{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday Ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Wishing you a lovely weekend! 

*** *** ***

kisses

My niece kisses me every night when she goes to bed (ok, when I go to bed) and every morning when she heads off to school.

I love it.

comedy.

I took this photo of Sawyer

 and immediately thought of this.

And I laughed. Out loud. For a long time.

keepin it real

I often want to share every detail of my day. This is especially true when there are tiny people involved in those days. In keeping with my current desire for simplicity, I will keep my words few(er than normal).

My days off have been so full. Full of children. Full of laughter. Full of joy. Full of family. Full.

I babysat the neighbour twins while I had Maelle and Sawyer over. The four little ones played wonderfully all afternoon. Sawy and Maelle spent the night.

My mother, sister, littlest nieces and I ventured to the coast for 24 hours to celebrate my Oma's 86th birthday. Oma didn't know we were coming and when we brought the babies in she got down on her hands and knees so she could see them in their little car seats. She had tears in her eyes as she marveled at them. It was pretty special.

My sweet Little Miss slept over again last night. She slept for 13 hours and it was awesome. She even let me put her hair into french braids in the morning.

  And now it's back to work.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday Ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Wishing you a lovely weekend! 

*** *** ***

keeping it simple

I have been thinking a lot about simplicity. Simplicity of the home, the heart, and the mind. I feel as though I go through phases where this take priority -- at least in thought.

Since my parent's moved here and brought all my childhood goods with them I have been sorting, reminiscing and ultimately throwing away. Purging has done wonders for my soul. It was difficult at first (I am a sentimental lass), but, as with most things, it got easier and began to relieve stress rather than cause it.

Letting go.

Purging started with childhood memorabilia, but trickled into my other areas of my house -- my clothing, my desk, my books, my cupboards. And it has made its way beyond my house and into my life. Into my being.

I have let out a sigh of relief.

Many times.

It is freeing.
And I can already feel myself slowing down.
Taking it all in.
Breathing.

"Be still, and know that I am God". Psalm 46:10

I can feel myself becoming still. Can feel myself calming.
Breathing.
Knowing.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday Ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Wishing you a lovely weekend! 

*** *** ***

Chemistry 11A Motto

I will only accept my best in chemistry

I will take Chemistry to have and to hold

Even though we struggle, we will still try to get smart.

Chemistry is beautiful from sea to shining "y"

We will listen to everything given to us.

We will use our workbooks with pride and honor

W will learn chemistry from the "H" to the "Nv"

We will learn chemistry to the best of our ability

I will be the best I can be,

Sciences at our school are three, 

But it is clear for all to see

The best of all is Chemistry. 

I am a little bit sad to say that I was able to recite this from memory with very few prompts from Erik. This was the motto our class wrote on one of the first days of chemistry (eight years ago!). We recited it at the beginning of class every day thus burning it into my mind. Oh Chemistry.

...

My niece moved in so I have been busy cleaning and organizing. The room she moved into happened to be my junk room -- a place where boxes of things that needed to be organized would go to die. My dear husband and my lovely niece have patiently tolerated said boxes being left in the living room thus giving me a bit of pressure and allowing me time to go through each of them. To make matters worse (or to add to the stuff), my parents have just moved to Kelowna and brought with them 12 boxes of my stuff from infancy to young adulthood. I have sorted through almost everything and have purged more than I could have imagined. It has been therapeutic, exhausting, and wonderful.

It has been fun to go through all of my high school notes (I was a bit of a hoarder). It has been more embarrassing than fun actually, but it is what it is. Erik and I have had many good laughs as I have read each note again before tossing them.

I even found my Grade 11 Chemistry motto along with Haiku's we wrote about Chemistry.
Some of the haikus:

Chemistry is great
It involves moles and volume
Smile for Chemistry
- Lauren H.

I do not like moles
They are very confusing
Moles are not my friends
- Ashley J.

Dan, Stewart, Joel sit
Thirsting for knowledge in chem.
Kim brings us a well
- Stewart R.

Chemistry is great
It has moles and molar mass
I love eyebrows... yay!
- Daniel B.

Moles are helping me
Calculate molarity
And make good haikus
- Elly B.

