The Guide for Every Pastor's Wife by Lisa McKay

I'm so excited to read this book, I have entered for a free copy and you can too. It would make a great gift for your Pastor's wife!

Into the Sunset

I was posting some pics for The Pioneer Woman's photography assigment and thought I'd share them here too. Doesn't everyone love a sunset? I sure do and I have about a million of them stored on my computer. Enjoy!

What I Wish...

1. ....is that you all had a great Christmas with friends and family and made a ton of warm memories to take into the new year (I sure did).

2. ....is that you have a lot of hope and excitement as you look ahead into 2010 (I sure do).

3. ....that I could be a stay at home mom again, so we could have more days with this:

Homemade soup, homemade biscuits and cookies!

Notice a theme with this pictures? Everything is HOMEMADE! Working full time just doesn't give me the time to cook like this as much as I'd like to, although I try. The consensus was that it was all good!

Well mostly...

Just so you know, those cookies (Mexican wedding cakes or Russian tea cakes, whatever you call them) cook a lot faster if you don't turn the oven off after making the biscuits but think you left it on, and after 15-20 mins think your oven is broken only to finally realize you turned the oven off. Just sayin'

I also got to lay on the bed with the boys and watch a movie (Santa Buddies). I enjoyed this time at home I've had this past week (next holiday isn't until Easter? Really?). I realize how much I'm missing being at work but I do know how valuable my time at home is and my resolution is to make the most of that time, along with the usual ones (lose weight, eat better, exercise...you get the idea!)

Do you have a resolution for 2010?

It had to come sometime!

Winter that is!

We did have one fluke warm day with rain that melted some snow but now it is back to cold and windy. I miss the carefree days where the boys just needed to grab a coat and their bag for school. Now it is a 12 minute production, trying to get all the snow gear on!

Even a winter hater like me has to admit, the first snow can be so beautiful!



Everything is bright and snow white clean and isn't that the reason for the season? The baby Jesus being born so that he could later pay the price that makes us clean again?

We got our tree up early this year because we won't be home for Christmas. As you can see, my 8 month old kitten has had a ball with the string of beads. I've given up, they are half hanging off now!

I hope you all have a great Christmas with lots of love and laughter and maybe even a little something special under the tree!

A Thanksgiving DYI Project

While out shopping a couple of weeks ago, I saw this cute fall/Thanksgiving decoration. It was a set of blocks, different sizes and colours that spelled out the words: Give Thanks. I thought it was cute and was going to buy it but then decided it was something I could make (and I knew I had everything I needed already at home). Of course my version isn't as cute but I thought it came out nice enough. I'd like to make some for Christmas and make them look nicer, I have some ideas! Here is a pictorial run through of what I did:

I used Rub On letters, figured it was the easiest option

My husband cut the blocks for me and I sanded them down. I made sure to sand all the ends and corners to round them off, looks nicer.


I painted them various fall colours and let them dry (my boys insisted that purple and blue were not fall colours, but I'm sure there are fall flowers of those colours!)


Fuzzy picture I know! Next step was to apply the rub-ons. I learned with one letter how important it is to make they are completely dry!

And Ta-Da! This is the end result! I'm going to spray a finish on them to give them a bit of gloss and protect them. I'm going to get more creative with my next try for Christmas but this was fun and costed me $0! Hope all my fellow Canadians had a great Thanksgiving!

Grocery Spending Challenge

Well, this challenge hasn't gone too well for me! I was doing well the first two weeks but in my defense, my in-laws are visiting. It is my youngest son's 6th birthday tomorrow and so my husband's parents are visiting this week to visit and celebrate with the birthday boy. That means I have spent more than the allotted amount this week! Although I haven't been successful with this challenge, I have found it to be very helpful. I know where my money has gone this month, before, not so much! I plan to keep trying to save wherever I can and to use more of Mary's tips from her book, which has the best recipes I might add! The best thing is... there is always a new month to try again.

Grocery Spending Challenge, Week 2

Okay, week two for the grocery spending challenge. This week the grocery bill came to $81.30. A little higher but still not bad. We have eaten out twice in the last two weeks. We usually end up eating out once a week but I would like to cut that back to once every two weeks. I'll will include the cost of that at the end. My goal this week is to not eat out once. Lets hope I get over this cold fast then! So far, not so bad but lots of room for improvement!

Lovely Long Weekend

I love paid holidays! Yesterday was Labour Day (do we spell it Labour or Labor here in Canada?) and I got paid to stay home, oh yah! We went on a nice hike to see some falls about an hour away form here. Here are a few pictures:

Okay, more than a few pictures! It was lots of fun and beautiful, we will definitely be going back! Hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend!

Five Things Thursday....

I'm going to follow Peanut's lead and try to look on the bright side, so here we go:

5 Things I Like About Being Stuck At Work All Day! (What? I said I'd try!)

1. Well, if I must work, the hours are good. I work from Monday to Friday, 9-5. I am home for supper every night and get to spend the weekends with my family!

2. Scrambling to think of things for my lunch and ending up eating PB&J 5 days straight.
(I know, this is a stretch! Guess what I ate today?)

3. I get to interact with other adults.

4. Hmm, I'm trying to think of something.......oh....when it isn't busy, I can go online and chat on Facebook or blog! Good one!

5. The paycheck at the end of the week of course!

Hop on over to Peanut, Peanut-lover and the Weenuts to see more 5 Things I Love Thursday. Maybe you have something you need to look on the bright side about and want to play along!

*Blogger insists on mixing my font size, not sure why!

Grocery Spending Challenge

I've decided to take part in this challenge being hosted by Mary over at OwlHaven. I recently purchased her book: Family Feasts for $75 a week. I love it, there are some great tips for saving money on groceries and many awesome recipes! I've made a couple of them so far and they've all been big hits! So, my goal is to spend $75 to $100 a week on groceries for the five of us (plus two cats). Of course, the closer to $75 the better! I shopped last night (and will count that towards our first week) and spent $77. Not bad so far but I know there are still one or two things I need. It will be interesting to see how this goes, I'm kind of excited! Wish me luck!