Luckybeans

13/52

We've been on holiday this week.

Bella on the ferry to the Island.

Asher extremely happy to be at Grandma's.

Ana pushing (and pushing and pushing) the youngest cousin in the yellow swing.

Spring Holiday: The First Installment

We had a wonderful week on Vancouver Island, full of sunshine, time outside and visits with family and friends.

First things first: there were two cameras and three photographers (myself, Simon and his sister). I've done my best to use what I know to be shots I took, but I don't always remember who took which photos. I can only guarantee that I did not take any of the ones with a flash or with me in them. For example, these amusing ones of me taking photos were taken by my sister-in-law. I am particularly fond of the knees-down one.

Simon's parents live on an acre and a half with lots of places for children to roam. While everything from wrestling matches (note Asher's licking action-- busted) to haircuts to epic air hockey battles happened inside, outside saw most of the activity.

This is my artsy fartsy flare shot of Grandma and the youngest, and I am rather fond of it.

There was also LOTS of pushing a certain someone in the yellow swing, fort building, traipsing about, dragging things to the brush pile, throwing things for Sophie (the dog who lives next door but certainly doesn't stay there), boys carrying large sticks, etc, etc...

Every day we did something special. Our first full day with five out of six cousins coralled together, we went to Cowichan Bay.

We followed a wooded trail down to the beach, stopping now and then for shorter legs or for Ana to collect things for her nature journal.

There were swans in the bay, and seaweed to collect, and oysters to dissect, and crabs to discover and many many many rocks to throw and we were all VERY happy. 

After our adventure, we went to the tiny town and had a picnic snack where some of us swung on the swings (perhaps they were practising for when they are old and grey).

There is ever so much more to share, but I have hundreds and hundreds of photos to sort through, so I will have to do this in a bit of a piece-meal fashion. But more soon!

Spring Has Sprung

By the time you read this, we will be far away, visiting family and friends for a few days. I leave you with some lovely flowers and sheep and lambs to tide you over. xo

12/52

A few instagrams from the week:

Ana practicing/ teaching herself calligraphy.

Bella has been writing poems. And reading them. This is a book of Tennyson she found.

Asher is thrilled to have Sily Billy at hand once more.

Happy Naw Ruz!

I love this Holy Day. After the Fast, it is such a celebration of renewal, growth; a fresh start with a more centered mind and heart. 

The weekend before Naw Ruz, the children and I set up the Naw Ruz tree. I have no problems commandeering traditional signs of spring such as eggs and flowers and rabbits and lambs from the Easter froofara (I like that word. It is a word. See, I just used it.) and using it in our home. So we gleefully filled up corners with bunnies and bouquets and spring peepers.

The Baha'i day begins at sunset, so after our special kheer and fresh fruit, I hid a set of glow in the dark eggs. This is seriously one of the best ideas I've had in ages. It meant the kids got to hunt for eggs in the dark to kick off the celebrations for this new year right away. I generally shy away from plastic, but I figured these are perfect for us, and we will use them for many years to come. They were fun!

Today, my mum came down for the grand chocolate-eating that comes with the Naw Ruz cones (there were other things involved, such as mustache finger tattoos and a new "Silly Billy" for Asher, but chocolate is the most important part). Why do I love doing these same small things even more with each year?

Along with the chocolate,etc the children also received giant bubble wands/tubes. It was super windy and gusty in the back yard, and when they blew the bubbles, it was like nothing any of use had ever seen. Instead of popping, the bubbles were bounced and whirled, gusted, multiplied, swept up and around us in the most magical, incredible display any of us had ever seen. If you have never blown bubbles in an enclosed space on a windy day, you really, truly must. It was not something I could even begin to capture in photos, but we will all remember it forever.

We went for a walk downtown, stopping for lunch, the playground, a peek at the river, a browse through the bookstore.

When I got home, I realized we had the very first blossom on our plum tree. Wasn't that clever of it?

