Home » Celebrations! (Page 10)

Category Archives: Celebrations!

Charity Week: Do you Hear What I Hear?

Posted on by | Leave a comment

Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy
Do you hear what I hear?
Ringing thru the sky, shepherd boy
Do you hear what I hear?
A song, a song
High above the tree
With a voice as big as the sea
With a voice as big as the sea

I hear families loving their sweet babies who are sick. What would you do if someone you loved was diagnosed with Leukemia? Could you swab your cheek maybe? It’s really that simple to see if you could be the one to save the life of a small child whose family loves them dearly. 

 Be The Match Foundation   helps to connect those in need of bone marrow transplants with potential matches.

Could you consider joining the registry?

Or helping to spread the word?

Help grow the registry. Click on the link above. They’ll send you a kit for free. You swab your cheek and mail it in. It’s that simple. And it could mean the world to a waiting family.

Make a post, spread the word. You never know whose life you will touch, whose baby you will help to make it to survivorhood.

No parent should have to face this fight. But far too many do. It is estimated that the risk for leukemia for young children is that 1 in every 2,000 will develop this disease.

Why does this disease in particular worry me so? Because the risk of leukemia in children with Down syndrome narrows to 1 in 95. Far too many of the dear families in our sweet community have been faced with these statistics.

Far too many of the dear families in our sweet community have had to learn the language of pediatric oncology.

Your bone marrow- it could save the life of a child. Please visit www.marrow.org and add yourself to the National Bone Marrow Registry. The more people that join and help spread the word the closer our children are to growing up and seeing adulthood- a simple wish. One that we should all be able to have.

The odds of surviving Leukemia are so much better in this day and age. We are so blessed that medical technology and the compassion of people like you have made this possible. For a lot of people survival means finding a match. Please register. Please donate. Please spread the word.

Come meet some of our dear friends who are fighting for the lives of their sweet children.

Meet Lois…

and Zoey…

and Ella…

and Emily

There are far too many like them. Let’s do what we can to fight this disease. Let’s give these children a chance. Please stop by and visit our friends to let them know you are thinking of and praying for them. They will appreciate the kindness.

 

Charity Week: Do you See What I See?

Posted on by | Leave a comment

Said the night wind to the little lamb
Do you see what I see?
‘Way up in the sky, little lamb
Do you see what I see?
A star, a star
Dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite
With a tail as big as a kite

I see 10 inches gone! I was inspired by a male coworker who grew his hair out to give it to Locks of Love this past year. Since joining the Down syndrome community my eyes have been forever opened to our sweet family members in our community that are cancer warriers.

1 in 96 children with Down syndrome develop leukemia. Thankfully some little bit of magic on that 21st chromosome also makes them the warriers that they are and they tend to fare better than their counterparts without that little bit extra. So in this season of giving- in honor of the sweet babies in our community- I’m giving my hair up for charity.

Think about doing the same. It’s so easy- just go to locksoflove.org to read how. There are other organizations out there such as Pantene Beautiful Lengths as well that make wigs for adults. And I believe they will take an 8 inch minimum. I realize that a lot of the wigs that Locks of Love do go to children that have other disorders rather than having cancer. But I wanted the hair this time to go to the children.

Could you do the same?

 

 

 

corner view: tradition

Posted on by | 8 Comments

 Once upon a time, a  Happy Little Family went high up into the mountains looking for some holiday cheer to bring back into their little home.

The little family stopped by a tree farm that was perched on one side of the mountain and the big sister got out of the little car and started looking over the trees.

Some were too small and some were certainly too big…

Then the big sister spied one that looked just right. So the Daddy, he chopped that tree down and carried it back to their little car.

The little sister, well she was not so very happy to see that perfect little tree all chopped down. She was so cold. Her little stroller had tipped way over on the side of the mountain. She had eaten all of her O’s and drank all of her milk and just felt so very sad and tired and hungry. And her Mommy, well her Mommy just kept taking more and more pictures. So she just cried, and she cried.

But the big sister, well she had done this cheer gathering once before. She knew that it was alright if you needed to cry and cry while your Daddy chopped down the holiday tree and your Mommy kept taking pictures. She knew it just meant you left your holiday tears out on the side of the mountain and only brought home your holiday cheer. So she followed her Daddy over to the little old tree farmer and laughed with delight while he caught that perfect little tree up in a net.

