My Sister's Serendipity: Snugglins

Every Sabbath afternoon I Skype with my mom and sister.  Almost four months ago during one of our regular Sabbath afternoon Skype chats, my sister, Dawn, mentioned a brainstorm she’d had for a new product.  It was an animal-shaped bean bag with an attached blanket.  She can—and likely will—share her story of how she came up with the idea, but what she wanted to know was if I’d ever heard of a similar product.  She wanted to patent the idea and copyright the name--Snugglins, but wanted to be sure it hadn’t already been done.  The idea sounded interesting and when she showed me the prototype for her product, a kangaroo beanbag with a pouch perfect for snuggling in, it proved ingenious.  

The idea was so brilliant, I figured someone must have done it.  It’s a terrible thing to say but one tends to think audaciously inventive new products are created by magical strangers, not people you actually know.  But as it turns out this amazing new product is my sister’s creation and I couldn’t be prouder.

So what makes the Snugglin’s concept special?

Creativity:  The idea of attaching a soft blanket to a cozy bean bag to make the perfect nest to snuggle up in with a good book (or your favorite device) is innovative in and of itself.  But it’s the execution that really stands out.  Dawn came up with whimsical, charming ways to incorporate the blanket into each unique Snugglin.  Of course theres the pouch of the Kangaroo, and wings of the ostrich, bat, and cardinal.  But there’s also the tail of the peacock, the pig’s mud blanket, and the “water” that shoots of the elephants trunk to create a cozy aquatic wrap.  There’s also the legs of the large birds that serve as a storage stand. One remarkable aspect of this artistic approach to her chairs, is her willingness to take custom orders.  She told me that she loves the custom orders because they give her opportunity to continue creating.

"Desi" the camel started out as a custom order.  One of my sister's customers wanted a double beanbag so that she could hang out with her son in their Snugglin.  This awesome couch of a camel is the result!

Craftsmanship:   One of the things I love about Snugglins is their lifelike appearance.  Rather than stick with a simple, cartoonish design that I’ve seen on other animal-style bean bags, Dawn chose to create creatures that feel like they could come alive.  Her attention to detail is fantastic from the gorgeous, long eyelashes on the giraffe to the sparkling sequins embedded in the peacocks tail, each  Snugglin is a work of art. 

Quality:  Snugglin’s are not factory-made.  Instead each one, is hand-crafted by Dawn.  Rather than choose one type of fabric, buy it in bulk, and make multiple animals with only slight variation in material and design, she selects materials based on what she needs for each Snugglin.  I’m not sure how she’ll keep this up as her business inevitably scales up, but I do know that she is committed to being involved in and overseeing every aspect of her business right down to the tags on each Snugglin.  I have no doubt that this care and  attention to quality will remain long after Snugglins have become a household name.

"Ossie" the Ostrich on his storage stand and snuggling up to his pal below

Be sure to Like Snugglins on Facebook  and check out the Snugglins website to place your order to snuggle into your very own Snugglin.

Days of Elijah

"Behold He comes. . ."

There are moments that happen without warning and end just as abruptly.  You realize you're experiencing something truly special and you want to hold on to it and never forget it.

One such moment happened back in early May when Barbara and Ezra went down to Dayton for her Uncle Jim's funeral.  We didn't want Elijah to miss school and I couldn't take off work so it was just the two of us for two days.  That evening after school, we were in the kitchen listening to some songs he liked.  He asked to hear "10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)" by Matt Redman, and as the song started playing we both started singing along.  We both knew the words and sang fervently.  It was a moment of impromptu worship--father and son, singing our hearts out to the Father and Son and Spirit.  I'd never shared anything like that with my oldest before and I treasured it, even in the moment.

When that song was done, Elijah asked to hear one of his favorites, "Days of Elijah" and we sang that one together too.  I'm not sure why Elijah likes that song so much (though I'm sure having his name in the title has something to do with it!), but I know why it's come to mean so much to me.

I first heard this praise and worship standard as I walked into the Worthington Adventist Church one Sabbath when my colleague Tamaria Kulemeka was leading in worship.  She was belting out this tune with the infectious joy that she always has, and the song became an immediate favorite of mine.  But "Days of Elijah" became truly close to my heart in the hard, dark days immediately after my father-in-law died.  Throughout that time, whenever the family traveled, my brother-in-law Matt drove the Leen women in his car, and I followed with the boys in our car.  I drove the boys to the visitation, to the church for the funeral, and in the funeral procession to the cemetary and then back to the church.  Sometime during those drives, we started listening to "Days of Elijah."  The boys kept asking for it, and in truth, it soothed my ragged, grieving soul.  The joy in the song took on a fierceness, determination to hold on to hope, even in the face of death. It reminded me, that indeed even as we followed the hearse to the cemetery, there still is "no God like Jehovah." It reminded me that the day is near when "behold He comes, riding on the clouds, shining like the sun" and then even death will be powerless before Him.



