Christmas sightings

Dutch croquettes...good thing i made them when i did because one day later my house got a little bit nuttier~ like extra crazy (think two and three year old additions, E&H).

yes~ croquettes and poinsettias make me happy.  so traditional and wonderful...

rolo pretzels with Lay...

the mantle...extra full this year, matching our hearts.  

more on that soon, because i want to remember the chaos of this season too. 

wishing you a Merry Christmas with more of the true and lasting free Gift of Christmas in your life this year~ Jesus!  not sure what that means for you?  don't hesitate to ask me or someone else who would be happy to share the reason for the Hope we have.  

hugs from me to you...enjoy this time with friends and family!

    

room

can't help but enter this Christmas season with thoughts about "room" on my mind.  room~ like having room...you know?  we all recall the first Christmas story, yet some years different aspects stand out to me in new and amazing ways (i'm thankful for that!)...yes, there was the wee baby King, Saviour of the fallen world, the promised Messiah, born among the most primitive and basic furnishings and lowliest surroundings~ placed in a manger, within a humble stable, cold and dark.  no fanfare, no satin sheets, no press release, no royal welcome.  his magnificent arrival, however, was not before his travel-weary parents had been told by the keepers of the inns of Bethlehem "sorry, we have no room".  it has me thinking~ what if they had known, what if the inn keepers had understood the magnitude of that refusal, "sorry, no vacancy"?  what if they'd grasped that the opportunity to host the greatest, most divine and life-altering event was there, standing right in front of them in the form of the virgin Mary, great with child?  goodness knows they'd probably have found a way to make it happen, and inconvenienced themselves even by offering their own personal place of rest to share in the arrival of baby Jesus.  somehow, someway, they'd surely have found room!  wouldn't they?  but they missed it.  they didn't know...

makes me wonder how many times i've missed the opportunity to make room for the presence of Jesus in my own life.  the busy pace, the schedules, the lists, the important, well-intentioned things we do that often crowd our life with good and purposeful things and people and plans~ and i wonder~ did i miss Him today?  did i fail to open my hands, my doors, my heart to the people, the causes, the needs that matter most to Jesus?  to His very children who long to be invited in to feel the welcoming arms of acceptance and care and love extended to them?  

Christmas has me thinking this year especially.  i want to live more open handed, arms extended, eyes lifted in a manner that says "God, what have you got for me today?"  where can i make room in my life for more of that perspective, because i'm certain that those places, those occasions, those opportunities bring me closest to the heart of Jesus.  without a doubt.  i suppose it's a daily life approach that displays a gratitude for the grace shown to us, and then offers out grace generously to the needs all around us.  all the time.   

that's really what Christmas is about~ re-gifting The Gift given to us!  making room even when it's inconvenient.  i want more of that.  

broccoli anyone??

if this doesn't give you the heebie jeebies, nothing will.  you are unshakable and basically fearless.  congratulations.  you deserve a medal.

 me, on the other hand~ totally weak in the knees and in need of an instant nap after my discovery and capture of this terrifying arachnid... 

yes, this is the very shiny, blackest of black, slinky and ominous Black Widow spider who emerged from the bag of broccoli i ripped open one day as i prepped for supper a couple weeks ago.  this fella was very much alive and unfazed by the three days it had spent trapped in a plastic bag in my fridge.  it emerged from its hiding place deep in the florets to the open air with purpose and total creepiness, right there on my kitchen island.  i wanted to list the house right then and there, just pick up and go, wash my hands of all of it.  instead, i kind of went into robot mode.  instantly aware that ignoring it wasn't an option, and putting up a "for sale" sign and making a beeline for a remote location probably wouldn't work long-term either, i decided to fake calm levelheadedness in front of my two boys.  i kept my eyes peeled on the horrific sight before me and called to Hudson to grab an empty yogurt container.  he did.  i put it near the spider and thankfully it scurried right in.  i secured the lid and quickly took it outside to sit on our back step.  then i breathed deeply...thankful this spider hadn't gone unnoticed and feeling pretty proud of my stellar spider wrangling skills and my protective instincts for my kids.  i really felt this had warranted the "mother of the year" award.  whatever.

and one last look at another angle....see the red hourglass on its belly???

you can click on the photo to enlarge, but then again, why would you want to?

