Oh, what a day. What a month.

I can't believe how full it's been - full of thoughts and growing relationships - and it's felt very restful and rewarding. So after all that, why do I feel so flustered today, like I'm hanging on to the back of a train for dear life as it goes whipping down the track. This train may be going at a leisurely pace but it feels out of control to me. Hmmm. If I follow that metaphor, maybe I should climb INTO the train, sit down and look out the window. Hope I can find a door or open window somewhere.

On with the post.

I made a Quillow

I decided to make a quilt which folds into a pillow as a present for my grandmother.

I'm not sure she'll figure out the intricacies of the transformation, but I'm hoping she's liked it. I took a pic of the p(u)ilt in progress.

Nathan, Ryan, Devin and Evan are great grandsons of my Nanee, who, as seen on her pink hat cake, is 90. Wow.

The lady hiding behind the kid's heads is Paul's mom. She had her hair all done up fancy in curlers, but we decided to take pictures anyway. This shot, though her eye is missing, showcases the Grinning Happy Trio of Silliness, which might have been their motto, if indeed they had thought to have one!

We put up our tent.....

It's really big.........

The rainfly is like a BIG kite if it gets caught in the wind just so........

Son's head meets Daddy's clippers

just catching up....

Back around Easter.....

She looks so smug!

This is the mint chocolate ice cream cake with peppermint brownie. And sprinkles, cuz in our house it's just not birthday cake unless there's sprinkles!

The cake maker: Ana. Notice how good she is, she's scraping the chocolate sauce on the knife back into the container. I, on the other hand, would have scraped it right into my mouth!
Nathan wanted a picture with his monkey. My lovely little boy.

The Caledon Trail

This past Saturday, we took a small jaunt along the Caledon Trail just off of Horseshoe Hill Rd (Dixie Rd, but further north). Of all that we saw, Nathan was most impressed with the moss!
Emily was impressed with her carrier. She wasn't very interested in going on a hike with us. Maybe when the moths, butterflies and leaves come out, she'll be more interested. And if the angle looks weird to you, just think of how much I miss out on, being this short!

We found what we think are raspberry canes. Nathan took this picture.
Emily wanted to take a picture too.

Spring

The lilac bush is budding. haha. The lilac bush is budding. heehee. The lilac bush is budding. Just needed to get this picture up here, to send to a friend on facebook. She's an Amy, she understands.

Good Friday

What a festive day. We just spent some time celbrating Mom Hills and Paul's birthdays - with salmon for dinner and ice cream cake. Wow. Yum.

Hmmm....will have to take some pics....

This has been a wonderful day. One of the first I managed to maintain a Christ-aware mind throughout the whole day. Perhaps this is a sign of things to come, like spring, where my heart is blossoming in its awareness of it Creator and Saviour.

Happy Good Friday. And, thank you, Jesus.

Amy

Thought of the morning - a la Emily

"My body likes sweet stuff....but not kiwi cuz that too sour!

Ha ha. I love her trains of thoughts. She is always thinking. At this point in her sweet musings I had to redirect her attention to finishing breakfast. Otherwise she would have kept on...and on...and on, crinkling her nose and lowering her voice dramatically at every conclusion she came up with.

Another little thinker. I love her.

sometime mid-march, it was Grandma's birthday

First, we took a picture of my hairclip on Emily. She's starting to want to look like Mommy. It's really sweet.
Grandma and Grandpa brought dominoes...and a family tradition continues!

Grandma's cakes!
She really liked this card. It's so nice to make something homemade and have it appreciated. I sometimes feel self-conscious about making our cards, people call so much attention to it. I just have to stick with my little vendetta - inspiring others to choose to make things themselves, rather than relying on the big capitalistic machine to tell them what's worth giving.
Emily marches to a different drummer. We were trying so hard to get a nice snuggly picture of the three. *sigh*

We discovered that I am exactly half the age of my mother. That should make for some fun jokes this year!

This was a really fun day. We learned how simple it is to bless someone unexpectedly. We did a bit of decoration and little bit of cupcakes and a simple lunch, which all helped to make the atmosphere of birthday, but I think what made it such a blessing was the focus of Nathan and Emily as they unselfconsciously declared "Happy Birthday" and showered Mom with their sheer joy that it was her birthday and their excitement at being able to celebrate it with her. I'm learning that it's our reaction to each other that sets the tone. As celebrative as the stuff (decorations, food, planning, programming) may be, it's the outpouring of authentic, uninhibited love that touches meaningfully. All those polite, adult, socially acceptable walls are just that, walls and they hinder our ability to love each other deeply and meaningfully. I hope that I can really learn this lesson - to risk loving people with abandon. I know I have it in me. I see that I actually need to get it out of me.

The windows are open...

wow.

It's so beautiful. The birds are so chatty, the kids are so happy. Folks, I think this is it. The start of spring!

