My Humble Words

This Sums It Up

2012-01-31T21:53:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine had a post on her FB page about how her preschool-aged son is teaching her so much when she is by profession a teacher.

I think God does that to humble us teachers. I think he does a lot to humble us. . .and to bless us.

Here is my little {weekend} story for you:

It is Sunday afternoon. The family is doing odds and ends types of things. I'm catching up on few things that don't get done during the week (yes--on Sunday!!!) And then we get a phone call from Grandma, she wants us to visit--right now. I'll admit it. I'm a planner. I like planned visits better. But we pick up and go, because, well, really, what is stopping us?

While heading out the door, I'm thinking of all those little things that I'm trying to catch up on and the fact that we are having the small group over this evening--stress for me. Love having people over, but it is instant stress. I'm not a perfect hostess. I wish I were. I'm not. So, there lies the stress.

Guess I was thinking about that too much. My oldest son is putting on his shoes and asks, "What do you guys talk about?" So I answer, "You know, we read the Bible, we talk about what God wants us to do and how God shows us grace." Hubby cuts in: "We do that with Grandma?" I admit that I was thinking he was talking about small group. My son says, "Don't worry, Mom. I'll pick out a story for you to read to Grandma." Hmmm. . .hubby and I look at each other. . .how is this going to work? Not our typical "visiting" material.

But we visit. Son goes to play with Lego. And I figure I'm safe from the Bible story reading. (Yes, I actually thought those exact words!) But my son doesn't forget and a bit into the visit all of a sudden he abandons the Lego and is holding a Bible for me. "Okay, your turn to read."

Grandma gets all concerned (should I point out she was a "pastor" at one point? Ah, maybe not.) She wants to know why he needs her Bible, what verse he needs, what is going on.

And I smile. Flip the bible open, "because it;s the kind that flops" says E, and start reading about the Plagues of all things. God's mighty power shown on earth to those who didn't want to listen to God.

Kinda fitting.

Grandma wants to know what I am doing. This is all a little weird.

I explain. . .and yes, it's weird.

But I guess my son knows it better. God didn't call us to live in community and just visit. He asked us to grow in faith together. . .and I guess you gotta read His word to do that.

E was the happiest kid in the world because we read the Bible at Grandma's house.

"I guess that is what you talk about now." Smart kid.

This morning at staff devotions, the leaders talked about how God blesses us and in return we can bless others; sometimes intentionally, sometimes just by doing your every day stuff. Then they led us in singing this song.

I think every once in a while you get a song that sums it all up. . .

Glorious Day by Casting Crown

I'm just pretty thankful for the blessings I'm surrounded by in the extraordinary. . .and the ordinary, weird parts of life.

Crumpled Paper Bullying Lesson

2012-01-23T20:43:00.000-08:00

Here is a little devotional I prepared about bullying/treating others as God would have you treat them.
The story/text came from here, but you can find stories based on this one if you type in the right search words (crumpled paper bullying worked for me). I actually first came across this activity one day checking out Pinterest for the first time--a pin told the story of a teacher from NY who did this. Whoever this teacher is, thank you for letting me use your idea to hopefully challenge and change a few minds.

Begin by handing out pieces of paper, having every one create their name on one and read these verses:

Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV)

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

Jeremiah 1:5(NIV)

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

(Crumple and crush paper)

Read:

"Theteacher gave each student a clean crisp sheet of paper. She then instructed theclass to crumble up the piece of paper, toss it around, get angry with it, andstomp on it.

After which,she told the students to return to their seats (with their piece of paper),flatten it out on the top of their desks, making it as flat and perfect as theycan, and finally, apologize to the paper.

When all thestudents had done their best to iron out the paper and apologize to it, theteacher picked up the paper on the first classmates desk, held it up so theentire class could see it and said:

If this pieceof paper had been another person, and you had done all those things to him orher, by making them feel less than perfect (through your words or actions),these are the scars you would leave. That person would never be the same, nomatter how many times you tell them you are sorry, no matter how many times youtry to smooth things out..."

As a follow up: I would talk about how we can never make the piece of paper straight again--there would always be creases left, no matter how many apologies were made. No matter how many crease we may have made in our own papers or in the papers of others, we could never take them back completely. As a Christian, there is one who already did this for us. He took our crumpled names and brought them before the Father. He showed the Father His wounds, He reminded the Father of His Love, and the Father made the paper new again.

A few more verse to read:

2 Corinthians 5:17(NIV)

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:^[The old has gone, the new is here!

1 John 3:1(NIV)

¹See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be calledchildren of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know usis that it did not know him.

John 3:16(NIV)

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

1 Peter 3:12-14(NIV)

¹² For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

¹³ Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? ¹⁴But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not feartheir threats; do not be frightened.”

Luke 12:7(NIV)

⁷ Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don’t beafraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

And a few verse you can read as you picture yourself standing before the Father, and He is saying to you that because He loved you and His Son already paid for your sins:

Song of Songs 2:2(NIV)

He

² Like a lily among thorns
is my darling among the young women.

Song of Songs 4:7(NIV)

⁷ You are altogether beautiful, my darling;
there is no flaw in you.

And a video or two:

You Make Beautiful Things
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uumI-PdeZzY

Something Beautiful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5xuRcW4bvM

How He Loves Us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxTOsQ3LDE4

You're Beautiful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg4cYdP1ngw&feature=related

Doll House

2012-01-22T18:29:00.000-08:00

This past Christmas, Princess A got a bit of a surprise! A retired neighbor of ours, who loves to build and create, made this great doll house for her. He had started as soon as it was no longer gardening weather/time, as that is his other big hobby. The kids love walking through his gardens and pathways and checking out the different plants growing and creature hiding around his yard. On a few walks by his house, we saw the house slowly forming and the initial work taking place, but it was a big surprise that he kept from ALL the kids. . .and as best he could from us, too!

Until a few weeks before Christmas, he invited "the adults" in the house over to check it all out! We were amazed! He and his wife explained how he made it all and where ideas came from. That in itself was amazing! And then we arranged a secret time to bring it, and all of its parts, over to our house to hide and save until Christmas.

Christmas finally came, and this is Princess A's gift from our kind neighbor!

He built and decorated the entire thing! He added little features, such as our house number to personalize it for her!

The part that we find amazing (an that Princess A probably doesn't understand yet) is that most of everything inside and outside is created and decorated by him. He made the front swing open like doors, with a little latch so that Princess A can hide away her toys from the wandering toddler in the house! Inside, each room is decorated with flooring, wallpaper. . .and even pictures on the walls. He made staircases, doors that swing open and a full-kitchen with fridges and stoves that open and close!

She was pretty surprise and happy on when she finally got to see it all!

Here is E and Princess A setting up some of the "extras" our kind neighbor created--things like tables, chairs, beds, bunk beds, a playpen, the works--most of it all handmade or hand-carved, and some of it purchased over time.

He made the "roof" to be a like a backyard, complete with a hot tub, a corner garden (see the animals and bugs on the trees?) and pond (with goldfish!) like Opa's and a birdbath, etc., like at his place. (The people/figures in the pictures are all of us in the family--he had one figure for each person in our family and a dog and a cat for some of the neighbor hood animals. Allyson also added her own toys--littlest pet shop figures, etc.)

Here is how A plays with it--we how have it on a kind of stand so that we can put tubs of toys for this house underneath.

A few close-ups--here is the dining area--all of the dining set is made by him, as well as the mantle.

Here is the kitchen--he once visited us to check out our renos, and made the kitchen to match ours--the laminate on the coutertops is the same! All the cabinets open as well!

Here is the bathroom. . .and in true fashion of the houses of the age of ours, the blue in the bathroom is quite common!

Here is one of the bedrooms. . .if you see in the background the photo. . .E and this neighbor first became "friends" because they would talk about the blue herons that would come and eat Opa's fish. He took a picture of the one that visited his house for E and gave it to E once day. That is the same photo hanging in this room. In the room below, is a picture of all the kids last winter. . .he took a picture from his house of all of us playing in the snow, then made it into a portrait for this little house!

Princess A has also added a few toys from Christmas, a few toys from Opa and Oma, and will often have her ponies playing in the house as well. Our neighbor and his wife told me that either me or Oma would have to be the ones to do the sewing of curtains and bed mattresses/quilts as that was out of their expertise! Well, I can take that, as this is quite the detailed project! Princess A LOVES it!

And every once in a while (A wishes he could touch it all the time. . .but his touching might become breaking, so he needs to stay away!), the boys will join in to play as well. . .

That is when the dinosaurs come to invade the backyard and the cars are in the playroom. . .

MPM. . .again

2012-01-16T19:36:00.000-08:00

WELL . . .how long has it been since I have posted one of these?!?!?

One "change" for the new year was to get back into some of the organized routines I had before I went back to work. Meal planning often slipped through the cracks . . . and grilled cheese can be made in so many different forms! I KNOW I won't have time to blog about meal planning all the time, but with a few spare moments, and needing to be on the computer to find some recipes anyway, here is what my week is looking like:

Monday- Chicken Milani (CP), buns
Tuesday- Crock Pot Gingered Beef, rice, salad
Wednesday- Easy Baked Chicken Courdon Bleu (stuffed version~I think that is easier, and using a real cheese sauce), noodles, glazed carrots
Thursday-left-overs
Friday-pizza
Saturday-we'll see. . .
Sunday (Breakfast for Supper)-Pancakes & sausages

Last week's highlight:
Last week I made the Better Butter Chicken from the Eat, Shrink and Be Merry Cookbook. I think this might be a link for it. I was pretty hesitant about making it. . .but I knew I liked it and the hubby liked it. . .I was just worried about the kids liking it. No worries! This recipe isn't quite so spicy as a more authentic kind, so it was perfect. And the hubby got a spicier batch for himself. :)

See more MPM at www.orgjunkie.com

First Snow

2012-01-14T15:04:00.000-08:00

This is what the kids were up to this morning. . .

We have a rule in our house that the kids need to stay in bed until 7am (especially on weekends!)

So at 7:01, I hear,"Can we eat breakfast now so I can play outside?"

The first snow of the season.

I have to admit, I was pretty skeptical of it all. . .but the snow came!

And we all played!

A in the "nowa"

Princess A

E helping shovel snow in the neighborhood

On top of the mountain . . .

And coming down the mountain!

The As playing. . .

And making the snow fort

Happy snow day!

Gingerbread to-day

2012-01-08T20:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Christmas . . .well, it was in Ethiopia and the Ukraine yesterday, right?

In keeping with all these late Christmas posts, this is what we did today! Yep, we made gingerbread men 2 weeks after Christmas!

Didn't they turn out fabulous?

Here are the fine artists--so serious about this fun activity!

Yep, it was lots of fun!

Happy family fun this new year!

O Little Town. . . in a Formula Can

2012-01-07T12:48:00.000-08:00

I know this is kinda late to post as it is a Christmas project to do in the classroom (or at home), but I just can't wait until next year to do it! And it turned out so nice, so. . .here you go!

My "inspiration" for this project came from two places. One, I had a collection of formula cans sitting in my basement collecting dust. (I'm dutch or thrifty. . .take your pick! I can't throw away something that could be useful!) Two, I found these cute printables that I thought HAD to be used for something good!

So, here is what I did. . .I took a project that I had done every year, and changed it into a 3D storytelling can. Here is the 3D version of "O Little Town of Bethlehem."

Unfortunately, I can't find a picture of a finished project right now. . .but below is the general idea. The kids would either paint or use pastels to make the night sky. Then we would make the town of Bethlehem as a silhouette, glue it on, and put starts in the sky--by way of shiny stickers, stamps or paint. For this project, I did all that still, but instead of just mounting them on a black background and hanging them up on the wall, we put them on a can. Check it out:

You can use formula cans, hot chocolate or coffee cans. . .whatever.

I did this project in small parts, mostly with the help of parent helpers in the classroom or as a centre activity here and there. The first part was paining the sunset background. We talked about blending the colours together to make a night sky.

The second part was making the town of Bethlehem. We read the Bible story and looked at some picture Bibles as well to get an idea of what kinds of houses and inns Mary and Joseph might have seen the night they came to Bethlehem. Then we drew them. Below is my "instructions" for a Centre activity.

Once we had glued the "town" onto the background, we cut the background to the size of the can and glued it onto the can. (Next time I might first cut the papers to the size of the can as a bunch of the colours that that kids mixed to make the sunset background got chopped off. It still looks fine, but I would rather see more colours!)

Here are the kids gluing the backgrounds onto the cans.

And holding the edges together to make sure it stuck in place!

Here are the cans resting until the next step.

Next we added wire to the top as a handle for the cans. . .and to use as a place to have our Bethlehem star hang from.

A bunch of the cans with the wires on them. . .the cardboard cans were easier--obviously. I used a hammer and nail for all of them and the kids put the wires through, but I had to actually work at getting a hole in the metal ones!

Then we punched out some stars with a craft punch, glued two together at the ends of some yellow embroidery floss

Then tied a bow. . .and there is a hanging Bethlehem star.

There are no pictures of it, but at a centre, we cut out these printables, and glued them on to strips of construction paper folded in half in order to stand up. These we stored in out cans. We also added 4 Popsicle sticks used to make the outline of a stable, three wise men, and a pasture for the shepherds.

Each year in class we have a booklet of the Christmas story. Each page has the story in an "easy-to-read" form and a space to create a directed-drawing picture. These books became more meaningful this year, as the kids were able to read their story along with their project. After each page read, the kids would get to "act out" the story using their characters and their town of Bethlehem. They LOVED it!

We practiced reading it together and acting it out as a whole class. Then, they got to team up with their grade three buddies and read/ tell the story of Christ's birth.

Below if a "final" scene from one group.

We will see if I can do this project again next year. . .with no more formula in the house. . .I need to start drinking a lot of coffee and hot chocolate in order to save up enough cans!

Christmas done

2012-01-04T20:45:00.000-08:00

Happy new year to all!

As celebrated by Princess A! (Her glass is soon to be filled with milk for supper!)

