Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

JDaniel4s Mom

growing & learning with him

Muffin Tin Monday on Sunday- Tricky Treats for Lunch

By

Last week’s meal had some untouched foods. This week’s Halloween meal is filled with foods JDaniel liked.

A tortilla with a melted oozing bat shape was the first thing JDaniel took a bite out of.

Then he headed to the sweet potato tater tots. We have tried sweet potato french fries before, but never tater tots. They were really yummy.

Next he had June Clever Nirvana’s Super Easy Pumpkin Soup with Bonus DHA. He wasn’t a huge fan, but did say that it tasted so much better than the pumpkin soup we have made before. I am a huge fan. I ate two bowls for lunch! Yum!

Finally he had apple crisp that was leftover from an event I had to bring a breakfast item to earlier in the week. We were all happy to see that one of the two dishes of apple crisp I made had some left in it. We all love it.

This post is linked to Muffin Tin Monday.

Muffin Tin Monday- Boo for Lunch!

By

JDaniel usually eats everything in his muffin tin meals. This week several items were left in the tin.  He just didn’t like their contents.

What did he like?

The cream cheese bagel ghost flew off the tray. (Do ghosts fly?)

The dip was scooped up.

The mac and cheese with sport equipment noodles that look like bones to me were a slam dunk.

The ghost shaped marshmallows were a success. ( I guess they flew too.)

What he did not like?

The cucumber sticks were left standing in their corner of the tin as yucky despite the fact that  JDaniel’s inhaled as a before dinner appetizer the night before.

The tuna fish was scooped up and moved to an empty cup in the top row so he wouldn’t have to sit near it. JDaniel asked for tuna for breakfast a few day later.

I guess I can’t complain about his being a picky eater. He really does it a wide variety of foods. Some days that just don’t tickle his fancy.

What won’t your children eat?

Pause Life for a Moment- Galit Breen of These Little Waves

By

I love word weavers. I tend to gravitate to blogs where the writers love words and paint beautiful pictures with them. Galit Breen of These Little Waves is a writer that totally fits that description. The post she is sharing with us today will draw you in and make you want to relax, grab a cool or warm drink, and take in the wonders fall has brought to where you live.

After reading this wonderful piece, please explore her blog for more word tapestries.

Pause Life for a Moment

Crisp wind wisps my hair and cools my cheeks.
I slide out of my flip-flops and rest my feet on the porch railing. Feeling the sturdiness of our old home -worn wood, peeling paint, rough edges- against my skin, I don’t pull away.
I cross my feet in front of me and lean far back in my seat. The plastic gives way, wraps me up. I breathe in the night and lean even further in.
Bonfire remnants -delicious and smoky and crackling and lasting- trail towards me.
The first splashes of color- golden yellows and royal reds- catch my eye.
And I can’t help but think that the very best of Fall is right here within fingertip reach.
Glancing at Jason in the seat beside me, I take him in too. His long legs reach so very far on the railing. His jeaned legs rest loosely against my bare ones. Our toes melt in the space between.
We pass one (pumpkin) beer back and forth as we sit side by side, somehow small within this quiet.
We listen for our three children, long ago read to and hugged and kissed and tucked into bed “just one more time.” But still, we listen for them, just in case.
Sparingly, he lilts about the stars, the leaves already starting to fall.
I am about to mention fundraisers and schedules and all that swirls in my mind, but I don’t.
My writing, his work, the dishes, the laundry, another Monday- all hang inside, whispering softly in the background, pulling us back.
Ignoring this noise, we continue to sit.
And in this rare quiet, we spot fireflies glowing in their fleeting wonder. The magic is not lost on either one of us.
So pushing our to-do lists even further away, we sit, pass our drink, cross our toes, and breathe our hearts, not daring to disturb this kind of moment.

Back to School Traditions Thank You and a New Traditions Link Up News

By

I want to thank all of you that participated in the Back to School Traditions link up! It was wonderful to be to see all the first day of school pictures and to learn about your traditions.

Back to School Traditions is the first of a series of fall link ups I will be offering.

The next traditions event will be Halloween Traditions. The event will include four link ups. They are Halloween Costumes, Halloween Foods, Halloween Crafts and Traditions or Memories. I look forward to seeing what you come up with for this link up that begins Oct. 24th and ends Nov. 2nd.

During the Halloween Traditions link up period I will also be hosting a giveaway for the reader with the scariest purse. So, you may want to snap a shot of your purse now just encase you  think you will win, but you might get the urge to clean it before the end of October.