Mister Kim chem. Teach
Mister Kim no eyebrows him
(something that is hole punched out) is fun again
- Joel B.

circa 2005

Hey Lynn,

I hope you're home right now because otherwise I'd look like a fool. It is currently 11:00am on Sunday. I have been at your house since 9:10am trying to wake you up, but you are either in a very deep slumber or you aren't home. I'm hoping your having a wonderful sleep because your neighbors think I'm crazy! It won't be too embarrassing if you end up letting me in, but leaving defeated would be pretty crappy. I need to think of some new tactics that may arouse. By arouse I mean rouse as in "wake you up"... nothing sexual. The volleyball has hit your window on numerous occasions and I think I've run your doorbell more times today than it has ever been rung in its entire existence, I've banged on the back door of the kitchen and called your name, but all to no avail! You really must be in hibernation... or dead. Now that would be terrible! I don't think there's any way to break into your house though! There's always a way to get into mine... Alright so this situation is looking kind of hopeless. the only good thing that could happen would be if your neighbor came out and asked if I needed help... or a date... or a swim or maybe even marriage. The probability of any of those occurring is... well I'd say 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000 give or take a few. At least I get to enjoy your beautiful backyard... too bad I don't have access to a camera. It is very picturesque. Ok, I'm giving you until 11:45 to wake up or show up. I will laugh so hard when you aren't actually home... that'll be terrible, but hilarious all at the same time. Oh well. At least you're getting a note out of all of this, even if it is less than entertaining.

I'm hungry now. You're MIA and I want to take pictures. Crappy. I'm leaving the house in 40 minutes.

Alright I just had a 20 minute nap and it's hot out!! I'm even in the shade! 15 minutes my dear and I think I'll head out.

Ok, I'm dying (not literally) of thirst. I'm going to head home. Email me about hanging out tomorrow... make sure you have tons of sunscreen :) I've been in a freezer every day!!

I love you, Lynn. Have a wonderful day.

Love Ashley

remember this?? where were you???

:)

I got to see all my babies today!! I worked all weekend (got off this morning) which was disappointing as our church had its annual camp out. Erik and I obviously couldn't attend, but we made it out this morning for the worship service. I have worked or been out of town every Sunday all summer so I haven't seen many people from our church family this summer.

It was SO nice to be able to catch up with some of them this morning and early afternoon. Seeing Little Miss, Sawybean, and Gus Gus were an added bonus.

After hanging out at the camp Erik and I went to my sisters house to visit the littlest babies. They aren't so little anymore as Peyton is 7lb 15 oz and Avery's weighing in at 9lb 2 oz. Those little girlies are well over their birth weight and contently thriving. I just have to say that my sister is amazing! Two little babies cannot be easy and I think she is doing a fabulous job caring for her daughters. Two babies. I still can't believe it.

I have been up since yesterday so I should really be getting to bed. I feel like I have much to share, but nothing really to say. Seems as though that's often the case.

Goodnight!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday Ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Wishing you a lovely weekend! 

*** *** ***

never posted

I didn't realize I never posted this. These pictures, taken when the girls were less than 24 hours old, make me laugh. I love doing this to babies.

 Super Squishy Avery.

Not so Squishy Peyton.

the six of 'em

These are my six adorable nieces. I can't believe there are six of 'em and that three are actually smiling for the photo. The two boy-ohs were off gallivanting so we just took a picture of the girl cousins.

My little auntie heart just bursts with pride and love for these four little tots and these two beautiful ladies -- I am so very blessed.

Is it really September?

Is it really September???

I don't think I would have realized it if I wasn't at work last night. I had to call a doctor for orders at 0130 and was a little bit sad when it was brought to my attention that it was September 1st.

I kind of wish it was August 32nd because I love love love Summer, but I must admit that Fall isn't so shabby and we still have a bit of summer left.

September though. Wow.

That means we're going traveling in four months. I keep saying we're going traveling next year, but next year is actually only four months away. Gah!

We haven't even looked into flights yet because, as I said, we aren't going traveling until next year. But next year is fast approaching and I'd better get on it! We are going to be looking into world tickets as we're going to South America, Scotland, and South East Asia (at least that's the loose plan... we are planning on doing a lot of it by the seat of our pants. We're cool like that). But it may be cheaper to just look for cheap flights to each place individually. Lots of research to do... it may be cheapest to go through a travel agency. It will definitely be easiest and will save us a lot of time.

I've never had to book overseas flights. Any suggestions?

I'm not going to lie, I did just get a little bit stressed out writing this. Four months!!

Really, suggestions re: flights would be much appreciated. And, if any of you have traveled to any of the places mentioned then let me know what your favourite places were.