Advent, a tradition the stills this busy month. The words of the first advent read like poetry. Lighting the infant moments of God on earth, feeling the words burning, capturing me year and year over. I will remember and I will humbly cherish heaven's Holy Gift this Christ season.

Advents Words

I'm bursting with God-news;
I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.

*****

At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God's praises:

Glory to God in the heavenly heights,
Peace to all men and women on earth who please him

Oh my sweet friends that you will each be lulled and tenderly kissed by heaven's Peace, Joy, Hope and Love.

Rosaleen

This year we found some sweet little treasures for our sweet treasures three. These adorable little cases are french down to every perfect little detail and brimming with charm! We chose the sewing case for Marion.



The nature kit is allotted to Davina.


The tool kit is for Lachlan...when he has developed a bit more coordination!

The girls are also receiving a beautiful painting from a talented artist who has captured my girls attentions.

I must admit the heart wrapping paper was the most expensive part for us (a splurge in a little Oxford street boutique!) The gifts were purchased with our home school money. I felt so blessed as I wrapped these gifts. I am thrilled to be able to give my children such lovely lasting gifts (free of charge!)

They are all wrapped and beckoning under the tree. I just hope Marion does not visit this blog until after gift opening!

Sweet friends, I hope you wrapping packages of love, joyfully fills your heart!

xoxo

Rosleen

Our weekend over at the Chevron 'resort' was superb. It included swinging, swimming, jumpy castles, parks, sundresses, sun hats, heat, humidity and golden sunsets. Of course when you are falling in love with another family the ache of being away from loved ones is slightly soothed.

As Anne Shirley said “kindred spirits are not as hard to find as I once thought”! Sleeping over with three little kids is the true test of a friendship! We definitely emerged from the weekend with this dear family imbedded in our hearts for life! Each person has a perfectly suited friend. Eric and Roger are a good-looking duo of intelligence, with a flare of western charm! Anna, and I have as many parallels of similarity as one could find in another person. She has a love for the same grand God, and as I do, admits to the constant need for generous amounts of grace, she beautifully mothers and I have found her mothering heart buried as dangerously deep as mine. We each have a 2004 baby, 2007 baby, 2010 baby! A match made in heaven founded on the soils of Africa!






I pray your weekend was as warm as ours.

xoxo

Rosaleen

I laid up some tasty candy cane brownies in my tin this Friday. Seeing as I blogged about the same treat at the same time last year I thought I would save you the repeat! I did manage to grab my new cam and snap a few shots of my roasting hot children. I am still navigation my way around the buttons and such, there is a art, and I am naturally clumsy!

Our new friend Tunde joined us for the day. We got a kick out of his inquisitiveness over our lives. He was mesmerized by my washing machine. He played happily with Tomas the Train for an hour. And wanted to try Marion's bike something fierce. It was fun having him around and it seemed as if he enjoyed him self also. Though he never said much I could tell by his face. His parting words were wondering when he can return to play football(soccer) with Roger!



We are going to spend the weekend with friends at their home. They live over at the coveted Chevron compound! I will let the pages of this blog rest over the next few days while I visit.

I already look forward to meeting you back here for the final festives of the holiday season!

Well dear friends I would appreciate you taking a long sweet sip of eggnog for me(year three without this saviour drink!) And please know I have prayed that each of you sweet friends will have a weekend filled to the brim of sweetness, peace and joy.

xoxo

Rosaleen

A while back my Mother sent me this adorable game. I instantly fell in love with it's simply and rustic details. It is spring in a box and every time the lid is lifted I can feel country charm filling my home. I will keep this game as a memory of my children's past, hopefully being able to see many generations of kidlings playing with it. My treasure! Would you believe me if I told you she got it for free at a garage sale? The generosity of this gift is not in the price my Mom paid but in her willingness to part with something so sweet just to bless her grandchildren (and daughter.)

Thank you again Mother for coming up with treasures that touch our hearts and speak our language! I just wish you could be here watching the fun your grand~girls are having with Peter Rabbit today.

xoxo

Rosaleen

Spicy aromas of ginger and molasses fill our senses on this balmy African day. Today our Gingerbread treats got artistically put together (including the non-Christmas mayhem in the above right photo...aka Davina and her inner Van Gogh.)

Delightful treats for neighbours and friends.

Wish I could send some ginger love your way!

xoxo

Rosaleen

I am not the type of girl who sighs wishfully at a Tiffany window, dazzling jewels have never called my name.

But I have had one wish for a luxurious accessory. One that captures light perfectly, I can wear it with any outfit during any season or on any occasion. I wished and hoped and held my breath as Roger googled the weeks before my birthday…

Oh and all the anticipation came to a happy end on Monday morning when my package arrived from a distant land! With trembles of excitement I hold my new gift.



I will sign off now to go spend some gazing at my 'sweet bling'.

xoxo

Rosaleen

The lovely dusty season is upon us! Which basically means insanity! I can taste, smell and feel dust all around me! These pictures were taken this morning and are completely unedited. The haze in the pictures is dust. Because of the thickness of the dust it blocks sun light... everything is rather miserable!

For those of you new to the seasons of West Africa we get dust blown from the Sahara, it sweeps over Nigeria for a few months. To manage the gritty feeling I wipe down my counters and furniture twice a day, wash my hair and feet daily and I still have grit on everything!

For those of you blanketed by crisp white snow, think of me and COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS!

xoxo

Rosaleen

This is my friend. He, Motherless, Fatherless, without a family. He runs errands, washes clothing, carries loads in exchange for a place to sleep and a bit of food.

