Happy Easter

Sunday is the big day when Jesus rose from his tomb and met Mary on the road - alive!! Can you imagine how she felt?  How fortunate I feel that I have Jesus in my life.  There is a hymn called "What a Friend We Have in Jesus".  It is a familiar one and it sort of falls into the same category as "Jesus Loves Me" and "All Things Bright and Beautiful", but the other day we sang it in church and I really heard the lyrics and the second line is "What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer".  I'm not someone who believes that God will solve my problem for me, but it is nice to share the burden, to put everything to Him so He can walk with me, or more often I am asking Him to walk with others who need some extra care. Because He sent his son Jesus to live on Earth, He gets it, He understands suffering.  As we celebrate Easter, we will certainly be enjoying a few chocolate eggs, but it is also a great time to remember the core beliefs of Christians. 

Regardless of whether you are celebrating the Risen Christ, or just a visit from the Easter Bunny, Happy Easter to you!  I hope you have some nice time with family and that you'll see the sun wherever you are.

See you back here on Tuesday after our long weekend. 

Why I...love travelling in Europe

I was reminded this week, after seeing Notre Dame in flames, how much I love visiting Europe.  We have been lucky to visit Italy, Switzerland, France, England, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal (with an airport stop in Germany if that counts!).  Europe will always be my ultimate destination, I feel comfortable there, even though the language may be different.  It is close enough to home (Starbucks anyone) but is another world.

One of the things I especially appreciate is the history, mostly often captured in churches we have visited.  I know the Catholic Church (and the Protestants for that matter) have a sordid past but I do truly love to step into a church and feel the spirits of the people who have been there before.  I imagine the people, some famous, some not, that have walked up those same aisles, who have prayed for things I could never imagine, and have dedicated their lives to the service of God, either as a priest, nun, or architect (think Gaudí). Those people believed in a higher calling and the church is an extension of that.  Those churches are sacred places and although they made of just stone and wood, they have stood by and have witnessed decades and centuries.  We take them for granted, but when one of them is burning down, like on Monday, it really does put into perspective what has happened before.  Napoleon, for goodness sake, had his coronation at Notre Dame, Napoleon!

St. Peter's Basilica - Vatican City

We were here first thing in the morning - the light coming through the windows, the faint singing coming from another room, so peaceful 

Notre Dame in 2009

Sagrada Familia - Gaudí walked down these stairs

And it's not just churches, when we walked through the streets of Venice and attended the Vivaldi concert, I could imagine Vivaldi himself scurrying through those same streets to get to a performance.  Or thinking of Princess Diana walking up the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral for her wedding.  Or Irish peasants being held in the courtyard of Dublin Castle by the English.

Having really only seen a handful of these historic buildings and sites, it makes me want to book another European holiday right now! Scotland where my grandfather was stationed during the war?  Istanbul (not Constantinople)? Germany?

Weekend Recap

Q had a short day at school on Friday afternoon, he was sent home for having pinkeye.  Dave looked after him all morning and then I came home in the early afternoon to take Q to the doctor.  Shockingly (!) there was no pinkeye, just some conjunctivitis and no prescription required.  So we walked to the library and headed over to get E early from school.  We had some yummy chicken tacos and then Q made us some "food" from his stash of plastic food and pots and pans. 

For movie night we watched Peter Rabbit and it was really good!  I didn't know anything about it but it was super cute and funny and has one of my favourite actors, Domhnall Gleeson.  Then Dave and I watched the second last episode of Game of Thrones to remind ourselves what is going on.

On Saturday morning we were all up bright and early to enjoy the warn sunny day.  I want to my barre class and then we all went to pick up the Volvo that was still at the dealership after being repaired last week.  I left Dave and E there to drive it home and to go get a haircut for E.  Q and I drove away to go to Costco.  He was not thrilled to leave Dad behind and cried most of the way, but he was all smiles when we got to the gas line. 

After lunch I went for a walk to pick up a few things, and then made muffins for a friend who just had a baby.  E was at our neighbours' house and Q and I went over to get him to walk down to the river but then just ended up there for all of the kids to play in the backyard.  It was so nice!

We finished up our day with some golf, Raptors, Leafs, and last episode of Game of Thrones. 

On Sunday morning we woke up to some dreary weather, so unlike the day before.  I took a few photos of our Easter decorations and then E and I got ready to go to church.  

In exploring the downtown area in Google Maps the other day, I came across the Metropolitan United Church on Queen St. E.  It has a very rich history and also features a Casavant organ (for you Heritage Moment fans) so I thought it would be neat to attend a service on day.  E starts t-ball soon so our window of opportunity was closing for this and I decided we should go for Palm Sunday.  

Beautiful!

After the services we headed over to the Skydome to meet Dave and Q for the Blue Jays game.  We walked right by my building so I took E upstairs to show him my office. 

Ready for the game to start!

Q had a great time and loved the popcorn!

Lots of stuff for the kids on Jr. Jays Opening Day!

Then we joined the line for running the bases, which took forever, but was ultimately fine. 

Taking the field.

And they're off!

It was about halfway to 2nd base when Q realized we were not with him so he stopped and I had to go out and run the bases with him.  I made sure to touch home plate and I almost got emotional when I thought that I touched the same place Joe Carter did in 1993. I know they have probably changed the actual home plate since then, but you know what I mean!

