Archive for September, 2009

Lost in Laundry

by admin on September 29, 2009 in Domestic Damsel with 2 Comments

(This looks bad… like we have to much clothing for our four kids… but it only looks like this because we have no where to put our clothing…)

I dream of dressers. I am frustrated with how much laundry I do because our clothing is in rubbermaids still and the kids pull it all out when looking for one thing… We have two dressers in a family of six people.

I wanna give away all the clothing! Rrrrrrrrrrrr!

Any one know of a good deal on dressers (preferably tall ones so they take up less space) please think of me and let me know!

TTFN

Baby Boy Is One!

by admin on September 28, 2009 in Four Little Eggs In My Nest, Life Keeps Changing, Mama Heart Mushings with No comments

My baby turned one this weekend. He is obviously growing up. Within the last week or two he has started talking more and working really hard on standing and taking steps.

He seems to be very clever thanks to his older siblings life lessons. The other day his older brother lost his temper and threw a toy. Baby Boy stood up and threw the toy back with the same grumpy expression his brother had had. He loves playing catch with us; rolling a ball back and forth on the floor.

I am so thankful for my fourth born. So thankful to have had two boys. So thankful to have had two bum crawlers (him and his older brother both crawled this way). The gorilla like bum scooting will always be a favorite memory of mine. One that will make me giggle.

Full of joy I am watching my baby grow into a toddler. I am very very optimistic about all this families future adventures ahead.

TTFN

Menu Planning HELP!

by admin on September 22, 2009 in Better Check Out Blogs, Better Check Out Links, Bits Of My Personality, Domestic Damsel with 5 Comments

I am all about trying new things when it comes to cooking. I get bored and wanna learn more and try new types of food. I also menu plan and used to find it hard to get enough material to quench my need for NEW RECIPES! Since we have become regular internet users that has all changed. I keep finding sites on line that make whipping up my monthly menu a breeze.

All Recipes is my current fav and most used site for recipes. It has a vast and varied collection put together by regular cooks with special finds. I have a profile so I can take advantage of all the special features like the recipe box, question feature and option to rate and review recipes. The review option makes it easier to avoid the dud recipes!

I have never doubted that ‘Mennonite Girls Can Cook’ but this beautifully maintained blog proves it. I just love eating this blog up and enjoy its big selection due to many contributors.

I also make it a habit of checking out the sites of my favorite food brands or products because they will often have really good recipes, since they want their product to shine!

Anyone else have a really great site I can check out? Let me know and leave the address in the comment box.

TTFN

Adore Knitting

by admin on September 22, 2009 in Bits Of My Personality with No comments
ONE DAY I will learn to knit!(My newest addition to my ‘knit items’ collection. My three year old looks so sweet in this hooded sweater and she loved it’s pockets.)

For now I adore buying hand made items for my family. It is art to me. I am always looking for local artists. The collection is not all local but it is definitely growing!

The blanket pictured below started it all. I have had it for years and years. It was made by my grandmother for my grandpa’s bed. When he died I would sleep over and us this blanket. It wasn’t long after I moved away to college that this blanket was mailed to me by Grandma and I cherish it.

(Can you see my three year old snug in this blanket?)(Scarf made by my aunt for my eldest daughter; soft and pretty!)(One of my first hand made finds at a local second hand store. My eldest daughter looks so pretty in this sweater.)
(Another of my many second hand store finds. This one I picked up in Flin Flon Manitoba on a vacation this summer. I couldn’t believe how reasonably priced this big blanket was!)
(Two adorable hand made stuffies I couldn’t resist. Lady Penelope Violet is the bear and a locally made find. Her best friend is the black sheep, made in Kenya, named Lord Percy Woolworth.)

There is something beautiful about hand made that can never be replaced by mass made. When I find a new blanket or sweater and I take hold of it I can’t help but imagine a story about who made it and think about that creative person working away with dedication so I could enjoy such a lovely item.

TTFN

Summer’s End Is Coming…Fall is Knocking…

by admin on September 21, 2009 in Bits Of My Personality, Life Keeps Changing with 3 Comments
“But now in September the garden has cooled, and with it my possessiveness. The sun warms my back instead of beating on my head … The harvest has dwindled, and I have grown apart from the intense midsummer relationship that brought it on.”
– Robert Finch (Ahhhh, September… it is unusually summer like this September!)

