Energy filled Weekend

Aaron at the playground!

Taylor, Rhys and Aaron spent the weekend at my place, it was an energy and fun filled weekend! Of course that much energy and fun also means that a few moments of quiet and deep breathing are required!

I love having them over: it is so much fun to look at the world through their eyes, to sit and read them a bedtime story and to do all the many things that they find excitement and joy in.

Friday night was low key... we had dinner, cleaned up and put on a movie and enjoyed one another's company.

Saturday was a very full day! It started my absolute favorite way; the way it starts morning when the kids are here. Aaron quietly sneaks into my room and whispers to me, "can I take your laptop?" I open my eyes, tell him that he can and then he picks up my laptop and sneaks back out the door... silently closing the door behind him. And then I sleep for about another hour. Why don't I just leave my laptop on the table for him? Because there is something beautiful about the oh so respectful and generous wake-up from him!

Pizza Making!

We went a saw "Mirror, Mirror" at the theatre, ran a few errands and then headed to the park in order to get rid of some energy. We got home and I started making pizza dough at which time the kids informed me that they wanted crackers, cheese, cucumber and strawberries while watching a movie. They decided that having pizza later would mean that they would get to stay up later. So I decided to take off down to the Cathedral to attend the last Holy Table, Holy Word service for the season - a service of prayer, scripture, silence, community and Eucharist. After a day of being with two roughhousing brothers this was exactly what I needed! And the kids having time away from me was also probably what they needed!

I came home and we made some amazing pizza's! They turned out great and it was so much fun to watch them decide what to put on it and how much to put on. And then to watch them enjoy the food that they prepared themselves... I love it!

Breakfast: Green eggs, turkey bacon and toast!

Sunday we got up and I made them green eggs and turkey bacon! The best way to make green eggs (I've since discovered) is to puree spinnach and egg together and then scramble it up! They come out so very green. And the kids loved it... Aaron was rather disgusted when he learned (after the fact) that it was made with spinach. We headed to church and then came home and decorated the twenty-two eggs we had blown out over the weekend. This too was fun to watch them be creative with...

Now that everyone is home and the second to last week of school is about to begin I am looking forward to cleaning the house, resting and then tackling the way to much homework that needs to be completed. I am also looking forward to the journey through Holy Week, the journey with Jesus to the cross and then into the great light of the resurrection!

Mornings

I have always loved the mornings... I just am unable to actually get up and enjoy the peaceful quite time unless there is something I have to do. So when my phone went off on Saturday at 6:16 in the morning, a staff member asking when and who unlocked the front gate I got up to let him out, not wanting to move and yes, rather grumpy about it... but I kept that to myself. (And no, it was not my responsibility!!) I got to the gate to find the staff member and a guest trying to leave and our food delivery truck trying to get in (thank goodness he didn't leave with our food!!). Since I was already up I decided to walk down to the beach to unlock it a the same time, otherwise I'd be wandering out again in forty five minutes time.

By the time both gates were unlocked at the beach I was not very pleased that I was out of my warm bed and in the

coolness of the morning. Knowing that I had to shake this feeling off I went and sat on a log overlooking the lake and took in the sun, silence and prayed. I looked over the waters to see an odd shape and movement by one of our docks... and then another, then it disappeared and back again. I looked closer and came to the conclusion that it was an otter feeding in the water and eating on the surface. And not one otter but four!

I stood next to the waters edge and just looked, just watched this sight that I had never seen in the waters at Sorrento Centre. And as I watched I calmed down, my grumpiness began to leave, I started to become thankful for the day and the early morning. And I gave thanks for this most sacred God moment, a reminder that all is good, all is good!

I'd love to awake early in the morning and enjoy that time before the world becomes active again... but until my late nights at the Centre disappear and I get back into a regular routine... I'll take what comes!