Getting Ready

The mountain ash outside the window is looking a little thread bare these days.
It clings to it's scarlet berries in a vain attempt to dignity.
                                              

Evening bike rides once a leisurely escape, are now a desperate dash against the ever so prompt close of day.



      Jeans become an essential part of the ward robe again.
                                        

                                          
            Salsa is canned from rampant, brimming gardens.
                            

      Intriguing books make their way home from libraries.                        

I reluctantly close the window by my kitchen sink. I keep it open all summer unless there is a heavy down pour. I leave it open a little...I must hear the sounds from nature and the traffic on the road. It's strange but it soothes me.
                                  

Are you like me does the departure of summer make you feel  a little spent? all the while its strides away, oblivious to any stir of emotion it may have caused...

Happy weekend to you.  Our plans to attend the fall fair today look like they need improvisation....let's see....

                                 to be continued...

Melding Misty Morning

It was almost surreal, the September morning mist felt like a gift from the heavens.

I grabbed my camera as soon as my kids left for school, not wanting to miss any beauty...

dew dropped web

the sheep so motley and mysterious

back porch

Sunrise our horse...looks like a statue

my Claude Monet:)

                                   
                                           words I love...
                               from With New Eyes by Margaret Becker

Because...a powerful word

It struck me deeply the other day how unassuming yet intense this word is...
               Because...                                                       

                       The weight of worlds rests on it.
                        It is a hinge to hidden potential...
                                    

                        Be the cause.
                                

             Who can ever know the impact of a word,
                              a smile or a helping hand?
                                           

             Because ...
                                   

Heaven knows we are often  too hard on ourselves .

                             Be the cause....
                                

                  the harmony in someone's melody....
                                 

                                                                 

                                   Because 
                 Being a cause for good, is not  wasted. 
                                     

                                     

A Flying FaithFILLED Year

I don't usually talk specifically about my kids on this blog, but I thought I'd share a little about the journey my second daughter Katrina has been on this past year.
A year ago we were getting ready to say good bye to her as she headed off to spend a year in Toronto working as a missionary with Urban Promise. She had a passion to be involved with inner city children and youth, and share God's love with them.
AND she thought it would be pretty cool to leave the country and move to the city:)
                                                         

                                                               the good-bye

I had my qualms as any Mom would , but I knew I had to place all my fears into the hands of the One who loves my child more than I ever could.
Katrina had an absolutely amazing year there, although it wasn't without many challenges. 
She wrote about some of these on her blog...http://butneverabandoned.blogspot.ca/2014/08/goodbye-part-two.html

                                                     

That year she spent away from home was likely one of the fastest years for me. 
Eldest girl Brittany was planning a wedding here on the farm. For a big part of the year life lens seemed focused on that, while we prepped and planned their wedding and future home. 

I always dreaded the thought of my children leaving home. 
Now suddenly my house has emptied by two thirds. This unsettles me, but not in the way I expected it too.
My children's journey seems to become my own.
I learn that my life does not revolve solely around them anymore.
 I am happy to see them happy. I almost feel a strange but exciting kind of freedom.
I learn that loving, truly does mean to give them wings. 

I remember after my husband and I dropped Katrina off a year ago, we stopped and ate dinner at an outdoor patio in the city.
 It had been a beautiful September day, and the sky was an ocean of blue.
We were close to the airport so my eyes kept being drawn to the planes flying just over our heads.                                                           

 No one else seemed to notice them but I could not ignore their poignant statement.
I felt like they were a message. A pronounced object lesson on faith and trust.
I have thought about the way those planes flew over our heads often over this past year.

Katrina's year was also my year. My year to trust more. My year to really let go and let God.
My year to see again how good God is, how He never abandons us, or leaves us hopeless.
As I sat beside my daughter at a recent praise and worship service,  I could not stop the tears as we sang....

From the rising to the setting sun. His love endures forever.
And by His grace we will carry on. His love endures forever.
Forever God is faithful, forever God is strong.
Forever He is with us. Forever. Forever.  (Chris Tomlin)

                                               
                                                

 now...settling into dorm life at Tyndale university in Toronto.