A picture of  Coco was in the Sunday paper from the festival.  We bought the paper so the kids could see how "famous" Coco is, we hardly ever get the paper,  the boys read the comics for the first time, I had to laugh at how engrossed they were.

  Three or four years ago an elderly couple who had retired moved to our area and  started a ministry preaching at nursing homes.  They told me about one nursing home that was government run where seniors and disabled people live. They told me how poorly the place was run.  I asked them if there were people who live there that never have visitors and they told me about Angela and warned me that it might not be a place to take kids.

It is hard to go, the place is thick with smells and most of the people are the type of people you whisper to your kids to stop staring at.  When we first met Angela I prayed and prayed that they would not call her a pirate.  Angela has had a stroke so her face is paralyzed on one side and she has a nervous condition, but she looks forward to our visits.  I asked her if I could talk about her because I would love to see other Moms bring their kids to nursing homes.   It is so so worth it to have the kids feel uncomfortable  but feel the joy it brings.  We told Angela that we are going to pick her up in the Spring and take her to the park with us and that is all she talks about now.

She has introduced us to her friends some have downs syndrome and some have lost most of their memory, but they all smile when they see us.

It is worth leaving the boxes of legos and star wars figures, video games and costumes behind and showing the kids that life is not all about them, that the best moments are when we are giving to someone else, and hopefully when they come home they are more aware of what we have and how blessed they are.

She lives in a small room, like a hospital room all her belongings fit on a plastic chair, she has a rolling stones poster on her wall and then drawings the kids have given her. 

 meh:  an expression of indifference or boredom, or an adjective meaning mediocre or boring.

(Collins English Dictionary )

Too bad I am putting these up in order, this picture contradicts the Angela one. 

This shirt matches Steve's laid back personality like nothing else.  He wears it enough that soon it will look like Coco's blanket.

Chloe's blanket.

We have a rule in our house that the kids can have their blankets to sleep with until they are five and then I hide them away and they only come back out at Christmas.  So here is her blanket that is 4 yrs old and well loved.  Ridiculous really.

I hung all the clothes out on the line because I wanted to smell Spring.  I had to wear gloves as I hung them, the air was bitterly cold but most of them did dry without needing to be in the dryer after, and the kids and I smelled them to our hearts content.  The closest thing to sunshine in a bottle.

Chloe invited me to her room for another tea party I came bearing a gift (a little writing pad) she opened it after we ate plastic sandwiches and sipped invisible tea and kicked Eti out of her room for burping.  She was sipping with one pinky in the air and Eti was a bull in a china shop, taking food from her babies and spilling cups of "tea".

 As I was taking this picture I could hear her feet going back and forth up in her room busy with preparations for my visit.

I have not eaten this pudding yet.   The packaging is so retro,  it makes me happy to open the cabinet and see My*T*FiNE staring out at me. 

Chloe, Etienne, and I went to the library.  The children's library has stuffed animals, Chloe usually sits at a table with a stuffed animal in all the other chairs each with their own books and she talks with them,  catching up on the week that has passed since she saw them last.  This week she brought her favorite bear from home to meet everyone.

I told Jeff  "I did not take my picture of the day yet, I will take a picture of anything you want as long as you are in it."  I should have seen this one coming.