Back from beyond


It's amazing how much can happen in such a short amount of time. On the other side of the Atlantic, soccer teams are fixed on becoming World Cup Champions. Over here, I'm fixed on keeping my life together. As part of that project I packed up the two kids and headed down the highway to my sister's in Toronto. My boys got to play with their three cousins. They all laughed and had fun - birthday party for Abigail who's four now, trips to the park, fun in the front yard waiting for the ice cream truck. The stuff of everyday life with children. Right now this is particularly precious.

This is Liam playing with Patrick, his senior by 6 weeks. It was a full time job for one of us three adults to manage these two as they practiced climbing the stairs, climbing the furniture, climbing on the trikes, wagons and cars outside! Much fun.

After Toronto came North Bay and my Mom and Dad, otherwise know as Nana and Popa. Eamon liked going to the lake to feed sand and stones and sticks to the water.
I snuck away to the cottage BY MYSELF - yes that's right, no kids, no phone. Only a teeny tiny television for game 5 of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was what I needed. I never thought time would carry a different weight when I became a parent. Two and a half days alone was luxurious and so very necessary. I had the time and the space to read, pray, cry, write and center myself.
Yes, I knit too. But not my world cup project, oh no. What was in my knitting bag?

Everything BUT the pattern. SO I cast on a baby kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting and kept on knitting.
We need this time to ourselves so deperately as moms, especially moms of very young kids. WHy is it so hard to claim it for ourselves? And so hard to negotiate. I'll leave you with a few shots of the beauty of my family cottage. There's nowhere else I feel as at home as here in this simple place.