He is always the first to greet me. My young shadow. His eyes follow me. I know he is watching, watching and wondering. As we walk he asks me the question, why? Why do I come to visit him? I wait on my words to come, echoing heaven, I turn my eyes to his, and I say the words “because I love you. Because I have a God that loves me so much he led me to you and that same God he loves you more then you will ever know” He waits for more, more balm, more love. I turn him to face the ocean’s roar, I lower my voice near his ears and ask him to feel the wind, the greatness of the ocean, do you feel the power? “Gods love for you is as fierce as the ocean, it is as powerful, and it as grand, I will not always be here, but God will, always, just as this water will always be here.”

He moves on and the moment is lost, and I am lost. Did he get it, did he feel my heartache, my humble love trying to mirror heaven?

Together we hand out food. He helps, tells me his neighbours stories, “she has no husband, three kids,” “she had a stroke,” “these, they have no family” and the stories go on and on and faces and names are placed beside the un-comprehensible statistics. The storyteller has chapter after chapter of horrors, I barely breath when he tells me that after the dark business of night, and the thugs and prostitutes have retired, hundreds of children come and make beds in the sand. I ask another and another for confirmation. The truth rumbles, hurts, I am sick with the thought. And feel powerless. Demobilising powerlessness.

I weep in Roger’s arms. I weep with Heaven.

Is there a way to change all these horrors?

Maybe, but it will take a revolution, a solid resolve, each and every one of us, to fill a place in the barrier against this winning storm.

This Christ Season as you unwrap wealth, will you please, please remember one who is lost. Will you hold your gift tight to your heart and feel its privilege? Will you shed a tear of prayer for one of the numbers in the growing mountain of poverty?

Will you do it for our World? For that Child lost in the shadows of darkness?

Today the tin was filled with candy cane cookies. A favorite holiday treat merges with a favorite holiday tradition. The girls love the time spent together in the kitchen.
Warm cookies are placed on a plate, we curl together and read of the Legend.

A small delight, memories built, treasured for life.

xoxo

Rosaleen

Christmas is sweetly showing up in the corners of my home. This family eagerly waits for winter's season declaring a cherished time of cozy atmosphere, candle light, festive anticipation and many memory building moments.

Wishing you a dazzled with festive Day.

xoxo

Rosaleen

This past week my girls got moved into the same room. I was reluctant to move Davina as her nursery was so cute. Lachlan is now using the 'bones' of her old room. I hope to take some photos of his room shortly. It is rather bare at the moment. I need to go to the market one of these days and pick up some bright West African baskets, to fill in the blanks of his room.
Alas, my sweet ladies are glad as giggles to be sharing slumber again! Though I must admit today I am missing my home in Canada terribly. There are days! It seems wrong to be putting in efforts to make my home in Africa comfortable and appealing. When my dream home is already in existence. Ohhh well… I guess I will keep dreaming of real decorating and permanent roots!

xoxo

Rosaleen

I think I am now officially old enough to live my life.

From here on in I will confidently announce that I have had twenty-seven full years of maturing! No more embellishing my age!

I had delights to relish all day. Mr.Hubs took all three kids out of my bed in the morning allowing my to sleep (solid) until 10 a.m., when I woke all the dishes from our dinner party the night before had been cleaned (pots and all!) I was honoured with original masterpiece cards from my children. A friend made me a meal. My four-year-old nephew said he would gift me a necklace or a picture of his hunting knife, my three-year-old nephew said he would let me pet his moose (which he caught just for me!) I received birthday notes in my inbox and mailbox. My Christmas tree got decorated. My family still had a birthday bash (though the guest of honour was thousand of miles away) See pictures above! I ate a ton of calories because we all know they never count on birthdays. Mr. Hubs completed the day perfectly by rubbing my feet and talking about the sweet bling he got me as a gift. Which was meant to arrive on my B-day! I am (sorta) patiently awaiting its arrival… Can not wait to share what it is… but until it is in my hands…

Needless to say I felt grandly cherished!

Here is to twenty-seven years down!

xoxo

Rosaleen

I have this brother who's life is a constant adventure. He is Caribou Cowboy. Just recently he earned his trapper license. And so his life takes on a new thrill. Just this week he trapped two wolves. Wolves in his area have become over populated and are now a local menace, the government has a bounty on wolves. As all things in Bradley's life he is incredibly successful. I have heard that wolves are hard to trap and Bradley has caught two in his first few weeks!

As I look at these photos I long for home and the adventures of wilderness living. My week has been as polar opposite of catching wolves as can be... I mucked out my over cluttered storage room and while my house was in the chaos of organizing I decided to move Davina into Marion's room and give Lachlan his own room. Things got a little out of hand as pulling three rooms apart while mothering three kids is pure craziness, and though I have no wolves to show for my week, for the moment I have a few clutter free area's!




The cabin in the above picture is where the cowboy in the above picture lives. Picturesque ~ picturesque!

xoxo

Rosaleen

I warmly greet you this December’s First.

Has November slipped into her hush, lying beneath winters welcome? Is the trill of Advent here? A gentle leading to the coming day wrapped with treasures. I open my doors and feel the rush of December curl and cool around the heralds of this season. Faith, Peace, Joy and Love. I slow my pace, linger on theses fragrant words, suturing Advent's lace into December's memories.

Faith for you my Friends

Rosaleen