There will be similar categories in the Thanksgiving and Christmas link ups later in the fall!

A Teacher Remembers 9/11

By

Due you remember where you were on 9/11 ten years ago?

I do. I was in the computer lab working as a technology integration teacher at a school in Northern Virginia right near Dulles Airport.

The library aide came to the door of the lab and asked me to come see something that was on television in the library. I couldn’t imagine what she wanted me to see. There weren’t any new videos in the library I needed to preview. There couldn’t be anything I needed to see.

She remained silent as we walked down the hall and then to the left towards the library. Once she made it into the backroom away from the library filled with children, she finally uttered the words that would change the rest of the school year. She said, “ The Twin Towers have been hit in New York by planes.”

That didn’t make sense. I had landed in all three airports near New York and hadn’t gone near the Twin Towers.

“They think it was done unpurpose!” she said.

I watched the footage on the television in the backroom and it just didn’t look real. It looked like it was from a movie.

After watching the news for a few minutes, I made my way back to the computer lab. It was empty of students, but there were teachers waiting to use the phone I had near my desk. Each wanted to check on a spouse. Some has spouses that were working downtown and others had spouses in airports around the country. The lab was filled with panicked tension.

The school quickly went into lockdown as the school system weighed what should be done. Ultimately they decided that the children would be released to parents that came to the school. Each parent would have to show an I.D. before they would be allowed to go home.

Teachers were encouraged to go home as soon was school was over. I think many of us did just that. I know I went straight home.

Aside from phone calls to my parents and siblings to make sure they were okay, I sat glued to the television watching the story unfold that afternoon

My church had prayer vigil that night, but I didn’t go. I felt safe at home and just wanted to stay there. Instead I spent the evening talking with a friend. We talked for hours about all kinds of things. Some things were random like the fact that I had stayed in the hotel at the base of the Twin Towers and they had worked in the Pentagon. Other things were more serious like what we thought would happen next or how much the world had changed in a day. I lived alone and was so grateful to have someone to connect with that night.

Things did change where I lived.

A check in person was hired for each school to watch the main door and sign all visitors in and out for the rest of the year.

For days there was silence in the air. I lived right under the flight landing path for Dulles Airport. I was eerie to have an empty sky.

Things seemed to move slower as people tried to figure out how to live life in this new world.

This post is linked to Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop and A Dollap of My Life’s Remember 911.

Life Lessons for Kids from Team Sports

By

JDaniel is old enough to start some of the sports programs at our local YMCA. While he is old enough to attend the programs, I am not sure that he would really be playing the sports they are teaching him.

This picture comes from PreschoolRock.com.

Have you ever seen the three year old soccer games?

A bunch of children are all running the same direction chasing a ball. Some of them are supposed to be stopping the ball and taking down to the other end of the field to make a goal, but that doesn’t seem to be happening. Some are supposed to be protecting their goal, but that doesn’t seem to be where they want to be either. The action is usually on the other end of the field and who doesn’t want to be where the action is.

What would JDaniel get from participating in team sports?

Here are some things I think he could learn from team sports. I would love for you to share your thoughts in the conversation box below.

*He will learn to work with others on a common goal. Yes, the goal may be just chasing a ball.

*He will get to watch other people attempt to play a sport and use skills he still needs master.

*He will get the opportunity to cheer other people on to succeed.

*He will get the opportunity to learn that winning doesn’t mean the highest score in the game.

*He will learn to work on sharing sports equipment with others.

* He will get to hear adults outside of his family give him directions, praise, and challenges.

*He will get the opportunity to look forward to spending time with other children to exercise.

Answer the question “What life lessons do kids learn from playing team sports?” for a chance to win a $500 gift certificate for sporting equipment for your child’s team.

Want to help more children stay active by playing team sports? Go to SUBWAY® Baseball DeSIGNS Auction onEbay. All proceeds go to the Little League Urban Initiative, which helps fund inner-city youth leagues and teams.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of SUBWAY® Baseball DeSIGNS. The opinions and text are all mine. The $500 Gift Certificate Giveaway Contest runs from August 19 – 28, 2011. A random winner will be announced by September 1, 2011. Official Contest Rules.

Pause Life for a Moment- Summer Fun and a Special Moment

By

I didn’t schedule anyone to share this week instead I decided to share a special moment that happened on the Fourth of July when we were visiting with my mom in her retirement village.

