Today is the first full day of school.
Today everyone woke up and was ready to go on time. (Let's see if this can continue. I believe in miracles for sure.)
Today Mom's Taxi service resumes.
Today my baby started high school.
Today is the first time in 13 years that I have not had a child in our local elementary school
Today all 3 of my babies are in the same school for the last time.
Today my first born begins her last year of high school (her last year!Where does the time go?)
Today I shed a tear as I watched them walk together into the school.
Today I am thankful that they have each other and for the most part are friends.
Today I remembered my days in high school & am thankful for my friends back then.
Today my house is quiet.
Today I sit & remember the ride to the hospital to deliver my first baby. Not knowing who we would meet at the end of the process.
Today I remember feeling totally enamoured with this new little girl that changed our world. This special little being that made me a mommy for the very first time.
Today I remember when each of the others joined our family.
Today I remember changes along the way.
Today I remember dropping each one off at Kindergarten.
Today I remember shedding tears then.
Today is not that different than it was back then.
Today my house will be full of stories and tales from the first day of school.
For TODAY I am thankful.
For TODAY I am grateful!
For TODAY I will be here after school to hear, to laugh & to listen to their tales.
Today is a gift, and I will unwrap it one piece of tape at a time, folding the paper and savouring the content.
For when tomorrow comes, we do not know what it will bring.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Somethings you never knew.....
Did you know that there is a Lynwood WA... no I do not mean WA as in our neighbour to the south. I mean WA as in Western Austraila our neighbours to the FAR south. This simply was too funny not to share. For those of you who know me well, you would know that this would be one of those trips that I would love to take. However not quite this route or this method.
To drive from Vancouver to Lynwood WA USA takes less than 2 hours..... Check out what google maps gave me. I roared, way too funny!
View Larger Map
Make sure you click on the larger map version. To get the full details of the trip, including toll roads, in languages I am sure would ensure me loosing my way forever. It tells you it will take 54 days 12 hours. Including a couple of very riggorous kyak adventures across the Pacific ocean. Anyone game?????
Here is hoping that this in not forshadowing of what my weekend adventrues will be.
To drive from Vancouver to Lynwood WA USA takes less than 2 hours..... Check out what google maps gave me. I roared, way too funny!
View Larger Map
Make sure you click on the larger map version. To get the full details of the trip, including toll roads, in languages I am sure would ensure me loosing my way forever. It tells you it will take 54 days 12 hours. Including a couple of very riggorous kyak adventures across the Pacific ocean. Anyone game?????
Here is hoping that this in not forshadowing of what my weekend adventrues will be.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
TO DO LISTS.... I am not a huge fan!
A wise woman once told me to put "eat chocolate" at the top of any to do list you ever make to ensure that each day you will have at least one success. I loved it, not being a huge user of the "TO DO LIST" it simply made me laugh, and yes every time I do actually succumb and do make such a list, "EAT CHOCOLATE" goes right there at the top. We all need daily success in life.
Yesterday this same wise woman blogged "accomplish something everyday" basically 5 things you need to do each day to feel like you have arrived at the end of your day and accomplished something. Interestingly enough though her list does not include things like dusting and laundry or mom taxi service type things that "fill" our day and make us busy, but things that add meaning to life. She challenged everyone to make up their own list of 5 things.... I am taking her up on the challenge here is my list:
1) Preferably start the day with quiet time, reading, reflecting, journaling, praying. Listening to what God would have me hear. (certainly does not always happen, but the day goes much better when it does!)
2) Create - be inspired to create or visa-versa inspire others to create.
3) Connect beyond the surface level with at least one other person in the world. Encourage, draw beside, share the burden or the JOY
4) Live in the moment - be aware of what is going on around me so that I can be used as part of the bigger picture of this thing called LIFE
5) LAUGH - it heals hurts, breaks the ice, cleanses the soul and can get you through many dark spots. Never Laugh at someone else's expense, but laugh with them and enrich their life.