moral of the story...perhaps you might want to soak/wash your broccoli before cutting it?  or have some gloves handy?  or never eat broccoli again, because that wouldn't really be the worst thing, would it?

she's back

this is a "deeper than the surface" type of post for me.  a time i really want to remember...i guess i just have lots of thoughts about this one seemingly simple thing~ Joelle's return to wrestling.  this has all been her choice, actually (like really, 100%,  no pressure from her dad) and after almost two years off recovering from elbow injuries and surgery, she is well aware of the risks that accompany her return to the sport she loves, this time at a university level.  even still, armed with a sturdy elbow brace, prayers from her mother and a year of self-initiated strengthening (and a giant portion of courage~ aka "guts") she set out to train and wrestle with a solid group of McMaster wrestlers and a really great coach who is sensitive to protecting her arm and helping her become better and stronger.  

we recognize this is still no guarantee, so for now we are cherishing "the return" right alongside her, and have been so blessed to see three recent tournaments within a few hours from home.  she now says she remembers how grueling the sport is and how far she'd still like to go... 

she's brave and showing more of her typical grit each match.  she's persisting in the many hours of practice each week, often more than once a day.  i love her "not gonna let life pass me by" attitude.  i doubt that i'd have had such determination or courage.  i'm super proud of her for grabbing hold of life and loving it as she does...and wherever this road leads, we're on it with her.

my runners

almost annually i post something about my dedicated cross country runners.  (i'm a bit behind on this, and still doing my October wrap-up it seems.  at least that's consistent! :))  always proud of their willingness to commit to doing something hard that tests their will and strength and endurance.  

the boys made it to district level with top five finishes at the city meet...

pretty strong and supportive fan base, always means so much!

 Layla also qualified from the city meet to compete at SWOSSAA in Windsor.  she worked so hard and pushed through cold rain and hills and plantar fasciitis too.  she also was the only grade nine girl from her entire school who joined the team.  

below~ race strategy contemplation pre-race maybe? 

just a reminder that clicking on the pictures does enlarge them :)

Adam would have joined as well, but chose volleyball which shares the same season as cross country, and if i was a better mom i'd have pictures of him on the court, but somehow i missed that opportunity altogether.  i must have been living completely in the moment~ yes, we'll go with that excuse!  he also had fun and has improved so much~ which is no less courageous considering he's taken an interest in a sport he has very limited experience in and joined a group of guys who can display literal volleyball magic on the court~ so skilled for sure.  i'd be afraid to face their serves and spikes.  not Adam. 

you know what comes next by now~ winter wrestling! my favourite! 

apple hunting

a few weeks back, right at the tail end of apple picking season, the boys and i squeezed in a fun excursion to locate some apples for the family.  we knew it was nearing the end of "u pick" but were told there was still apples to be found in the orchard, so off we went.

it didn't start out very promising as good-sized healthy looking apples were hard to come by and we were just about to give up on ever filling our three bags. 

until then~ that moment we spotted the Ida Red row of apple laden trees, its branches heavy with large, healthy red apples just waiting for our eager hands to pry them free and load up our bags.

   it was quick work then, and before we could say "applesauce" we were all loaded up with apples galore, even our pockets!

 

some pretty cute helpers i had :)

so it's been fun to turn these apples into sauce and pies and crisps! the kids are a huge fan of all things apple, so that always helps too.  will have to do this again next year and try to get there a few days earlier! love this time of year!

national adoption month

no doubt this is a month near and dear to me, to us~ this family of ours.  adoption has shaped us, stretched us, blessed us, moved us, changed us.  adoption is life-changing all around, in all the obvious ways, obviously :),  but also in sooo many unseen ways.  i'm so certain God's heart bends to the orphan, and i can only imagine how pleased He is with the family in the video link below.  my sister-in-law posted this recently, and while i'd seen it before, it never gets less amazing or any less spectacular.  beautiful sacrificial love that i'm completely inspired by...

