For months now every time my parents have come up to visit us, my son has asked if they can stay the night.

Last Friday he got his wish.

And not only that, but we had a campfire (okay, bonfire), too!

We spent the evening roasting marshmallows for s’mores, telling campfire stories, catching fireflies, and making memories.

I am thankful for all those memories we were able to make.  I know it is something my kids will remember for a long time!

What are you thankful for this Thankful Thursday?

Leave a comment or link up your own thankful post today.  Be sure to link to your actual post, please, and let your readers know you linked up with us!

Be sure to check out our felt doll giveaway – and thank you to all my followers!

This post may be shared on Black Tag Diaries, The Fontenot Four, Six by the Bay

The post Thankful Thursday — Camp Fire Memories first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

If you are a regular reader you know that every week I do Thankful Thursday posts, and sometimes I mix them with one of the prompts from Mama Kat’s Writer’s Workshop (2 great things put together!).

This week when I read the writing prompts, one stuck out at me:  What do your kids have that you always wanted when you were a kid?

At first I thought, “Hmmm…. what toys do they have that I wanted?”  But really, I can’t think of too many toys I pined over…  Yeah, I’m sure there are things I wanted that I didn’t get, but since nothing pops to my mind, I must not have wanted them too badly…

Just about as fast as that thought went through my mind, I thought of something my kids DO have that I would have liked to have:  grandparents.

Let me be clear,  I had grandparents at their age, but what I mean is the relationships my kids have with their grandparents.

By the time I was 2 I had already lost one grandfather.  I never even knew my mom’s mother was still around until I was in 3rd or 4th grade, when SURPRISE! I found out she was in a nursing home and we went to visit her.  She had had a stroke; it was impossible to understand anything she said; I only remember seeing her one or two times.  (I’m sure there is a lot to that story I will never know, and it wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized how that has affected me.)

On my dad’s side… We went to visit my grandparents every Sunday.  The smell of the right pipe tobacco brings back so many memories for me.  But I don’t remember them ever playing with us.  Or really talking to us.  I remember everyone watching Dallas.  Sitting on the steps and drawing pictures with crayons that were stored in an old tobacco can and then hanging them on my grandpa’s bedroom door…   He had the beginnings of Altzheimer’s then.  They were both gone by the time I was in middle school.

That’s why I treasure the fact that my kids still have all 4 grandparents.  Not only that, but that they have REAL relationships with them.  Take for instance our Wacky Wednesday when both of my parents came up with clothing on backwards and mixed up shoes.  My dad loves to take them for walks when he visits.  My mom will sit and play Polly Pockets with my daughter.

We live right next door to my in-laws.  The kids get to visit whenever they want.  Papaw has taken them fishing.  Mamaw sits and does Play-Doh with them.  There are snuggles and giggles each and every visit.

I am so thankful that my kids will have these memories.  I pray that they have many years of memories with their grandparents ahead.

The post What My Kids Have That I Wanted… first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

It is amazing how one 6 letter word can instill fear into thousands of people.

It touches all of our lives at some point.

Whether it’s a family member, a friend, or a co-worker… At some point we all know someone who is fighting to see that next birthday.

And cancer doesn’t discriminate, either.

Young or old; male or female; rich or poor; tall or short; athletic or couch-potato; mother, father or child… It affects people of all ages and all walks of life.

Myself, I have seen co-workers fight cancer and live to see another birthday.  I have had 2 aunts fight breast cancer and leave this world too early.  It has touched my grandparents, friends’ families, and acquaintances.

Here’s praying we all see more birthdays.

This post originally sponsored by the American Cancer Society.

The post Cancer Doesn’t Discriminate first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

We couldn’t eat any more,

And the last thing we wanted,

Was to go to a crowded store.

Happy that Daddy was home,

The kids opted to play,

At a bowling alley we designed

Earlier that day.After chili dogs for lunch,

Was a trip to the creek,

Where we looked for fossils,

And saw Papaw and Uncle Dan twice in a week!Then two tired kids

Went home to read books.

