Merry Christmas!
It's that time of year when I look back and reflect on our activities. I like to rejoice over the good times and draw attention to God's grace in the difficult times.
In January we returned from our Christmas travels and I jumped into a temporary teaching position. I had the privileged of teaching grade 6 for twelve weeks while I covered another teacher's medical leave. Those kids challenged me, joked with me, confided in me and pushed my buttons like nothing I've ever experienced before. The things they taught me will stay with me for the rest of my life. They taught me: prayer works but usually not how you'd expect, everyone can use the benefit of the doubt from time to time, learning is easier when you feel successful, respect is something you give before you get, high expectations yield better results, there is humor in almost everything, coffee & cup-a-soup keep you from feeling hungry and help you lose weight!
My stint as a full time teacher came to an end just in time. In May we set out for another summer of ice cream peddling. This past summer was challenging, as usual, but it seemed a bit less stressful than in the past. We seem to have a better idea of what we are doing and how to do it. The main challenge we needed to over come was a broken down truck, that when patched up only liked to drive at night time when it was cool. Mike has fixed our truck so many times that he knows every knock, squeal and grind. He is able to keep it running when others would have thrown up their hands in despair. He is almost afraid to begin looking at other trucks because he will not be as intimately acquainted with them and may not be able to adjust to their particular quirks as easily. I'm sure anyone who handles trucks or large machinery can relate. Another challenge we met was a road side inspection by the Department of Transportation. Not what you want to see when you are having truck problems. This was quite stressful for Mike and it cost us a bit of money too, but the up side is that now we are fully inspected and able to travel to other provinces if we choose to next year.
Aside from the usual truck troubles our summer was fairly successful and even enjoyable.
Here is my top 10 list from Summer 2009...
10. Except for in Rocky and "Rainwight", the weather was fairly cooperative and helped sales along nicely.
9. We had super staff this year. Interesting people who didn't mind working hard, that we enjoyed spending time with. What a blessing from God!
8. Hanging out with Darrel & Christine in Grande Prairie (Matia got to enjoy a Gel Bath because Christine just has cool stuff like that)
7. Throwing a bridal shower for my little sister in Sylvan Lake (what an honor to get to be there in the midst of all of summer's business).
6. Going boating and "lakeboarding" as the kids call it, with Jamie & Steven at Buffalo Lake to decompress after the stressful D.O.T. inspection.
5. Visiting the splash park in Beaumont with Olga & Sarah & Amy. Very refreshing, fun and free!
4. Gopher hunting with Daddy in Wainright (Dade & Matia were right into the thrill of the hunt, Mommy opted to scoop ice cream).
3. Attending my sister's wedding and enjoying seeing all of our family and friends. What a beautiful & fun weekend it was.
2. Hanging out at the state of the art park in Lethbridge. The kids would have stayed there forever! I even got to hang out with Rhonda, my long lost school buddy and our kids had a blast. Again fun & free!
And the #1 best thing of the entire summer, as it always is, was the love and support of our family and friends as we lived out our carny life for another summer. We would never succeed in this endeavor with out the phone calls, baby sitting, helping hands and listening ears of all our loved ones. You all truly do love us unconditionally and we are forever grateful.
This fall and winter our we are spending our time close to home working on various projects on our house and property. Mike is building an outdoor wood boiler to heat our home. We have put in laminate flooring with an in floor radiant heating system that will be heated by our wood boiler when it is complete. There are many projects to face up to and we are working on them as we are able. One of the fun things Mike is working on is a giant snow fort for the kids. Every time it snows he uses the back hoe to pile up the snow and the kids have a blast climbing on it and sliding down it. When it is all packed down and hard Mike plans to tunnel into it and make a snow cave. There are unique advantages to living in the country.
Dade and Matia have grown up so much over the past year. I no longer have babies, but very independent and interesting kids. Dade loves to be active. He likes any sport you can name, even sports he's never played like football. He just likes the idea of running and doing something with a ball. He is very coordinated and I think he will prove to be quite athletic as he gets older. He likes to think up games (paddle ball: hitting a large kick ball across the house with 2 ice cream lids) act out shows and play pretend a lot. He has a gentle spirit and is very helpful to me and keeps his little sister in line. He's a guys guy though and is dying to go coyote hunting with Mike this winter. He wants to use his marshmallow bow! He also really enjoys watching Myth Busters (Miss Busters he calls it) and Top Gear with Daddy. We have been doing a little bit of preschool activities here and there, but mostly enjoying time just being a kid. We will start more structured activities next fall when he is 5.
Matia is our princess. She is a girl through and through. She loves to dress up, to play cook & clean, though getting her to clean up her toys in reality is a bit of a challenge. She likes make up and when the house is quiet and I can't see her anywhere near me I know I should go see if she is getting into my make up or some other trouble!!! She does like to get into mischief, like playing with water from the water cooler and pouring it into half a dozen little containers while she spills the rest on the floor, or coloring the couch with red marker, or dumping out all her socks and underwear and scattering them hither and yon throughout the house, to name a few. In just one short month she will be 3, does that mean that these 2 year old tendencies will fade or just increase? Yikes! For all that she is sweet and kind and loves to mother her babies, cuddle the kittens, read stories in my lap for as long as possible and she still has her beloved elephant...for now.
And so our lives have not changed much over the last year. We are thankful for what we have while we try to decide what it is we should work toward next. We enjoy a lot of time together as a family and try not to take that for granted. We are really enjoying living near the city. We visit family and friends weekly. Settlers of Catan is a favorite game of ours and we have convinced quite a few friends to become just as hooked as we are. We enjoy attending Grace Point Church of God in the city; it is worth the drive for us to have the sense of community we get from our familiar home church.
Some things you can pray for us in the up coming year are:
- Wisdom to know how to best spend our time, resources and talents.
- Health & Safety
- Reliable vehicles
- Abundant opportunities to try and learn new things.
- Patience and constancy in bringing up our children.
- Opportunities to share God's love with others.
- Obedience to act on those opportunities.
We look forward to the new year and all the surprises it will bring. We pray that you, our friends and family, will have a safe and happy Christmas, and will experience abundant blessings in 2010.
Love
EM
Played Hide & Seek (there are so many more places to hide here!)
Cuddled in the new cozy blankets that Grandma made
Played with baby dolls
Waited a coon's age to open presents, trying to be good the whole time
Wore our new cute & cozy p.j's
Learned to Rope
Put together toys
Played with the awesome things we were blessed with
