So beautiful…
Murmuration from Sophie Windsor Clive on Vimeo.
Want to learn more? Check out the article “The Mathematics of Murmurating Starlings” by Daniel Butler.
Tag Archives: life
our pit completed… in-ground trampoline
How in the world can you make a trampoline accessible?
Thanks to one of Meredith Sinclair’s (Hoo-dee-Hoo) tweets, I found the perfect solution in an in-ground trampoline. Didn’t take much convincing of Otis Carter (Carter Albarran Landscape Group), our amazing landscaper, to give it a try. Now, our guy with cerebral palsy can walk right out onto it & bounce to his little heart’s content.
We might be the only people here in the arctic, snowy climate of Chicago to have attempted a pit trampoline- we’ll see how it fares after a blizzard or two. For right now, it’s just a lot of fun.
Whooo-hooo!
come to Holland with me!
I came across this essay years & years ago, when Kyle was a baby, and it helped me express our experiences to our families. It still speaks for me- with hope and truth, optimism and reality.
WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by
Emily Perl Kingsley.
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this……
When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.”
“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”
But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…. and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills….and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy… and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away… because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But… if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things … about Holland.
Insert Hammock Here
I LOVE summer!
No homework, sunshine all the time & kids, kids, kids. Yes, I love having those energetic, fighting, wiggling, whining, yelling, laughing, screaming, naughty children home with me. I make them go on adventures with me, and make them stay home & clean with me and we all drive each other crazy. And what a guilt-free way to avoid all that stuff I hate- bills, working out, cleaning, errands, fighting with the insurance company, and mostly the have-tos of life. I can’t possibly get to that now. The kids are home!
Is it summer yet?
Chicago 4/18/2011
just love those babies!
I know you’ve already seen this, but I can’t help it. I especially love the ending.
Enjoy!
I’m just dreaming of Blue Heaven…
Seriously, heaven on a fork! And Key West perfect: quirky outdoor patio, live music, roosters & cats roaming, unbelievable food & friendly, funny staff. Long wait, unless you’re there early.
SHRIMP AND GRITS
Five sautéed Key West shrimp served over grits
with Vermont white cheddar cheese, scallions
and bakery fresh toast
Best I ever had, and I do love cheesy grits.
Who else loves Blue Heaven?
click below to find out!
why did the rooster cross the road?
Look at this gorgeous, wild rooster. Yup- running crazy in the wilds of Key West.
Our first morning Kyle runs into our room sputtering, “Er, er, er, ERRRRR! What is that? What is that?’ At 5:15am it can only be one thing. One of the many roosters roaming Key West. Apparently, this particular rooster enjoys roosting outside the window of the little house we rented for the week. We learned that roosters, hens & chicks travel as family groups, scoff at cars, bikes and other vehicles, but run blindly if a tourist is attempting to take pictures. But we just can’t help ourselves.
We hope he enjoyed us as much as we enjoyed him. We even miss him, back here at home, where we get to sleep late every day. Well, almost until 6am, anyway.
American Idol + SpongeBob = …
… a seriously happy 8 year old.
I’m playing hooky from the studio today… Luke’s home sick from school.
Having only one or two days a week to work, I feel guilty not being there. But what’s a better excuse than snuggling & watching really bad TV with my biggest fan?
a hospital waiting room list…
What to take to a Hospital waiting room…
So I was thinking, perhaps my hospital experiences might help some of you out there. Now, you’re stressed as your baby or spouse or somebody else you love has to go in for surgery. You’ve done the research, this needs to happen, you’re out of options. You can barely even think about the procedure, much less think about beyond that.
But, no matter what, you’ll be sitting in a smallish room with lots of other people, waiting for a lot of hours. There’s often an attendant that will take your name so they can contact you to give you updates of your patient or reach you when the doctors want to meet with you, and sometimes coffee, but that’s all.
Here’s my thing- I don’t leave the waiting room. I know it’s superstitious, but I feel as long as I’m there, nothing’s going to go wrong. Stupid, right? We both know it, but so far it’s working for me. So I pack for the duration. You might choose to go for walks, check out the gift shop, snack in the cafeteria, visit the chapel. For me, I stay put. Either way, if you go or you stay, there are some things that will make that wait a little more bearable:
drinks & snacks, snacks & more snacks- and don’t forget the chocolate! Mostly I bring healthy- yogurt, fruit, vegetables, nuts, but seriously, sometimes you just need Cheetos & M&Ms.
magazines- People, Rolling Stone, or any other short reads for those times you can’t concentrate
$$$- just in case
music & headphones- sometimes the other people in the waiting room, nice as they might be, drive you nuts
something to do- knitting, letter writing, computer, movies, anything that keeps you busy
a good book- when you need to visit a different world. I always bring one, but can rarely concentrate on it.
address book- so you can call everybody else & tell them how it’s going
don’t forget your phone! Pretty obvious, but it happens…
I also throw in a couple of overnight essentials: contact case, toothbrush & paste, glasses, deodorant, for those unexpected overnights.
Is it harder to wait for a patient or be a patient? They get a long nap & drugs. You get to wait and wait and wait…
Frankenstein- Secured at Last!
We’re all so happy Frankenstein can’t escape & hide behind the rats anymore.
Now, where did those rats get to?
Vintage-Twisted 
