Blooming Marvellous

More flowers and plants from our garden. This is our first summer here and it's fascinating to see all teh new plants and flowers popping up....learning what it all is and where everything is.....it still amazes me how delicate flowers like violas can survive such harsh winters and thrive!

When we first saw and fell in love with this house last year, it was surrounded by hundreds of the large daisies...so many that our first thought was to call this house Daisy Cottage.

Like the line in You've Got Mail...."Daisies are such friendly flowers, don't you think they're just the friendliest flower"?

Pirates, bookcases and 16 children

Today I am grateful for:

1. The rain we have had the last week.....although it would be nice to have the Alberta blue skies back again thank you very much :)

2. All the flower buds on the Irises...they are going to be stunning when they flower!!

3. My delightful afternoon out with just Abigail. On the drive to the birthday party we talked and talked. She was asking if I knew any pirates. I said that Aunty Clare had said that Uncle Jack might have been a pirate as he was always on boats. Abby said that Uncle Jack was old and then asked if he was going to die soon...we started talking about growing old and about dying and she told me that she doesn't want to get old!

4. My beautiful home and the wonderful feeling I get when I turn into our driveway each time. It is always so good to come home. I love driving out of the city and towards home.

5. For Lloyd - for the man he is, strong and reliable and dependable and loving and yet able to show so much concern for a tiny bird in our yard...happy to head out into the long grass to search for a nest and possible other babies.

6. My new bookcase......and having somewhere to put more books, family pictures and special keepsakes.

7. Sitting and watching another show about the Duggar family. How wonderful to have such a large family. Abigail thought it was a great idea too...and wants to know if we can go to a homeschool conference like the Duggars did :)

Dark skies looming

Some pictures of the dark skies around our home last night....we watched them approaching and sat on the porch until the strong winds and rain hit......

A picture of my gorgeous Daughters that I took of them in the dandelions before they were cut down......and my beautiful girl Amber.

And life goes on......

I was chatting with a friend today......I don't know her too well but she seems really nice. She was explaining that her and her DH have separated...she's hoping they can get back together and work things out but she isn't sure......I was surprised to hear her news.....it's sad...but I wanted her to know that life goes on. I explained about my situation and how it can be rough at the time but you get through it, life goes on, it changes but the world doesn't stop...that you just have to face it like a new adventure......that she'll be ok.....

I don't know if it helped but I wanted her to know I'd been there.....

The end of a marriage can be tough.....to all involved...it changes so much. But I know for me it was for the best and I wouldn't change my life for anything now.......my divorce was just a blot on the landscape....look how far I've come since!!!!!!

And there are wonderful, loving, kind and generous men out there like Lloyd.....men who don't see children as an inconvenience...men who happily accept your children as their own.....

Lloyd and I drove into town this morning to collect Laurie - he slept over at the twins house last night....most weekends he stays there and loves it......their parents work and it seems they always have 'cool' babysitters and lots of people going in and out of the house.....we stopped off for coffee and croissants too.

This afternoon I took Abby to N's birthday party.....she had fun there...I learnt what a Peony is and now want to buy some to plant around here...although I'm wondering if the big plant at the front with the biy buds ready to burst is actually a dark pink peony. They smell beautiful.

I was chatting to a lady at the party who is from Guyana...she seemed surprised I knew where it was ;) She moved to the NWT from Guyana...wow what a difference in climate!

N's Grandma was at the party.....her voice was shaky and reminded me exactly of Nanny Collison (except for the slight Canadian accent).....it was amazing listening to her talk and took me back 25 years to when I would go to my Nans house.....they years go by so fast, she died 16 years ago. Where does the time go?

When I got home Lloyd had been cutting the grass in the front paddock...sadly he had run over a little bird hiding in the long grasses....we think it was a song sparrow.....we have hunted and hunted for it's nest but can't see anything. Lloyd was feeling terrible for hurting it. We wanted to cut all the long grass back but now aren't sure what to do....maybe wait a month until all the nestlings have flown just in case!

Lloyd is now making the new cheery bookcase for the sitting room. Apart from the sofas and crown molding, that room is now finished...we just want to find some nice paintings for the walls.

Yesterday was nice. Lloyd and I took Sam and went to Costco and bought the bookcase. After that we took Sam home and went back into town to take Laurie to his sleepover and we sat in Starbucks in Chapters for ages over coffee (I had a strawberries and cream frapuccino - yum!!!! We got some snacks for the evening and then headed home. We cut some more grass and tidied up outside....Chris's friend left around 3pm. We lit a fire in the firebowl and the kids had hotdogs cooked on the fire.....then Lloyd lit a big fire to burn some hay bales. He had poured gasoline on the fire to get it started and wow what a bang when he lit it - silly fool!!! He thought it was cool of course (groooooan) as did Chris who was on the trampoline.

The sky darkened so much and it looked as though a storm was coming. We sat on the porch and watched clouds come closer and then the wind hit us and the rain and it was wonderful!

We came in around 9:30pm and Lloyd and I curled up to watch 'The Perfect Man' a movie with Heather Locklear and Big from Sex and the City. It was quite a sweet movie really.

So Sunday evening is here yet again...another weekend is over...Lloyd goes back to work tomorrow. The boys have homeschool gym in the afternoon......the dogs will need walking, the laundry will need to be done and the dandelions will have grown another inch or two......

.......life goes on ;)