Our Own Lil' Puppy Dog

Because I don't want to forget....

He is in the most darling phase where he absolutely adores his big sister. The days have been so hot he spends most of them in his underwear, walking around the house calling out "Weeedeeee" (Lily) or "Ryyyyyraaaa" (Lyla). Truly, truly he is like the world's most adorable little puppy dog, 2 steps behind his big sister and imitating everything she does.

Conversely, she is so caring! I stumbled upon them yesterday planting flowers. She had equipped them both with sand shovels. They had picked flowers from my pots and killed them by transplanted them into the dirt. There he was, crouched next to her, imitating her every move. There they were, covered in dirt from head to toe and so satisfied with their good work. I couldn't be angry, I could only melt and praise their beautiful gardening.

An oldie but goodie, she cares so much for him!

"Take me with you, Ryra!"

A scene from yesterday's play...
"don't bother us mama! We are having a slumber party!"

Judah thinks that everything Liliana does is so wonderful and so funny! He would follow her to the moon if he could. These are the little things that fill my hear to overflowing. How blessed we are!

With love on this Monday,

In Our Kitchen

Hello Friends!

Is your Monday evening as hot and sticky as ours? I've already been in to comfort and resettle our littlest one twice since he has been to sleep (in one hour!) because we northerners are simply not used to such hot June nights. That said, we are not complaining! Seldom can my children play in our shady backyard in their bathing suits but today they frolicked gleefully!

Speaking of frolicking gleefully....

A fun Sunday trip to Nanny's land in Turner Valley...
heaven for little one's with imaginations! (note that L
had turned herself into a monkey by covering her body with mud) I LOVE her!

It has been a couple of weeks since resolution gratitude and joy, and as tends to happen with all sincere resolutions life has seemed challenging! Each day has had it's own particular challenge exacerbated by a teething toddler who nurses all.night.long but certainly my temptation has been to dissolve into the doldrums or dissolve my sorrows in a very large glass of prosecco. For the most part I've been able to avoid both and find a small victory in the fact that I've remembered to make a conscience act of gratitude several times each day. I've also managed to intentionally turn several mundane tasks into gifts of love for my family and for God. Onwards and upwards!

On a night as hot and sticky as this it is hard to want to spend time over a hot stove, but with luck I've discovered a dish that takes little effort, makes minimal mess, is healthy disguised by de-e-liciousness, and my dearlings devour. I thought for something different I'd share with you just how easy Vietnamese spring rolls are!

Typically I just use any veggies I have in my fridge, but the essential element for us is mint. Anything else is easily substituted for. I cook chicken at the beginning of each week for my handsome man to have whenever he needs a snack, so I just use the chicken, wash the veggies, and cook the rice vermicelli noodles (which take 4 minutes!).

I lay everything out (usually on the clean tea-towel I had used to dry the lettuce) and then very quickly dip the rice wrap in water for 5 seconds, place it next to my assembly line, and pile up all the healthy goodness onto it. The key is, for me, to make sure the rice wrap is still a little bit hard when I pull it out of the water. This gives me time to assemble all of the ingredients and not have it falling apart in my hand when it comes time to wrap it. (disclaimer! I am not a food blogger or a photographer just a simple mama trying to show you one of our favourites!)

The counter is also clean :)

I quickly whisk together a peanut satay sauce using a tried and true recipe that we so enjoy! It is a little bit spicy so the kids usually dip their wraps into hoisin sauce, although they always want a taste.

Soooo yummy!

This is how Judah starts with his spring rolls

And there you have it, the most delicious and quite nutritious dinner for a hot night. Follow with a watermelon and mint smoothie, and (in my children's opinion) you've just eaten like a king!

This is how Judah finishes with his spring rolls -
so in his case he probably eats more like the king of the wild things!

Here is a more detailed description of how to make Vietnamese spring rolls (with much nicer photos!). If you try to make them, I hope your family loves them as much as ours does!

Do you have any go-to summer recipes that are time, budget, and kid friendly? I'd love to hear them!

Love and blessings to you on this night,

30: Hopes and Dreams

Hopes and dreams. Is it not woven into the fabric of every human heart to dream? Is it not part of our human existence to be restless? In the weeks and months leading up to 30 a curious thing happened, which is that all of my more superficial hopes and dreams (travel, fitness, family) became rolled up into one neat little package. As I looked at my life and how it was speeding by, as I examined my tendency to melancholy, as I witnessed tragedy in the life of many near and far, it became clear to me that for all the list making I may do nothing is certain. And so, while it is good to have those dreams and lists, my deep hope for 30 became a dream of being. 

A happy family moment of being last month in Canmore
Oh, how she loves him! How he loves her!

My dream for 30 is to live each moment with a pervasive sense of gratitude, understanding that the joy I so desire is tightly bound to seeing the world with eyes of thanksgiving. My fear of time passing is abolished when I seek to make each moment pregnant with a grateful heart. Mysteriously, the moment pauses and hangs there to be revelled in when it is acknowledged with intentionality. I dream that my own grateful heart can only do one thing, which is point me to the Giver of the gift. May my life in 30 be more and more one in which the Giver is centre of all else.

How can one not contemplate the Giver of such a gift
(in and out of the chariot!).

These ideas have come from two books that I've been reading. Seeking First the Kingdom and One Thousand Gifts couldn't have come at a better time. I highly recommend them both, but for a general audience especially One Thousand Gifts. It is a life changing meditation on the healing power of gratitude.

I wanted to quote One Thousand Gifts to close this simple post. Ann Voskamp's eloquent words about overcoming the fear of time's fleeting nature by holding onto each moment with thanks are a perfect way to start today.

I don't really want more time. I just want enough time. Time to breath deep and time to see real and time to laugh long, time to give You glory and rest deep and sing joy and just enough time in a day not to feel hounded, pressed, driven, or wild to get it all done - yesterday.... 

Time is a relentless river. It rages on, a respecter of no one. And this, this is the only way to slow time. When I fully enter time's swift current, enter into the current moment with the weight of all my attention, I slow the torrent with the weight of me all there. I can slow the torrent by being all here. I only live the full life when I live fully in the moment. And when I'm always looking for the next glimpse of glory, I slow and enter. And time slows. Weigh down this moment in time with attention full, and the whole of time's river slows, slows, slows... 

Giving thanks for one thousand things is ultimately an invitation to slow time down with the weight of full attention. In this space of time and sphere I am attentive, aware, accepting the whole of the moment, weighing it down with me all here....Really? Give thanks and get time? Give thanks....slow time down with all of your attention - and your basket of not-enough-time multiplies into more than enough time... 

The real problem of life is never a lack of time. The real problem of life- in my life - is lack of thanksgiving. I am a mother-tired, but when my soul doth magnify, my time doth magnify....I redeem time from neglect and apathy and inattentiveness when I swell with thanks and weigh the moment down and it's giving thanks to God for this moment that multiplies the moments, time made enough. - Ann Voskamp One Thousand Gifts

Stay moment, stay!

May your Sunday be filled with joy!

With love,