20 Ways to Make Today Special

from: Magical Childhood

20 Ways to Make Today Special

How many individual days do you remember from your childhood? How many were magical? Here's some things to try that your children will carry with them. And hopefully make you smile a little too...

1. Leave a secret "I love you" message hidden in a lunch box, painted on their pancakes or tucked into their shoes. Better yet, leave a dozen.
   
2. Fake a doctor's appointment. If you have kids in school, let them (and the school) think they have to get out of school for an appointment. Pick them up and take them to a picnic in the park instead (or whatever you'd both enjoy).
   
3. Have a tacky fashion show. Get together the loudest clothes you can find and give out awards for the worst entries. Eat supper in costume.
   
4. Write a letter telling your beloved(s) how much you love them, and why. Be specific.
   
5. Square dance. In the living room. Grown ups too. Make it up if you don't know how.
   
6. Tell your kids their birth stories. Add the little details and tell them if you cried or daddy wouldn't let them go.
   
7. Serve meals out of order. Have lunch for breakfast, desert for lunch, etc.
   
8. Eat it with the wrong utensils and be artistic with it. Pipe tartar sauce haikus across the fish sticks and then scramble them to make new poems. You get the idea.
   
9. Crawl under the table with your little one. Do at least three different normal activities under there (reading books, brushing teeth, snack time...)
   
10. Get together a pile of your children's artwork and take the kids to a senior citizen center. Pass out the art and spend time with the residents. Let your kids know how happy they made people.
    
11. Give your child a disposable camera and tell her to record all her favorite parts of her life with the photos.
    
12. Go for a long walk and just talk.
    
13. Play truth or dare.
    
14. Have a campout in the living room. Roast marshmallows over candles and tell ghost stories by flashlight.
    
15. If you have access to a camcorder, record at least an hour of silliness. Add some sentiment too, having everybody tell things they're thankful for, what they've loved about this year, and things they love about each other. Close with more silliness.
    
16. Help them decorate their rooms with glow-in-the-dark stars, bugs or images. Better yet, get GITD paint and they can paint their own.
    
17. Go on a road trip for the day, anywhere you've never been.
    
18. Write a silly poem or story just for him. Make him the hero and fill it with stuff he loves.
    
19. After dark, go look at the stars together.
    

20. Spend the whole day saying "mommy (or daddy) loves you." Say it so much you're annoying and strange! At the end of the night, tiptoe in and whisper it to them as they sleep. Fill them up with how loved they are, and tiptoe out.

Ruby Louise Nelson Honea (b. July 20, 1934-d. September 9, 2009)

Mrs. Ruby Louise Nelson Honea, known as "Lou or Louise" to some and to others as 'Ruby Lou' was born at home on Old Hinkleville Rd. in Lamont, Ky (West Paducah) on 07-20-34, and died at home at 9710 Old Hinkleville Rd on 09-09-09. She was 75 years old.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Mr. Jesse Fields Nelson, Jr. and Mrs. Margaret Belle (Hester) Nelson of Lamont, and by her husband, Mr. Boyd Honea of Ruby, Alaska. She is survived by her Aunts and Uncles, Mr. and Mrs. Haven Kelley of Phoenix, Arizona, and Mr. and Mrs. Robert Nelson of Valdosta, Georgia; her sister, Judy Kinsey, her son, Michael Stowe, her daughter, Joy Holmes, four grand children: Jessica Leatherman, John Knight, Aaron Knight, and Paula Vines, three great grandchildren, Ian Leatherman, Tanner Leatherman, and Paige Knight, several loved nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Ruby Louise's education began in a one room school house. She was a member of the Heath High School class of 1952. Ruby Lou's great life work was dedicated to service in the field of drug and alcohol rehabilitation. After gaining her sobriety through working the twelve step program of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) she received education to become a substance abuse counselor in Seattle, WA and Anchorage, AK. For the majority of her career, she was a counselor in Fairbanks, Alaska, working primarily with Native Americans. After moving back home, she received her associate's degree from Paducah Community College in 1991 and taught DUI education in Paducah, KY. This year in November, Ruby Louise would have celebrated her AA Birthday with 39 years of sobriety.

In her own words, God gave her a gift: "the ability to speak from the heart to Alcoholics'. Her message to alcoholics and addicts was, "God Loves you, I love you, now love yourself, Don't drink and Go to meetings, What you receive, give away, I'll walk with you until you can walk by yourself." She was able to share her story with many and aid in their recovery. She always ended her story with the verse that she received on her very first Valentine. It said just what she felt about the members in AA and alcoholics and addicts everywhere:

If Love could be tied into little bouquets
Then you would have corsages the rest of your days
and you couldn't tell the corsages apart
Because they all would be tied to the strings of my heart

A memorial service will be held at 3:00 pm at McKendree United Methodist Church. Brother Bill Miller and Howard Pulley will be officiating. Visitation will be prior to the memorial service at 2:00 pm and after the service in the fellowship hall. To honor the life of Ruby Louise Nelson Honea, donations may be made to McKendree Church in her name or condolences may be sent to 9710 Old Hinkleville Rd., Kevil, KY 42053.

In the End, We are all light, (alright-allight)

At The End of this Journey in Life: A Spanish Spiritual Lesson

music therapy for the day:

Al Final De Este Viaje en El Mundo this morning in meditation. I first came to know this song from a fellow Costa Rican camper at Playa Grande many many young moons ago....

This is a type of Spiritual Spanish Lesson.

