Available in Amazon's Kindle Store

I’m so excited to announce the

publication of my eBook,

Living A Miracle,

We All Do… Every Day

It has been a labor of love and recounts my recovery from a terrible car accident that left me partially paralyzed, with brain hemorrhages,
and comatose.
I made a complete recovery, obviously,
and I look at life differently now.

This is a book about reality.
I’m a realist.
We all live miracles, every day.

Click On the Image of My Book
to the RIGHT to Check it Out,
or read Sample Pages!

PEACE!

]]> http://bananablueberry.com/index.php/2013/03/announcing-my-new-book/feed/ 0 http://bananablueberry.com/index.php/2012/12/beauty-in-the-world/ http://bananablueberry.com/index.php/2012/12/beauty-in-the-world/#comments Wed, 05 Dec 2012 19:11:47 +0000 http://bananablueberry.com/?p=2030

Photo by John Dalkin

I found this beautiful photo of the famous statue of Jesus in Rio, on Amazing Things in the World Facebook Page!

Check it out!

I want to say Thank you to our city and to the Washington Nationals Baseball Team.

The team is exciting.  This city is excited.

We actually watch baseball, Washington Nationals Baseball, EVERY NIGHT.  I am keeping up with our record, the team, the players, stats, everything.

I have always loved baseball.  But I have never in my life watched a baseball game every night of the season.  And that’s what I am doing this season.

IT IS SO NICE TO BE ROOTING FOR A WINNING TEAM !!!!!!!!!!!

WE ARE IN FIRST PLACE !!

WE COULD, GO, ALL, THE WAY !!!!!!

GO NATS!

#NATITUDE

… and the Redskins won on Sunday!  It looks like RG3 is the real deal!  Yey!

We have a good baseball team, a good hockey team, and a good football team (fingers crossed) !!!!!!

#NATITUDE

* If your child runs even a slight fever, take them to the doctor*

My son ran a slight fever, I took him to the doctor, we got Tamiflu, he felt better in hours.

“The rain is really coming down!”

and he immediately replied,

“This car needed a car wash and now we got it!”

Man, it’s good to be 5…

Thank you for Ordinary Days

I said to him,

“Have a Great Day at School Today!”

Without hesitating he replied,

“Mom, I always have a great day at school.”

He said it so matter-of-factly… like how could school be anything BUT GREAT.

Thank you for this ordinary day

I’ve been cutting his hair since he was born. This is not a big deal except for the fact that my little guy doesn’t like to get his hair cut because he has LOTS of thick, wavy, curly hair. And as a result, he sits still for 3 ½ to 5 minutes for his haircuts. I’ve gotten really good at the quick cuts, out of necessity, but the coaxing and prodding and ‘deciding’ when he wants to sit down for the haircut has grown old.

But I digress…

Yesterday, our neighbors in back had an ENORMOUS tree cut down in their yard. When we heard the saws, my son and I ran to our backyard to see what was going on and then immediately ran up the stairs of our deck and positioned deck chairs for a first-row view of the tree-cutting, which as any boy-mom knows, toppled ANY plans we had to go the pool or park.

As we sat there and talked and watched, I looked at my little man. I noticed how sweet his profile is, how long his eyelashes are and I thought about all the things he has reminded me of.

Children teach us many wonderful things but more importantly, they remind us of things we may have forgotten…

I thank my son for reminding me that band-aids are good, but hugs are better. I thank him for reminding me that it can be fun to get caught in an afternoon rain,
That saying please and thank you is important,
That butterflies are cool,
That it’s good to drink milk,
And that ‘big boys’ still need their mamas.

He’s reminded me that small problems are just that. He’s reminded me that we really should hold hands,
That being kind always works best,
That nothing seems daunting if you’re laughing,
That playdough is still fun to play with,
And that life is good.

Thank you for the hugs and kisses and giggles and tears. Thank you for reminding me that everything is a little better with a cookie.

And thank you for the haircuts- I know there will come a day when I wish my little guy would still want me to cut his hair.

