stuff i love tonight.

1. kittens.

2. coffee.

3. christmas.

4. alliterations.

5. when jane prays to jesus

and sings in the car

and makes me sit in front of her when she goes #2

but i'm not allowed to laugh.

6. when bo sleep talks and laughs hysterically. 

7. when charlee uses the 

word "stupid" totally appropriately, as in,

"it's really stupid to not do what the Lord wants us to."

amen, baby girl!

6. when gary called a ferry worker his 

"mo-bro" to his face.

7. gary's mo.

8. when i find a hair dresser who knows how to razor through

to the soul of my hair.

9. shepherds pie.

10. the sound of the rain.

and coffee.

my kids in a wedding.

that's right.

all three of them were in their cousins' wedding this weekend. 

they did so great!

...

here are a few money shots from the day.

and for the record,

char really knows how to get bo's smile to stick.

photo booth

if you are sensitive to light and color,

 maybe avoid the following.  

my kids charlee has discovered 

photo booth on the mac.

let me tell ya,

photo booth,

it's the gift that keeps on giving.

it might just become an instalment around here.  

enjoy!

 ps.

panda.

love.

home births & attachment parenting

we are fans of both in this house.

and although we had all three of our children in hospitals,

we had a hard-core home birth with our recent litter of kitties.  

...

with the first batch of kittens, skip (our cat) hid away in her birthing box in my closet.  

it was dark and lacked energy and soul, i guess.

'cause this round, skip wanted to give birth 

in the sacred place she feels most at home and connected to the one she loves.

yeah that's right, charlee's bed.

the story (and it is a story) happened just after 11pm

on 11-11-11.

...

once upon 11-11-11

gary, kathleen and i were downstairs watching, yet another disappointing comedy.

we turned it off after feeling completely violated in the first 14 seconds.  

(the comedy will be unnamed).

we were sitting there shaking our heads when we heard the first little squeaks.

gary jumped up and half shouted, half whispered,

"it's happening!"

he's like the cat doula around here.

we were all up the stairs before i think i really knew what was happening.

i probably clued in as

we all peered in to the birthing bin.

 to our horror and confusion there was no skip.  no kittens.  

we flew into the kids room.

and before we could assess the situation, plan and then act,

 gary lifted skip off the top bunk just as a small wet sack exited her rear side.  

and although there was some wayward spray with the motion that 

has left me ready to rip up the carpet and burn it,

i am happy to say i caught the sack'o kitten with the birthing bin in mid air.

it was totally a "this is not happening" moment.  

as was the moment when we realized there was a first kitten born and cleaned and squeaking in char's bed with a peacefully sleeping char.

anyway.

that's how we came to have 4 adorable kittens.

one was born in char's bed, one was born in the air and 

two were born in the birthing rubbermaid on the kids bedroom floor.

note: they have just opened their sweet little eyes

and they will be ready in time for christmas!

as for their care,

jane makes sure each kitten gets ample 

skin on skin bonding time.

and i can say in good confidence,

they will be super attached and thriving 

in time to go to their new homes.

(comment if you are interested)

an edumacation

i wanted to share few photos from a few of

our home-school adventures.

#1.

as mentioned in previous post we visited the firehall on bodhi's birthday

and leaned everything there is to know about safety.

and we got to play on a fire engine.  

thanks so much,

firefighter shane and mrs. firefighter danielle!

you helped make bodhi's birthday super memorable - 

or  "sooo cool" as my kids kept saying to each other the whole way home!   

#2

this september we got a new student and a new friend.  

zane (or zane-z pie as jane calls him) 

comes to our house several times a week

to do his school work with us.  

it has been a blessing in every way.  

not only is the job helping me to bring in a few bucks to contribute to family load, 

i feel like there is a key piece to our family again...

gary and i are both passionate about teaching our kids what community looks like.  

to us, community looks like connecting with people and sharing life with people, 

 seeing our differences (all kinds) as an opportunity to learn more about our Jesus.  

does that make sense?

since zane has come into our life, 

i have had some of the most brilliant conversations 

with my kids about how to deal with feelings and insecurities

 and choose love and kindness over fear.  

#3

one of the neat things about homeschool is that if the kids are having a hard

time getting something we just stop and work on it until they get it.  

we took a break from our math book to work on counting to 100.

pennies

dinos

acorns

you name it.

we counted it.

...

so... 

there... 

adventure helmets

wish'n i had a boat

this face =

my 

heart

happy.

dressing up

there is not a lot about halloween that i love. 

i'm not a massive fan of the decor.

call me crazy, but i just don't get the skeletons crawling out of my neighbours lawn 

or the bloody chainsaws that have been all the rage this year

(it's incredible to me what people spend money on).

i'm also not totally pumped about having copious amounts of candy in my house,

let alone going door to door, making threats for it.  

don't worry, i remember feeling differently about it when i was young

and i am sympathetic.  slightly.

...

here is the thing,

i have been really trying to teach my kids about 

making healthy choices,

or making wise choices.

i  want them to know that life is not about simply doing what makes you happy... 

or eating what tastes good.  

compulsive indulgences hurt us in the end. 

i'm not totally sure how what i've been trying to teach my kids
and the common practice of halloween go together. 

maybe i'm over thinking this.

 please know, i have no judgements if you are a committed trick or treater!

we've trick or treated
and liked it.

...

anyways,

i do LOVE

 bon fires, good company, farmer sausage and hot coffee on a cold fall night.

i'm totally crazy about children running around together 

dressed like ninja's, monkeys, kitties and princesses.

(i think a really super creative costume is one of the coolest things ever!)

i will jump on an opportunity for my kids to practice giving with a cheerful heart.  

and i'm totally nuts about themes and creativity
and seasonal, white chocolate dipped orea cookie pops.

which is good thing because that pretty much sums up our halloween night this year!  

  ...

here is my little princess, complete with mascara and my snow white costume from when i was about 3 years older than char (sewn by my mom, of course).  

just faces and a few things

i'm really behind here.

life has been full.

there has been some great stuff, a lot of good stuff 

and some gut wrenching stuff.

...

these little people (pictured below)

with their big energy,

their big messes,

and their big hearts

are my joy.  

last week (friday the 28th) bo turned 4.

happy belated blog birthday my little man. 

it just so happened, that on his birthday we visited the firehall with our preschool co-op.

it was great and i'll probably share a few photos in the next couple weeks days.

anyway, i'm pretty sure this conversation transpired as a result. 

bo: mom, some day i want to ride in a fire truck.

me: really!  do you think you might want to be fire fighter when you grow up?

bo: no, i don't want to be a fire fighter (no surprise here)

when i grow up, 

i want to be really nice man.

like dad.

(these photos of jane-z kill me

because...
she really is this cool.)