L. John Bloch, Jr. 76, of Margate, Florida, passed away surrounded by his family on June 6, 2013. John is survived by his wife of 40 years, Kate, daughters Laurie (Alex) Geremiadis, Suzanne McCroby, Jennifer (Josh) Chapman and Ryan (Bill) Doan, and seven grandchildren: Olivia, Owen, AJ, Chris, Benjamin, Matthew and JR.

John was born on February 22, 1937 in Cincinnati, OH. He was an alumni of Withrow High School and Univ. of Cincinnati, where he was Sigma Chi. He ran the family business, Wolf Machine Company, before moving to Florida where he joined Textile South/Label-It and worked for 34 years. He was the consummate salesman, never meeting a stranger and always ready with a good joke. John and Kate traveled often, enjoying good food and great company around the world. A handsome man, John was frequently sporting a mock turtleneck, a dark tan and a big smile. You could often find him enjoying a crime novel and a cocktail on the lanai or making sure his was the best-looking yard in all of So. Florida. Most important, John was a loving husband, father, grandfather and friend to all.

The family will hold a celebration of John’s life at a date to-be-determined this summer. John was a HUGE animal lover, so in lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to the no-kill, non-profit animal shelter Animal Aid, Inc. in Oakland Park, FL.

Tonight I face all of my fears, all of my sorrows.  Tomorrow, Hospice will come to manage the process, but tonight I am on my own.  Tonight, my dad, my mother’s husband of 40 years, my personal hero is dying.

He is 3 miles away, patiently waiting for all of his children to come visit tomorrow.  He is not ready to go, but he probably understands the reality.  He is occasionally lucid and ornery, not wanting the gizmos and contraptions they have him hooked up to, but without them, he is gone.

I never wanted to be like him, a salesman.  I did not understand what that meant.

That he is a friend to everyone.

That he can make small talk into big talk.

My dad…a man who can tell a joke that should not be told, but makes you laugh anyway.

He is not ready to go. He has more to say.

But his body is telling him he might have to.

And I am grateful for the chance to tell him hello…and goodbye.  And I am grateful that I know he loves me and is proud of me and confident that he knows I love him and that he is a good dad.

He is a great dad.

And 76 years was just not enough…  I want more.

So I get tomorrow…I hope.
Maybe the next day.

And for now, I have a dad.

I love you, Dad.  John.

Sweet dreams.  I will see you tomorrow.

Pal-eo?

Pa-leo?

Pa-le-o?

From ThePaleoDiet.com:

The Paleo Dietis based upon eating wholesome, contemporary foods from the food groups our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have thrived on during the Paleolithic era, the time period from about 2.6 million years ago to the beginning of the agricultural revolution, about 10,000 years ago. These foods include fresh meats (preferably grass-produced or free-ranging beef, pork, lamb, poultry, and game meat, if you can get it), fish, seafood, fresh fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and healthful oils (olive, coconut, avocado, macadamia, walnut and flaxseed). Dairy products, cereal grains, legumes, refined sugars and processed foods were not part of our ancestral menu.

So what does all of that mean?

Have you tried it?

Is it hard?

I am needing a boost in energy these days that the Luna bar at lunch does not seem to be giving me.  If you have any feedback about this way of eating, I’d love to hear about it.

Thanks.

~ Jennifer

In addition, Splash and Turtle are finishing VPK in two weeks.  And yes, that is early.  In fact, it is 3 weeks before Vader which creates a small child care problem.  We’ll figure it out.  We always do.

So with summer fast approaching, we are starting to get excited about lazy pool days, beach trips, barbecues and parties.

And work.  But not the bad kind.

This is good work.

If you are not friends with me on Facebook, you may not know that my little start up company, the one that blossomed out of my win at last year’s Start Up weekend, launched its website on March 31.

Yes, MystiKit is live.

I am going to be blogging for MystiKit to promote not only the amazing kits that bloggers are already creating to help people (like me) get projects done, but also to share other Pinterest related things – project successes, project fails, tips and tools.

As soon as that blog gets up and running, I will share it with you here.

In the meantime, I want to share a few MystiKits that I built on the platform.

MystiKits are a way for people to batch items in a pre-populated shopping cart.  If a blogger creates a MystiKit, her (or his) readers can buy knowing that they have all of the items they need (and in sufficient quantities) to do the project that the blogger created.  And the best part?  She/he already found everything and put it there for you to buy – no searching, no guessing, no endless clicking and adding on two or three or ten websites…  No driving to Joann’s only to find that you cannot find what you need…and then you are off to Michaels or Hobby Lobby.  Nope.

MystiKits are convenient.

And correct.

And quick.

Since my personal DIY project activity has suffered recently, I created two kits for non-project use.  (We don’t discriminate.  You can use MystiKit for anything!)

• A MystiKit for a book themed baby shower – I have a friend who is having one next month.  Someone else might find this kit useful for a shower they’ve been invited to.

• A lunch box MystiKit – this one is for me.  Unlike during the school year when I am only making lunch for one kid, I will be making lunches all summer for all three kids.  This kit is most of the non-perishable stuff I will be buying each month for the boys.  Even if no one else finds this useful, I will not have to go back and find this stuff again. Yay!

