bountifulplate

When my stepson was younger, we would play endless games of Monopoly and Trouble . Now, when he comes to visit us, we play at least one game of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire board game.  It's become a family "tradition." Lauren and I like to play card games, a favorite is War .  Last weekend, summer arrived here in the Midwest, so we took out our sprinkler and hooked it up. Since it was so toasty, I decided to join the "kids" in the sprinkler! I have also been known to do the Slip 'N Slide , but I'll spare you those pictures!! That water was COLD , but refreshing! When Lauren was born, for some reason, I thought I had to keep an immaculate house. One day, when she was a toddler, I had a "light bulb" moment and thought ahead to when she would be an adult. What would she remember? would she remember a mom who was always cleaning the house? or would she remember a mom that played with her?? When she graduated from high school almo...

My definition of a "tissue" moment is when you get overcome with emotion, but not in a sad way, like when the hubby and I were married. I guess since Dominic is in the final two weeks of elementary school, I was thinking the other day about one of the kids in Dominic's class. This little guy is not as verbal as Dominic and I can recall a handful of years back when I was in the classroom and Miss Laura, his teacher at the time, called me over.  Dominic's classmate recited the alphabet!  Just thinking of it now, as I'm writing this post, makes me very emotional. I will definitely remember May as being a month of "tissue" moments. When Dominic made his First Holy Communion on May 3, I was so proud of him. I held it together when he did it, but when the last of the kids in his class made their First Holy Communion, I caught myself sniffling! A week ago today, Lauren graduated from high school. My stepson is so incredibly busy with his job...

If you went to any room in our house right now, you would probably find books. We are all big readers in our family.  I have loved to read from a young age and one of my favorite series of books to read were the ones by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I think I own pretty much the whole series.  With my stepson visiting us this weekend for Lauren's high school graduation, I found a book that he loved to read when he was little, "The Monster at the End of this Book."  Last night, I had my stepson on one side of me and Lauren on the other side. I read the two of them the book and they both remember this book from when they were younger. This morning, Dominic and I snuggled up on the couch and he and I read "The Monster at the End of this Book." It is pretty cool that now Dominic can enjoy the book too.  Certain books to me are timeless, like the Dr. Seuss books and Curious George.  My favorite author for a long, long time has been Danielle Steel. Lauren likes to...

I recently read an article that was talking about the "Millennial" generation. These are moms between the ages of 18-34.  Even though I don't fall into that age category (I could easily be a mother to these women), I found the article fascinating.  The article quoted one mom as saying in regards to child rearing, "I don't know how mothers did this without their smartphones, I have an app for everything." Interesting. I don't have a smartphone, I have a TracFone! I don't even know how to download an app :) Does that make me a dinosaur or stubborn?  My mom has told me that when I was born in 1963, that she had me in one arm and Dr. Spock's parenting book in the other!   When I had Lauren in 1996, I had her in one arm and Dr. T. Berry Brazelton's book in the other! How many moms my age read any of his books??  I guess every generation has their own parenting "expert."  This article also talked about a report that surveyed over 2,000 ...

What we have always thought about Dominic and the way he processes information is that he hears everything, he just filters certain things out and then files other information away for use at a later time.  For many years, until my in-laws passed away, we would always travel to Cleveland for Easter. Dominic doesn't remember my father-in-law, because he was just a baby when he passed away.  He did, however, spend a lot of time with my mother-in-law.   Out of respect for my mother-in-law, we let her stay in Cleveland for one year after the passing of my father-in-law. Then, we moved her to an assisted living facility near us where she lived for another four years or so.  We visited her several times in Cleveland and when she moved near us, we saw her just about every week. Those last few months before her passing were hard on all of us, but especially for the three grandkids.   The final two weeks of her life she was not able to communicate ...

At one time, having Dominic make his First Holy Communion was something that I could only dream about. On May the third, it became a reality.    Every few months, since Dominic was three, the hubby would ask me, "so, when are we going to sign Dominic up for religious education classes?" I kept putting it off, because at the back of my mind, I knew that a class geared towards children with special needs would be a better "fit' for Dominic. I was able to put the hubby off until about the middle of 2012.  After talking with the director of religious education at our church, we registered Dominic for a class, so he could begin the process of making his First Holy Communion.  As the day of the first class loomed closer, my anxiety was off the charts.  I knew in my heart of hearts that Dominic really need to get started with classes, but I also knew that a class with more than five kids would be overwhelming for him. About a week before that class wa...