Lately everyone seems to be commenting on their strange weather. It’s no different here. It’s been unusually warm. Beautiful weather in fact. The kids are pulling off coats, attempting to convince me that it’s t-shirt weather. The snow is melting, mud puddles are forming, spring is in the air.

It’s feels like April.

Now, I’m not ungrateful. It’s nice and all but, to be perfectly honest, I’m missing winter. I certainly realize I’m blessed not to head out to work in it or wait for buses in it (I don’t miss those days) but where are the cozy times snuggled up against the cold? Watching snow fall and enjoying hot drinks by the fire (or in our case, by the candles). Wrapping up in blankets with a book. Rosy cheeks, red noses and brushing off the cold.

We did have a couple of cold snaps but it hasn’t felt like winter. Now that the dark days of winter are passing I’m ready for some snow days. Winter always brings a change in our pace and I’m missing my winter nesting time. Winter has never been a favourite of mine but it’s place is perfect. A rest at the end of the busiest season and a rest before we start fresh in spring.

I can’t believe I’m saying it but what happened to winter?

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How about you? Are you missing winter or getting more than enough of it? Perhaps you’re enjoying summer in another part of the world and winter is a distant memory. Guess I’d better get out and soak up some Vitamin D while I can.

Beautiful Girl, how is it seven years since you entered our lives? Seven years that feels like a lifetime and yet only a moment.

This year perhaps more than any other you have grown and changed. You are no longer such a little girl but always our baby. And somehow it has just happened. Suddenly older, suddenly growing. Your baby face hides behind those bright eyes…I still see it there.

Such a dear, dear girl full of generosity and kindness. Sharing of your great or of your little, making the peace, offering a smile full of heart. You slip a hand in mine, an arm over your shoulder, stroke a baby cheek, snuggle a little brother.

You are unique and special and wonderful. From your outrageously wonderful sense of fashion: jewelry, stripes, skirts and leggings, always leggings. You are a little mother, always aching, moaning, begging to help with the babes. Daddy’s little charmer, pulling that sideways smile, that twinkle in your eye, the batting of eyelashes. The horse, the piggy back, the mama in so many games. The dancer, the princess, the good sport and the gracious winner.

And as I struggle to write this I realize I struggle because you are so intangibly you – that look, that smile, that style, that laugh, that joy. It’s all so wonderfully you, Amalia.

So full of love, so full of life, you bring a flavour all your own to our lives.

Happy Birthday, lovely.