Every book in the basket

Got a thorough look.

**

For dinner, of course,

Thanksgiving leftovers – yum!

Our day after Thanksgiving

Was plenty of fun.

**********

Hope all my readers had a great Thanksgiving and the day after!  Did you brave the stores this Friday?  Or did you opt to stay home like we did?

The post The Day after #Thanksgiving first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

My kids have enjoyed adding their little hand print leaves to their Thanksgiving Tree we started last week.

Each day we’ve written one thing they are thankful for on a hand print and then taped it to the tree.  (To save a little time I traced their hands once and cut out about 10 hands at one time…)  They’ve enjoyed it so much they asked Mommy and Daddy add a few hand prints to the tree.

So, what are some of the things they’ve been thankful for?

Monkey, the toddler:

• Dog cookies (he’s said that twice now)
• Cars and Trucks (he actually has this up there 3 times)
• His sister

Peanut, the preschooler:

• Candy
• More “Daddy time”
• Her brother (She said this after he put her on his hand print)
• The dog
• Grandma and Grandpa

What about you?  What are you, or your kids, thankful for this week?

The post A Tree of Thanks first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Growing up I never really got to know my mom’s parents; in fact, I really don’t know much about her family and growing up with 13 (or was it 14?) kids.  Eventually, I know, she went to live with her oldest sister, and as a child I was blessed with Christmas every year at my Aunt Bert’s house – in ways it was very much like celebrating Christmas at a grandparent’s house.

My father’s parents didn’t live too far away, 30-45 minutes?  And we saw them each Sunday, but I can’t say I was super close to them.  My grandfather had Alzheimer’s and, frankly, my grandmother kind of scared me a little.  I remember the t.v. being on all the time (Dallas, anyone?) and spending a lot of time coloring with crayons that were stored in an old tobacco can.

So what brings me to today’s memories?  My little girl broke one of the few items I have that belonged to my paternal grandmother.The little trinket box is probably not worth anything.  Heck, I don’t even know if it meant anything to my grandmother.  (I don’t remember ever really talking to her; she didn’t take me to her room to tell me stories about the trinket box or any family stories…  That’s the biggest reason I work so hard to make sure my kids have a close relationship with their own grandparents.)

But that’s all besides the point.

That little golden trinket box was one of the few things I had of hers.

I felt silly when, after letting my little girl know it was okay that it was broken, I began to reminisce and actually started to cry in the shower.

I was in 7th grade when my grandma passed away; my sister was 19 or 20 and our female cousin was just a couple years younger than that.   Just how did I wind up with the trinket box?  Simple, it was something no one else seemed to want.  That’s how I got the chipped piece of China and my grandfather’s old wind-up alarm clock, too.Grandma’s good China went to my cousin, rightly so, since she is the only daughter of Grandma’s only daughter.   I remember going into Grandma’s room as my aunt, cousin, sister, and mother looked through the jewelery.   Somehow in going through the jewelry, no one thought that I might want a nice piece when I got older, and I was always too shy to speak up.  I wound up with the mix-matched, junky stud earrings, (Grandma was always losing earrings, or so I’ve been told.) and a tacky, plastic cameo.

In the shower today I cried for that little girl who was too shy to speak up, who didn’t really get to know any of her grandparents, and who has just small pieces of what most people would call junk to remember them by.  I will NOT let that happen to my children.

I want them to have memories of playing and talking with their grandparents.   Thankfully, right now, they have grandparents that interact with them on their level.  (And after today, I am making sure to capture more of that on video and film for when they are older.)  And in the future, when the unspeakable happens, I will make sure that my children not only get to choose things that remind them of their grandparents, but that my husband and I also choose things to set aside for them when they are older.  After all, every child deserves something special to remember their grandparents by.

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