Friday, June 7, 2013

What is IBD (and what's the difference between Crohn's and Colitis?)

It's difficult to explain what IBD is, but this video does an excellent job of explaining the diseases in regular language, and with illustrations. If you have a few minutes, please take the time to watch:

Last Day of Kindergarten

Yesterday was W's last day of Kindergarten. Doesn't he look enthused about it?

W on a cool, rainy morning. Where is spring this year?
Actually, he was. He was also sad, because he had a great year, and loved his teachers and will miss them. What a lucky kid! We've really had such a great experience with his school.

I know that this is one of my child's milestones, but sometimes I am amazed at how quickly time goes, and how much life has changed in the past 6-7 years. We've managed to get our first baby through Kindergarten. How did that happen so quickly? Weren't we just painting the nursery? Wasn't it just yesterday that he cut his first teeth?

One of my favorite things about having children is the opportunity to see things anew through their eyes. This includes Kindergarten, and I am enjoying it so much. Life for our son is still so amazing; it's simple and new and fun. As adults we tend to muddle things up and over complicate things. Do we do that to ourselves, or is that just the way it is?

I know that next year will bring more homework, and I'm not looking forward to it, because the little we had to do this year was already a challenge to fit into our schedule. But we'll worry about that in the fall. For now, I'm just going to take in our son enjoying his summer, and learn as many new things along side him as I can.

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Inspirational

If you haven't heard of Zach Sobiech, his battle with terminal cancer, and his song, "Clouds," which has risen on several music charts, please take the time to learn about him. Zach died on May 20th due to a rare form of bone cancer. Here he is performing "Clouds," one of the songs he wrote and recorded in his final months of life. Listen to it, and then download it.
 

Because Zach's story has been covered by local media, I've been following it for awhile. To say that Zach is an inspiration somehow feels like an understatement. This kid was utterly amazing, and so is his family.

Today, I finally took the time to sit down to watch the entire "My Last Days" documentary filmed by SoulPancake. It's just over 22 minutes long, and I encourage you to watch it, too. Make sure you have some tissues handy, because it will move you to tears. But it will also make your heart swell.