I got my little Christmas tree skirt done. . .on January 1st! Even our Christmas decorations were taken down already! I took a picture or two and then packed it into the box for next year!
That stitching sure takes forever!

I changed a few things about it. . .I had originally used embroidery floss as the centre of the stars, but didn't like it, so I changed it to ribbon bows there instead.

I also made some ties, for if I don't just overlap the circle around the tree.

A maroon star. . .and the edging of the entire circle.

Project done! It only took 3 days to post about it! I'm a little behind on a few things!

Christmas softies, take 2

2011-12-23T16:01:00.000-08:00

I posted earlier about making these little felt ornaments.

In the meantime, I tried to make a different shape. I just don't love it so much. I think I am a fan of stars.

Eventually I did get some white to make the candy cane stars. LOVE them!

And after much contemplation-wanting to make snowflakes, and then ornaments, then this, then that-I went back to the original idea of stars for the tree skirt I was hoping to make by Christmas. I decided to make them white with maroon/magenta and light blue stitching. I hate matching colours. I took a snowman decoration from our house I liked and matched the colours to it.

So here is my start. . .

A finished blue. . .

And a finished maroon/magenta . . .

I still need to stitch the outer edges of the tree skirt. . .

We will have to see if it gets done. It is an ice-skating kind of evening for me and my son tonight, so I don't think much will get done. At least it should be done for next Christmas!

A little pre-Christmas

2011-12-23T15:32:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how long it has been since I posted last!

I can believe that I have been having an awesome week with my kiddos so far!

A busy end to school. . .and now it is a lot of playing. No sleeping in for me, but I can't ask for too much, right?

Last night the kids got a surprise visit from Santa! Yep, Santa came right to our door! Along with two firetrucks and a bunch of firemen on their way to the hospital to spread some Christmas cheer there. It was a nice pre-visit for my kids--their eyes were HUGE as they looked at a "real" Santa that close!-- and they each got a stuffy from Santa as well.

The kids have been busy making cards. . .here is one E had for a teacher/helper at his school. "Real Christmas cards are just kinda boring, unless they have glitter"--according to him.

Crazy me always have my kiddos help me make cards of some kind. I started this when E was 3, I think. They love it, but I am crazy for doing it! This year we made cards using recycled materials (cards, paper, left-over craft materials, etc.) We didn't get very far. . .I think we only made 19. And I also haven't sent too many off yet. . .too busy!

But never too busy for. . .

A hot chocolate break!

The Christmas picture we finally settled on. . .after all the other failures! But then, who knows if anyone will see it as the Christmas cards are not being used so much yet.

More Christmas crafts/ornaments that need to be made. . .

Yep, one craft a day is how it has been going down at our house. In addition to the other "creative messes" we have going on, of course.

And to close this overdue post. . .

This is the first picture with Santa the kids have ever had. We finally decided that this year Santa wasn't so scary! (Although, from the photo, I can't tell that Princess A is convinced. She did find him later so she could give him a hug!)

Blessings to you during this holiday season!

A little Christmas softie

2011-11-12T08:49:00.001-08:00

I was home on my own on Friday night, and decided to try out a little craft. It was one of those nights where I had two loads of laundry to fold and a movie to watch.

(As a side note, it was WWJD (What Would Jesus Do? with John Schneider and Adam Gregory . . . got it from the library. . . and was quite impressed with its message, just FYI. Good to watch . . . not raving about the acting or anything like that, but a good movie to still watch and I am not regretting it. I liked Fireproof a lot too, for that same reason. So. . .that is my take.)

I had wanted to make a tree skirt for my Christmas tree--knowing full well I should start that NOW if I wanted to get it done by the time we set up the tree! I had this great idea, but wanted to test out the stitching before doing it on the final project. . .so I decided to make a little Christmas ornament. I got this idea from here. (BTW--adorable blog!) I was going to make it look EXACTLY the same! When I was looking for my felt, it turned out my "white" was actually a white with apple green polka dots! Hmmm. . .what to do.

I did a little google search for Christmas colour trends, and found this fantastic photo. I loved all the bright colours. . .not sure I would ever try it in my own house, but loved the colours together . . . which gave me the confidence to keep trying my little softie.

(image from here)

I chose a deep magenta-kind of purple embroidery floss. Then I put the two star shapes together and started my stitching. Blanket stitching, I believe it is called.

Okay, okay. I got too excited! Back up to the beginning. This is what you want to do first: Get a star pattern. Cut out two. Choose embroidery floss and get a needle.

THEN, start stitching! I tried to get some close-up photos to show you my stitching. You just do your regular go in the back and come out the front stitching . . .

. . .except that when you are ready to go in the back you need to thread it through your loop.

That will "hook" the top and make that nice line along the outer edge of your piece of felt.

(And for some reason, I want to do this stitching around about 10 stars on my Christmas tree skirt!!! What am I thinking?!!?)

At about this point, I decided to get some of my "stuffing" (quilting batting for me) to make it poofy and soft.

Once it is full, I finished stitching around the last point of my star, made a loop for hanging. And there you go--a star.

However, I added a little star button (just lighter than my embroidery floss) and the extra floss in a bow. I placed it just off to the side of the centre of my ornament (although it is kinda hard to see from the picture.

I think I will have a bunch of nights like this if I am going to finish up that tree skirt idea of mine. . .

anyone want to come for a crafting/coffee/cookies night?

Happy crafting!

Halloween Weekend

2011-10-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

This weekend we did all of our "Halloween Stuff" (for lack of a better way to say it all!)

The local library had a program for kids--they could come dressed up, but their stuffie also had to have a costume! Very cute idea! So my kids picked their "costumes" for the kids, got on google for its help in printables, and enlisted the help of Oma for making a tutu for the fairy stuffie.

My Spiderman with his bat-dog.

My fairy princess with her fairy princess Ruthie-Lynn

The kids listening to some stories at the Library. They also got to play some games, make a mask, and collect a treat!

Later in the evening the grown-ups went to a pumpkin carving get-together with our small group. . . here was my food contribution. Chocolate and creepy-crawlies! Yum!

(See below for the {small} pumpkin the hubby created!)

The next day was pumpkin carving day with the kiddos.

Daddy and Princess A making their scary pumpkin face

E designed his own this year and needed some help learning how to get it on the pumpkin "the way Daddy does it."

E hard at work. . . and Princess A there for the photo!

E's pumpkin

Princess A's pumpkin

Then came the actual day! Here is our chauffeur, in true pumpkin-day style!

Here are our fearless trick-or-treaters!

A fairy princess, a fisherman (minus the hat that was just too annoying to keep on for him!) and Spiderman.

We visited Grandma and Grandpa Al's neighborhood, where we saw our cousins too. . .

. . . and then met up with some of our friends to tour Opa and Oma's neighborhood, where we saw our other cousins, too!

And here is our "pumpkin-magic" for the evening.

Happy Halloween to you all!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

More Fall FUN!!!

The school I teach at went on a field trip to Aldor Acres. It is a 4 seasons farm, but we went to help celebrate our unit on Fall and Pumpkins. It turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day! I'm not sure we could have asked for a better day! (Okay, maybe a few less bees. . .)

One great thing about this field trip was that the class I taught had lots of parent supervisors come along, so I got to spend some time with my class and some time with my son, who is in a different class. What a blessing that was for me (because it is also one of the "bad" things about working/teaching as a mom!). So here is my little guy with his pumpkin!

Playing on some of the decorations they had. . .E loved this one!

This is one of the barns the kids got to go in and see/play with the animals. This farm did a pretty good job of having displays and information about the animals, and lots of them to pet as well!

The big pig and the piglets!

Just a fun little picture of E and the kids in his group. It was great to be able to see the kids in all the classes play and explore around this great place!

Holding the baby bunnies. . .I think E wants a pet now!

It was another great day to explore God's creation and the changes He brings about during the seaons of FALL!

Family Fall Fun

2011-10-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

Around Thanksgiving, my sister and her family came out to visit. There were a few sunny days, so we took a little trip to a local "farm." We left the youngest kids with Oma and Opa, and then all of us big kids enjoyed the sights, sounds and smells of Willowview Farms. I love the cutesy-country feel of this place! They have great decorations for Fall and the Country Store--oh my! Loved it!

It was quite a sunny day, and it seemed like all the photo opportunities were facing the sun! So here are the kiddos, squinting as I forced them to stand for a picture!

My adorable niece! She loved seeing all the pumpkins.

And my adorable kiddos!

Walking through the big pumpkins, and trying to move them. We were not successful at that, but it was fun to try.

And many more pumpkins to choose from. Too many actually!

I loved this little "How Tall This Fall?" height measure! If only the sun were shining the other direction and I could get a decent picture. . .oh well, maybe another time. Or to create one of my own somewhere. . . (to my hubby's horror!)

Our favourite animal of the day. . .little piggies!

A picture in one of the pumpkin patches. . .those are big pumpkins!

And a picture in the corn field. . .the kids had never walked in between row of corn before, so that was kind of exciting for them!

Oh course there was the apple orchard, the play area, the animals, the candy sticks and pie. . .so much to do and enjoy there!

{And the bees! Who can get away from the bees this year!}

And so much fun to do it all with family!

So long Fall Fun Day!

After-School Closet

2011-09-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my hubby did the greatest thing. One of many of his greatest things, of course.

We have re-done (well, almost re-done. . .you know how those ends of projects--the little details, the little fix ups, the last coat of paint--last forever!) our kitchen. In our "older" box-like home, we had a closet at the top of stairs. We had turned it into a pantry soon after we moved into the place as we needed the space to store stuff as our small kitchen/lack of cupboard space didn't allow for the room we needed. Now that our kitchen has a few more cupboards and drawers, I didn't need all that space for pantry anymore.

I love the new kitchen, but I was getting annoyed at the mess made by the school bags, dancing bags, diaper bags and extra junk sitting around the living room and kitchen--and I was making that mess too! We just didn't have a spot to put it all that "worked." I had talked to the hubby about converting that closet into and area for all the "bags," and he had said he would do it one day, but. . .you know how that goes.

So maybe it was the fact that I had thought I had checked all the pockets of kids' clothes after the school week was done. I have kids who like to find treasures and a hubby who likes to keep candy wrappers in his pockets, so this is quite a ritual for me. Maybe it was because it was Friday night and work week #3 was done for me. . .but apparently there were crayons in my son's pockets. They went through the washing machine just fine--and gave no sign of them being there. But then when I was getting the clothes from the dryer. . .it was a tie-dyed mess! Primary colours were EVERYWHERE!!! (I was suddenly cursing the meal out we had (you know , the kind of meal out where they give your kids crayons with the menu that somehow ended up in my sons pockets!!!)--even though it was really nice not to have had to cook that night!). So there was me, googling to find a fix. This and the accompanying articles saved me! All the clothes are spotless and the dryer is cleaned! Phew! Don't think I want to test that out ever again! I figured if I were ever going to have to clean up a crayon mess, it would be from kids colouring on the walls. . .nope not me! I get to be the one to figure out the dryer!

Maybe when the hubby came home on Friday night really late and saw me crazy at work (and maybe a little annoyed!) prompted him to get started on this closet project the next morning. Or maybe it was just on his to-do list. At any rate, I am totally happy about it!

First he took out all the shelves, with the help of two fine workers.

He enlisted the help of one of those workers to take out all the old screws and brackets. . .

Then he was busy constructing away. Here is (kind-of) the end result. I have two storage/pantry shelves above a space of hooks for the bags, backpacks and so forth! There are hooks for the brooms and aprons, and he mounted one of those plastic storage things for re-using plastic bags.

(The big paint bucket is our current recycling bin, so I have to get a new one of those, and there is space on the bottom for storage, too. Again, those ice-cream buckets have to go, but I had them for now, so they are in the photo! I was just so happy with this closet! I had to post about it right away! The rush out to get proper containers will happen next week or so!)

It needs a little organization and rearranging of the food items, bins, etc, but that will come. It also all needs a coat of paint and a few holes filled. . .you know, all those kinds of details that take forever to finish. . .but right now it is very functional, so I am a happy wife and a happy mom!

Here is a closer photo of the hooks under the shelf. . .

And the other side. . .

And, once the door is closed, you'd never know that there is a lot of junk hiding behind it! Now my living room and kitchen isn't scattered with lunch kits, backpacks and the like. . .and I love that!

I think my hubby is the greatest!

Airplanes. . .

2011-09-14T21:43:00.000-07:00

A highlight of the summer for us has been the airshow.

We were very lucky this year and my daughter won (well, her name was drawn to win) a colouring contest that got her a family pass to the show. Maybe is was random, or maybe it was the excessive pink and purple used to colour the photos of these old fighter air crafts. Who knows?!?

The family (some of us) also went to the airshow thanks to the wonderful berry farmers who let some lawn chairs be set up on the edge of the property for a few hours. :)

Here is E's (and one of Princess A's) collection for the airshow. He spent some time on the website researching the air crafts he would see and wanted to be sure that he could make up his own airshow at home based on what he had read and what he saw.

Checking things out. . .

Gotta love kids and binoculars!

See Princess A eating? I think she really goes along for the snacks.

Here is one of the photos they got from the fields of the snowbirds. Not too bad. . .

But then, back to the actual airshow. Dad hadn't been there last year to look at the museum, so we took him along this time! Here we are checking out some of the army vehicles.

Here are the kids trying to fly one of the HUGE ones (this is a US one--there were more of those and they were bigger.)

Not a bad shot, I think. Especially when you are trying to take a picture right beside two people who have the big, specialized Nikons and Cannons with all the bells and whistles. This is the result of a cute little point and shoot!

Here is some of the family in one of the big ones again.

This is how Princess A enjoyed the airshow. . .although I don't think Dad minded too much either.

My cutie!

My other one! Sporting his Airshow T-shirt. . .

And another shot from the show. . .it was a fun afternoon.

Good-bye Summer, Hello School

2011-09-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

Gone are the carefree days of summer,

staying in pajamas late

going outside to play early

Mom having a cup of coffee in semi-peace

when the kids would play all day

together

pretending to be everything imaginable

and exploring the world around us.

