under the setting sun

The Muirheads are doing a great job at helping us see the treasures of the valley, including impromptu bike rides to the lake to see the setting sun.  I'm not sure if staying until the sun set was a part of the plan, or if we just stayed that long, but it was so lovely.  The kids and Ian spent a lot of time finding the perfect rock and trying to make them jump.

Emora put her toes in the cold water.  I've heard that some people are already swimming in the water, I'm thinking I want to get a wet suit!

Splashes were fun.  They ventured some to the play equipment too, but the water was the biggest attraction.

It's so rejuvenating to go out and see the water, birds, nature, to get away from the computer and phone, the wii and movies...


It seems like all the kids want to do is be in front of a screen!  But we've also liked soccer and we're a few weeks from time to plant, so we'll be outside a lot more.  This week it is raining and raining and raining, but we'll try to fit some outside fun in as we can, or at least unplug and get into books, games and our literacy challenges, just launched today at the library.  So fun!

More swimming pictures again!

OK, I promise this will be the last of the swimming pictures for a while.

The last pictures were from the Sunday afternoon, Arwen visit.

The next day was Monday and it was still "hot enough".  Since Dominique and her best friend had the day off from school (one of the joys of kindergarten here is that it is only every other day), she begged me for her and her friend to have a swim play date.

The day before, I got to work on Emora's portrait some outside, which was oh so fun, but I think this day, I just read a book and watched the playing, which was also oh so fun.

The girls danced and sang, "surfed", slid and later, we watched the movie they were missing at the all school movie date, which coincided with making supper time and that I was not wanting to go to with all 3 of my kids in a packed school gym ;)  We borrowed the same movie from my cousin and sat on our cozy couch, with trail mix and an added bonus was barely noticing that I was "working" by getting two loads of laundry sorted while we watched the movie.  YIPEE to Brian who gets out there for the daily grind so that we can enjoy an amazing preschool life as a family.  Some days I really do think I'm very, very spoiled blessed ;)

More swimming pics

As I was saying, we've had weird weather.  These are more pictures from last week's warm Sunday.  Monday was hot too and the kids swam again with another friend (pics coming soon).  Then the weather started turning and fast!  Wednesday was colder and windy, Thursday, colder and windier, and Friday when we went to the Muirheads for some hang out fun, it was raining/snowing/sleeting.  I've never seen anything like it that I can remember.  Some drops were wet, some fluffy white and some more solid icy white.

So we got out our jackets, tuques, mitts and scarves and wrapped the kids up over their recently gotten sun burns.  (We were scrambling Sunday trying to find sun screen and while I had found some, I later realized it wasn't waterproof).

Everywhere I've lived people make the joke that if you don't like the weather, wait 5 min., but Saskatchewanites would like to brag that it's actually true here!  I'm writing this post on Tuesday, a little over a week after these sun bathing pictures.  It was not hot enough to swim today, but I started sweating with a jacket on walking to the library with Emora.  In honor of the fact that my house is messy and needs to be cleaned, we took a detour to the beach.

We also went there because it's been gloomy cloudy for a couple of days and today, the sun was shining and it was pretty much gorgeous.  So we went to the beach and made some little sand castles, with sand toys she won at her library program.  That afternoon, I was answering e-mails when I heard loud booms.  I'd noticed it get dark, but when I got to a window, I saw that rain was pouring down in torrents, thunder was about shaking the house and lightning was crackling.  Emora was very excited to get out in it with me to pick up kids from school.  We located umbrellas and it was like having a bucket of water poured over us.  I was told that one schoolbus showed up covered in big chunks of hail.

But as we left the school, it was just an occasional spit of rain and an hour later all the neighbor kids were out playing in the sun again!  And in all, I'm glad Brian wasn't on a roof today as was once planned, and I'm happy we are not flooding this year and I'm happy that there will be some moisture in the ground for in a few weeks when we will get to plant our garden.

Weird, weird weather

We are having strange weather lately, which is not all that unusual for a Saskatchewan spring.  This was the scene at our house Sunday.  As you can tell, it wasn't all that hot, but the kids declared it "freezing hot" (I think they meant "boiling hot").  They begged and begged to have their little pool set up.

I'm so glad we brought this little pool with us.  When we were deciding what to get rid of and what to take to Canada, we had debated with the pool since it would take up a relatively big space and since we were moving to a place with plenty of lakes to swim in.  But then we ended up having tons of space in the moving van, so we brought it.

Arwen has outgrown the pool and my big kids are really getting too big too, but when it's a bit hot, the water can be fun even if there's not tons of it.

I remember as a kid with us in a pool even smaller than this one and dad sitting in it with us.  Fun memories and fun times.

The water from the taps here is cold, so I had to add a lot of hot to the mix for my little Texans to get in.  Even then, it wasn't long before Ivan was out and some time after that the girls decided they were cold enough too.  We had lemonade and popcorn. 