An Adoption Story

  sometimes the darkness is so heavy in this world...it's wonderful to be reminded that real ordinary people are out there doing extraordinary things to love well and shine the light of Jesus into the gloom, into the depressing, into the lost places.  and it's always a great reminder to keep pressing on and shining exactly where you are through the daily grind of life. 

hope you are feeling uplifted and inspired!

biology-chemistry madness

how much does Hannah's less than sincere smile reveal her disdain for Biology and Chemistry at this moment in time?? :)

yep, her feelings are real, but i still loved her molecule project and felt pretty certain i also would have hated every second of such an assignment.  she got 'er done and is still plugging away at these two heavy courses that aren't exactly loaded with riveting excitement (think more along the lines of abstract torture...) to the majority of the population...she knows it's a means to an end, yet even still, i'm hoping she'll have some Biology and Chemistry-free days coming soon! she'll get there, i know it...

home and back

there were signs that Joelle was home...and they made my heart so happy to see them! first there was the laundry spilling over the sides of the bucket...who knew lugging that to the car would make me so excited!  

then there were the extra shoes on the mat, the study materials, the frying pan in the sink and the egg consumption surging for a week...

and then the ball of yarn??  umm....didn't see that one coming...the girl went away to school and came back with a hook and yarn and a cozy blanket taking shape!  she just makes me laugh...and her grandmothers must be proud, considering the knitting/crocheting/sewing gene is no where to be found in me...boo hoo...

after a lovely and blessed Thanksgiving holiday, Joelle had four wisdom teeth extracted....she was a trooper...and it was an unexpected blessing to clear my week and care for her each day she was home.  really was. love her so much and cherished the time spent.  then, at the end of the week i deposited her back at school and we were both happy to have that surgery out of the way.  thankful it was complication-free!  i got her permission to post the pic below, and believe me, it's the best of the ones we took!  how kind of me! :)  just thought it'd be fun to look back on in a decade, perhaps.

looking forward to seeing her again in a few weeks at a tournament!  

awwwhhh

imagine how this made my day when my eyes fell upon it...

Jeff's Mac yearbook 1994-1995.

awwwhhh...just gotta love him...

thankful

when you have a super talented nephew and daughter, this happens! 
love my new chalkboard!!

perfect timing for this season of gratitude, and grateful i am!   
the blessings are so numerous, the daily graces are constantly overflowing, especially obvious when i stop long enough to see them (funny how that works!).  i'm working more on that...God is so good, all of the time, and i'm so thankful to be a child of His~ that i'm always held, protected, carried, forgiven, loved unconditionally, delighted in...amazing!!
Happy season of Thanksgiving!

Yonas

it's Yonas!  remember all those times i've written about him before?  both on the original blog, and this one, since AJ journeyed home. 

we've stayed connected through a wonderful man named Eyob who, even though heavily involved in ministry himself, has helped facilitate this for us over the years...

so, recently i've been able to connect a bit more with Yonas~ one of social media's perks i guess~ continents and oceans may separate us but crazy apps called Facebook and Messenger have helped to close the gaps.  so, here we are, connecting again...such a gigantic joy to see his face every now and again.  we've also learned that Yonas is still in contact with many of the other children we met back in 2010, both when we traveled with Joelle and Hannah, and on the second trip when it was just Jeff and I and AJ...precious kids who were in the neighbourhood of the guesthouse we were staying in. 

as it turns out, this group of joyful, spunky and athletic kids banded together and remained a united force, even still, in 2017...Yonas has sent me current pictures of four sweet kids we fell in love with there during soccer scrambles and silly games and camera silliness.  they are all growing up~ looking well and happy and healthy and simply beautiful too.  

back to Yonas~ please consider praying for him if you think of it.  he has some training as an electrician from a trade school, but has been unable to find work in that area of study.  he's been trying for about a year...recently he's considering more education to obtain training in a field where there are employment opportunities.  of course, he's so limited in his options based on finances alone.  so, Eyob is working with Yonas to come up with a new plan...Yonas is 18 years old now.   would be so great if he could eventually find full-time work and become totally self-sufficient as a young adult.  that would be an amazing step for him, and achievable i believe!  

boys and their cakes

 my boys are cake lovin' boys....must take after yours truly, even though that's not technically possible...