Oh, how I savoured those last few days!

Good-bye summer!

Hello school days!

Welcoming first days of school and students!

This year was a little different as mom and son both had first days of school! It was I who welcomed a batch of my own group of primary students, and it was Dad who brought E to school on the first day.

(And as a result, fewer pictures than I would have taken!)

But he met his friends and met his teachers and started all the exciting things school had to offer a "bored-summer-mind,"and it was okay that summer was over for him! School was way more exciting. . .plus there are still hours after school and in the evening to play and bike and swim!

Princess A was a little bit jealous and a lot bit going to miss her playmate. She needed a first day of school for E picture, and took a few days to get used to playing without him. But soon enough she got to start a "school" of her own. . .

Dancing!

What kind of princess can resist wearing pink and prancing around???

And I rush out the door--some days with no coffee at all--wondering,

"Where has summer gone?"

Making a Rainforest

2011-08-23T14:04:00.000-07:00

It so happened the my son was sitting though one "boring" church service and paging through a magazine called The Banner. It was the August 2011 one. This publication has a section called, "Just for Kids," and this particular month's was all about the rainforest (Really Cool Rainforests by a Mrs. Baker).

There was one part in it called Rainforests in a Bottle, and E decided in church that he better go home and make one. So. . .that is what he did (with a little help from Dad!)

They took a 2L pop bottle, cut it in half, put rocks in the bottom, and covered it with potting soil, just like the directions said to do. They added water to moisten the soil, and put a small strawberry plant inside. Then they attached the "top" of the bottle using clear packing tape.

The directions said to put it out in the sunshine, and that no more water was needed because the water inside the bottle recycles itself and the plant should grow. (See all the droplets on the sides of the bottle?)

And according to Mrs. Baker, "You've successfully created a rainforest!"

Pizza Pasta

2011-08-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

My kiddos were part of a the summer reading club at their local library. In addition to the reading they did at home, there were various shows/presentations that they could attend. One that we went to was put on by The Old Spaghetti Factory. It was a cooking show, where they connected the need for reading and writing with working at the various levels within the restaurant. They also had some of the kids help them make a special secret recipe created just for the event.

Well, not so secret, I guess, when they give the kids the recipe, right?

So, my son came home and wanted to make it. It was called "The Old Spaghetti Factory's Secret Pizza Pasta Salad."

So, he put together the ingredient for the dressing: 1 c. tomato sauce (we did a home made version of the kind we like. OSF obviously used their tomato sauce recipe), 1 c. ketchup, 1/4 c. diced onion, 3/4 c. olive oil, 1/4 c. brown sugar, 1/4 c. red wine vinegar, 1 t. basil, 1 t. oregano, & 1 t. black pepper

Then he added cooked pasta (3/4 c. to each 1/4 c. dressing), added diced mozza cubes, sliced pepperoni, and even tried to decorate it with fresh basil like the chef did!

This was supposed to be a "cold salad." He wanted to try it warmed up, so we added a bit more dressing and a bit more cheese, and baked it briefly in the oven.

Add a little garlic toast. . .yum!

Thanks to the Old Spaghetti Factory for the recipe and the fun of making it at home!

This post is linked: Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Tasty Tuesday

A white dress. . .

2011-08-09T13:10:00.000-07:00

A long time ago. . .

my best friend and I got dressed up. . .

and decided to spend the rest of our lives together.

Thank you God for many wonderful years!

And. . .as I was looking through some photos, my kiddos wanted to know what it was like. They remembered their Grandma's wedding, but it seemed very different to them than the pictures they saw in the black photo album. Then. . .all was quiet and I though the moment had passed. I went on to bake some snacks. E suddenly came upstairs with a big white garment bag and said, "Try this on!" Someone had found my wedding dress! Princess A of course couldn't resist a "princess moment" so. . .

Photo was courtesy of E ("because that is what happens when girls wear pretty dresses, you know. People always take pictures of girls in dresses and boys on bikes.")
It still fits! (I kinda do that every year (or more if needed!) after a baby. . .make sure I can still squeeze into it!)
*~*~*

The excitement of it all prompted my two older ones to have a pretend wedding. It was adorable! I love my kids! They are so creative and so darn cute! (I'm very, very biased, of course!) All of a sudden, Princess A came out of her room looking like a princess and E came upstairs in his best black clothes, and it was announced that it was time to sit down so the wedding could begin!

They got dressed up in their "wedding best" and had a ceremony of their own.
And, of course, there always has to be a picture of the ring. . .

And the dancing that goes along with it all. . .

(E said he knew what the boys are supposed to do for the dancing and then proceeded to help Princess A do a twirl and then a lift in the air! I couldn't help but giggle! I think he did okay!)

I love my kiddos! They make my life so full of overflowing joy!

And I love my hubby--of course! Happy Anniversary!

Vancouver Lights

2011-08-08T15:59:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the last day of the Celebration of Light, so the hubby and I took a trip to Vancouver to see it all. When doing some searching, I found this Self-guided Art Walk in Vancouver (mainly Stanley Park) and I convinced my hubby to do a bit of it together! My goal was to take pictures of each one we saw (knowing we probably wouldn't be able to walk around to all of the downtown and park art), but after the first few of me forgetting to snap a shot, I gave up on the photo idea!

Here we are by the Olympic Torch

By day and by night!

We took a few photos to show the kiddos--things we had seen from a distance earlier in the week, or things we had encountered in books.

E has a fascination with the Titanic and wanted to see a cruise ship up close to compare, so we needed a few photos for him!

This above one was great too--because we saw it at night as well, and it has lights flashing. I was very impressed with the artist's thinking behind this piece.

(As a teacher, it'd be neat to see students try this on a smaller scale, and at a primary level maybe just a 2D work would be great to try)

Here are some of the totem poles by the Sea Wall.

Siwash Rock

There was an artist selling his photographs and cards of these rocks he had created. He was showing some people passing by how he did it~they just didn't have the talent he did!

The hubby--although he'll probably hate me for posting a picture of him/us looking tourist-y! (I loved his hidden interest in finding the places I wanted to see!)

Us at English Bay. We had gone out for dinner, and then realized we should probably scout out a spot as the beach was already jam packed with people! Some friends who passed by were happy we had been there and joined our SUPER-GREAT spot! Since we had some time to spare, I figured out how to use the "fireworks" setting on the camera before the fireworks started! I think the photos turned out alright.

It was loud and beautiful!

It was Canada's night, so of course it was superb! :)

a few (more) cards. . .

2011-08-08T14:35:00.000-07:00

Oops! I realized I already had a post started about some cards I had made, only I never posted it! So here are a few more pictures of some super simple cards I've made using scraps (see my last post about a few cards). I don't have any of these cards anymore. . .they were all sent out!

(This top one I made during GEMS once. One of my girls couldn't focus long enough to get through a whole lesson, so we started making cards together so she was being "creative" and using her hands. I figured if we were sending out encouraging cards to her friends, family and people in the church, maybe she was still learning all those important God-lessons that she might have learned through doing the full lessons.)

I love this one. . .simple, easy, but kinda cute. . .and I like the pink and green combo.

A few cards. . .

2011-08-08T08:22:00.000-07:00

I don't claim to be a super-great card-maker or scrapbook-creator like some of the people I know and the blogs that I visit occasionally, but I enjoy doing it, whether they turn out okay or not. I was pretty proud of myself for getting my baby's scrapbook all done by the time he was 15 months. It is not nearly the size of my other kiddos, but it captures all that it needs too!

In the last little bit I have been trying to make cards out of the "scraps" I've collected. My dutch thriftiness says I can't throw out something that can be used in the future, so I figured it was about time I tried to use some scraps, to see if they were even useful! In addition to that, a friend of mine let me borrow her huge box of Stampin' Up sets, so, I figured I had to be able to create something if I compiled all the resources!

So here are a few. . .

And a few more. . .

Another thing I've been trying out is using the stamps to make"pop-ups" (or whatever the correct term for this is!) and using one of those blending brushes for watercolour pencils. I may be 10 years behind in stamping techniques, but I have had a few pockets of time before I need to head back to work, and I thought I would take advantage of it!

Summer so far. . .part 3

2011-08-07T15:29:00.000-07:00

Our summer adventures continue. . .for those of you who care (and have been bugging me to post again!) to see how we are spending our time!
Funny how prayers are answered. . .E loved going to the Agrifair so-o-o much that he was convinced that we should go again on the last day of it. We kinda told him that it was fun to do once, and we'd go again next year. But he still spent some time pleading his case with God, telling him how much he loved God's great animals and creation. :) As a parent, I told him about how God sometimes says no to prayers and that I didn't really want to pay for a day to the same place again. (Sorry!!!) But on the last day, it turned out we got some passes (Thank you, Chief!) and we ended up going again! This time we watched some different presentations, including E's favourite--Trials Stars Bike Demos. Now he thinks he should being doing "tricks" on his bike! Great!
Here is our little guy in the stroller, all ready for another day out and about!

This time I remembered to bring my camera, but didn't really use it a bunch! Here are the kids milking a "cow."

Here are the kiddos playing on the tractors again! They loved it!

Then we had to try out the climbing wall again! Princess A wanted to give it a try this time too, and although she didn't get very high, she loved it!

E trying to go higher each time!

And here are our balloon-making friends!

After the bike show, Princess A thought she should learn to ride her bike without the training wheels. . .I think we have a ways to go!!!

Little A getting in on the action as well--helping with the training wheels!

We had a day out at Crescent Beach, too. Everyone loves looking for crabs, hermit crabs and other sea creatures on the beach as the tide goes out. This was little A's first year to explore, and he didn't hesitate to find shells, rocks, and sea creatures along with the others!

With the tide out, we could walk quite a ways out. . .too far to keep up with my little camera. We love stopping in White Rock, too, to check out the Pier (and the view of the fish, sea gulls and the jelly fish) and the white rock. It's a tradition. It's what we do.

The next day we went out to Stanley Park in Vancouver and took in all the sights at the Vancouver Aquarium. The place was packed!!! (Not so ideal for the jogging stroller we took in!) The favourite was the dolphin show, followed by the Birds of Prey show that was there for the summer. E pretty much had the one from the Greater Vancouver Zoo memorized, so it was good for him to see some new flying friends to learn about! They pretty much like it all. . .except that 4D show!!! So. . .one day the hubby and I will have to go to see more than 2 minutes of that!

Trapped! Well, exploring anyway!

The kids loved the huge aquariums and the colourful sea creatures. Little A tried to talk to them all. He wasn't so fond of the dolphins--their splashing and jumps scared him, but he loved the creatures that moved slowly!

Here we are in the "rainforest." If you put your hand out, a butterfly would land on it! We saw parrots and macaws, sloths and stingrays. It was neat for E after learning about the Rainforest in school this past year.

Here's just a few photos of some of the things we saw. . .

Being a fan of Wild Kratts, the kids loved hearing about all the conservation efforts and what they could do to help save the animals. (I have a few suggestions to offer the Aquarium to save my sanity when visiting a place like that. . .but that is another story!) We went to Stanley Park and the kids water park afterwards to collect some shells and walk a bit. And then we got stuck in Vancouver traffic. Yuck! Oh well!

Summer so far. . .part 2

2011-08-07T14:23:00.000-07:00

Part of summer that the kiddos enjoy, too, is the Summer Reading Program at the local library. They joined up, and have attended a few of the extra shows and events that the library has hosted (Mike's Critters, the Purple Pirate, etc). One of those earlier activities was the Summer Bash, which was a little ironic because it was pouring rain and all the activities had to be adjusted and moved inside! Still lots of crafts, games and bubbles! But as always, Princess A saw face painting, and she had to have it done!

The kids also joined a Vacation Bible School this year, hosted by Gateway. It was AMAZING!! They loved it! Here they are at the final BBQ lunch. . .being quite silly!

And of course, once the sun came out, they had to start playing een harder than before. . .and this is how I found them one day! Ew!!! Mud!

Little A, sporting his chair, staying up too late. . .

We also spent some time doing some colouring contests in the local newspaper. One of them had to do with the Abbotsford Air Show. Then E had to continue the fun making his own airport. I never claimed he was an artist--but he does have creativity. This picture was taken and then followed by the creation of the airport terminals, helicopter and rescue areas, museums, etc. And the best part of all is that Princess A's name was picked from one of those colouring contests, so we get to go to the show! Princess A was excited, but E was ecstatic! "It was what I always wanted to do!" were his words, which was very true because he had been praying that God would hand us some tickets for it on a few occasions. ;)

Then of course we went to the Agrifair. I forgot the camera (oops!) so not too many pictures here, but they had some balloons made for them, so we took a picture when we came home.

Because I didn't take my camera, I was forced to learn to use my phone's camera and learn how to send it off to my computer (I am the worst at using a cell phone! I can barely answer the thing!) Here the rest of the family is sitting on a tractor that used to belong to my hubby's dad and grandpa, but now belongs to the Pioneer group who shows off the antique tractors and farm machinery at the fair.

The kids also had fun doing rock climbing and tumbling at Twisters, looking at all the animals, and watching the trampoline shows, dance shows, magic show, and the presentation put on by the Greater Vancouver Zoo. Lots to do, from milking a cow to rides and learning activities!

Until the next batch of photos. . .

Summer so far. . .part 1

2011-08-05T15:40:00.000-07:00

After being bugged to update, here is a blog entry. . .finally!

Summer just gets too busy to blog!

The start of summer. . .a little time spent at the local water park. We actually spend a lot of time walking and biking around the "lake" throughout the year, so when the water turns on, its kind of a treat. Well, that and a sunny day! We haven't had a lot of those during the first part of our summer!

And of course, there was Canada Day and the Parade! We went as a big family, although we didn't go early enough to get a front row seat this time. We'll make a note of that for next year. But that didn't stop us from getting my favourite Canada Day Parade samosas--I LOVE those things! And the kids LOVE the stuff they get, too!

