Hello! It’s the weekend. Weekends are good. And this weekend got a little sweeter for the knitters in this bunch…

The talented knit designer, Laura Aylor, is giving knitters a gift for her birthday. With a coupon code found on her blog, she’s offering a choice of any of her knitting patterns through the weekend and Monday. Goodness!

I’ve been eyeing her patterns (did you notice she has the top 20 patterns right now?) and have not yet decided which to choose. Devonshire Cream is so dreamy, Derecho so striking, Serra so cozy.

Send a little love to her blog and check out her beautiful patterns!

::

Which pattern will you choose?

thanks to the lovely Rebecca of nook for the tip on the giveaway

The year had ended.

We’re starting something new. The promise of today remains, returns, renews.

This time of year always puts me in a mood of reflection. Thinking about what the past year has been and what the new year brings.

Last January, I chose the word aspire as one I would hold to through the year. Not a list of must-dos but an inspiration to let go of obligation and soar – or at least try.

I think I kept the vibe going for the first few months but around April, and straight through to the end of the year, the word changed. Without my realizing it, and certainly without my welcoming it, the word changed to survive.  Until I started considering for 2013 I hadn’t seen how it had changed, but survive sums it up pretty surely. Our (albeit short) move, followed by sickness, and then more sickness (this time in the name of detoxing) has left me straining to get through with some semblance of organization and peace.

There has been plentiful joy and love to share. I’m blessed beyond wildest imaginings. I’m thankful always.

But it’s been a struggle.

When I began reflecting on a word to begin this new trip around the sun, one jumped right to the front. I’ve tumbled it around. Turned it over. Tested to see if there is anything else that wants to be heard. I wondered if just wanting this word was making it stand out.

The work that’s been forming these months. The answer to many questions I’ve asked. The transformation that I want to see and share.

heal

It’s the word that aches in me. The desire that speaks to me. The work that’s had me holding on for life.

Emotional, physical, spiritual. In my person and in community. In solitude, fellowship, and family. To hold and to share. I deeply desire to experience my healing, I wait for the time when it comes prayerfully and expectantly. But more than that I seek to share healing. It’s a promise that’s been spoken over me, and I long for it.

And saying that, as I step back from that word which means so much, I see the word that has pulled me through over the last months. Heal is buried deep with the word of strength to trust.This frameword to all my life’s words.

As I move into 2013 and embrace my intention to heal, I will strive to remember the structure it is placed within. The anatomy which all my movements toil to fit within: trust.

I’m holding onto my mandate to heal. Not with plans, determination, or goals, but with trust that healing is a part of this journey – to be received, shown, and shared. A hand held open in trust, the word heal perched on top.

::

And you? Have you pondered a word for 2013? An intention, a purpose, a vision? If so, please share. If you have been thinking over it and not settled yet, take time for the process. I’m always surprised how these things can come about. If you’re looking for some prompts, MamaScout has shared some over here.

Happy New Year, beautiful souls!

We’re home. We’re unpacked. We’re settling in. And as much as I love coming home (after loving being away), there is a time of adjustment coming back.

We have plenty of things to be getting done. Projects to start. Projects to finish. Lots of fruit in boxes. And, not least of all, a school year to begin. But instead I am living in a post-vacation, post-summer break twilight zone.

So I’m getting things done at a slower speed. Taking it easy for a few days on the school start. Drinking hot tea in the morning and basking in welcome heat in the afternoon. The kids are raking leaves in shorts and tees. I’m finding my entrance into fall and the rhythms I love so much.

And as I’m taking my time, I’m smiling over memories of our last beach visit of the year. Embracing the new season with that bittersweet melancholy of time’s passage.

These photos were taken at Parksville Beach. The kids’ favourite because it also has a playground and spray park. They never take my reasoning that we can do playgrounds and spray parks at home, but we can’t do ocean, sigh. (Note the poor teether’s grimace…I think she’s getting a mouthful all at once. Also, the boy in the one-piece suit – it kills me, so cute.)

::

How do you find yourself embracing these changing days?

We seem to have a new tradition – or at least a slightly enhanced version of an old one.

Each year when we come out this way, trading mountain backdrop for ocean, we take a day to drop down to Victoria to visit one of Dan’s oldest friends and his family (now firmly among my dearest friends). Until last year it was usually just Dan and I who travelled down with whichever babe was nursing at the time.

Last September we also had the three oldest peeps join us for a trip to the beautiful city along with a visit to the Royal BC Museum.