Pause Life for a Moment

We had walked down to pond just down the road from her house. JDaniel wanted to explore the rocks at first and then he was dying to touch the water. My husband followed him down to the shore and I got to memorialized this special time between them.

 

I love how one guy has his elbows up and the other has is elbows down. Both are relaxed and enjoying the moment.
I would have loved to have been closer to hear what they were chatting about.They just seemed to enjoy being together. JDaniel with his feet dipping into the pond and my husband sitting beside him.
After about fifteen minutes, they decided to head back up the road to my mom’s.


It is moments like these that I am so glad I carry a camera around.

What was your favorite moment of the summer or time of summer fun?

This post is linked to Things I Can’t Say’s Summer Fun Show Off.

 

The Story of My Blog

By

By Word of Mouth Musing and Things I Can’t Say are hosting a wonderful link up called The Story of My Bog. It is a wonderful opportunity for bloggers to share how they started their blogs.

 My post is more of how my blog got its name, but I hope you will enjoy it anyway.

Once upon a time there lived a man named JDan Junior. He and his wife Hazel had lived a wonderful life. They had been blessed with five children. Three of the children were girls and two were boys. The oldest boy had been given his name, Joseph Daniel. He loved his name and hoped that someday his son would pass it on to his son.

Years went by. The three girls got married along with his younger son. Altogether they gave him nine grandchildren. There were seven girls and two boys in bunch. He loved each of the immensely. He doted on them and enjoyed sharing their accomplishments with all that would listen. He was the best GranDan he knew how to be, but deep in his heart he longed for his older son to get married and have a son. He knew this little boy would be given his name.

Years passed. JDan Junior’s oldest grandson was getting married. His youngest granddaughter was getting ready to start middle school. His oldest son was dating someone seriously, but would she be the one.

I was the someone JDaniel3 was dating back then. I went to the oldest grandson’s wedding not knowing if I was going to be the one, but I hoped I would be.

Seven months later I found I was the one and we got engaged. I think GranDan started to let the hope of a grandchild named after him flicker in his heart when Jdaniel3 announced our engagement.

After we had been married for a year, we called them with the news that we were expecting a baby. Both my in-laws were thrilled. Both wanted to know if we knew whether the baby would be a boy or girl. While they wanted us to have a healthy baby, I truly believe they were praying for a boy.

It didn’t take us long to find out that the baby was a boy. I knew as soon as we found out what the baby was we what his baby’s name was going to be. We had talked about it shortly after getting engaged. It was important to JDaniel3 to carry on the family name too.

It was so exciting to call my in-laws and tell them that Joseph Daniel the Fourth was going to arrive in the Spring. They had had a tough early fall. GranDan had had a stroke and for awhile the whole family worried he won’t recover.

My in-laws like to tease that it was the news of JDaniel4 that spurred him on. He truly was pleased.

When I decided to start a blog  I knew I would be writing about was being a mom. But what should I call the blog. I love that my son’s name carries with it the heritage of three Jdaniels. I love that he carries on the legacy of many generations having a Joseph Daniel.

When it came time to type a name on the header I typed, the words that represent my role in the family legacy. I typed JDaniel4’s Mom.

Please stop by Things I Can’t Say or By My Mouth Musing to link up your blog story.

Over Near the Tree Sits a Memory

By

Mary Lee sat on her favorite white rocker watching the day turn to dusk. Her grey curls has begun to hung down low on her forehead. The summer air was still warm. The temperature earlier in the day had been hot and steamy.

Beside sat Frank her husband of fifty years. He had starting to doze in his rocker. Mary Lee loved to listen to the crickets chipping and Frank’s light snore fill the air around her.

She loved this time of day when things slowed down and she could just remember.

Mary Lee had such wonderful things to remember.

She and Frank had met in college. He was football player and she was the math tutor that helped him pass the required math classes for his major. Frank was actually a very good student. He just needed someone to go over things with him a few times. Frank loved to say that had met over the pluses and minuses.

After college they had gotten married and moved to Simpsonville, South Carolina. It was a small factory town. Frank had gotten a job in the business office of one of the factories and Mary Lee had worked as a bookkeeper for the local elementary school.

They had lived in a small house and saved money for several years to move to this big old Victorian on main street. On Sunday nights they had walked by this house and dreamed it would one day be theirs.

