It's like magic . . .

Well . . . here I am again. it's early Sunday morning, almost 7 am now, and I've been up for an hour already. I've been puttering . . . saying my prayers, pondering on the spiritual food of yesterday's conference that we were able to watch last night . . . reading e-mails. All is right in my world.

The sun is peeking over the horizon and as I look out the front window of the lounge where I sit, I can see a bit of blue sky, tinged with gold and some cloud appearing over the roofline of the terraced houses across the street from our own. The forsythia bush in the garden directily across is brilliantly gold and makes me smile. I can hear birds chirping and Mitzie is having her bath as she sits on the sofa. It won't be long now before she starts to mither me for her breakfast.

We had a bit of trouble getting the computer to load our conference down yesterday afternoon. It kept buffering and then freezing, and so we finally watched it on Todd's ipad, which worked just fine. At one point the Mormon Tabernacle choir was singing and I said to him . . . "You have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on your lap." He said . . . "I know, isn't modern technology wonderful?"



I always try to take notes when I am listening to the conference talks, hoping that I will be able to go through them afterwards and glean a bit of treasure from them. They will all be available to read online in a few days time, and actually our May Ensign (A church magazine we subscribe to) will also have all of them in it, in all of their glorious entirety . . . and we will be able to nourish our spirits with them again and again as we glance through them. They are always such a blessing to us in so very many ways.

As President Monson opened the morning session yesterday he greeted us with his usual cheer and talked about how conference was a time to be strengthened, encouraged, instructed, inspired, to build our faith, to learn and to seek answers to our questions, assuring us that our Heavenly Father was mindful of each of us and our needs.



All in all, I found all of the talks uplifting and inspiring. I can't wait to hear the rest of them.

I thought it would be fun this morning to share some snippets of family life with you taken from the week which has just passed, so here goes!



This is my youngest son Bruce, posing with some of the Toronto Raptor's cheerleaders. He is right in his element here I am sure. What young man would not want to be flanked by a bevvy of beautiful women! His time on course is winding down now and he'll soon have his first military posting. It must be a very exciting time for him. I wonder where he will be sent. Hopefully not
Afghanistan.



One of the pictures of our Eileen and her fiancee Tim upon their return from the Special Olympic Winter Nationals in Alberta. They are a sweet couple and I just know they will be very happy together. They bring joy into each other's lives and that is all anyone can ask for isn't it?



Little Maryn who appears to be seriously enjoying a snack of some kind. It is hard to believe that she is one year old already. I don't know when I will ever have the opportunity to meet her in person. I would love to see her wearing one of the dresses I sent her for her Birthday or a picture of her mom reading her the story book that I sent. It was The Little Grey Rabbit stories by Allison Utley. When our Amanda was a little girl those were her favourite stories. I used to read them to her almost every night and I thought it would be lovely for her to be able to read them to her own little girl . . .



A beautiful shot of our Amanda (in the blue shirt) playing Ultimate Frisbee this week. I love that she is athletic. I wish I were more so! Alas . . . I am a big couch potato.



Could anything be any sweeter than the sight of two grandsons enjoying movies in 3D? I think not! This is Jonathan (older one) and Joshua (our little redhead) and of course their mom Kayla in behind them. My son Doug and his wife do so very much with their boys. They are always taking them to the zoo, or some other fun place. I know they are building some lovely childhood memories for them.



He's got his backpack on, he's not happy and he's leaving!! That's our little Luke throwing a strop, apparently after being told to eat his supper. He was having none of it, strapped his backpack on and was hitting the road! My son said that in this picture he was getting even more annoyed because my son was taking his picture! I love it!



My latest piece of work. I used a variety of techniques here . . . a bit of water colour in the background, with salt . . . which gives a mottled appearance to the sky. Then I used copic markers on the rest of it. Her wings are decoupaged using vellum and the leaves and night moths are rubber stamped. I really love the way it turned out. What do you think?

Source: ayearfromoakcottage.org via Lillian on Pinterest

And that's pretty much it . . . life is pretty amazing. It's a treasure composed of here's and now's, ups and downs, and all the little things, which all weave themselves into the everyday fabric of who and what we are, and who we are becoming.

It's like magic.



In The English Kitchen today, delicious Raspberry Linzer Slices.

“You could ask yourself, 'How did God Bless me today?' If you do that long enough and with faith, you will find yourself remembering blessings. And sometimes you will have gifts brought to your mind which you failed to notice during the day, but which you will then know were a touch of God's hand in your life.”
― Henry B. Eyring