Heidi G karlsson

Merry Christmas from the Karlssons... 2012 We have such a great community of friends. Thank you for being part of that – a part of us. What a wonderful, crazy, diverse year we had. After being inspired to make changes in our lives, Joel and Heidi signed up for the Vancouver Sun run and started to train, only to discover that… we were going to have another baby. While Joel was the only one in the family to the training and the run, 2 or 3 nights each week, the whole family put our toques on, piled into our Apex car and drove down to the Cloverdale Fair grounds and ran and rode around. Heidi did the timing and when she whistled Joel would stop or start depending. The boys had to be coaxed with snacks from time to time. It was pretty cold. In the beginning Zoe just rode in the stroller, but by the end, she insisted on doing the running herself. How fun to go to Vancouver and get lost in the mess of people while Joel completed his first 10 km Sun Run. This year Adam discovered Be...

We have a new baby. We totally thought she was going to be a boy. Totally. Why, you ask? Why does anyone think they know anything about a baby before he or she is born... a feeling. But she is totally a girl. Dark curly hair, fine facial features, long fingers... and she was almost a home birth. Woops. Early on in the pregnancy I thought, "hey, a home birth might not be so bad... I'll ask about it." So I did. I took the book home from the midwife and put it on my dresser. Three weeks later I brought it back (not having cracked it open) having decided for sure NO... I didn't do any research just decided I didn't want to do the laundry and I didn't want my kids to hear me yell or cry. Just my opinion. We moved to Abbotsford, I picked a new midwife clinic, went to a few appointments.. they changed my due date from September 6 to September 4th. I "knew" the baby would be late because my original due date as calculated by myself was September 11. ...

I think it was in the last post that I lamented someone coming to terms with messiness and not getting laundry done. It made me mad. Since then I have been determined to find a solution. I went to a friend's house and notice something. Nothing. She didn't have clutter. Yeah, she probably tidied before we came over, but come on.. there really wasn't much there to mess. I think that's a personality type.. to be so void of any clutter or potential for it.  On the other hand, here, we have homeschool supplies, art supplies, musical instruments, journals from the last 20 years for both of us..  we also collect bottles as a family business. We have stuff around. I'm never going to be as clean as that friend of mine. But it sure did make me think.. and as I thought, my kids toys started disappearing, so did some of my old clothes, old books, shoes... things came off of our dresser and went straight into the recycle (sorry honey but if you've had a business card there f...

Mess. One of my former co-worker's favorite font was called "a D#$@ mess." I think she liked it cause she was so pure and it was the only time she could swear. But yes, messes. A couple of months ago, or so, or a month, or whatever you know how it goes, a friend gave me a magazine she thought I'd love. And I do love it. Or I should. It's a celebration of life... families... dads who love their kids... moms who sacrifice.. beautiful stories, pictures, poems, etc, around these sacred relationships. But I found myself depressed and not wanting to read it. These stories featured people with imperfections that didn't get resolved.  Some stories celebrated the mess, the laundry that never got done. It was pictures of normal people. Skinny. Fat. Beautiful. Ordinary. Kinda not so pretty.  They made too much of a deal out of things that were normal. Messy.  Thing is, I don't like messes. I always want out. Fix it, come clean, purge, whatever, just... don't ...