a full heart at Christmas

the title sums it up.  really truly does.  my heart is full.  i'm excessively blessed.  and this season of Christmas and wrapping up of 2016 has me extra aware this year, especially as i'm a few months into an exercise of counting my blessings daily. thanks to Ann Voskamp's One Thousand Gifts....i'm a lot late on reading this book, but i really feel like the timing in my life was perfect.  i can't say enough about the truths contained in those pages, and i'm finding it a process of slow transformation that has personally been so very necessary and beneficial.  

anyway, there is much to say about this season of Jesus' birth and all the significance it carries in my life.  there has been personal family time, all eight of us home together under one roof again.  how i loved picking my daughter up.  i love her school stories.  love her excitement about her nursing journey.  love that God is proving faithful in helping me to let go more and let her become.  love the peace He gives me in this challenging process.  love the ways He is shaping her and stretching her and equipping her.  love her sparkle.  love her.  simple as that, i guess....

in there as well, the week before Christmas, was a wonderful, somewhat spontaneous visit from Jhonny.  i blogged about Jhonny last January when he came to Canada from Sweden and we officially met in person for the first time.  i've since learned there are two ways his name is sometimes written, but the way i typed it above is actually correct...anyway, this treat of a second visit from him in a year was short, but so very sweet.  we all love this guy and he is such a fun and warm addition to our family while he is here.  the boys loved having Jhonny attend their Christmas assembly at school.  he accompanied me to pick up Joelle in Hamilton (more travel time~ he's a trooper!).  we enjoyed Thai cuisine together at a charming restaurant in Ancaster.  we shopped (H&M!) and he purchased gifts for his family in Bolivia.  we drank espresso together (mine sweetened!) and enjoyed Swedish treats and conversation and ice skating and hockey and time shared with our extended families getting to know him more.  it was a gift.  so fun.  such a highlight of 2016.  very thankful.  

Jhonny~ if you are reading this~ you are always welcome to visit and it is our pleasure to host you.  you feel like "one of the family" and that is a gift we cherish.  blessings to you as you continue your vacation with family back home.

Christmas, a gift of time off and memories shared with extended family.  a gift of treats and all my favourite foods and waking up without an alarm clock and my sweet husband home for the whole week and my kids enjoying new treasures and board games together and carols all day and cozy new socks and it's just a lot to take in when you put it all together.  grateful beyond words.  so, off to enjoy the crew today, but it's been good to check in and pause and jot down my reasons for this very full heart....

blessings to you and yours as you wrap up 2016 with those you love!

first fire

any crackling fire in our wood burning fireplace is always delightful, but none more than the first fire of the chilly winter season.

we love the warmth, the sounds, the smells and the relaxation of watching those embers burn.  if it must be cold outside, then at least this lessens the blow a bit! 

here's to a toasty winter!  :)

ushering in Christmas

quite honestly, i can't reconcile my mixed bag of pre-Christmas feelings just yet.  so i won't try to organize them and button up the jumbled thoughts i feel this holiday season of suggested joy.  as i said to someone recently, how is it that i'm trying to find great and fun and original gift ideas to buy my kids (and actually having some difficulty with that task because there isn't much more to be given when you have most things anyway) while across the world a little girl in Aleppo is tweeting her real-life horror story of fleeing war and her busted up home and her dolls destroyed and hoping to see another day.  how is it that i'm stashing and stuffing treasures here and there, i'm making Christmas baking ingredient lists and buying pretty paper to decorate and hide my purchases in anticipation of the morning we exchange gifts (and i do love this part!), while children in Aleppo (and Haiti and Burundi and Ethiopia, to name only a few) run low on food and security and hope of ever seeing brighter tomorrows....that feels so messed up. because it is, quite simply.  it just is.  so i leave it there.  but this Christmas season, as we usher in all the festive parts we love and cherish, i feel more than any Christmas before a deep comfort in the Real Reason we celebrate. if not for that baby, that King of the World who in the most beautiful and humble way brought Hope and Light into a simple stable in Bethlehem that dark night so long ago...if not for Him, where would we be?  whatever would be the point in the festivities?  they would be meaningless to me.  

yes, i'm abundantly thankful this Christmas for the gift of Jesus.  for the miraculous birth of that baby~ whose arrival signaled Hope and Peace and Love. for the many who witnessed it then and still for us today.  for me.  for sweet little Bana in Aleppo.  for all the children in this world.  so, just like last year, i'm linking the Christmas song by Lauren Daigle that captures this in exquisite clarity.  enjoy, again...