Oh ya... and EAT CHOCOLATE (preferably Dark - there are health benefits to that - or at least that is my story and I am sticking with it.)
If at the end of the day I have done the above I feel I have had a great day. The laundry, and dusting will be waiting for me (so will the "TO DO LIST") the next day. Or maybe by some divine act of spontaneous bump on the head one of the 3 teens that live in the house think...
"hey I think I will do a load of laundry just because we have this cool machine and I like to watch it go round and round"
Oh.. I should add DREAM to my list of daily "TO DO's".....
Happy TODO Day..
P.S. Thanks Stacy for the challenge!
Yesterday this same wise woman blogged "accomplish something everyday" basically 5 things you need to do each day to feel like you have arrived at the end of your day and accomplished something. Interestingly enough though her list does not include things like dusting and laundry or mom taxi service type things that "fill" our day and make us busy, but things that add meaning to life. She challenged everyone to make up their own list of 5 things.... I am taking her up on the challenge here is my list:
1) Preferably start the day with quiet time, reading, reflecting, journaling, praying. Listening to what God would have me hear. (certainly does not always happen, but the day goes much better when it does!)
2) Create - be inspired to create or visa-versa inspire others to create.
3) Connect beyond the surface level with at least one other person in the world. Encourage, draw beside, share the burden or the JOY
4) Live in the moment - be aware of what is going on around me so that I can be used as part of the bigger picture of this thing called LIFE
5) LAUGH - it heals hurts, breaks the ice, cleanses the soul and can get you through many dark spots. Never Laugh at someone else's expense, but laugh with them and enrich their life.
Oh ya... and EAT CHOCOLATE (preferably Dark - there are health benefits to that - or at least that is my story and I am sticking with it.)
If at the end of the day I have done the above I feel I have had a great day. The laundry, and dusting will be waiting for me (so will the "TO DO LIST") the next day. Or maybe by some divine act of spontaneous bump on the head one of the 3 teens that live in the house think...
"hey I think I will do a load of laundry just because we have this cool machine and I like to watch it go round and round"
Oh.. I should add DREAM to my list of daily "TO DO's".....
Happy TODO Day..
P.S. Thanks Stacy for the challenge!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
This caught my attention and I thought it was worth pondering. Life is too short to not live in the moment and make the most of things as they come by. Just a quick random thougth for today.
Twenty years from now
You will be more disappointed
by the things you didn't do
than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines
Sail away from the safe harbour
Catch the trade winds in your sails
EXPLORE. DREAM. DISCOVER
Mark Twain
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Good things....
I recently saw a fridge magnet in a gift store that read
"Not all days are good, But there are good things in everyday"
Even in the darkest of days there are good things that happen. I truly believe that.
We simply must open our eyes and hearts to be willing to see them.
God puts good things in our paths every day, for he desires good things for us.
How often do we miss God's good things?
I have had an idea peculating in my brain for some time about that very thing -then I read that magnet and my brain went into perk overdrive. Not totally ready to share the coffee yet, but soon. One thought is that we spend far too much energy on complaining and negativity and certainly not enough thinking about GOOD THINGS. Or acting on good things. We need to change our way of thinking and how we focus on life. We need to open our eyes and LOOK, and really see in order to find the good, especially in the not so good days. It seems
Especially when it is something that is shoved down our throat, society in general focus' on the bad. Pick up a newspaper on any given day, or listen to the 6:00 news and that negative view on life is confirmed. You might find a 'Good things" article tucked in a corner pages away from the front cover if it is a lucky day and we really have to hunt to find them some days at all.
We complain far too much about things that either we have no control to change or when it comes right down to it really do not matter one way or another. When it is too hot, or too cold, if the price of gas goes up a cent or the advertised special at the supermarket is "temporarily out of stock". When what we really should be thinking is wow, I am glad I do not live in a country where it is 35 degrees or higher everyday, or be thankful that we have a supermarket at all, where we have choice. I try not to be a complainer, however I know that I do... but I am trying to change.
