painting instead of printing at Joy School

 

We get to host Joy School this month and have been having a super fun time!  We combined the letter 'Y' with our art.  I put a bunch of random items on the table and different colours of paint. They could use whatever they liked but needed to camouflage a 'Y' somewhere in their art.  They had a blast, I had a blast watching! The most popular items were the pepper, the lasagna noodle and toilet paper roll. Totally need to do it again with different items.

 

~ Mrs. P



puddle jumping



 

We went out walking for Family Home Evening and I loved watching them!!!!!!! We talked about choices and they each got a CTR Choose-The-Right ring from my Primary stash. It was all pretty spontaneous.  It was a lovely evening, we hadn't been outside much sadly and so walking to check the mail on the path behind our house seemed like a good idea. Amelia ended up wearing both CTR rings by the end of the night and I LOVE the picture of her with 'her' rings, so Amelia ha!  I love Stella's little kid hands picking up sticks, splashing in the water. Stella has smiles in most of the pictures from the walk, we need to get out more as a family. There is just a hint of her babyness left in those hands, I kiss them and her cheeks often because she is morphing to a big kid so darn quick.  I can't wait for our yard to be done so we can all enjoy grass.  In the mean time there are just little, sweet things I don't want to forget and they often happen in the unplanned, spontaneous moments. In this case on the path behind our house.

 

~ Mrs. P

 

gratitude for our girls

These girls have our hearts for sure! 
Some sweetness, some sass and some strength. 
We are grateful for them.

These pics were from a day when we had a tea party to attend. Oh my darlings.

We had a scare recently with our big girl.  Her lymph nodes were quite swollen and after a round of antibiotics we went back to her pediatrician.  He sent her for blood work and ultra sound, he wanted it done asap, like that day.  This totally caught me off guard, as we were expecting another round of antibiotics...it was scary.  Our pediatrician said he was concerned, not worried but wanted to check things out.  Goodness, I held it together throughout the day but was pretty worried that night.  What I thought would be a quick appointment turned into a day of appointments at the Stollery.  I must say I am grateful that things happened so quickly, LOVE our pediatrician and trust his judgement.  Grateful to live in a place where it was no cost to me as we had access to a day of services for my girl. Our pediatrician was Jacey's doctor first and we snuck into him because of our cousin, normally you have to get referred in order to see him.   The tests he did came back fine but he referred us to a pediatric surgeon.  We met with the surgeon yesterday and it was fine too, he did an x-ray saying he would only call if he needed to and not to lose any sleep about the lumps. Whew!!!!!!!!!  It has been a relief.  We (I) have been thinking lots these last few weeks of the fragility of live and the privilege it has to have these precious girls as our daughters.  To even have a sliver of fear that there could be something 'not good' going on was scary. Some special things I need to remember about this experience is the power of a priesthood blessing, Graham gave Amelia a blessing and it brought us all some peace and helped give us courage.  Also a few tender mercies occurred on the long day of unexpected testing. I hadn't at all prepared for hours of waiting in labs or for an ultrasound. I had a few pens and papers and one healthy snack.  When we went for blood work there was this young engineering student who started talking to the girls, he worked at the Telus World of Science and asked if the girls wanted to do some origami while we all waited.  He introduced himself to me and shook my hand...made the wait pass quickly.  When we went for the ultrasound Amelia didn't know what to expect, was afraid but everything was ok once the tech introduced herself as Anna, you know like the sister from FROZEN...she quickly won over my big girl. It seemed that we had these tender mercies throughout our day.  I kept it together until after bedtime when both Graham and I shed tears  and said prayers. Again yesterday we said prayers of gratitude and shed tears.

 

some snipping

 

A few months ago when we were at the museum and found these super cool little grass guys.  They came with everything needed, we just had to add water.  Graham did the first hair cut not really understanding that hey, the kids are the ones that get to do the cutting.  So recently when the grass got long enough Amelia got snipping.  It was pretty fun to watch her trim away.

 

 

~ Mrs. P

 



2014 Scripture for the Polischuk Peeps

We decided to pick a scripture each year that our family could use as our motto.

Graham and I wanted to pick a scripture or excerpt that focused on DILIGENCE for 2014.  A kind friend of mine helped me print and cut it out in vinyl.  We plan to ponder our family each year and pick a scripture that will help us set a course, set some motivation to a common goal. When the ladies get older we can choose one as a family.  For family night a while back we put it up in our kitchen, it was fun to talk about it and make it into a little song for us to sing each Monday night.  Funny because we didn't consider that in the phrase we chose two words that needed to be explained ha!  We played charades taking turns acting out different 'labour aka work' that we can be diligent at, it was awesome Amelia totally got into it using her own ideas.  Call it nerdy but I am pumped that we are doing this.  To be united as a family with a common focus each year, yeah - insert fist pump!!!

~ Mrs.P



tender musical memories made

 

There is something super sweet about this scene. 

 It happens almost every time Gramma visits. 

The littles flock to the piano and they flock to her when she plays. 

 

Oh to be blessed with her talent.  Thinking about growing up listening to my mom playing.  Getting to put in requests.  Having her find pieces, arrange pieces for my friends and I to play flute and clarinet to.  Just always having someone to accompany, accompany anything. I can plunk things out from simplified song books, but could never accompany at church or anything like that.  I am hopeful my ladies find a love for music, we're going to do our best to nurture it that is for sure.

