A Snowy New Year's Eve

As a follow up to yesterday's post... December 31st...

We went tobogganing today. It was apparently -20 degrees Celcius with the wind... thankfully didn't feel quite so frigid, but what a change from yesterday's mild walk in the new snow! This is just the beginning of much more snow to come! I don't think I've ever seen such a fluctuation in snow conditions in the span of 7 days! (see my last post!)

Happy New Year!

What's with the weather?

This has been the weirdest couple of weeks in terms of the weather... we've had over a week solid of blizzards and cold winds, then it got milder out and the kids got out to play with the perfect snow to make a snowman...

Dec. 24th - Snowman is built

It rained that night on our way to our family Christmas Eve party, then switched to a crazy blizzard (zero visibility on the roads!) on the way home just a few hours later...

Dec. 28th - What's left of Snowman after it rained all day on the 27th

Dec. 30th - And it begins again!

Big beautiful fluffy snowflakes fell today covering the earth with a blanket of snow again - no wind - just a mild awesome day for a peaceful walk in the snow with the girls! Looked like the first snow of the year though with the crazy thaw we had a couple of days ago!

More snow is to come this week... Who knows what my backyard will look like a week from now... it seems to be changing drastically on a daily basis! One thing is certain - I'm sure we'll have a lot more shovelling to do in the driveway before winter is out! This is just the beginning! (It's a good thing I'm a good Northern girl who loves the snow and I don't even mind the shovelling! The kids get out to play while we get a good workout!)

Globe-trotting at Christmas

I just realized that my family is spread literally in the 4 corners of the globe this Christmas! I have a brother living and working in Australia with his wife, celebrating their 2nd summery Christmas down under. I have another brother coming off an oil rig on the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan, then meeting up with his girlfriend in Frankfurt, Germany to head down to Zambia where they'll spend Christmas with my cousin just before her African wedding next month (last year they were in Australia for Christmas!). Then there's my mother-in-law in South America for the month of December working with Corina at El Jordan in Santa Cruz, Bolivia as they do regularly, helping young people and their families to get off the streets and working with the boys orphanage up the road. In the intense heat, they are helping to prepare and deliver the Christmas hampers for the El Jordan students and other needy families as well as the meals that will get delivered to over 1000 people all over the city for the annual "Christmas on the Streets".

One day, I would love to join my mother-in-law on one of their trips to Bolivia to help in the work down there and to meet some of the people I've heard so much about over the years... I have dreamed of visiting my brother in Australia before they move back home (we miss them dearly!) ... and it would be amazing to visit my cousin in Lusaka, Zambia where she has created a life and home for herself working in sports & rec... But for now, I am thankful for my cozy home in our snowy corner of Canada. I love my white Christmas and all my globe-trotting family members are in my prayers as they travel over the holidays! I'll miss them all this Christmas! Merry Christmas and safe travels! Here's a taste of what you're missing!




(okay, that picture is from last December, but its looking just like that today... we've got quite the storm blowing in! Just couldn't be bothered to get out to take a picture just now!!)

School Christmas Fun!

We just had a different kind of Christmas party at my daughter's school yesterday afternoon. The grade 1 class invited their parents (and younger sibblings) to the school for an afternoon of tobogganing, hot chocolate and cookies, a brief performance by the students and a craft. We had a blast! What a change from the regular Christmas recital that the entire school has put on in the past where parents are fighting for parking (which is nonexistant), fighting for seats (which are limited in the hot and overcrowded gym) and as a result fighting to see our dear wee ones at the front when it's their class' turn to perform their two songs...

Instead, this year we got to enjoy a relaxing and fun afternoon, had fun in the snow, got to see Julia sing up close in the classroom as the class performed their two songs - her shy and proud looks all wrapped into one as she did the actions to the songs... (you can't see that from the back of the packed gym!) Then we had fun doing the craft as family team work, with Emma cutting the pieces to be glued, Julia enjoying painting the glue on and me holding the snowman and dealing with the glue gun (a first for this non artsy girl!) - Daddy at home allowing the baby to have her afternoon nap! (See our craft below... ours is the colourful one on the right!)



All and all, a great afternoon and a welcome change from the school's past Christmas celebrations, this being more focussed on quality time with our kids instead of the distracting stresses of there being a lack of parking, seats and patience (evident everywhere)! Wonderfully refreshing and something that I hope to do more of in the new year... focussing more on not letting those special moments with my family slip by instead of letting the stresses and "to-do lists" of my days keeping me too busy that they so easily get crowded out... I must constantly be intentional about how I spend my minutes and hours in my days! I'm excited about a relaxing Christmas break at home and a New Year with a few more changes to our busy family schedule to further simplify life!

Many blessings to you and your family this Christmas and in the New Year!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I love this time of year! I have to admit, that I wasn't quite ready to start decorating as early as my daughters were with so many other loose ends I was hoping to wrap up first... which led to a not as "magical" gingerbread house experience... I was in the middle of something else, but this COULDN'T wait!!!! The walls weren't staying up with all the little hands in there... the icing wasn't cooperating too well... my frustration levels were up and I could hear a little voice telling me that this isn't quite how this moment is supposed to be!! It's supposed to be a wonderfully fun loving bonding experience with the kids! Well, I blew it with my impatience on that one last weekend... but now that I've knocked many things off my list that had my head spinning, I've regrouped and am back in the swing of things!