For the past month and a bit I have been taking a moment at the end of the day to write down 1 GOOD THING. The list is growing and I have found that as I go through my day I am looking for good things, my perspective changes and life is just a little bit better from that point of view. I am looking forward to looking back months from now, and simply reading my list of good things.
Some are minor good things:
Cold water today is a VERY GOOD THING!
Oh, a good hair day!
Sweet, take out for dinner tonight.
Others will stay with me forever:
Had great heart to heart with Teryn about Dating while we were out in the van.
Was glad to make Joc & Oscar laugh when I visited today.
Reconnected with an old friend on facebook, I thought I would never hear from her this side of heaven!
Picked raspberries today for the 100'th time, but saw the Joy in a 4 year olds eyes as she picked for the first time in her life.
True some entries are, deeper than others, however each of them were significant to me on the day they were written - a small snippet of how life is good on that given day. Taking time to write them down has begun to change my outlook on life and where my focus needs to be. Finding GOODNESS in the simple things of life. Because like it or not it is our life and we are the only ones who can make the choice for it to be a good one or a not so good one. When it comes right down to it and we are honest, we all want the good life.
However, what that good life looks like, depends on how you look at the good life.
Is the glass 1/2 empty or is the glass 1/2 full? We do not need rose coloured glasses, we just need to open our eyes, goodness is all around us, we just fail to see far to often.
.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
We are officially certifible... or maybe just a little crazy!
We arrived home from our vacation at 2:44 AM, yes you read that right AM! Monday morning, it seems that the 2 am hour holds a dear place in our hearts. When we leave to go to Creation Festival we aim to leave at that hour to avoid border line ups, Seattle rush hour traffic and the heat. This weekend we decided to drive in the cool of the evening and arrived home at the magic hour. Some would say we are crazy, we just see it as brilliant.
Driving from Cache Creek we left at 10:30 ish - We were still able to spend a full day enjoying the company of cousins, the pool and just relaxing. What we did miss was driving in the heat, all the traffic coming into to the city after a long weekend both great things to do with out. Especially given that I have what I think is a wicked case of heat rash... brought on during a drive from Cache creek to Kamloops where one thermometer I saw read 39 degrees. 39 freaking degrees! That is Africa weather, not BC even in Kamloops it was HOT and the locals were mentioning it.
I now know for certain that when I visit Lisa in Africa I will have to go in the rainy season. I do not do well in heat like this. A good portion of my body is covered in heat rash, also known as Prickly heat and I know why, it feels like someone is pricking me from the inside out with 100's of tiny pins. Not too much fun, but who wants to hear about the discomfort of heat rash when there is way more interesting and fun things to blog about.
We had a great time camping with several cousins from Royd's side of the family - 4 families in total -11 kids and 6 adults stayed the weekend. We also had visits from 5 other families who were either heading home after holidays or lived close enough to make it a day trip to come and hang out. It was good to see each of them. All of us saying that we NEED to do this again soon and get the word out further so we can have more cousins join us. It is good to reconnect, it is good to catch up, it is SO GOOD for our kids to meet in some cases for the first time that they can remember. They have seen each other so few times in their lives it is like meeting for the first time all over again.
Amazingly it does not take long for kids to overcome shyness and start pushing each other in the pool, laughing and scaring all "Non-relatives" out of the pool - they were VERY loud these Hilstad cousins. But I think it was the adults that laughed the hardest hearing Ron tell his story of his as advertised on radio "painless vasectomy" oh my, we were all in stitches. Great memories, laughs re connections it was good just to be together. Celebrating family and life.
Driving from Cache Creek we left at 10:30 ish - We were still able to spend a full day enjoying the company of cousins, the pool and just relaxing. What we did miss was driving in the heat, all the traffic coming into to the city after a long weekend both great things to do with out. Especially given that I have what I think is a wicked case of heat rash... brought on during a drive from Cache creek to Kamloops where one thermometer I saw read 39 degrees. 39 freaking degrees! That is Africa weather, not BC even in Kamloops it was HOT and the locals were mentioning it.
