putting it all on paper!

I've always liked writing things down.  I wish I had kept kept everything I wrote in the first few decades of my life...but at some time I decided that there was no point in keeping all that 'old stuff'.  I have kept all my calendars from throughout the years...which are also a diary of sorts.

And for many years I kept a 'Five Year Diary'...long on events and facts but short on words and thoughts.  How else would I now know that on July 19, 1999 we picked Pierre and Ute up at the airport in Vancouver?  We were home by 7 pm and had dinner together.  Jeremy and Broni came by to say 'hi'.  We packed up the motor home in the evening.   That means that twelve years ago today we were preparing for our road trip to Alaska with our Swiss friends.  If it wasn't written down...I'd have a hard time even remembering the year...never mind the details.

Here's another entry...June 3, 2001 Had the kids over for lunch.  Heidi and I played tennis in the afternoon and she won. OUCH! 

Some four years ago...I put down my pen and took to journaling on-line.  The idea is the same...the format a little different.  The blog is a little longer on words...and big on photos.  But in reality...My Front Porch is simply a journal of my life.  It is a book...being written one short chapter at a time...for my family, my friends and anyone else who cares to read it. But I have found that my blog no longer contains some of the wee details that were recorded in my five-year diaries.  Details such as what I may have served my guests for dinner.  I was inviting friends over...and then trying in vain to remember what I had cooked for dinner the last time they were our guests.  I finally realized that could only be rectified by writing things down.  So I began a 'hospitality journal' this year..in which I record the menu when we have friends over.

So...if you had borscht and buns last time you visited...I'll be sure to switch it up next time!  I'm liking my new system.

As for those old journals and diaries...I quite enjoy reading the things I recorded long ago.  For the most part...it is trivia.  But it's the little things in life that make up the whole!

And I'm also most delighted to have my father-in-law's writings...some poetry and some simply a record of his early years.  There's just one problem...

...that being that I have no idea what is written on the pages.  It is written in a German script that no one in my world can read.  I plan to find someone to translate it...soon.  He put it all on paper...we won't let that go to waste! 

I'm all in favour of writing things down.  Then it's OK to forget! 

remembering Aunt Kay...

Over the weekend we had a family reunion of sorts...a rather impromptu one. 

We gathered as a family at the cemetery...to bury Aunt Kay.  The weather was seemingly appropriate...

...damp, drizzly and dreary.  Later in the day...we gathered at the church for a memorial service...a time of remembrance.  And what a good time it was!  Aunt Kay would have liked it...that  I know. 

Two years ago...we celebrated Uncle George and Aunt Kay's 60th wedding anniversary.  I pictured them walking down the road into the sunset together...and hoped it would be a long and happy stroll.  In December Aunt Kay learned that she had inoperable cancer...and so she knew her days were numbered.  But she made the most of them!  I last visited her in her home a few months ago...and she was busy making blankets for her first great-grandchild due in July.  Though she had every intention of meeting the new family member...she thought she should complete her projects while she still felt up to it.  The baby is due to arrive any day.  Aunt Kay never got to meet her first great-grand.  Instead she was called home on the spur of the moment...and most of us never had a chance to bid her farewell.    But we know she is in a better place...and one day there will be a family reunion there...unlike any here on earth!  For now...we are left with the memories.

I found an old photo in our archives...of my uncle and aunt taken sometime in the 70's as they toured Europe with my parents. Uncle George and Aunt Kay lived on a farm just down the road from us when I was growing up.  And so I have fond memories of time spent at their place...sleepovers in a tent, building forts on the ditch bank, watching TV in their living room well before we had one at home, and enjoying good food at Aunt Kay's table.  In those days they looked rather like they do in the photo above.

Over these last years, her grandkids were the love her her life.  I often met Aunt Kay at the fabric store...always buying supplies to sew something special for her granddaughters.  She also showered others with her hand-made gifts.  When our twin granddaughters were born almost ten years ago...Aunt Kay made them each a fleece baby blanket.  For some reason those became Emme and Spencer's favorite blankees and they couldn't sleep without them for many years.  The fleece became pilled...the teddy bear pattern faded...but the blankets got better with age (so the girls thought).  They still have their blankees...and when I told their mom that Aunt Kay had passed away she said, "Aw.  I must tell the girls.  They will sleep with their blankees tonight."  

Aunt Kay is gone.  Uncle George now walks alone.  Lynn and John, Pat, Randy and Cindy, and Brenda and Matt will no longer be gathering around the table to enjoy their mom's cooking.  Goeff, Greg, Deb and Gary, Stephanie and Kayanne will miss their grandmother's prayers.  But they all have wonderful memories.

They grieve...but not as those who have no hope!

 

a belated birthday bash....

And a wet one...at that!  We canceled Sunday's planned birthday celebration...when Baby Lucy chose that day to arrive.  We rescheduled for Thursday...yesterday.  How nice that Baby Lucy could be at her Daddy's birthday party!

Not so nice that it rained on our wiener roast! The fire stayed in the pit...the rest of the party got moved to the garage.  A few diehards roasted the meat...the rest of us stayed dry indoors.

Maggie came with her puddle jumper...and was quite happy out in the rain.

We sang happy birthday to the two birthday boys...that would be the two holding the 'cake' and not singing!  (By the way...son #1 is still on crutches after all these months.  Some things can't be fixed overnight!)

As for the cake...you can find the recipe for Nanaimo Bar Ice-Cream Cake over at MGCC today.

No sooner were we done our 'indoor picnic', than the rain let up for a bit.  Soon there was a pile of jackets and boots on the lawn...and then a pile of kids rolling in the wet grass.  Spencer and Auntie Heidi raided the berry patch.  Heidi's were down the hatch in no time...Spencer used hers for decor.

Baby Lucy was cute as a button...and good as gold...and  had a chance to check out many a lap!  She really didn't care that our picnic was inside.

The neighbours always know when we have a family get-together.  One would think we have a very large family...what with all the vehicles on the yard!

Once again...the birthdays have been 'dually' celebrated!  It was a fun time...delayed...rained out...moved indoors and all.  And yes...we still think summer is just around the corner! 

Have a wonderful weekend.