We came back to the gingerbread house to decorate it - much more pleasant experience! We got the lights up on the house and the tree up... This has always been one of my favourite parts of Christmas! As a Northern Ontario girl, I grew up going out in the ski-doo (snowmobile) or on snow shoes with my sibblings to find the "perfect" Charlie Brown tree in the bush to bring home... (you see, not too many trees out in the actual forest look perfect... there were always big bald spots in the trees leaving extra room for dangling decorations... or we'd have to hide that side in the corner to hide it... but we (the kids and my dad anyway) loved our trees! We were mad the first year my mom bought one, well at least I was!) Regardless, the smell, the sticky sap, trimming it down to fit in the house, then trying to get it to stand straight, first stringing the lights, then the mish mash of ornaments we'd collected over the years - home made and bought ... I've always loved every bit of putting up the Christmas tree! My parents used to wait until the last few days before Christmas for us to come home from school to take part in the tradition each year! It brings back fond memories with my sibblings (and many ski-doos stuck in the snow!)




Unsure of whether we were staying put or heading off to visit family this year... up went the artificial pre-lit tree ... (tough for this northern girl to admit... but to my surprise it looks pretty good!) It's decorated with our own mish mash of ornaments collected over the years - some gifts, some bought, some made by the kids - or by us as kids!... Julia would get annoyed at her younger sister for putting 3 ornaments on the same branch, but for some reason, no fighting could get to me that day... (unlike the gingerbread house experience... which is foreign to me growing up!)... this is different... I just soaked it in and enjoyed doing that with the girls - bringing back lots of memories... I do look forward to having a real tree in the house again! (I miss the smell! I guess I'll have to light candles this year - not the same... I know...), regardless, the tradition lives on in our family (minus the heading off into the bush... I don't think it'll ever be quite like that again! Tree farms with their perfectly manicured trees just aren't the same - even if you do get to cut it down yourself! - and no, I've never felt guilty about cutting down a tree for Christmas... I've planted thousands upon thousands of trees during my university years as a summer job!)


I always find such a void in January when all the decorations are gone... the house looks so EMPTY! For now, it's warm and awesome! Still a work in progress, but it's coming and I love it ;)

It's quiet...

Have you ever had those moments where your head is spinning, you have so many things on your list of things to do, nothing seems to be getting done and you don't even know where to start? Add to that 3 kids' school, nap and day schedules which limit the amount of time you have to accomplish anything... I have a bedroom half painted... not sure when I'll get the second coat on the first two walls done... let alone paint the other two walls at all (which will involve some heavy lifting to move a desk and shelving unit out first...). Then there are the boxes in the basement to sort through (that we've been dragging around for a few years in our "temporary moves"...) We're staying put now and the basement is newly finished... so it's time to sort and purge! Oh and that reminds me of the baseboards I still have to finish painting around the main room down there... then there's reorganizing the girls rooms (once the painting is done of course) so that we can make room for the crib for the baby and finally get her out of her basinnette (which she's quickly outgrowing!). And my girls just can't wait to take out the Christmas decorations... let's just say that the gingerbread house that my mother-in-law brought over last night wasn't as joyful an experience as it could have been today with my head spinning and exhaustion hitting! Now they want the tree up, the decorations out... and all I can think of is needing to get things in their place first and get a handle on the clutter and the post-construction chaos before taking more things out!

I wish I had a solid week to myself... or maybe even just two days in a row... wow... imagine what I could accomplish! For now, I've got a few moments here or there... thankful that my husband took the older kids out to play for a few hours... I didn't get to nap like I hoped (which I never do but badly needed today!) because the baby woke up (typical!)... but I have been enjoying some quietness in the house (I've got a happy baby ;) TV off, floors vaccuumed, at least the main floor feeling more in order... Peace... For the moment... I just won't venture downstairs or open my eyes too wide when I go upstairs and see my unfinished paint job and the piles of clothes here and there from my 3-year old who is forever emptying her dresser drawers and toy bins and the drawer full of hair ties and clips... unloading her "treasures" off STUFF into whatever bags and containers she can get her hands on, which I later find all over the house and need to sort through and put away AGAIN... Okay, I'm getting worked up just thinking about it...

Back to my quiet living room... I'll just enjoy the peace for now! The girls are about to run back in the door with daddy... back to reality! I love my girls and I'm excited to be finally settling into our home more... today is just one of those days when I wish I had the time alone to get everything done YESTERDAY! At this very moment, I'm too tired to be sorting out boxes and don't have time to start painting... so here I find myself enjoying peace and doing a bit of typing... I guess I should suck it up, stop procrastinating and at least get to that basket of laundry now that needs folding... I think it's going to be an early night tonight! (as long as the baby cooperates of course!) Oh, she's up now... I guess the laundry will have to wait... AGAIN!

Wisdom from Bees?

I just watched the Bee Movie with Jerry Seinfeld. There were lots of great lines in there that got me thinking... The movie starts off with this narration (which also appears in print on the screen)... I just had to write this down...

"According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly.
It's wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground.
The bee, or course, flies anyway.
Because bees don't care what humans think is impossible."

I just love that! So typical of us to think that we know everything - have an answer and an explanation for everything and think that we can determine what is possible and impossible. I started looking up a few Bible verses about the possible and the impossible and I found a recurring theme of the impossible only being possible with God...

At one point, a man comes to Jesus asking Him, if it's at all possible, to heal his son who has been having seizures since childhood ("if you can" he says)... Jesus' response: "If you can? Everything is possible for him who believes." (Mark 9:23) Who are we to limit what God can do when we come to Him and ask in faith!

Mark 10:27 "With man this [being saved] is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."

Jeremiah 32:17 "Ah Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you."

Philippians 4:13 "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."

Then there's Hebrews 11:6 "Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."

Human wisdom... an oxymoron? I'm thinking so! I love that James 1:5 assures us that if any of us lacks wisdom, we should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to us. And with that and the knowledge that all things are possible with God... there is hope for us yet!