- This has been a year of questioning and rethinking a lot of things. I put this quote on my wall in January and it still remains. I’ll keep it up as long as I need. (quote by Lori Hetteen)
2. We started the year off in Banff. This was the second time we’ve gone and it has been too cloudy to see the mountains. One day the boys will actually see all the rocky mountains. It was gorgeous anyway.
3. We had so much snow last winter, most of it came in the form of weekly blizzards, with multiple days off school. It made everything frustrating, and so much was cancelled. But of course being this far into the pandemic we are good at frustration and cancelling things.
Then the sun would come out and it would be beautiful.
4. It snowed until May, which is when I went to New York. I went to New York! It still feels like a fantasy.
5. This is a moment I felt completely embodied, present and joy-filled.
6. Seeing musicals live is high on my list of things I wish I could do more often.
7. If octopus is on the menu, you better believe I’m ordering it. (I love weird food, I recently tried deer testicles, they are also very delicious)
8. Get on the sticks (a baseball poem)
Like you can. Be picky.
You’re just playing catch. Way to go.
Shake it off. Atta boy.
One more just like that.
Let’s go, Let’s go.
Be ready. RUN!
Take your time.
Comm’ on. It’s all right.
So close.
Throw them in there
That’s why they have helmets.
TIE HIS SHOE!
You got it. Nice pitch. Good eye.
Everybody ready.
Keep throwing them hard
Right to his glove
Strike
Stand in there
Hands up bud
Good wheels
Big swings
Make him give you good ones eh
Watch the high ones
Take your base
FOUL
You have all the time in the world
Give’r a ride
Hit me home
Crack of the bat, do you know where you going?
Start with one
Pay attention
Be set
Hustle in
Three cheers
Hip hip hooray
Good game good game good game
9.Pepper.
Is she needy? Absolutely.
Do I feel safer because she barks at the dark all night long? Not really.
Has she made me a dog person? Definitely.
10. This sky
11. and this one
12. What a delight to come across something unexpected, like these ribbons on the bike path at Northgate Bike Park.
13. We love our solo stove. It is portable, relatively smokeless (once you actually get the fire burning), and can be on any surface.
14. Meal of the year: Korean Beef Bowl. Brown a package of ground beef. Add 4 garlic cloves, 1 tbsp grated ginger, 1/2cup soy sauce, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1tbsp sesame oil, and cook it down. serve on brown rice, with lots of veggies cooked or raw. we like to add mayo and sriracha sauce.
15. Next year we will be just grain farmers. And by “we” I mean, I’m still not driving the grain cart.
16. This might be my super power.
17. My Grandpa died in August, and I found myself also re-grieving my Grandma (who died a couple years ago).
I could’ve had his calm steady demeanor, instead I got my Grandma’s fire and fury.
18. If you leave for the WHOLE summer, be prepared for your best friends to break in, have coffee in your empty house, and leave photos as evidence.
19. I’m trying something new as a painter. The new series is going to be titled hospitality.
20. My friend makes these earrings, which is something beautiful itself. But the really beautiful thing is every time I wear them a stranger compliments me. I love responding, with much enthusiasm “My friend Laura makes them!”
But mostly I wish I was the type of person that compliments strangers.
22. I can not overstate how amazing it was to have a warm Halloween.
23. These three are about to eat me out of house and home.
24. We went to the greater Toronto area. So much traveling this year!
25.
Blessed are we who made it though year that started with yet another new Greek letter in the pandemic, and ended with the never ending cold/flu/covid with no kid’s med season. May your house be stocked with orange juice and soft Kleenex, and may your pharmacist be as helpful and kind as mine.
Blessed are we when we are over scheduled and the pressured to get back to “normal” feels to much (as if normal was a thing), may our boundaries be intentional and well received.
Blessed are we who feel fragile, who feel like something in our world view has fundamentally shifted, may we have courage to keep moving forward, not looking back at what used to be.
Blessed are those who have big things to look forward to in 2023. May you be fully prepared, fully present and fully celebrated!
Blessed are we as we count each day, knowing they are already full of beauty and we are already full of beauty.
We didn’t do a Christmas picture this year, so here is my favorite Christmas Photo from 2016
Disclaimer* Most of these photo’s I didn’t take as I had a broken camera most of the year. Thanks to Karla, Ben, Kristen, and Leona for the pics.
Your words are lovely and sincere. I am hooked with wanting more…