Here is E and Princess A with our Aunt PJ (sorry--that was the hubby's words!) and little L!
Below is how the kiddos collected their loot! Thanks to those extra generous firefighters who made a special trip out to our kiddos and filled their hats!

Later on in the day the hubby and I took our older kiddos to the Canada Day Celebrations at the Exhibition Grounds--which was swarming! But we saw a bit of everything and got to make a few crafts, play in the sand and sing with Charlotte Diamond!

Here is Princess A getting some help to finish a "tied tutu" from The Reach's tent.

And E playing in the gigantic sand pile!

Another thing we enjoy is our hot dog dinners at Mill Lake. Easy supper and lots of fun for the kids to play (and get tired before bed!)! This time was for Princess A's birthday, I think.
Lots of fun trips to the park with our cousins, too!

As the month passed, along came the Berrybeat Festival. Princess A loves getting her face painted, and we found one booth that was doing it!!! So she got her beloved butterfly. . .in pink and purple, of course!

The final product:

I kinda forgot to take pictures as the morning went on, but here is one of them playing on the streets. They had fun at the Old Spaghetti Factory's booth, Four Cats, and the Lego one, too! And who can resist the mini-donuts, of which Oma was able to get the last ones before the machine broke! Lucky us!

More photos to upload still. . .

Making Shadows & Prints

2011-06-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I was watching a TV show with the kids. . .a science one where they were talking about the power of the sun. The sun can make pictures, it said. E saw this "science experiment" on the show, so we had to give it a try.

We took a few leaves from around the yard, a few rocks because our first try at the experiment blew away on us, and some cheap construction paper (the cheaper the better because it fades faster and better!) E arranged his leaves on the paper, we put rock on each of them (ones that didn't go over the edge of the leaves so that the shadows would look like the leaves we were trying to "print" on the paper), and then took off to the grocery store. A few hours later, this is what we saw:

So, there is your quick activity to test our how powerful the sun is--and how artistic the sun can be as well!

And here is a picture that Princess A wanted me to take. . .because she was to impatient to do the experiment with us! And this flower was pink. . .and pink and purple are princess colours, of course!

Apple-Blackberry Dessert

2011-06-28T20:44:00.000-07:00

'Tis the season for Barbecues. . .LOVE that!

So to the most recent one we went to, I brought dessert. My hubby loves Apple Crisp, my daughter loves anything sweet, and my son. . .he's not a huge sugar fan. Weird, huh?

I tried this recipe--Apple-Blackberry Dessert--for the first time. I knew my company was pretty forgiving if it didn't go well. ;)

The recipe came from here

Apple Blackberry Crisp

Ingredients:

Filling
3 Mutsu apples. peeled, cored and cut into 1-inch cubes ~I just used an assortment of apples, and that worked just fine as well.

1 cup fresh or frozen blackberries (or raspberries or strawberries) (250 ml)

1/2 - 3/4 cup sugar (125 ml - 175 ml)

2 tablespoons cornstarch (30 ml)

Grated zest of 1 orange ~This was a nice touch--had never done that before.

Topping
1/2 cup quick-cooking rolled oats (125 ml)

1/4 cup flour (60 ml)

1/3 cup cold butter, cut into chunks (75 ml)
1/3 cup brown sugar (75 ml)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (2 ml)
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg (1 ml)

Pinch of salt

1/4 cup almonds, chopped (60 ml) ~I didn't add any of these. . .not huge nut fans in the house, but it didn't take away from the topping, in my humble opinion.
Butter, for baking dish

Directions

Filling

1.In a large bowl combine all filling ingredients and toss to blend.

Topping

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.Put the oats, flour, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Work mixture together with fingers until it resembles coarse meal. Add almonds and blend well.

3.Butter an 8 by 8 inch baking dish with butter. Pour apple filling into dish and mound topping over filling, covering it completely. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until bubbly and golden.

Here is the pre-cooked delight. . .

And my son wasn't so big on blackberries--just in case he didn't like them. So I made a regular Apple Crisp as well.

Mmm. . .in the oven. . .

And no picture of it on a plate. . .it was all gone before I even thought about it!

So. . .I think that means it went over pretty good! Little whipped cream or a little ice cream (the french vanilla kind, of course. . . mmm). . .it was delish!

Linked at Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays

Tasty Tuesdays

Kitchen+ Update

2011-06-20T21:51:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted anything about our kitchen. . .so here goes!

This was probably taken in April. . .the cabinets are roughly in and the counter tops were just installed.

A very simple white Shaker style with Giallo Ornamental granite counter tops. What a process! Hubby and I went together to a bunch of stores, then I went during the week with my trusty camera and took pictures of EVERYTHING I liked. I talked to a few people at different stores, many of them were very helpful. We called people who had done renos themselves to check out for details we were missing. . . and searched the Internet like crazy!

(notice all the tools still in the corner?)

We still need some of the upper trim, below the cabinet trim and some edge finishing.

Then it was picking out tile. . . again. . .here was me, buying samples of everything and then returning them the next day only to purchase more samples! We finally decided on one we liked and that matched our counters, cupboards and floors pretty good.

(oops, sideways picture!)

Finally it is all installed. . .probably a month and a half after we finally picked it out. You can also see in this picture (maybe) the wall colour. Hubby went on some painting binges and had some help from a friend as well. Very appreciative of that!

Here is our office nook (the bump-out). . .I finally found some bulletin boards and white boards for our message center that I was happy with. After all the searching I did, it turned out to Wal-mart I settled on!

So. . .a run down. . .
The island. . .

The kitchen corner (see my sink~the domsjo!!!!). . .

Kitchen corner, part 2. . .

Here is our dining corner. . .just to show the trim style hubby changed it to.
(still thinking about painting the one wall--office nook one-- a darker brown. . .)

Front window with no valences. . .

And of course, there is still lots of work to be done. We just hung some more pictures, etc this evening, but every day is one step closer to having it closer to being done. We still have furniture strategically placed to keep our little mover our of danger! Gotta love renovations at this age! (Although we always seem to do it. . .)

This was just a fun memory for us. When putting some of the IKEA cabinets together, E wanted to help. Of course, there are no directions, just very poor photos (although I would think about becoming an installer if my teaching career ever crumbles!). So E started "reading" the directions. This one apparently tell us that "the bird is sad when it is getting broken." Note to IKEA: Your people look like birds, according to this K kid!

There you have it. . .our work in progress continues. . .

A Bug Party

2011-06-19T14:44:00.000-07:00

I am so-o-o behind for posts. . .a big while back, my son had a birthday. And for the first time ever, we had a "friends" birthday party for him. I've resisted it for this long, but now that he is in school and is surrounded by all of his friends, it was about time!

E didn't want to have any cake. His excuse was "no one wants to eat cake or cupcakes at parties anyway. They just want the party food." I guess that is a birthday in the eyes of this particular kid. My daughter would live off of cake and cupcakes!!! So we compromised and had party food AND decorated cookies in place of the cake. The kiddos loved it! (And it took up a good bunch of time--and not so much prep for me!)

The "craft" I had planned was taken from these sites (Site 1 & Site 2). I used them as ideas and made my own patterns and ideas for these pencil toppers.

I think they are pretty cute. No one made the caterpillar or butterfly. (The one with wings is a dragonfly)

We took a walk in a nearby creek to look for bugs (and run around and skip rocks and look for hiding spots and have races and on and on and on!), played hiding games with plastic critters, and just played. (That is really all the boys want to do anyway!) Another great idea I found was a beehive pinata. (My hint or change for this idea would be to use a white paper bag or lunch sac as the pouch holding the candy and treats. . .and to make a few of them! Good decorations and good fun!)

Other ideas I thought of was making thumbprint pictures of bugs or origami bugs that hopped on their own. I was vetoed. My hubby said boys just want to play. That is all they want to do. So, the party came. The party went. Guess what? My hubby was right. Even the eating wasn't the biggest hit. All they wanted to do was play! (I guess that is when I have to kick the teacher-side of me out, and just let them play! Hee-hee!)

Here are the treats we made for the family party.(I don't claim to be a cake or cookie decorator by any means, as you can well see!) Our little barbecue party got rained out, so we went to a local restaurant instead. Again. . .this turned out to be his "cake." None of the kids were disappointed!

And here is my birthday boy--relaxing after making some cookies with me--before his birthday. (Can you believe that all the photos of him on his b-day didn't turn out! Oh well. . .there is always next year!)

MPM

2011-06-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

Monday. . .and a menu plan!

Monday- Salmon Strudels for the adults; basic grilled cheese and ham for the kids. It's game day--need food to eat in front of the TV, right?
Tuesday (CP)-BBQ Chicken, buns, cut veggies
Wednesday- Another game day? Probably teriyaki chicken wings (or just use the Epicure teriyaki mix/spice, throw it all in the CP for a few hours and call it good!), french fries, and something super healthy to balance it all out! :)
Thursday- Sandwiches and salad
Friday- Left-overs or pizza (BBQ chicken sounds good to me right now. . .)
Saturday's Snack- baked onion rings (see note below)
Sunday- Pancakes and Bacon (will try to add blueberries or blackberries. . .see if "change" is okay! Or else I'll jsust save the fruit for the topping.)

Snack. . .the baked onion rings. . .here is my little hint. . .I added one more step to the recipe given. After cutting up my onions, I soak them in water or milk, tn do the flour, then the egg wash, then the crumb mixture. I find the batter sticks a little better. One of the notes suggested putting the finished product in the fridge before baking to help it stick. Who knows. I'm an instant gratification person when it comes to these since they take too long to make! While it doesn't quite compare to the tower of rings from Red Robin or the greasy little bag at A&W's, it's a good after noon snack paired with a little barbecue-mayo mixture.
(photo from here)

For more MP, visit www.orgjunkie.com

2nd Best

2011-06-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

Back in my first year of college, I did some babysitting to make a few extra bucks. (Being a college kid, you get a little desperate for weekend spending $ every now and then! And I loved kids, so it was easy money! Not a lot it, just easy!)

There was this one place I was at once--I didn't even know the people--but the dad was a pastor at one of the many local churches and the mom was a nurse (I think!). They had great kids, older ones who pretty much took care of themselves and just had me around for the entertainment value. I remember walking into the kitchen and seeing this huge bouquet of flowers. I went over, and being very nosy, read the card. It said, "After Jesus Christ and His gift of salvation, you are the best thing that happened to me. I love you. From, ~"

Don't get me wrong--I FULLY agree with what the husband said to his wife. But it was the first time I had ever seen it or heard it phrased that way. My college-romance notion of real love had just plummeted into. . .reality? Wasn't I supposed to be the centre of my boyfriend's world? Wasn't it me who he thought of non-stop? Isn't that what the world around me had taught me about "true love?" Isn't that what the shows and the books and the magazines and the media had brainwashed me into thinking?

It was a great reality check for me at the time, and stuck--as I am now retelling the story as a humble tidbit of truth that I learned. And then out of the blue. . .it happened again!

My daughter and I were having a conversation after an "ouchie" had left her helplessly in my loving arms. And she was just about completely better, so I uttered the words, "I love you so much, honey." And out came her reply: "I love you too, but I love God way better. I love God the best and you are just second." My first reaction was, Okay, you could have stopped at the end of the first sentence. I got it then. You don't have to rub it in! Maybe we have to work on tact! And then that picture of the card in the midst of all those flower came to mind. The words were as clear as if they had just been written, as if I had just walked in that stranger's kitchen and read them.

And then the warm fuzzies came. I sent up a quick prayer--thanking God that He was living so vividly in her. And also thanking God that we, as parents, and anyone else who has had influence into that short life of hers, had done something right in order for her to say that so quickly and easily.

"I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus." -1 Cor. 1:4 (NIV)

"First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times. . ." -Rom 1:8-10a (NIV)

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” -John 13"34-35 (NIV)

Washer Necklaces

2011-06-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

Here is a small craft I got to do with my GEMS group a few months back. I tried it again with my sisters a while back (and yes, girls, thanks for making fun of me because I wanted to have "craft-time"!)

If you search google, you'll find lots of etsy shops that sell this type of necklace/jewelry. You'll also find many tutorials that show how to make these using liquid glass.

Some I looked at are here and here.

This is the {easy} way. . .the way you could make them with a group like. . .grade 3-7 girls! (Or adults, if you want "craft-time").

What you need: large washers, scrapbooking paper with small-ish or colourful prints, pencil and scissors (or the appropriate size of craft punches to fit your washer), glue (we used glue stick, but I had to re-attach and then I used white glue), versa-mark stamp pad, embossing powder, and embossing heating tool, cording or ribbon

First we started by choosing a paper. This isn't as easy as it looks, because you only get the print that appears on the washer. . .
Then we traced the washer shape onto the backside of the paper.

Then cut it out carefully and smoothly.
(And never mind the details in the back of the photo! LOL! Next time I should pay attention to what gets into my photos!)

We glued our newly cut out shape onto the smooth, rounded side of the washer. The straight edge, or rough side of the washer is the back. You could cut out a circle for each side if you like. . .I know this works if you are doing the liquid glass way. It will take you a little longer and forces you to be more careful about it. . . I went the easy way and just did one side.

Once the circle is well glued on, trim excess around the inside or outside, or press it in with your pinkie to glue it towards the back side a bit more.

Then have the embossing powder in a place where it can be dipped. We just used the lid of a yogurt container and sprinkled an area big enough for the washer with it. Next you will rub the good side of your washer/paper on the versa-mark stamping pad. Place this same area in the embossing powder, making sure it is thoroughly covered.

The next step is using the heating gun to "melt" the embossing powder. This will act to seal it. If you are doing this with kids, an adult should probably take care of doing this as it gets kinda hot. You want to be careful because if there is any embossing powder on the sides or the back, it can stick to your skin or drying area. Not good to do. So, be careful!

So, the problem with the ones I made with my sisters was that my embossing powder was ultra glittery, rather than strictly iridescent. I guess it wasn't the same kind I had used making it with my GEMS! Oops! The ones below are pretty "sparkly." Not quite what I had in mind.

