Dancing Shoes

(These beautiful shoes are on the feet of my beautiful youngest daughter. She was just given them by a family friend and now lives in them, I can’t blame her!)

Whoop, what happened? Well I tried to neglect everything this week and not let myself get worked up but my body let me know I was stressed after all and I get it…

I was amazed at all the stuff that hit me as I struggled to deal with my Dad’s life being vulnerable. I am amazed at how little emotion I showed through it all… most of it was anger about other stuff as I crushed the tears down… cuz I was supposed to.

Now that the surgery is over and for now he is getting better and better I am kinda ticked that I wasn’t allowed to just be worried and sad and get on with it… lesson learned…

As I listened to my eldest sing to her little sister and brother today, and watched them dance to her impromptu song, I realized I want to put on my dancing shoes again too. I only seem to find them with God. I only know how to dance with him at the lead.

Go ahead Big Girl, sing that endless song of yours because it is coming from your pretty heart.
Go ahead and tap tap tap in your new pink shoes Little Woman because life joy like that is too precious.
Go ahead Baby Boy and copy your sisters dance, you understand that passionate joyfulness is contagious.

None of you know the stifling rules of adulthood yet and so I am thankful.

TTFN

From One Scottish Woman To YOU!

To all my clans men and women!

TTFN

Marriage Monday

It is a pick your own topic month. Anything relating to marriage and Christ I suppose.

is a favorite song of mine.
When it gets tough I often reflect on her words of wisdom.

“Loving a person just the way they are, its no small thing, its the whole thing.

Often spouses are opposites… my man and I are, personality wise, very much opposites. I think one of the greatest things Garnet does for me is he loves me in spite of how hard my personality can make that. I hope and pray I do the same for him:)

True romance…

I am a stormy emotional personality. I prefer to get angry over getting sad, it is my protective wall if I am feeling sorrow or pain… I act like a prickly pear when I need a hug the most… He doesn’t understand this but as we continue to get to know one another better he doesn’t let it get to him as much and reaches out to me in spite of myself. I am so thankful for his ability to yank me away from depression because there are things about myself that I used to fear, sometimes momentarily still do, and he (through Christ that strengthens him) doesn’t fear them.

We talked for hours when dating and still do when the kids give us the chance. Our personalities could really limit our growth as a couple because we see things and do things so differently but I thank the Lord that he has blessed us with the patience to talk it out. We deliberately try to learn how one another works and thinks and I believe the Lord gives us more insight then we would have on our own, in times of trying and need.

My Mom told me at a young age that you can’t spend your life trying to change a man, specifically your man because only God can do that. I am thankful for the grace and patience that the Lord can give a marriage so that two conflicting personalities can connect and love and respect one another for their differences.

Perfect example in closing… my husband smirks and laughs when he is nervous… this used to make me so upset and hurt when young because I would be upset about something and he would giggle. Now I usually can’t help but smirk too, knowing he reacts this way because he does understand I am upset, this is just how he handles it. I can tell you from experience, just getting more angry doesn’t make the smirking and snickering go away once it has started…

Pray that the Lord will give you and your man HIS eyes for one another so you can love your husband just the way he is and he can do the same for you:) Thank the Lord that he knows you and your spouses faults and is more then able to deal with these faults and shortcomings and can change them for the better!

1st Monday Every Month at Chrysalis

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TTFN

Favorite Verse From March Hymn

Jesus is all the world to me:
My life, my joy, my all.
He is my strength from day to day;
Without Him I would fall.
When I am sad, to Him I go;
No other one can cheer me so.
When I am sad, He makes me glad;
He’s my Friend.

At first I thought I would pick the second verse about golden grain and such but then this month I really felt thankful for cheer… no other one can cheer me so…

April’s Hymn soon to come:)

TTFN

Blessed Family Time!

We kicked it all off with a graduation! My three year old, Little Woman, graduated from her first year of ‘wee college’. It was a night to fuss over her and she deserves fussing. She got to march up to the front and recite songs she learned and then received a certificate! A big night for our girl! Other then getting a little queasy at the end she was a pro!

Spring break has only barely began and we have already been so busy!
First day of spring break we took Big Girl down town to get her first BIG KID bike! It is a ‘tom boy’ color and she even got biking gloves to go with! She is loving the mature features of gear shifting and handle breaks!

(I love this man! I adore spending time with my best friend! Biking, skating in the winter, and hopefully taking up kayaking together this year, are all better with him! Next big plan in the works, after kayaking, is to get used to camping as a family.)

