A Getaway /a Birthday surprise /a Puke party @Tofino!

Tofino is a small district on Vancouver Island, off Canada’s west coast. It sprawls on a peninsula within Clayoquot Sound, characterized by wild natural scenery including lakes, inlets and ancient rainforest. Sandy beaches with year-round surfing facilities include Cox Bay, Chesterman Beach and popular Long Beach, part of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. The relaxed town of Tofino sits on the peninsula’s tip. (Google source)

In case you’re wondering what that title was, please, follow us through the pictures. They will tell you about our family’s very interesting 3 days getaway in Tofino, enjoy!

On our way, we stopped at Cathedral Grove MacMillan Provincial Park, where you can admire majestic old trees.

Then we suddenly went back in winter… SNOW

We just had to stop to this unreal scenery!

Snow is way more fun in spring, eh?

The next day, March 15, for our twin girls birthday, we went to Long Beach

 

As their birthday present, we went Whale watching!!

We were very excited…

…until we hit big waves.. like gigantic waves… and the boat started going up and down…

The excitement went down and we all took turn puking… yikes…

But, we all agreed that it was safe on dry land…

and it was the best family getaway so far!

We are looking forward to another adventure without the puke part!

 

Now, the best and craziest part was that we saw 4 grey whales!! But we were too busy puking… so we ended up not taking pictures. In our family, we have FUN together, we STICK together and we PUKE together!! 😉

 

 

 

 

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Sunshine where are you?

Today, it’s snowing AGAIN on Vancouver Island! Not that I don’t like that, I love watching the snow flakes falling from my living room windows.
Well, this is what worries me…

Enjoy your day: snowy, sunshiny, cloudy, rainy…

Mine is going to be white!

 

 

 

 

A Picture of PEACE

Today, the sun is brightly shining, six adorable kids are running, screaming in the house and playing football outside. My husband is on call (work) but is home and able to help around cleaning the garage. Life is great right? But, you know what, I feel agitated… The reason? Dear friends are in the hospital right now fighting with their 16 years old boy recently diagnosed with Leukemia…

“The story is told of a kind who held a contest to find the perfect painting of peace. Extraordinary works of art were entered, but the winning painting depicted a raging storm on a mountainside. Lodged in a crevice, a mother bird sat on her nest, protecting her young.” What is wrong with this king? Where is peace in that picture?

Oh wait, such a picture of peace resembles the one I read in my Bible: Mark 4:35-41. The disciples and Jesus were in a boat on the sea of Galilee. Jesus was sleeping when a wild storm came up. As the waves broke over the boat, threatening to sink it, the disciples cried in terror to their sleeping Teacher, “don’t you care if we drown?” At this, Jesus got up, rebuked the wind and the waves and questioned the disciples. Did they have no faith?

Well, my agitation, the raging storm our dear friends and their son are going through, the king incomprehensible choice have their meaning in Jesus response to the storm and his question to the disciples:

Peace is Jesus asleep in a boat in the middle of a storm.

Peace is a calm trust in God in the midst of irritation rather than its absence.

Convinced of God’s control over every detail of our lives, PEACE is the presence of FAITH even when the world around us screams that there is no reason to believe!

PS: This is going to be a long journey for our friends and their boy, If you would like to know more and would like to help, here is the link to the page https://www.youcaring.com/lucas-neudorf-and-his-family-496036

God bless you!

 

 

“I’m SORRY”

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The words escape from our lips and slice, like a sword, at your spouse and your kids heart or a friend… Our temper flares and now our dear one is hunkered down hurt or/and in tears. Someone acts irresponsibly, (who doesn’t…), and we berate rather than carefully correct. Love requires apologies.

Apologies tie up the loose ends left by misunderstandings. They finish unfinished business. And they offer an opportunity for healing. Three words reach out across an abyss and build a bridge: “I am sorry.”

Love means taking the responsibility for our errors and admitting them, first to ourselves, then to God, and then to the one we’ve wronged. No, an apology may not magically make it all better. But it is a beginning.

And all who are committed to loving relationships take the step that begins healing. And then they take the next, and the next, and the next…

 

 

The ExTrA in the Ordinary

Believe me or not, it’s been a year now I’m trying to find  a job in teaching (my passion): a paid position or as volunteer. Now, believe me or not, it seems like all the doors stay closed, a very complicated paper work vicious circle…!

What on earth would someone with 4 kids and a lot to do at home be so desperate to find an extra work? Well, I guess my life was becoming too ORDINARY and needed an EXTRA…! Can you think of a place where life is more ordinary than home? Come on, I am not talking about those extra things you do to make your home vibrant.

What about the ordinary stuff like, cleaning, vacuuming, laundries, cooking every day, eating familiar food and discussing routine subjects. As we complete one stack of dishes, another one piles up. Each week we return to music lessons, Cheerleading, football training, help with homework and wash mounds of clothes (in our case, for 6 people) and realizing it is the same clothes I washed just the week or the day before: ordinary life!

As monotonous as such everyday patterns can be, I realize there is an upside to their repetition. A predictable, you-can-count-on it home life provides security that can carry us through even the most difficult days.

It is comforting to hear my husband saying how thankful and bless he is to know that he can be away for days for his work knowing and trusting that the house will be taken good care of (he is away right now for his work.) It is good to know that the kids will come through the door about 3:30 pm for the girls and 4:10 for the boys with that joyful look in their eyes, they thrive when they know their mom will be there, ready to help handle the day’s events. Not to mention hugs and compliments they give me when they find a clean house and their favorite snack ready…

Finally, my friends, finding the EXTRA in the ORDINARY at home means looking beneath the boring surface of the mundane and discovering that it’s a blessing to be a stay home mom for my dear and love ones!

Now, if this doesn’t apply to you but you somehow complain about any monotonous, boring or ordinary situation you’re in, may be there’s something to take here!

As for me, I choose to enjoying my EXTRAORDINARY home life, not every mom have that chance!