The Days We Are Given Are Gifts From Above

One of our pastors at Fellowship Church passed away this weekend. His name was Jimmy York and he died of a massive heart attack at the age of 33. He is with his Heavenly Father now but he has left behind a wife and two young children who will face a long hard road ahead of them. Please keep them in your prayers. Jimmy was an awesome guy. Stuart and I have had the pleasure of attending a class that he was leading at our church. He was a genuine person with a true calling and passion for teaching the love of Christ.

Times like this make those of us left behind think about where our life is and what we have made of it. I can't help but think about what my husband and children would remember most about me if I were gone tomorrow. Would it be that I had the house picked up or that I played at the park with my children? Would it be that I kept my blog up to date or that I snuggled on the couch with my husband? Are we spending our days on mundane things that don't make a difference when we are gone? Or are we treasuring each moment with our loved ones, making sure that they know how much we care about them and making a memorable difference in their lives?

I heard this song by Superchick on the radio earlier this week and it got me thinking about all of this. It's called We Live. Check out the lyrics and think about your own life...

There's a cross on the side of the road
Where a mother lost a son
How could she know that the morning he left
Would be the last time she'd trade with him for a little more time
So she could say she loved him one last time
And hold him tight
But with life we never know
When we're coming up to the end of the road
So what do we do then
With tragedy around the bend?

We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love

We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love

There's a man who waits for the tests
To see if the cancer has spread yet
And now he asks, "So why did I wait to live till it was time to die?"
If I could have the time back how I'd live
Life is such a gift
So how does the story end?
Well this is your story and it all depends
So don't let it become true
Get out and do what we were meant to do

We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love

We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love

Waking up to another dark morning
People are mourning
The weather in life outside is storming
But what would it take for the clouds to break
For us to realize each day is a gift somehow, someway?
So get our heads up out of the darkness
And spark this new mindset and start to live life cuz it ain't gone yet
And tragedy is a reminder to take off the blinders
And wake up and live the life we're supposed to take up
Moving forward with all our heads up cuz life is worth living

We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above
And today we remember to live and to love

Valentine's Day Party!!

Today Nicholas had a Valentine's Day party at his preschool. Everyone exchanged Valentine's Day cards and gifts. He came home with a big bag of stuff. What happened to just the little cards with Snoopy on them and a simple To: and From: like they had when I was little? These days the bar has been raised and everyone gives candy, pencils, toys, etc.



One of the presents Nicholas got was a cool pirate that grows when you put him in water. It isn't an instant sort of thing. The directions say he will grow 600% but it may take up to 10 days for him to soak up enough water to expand that much. So here is the before picture.



Check back in 10 days for the after picture - if my son can keep him in the water that long. All day he kept picking up the wet sticky pirate wanting to play with him (as he dripped water all over the place).

Nicholas made a wonderful card for Stuart and me with his hand print on it. I don't care what it is but if it has a hand or foot print of one of my children on it then it could quite possibly bring me to tears (Stuart, that's a hint for Mother's Day!)



His teacher helped him fill out the inside of the card but it is super cute too! I didn't know he even liked my chicken and dumplings. All the credit goes to my mom since I make them just like she taught me.



And on the back of the card, Nicholas drew a picture of himself. Love those funny little hands!



The other sweet things he made for us is a heart decorated with crinkled tissue paper and a cute heart charm. He made the heart with a gingerbread applesauce dough that he rolled out and used a cookie cutter to make the heart. It smells wonderful but he told me it wasn't for eating.

More Weeds, More Wishes

We were at the park today enjoying this beautiful weather. I let Rachel lie on a blanket and look up at the trees. She just loves feeling the breeze on her face and watching the leaves move.



Nicholas was collecting pine needles and pine cones to build a wolf house. How thoughtful of him :)



I was supposed to be helping him collect his building materials. As I was taking these pictures, he said, "Mom, this is pine needle collecting time, not picture taking time!"

Then Nicholas started blowing on dandelions and making wishes. He said, "We need more weeds in our yard. If we had more dandelions then I could have more wishes. So we need more weeds!" I don't think so!



We had lots of fun playing at the park. We thought it was sad though that we couldn't find other kids to play with. We actually drove to three different parks hoping to find some other children playing there but the parks were empty. It was about 3:30 or 4:00 so kids should be out of school and it was an absolutely beautiful day. Where was everyone?

I was happy to play with my little guy. Nicholas decided that we were good guys on a space ship and we were being attacked by aliens. We sprayed them with anti-alien goo and they ran away. Sometimes an alien disguised himself as Nicholas and I could only determine if it was an alien or Nicholas by spraying him with the anti-alien goo and watching to see if he ran away. What a fun and creative little boy he is! I just love playing with him.

Dance Fever

Nicholas still loves a pen that Grandad sent him a while back. It is purple and gold and plays the LSU fight song. I caught him dancing to the music today. How cute!

Recycled Art

Recently our Early Childhood PTA group was priviledged to participate in a demonstration and class by Kayli at Art House on creating art with recycled materials. She gave us some great ideas and encouraged us to create some masterpieces of our own before our next monthly meeting. Today at the meeting, Kayli was there to see how we had done. Nicholas and I worked on several projects. Nicholas came up with the ideas and did much of the painting. Stuart or I helped with some construction. Here is a picture of our creations...



Nicholas is most proud of Gears, his recycled robot. His head is made from sandwich meat packaging, arms and legs from Aquafina water bottles, and his feet are soap boxes. We also made two treasure boxes from old cigar boxes that a store was going to just throw away. We also had some fun creating a astronaut bookmark out of chipboard from a cereal box and decorated with a foam stamp of a rocket ship that we made ourselves from an egg carton.

Kayli left the following comments for Nicholas....

Nicholas, I am so happy to see all your amazing recycled art projects. The robot really stands out. I also love your cool treasure boxes and rocket ship print. You have a great sense of composition. - Kayli House

She and the PTA also gave Nicholas some cool prizes - A set of 20 nice paint brushes in a canvas carrying case, a small green canvas tote, bookmark, notepad, pencil, and a lollipop.