eSpecially Ben

Let me tell you first that this video is 21 minutes long. And it does not get all that interesting until 6 minutes into it. With that said, it is worth listening to, even if you listen while you do other work. The pictures in the presentation are not as important as the story. At the center of the story is a boy named Kenny who has several severe special needs. With the support of his parents, teachers and other people, he is able to find himself working at a chicken farm in NYC. The presenter goes on to tell stories about other people who have found their special place in this world. Thank you to Cousin Angela for sharing this with me.

At my last trip to the public library, I found a DVD of children's stories being read aloud. A story we just read,  The Man Who Walked Between the Towers  was featured. Having been only four years old when Phillipe Petit made his daring walk between the Twin Towers, I was not familiar with the story. After reading the book, our whole family was intrigued by this stunt. I snatched up the DVD and surprised the kids with it. We ended up watching this particular  DVD  at least two times. There are three other stories after The Man Who Walked Between the Towers . There are several reasons why I liked this DVD. As the narrator read the story, the words were highlighted on the screen. The camera panned over the illustrated pictures throughout the book. There were no added caricatures or moving parts. The focus was on the words and pictures and not on added frills and thrills. At some point, I realized Ben was still hanging with us. Usually, our family movie nights are interrupted by

Ben's Fish About two months ago, Sean sold his train table and used the money to purchase fish and equipment for a tank that was given to us. With some encouragement, he graciously let each family member choose something to add to the tank. All was going well until we got overzealous with cleaning the tank and altered the balance of good bacteria, causing the fish to get ich  (pronounced ick), a fish illness, caused by a change in the environment. Similar to Oscar Wilde's statement about art imitating life, this was clearly an example of the aquarium imitating life. Ben's fish, named John, was the sole survivor of our fish fiasco. Not unlike Ben, John handled the changes in the tank without stress or white spots. And if you are wondering if we flush our fish, we do not. We may be the first family with a fish cemetery. Each were buried in a pudding box with the site marked by a stone. Ryan oversaw these services and closed with a prayer. Sean chose a new fish to j