Spring Break

It's amazing what just a few degrees latitude can bring you.  It's March break for us here so we visited my parents up at Lake Muskoka this weekend.  On Friday when we left Whitby, it was freezing with a windchill making it feel like -20°C.  Not far along the highway we were met with snowsqualls, highwinds and overall not fun driving conditions. Although Muskoka  had less snow than it normally does it was a bit of a shock to us as we haven't had any significant snow on the ground for a while.  While only a two hour drive north of us it was definitely still winter at my parents.

Spring was definitely in the air on Sunday.  It was bright and sunny and the temperature climbed to 10°C.

There were definite signs of spring.

 With Muskoka being such a big and busy lake you rarely can see reflections in the water.

 This was my view of the sky while lying on the dock. The sun on my face felt like summer.

Back in Whitby it was 16°C and we were greeted by these at our front doorstep.

Spring is definitely coming!

Waiting...

Even Mabel is mesmorized by this wind and snow.  Our front window is one of her favourite places in our house.  She does like to keep tabs on the kids going to school, dogs being walked and cars driving past.  She's our personal neighbourhood watch system - at least for half of the day.  The other half she's occupied sleeping, rolling around the floor and resting up for the next excitement.  So this part kind of defeats the first part.

We haven't had alot of snow yet this year so although this storm blew in hard it's not unwelcome.  It feels right to have snow in January.  I've heard by the weekend we'll be above zero again and rain is in the forecast but we'll just enjoy while it's here.

By mid afternoon Mabel instinctively knows to wait for the girls.  She looks out the window, paces around and sometimes even sits right at the door - so close to the door that you can barely get in.  Mabel is most content when we are all safely home and I have to say so am I.

One more to go.  Dinner is on the stove.  Soon we will be gathered around the table sharing our day with each other.  Sometimes it can be a pretty brief moment as homework needs to be done, hockey played and pirouettes are twirled but it's these moments that are worth waiting for at the end of the day.

Happy New Year!

I'm slowly returning from holiday mode.  My sister and her family left yesterday for the last of our holiday visits.  It was a good holiday with time just for the four of us, as well as hosting Christmas dinner for Alan's family, visiting with my family up at my parent's cottage and sharing some time with friends.  A little bit of everything and a little bit of every kind of food!

I'm just easing back into it though.  The girls aren't going back to school until next week so I'm going to hang out with them for the next few days.  I'm hoping to spend some time with my new camera as well. (So exciting!)  There's a lot for me to learn but I'm really enjoying it.

Here are some pictures I took near my parent's house in Muskoka.  It was so amazing to see snow as we had an unusual green Christmas this year. It was especially nice how the snow stayed on the branches making every turn of our walk look like a winter wonderland.

So this year I hope will be filled with joy, good health, family visits, hugs, laughs, excitement, friends, a couple of adventures thrown in for good measure and time to enjoy.  I hope to see and appreciate the little things.  Read more books. Go for more walks.  Take more pictures.

I can't wait to start working with my beads again and that's a great feeling.  So although our holidays included few moments to rest I have landed in the new year rejuvenated and ready to go.