Paul's mom will arrive later tonight. Emily is full of anticipation and confusion - she wanted Gramma to come yesterday, how sweet! Howver, i have a basement full of boxes and stuff that needs to be sorted and put back in the storage area - so I'm glad she wasn't here yesterday! Must go clean,
Amy

He takes it lying down...

Whooooohoooo! Nathan is sick. Yes, I'm excited about that, but cautious at the same time - I don't want him dangerously sick.
But today he's so nice to deal with....in bed, sleepy, calmly speaking, no whining, bossing or demands. Ahhhhhhhhhh.
And Emily is happily playing on her own. I've even read a book already this morning. Now, I'd better tackle something useful - like cleaning out the storage area or reorganizing the computer area or redoing the play area. Or maybe I should do some sewing? Hmmm. I guess I could download the pics from the weekend and post.

Maybe.

*sigh*

It's so peaceful here.

We're always trying new things!

She can put her own clips in her hair! And they look beautiful! Nathan looks quite handsome too.


Last day of swimming

My little fishie. Emily grins the entire time she is in the pool. She is full of pure, unadulterated joy. It's so special!

The back float - head is nicely resting in the water. Her instructor, Jade, was so much fun. She just loved Emily and she was fantastic with all the kids.

This was the only lesson in which they got to go down the slide. I guess it was a special thing for the last day. Hmmm, when to sign her up again?

My lamp avec tea striping

So, the top and bottom of the shade are the locations of the tea colouring exercise. I'm really pleased with the result. And the simple addition of a table lamp makes the whole room so much homier. Aaaah.

C O L D.

Brrrr.

Grrr.

It's cold and I don't like it. When every inch of me is yearning for that breath of spring, arriving in the wind....to have my nostrils freeze together as a result of my inquiring sniff simply adds insult to injury!

Maybe I'll get all dressed up and burrow into the snow for a while.

On a much splashier note, Emily finished her first set of 'lessons' yesterday...she did well but will have to do salamander again...needs to work on her floats...I don't think she'll mind at all.

And I got a new lamp....I'll get a pic later....my first real, non student look lamp. Wow. God provides; I used my gift card from Christmas. I've even altered it already. It had a white shade and I pulled a tea bag around the top and bottom trim to make it a nice, well, tea colour!

Hee hee.

Amy

Pancake Tuesday!!!

Aaaaaaah. The tradition is reborn. We just said goodbye to some lovely people who shared our Pancake supper with us. Farzad is a friend of Paul from work and Pushal and Fardin are his two sons. Farzad's wife didn't join us....she finished work late and I heard that she doesn't like pancakes?!!

I made big ones for the grown up, little ones for the little ones and letters for the little ones.
THe little ones wanted the big ones, the grown ups were stuck with the little ones and after the little ones were stuffed....they eyed the letters hopefully and asked for one. Each little one got a letter but no one got the ice cream. That would have been TOO MUCH!! Hee hee. It was an incredible sight...stuffed children.

Last night, Nathan, Uncle Rob and I went skating on the bit of ice just outside of our local library. Nathan was his usual freak out-ish self until he watched Rob and I go round a few times. He then started trying to race me (step, step, step....I'm beating mommy!) and tried to catch his uncle. It's so nice to share my love of sports and outdoors with my son and so nice to have someone to share it with. Just need to work on Paul's confidence and then we can have romantic dates at Gage Park *sigh*.

Spring will come soon!

A little fashionista! What do you think? I think it's lovely but I haven't been able to find those clips since!

Swimming

THis winter we have entered the era of extracurricular activities. Nathan is learning to skate and Emily is learning to swim. Her instructor calls her "a little fishy". Yah, I knew that. We've always steered clear of water areas because she would make a determined beeline in that direction, with intent to enter - clothes and all! This is much better -the instructor is making an official invitation to enter by singing something about speckled frogs. Note the concentration...Emily is simply NOT going to miss her cue. I think she's scared Jade sometimes....she just flies off the deck when it is her turn to jump!

Now, I don't remember this when I was learning to swim. It looks like fun even now - a train!

Emily is the second one in from the left.

And then we have the farmer boy and hippie chick. Both self-attired. I just love the creativity they reveal when the dress themselves.

We're GREEN!

Ok. This next picture might look a little weird. And, it is. It is my tea bag in my new kitchen bin (thus dubbed by region of Peel). It landed there with ceremony - my hands waving in the air and I was "ah-haing" with vigour. And there were a few moments when I was jumping up and down. Paul told me to stop jumping. But I think he understands how excited I am.

I may not live in the country or have a big enough back yard for a composter but I CAN STILL COMPOST!!!!!! Yippee!! I cannot tell you how excited I am or even how much more relaxed I am living in this townhouse, since the day the green bin graced our doorstep. I'm so excited. I'm even going to splurge and get a beautiful stainless steel compost container for my countertop - gorgeous and convenient.

