#38- Rolling hills, rolling tractors

we went up to Erics parents in A-ford last weekend to celebrate Easter and birthdays! (there's quite a few of them grouped together over the next few weeks)
It was beautiful weather and I must say, I genuinely miss the beauty of Bruce County; rolling hills, streams and rivers, so many trees and pastures, lakes and sandy beaches...it is really gorgeous over there. 
Eric and I went out on Saturday night to the beach in Southampton to see the stars "Why are you going to there?!" relatives asked, all born and raised is area, "just to be there! We want to see the stars!" 
We definitely took for granted the landscape of the Bruce, having lived within 15 minutes of a lake for all of Eric's life and 12 years of my life, I can count on one hand the amount of times we actually went to the beach every summer. I miss it! This year I'm so excited to make the 40 minute drive to the nearest lake to London since Isaac is now old enough to really get some fun from it.
Anyway; it was a beautiful night to stargaze, we also saw (before we knew what it was) Jupiter and Venus glowing incredibly bright right next to each other which was amazing.
Grandpa N. wanted to take Isaac to go see 'his' tractors over where he works with his brother. "Real up close John Deeres and tonkas!" Clutching a toy truck in his hand the whole time Isaac didn't say much but was clearly in awe of the huge machines. Grandpa even let him climb up into the seats and 'drive'. 
With his little shirt barely buttoned up he looked just like a little Bruce-County boy indeed:)
Rosie could have cared less and was too preoccupied with getting smiles out of anyone who would give her the time of day:)
Lovely to see Eric's family again and enjoy the peace and quiet.
(Lucky for us we missed out on the big riot in London two blocks away from our home. Thanks for nothing, students)
Now for cute pictures!!!!

#37- Fridge

My fridge is old.
It's stained
It's rusty
It's an energy sucker
It's stinky (that could be my fault...)
Solution? Buy a new one. Reality? Save a few bucks first...
It would be just SO easy to buy a new fridge though...it would solve ALL my problems. I would never have to clean my new fridge. It would clean itself. I would never have to worry about rust, it'd be ir-rustable. As for energy, obviously my fridge would have to be the newest on the block to clean itself so obviously it would be energy efficient...but obviously we won't be buying the newest fridge on the block from Kijiji :)


After many days (weeks..? I don't want to say months. But that could also be true) of grumbling about my stinkyoldstainedsucker fridge, I one day decided to roll up my sleeves and see what could come out of a good clean.
At the  end of a day, I do not want to clean anything.
All day I say to myself, "I'll have time to clean when the kids go to bed", but let's be real, at the end of the day all I want to do is look at my way-cooler-friends lives on facebook (studying, avoiding studying, and posting lame links and photos..) and gaze at beautiful pictures of immaculate homes on pintrest and read how EASY it is to make YOUR home look like this. As long as I'm sitting, I'm feelin' fine.
But not that night! That night I cleaned my fridge. 
The result was glorious. to me anyway, some good elbow grease and it was actually a lot shinier in there than I ever remember, it almost looked new! Or to me anyway. Students rented this house before us, and there were certain parts that I simply could not scrub off whatever residue it was, but luckily it was behind one of the drawers, sooooooo.......
I even organized the food and condiments and put leftovers in pretty little see-through-containers just like those organized girls who would NEVER put leftover casserole in an old margarine container with a yogurt lid. (Gasp!!)
I tried to clean the outer fridge, but alas, even bleach couldn't remove the rust and stains. But every time I opened that fridge for the next 14 hours (I went to bed, woke up, used the fridge a couple times, and by noon it was looking rather disorganized again) I was blessed to see how tidy and clean it looked.
This is, after all, the only fridge I have. 
And I was reminded of a valuable lesson that has been easy to forget living in the city and being influenced so much by 'if it's old, if it's inconvenient, if it makes you unhappy, get a new one!" attitude;
Take care of what you have until it dies. 
Be gentle with it. Love it. Clean it. Tend to it. Don't abuse it. Learn how to use it.


The fridge is certainly on its last legs (literally) but until the day it simply sputters out, I'll try to clean it more than once a year. 

#36- Rosie is half-a-year old!