I now know for certain that when I visit Lisa in Africa I will have to go in the rainy season. I do not do well in heat like this. A good portion of my body is covered in heat rash, also known as Prickly heat and I know why, it feels like someone is pricking me from the inside out with 100's of tiny pins. Not too much fun, but who wants to hear about the discomfort of heat rash when there is way more interesting and fun things to blog about.
We had a great time camping with several cousins from Royd's side of the family - 4 families in total -11 kids and 6 adults stayed the weekend. We also had visits from 5 other families who were either heading home after holidays or lived close enough to make it a day trip to come and hang out. It was good to see each of them. All of us saying that we NEED to do this again soon and get the word out further so we can have more cousins join us. It is good to reconnect, it is good to catch up, it is SO GOOD for our kids to meet in some cases for the first time that they can remember. They have seen each other so few times in their lives it is like meeting for the first time all over again.
Amazingly it does not take long for kids to overcome shyness and start pushing each other in the pool, laughing and scaring all "Non-relatives" out of the pool - they were VERY loud these Hilstad cousins. But I think it was the adults that laughed the hardest hearing Ron tell his story of his as advertised on radio "painless vasectomy" oh my, we were all in stitches. Great memories, laughs re connections it was good just to be together. Celebrating family and life.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Where are they now????
After the last post my brain went in this direction..... it really is not all that random, but rather a logical follow up. Sometimes I surprise even myself.
In 40 plus years of living I have said hello and goodbye to many people. Some I was happy to see go, and others to this day I wish we had more time together. Time to know each other better, more time because simply life was cut too short or simply because we had only begun to scratch the surface. (it makes me think Heaven will be a great big friendly reunion!) True to the quote above, I will never be the same. For me there have been some very deep and lasting impressions made. Memories that I will never forget, things we learned together and many things I realized I learned after they were gone.
Call me nostalgic, curious, or simply just nosey I would love to know where some of these people are now. What they are doing, how they have chosen to live their lives, are they happy.
There is Doreen, a Brownie billet that came to stay for a week - ALL THE WAY from Lac La Hache, in grade 5 that was like the end of the earth. We hit it off the moment she walked through the door, but after a few letters back and forth when she returned home we lost touch.
Diane Vanderly, who was part of my life from elementary school to the early years of Jr. High, then we ended up at different schools, and in grade 8 or 9 her family ended up moving.... I have no idea where, I had heard rumors of Ontario. But????
Janet Erickson, a friend through Brownies and Girl Guides, and also during High School. She was one of the people in those years that truly inspired me, she despite being totally blind lived life to the fullest, she skied competitively, travelled the world and succeeded in a difficult world.
Then there is the group of teens I spent the summer of 1982 with in Australia, the things I learned that summer changed my life forever. Most of those lessons came from living with a group of 30 teens from all over North America. I have managed to keep in contact with a few of these dear friends, but others have been lost. I would love to know what they are up to, where they are living, what God has done in their lives since that amazing summer. Where are they in their faith, John Ross, Elizabeth Buck, Billly Nevils, Ken Weatherl, Bethany Saxby (our Austrailan host), Stacy Perreault, Steve Baker. . . oh this list could go on and on.
There are so many more, some who's names escape me at the moment, people that have come in and out of youth groups and church doors over the years. I wonder if they ever wonder about me, what I am doing, or if I am even a blip on their memory screen. I have been blessed, I can say that even though there have been some serious twists and turns in the road that I would not have planned, life has been pretty good. I am happy with where I am in life right now, happy with the choices I have made along the way. I have lived some dreams, created others, faced some serious challenges and won, each path is an opportunity to learn and grow, I can say that I have enjoyed most of the ride this far. There is very little I would change. Sure there are things that I wish were different, but most of those are far from my control. There are still places I would like to visit, things I would like to do and as long as there is road ahead I am going to live it and enjoy along the way the people I meet and the places I go.