Light of the World

the world waits for a miracle

the heart longs for a little bit of hope

oh come, oh come Emmanuel

a child prays for peace on earth

and she's calling out from a sea of hurt

oh come, oh come Emmanuel

and can you hear

the angels singing

glory to the light of the world

glory the light of the world

is here

the drought breaks with the tears of a mother

the baby's cry is the sound of love come down

come down, Emmanuel

 He is the song for the suffering

He is Messiah, the Prince of Peace has come, 

He has come, Emmanuel

glory to the light of the world

glory to the light of the world

glory to the light of the world

glory to the light of the world

for all who wait, for all who hunger

for all who've prayed

for all who wonder

behold your King

behold Messiah

Emmanuel, Emmanuel

glory to the light of the world

glory to the light of the world

glory to the light of the world

behold your King

behold Messiah

Emmanuel, Emmanuel

the world waits for a miracle

the heart longs for a little bit of hope

oh come, oh come Emmanuel

an inspiring link

November is National Adoption Month.  hard to believe it's almost over and we're heading into the final month of 2016!  each year November brings with it more information on a subject that is obviously close to my heart~ adoption!  so i get to read lots of true and difficult and important and heartwarming thoughts about this topic i feel deeply about.  it is a mixed bag, that's for sure. 

last week i stumbled upon a radio program about this incredibly brave couple who adopted eight siblings from Sierra Leone.  yep, eight! not a typo. gulp....adopting eight at once is not generally something i'd ever recommend.  neither would they, i can confidently say!  unless of course, God asks you to!  the part of the story that gripped me most was how the father battled with God when he realized this was the direction God wanted them to go.  much like Jonah in the Bible, he pretty much wanted to run and hide.  can you blame him??  

later that evening i listened to the program online in full (it runs in three parts, this link starts at the 2nd of three, but all three are available), and it beautifully highlights this couple's journey of marital challenges and then later their "turn everything upside down" decision to take in these kids in a selfless act of obedience and love.  it is real and it is lovely.  i believe God always asks that we be open to doing hard things, to loving sacrificially, to walking a path faithfully that might look very different than we ever expected it to look, to loving the vulnerable and fatherless, to care for the hurting ones around us.  this isn't just another adoption story.  it's really more of a "yes" story.  again, i'm not suggesting adoption is for everyone because i really believe it is not!  still, there is always work to be done all over this giant globe we call home.  endless ways and countless people that need our care, our love, our life-changing hope.  so consider checking it out to be inspired, especially during the upcoming season of giving. 

Mike and Hayley Jones have written their story in a book called At Any Cost, and i plan on getting my hands on it soon... 

suspend

when your nine year old beats you two out of two times in the game of Suspend.  

luck i say, pure luck, :) especially when you see how carelessly he flings those pieces up in to any open spot.  no "slow and methodical" with this kid.  no strategy of careful consideration and anticipation of weight shifts once his piece is hung...nah, no need!  apparently the strategy is working for him just fine!

fun game though!  one of our favourites!

bathroom performances~ part 2

Hudson has a thing.  he's always enjoyed singing in the bathroom.  it brings me joy.  so much joy.  on this day, last Friday, i captured some of it.  and i'd say the Remembrance Day assembly at school with the choir performance made an impact.  this is part of "God Save the Queen" and "Oh Canada".

the video starts out slow, and there are a few sniffles in there too, but the crescendo ending makes it worth it, i think!  you can hear him before he restarts asking the "audience" to stand for the singing of the national anthem...there are quieter parts of audio that didn't pick up from the other side of the door, where he is making reference to everyone clapping, etc...always in the moment, imagining the actual event as though he is the star.  because why not?!?  love it so very much.

my own personal chef

well, not exactly....okay, not even close really.  still, Jeff is my guy.  always has been.  my best friend and my person who makes each day a wee bit lighter, brighter....and even sometimes tastier??  once or twice a year~ yes! that's it though~ quality, not quantity, right?  so this is why i'm featuring his two creations of 2016 here!  otherwise they might simply get lost from our family memories in the passage of time.  

culinary giftedness is not a label i'd attach to this husband of mine, but probably if he tried to cook more he'd be a master at that too.  just ask him! :) cooking is one of those things i really like to do, and i'm certainly home more and available to do it.  it works best for us this way.  he brings home the bacon.  i cook it.  literally.  on occasion, however, he has a bright idea of something he'd like to try and usually it's more of a fun family event than simply a meal created.  that's why i love it.  the kids pause and notice.  it strikes them as curious to see him prepping and buzzing around the kitchen, and we all enjoy the sight.  

they are pretty used to him finding fun and unique gourmet items when we are out shopping.  that is something that always makes me smile.  when Jeff and i are on one of our weekly shopping/grocery dates i can often find him at the back corner of TJ Maxx, or Kroger checking out cool food items that i'd almost certainly skip over...things like unusual protein bars or crazy Greek yogurt flavours or spicy pickles on skewers or Hawaiian coffee beans or sea salts...some have been amazing, others average, and some just fun family experiments as we all test out the purchases...

when that creativity translates to the kitchen, it always involves making something that would be "fun" for the kids to eat or be involved in.  it's a refreshing change and break when the daily grind of turning out large meals gets me weary.

his signature dish (not really a dish at all, but sounds more impressive) is "bulls-eyes".  really super yummy and even worth the clean-up (ahem...think tornado).

  

(awwhh, hi Joelle! miss you!)

he has discovered that when these are made with cinnamon raisin bread they taste even better!  the perfect salty/sweet combination....

and the most recent venture was homemade panzerottis.  the kids watched him create the first one and then custom made their own.  

it was fun and they actually tasted delicious!  

i think all the children preferred regular pizza, which both Jeff and i cannot understand, but maybe it's because he and i have such fond memories of panzerottis shared together over the years~ take out and eat-in.  we love them, and the homemade version was really yummy!  

wonder what his next creative idea and creation will be...next year... :)