this season we're in

My, oh my, oh my.

What a few months we've had around our home! Entering into my fifth pregnancy, after a concentrated time of real focus on my overall health including some dietary changes, weight loss, a cleanse and more exercise, I have to say I somehow thought I might have had a bleak hope of reducing the amount of pregnancy sickness I was about to endure for our sweet little one in utero.

But I was wrong, so very wrong. The past few months have been nothing near blogworthy, unless you care to see photo after photo of a house covered in dust, piles of laundry accumulating, dishes undone and the general chaos that becomes our reality when I'm in my first trimester. We enter into survival mode. We've done it four times before, so thankfully, I know there is an end in sight. As I'm finally in the second trimester, I'm hoping that soon the nausea will subside completely. This pregnancy I have written myself motivational notes to keep me going.
See? Here's one of the pages I wrote out one depressing evening to try to boost my spirits. It really did help!

On my heart in prayer I've heard this word, over and over again: Just Be. Be in the moment, the day, the week I'm in. Don't wish for another season. Trust that this time is exactly where I'm supposed to be (not easy at all!). It is what it is.

Embracing the present moment is not so easy when the moment seems to be a steady stream of moments that involve suffering. Who likes to suffer? Nobody. And yet I have to say, I've had on my heart those who suffer continually with chronic illnesses, those who do not have the luxury of knowing the season they are in will end. What a difference with pregnancy. My floors may be unmopped, but I know that one day order will be restored in my home. We will crawl out of the cave of early pregnancy sickness.

I think I slowly am coming out into the light now, looking towards planting our garden, eating salad again, cooking for my family, getting out of the house more, looking cute in my maternity clothing, and awaiting this new little one, whose name until further notice, as per our children's request is Star (see Madeleine's drawing above). And no, I am not taller than my husband!

Blessings on your day.

Easter Joy

Blessings to each of you during this Easter Season!
Since I've been absent from this space for longer than I intended, I want to offer a photo-heavy post to share some of our Easter joy with all of you. Our Lent has been very full and very lenten, so we're striving to celebrate with even greater gusto this time of feasting and rejoicing.
We began our Holy Week with our Easter garden planting. This has become a wonderful annual family tradition that my children are just as much a part of as I now that we've enjoyed it since they were babes.

Madeleine took over as photographer and climbed upon the table to obtain this angle. I like it!

We are so blessed with a beautiful and simple outdoor Stations of the Cross in the woods near our parish church. The children love to lead the devotion while we walk together along the path down towards the lake. It really is such a lovely spot to inspire prayer!

The 12th Station: Jesus dies upon the Cross.

Spring bulbs peeking through! When you live this far north in Ontario, these early bursts of colour brings my heart to rejoice!

We enjoyed a kid-inspired picnic, planned by Madeleine, with peanut butter and jam sandwiches by the Jubilee Cross on our parish grounds. Can you see the lake in the background? What a wonderful place to enjoy lunch with the littles, on an ordinary Tuesday, just because we can!

It was lovely to relax, let the kids run and scream, search up and down the hill for pussy willows and let me lay back and chill. Homeschooling does have its perks!

We experimented with making natural egg dyes this year, The blue dye was made from purple cabbage and created a lovely rich blue hue for our eggs. My favorite by far.

The tumeric honestly looked like we were rolling the eggs around in newborn baby poop, but they turned the eggs a lovely shade of pale yellow.

Our finished eggs. I can't quite figure out why the beets turned the eggs brown instead of pink, but since I'm partial to brown eggs (especially the onion skin method of dying eggs), we didn't mind.

One of our many babkas, baked with an old Russian recipe, passed down to us from local friends, and very similar to the recipe used at Madonna House for their Easter traditions. This year I decided to do one as a braided loaf and we included this in our basket of Easter foods for the blessing on Holy Saturday at our parish.

Our finished Easter garden on Sunday morning. Assembled by the children of course.

I tried my hand at wet-felting Easter eggs this year. This was actually much simpler than I originally anticipated, and since the wool roving was wrapped around hollow plastic eggs, they maintain their shape quite nicely. I can't wait to make more with the children in the weeks ahead.

Our Pascal Candle is another Easter tradition of ours. I use a beeswax candle embellished with cut out and pressed on thin beeswax sheets from Stockmar. We have this blessed in our Easter basket, along with sea salt and eggs, bread, wine, fruit, meats and cheeses. We try to remember to burn in through the season at meals and at family prayer time. It smells just lovely!

We had a little chocolate too, but not too much because we've had a sick little boy around these parts.

And our greatest gift during this season of joy? I am carrying new life within, filling us with such gratitude during this Eastertide.

Blessings to you and yours in these days ahead.