Here goes my attempt to translate this...I hope my Spanish Speaking friends will chime in on of the subtleties and facets of translating Silvio Rodriguez's poetry.

Al Final de Este Viaje en el Mundo

Al final de este viaje en la vida quedarán
nuestros cuerpos hinchados de ir

a la muerte, al odio, al borde del mar.
Al final de este viaje en la vida quedará
nuestro rastro invitando a vivir.
Por lo menos por eso es que estoy aquí.
Somos prehistoria que tendrá el futuro,
somos los anales remotos del hombre.
Estos años son el pasado del cielo;
estos años son cierta agilidad
con que el sol te dibuja en el porvenir,
son la verdad o el fin, son Dios.

Quedamos los que puedan sonreír
en medio de la muerte, en plena luz.

Al final de este viaje en la vida quedará
una cura de tiempo y amor,
una gasa que envuelva un viejo dolor.
Al final de este viaje en la vida quedarán
nuestros cuerpos tendidos al sol
como sábanas blancas después del amor.

Al final del viaje está el horizonte,
al final del viaje partiremos de nuevo,
al final del viaje comienza un camino,
otro buen camino que seguir
descalzos contando la arena.
Al final del viaje estamos tú y yo intactos.
Quedamos los que puedan sonreír
en medio de la muerte, en plena luz.

At the end of this life journey our bodies will remain bursting to go

to the death, to the hate, on the brink of madness the sea.

At the end of this life journey, there will be our sign inviting us to live.

At least that's why I am here.

We are prehistory that will have the future,

we are the remote annals of the man.

These years are heaven's past.

These years are certain agility with which the sun draws the future,

They are the truth or the end, They are God.

We are those that can smile in the middle of death, in the heat of light.

At the end of this trip in the life there will be

one cure of time and love,

a gauze that surrounds an old pain.

At the end of this trip in the life

our bodies will be tended by the sun

like white sheets after love making.

At the end of the trip iis the horizon,

at the end of the trip we will start off again,

at the end of the trip a way begins,

another good path to follow barefoot counting the sand.

At the end of the journey, we are, you and I intact

We remain those that can smile in the middle of the death, in the bright light.

To hear the song on youtube, click here.

Home for Hospice

In the life swell of the past months...I am posting events out of order. In an effort to get caught up...Grandma actually came home to hospice June 31..Her 75th birthday was July 21...So we have had lots of reason to celebrate her and love her. These photos were from her welcome home party.

Dancing for my Grandmother

me loving gma, originally uploaded by jjleatherman.

Life is better than one could possibly ever imagine. This moment encapsulates everything that is sacred in life for me...It was with this dance performance that I truly realized how spiritual dance celebrates so many rites of passage in our lives. I am so honored and blessed with my Grandmother's life and I think she was honored and blessed as well. Happy Birthday Ruby Lou!

Grandma's 75th Birthday Celebration

75candles, originally uploaded by jjleatherman.

magic margie

magicmargie, originally uploaded by jjleatherman.

Margie giving Grandma wings to fly...

"Notice" by Steve Kowit

"Notice" by Steve Kowit, originally uploaded by .Flickrr.

Note to self. This is Brilliant, Thanks to Steve Kowit

Gulls on the River

(c)jjleatherman
I submitted 4 photos to the 34th annual Paducah Summer Festival Photo Contest. I've received good feedback from a few of them, so we shall see. I hope the juror sees something in the four different styles that i presented. I am wondering what that says about me (the 4 different styles)...if not searching for the particular aesthetic every time, but letting the aesthetic find me.

Lots is going on in my life right now. Dealing with my grandmother's dying process has been a gruelling one. I hope to trascend the mundane stuff of my self and focus on her in this time in her life. She wants me present with her more than I am willing to give while trying to parent my two little boys, being good mother, and wife. It is tough. Watching her die, I realize that I do not want to deny the inevitable and obvious realities of and in my own life. I do not want to trudge to death, I want to fly to death.

Love Nut

(c)jjleatherman

2 silos in So. IL

(c) jjleatherman Photo Submitted yesterday to Paducah Photo Competition...

family portrait

DSC_0221, originally uploaded by jjleatherman.

(c)jjleatherman

mother and babe portrait

DSC_0212, originally uploaded by jjleatherman.

from my most recent photography work.

If I were a flower, I would be a Peony...

DSC_0047, originally uploaded by jjleatherman.

DSC_0051, originally uploaded by jjleatherman.

Peony

DSC_0053, originally uploaded by jjleatherman.

If I were a flower, I would be a peony. This is an heirloom from a bush that my great grandmother planted many many moons ago. I have vivid childhood memories of watching the ants crawl, and the sweet , heady smells of the blossoms.

I Taught Myself to Live Simply by Anna Akhmatova

I Taught Myself to Live Simply by Anna Akhmatova, originally uploaded by marylondon44.

inspiration indeed!

my grandmother's hands

this is my grandmother's and my first official collaborative art project. we came up with the idea and then created the image for her to give as Christmas presents for her closest family members. Underneath the photo she asked me to write the quote, "Peace: it's a wonderful feeling, it requires trust."

"The Door Is Round" by Rumi

"The Door Is Round" by Rumi, originally uploaded by academy of american poets.

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=87085921288&h=mWblw&u=KTm2q&ref=mf

kitty kitty

DSC_0095, originally uploaded by jjleatherman.

as close to a cat as i care to get...i love them, but my immune system does not...