The last step is to add the cording or ribbon. Loop it around the washer and tie a knot on the other end. (My sister tied the "knot" so that it was adjustable (trying a loop on each end so the cording can be slipped through the knots)--she could then wear it long or short, depending on her clothing neckline. Smart idea.)

At the Leader's Year-End meeting, the Craft Coordinator for our particular GEMS group gave each leader a necklace. Here's mine. See how it is just shiny--not glitter-mania?

I love this one! Love it!

As a teacher, I have a typical or traditional Mother's Day craft that I do. But if I ever need a new idea, this might be a good one to keep on hand!

Happy crafting!

MPM

2011-05-31T20:25:00.000-07:00

Here is a menu plan for this week. . .

Monday- Chili and Buns and Carrots and Dip

Tuesday- Italian marinated chicken on the BBQ, salad, harvest potatoes (I love this dish! My kids hate it. It is all gone! Guess who ate most of it?)

Wednesday- Grilled Sandwiches, soup (of some kind. . .I'm in the mood for broccoli cheddar, but I KNOW the kids are not!)

Thursday- Baked Spaghetti, salad

Friday- Left-overs or pizza

Saturday's Snack- gotta make some cookies!!!

Sunday-Pancakes and Bacon.

On the breakfast note, I tried to get the kids to enjoy a breakfast at Subway with me this morning. . .not the best move. Maybe it was breaking routine or maybe they can't stand egg made in a square, but I KNOW not to make breakfast sandwiches for a while. . .except for my hulk of a baby. He loved it. He loves anything that is good though.

Was playing around with my camera a bit the other day and I finally figured out how to use the "food" setting. Here was my first humble attempt. Stir-fry from last week. I wanted to see how it would look on the blog. I know this picture shows too many onions. Nice for the colour, but I don't typically eat that many in one sitting! :)

For more MP, visit http://www.orgjunkie.com/

Dandelions

2011-05-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

Do you ever pick dandelions, just to blow the seeds into the wind?

To be a child again!

A whole field of pure joy in the eyes of a child.

A whole field of weed control in the eyes of the keeper of a manicured lawn!

To my kiddos, this is Dandelion Canyon.

Not sure where the name came from, but this little photo is a reminder to me to stay youthful in mind,

and take the time to enjoy the simple pleasures in this world.

MPM

2011-05-24T21:18:00.000-07:00

Menu Plan. . . Yah, its been a while. All of our life and our eating didn't seem exciting enough to merit a post. And nothing has changed. Except that I decided to post about our {exciting} eats this week.

Monday- Corn and Sausage Chowder, garlic bread
Tuesday- Teriyaki Stir-fry, noodles, jello (strictly for the kids, of course!)

Wednesday-Taco Salad

Thursday (Crock pot)-BBQ Chicken sandwiches, cut veggies

Friday-left-overs or pizza
Saturday's Snack- Layered Fruit Salad for kids
(Haven't tried this one specifically, but will probably give it a try. I've kinda gotten bored of smoothies, so gotta try it a bit differently!)
Sunday-French Toast Casserole--because it's easy! And bacon. . .

On the food topic. . .the garden is planted. About a week and a half a ago it was done. Potatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, beans, peas, carrots, lettuces (spinach, lettuce mixtures and swiss chard), herbs and onions. I think that is it. I have a few potatoes showing some green, a few carrots sprouting and some lettuce, I think. My herbs are good, although a few of those perennial types didn't come back, so I'm gonna have to go buy one or two new ones (not sure if seeds will grow in time anymore). Some strawberries are making pretty white flowers already. . . looking forward to some sunshine to help it all grow. (Actually, I'm just looking forward to some sunshine. . .)

Well, have a good week. .

Check out more MPM at http://www.orgjunkie.com/

4x4

2011-05-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went on a little adventure. . .

Off to the area of Chipmunk Creek by Chilliwack Lake for some 4x4ing. For me. . .it was my first time with the family. On the drive out there, the kids had to "catch me up" on the "regular stuff" that goes on with these excursions.

And then it was just time to play around. There were four trucks (four families/people--one red Jeep isn't pictured here. . .not sure where he was off to. . .except that there were a few bumpy trails in the area to explore).

We passed a couple going down the road we were going up. They said that it was best we turned around because the road was washed out a bit farther up. So. . .the boys were ready to roll!

Stopping for lunch. . .
And yes, we found ourselves some snow!

Soon after the group split up, my "fearless" hubby found an area where people must have been camping near. He drove in, covered the truck with mud and was about to go on. He stopped at a "cliff" (or at least that is what I saw!!!) I told him I loved him, and didn't really think he needed to show off any more for me as we had some children that I would love to wake up tomorrow with.

He smiled at me--a smirk, really--and pressed the gas!!!

We are still alive and in one piece.

Another great moment for me: The hubby asked the kids if Mommy should come next time. E goes, "well, not really, but just to be polite, I'll say yes." Hubby asks him why I shouldn't come. E says, "Gotta keep those top secret things a secret." And Princess A just wanted her "very best friend" (who is training her in the princess way of life) and Liam around. (Awww!)

Fun times!

life of a mom. . .

2011-05-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

Another Happy Mother's Day to all. . .a little bit late, I know.

(But I'm sure many moms out there totally understand!)

I am so very blessed by my mom, mom-in-law, and all the mom-friends in my life.

And I thank God for all of you and the impact you have had on me!

And of course I am so very blessed by my own family--the ones who make me a mother!

(My husband's fine art--our family in our new paint colour. . .we had to test it out to see if it was acceptable before painting ALL the walls!)

My little munchkin who decided to give me the treat of walking through rain puddles left on our deck. . . and it was just so darn cute I had to take a few pictures.

And my other little miracles making me breakfast (because I *totally* eat breakfast every morning!)

And their little cards and gifties (now that I have a kiddo in school, I get to celebrate and show off the heartfelt gifts made in the classroom. I LOVE IT!)

On Saturday a.m. we joined the local Community School in celebrating Mother's Day. How can kids complain when they get breakfast and to play in an open gym and in a bouncy castle all morning?!?!? (And I got a massage. . .not too shabby, I say!). Here was my little flower to take home. The biggest treat, however, was the compliments I got from the hosts in how well-behaved, polite and cute my kids were. That just did it for me. I guess then all the energy in the every day stuff is worth it!

Below was the annual fish release in a nearby creek. The kids do this every year, and they LOVE it! This year, the youngest needed lunch and a nap, so the two of us stayed home while all the big kids went out to play with the "little fries!"

Opa took the kids to Buckerfield's to make a hanging basket for me. They had a lot of fun and got to share with me about their adventures. . .which led to us going back on Monday to check out all the things I had missed--especially the animals (in their opinion!)

And then I got to start some gardening as well, since this was the weekend to get plants!

Still a bunch more work that needs to be done and a few more trays of plants, but. . . it's not like the sun is shining or anything like that! Won't that be a treat when spring weather decides to stick around!

Menu Plan Monday

2011-05-02T21:15:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it has been over a month since I have posted. . .much less done any type of menu plan! Things have been kinda crazy with some Reno's going on (as in the kitchen!) a trip to visit family, the normal busyness of life, that kind of thing. Maybe I have an excuse, right. . .?

Here is a MP once again.

Monday-Grilled Cheese (fancy-ish), yam fries, veggies and dip
Tuesday-Greek Chicken (either this recipe or this CP one), tzatziki, pitas, mixed veggies
Wednesday-Salmon Strudels, corn and pepper salsa
Thursday-Spaghetti garlic bread
Friday-left-overs or pizza
Saturday-TBA. . .maybe?
Sunday- French Toast Casserole, sausage

Enjoy your week. For more MP, visit www.orgjunkie.com

First Spring Adventure

2011-03-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest adventure my hubby went on with some friends and the kiddos. The trail is called V-Rock on the way to Sunrise Lake. A good time was had by all. . .and they all came back in one piece! ;)

2011-03-22T21:07:00.000-07:00

In every situation, there is some saving grace, some positive to see.

Aside from Christ, this is my happy thought each and every morning. Yep, this is my coffee nook! Pathetic you say? Yes, but if you saw the rest of our house right now. . .

This is the rest of the house. . .someone should have let me know that when my hubby has a brilliant idea. . .this is what it will turn out to be!!!

We couldn't find someone willing to get rid of the rest of the texture on our ceiling so our next option was take it all down. When I say the rest of the texture, that means I have taken into account the stuff that has just fallen down on its own (which is why we are in this mess in the first place!) as well as the stuff that my hubby and I have spent hours scraping off. . .only to realize that our small square meter means that is we continue at the rate we were going, I might have a working kitchen by 2015!

So after finding someone to do the ceiling for us, we were happy--adjust the budget. . .

Then we get the phone call. . .yah, the guy doesn't want to remove it, so we have to. Granted, they gave us 2 days notice!!! Thank you to Opa for some help, and thank you that we didn't run into any more problems, and that we got to move some light fixtures around since the attic was exposed. . .

And now we live in a plastic bubble for a while!

We are making our "home" in our basement. Shared with the furniture and extra things to store of course! So our main area of living is the playroom. We are doing breakfast and dinners there, playing there, dancing there, resting there. . .thank goodness for the improvement in weather and parents who live near by where we can eat lunch!

In all seriousness though, I am blessed. Please don't read this post as a complaint in any way, because this is blessing! Why? Because I have a house to live in and a bed to sleep in and a family to surround me and friends who offer to meet me at the park and yummy (and not-so-yummy) food to eat and the list could just go on and on. My heart is heavy for those in Japan right now and also for our little sponsor children, because I, in my unbelievably privileged and blessed life, have an itty-bitty minuscule of a fraction of an idea of what they are facing. And so we, as a family, are offering our prayers for them daily as we cuddle together in our playroom every morning and night.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-03-14T21:13:00.000-07:00

Now that it is a month later. . .I figured it was about time to do a MPM again!

Monday- Crock Pot Chicken Wings, cut veggies, noodles
Tuesday- Tacos and fixings
Wednesday- Potato Soup, Cheesy Garlic Bread
Thursday (CP)- {out}
Friday-pizza or left-overs
Saturday's Snack- Cranberry White Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats (see below)
Sunday (BFS)- French Toast Casserole, fruit salad, ham steaks

Saturday's Snack-- Fancy Rice Krispies
My daughter has this way of smiling at people and making them melt. I think it is her age. And the fact that she knows she is a princess and uses this to her advantage. A week ago we were meeting Daddy for coffee, and the beloved coffee shop owner melted over Princess A and brought her this WONDERFUL treat. It was so simple, yet so good. (I may have snuck a bite or two). Rice Krispie Squares with added dried cranberries, chocolate chips, coconut, and walnuts. Mmmm. . .Her recipe is probably top secret, but I tried to reinvent it at home on my own.
My original recipe came from here. (Not tough when you know the basic rice krispies square recipe) and then I changed it up a little to suit our likes. . .

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter
4 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 tablespoon good quality vanilla
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
6 cups Kellogg’s Rice Krispies cereal or equal
3/4 cup dry cranberries
1/4 cup toasted coconut
a handful of walnuts (crushed if you'd like)
*If you don't like the last two ingredients, then just up the chocolate chips by 1/2 cup.

Directions
1. Butter a 9 x 13-inch baking pan.
2. In a large pan on the stove top, melt the butter over low heat. Add the marshmallows. Stir until the mixture is melted, hot, and smooth. Add the vanilla.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients. Stir quickly (the chocolate chips will begin to melt!) until the cereal is uniformly combined with the marshmallow mixture.
4. Remove the mixture to the buttered pan. Evenly distribute the mixture and press it down into the pan with buttered fingers, a piece of waxed paper, or a spatula. Let cool and cut into squares.

Mmm. . .

Check out more MPM at http://www.orgjunkie.com/!

Old Chairs

2011-03-05T12:37:00.000-08:00

Our kids have really grown to love some neighbors on our street. They love walking through their gardens and talking to the elderly man about birds and flowers. During the Christmas season the kids were invited in the house to check out their extensive Christmas village and train set. (By extensive, I mean it probably spanned two or three sheets of plywood, and there was more in another area of the house! It was absolutely beautiful!

The kids have really grown to love these neighbors and I think they have grown to love our kids as well! A week ago, we got a phone call asking if we wanted some child-sized chairs. So we popped on by to pick them up. This elderly couple was just ready to get rid of them as their kids and grand kids had outgrown them, but wanted to check if our kids could use them before donating them elsewhere. They had one at their house, and got the other one from their daughter's place, who also brought over a wooden rocking chair because she knew they were going to be given to our kids.

The story behind these chairs. . .they were made in the early 60s by prisoners in one of BC's local-ish prisons. This man also has some big garden urns that were made by these inmates as some of their work-projects as well. Not a story we are going to share with our kiddos just yet, but interesting anyway!

I wish I had a "before" picture. But just imagine the dust and build up of sitting around in a basement or garage for some time. Here is my "after" pictures. We had a sunny morning this week, so I took them outside and started the big clean-up! Here they are sitting on my driveway after a first clean.
I know--as if you wanted to see the bottoms of these chairs! But I was so impressed with how well they were made--and how long they have lasted!!! There are a few tears here or there, but nothing major or really noticeable unless you look closely. (Doesn't the colour just remind you of your old fridge?!?!)

Here is the bit on the back of the rocking chair. . .I'm no antique person, but I've watched my share of Pawn Stars (boring TV my hubby watches!) to know that these labels are important! :)

And here are my kids enjoying the finished product. Having a cozy chat in front of the fireplace (Old chairs and an old fireplace!).

Our "new" chairs. . . thank you neighbors!

Written on Cardboard. . .

2011-03-02T21:44:00.000-08:00

At church this past Sunday, a bunch of members presented a version of the above video.
It was pretty powerful--so much in fact that I thought it was definitely worth blogging about.

