If you really knew me, you would know that…

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

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

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

 

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!

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

   

Welcome Ultimate Blog Party Guests!

                                                                   

Welcome Ultimate Blog Party guests! I had so fun mingling with other bloggers last year. I could write a whole post on the ways this party impacted my life last year.

I so look forward to exploring as many blogs as possible and meeting new friends.

If you haven’t heard about it yet, The Ultimate Blog Party is hosted by 5 Minutes for Mom. It is a great opportunity to visit new blogs, make new friends, and win some wonderful prizes. You can find out all the details by visiting

Let me tell you a little about JDaniel4’s Mom:

My bio:

I am the forty six year old mom of a three year old son named Joseph Daniel the fourth. After teaching for twenty years, I met and married Joseph Daniel the third and moved to a suburb of Greenville, South Carolina. While JDaniel keeps me hopping every day, I still needed an activity that was all my own. Two summers ago I decide to take what had been a blog with a few chatty posts about learning to be a mom posted on it every now and then and see what happened with more time and focus. It has been so much fun to learn how to connect with other people on the internet and learn from them. There have been some trials and errors. Thankfully there have been many supporters that have cheered me on both off and on the net.

Mission of the Blog:

JDaniel4’s Mom is place where I share what I am learning about motherhood, my reflections on living life, moments of laughter, toddler antics, new products, and more. I like to say that I am growing by learning, laughing, listening. JDaniel, God and others challenge me to grow a little every day.

What makes JDaniel4's Mom unique?

It hosts a weekly meme called Read.Explore.Learn on Fridays. The purpose of Read.Explore.Learn is to share great ways you are using books as a jumping off place for your child's learning. I believe books give children a foundation for learning and that you can draw skills from those same books to help your child acquire knowledge.

On Tuesdays it is hosting a series of guest posts called Pause Life for a Moment. I have asked bloggers I respect and whose writing I adore to share what the phrase "pause life for a moment" means to them. They have composed wonderful thoughts on the topic.

It is tied to  Mom Loop a wonderful BlogFrog community where moms and dads share questions about blogging, parenthood and everything in between.

Here are some of my favorite posts:

A Monkey Pees So JDaniel Can Flush

Pause Life for a Moment- My Take

Fortune Cookie Predictions and Groundhog Dreams

Waking Up to Find Old and New Dreams

Mother’s Prayer

Chicken and Cow Get Hurt Fighting Fires

Thank you so much for stopping by! I look forward to visiting with of you that comment later!


Oh! I am being featured on Adventures- in -Mommy-Land -Moms That Blog (The Interview)! If you would like to see an actual picture of me and hear more about my life, please stop by and check out my guest post.