Dancing ballerina

If you told me 10 yrs ago I will wake up at 4:30 am, struggle to put false eyelashes on my little girl, know what a bun builder is and tear up every time she goes on stage, I would have laughed and walked away thinking you are crazy. 

A dance mom - no way! 

Isn't it funny how our lives turn out? We end up doing so much of the things we vowed we'll never do. We just don't know until we are in that spot and have to make the decision... stay at home vs going back to work...send them on the bus for hours or homeschool for a while. Decisions so easily made before we had kids, and now that we've loved them and held them and know what brings them joy all those heavy labels and stereo types fly out the window and the decisions are based solely on them.

It doesn't matter anymore what other people think, it matters what our children think - who they want to be - how they want to live their life. And so we go out in this world and introduce ourselves as a homeschooler - a dance mom -  or whatever other labels we would've never chosen for ourselves... and we see the judgy looks and we hear the criticism and fear filled thoughts - but somehow we persevere and move on. A little stronger each time in our decision to do what works for our family...

So for now, I'll squeeze my way into crowded dressing rooms, and glue rhinestones to her cheeks...why?...because she LOVES it... and I love her...

And after all the busyness I am happy to have her with me, as we paint ballerinas and dye our old stained clothes and fresh new blue. 

Easter

                         AMAZING LOVE

                            BROKEN FOR US

SOURCE

SO WE CAN HAVE NEW LIFE WITH HIM

Slowly

Life has been busy...and looking at the calender all tired like,  I realize it has been full of GOOD things!  

Family, friends, weekend getaways, and so forth.  Yet my inside is yearning for a slow day, where we follow our inner clocks rather than the outside world's. Where we create to the sound of birds and icicles melting, where we meander at a snail's pace to the playground, and don't have a single 'to do' hurrying us along. Taking time to notice the fuzzy buds appearing on trees, enjoying a good ol' puddle jump. Oh there is beauty in slowing things down, that's for sure.

Here is wishing you peaceful Easter full of quiet moments and lots of rest,

And if you have a minute you can hop on over to this beautiful dress shop SundayBrunchDress - where my art is being featured this month.

Enjoy the rest of your week friends,

Wilme

New Year's resolution

 As the New Year is here our minds are filled with things we'd like to get and things we'd like to do this year.

 It can be exciting, this fresh start with a blank calender to fill with beautiful new memories. But it can also be daunting. Are we on the right track? Are we doing enough? What are we here for?  



I came across this just as these big questions were left unanswered. 

What if we are here to share? 

I don't know how many times I tell my kids this in a day "In this house we share" as they fight over a favourite toy. 

What if this lesson is what we as adults need to hear even more.

Most of us are richer than 92% of the world, even if it sometimes doesn't feel like that when the bills come in the money goes out. 

We are extremely blessed! 

And it all happened by chance. How easily we could've been born into a different family or a different country... 

So along with all the plans for the year, Giving Generously and Sharing our abundance and gifts tops the list. 

I think if we accomplish just this one goal, it will be a very good year indeed :)

Robin's egg blue

Finding this nest abandoned after a storm...

...it struck me that God could have made these a plain brown colour like He did for most other birds, but instead He chose this beautiful blue for no other reason than to inspire us with its beauty 

Facts about robin's egg blue

 - Crayola crayon named after it

- Traditional porch ceiling colour 

- Tiffany & co trademark colour

 And for a true visual treat click here - Robin's egg blue everywhere :)

Winter Blues

It is about this time of year when I go slightly batty

When I've endured (and enjoyed) 3 months of winter

and I know I still have 2 months to go

It is about his time of year when I go to bed, close my eyes and images of  ocean waves flash across my retina

when I flex my toes and feel soft silky sand between

When I start chasing the sun from livingroom to kitchen floor

The truth is some days are worse than others

Some days I wake up crying and loose myself completely

Some days I start researching Seasonal Affective Disorder and cheap plane tickets to get me out of here

Some days my mind gets fuzzy my speech slurs and my dreams disappear with the grey haze outside

Some days are worse than others.