My head hurts. My neck hurts. I can't think. I've spent the last two days sleeping. And today, I attempted to function. Now I have a head ache. Was it worth it? Yeah. It's hard now but I got up, went out the door with the family,sat in a chair at Dean's house and we did the second Story. The kids are the highlight of storying. They love to retell it and the love to discuss it. Aahhhh. Very Nice. THen we adults did some talk about it sans kids and talk about what each couple were looking at in terms of living missionally and how we could join and encourage each other in that. Lovely. Yes, now I have a headache...but it's a small price to pay for being in the company of passionate people who are challenging me to live a life of transformational change as Jesus did.

Remember Christmas?

Look! Pictures!!! How exciting! Here are some from Christmas:

Nathan got Emily a stroller/highchair etc. combo thing for her dolls. Paul assembled it as his curious audience watched in eagerness.

The test drive went well. She scared the cat, got the dog to move and didn't open any other presents for about half and hour!

We travelled to my parent's house on Christmas day and stayed for the first part of the week. We then went to London to visit our university friends and their family.

Paul loves to read to kids. Jen and Ed were surpised to find their couch was a 6-seater!

So, I knew Paul liked crokinoe. But I didn't know he was a closet champion. It was New Year's Eve and we took a break from Carcassone. I gave Jen a massage and they played while we cheered on our men.

Emily and Julia became fast friends, with Nathan tagging along anytime he wanted to play "Home Home" with them. We all had a huge amount of fun and it tooks us a couple of weeks to recover!

All right, that it. Maybe one day I'll put together last year's outtakes. Maybe!

Ready for CAMPING!!!!

I was just thinking I should throw in a reluctant acknowledgement of the New Year....and it slowly dawned on me that there has been so much we've done and seen this year already. I must get some pictures up. No promises, though.
What momentous things have we done in the past two weeks. Well, we've had our first family games night. Boy, were the kids wired! They took an hour longer than normal to settle for bed. Maybe it was the family night treat! It's so special to build these rhythms into our family. A regular games night with a "traditional" dessert that Paul's family enjoyed when they began their family night rhythm. I find it a powerful idea to follow in an established rhythm set by a previous generation that reinforces the ideas of choosing to behave as a community and taking time to play together.
What else? Oh yes, Paul came home one night with STUFF. Some assorted plumbing things, a new phone, batteries - all spoils from the Damaged Goods sale that Canadian Tire holds for its employees. The piece de resistance was the tent. My tent.
I mean, Paul got the very tent I fell in love with and prayed for in the summer! God is so extravagent, faithful and timely. Yes, I know it's winter. However, there are daily requests by Emily for a camping excursion. Now we can plan one or ten with her this summer. We are all very happy to have a tent. It's enormous (yup, we're stuck with car camping for a while), but perfect for us.

To be continued....as I have to go hug and kiss munchkins goodnight.

What a nice Saturday at home...

Emily gave us another example of her ingenuity today. It's hard to see, but the string is threaded through the holes in the support post. Yippee, she's three!

We' ve had such a nice day today. The house is clean. Aunt Ana is here. Most of our clothes are packed for Christmas travelling. A gingerbread house was 'mantled' and dismantled (see picture below). We've had the most beautiful, restful, yet productive, day. Now there are just a few last presents to wrap. And an early start to tomorrow as I am producing.









Our first gingerbread house. Made from scratch, decorated by all. The only thing missing is the lovely smokestack that Paul created out of Ovation sticks. How fun. We had it for dessert. Not all of it! We've saved the rest for tomorrow.
That's the idea, anyway. I'm not sure why, because we still have butter cake to eat tomorrow. Oy! Christmas is so fun!

Well, must go light advent candles.
How amazing that He would come to us.

Emptying Groceries

I asked her to take the groceries out of the bag and just put them on the floor. She is such a treasure. Here's her interpretation of "on the floor". If I left her long enough, she probably would have made a tower out of the cans, too!

What a treasure.

Overheard during supper last night...

Emily : " I don't want to eat this. I don't like it."

Nathan : "If you don't eat it, then you won't grow big. Do you want to grow big?"

Emily : "Will I grow little?"

Bizarre

It's just occuring to me how ridiculous it all was. Two newlyweds, already pregnant, some shephards rattling on about vast amounts of angels in the sky and some rich guys with presents worshipping a baby that was born and placed in a feeding trough. I've spent some time trying to find the right word. One that conveys the idea of supernatural invading the natural. And the idea of how perfectly confusing yet appropriate were the circumstances of His birth. And therefore, His Death.

Foolish things that confound the wise.

I like Christmas. It makes me think.

Retail Schooling

Today we covered the subjects of math and science.
As we waited to check out at Michael's, Nathan worked on number recognition and sequence while observing the Soduku booklets (numbered 1 thru 8).
As we meandered through Home Depot, we observed the various plants which are transformed into Christmas greenery, such as rosemary trees. Nathan reviewed his Science lessons by naming the parts of an Amaryllis flower and describing what happens after a plant is pollinated (makes seeds) and how it protects it seeds (makes fruit).

This school day has been brought to you by the letter A and the numbers 1 thru 8.
We would like to thank our unwitting sponsors, Michael's and Home Depot.

Have a great day!