First Day of School Poem

Written, spontaneously, as I thought about all of the parents who are sending their children off to school for the first time this year. Hoping they all have a great day and remember what a wonder it is to learn on a daily basis.

Today's the day!
Today is THE day!
A life of adventure and
growth - they say.
But all I see is my baby,
walking away.

Science, reading, math, and
playing - they'll spend the day.
While I, I'll remember the first time
they smiled. Laughed. Ran. Talked.
I'll spend the day remembering
the first time they walked.

Life rolls. Time flies. We worry each
word will be wise.
But in each moment, each second, each hour
our babies, they grow - like the bud of a flower.
We admire their beauty, their strength,
and who but us have they to thank?
For making it this far, in life.
For life is a journey. Not one for the faint.

Oh, today's the day!
Today is THE day.
For running, for walking;
for memories to be made.

- TH

Giveaway Winner!

First, let me say thank you to everyone who entered and shared and otherwise helped get the word out about this giveaway. You guys are the greatest and make doing this a lot of fun. With that said...let's get down to business!

The winner of our Free Book Giveaway is.........Becky Cagle!! Becky, please message me on the M3 page with your mailing information and I will be sure to get these books right out to you!

Thanks again to everyone! We'll try to have another fun giveaway soon!

Back to School They Go

School is starting! School is starting!

Those words bring both nostalgia and, perhaps, just a bit of sadness to parents all over the country. Where did the Summer go, they will ask themselves wistfully. As if they didn't know it was spent, at least part of the time, wishing the kids would go back to school already.

Sure, we enjoy spending time with our kids. Going to water parks, eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches outside under a tree, going for walks past bedtime. The sounds of fun, and sun, and Summer. But after awhile, the routine of non-routine slowly eats away at our patience, gnawing on our sensibilities and making us wish the whining would just stop already. Oh, maybe that's just me. I digress.

Summer is a wonderful time. More time outside, less time spent worrying about assignments, or parties, or book reports. School time can be wonderful as well. The joy of learning, the wonder of what each new day will bring. I don't care what anyone says, wonderful teachers are still out there, and my children have had the benefit of having many of them. I am thankful for the countless teachers, teacher's aides, counselors, parents, janitors, principals, assistant principals, lunch people and everyone else who helps make our schools run. I'm willing to bet they got into the profession because they regard learning as a wonder, too. And I am so glad they did.

Because of one of my children's teachers, my child has discovered a love of reading he had never experienced before. Another teacher helped my oldest understand that learning isn't just about reading, writing, and arithmetic, but also about helping others, and learning how to be a part something bigger than yourself.

As parents, the teaching of our children lies upon us. But sometimes, we need a little help. I'm glad that my children have had some remarkable people, who regarded learning as a journey and not just a day-to-day drudgery.

To all of my children's teachers: thank you! I, for one, am looking forward to another wonderful school year. Here we go!

Free Book Giveaway!!

It's true, I do love a good giveaway. Who doesn't?

Well, have we got a pretty great one for you here at Meaningful Mommy Meditations.

Do you like books? Do your children like books? Well, you're in luck because we've got five, count them, five books to give away and all to one lucky winner!

These are all books our followers recommended as well as one copy of Parenting With Love & Logic. The world-renowned parenting book that has sold millions of copies around the world. It can all be yours. Simply enter our contest below for your chance to win! Keep the conversation going and be sure to share this contest with your friends. I know it's easier to win when less people are entered, but it's really not much fun. Please leave a comment indicating that you've shared this contest with your friends. Thanks, and good luck!





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A Happy Accident

I like to cook. Sometimes it's rough being a person who likes to cook, because I also like to experiment. Most of the time my experimenting happens purposely. Last night, this was not the case.

I was scheduled to meet someone at 5 o'clock for a meeting and I was running a little behind. I had this great idea to make Mini Lasagna Cups (you know, wonton wrappers, muffin tin, yada yada). I had all the stuff and was about to embark on my quest when I realized that instead of purchasing wonton wrappers at the store that day, I had in fact bought egg roll wrappers.

What to do? What. To. Do?

Well, I'm pretty quick on my feet, and I really needed to get this done so my kids would have some food to eat. So, I decided to make what I now affectionately call: Egg Roll Lasagna!  Which may sound scary, but actually turned out really awesome!

Okay, so here's what I did:

I was going to make the aforementioned mini lasagna cups. But, like I said, only had egg roll wrappers. When I looked at the muffin tin, and the size of the  wrappers, I knew it wasn't going to work. So, I decided to use my filling (ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, some spices, ground beef) and do it up egg roll style.