If you want to try your hand at creating a MystiKit, just email me or register on the MystiKit website on the “Become a Kitter” page.

We are in Beta testing mode, but we are extending invitations to new kitters every day!

I’m still here.

Things are busy here.  I am sure they are busy for you too.  We are all busy.

The boys are good.  The boys are leaning on “great” actually.  We are seeing improvements every day in Vader, Splash and Turtle.  Less crazy, more cooperation.  Less pushing and shoving.  More sharing and loving.

Work is good.  I am planning lots of fun stuff for the spring and may have gotten a HUGE initiative that I developed with Junior Achievement blessed by both my internal team and the school district to help 9th graders become more financially literate.

The house is showing signs of “good” too.  A new cabinet is up in the kitchen.  I got a deal on laminate floors and when we have a spare day, we’ll rip out the paint/marker/food/etc-stained carpet and put something more durable in the boys’ rooms.  And the piles of stuff are disappearing, as trash bags of out-grown clothes, toys and copious amounts of crap stuff is moved out our house to places where it will be appreciated, used and hopefully passed onto to others.

My outside activities are all good.  R+F is booming and Mystical Basket is set to launch any day now.  In both businesses, my colleagues and partners make it a joy to “work” outside of my regular job.

So, that’s the update. That’s the busy.

I may not be back for a while.  Or I may be back tomorrow.  This was cathartic.

Happy Friday to you.

Perhaps that is why this video brought me to tears.

How cool would this type of homecoming be?

Winter break started for my three boys today. For most of this holiday vacation from school, I have arranged a smorgasbord-esque schedule of babysitters, winter camps and play dates to cover the boys while HH and I are at work. But today, I am sitting in a patio chair, taking in a little Florida sun, and enjoying a rare bit of vacation time on the first day of the break.  I am supervising a pack of 7 neighborhood boys between the ages of 4 and 9, who are treating the lawns of all of the houses like one giant obstacle course; some are racing bikes, others are throwing balls, all are playing Star Wars at some point…and doing other things boys do.

For a little while today, I am simply a mom.

I am the one fetching the drinks.

I am the one double-knotting shoelaces.

I am the one breaking up a quarrel.

And I would not have it any other way.

RIP, Sandy Hook students, teachers and staff.  May you be all be reveling in the joys of heaven.  Even those of us who did not know you are missing you terribly here on Earth.

~Jennifer

My HH has a job and it is going well.

My job is going well.

I have become an entrepreneur and that is going really well.

My boys are all healthy…and nothing is better than wellness.

We have found a place to call our spiritual home that is…well…really cool.

I have more to say, but…well, I am…

A little overwhelmed.

Don’t get me wrong.

I am “joyfully overwhelmed”…if there is such a thing.

So, in lieu of blogging, I am going to focus the remainder of 2012 on the items listed above.

See you in 2013.

Be well.

Some kids sleep with a snuggly bear.

My kid sleeps with a label-less can of clam chowder.

I love my kid.

I just wish I felt better about it.

For the past year, Vader and I have been having shouting matches about his bike.  I can be heard shouting one or more of the following items:

• Wear your helmet!
• Watch out for that moving car!
• Do not ride to close to that moving car!
• Do not try to race that moving car!
• Do not try to play chicken with your brother(s) on their bikes!
• Do not go past X point on the street…where I cannot see you!

And then, over the weekend, I added a new one to the list.

• Do not go up onto the driveways of neighbors we don’t know!

You see, at the end of the street, we had a new family/person/couple/who knows move into a rental house.  And Vader, the friendly guy that he is, was attracted to the moving van like a magnet, where he proceeded to tell the neighbors everything about everything – his name, his brother’s names, his age, his school…

You get the picture.

And, because he is 7, he then wandered up onto the driveway to see what stuff they were pulling out of the truck.

Thankfully, I was not far behind and saw him disappear up the drive. And I quickly went up to the house, called him back and tried to introduce myself to the new folks.  (They weren’t even there.  It was the movers from the moving company that Vader was chatting up.)

So I asked him to come home and I reminded him about stranger-danger and the new rule.  And that was that.

Or not.

Tonight, when I went out to call Vader in for dinner, I was able to see him appear from that very same driveway.

And I freaked out.

And he freaked out.

“I like to ride up the driveway.  It has a hill and it is cool.” (“Hill” is an exaggeration to say the least.) “The people are nice too.”

So, after I collected myself, I asked him to sit down with me and we logged onto the internet. And then, I had one of my more impactful and successful, albeit sad, parenting moments.

We logged onto Family Watch Dog, one of the national registries where you can learn about violent and non-violent offenders, sexual predators and other really bad people who live in your neighborhood.  And I explained to my oldest son about people who are mean to other people, who hurt or touch kiddos in not nice ways.

I explained that our new neighbors are probably very nice, but until I know for sure… until I have a chance to meet them, it is NOT okay to be on their driveway or talking to them without mom and/or dad knowing first.

And he got it.

And there were no more tears shed or shouting or freaking out.

I am only sad that this epiphany had to happen in the first place, and that the world is not safer for little guys to be friendly and to ride their bikes without fear.

~ Jennifer