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!

My Sweetie!

I was talking to my middle son on the phone last night (as I posted yesterday, they are visiting with their grandparents right now) and I was asking him about something grandma had told me. She said he was a bit homesick and sat in a room by himself for awhile. I was thinking "oh how sweet, my baby actually misses me, awww." I was wrong but the reason he was crying was still just as sweet. He had been watching "Fox and the Hound", remember that one?

I guess he found it just too sad to watch so he had to leave and cry a bit (hey, I cry watching that one too!) but didn't want grandma to know the real reason so he pretended he was homesick. I guess crying because you are homesick is more acceptable to a 7yr. old then crying from a sad movie! I just love his tender heart! He is my little sweetie!

Blog? What blog?

Oh yes, this blog!

I haven't forgotten that I have a blog, I've just been too busy living life and enjoying summer! I have been enjoying summer but at the same time, not doing anything special, just taking it easy!

Right now my kids are all gone to visit Grandma and Papa, my in laws who just moved closer to us (can I get an AMEN! No kids for 10 days!) so I have a bit more time on my hands! Actually, I'm finding it quite boring with them gone. Of course, the week they are gone, nothing but rain! It is supposed to be nice this weekend so I imagine we'll be hitting the beach.

Tomorrow evening I'm going to be enjoying a girls night with a friend and I get to buy the school supplies this week. I am happy about it because the boys won't be there begging for what they want, it should be quick and easy!

We will join the boys next week and get a visit in and celebrate our 12th anniversary and my (*cough*30th*cough*) birthday. We are going away for the night on our anniversary and I'm so excited. We've not done anything on our anniversary for years because we always have the boys with us so this will be nice. I'll have some pictures to share of the Hotel, it is beautiful. It is a renovated mansion from the 1800's and is done up so nice with lots of antiques! I hope you all (the 1 or 2 of you that read this blog!) are having a great summer!

(My crazy boys that I miss!)

Random, but at least it's a post!

So far, our new Kitten is fitting in nicely. She is pretty cute and the boys are quite taken with her. She has her moments, she can be pretty wild and likes to bite and scratch, but she has now directed that to Sammy. Sammy (that cat that previously ruled the house) is finally playing with her, instead of hissing at her. He can get a bit carried away and is so much bigger than her so I like to keep an eye on them when playing! But he keeps her busy!

The weather is slowly warming up! Actually, it was quite hot yesterday, a promise of what is to come I hope!

Lots of big things happening this month. My dad and his wife and their adopted son are coming to visit for two weeks. They arrive tomorrow, It has been two years since I've seen my dad and I look forward to meeting my new brother. My mother, father and brother in law are moving to our side of the country and I'm so excited. We go years (I'm talking 3 to 4) in between visits and I'm happy that we'll be able to see them more and meet our one year old nephew.

I haven't been taking many pictures of the kids. I'm not sure why but I'm vowing to get back at it! I'm going to have that camera attached to me all summer and hope to share some of our memories with you. This poor blog has been pretty neglected and I can't promise it will be any better now the nice weather has rolled in, but I will try to stop in from time to time!

I can't believe the boys are done school for another year! Next year they will be in grade 6, 2 and 1. Time sure flies. We are taking a break from sports this summer and plan to take time to be together as a family, no schedule, doing what we want! I'm looking forward to it!

I hope your family is healthy and enjoying summer!

Meet Ruby, our new baby!

Armajello!

It has been a crazy couple of weeks in our house! One after another, we've all taken a turn at being sick. Pink eye is the new thing in our house. Don't you wish you were me! Anyway, my MIL sent me these cartoons and I don't know about you but I could use a chuckle, so I thought I'd share them with you today! Hope you and your family are happy and healthy and enjoying Spring!

5 Things I Loved About Being A SAHM!

My husband was gone for the last three days and I got to stay home (I had to be home for the kids to get home from school, I thought I'd let my fill in have the whole day instead of traveling 45mins just for a few hours) for two of the days. I was a stay at home mom up until 3yrs. ago and never got to enjoy the time at home while the kids were at school, the youngest two started school in the last two years. So, here are 5 of the things I enjoyed while being home. Keep in mind, I am normally not home so I took more leisure than most SAHM's probably usually get!

1. Going back to bed after sending the kids off to school! I had trouble falling asleep without Jim so I was pretty tired. After the kids went to school, I went back to bed for two hours! It was glorious!

