and an orange chair

i love it when an idea just pops out of nowhere. like an old orange chair in the basement. no longer is orange velveteen a good idea for the living room, but it seemed like a perfect fit for Bri. so when she came to the farm i took her into the basement and showed her my inspiration, and then we shoved it into the back of my station wagon. driving through the fields with the bright orange chair barely hanging on i kept thinking i need to write this stuff down.

opposite beauties

claire jump right out of the car before i could say let me put the dogs away, grace waited patiently. claire wanted to climb everything, grace liked the view from the ground. claire told me exactly what she thought, grace wasn't so sure.

it always baffles me how two people that live under the same roof can be so opposite. the same was true of my sister and me growing up, now we are a lot more alike. it was fun watching their separate reactions, but how they seemed to like each other nonetheless!

shadow buddies

sometimes we forget that when kids are sick the best gift to give is a smile. my friend marty realized this when her son Miles was young and facing multiple congenital defects. sure, a cure would be amazing, but in the meantime wouldn't it be great to have a buddy that had the same condition as the patient so they could have someone to relate to? from there shadow buddies was born. now there are hundreds of buddies with conditions ranging from diabetic buddy, to my favorite, the orthopedic buddy.

i met marty in the spring, and loved her vision of giving kids something they could relate to during a hospital stay or treatment. she just wants to help, and she has so many wonderful people onboard to share the vision. i was able to help at the annual shadow buddies benefit last week, and was blown away by the amount of people that love this organization. Tony Gonzalez, Matt Cassel, and David Cook all stand behind Marty, Miles, and their buddies. take a look at their website if you get a minute and see how you can help share a smile! www.shadowbuddies.org

firsts

he's had so many firsts; steps, smiles, words. but somehow today felt more monumental. he started his first day of preschool. he was so excited to go, and then realized it was a big change and just wanted to stay home. he'll only be there a couple of days a week, but as i watched him walk away from me i realized even more that that's my job. i'm raising a man, not a child and he will continue to walk away from me and into growth. but i'll be here, just in case, cheering from the sidelines, hoping i'm doing it right and maybe wiping away a couple of tears of my own.

fine china

i called on the way over, trying to decipher the streets. she said "i have a red crystal goblet for you, and we'll be having pizza, on my fine china of course". i said "well of course miss amy, and that's why i love you". and it is. her life is about the special things. she's always talking about serving ice cream to her boys in fun little dishes, or thanksgiving dinner with friends on porcelain. it doesn't have to be an event. in fact when robbie was telling a very intricate story and knocked over his green crystal goblet it was no big deal. most parents would suck in a gallon of air, and then scold the 8 year old about flailing arms at the table, but not amy. because it's meant to be used, and sometimes chips happen, but those chips always have the best stories later.

she's not one to tip toe around life, she dives in face first and prays to God on the way down that someone remembered to fill up the pool. her relationships aren't safe, she's all in. you could understand then, why amy could sit every morning with her mother and enjoy a cup of coffee, or why her favorite time of the day is at 5am when her husband wakes up and they have those few moments alone. and you can understand that when her father, the person she looks up to most, was diagnosed with cancer last year that precious relationship suddenly felt like it was being shattered into a million pieces. but still she prays for the best and hopes he will come by and sit on her front porch every evening. sometimes words are spoken but usually "hi dad" is all that needs to be said.

she doesn't play it safe; her china, her feelings, her heart were unpacked long ago and have been shared with whomever stops by for a gourmet feast or pizza served from a box. every so often things get chipped, but how much better to have a couple of chips than to never experience anything special.