After school we sat in the front yard and played in the sun. It was very hot (above thirty) and yet we where playing with a tell tale sign that autumn will eventually win over summers end. We where crunching up dried leaves… I had a beautiful summer but I still love the changing of seasons. I adore autumn, for it is sweet and so short where I live. I am excited about winter, for I have plans to teach my oldest two to skate this year… forgive me if you do not share this anticipation… but it is inevitable and I get such a surge of energy when I feel the change in the air!

“‘Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.”
– Thomas Moore, The Last Rose of Summer, 1830

Departing summer hath assumed
An aspect tenderly illumed,
The gentlest look of spring;
That calls from yonder leafy shade
Unfaded, yet prepared to fade,
A timely carolling.
– William Wordsworth, September

TTFN

A Sailor Girly and A Pout-y Baby

by admin on September 17, 2009 in Bits Of My Personality, Mama Heart Mushings with No comments
I saw it, heard it, felt it and I captured it in my mind.

Had just left a housewarming party for a lovely friend of mine. I jumped in the van and it was yucky hot. Our air doesn’t work so I opened all the windows for my littlest two’s sakes. To keep the wind from transforming my hair into a rats nest I grabbed my cowgirl hat. As soon as it was on my head I felt good (wink).

The hat, the long earrings dangling against my neck, the breezy top I was wearing and the wind flowing into the van; all added up to one thing, A SING YOU GUTS OUT MOMENT! I turned on the radio and OF COURSE a favorite song of mine was on. I don’t know when the kids passed out but they fell asleep pretty quick and their mama sang all the way home!

When we arrived home I looked back to see two babies out like a light. Baby Boy had such a pout-y look I had to kiss him. Little Woman was in her adorable new sailor-girl suit and had a Popsicle stick still clutched firmly in her little fist. Her face was covered in blue dried on Popsicle and her cheeks appeared squeezable!

I got out of the van, opened their door and stood there staring at them. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my babies!

A near perfect moment in life for me! Picking them up, I carried them into the house, still singing my favorite tune!

TTFN

All The Angry Noise

by admin on September 17, 2009 in My Listening Year with 4 Comments
Galatians 5

22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

So much noise around me, coming from members of The Body, and I am left feeling raw…

So many messages demanding I listen and agree…

You find fault in all that I believe…

So many perceptions and views slapping me down…

You find pleasure in making me doubt…
So many angry voices telling me who I am…

All I want to do is love Jesus and live by his Spirit…

I need to get a grip…

A few weeks ago I felt like Christ was calling me to really focus on the basics…
to work out my salvation with fear and trembling (to take it seriously)…
to quiet my mind and spirit and focus on where it all began…

The week following this call I was hit with many aggressive mixed ‘messages’!

I boiled all the crazy noise down…
and my heart went from being stormy to calm…
and all that was left was love…

A couple days later I felt him speak out of the love that remained…
out of the love grew selflessness…
a gentle spirit full of faith, mercy, peace, patience, joy, thankfulness, praise, worship and truth…
and I felt assured that no amount of noise can take that away from me.

The noise likes to make you doubt…
likes to block out your rock solid beliefs…
and try to blur truth…
muddy the waters of your faith and hope in Jesus Christ.

Is nothing sacred? Would the noise attack even LOVE? NO MATTER! My God is bigger then the noise and does not need to defend himself to the noise!

I will remember love (Jesus), TRUE LOVE (JESUS)!

TTFN

A Good Oops:)

by admin on September 15, 2009 in Bits Of My Personality, Life Keeps Changing, My Listening Year, People In My Heart with 2 Comments

We made our plans and we changed our plans and we ended up at the first after all.I feel a bit like I am struggling to really connect with the church we are attending. Everyone is so busy, including us, and so we miss out on so much. Christ has given us this group of people for a reason. Even though I am often afraid to jump into relationships, I want too with this group!

Baby boy had a fever Saturday night so we assumed we weren’t going to the church’s big ‘kick off’ picnic as planned. We took our Sunday slow because of our boy feeling off. We made pancakes and relaxed. The kids started to get antsy and so we decided a little bike ride would do no harm for every ones sake.