I've been meaning to post for awhile, but every time I sat down to start, got distracted.
Hey, life is busy when you've got a toddler and a crawler:) 6 Months as of March 2nd!
Yes, Rosie is not QUITE crawling, but creeping around anywhere she wants to go, has two teeth, is starting to chatter more and more (squeak more like it:) has started solids, and while she doesn't act like she's been starving her whole life (like Isaac when he first tried them) she seems to like everything just fine and will politely finish off a small bowl as long as she can take her time.
She is sleeping pretty well through the night, going about 4 hour stretches. Since this makes only 2 night feedings for me on average, I am not too worried about her sleeping ALL the way through the night yet, she is growing fast and only just started solids, if she does wake up in between her usual times I don't feed her, as I know she has got enough calories through her feeding schedule throughout the day, and she'll generally go back to sleep, so it's certainly a pretty good routine for me right now:) 
She has a very sweet personality, content and observing, but she is certainly a wiggler and loves 'walking' and standing. The world is more exciting to her as she gets more active. She isn't a big fan of 'thrills' such as swings or being tossed in the air, but direct attention and tickling will get her giggling. (cutest sound ev.)
First 6 months; CHECK, and I thought we were taking our time!!

Pretty in Purple

toes!

(on a side note, my floors are amazingly clean in this photo...)

playing this drum is one of Rosie's favourite things to do

#35- Long Days

So much for 8 degrees today, maybe without the windchill and if the sun was out. Maybe then. Hah!
I don't like complaining about the weather, but with Eric working longer shifts, being able to go for a walk to the park without everything being wet or too cold is a necessity for my sanity these days.
We were rather spoiled a few days ago I guess with a perfectly sunny, spring-like day, gorgeous weather, kids played at the park and we all got some sun and fresh-as-it-gets-in-London air. 

Long days these are...Isaac has been waking up earlier and earlier it seems. Today was better, 7am; but he wakes up in the worst of moods. I don't know if he is not feeling well lately or if it is just the beginnings of the 'terrific twos'. 
The latest has been SCREEAAAMING fits. We just came back from story-time at the library (I thinking maybe he just needed to get out of the house and be around other kids) and all was well until it was time to go and he had to put down the toy trains...and, oh heavens! the screaming! And even though most of the people in the small library were parents, its still quite embarrassing. you know everyone is watching you to see how you will react. And I can just see the moms whose babies are still little and sweet thinking "tch tch, MY sweet little snootie won't ever turn out like THAT little boy. His mummy must not understand just what he needs". Yes...I remember thinking that too...
I maintained my cool and took him right outside to put on his coat and boots because screaming and flailing in a library while trying to dress him is not good for anyone.
We are yet to see full-blown tantrums, but he's come close. My ears are currently ringing and I fear for poor little Rosie who just hunkers down and flinches as he screams. There is not always a reason, lately though it has been over EVERYTHING, if I say no, if I take him to the potty, if I give him something he doesn't want, if I turn my attention to Rosie. (Surprisingly, he doesn't do it when I put him down for a nap or to bed, in fact lately he's been rubbing his eyes and saying "Mama. I'm TIRED! Tired, mama!" Probably from all that screaming....)
Yes, yes I know, all part of finding his voice and expressing his individuality; I got it. It's still frustrating to no end!
We've tried many tactics, but most things just cause him to do it more, especially saying stop or pleading that it hurts our ears, I admit I even smacked his hand once. And oh that look...
My neighbour (3 kids under age 8) advised I simply put him in his room and let him scream till he is playing quietly. This has by far been the only thing to do. Though he rarely gets to the point where he plays quietly, and even when he does within a half hour of being fine and happy and out of his room, he starts it up again! I know it's an attention thing more than anything, or just pent up frustration, but it still has to be dealt with, and trust me, after a certain number of hours is very, very difficult to ignore completely.
It's trying times with Isaac right now, and hard to see him going through at the same time as hard for me to deal with! I get very frustrated at Isaac, but at the same time feel bad for him, especially when I lose my cool or raise my voice or just ignore him when he seems to need guidance because I'm afraid of losing my cool.
I look at Rosie and think "ah those were the days! So easy and blameless!" haha. Every reason Rosie is difficult is because my lack of attending to her needs. I can't say the same thing about Isaac, even when all his needs are met, he can be difficult.
I'm just repeating myself now. 
Anyway, under all this he is still of course a wonderful, sweet boy, he's doing so well with others and playing with his sister, and learning new things. He is also starting to show me more affection which is really nice, for awhile there he had 'given me up' you could say and become quite the daddy's boy, and while he still is, he seems to be really enjoying time and wanting time with me more and not just because he's whiny or tired.
Anyway! That's a rant. If any of you reading this have had similar experiences with your toddler, (especially ear-piercing screaming) and have any ideas or advice, they would be welcome!
Currently the house is ever so still as both babes are napping, a good break for me to start again when they wake up with renewed patience!

