Sunday, November 17, 2013

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Tonight's picture was taken in November of 2008. Mattie was in the clinic of the hospital and as you can see he was creating pictures of ROACHES on the computer with his art therapists. Mattie knew I hated bugs but especially roaches. The simple fact that I despised something intrigued him and therefore his fascination grew. I don't think Mattie ever saw a live roach, but he certainly had plenty of rubber ones to scare me and his nurses. In fact at one point Mattie painted a roach about his size on a ceiling tile in the clinic. This tile used to be in the clinic but after Mattie died, the ceiling tile disappeared and no one seems to know where it went.


Quote of the day: We may not have the ability to change all of the world's wrongs, but we can make a difference where we are. ~  Dillon Burroughs

Peter started his morning by visiting Attila. Our friends Attila and Ilona collected 400 pounds of candy for our drive and sorted it! I love the visual they created of their finished product! Needless to say that was a labor of love which we greatly appreciate!!! We added their contribution to our current stock, and I can officially report that we collected over 2000 pounds of candy this year! So literally when I say we collected a ton of candy, I am NOT kidding. Since it is funny that 2000 pounds actually equals a TON!

Peter runs chores in the morning on the weekends. It helps to ground him and get him moving on the weekends, a time in which Mattie and Peter used to do things together. Without Mattie in our lives, the weekends are like one big VOID!

Peter came back from grocery shopping this morning and told me that he had an interesting dialogue with the check out person. The checkout clerk noticed Peter's Mattie Miracle recyclable shopping bags. In fact, the clerk looked at the bags and put his hand on the Foundation logo and then looked down at the floor as in a moment of silence. Peter observed all of this and so they began to talk. The clerk wanted to know how Peter was connected to the Foundation and naturally Peter explained that Mattie was his son. The man then told Peter about his son who has been battling non-hodgkin's lymphoma for years and is now on a trial. Peter told me the clerk was visibly upset and for that moment in time they bonded and understood each other. Even though they had never met before. I could tell Peter was touched by this encounter and what it came down to was that Peter was appreciative he could talk about Mattie with someone who wanted to listen and also someone who understood the battle.  

This morning Peter and I went outside to finally transplant our Meyers lemon tree into a bigger pot. The tree literally was bursting out of its old pot and split the pot. Peter had a four legged helper beside him. Our resident Jack Russell terrier, JJ, came by to help out. Check out how JJ was watching Peter.

After the tree was repotted, Peter began to play with JJ. A lemon fell off our tree and they used it like a ball. So here you can see JJ chasing after a lemon. The funny part is when JJ put the lemon in his mouth, he clearly didn't like the flavor!!!

It was another day of working. After transplanting the tree, we brought it inside our home, along with several other little trees. Plants that won't manage in the cold come inside, so now we have that greenhouse look again in our living room. After that feat, we moved onto hanging art and photos in Mattie's room. Here is one of the walls. I created photo canvases for Peter's birthday. We hung up several today and I am in the process of ordering more for this wall. So this is a wall in progress right now. The last time my friend Nancy came to visit me from NY, she brought me this beautiful orange butterfly. Which has found a home on Mattie's wall.

We are now surrounded by Mattie's Art! Over the desk hangs the beautiful still life painting Mattie created in art club during his kindergarten year. Under the still life is a small canvas of a heart Mattie painted for me on Valentine's Day 2009. It reads Love Mommy.

At one time these shelves were filled to the brim with books, toys, puzzles, and other Mattie things. This piece of furniture has now been cleaned out, reorganized, and is displaying things that were meaningful to Mattie. You can find a BIG plastic roach on the shelf, legos, Wall-E, Sponge Bob, a piece of a coconut shell, Lightning McQueen, model airplanes, and of course reptiles!

In Mattie's first year of preschool he created many wonderful pieces of art. In fact his teacher, Margaret, was the first one to tell me that Mattie was creative. Any case, once Mattie graduated from Margaret's classroom, I created this collage.

This is what Mattie's room currently looks like. I have a beautiful butterfly comforter for his bed and some other things which will slowly be added to the room. But it is amazing to think that only three months ago this room looked more like a storage closet than a bright and spacious room of remembrance.