The first time I saw one of these videos was in a devotional setting. After that, in response, we were encouraged to write our own "cardboard testimony" on an index card. I think the things that struck me most about that entire activity was first, how I sat in awe and wonder of all that God had done for the people in the video shown. It welled up in me an emotion that just wanted to praise God for all He can do--and does do every day--shown to me in a brief 5-8 minutes. Second, it focused me on all that God had changed and made right in my own life. Whether my testimony was great or small, God did it--and only God could have done it, through His grace and love.

YouTube is filled with variations and versions of this, so watch to your hearts' content. But whether you watch one or watch many, the powerful message of Christ's ability to work in a person's life--to work out His grace and His renewal--that shines in each person's life is evident in the testimonies written on cardboard. These messages serve as a reminder to me that the God I serve is a God who can and does work in the lives of every-day people and He changes them! All because of His great love for us.

What would your cardboard testimony be?

Cake Mix Brownies

2011-03-01T14:18:00.001-08:00

A bit back (as in Valentine's Day!) I needed a quick recipe, and I just wanted brownies. (I wanted to have something for our church's women's group as well as a treat for my hubby's work--without being too frilly for obvious reasons. Cupcakes were kinda out of the question! Brownies would definitely do.)

I had heard someone on TV talk about brownies using a cake mix, so I thought I would give it a try.

After a bit of searching fora recipe in which I had the ingredients on hand, here is what I came up with:

No Fail Easy Cake Mix Brownies

Don't let the title trick you. . .because mine didn't actually turn out "no fail" in my humble opinion. If you look below at the photo (if you can see) the middle kind of sunk down. I like consistently flat better. Did they suit the purpose? Yes. Easy? YES!

Take 1/2 c. butter, 1/3 (or 1/4) c. brown sugar, 1/4 c. water, 2 eggs, 1 t. vanilla, and 3/4 c. chocolate chips or chocolate pieces, and mix all of that with your cake mix. Dump it all in a greased 9x13. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, and there you go. Easy? Definitely!

And I shouldn't complain too much about the fact that it sunk a bit, because that was easy enough to cover with some chocolate caramel icing and a red-hot to make it valentine-ish-y, so. . .there you go. An easy snack that everyone enjoyed.

This post is linked to:

I've been away. . .

2011-02-27T20:26:00.000-08:00

. . .well, not really away. Just away from blog-land. Instead, I have been very much at my house!!!
Yes, that is me! (My hubby wouldn't take it too kindly if you thought it was him in the pink!) While, he has been VERY busy around the house, I've tried to help out when I can--mostly that means keeping the kiddos entertained and away from the mess!

But I thought I would give you a small taste of the "mess" we've been living in!

No more valences. . .

No more wall. . .

Everyone is helping out! E loves doing everything he can with his dad. Maybe it is being a guy and being able to destroy things. Who knows! Princess A, on the other hand, is an extremely helpful supervisor. :)

And here is the hole in my house. My hubby got a bunch of help from Grandpa A here. Again. . .it must be the ability to destroy things.

E checking things out. . .

And things being mended again.

Things I'm looking forward to. . .a "finished" kitchen and surrounding areas! And no more cleaning!!! When you have little kids in the house at the same time as a DIY renovation, that adds up to a lot of vacuuming, wiping and mopping multiple times a day! But the adventures continue!

Looking for Flowers in Winter

2011-02-11T21:20:00.000-08:00

I may have mentioned my house is a mess--more so on the weekends when my hubby is home destroying it bit by bit.

I don't get to destroy it. . .I get to keep the kiddos entertained and out of the mess!

So, after a walk because the weather was great and the baby HAD to sleep, my kids thought they needed to pick some flowers. I guess common sense didn't seem so common that day. It's winter guys! After a very devastating search, I remembered a cute little post my friend had on her blog. And then we filled some more time that afternoon with flowers!
If you pop on over to her blog, she used buttons as the centers of the flowers. I didn't have enough buttons on hand that were easy to get to, so we used pony beads instead. Pretty simple craft though: cut strips of coloured paper, punch three holes, thread the paper on the pipe cleaners to create loops, make a "flower center," and there you go!

See? So easy!

Look at all this concentration!

And here is our final project. . .a flower for every person in the family.

Such a nice pre-Valentine thing to make.

Here is my hubby's version of romantic:

Ooohhh. . .I'm a very lucky girl! ;)

Have a great weekend!

A Quick Frame. . .

2011-02-09T20:35:00.001-08:00

Just under a year ago, I attended a "Take It Home" event at our church. It was pretty much a class for parents or parents and children to teach us ways to use the things we learn at church in your home (making a connection between church and home). The particular one I attended was for a pre-school aged group. It was about blessings and our children. One part that stood out to me was a story (don't quote me on this one, I'm just telling it as I remember it) about a man/parent who had a bible verse in his child's room and would pray this verse over his child while sleeping as she grew up. When his child grew older, she was able to repeat this verse in a particular situation when wisdom was needed--and knew what her dad had done all these years. That story left me thinking about the power of praying Bible verses over my children--and particularly praying blessings over them.

At this class, some Bible verse suggestions were given to us, as well as some "posters" of some of these Bible blessings. Some parents shared about how they already had verse hanging up as a result of taking this little class at an earlier time and what it meant to them. To be honest, I didn't jump on the bandwagon right away and mount these posters that very same day, but gave the whole idea some thought. I thought about how I currently pray for my children and if/how I would change the way I pray for my children after hearing what I did that day. I thought about scripture verses related to prayer and blessings and raising children in the Lord. I thought about the verses printed on the posters and what God had said to His people in the past and was He was saying to me and my children through those verses now.

Eventually my husband and I did choose a verse for each of our children from the suggestions given. One thing we did find was how the things we would pray for our children turned up in these verses--and it was {easy} to "assign" a verse to hang in each of their rooms.

It is interesting (for a lack of a better word at the moment to capture how I ponder this) to me now, already, that my oldest often wants to read his verse as his night time prayer or reminds me to pray the verse for him. I got a glimpse of the passion the story-teller mentioned above had in sharing his idea with others--a glimpse of a yearning to share in God's blessing, whether we fully comprehend it or not. And a glimpse of how we have a need to have conversations with our Father, but also for others to have conversations with this same Father on our behalf. IT also reminded me that sometimes when we pray we just don't know the right words to say. . .but that God does, and He gave us the words we need in His Word.

Phew--And this was just gonna be a "look-at-the-short-little-project-I-made" kind of post!

So, here is that part! Here is the latest one I made. Like I said, I didn't jump on this project right away. But a few weeks ago, when my husband started wrecking--I mean, remodelling, if you can call it that at this point--our house, I needed something to do that felt like I was creating something nice--not a mess! So, I decided to mount the verse we had chosen for our youngest child.

Here is how this project worked for me. . .go through box of old frames. Reject all of them. Not even a coat of paint would fix any of them at this point. Go through junk room. Find old picture that hung in a baby room once upon a time. Decide that frame could be used but picture had to go. Realize frame is too big for my trusty scrapbook paper. . .think a little. . .pause for a "Candyland" break with the kids (sheer excitement!!!). . .think some more. . . Realize that I can use fabric. Search remnant fabric box. Choose one that will match room colors and fame. Get to work.
My stuff
Covering the frame. I just covered it in a similar way that I would wrap a present. Easy-peasy.

Then I mounted the "poster" of the verse to the front side, added a few star embellishments, and there you have it. Easy project. Hardly worth blogging about. But shows you how art-ish-y you can look even in you are not! And it shows you what you can accomplish in a whole 15 minutes! And it made me feel like my home was a {teensy} but prettier and nicer than our kitchen looks right now. :)

By the wall and bed cover of my youngster's bed. (Choosing exactly where to hang it might take a while still--but it is done and ready to be hung!)

Here are the ones I have in the rooms of my other kiddos:

FYI: Other verse selections we were given at this class in poster form included Ephesians 3: 17-19 and Galatians 2:20.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-01-31T16:12:00.000-08:00

Happy eating this week. . .here is what we are doing:

Monday- Polynesian Ham, noodles, Melted Cheese Buns

Tuesday-Honey-Ginger Grilled Salmon (can substitute chicken), rice, salad

Wednesday-BBQ Chicken, buns

Thursday (CP)-Vegetable-Barley-Beef Soup

Friday-left-overs or pizza

Saturday's Snack-one-pan brownies (hopefully I'll post later)

Sunday (BFS)-pancakes, bacon

*Since my hubby is destroying my kitchen, I've been forced into "cleaning." Both the results of what he has destroyed (as I have a baby in the house!) and the junk in the cupboards that I no longer have! Which means. . .recipes. I discovered--again--that once upon a time, I had great hopes and dreams to be (or become) quite the homemaker! I have recipes galore, magazine clippings about hosting and table decorations, articles about how to pair wines with meals, crafts and decoration how-to's. . . and sadly, much of that went into the recycle. I guess when you are younger you just don't know how life is going to turn out--or how busy life becomes, especially with children and everything that goes along with raising them! Funny how I didn't have any articles on how to make a child clean their room every day or how to raise your child to become the next president. . .

Anyway, the positive outcome of my sad nostalgia, is that I found a few good recipes to hold onto and to try. One of them is this one. And it is super easy!

Honey-Ginger Grilled Chicken

1 t. ground ginger
1 t. garlic powder
1/3 c. soy sauce
1/3 c. orange juice
1/4 c. honey
1 scallion, chopped
1-1/2 lbs. salmon fillet

Directions:

1. In a large self-closing plastic bag, combine first 6 ingredients. Mix well. Place salmon in bag and seal tightly. Turn bag to distribute the marinade.

2. Refrigerate 15 minutes or up to 30 minutes. Turn bag occasionally.

3. Lightly grease grill rack. Preheat grill to medium heat. Remove salmon from marinade; reserve marinade. Grill 12-15 minutes per inch of thickness or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Brush with reserved marinade during cooking. Discard left-over marinade. Serves 4.

Notes: You can substitute salmon with 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Served great with steamed rice tossed with grilled vegetables.

My note: I kept the salmon in the marinade all day. We ate it with honey-garlic noodles and a salad. It was super easy and super good. Our kids even asked for more of the "chicken." And therefore, we definitely had "chicken" for supper. LOL!

Apple Loaf

2011-01-25T14:22:00.000-08:00

Finally I am going to get this post up! For how incredibly easy this recipe is, you'd think I'd have posted it already!
I got this recipe from my sister--back in "apple-sauce season" I wanted something productive to do with apples instead of applesauce! (Although looking back, and being more than half-way done all the applesauce I made, something productive would have been making EVEN MORE applesauce!)

This was originally a Zucchini Bread recipe with an apple variation.

1.5 c. flour

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/4 t. baking powder

1/4 t. nutmeg

1 egg, beaten

1 c. sugar

1 c. shredded unpeeled zucchini

1/4 c. cooking oil

1/2 c, chopped walnuts or pecans, optional

The apple variation of the recipe says to replace the zucchini with 1.5 c. shredded peeled apple. My sister's great advice is to also substitute the cooking oil for applesauce (Which many people do things like that anyway).

So. . .grating apples. . .

Mix that with applesauce/oil, egg, and sugar. In another bowl combine the rest of the ingredients. Add the "wet" stuff to the "dry" stuff. Stir until just moistened. Fold in nuts now if you are going to add any. Pour in a pan. . .Bake at 350 for 50-55 minutes.

There you go. Yummy bread all the time. I make these into muffins, little loafs or regular sized loafs--whatever works. The other thing I love about this recipe, is that it is so-o-o forgiving and still works out! If you don't have nutmeg, add a little more cinnamon. Use whole-wheat flour instead. Use all chunky applesauce instead of shredded apple. Add a little extra apple if you like it super apple-ish-y.
Some things I have learned. . .let the loaf cool completely before slicing or moving into plastic to freeze or store. Its better to even wait a day. That is why the little muffins or little loafs work better if you want to eat right away--which you will!!! And make two at a time. . .in our house this disappears VERY quickly!

See more recipes at Tempt My Tummy, Tasty Tuesdays What's Cooking Wednesday, Sweets for Saturday.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-01-23T21:39:00.001-08:00

So, I skipped a week. . .welcome back to MPs for me!

Monday-Hamburger Stroganoff. . .okay, it was a Hamburger Helper!!! (gotta keep the hubby happy if i want my kitchen usable soon!) with garlic bread and salad.

Tuesday-Polynesian Ham, rice

Wednesday-Nachos

Thursday (CP)-Slow CookerThai Chicken, noodles, salad

Friday- pizza

Saturday's Snack-Apple Loaf. . .I'll get around to posting about this one of these days!

Sunday- French Toast Casserole, ham steaks

Last week we had: ravioli in spaghetti sauce (found the "just-like-old-spaghetti-factory-tomato-based recipe and made that. . .added Italian sausage. . .not a big hit in this household this week. . .and we even had to eat it twice!), chicken bacon pizza (this was and always is a big hit!), chicken nuggets and french fries, and grilled cheese.

Have a great week!

For more mp idea, visit www.orgjunkie.com

Just a regular weekend. . .

2011-01-23T21:02:00.000-08:00

I thought we were having a regular weekend. . .
playing with the kids,
shopping for groceries,
visiting with a friend,
going to church,
having regular family dinner,
the usual, family stuff. . .

{What a sweetheart!!!}

. . . until my hubby just kinda decided he didn't like valences anymore.

Many people who has an older home like this is very familiar with the valences--to hide the curtain rods--we deal with them. We get used to them. There isn't a lot you can do with them. . .

Unless you are my hubby, and decide you don't like them on a weekend like any other. And your house suddenly looks like this!

And then this:

And then this. . .

I just want to know where my cupboards are!!! He gets to go to work and leave the mess behind. But I have to function in here!!!

But I shouldn't complain. He was nice enough to put the clock back up!

What have we gotten ourselves into?

I must have {jinx-ed} myself. A mom of one of my son's friends stopped by and said she remembers being in our house because she was friends with someone who lived here previously. She thought it was neat because we had made a few changes and she remembers what it was like before. I was telling her about how I wanted to have the kitchen redone one of these days.

I did not mean that this weekend was "one of these days!"

We have lots of little projects to do--a baseboard needs nailing, a door needs a fixed hinge, cleaning galore. . .why a new project???