Mary Lee had fretted about the train tracks that lay only 100 yards away. Would it be a dangerous place to raises the children they would have? Frank had assured her that the picket fence around the house would be a deterrent and the backyard is where their children would want to be to play ball and chase butterflies.

Chiildren came quickly once they had moved into their dream house. First Sarah arrived and then Martha. They had hope for a boy too, but God closed that door and they had just the two girls.

Sarah and Martha had become their world. Mary Lee stayed home to raise them. She loved taking care of them.

On laundry day she enjoyed hanging their little dresses up on the clothes line in the backyard. The girls loved to grab onto the drying clothes and spin the circular clothes line around and around.

There had been many hours of creating special cookies and pies for dinner along with tiny cookie bites or fruit tarts made with the leftover dough.

The girls had loved to ride their bikes and trikes all over the yard. One would have thought the hard Carolina dirt and lumpy grass would have been hard for them to ride on, but it hadn’t held them back.

Mary Lee slowed her rocking and shock her head sadly remembering how quickly time has passed.

It seemed to her one fall that the girls had been in elementary school and by spring they were all grown up and beginning families of their own. How that had happened? Mary Lee couldn’t recall. It seemed like they went from little girls to ladies in mere minutes.

Each of the girls had stayed in town. They lived with their husbands and children not faraway. Mary Lee and Frank saw them often.

Mary Lee loved being a grandmother. She loved getting to see her girls as moms. They were wonderful moms.

Rocked slowly back and forth again. Mary Lee glanced across the yard at a tricycle covered in green by the tree near the front gate. One of the girls and forgotten to put it away one night and there is had stayed.

Frank had offered to take it out of the green tangle that surrounded it and Mary Lee had insisted that it stay. When he had asked her about it ,she had replied that it was a lesson. Frank had wanted to know about the lesson the tricycle had taught her. He loved to listen to her share her thoughts.

“The lesson,” she replied, “is that time is fleeting. You need to enjoy each moment and cherish each memory. That tricycle reminds me of our girls when they were little and loved to ride. It makes try to guess what must have caught their attention and drew them away from it and on to something else. It reminds me that for a time the white picket fence contained their whole world and they couldn’t bike beyond it.

Frank had a tear drop slowly from his eye after she shared the tricycles importance and agree that it needed to stay right where it was.

Mary Lee now wiped at tear from her eye. What a wonderful memories she had to think back on! What a wonderful lessons she had learned from them

End Note:

We walked a house on the 4th of July and I snapped a picture of this tricycle tangled near the tree. I had know ideas what story I would be able to weave based on it. I just knew there was one. It took most of this month to find Mary Lee and glean what reason there might have been for tricycle to be there.

I have no idea who lives in this house or why the tricycle is there. I am thankful that it was. I have loved getting to know Mary Lee and her story this month.

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

Rockin the Baby Link Up with Things I Can’t Say

By

The amazing Shell of Things I Can’t Say is hosting a  link up called Rockin’ the Baby. Rockin’ the Baby is a wonderful opportunity to share your favorite baby pictures and maybe win a prize.

It offically starts tomorrow, but I am sharing my post a day early. There were over 200 bloggers that linked to her Rockin’ the Bump link up last month. I had the best time visiting many of them. It should be fun to see how cute everyone’s babies were or are in this link up!

My Favorite Baby Picture of JDaniel

I was so hard to pick just one picture of JDaniel as a baby. I knew I had to pick one or you would have ended up seeing hundreds of pictures. I do have hundreds.

Why is this my favorite?

There are several reasons that this picture of a three month old JDaniel stands out from the rest of the collection. This photo reveals so much about him.

Starting from when he was a newborn JDaniel stuck one of his hands in one of my sleeves. It usually happened when he was tired. Sometimes it happened when he was around new people and just wanted to be close. In his picture he has he hand in his own sleeve. It may just be a coincidence, but when look at it I remember this special quirk.

In this picture he is laying on his back. He loved being on his back when he was awake as a baby. He hated being on his back when it was time to go to sleep. When we finally let him sleep on his tummy, his nights go longer and he was less fussy.

I love the stretch suit he is wearing. He had tons of clothes given to him and handed down to him. This was a favorite. It was super soft and brought out the blue in his eyes.

The thing I really love most about this picture is that he is looking at the baby he sees in the mirror. He probably had no idea that he was the baby in the mirror. He does seem very focused on him. From the very beginning JDaniel was very aware of everything and everyone around him. He was obviously thinking about this baby. He looks so serious.

Categories

memberships

From the Past