A look through the lens

Oh how fun to be able to share a bit more personally with you today. Wait a minute. That's not really an accurate way to put that, because I, and the rest of the Soul Sisters, have shared our deepest hearts as we've written here over the past 15 months. We've connected on the deepest level with one main commonality - the Love of Jesus and His Word - and how that affects every aspect of our life. With anonymity though, we haven't been able to share all heart with you. We haven't connected on the many other levels that make up our lives. So now, as we revamp Soul Kitchen, we still have our pen names (which are so very much more to us than pen names) but we get to let you know who we are in the world where we walk, serve, shop, love, work and play.

Today, we're going to do what we often do when we meet together with friends. We're going to catch up on life. Oh, and I brought some pictures, too. This is for you, Kim, since it's the pictures that attract you when you visit blog sites.


This is me and my husband Bruce. Our story begins when I moved to Abbotsford from Burnaby. I was the new girl in grade nine and he fell for me the first day. I didn't notice him in the sea of new faces but it didn't take long for me to notice him. I'd catch his eye on me... all the time!

Funny story. We sat together in typing class in grade 9. We had these conversations about how useless typing class was. "What do they think? We're all going to be secretaries and need to know how to type?" I know this dates us... puts us in the "antique" category, but that's the way it was. Oh, how life has changed.

Skip forward to grade 10. We were 16. It was Valentine's Day and we had this thing called "Hush Day" at our school. Everyone received a red construction paper heart that day. The goal for the girls on that morning was to keep their heart by not talking to any boys. The boy's objective was to try to get a girl to talk to him and then he'd get to take her heart. The goal for the guys was to collect as many hearts as they could so they'd win this competition. I was determined not to loose my heart but someone caught me off guard and I said something. Not surprising.

After lunch, it was our turn as girls to compete for the most hearts. I made a bee-line to Bruce before any other girl could get to him. I didn't even try to pretend.
"Can I have your heart?" I asked him directly.
"Sure," he said and handed me that particularly precious red paper heart.
Back then he was a man of few words... same height as I was then and still am ... and I outweighed him. I'm not exaggerating! That was 32 years ago, and I'm still smitten with him. I'm kind of glad he grew a bit too!


This is our 3 1/2 year old grandson. The pet name that comes out of my mouth more than any other is "My Little Friend."
I love the socks on his hands.They came in handy later to pick up worms off the wet driveway. A whole new world has opened up to Mathias with being able to ride a bike. With the Olympics on right now, Mathias has declared that his favourite sport is riding his bike! He is a joy and truly is my little friend.


This is Lucia. She's 1 1/2 going on four. There is nothing this little girl can't do. Well, she can't say "Grandma." When Mathias was little he just called me "Mamma." That was close enough for him, but Lucia knows better. Therefore, she usually doesn't call me anything. Sometimes though, when Kim is gone, she just calls me Mommy. Lately, I've been referring to myself as "Mamma" when I'm talking to her, then she calls me "Mamma." I think it's a good idea because the last time she tried to call me Grandma, she called me Damma.

Do you want to see a few more pictures? Once you give a Grandma a little indulgence, it's hard to get her to stop. Oh, and I'm open to comments today that say something like, "Your grandkids are sooooo cute!!!!!!!!!" Or anything close will do.


Here's Kim with her husband Jared and Mathias. She's our firstborn. You can't see her tummy, but she's expecting her third in April.
We were all watching the Olympic opening ceremonies.


The girl in the purple is our second daughter, Kelly. She's married to Chris, the guy stretched out on the couch featuring the white socks. They'll have been married 3 years in June. Danny and Danielle, our youngest ones have been married 2 1/2 years. This was Danny's birthday celebration - 23 years old. He's our youngest.

So, that's me and my family. One more. My mom lives next door and she's my walking partner. She's usually over for all these celebrations too. Here we're on a walk and wanting a picture of the spring blossoms in February.

O give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. His faithful love endures forever!
In the times of blessing and joy, Lord, I am so humbly grateful.