What do you allow, as gate-keepers if you will, to put daily into your child’s body? This is fully, 100%, your choice, your responsibility, your failure if you are not actively choosing wisely. As parents, we tend to claim God’s protection over our children, but God never intended for us to blindly follow the world in any way, no, not one aspect of our lives. I am noticing a failure among us to educate, and continue to educate ourselves about anything and everything regarding these children given to us for a short time that we are responsible for nourishing. He intended for us to use discernment, use His teaching, to bring us to an educated understanding of what is best for us. This is not happenstance. This is not a lottery to see if we “get” healthy kids. You play “the” role, not just “a” role, in providing for these children as the Lord has provided for you. « Continue reading »
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First day of school was this week! I am always excited to pick up the kindergarteners after their first day. Not only do I get the honor of experiencing their excitement but I usually see children that went to my school at one time that now are in “big school.” Monday I got a thrill when I saw a kindergartener that had gone to my school from when he was 2 yrs to when he turned 4. He was so excited to see me and with the biggest eyes ever, he said “Mrs. Jami, I thought I would never see you again” and gave me the tightest hug. I teared up as this exchange reminded me as early childhood teachers we are not just preparing them for “big school” we are building relationships and memories that don’t go away when they leave us. Our time with them is their first experience with being in school and my hope is that I am providing wonderful memories for my little friends as well as a love of school that last forever even if they “never see me again.” Like coal miners, parents plunge deep into dark and untrammeled spaces, searching for nuggets of goodness and truth along the way. And sometimes, like coalminers, we get lost. We hit a dead end. And the canary chirping happily in it’s swinging cage, goes silent. This summer, I lost my way as a parent. Between moving and leading a top-to-bottom renovation of our new apartment, between writing grant applications and taking care of legal issues related to my nonprofit, I took a few wrong turns, caught up in the To Do’s and Didn’t Do’s scratched onto my notepad. Thankfully I have not one, but two canaries on my shoulders. When they stopped tweeting, I knew it was time to pause and reevaluate. « Continue reading » Tonight I am up late… remembering. I love the power of memory as it intertwines with emotion to form a temporary reality. In quiet solitude, this gift of memory allows me to sit for awhile with my mother who passed away many years ago. It gives me glimpses into moments I will forever cherish and allows me to relive past experiences that define the meanings of my life. Tonight an open window in my mind has taken me back to a very special place where I learned a new meaning to the word “love”… « Continue reading » I sat with the sand between my toes last week, watching my kids tumble in a pile across the beach on a lazy vacation day. It was the first time in years that I can remember being able to read my own book while they played amongst themselves, happily. My eyes wandered a lot, to them, and their growing, tumbling, sand-covered bodies, fearlessly conquering the waves of the Atlantic. « Continue reading » My mom passed away two months ago. I have not been the same since. Not just because I lost her, but because of what I learned about my two college age sons. The first thing they each said when I told them of her aggressive cancer diagnosis was, “How soon can I go see her”, halfway across the country. Neither had the time or money and neither gave it a second thought. They spent an entire weekend devoted to creating last memories with her, building a snowman in her front yard as she watched from inside with her oxygen and cane until she couldn’t contain herself anymore and ran out in socks to have a picture taken with them and the now famous snowman. They baked Christmas cookies and threw pieces of dough at each other until she joined in laughing. When they had to say their final good-byes, both were incredibly strong. « Continue reading » Things I’ve Learned As A Young Mother Sound effects are a useful tool in motivating young children to do what you want them to do. Ive learned All body actions can have a coordinating sound effect and that sometimes when your finally around grown up’s the occasional sound effect may come out. Sponge Bob promotes creepy laughter in small children. « Continue reading » Learning To Be A Mother Oh how the young lady boasts of the Mother she’ll be. To read more of my posts on the home and family go to everydaymomideas.blogspot.com If this poem inspired you, why not take a moment and pay it forward? Just below this post you will see a Share/Save button that will allow you to share this poem with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, through email and many other methods. With just a couple clicks of a button, you can make a difference in someone’s life! If we all were to share this story with just 3 people, imagine the power for good this message could have! NICHOLAS CARTER LEONETTI was born on October 7, 1986 at 37 weeks by C-section. He weighed in at 8lb.13oz. and his apgar scores were 8 and 9. At 2 months Nicholas needed hernia surgery and at 3 months he developed a pericardial effusion. It was tapped but reaccumulated immediately and at 4 months he had a pericardial window. Nicholas was floppy and physically behind but the doctors said it was because of having 3 surgeries in his first 4 months. But by 7 months we knew things weren’t right and they were now calling him “failure-to-thrive”. At this time we began an infant stimulation class (two times a week till he was 3 years). « Continue reading » We just got married June 27th. Took the kids and went to Alabama home. We have also only dated for 3 months. I came with 3 kids and he did also. So 5 boys and one girl ages 4-17. It is a great life! Kids do great together and connect well. We went to a local high school to watch fire works. They had bounce houses and games. The best part of the night was snow cones. Each child had a different color. Unknown to us, it stained your lips the color of your cone. We had red, blue, green, purple, yellow, pink and black lips. The fire works went off at sunset. Our youngest child was scared of them. I set him on my lap explained how far away they were and told him I would protect him. He sat up, looked me in the eyes and said, “I know that” and then took my hands to hold his ears. He had a blast and has now become more of my shadow LOL. After fire works we went to the parking lot and sat for almost one hour to get out. We talked about our favorite ones. How loud and what was different this year from the past. His children had not seen them this close up in the past. They said they liked how we walked around, laughed and how silly we were when there was music. How we made more noise then anyone and each child replayed who said what LOL. It is never dull in our home! |
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