What if? by Jeremy

Jeremy's latest thing is playing "what if?" He's pretty funny.  Here's a couple of examples:

"What if there was a giant cucumber in the city?"
Me - then we'd eat a lot of cucumber
Jeremy - no, then he'd stomp all over the cars!

"What if there were wolves in our house?"
Me - then we'd have to leave the house and get rid of them
Jeremy - no, we'd just scare them away

"What if there were crabs in our house?"
Me - we'd have a yummy dinner
Jeremy - no, we'd have to punch them away!

Mingling

I am not naturally gifted at mingling.  I much prefer the comfort of chatting with people I know, in my own little space of the room.  Unfortunately, one aspect of being married to a pastor is that you mingle.  You mingle after church with the congregation and you mingle at events.  I've worked at it over the past few years and I think I'm getting better at it.  Having a baby in arms helps, a lot - they are ice breakers.  And I find it easy to talk to the older ladies who are just delighted with the kids and delighted at the work your husband is doing at the church.  I find the older ladies have a lot of stories to tell and are often glad to have another ear to listen to them.  The more difficult part, for me, is approaching new-comers, helping to make them feel comfortable at a church event or church setting.  Getting beyond the "hi, my name is Kristen" part.  Again, having little ones help (everybody loves a baby) and it also helps if they have kids.  Common ground.  I guess that is the biggest thing, trying to find common ground with a complete stranger in a relatively short period of time, isn't it.

If I hadn't of heard it I wouldn't have believed it and other sweet yesterday moments

Yesterday I had all 3 kids home, sick with colds.  Not a great start to the day really.  But I accomplished much.  We went and got a few groceries (I didn't mind taking my school aged son to the store while he was home sick because we really did need some cold medicine and a few other things).  And really, I know what it's like to be all stuffed up and tired and have to sit and work at a desk all day, you'd rather be home.  Anyway...there was a few moments yesterday that had me think, life is good.
One was the sense of home maker accomplishment, it was the feeling in the early afternoon that came over me knowing I'd gotten groceries in and put away, another load of laundry done, all 3 kids fed and medicine dolled out, the baby was napping upstairs and the boys were cuddled up on the futon well into their own naps.  The house was quiet and I could sip my tea and read for a little bit.
Another was the very gentle, loving way my boys were being kind to each other.  They had all their library books scattered around them, Elijah was reading and Jeremy was watching a Diego DVD.  Jeremy turned to Elijah and said, "we love watching Diego, don't we brother?", Elijah said, "yes, but not as much as we love each other".  I admit, I melted a bit and had a tear in my eye.

Seinfeld

Jonathan and I have taken to watching back to back episodes of Seinfeld at night.  I really didn't think this show was that funny.  It wasn't for me when it first aired.  But now I think it's hilarious.  Definite sign that I'm getting older.

A Day at the Market

We finally had a day out at Kensington Market.  It was the one place I really wanted to go to around Toronto that we hadn't been to.  It's a neat area of town, with a kinda hippie vibe, but mixed with some East Coast and city feel into it (not quite Victoria or San Francisco).   Here's some pictures and highlights:

 The boys in the trenches - or at the Army Surplus store

 Sometimes an outing turns into the Jeremy show - he's quite a ham

 Olivia, content to watch from the stroller

 "look at the fish blood!"  is what was exclaimed when we went into the fish market - yep, that's boys

 All sorts of varieties of veggies available

 Jonathan with his cuddly teddy bear

 They didn't have a step behind this, so yes, that's me lifting him up

 The burger place we went to for a snack was having it's opening weekend - really good burgers (I just had a taste of Jonathan's - I wasn't hungry after having a Jamaican patty a little earlier on)

 This was so cool - a bike lock up area made out of old bike parts spelling out the word - Kensington

Kids

There's something really cool about watching your kids play with the kids of your friends.  Not friends that they have known their whole life and are growing up with, but friends you haven't seen for a long time and now you all have kids.

Friendships

This year has been a bizarre one for me.  I live no where near where I know anyone, yet I've been reunited with more people from my past than ever. 

 God's so good, he's even brought friends from the east to Ontario for us to visit with.

My Growing Girl

I have to remember that babies grow fast, even when you got a good deal on clothes.  You see I found a great deal on jeans for Olivia in the 6-9 month size and I love them.  (They only had that size in or I would have bought more).  I have to face the reality that at 9 1/2 months she is not that size anymore.  Sigh.  She's growing too fast.

Checkers

Ask Jeremy how to play checkers.  His response:  You check, check, check people, if they have the right numbers then they can come in the house.