Isaac Turns FOUR!

My dear boy. We are so blessed to have you in our lives. You turned four last week and greeted this new year with joy and hilarity. You follow your sisters like a sweet little duckling and watch me in the kitchen to get extra sweetness as I cook. Your favourite drink is eggnog and you LOVE apples. I love that you sign for trains in your sleep and have learned to speak with your verbal words this year, though it is still a slow victory and we struggle to understand you- it is getting better every day.

I love you.

I love what you have brought to our lives! The sheer joy in your morning grins, the way you dance and sing, the love you show all of us every day. And we know. We know how lucky and blessed we are, you are, to be alive and healthy and thriving. Not many 22q kids are so lucky and many have lost their lives this year. Someday you'll understand life and death and this will mean something to  you, but right now? Four is wild and wonderful but also innocent.

Four will be fantastic. We will see the storms, the snow, the holiday lights! Ride trains and horses. Mostly, we will snuggle and talk and make art together. I love you little buddy.

Lily turns 10!

Lily made me a mother ten years ago and this last decade has been a wonderful journey! This last year Lily bridged in Girl Scouts, took up playing the piano in formal lessons, created with clay, rode horses, explored caves, raised a bottle calf, a lamb, and a runt pig, and created so much joy in the world for herself and others.

Cheers to you sweet girl and may ten be just as filled with adventure and joy! You are creative and interesting and brave. I love spending time with you, I love the care and kindness you show to the smaller than you children in our lives. You give up your candy at parades to the littles who can't go fetch it, you tuck in your brother at night, and you are the most passionate girl I know. I hope that passion changes the world someday, but for right now you are the bright light in my day. You have big goals for yourself this year and my hope is to support those goals and help you make them happen. Love you Nixie.

Prague Castle: a few photos

Progress

November for me is about cleaning: instead of Spring cleaning, I do a fall purging.

An accounting for.

A turnover.

A clean slate.

Three days in and I have sorted and purged 1/2 the outgrown and damaged shoes. Filled two trash cans full of junk mail piled on my desk. Done eight loads of laundry.

I have sat down and organised what work is about to be submitted. Lined up Spring and possibly fall teaching assignments. Paid tuition for a retreat that I am very excited to attend again.

Meal planned. Chore charted. Scrubbed dishes and wiped down shelves.

Three days in and November is already looking fantastic and hopeful. 2015 is going to be an outrageously fantastic year, full of promise and new growth.

With that, I present to you....my first published essay: In the Bareness of Winter, page 136 in the fall issue of Fifth Wednesday Journal. Not available online, to read it you will have to get the print edition. Cool, eh? This essay was really hard for me to write, to share this event on our farm. I also had a fantastic group of friends proofread and cheer me on during the process. If November is for gratitude, let me tell you all, having friends like these? Friends that fill me up instead of tearing me down, friends that cheer me on when I am scared to do the next big thing, friends that stop me from quitting by driving me to the airport, bus station, poetry reading, picking me up from said places too..... friends that love me through the darkness of my insecurity and self doubt? I am extremely grateful. More than mere words can express.

Look! They even printed the accent mark!