"A Mother Wonders"

I read through a little booklet of poems that we had received when our Laura was born, and this poem came to mind as I enjoyed the photos of our grandgirls on Katrina's blog:

Precious Babe, so small in size,
My one great dream within you lies.
For long before I saw your face
I dreamed and wished as I sewed lace
On your tiny garments.
Now I hold you in my arms,
Bewitched and breathless by your charms -
In truth you are a miracle,
You are so wonderful -
I hope God makes my wish come true,
To make me worthy, Child, of you.
by Grace Mathew Walker

May I truly be worthy of the blessing of my grandgirls, as well as of my children both natural and in law.

and joining the family via Skype....

Celebrations just aren't the same when family members are missing- - -

- - - so glad we can "skype"! In this photo, Martin and Emily and the girls have joined the Geertsema Family via the skype program - and we saw Nicole's attempts at her first steps!!

Christmas Day

Before I take the tree down today, I thought I'd enjoy the memories of Christmas day:

Sjoelbak!

We had our first weekend of Christmas family celebrations this past weekend while Martin and Emily were in Ontario with Maria and Nicole, and it was also the beginning of our Second Annual Sjoelbak Tournament. Last year's Ultimate Sjoelbak Grand Champion was "The Honourable Sir Martin".
We played between preparing meals and kids' naps and Michael's availability in Banff (where he is now living, and doing the commute to L. Louise). Not sure what the standings are, but the games will continue when Michael arrives Christmas weekend. We could even start another round, since we can watch each other on Skype, and Martin and Emily are back in Dartmouth!
The little girls wanted to have a go at the board as well, and they scored well too. Naomi is quite proud of her expertise!
And Rachel of course wanted to try her hand at it,

giving us instructions in how to play: climb on board and shove the pucks in! Perfect score!!

Winter has arrived, and Christmas is coming!

It's been snowing off and on since Saturday night, so that we now have a few centimetres on the ground. Winter has officially arrived, and the lights on other homes look like the Christmas season has arrived.
Martin and Emily and their girls are coming on the weekend, for their Christmas with their Ontario families. Michael isn't coming until Christmas Day.
So this mom likes doing all kinds of stuff for family celebrations, but guess what! She's wa-a-ay behind!
There's been this and that and other things - all contributing to her time factor. But on Friday, I started to clean upstairs, and discovered something drastic. There's a moisture problem in the ceiling and walls, and it's become visible in a not very healthy way.
John and Stevin took care of it today, but we have a big project for early spring! Sigh. If it isn't one thing, it's another.
The plus side is that a sort of Clean Sweep is occurring, and will continue through the winter! The minus side is that Christmas projects will not be completed for the weekend. There will also be only a little bit of baking done.
But it's family together time that matters! We will have a good time, regardless!! Who's up for Scrabble? :) And later, there are always the pleasures of packages in the mail......

ready for winter??

We've spent a couple of Saturdays, and I attempted a couple of sunny weekdays, to get "ready" for winter outdoors:
The garden is cleaned up and covered with leaves, but the rhodos still need to be wrapped. I discovered that the leaves, where the branches were covered up last winter, resisted the freeze-drying much better. The toys have been put away. The chairs are in the basement, but the bench and double-rocker will have to stay out. The birdbaths are empty, cleaned and resting on their edges against a tree. The bulbs are in the ground, but a squirrel may have dug some up already, hence the bone meal being spread on top. I've attempted to pick up most of the extra stuff lying around. And the recycling bins are full enough to take to the dump again. But the garden hoses still need to be put somewhere, and there's a scooter out in the back yard. And the pails with the peonies that got dug up and never re-planted need to be deposited somewhere.
There's always a lot to do before freeze-up, and around here, there's always a lot more that can be done. During warmer days, there's a lot of activity with a lot of stuff left to be picked up "later", resulting in junk waiting for the ride to the dump.
However, this place is looking a lot tidier than it has in a long time! (a large part due to the efforts of our boys this past summer!)
BUT- are we ready for winter? With a major item of cutting wood for the outdoor furnace, NO, we're not ready. And I looked for my snow brush and ice-scraper unsuccessfully, and the snow shovels still have to come out of hiding.
BUT- ready to cocoon with indoor and Christmas projects, YES -bring on winter!!

Anneke's Special Day

We were in Barrie this past weekend for Anneke's baptism. Stevin and Katrina and the girls made a long weekend out of it, too, visiting old friends as well as meeting Anneke. Naomi showed her expertise at holding a baby - she's had a lot of practice! Petra shows confidence too, but is quickly distracted. But both were SO excited to meet their newest cousin!

