Imagine (Five Minute Friday kids edition)

My kids wanted to go back and catch up on the words they missed. In addition to doing this week's word.  So you're potentially about to be inundated with kiddo posts. And I will link them all to the same place, as the linky tools expire each week. No worries. We just post in bulk :)  Rules listed below in case you want to join in.



Imagine
8yo (typed herself, on the iPad). 

Imagine
I sometimes imagine that I could be a Washtong Nationals player . I wish that I could hit a homerun and hit a double.



[my comments - my 8yo is super excited that spelling doesn't count on FMF. Not because she can't spell, but because typing is still being learned here.  That's "Washington" above ... ]



5 yo (no picture this week. She wanted to dictate to me and just roll with the "talking writing")

Imagine

Muffin. I like tigers and a really want to be a horse. I imagine that I could to go Paris when I was a little kid. I wish I could go to Ireland and Paris and Florida. That I could be a donkey going hee-haw hee-haw hee-haw. That’s some hee-haw isn’t it mom. That’s all I want to imagine.

I love  five minute friday

Rules, as seen on Tina's kiddo link up.

1. Check what the prompt is on Lisa-Jo’s blog.
2. Have your kids write and/or draw a journal entry in only five minutes on that topic. Some people have their kids dictate while they scribe for 5 minutes  New Rule: if children want to keep writing, don’t stop them..
3. Take a picture or scan their paper, and post it on your blog. If you don’t have a blog and want to participate, please comment below and we’ll get in touch about what you can do.
4. Link up your post here and invite friends to join in.
5. Select the permalink to your post. (This needs to be the link to your actual post, not to your blog itself or your homepage.)
6. Using the linky tool at the bottom of this Five Minute Friday Kids’ Edition post, enter your link. It will also walk you through selecting which photo you want to show up in the linky.
7. Your post will show up in our Five Minute Friday Kids’ Edition link-up.
8. Be sure and encourage the person who linked up before you by visiting their post and commenting!
9. We’ll be joining with Lisa-Jo’s most important requirement for participation: “There’s really only one absolute, no ifs, ands or buts about it Five Minute Friday rule: you must 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.”

Rhythm (Five Minute Friday)

I'm so excited for the word this week. Didn't have make time to write Friday. Also didn't make time to write on Father's Day. My dad is awesome. And Lisa-Jo has graciously provided an opportunity for me to write about him. Perfect timing on the word, friend!

Here's how it works:
1. Write for 5 minutes flat - no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link up over here, and feel free to ask others to join in
3. Go leave some encouragement on the post of the brave soul who linked right before you.  And then read / love on a few others, too, if you want. Encourage a heart today.

This week's word:
RHYTHM.

He gave me a love of baseball. He gave me a model of integrity. He gave me an interest in politics (though by far the vast pass-along of this trait is with my not-so-little brother). But one of the greatest gifts my daddy gave me is a love of music.

One of my best birthday gifts was the year I turned 16. The adult school that met in the local high school offered a bunch of classes. Including: ballroom dancing. My dad gave me dance lessons that year - 8 glorious weeks of learning the fox trot, the cha-cha, the waltz. The tango, and I forget what else. 20 years removed from practicing every week will do that to a girl. But more than the lessons, he gave me the gift of his time. Not only did he sign me up for the class, he signed up to be my partner. 8 weeks of dancing together, just daddy and me. 

My dad is a fantastic dancer - to this day he's the best dance partner I've ever had. He's not afraid to try new stuff, to get out there and just have fun. He gets the rhythm of the music, and can put a dance to anything. Now he dances with my daugthers, and they alternately giggle and groan. Squeal and ask him to do it more. Run away and hide. And come back again for another turn. We dance to country, to Christmas carols. To jazz and to whatever else is coming along the radio. We used to go to concerts and sometimes dance in the aisles.

Not too long ago I found this picture from those dance lessons way back when. And it always brings a smile to my face. Sharing the rhythm and learning to dance with my daddy.

Happy belated Father's Day, Daddy! You're amazing, and I am so blessed to have you.
Love,
Scooter

Listen (Five Minute Friday)

Welcome to Five Minute Friday (which I mostly write on the next Thursday. It's life. Lisa-Jo is gracious to let us play a full week and then have grace to try to post on Friday next time. Sweet of her, isn't it?!

The rules are easy:
1. get the prompt &. write for 5 minutes flat, no edits, no re-writes. Just real. Throw it out there and move on.
2. Link up over here to share your writing
3. (the BEST part!) go to the post of the brave soul who linked before you, and leave a little encouragement for them. Join the community.

This week, we're writing on
LISTEN.

Listening is intentional. Stop, pause, focus. Give attention and process what is being said. Or not said. Sometimes listening is as much about what isn't put out there.

She says "Mama, I was having a good day" and then she stops, unsure of what to say next. When I am listening to her, I can say - tell me, what are you thinking. WHen I am only hearing her, I miss the pause. I miss the chance to draw her out of her shell. This day, I listened.

Tell me, sweetie ...

"OK! Then it turned great! We got to dance and i learned the YMCA and isn;t it funny? you make the letters with your arms. and we get to jump!"  there is glee in her eyes - in her voice. Because I listened, and asked her to really share. Not just the good day part, but the WHY was it good. The encouragement to go on because someone really listened to her.

I need to do this more. Might you, too?

The Tooth (Behind the Scenes)

My life is lived behind the scenes ... you know, in the real that is behind the picture you post without commentary?  My friend Crystal decided it would be fun for us to share REAL with each other. It's fun to find solidarity in the reality behind the pictures. So this week, decided I would share one, too.