Odds and Ends from Here and There

Alright. This is the last one of the bits and bobs and then we are all nicely documented and caught up just in time to disappear again. Isn't that just how it goes? These are mostly from last week, and of nothing in particular. Just snippets of days to remember.

Asher's toys, Simon working on a bookshelf, squishing Asher, Asher and Bella playing their new game, and me working on finals.

I know I shared this on Facebook, but the other day, after I'd said prayers with Asher, he quietly asked, "Mom, is it possible to say prayers for anyone who might need it, even if we don't know who they are?" I still tear up thinking about his soft voice in the darkened room. The earnest sincerity and unself-consciousness of it. It has also reminded me to really think about what I do as a parent. How my job is not to teach my children things, but to provide them with the tools and environment that enables them to become the shining people they intrisically are and yearn to be. Because I couldn't teach Asher to pray like that. So humbling, in the very best of ways.

And since I'm on a parenting/ my kids are awesome kick anyway, there is also this: Ai Ana will complete her first Fast this evening. For nineteen days, she has not eaten or drunk from sunrise to sundown. She has handled it all with a grace and ease I find astounding. She is now at the point where she can accomplish things which I cannot (ie-lasting for more than three hours without crumpling into a pathetic ball of exceedingly cranky misery). Sometimes the older I get, the less certain I feel that I understand much of anything at all. I'm just lucky I get to come along for the ride.

 

In Which There Is Frolicking in the Woods (again)

Have you noticed I'm catching up after my hiatus here? Hmmm. Sorry. It isn't over yet. It currently seems to be feast or famine in these parts. This is one of the points when I ask myself, "Who the heck reads this thing?" And also when I realise that a lot of my blogging is really just memory keeping and sharing with family. So that alleviates any social-media pressures right there. 

Ahem. Back to the frolicking.

We finally (finally!) got to visit my parents this weekend. My health has been so bad, we had a loooong break there for a while. After a wonderful time with my dad, we went for a walk on a late spring afternoon. This is a park we have been going to since the children were very wee indeed, and it is fun for them to remember hills that once exhausted them, or picnics enjoyed, or antics previously performed. There are also a lot of overlooks and ravines, which lead to some interesting camera angles. 

And we're off.

We found some funny (not so) little gnomes in their homes.

And a troll emerging from under the bridge.

The light was simply beautiful, streaming down through budding branches (and look at Ana's rainbow head!).

We wandered along, with plenty of time to stop and talk or look at the new flowers.

The children also went crashing down a ravine, on a "long" rather than a "short" cut.

My mum always tries to remove bit of ivy. It breaks my heart a bit to see how clogged these glorious old trees become...

Unrelated, but irresistable, I recently encountered this douglas squirrel doing any number of acrobatics in order to eat new maple buds. I can see why Asher loves them.

I will be back soon with more updates and filling in. Ha.

 

11/52

...and just to get all caught up and tidy:

My three lovelies with their heads through the rainbow tree near my mum's. I remember when they could all run beneath that bottom arch effortlessly. I know this is a bit posed, but I do love to get them all rounded up and gathered together once in a while.

10/52

In all of the hubbub (is that one word or two?) of last week, I failed to post a portrait of the children. I still call them children, but I am becoming well-aware that at least one of them isn't. Anyway, belated photos:

Ana working so hard to catch up with her biology work.

Bella and those curls. I know I just mentioned hair, but those curls.

Asher found a sunny spot to read.

All random instagrams, but there you are.

Did I Tell You?

DId I tell you that one sunny day, no one else wanted to go out and play, but Asher and I did?

Did I tell you of how we ran in and out of an old stone chimney and took photos whilst flying off the end of the teeter-totter and flying on the swing?

Did I tell you of how we climbed on trees and in them and around them?

Did I tell you of finding centipedes under rocks and minnows and pagodas and a stream that someone walked in with his shoes still on?

Did I tell you how the stream ran into the river, or how the river swept over the roots and rocks, dancing, sparkling in the sunlgiht with its own bright song?

Did I tell you of the blue bend in the water and dropping stones from the bridge with a great splash?

We had a grand time, did boy and I.