So. . .we will see how one is to function in a mess like this! :)

Making Snowmen

2011-01-14T10:52:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago my son got a letter home from school about a book that they had read:

Snowballs by Lois Ehlert. It is this cute children's book and all the illustrations are done using "stuff": things like paper, screws, popcorn, seeds, hats, socks, scarves and so forth. They got a "homework assignment" to make a snowman of their own at home using stuff from around the house. Junk. Recyclables. That kind of stuff. So, that is what we spent the day doing.

First, E had to look at images on the Internet about "snow people." That gave him the perfect idea.

Then, we had to make a stop at our local, free craft shop (aka: Oma's house) to pick up a few supplies. (That is still considered stuff from around the house, right? It was just from her house!)Since E and A were awake and ready to do all this by 7:30AM, they had to be distracted to make a cut and drawn kind of snowman first!

(Here is little a keeping himself entertained through it all!)

My busy workers! They used cups and bowls to trace their circles and material scraps for scarves. And of course lots of glue and crayons! And the final projects~ at 8:30AM! (First is E's, second is Princess A's creation)

Then, we were finally able to make the trip over to Oma's to pick up some stuff--googly eyes, Styrofoam balls and a cute little outfit for little a (not part of the supplies, of course, but just a nice added bonus!)

Here is E with some of the supplies:
And here is his story: "We got a ball and tissue paper. Then we stuffed it in a bag for eating lunch until it was full and taped it shut. We glued the buttons on and colored them too. The the nose. We poked it in and for the smile we did beads. I got burned a bit from the hot glue. For the eyes we did googly eyes. We used material for the hat and tied it with a string and then did the cutting and made a scarf from the same material. We poked straws for the arms. That was very last. And. . .I think that is all. We used a glue gun to stick everything on. And some tape. Done. I think."

Here is the snowman and the proud owner (minus the straw arms--that was a thought later on). And some close ups. . .

Then of course, Princess A needed one. So during the 20 minutes of napping time in the afternoon (mixed with crying because little a didn't want to nap!) Princess A got to make her "Snow Angel."

Too much fun.. . .she spent some time afterwards floating it around the house! Here is a link for where we were looking at snow people ideas (if it still works--I had some problems with it earlier!).

Menu Plan Monday

2011-01-10T16:43:00.001-08:00

Menu Plan day again. . .

Last week was one of those weeks were I didn't follow the plan. Which is all good, because I made this recipe: Honey Citrus Crock Pot Chicken. (I was kinda tired of peppers and onions and all that in food and creamy chicken kind of recipes). The only thing I would change is to use more pepper or ginger or something like that to give it a bit more of a kick.

And then later on in the week, to use the left-over chicken, I made a version of this stir fry. And everyone liked it. So it turned out to be a good eating week anyway--plan or no plan.

This week:

Monday- BBQ Chicken Sandwiches, coleslaw

Tuesday- Spaghetti, salad, garlic buns

Wednesday- Fancy grilled cheese, and for me and hubby~Homemade Broccoli & Cheddar Soup

Thursday (Crock Pot Day)-CP Thai Chicken, rice, corn

Friday- left-overs or pizza

Saturday's Snack- Apple Loaf (hopefully I'll get a post out about this one)

Sunday-French Toast Casserole, sausage

Well, there you go.

For more menu plan ideas, visit www.orgjunkie.com

Menu Plan late-Monday

2011-01-04T19:55:00.001-08:00

So much for starting the new year in an organized fashion!

Oh well. We have been busy with family get-togethers and the resulting colds and germs that go along with all of that (read: crabby kids)! This week it is back to the ordinary life. . .I think, anyway!

Monday-We had creamy chicken (CP) on buns and salad

Tuesday- We had Taco Salad

Wednesday-Thinking about pizza sandwiches or pizza

Thursday-Tuscan Chicken sandwiches (CP), stir fried veggies

Friday-Hamburgers (just want the BBQ going in the cold! we did it this past weekend with some salmon, and it is just yum when you smell that outside!)

Saturday- see my appy selection below

Sunday-pancakes and ham

Appies: Since it is a new year and no one wants to be eating anymore, here are a few of the appies/treats we had over the holidays (while I ceased to blog!)

Guacamole

Fresh Salsa

6 Roma tomatoes, 1 c. chopped onion, 1 T. garlic, 1 pepper, 1 t. hot chili, 1/2 t. cumin, 2 T oil, 2 t. lemon or lime juice.

Chop, mix, let sit for 1/2 hour, and enjoy!

Bruschetta

8-10 tomatoes, 2T finely chopped onion, 2 cloves minced garlic, 1/4 c. fresh basil, 2 t. red wine vinegar, 3 T olive oil, salt and pepper--to taste.

Mix ingredient together and let stand for 1/2 hour. Drain excess liquid. Slice Italian bread, brush with 3 T oil, broil on low until just browning. Spoon tomato mixture on top of bread. Enjoy!

Baked onion rings

Hot Cheesy Spinach Dip

For more menu plan ideas, visit http://www.orgjunkie.com/!

A Blue Christmas

2010-12-24T10:35:00.000-08:00

A blue, blue Christmas.

A beautiful Christmas.

A sparkle.

A shimmer.

A blue Christmas

to share with you!

image from google images (here)

image from google images (here)

image from google images (here)

image from google images (here)

Some Blue Christmas Beautifuls to share with you!

Have a beautiful day!

A few photos

2010-12-23T14:37:00.000-08:00

Family photo time again!

We have actually never had a family photo since. . .never? It's true! We've always enlisted the help of Oma or the automatic settings on the camera to take family photos for us. We thought that this year we would try to get some "real" ones done.

A relative of ours, Erin, is starting a photography business, and we asked her to do the honours! She has a facebook page and a website, for anyone interested. It was easy to arrange a time with her(and that is saying a lot when it means scheduling between possible naps and feedings, etc!), her price was great, and we think it all turned out great! (We definitely do not envy any photographer who has to put up with three kids (one being a baby!)--and try get them to take happy, smiling pictures--but we are glad we got some of those wonderful kinds of pictures out of the deal!)

She spent about an hour with us, back in our "backyard" and snapped away. A few weeks later we got the above CDs. We think it is great because we can do whatever we want (get various sizes, add to documents, etc) with the photos now. We had a lot of fun with her and would definitely recommend her to anyone!

So, here are a few of her "masterpieces":

Princess A

Little a

All of us

Some collages I made up/played around with using the photos. . .

A quote from a frame we purchased recently:

"The love of a family is life's greatest blessing."

Christmas Cards

2010-12-22T20:43:00.001-08:00

Each year--especially on my mat. leave years--I think to myself, "Wouldn't it be nice to have the kids help me make Christmas cards this year?" And for some reason, I never can remember what I felt like after the last time I did it! Because if I remembered how I felt afterwards, I know I would swear never to do it again!

But this was one of those years. . .when I forgot, and was so filled with the happy thoughts of involving my children in such a formative experience (yah, right!).

This first one was easy--making gift tags and candy treats. Punch the corners of old cards, poke a hole, tie some string. My kids can do that, I could handle supervising it all, it was gangs of fun.
And then came time for the cards. . .again, it was wonderful. I printed off some ornament pictures for them to colour. . .little did I know that my son would be so particular about how he coloured and my daughter thought brown would be perfect for EVERYTHING! Oh, how I tried to encourage them. Oh, how I reminded myself that it was their work and they were proud of it. Oh, how I really wanted it done my way!

But I resisted. Cut them all apart, had the kiddos help with the punches, had them help with some stamping, had them help with the mounting, had them help with gluing, had them help with the glitter pens (their favourite part), had them help tie knots and bows. . .had them help teach me LOTS of patience!!!

My side of the story: frustrating! It started out great, but a project like that is bound to get frustrating with a 5 and a 3 year old! And the time and effort that went into it! Phew! I thought they would never get done!

But they all got done, they got put into envelopes, and most are delivered (except for family and some neighbors, which my kids wanted to do).

And. . .I'm glad they are done. . .and deep down, buried under all the frustration and chaotic memories, I think I am glad they were involved. I'm hoping that they will remember this not as a frustrating ordeal, but a way that they can be involved in giving a "gift" to someone. Hopefully one day down the road, they will get what it means to "serve" other people. And hopefully it was just plain fun for them. . .which I think it was, because they keep begging to do more and trying to make some of their own (as I clean up all the messes!!!).

Here they are working away. . .

And here is a random finished project. . .a true labour of love for all of us! Is this the most beautiful card a person will get this Christmas? No, by no means! But a lot of work went into it, and. . .it was fun!

Whether you receive this card or not, we wish you all a very merry, blessed Christmas!

Menu Plan Monday

2010-12-13T09:19:00.001-08:00

Last week I didn't get around to posting my menu plan, which is okay, because I didn't really follow it anyway.

The plan:

Monday-Chicken strips, noodles and beans

We had: BBQ Chicken Sandwiches using left-over chicken made on the stove top and Harvest Potatoes

Tuesday-Chili and buns

We had: Spaghetti Casserole, corn, buns

Wednesday-breakfast Bagels or Pizza Bagels

We had: fancy grilled cheese and salad

Thursday- Chicken and rice

We had: Bacon and Cheese chicken, substitute ham strips for bacon and did it in the oven, mashed potatoes and beans

Friday-left-overs

We had: left-overs

Saturday-?

We had: Taco Salad

Sunday-French Toast Casserole and sausage

We had: French Toast Casserole and sausage

This week's plan:

Monday-left-overs. What a way to start the week. Blah!

Tuesday-Chicken Fajitas

Wednesday-Waikiki Meatballs, Rice, cut veggies

Thursday-CP Thai Chicken, noodles, mixed veggies

Friday- kids? something easy-ish. We are going out~ We're doing a "date" and going to the MWS Wonderful Christmas concert--so excited!

Saturday-work party--love these! Fancy eating here we come!

Sunday-pancakes and bacon

(*Sorry, no links yet. . .if I get ambitious later on in the week, they just might come, but right now, sleep is looking more inviting. Sorry!)

One of the many reasons I've been too busy to post. . .I decided to have my kids make the Christmas cards this year. It is always a great idea, until they've been doing it for two weeks and I'm so tired (read: frustrated, annoyed) of it all!!! But they love it, so . . .what do you do? (Besides vow to never do it again?!?!?)

Have a good week. . .
For more mpm, visit www.orgjunkie.com!

Laundry Shelves

2010-12-13T08:44:00.000-08:00

Ohh. . . look what I got my husband to do!!!

Our laundry room was "finished" about 2 years ago. We installed a counter top and shelf over top, and had a "leg" or "peg" holding the counter top up.
Then a half year ago+ our hot water tank broke and things got re-done.
And I liked it, but I didn't love it.

But then I was directed to the Ana White website, fell in love with it . . . and gave my hubby a choice. Buy a cabinet with drawers for laundry to go in and fit under the counter top we have (which could mean re-doing the counter top, filling the wall, re-painting, re-caulking, etc. if the cabinet didn't fit perfectly) or build a variation of this.

It may have helped that I had been up with a teething child for the whole night minus 3 hours of broken sleep, that a few other issues came up that he may not have handled well causing LOTS of additional work for me, and that I was just plain overwhelmed with life even at 9 a.m. that day, but he started building. (And I didn't stop him!)

Maybe there are a few blessings that go with bad days for moms! :)

I can't find a "before" picture (sorry!), but here is what he did- his progress:

The frame of it all
The painted finished product

A close up of the "shelves."

In the end, the project cost about $60. . .but it could be less if you used pressed board or more if you used fancy trim or melamine board. Hubby said he thought it was pretty easy, that I could have made it on my own. A nice compliment. . .not so sure if I could, but that means it is also an easy-ish project.Like I said, we had to make it work for us, so we used Ana White's tutorial as a guide for us. We had a "foundation shelf" to deal with in the back, and for cleaning purposes, I wanted to keep the back open. We also had a specific height to work with, so there is room on the bottom so I can store smaller, flat totes (see in above photo).

I am extremely happy. . .(and extremely happy to have a hubby who can do this!). . .and now have a place to store some of my sewing totes as well (on top), and can kinda use it as a sewing table. (Thinking of finding/making a flip-out or slide-out table to go with this for the sewing machine. . .we'll see)

Check out that website--there are tonnes of ideas. . .my hubby doesn't know what all I have planned for him to do still! :)

Winter Lights

2010-12-10T20:20:00.000-08:00

(image from here)

It's not winter yet. . .

almost. . .

but just to get in the mood,

here are some inspirations

{image searching fun}

winter is coming. . .

and it will be beautiful!

image from here

image from here

image from korean times here

Waiting for winter beauty. . .

(Friday Pretties)

orange(s) for christmas

2010-12-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

They are in the stores. . .

those {sweet} Christmas oranges.

They are gone in no time

in our home.

What about you?

Do you love orange(s)?

Some sweet Christmas oranges

for you. . .

(for your eyes--

not your taste buds.)

{Friday (Christmas) Pretties}

image from flicker here.

image found here. (I love browsing etsy for Christmas!)

image found here.

image found from here. . .LED lighted, of course!

image found here. made from real oranges!

Friday Pretties at "ILovePrettyThings": here

and also here (a giveaway too!)

Organizing Paper Clutter

2010-12-01T21:22:00.000-08:00

It's a family trait--it must be in the gene pool. I organize myself through "piles." I have one pile of paper for this, one pile of paper for that, and it may look like a mess to you, but I know what is in each of those piles and therefore everything is good.

Or not. . .because it looks so messy! And when your "office" space is shared with your kitchen and dining room and walks right into the living room, and when you have kids constantly around it and in it all, and when that is really an excuse I use to make myself feel better about the organized mess I created, well, that is when a new system has to be put into place.

And was my hubby ever happy to see the piles leave!