But then that sun peaks through and warms my eyelids closed

I see the fuzz poking out and the green shooting up indoors

I spot another bird returning home

I go for a walk

I cling to the words "He will lead me by GREEN pastures, he will give me rest" 

I cover canvas with colour

I pick up the phone and reach out, I laugh with a friend and gather to stitch

I buy big bouquets of the cheapest flowers and walk the malls simply to touch the spring fabrics

And I hold on, take deep breaths and walk one step at a time through this season in my life

I once heard that the settlers of this area would enter their sod houses come winter, hunker down and exit crazy as loons -

I can totally relate, but thankfully I have a car, I have furnace, I can eat a kumquat and smell a nectarine when it is -40C outside

I have a lot to be thankful for

And in two months I can celebrate SPRING!

Treasure Hunt - Black and white

My walks lately has become somewhat dreary - as you can see. At one quick glance it all looks pretty much brown. So I decided to challenge myself.

Once a week I will go for a walk chasing colour. I'll pick a colour before heading outdoors and find patterns and interesting objects that catch my eye. 

This week it was black and white, next week will be red.

                   "Cold Toes"
                     Acrylic

At the end of my treasure hunt I found a package in the mail - all the way from Turkey!
The stamp was so cool I had to use it.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend :)

Finding beauty in winter

To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.  ~George Santayana

 For most of my life I have seen winter as something to endure, a season to survive through and get out the other side in one piece. 
During blizards I'd spend my nights searching out exotic places,coming up with wild schemes to get us out of here to somewhere warm preferably with a beautiful ocean.

So much for being thankful for what I have, content,
living in the moment...

But after 18 years I believe I finally found the trick to not only survive through this cold and white season. What I discovered is actually helping me enjoy it, marvel at it and dare I say - fall in love with it just a little


The trick is this...

 When the sun shines, drop all things, put on your long johns and get outside

 Look closely, really closely
Between all the white and what might seem as dead bushes and plants

There is beauty and colour and texture.
There is a daily dose of inspiration
right there in my own backyard.

Thanksgiving

211.Juicy Saskatoons

212.Fresh towels

213.Paper, paper, paper

214.Shimmering water outside my doorstep

I've been reading the most amazing book - 1000 gifts by Ann Voskamp. The challenge is to write down 1000  things we are thankful for, since it is only in these moments that joy can be found. 

Being a dreamer, a planner, a future type thinker - this has been quite a challenge!

To stay in the moment, to be thankful at all times (even the sad stuff), to enjoy where you are right now. 

It has been tough but oh so good!


Hope you find lots of little gifts to be thankful for today:)

 

Crazy canola

The sun set and made its bed

in this prairie town

enflaming the fields

in its yellow gown

            wilme

Goodsoil

Goodsoil Saskatchewan: a sleepy town, a dreamy town , a jewel of a town. 

A place where children still run free, where the community is strong, where the land is untouched. 

       

We pulled our 1970s trailer to a family friend's farm and immediately started bumping into people we knew. People so pivotal to who we are today. Old friends, old flames. All grown up with families of their own now. 

Being back I could feel my age, and surprisingly it made me so sad. I longingly missed my youth. All that possibility, all those adventures, all that freedom. I missed myself at that age, I missed my friends. Every building and tree had a different memory attached. The emotions so vivid. 

