I finished my palliative care volunteer training course on Wednesday and it was sad to say goodbye. It was a wonderful group of earth angels there who want to volunteer their time to help others. I am especially inspired by our course teacher who exudes so much passion and compassion. I hope that one day I can do what she does. I feel like right now I am growing as a woman and slowly branching out into other interests and roles than being a mother. I want to have some certification in different things so that someday I can go out and do more and if I need or want, I will be able to support myself. If and when I get a job outside of what I’ve been doing at home with the kids, I want to do something that I am passionate about and that will help others.

The sun has been shining every day for the past while which is so nice to see. It brightens life and gives me new hope and inspiration when the sun shines. Autumn and I have been taking walks with Pheonyx, who loves to go outside and play in the snow. He will be a real nature-lover, I’m sure.

Kesa and I have been doing zoology or animal studies for homeschooling these days. We have worked through Charles Kovac’s book, The Human Being and The Animal World and have also begun to study the animals that she chooses from Canada. So far, we have read about the skunk, lynx, polar bear and bee. She is such an imaginative child that I realized that to engage her more fully, instead of writing facts about each animal, I would get her to write from the perspective of the animal, as if she were the animal, and just include the most important information in her short little animal stories. We also always do a drawing to go along with each animal as well. These moments are very precious to me.

Pheonyx is climbing and into everything. He likes to have little tantrums already and he’s only just nearing 18 months old. He just started that last week and I was surprised because I’ve never had another child of mine get angry and have tantrums like that before. I can tell that he knows he’s acting too, I just can’t believe how smart he seems to be in so very many ways. He is also saying many words, his newest are ‘mine’, ‘no’, ‘bye’ and ‘help’.

During taking my Palliative Care course, Pheonyx napped in his crib during the day instead of with me or on a walk like he was used to. He loves his crib and goes down so easy. It was me who wanted him close and who was sad to see him grow from a baby to a toddler. Last night he had his first night in crib and in another room. I was surprised that he made it through the whole night without needing me. I’ve heard so many stories of babies being hard to sleep train in their cribs and Serafina was. Pheonyx loves it and goes down without any crying or trying to escape at all. He is very content with his new sleep routine. I am just very happy that it hasn’t been a fight at all.

I’ve been wanting to get back on track with recipes (which I have been) and plan to post more soon. I have some yummy things I’ve been cooking away. Just have to find the time to sit and blog. It’s finding a balance between all things that is a constant universal human struggle. Though I’m not complaining, I am rather quite content.

(It may not look too tasty but it is! Broccoli and Brown Rice Casserole)

Oh! And some new music that I’ve discovered and enjoy is Noah Gundersen and Down Like Silver.

I hope that you are all doing well! ❤