5 On Friday

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Yesterday, my heart was broken when I heard the news that former South Africa president Nelson Mandela had passed away at the age of 95.  Mr. Mandela has often been described as a South African equalivant of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X rolled into one being.  As a person of African decent, I can't tell you how grateful I am for everything he did so that my fellow Africans back in the Motherland could have the same equality we were fighting for here in the US.

His fight to end apartheid extended far beyond just the borders of South Africa.  He was and will forever remain a symbol of hope, equality and freedom!

I've been using the signs that JJ's speech therapist taught me on Wednesday and I think he's already getting the gist of it.  I did get him to try to mimic the sign for potty.  Like this entire process, it will take him time to get used to it and learn it.  I am also making it a goal to get through week without crying about this or blaming myself.  At the end of the day, I need to maintain a positive upbeat attitude and prayer when I feel a moment of weakness coming on.  He picks up on my moods and I don't want him feeling down or discouraged as we battle his delayed speech.

While  a new laptop is at the top of my list so that I want have struggle with blogging from my Kindle and phone, my number Christmas gift would be for JJ to be able to say 'I love you'll back to us when we he tell him that we love him.  I'm telling you if I ever took hearing those three words for granted in the past, I don't now.  I think it's every mother's dream to hear her child verbalize their love and I can't but feel like I have been robbed of that enjoyment.

I am steadily making progress on my novel.  I'm writing it out the old fashion way using pen & paper and trying to type a little bit everyday in Google Drive that way when I finally get a laptop, I can just download it to MS Word.  Santa going to have to push back getting the laptop I wanted for Christmas because obviously getting a car trumps a computer right now.  I'm hoping for a blessing the disguise of a nice sum of coins coming my way.

I'm thinking about putting together a virtual yarn drive to crochet granny square & rectangle baby blankets to donate to two local charities here in the Queen City who provide supplies as well as free housing to pregnant women and new moms.  Baby blankets don't take that long to make and each one would be a one-of-a-kind labor of love.  I think with enough promotion from me and the charities, this could be successful.  And crocheting relaxes me. So, this won't feel like work and I won't have to worry about getting overwhelmed.

What do you guys think? Is this something you guys would support or donate to? Any of you readers/bloggers who crochet or knit interested in donating a baby blanket or two?  I'll see what the response is and go from there.

I stumbled across this great list of 25 Christmas Traditions to start with our with families.  I saw a couple that I want to start doing with Moo and JJ.  Having our traditions for them to look back on and share with their children is important to me.  Be sure to check out the list and cute graphics on The 36th Avenue.