I just came across this on Twitter, and thought I would pass it on to all two of you who follow me. There's a little boy in NYC who was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia 3 weeks ago. His name is Kai, and he's four years old. Without a bone marrow transplant, even with chemotherapy, he doesn't have much of a chance.
For anyone who might stumble across this in the NYC area, there is going to be a donor drive this weekend. All that's required to register and potentially save a life is a quick cheek swab. For info on the NYC drive, go to www.hopeforkai.com. If you're not in the area, please go to his website anyway and, if you can, donate money for treatment, send good wishes, or follow the link to receive a test kit in the mail, so that you can swab your own cheek at home and send off to the bone marrow registry. (That site can be found here.)
Kai's dad was diagnosed with incurable lymphoma last year. Kai's mom could lose her husband and son. And that is simply not acceptable.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
To Live in this World
“To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go”
–Mary Oliver
I came across this quote on the blog of Jen Lemen, an artist and writer whose illustrations have appeared in Good Housekeeping and other magazines. After two weeks of sad news (Maddie, Thalon, and Isaac, and more) Mary Oliver's quote says it better than anything I could.
–Mary Oliver
I came across this quote on the blog of Jen Lemen, an artist and writer whose illustrations have appeared in Good Housekeeping and other magazines. After two weeks of sad news (Maddie, Thalon, and Isaac, and more) Mary Oliver's quote says it better than anything I could.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Newest Members of the Family
Well, we finally did it. After much begging by the girl, we broke down and went looking for a kitten. And ended up with...two.
Lily and Rosie have been hiding under our kitchen table for 3.5 hours now. They're 9 weeks old and as cute as can be. The kids are over the moon with excitement, and, in all honesty, my hubby and I are kind of excited too.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
They Call This Spring?
It is cold and gray here, as usual - welcome to spring, or something. One more gray day and I'm going to lose my mind. Really. Today's high is 51 degrees, and I am feeling more than desperate for something warmer than this. There has been a little bit of sun, oh, maybe four days ago. It's that time of year when I ask myself why I live in Northern Ohio, after a long, gray winter, and into a long, gray spring.
After much fussing and confusion, I have downloaded photos to my computer! (I swear, I'm getting much too old for all this technology!) These are photos from April 7th (yes, I know, quite some time ago in Internet land, but I'm not good with getting photos to load...). Lovely photos of snow on the forsythia and crocuses in my backyard.
I am longing to be outside in short sleeves and sandals, longing to dig in the dirt and sweep away those clouds in the sky and in my head. Until then, I hope the sun is shining in your part of the world.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Spring Break
This week is the kids' spring break, and we're visiting the grandparents in PA. It's cold and gray today, but as I am currently in the house (miraculously) alone, I don't mind. I love me some peace and quiet.
So far this break, we've been shopping (lots of stuff for the kiddos, only thing I got for me was socks. Kids are not patient shoppers). Been to my sister's house for my baby nephew's 16th birthday, and been to Hershey to Chocolate World. And, oh yeah, we had a tornado here on Sunday. Fortunately, we were not home at the time, we were on the road, traveling back to my parent's house from my sister's, when it happened. Got home to hail the size of a quarter on the ground, two very large pine trees twisted off their bases, roof damage, one barn across the road without a roof, another barn flattened, and much damage all around us. I'm very grateful we weren't home--the kids would have been terrified. When I was a kid, back in 1980, we had a terrible tornado my family remembers vividly. We were just sitting down at 5:00 to eat when the sky turned black and it started to pour--the rain actually came through the (closed) kitchen windows horizontally, then poured down the walls. We all ran to the basement as the wind blew, and by the time we emerged, maybe 10 or 15 minutes later, our neighbor's barn had collapsed and been struck by lightning and was on fire.
It was a pretty scary scene for all of us; cattle trapped and burning, some had escaped and run away, large sheets of tin strewn all around from the barn roof. Another neighbor lost the roof of their house, we had no power for 24 hours; overall, it was pretty unbelievable. That's one bit of excitement I never need to repeat.
In true farming fashion, however, the community turned up to help haul away the debris and our neighbor's had an old-fashioned barn raising, complete with Amish men in dark hats and coats raising up the new structure. It was a time I don't think I'll ever forget.
What's your best weather-related story? Snowstorms? Hurricanes? Or maybe you had a really wonderful spring break in some far-off, warm location that you'd like to tell me to make me jealous? I've never done the whole "spring break in Florida/Cozumel/Jamaica" thing, which is actually fine by me, but I would love an escape to someplace lovely and warm I've not been to someday. Soon.
So far this break, we've been shopping (lots of stuff for the kiddos, only thing I got for me was socks. Kids are not patient shoppers). Been to my sister's house for my baby nephew's 16th birthday, and been to Hershey to Chocolate World. And, oh yeah, we had a tornado here on Sunday. Fortunately, we were not home at the time, we were on the road, traveling back to my parent's house from my sister's, when it happened. Got home to hail the size of a quarter on the ground, two very large pine trees twisted off their bases, roof damage, one barn across the road without a roof, another barn flattened, and much damage all around us. I'm very grateful we weren't home--the kids would have been terrified. When I was a kid, back in 1980, we had a terrible tornado my family remembers vividly. We were just sitting down at 5:00 to eat when the sky turned black and it started to pour--the rain actually came through the (closed) kitchen windows horizontally, then poured down the walls. We all ran to the basement as the wind blew, and by the time we emerged, maybe 10 or 15 minutes later, our neighbor's barn had collapsed and been struck by lightning and was on fire.
It was a pretty scary scene for all of us; cattle trapped and burning, some had escaped and run away, large sheets of tin strewn all around from the barn roof. Another neighbor lost the roof of their house, we had no power for 24 hours; overall, it was pretty unbelievable. That's one bit of excitement I never need to repeat.
In true farming fashion, however, the community turned up to help haul away the debris and our neighbor's had an old-fashioned barn raising, complete with Amish men in dark hats and coats raising up the new structure. It was a time I don't think I'll ever forget.
What's your best weather-related story? Snowstorms? Hurricanes? Or maybe you had a really wonderful spring break in some far-off, warm location that you'd like to tell me to make me jealous? I've never done the whole "spring break in Florida/Cozumel/Jamaica" thing, which is actually fine by me, but I would love an escape to someplace lovely and warm I've not been to someday. Soon.
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