 

~ Mrs. P



be in the world but not of the world

The title of this post is a phrase I have always heard, but it has taken new meaning as we think about our little family.  We've been discussing technology and our home, how much, how to monitor and how to teach self control.  I've seriously been asking every family I admire how things roll in their family, hoping to tap into their knowledge. 

 

So one of the big things that has stuck out to me is that this generation of peeps have what it takes to handle the challenge.  They are strong souls and can tackle the challenges in front of them.  Another big thing is to USE technology, don't be afraid of it. The other day Amelia asked me,  "why I didn't like tv?".  Ugh I may need to be a bit more positive in regards to technology.  They do love watching home videos on the computer, Amelia loves taking pictures with the camera and the iPAD and Leapfrog are definitely popular.  Something interesting with my chicks though is that with the handheld stuff, out of sight is often out mind...so we kinda have that going for us. I may have kind of freaked out a bit too much, worrying and stressing, but I like to gather info and then formulate a plan.  Turns out Mr. P and I are mostly cool with how we have been doing things in our home.  I know things will evolve as they get older, especially as Amelia goes off to school next year.  I love having friends who are a little farther along the parental path, they have been a wonderful resource.

It is interesting being a momma you want to protect and smother, let no harm ever come to your littles.  At times that makes me feel like I don't want to let them step out of my reach, goodness I have held them close, want to keep them close. Perhaps part of it is from our years of infertility, waiting for them.  Regardless, while I do loving getting out and being involved in different community programs, letting my littles go out into the world without me is scary.  Really I want to help get my littles ready for life, love 'em and want to help them be ready, to be in the world but not of the world.  I know that my darlings have gifts and talents that they need to share with others, they can be a light in the world. They can be a light in the world.

 

 

Came across these great quotes and wanted to keep them for future reference: 

 

Separating evil from our lives has become even more essential since our homes are wired to bring much of what the Lord has condemned into our own living rooms if we are not vigilant. One of the most difficult challenges in our lives is to be in the world but not of the world (see John 15:19). Gospel doctrine makes it clear that we must live in this world to achieve our eternal destination. We must be tried and tested and found worthy of a greater kingdom (see 2 Nephi 2:11; D&C 101:78).

  

Being a Light to the World

We cannot avoid the world. A cloistered existence is not the answer. In a positive sense, our contribution to the world is part of our challenge and is essential if we are to develop our talents...We inevitably must make choices. If we know the doctrines and principles of the gospel, we can make wise decisions. If our lives are pure, the Spirit will guide us.

~ Quentin L. Cook Of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

  

Elder Ezra Taft Benson said that two principles are essential for security and peace: “First, trust in God; and second, a determination to keep the commandments, to serve the Lord, to do that which is right. … The Lord has made it very clear in the revelations that even though times become perilous, even though we be surrounded by temptation and sin, even though there be a feeling of insecurity, even though men’s hearts may fail them and anxiety fill their souls, if we only trust in God and keep his commandments we need have no fear” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1950, 146).

 
~ Mrs. P 

FROZEN movie party

It seems that the last few weeks we have had almost a weekly gathering of friends and family....
a party a week...

I love it!

Entertaining is a joy for me and I love preparing special/fun things for those who come.  I always wanted to have a home that people could gather at, we try to create a welcome vibe where all are welcome to come in. It is such a pleasure to bring a smile to another's face and have our home be filled with people we care about.   I also love to bring smiles to my ladies faces, so we planned a FROZEN movie party and it rocked!!!!   I think everyone had fun.

The girls and I did a lot of the preparations together. We made up a ton of blue kool-aid and poured some into the plastic popsicle molds we had. We made little goodie bags for our friends using the cute quote from Olaff "I like warm hugs" and Amelia set to work writing everyone's name on them(hahaha printing practice).  We also made snowflakes to decorate with, who doesn't love using scissors?!  I also have a ton of crafting supplies from when I was teaching (teachers buy a lot of their own supplies you know),  I have huge jars of sparkles from those days so we decided to pick up some little treasures from the dollarstore.  We then froze them with silver sparkles in ice cube trays.  We greeted our friends at the door and had them smash the ice cubes to find the hidden treasure. It was awesome!!!!  Again, the smiles that we saw made the effort totally worth it.

 

There were a few highlights at the party but one big one for me was when we had the kiddos form little groups and make toilet paper snowmen with one another.  I had precut the coal buttons and carrot nose.  We asked for volunteers and ended up doing two rounds because most wanted to take a turn.  It was adorable!  They were darling in their efforts to wrap their friend and those who got to be snowmen were tickled.

 

 

I would also say the 'icicle' pops were pretty darn cool too!

When we decided to have a movie party I immediately thought it would be fun to ask our friends to bring laundry baskets and stuffies to watch the movie in.  It is so simple but makes it special.  To see the dozen children all tucked into their laundry baskets, captivated by the fun movie just made me beam.  Again, all worth it!  The adults served them popcornin their laundry basket and I was so impressed that they kept the corn to the 'movie' side of the basement.  They were fabulous!

Fun times!!!

~ Momma P


Sleeping Sweeties

 

This has been the scene at our place the last few weeks.

Last time we went to visit Gramma and Grandpa Hinko's, the girls got to share a bed.   It has been a wonderful help with Little S, shaking up what had become a tough bedtime routine for her.  It is lovely to have them share and have each other at bedtime.  I get them to ask one another, whoever brings it up first and they've taken turns, hoping back and forth every few nights. Usually during teeth and potty is when the plans get made. It is super sweet.  Love them so darn much.

 

~ Mrs. P