Summer Closes

Wonder,  August just soared on through our lives.  Now I stand in the midst of the fall feasts of YHVH and look back.

I attended four beautiful, inspirational and educational births in August. I am so blessed by the families who share these transitions with me. I have also completed my expansion of Birth Rhythms to include 9 other doulas and new class offerings.  They are all busy.  My plan is working. In 3 years I can fully turn my attention to midwifery, and know that the doula services in Saskatoon are top notch!  The doulas are the true grassroots of any birth movement.  They inspire the mothers and support the midwives.

On the home front Mason was working nights for 3 weeks, shifted to days for 3 days and then admitted that he doesn't see his future at Tim Horton's....he is looking for work again and considering some post-secondary ed. Mason and Katherine are beginning Childbirth Education classes and Kat is finishing some high school before the baby comes in January. The 'bean' as we call her, is growing beautifully.  Her mamma's roundness gives her away now.  No, we don't KNOW it is a girl...but we FEEL her. 

Parker Turned 15! and is doing his grade ten 50% at Marion Graham and 50% at home.  It has been really nice to have him back for a part of each day.  The teen years fly by faster than the toddler ones I am learning. Why do they not write this in BOLD letters in every parenting book ? Hmmm?  It is really alot harder to hug a sweaty teen while they cry themselves to sleep about a wounding of the heart that they cannot fully explain to you. Not unlike a two year old without the vocabulary to explain a bladder infection; parents sometimes have to wait for the OBVIOUS signs of infection before we can be of any help.  It is excruciating, for everyone involved.  By then we know it has been festering for a while.....we can look back and say, "Oh, that's why he was acting that way for the last couple days..."

Ethan has been so fun to watch mature.  He is often mistaken as the one who isn't listening in this family....but just as soon as he fades into the background of a conversation, with everyone almost forgetting that he is even at the table, he whips out the most succinct and FUNNY comments!  Truly too many too mention lately.  Not only is he listening, he understands the implications of what he hears, the nuances do not slip by him.  I like that about him. We are going to have cool conversations as he ages.

Liam on the other hand has become the resident set of Radar Ears!  Our Information Aquisiton Specialist.Who needs Google? Need to know someone's schedule?  Ask Liam.  Can't remember where you left your keys? Liam saw them.  Who called? Liam didn't take the call but he listened in from the hallway, so he can FILL YOU IN!  Need to know which of your children is lying? Exaggerrating? Farting? ASK LIAM. This kid knows what the neighbours had for breakfast!

Matthew Laing has rejoined our family for a time...he turns 17 this month and we have been lucky enough to know him since he was 7.  Please keep him and his mother, Teresa, in your prayers, as she battles cancer and he deals with his own demons.  We love this boy deeply, and he is really going through some tough times.

Brad had the first week of August off and again has this week off.  I love having him around the house.  After 14 years we still just really like to hang out together.  No big holiday agendas. Just a few late nights....and lengthened mornings. Sigh.

We had  wanted to get away as a family, but Mason's work, Parker's school and the carehome aspect of life just did not allow it this summer.  We see that part of our lives coming to a close, the carehome I mean.  It would be good to have more privacy as the boys are older.  They need us more now than ever, and parenting in public 24/7 can be exhausting.

We spent Yom Terah, Biblical feast of Trumpets, with our good friends Kent and Lorraine Regier and their children.  It also happened to be the fifth anniversary of the death of Kent's first wife Joanne.  Though I only knew her for a short time (2 years), she will be in my heart always.  I see her in her children, as they blossom under the love of their "second mom" as they call her. I hear her in their laughter, in their funny plans, and wildly creative endeavours.  I love those kids. They are the best friends my own children have. Friends in Life and in Faith. We are grateful for the Regiers.

Transitions and negotiations seems to have been the theme of this summer.  You will have to read my other blogs to hear the birth stories of the families I served. It always amazes me how much they can mirror my own life back to me...

I continue on my new food and healthy eating endeavours along withg my mother, but I feel a deeper shift. A lightening at the same time as a deepening and it ain't all about the sassy short hair either!  I like it. Just like new jeans that feel as though you have been wearing them for years. 40 just feels right.