After reading about B10 & J10 covering themselves in snow up to the shoulders my dad sent me this picture of both of us at the beach. I look very serious about the whole buried in sand concept!
Archive for the 'Memories' Category
Today I happen to be celebrating my birthday, while half way around the world my parents are celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary. My birthday is actually the day before their anniversary but with the time difference we can make one phone call and cover all the congratulations and best wishes! Last week I managed to send off a little parcel to them with cards, a drawing, a poem, a book and a dvd slideshow of pictures of our family from 1990 until now. We all contributed something and the postal service co-operated making it possible for them to open the package before they left to join my brothers’ families, their brothers and sisters, and some friends for a party on Saturday night.
The dvd slideshow was fun to put together because I started with Andrew’s and my wedding photo and then picked a few photos from each year since. I found such cute photos of the children. An absolute favourite of all three has to be this one:
I am very thankful for these three children, my wonderful husband and my dear parents. I hope that Andrew and I can celebrate one day, as my parents are this weekend, a happy marriage of fifty years.
Autumn is…
Autumn is heaps of freshly raked leaves,
Maples exploding in scarlet and amber,
Reflected in lakes still and shimmering.
Autumn is the sun relunctant to shine,
Visible breath in the chilly air,
Frost etching spidery patterns on the windows.
Autumn is twilight rambles in the woods,
Lively music from rides at the country fair,
The sweet scent of harvest apples in the air.
by L14
Due to March break and the weather there were no rehearsals today. We did not leave the premises. It was a nice change to be muddling around at home all day. Granted there was shoveling that had to be done on and off all day, but everyone lent a hand to do that. Everyone has sore muscles as a result, I think, because the snowbanks are now taller than Andrew. It takes effort to throw snow that high!
Before they had even had breakfast the children all gathered in the bedroom downstairs where L13 and her friend P13 had slept last night. When I looked in they had drawing books open in front of them and sketch books on their laps and all were drawing. After breakfast they decided to have some fun with A11′s latest online discovery: sound effects and voice generating sites. Using a children’s book about Moses and the children of Israel they recorded the whole story with appropriate crackling fire and crashing waves sounds as well as carefully chosen voices for God and Pharaoh.
In the afternoon the line between shoveling and fort building blurred a little, as is to be expected. When they came back inside soaked and rosy cheeked, we had a couple of games of Clue. I remember playing this when I was a child, I recall it being Cluedo, but it is the same game. I loved it then. It was fun this afternoon too, but not quite as enthralling as I remembered. “I think it was Professor Plum in the Billiard room with the candlestick.” More entertaining than the game itself was the banter about the suspects and their methods.
The evening finished with a couple of episodes of the Cosby Show and a couple of last looks out the window at…tomorrow’s task.
After days of requests from B7 the children and I headed out to buy a Christmas tree last Saturday. We did not venture out to a Christmas Tree farm, miles out of town, as we did one year. That time we drove out to a farm with friends so we could have the whole experience: riding on the cart out to field, tramping through the snow, choosing the tree, drinking hot chocolate and collecting greenery for a wreath. It was freezing! By the time we had walked down one row of trees we were so cold we didn’t care which tree, we just wanted to get back where there was a fire. Hot chocolate did not go very far in warming us up or in giving me the warm happy feeling of going out into the forest and bringing back a tree. This is why I don’t leave the city to buy my tree any more.
Last weekend we found our big Balsam fir tree fairly quickly. As we have cathedral ceilings and very little furniture in our living room I like to fill it with a big tree. I put it in the van and tied the back door down as it wouldn’t shut. On the way home we made two quick stops leaving B7 and A11 in the van as I couldn’t lock it. After the second stop L13 and I came back to the van and it wouldn’t start. I tried a couple of things, and checked the manual. The temperature was -17°C outside and the van, having been open for a while was not at all cosy. A11 and I managed to shove the tree a little further into the van so I could at least lock it while I called Andrew for assistance. We waited in a coffee shop, thawing out with hot chocolate and coffee until he came to save us.
Our tree is now decked out in bows, bells and baubles collected and made over the last 17 years. Its lights are turned on around 4 o’clock each afternoon as it gets dark and there is a growing number of gifts around the base. B7 has set up his train track to surround the tree.
Choosing a tree in Australia was a slightly different experience. We did go out to a Christmas tree farm, not far from where we lived, but we chose from rows of pines not firs. There were a few other subtle differences also. That is our little Miss L in the photo with my dad.
