges, baby carrots with dip, tiny bite-sized sandwiches made with turkey and cheese on the most wonderful sundried tomato bread, and goldfish crackers.

JDaniel’s favorite part of the meal was the goldfish crackers. We don’t buy them often and he really loves them. He took one look at the tin and asked, “Do I really get to eat them for lunch?”

My favorite part was the sundried tomato bread. I had it on the same sandwich JDaniel did. A local bakery here in Greenville called Strossner’s makes it. JDaniel calls it pizza bread. It really is wonderful and at three dollars a loaf is a great price for homemade bread.

What are your comfort foods?

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.

Read.Explore.Learn.- Snowman

January 21, 2011 By Deirdre

Steps:

Link your activity below.

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

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.

My Book Tie-Ins of the Week:

Amazon.com: The First Day of Winter (9780312371388): Fleming ...

The first day of winter was last month, but I was all caught up in Christmas when winter started and I hadn’t discovered this book. The First Day of Winter by Denise Fleming is a wonderful book with text based on the twelve days of Christmas. Each day a snowman is given something new to decorate him.

The snowman gets a red hat with a gold button on down to ten peanuts for toes. He is very dapper and well decorated by the time the book is done. The repetitive nature of the text made it easy for JDaniel to jump in and recite the text as I read it. It was fun to sing along with too.

Retelling the Story

We had a great time retelling the story as we assembled all the snowman decorations. The crayons represent things we drew on the snowman using that color.

Craft

We assembled the snowman. Our snowman had some bits and pieces in different locations than the one in the book.

Creative Play

This was the only snowplow my street saw during the snowstorm.

My Husband is King of the Dishwasher

January 20, 2011 By Deirdre

Something unique you love about your significant other.

When my husband and I were dating, we cooked a lot at each other’s houses. During the clean up after a dinner at his house one night, I rinsed the dishes and started putting them into the dishwasher. He commented on how I wasn’t putting them in correctly. Considering the fact that I have been loading dishwashers since I was a pre-teen I didn’t think that I was doing it wrong, but I stopped what I was doing to have him tell me what I was doing wrong just to see what he would say.

He began by pointing out there were very particular rules about placing items in the dishwasher.

Rule One

The eating surfaces of plates and bowls should face into the dishwasher.

I hadn’t thought about that but it makes sense.

Rule Two

Double check while you are placing items into the dishwasher to make sure they are completely clean. The dishwasher is really just for sterilizing the dishes and not cleaning them.

I have always really tried to do this. There have been instances that bits and small pieces of food have gotten past me.

Rule Three

Knives have to be placed in the outer cutlery bins to prevent you from accidently being cut by them when you release the metal latch that holds the bins closed which is located in the center of the dishwasher door.

Again I hadn’t thought about this, but it too makes sense.

Rule Four

Never over pack the washer racks it can cause dishes to clang against each other and chip.

I had never had this problem despite over packing for decades, but I noted it was a good rule.

After listening to each rule and having him show me how to load a dishwasher, there was only one response I could give that made sense. “You will be the king of the dishwasher,” I replied. “It will be your domain for as long as we live.” I’m not sure that is what he expected me to say, but it was a great response.

My husband is still king of the dishwasher. I load the dishes JDaniel and I use during the day as we use them but, the dinner dishes and pans are loaded by my husband. He takes the time to readjust the items I have put in if necessary before starting the washer.

Do I care that he rearranges things? Not one bit. My husband is king of the dishwasher and his reign over that domain is supreme.

Oh! The part I love best is that he does the dishes. I also love that he is man of details. Details are not my strong suit. I am so glad that they are his in the dishwasher and beyond.

This post is based on Mama Kat’s Writing Prompt Number One.

Outraged at Objectionable Treatment of Books

January 19, 2011 By Deirdre

On Monday last week we received seven inches of snow and ice here in South Carolina. I remembered sometime on Monday afternoon that we had library books that were due. Since I would be unable to return them on time, I got on the library website and renewed them online.

On Wednesday afternoon JDaniel and I headed to the library after been iced and snowed in at home for a few days. The library website didn’t mention it still being closed so I assumed it would be open. JDaniel wanted new books and Might Machine videos. I wanted to get out of the house.

When we got to the library, it was closed. I looked over at the bag beside me bulging with books and Mighty Machines videos and thought I would try to place them in the book and video drops. We would just come back later to select new materials. I pulled the car up to the curb in front of the library and got out to drop the books off leaving JDaniel in the warmth of the car.

I quickly made my way to the book drop and found the drop was overflowing with books. Not only was the book drop full to the point of having books sticking out of it, but there was a pile of books left under the drop.

I was shocked who would leave books out in 38-degree wintery weather. Granted they were piled under an extended overhang, but they were still left outside. I couldn’t believe it.

When I got back in the car with my bulging bag of books, JDaniel wanted to know why I hadn’t dropped them in the slot. I told him that the drop was full and we had to bring the books home and keep them warm.

I was outraged when I got home and wished I had taken a picture of this horrendous sight. I ended up talking to my husband when he got home about this outrageous sight. Later I talked with my friend Bridgette and my sister Michelle about it. No one could understand why people hadn’t just taken the books home with them and renewed them online if necessary.

The next morning we headed back to the library to drop off the books before meeting friends for a play date. I thought maybe someone would have stopped by the library and brought the books in and the slot would be empty. No, the library was still closed and the book pile under the drop had now become piles of books. It was amazing to see that other people had chosen to leave books outside.

This time I remembered to take a picture to show you.

Can you believe that people would do this?

Why do you think they didn’t bring them home?

The library opened later that day and the books were brought in! I didn’t go back and check later in the day. I found out from a librarian when we went back to the library at the end of the week. She couldn’t believe people had done it either.

Afterthought: What would have happened if someone took these books? Would the patrons have to pay from not returning them.