Binkies and Briefcases

Thank you wholeheartedly to whomever nominated me for The Power of Moms blog award. I actually nominated one of the other blogs I follow and had no idea that I had been nominated myself!

Binkies and Briefcases is a finalist, chosen out of nearly 100 nominees! The criteria are that a blog has to be uplifting but also real, offer meaningful and replicable ideas, and help moms learn and process from the experiences of motherhood.

That some pretty deep stuff. I am honored and blown away that anyone, let alone enough people to select me to be a finalist in a competition, would think those things about my blog!

If you get a minute today, could you please submit your vote?

Click here to vote

We will be out of town for Father’s day this year, so I wanted to post this early.

My children are very fortunate to have four father/grandfather figures in their lives and even more blessed that all of these men are genuinely good people and great dads.

Of course there is this guy in our family
Daddy

Eddie is an amazing dad. It takes a special 21-year-old guy to agree to adopt a child out of foster care. When we had an infant in the house Eddie did more late night feedings than I did because he didn’t get to see the kids as much during the day and he also wanted me to be able to get more sleep. He is often seen coming home from a 14-hour work day and going straight outside to jump on the trampoline with his kids. You can read more about what makes him awesome here.

We also have Poppop (my dad)

My dad was an amazing father and now grandfather. He has remarkable patience with children and I have some very heart-warming memories of my childhood, thanks to him. Like the time when I was about 5 and decided that I would surprise him with breakfast in bed…I thought I was being very creative and I mixed all of his favorite foods together in one bowl: Crackin Oat Bran cereal, ketchup, mustard, Old Bay Seafood seasoning, Lipton Iced Tea mix…you get the idea. I was so proud of myself. He ate it and pretended it was good. He also has a old leather recliner that is literally falling apart sitting in his bedroom closet. He refuses to get rid of it because it’s the chair he used to rock me to sleep in as a baby. We all had a great time this year with his birthday present to the kids: a family trip to Disney World!

And we have Gramps (Eddie’s dad)

Gramps has been known to do a mean Cookie Monster impression. He has also been known to drive our moving van for 23 hours straight through the night. He can often be found laying our kitchen floor, installing new windows in our garage, and just a few days ago he didn’t hesitate to drive over and check on my mom because I was freaking out that she wouldn’t answer her phone. (She was fine.) The kids love spending the night with Nana and Gramps because they know Gramps will be wrestling with them on the floor, taking them out on the pier, and just about anything else a preschool-sized heart could desire.

and last but not least, we have Poppop Hank

(My grandfather, who apparently has successfully avoided my camera during every waking moment for the past few years)

Not only can Poppop Hank fall asleep on command, he also has the most hilarious story telling voices ever. I have memories of our 13 hour road trip to Boston, when I was in middle school and my grandparents volunteered to take me along on their trip. He has a knack for finding the absolute best steamed crabs available and will remember the effort you put into cooking him something special for years to come. My mommom on the other side of the family made a green pepper cole slaw that she stopped doing years before I was even born and he still talks about it to this day. He also has been known to climb up on our roof to install an antenna & satellite dish or two.

I feel so blessed that my children and I have all of these father figures in our lives. Eddie and I both have lost grandfathers also. Each of them were equally as amazing in their own ways. I sincerely hope that you and your children have men like this in your lives as well.

What makes your dad/grandfather/husband a great father?

Central Pennsylvania is a beautiful, calm, and peaceful place to live. I love the humble roots that are everywhere. There’s a reason they call places like this God’s Country.

Here in our little town, we’ve been doing all kinds of farming lately.

On the home front, our tiny veggie garden now looks like this:

I counted 26 tomatoes yesterday! 2 weeks ago there were only 7.

We also went strawberry picking recently, but I don’t have any pictures yet. Strawberry picking is a messy business and I didn’t want to mess up our camera, so I used a disposable one and I haven’t gotten around to having it developed. That same local farm will have raspberries ready to pick next week.

Then I read on my friend Satoko’s blog that she had taken her kids to the local dairy farm where apparently they buy all of their milk and ice cream and I was like…rewind! Say what? Where is the magical ice cream farm? We have been friends for years and live 5 minutes from each other and I have never heard her mention this. I wanted in. So today I learned that there is, in fact, a local dairy farm 8 miles from our house that not only produces it’s own milk, icecream, and other products to sell in an adorable little general store, but they let the kids feed the calves at 4pm every day. Who knew?

Satoko was right, there was ice cream to be had

and vintage parasols to admire

antique tractors to be ridden

calves to be fed

and lots and lots of cows. (and flies.)

We bought milk, ice cream, and apple butter to take home.

The staff was very sweet. One of the young men who worked there made sure the tractor would be safe for our kids to play on (apparently it still works and they actually use it so he had to set the brakes correctly) and they let the kids pet the cows and roam about freely. There were even signs around the property restricting where cars could go so that kids could have free range to run, play, climb trees, or whatever they pleased.

I have to apologize again to Satoko because I got lost in the winding country roads on the way there so we were half an hour late to meet her and her boys. Also, Nick was having so much fun that he didn’t want to leave, so he threw a very dramatic temper tantrum for our last 15 minutes or so together. (and the entire way home, and then a little while longer…) but, regardless, it was a very nice afternoon and we will definitely go back again soon!