A friend recently said something along the lines of this to me the other day..
"So, I didn't know you actually don't DO anything all day..."


The only thing you can say to that is a good hearty laugh.

#34- Photo-shoots!

One of Isaac's FAVOURITE things to do is jump on our bed!! Perhaps we shouldn't let our children jump on the bed...
or the couch...
or on us...
but he just gets so giddy and gleeful about it, plus he can do it for MINUTES on end, so whatevs for now. Hah.
Anyway one day he was doing this and Rosie was just as gleefully watching him (she loves laughing at Isaac) and I was trying to get a good action shot; which turned into a family photo as I discovered I could take multiple shots at once with the camera, (another one of Isaac's favourite things is looking at himself. Whether in the mirror or especially on a camera.
So we had fun doing that. And here's some of the results, soooo cuuuute, now if we could only get Rosie to smile at a camera...

#33- from the last couple weeks...

Date night thanks to our great friends to see Treasure Island the play!

We've been busy busy this month! So instead of a boring blurb, here's a better blur!

This shot is real. He's actually sleeping. (erics not)

Nature walk with Christina!

No caterpillars to stomp this time...

Bath-time buddies!

I moustache you a question...will Eric be my valentine? (he said yes)

Rosy Red Cheeks!

giving attitude already!!

"return the lid to me!"

#32- Sirens

I grew up in the country. We never had a 'real' farm but had just about every animal at the same or different times as one would have on a farm.

The cow pasture was my playground and the swamp was my backyard; My neighbours were Mennonites or farmers.


I never ever thought I would LIVE in the city, maybe hang out there for a year or so. But here I am, going on 4 years in London (4 years!!) and no reason to leave other than my sentiments. 
As I write this, there are sirens blaring a few streets over. In the country when you hear a siren it is a rare thing indeed, and you usually check in later on your neighbours because who else would sirens be going for?
We live very near a main st in London (Oxford baby) and so it is not uncommon to hear sirens. I imagine my children are used to the sound, just as I was used to hearing coyotes or crickets.
The very thought of THAT makes me want to pack my bags.


Sirens always bother me, as they should I suppose. I notice them most when someone in my home is missing, usually Eric off to work or with friends. Every time I think 'what if he was so close to home/or just leaving home, and something happened? what if those sirens are for him?' And these thoughts are irrational and of course never true. But that doesn't stop one from thinking them. and I can't stop worrying until he is home.


Living in the city feels like a constant reminder that the world is not safe. (Of course that is probably the most negative way of looking at it as most of you are thinking right now.)
Even in the suburbs when I used to work there it never felt safe, maybe crime was low and people were rich and had everything they needed, but a deep sense of insecurity and dissatisfaction was in the air and I felt it constantly.
I mourn the thought that my children might not experience what its like to live in the country, to not know how to work an iphone or prefer roaming the hills over technology any day. To know how to spend a whole evening reading a book or making an igloo. And not because you have to!
The option is there of course that we COULD just pack up and move, work inconveniences aside, nothing is demanding we stay here...
But then...there is our community of friends, our church family, neighbours, that cashier who knows my kids and I and we always share a smile.
There's the daily opportunity of loving a stranger. Of being a light. Of putting yourself out there, taking chances...getting out of your comfort zone, practicing self-control when the world is at your fingertips, truly search out and ground yourself in who you are and what you want for your family rather than having it so easy and taking it for granted...
And not saying that you can't do these things in the country, but from my experience, it's a lot easier not to.
Perhaps God will keep our flighty souls here in London for all our days. Perhaps a few years, we can never know, only be willing to go.
Or stay.
I suppose we can't really leave a place until we desire to stay. Otherwise we have not learned what we needed to while we were there.
I like to think at the end of these hard days, when the new chapter opens in the Kingdom, I'll live in the country with my chickens and my sheep and my cows. And I'll know all my neighbours by name, far and wide.

But for now, I need to be here.
Maybe before the need for sirens.