Five Minute Friday – Listen

Linking up with Lisa-Jo over on her site today.

It’s Five Minute Friday. The word is listen. Here’s how to play:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back to Lisa-Jo’s post and invite others to join in.
3. And then, absolutely no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community...

GO

Longest Day of Play

The longest day of the year is coming up and ParticipACTION wants you to get outside and get moving!

As a mom, I’m all about getting my kids outside and making them move. And the thing is, you don’t really have to make kids move. They do it on their own if they are given the space and the freedom.

The two stumbling blocks to movement and free play that today’s kids face are 1) not being allowed outside without the supervision of a parent, and 2) way too busy parents.

And that’s not fair to kids. The way I see it, as parents, we have two choices:

Thank you

An open letter to my children on this Monday morning.

To my two beautiful children,

Thank you for your happy smiles this morning. Thank you for your tired eyes that opened when I gently shook you awake. Thank you for holding tight to my neck as I carried you each down the stairs to breakfast. Thank you for eating your breakfast and doing so without complaint.

It is Monday morning and I know you are tired. We had another busy weekend and some late nights. But we spent it all together. We watched movies and ate popcorn at home and we took Little Brother to his first movie at a movie theatre. We visited family, we went out for dinner together, we went to the park between rain storms and we played board games at home when the rains came.

Five Minute Friday – Imagine

Linking up with Lisa-Jo over on her site today.

It’s Five Minute Friday. The word is imagine. Here’s how to play:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back to Lisa-Jo’s post and invite others to join in.
3. And then, absolutely no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community...

GO

JOINTS in MOTION

I had the pleasure of spending Mother’s Day with my friend, Julie, the mother of one my daughter’s classmates. My family joined theirs for dinner and I had a chance to talk to Julie about this amazing thing she’s doing: walking in a 30k in Costa Rica and raising money for the Arthritis Society.

Since I have arthritis, Julie’s cause is particularly important to me. And when I wanted to find out more about Joints in Motion, Julie very kindly allowed me to ask her a ton of questions. (For brevity, I have summarized our discussion.)

nc: How did you get involved with Joints In Motion?
jb: A life-long friend of mine had participated in Joints In Motion before and got me involved for the walk that’s coming up in Costa Rica.

Permission to let go

Tonight marked the first of six weeks of soccer for my kids.

It starts early in the evening, which was a requirement of mine when I went looking for soccer for them. (Currently, my daughter is enrolled in Beavers, and Beaver night is always a late bedtime night. Not good for kid in question. Not good for kid’s parents.)

So the deal for me to get them there on time and keep them nourished and hydrated throughout their playing time is to get a healthy on-the-go dinner packed up along with some interesting (read: junk food) snacks and plenty of water. Then I have to pick my son up at daycare, pick my daughter up at school (she normally takes the school bus home) and then scoot to the south part of the city and deliver them to the soccer field.

Milestones of growing up

Little Brother dressed himself for bed the other night. Not an unusual thing, really. He is capable of it and he does it from time to time.

When he came downstairs, I said to him, “You’re all ready for bed. Great job buddy!” He was all smiles.

Then I asked, “Did you put your diaper on, too?” He sat down on the bottom step and said, “No, I have underwear on. I don’t need a diaper. I’m a big boy. Diapers are for babies. They don’t fit me now.”

The Responsibility for Life

I’ve been struggling with parenting decisions lately. Not one particular decision, but all of my decisions. As I struggle, it occurrs to me that we parents beat ourselves up a lot, but we have lots of reasons to do that since raising and forming and shaping a whole other human being is a HUGE responsibility.

Busted by a five-year-old

I got busted by my five-year-old the other day. She doesn’t know she busted me…yet. But someday when and if she reads my blog and my chronicling of our journey as a family, she will know that she caught me in a lie.

That lie being that I took her doll—along with the doll’s backpack she and her father so lovingly made together—into my office with me and didn’t leave it in my car.

You see, each day, my daughter dresses her doll and packs her backpack in much the same way that I dress my daughter and pack her bag for school.

Then, I drop my daughter off at school and the doll and I carry onto my office where I’m supposed to take her along with her backpack inside with me and pretend that I’m dropping her off at her daycare.

Well, one day

Banana Muffins – a morning well-spent

I needed a quick activity the other morning to keep my daughter engaged while I got some work done.

I had exhausted the usual distractions like TV, movies, computer games, toys that she hadn’t seen in a while, etc., but I had some things that I had to do for work and there was no putting them off.

Then I remembered her request for banana bread not too long ago, and I remembered this recipe that I had that was super easy because it required very little in the way of preparation (Disclaimer: everything requires prep. I hate it when I read a recipe that boasts that it doesn’t take any effort to prepare and then I spend 45 minutes preparing said recipe. It really irks me. So, what I’m saying is that, although there are limited steps involved in this recipe, it is not without its own level of preparation.)

Here’s the recipe: