"Great Are You"

As I am sitting down to write this post my heart is heavy and my head feels as though it is not quite on my shoulders. Over the past week it seems as though the demands of life have run ahead of me and I struggle to catch up. The items on my "to do" list are mostly all good things but all time consuming. My mind is flooded with projects to finish up, family craziness, packing and moving, motivation (or lack thereof) to finish school strong and the list could continue.

When moments like these seem to overwhelm me, I crave to feel the presence of the Father and hear Him call out to me. I have been trying to be mindful of his voice as God tends to not speak in loud volumes but rather in the quiet whispers of the day. I feel at somewhat of a loss as to how to listen to His voice and know if what I am hearing is my own desires or if it is indeed the voice of God. In the past few days, I have been attempting to focus on seeing God in the quiet moments of life and in the situations that surround me. I need to make time in my day to dive into scripture and to let the words on the pages consume my heart and mind.

Last week while enjoying a delicious coffee and conversation with Sabrina, we discovered that when life seemed to hit us full blast we both used to turn to a particular CD that helped us open our eyes to the love and tenderness of Jesus. So, when I got home from housesitting, I put in that particular CD and since then, I have been allowing the lyrics and the music to resonate within my heart. This particular song has been playing on repeat in my head...

Great Are You

~Downhere

How I love Your works

My God, My King

How I love Your works

My God, My King

Your Name rings on the plains

Like a not so distant train

And Love and history are near

In the flowers that you makeT

he flowers that you make

Because I'll never hold the picture

Of the whole horizon in my view

Because I'll never rip the night in two

It makes me wonder

Who am I,

Who am I,

Who am I

And great are you

How I love Your Word

My God, My King

How I love Your Word

My God, My King

Your love cuts through these pages to my heart

As you grieve our sins, right from the start

And sacrifice and paradise are in

The plans that you made,

The plans that you made

That song is a gooder. It tends to bring me to tears each time I listen to it. So my prayer for the days to come is that I would be mindful and receptive to the voice of Jesus and that I would rest in the knowledge that He is far greater than all the things that overwhelm me. May you too rest in the hands of Jesus.

I'm Back!

I have returned from 3 wonderful weeks of housesitting at some friend's of mine's place. I forgot what it was like to have a place completely to myself. I thought maybe at times I would feel lonely, but in fact I relished in the peace and found great comfort in that. Lots has been going on in my life lately - lots of changes and so being able to stay in a place where peace overwhelmed me was a huge blessing. Thanks Mary & Gary for letting me take over your home.

In the past 3 weeks I did not have access to internet where I was at, so thus, I have not been blogging very often. I have lots to blog it seems, so this will be a long catch up post.

There have been a few days lately where it has felt that spring has finally graced us with its presence and we all know what that means.... FLIP FLOPS!!! I was pumped to finally be able to pull these out, paint my toe nails (although a real pedicure is in order quite soon) and enjoy the sun upon my feet. On those days where Winnipeg experienced 20 degrees weather Cole and I pulled our bikes out one day after school, went for the first bike ride of the season and ended it off with some yummy gelati on the patio at Eva's Gelati.

BIRTHDAY BASH

A couple weeks ago a bunch of us were able to celebrate Ken's birthday with him at Buccacino's and then poker night back at Ken & Sabrina's place. It was a fun evening being able to celebrate another year of life with Ken and getting to hang out with some pretty wonderful people and share in their company.

Gavin and Ayla did extremely well at the restaurant. I was quite impressed at how long they lasted.

These faces are irrisistable!

Fun with Auntie Kara at the Restaurant

Sleeping peacefully finally in mommy's arms

Wonderful friends

Last week I got the privilege of being Gavin's first babysitter. Ken wanted to do something special for Sabrina so Ken concocted "Operation Secret Mission". He planned a wonderful surprise manicure and pedicure appointment for Sabrina while I came and watched Gavin during the day. I thought that was the sweetest thing ever and I was honoured that he asked me to do the babysitting.
Gavin and I had a lot of fun together - we went for walks, played in the excersaucer and had a little mini photo shoot. I happen to love this little guy an awful lot! I could take pictures of him all day if I could.

"Auntie Kara, I think I've had enough pictures of one day"

It would appear that I tuckered him right out. It was such a wonderful feeling to have him fall asleep on me - it's been a long time since Cole has done that and it made me miss that feeling. Nothing is quite as wonderful as the warmth of a sleeping baby on your chest.

At supper time Sabrina and I were laughing at Gavin's cuteness and I think we offended him. Apparently he didn't like our laughter. Too bad he couldn't see how adorable he was in the moment. Thankfully he recovered quite quickly.

In the evening, Ken graciously agreed to watch Gavin so that Sabrina and I could venture out to Starbucks to enjoy some coffee together. Thanks Ken! I think we had one of the best coffee dates ever! Sabrina and I over the last few months decided that we wanted to hear each other's stories and hear how God has been present and working in our lives over the years. I would encourage more people to share your stories with your friends and other people, because I was encouraged both by the support that Sabrina showed me in the telling of my story and seeing the hand of God in her life and being encouraged by that. After I dropped Sabrina off I started to cry - not because I was sad, but rather I was so overcome by joy and thankfulness that God had placed this wonderful woman in my life. I was blown away by power of God in our relationship and how he has revealed himself to me through our conversations. Sabrina...I am so encouraged by your faith and your love and passion for Jesus. I am incredibly blessed to have you walk beside me and I beside you as we learn to listen and follow the voice of God and the leading of his hand in our lives. I am anticipate more wonderful coffee dates together. You are a joy!

EXCITING NEWS!

This week we also welcomed home a new member of our "Friesen clan". Norah Marie was able to finally come home with Graham and Kristy. I initially got the call when I was at school and I was sooooo excited. Later on that afternoon I got to meet this little character for the first time face to face. She is the most precious little girl. For the past 6 weeks I have imagined in my head how small I thought she really does, but seeing her in the flesh was completely different. She was a lot smaller then I initially assumed she would be - and I saw her when she was 6 weeks old already! Her hands and feet and everything about her is absolutely perfect and beautiful. I am anticipating the months and years ahead that I get to spend with little Norah, getting to know her personality better and getting to do silly things together.

Mom and Norah in action at home. What a neat thing to be able to witness.

Norah resting comfortly in the arms of Auntie Amber.

In other news... regarding my Grandpa, he is still hanging in there. Last week they moved him to Riverview Health Center in the palliative care unit. At this point we are in the waiting stage. It's funny because him and I are not close - we never have been whereas my other grandpa who passed away 7 years ago, him and I were the best of friends. 7 years ago I never spent much time with my grandpa while he was in the hospital because of my own fears, etc. Now I am back in the same boat with this Grandpa and I have spent more time with him in the hospital then I did with my other Grandpa. It kinda makes me mad and sad sometimes because here I am spending my time and energy with a man who really wants nothing to do with the family, who has never had a nice word to share with us and who never wanted to get to know his children or grandchildren. I have had a hard time extending grace to my Grandpa and trying to show him love despite the things he has said or not said. I've missed my other Grandpa an awful lot these past few weeks. I have found myself aching for his presence. So we are in the waiting stage and hopefully it won't be much longer as he is in a great deal of pain. A lot of redemption needs to occur within this family of mine. God can move the mountains so I am praying that family members would be able to extend the grace and allow their hearts to soften so that God can work.

Goodbye

Tonight I have to do a hard thing. I just got a phone call from my mom. It appears that I must go and say a final goodbye to my Grandpa tonight. He is not doing well - and he hasn't been well for the past year. Cancer has invaded his body. My Grandpa and I are not close - he never really spent any time getting to know us grandkids or investing in the things that mattered to us. Despite his his not having a huge impact on my life, it is still hard to say goodbye - it will be weird to spend family gatherings together and not see his face.

There is a lot of turmoil on this side of the family right now - a lot of craziness that has gone on. Relationships have been destroyed and it hurts to see that going on. My grandpa being as sick as he has been lately has created even more rifts in the family.

If you think of me and my family in the next few days, we could use prayer as there is a lot of healing that needs to happen - both physically, emotionally and spiritually and this is stuff only God can transform. I know it is time for my Grandpa to go, but I hope that his going does not cause more pain within the family.

Guitar Hero

I love Guitar Hero. I just thought I would mention that right off the hop. The place where I am housesitting - they have Guitar Hero and I have been playing constantly. It's an addiction really. On a couple of occasions I have had some friends over to play and we rocked it out all night.

Last Thursday I had the most wonderful evening with my friend Toni. Her and her husband Nathan came over for supper and then when Nathan left to go to his jam session, Toni and headed downstairs to Guitar Hero it up! I think we started playing somewhere around 8 o'clock or so and we finally stopped at 11:45! Talk about addicting. We had so much fun though. For those of you who don't know, prior to this housesitting experience I sucked majorly at the game. I have come along way in just over a week - I am now playing on medium just so you know.

Perhaps in my next life I will be a rockstar!

This is us Rocking It Out!!