Arwen wanted to get back in the pool (she's used to cold lake water to swim in), but she couldn't convince my three lightweights to get back in.  So they dried off, changed and played star wars lego wii for the rest of the afternoon.

I remembered when we moved here thinking Arwen was so big and Ivan's already older her age at the time!  They grow up so fast!  But Ivan still likes to remember being small and getting cuddles.  He asked me if I will always cuddle with him and I assured him that if he wants a cuddle from his momma when I'm 90 and he's 60, I'd cuddle with him!

But for now it's fun being 7 and 30something ;)

During Easter break- was that Easter break or another one?  We get a lot of breaks at our school, which I LOVE!  I'm sure if I worked, I would hate having to figure out other arrangements all the time, but since the kids change of schedule does not wreck havoc on my scheduling, I really enjoy it.  Like today, they had the day off, so we got to sleep in a bit and not rush up to the school.  They played with friends outside while I got some laundry in and supper cooking in the crock pot.  Then we headed in to the city for groceries and swimming.  It would really be WONDERFUL for me if they had a day a week, or every two weeks, which is actually pretty close to the truth this month as I look at the calendar.  I still don't get as good a workout as I would if I were by myself at the pool, but I do try to keep moving while playing with them in the water and I definitely feel refreshed when I get back home.  It makes for a long day, but with some fun too.

These pics were from another break when we got to go to the museum with Brian and then I took the kids swimming, while Brian took the van to get the brake pads changed.

Yeah, I got the good end of the deal ;)

Emora and a little boy were having a lunch date with pretend food.  She had just met him and they got along so well.  After he left, she had some pretend lunch with me too.  I don't remember what she was serving, but it must have been awesome from someone so cute!

I just realized that some of my seeds were a waste to buy since I didn't start them yet.  We'll have to get tomato and pepper plants if we expect to eat any before freeze time in the fall.  We also brought okra seeds with us that were originally seeds from Big Buddy's garden.  He just turned 95 this year!  We are about positive that they will not grow well here.  I think they need hot temps, but we'll try.

Sunshine in the heart, on the floor, on the table

We are in kitty mode, trying to house train the kitty- oh he knows how to use his litter box, but he would also like to eat along with us, snag all our food, clean the counters, stove and sink.  There is not much we can do about some things, but we are trying to keep him off the table, dining chairs and counter top.  It's not easy- "PSST" doesn't phase this cat and neither does the spray bottle.  So far he has run off with many a waffle and is so fast that my slow eaters often get their plates robbed.  I've never seen a cat that does not fear water like this one.  He's already fallen into the bath with the shower running and has tried to get in the toilet.  He has gotten in the clothes in the washer and stayed in there with water pouring in.  He LOVES our fish too.  We all have kitty scratches, but he's pretty fun too.

Thanks to my cousin Janet, I am slowly learning to engage here.  Brian helped me realize that it's a different frame of mind that we were not used to in Abilene.  Sure we went outside some, but the parks were about he extent of that and it was to go on the play structures.  The first year here, I was bewildered as to what all to do with the kids, but Janet has been good to remind me lately that our new home IS the play area.  There are hills to climb, places to bike or walk, beaches to visit, great picnic spots and adventures just waiting if we will just GO.  I often forget to take to the hills or beach, but I'm trying to refocus and get out because it is so rejuvenating and exciting to go check out the world around us.

I have also had a change of focus by writing some words of gratitude or thanks each night.  I have often heard of gratitude journals, but never thought to keep one.  I am still trying to do morning pages as suggested through the Artist Way and it's really helped me figure out my goals, hopes, prayers, direction for the day and for life in general, but my nightly 5 to 10 words have really given me a different perspective.  It takes no more than half a minute and I just write a word or a few for each point of what I liked most about the day... it could be as simple as someone saying "hello" which made me feel more a part of the community, or a great lunch food, or as big as a special moment with the kids, or even as huge as an awareness of how amazingly good the Lover has been to me in my life.  I've only written and done this 3 nights so far and it's incredible how those 30 secs has steered my heart to recognize the beauties, grasp hold of the treasures and even orient my day to being thankful and sharing joy with others.

What a wonderful day!

The sun came out today!  We've had rainy weather, which is needed from time to time, but makes things a bit gloomier looking.  Today we had full out sun and warm temps (about 25C or mid 70F).  Arwen was over and the kids insisted on putting water in the pool.  They were SO hot!  But not so much once the water was in.  Even with hot house water, the got cold pretty quickly, but no matter it was so lovely outside!

It made us realize that summer is on it's way, so that is so fun!  We have new fish and plants are peeking through in the flower garden.  I need to start weeding and in a few weeks, we can get a garden in, so we need to figure out what to plant and build a fence.

This week is also the start of soccer, so that is fun.