Intoxicated

After several glorious vacation days in Ohio with Godson to visit my family, I can honestly say I spent every second totally and completely intoxicated-- With baby love.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm smitten with my sweet, nearly seven week old, great niece and I promise not to gush too much about her, but please indulge me (again) for a moment.

Oh the smell of a new baby-- It's delicious and I drank it in every chance I got. Despite mumblings about being a "baby hog", and "Auntie monopolization", I had my hands on our happy, nearly 8 pound little girl every change I got-- Or when Godson wasn't *ahem* hogging her.

And let me tell you, Godson was amazing and held her every change he got. Little Miss is the first baby he's known, and he was a natural baby lover, I'm happy to say.

It was a grand vacation that re-energized my soul, lifted my spirits and has me aching to go back again before the snow falls, which in northern Ohio means before mid-October to be on the safe side.

Our vacation was jammed packed with everything from cow milking, ice cream eating, marshmallow roasting, water balloon tossing, puppy dog walking, and baby, family, and more baby! And by the way-- S'more made with Reese Cups instead of just chocolate are to die for!

Then, when I returned to Los Angeles, overloaded with homesickness for Ohio, I had a beautiful photographic package waiting for me from the lovely Christina at the amazing Soul Aperture. I was lucky enough to win her recent giveaway.

Photo Credit Soul Aperture

This delicate photo of Christina's-- her sweet little blue flower-- Is a flower that I grew up seeing in Ohio and that fills my folk's side yard to this day. Having Christina's generous gift waiting for me on my return was a treat beyond words.

If you don't know the beauty of Soul Aperture, please stop by and say hello. You'll be glad you did.

Now that I'm back, I'm unpacking, regrouping, and catching up on the biggest stack of mail I've seen in a long time. But, I'll be reading and catching up with everyone over the next few days. I missed you guys!

What have you been up to?

Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor.com - Joanna Jenkins

Photo Credit: Blue flower - Christina Soul Aperture - Don't even think of taking it without her permission!

Back Home

Attila The Mom has an update on Big Kid's health. Please stop by and cheer them on. Click HERE.

The first time Godson and I flew from California to Ohio to visit my family he was six years old. He'd never met my family before but knew all about them and had seen countless pictures over the years. My family was also well aware of Godson and already had quite a collection of photos featuring him attached to their refrigerators with magnets. That first trip was six summers ago.

He was a champ on the plane, that first time, and kept sorting through the stack of photos I'd brought to help remind him of everyone's name in our very large family. Upon arrival in Cleveland, the "welcome committee" greeted us at baggage claim and he immediately got VERY shy....

....For about 30 minutes-- Then he was part of the tribe and laughing and playing with my nieces and nephews as if they'd always known each other.

That first trip to Ohio was a real eye-opener for my little City-Slicker. My sisters have horses and that means horse poop and all things that go with a farm-- Dirt, ducks, goats, chickens, pigs, even a peacock, plus lots and lots of work. It was a little mind boggling for him at first.

Back home, the rule is, if you want to ride the horse, you have to help clean the stall before you play. Same goes for any of the other animals too. So, with a shovel bigger than he was, Godson rolled up his sleeves and did his share of "poop pushing". And he did a pretty good job, too!

The other thing about our first trip that stood out was his amazement at clothes lines-- Definitely not something we see in our Southern California community. I've been reminded of this because there have been lots of great photos with clothes pins in them around blogland lately.

Across the street from my folk's house is the side yard of their neighbor on the corner. This neighbor has a long clothes line strung from their back door, across the yard, and attached to their yellow garage. Most sunny summer days you'll see bed linens and towels clipped to the line. In the middle is a big red pole that keeps the line from sagging and the laundry for drooping onto the grass.

That first summer home, each time Godson would walk out my folks front door, he'd stop and ponder the clothes line. With his hands on his hips, his head cocked slightly to the right, he'd let out a thoughtful "hmmm" then move on down the walkway looking over his shoulder as he went.

After about three days, Godson called his mom and said, "Mama, people in Ohio have so much time they can wait around for the sun to dry their towels!" I could hear her laughing through the cell phone as she explained the clothes line is how she would dry their clothes too if they had a big enough yard... And the LA air was cleaner.

We'll be heading to Ohio this week for a family visit. We're especially excited to meet my new great-niece, my folk's new dog and to see all the family. There's a community "ice cream social", cheering on a cancer "Relay for Life" event that my nieces are participating in, river walking, a campfire with s'more, and a whole lot of laughing and quality family time in our future.

And yes, there will be more discussion about the clothes line too.... Only this time it will focus on the tiny clothes belonging to six week old Little Miss.

Our suitcases are packed with presents and treats and fun stuff to do. But the one thing I'm not packing is my laptop-- This will be a "real" vacation. So have a great week one and all while we're hanging out watching the sun dry clothes.

Do you have summer vacation plans?

Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor.com - Joanna Jenkins

Photo Credit" Joanna Jenkins

Sundays In My City #41 - I Love A Parade

I'm a happy member of the Sundays In My City Community (SIMC)

hosted by the fabulous Unknown Mami.

Wanna see the world and join the fun? Click HERE.

I love a parade-- even if there's only one person in it!

Happy July 4th to all my USA friends. And a great weekend to everyone else around the world.

How's your Sunday?

Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor - Joanna Jenkins

In A Rut

"June Gloom" is the term used by weather gurus in Southern California for the gray skies that kick off our summer. In actuality, the gloom spills into July too but the month of June officially gets stuck with the gloomy title.

I'm fairly close to the Pacific Ocean so in addition to the constant gray haze, we get a bit of damp fog, along with the usual LA smog and dirty air too. It all adds up to decent temperatures but gloomy days..... Kinda like how I've been feeling lately.

I can't blame it all on June because the gloom has been knocking on my door for a while now. No one thing is bringing me down, but I'm in a rut that is getting deeper and deeper as time goes by despite some really joyful events in my life. Even on the rare sunny afternoons, when the gloomy gray skies burns off before the sun sets, I'm still "in the pits" as we used to say back in the 70s.

For nearly a year I've been reading Christine Forest's blog-- Doctor Forest that is. She's a successful LA psychiatrist with an easy way of explaining things that often leaves me feeling encouraged with ideas and a fresh outlook.

Today I discovered Christine is offering a free e-course titled "A Six Point Self-Guide to Healing and Happiness". It's a weekly newsletter with no strings attached and I signed up for it. I thought some of you might find it of interest too so I'm sharing the link.

Note: I was not asked to promote this program nor am I being compensated in any way. It's just that after reading Dr. Christine's blog for nearly a year, I'm confident she will provide useful and helpful information-- And maybe I'll pull myself out of this rut before summer's over.

An introduction to her course is HERE and will give you a good idea of what to expect. The e-newsletter link is in her right sidebar.

Happy weekend everyone. I hope the skies are blue and sunny in your world.

Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor.com - Joanna Jenkins

Photo Credit: © jeancliclac - Fotolia.com

Dinner?

Breakfast is my favorite meal but I usually prefer to have it for dinner. A tuna sandwich is my idea of a perfect lunch but I mostly have it for breakfast. And a big, loaded burger-- I'd rather "graze" on it cold throughout the day.

That's why Godson scratches his head when I ask what he wants to eat for lunch.

On Monday we had grilled tuna and swiss with pickles, olives and roasted tomatoes on whole wheat for breakfast. He's cool with that, and since getting food into him is usually the most difficult part of our day together, I'm happy to have him eat-- anything that's not candy.

So today, when the question of lunch was presented he thought long and hard before he asked for mussels in garlic sauce from his favorite Chinese restaurant. Yes, the kid who eats like bird, has no problem with more "exotic" fare. In fact, he actually prefers it.

Godson's Mom is a gourmet cook-- And I means a seriously good gourmet cook. She made his baby food from scratch and as he grew into table food he started with homegrown vegetable casseroles and fresh baked breads. By the time he started kindergarten the teachers wanted to swap his wild mushroom risotto, fresh pesto rigatoni, or miso-glazed sea bass for their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Godson was having none of that. He stuck with his own lunch but would occasionally share the tiny yellow grape tomatoes he'd pick from their garden on his way to school.

Over the years he's fine-tuned his food preferences but even though he loves food, he eats it in small quantities-- until he doesn't-- and then you'd think he had a wooden leg because he's packing so much away.

We're getting ready to fly to Ohio in about a week and amongst the things we're packing are his favorite recipes so he can cook for my niece - Queen M and her Groom when we visit the Little Miss, who at five weeks old weighed in at the doc's today at a whopping 7 pounds 5 ounces! (She was born 4 pounds 11 ounces so this is great progress.)

Godson's will make the happy couple, who happen to be two of his favorite people, his famous meatloaf, Greek salad, roasted brussel sprouts and for dessert an oven baked s'mores concoction that is to die for.

But for lunch today-- Garlic Mussels! Even I won't eat those, so I know when he orders them it will give the waiter pause. He'll look over at me for approval before he writes the order on his note pad. Then once the mussels are delivered, the waiter will keep an eye out to see if he eats them.

It's happened before, I'm sure. A kid orders something other than sweet and sour chicken-- and it's usually expensive. When the food is delivered the kid turns his nose up at it and the food battle between parent and kid unravels. But in our case, my money's on the kid and the waiters are always shocked and pointing him out to the rest of the staff.

Whatever works for him works for me.

What's your favorite meal?

Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor.com - Joanna Jenkins

Photo Credit: © robynmac - Fotolia.com

Sundays In My City #40 - Summer Vacation

I'm a happy member of the Sundays In My City Community (SIMC) by Unknown Mami. Wanna join? Click HERE.

On the first day of summer vacation from school, Godson and I went to Universal Studios Hollywood for the millionth time. The temps were perfect, the crowds not too big (thanks to the Laker's Basketball Championship Parade elsewhere- Woo-hoo!) and the hair-- well, his hair was WILD-- but, as he assured me, it was clean. Apparently, wild hair is what happens when you wash your hair, don't comb it, and then go directly to bed....

My guy was on a mission and headed directly to the face painting stand. He only does this once a year, but I wasn't so sure baby blue was his color.....

Nor was I crazy about the black eyes.....

When I started to see the direction he was headed....

I thought "his mother is going to kill me"....

By this point, he was starting to draw a crowd....

Whoa....

But under all that paint is the same sweet kid I arrived with....

And let's be honest, it kinda works with the hair!

How's your Sunday?

Welcome to www.TheFiftyFactor.com - Joanna Jenkins

Check out more Sundays In My City HERE.

Photo Credits : Joanna Jenkins