What's time with Opa without a book at some point? The oldest of Opa's Girls love to climb onto his lap!

Anneke - you're destined to become an Opa's Girl, too! It's something that just happens!

The service on Sunday was very nice, and Anneke and the other baby, Ryan, 'cooperated' very well - neither one of them cried, or fussed too much!
Stephanie is enjoying herself as a new mom; I can see that she's gained a lot of confidence! She's just beaming in this photo! Should have gotten one with David, too, but didn't. Next time. But I do find it amazing to watch another one of my sons being a Daddy!

and here we are: Opa and Oma and Daddy and Mommy and Baby Anneke.

There are pictures of other family members with Anneke, but you'll have to check David and Steph's blog. I used their camera more often than my own, yesterday!

Anneke, you're a blessing to all of us, as little as you are. To look at you is to praise God who created you so intricately and so wonderfully. Our prayer is that He will continue to grow you into the person He created you to be!

How Much Love Can A Heart Hold?

I enjoyed my weekend in Barrie - I had lots of cuddle-time with Anneke! She listens and looks intently at whoever is holding her, until she falls asleep or wants something else of course. I rocked her to sleep a few times, which is something I've always enjoyed doing, and I gave her a bath, and simply gazed at her...

Anneke looks very much like Stephanie; there's a great resemblance when you see Steph's baby pictures! Although David and Stephanie say she has a nose like Naomi's, I couldn't see it! This Oma could not see any Geertsema in this baby! Until I saw the picture below - I see a lot of my babies in this photo... but I'll have to get out the albums to check which one!

But all of that doesn't matter - what does matter is that Anneke is a special creation of God with her own uniqueness. I love her lots already, and I miss her now that I'm home again.

I love all of my little ones, and I find it truly amazing how God gives more/extra/additional love with each child that He gives. If our hearts can hold this much with each new member, it is truly awesome how much love HIS heart holds!

NUMBER SIX!

God has a sense of humour, no doubt about it! Imagine SIX grand-daughters! But yes, that's what we have now---and I love it. I'm already thinking about the toy box....
I cried when David said everyone was doing well, and then cried some more when he said the baby is a girl, and then cried some more at hearing her name. Tears of JOY, that is!
It feels very special to have a baby named after oneself. Yes, her full first name is Anneke- but what you don't know is that as a youngster I was often called Maryanneke. Something else most of you don't know is that as a youngster I named one of my dolls "Shirley" because I really liked that name. And now little Anneke has a derivative of her Grandma Shirley's name. Leigh is a beautiful spelling (and meaning!).
How wonderful that the two grandmothers can be remembered in such a lovely way. Anneke Leigh - may God bless you as the blessing you already are to us.

Fall Fun

After my friend told me about the quilts that were to be displayed at Upper Canada Village for the Fall Fair, I thought I would see if my Williamsburg girls wanted to come with me for a day. Well, of course they did!

The weather this past Saturday was absolutely perfect for a day at the Fall Fair - sunny and not cold nor too warm.

We had a wonderful time going through several of the homes and buildings, had lunch on the grass outside the cheese factory, had a barge ride and a carriage ride, the girls played games and Naomi won the sack race, looked at the items and animals entered in the fair, had some really creamy, delicious, to die for, yummy fudge, came home with brooms and unspun wool, played in the telegraph tower, and, yes, we looked at the quilts. We saw one with horses on it, one with Dora, one that was all shades of purple, one with pictures of Snoopy, and many more. This Oma is wanting to get set up for quilting!!

We also came home with Village bread, of course. But I wasted an hour waiting for it to arrive in the store from the bakery. It was supposed to arrive any time after 2:30, but didn't arrive until 3:30. Lesson learned: no bread available, buy the flour instead!

Here are the photos that were captured (and I remembered why I didn't like the little camera when the batteries died after the 3rd photo!).

Naomi and Petra had fun using the pump for the water trough at the Louck Farm, but Rachel was more interested in getting her hands wet!At the schoolhouse, the girls learned about school days and how much it would cost to go to school, where to find a quill for writing (in the barnyard!), and how important it was to have a pocket knife with you (to sharpen the quill!). Writing letters and numbers wasn't easy, as the girls discovered. Both the chalk and the slateboards were quite different than today's chalk and chalkboards. Naomi managed well enough, but Petra showed frustration. Rachel, on the other hand, was quite pleased to be able to make a few marks on her slate!

All in all, we had a great day, and when I asked Naomi what her favourite part was, she replied "It was ALL good!" Petra simply nodded her head at everything we mentioned, so I guess it was all good for her, too.

Since the Village is one of my favourite places, I think we'll have to go more often - because it's ALL GOOD!