Wonder

This morning was so so great.

After breakfast, the girls ran off together to go play, leaving June to hang out with me while I cleaned the kitchen. June is such a smiley little girl and because she still isn't crawling, she doesn't get into much trouble. 

 After I had emptied and then filled the dishwasher, wiped counters an then swept, I realized that I hadn't been interrupted - not even once! - by Gwen or by Lily. No food begging from Lily. No tattletale-ing from Gwen.

All was quiet on the western front.

However, experience has taught me that silence means mischief, so I quickly investigated.

What I find is that Gwen and Lily built a pirates ship with the couch/table. With dolls and stuffies as their crew, an Etch A Sketch for a map, a tambourine for the helm, and an assortment of buttons and switches, they were ready to set sail! My favourite part was Gwen's log book, which she drew in recording all the things that her and Lily "saw" during their voyages.

It was pretty darn adorable.

I know . . . looking at this picture, it doesn't look like much is going on, but Gwen has such an amazing imagination. And I love it. Lily loves it as well as she usually tags along for the ride. Together, they could pretend play for hours. Gwen get's right into it, too. Sometimes she gets so deep that she has come to me crying (INCONSOLABLY) because one of her made-up characters it met with a tragic fate. I have a hard time being sympathetic during these moments and usually find myself rolling my eyes and sighing audibly.

I'm praying to have more childlike wonder. Today I was able to get right into the story-line with them, so I can see the Lord blessing me and in turn my girls.

Good Things Come in Threes

Sorry for the absence, things are crazy here.

With Tanner doing 13 hour days, I am pretty much a single parent during the school week.

I am blessed to have the personality for it, but there are some days that have left me so exhausted, I tuck MYSELF in when the girls go to bed at 8pm.

All is well, though.

Because in the morning I get to wake up to these little pretties!

I'm just going to say it.

Having three daughters is awesome. 

And I have THREE under the age of four.

When we leave the house and go to a place where other people gather (i.e. the library, the pier, Costco) I am pretty much guaranteed this comment: "Wow! You must be a busy!" or "You've got your hands full!" or (seeing that I have all girls) "Good luck when they're teenagers!"

** Every single time I leave my house. **

And of course, they are right.

I AM busy.

My hands ARE full.

And I'm going to need ALL the luck I can get.

A Musical Heart

Near the end of August we had the family together in Innisfail for June's baby blessing.

It was a very special afternoon as Tanner blessed our little girl in my parents garden.

It was so special and oh-so beautiful.

Tanner blessed June to "have a musical heart".

I pretty much could not stop smiling after he said that.

June is a very special little girl and I am absolutely smitten by her.

We all are.

Feeling Homesick

To help myself get out of the house this morning I volunteered to drop Tanner off at school and then spent the morning with the girls downtown. We live in a beautiful city. Even Gwen can see it. As we drove through the old streets of downtown, Gwen would point out the window and exclaim "Look at all the buildings Mom!" I knew she was fascinated by their age and architecture. I felt so proud of her for being interested in such things.

We found parking at our usual spot beside The Old Burying Ground, filled the meter, walked Tanner and give him kisses good-bye. Man, I love him. The girls and I ventured on to an old children's bookstore names Woozles. It is a lovely store and is, in fact, the oldest children's bookstore in Canada. They are celebrating their 35th birthday next weekend, which I sure hope we will be able to attend. The store is bright and whimsical and absolutely charming.

As the store is set up so that that kids can play while parents shop, both the girls and I enjoyed our visit and we ended up staying nearly an hour. June was a dream and napped in the carrier the entire time. Despite their vast inventory, they did not have the two books I came in there to sneakily purchase (I'm trying to get a head start on Christmas) : Marcus Pfister's "The Rainbow Fish" (for Lily) and Anna Dewdney's "Llama Llama Red Pajama" (for Gwen). The books have been ordered and we'll be returning again soon to pick them up.

Once a caravan of daycare kids came into the store I decided it was time to head down to a playground at the harbour. With June in the wrap, Lily in the stroller, and Gwen sitting on the front of the stroller we got a lot of stares and smiles from passers by. It's times like this that I am reminded how unusual it is to have three children 3 and under. It's my everyday crazy, but I love it.

As soon as Gwen caught a glimpse of the park she was off running. The park on the pier is simple but still fun. Again there were more people walking around and from their conversations I could tell most were visitors to Halifax. One group even came up to me to ask a question regarding one of the docked ships. I felt proud of myself to have known the answer and truly felt like "a local".

With everyday I am here, I fall more and more in love with this place. But I do truly miss our home in Alberta. This afternoon, I was going through our computer looking at old photos from our home in Calgary and I cried. It was the first time I felt homesick . . . well . . . homesick enough to cry. I miss our flower print table cloth and my matching apron, I miss our old couches, I miss having my little sister over at my house every other day,  I miss our little round craft table and our dining room window being covered with treasured paper creations.

* sigh *

Such a weird day, eh? Feeling local one minute, then feeling homesick the next. What's up with that?

Still, I'm doing alright, and I know I will go to bed tonight thinking about my girls and how much I love them, and how this experience here is such a blessing to our family. I know we will grow stronger together because of this and that we will one day look back at our time here and feel homesick for the ocean, for the trees, for the culture, and for the people.