Seven years ago, on our first Thanksgiving, we were invited to a neighbour’s house to celebrate with her family. As Thanksgiving is not a celebration in Australia we had no traditions of our own. We were thrilled to be included in a family celebration with new friends we had known for only one week. We were sitting down to a full and delicious meal and I was checking my mother’s watch from time to time. My neighbour noticed and joked that I was timing contractions. I was!
We took the girls back across the street and tucked them into bed before calling the midwives to meet us at the hospital around 10:00pm. At 11:52pm our big baby boy was born. By 4:00am I was back in my own bed with a baby in a bassinet at the end of the bed.
So blessed, so thankful, so delighted to have our Canadian son.
Seven years later we are no less delighted but feel even more blessed and thankful for him and the joy, love and excitement he brings to our lives. Happy Birthday B7.
Towards the end of the summer for some reason I remembered Get Smart, the tv show, and how much I had enjoyed watching it as a child. Consequently we introduced our children to Get Smart. As I imagined they would, they found it very amusing and kept asking for more. After eight or so episodes we are taking a break, but the damage has been done. There are new phrases in their repetoire. I have often used, “Good thinking, 99,” knowing that they children had no idea what I was talking about. Now they do.
B6 has incorporated Maxwell Smart’s lines in a rather unexpected way. They keep popping up during his math lessons! When reaching a familiar type of question he comes out with, “Ahh, my old friend, Complete the number pattern”.
Or when he needs a bit of assistance I might prompt him with a question like, “What are we counting by here?”
To which he replies,”I’d like to handle this myself, if you don’t mind. Now, what are we counting by here?”
Perhaps when he gets a wrong answer he will start using, “Missed it by that much.”
Our church is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and there have already been a variety of events marking the milestone. This weekend was the anniversary weekend and it included a banquet last night and a special service this morning. The guest speaker at the banquet commended us for having a party, for celebrating and rejoicing in fifty great years. He also told us to meditate on the blessings of those years. So I have been.
When we arrived in Canada we went church shopping, visiting a handful of churches in the area where we were buying our house. Alta Vista was one of those churches. I remember the first time we came, we were welcomed at the door by two women involved in the Sunday School program. Our girls were invited to participate in the appropriate classes which ran before the service. Those two women are still involved in Christian Ed. at our church and have led or taught our children over the years.
After Sunday school finished we sat in the service behind the new pastor’s family. Chatting to his wife we discovered they had just arrived in town, and were waiting to move into their new house as we were. Seeing that I was eight months pregnant she could also relate to moving with a brand new baby. Our younger daughters, we noticed, were close in age and although the friendship may not have started that day, start it did. From that first meeting has grown a strong friendship between our two daughters and between our two families.
Following church that first Sunday we were invited home for lunch by a couple who, again, are still involved in our church and have become friends of ours. I was telling them last night how much that invitation meant to us, how much we appreciated their hospitality and how their kindness impacted our decision to come back to the church again.
After our son was born we visited the church again and people remembered us and were delighted to meet B. There were two women in particular who were happy to take him off our hands at the potluck luncheon so that we could eat and help the girls. Their help did not stop at holding our baby, later that day they arrived at our door with a rocking chair, as I had told them I had nowhere to sit and feed B. Our friendships with these two couples and several others in our congregation have also become special. It is these couples who sit where grandparents would sit at our girls’ violin recitals. Not once, but over and over, they have come and encouraged the girls and always ask when they will have the next opportunity to do so.
Not only have couples older than us come along side and encouraged and supported us here. We have developed some wonderful friendships with young couples who have come to our home and enjoyed family life with us before they had families of their own. They have loved and invested in our children so much so that our children are as delighted to hear they are coming over as they would be with their peers. Just as they baby sat our children over the years L and A are more than willing to baby sit theirs in the future.
Around our dining room table over the years we have formed some lasting and significant friendships. Not only as we shared meals but also as we studied God’s word. For several years we were part of a small group made up of a couple with grandchildren, a couple with grown children, ourselves with young ones and a couple with no children. People came in and out of the group but the breakdown of ages remained the same. I loved to sit in the group and hear the perspectives, struggles and victories of each different member. We all had something to share and something to learn. These people cared for our family in many ways, from staying to babysit and pray when we took a child to hospital in the night to faithfully praying for years for members of our families who they had never met.