It's not the kind of music Dad enjoyed, but I can't help but think of him every time I hear it.  I think of seeing him again, at the trumpets call.  And on this first Father's Day without my father-in-law, I can't wait for the day when we'll both "lift our voices, it's the year of jubilee," for "out of Zion's hill salvation comes."

We have two versions of the song and we generally listened to both versions back to back while we drove around together.  One is the version by Twila Paris embedded above.  The other is the live Donnie McClurkin version below:

Memorial Day

Hyde Park square in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio.  Babs last sat in this little park with Dad, Elijah, and Ezra on a beautiful afternoon last summer.  This was her first time back since he died.

For some time, Babs had been contemplating taking her first pilgrimage to Cincinnati since her father's death last Thanksgiving.  The Cincinnati Pilgrimage has long been a part of the Leen family tradition, at least in the 20 years I've known them.  I blogged one such Pilgrimage during a Christmas visit to Ohio right after Elijah was born.

In recent years during the summer while Mom Leen was at work and I was away on the class trip or some school conference, Babs, Dad, and the boys had begun taking an extended version of the Pilgrimage that included the Cincinnati Art Museum. For a long time, Dad seemed able to take or leave the Pilgrimage, but in the last years of his life, he came to really look forward to these trips, even asking Barbara when they were going to go to Cincinnati.  Those beautiful summer days are some of Babs' most treasured memories of her time with her dad, and I know they meant a lot to him too.

Naturally, it was with no small amount of anxiety that Babs considered returning there for the first time without him.  She didn't want an audience or the hassle of the children for the first visit, but she didn't want to exactly go alone either. So I agreed to accompany her, and less than two weeks before what would have been Dad's 92nd birthday, on a sunny Sunday morning, we headed down to Cincinnati.  It was Memorial Day weekend, as fitting a time as an any to spend some time remembering Dad.

I expected our journey to be sad, and there were tears from time to time throughout. But what I didn't expect was how peaceful the trip turned out to be.  I've always been the type of person to have a book or magazine at hand, and with the advent of the internet and mobile technology my desire to always be engaged is constantly being met.  I almost never take the time to "just be" as Barbara likes to call it.  But on this sojourn, I took the time to just be with my thoughts.  I won't say I never took out the phone to review my daily Huffington Post, The Week, and Rolling Stone updates and Facebook feed, but those moments were rare.  I spent a lot more time, just being quiet.  And it was deeply restful, rejuvenating, wonderful.

First Stop: The childhood home on Broadview

The next stop was green and tranquil Alms Park.  The last time Barbara visited Alms Park, she and her dad brought pizza from LaRosa's for the boys and let them eat a picnic lunch at the table below before they ran off to play

We sat here for a long while together, just remembering Dad.  Then Babs took some time alone, while I waited in the car.

Alms Park overlooks a small commuter airport.  I love to just sit and watch, keeping an eye out for a plane coming in for a landing or taking off.

One of the old-fashioned, pedal-operated drinking fountains at Alms Park.  The water is cold and delicious.

After Alms Park we headed over to LaRosa's for lunch.  Green olive and onion pizza and a side of buffalo wings. If Dad had been here, he likely would have declined to order anything. But that was par for the course any time we went out to eat.  He came for the fellowship.  We missed that.

After LaRosa's it was on to Graeter's in Hyde Park.  Dad would definitely have ordered something here.

We  ended our day in Hyde Park square, eating our ice cream across from the bench where Babs last shared this special time with her Dadi.  There was a woman sitting on the bench, reading, almost the entire time we were there.  It would not have honored Dad to ask her if we could have the bench; that wasn't his way.  So we sat, enjoying each other's company and missing Dad. There was sadness to the day for sure, but beyond that also beauty and peace.

A little less than two weeks later, on Dad's birthday, June 5, 2015 we returned as a family to Cincinnati to spend the day. Like our earlier visit, it was less a celebration and more a remembrance.  I'm sure there will be more Pilgrimages in the future.  They will never be the same without him there, but they also will contain a similar bittersweet joy to our Memorial Day weekend visit, because those familiar places will bring to mind beautiful memories of the times we shared with him.

The boys on the long concrete slide at Alms Park. June 5, 2015. I played with them at the park while Barbara, Jenny, and their mom toured the houses.  We then completed the rest of the Pilgrimage together, and then I took the boys home, while the Leen women went on to the cemetery back in Dayton to spend some time at Dad's grave.