Gotcha Day # 11....so thankful.  Hudson is a giant bundle of life~ fun and silly and crazy.

my childhood cake pictures are nothing like these.  social media and selfies and phones and ipads have made these kids the opposite of camera shy~ and on the bright side (cuz goodness knows i'm always trying to find the technology bright side), these are much more fun to look at! 

somehow AJ is now in double digits.  i'm also officially old.  the kids ages span ten to twenty...tryin' to take that in~ how even??  AJ requested a repeat on the Kit Kat cake from a few years back...i was so glad he did, honestly.  didn't require me to stretch my creativity this year and it was also pretty yummy...

summer wrap up

this goes against all my inner "type A" love of sequence and order, but after sorting through summer pics i found a few random ones that i noted hadn't made it here.  pics that i want in my family life journal that accurately captures more events of this past summer.  so, i apologize for the throwback to July and August, but i must do it to be certain i'll have these memories locked up forever!  can't rely on this mama's recollection like i used to~ and for that, i blame the children. because i can.

Jeffrey got a skateboard, and the resulting excursions were a highlight of mine!  we enjoyed weekend cruises through Sarnia's most beautiful spots...kids on boards as well, or scooters or rollerblades...it was so fun and refreshing!

my beauty at the beach with just me.  rare but nice...

more bike jumps, on a day when Adam was free... 

Hannah kicking it at the city pool....man it blessed my heart to see her teaching her little swim students this summer.  really a gift to watch.  i was there with my three taking lessons at the same time...that's her on the left helping the little girl jump into the deeper water.  she spent her summer there, teaching and guarding and soaking up the sun.  she loved it!  one of her students loved her swim teacher so much she told her mom she wished Hannah could be her Kindergarten teacher as well! :)

making a pool noodle train back to the shallow end...

beach fun...

another Lego creation, this time a summer cottage! a joint effort and sense of accomplishment...

                 pheww...all caught up!  i can sleep tonight!                         

slingshot anyone??

 "why yes, i think i will!" said Adam and Joelle...

Adam and Joelle's Slingshot experience

my adrenaline-pumping, thrill-seeking two who didn't hesitate when given the opportunity to try this "pay extra" ride at Canada's Wonderland...might have been the shock of being offered the chance by their father who was willing to cough up the extra bills to make it happen.  (Jeff was thankful only two wanted to! :)) they said "yes" and didn't seem to waver while they waited, which alone was impressive to me!  but then the ride....c-r-a-z-y!!!! i'm certain the video doesn't do justice to the sheer height they were shot upward, but still, you'll get the idea.

consensus~ they loved it!  it was awesome!  so glad they did it!

wrung out

i remember as a little girl learning how to properly wash dishes and wipe down counters.  i remember the very specific way my parents taught me to wring out a wet cloth.  not just with a one-handed squeeze, but a two handed, proper wring out with hands twisting in opposite directions until the cloth was left void of any extra water...the dishcloth was simply damp, and a really great tool for counter clean up and crumb gathering...

lately, i've been thinking about the process of being "squeezed dry" by life...and admittedly, my heart is feeling a little wrung out.  just being honest.  i'm not alone, i know that...i've spoken to other moms and grandmas who echo these feelings.  especially in the season we approach of fall~ a season of change, as our kids settle back into a school routine and we have quiet time again to process the warm wildness of summer~ its happenings and memories.  

honestly, i wouldn't have it any other way.  a sign of a full life...from saying goodbye to our oldest, entering year two of a university program she loves, and seeing her settle in and maximize the opportunities around her~ it's a pretty contagiously fun and happy existence she leads...all while celebrating the birthdays of five of my six dear kids, contemplating what the new year ahead holds for each of them, to letting go of a precious baby boy we have all come to adore in this home.  all eight of us showered "D" in crazy amounts of love, and he soaked it up, every last snuggle.  Jeff called him "candle wax" for the way he seemed to mold into the arms and body of whoever held him...i truly gave him everything i had, all while preparing my heart for the inevitable goodbye, and i watched each of our kids and dear husband do the same.  they loved without restraint, and it blessed my heart to see that.  they get it....still, off he went as we knew he would, taking a small piece of our hearts with him... i long to know that he is okay and that his future is secure and love-filled, and i have no answers....i may never know...that's the tough part.  we pray, we hope, we trust knowing that God loves him more than i/we ever could...

so, all that to say, feeling like my heart has been wrung out is surely to be expected!  i want to continue to feel deeply through this one life I've been given~ with all of its ups and downs and highs and lows. i'll use these quieter days of September to refresh my spirit a bit, to seek the face of Jesus more and to wait on God for what lies ahead...

through it all...it is well