Once that perfect little tree was tied up to the top of the little car, the Happy Little Family drove into the nearby little mountain town and the big sister told the little sister a secret. She told that little sister that the best part of going up to the mountain to find the holiday cheer was that once you were done with all of the chopping and taking pictures the Daddy would drive you to a Bakery and buy you your very own donut! With that little halo of sweetness a big grin spread over each of the faces of the Happy Little Family. They had all found their holiday cheer! 

And they happily did it again year after year…*

*some artisitic liberties were taken with the retelling of this tale. It was romanticized just a wee bit. Well except the part about the wailing. That part was spot on. And the part about doing it over and over again. That part is spot on as well. I guess that’s why it qualifies as a tradition 🙂  

See what’s going on around the world:

jane – ian – bonnie – joyce – kim – kay – trinsch – ritva – francesca – state of bliss – cabrizette – isabelle – janis – kari – jgy – lise – cate – otli – dorte – b – sophie – mcgillicutty – sunnymama – daan – ibb – pienduzz – kelleyn – ninja – sammi – theresa – cherry b – juliette – shokoofeh – cole – grey lemon – lucylaine – lynn – skywriting – anna – dorit – conny – l´atelier – kamana – anne marie – rosamaría – victoria – tikjewit – juniper – annabel – andrea valerie – merel – soisses – mlle paradis – cacahuete – wander chow – barbara – emily – tally – nadine – don – flowtops – susanna – tania – dana – ingrid – tzivia – lollipop – mari – mezza

Let’s help a child out & you could win an IPOD touch in the process!

Posted on by | Leave a comment

Is that not win-win?! Go here. Meet Patti and see the lovely donation she is making and the awareness and love she is spreading in the process. She has committed to helping sweet Olga pictures here find a loving home. In just a day- she has raised thousands of dollars! Read the post, read her earlier posts about orphans in Eastern Europe and what we can do to make one child’s life- well a life. It’s heartbreaking knowing that these dear angels are sentenced to a life in a crib at best and death at worst without loving families stepping in. If you donate to Olga and leave Patti a comment- you get a chance to win an Ipod Touch. She also wants you to help spread the word- and you will earn additional chances. It only takes a couple of minutes. Please help!

corner view: improvising

Posted on by | 7 Comments

 …with my parenting and discipline techniques these days.

Trying to explain to a 4 year old that Momma does know a few things and she should listen- well it’s hard. The line between wanting her to behave and not wanting to crush her spirit- it’s more like a ripple in a pond. One minute you see it, the next you end up searching for it. So……I’ve decided to go with magic. Have you heard of the Elf on the Shelf? 

The story goes like this- Santa sends out scout elves around the holidays each year. The elf that flies to your home watches the children during the day and each night he flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa for his naughty/nice list. Then after he is done he flies back to your home and lands somewhere else. Each morning your child has the delight of going to look for the elf to see where he is. This of course also means that said parent needs to remember to move the elf or else you may have some explaining to do to little ones. The only rule is that children cannot touch him. If they do he loses his magic and won’t be able to fly back to the North Pole to tell Santa all the good things you’ve done.

Meet TJ, who turned up at our house about a week ago. Someone….has been been trying very hard to mind her manners this past week. And while it’s still hard and we’ve had some earnest tears when reminded that TJ just saw  x, y or z. She’s also recovered more quickly and been big on letting me know the list of nice things she has done that I need to be sure to inform TJ of.

Boy I’ll be sad when he flies back to the North Pole for the last time on Christmas Eve…..

See what’s going on around the world:

jane – ian – bonnie – joyce – kim – kay – trinsch – ritva – francesca – state of bliss – cabrizette – isabelle – janis – kari – jgy – lise – cate – otli – dorte – b – sophie – mcgillicutty – sunnymama – daan – ibb – pienduzz – kelleyn – ninja – sammi – theresa – cherry b – juliette – shokoofeh – cole – grey lemon – lucylaine – lynn – skywriting – anna – dorit – conny – l´atelier – kamana – anne marie – rosamaría – victoria – tikjewit – juniper – annabel – andrea valerie – merel – soisses – mlle paradis – cacahuete – wander chow – barbara – emily – tally – nadine – don – flowtops – susanna – tania – dana – ingrid – tzivia – lollipop – mari – mezza

Mommaday: better than….

