We are back...........

Apologies. Somehow lost blogger completely and have only now figured it out and all blogs are back and accounted for.
Big sigh. Kinda sad that I wasn't able to document the beginning of school and lots of events over the last two months. Not that I am a very reliable blogger anyway. Ever now and then the spirit moves me and you are the happy recipients of my jibberish.

I am just glad to have refound my blogs. Especially the China trips. To have lost those would have been sad.

So we begin again.......

Not sure why I consider September a new beginning but I do. A new season and a new school year. The big deal is Isabel starting High School and the little girls becoming seniors in grade seven at the elementary school. It just seemed to come up on us so fast!! Yesterday they were tiny girls playing with their toys on the playroom floor. Now the toys are gone or packed away and the "playroom" will become a "study". Since the girls have pretty much taken over the family room it may very well become my room.
I will have to think about that.

In any case as we take one long last lingering look back at the summer of 2009 I am sort of sad. It was a sweet time for our family but a tragic year for others and that cast a cloud over our happiness. There are times when I would just like to stop the clock or better yet turn back time. But we can't. My hope is that one day we will know the big "why" of things and understand that this is as it was meant to be and there is a reason. It is just beyond our understanding now which is so hard to grasp.

Anyhoo........not where I meant to go today. I was looking ahead and planning the future when the past crept up and bit me on the bum.

I am full of plans as usual and full of anxiety that they will never come to fruition. ( gives self big shake!!)

Here is the family I have been so richly blessed with on a beach only God could have made and that will be there long after we are gone.


Also please remember we technically have three weeks of summer left!!!!!! Get out there and enjoy it.


Vancouver was fun and the house is not much further along. I have moved a ton of stuff to my bedroom to use as a sort of staging area and it looks like I am sleeping in some weird junk shop. Honestly there are lampshades and all sorts of art pieces and hardware and paint cans. It is pretty scarey..............Derek has moved into the guest room.

The plan........and there always is a plan........is to get busy once the girls are back in school.
Hardy, Ha, Ha.

Another little adventure....

One more day and we are off to Vancouver for four days.
The weather is beautiful.

The house is coming along nicely. Before we leave tomorrow we will be having our carpets cleaned upstairs.
They can dry nicely sans benefit of three little girls running all over them while we are away. Tuesday I plan to put all the furniture back where it belongs and to hang all of our photos and art back on my beautiful pale yellow walls.

I plan to hit IKEA and a few other places for a number of items to "fluff" the girls rooms and our new "study"..........our former
"playroom". In my minds eye I can still see tiny pet shop animals and playmobil towns all over that room and 3 happy little girls playing for hours. Like a ghost in the room.

Will post before and afters when done.

Isabel is at the rec centre doing her Bronze Star lifesaving course. The other girls are 1) still sleeping or 2) playing the Wii
upstairs. Derek is running. I am planning. Will be packing today, getting pre school haircuts, and baking upside down cakes with the plums from our backyard tree.

I feel so free with six days of no work in front of me and the city to explore.

First Job.........

Isabel got her first job this summer. She is a babysitter. My baby is now officially watching other babies. I am very proud of her and she is learning the value of earning........and spending.... money. She is also spending time with our sweet friend Mary Anne and hopefully she will be with her for years. She will be a great role model and it is a win win situation from which both will benefit. She had taken the Red Cross babysitting course and has had life saving in her swim classes. She is doing very well.
Hard to get my head around her being such a grown up girl.............and so beautiful and smart.

Beth and Grace are watching from the side lines and are eager for their employment to start........and all the benefits that brings.
Perhaps word will spread that we have three great little workers and who knows.......Beth has earned a few dollars pet sitting across the road at our neighbours. Good girl. Now we have to find Grace some work altho' she is still pretty busy with her karate.

The dynamic in our house is changing again with these lovely young women.

How blessed are we?

Ya' got that right........

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

We have had a beautiful summer. Lots of pretty days, lots of activities and time together and whole days of just doing nothing
and enjoying no schedule and no deadlines.

But we have had a shadow over us too and lots of soul searching and wondering why?

Sometimes there are just no answers and things just are. Part of the big picture that maybe someday we will understand.

I will try to be a good person and to be sweet and appreciate the gifts I have been given.

I will try to enjoy the rest of the summer and the freedom and my girls and my home and my life.

Amen.

A sad week....

This is Ashlyn. She was 2 1/2 years old and the daughter of my friend. She had the croup and was getting better. She stopped breathing and had a cardiac arrest in her home. Yesterday her parents had to watch as she was taken off life support and allowed to pass with peace and dignity in the arms of those who loved her the most. I can not begin to imagine what waking up this morning feels like for them. Please send your prayers.

Ashlyn rest in peace sweet baby girl and go with God.

It's the most wonderful time of the year........

See the beautiful beach in my header? We are going there tomorrow for our annual visit. This year we are one week later going and only staying for one instead of two weeks. We are kinda sad about that............but we are going to enjoy it for every second we are there. It is our seventh year and I can't see us ever not going. We are in love with this place and I only wish we owned a little of it but no one every sells and can you blame them?

We begin by baking a cake to celebrate the 4th of July..........cousin Emily is American and it is our little homage to her. We decorate it with fresh blueberries and strawberries and it is a win win situation. She gets her celebratory cake and we get to eat it.

Happy 4th to all our American buddies!