Looking through some old pics on FB today

Blah.......sometimes timing is CRAP :(

What do I see in you?

Your looks

Your laugh

Your kindness

Your parenting

Your passion

Your writing

Your honesty

What do I miss in you?

The way you look at me sometimes….

The way you hug me

Hugging you…

Making love to you

Kissing you

Morning coffees

Rickis brunch

Sam’s butt scratch

Abigail’s adorable smile

Susie’s warm & loving heart she got from you

Laurence’s big hair

Your Love……

You make me happier than I have been in years.

There is nothing I look forward to more, than the feeling of driving out to see you, or looking through my window at home, awaiting your arrival.

Of the feeling we share when we did family things together. Watching the children be “children” and laughing and enjoying them….together.

Yes, we disagree sometimes.

Yes, I don’t understand you sometimes.

Yes, I don’t know how to manage you wanting me, and then not….that’s really, really challenging. And, by far the biggest struggle for me. :o(

Yes, I over react.

But you DO NOT make me miserable. There is nothing compared to the feeling of being near you….spending time with you.

Snapshots from this evening :)

End of month tag:

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?     I am reading The Garneau Block by Todd Babiak - I am loving it!!  It is based in Edmonton and he talks about Whyte Ave, Downtown, real news stories from recent years.  It is fiction, but lovely to read so much about places I know well :)  I am also taking part in 'Inner-Excavate Along' - a 7 week class by Liz Lamoreux.  I bought her book a few years back, and this class works through the book with the author - doing the assignments which are photography/ mixed media and journaling based.

What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?  Not many.  We bought a few dvd's but now I can't remember what!  Oops!!  I watched The Wedding Singer with Sam - and a few other movies with him.  Oh and I took the girls to see The Hunger Games at the theatre - horrible horrible story!!  Very well made movie, but the storyline - reality tv show where people watch kids fight to the death??  Just horrible!

What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?  We have had many trips to Whyte Ave, several BBQ's at home, camp fires at home too with Smores and snakes :)  I met Sharon for our monthly 'date night' :)  Trips to the farmers market with Lorraine and Alora, homeschool park days, splash park visits. Supper out with Ki and her girls, the big car show and Brits Fish and chips with the kids :)  The dog park, the trip to Toys R Us where Laurence got in the toy mini!  Aloras graduation celebration, R's pirate party,  Susannah had friends stay over several times.  Walks, ice cream, supper out with Laurence and Susie, Susie and Sam...taking photos of our shadows at the farmers market,   

What special or unusual purchases did I make?     We bought a new firepit and LOVE it - we have already had so many lovely evenings out around the fire - chatting, reading, playing, eating and drinking!  The old fire pit was illegal and badly designed - and also overgrown and too far from the house really!  So where we have the new one is perfect :)  We also bought two new tanks of propane for the BBQ and have had numerous delicious meals out on the deck :)  

What illnesses or health concerns did I have? A couple of migraines - we also all had a stomach bug that Abby picked up somewhere.  She started getting ill after a sleepover at Ki's house - nothing to do with Ki at all - just bad timing as Abby wasn't quite herself  while there :(  

What were my accomplishments this month?  I survived what COULD have been a nasty accident - in fact until this moment I think I had blocked it from my mind.  It must have shaken me up THAT much.  It doesn't even bear thinking about what COULD have happened.  Me, Sam and Abby squashed between two trucks and a semi ploughing in to us! I still can't believe it happened!  

Laurences trip is almost paid for :)  I am so happy about that!  

The canvas I created for Sam - I am so pleased with it and proud of it!  Also my classes and Facebook business page continue to do well!  

Sams artwork gets better and better and I love that I inspire him to create.  

What were my disappointments this month?  Utterly disappointed that my firstborn didn't make time to see his brother and sister while here.  Susannah was very hurt - and I know Laurence is too.  I've got used to being ignored and thats fine - whatever - but for him to treat Laurence and Susannah in that way is just completely wrong.

Anything else noteworthy to include?  June has been a LONG month for some reason - I am glad tomorrow is the last day!  School is now out for all the kids and we have plans we are excited about!  I look back through my 'Project 365' and see may wonderful days and events and memories - but June also felt like a month we had to 'get through'....yes, definitely glad it's over :)  

Snapshots...

Mt Rosie girl enjoying a belly rub:

Sam tending to his vegetables - we are growing radishes, peas and sunflowers in various pots on the deck and in the flower beds :)  

Sam was desperate to pick a radish and see if they were growing - they aren't very big yet, but he washed and ate it anyway:

We spent the afternoon at the park - had a picnic and some drinks and I sat and read and did some art journaling:

We bought the last few things for Abigails week at camp today, and also picked up some tongue tattoos to try.  Ewww they taste disgusting hahaha!!  Abigail had a spider, Sam had one that said SK8 and I had a baseball bat and ball :)

Tonight we had strawberries with cream and angel food cake :)  

Soooo yummy - and inspired Melanie to go out and get the ingredients for the same:

Susannah starts work tomorrow, and then Shania is coming over for the night as they are both working together on Sunday.  We might go to the Prairie Gardens tomorrow - or not.....we might go to Whyte Ave or the park - we might have a fire with smores etc..but we do have to run and get Canada Day supplies.  Tattoos and things :)  

I love my paper plates I bought (above).

Photo App fun!!