Posted on by | 1 Comment

last year I think! It was a quiet holiday this year. We’re still trying to figure out what all we can manage with 2 little ones underfoot  I’m always so impressed with these families of small ones who still manage to put on a big festive feast in their own home. I have absolutely no idea how you manage it. We were fortunate to be invited back to the large Thanksgiving day gathering of a good friend that we attended last year.

This family is kind enough to open their home on the holiday to their graduate department who isn’t able to make it home to their families and a few other of us transplanted souls. They are excellent cooks and party hosts and we always look forward to an invitation to their home. This year we did have a few lingering coughs of colds gone by floating around our house but nothing too serious compared to last year! Gosh- last year by this time we had already had one emergency room visit for a sick Quail and still had gunk being passed around between us all. Come the actual holiday break I was down in bed for most of it. This year while we didn’t have any company staying with us, and I forgot the memory card to our camera when we were with friends we managed a very laid-back set of festivities. Zuzu happily ran around with a couple of her buddies from school. The Quail was mobile enough to to keep herself and us on our toes, but not quite mobile enough to keep herself from needing rescuing every few minutes. We managed to make a pumpkin pie with the remains of our Halloween bounty and were in charge of the yummy carrot bake from the year before. I mail-ordered our favorite Tom & Jerry mix, but we were so happily stuffed that we didn’t even break it out until a post-holiday get together with another family of friends.

On friday we managed to clean up our nest- which is a feat in and of itself and our other dear family feast friends came over to partake in the mythical BBQ from Texas that Uncle Scott had sent us last spring when the Quail had her surgery. We had kept it in our freezer and repeatedly told mythical tales of its smoky tenderness. These friends have a 3 month old as well as a spritely 2 year old and were kind enough to bring along an apple galette as well as a batter for pop-overs. Which I think might just become my new favorite bread product.

We rounded our our weekend with a little outdoor playtime, some cookie baking and coco-drinking and multiple sightings of the Momma sign! Yay!!!!

We were also invited to a sweet birthday party for 1 year old twins. There home and friends and family were all so lovely. Zuzu didn’t want to leave. While she can be shy occasionally, this time she managed to walk right up to just about every kid within a foot of her height, introduce herself and invite them to play. The Quail was also delighted to not be the youngest of the group and enjoyed her status as the toddler, whispering to the twins about their year to come.

All in all a nice weekend with plenty of relaxed home-time which is often in short demand here. Hope your holiday was just as bright!

corner view: famous

Posted on by | 2 Comments

Well, we’re not. It’s fortunate for us that this topic fell in our holiday highlights week post-Halloween! We got to spend our holiday in the presence of Snow White! As I mentioned yesterday there were a number of costume changes before arriving on this one. My fashionista could not be hemmed in by the idea of being just one thing for Halloween. As sweet as this is, it does give me some envy of all the mommies enjoying the 1/2 off post Halloween costume sales around the country planting the seed in their little’s mind for next year. It didn’t work for me a month a head, so no way would it help us out a year ahead. 

 And Snow White ran into sweet Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz…

But really folks, that’s about all we have to say about the famous folks. For more famous ideas:

jane – ian – bonnie – joyce – kim – kay – trinsch – ritva – francesca – state of bliss – cabrizette – isabelle – janis – kari – jgy – lise – cate – otli – dorte – b – sophie – mcgillicutty – sunnymama – daan – ibb – pienduzz – kelleyn – ninja – sammi – theresa – cherry b – juliette – shokoofeh – cole – grey lemon – lucylaine – lynn – skywriting – anna – dorit – conny – l´atelier – kamana – anne marie – rosamaría – victoria – tikjewit – juniper – annabel – andrea – valerie – merel – soisses – mlle paradis – cacahuete – wander chow – barbara – emily – tally – nadine – matilda – don – flowtops – susanna – tania – dana – ingrid – mary – hinke