I love turning the pages of a book to open a new chapter. The new chapter is always full of new information, or new characters, or new adventures. Book reading to me, is an adventure, and I am so glad that I have passed it on to most of my kids.
I kind of look at life like a great novel. It is full of adventures, romance, trials, climax after climax, and of course what goes along with those climax's are the lows and highs of life. As we have moved from place to place, when our kids were young, I used to always say that we were opening a new chapter in life with each new place that we lived. Each place brought new friends, new adventures, new experiences that taught many life lessons.
Here is a brief synopsis of the chapters in our lives, not including our childhoods. I think it is a great place to
start writing a life history book for my kids, and I think it should be called "Our Identity" because all of these things that we have experienced along the journey, have created who we are today - a family that loves to play together and work together, and make great memories together!
Chapter One I consider to be the chapter where Matt and I grew together alone for the first two years of his life. It was a tough chapter, full of crazy stories and many challenges. One that taught me some really valuable life lessons, some of which I may or may not wish to repeat. Then we met Logan.
Chapter Two we lived mainly in Lethbridge or Coaldale and back and forth, and bam!, had Talia, Dano, and Kyre back to back to make our numbers equal four kids. Life was great. We created many dear friends and had lots of fun, but also had some struggles. Financially it wasn't always great, but we were too stinkin busy with four little kids to notice much anyways. We eventually moved back to Magrath, in fact it was around the time that Kyre was born, or not too long before that. I kind of can keep track by where each kid was born. Talia and Dano both born in Lethbridge, and Kyre in Magrath. Oh those were busy, but fun days. We bought a home, such as it was, a bit of a fixer upper - you might say. We had some family strife, which spurred us on to a impromptu vacation out to BC, which opened the way for the next chapter which included our move to BC.
Chapter Three, the adventure in British Columbia begins. Kyre was three when we moved there. We only
lived in BC for five short years, but what a great experience. Life long friendships created there. Oh how I miss those fun filled years. We were poor, broke and struggling, but our kids didn't know any better. I shudder today to think of how they had to walk so far to school all the time. I guess it really wasn't that far, but for little ones, it was pretty far. I always had a few kids in the home that I babysat, and we had one vehicle, so life was pretty simple. These were great days of exploring, hiking, playing, and having so much fun. Great chapter, when I eventually get around to writing it.
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Chapter Four, back in Magrath. I have always loved Magrath, but it seems like that just isn't where the Lord wanted us to be. Again, we thought we were coming back to purchase a family farm, but alas, it was not meant to be. We bought a house that we renovated to the point where we loved it. Life was great again. The kids walked a block to school, walked to their friends places, and started really growing up here. Old friendships were renewed and we began rebuilding family bonds that needed desperately to be mended. We had my sister, and her family move in with us for a few months, and those were a bit stressful days for all of us, but days that I wouldn't trade. Fond memories. Job struggles, financial challenges, but great times. Then the Lord opened the way for another chapter by landing Logan a job in Medicine Hat.
Chapter Five, Medicine Hat. A move to Medicine Hat that started with living in Brooks at my Dad's farm
for the summer, and ended in us buying a house in Medicine Hat, close to the High School. The opening of this chapter was a great adventure, except that Matt didn't come with us at first. Rocky roads had happened as we were first time parents of teenagers. They have smoothed into fairly nice paved roads though, - knock on wood - and Medicine Hat has been really good for our family. Not without it's challenges though. For Talia and Dano, there were a ton of LDS youth which allowed them to be pretty involved and social. The youth started to dwindle over the years, and when we are
now down to Kimball and Cyera, slim pickins at best. It is a struggle, but one that they are meeting head on, and will win. Through this chapter, Talia, Daniel, and Kyre have all graduated and gone on to school. Kimball and Cyera currently in high school. Between Talia and Matt we have three grandsons, the extreme joy of our lives. This chapter has had it's challenges too, but they have been different in struggle. Still financial struggles off and on, but nothing like when we were younger. This chapter will have to be broken down into other chapters, as it is the longest so far.
Chapter Six, the grandchildren come along, kids are at university and college, and
we are pretty much determined that it would have to be something pretty great to get us to move away now, at this point. Our family is growing
here, and this is home.
Chapter Seven - to be determined yet - but I am pretty sure it will include more weddings, more grandchildren, more missions, many more great memories, and sadly yet with some bit of excitement we will
eventually be empty nesters. I don't know how I feel about looking ahead to that, but it will come none the less. It will be the best yet, I am sure! It will bring new adventures, new friends, and new memories!