Because after all :

It is here where my feet touched Canadian soil at the age of 14

It is here where I learned how to speak English...and how to smile when I didn't understand a word they are saying

It is here where I felt peer pressure, came up with crazy ideas, tried to fit in and failed miserably

It is here where I tried on different identities -cowgirl -skater and in the end chose -just me

 

It is here where I drove my first car - a beautiful blue sunrunner dubbed "Putzy"

It is here where adventure took the form of bushriding and kneeboarding, 

                   to see what we can see, 

never knowing what is around the corner

     

It is here where I had my first crush, my first butterflies, my first kiss 

                                                                                             and ...my first heart break...se la vie

It is here where walking the streets, climbing the water tower and breaking ice on ditches was considered a very successful day

It is here where I made beautiful friends and gorgeous memories

It is here where my thoughts are today...and although grieving my youth a bit, I'm so thankful that I could spend my youth in this tiny town




          

milky way

The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

 I can not ask a flower to bloom in winter, nor pick fruit in spring
 And yet I expect my ideas fruit to bring

I am not the potter, I am the clay
I have to let Him have His way

A season for everything under the sun
and so it is with me as a mom

I'll wait, I'll sit at His feet all day
and let Him tell me his timing,  His way

No longer force a change before it's date
Rather enjoy my lot, live and wait...
                                              Wilme

(this video is stunningly beautiful and reminded me that for everything there is a season, and I don't have to hurry things along. It will happen when it is suppose to happen, because God who created everything in perfect timing, also created me, and has a perfectly timed out plan for me. So I can sit back and relax and enjoy all He has given me right now. And when change is due, it will come. It will be good. But I will miss this stage so I don't want to rush this stage away for the next best thing. I want to doddle in this stage. To lull around. 
To simply be... a mom)

Dandelion

To Me : : It is a chore, an eyesore, something to get rid off in order to see the beauty in our yard - a weed

To Her :: It is a meadow fit for a princess skipping about, picking bundles of glorious yellow flowers, only to hide them behind her back and say -  "I got a surprise for you mommy" (She can do this over and over all day)

To Her :: It is fuzz balls to blow, chase and play with. The oohs and aaahs when a dandelion is in seed are endless.

To Her :: It is beautiful 

and so I too decided to put on her innocent 4 year old glasses, and see for myself. 

It truly is beautiful. Round middle, spiky interior, fuzzy top. Each little seed being planted with such a dramatic flight. 

paris decals

I for one will consider myself very lucky to live in a meadow full with such beauty... and while everyone else is trying to get rid of them, I will pick them, blow on them and make a wish

bleeding heart

A couple of weeks ago I felt a lot like this bleeding heart, dripping my sadness and frustration everywhere I went. There was nothing to blame -

             no crisis
                 no sleepless night,

simply a sad feeling inside...

                                                                          a feeling of not being
 
                                  good enough.

Not a good enough mom,

            not a good enough wife,

  not a good enough friend, sister, daughter, artist... and the list went on and on and on

I looked around and all I saw was everyone being better than me, doing more than me,having way more success than me - looking like they have it ALL together. My self worth was being measured by what everyone else is up to and how I compare to that. How fast they lost the baby weight, how quickly their blogs became a success, how well behaved their children are.

And there I was, a house terribly messy, children throwing tantrums left and right, baby weight stuck (even though it's been a year!), a blog and shop in it's beginning stages that simply doesn't even compare to the beautiful ones out there...

           and I started feeling hopeless and 

                   sad and pretty much like my

                       heart was aching....

BUT you know the neat thing about this plant.

It is a fighter! 

For three years it came up and died right away because the bed it was planted in was too HOT,

                     the environment too harsh.

And yet every year it came back and tried to grow again. It wasn't until I replanted it into nourishing soil with a shady protection that it started to flourish.

And so I can look elsewhere for my worthiness and plant my roots somewhere nourishing and rest my head somewhere protected. Instead of looking around me to see if I'm good enough, I'll start looking above me, to my God in heaven. 

A God who decided to create me, flaws and all.

A God who doesn't make mistakes

A God that knits us together in our mother's wombs

A God that loves us with a love that can't be measured, before we even love HIM

A God that gave each one of us a unique set of talents and gifts to enjoy here on earth

A God that says I'm good enough,

                                                           fearlessly and wonderfully made.

And if a God who created everything says that about us, who are we to argue!