3/52

Jamie is determined to cut his hair at home, but usually runs into situations where that's too tricky.  Since past experiences have taught me that me trying to cut his hair does not end well, emotionally and literally, but we've discovered that Kea and Jamie seems to be a good combo - so she's working on her barber skills these days:-)

Tiegan has decided that she wants to learn hockey this winter, so for now she is just joining Jamie and Ry on Saturday mornings.  Which works perfectly as she loves being out on the ice with her dad, and she's learning some great hockey skills out there!

And although this isn't a fabulous portrait of Ry per se, I love the moment between him and his dad - Jamie's been revisiting many of his favourite samurai movies, and is here showing Ry some new moves.  Ry is LOVING it, laughing at Jamie's goofiness, and asking for more and more moves to try in his various sword fights with friends.......

Walking to the bus stop......

I have to admit, walking to the bus stop in the winter has become one of my favoured routines.  It forces us to get all dressed up and outside, notice the sun streaming through the trees, discovering what animals have been out and about overnight, and listening to whatever birds we can hear flitting from tree to tree.  Cam and Keane often walk with us, and the kids like to get there about 10 minutes early so they have time to play - sliding down hills, climbing to the top of rocks, finding icy patches to play on and making snow angels.  Clayton is a friend who also catches the bus with us, and it's always a very social time.  And then, since I'm up and outside anyways, I usually take the time to go for a 20-30 minute walk amongst the trees and the silence - noticing just how beautiful it all is and how lucky we are to be living out here.  Deep breath out to start my day each day........

2/52

Jamie found some rollerblades at the dump this summer, and the kids have loved practicing their skills in the house.  Kea's the most nervous on them, and insists on wearing a helmet - and would probably pile on the padding if we had that too:-)  She cracks me up!

Tiegan spends tonnes of time here in her little loft these days.  She loves to write in her journal, colour, craft, and listen to music.  And I suspect that you'll be seeing an assortment of fun facial expressions from her over this project - that definitely seems to be her go-to these days:-)

And this guy is all gung ho to FINALLY have snow - sledding, fort building and skiing!!!!  He used to whine and complain whenever we dragged him out for a cross country ski, but then this year he came home with a notice that he'd signed up for the school's cross country ski team.....so we've been out practicing and I'm curious to see how the season will go:-)

Happy New Year -

Hello once again!

It's been a slow start to the new year, for sure, and I think in many ways I'm still wrapping my brain around what I want for 2016.  We're slowing sorting through our goals and changes we'd like to make, and deciding what to do with money, what trips to try for, and what shifts we want to make for our family.  Definitely lots of saunas, and hopefully more massages!!!!  More help with cleaning, and more time outdoors:-)

- Anja and I try to come up with a new challenge of sorts each year, and this year we've decided to go a new route with a book club of sorts.  We want to start tackling some of those 'important' books that we've somehow missed out on reading along the way.  It's definitely hard to narrow it down, there's so many lists out there to follow, but for this year, we're just going to each pick 6 books and every month we'll tackle a new book.  For January we're starting off with Jack Kerouac's On The Road (you know, for those who want to follow along!)

- Jamie and I have such a love/hate relationship with technology, and more recently it feels like everyone is getting sucked into their various devices, and we're REALLY feeling the need to create more balance once more.  SOOOOOOO, to start off this new year, we're doing a weaning off for a week or two (during which we're all brainstorming on creating an 'I'm bored' list to remind us of things we can do with stuff around the house, and also create a board of things we've always wanted to try/learn) and we're also discussing how to maintain a better balance as we bring various i-pods, i-pads, laptops, nintendo ds', etc back.....obviously this wean is not 100%, as so much of the work Jamie and I do demands computers, and Kea's school work is done on the computer, but we're mainly trying to be mindful of putting it away more often, and not getting sucked in.......

- I'm also personally challenging myself to create something for ME each month of the year.  So far, I've been busy knitting hats for various other people, and have tackled sewing a pair of pants for Ryland, so crafting is going well, but the crafting for ME not so much - we'll see how this pans out over the year:-)  I still have a couple more weeks in January to create something for me.......

For now, though, I'm desperately trying to wrap up a few projects that have been on the back burner for far too long now, hanging over my head.  I have 2 or 3 photo books I've been wanting to make as gifts, I NEED to wrap up Anja and my 52 portrait project from last year, I have photos to sort, mending piled high by my sewing machine to be completed and various little house projects to do.  And then once those are all done, I'm hoping to have tonnes of energy to bring in new projects!!!!!

Would love to hear more about your goals for the new year.........so refreshing to have a new start each January!

1/52

I'm determined to return to the weekly portrait of the kids - I'm sure they won't be so thrilled during the process, but we all enjoy going back and looking through them all so I keep on keeping on!  And I figure once a week is going to be MUCH easier than once a day:-)

To start off the week, I didn't quite realize how colour coordinated everyone was, but here we are with shades of blue - 

Such a classic smile from Kea, I LOVE how she always crinkles her nose:-)

Tiegan, the queen of funny faces:-)

And Ry - usually far too busy to stop for a photo:-)

January 5, 2016

And on this, the twelfth day of Christmas, we wrap up all of the holiday decorations, movies and CD's and FINALLY say good-bye to yet another wonderful holiday season.  I loved snuggling up on the couch to knit or read next to the twinkling lights of our tree, and am going to miss it now that it's all gone - but before I know it, we'll be using the same corner to set up growing lights for veggies we want to transfer to our garden.  Crazy how quickly spring will come - but until then, taking the time to enjoy FINALLY being able to sled and ski and build snowmen:-)

For now, though, I thought I'd end this photo a day journey with a good-bye to some of our favourite decorations - starting with this awesome star Tiegan created for the top of our tree, lined with lace tape:-)

One of the three handmade felt pinecones made by our friend Ella 

A new ornament from a holiday card this year - inspiring some crafting of our own.  Though it turns out actual birch bark is harder to craft with than paper printed to look like birch bark:-)

Homemade ornaments will always be my favourite - I think this owl was crafted by ms tiegan

When Jamie's grandparents were still alive, they sent us this adorable package of vintage ornaments, and I absolutely adore them.  I would LOVE to find more like this one day.....but for now, we treasure the 6 or 7 we have:-)

And finally, the funky chicken gifted to us this year by my sister Clare:-)  Until next year.......

January 4, 2016

Aaaaaaaannnnnnnddddddd.......here we go again, back to the routine of school and work

Brrrrrrrr, it's a cold one out there - -29 degrees with the windchill.  A wee bit of a shock after such mild temperatures all throughout the holidays.  Winter has arrived:-)

January 3, 2016

Started another knitting project - this is going to be a new toque for Jamie:-)  The ball of wool was in his stocking, with a little IOU note.  I'm also really enjoying cardamom in my coffee this morning, and a bowl of this raw buckwheat porridge - YUM!!!!  Hoping for a rest-filled, creative winter, and this is a great start to just that.......

January 2, 2016

On the 9th day of Christmas, our neighbours called us up - and invited us to come sledding:-)