Finally

I stopped by Dan & Bonnie's this morning to get some things for school, check my email etc when I saw an envelope by the stairs with my name on it. The return address read "Dr. C. Bourke". I quickly opened up the letter as fast as I could. Inside the letter was my appointment date to see the neurologist. It FINALLY came. When I read the date, excitement soon left as the appointment is scheduled for September 17th at 1:30. That seems like forever away!

My headaches have been not too too bad lately, however, last week they were awful. There were nights where I should have been studying but instead I needed to lay down and go to sleep at 8pm. I am hoping that there will be a day when these headaches will be few and far between and when I can wake up in the morning without a throbbing pain in my head. That will be a good day! In the meantime I am praising God this morning for my appointment even though it's in September!

A little bit of a break

Starting this past Monday, I started house sitting for some friends of mine while they are away in Turkey (lucky guys - they deserve it though), so checking my email and updating the blog will be on a sporadic basis as I don't have access to a computer while at their house. I am still looking after Cole a couple days a week after school, so I will check it a couple times during the week, but if people need to get a hold of me, the best way to do so is on my cell.

In the past 3 days I have experienced an amazing sense of freedom. There is an overwhelming peace about the place I am staying at that has consumed me and I am loving it. Soon after I stepped foot in the house I felt more relaxed and at peace then I have in many many weeks. It made me crave the day when I will have my own place again.

My heart has been doing a lot of reflecting lately about various relationships in my life and where I have come in the past few years. Forgiveness and graciousness have been 2 words that God has given me. Both words are extremely powerful actions and I almost wish He had given me a word like peace because that particular word does not seem so scary and hard to do. It would be apparent that I have more reflecting and praying to do in the next little while as I work through some stuff that has been piling up in my heart. More to come on this...

"The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face shine upon you

and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you

and give you peace."

~Numbers 6:24-26

Farewell

Last night after church, the young adults threw a goodbye party for our friends Ian and Lauren before they take off to Scotland for school. They have been attending our church for I think about 2 years now and we have enjoyed them very much. Ken & Sabrina gratefully hosted the party at their house last night and it was very nice to have the party in a house that is large enough to fit 20 people - very quickly many of our houses are running out of room for our ever expanding group it seems.

For the party I was asked to make a dessert. So because this was no ordinary get together, I thought I would go all out with my dessert. I looked through numerous cookbooks to find the perfect cake to bring and many did not seem good enough. Then I found the most perfect cake ever. It was in the back of the "Eat, Shrink and be Merry" cookbook. I think it was called Once Slice to Heaven or something. I spent about 4 hours putting this triple layer chocolate cake together. It is 3 layers with a generous amount of chocolate cream cheese icing between each layer. It wasn't a very large cake, but we didn't need very big pieces at all to get our fill. The cake was quite rich and sweet. All the chocolate was made with Bernard Callebaut and belgian cocoa. I am not a big chocolate or cake fan, but this cake I must admit was quite yummy. My thinking is that if you are going to go to the trouble of making a cake, it might as well be made with decent chocolate and cake mix. I would highly recommend this cake to bring to any special function. If you want the recipe just let me know.

We pulled a very "mennonite" party as the boys went downstairs to play poker and the girls stayed upstairs. However, Kristen did mess with this a little as she eagerly went downstairs to play poker with the boys. Way to go Kristen!

For those people who have not been in Ken & Sabrina's basement, they have this awesome mural wallpapered on one of the walls, so Lauren and I decided to have a little "photo shoot" with Ayla.

Mostly the evening was spent enjoying each other's company, sharing stories and have tons of laughs together.

opening up some gifts

By the end of the evening, we were all a little tired.

In these past 2 years I have gotten to know Lauren a little better then Ian, but both have been a joy to get to know. I have enjoyed your friendship immensly Lauren and I hope that in the months and years ahead we will be able to keep in touch and get some visits in at some point in time. We wish you guys all the best in Scotland and may this be the beginning of some great things that are to come. You guys will be missed very much, but I know that God has some amazing adventures ahead for you guys. We have been so blessed to have you a part of our young adults group these past couple of years.

Complete Randomness

It seems as though these random questions seem to be a trend lately, so I thought I would join in on the fun - I'm also procrastinating from the mountains of homework I have waiting for me in my room.

1. What's your favorite ice cream flavor? cookies n' cream

2. What shampoo do you use? I am a dove girl

3. How do you like your eggs? sunny side up

4. What's the first thing you do when you get online? check my email

5. What is your favorite tv show? I have a couple - Grey's Anatomy, Jon & Kate plus 8, ANTM, Criminal Minds, Numb3rs

6. Which do you prefer, the sunrise or the sunset? I am not an early riser, so I always miss sunrises. I like sitting on the beach or on the rocks at the lake and watching the sunset with a warm cup of coffee/tea in my hand.

