Whats Outside Your Window?

Good evening everyone! Hoping you are all well and enjoying a warm cup of cider or hot chocolate. As I sit in my room looking out my bedroom window, I'm amazed at the picture perfect view I have. I've been stuck in bed this past month with my fibromyalgia deciding to flare so I have had a lot of time to enjoy my view.

I guess I should back up a little bit so you all understand the irony of the situation of 'enjoying' the view from my room. Our family does not live in a fancy home nor do we live out in the country where we can see deer feeding in the meadow and cardinals dancing in the trees.

 No...we live in a small  but comfortable home in town. I have 4 huge pine trees in my backyard that my husband and his buddy keep teasing me should come down so that they can build a garage. A couple of sheds,  a wonderful deck  and a fire pit finish off our small piece of 'heaven'.

So, now you are all up to speed on my little backyard view. I spend a lot of time sitting here watching days pass by. I can see little chickadees flitting between all my bird feeders and hear the occasional  annoyed squirrel chattering at the birds that are 'stealing' the bird seed and berries in the trees. I watch as snow gently falls and paints the branches with a sparkling white fluff. As my day drifts to late afternoon, the golden sun shine sparkles behind my trees and just lights them up.

Here it is, Dec 18, and I think I've been able to attend to my 'Christmas events & chores' list about 5 times this month. I remember baking batches of cookies and shopping endlessly. Attending children's pageants, work parties, mailing Christmas cards and hardly breaking a sweat! Now, all I have accomplished is 2 batches of cookies and lots of online shopping. I was also privileged to be invited to and able to attend 2 parties. And the 'icing on my Christmas cookie' was being able to help my husband host an evening with some friends.

So here I am...a week before Christmas...stuck in bed staring out my window. Crossing my fingers that UPS will bring my parcels here on time. I can't stress because it's out of my control. But I do realize how very blessed I am as my boys help me with out complaint and my husband curls upstairs with me and keeps me company even though he has other things to do. And I am very grateful for the very beautiful view out my bedroom window.


Hoping you are all having a healthy and stress free week before Santa makes his big arrival!! Enjoy your hot chocolate and take time to enjoy the view out your window.

Happy Turkey Day USA!

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends to the South! I'm sure by now many of you are either in the midst of preparations or already at the table enjoying a wonderfully prepared meal.  I hope all of your family and friends have arrived safely to their destinations and someone out there is saving me a piece of pumpkin pie! Ha!!

I like Thanksgiving. Granted, in Canada, we do it in October when the weather is way nicer! The leaves are changing colour, the weather is just hitting the Fall coolness. I love coming in from outside and smelling the turkey cooking and feeling the warmth of the fire in the wood burning stove. The best part for me though, is that Thanksgiving is just Thanksgiving.

Okay....I see the puzzled looks. What I mean is, the main focus for Thanksgiving is 'Thankfulness'. That's it. You don't need presents, or decorations. I'm fortunate my children live at home and working dinners around girlfriend's families hasn't been difficult. We just enjoy this super yummy meal together. Share memories, laugh, eat pie with real whip cream like it will never run out. Its not hard to be thankful.

I am sure you are all being asked what you are thankful for today and I am sure many of you all have your standard pat answers ready and waiting. You are thankful for you families, jobs, health, wealth....and don't get me wrong, those are great things to be thankful for. But how about a can of cinnamon buns in the fridge when you have a sudden huge craving? Let me tell you...my son's girlfriend is extremely thankful that tin is in there today! Ha!!

I think sometimes we get to caught up in the moment of holidays. We think everything has to be perfect, everything has  to be deep and meaningful. But is it worth it to be so stressed over a day?

I think at the end of the day, we need to step back from all the hustle and bustle of these very high stress and high expectation days and just be thankful for the little things that really matter. Like yummy warm cinnamon buns when you reallllly had a craving! And I know I am very thankful that I can share moments in time with all of you on such a great day!

Happy Turkey Day!! 

Its The Same Backyard...

