Lest We Forget~ Remembrance Day

November 11th, is REMEMBRACE DAY in Canada, a day which commemorates the sacrifices of people in all the armed conflicts, particularly World War 1, World War 11, and the Korean Conflict. It is a national holiday; schools are closed and all businesses.

We here in Canada wear a poppy to honour these brave souls. The poppy comes from a poem written by John Mc Crae, a Canadian doctor serving in the military. The poem is called Flanders Fields and describes the poppies growing in the Flemish graveyards where soldiers are buried.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you with flailing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

~ John McCrae May 1915

I remember!

I also remember the ultimate sacrifice our Lord made for us on the cross of Calvary! And I thank Him for it!

Sharing from my heart~ Sandi

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Good morning all~ I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

Isn't this house adorable? I love yellow houses for some reason maybe because I find the colour yellow so warm and inviting. This is my favourite house.
This is the view from the side. I love a house with all kinds of jogs and entry ways.
I really love older homes best because they have so much character and they have all those neat nooks and crannies. But I am unable to look after one because of my health.

This past summer, we drove around taking photos of a few of the houses we have lived in over the years.

My hubby and I have lived in many houses since we got married. We started off renting a lovely mini home way out in the country where we could be by ourselves and get to know one another. Relatives and friends knew where we lived but we had the privacy we needed.
A year later we bought our own mini home and from there, purchased our first house. By that time we had had our first baby boy.

We went on to live in fifteen different houses all together, including a house out of the province.
Most of them we only lived in for a short time because they were rentals.

Over the years, we have lived in ranchers, split entries, and side splits. One interesting fact about the houses we have lived in is that most of the houses were yellow. Today we live in a back split with yellow doors.

Here are a few of the houses we have called home....

This was a lovely house which had a fireplace that filled one whole wall in the living room. It was finished from top to bottom and we had lots of fields behind us. The boys loved all the space, as did I. It was a wonderful home but very hard to heat. This house was yellow when we lived in it. It had black shutters and a detached garage. There were three lovely white birch trees out in the front yard. I really liked this house because it had tons of space and easy to heat. When you walked into the kitchen from the side entrance, you could see all the way through to the living room, with a separate dining room in between the two rooms. It had a finished basement and a wood stove. It also had a wrap around deck. It was a lovely quiet place. The boys had lots of wide open spaces to play and explore, with fish ponds and rivers. Whoever owns it now has changed the facade of it.

This house was in a wonderful neighborhood and the neighbors were just so friendly. The house was finished from top to bottom with a woodstove in the family room. It was just so much fun to decorate; I loved it! We probably should have stayed there! When we lived there, it had a green roof and green shutters, otherwise it still looks the same.

This was our last home. It had a dream kitchen and a wrap-around deck. But it was on a corner lot by a very busy street. You couldn't hear yourself talk out on the deck in the summertime because of the noise of the traffic. I still miss the kitchen! Today we live in this little cottage which we bought fourteen years ago. We down-sized into this one because I wasn't able to take care of the house we had been living in previously due to my health. Since moving into our little cottage, I have been feeling much better and I miss the big spaces of our last home, especially when entertaining.

All my boys are grown up now and Hubby and I are empty-nesters. We still miss our boys under our roof even though they have been living on their own for ten years. But when they come home, it is this little cottage that they come home to.

I love sharing this little cottage with the yellow doors with my hubby. We will probably grow old together here. It really doesn't matter where we live or what the house looks like because a house is only a house. Four walls doesn't make a home, it's the people who live in the house that make it a home.

Thank you God for a warm friendly little cottage where love dwells therein and my boys and their families can come and find love and acceptance.

"Home is the place where character is built, where sacrifices to contribute to the happiness of others are made, and where love has taken up its abode." - Elijah Kellog

Have a beautiful day and God bless you!

Sharing from my heart~ Sandi