Be of Good Cheer (Thanks for the reminder Levi)
Monthly Archives: May 2014
Be Scootering to School
We did it! A major milestone. I did not need to push, pull or drag anyone to school this week. All three boys scootered the whole way…
Be Golfing with Papa
My dad loves golf. Two eighteen holes of golf LOVES golfing.
Since his hockey playing days, golf has been a part of his “off-season” life.
In all of our grief, we are trying to meet our dear Papa right where he is at without nana at his side.
This afternoon we met him at the driving range.
Papa loves to teach!
CC (age 4) has been asking every day when he can go golfing with papa.
JC (age 7) loves to swing away.
OC (age 2) tried golf for the very first time. We think he might be a lefty like CC.
Ahhh, that feels better….
Golf.
Time.
Being where you are.
Quiet.
Focus.
One ball at a time.
Be Walking With 200 Friends
Footprint Days 2014.
Imagine around 200 people walking throughout your neighbourhood on a five kilometre route. Add in bright orange shirts and you have a mental image of what my son’s school organized. They walked four different routes on four nights in a row. There were apples and water afterwards plus each child was entered into draws for different prizes.
We chose to go on Thursday night. The night they decided to go up towards Knox Mountain. Ha!ha! The route ended up being 5.6 kilometres and I laughed as I pushed our stroller with sweat running down my back. I made some mighty footprints. My boys had a great time walking and running with their friends. OC enjoyed watching all the people as he rode in the stroller. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know a new friend, M!
We are ready to walk:
Looking in front of us:
Looking behind us:
JC with his classmates and CC with his friend J (This photo was taken when we had walked for over an hour.):
Walking together.
Friendship.
Nature.
Community.
School.
Well done everyone!
Be Asking What You ‘Did’ on the Weekend
As a stay-at-home mom, my Monday to Fridays are weekends and my weekends are a holidays because I have all my boys at home. My favourite quote as I raise up young men, “The days are long, but the years are short?”
My usual weekends involve cooking, cleaning, laundry, driving, encouraging, creating and loving up my boys to get ready to launch them ‘back into the world’ for another week. I feel profoundly grateful that I can be my three boys first teacher and that Sexy Neck supports me emotionally as well as financially. I feel completely content with my ‘job’ but sometimes I cringe at the Monday morning school drop-off where people ask about your weekend.
Tomorrow, I am going to be laughing my head off as I answer the question, “What did you do on the weekend?”.
I did surgery on a bear!
Thanks JC for taking the photo of me sewing on daddy bear’s head. Nana would be proud. We had daddy bear sitting by Nana’s sewing machine since the fall, but we brought him home. I sewed on my first teddy bear head. I can do anything.
New.
Risk taking.
Needle.
Thread.
One head at a time.
Grace.
Peace.
Joy.
Huge smile from JC.
Proud Mama.
Another great day.
Week.
Weekend.
Doing.
Being.
Be Having Simple Soccer Family Fun
We are at the stage where we go as a family to all our sporting events and activities. Our boys love cheering for each other and playing on the sidelines.
This spring, we embarked on our maiden voyage of being a soccer family. I am not sure when Sexy Neck and I will need to divide and conquer the boys activities, but for now we are enjoying being in the same boat.
CC is participating in ‘kick and run’ soccer on Friday nights.
All the boys love shooting on the net afterwards.
JC is playing on his first team ever, practicing midweek and playing games on Saturday mornings.
CC and OC play soccer on the sidelines. Sexy Neck is helping coach with a great group of men.
Family fun.
Cheering.
Playing.
Positive male role models.
Sports.
Team.
Hardwork.
Friendship.
Hand-eye coordination.
Determination.
Focus.
Soccer.
Be Writing Thank You Notes to New Neighbours
As, Jimmy Fallon from The Tonight Show, sits down to write his own thank you notes, I decided to write thank you notes to our new neighbourhood.
Thank you to Jimmy for the inspiration. Here are this evening’s thank you notes by Jimmy. This is my personal twist of sarcasm at its best! Some points are exaggerated for comedic effect, unfortunately most points are not.
🌀Thank you neighbour for leaving your garbage can, recycling can and compost bin at the curb ALL WEEK LONG. We love watching you put your garbage out in your housecoat as well as watch your kids friend’s play bumper cars with the bins as they try to park their cars beside them.
🌀Thank you neighbour for parking your semi-truck on our street every Thursday to Saturday and driving away without any lights on like we don’t see you.
🌀Thank you neighbour for bringing your son over to play then leaving him at our house for two hours fifteen minutes after we met you. We can see why you needed the break.
🌀Thank you neighbour for calling me by the wrong name every morning at exactly 8:15 when you come out to walk your dog. My name is hard to remember, as it is the same as yours.
🌀Thank you neighbour for not smoking inside your house. We appreciate the stench in our yard and throughout our house, especially when you decide to pull out the ‘pot’.
🌀Thank you neighbour for asking my son if he’s “skipping school” when you saw him at home on a school day. Uhhhh, he was sick and he’s six. He had no idea what you were talking about.
🌀Thank you neighbour for standing on your porch in your white undershirt just staring into our yard.
🌀Thank you other neighbour for walking very slowly down our back fence, like you are doing the wedding march with the groom standing in the middle of our backyard. Next time just pop over for a look so that you don’t hurt your neck.
🌀Thank you neighbour for taking off your dog’s leash as you approach our houses so that it can urinate on our lawn then bark at our dog at our gate. Thank you for finally not allowing your dog to come into our house anymore.
🌀Thank you neighbour for telling me that my mom just gave up and wanted to die. I guess the millions of cancer cells multiplying had nothing to do with it.
🌀Thank you neighbour for using pesticides to kill the weeds on the edge of our lawn bordering your property. My boys sperm count thank you.
🌀Speaking of boys, thank you neighbour for exclaiming in front of my family of four boys the very first time we met you, “Oh, I was hoping you were going to have little girls!” Welcome to my family of big boys. (Now perhaps stunted due to your pesticide use).
Be Purple Footed
My heart is holey today.
I wish I could say it is holy.
The death of my mom is feeling large today.
Tears sit at the edge of my eyes.
My heart hurts.
I want to speak to my mom.
I have so many unanswered questions.
I feel an incredible sadness of her not ‘being’ in my everyday life.
It’s a deep purple heartfelt loss.
I choose, today, to slip on Mom’s soft purple Keen’s. (Mom always bought the best shoes and how fortunate am I that the shoes fit!)
One step at a time I tenderly walk through my day…
until…
A friend and her daughter excitedly point at my shoes.
She exclaims, “We have the same shoes! Let’s all wear them tomorrow!” Here they are in their beautiful purple shoes:
Tomorrow, I won’t be wearing my purple Keen’s alone.
My heart aches a little less.
The hole in my heart feels smaller.
I sense God’s holy presence through the coincidence of purple shoes.
Friday morning add-on:
Look what my A friend wore to school drop-off/work today:
Pure awesomeness.
Friendship.
Solidarity.
In grief.
Thank you A, M and Sweet C!!
"Be" ENOUGH 