So long, sweet blog!

Dear friends and family - it's time for me to say farewell to my beloved parenting blog. I have written in this space for the past NINE years, and it has been such a source of joy for me to share my parenting adventures with my friends and family. I have loved being able to show my photos, tell stories and keep my precious memories all in one place. I have found however, that I just don't have the time to regularly write posts anymore, so I'm putting the blog to the side - for now. I want to say a huge thank you for all of the wonderful comments from  my readers. I have truly loved this form of communication and my deepest hope is that my boys will one day read it and appreciate it as well. So THANK YOU ALL!!

For now,  one last update from my little family.

Coral is turning into a lap cat!! She's still very skittish, but is slowly getting used to a level of affection!

Caleb turned 9 last month - his last year in single digits! He continues to amaze me each day with his sharp mind, contagious laughter and kind heart. He has earned a new nickname at school which he is incredibly proud of - Mr. Scientific!! He suits him perfectly. He loves Harry Potter, lego, building and designing new things and music, especially noodling around a recording tunes on his keyboard. He literally has spent 40 of the past 48 hours figuring out different versions of 'Crocodile Rock' by Elton John, which is apparently his teacher's favourite song! I tried a few times to turn his attention away from playing that song AGAIN, and asked him to make his Valentine cards for his class. He did a couple, then  went back to the keyboard. At bedtime, he realized he had only made 4 cards and felt terrible that he wasn't going to have cards for everyone the next morning. I thought this was a great learning opporuntity for him, so I said that he had procrastinated all day and now he'd have to wake up an  hour early to finish his cards while Odin and I slept in. It just so happened that Alan had to leave early for the airport the next morning, so he woke Caleb up at 6 and told him to get to work. Alan also started a fire for him before he left, so by the time I got up at 7, Caleb was stretched out in front of the fire, eating a muffin, the cat curled up beside him, looking very relaxed and happy. He had deeply enjoyed his quiet hour to himself and asked if he could do it again another day! So much for my harsh parenting lesson!!

Caleb's 9th bday part crew

Odin is still my strong-willed and stubborn, but so loving and cuddly little boy. He brings so much laughter to our home, and I am very proud of the adventorous person he's becoming.  He is also a hopeless romantic and is managing not one, but two marriages in his pre-primary class! He opened up to me one night before bed in what I hope was our first of many relationship talks. He first asked if you could be married to two people at once. I said no, then he was silent for a bit before saying that he is already married to Gabby but then Tempy also asked him to get married, but he didn't say yes or no. We talked about this a bit - I did encourage not jumping right into marriage at 4 with anyone, but he insisted he really wanted to be married and then he was silent again. I thought he was asleep until it all came out - he DID already say yes to Tempy, so he was already married to two people! It was obviously a real dilemma for him, so we chatted some more then he said - "It's ok, I'll just talk to them about it tomorrow at school - No worries!"  then fell asleep. He's apparently decided to keep both wives judging by the over the top amount of stickers both girls received on their Valentine's cards, while zero stickers were put on the cards for any other classmates!

The other reason I've been neglecting the blog lately is because our sponsored refugee family has arrived in Annapolis Royal! This has been one of the most amazing and rewarding experiences of my life. Anna and her 4 children - Wendy, Kelvin, Philemon and Elsa have become a huge part of our lives. They are settling into their new life, new schools, new home, new community and new culture and they are slowly starting to believe that the winter will pass and the sun and leaves will come again! The boys, who have been part of our sponsorship efforts since the very first meeting 10 months ago, have fallen madly in love with all of the kids, especially Elsa who just turned one. She is so adorably beautiful, sweet and super chill, so the boys often carry her around and shower her with attention. I'm so happy this family has come into our lives and I have no doubt that this will be a lifelong friendship and meaningful relationship for the rest of our lives. I hope the boys have learned compassion, the power of community, kindness and an appreciation for all people and cultures around the world through this process.

Waiting for Anna's arrival at the airport

New friends

That's all for now, folks!

Thank you for the support and for sharing in the ups and downs of my parenting journey so far!! Can't wait to see where we are 9 years from now!

Lots of love to you all, Ashley