As we passed a local park we realized our congregation was out in the field and then remembered the picnic. We are usually not spontaneous people and our new plan meant not going to the picnic (which had already begun) but I am also a romantic and felt like there was a reason for us spotting the group. There was no reason not to swing back and join the group…After all, we where already out and about, had a fully loaded diaper bag and everyone was in a good mood!

(Big Boy enjoying his fancy balloon hat before his Daddy borrows it.)

The kids had a blast and my man and I felt like we finally made it out to something going on at this church!

(Only Dad can look serious while borrowing his son’s balloon hat!)

It felt like summer! Mid September and the weather was perfectly summer-y! These are the kind of days you have to grab a hold of and deliberately enjoy! I am hoping God changes more of our mature decisions and plans for our better real soon.

TTFN

Apple Festival!

by admin on September 10, 2009 in Domestic Damsel, Four Little Eggs In My Nest, Mama Heart Mushings, My Romance with 3 Comments

I need your help! Let me tell you about my evening and then ask you for the assistance I seek.
Dad and the big kids got busy tonight and collected apples from our tree. This was no simple task as our tree’s apple grow very high and the tree is hidden behind our cedars so access for picking is pretty limited. With no ladder tall enough my husband climbed the one we had and shook the tree with a rake.

The kids stood by with a sheet to catch the apples. I have to say they did alright but we are hoping their catching skills will improve. Most of the apples still hit the ground and then the kids kept kicking them when they went to collect them and threw them into the sheet, which was laying mostly on the ground (thus no soft landing for our sad little apples). The apples where pretty much apple sauce before I even touched them.

I couldn’t help enjoying Garnet’s grunts and groans. Each time he gave the tree a shake a shower of apples would pummel his noggin. He decided looking down and getting them on the head was better then the few times he looked up and got them in the kisser.
I set to work tonight with two happy little ones at my feet (sneaking bits of apple when ever they could). My Little Woman and Baby Boy watched me make two large pots of apple sauce and freeze enough apples cut up for six pies. My little ones had a blast smashing the apples together, rolling them, bouncing them and chewing on them. It is amazing how happy a bunch of bruised, sorry old apples can make my baby boy and little woman.Garnet and I had a good laugh about our little harvesting adventure and we decided to make this a fall family tradition. We couldn’t agree on a name for our families little festival so we are asking for suggestions and if you have none then opinions on the ideas we came up with. The ideas are as follows:

1) Tree Shaking Festival
2) Alley Apple Festival (due to the apples being most accessible from the alley beside our house.
3) Shaking Tree Festival
4) Shake and Sheet Apple Collection Festival
5) Falling Apple Festival

Please leave your ideas and/or preference in the comment box:)

TTFN

Flirty Little Post

by admin on September 8, 2009 in My Listening Year, My Romance with 3 Comments
Pardon me while I gush about my man!(Garnet will probably have a ‘grunt’ response to my blog title today (he he he) but I am going to ignore his adorable shyness and GUSH!)

I was thinking about my last post involving my man. He seemed surprised to see a little note of affection on my blog about him… I think more of the ‘he says love’ posts are needed in the future.

I often complain that my man isn’t romantic and definitely isn’t a poetic sort but truth is I am lacking in the romance department too. We have been married for almost ten years and have four kids and our date life is pretty sad (last date was a year ago and we ran out for coffee after a parent teacher appointment and called it a date… shameful, I know). I guess I have let the fatigue that comes with being a mommy cloud my view where my man is concerned. Time to put on some rose colored glasses and really focus on the US, romantically! I dedicate myself to finding that daily romance in our lives again…

I started out this year with a clear vision about learning to LISTEN to God and I really feel he has been sending clear messages that I need to appreciate my man more DELIBERATELY and need to enjoy my marriage more (a.k.a. more romance). I felt this message hit home when I started planning our ten year anniversary party… I had always planned to have a lovely re dedication ceremony but these last few months I chickened out… I got nervous and decided to dumb down the whole party. I was afraid I would have nothing to say (again SHAME) after ten years of hard work being parents! Don’t get me wrong, I know I clearly love my man but I was starting to think love didn’t involve mush anymore… I had a good friend give me a verbal lashing and a kick in the butt when I shared this with her (thanks Anna) and she was just another hint from my God.

I WILL PLAN THAT ROMANTIC re dedication ceremony!

Watch out everyone! I am a woman dedicated to mushing and gushing about my man! It shouldn’t be too hard really, after all, he is incredible!

TTFN

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