They were not about to be left behind this year either.

On Tuesday we packed up and set out. Before we got too far though we made an important stop.

Through this blogging gig I’ve found such a wonderful community of friends. None of them in my neck of the woods, though, and I’ve often ached for a chance to sit down together over a cup of tea and knitting needles.

Enter Rebecca, the sweet mama behind the blog nook. I found her through luvinthemommyhood when she teamed up as Shannon‘s partner in crime during last year’s Summer Sweater KAL (the same KAL this year got me knitting this). She’s been an enabler as I drool over all her gorgeous knits, and an inspiration as she tosses out completed projects like nobody’s business.

While I was driving down to her home city in Victoria, she was vacationing up-Island with her sweet family. We contrived to meet up a Tims for a little ‘meet and stitch’. It was a delicious yarn fest and we didn’t even remember to order anything – just covered the table with wool (her new indulgence in MadTosh) and our knits.

It was so delightful to meet Rebecca – she’s even sweeter in person! It was definitely a highlight of my vacation. Now I’m all pumped to meet more of your lovely faces (hint, hint…Calgary is a lovely city)! And am already looking forward to my next chance to share a yarn date with Rebecca. (Thanks, Rebecca!)

After saying goodbyes, we headed off again to Victoria with three excitedly impatient littles. The museum was the first stop and a big hit with them again. The visiting dino exhibit was pretty cool (even as we’d just recently visited the Royal Tyrrell Dinosaur Museum). But we all share the same favourite at the museum – the Modern History Gallery. It is so much fun! I’m a total history geek so I want to read everything and soak it all up – the kids on the other hand love to roam the replicated city streets from Chinatown to the theatre.

After the museum there was time for a quick shop visit to Silk Road. We already have a ridiculous tea collection as it stands but I can never resist adding a little more – and there are always gift giving possibilities, right? Then we met our friends to pick up Dan’s favourite take-out meal, Noodle Box, before heading down to the beach. We stayed there visiting until after the sun had gone down and the mosquitos had made a fine meal of my ankles.

It’s a long drive back to Qualicum Beach, particularily after dark, but Mary Poppins on audio kept us busy until there were three dozers in the back seat while Dan and I sipped hot chocolate and peppermint tea(respectively).

It was a good, good day.

::

Do you have a favourite vacation spot you love to return to? Familiar away-from-home haunts that call you back? Do tell – you know I love a good tradition!

It’s been busy days here for us.

There was that bout of sickness…Then it spread. But not across the board. Thank God.

We said goodbye to Dan for the week. Him to Vancouver for a weeklong course. Parting was hard on us all. The first bedtime was touch and go.

We filled our days with fun distractions and the weather was on our side. Cheese farm to visit the animals. Fish hatchery to visit the salmon. Beach to visit the waves…and then again, and again. Walks after dinner to keep us moving through picky eating complaints and get us ready for bedtime without too many tears over daddy.

My inlaws have been wonderful. They are so giving of their time and home. They take good care of all of us – even as my mother-in-law got more than she bargained for when we passed on our virus.

And while kids are spinning grandparents round and round with requests and questions and, er, demands, I’ve grabbed camera and snuck around their garden snapping late summer beauty.

Towards the end of the week Mira and I packed our bags and snuck over to the mainland for a quick weekend with Dan in Vancouver. Us girls hung out at the hotel, his course finished, and we headed out to see some of our favourite sights.

Dan came willingly to the Vancouver Art Gallery with only a few peeps about me reading everything in the Matisse exhibit. We walked around downtown, ending up on the waterfront with a phone call to five sweet littles. Then wandering for dinner through Kits, eating far too much good bread on the beach and disappointing souvlaki back in the hotel room.

A morning visit to Granville Island, a little pottery shopping for my early birthday, lots of good food. As I deliberated over food choices Dan astutely remarked, “You just love food”. How true. So there were crepes, and a taco, and donuts. Yep. I only just missed out on the french onion pot pie.

A missed ferry gave us a leisurely dinner in Horseshoe Bay with the little miss. Then daddy, mommy, and baby sis back in time for bedtime kisses.

And now we’ve got the rest of the week – this one with Dan to enjoy our vacation. I’m looking forward to lots of ocean eye-candy.  I’m loving this time but I’ll be ready for autumn rhythm soon.

::

And if you survived that long run-down of our week I thank you! Are you settled into a fall routine or are you still on summer mode?