{fragments...of life, of me}

so, yes, it's been a while! life has a way of getting in the way of my post-updates! not that i don't have lofty ideas of topics i'd like to chat about. or life goings-on that i'd enjoy sharing. because i do!! i just have yet to master that little thing called "time."

let's just say life has been busy, and i have been trying to take each day as it comes and savour the gift that it is!

while doing this, i have also started training for my 4th half marathon. and as much as i have been savouring this opportunity, feeling blessed that i have the ability to run for 21 seconds, let alone 21 kilometers, i just haven't been too sold on the idea this time around?! once i'm out there i am very glad that i kicked myself in the butt and got out there, but it's never been this challenging before!

i guess if i was really honest with myself, i may have been subconciously looking for an excuse to take a break from running...




but i didn't mean literally!!






so...as i sit here with a newly fragmented ankle (whatever that means) all i want to do is plan my next run! GO figure! at least i got in a little 6k mere minutes before the roll!

So i, smugly, get to sit tomorrow AM in my jammers and sit a huge mug o' coffee! while i try NOT to think about how long it will be before i get back out there to pound the pavement! *sniff*


hey...i guess i can savour this time as an opportunity to update you with more frequent posting?! not making any promises yet! just waiting to see how i feel in the AM!

{chilly chase}

so, we did it! the first run of the season is under my belt! and it felt awesome! despite a daunting forecast of torrential rain, we felt not a drop! and mr.sun even decided to pay us a little visit!!

so, here's a snippet of our day...which may have started by jim asking me, once we got to the race, where i was meeting niki. and i may have had to say that our planning never went as far as to mention anything about meeting on race-day, we just knew we'd both be there...and find each other....right?!

karys by her #

four

avery by her #

two

start time = t-30 seconds and i STILL can't find niki (do i look nervous?)

once i found niki

"where's my coffee??"

and...there you have it! great run...great day...great company!

ps - shout-outs to my other running peeps - Suzy and Cathy - who BOTH fared very well in their 10k and 5k respectively! nice to see you in your lulu gear Suzy!! and Cathy, i had my eye out for ya! sorry to have missed you, but way to go!!

{a matter of the heart}

okay...note to self: must get back into some regular posting here! don't want to lose my 2 readers!

and instead of having a bunch of cutesie pictures of my darlings or some funny story about the happenings of my day, i give you this. something that has been weighing heavy on my heart...a good kind of comfortable weight. you know, how you feel when you crawl into a warm bed on a chilly night and those two blankets apply that perfect amount of weight to surround you? yup, that kind of 'heavy.'

these thoughts have been helping me in my daily mission to savour life's moments, so i thought i'd share them with you...

"Children are a gift from God; they are His reward."

~Psalm 127:3~

and this is an excerpt from our daily devotional by Billy Graham (any emphasis added is my own):

"Today there are more pressures on the home than perhaps at any time in the history of the human race. By necessity or by desire, more women are working today than ever before...many women (and men, too) devote more time to their working life than they do to their family life.

To paraphrase the Bible, what shall it profit a man (or a woman) who gains the whole world but loses his or her own family? What achievement in life is equal to a happy home and rearing successful children who grow up in praise of their parents?

Every material goal even if it is met, will pass away. But the heritage of children is timeless. Someone has said that our children are our messages to the future.

More importantly, our children have been entrusted to us by God. Our primary responsibility is not to make sure they have the best clothes and live in the best house. It is to make sure they grow up in homes where God is present and the love of Christ reigns.

What could be more valuable than successful children and a happy home life?

so, there you have it. what's been occupying my thoughts as of late. it's so anti-society that it feels a bit wrong to find so much encouragement out of this, but i do! when i read this, i know that the desires of my heart are not selfish, but rather "God gifted!" for some reason He has decided to reward me with these two souls...and i will do my best to savour this role!

***

{in a nutshell}

so, i'm not too sure if any of you have noticed that this space is lacking in the documenting-of-the-holidays department?! but...it IS!

and as much as i would love to tell you that this is because i have been slaving away over these past weeks on the perfect "holiday post" - i'd be lying!

nope, no witty red-nosed jingle here. not even a frosty tinsel-themed tune!

just a quick re-cap of our holidays...in a nutshell.

we enjoyed our time and our company.

we savoured our family moments, thus prompting us to choose that word for our theme for 2010.

we started things off after the open-house with our first turkey dinner in our new home! with the support of my mum-in-law we had a great Christmas Eve feast!

{pictures in our Christmas best...or attempts, at least}

my compliant first-born *HA*

and then...there's Avery
{cheese face}

{this chick's got spunk}
click on the picture if you want to see true-two-'tude

seriously?!...take 345!

{the best of the worst...i suppose}

and then there's the two of them!

{2 peas in a pod}

{our beauties}

patiently waiting for Oma and Opa's presents on Christmas Eve

this year we were blessed to have jim's family staying with us while my family lives down the road! we stuck to jim's family tradition of presents on Christmas Eve for the first of the girls' 4 Christmases...that's about 3 too many!

Christmas morning
{aprons in their stockings}

{pretty in pink}

Christmas at Gram's!
#3, but who's counting?!

{Christmas princesses}
...yes that IS the complete set of Disney princesses! Anyone wanna come over and help me look for all their stinkin' shoes??

{a very blessed Christmas}

...hope you made it this far! as is plain to see, we enjoyed an incredible amount of family time!

we are 6 days into this new year...a year filled with promise and hope! i completed my first long run of the new year (16k) and it felt great! now to master the snack-monster (read: me after the girls are in bed!)

we are eagerly embarking on this new year...curious to know what it holds for us - faithful that His plan is perfect.

I choose to...

SAVOUR
{click on this link if you want to take a peek at this wordle...in the non-blurry form}

I sought to find a word. A word that I could carry into this new year. A word that would help me set this fresh start on the right path. I ask God to give me a word that He would like me to practice...to dwell on...to embrace.

**************

"Savour this Christina."

"But we have no idea what's going on right now, Lord."

"These moments...this time in your life...will never be again. Savour this Christina."

"But Jim has been out of work since October...and I don't want to go back to subbing...*sniff*"

"I have a plan for your life...you are able to spend hours, days, weeks together as a family at the moment. Savour this Christina"

**************

Catch the drift?? I took me a while, but I eventually realized, "Oh, I think I am supposed to savour life this year! Oooo, maybe that's my word!"

So, savour I will! 2010 will bring many moments to be savoured, and certainly many moments where I am going to need a gentle smack up-side-the-head reminder to savour those moments as well.

2010 brings along with it many goals, dreams and desires on my part. "Resolutions" is not a term I look to, or use, fondly. So rather than say that I have so-and-so amount of these things and then hate myself in a month...let's be realistic here, in a week for not following through with them, I'll simply let you know that, yes, I have many goals for this promising year ahead. And I look forward to sharing those goals with you as they are achieved!

One day in and things are already looking up...I hauled my butt....er....uh...feet onto the pavement this morning for a very wet and very hilly New Year's day run! Yippeee...

Off I go...to savour my sleep...

ps. and if any of you two know how I can get that "line through the word" font on some of my words, pls share your knowledge...thx:)