Then we got the UP home to Dundas West Station, and how convenient, there is a McDonalds there so we got Happy Meals for the boys' supper.

Hi Choo Choo!

Phew! We made it home in one piece, got warmed up, ate our suppers (chili for Dave and me), got the kids in bed early, and settled in to watch the recorded golf and Game of Thrones.  We knew Tiger had won but wanted to see him play the last few holes and watch him win.  I have never been a real Tiger fan, but since last year I have enjoyed seeing him do well.  He used to just expect to win and be kind of a dick about it, but you could see pure joy on his face on Sunday. 

Easter Decorations

Sort of like Christmas this past year, I didn't really get into the spirit of Easter until later on.  It sort of crept up on me even though it was late this year.  And also since we will be going away for the Easter weekend I didn't really feel like putting many decorations up.  I almost considered not putting any up at all, and I didn't do our Easter tree, but I'm glad I did a few. 

Our Ukrainian eggs in honour of our neighbourhood, and because we like them.

They are in the window along with the little bean plant that E is growing.

Just a few eggs on the mantle along with the cards that Mom sent us last year; I kept them because they are so pretty and handmade.

He is Risen!

E made this chick in SK a couple of years ago and I asked him if I should put it out and he said of course!

This was a card that I think my aunt sent to us a few years ago, but it still makes an appearance.  E likes to rearrange his ears, arms and legs.

This is Holy Week which is a solemn time, so perhaps my sparse decorations are fitting.  The real Easter season starts on Sunday when He is risen.  It's honestly my favourite day of the year!

Friday Favourites

On Tuesday night I went to watch another episode of Queer Eye and was devastated to find out I had already watched them all :(  Oh well, I'll just have to watch them again.  Three things I really liked about this last season (that maybe were present in the previous seasons but I didn't notice):

1) They say pick a style icon but then just use it for inspiration, not to copy them exactly - be your own person. 

2) They don't just cut all of the men's hair off or shave off all of the beards.  They just tidy it up but keep some of the same look since that is who the person is. 

3) They don't do a big reveal and side by side of a before and after.  We all get it that the person looks different, we don't need to make a bit spectacle of them. Respect.

The boys wore their new pink shirts for Pink Shirt Day.  Q wasn't interested in getting his pictures taken. 

I made a point of going for a short walk at lunch everyday this week and on Wednesday I went past the St. Lawrence Market.  

I made some new recipes this week from Anna's website. I follow her on Instagram and am always so inspired by her cooking, she makes it look so easy and delicious.  Although my meal didn't seem to be as easy to execute, but it was delicious.  These are the leftovers for my lunch - kale, lentils, sweet potatoes, chick pea crepes, and avocado. 

I bought this cream to have in my office.  The Body Shop always has nice things but I picked this one out because the fragrance is nice but not too strong.  

Busy sports weekend - Leafs, Raptors, Jays, Masters, Game of Thrones!!

Linking up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci on Friday Favourites.

Three Things

Three things going on with each of us at the moment:

Q

1. Q is moving up to the preschool room at daycare.  He has been transitioning to the "big" room this month and his teachers say he loves it.  We are meeting with his new teachers tonight and see his new room.  I think he is closer to potty training and with most of the kids using the potty in his new room, I'm sure that will be extra motivation.

2. He is getting more talkative and figuring stuff out.  He likes those mini pitas to snack on and the other day he went to get one and we were out, so he told me I needed to get groceries (not in so many words but that's what he meant).  Then when I mentioned I was going to get groceries, he hollered out from the other room to get pitas (again not in so many words, but he definitely made the connection between groceries and picking up what he wanted).

3.  He likes to help out in the kitchen and make things using his pretend food and plastic pots and pans.  E always liked to help out in the kitchen too and it keeps them distracted even when they are hungry.

 E

1. E's reading in both French and English has definitely improved over the past few weeks.  We have access to the Raz Kids app on the iPad and I try to read 3 French books with him most weeknights and some on the weekends.  He does the English ones with Dave.

2.  He is Mary Poppins fan, he even sings the new songs.  The best is when he sings "A British bank is run with precision; a British home requires nothing less".  He also likes the part when Mrs. Banks says "George, the children are missing" during Mr. Banks' song, and he just waves her away with a "Splendid, splendid".  Q will then repeat "splendid".  I encourage you to show the movie to your kids, it ages well.

3. Tball starts up again very soon so he and Dave have been outside throwing the ball around.  E wants to play in the infield so he's practicing catching pop-ups. 

Dave

1. Dave is a Harvard graduate!  Well he's a Harvard Certificate holder.  His work sent him down there last week to attend a business leadership course.  He found it really interesting and said it was cool to be on the campus, like we have seen in so many movies.

2. He has been playing basketball every couple of weeks and loves it.  He has always been a basketball fan but got out of playing for the last few years. 

3. He is excited about the Masters getting underway today.  It is like the official start of Spring, will be neat to see who takes an early lead this year. 

Me

1. Now that I get to read twice a day for about 30 minutes each time, I feel like I spend my weekend time differently, like doing more things around the house, having a nap (!), or watching TV with the kids without having my book open. 

2. I'm doing pretty well at getting lunches packed in the evenings (at least this week I am!).  It helps so much to not be rushing around in the mornings.

3. I love being downtown for work and going for walks at lunchtime, to do some errands, get lunch or a coffee, or just explore what is out there. I haven't even ventured down to the lake yet but I will when the weather warms up.