One Part Inspiration...

It's time for my annual look back at the year that was. 2014   Boy did I ever underestimate it! When 2014 dawned, I thought - 'We don't have any major events to mark the calendar.  It's time to take a break - have a quiet year- coast for a bit. Why did I think that, you ask?  Well, 2013 had been a year of milestones - big birthdays, graduations, weddings, anniversaries.  We had run the gamut of celebrations.  As I said, it was a big year. I couldn't have been more wrong about  2014 .  Sure, we coasted, but it was more like a Roller Coaster. It was a year of celebrations.  It was a year of new beginnings.  It was a year of the unexpected. And so, in no particular order - here it is....(cue orchestra).....                                   2014 One of my favourite things about 2014 was the unexpected suggestion from my husband that we pl...

This is a week which I have anticipated for 9 months.  [No I am not pregnant.]  This little (now taller-than-all-of-us) guy is crossing the stage and graduating from high school.  I have seen my son approach this passage of time and there has been such a mixture of memories flooding in. Baby memories -   *How content he was - if he was crying, it meant something needed immediate attention.  *The hospital crib trying to catch his breath when he had RSV. *Watching his older brother and sister from his car seat. *Being content in his high chair with having a  pickle to suck on  while his mother raced around trying to make supper.  *How he conquered the milestones without the fanfare - like the day I noticed he was rolling over on his own in the middle of a crazy busy day.  *Crawling into bed with us poor, tired, just-can't move-to -take -him-to-his-own-bed-parents, every night until well after he was four because we had such a 'lovely bed'. ...

Canadian Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  I have been busy at work, getting together some programs to celebrate.  And, as in every year while I'm doing this, I am reminded again of the way gratitude transforms. So I am starting on a little project of my own. I cannot promise a certain number of posts on this, but I am going to focus on expressing gratitude for the next little while, until we finish eating the turkey dinner! One of the things I have been most grateful for in the past six weeks is the unprecedented number of dry, sunny days we have had.  It's been a chance for the garden to have another 'go-round' - my hanging baskets which are not stellar by this point of the year, have started a second life.  The poppy which normally blooms in spring, has bloomed again.  Gorgeous. More than that though, it has meant not having to worry about the furniture being moved in and out while the flooring went down. Which brings me to my new favour...

I'm feeling all nostalgic today. It's this little guy's sixteenth birthday. The time has flown by. From the beginning, he has been a joy. He is not a person who is easily panicked. He takes life in, and turns it over in his mind and sometimes that is where it stays; other times, he comes out with the most captivating observations. Always good at drawing, he would substitute drawing in the air, if he didn't know the name of things. "Mom, where's the whift whift whift [sound of his finger drawing in the air]" and if I could figure out the shape, I would know where to help him find it. This year, he got a stellar 98.2% in art. This is one of his pieces. He is the third child, and had to spend more time watching than being invited to play. And he couldn't get a word in edgewise, if he had wanted to,because the others in the family were so busy talking. One day I was explaining the concept of a credit card to his brother. I used the example of a c...

I've been slowly putting things away which are hanging about aimlessly. They have come from the boxes packed up, when moving from the farm. For some reason, the files marked 'Family' didn't make it back into the storage box that go in the long, narrow, scrunch-down-to-reach-it, storage area upstairs at The Pokeaway. So, in a quiet moment this week, I brought the whole thing to the dining room table, and took a few trips down memory lane. Those two files document family life as it was more than ten years ago, both for my own family and for my extended family. There was the composition my brother wrote, around the death of our mom, and poems by my niece about her. I found letters written by Mom when she was so bravely fighting cancer. There were little articles she sent along - usually writing on the back of them "I thought of you when I saw this." I also found letters written by other family members. My oldest sister who talked about the puppy which was drivin...

This probably looks like a million other pictures which have been taken at a million other ceremonies. For me, it was one in a million. One can't help but reflect on the many steps it took, to see him walk down the aisle. Time has passed, like a big run on sentence. Meet the teacher.....first day of school....."How was it son"....wipe a 'I-can't believe-he-is-already-in-school' tear away...wait for the bus...watch him get on the bus...wave...begin the journey of assemblies...awards ceremonies...concerts..... Parent-Teacher meetings...Parent Advisory Council meetings.....fund raiser meetings.... fairs.... Science Fairs...... Fun Fairs...Book Fairs........Meet the Teacher Nights.....fund- raising- dinners- so -your- kid- can- go- to- Gr.- Seven- camp -nights.....hot lunches......dropping a fast food lunch off at the school, when you suddenly realize you don't have any groceries in the house... making lunches.... ..getting phone calls about leaving lu...

Day One: Thanksgiving is around the corner. I was thinking how much I enjoyed posting last year's lists of thankfulness, so thought I'd do it again. I'll try not to repeat myself - so that you won't have a case of deja-vu. Today, I am looking back to what I was thinking just a year ago about the direction that we would take as a family. I could not have anticipated the adventure that we are about to take. The housing market had been rising, and the interest rates were high. We were restless but had no clear direction as to what we should be doing. Many conversations took place about possibilities. We batted around so many, I lost track of which ones were serious and which ones were purely fantastical. Then the way opened up for us to buy the "Pokeaway". (You pokeaway at this, and you pokeaway at that). And now, just as Thanksgiving rolls around, I am thanking God for the opportunity to have a place where the wind whispers through the willows, where th...

Mrs. Hansman was a friend of my Mom's. She made this book for me many moons ago, when I was just five years old. She understood little girls get restless in church and need something to do, other than kick the pew in front of them. The outside is leather( ette ?) and each page held something different. When I first got it, the flower smelled of perfume. I used to spend lots of time switching the hands on the clock to make it say different times. I took the felt dog out of his house and pretended he was eating from the dish. Then I would make him walk back into his house. He had a leash made of yarn. Sometimes I would make up little stories in my head about him. The dog no longer lives in the house. He fell victim to too many trips back and forth for food. I especially loved this pocket. I would zip and unzip it, pretending to be surprised at the contents - a little book to read to myself while the pastor expounded on the theological aspects of the genealogical order of Adam's ...