I love reading because in a matter of seconds, my perspective can be changed -- at least for the moment. Yesterday, I read these words in the New York Times online about a mother and her 18-month-old son.

 

"Ronan won't prosper and succeed in the way we've come to understand this term in our culture. He will never walk or say "Mama." And I will never be a tiger mom. The mothers and fathers of terminally ill children are something else entirely. Our goals are simple and terrible: to help our children live with minimal discomfort and maximum dignity. We will not launch our children into a bright and promising future, but see them into early graves. We will prepare to lose them, and then, impossibly, to live on after that gutting loss."

 

After months of helping our children understand the plight of terminally ill children through our fundraising work for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, these words stopped me cold. And then I read on.

 

"Parenting, I've come to understand, is about loving my child today. Now, in fact, for any parent, anywhere, that's all there is."

 

Most of the time, profound words move me - for a little while. Then I get busy, and get back to my old head down, guns blazing, plow through life. Tonight though, just when I heard the rise of that nagging voice of mine that grates on my own nerves, much less my family's, I stopped. Instead of arguing with Cashlyn to pick up her Social Studies book and read it, I sat down and read it with her. It kind of shocked me when I did it. We took turns reading out loud while we snuggled on top of her fluffy pink comforter, with Lucy rooting her little wet snout between us. And I thought Now Is All There Is. And the dirty laundry waited. And so did the dishes.

 

God willing, tomorrow will come and we will all rise healthy, and ready to face another day. And instead of just facing that day, I hope I will remember to enjoy it -- and all the special little moments in it that I usually don't stop to recognize, much less enjoy.

 

I hope to see you this Saturday at our annual Little Bits Charity Fall Fun Show. Proceeds from the show will go to the children like Ronan, who are patients at St. Jude's.

 

Parker 

Wow!  Thanks to Barn Moms Rebecca Seeber and Emily Semans for Helping Spruce Up Our Walls and Inspire Our Riders!

These barn moms are willing to go to extreme measures to spruce up our walls at CLS!  And we're so excited!

You know how Parker loves a quote and so Emily and Rebecca are going to be painting some around the barn in the coming weeks -- some of Ms. Parker's favorites. So watch the walls -- and the scaffolding!

Forsyth Family Event at CLS Draws More Than 100 Moms and Kids!
"Moms Morning Out" turned out to be an incredibly successful event with a packed barn full of adorable little kids and their moms. We want to thank Forsyth Family for organizing the event and all of the local families for coming!

Danielle Scribner, a local mom who is also a blogger, wrote about their fun day at the barn with a post called "I Wide Hawsey!" and she took some incredible pictures, as well (including the one of her daughter, on the right.) She is talented! 

Thank you again for a very fun morning!