This morning...

I have dreams of one day having a room dedicated to dishes.  And a LARGE portion of that room will be for mixing bowls.  If there was room in my house, I would collect mixing bowls.  Practical and lovely to look at.  Mixing bowls can be used for, obviously, mixing things, but they are also good for serving large salads or soups, displaying fruits and veggies or I use one as my odds and ends "drawer".

Here are some lovely pottery mixing bowls from Etsy 

Here are the links to the bowls above.  Sorry, they are all out of order.  My coffee is getting cold and I need to finish this up!

mixing bowl  another mixing bowl  this one  hippy bowl  what!? another bowl?  bowls bowls bowls  more bowl links  pottery is expensive  everyone needs a white mixing bowl  i heart bowls

For those of you who faithfully read these entries, I will probably take a break from blogging this summer...  not like I am a regular blogger by any stretch of the imagination!  However, I would feel badly to just disappear without letting you all know.  There have been blogs I have followed and all of a sudden, the writer disappears without explanation and the blog is over.

I just want to hang out with my kids outside more.

Ok.

The End  

This weekend I threw a very last minute surprise party for a dear friend of mine.

And it struck me, after everyone had gone home, that I am out of practice hosting large groups of people.

I don't move with ease in a crowd, in my home, like I used to.  So much of these days involve me re-defining myself and I am not who I was and maybe this new me is not as good at hosting?

In the olden days, getting ready for a large group of people involved barking orders at my family for the entire time before guests arrived and running around like a mad woman trying to make all my ideas a reality.  And oh did I have ideas for my parties! They were almost always elaborate and theme based.  By the time everyone arrived I would be kind of hyper and amped up.  What I had envisioned would be real and it was time to have fun!

These days, I don't really have big party plans when I host an event.  That just stresses me out.  Most parties are now very last minute and un-planned.  Prior to guests arriving I am more likely to be watching a show with my kids or checking my emails.  I feel very calm by the time friends arrive but that is not always what is needed for a fun host!

I am not making apologies and I don't feel the need for assurances.

This just seems to be my current state of mind.

This morning I looked at some lovely dinner party tables that I would love to sit at.

And, maybe one day, I will create a beautiful table display that took me weeks to prepare for.  Friends will be invited and fun will be had.  And I will be the consummate host.

Or not.

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Last Friday, we went to a farm just outside of Winnipeg. 

We all had a great time.

Here are some pictures from our day

Have you read Drops Like Stars?

If you think abstract thoughts can be beautiful and that pictures can speak as loudly as words, 

read this book.

I found my (signed copy!) at MCC for $2.  Worth every cent.

It is about suffering and creativity and Christ.  I found it to be simplistically profound.

 Ha! Hows that for a book review?  

Well.  Now I will end that commercial.

I find that I lean towards unit studies more and more these days at school with Naveed.  

Currently we learning all things butterflies.  This one is my favourite.  It's Euphaedra eleus from Africa.

Here is our art project from yesterday.  A field of flowers with some butterflies.

 Rohk was very interested in the art project...