Yup, these things have been known to keep me awake at night. Pondering. . . searching online.. Every once in a while I will pop a name into the Facebook search engine and just see who I might find.. sometimes I am successful, more often not. When you are looking for someone with a common mane there are 1000's listed at times or looking for girl friends, if they have married and changed their names, makes it more of a challenge. I am in awe of how small the world has become with the help of modern technology. I am thankful that my girls have tools that will help them keep in touch with their friends no matter where in the world they may end up. These will not be wonderings that keep them awake at night.
I will continue on occasion to search, but more than that I will be thankful for the footprints each of these past friends have left on my life. Aiding in making me the person I am today, I thank them for the memories, the laughter and the tears. My life is richer because so many people have come and gone....
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for a while, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.
~Flavia Weedn, Forever, © Flavia.com
In 40 plus years of living I have said hello and goodbye to many people. Some I was happy to see go, and others to this day I wish we had more time together. Time to know each other better, more time because simply life was cut too short or simply because we had only begun to scratch the surface. (it makes me think Heaven will be a great big friendly reunion!) True to the quote above, I will never be the same. For me there have been some very deep and lasting impressions made. Memories that I will never forget, things we learned together and many things I realized I learned after they were gone.
Call me nostalgic, curious, or simply just nosey I would love to know where some of these people are now. What they are doing, how they have chosen to live their lives, are they happy.
There is Doreen, a Brownie billet that came to stay for a week - ALL THE WAY from Lac La Hache, in grade 5 that was like the end of the earth. We hit it off the moment she walked through the door, but after a few letters back and forth when she returned home we lost touch.
Diane Vanderly, who was part of my life from elementary school to the early years of Jr. High, then we ended up at different schools, and in grade 8 or 9 her family ended up moving.... I have no idea where, I had heard rumors of Ontario. But????
Janet Erickson, a friend through Brownies and Girl Guides, and also during High School. She was one of the people in those years that truly inspired me, she despite being totally blind lived life to the fullest, she skied competitively, travelled the world and succeeded in a difficult world.
Then there is the group of teens I spent the summer of 1982 with in Australia, the things I learned that summer changed my life forever. Most of those lessons came from living with a group of 30 teens from all over North America. I have managed to keep in contact with a few of these dear friends, but others have been lost. I would love to know what they are up to, where they are living, what God has done in their lives since that amazing summer. Where are they in their faith, John Ross, Elizabeth Buck, Billly Nevils, Ken Weatherl, Bethany Saxby (our Austrailan host), Stacy Perreault, Steve Baker. . . oh this list could go on and on.
There are so many more, some who's names escape me at the moment, people that have come in and out of youth groups and church doors over the years. I wonder if they ever wonder about me, what I am doing, or if I am even a blip on their memory screen. I have been blessed, I can say that even though there have been some serious twists and turns in the road that I would not have planned, life has been pretty good. I am happy with where I am in life right now, happy with the choices I have made along the way. I have lived some dreams, created others, faced some serious challenges and won, each path is an opportunity to learn and grow, I can say that I have enjoyed most of the ride this far. There is very little I would change. Sure there are things that I wish were different, but most of those are far from my control. There are still places I would like to visit, things I would like to do and as long as there is road ahead I am going to live it and enjoy along the way the people I meet and the places I go.
Yup, these things have been known to keep me awake at night. Pondering. . . searching online.. Every once in a while I will pop a name into the Facebook search engine and just see who I might find.. sometimes I am successful, more often not. When you are looking for someone with a common mane there are 1000's listed at times or looking for girl friends, if they have married and changed their names, makes it more of a challenge. I am in awe of how small the world has become with the help of modern technology. I am thankful that my girls have tools that will help them keep in touch with their friends no matter where in the world they may end up. These will not be wonderings that keep them awake at night.
I will continue on occasion to search, but more than that I will be thankful for the footprints each of these past friends have left on my life. Aiding in making me the person I am today, I thank them for the memories, the laughter and the tears. My life is richer because so many people have come and gone....
Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things.
~Author Unknown
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