Good riddance, April. I did not care for that month at all. 

Here are the things we have done in the last thirty days: I finished my first year of grad school, we moved, I started training to run the old taco stand this summer, Alex returned to full-time work, and we planted about two hundred seedlings in the garden.  It doesn't seem so impressive when I write it all down, but rest assured, we're sufficiently wiped and are still waiting for that time when things will get back to "normal."There are endless projects to do around the new house. We've moved from about a 650sq suite to a 1700 sq house all to ourselves, plus a basement, plus a 100 sq cottage in the garden. It's awesome and overwhelming. We have all of our furniture in the house and it still echoes a little! Ridiculous, I know; we're a little embarrassed. However, it's such a lovely place that we plan to be in for years. I have been a bit slack with the picture-taking because I can't remember where I packed the camera charger... 

Even though our house is ridiculously more "grown-up" than our last situations, I think we're all feeling a bit more grounded and rustic here. We heat the house with an iron stove, and have been splitting wood under the deck each evening to get it all stacked and organized before the winter wood starts coming in. I've been out mowing the lawn with our push mower and getting a significant workout between the two chores. There's something so satisfying with having a space all to our own, somewhere we can put real thought into, take responsibility and just be left alone to live our lives. Sebastian and I are outside all day in the yard, watching the plants grow, digging in the dirt, looking at the bugs. We don't have to worry about an irate landlord charging through, or about being in anyone else's space. It feels good, really. 

And there is so much to do, sometimes it's easy to forget that we actually have all the time in the world for most projects. 

Upcoming projects:

Garden gate (I've had to rescue a ball or two from the road)

More planting, more weeding, more seedlings

Hang curtains (tricky because our ceilings are so very high, poor us)

Someday-soon-projects:

Cold frame for seedlings

Bookshelves (our books have been packed for YEARSandyears)

Entrance-way bench/contraption for shoes, coats, keys etc... 

Tentative projects:

Chicken coop

Greenhouse

Sebastian and the "baby plants"

Sebastian recently informed me that he's a "gurl" and has a baby in his womb. I don't see it.

This little bear just came into our house and started pretending to chop our firewood. 

Sebastian and the new yard.

Part of the yard and the cottage.

House, house.

At this time last year we were moving into our home here in Granthams feeling very happy, grateful, excited to settle into our West Coast lives after leaving Montreal. It's been an interesting year in this house. It's been a good home in a lot of ways-- in the summer we were a minute or two stroll down to the beach, we gardened, stared out the window endlessly at this beautiful place, we've had lots of guests come and stay, and Sebastian has had a fairly open, safe space to roam.
But there have been some hard times, too. We've had a mentally unstable, disrespectful and at times irate landlord. We've had small pockets of mould in all corners of the house, a mudroom and closest spontaneously explode into black, green, pink mould. We've had three different people living downstairs, the last two weren't and aren't ideal for a family home, although it's been good to challenge our perceptions of people so dissimilar to us, and learn how to live in a house with them. Lately, we've had weekly real estate showings that we've had to leave for. We've learned somethings here. One, being cheap on heat in the winter on the West Coast isn't worth it for the mould reasons; two, sadly, don't assume people are trustworthy; and, three, we really, really want a stable home and we want to stay here on the Sunshine Coast.
We kept our eye on the real estate and rental market all winter, poised to leave this place when our lease came up. We thought about buying a house, took a look at some places, thought of creative ways we could manage the finances (rental suites, B&Bs, buying land with friends). In the end we found a beautiful house to rent and decided to go for it. It's just down the road, so we can stay in Granthams which we're so happy about, it's closer to the beach, a house all to ourselves, hardwood floors, beautiful views of the islands, ocean, mountains, there's a garden and sweet little yard, a tiny guest cottage for our friends, a hot tub, a wood stove, an extra room for a second creature in the next couple of years, and on and on. It feels like a real family home, a place we can settle into without worrying about leaving. It's a bit too big for us right now, and a bit expensive but we took optimistically knowing we'll grow into it, hoping we can do it justice. We're feeling just as happy, grateful and excited as we were last year, but also a bit more grounded about what we want and don't want. We'll post some pictures of our new place once we move in and in the meantime, here are some shots of the household Ham:

Where the Wild Things Are Monster aka Sebastian's "baby"

spontaneous downward dogs are big around here these days

getting into the marshmallows with isla

Did I mention we have a new family member?

Breakfast

Lunch

Even Monkeys pee

Dinnertime

Brushing Monkey's hair before bed

Our world of diapers has turned into lots of road-side squatting, random back-store toilets, and an almost contrast train to and from the bathroom at home. He's been making the transition to being potty trained since the summer when he became anti-diaper, but now aside from naps, nighttime and bus rides Sebastian has decided to be potty trained. We're proud, and happy not to deal with endless diapers and hot water washes. The only thing is that they don't make tighty whiteys for 25lbers, at least not that I've found. Oh how my baby looks less and less like a baby every day!

Our handmade Christmas tree

Sebastian and the Christmas Roman

Gettin in the spirit if things

I guess it's inevitable that the older you get the more people you know die. There's something about December and the holidays that seem to be an extra common time of year to lose someone. I'm not sure why that is, but it's true. It's been a year since Rio's suicide, a day I don't think I could ever forget. I also found out the other day that a friend of mine from Victoria just died of cancer. It's strange to suddenly have this time of year laced with something other than light-hearted anticipation and time with family. I'm sure there will be more December deaths over the years. There's something  about having a friend's suicide on the mind at this time of year that especially cheapens the aspects of Christmas I already dislike. But death is the most inevitable part of life. I want to a way over time to celebrate a more honest holiday that can incorporate the realistic parts of our lives without it feeling completely bizarre.