Good Day Everyone! Nov 1 and it's snowing quite steadily out my window. No late winter for us I am guessing. My boys have stocked the side of the house with wood for the wood burning stove inside, winter jackets, boots and mitts are all out.

My little 6lbs dog that we nickname 'Prey' because she flinches at everything just LOVES snow!! I open up the back door and she just shoots out there like a little bullet. No sniffing and gingerly checking to see what may come swooping from the sky. No second and third backward glances to see if I will follow to protect her. Nope...Kira (Prey) just boots it out there, skids around the slippery corner and plays in the backyard until I call her back inside.

Its funny. Its the same backyard. Only thing that's changed is that there is snow back there. So why the change of heart? Why the big heart of bravery?

We see this in ourselves too. We live day in and day out in the same environment until one day some small (or large) thing changes. Could be a book we read, changing the furniture in a room or maybe the death or birth in your family. All of a sudden we step back and shake our mental selves and say "Hey! I can do more then this!"

So my friends...as you gaze out into your backyards this week...I hope you see what makes you brave. Even if its attacking that book you always said you would....or going back to school (YEAH Patti!! Way proud of you!!) Just remember, no act of change is too small to try. Just think of my silly little dog skidding around to the backyard.

Have a great day everyone! Stay warm!

Happy 1st Anniversary!!

Good Afternoon to all my Friends and Family!! I was curled up with a warm cup of my favourite flavoured coffee and looking at the calendar when it dawned on me....Holy Moly!! It has been a year since I started this blog! I am just in awe at how fast the time has flown and the people I have met along this journey so far.

For those who do not know how a blog works ( and I am still learning as I go! ha!!) there are pages attached that show me which countries readers come from (which has been really cool! My kids and I have discovered country names we have never heard of before!!) and and page with a graph that shows me how many people have read my blog that day, that week, month and that year. There are other pages but those are my favourite.

Its been an amazing journey so far this year. I can not believe how much has happened just in my own personal family...losses...great achievements...new jobs...And even as I am writing this a huge storm is attacking Eastern Canada and USA today after leaving some smaller countries like Cuba laying in devastation. I sit here in the warmth and safety of my home and wonder how many of those people maybe joined our little family here and are they safe?

What an amazing year, I have to say! When I first set 'pen to paper' I was not to sure how this was going to fare. Would I actually keep it going? Would anyone actually want to read what I had to say? (According to the statistics...over 4500 of you did!! WooHoo!!) And I know compared to huge blogs out there those aren't huge numbers...but for someone who started with 93 people the first month...thats way exciting to see...and from people spanning the entire globe! WOW!!

So thank you everyone!! Without you there would be no Happy 1st Anniversary!! 

Calm Before The Storm

Good evening friends and family! I can hardly believe that the calendar is saying that it is the end of September. But the leaves are turning to thier warm Fall colours and the evenings have a definate crispness to them that was not there a few weeks ago.

I love this time of year. Everything is so pretty. Kids are all settled back in school so the house is nice and quiet. Its kind of like the calm before the storm.

"Storm?" You ask?

Well...I kind of pause and look at it this way. Most of the year has flown by. Our family has had losses and had fabulous additions. We planned and enjoyed our first road trip of such grand proportions. 2012 has flown by very quickly so far.

I just looked at the calendar and realized next weekend is Thanksgiving. And that also means.....Christmas is around the corner!!! STORM!!!


The baking, the shopping, wrapping of presents, school concerts, family dinners, work parties....and I am sure you can all add to the list. It will just start getting crazy! Not bad...just crazy! Ha!

So for right now, I am enjoying the beauty around me. The pretty coloured trees, the crunch of the laves under foot and the cool Fall nights. We will chat next week after the craziness has started!

Hope your weekend is filled with jumping in leaf piles, some warm cider and maybe some friends gathered around around a fire pit. Remember...this is the calm before the storm!!
 Enjoy this weekend!

Are You A Crier Or A Celebrator?

