Girls

I have some pictures of the girls, with many thanks to those who took the pictures and sent them to me!
Both girls, making cookies with Aunty Kathleen.

Bethany had fun!

Carrie Ann dressing up in Aunty Kathleen's belly-dancing costumes.

Carrie Ann dressing up in Hawaiian clothes at our friends' place.

Bethany dressed up too.

Carrie Ann playing dress-up last May.

Carrie Ann did a good job cutting and colouring her name with a craft kit from the Library last spring.

Christmas tree

Thanks to the generosity of some anonymous friends, we got a Christmas tree this year!

We are very thankful to everyone who gave us gifts or money this year. It has been nice to be around family and friends, and enjoy the season! May God bless you all as you share His love with others and meditate on the miracle of his incarnation and birth.

by the way

By the way, I don't have access to practicadoula anymore, so if you've been trying to email me there please try at: (name of my blog) zero seven at gmail dot com. Hopefully you can make that out better than the webcrawlers that steal email addresses...

Gone again, back again

Hi there! Well, it has been a while (okay, 7 months). Sorry. Quick recap: in June, I could no longer hold together my marriage with Frank, moved to Langley. After a summer of living here and there (thanks to everyone who helped us out!), we now live in a subsidized apartment for single moms. Matthias is living with Frank, and having fun "unschooling." We will see how that goes. When I prayed about what to do with my life now that marriage was no longer an option, God reminded me of the MLE I didn't do 14 years ago. So here I am -- already done the first semester (the "Killer Pack" -- by God's grace, it didn't kill me!). If you want to talk to me about any of this, feel free to call or email (I'll be off email for the holidays, though). Dad and Deb both have my number, and Calvin College, or leave me a comment and I'll call you.
I wanted to be intentional about celebrating Christmas this year, so we sat down and made a list of what Christmas is about. The first thing on our list was "remembering Jesus' birth," and I listed all the things we've done to celebrate His first coming -- playing religious Christmas music, reading the story, attending Christmas plays, programs and concerts. The one thing missing on my list was setting up a nativity scene. So we talked about how hard it is to buy one that matches my mental image. The next thing I knew, Bethany asked for my fabric scrap bag, and she created costumes for all her Barbie dolls and now we have a beautiful "Barbie Nativity." So much better than a store bought one!

Close up

Getting There

Yay! (or as Carrie Ann says, "Woo hoo!") Yesterday, she stayed dry all day -- not y me rememering to put her on the toilet, ut y going all y herself! That is a huge step ahead. Hope it will last, it's aout time! Sorry aout the key after a... the kids got it yesterday.

My ankle is getting there too. I can walk, even on grass, ut still have a limp, and it hurts at the end of the day. Actually, all of oth legs hurt from compensating! I'm very glad to e ale to get around, though!

Oops!

Good news first... the other day I was babysitting an almost two year old at her house with Carrie Ann and Bethany. Carrie Ann went over to Luna's play kitchen, and said, "Now I'm going to back my favourite food! Spinach!"

Today I sprained my ankle -- I was rushing to walk to the school to get Bethany for a dentist appointment, and tripped when my foot hit the backpack on the back of the stroller. Then suddenly I had lots of time, because I knew I couldn't do the half hour walk anymore! I flagged down a passing neighbour and got a ride home, then called Frank's Mom who was happy to pick up Bethany and take her to the dentist. So it all turned out all right, I even got the fish tank moved to a shady corner with everyone's help (hopefully that will cut down on the algae overgrowth), but now I can't sleep because my ankle hurts. It's not at all like the worst sprain I had (in 1996) which took months to heal. This one will probably be better in a week or two. Such is life.

Updates

Well, it hasn't been too busy here the last two months, at least not for the camera!

In January we went skating, went to Torch day (Carrie Ann calls it "Canada", since we sang "O Canada" there), saw a baby calf, and I went to a fabulous concert by the Toronto Consort. I don't have pictures of all that, of course, but there are some pictures of the beautiful sweater MaryAnna made for Carrie Ann!



In February:
We did a reading Olympics for school -- 2000 minutes in one month, per kid, and we just finished on the last day!
We went to a concert by the Canadian University College Chamber Orchestra. It was incredible -- the music swept me away a couple times, and that hasn't happened in a very long time. We had a couple of flautists over for the night afterwards. It was fun! They were from Thailand and Seoul, so we could have spent lots more time talking if it hadn't been so late!
Carrie Ann stopped sucking her thumb (with a little help). It took two weeks before she stopped saying "I really need my thumb" at bedtime.
We watched a little bit of the Olympics (mainly figure skating).
But I don't have pictures of that.
I have pictures of the smile finder on our new camera, a new family picture, and the first shoots and flowers of spring.
If anyone wants their own copy of our family picture, just let me know what size, what format (electronic or paper) and which one (this is number one, number two has Carrie's eyes open but everyone else looks bored).

Click here to see the rest of the pictures in my gallery.