Whether the weather is good or bad, plans change or stay the same-

Most of all, my son reminds me everyday what a great gift it is to be a mother,

And that even a bad day is a good day when you are with a 4 ½ year old…

Thanks for the reminders, my little man.

An abbreviated version of this can be read at DC Metro Moms.

I was immediately annoyed because the rain wasn’t supposed to hit yet, and I was driving in it. But in the next moment, as the storm continued to get worse and the street started to flood, I went from annoyed to ‘I have the most precious cargo of my life in his car seat in back’.

Water was everywhere, with nowhere to go. The street kept filling up, and I grasped the steering wheel.

“You can do it, mommy… You can do it!” My 4-year-old said.

The storm was so loud beating down on the car, ‘No problem!’ I yelled back to him.

I tried to hide my fear and I got us home safe. We were inside and I tried to now hide my shaking…

I smiled at my son and said, ‘Well, that was an adventure’. And just like I thought, he picked up on my vibe and laughed.

Trees were down everywhere. Within just a mile radius of our home I saw three enormous trees down, closing streets.

Wires were tangling dangerously in the neighborhood. A telephone pole was precariously tipping over, being pulled by a downed tree. Branches were everywhere. We learned on the car radio that some small tornadoes went through other areas close-by. All of the fury of that storm… but remarkably, I saw no houses and more importantly, people that were damaged- just power lines and trees.

I turned on the lights- they came on! I turned on the TV for the news of the storm- it worked too!
I picked up the phone- dead.
The computer- dead. We have Verizon Fios, and found out later that our Verizon box had been fried by a power surge or something.

So on Thursday came the calm. We had no phone calls, no internet, and we had to stay close to home all-day-long for a Verizon Representative to come and fix our service.

We made cookies. We colored. We even talked about the storm.

When my husband got home he asked me if I was in ‘email withdrawal’ yet.

I stopped and looked at him, “No… isn’t that funny?”

Everything was restored by late Thursday night.

Friday morning I woke up to the sound of my son’s door opening and little feet pounding into our bedroom. He jumped up on the bed, crawled over to me and with no prompting, announced, “Happy Birthday Mommy!”

There’s no better way to start a birthday… or any day, for that matter. There is a lot to be thankful for.

An abbreviated version of this can be found at DC Metro Moms.

As he sat there, putting on the second sock, he heard what sounded like an explosion…

A 100-foot oak tree fell through the house and landed four-feet away from him.

Having had no time to react- or leap or jump or run, he was then sitting there,

in his favorite chair,

putting on a sock

with a 100-foot oak tree lying beside him.

… Can you imagine?

My father-in-law didn’t know anything about the storm, but called him a little while later to check in to see how his spirits were-

because he was going in the next morning for test results on his kidney cancer.

Our uncle said to my father-in-law,

“I’m not worried a bit about the tests, I just had a 100-foot tree fall through my bedroom, four-feet away from me. If God wanted to take me, he would have done it that way.”

The test results the next morning showed he is now… cancer-free.

I think there is a life lesson in here somewhere.

With the shadow of the Capitol building at our backs, we’d take a break for lunch and then head to other Irish bars around DC. The last year we did this- we made it until 8:00pm and we were done. We found ourselves back in Bethesda and walked on home. But we were proud we had lasted so long.

We have fun memories from those St. Patrick’s Days… you meet some interesting characters in Irish bars at 10am (it’s a little embarrassing to see the 10am in print).

About a month after St. Patrick’s Day in 2003 I got pregnant with my beautiful son… and our tradition of celebrating St. Patrick’s day ALL DAY LONG, rode into the sunset.

This year my 4-year-old son greeted me with a huge smile at the end of school and showed me the necklace he made out of string, green beads and green straws.

After my son went to sleep we got out NCAA brackets and talked about our picks for the neighborhood NCAA pool. We were sitting on the couch with books on our laps to write on. I noticed the books: ‘Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things that Go’ and Eric Carle’s ’10 Little Rubber Ducks’.

My, how things change.

Green beer days are over… good riddance

This reflection on the days of green beer and happy hours can also be read at DC Metro Moms.