I've been playing about with various photo apps:

 And this one isn't an app - but Sam made a telescope to go with his pirate costume, and this is a picture of him looking down the telescope - I thought it was really neat:

Pirates :)

Today we were invited to Miss R's 9th birthday party - a pirate theme!  Her Mom Miss B is amazing at throwing parties with themes - the invitation arrived last week - a message in a bottle, complete with sand and shells!  The yard was all decorated and even had a ship - there was a treasure hunt (following a treasure map) and peg leg races!!  The ship had a JollyRoger flag:

My two said it was probably the best party they have ever been to :) 

Throwing water filled balloons as cannons from the ship was their favourite part :)  

I have tons more pictures to go through but we are camping tonight and I have had a migraine all evening from sitting in the sun too long, so haven't been able to do too many!!  

Such a fun birthday - thank you Miss R for inviting us - and Miss B for all the fun!!

x

A day filled with art!! Bliss

Today was an 'artsy fartsy' day :)  I started with some art journaling but was soon interrupted by Sam who reminded me that I had promised to create a canvas for him!  He wanted me to paint a canvas of him and I holding hands!!  So he went to fetch me a canvas and I got started!  

Here it is half way through:

And with more added.  Tomorrow I will add a little more detail and some doodling to it:

I finally got to finish my art journaling page while I was at the library tonight!!

Sam took out a book on how to draw dragons - he started working on it while still at the library, and when we got home he continued to sit quietly and work on his drawings - he was still sat there at 11:30pm!!!  We can have a late start tomorrow and he was so 'in to' his drawing that I didn't want to disturb him.  This is his FIRST dragon:

He sat and spent the whole evening carefully working through the stages in the book:

I worked on my business Facebook page, contacted several clients/ students regarding their questions or registration for classes, and I played a few rounds of 'Tell Tale' with Sam!!

Abigail sewed a gift for someone from an idea she found online.  It is really lovely - so proud of her!  

Susannah had an exam this morning, so we did have to head out to pick her up - but the rest of the day was pretty much spent doing art.

Tonight Susannah had orientation for her Summer volunteering job at the library.  While she was in her meeting, we sat in the library.  I did some art journaling and read the paper - Sam was on the computers for a while and then drawing dragons at the table with me, and Abigail was pottering about asking the staff questions, looking books up on the computer and gathering a HUGE pile of books to take home.

She leaves for camp on Sunday and won't have time to read many before then - so I limited her to just three books.  Oh wow she found it soooo difficult to choose - so I suggested she write the name and author of the books she wanted next time on her ipod.  She did this and it proved quite a useful lesson - because one of the books didn't have an author!!  :)  It was based on a  movie and so they didn't include an authors name - not even the name of the screenplay writer!!  

Sam on the computers:

Susannah starts volunteering on Saturday and will also be busy volunteering on Sunday!  I am so proud of her.  She gets quite nervous still about doing things on her own, and so I have really encouraged her to do more volunteering away from school - so that she builds confidence in herself and around people of all ages/ abilities and backgrounds.  She was nervous but she signed up to volunteer all Summer and she has been dealing with phone calls and Emails regarding this.  She is now really excited to be doing this - she was thrilled to be given her Canada Day work shirt and told that they will be driving round to give all the volunteers free lunch from McDonalds.  She was also told that she will be given free movie passes for volunteering all Summer - bonus!!  :)  

Today I also played about with my colour splash app:

And that was my day :)

I hope yours was awesome :)  

x

Tag time!!

listening  - to Abigail tidying her bedroom.  The wind blowing outside - sooo windy today!  

eating - about to have some marmite on toast :)  

drinking - lots of coffee today - I need it!!

wearing - black denim capris and a t-shirt.

feeling - tired.  And I have earache today - no clue why either!

wanting - this week to be over - too much to do and I have no energy or motivation!  I want July to be here!!

needing - a day off.

thinking - are all men the same?  Seriously - married men drive me insane.  Why do they all think it's ok to chat up other women behind their wives backs???  I may smile and laugh at your jokes guys but trust me - you do NOT want to know what I'm really thinking of you!

enjoying - the book I'm reading, and the online class I'm taking.

wondering - how some people sleep at night!

My day....

Susannah had an exam again this morning, and so I headed out to pick her up around 10am.  Her friend Shania came back to our place for the afternoon as they had a meeting tonight.  

Laurence (who is done with school for the Summer) and I headed into Edmonton to the bottle depot - got rid of all the recycling and then stopped off at Timmy's for a coffee.  

Back home and I spent the day working - working on some one-off classes for the Summer.  

I got those planned and advertised and dealt with some clients who contacted me about the classes.  

Sam and Abby headed to their dads for the evening, we drove the girls in to town and dropped them at their meeting/ orientation session for this weekend - and then I took Laurence to his friends house as he is staying over there again.  

I had a while to myself and so I parked the truck and went for a walk around the lake - I took the chance to work on my Inner-Excavate Along class.  This weeks assignments are about the theme of 'I gather'.  One of the suggestions is to 'gather' moments of your day through photography - but instead of  just taking pictures as normal, to get down on the ground - or put your camera on the ground to see your life through 'the eyes of an ant' - or more simply put, to look at your life from a new angle.  

I didn't take ALL my pictures in this way, but I did take some - and I also caught a few pictures of a cute squirrel who didn't seem to mind me at all :)  

I then sat on a bench and relaxed - enjoying the peace and the view and focusing on the sounds around me.  

I am so enjoying this class and the encouragement to see your life through new eyes and REALLY experience all the senses!!  I thought I had a really good appreciation of 'the small things' in life, but this class helps you delve even deeper!