Ah nom, nom, nom….
nom, nom, nom…
apples…nom, nom, nom…bananas…nom, nom, nom…
peaches…nom, nom, nom…carrots…nom, nom, nom…peas…nom, nom, nom…
Thanks to this Munchkin fresh food feeder my mommy got me I can enjoy all kinds of deliciousness.
This week’s Focus 52 assignment is delicious. There is all kinds of delicious-ness linked up over there. Be sure to check it out.
There are times where you wonder why you work so hard to help your child do that which they love to do, want to do, are uniquely made to do. It’s hard work this parenting gig isn’t it? It can often be thankless. There are times where you will find yourself near penniless. Most definitely it makes you exhausted.
So why do it?
Why even bother to work so hard to nurture and encourage these human beings?
For moments like these.
Moments like these where you get to witness the climax of so much hard work, so much sweat, so many tears…including theirs.
Your children worked hard for moments like these. They worked so very hard. Now it is time for you and the mentors who have come alongside them to celebrate their glory, their achievement. This is their moment.
Theirs.
So you celebrate it and continue to nurture them further hugging them, cheering with them, crying tears of joy with them…and, most importantly, you tell them you are so proud of them and what they have done. After that you tell them that you love them.
Worth it. Worth it all.
So proud of you, Jodie, and your entire team.
This week Focus 52 prompt was nurture. Had to wait until now to share because I was juggling away from home the last few days enjoying much platinum-award winning successes of my darling daughter #4 and her dance team. Perhaps next week I shall get back on track. Perhaps.
Oh, and in case you haven’t seen it, Jodie’s platinum award winning solo this weekend.
This week’s Focus 52 assignment is all about Signs of Spring.
Well…if it is Spring then it is Zyrtec time…make that cetirizine time…ceterizine time for pretty much everyone under the Big Top. That would be why I buy the BIG bottle at Costco. It’s not the kind of sign of Spring one might expect to see; but it certainly helps this family to be able to be out and about enjoying all the signs of Spring.
Yeah Spring!
This week’s Focus 52 prompt is all about “my town”.
Show us where you live! Is there something you absolutely love about the place you live? Capture it and show us. Maybe you have a favorite place, favorite store, favorite hangout … take a few minutes this week to grab some photos to share.
I was not born in a small town but I have spent a good portion of my childhood in a small town(s)…in my humble (and somewhat limited) opinion, there was nothing more small town than Imperial, Clinton and Oakdale, Pennsylvania, where I lived from 5th grade through high school until I packed up and ran away headed to my birthplace in California. As a kid I hated small town life…I think that is the expectation of your average tween and teen though. In your limited world view there is nothing to do and no where to go in a small town. Everyone knows everyone and everyone’s business and as a kid you are only known as so and so’s kid…that could be a good thing or a very bad thing. If you knew my Mommy Dearest and my step-dad you would appreciate how hard it could be sometimes. But to consider my brothers and sister’s accounts it could be even harder if your oldest sibling is some kind of straight arrow, over-achiever who leaves right after graduation (and pretty much never comes back) so that no one can witness all of her major screw-ups and failings that are a part of growing up and becoming a real, bona-fide grown-up.
THANK GOD no one was able to witness that kind of craziness!
But, yeah, I am pretty much a small town girl, living in a small town world…even if I spent a good portion of my adult life falling in love, getting married, getting educated to pursue my life’s ambition and raising a family in a pretty big city in the Bay Area of California. But life can be funny sometimes as here I am for over nine years living the small town life.
Take note, if you really want to mess with your kids pull up stakes from life in the ‘burbs of Silicon Valley and land in a town where there is a cow pasture right across the street from the high school. Holly can tell you how amazing that is.
Truth be told, Manteca isn’t really a small town. It’s actually a city with a population of over 67,000 people. But it remains a city with a small town attitude, a small town way of thinking and a small town way of living…which is a good thing, but sometimes can be a bad thing…but it is a mostly good thing and a pretty great place to settle down and raise a circus. We are surrounded by orchards, vineyards, dairies and farms…and murals depicting all that, and more…and yes, there is a cow pasture directly across the street from one of my kids’ schools.
This week’s Focus 52 assignment was all about perspective; finding a subject and shooting it from every angle one can think of – up high, down low, from the side, from the back.
Fallon, I decided, would be my subject. She’s at an age that is rather interesting to observe and enjoy. Of course any age in the lives of my circus clowns I find to be interesting to observe and enjoy at all angles. Unfortunately the others often protest, shy away, walk away and complain over the intrusion. At nearly five months of age, Fallon can’t so she becomes a very willing subject and so I sit and observe, fascinated with what is a very fascinating stage in her life.
She certainly finds it and everything around her to be so. But one really can’t quite gain her perspective, her view without seeing it actually through her eyes.
I can only imagine what she perceives through those clear, sometimes blue, sometimes grey eyes. But from this angle I can see one of the first things that delighted her…the ceiling fan, the very one that delighted her Uncle when he was a baby and her sister when she was as well.
I guess to really appreciate her view, I need to get down low, down on the carpet.
And so I do.
I imagine that she thinks her Mi-ma is a total creeper now.
Sooner, rather than later, she’ll protest like the rest of my circus when the Mamarazzi stalks her.