The Photo:

The story: A's first tooth came out at the end of one of the longest weeks EVER. We'd all had the stomach bug, which gave me umpteen extra loads of laundry. That I had not had time to fold. And left me so wiped out that I could hardly to get her tooth under the pillow, much less hunt down the tooth fairy and have her arrive. Somehow in my exhaustion I managed to get it done. And then my precious A, my dearest child who sleeps like her Uncle and NEVER gets up too early unless prodded by her big sister, she decided that 5:02 AM on a Saturday was the time to announce the tooth fairy had come, and left her moneys. She came in my room, climbed up on the bed, got right in my sleeping face and at the top of her lungs proclaimed: "Mama, you HAVE TO SEE IT NOW! IT IS THE BEST! WHO IS THIS GUY? ISN'T IT SO SPARKLY?!?! TAKE A PICTURE PLEEEEEEEASE!!!!!"

Fall (kid's version) (Five Minute Friday)

My girls are THRILLED! There's a way for them to link up and play the Five Minute Friday fun with me.  So this week, they decided to get started. Here's where you go to share with the other kids who are writing / dictating / drawing.

So, without further blabbering by mama, here is the kiddo post for the week:


8 yo (typed all by herself, no editing, on my iPad. I just copied/pasted).

Fall
When I think of fall I think of diffrint colored leavs . I love fall because we have thanksgiving and we get to see friends and family.



5 yo
"Mama, this is the tree and see the dark sky at night in the fall? And when I get some more time I will put some leaves on the branches but it's a dark fall sky"

Fall (Five Minute Friday)

Time for Five Minute Friday. Where you take a break, and write for 5 minutes flat - just open up and out it comes. Full directions (and how it all got started) over here.  This week's link ups, courtesy of the lovely Lisa-Jo over here.

This week's word: FALL.

School just ended and we're thinking of summer fun and camp and pools and playdates and vacation and the beach. But before we know it, in the blink of an eye, it will be fall.

This year, fall will be a little different for me - my baby starts kindergarten. (WHOOOSH. where did the time go?!) And so, in the mornings, I will walk both my little ladies out the door, ready for new beginnings.  Our school does a really cool thing for school supplies. (OK, I think it is cool. Maybe you think it is overkill. But for busy mamas, or moms of a lot of kids, this is brilliant.) There is a company our school works with. All the teachers log on, select the supplies they want your kids to bring to their class. Someone (I think the PTA) sends home an order form. You go on-line, pick your school, there's a code. You pick your grade. Pick girl or boy (they split up who brings what size zip locs and whatnot) and then you click order. Repeat for all your kids. And voila, at the start of the very first day, your kid gets to school and there's a package on her desk and it has everything she needs.

No standing at Walmart debating over THIS red folder or THAT red folder. No questions about cardboard or plastic. No questions of rubber-free erasers or pre sharpened pencils. So yes, it takes some of the fun out of the choosing what supplies you get, but it saves arguing. It saves poring over multiple lists. It saves sisters saying "there's only one left, it's miiiiiiiine." And it saves THIS mama from being one of THOSE moms ... the ones in line on the very last day of summer, trying to find everything she forgot.

So thank you, thank you, inventor of the one stop school supply shop. You have saved my summer.

Stop.

Imagine (Five Minute Friday)

It's two-for-one Five Minute Friday. Last week the prompt was Imagine. And I read this great post about a mom who has kids who want to participate, too. I mentioned to my girls and they wanted to write WITH me. But it's end of school now (we finished yesterday) and dance recital and teachers retiring and visits to the orthodontist (LOTS of visits to the orthodontist) and so this week, life happened. And writing didn't.  I was just going to skip, and start this week with the new word. But I mentioned that to the girls, and they said "mama, we want to write both.You need to, too"  So, I will write both of mine today. And then when the girls get back from daddy's on Sunday, they'll write both and I will post.

Enough of that - I'd better just write or it will already be next week. HA!

IMAGINE

"Mama, I don't want to go to kindergarten teacher day. They might make me DRAW A WALRUS!"

"Mama, can we have a First Ladies dinner tonight? It's your turn to be Betty because you are in green. But remember I'm Rosalyn even though I am not in blue."

"Mama, we played with the babysitter and walked to the fountain and we pretended we were Egyptian princesses. And we went to the well. And I might be Nephertiti". 

"Mama, do you see our imaginary Nationals friends we are pushing on the swings? Now Ryan Zimmerman is going to play tag and I will catch Ian Desmond." "Not me, mama, I play with Gio instead".

All out of the mouths of my girls - their imaginations run wild. Hither and yon, through all kinds of fascinating adventures. I love how having these precious girls keep my imagination fresh. I love First Ladies' tea parties, and dinner parties. It's delightfully fun to imagine what it would be like to have been at a dinner - all dressed to the nines - meeting with bigwigs and representing America and small talking with a princess.

When we do it in my house, it's just as much fun - or MORE - because when we spill spaghetti sauce on a ball gown  (or a T-shirt we're pretending is a ball gown) it's easy to toss it into the washer and there is no embarrassment. Only giggles and grins. "Mama, you KNOW a first lady doesn't slurp and spill her spaghetti.!" But here we do.

Stop.

our "First Ladies dinner table".

 

Yes we use the good china. That's what it's here for.

"Barbara" (left) & "Rosalyn"

"Grace" and "Barbara"

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Posting as a part of Five Minute Friday, courtesy of Lisa-Jo Baker.  Where we write, post, and love on the person who posted prior to you. For 5 minutes, edit free, critique free.  .