Hey there peeps happy Friday!
I don't know about you but this has been one of the longest busiest weeks ever!
And it wasn't even anything fun like vacation` just a bunch of commitments and appointments that ended up on the same week. So I have had absolutely no creative time in the studio all week! (boo!)
So I searched and found this file form a while back that I wasn't sure I shared before.
I made it for my firstborn on her birthday a while back.
( I did look back to see if I posted this before and I could not find so I went ahead and posted it now.)
It started off with this wooden box- which was lovely, hubby got it for free
but it is a wine box and we don't drink. I knew I wanted to cover
it, so I started with a drawing on watercolor paper.
Gelatos...
Blending and shading...
Adding lots of color...
As my children get older I want them to pay attention so this was the
perfect quote from Kellie Rae Roberts.
"The Beauty of life lives inside the smallest of moments- pay attention!"
One of the things on my schedule this week was helping out in the kids school.
I helped out in several classes - not just with my kiddos classes and one was the special ed class class.
It was hard and mind you, I have three special needs kids.
I did not sign up for that class and when I walked in she said " I didn't sign up for parent volunteers..."
and it was awkward for a moment but she looked at my paper and sure enough there it was
her class
on my paper...
assigned..
to me.
So she said "well as long as you're here..."
And I was uncomfortable at first - not because of the kids- because of the flood of memories of what
we have been through with our son and some of these children have to live everyday.
It was heartbreaking to me. Because even the simple tasks are so difficult.One of the kids I was working with had to work so hard just to write letters on the paper - he would try to quit after a few letters and we had to keep encouraging him to keep him on task. You could tell it was difficult to form the letters, to hold the paper and the pencil- as a mom not to take over because you know they need to do it for themselves but it's so hard! But he finally did it and all the teachers and I praised him and he beamed! His smile lit up his beautiful face, it was so, so sweet I almost lost it right there.
And that's when it hit me. I remembered those days when
we celebrated even the tiniest victories -
In 2010 one of our kids had a reaction to a medication and was diagnosed with
Tardive Dyskinesia they said it was permanent. If you are not familiar this is a scary thing - for our little guy it not only meant he went from a physically thriving 8 year old to - catatonic states to sudden outbursts of rage, high pitch noises and grunts instead of words, learning to read, write, and use sentences all over again, constant drooling , food coming out of his mouth when we would try to feed him) Yes he could not feed himself anymore).
Not to mention tremors, tics and odd movements.
It was not that long when we celebrated every tiniest victory!
because to you and me they might seem small, but for someone like my son they are
HUGE milestones!
And they still are - if we pay attention to them.
I think that was a divine appointment.
A wake up call to celebrate TODAY.
And those tiny victories add up!
While I was busy looking at my current situation
with my mom I forgot to give God glory for my son who only three years later does almost everything a "normal" 5th grader can do! He just learned how to read again last year and this year he is in
regular classroom and performing
at grade level for most of his subjects! He works very hard at what comes easily to others but God has given him a strong will and determination. I just can't even begin to tell you all that is involved with this child and this miraculous recovery
We still see residual side effects like slight tremors in his hands and there may be an outburst here and there but overall if you did not know this had happened to him- you would never know by looking at him today.
Can you hear me singing "look what the Lord has done?"...
So yes I may have those setbacks, but those sweet kids reminded of another quote
"Enjoy the little things,you may look back and realize they were the big things."
Robert Brault
I hope that after you read this post you will take the time to stop
and enjoy the little moments and little victories in your life as well.
Labels: Art, barakat family updates, Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft, life, milestones, Mixed Media, painitng