But really, I didn't make the piles disappear. They are just standing up a little nicer. Let me show you:

Because my kiddos are around, they helped me with it (How can they avoid it when I had to have my piles all over the floor?!?) I used a 10 sheets of white card stock, and then one of bright green and orange. You can pick whatever colours you like--I needed the bright colours to remind me where my "piles" went to. :) And of course a magazine box. I chose a plastic one--because I already had it in the house and it fit in the spot I wanted it to stay.

Then I used my Michael's tag punch (the pink size), and started punching out those bright card stock pages. (Or you can buy those dividers--but I couldn't find any I liked--and you really don't look too terribly hard when you a bunch of kids helping you in the stores--so this was my next option.) If you do it the hard way--not buying pre-made tags or dividers--you want to glue down two of the tags, one on each side of the divider, just to make it nice and sturdy. These tags are very important and will be filed through constantly!

I used two colours and made one coloured tag stick out on the top, and one stick out on the bottom. And I got my kiddos to help me. . .oh the joys of running tape. . .and help!

Then I labelled the things I liked to keep in my piles. Unfortunately, "bills to pay" has to stand out first. . .one of the reasons I figured I better do something with my "piles" system. . .that wasn't always happening on time! After that, file away. . .

Then of course, if you have used bright colours like me, they kind of stand out as being kinda ugly-ish, so I look through this box . . . enough to pay the bills on time anyway!

You can use a system like this for anything really--storing art work from school years (just label each divider by grade and put the artwork behind it all), sorting pictures to put in an album (just label each divider by month of activity), organizing recipes (especially if you are the type to rip out of magazines or have photocopies! Just label each divider by category), whatever it is you need to organize.

So, there is my simple way of organizing a mess. Works for me!

Thanksgiving Thoughts (WFW)

2010-12-01T21:04:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving at our House

I realize that it is well past Thanksgiving in Canada, and the left-overs are all eaten up in the United States. But I am still thinking about this warm and cozy holiday even as—and especially because—the Christmas season is beginning.

You see, I spent a bunch of years living in the U.S. and was fortunate to experience a "real American Thanksgiving" many times. During my college years I spent many Thanksgiving Days with my roommate's family—a family who made the dinner table just a little bigger each year to accommodate the college friends of their children—those of us who were not by our own families and had nowhere else to go. I remember one year they went as far as rounding up sawhorses and plywood, just to make eating space for all who came! And it wasn't just a dinner, it was a full day of activities and fun—truly something to celebrate and to be thankful for.

I lived on my own for three years in the U.S. and never spent a Thanksgiving alone. The hospitality of my fellow employees and friends always gave me a "home for the holidays." It wasn't right for a Canadian-rookie-single teacher to be alone for Thanksgiving, and each year I was blessed beyond measure by their generosity and kindness! Good food, good friends and good fun. I have so many wonderful memories!

Thanksgiving has looked a little bit different for me in the past few years. It's obviously not the grand celebration that it has been in the U.S. I definitely miss the extravagance of those days—pretty much the beginning of Christmas! In my experience, here in Canada, it is celebrated on a much lower key. Thanksgiving in my house is even less of an ordeal. My husband is a firefighter and the long weekend is the perfect opportunity for those guys to test equipment and hoses to ensure safety and ease when fighting fires. It is a few extra days wages for my husband. For that I am thankful . . . but it makes for a L-O-N-G weekend for me and the kids. To add to the mix, the church my family is part of is a little lacking in their Thanksgiving Day services. By lacking, I mean, lacking childcare. In the past I had enquired about it, was assured that there would be childcare, showed up and was pleasantly (note my sarcasm!) told there was nothing: my preschool (or baby) kids were to be in church with me, something quite out of the ordinary for them and for our church. And these services were not so "child-friendly" either—very much geared towards adults. To walk away or to grin and bear it . . . and I generally chose the latter. BIG mistake when you are acting as a single mom. You think I would have learned!

So this year was different. I checked with the church—was there going to be childcare? Only for the babies if enough people showed up. So, I made the decision to stay home. Please understand this is huge for me! I grew up as a faithful "twice a Sunday" attender. We try to go to church each Sunday. To miss church is a BIG deal to me! But this year I decided I just didn't want to pretend to be super-mom. I didn't want to go to church just to come home exasperated and very unthankful. And with three young children (one of them being 5 months old) and not near a full night of sleep prior, I knew that was probably going to be the outcome yet again. I had already played super-mom on Sunday for church. Monday's Thanksgiving service would have to take place without us.

So here I was, a little sad about missing church, a little deflated (I mean, my parents had us sit through church and we didn't make a peep! Why can't I do that with my kids?!?), a little defeated (Other parents can do this, why can't I?), and a lot tired! So, I printed off some thanksgiving pictures, got some books ready and prepared myself to stay home.

And then my son looked at me on Thanksgiving morning—of course there had been fights and tears and overwhelming moments that had taken place already—but he looked at me with big, sad eyes when I told him we were going to stay home, and he said he really wanted to go. {Break my heart!} And here was my fatal mistake: I asked him why he really wanted to go to church. I repeat: fatal mistake! And his answer—in his very-mature-five-year-old-voice—was, "All I want to do is praise God."

An hour later, me and three kids were on our way to church. How do you say no to that? (I know, I know, I'm a sucker for my kids. I was definitely showing them who was boss!)

It turned out there were enough babies, so I was able to drop off my crabby 5 month old with some loving ladies for a cuddle. And my kids had been warned: if they don't listen to me, we go home. If you want to praise God, that is what we are going to do. (Of course my theology was a little off here since there are far more ways to praise God than to sit quietly by your mom so she feels like she has it all together. But I'll correct that in the years to come.) And they actually were amazing! Maybe my threat worked . . . or maybe . . . they were just good. I didn't even have to pull out the reinforcements (aka: books, crayons, etc.), I didn't have to give them "The Look," and I didn't have to pull them out of the service. They sang, they listened, they sat, they watched. I was in awe.

But here was the big moment for me; the part of church that stood out. There was this time of sharing. You know, when people could come up to the microphone and share how God had blessed them this year. At one point, an older woman who was unfamiliar to me came forward and said she was thankful for the families in church that morning. She said that she knew that many, many things had already happened that morning in the homes, that for families the morning had probably started much earlier than it did for most, and that it may have been a tremendous struggle just to get to church that morning. It would have been easier to stay home for most. But the fact that she saw so many parents with children sitting in the audience showed her that there were some parents who cared deeply about teaching their children about God, both today and every other Sunday morning. There were parents who wanted to pass on the tradition of church and the love of God to their children. And for that she was thankful.

When we came home, I thanked my kids for acting so good in church. They shrugged it off as if they didn't know what the big deal was. And I thanked my son for asking to go to church. Again, he shrugged it off as if it was no big deal. And I realized too, that I was thankful for the first time in a very long time for going to church on Thanksgiving Day.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it. ~Proverbs 22:6

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." ~Matthew 19:4

One day some parents brought their children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him. When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples. He said to them, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn't receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it." Then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them. ~ Mark 10:13-16

(image from here)

Tutus

2010-11-30T14:09:00.000-08:00

So. . .my daughter is a ballerina. Or rather, she runs around to music with ten other girls and THINKS she is a ballerina. It is all so very cute!

Since her talent has not been discovered yet, I have a hard time forking out the $$ to get her an unbelievably beautiful dancing costume (Oh, and I may have a hint of frugal blood in me!). Since all that was required for her little class was some soft-soled slippers, I just didn't give in to the $50+ leotards sold at the same store. Instead I found a raging deal--$2 (second-hand!), I believe! And of course, she thinks she is a princess just because she gets to wear pink!

But she had no tutu. And she was the only one with no tutu!!!

But during Halloween, the little preschoolers were allowed to wear a costume to their dancing class. "Oma" was sewing a costume for Princess A's cousin, so I think she felt she wanted to make something for Princess A as well. So, a tutu it was!

I found two websites/blogs that showed exactly what I wanted, so I passed them on to her to try.(Blog 1 and Blog 2) Oma went with Blog 2 (I probably would have too--it is no sewing and it says easy! I won't re-tutorial you because you can go to the link. . . or you can google "no sew tutus" and find a link of your own, but the whole idea is cutting strips of crinoline or ribbon and looping them onto the waist band:

Here is the end product:

The crinoline had sparkly spots on top of the black. The ribbon was shimmery gold kind. And since you may be wondering why it is not pink, here is the rest of the costume it had to match!

Oma also found another second hand tutu that she passed along to Princess A for the rest of her dancing classes. According to Princess A, "purple and pink is princess colours, so this makes me a princess."

However, the fact that it was a second hand tutu proved itself after the first class and it pretty much started falling apart at the seems. Oma came over another day with a new sewn pink one (with a waistband that didn't fray!) and attached the special "rosies" from the first one to her new one.

And of course, the above it what happens when you have a snow day and a tutu!

. . .a crazy looking snow princess!

Menu Plan Monday

2010-11-29T15:02:00.000-08:00

Here's the menu plan for this week. . .pretty boring, pretty standard, but still all good.

The highlight of last week was pineapple chicken. Everyone loved it in this house. The only change I would make is to thicken the sauce at the end. . .maybe by stove top. That is just more of a personal preference. The flavour was good. . .and easy.

Monday-spaghetti, garlic bread

Tuesday-Sausage, perogies, stir-fried veggies

Wednesday-Fancy grilled cheese (option 1 or option 2), french fries

Thursday-South of the Border Chicken and Rice Bake, salad (this is a new one)

Friday-Pizza

Saturday-fish something. . . (or out!)

Sunday-pancakes

For more mp ideas, visit www.orgjunkie.com.

A Pink Christmas Giveaway

2010-11-24T16:29:00.000-08:00

A very beautiful blog

is having a giveaway.

Cute cards.

Adorable stickers.

Gorgeous note cards.

Christmas made easy by etsy artist Kara Rosenberry.

Pop on over to Bluebird Notes

for this giveaway.

Menu Plan Monday

2010-11-23T16:08:00.000-08:00

Menu plan. . .late.

Oh well.

But to qualify, I got a surprise meal made for me on Monday, so really, my plan would have been inaccurate, so it is better to supply you with an accurate plan, right?

That's the excuse I'm gonna go with anyway!

Monday-Chicken Milani (a chicken and vegetable stew), buns

Tuesday-Crock Pot Pineapple Chicken, rice, carrots

Wednesday-sausage, perogies, stir fry veggies

Thursday (CP day)-Beef Barley Vegetable Soup (from last week)

Friday- left-overs or Tuna (or chicken) Casserole/spaghetti

Saturday- will post about this day later. . .its an appie day!

Sunday-Apple Pancake Bake (never tried it yet)

Well, have a happy week, and check out www.orgjunkie for more MP ideas!

MPM. . .if it's not too late. . .

2010-11-17T21:29:00.000-08:00

I know, I'm a slacker. . .but I thought I would post anyway, if only for the links! And I can honestly say we have stuck to the plan (because if I changed it at all, you will never have known!) Anyway. . .

Monday- BBQ Chicken, buns, beans (notice all the "B" words? Completely by chance, but not bothersome at all!)

Tuesday-tuna melts, steamed veggies

Wednesday-chicken bacon pizza, carrots and dip
(and oh my--that was terrible. The dip I mean. The pizza ROCKS! You should try the pizza! But I am(or I guess I should say was) a big fan of the epicure (VE) cheese. chive and bacon dip. It is so easy to whip together and tasted so great. I just ordered it again and they changed the recipe in it. . .and wow, that was SICK! Even my daughter who would inhale the old stuff wouldn't eat it! The sad part is the old version is somewhat less healthy for you and I loved that. The new stuff is supposed to be better for you health-wise, but the taste is so lacking. . .in my humble opinion! . . . sorry for venting!)

Thursday (CP)-Beef, Barley and Vegetable soup, buns

Friday- left-overs

Saturday's Snack-um. . .snacks? who has time for that anymore?!?!? (but i do know i am definitely not making that dip again! maybe I'll have to try one of the other ones. . .)

Sunday- might try Apple Pancake Bake. Looks easy and yummy. . .

so there you have it. . .MPM, but very late!

Squah Soup

2010-11-02T02:03:00.000-07:00

It is Fall. . .and that means we get to try some fall cooking!

I made squash soup for the first time last year--only because we decided to try to grow some butternut squash in our garden. My hubby remembered his mom making stuff with squash, so we though it would be good to grow. . .if it grew. The squash did grow great, but when I asked hubby what his mom had done with the squash, he couldn't remember. Off to the Internet I went!

We once had a squash soup as a starter at a fancy-ish restaurant, so I thought I might give it a try. It turned out to be wonderful. So. . .a week ago (or more, don't remember anymore!) I made it again!

I have no idea where I got the recipe from, so here is my go at it. . .

What you need:

1 large butternut squash

1 medium onion

2 apples, peeled and chopped

olive oil

butter

salt and pepper to taste

ground coriander

ground cinnamon

ground nutmeg

6-8 c. chicken stock or broth

The recipe suggests slicing the squash as shown (which isn't butternut squash, but looking at the web, this kind is similar--just a tougher shell. I needed hubby to cut them open for me. I wasn't strong enough!) Slice, take out the seeds and goop, then score it to let olive oil seep in and then sprinkle with salt and pepper. cover with foil and roast in a 350F oven for about 1/2 hour. I used this squash as food for the baby as well, so I just roasted it for now, and added the spices later on to the soup.

Next I put a little butter or olive oil in large pan, added a chopped onion, and added the salt and pepper now.

Once the onions were soft, I scooped out the squash from the shells and added the rest of the ingredients. After the soup came to a boil, I simmered it for about 30 minutes--until everything was soft and the house smelled great!

Then, I scooped it into my magic bullet, and pureed it.

The recipe suggested adding a splash of white wine to give it a refreshing kick. For a more savoury taste, it suggested replacing the cinnamon and nutmeg with sage and bits of chopped bacon. We remembered eating it at the restaurant with a dollop of herbed cream.

We just topped it with sour cream and bacon bits. Oh-so-fancy for us!

And enjoy!

For more ideas, visit Tempt My Tummy Tuesdays, Tasty Tuesdays, and What's Cooking Wednesdays.