I laid out an egg roll wrapper. Put about two table spoons of filling in, put a couple of table spoons of marinara sauce in there as well, and then put some Parmesan on there for good measure. Then I rolled them up. I greased an 8x8 pan with Pam, and placed the rolls in. I believe I fit about 9 in the pan.

Here is a link to the recipe for the ingredients ONLY portion of this happy accident.

http://apassionateplate.com/easyrecipe-print/6995-0/

Note: With the amount of filling, and the amount of egg roll wrappers you'll likely have, you could easily make this in a 13x9 pan as well. I was just in a hurry and didn't need to make that much.

After assembling the rolls, and putting them in the pan, I poured probably a good two cups of additional marinara on top and then sprinkled it with Parmesan. I put it in the oven at 350, for 20 minutes. It turned out pretty good. If I were to make this again, I think I would have baked it a little longer, maybe 25-30 minutes instead.

The kids really liked it, and so did I. I tastes like good, authentic lasagna, without all the work! Hope you all have fun making it! Sorry I don't have pictures, my camera is dead.

The Dirty Spoon

For approximately four years myself, my husband, and our three children lived in a house without a dishwasher. Four years. Without. A. Dishwasher. Not to mention our kitchen was tiny.

Then we had a baby.

So, myself, my husband, and our four children were now living in an 800 sq. ft. home with no dishwasher. Needless to say dinner time could be contentious. No one wanted to do the dishes, and if we left them for even one day it seemed there were mountains of sloppy cups, bowls, and silverware piled on our tiny, tiled counter tops.

This continued pretty much until the day we moved out of that house and into a new home, with yes, you guessed it, a beautiful, brand-new dishwasher. Long gone were the days when our two oldest children (then, eight and six) would spend two hours washing and drying all of the dishes (with some parental help mind you). A bright new future was ahead of us, and I don't think anyone was happier than I was. Over the past two years we have been happily using our new dishwasher, sometimes doing two loads a day. Now, as a family of six, it seems staying ahead of doing the dishes is a constant battle. But at least there aren't usually unsightly piles of gloppy plates and cups lying around for too long these days.

Then, one day a few weeks ago, I noticed there was a spoon that wasn't getting clean. So, I did what most people would do, I put it back in the dishwasher for another spin through the wash. Again, the spoon did not come out clean. At that point I considered washing the spoon by hand. But why should I do that when I had a perfectly good dishwasher to do the job for me? In it went again. And, again, it did not come out clean. No matter how many or how few dishes there were in with the spoon, that thing would not get clean. At this point I again considered cleaning the spoon by hand. Yet again, though, I washed it. Determined that a little, smarmy, oatmeal coated spoon was not going to get the best of me. Again, the spoon did not come out clean.

When we are faced with challenges in life, we have a couple of choices. One, face the problem head-on and do what needs to be done to take care of it. Second, we can push our problems away, hoping that, somehow, they will disappear on their own. The spoon, while not a complicated problem to solve, presented to me a frustration that I felt I shouldn't have to deal with. "Let the dishwasher wash it, that's what we bought it for!" Was my mantra. And while not without some merit, my stance had, admittedly, some problems. The first is that, while yes, the dishwasher's job was to, in fact, wash dishes, I could plainly see that this was not happening. How much effort would it have taken to just put some soap on the spoon, take a sponge to it and clean it off? Not much, really. But I am a stubborn person, and though I knew I could just as easily wash the offending spoon, I didn't want to take responsibility for it. Washing it was the dishwasher's job after all. After putting that poor spoon through probably 6-8 more washings, I finally decided to wash the spoon myself. After all that time, I was finally willing to handle my problem myself. And you know what? It took about a minute to get the soap, put it on the spoon, and to clean it with a sponge, back to it's initial, clean appearance. Something I could have done weeks before, but had been too rebellious to admit.

Sometimes, life is more complicated than a dirty spoon. Sometimes, situations arise beyond our control and make us want to tear our hair out and scream at the top of our lungs, "WHY?!" And that's okay. But the longer we put the spoon back in the dishwasher, and expect it to take care of our problems for us, the less time we have to enjoy life and realize we are stronger than we ever thought we were.

Winner! Winner! Chicken Dinner!

We have a winner for our giveaway! And the winner is... AMY H! Thanks to everyone who entered and made this giveaway so much fun!