7. When is the last time you went to the mall? 2 weeks ago - went to the Mall of America over the Easter weekend.

8. What was the last food that you ate? potatoes, farmer sausage and corn

9. What is your favorite animal? my puppy Bailey

10. Do you collect anything? rare shopping bags - it's weird I know.

Would you rather...

1. sky dive or bungee jump? bungee jump - somehow it feels a tiny bit safer

2. eat a hissing cockroach or eat a slug? is neither an option? I'm not really into eating bugs.

3. have lifelong free entry to all theme parks or lifetime free entry to all movie theaters? I'd probably make more use out of the movie theaters as there aren't many theme parks close to Wpg.

4. spend one month without books or one month without tv? books

5. have the ability to fly or be able to become invisible? invisible - I'd be curious to see how people act when you aren't around and sometimes it would just be nice to not have to "show up".

6. to have a personal shopper for life or a personal fitness trainer for life? a personal trainer. Perhaps then I might be able to stay motivated.

7. be spiderman or be superman? superman - he can fly

8. be stuck in the 70's or be stuck in the 80's? Well I've already done most of the 80's so the 70's might be fun.

Spring Break

It's been a good week off so far, but time is passing much too quickly. Monday will be here before I know it and I will be doing a BIG exam at 5:30pm. Despite the copious amounts of studying that I have done in the past 2 days, I have also had a lot of fun.

MONDAY - I got to hang out at my "home away from home" - aka Starbucks with Sabrina and Gavin. Man, that kid is growing up fast! Sabrina and I enjoyed wonderful conversation over yummy Raspberry Iced Tea Lemonades.

In the evening Aimee and I hung out at her place for an evening of TV watching - "Jon & Kate plus 8" to be exact. Watching that show makes me want to have kids. I know that might sound like a poor use of time together, but it was relaxing watching our shows and not feeling pressured to talk, but to just sit and relax.

TUESDAY - I spent the whole day at home doing homework, cleaning and baking. I felt very domestic. In the evening Graham, Kristy, Andrew, Aimee and I went to Eva's Gelati to celebrate Aimee's birthday.

Was this Aimee's Birthday cake? Nope - it was only Graham's dessert. It didn't look anything like what the picture on the table looked like. The picture depicted a pear that was glazed in caramel and chocolate. We kept waiting for the pear to appear in the middle of the cake, but it never showed up. It's a good thing I didn't order this cake because I would have been very disappointed had I been expecting a pear drizzled in chocolate. Apparently Graham knew exactly what he had ordered. It looked very yummy though.

I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard. I have some very incredible friends!

Kristy and Aimee trying to figure out how to send text messages on their cell phones.

WEDNESDAY - Today was a Kara and Cole day. This morning we had a playdate/tea time with our friends Sophie and Mary. I am going to be spending the next 3 weeks or so at Mary's while her and her husband are in Turkey, so I was getting the low down about where things are and stuff like that. On the way over to their house Cole and I had a talk about being polite and how we respond to people when they ask us questions. Cole is a very shy kid, so this tends to be a problem when we go out in public as his manners do not shine through. Today, however, I was so proud of him. He responded to each of Mary's questions with a "yes please" or "no thank you". I was so excited to see him come out of his shell and face his fears. Mary also thought it was neat to hear how Cole really talks and how he acts as most people do not get to see that side of him due to his shyness. Way to go Cole - I am super proud of you!

This afternoon Cole and I headed out to the Manitoba Museum to do some exploring. The science gallery had an exhibit about animation creations and also race car making. Cole was especially intrigued by the car making. We spent a good hour and half in the race center building a remote control car and then racing it against the other kids who where there. The center was all about engineering and seeing how Cole comes from a long line of engineers, so it was fitting that we try this out. He definitely has a knack for this kind of stuff.

Showing off the race car we made

It was a long and busy day for the 2 of us, but now it is time to get on with the next project...make supper!

Aimee

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AIMEE!!!!!

Today is my wonderful friend Aimee's birthday. She's a pretty cool person and I LOVE spending time with her. Her and I used to take the bus home from work together when we both worked downtown and we often heard people refer to us as sisters due to our similar looks and our "ice melting smiles" - that's actually what someone told us.

Aimee, you are a wonderful friend and I love spending time with you. You are a joy in my life and I can't imagine it without you. I wish all the best in this next year. I am blessed to call you my friend and "sister".

LOVE YOU LOTS!!