Baby Bird Memorial

This quick little post has nothing to do with crafts, projects, or recipes.  However, I think it falls in the category of "too sweet not to share", so I'm sharing it!

This week the kids and I are visiting their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.   We live about an hour and a half away from my family, so while we see each other several times a year for birthdays and holidays, it's really only during this week each Summer that we can really spend a good chunk of time together.  We've been having a blast as the first cousins (all 8 of them!) go to a Vacation Bible School together in the mornings, then play together in the afternoons and have sleepovers nearly every evening.

Today, several of the cousins were walking around my parents' yard when they spotted a dead baby bird on the ground.  Its nest must have been blown out of a nearby tree.  They quickly called my Dad over and "PopPop" discreetly disposed of it.  Although the kids were accepting of this fact of nature, and understood the dangers of being a tiny baby bird on a windy day, they quickly decided the bird needed some kind of memorial.


The kids began collecting little rocks, sticks and flowers and began arranging them into a little memorial for the bird they'd named "Jet" (after one of the characters at their Bible camp).

NOTE: The actual dead bird had already been discreetly disposed of in the trash.

The adults stayed back as the kids busied themselves for close to an hour.  I admired how they accepted the death (granted the baby bird was a "stranger" not a pet), but wanted to pay their respects nonetheless.  

The cutest part was the little sayings they wrote with Grandma's Sharpie on rocks, sticks and a piece of tape...

" In Loving Memory of Jet"
" We hope Jet Goes to Baby Bird Heaven"
" We Love you Jet"

and my favorite...

"Never Saw the World". 
 
I'm so glad we're here enjoying the week with our extended family and also how in this unstructured time together I get another chance to see just how sweet the kids can be.

Sunday Snapshot ~ Savoring the Moment

     A couple months ago, I came across this wonderful post by Glennon on Momastery.  If you haven't read it yet,  you should.  It's a wonderful read, and talks about the many daily challenges of motherhood.   She admits that it's not every moment of every day that we treasure, but those special moments when we can put aside all the chaos around us and truly see and appreciate our children and our lives.
      Every since I read that post, I've been more aware of those special moments in my day ~ those times when the usual noise and frustrations fall away and I have a moment where I see my kids in a special light.
     So I'd like to share some of those moments.  Maybe it'll be every Sunday, maybe it'll just be when I get the chance.  And even though I realize that these posts will be more as a way for me to capture this time in our lives,  I hope they inspire you to be aware of the special moments in your day as well.

Now, after all that, here's the first moment that I'm going to share.  We've been enjoying some unseasonably warm weather this past week, with temperatures up in the 70's some days.  On Saturday afternoon, the kids went out in the backyard to play.  They'd been out there for a little while and I hadn't heard any fighting or complaining (that, in and of itself is something to savor! ;)  )  I walked out to see all three of them working together to build a "mud mountain" in the horseshoe pit.

They were just so happy there in the mud.  Maybe it was because seeing them brought back my own happy mud memories, or because the sun was shining, or because there wasn't any fighting or bickering, but I could care less about the dirty clothes and realized that this was a moment I truly wanted to savor!


How about you?  Have you had any moments like this recently?