A mother's love

In this dark days of winter, it is good to reflect on the joys of being a mother and the ways that I am striving to love my girls well...

• I sleep on less than 6 inches of bed when one of the girls comes to me in the middle of the night with a "bad dream"
• I strap on ice skates to be with Pookie as she tries to skate during a school trip
• I watch countless shows about Disney Princesses
• I defer to Pookie's superior fashion sense when it comes to getting dressed in the morning
• I wear pink
• I sit through hours of gymnastics classes, church activities and birthday parties so that the girls are comfortable in going
• I allow forts to be built willy nilly around my house
• I pull out paints 15 mins before dinner so that an art show can happen
• I organize playdates...which I think are the most ridiculous things ever!
• I plant gardens with them

Those are my thoughts on this dark January day....new post on a book I just read here....

What's up January?

I feel like I have blog posts coming out of my ears, but some how never sit down to do them!

For us, we are starting January off with bang! We have decided to sell our apartment in Vancouver...at least try anyhow. Although having a real estate empire was fun, it would be more fun to have money in the bank instead of giving it away all the time. So, with many prayers launched, the sign is up and people are coming through. 5 showings in 2 days, but no offers. I'd forgotten the rollercoaster ride that this is. You know that sickening feeling of going up and the plunge down...good times.

The other news is that I am contemplating working full time. At a job that would require me to come in every day and stay for 8 hours. I haven't had a job like that in 10 years and I won't lie, it is daunting. The upside is a good pay cheque, the downside is that Bear would have to be in daycare for a day or two and I would lose my precious freedom. I hope to decide/figure it out this week.

So, there you go, two weeks into January and big changes are afoot!

Hello 2010!

Whoa...that kinda snuck up on me! I'm not much for New Year's resolutions, so I have no grand unveiling of plans for this year. What I can tell you is that I think that 2010 will hold some big decisions/changes for this little VanderKuip clan...that's all I'm saying about this new year. Some Advent reflections...I love the fact that the girls are getting older. I posted on my other blog some of my thoughts, so go there. We skyped with Hubby's extended family on the Sunday before Christmas which was both awesome and a bit heart wrenching. We skyped with his immediate family on Christmas day and saw our nieces and nephews open their gifts from us "in person" which was also cool. We spent Christmas day with my family which was good, full of food and spoiling the girls! New Year's Eve was spent with good friends and good food. We did the East Coast ball drop with the kids at 9pm which was about 10x cooler than the actual midnight celebration that the adults did...although we had fun sparkling apple juice. There is something about kids just excited about life that makes everything so much better! Here are some photos of our Advent season...Enjoy!

Our one day of snow!



Church pageant, our lamb and angel




Christmas Day (please note there are no pictures of rumpled parents!)



Christmas Outfits



We are thankful for 2009 and are looking forward to what 2010 holds for our little family!