Having left all our family on the other side of the world we are not able to join them for special celebrations. I would love to welcome our parents, brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews into our home for birthday parties and Christmas dinners. Our church family know that and know we miss them. As I thought last night about the Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving dinners we have enjoyed with friends from our church I was overwhelmed by the way families have shared their families with us. We have sat around fires, sung songs, taken sleigh rides, exchanged gifts, hunted for eggs and of course eaten a great amount of wonderful food in homes of people who we are privileged to call friends.
As I think and write about these blessings I realise that there is more to our church than great friends. It is for us a place of learning and growth, a place where each one of us is encouraged and enabled to use their gifts and talents and a place where we are challenged to become more like Christ. Maybe I’ll expand on those thoughts another day. Today I want to thank God for the people he placed in our church over the years, knowing that He would greatly bless our family through them.
Seven years ago today we landed in Canada. We left Melbourne in the morning and arrived 24 hours later, but still on the same day, in Ottawa. I was seven and a half months pregnant and so tired that I sat on the floor of the airport in order to be beside the suitcases that we could find while Andrew looked for the one that we couldn’t find. L6 and A4 played around near me.
In the weeks that followed landing day we started a new job, bought a house, bought a car, learned to drive on the other side of the road, moved into the house, welcomed our first guest and had a baby!
Seven years later we are living in the same house and the baby is nearly seven. While there are many similarities between Australia and Canada, there are also distinct differences. Our house here has a basement, which is just as well as we have multiple pairs of skates and skis to store. In winter we try to use the skis on a weekly basis. Summer no longer includes trips to the beach, but we have discovered the joys of cottage life. Our diet includes a little more maple syrup, the occasional poutine, peaches & cream corn, blueberries and pumpkin pie. It is lacking in vegemite, meat pies, timtams and passionfruit.
Our appreciation of the seasons has grown as we long for spring after an endless winter, or watch for the first snow flakes after the leaves have fallen. We compare the colours each fall and count the bags of leaves we rake up. We make the most of our summers, but we love the beauty and sports of winter too. If you haven’t been here and you’d like to experience it for yourself, just let us know.
(photo: HD)
The Cottage Chronicles (part 4)
Published August 8, 2007 Friends , Hand made , Memories Leave a CommentAs I mentioned a few days ago the club holds many programs and special events for the members. We were able to enjoy several of them while we were there. One night we all boated over for craft night, an event designed for the children. The craft was felt making and although it took quite a while each child ended up with a piece of felt with a coloured design embedded in it. Everyone started with a piece of white wool fleece and laid smaller, coloured pieces of wool fleece over the top making a design. When that was done each design was laid on a bamboo blind and sprinkled with water. Then the muscles had to kick in as the blind with all the individual designs inside was rolled up and pressure was applied by rolling the rolled blind back and forth over and over again. The end result were artistic pieces of felt, some with pictures, some with random colourful designs.
Another day N and I set off in the boat for the Ladies Luncheon, also held at the club house. The theme for this year’s lunch was “Wear what you dare” , find something in your cottage closet! I had grabbed a dress from home, but N had other plans for me: she found, in the closet, something which had belonged to Aunt Doie. We were not quite sure what it was; our guess was a gym suit, so I put my hair in two little pony tails. Once we arrived at the luncheon, Aunt Doie’s friend informed us that it was a “romper” and she could remember Aunt Doie wearing it. (As you can imagine I was the only one at the luncheon in a romper!)
N wore a beautiful Lace covered dress (70s is my guess) picked up at Value Village. I know it wasn’t from cottage closet, but it’s true role was to set off the vintage parasol which was indeed from the cottage and was no doubt used by one of N’s ancestors. It was beautiful, the fabric did contain some little holes but the lace was in perfect condition. N and parasol were in demand for photos once we arrived. The luncheon, by the way, was delicious.
After the exertion of the swim regatta and the requisite drying out afterwards, the girls managed to practise a skit for the annual Skit night at the club. Being the centenary, several families created songs or skits which looked back over the years or forward to the future. The “Lake Band” a group of teen musicians played and screened a video they had made of themselves playing two years earlier. Our four girls prepared a scene from “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” for which they have perfected the English accents. It was a very entertaining night. After it was all over one of the “lakers” came up to me and informed me that as my family had all competed in the regatta and then performed at the skit night we really should be given “laker” status! Now all I need is the cottage!?!
