The past couple of nights I’ve stolen an hour or so to paint a room with my four boys. I love the feeling of working alongside my family on a project. The boys are all quite proud of their handiwork and the paint job turned out great. It was quite adorable when Brigs and Joshua painted their names on the wall. A classic moment.
Category Archives: Memories
A Weekend to Remember
We traveled to Calgary this weekend to spend more time with our soon-to-be daughter, currently going by the name of Serenity. Our time with Serenity kicked off at a Church Christmas party with a dinner, program, and dance. The highlight was watching Serenity dance– the girl has rhythm and energy! I even had my first dance with her which was a great moment. She has really already formed a strong attachment to Daria which is so cute to watch. Saturday Serenity came over to spend time with the boys at my in-laws. Joshua’s characteristic instinct to love and protect has already kicked in and he has been so tender and loving about and with Serenity. She is a fun little girl who loves to laugh and play and has a good nature about her. Noah loved seeing another little person smaller then him. I’m looking forward to them having lots of playtime in the coming months and watching that relationship form. Today we spent another hour with Serenity and we learned some of her favourite foods and that she is a very good copycat right now. She copied nearly all of my hand movements and facial expressions. We’ve decided we are going to do baby sign language with her as she has lots to express but no vocabulary yet which is visibly frustrating her. It was a magical weekend that we couldn’t have orchestrated any better. She recognized us, started to call us by names, and gave us all oh so many hugs and goodbyes. I’m going to really miss her this week and can’t wait till we can take her home for good. I have no doubts about her place in our family.
Halloween
I’m excited for trick-or-treating with my boys tomorrow. It’s always fun to enjoy their boyhood excitement.
We are dressing up at our office with a 101 dalmations theme. Bryan will be Cruella De Vil and Dan and I are the henchmen. The rest if the staff will be dressing up as the Dalmations.
I’ll try and get the pictures of all our costumes up here soon.
Treading Carefully
I’ve set some goals as alluded to in my previous post. One is very simple: Exercise for 15 minutes a day. That may sound so piddly, however I know it is easily achievable and realistic given my other competing aspirations. I’ve also realized that 15 minutes can easily turn into 30 minutes. So far so good and it feels rewarding to be doing something physically. To that end, I’m grateful for the treadmill Daria asked and received for her birthday, as well as the free weight set and bench bestowed on Dylan at a garage sale “clearance.” Everytime I see that weight bench (and use it) I think of my thoughtful siblings. Back in grade 11 they all chipped in and bought me a weight bench with a bar and weights. I’m still quietly overwhelmed at their thoughtfulness and generosity, and feel their love and adoration then and now like only younger siblings can give. What a privilege to be their older brother.
Pondering Progress
I have a thing about clutter. If there is clutter I often feel like I cannot do anything else but organize. Occasionally I can bury this neurosis and relax, but usually I choose not to relax until I restore some order to my surroundings. I’ve made some headway these past few weeks and feel like I can finally think again. I was leafing through my missionary day planner this week, a 7-habits weekly planner I bought in 1998, and came across some notes from a meeting with Elder Richard G. Scott. It was a wonderful day. One thing he said struck me again today, “A lack of pondering hinders the ability of tremendous growth.” I’ve felt lately a little awash lately. I’ve certainly been doing a lot of thinking but of late it has felt confined to the immediate, the ho-hum or pressing stresses of life. My return to blogging signifies a little bit more pondering time, a more organized household and a strong yearning to have meaningful progress in our home. We have had some trial in our life lately shrink-wrapped around a lot of change. It’s time to take stock of where we are headed and how the trials and change has influenced everyone in our home. Just writing about it brings a measure of peace.
