Family Skating Day and Night

If you build it, we will come :)

The family calls and we lug skates and bundly winter things to their rinks. We tie up laces, glide and fall, sip hot chocolate and laugh ourselves silly. This is the stuff lasting memories are made of and I'm taking photos and pondering them in my heart.

(Daytime skating with cousins)

Nighttime skating with more cousins!

Later, getting cozy in front of the game and texting rival-team friends to brag about the Toronto Maple Leafs' win.

Dump and Thaw

My jammied children stand with mouths agape at the white wall that's blustered into our front yard. A blizzard has swept across where our street was once visible and it sends a wild pulse through the veins of these kiddos. Suddenly, there's chatter of snowmen and fort-building and tobogganing again. It's going to be a good one, after the wind settles down--a fine dumping after that disappointing thaw.

 

But, it's not long before a pseudo-spring blanket of warmth falls upon our little town and our once-lost sled peeks out from a saturated, grassy carpet. Nevertheless, my innovative children attempt (with gusto) the same activities with or without the smow.

Surely, there's more winter to be experienced!

And so we wait...

 

Rescuers

There was that chipmunk that my youngest pulled from the jaws of death--that is, the neighbourhood tom cat. Yes, that was bad enough when he brought the stiff but quivering body in for me to have a gander. But when I rounded the corner to the laundry room in response to their calling and laid my eyes on this frozen, one-eyed rodent, that was the last straw. I mean, I loved that their hearts were sympathetic to the animal kingdom and its progression, but that they would simply pick up and carry the dead, was beyond the call of duty. Somehow, as a blogger though, a mother can still muster enough gumption to take a photo for all of you to enjoy.

Not long after the squirrel incident, a tiny finch hit our window. Now, as a bird-lover, I was voluntarily part of this rescue, especially since the small, injured one was still alive. We laid him in a shoe box with water and nyger seed and waited. It was only an hour later when the once crouching and panting body was fluttering in the window sill wanting freedom. We released him and shared the overwhelming feeling that we were a team of rescuers.

 

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. Matthew 10:29

Tobogganing, African Style

It was Valerie's first time tobogganing and she bravely plodded up the snowy hill in Annie's backyard to attempt what these kids were calling her to do. It took a mere four times down--complete with tumbles--before she began challenging her fellow-sledders to a contest.  She had some "trick" moves that cracked me up and her quiet, "Whee!" (which she had learned is a must on the way down) was too funny. At the end of the day, I'd say that tobogganing, African style, looked pretty exciting.