Where did the summer go? I must admit...I have been grasping on to any little teeny bit of summer I can get but as of this morning I had to admit summer is over. We had a wonderful summer and I just don't want to let it go! I could even delay the inevitable 'Back to School Shopping' because all of my sons are in high school or beyond and have reached the stage where they only require looking good.

1st Day of School

My youngest started High School today. My middle son will be graduating High School this year. Its going to be a very exciting year in our house hold! I got up early this morning (which is amazing for those of you who know me!!) so I could grab a picture of my son before he left with his dad for his first day. He was dressed up in his new school clothes and a big excited smile on his face.

I quickly snapped a few pictures, waved good bye and went back inside to finish my mug of tea. Its amazing to me how quickly time has flown. There are parents bringing their youngsters in for their very first day of 'real' school today, and its harder to tell who's crying harder...the kids or the moms!
Now here my family is at the stage of life where we barely stop the truck rolling in front of the school so the kid can jump out before being spotted with his embarrassing parents.Ha!!

So as I sit here and mourn a very great summer and revel in a wonderfully quite house, I pose to you all...are you criers or celebrators on your child's first day of school? I must confess...I did cry for my oldest's first day of grade one....but now....ahhhh...the peace and tranquillity is bliss beyond compare.

So moms...dads!! Send me your pictures!! Send me your stories!! Lets start this new school year with smiles of excitement. Email me your family pics of your child(ren) on the first day or week of school. My next post I will hopefully have enough pictures to make a unique poster of everyone's excited faces!

What A Wonderful Summer!!

Hello everyone!! I hope you are all enjoying your summer and relaxing as much as possible. It seems this time of year flies by so quickly. Just 8 weeks ago my family was preparing for our first family vacation in about 7 years, and 2 of the boys were also getting ready to go to camp.

Now here we are on the middle day of August, camp is done, our suitcases are unpacked and wonderful memories were created. Stores are pushing school supplies, gardens are full of produce and evenings are getting cooler. Ugh!!! I'm not ready for it to be over!!!!

This year my family decided we wanted to go on and adventure for our holiday. Usually our 'vacation' has entailed renting a small cabin for 3 or 4 nights and enjoying the peace and quiet of the prairies. Well this year that idea just did not seem to grab any one. ( except me...I love the cabin...) So we kind of hemmed and hawed and I came up with an odd and wildly crazy idea. I suggested to my 3 young, adventurous men and my husband that we buy an old camper van..fix it up so its driveable...let the kids paint it...and see how far we can go in 2 weeks!

Adventure Van 2012

Game on!! So we had 6 weeks to find a van that suited our needs, fit in a tight budget, paint it up, fix it up and go on vacation. What an exciting time!! Our Adventure Van 2012 made it all the way to Las Vegas and back to Alberta...no air conditioning though (and it was 104F!!) so we need to fix that for next time!!

We saw the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon! Drove through deserts...saw the lights in Vegas....mountains in Montana. Everyday was something new and beautiful to see out those windows. We drove Route 66 and ate at the Road Kill Cafe! Ha!! One of the most exciting things we saw was vultures munching on some roadkill while we were driving up to Area 51!! We just don't see stuff like that here at home.

One Of Our Favorite Stops

It was so much fun...everyday was an adventure for us. But the very best part of the whole trip for myself was just being with my family. Experiencing all these awesome things with them. Hearing the boys laughing in the hotel rooms, or joking around in the van. There was no fighting or arguing. There was just this kind of rare magical freedom of being away from all that was normal to us and sharing all these new experiences without judgement or rivalry that usually goes on when kids are at home. And as parents we were away from all our regular day to day grind and could just enjoy everything around us.

The summer of 2012 has certainly left our family with plenty of memories. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to have gone on this vacation with all my boys and to have shared all the wonders we saw and experienced together (even the 104f heat in the van! ha!!). I may even be so bold to say I think they may have enjoyed it too because they were talking about what needed fixing for next year's adventure!

Hope you are all having a safe and memory packed summer!!

Grand Canyon 2012