Easter Pictures

We had a lovely quite Easter this year and celebrated with Neil's folks. The kids enjoyed an egg hunt in the morning and another hunt at Grandma & Grandpa's house. I thought quite a lot about Neil's Grandma Mae, who left us in December. This is the first holiday that we missed with her. I found myself wondering if she was looking over us that day. Smiling at the kids. She always enjoyed putting together Easter baskets for all her great-grandchildren. It gave her much joy to watch them opening up all the treats inside.

Neil and I are looking at our summer calendar, trying to plan some fun activities. We may even be brave enough to take the kids camping this year.

Tea Party!!

I just dropped my mom off at the airport after her 2wk visit from Connecticut. We really enjoyed the time we spent together and all the fun stuff we did. My favorite was a Tea party that Evelyn and threw for the girls on my mom's side of family. The little girls had their own tea table and loved it.

Here's the "ladies":

And the little girls:

A feeling of warmth during a cold January day

Shortly after Jan 1st I started recieving plant and seed catalogs in the mail. Oh how precious these became many a cold night this month. I thumbed through the pages dreaming of sunny summer with it's warm breeze. I still consider myself a novice garden. Planting what I like and learning from my mistakes. Just today as I played with the children outside I noticed rabbits had mowed down all my raspberry canes. I said a few choice words under my breath at Peter Cottontail. Ah, tis the life of a gardener.

Luckily I get smarted every year. Reading up on deer/rabbit/disease resistant plants. I won't tell you how much I spent on gardening last year, but it sure did surprise me when I added it all up. This year I have come up with a budget and a new plan for saving money. I'm going to try to start all my own plants by seed. I purchased a shop light and bulbs from Menards over the weekend and have my list of veggies/flowers to try. I hope also that this will be fun for the kids to watch.

Here is what I will be planting/growing this summer:

Contender Peach Tree
Saskatoon Berries
Meyer Lemon Tree
Broom corn (Decorative)
Zucchini Buckingham
Celery Safir
Tumbling Tom tomato (grown in a hanging basket)
Pepper fruit basket
Gazania
Pepper Carmen
Lisianthus
Brandywine tomato

I have some other seeds too leftover from last year that I will use. I figure I'm being pretty bold with some of these items, but it should be fun. I ordered most of these items from https://www.parkseed.com or https://www.henryfields.com

Christmas memories

Although we had some sorrowful times this holiday season, we were still able to have much joy. Here's a family picture from Christmas Eve. My favorite memory from that evening was my uncontrollable laughter during the "White Elephant" gift exchange at a pair of soup mugs with a goose handle. I must have needed a good laugh because I couldn't stop. Guess who ended up with the mugs? (BTW the kids love to eat cereal out of them)



Here's what Santa brought the kids. It's been a wonderful addition to our home and we enjoy "making" all sorts of things with them.

How do you say goodbye to a friend?

Today my friend Emilie was laid to rest. She lost her battle with Sarcoma in the early hours of Christmas Eve. Emilie and I met online while planning our weddings. I immediately identified with her because she had an "old soul". A soul that had given her years of wisdom at a young age. These type of people always draw me in. We kept in contact after marriage and through having children. She found she had cancer at the beginning of the pregnancy of her 2nd son. Shortly after his birth she found out it was uncurable.

I've watched her and her husband re-evaluate their lives to enjoy every single drop of time that God gave them. Last month when dropping of a meal I walked in to find her on the couch holding her baby and smelling his hair. (I found myself wondering how long it had been since I had done the same with my own children.) She was generous enough to let me hold her baby and let me smell his hair. This was the last time I was to see my friend. Had I know that what would I have said? "I love you Emilie?" I don't know. Part of me is happy to have such a fond rememberance of our last time together and another part feels guilty that I didn't go and see her when I heard she was finally failing. I guess I didn't want to crowd her or take and precious time left that she had away from her and her family.

Her funeral was so terribly sad and yet beautiful. She had the full Christmas choir at the Basilica and the angelic voices gave a surreal presence to her spirit rising from this earth into heaven above. I felt blessed to call myself her friend and better because I knew her. My heart goes out to her husband Steve and her young sons.

Goodbye my friend Emilie, I love you!

A life well lived

We lost Neil's grandmother this morning and now she is at peace. We were able to say goodbye to her yesterday. She was a wonderful lady, always happy to have her family around her. She will be missed.

(This picture was taken just last weekend at her Christmas celebration.)

A second Christmas of Loss

Last year my grandmother passed away a few days before Christmas and this year it looks the same for Neil's grandmother. Something internal happened yesterday afternoon and in a short period of time she became comatose. Her wishes are to go naturally at her home, so it is just a matter of time now. I went over right away and spent 4 hours with her yesterday. It felt so wonderful to share time with her while her spirit is still with her body. I didn't have the chance to do that with my grandmother.

I am sad, but I feel at peace with her going right now. She doesn't appear to be in any pain and I am thankful for that. We're going to go over again this afternoon and take the kids to say goodbye. I'm not sure if Evelyn will understand any of it, but she will certainly pick up on our sadness.