In the winter we skate. In the summer this family BIKES! The above pictures are me and my man on our first family bike ride of the year. The older two kids do so well following us in a straight line and keeping up. The younger two are as happy as can be in the trailer I pull. The first trip was a little nippy but we had been anticipating this all winter and so off we went!

When there are big things going on in life, big things that could really consume your mind and cause you to just stop, the little things, the family time blessings are all the more important and wonderful, especially for a Mama and her mushy heart.

TTFN

Dad… Cancer

This is the week of my Dad’s cancer surgery.

TTFN

Easter

Well… Garnet and I aren’t the type who go all out for holidays. We try to make them sweet and special for the kids but in our hearts we are just the kind of people who aren’t big on dates.

Easter… I stood in isles of chocolates and spring colored STUFF yesterday till I got a headache. I then went and found some fair trade chocolates at another location and ‘sigh’ that was enough for me. I find a lot of it ways heavy on me. This makes me all the more thankful that the kids get to enjoy the run around hunt in there grandparents back yard and the treats once in the house, the beautiful ham their grandmother loving made them and the pretty dresses and handsome spring colored outfits they get to wear all day without the heaviness of understanding that a parent feels as they wade through the commercialization of it all.

Easter aside, I love Jesus. My chest feels heavy with emotion as I consider what he did on the cross and the heaviness lifts as soon as I think of him lifting forth from the grave three days later.

As I walk through this year, having felt it was labeled ‘Right Sacrifice’, I am aware of the importance of reflecting on the cross. I am also a bit surprised that this time of year didn’t jump out more at me because of my years label but I think this will make me reflect all the more the rest of the year and grow in thankfulness, all the more, for Jesus and his PERFECT example of sacrifice.

Garnet and I sat the kids down today, before we went off to our entertaining Easter events, and we told them a little about what we think of when Easter arrives, meaning we told them a little about our Jesus. I hope seeds of love where planted that will spring forth in time.

Happy Easter, have a lovely spring:)

TTFN

Two Down

Always lovely to watch you kids succeed at those BIG lessons in life (wink). Perhaps tying shoes isn’t a big big deal but it is one of those life lessons that makes a Mama proud.

Big Girl wasn’t allowed to start grade one without knowing how to tie her shoes. It took a couple days of hard work before she was doing it with ease. That was a different school with different rules and this year I must admit I didn’t worry about my boy doing the same for his grade one year. He got Velcro shoes again in the fall but it is spring and he already needs bigger shoes. I bought him laced up shoes that are so cool he really wanted to master it.

I showed him a bit each day for the last couple days but I must admit I wasn’t as in to it with him as with Big Girl last year and kind of expected him to figure it out, especially with Big Girl trying to give lessons as well.

Yesterday, out of the blue, he came bounding up to me and proclaimed he new how to tie his shoes! I was surprised, that morning we had had trouble getting them done in time to catch the bus. He sat right down and did both shoes quick as could be.

“Wow, how did you do that?” I asked him.

“Madame taught me!” (that is what he calls his French immersion teacher).

Well I hugged him and praised him for being so smart and sighed with relief that I didn’t have to be the hero this time… let the teacher do the teaching! She must know what she is doing;)

After all, it takes a village to raise a child right?! I appreciate people who take honest and caring interest in my kids. He has such a lovely teacher.

TTFN

Contraband Carbs

Food Fight!
Not the throw it around kind but the battle for the stomach and future health of my child kind!(We make our baby food around here but the above picture is one of the tricks for feeding Baby Boy that worked for me for a while, before he became a carb junkie. I would make baby food and then put it in clean jars so he thought he was getting something special.)

We have implemented a contraband on all carbs into our home… correction, all simple carbohydrates, starches really.

This is a serious intervention on behalf of our youngest. Baby Boy is a bread addict. He would eat nothing but starch foods all day. Don’t even get me started on crackers… he is a nut for crackers! If he even sees someone having one or spots a box of them he freaks out, yelling for one. With all this junk easy at hand he often gets what he wants and I have noticed his sleep, mood and diet have suffered greatly as a result. Time to step in!

For the last two days we have all had to go without for his sake. It has been tough. At first he thought he would win and just not eat but today he realised he was hungry and finally tried some of the protein and veggie items I was setting before him. THIS IS HUGE, he usually flatly refuses to even try none starch items! Anyone who has had a one year old knows you can’t make them eat stuff by force but you can take away all they want till they have to eat what remains (the good stuff). I am hopeful this will continue to go well. Watching him down the scrambled eggs lased with veggies tonight made me enthusiastic about a healthier well rounded diet future for my boy.

P.s. You should have seen the sad faces at the table last night when I informed them all they would be eating their stew without crackers in support of our cracker addict.

TTFN