2. Getting to make a nice lunch. I have to brown bag it most days for work (so tired of sandwiches, I now understand why the kids are tired of them too!).

3. Having lots of time to plan and get things ready for supper instead of having to know in the morning and then rush to get it made after work. I loved being able to think about it, once I was really awake and have time to take something out or do some prep.

4. I liked being mobile. I spend 40hrs. a week sitting in an office chair. At home I am going up and down stairs, walking all over the house and doing chores and it felt good to be moving all day.

5. The best thing I loved about being a SAHM the last few days was being home when the boys came home from school. I had a nice snack ready for them each day and they were so excited to see me (I suppose that novelty would wear off if I was home all the time!). Yesterday we walked down to the park after school. It was so nice to spend time with them instead of the usual: rushing to get dinner on, homework, baths and bed!

That is my list for this week, go visit Peanut to read more 5 Things I Love lists!

5 Things I Love About....Myself.

5 Things I Love About Myself.

Wow, that really sounds vain! Really it isn't, if you saw how long it took me to come up with 5 things! I'm taking my cue from Peanut today. She wrote about 5 things she likes about her body. I couldn't quite go that far but I figured I could find 5 things about myself in general I liked, if I really really tried, couldn't I? Well, lets see!

1. I am pretty social. I love to spend time with family and friends and love to laugh. I don't get to do it as much as I'd like but if I could, I would everyday! I loved living at Bible College and having friends and their kids all in the same building. We had a great time there!

2. I'm very forgiving. I am quick to forgive and I get over things quickly. I have found that quality to serve me well, especially being a pastor's wife. I don't take things too personally and if I am hurt, I get over it fairly quickly.

3. I can be quite shy (until you get to know me!). That doesn't sound like a positive, and in many cases it isn't, but I am easy to talk to. I don't come on strong and it makes it easier to get to know others who are shy like me. God has really helped me to come out of my shell enough to do this and to reach out to others first, but it doesn't come easily.

4. I am fiercely loyal and protective of my friends and family. I may be shy but I will stand up for them when I'm needed, especially for my children. When I'm your friend, I'm your friend for life (there, you have your fair warning!)

5. Oh boy, one more, um.......I am a child of God! There, that's a good one! I am happy that I made the decision 15 years ago to follow Christ. It is the best thing I've ever done and I wouldn't have any of these qualities or this life without Him!

Whew! That wasn't so bad, I just managed to squeeze 5 things in there! Go visit Peanut to read her list and more 5 Things I Love posts and why not make your own list and join up?

*By the way, any suggestions on how to make my header inline with the columns? I've had this problem before but have always been able to fix it. This time I'm stumped!

The Post in Which I Magically Reappear!

Two weeks? Wow, can you tell I've lost my blogging mojo? Hmm, that begs the question, did I every really have it or is it something I can still get somehow? There are so many computer viruses out there, why can't I catch that one, the blogging mojo virus! You'd think after two weeks, I'd have something to blog about (instead of wasting your time blogging about how I have nothing to blog about!) but you'd be wrong. Why aren't my kids crazy or weird or something? No one is giving me blog fodder and as you can tell, I'm NOT a writer at heart! I have, however, been reading blogs and so to finish this post with SOMETHING, I'm going to share some links with you. Here are some posts from the last two weeks that touched me, made me think or made me smile: (Just click on each blog to read the post)

Sarah @ Life in the Parsonage

Lisa @ The Preachers Wife

Peanut @ Peanut, Peanut-Lover and the Weenuts (Today is Peanut and Peanut-Lover's 7th anniversary so...Congrats!!)

Stefani @ Blue Yonder

Shannon @ Rocks in my Dryer

DeeDee @ Fiddledeedee

Make Me Laugh Monday

Just a quick comic I found on facebook, though it was cute and applies to many of us!

Check out more for your Monday chuckle at Jenny on the Spot!

Make Me Laugh Monday

I thought this one was cute, poor Grandpa!

This is totally how I feel!
To see more Make Me Laugh Mondays (if you are like me, you really need a laugh on Mondays) check out Jenny on the Spot, for guaranteed laughs!

Please Pray

click on the picture above to read what is going on with Baby Stellan and when you are saying your prayers, can you take a moment to mention Stellan? I can't imagine what mom is going through but she really needs our prayers.

5 Things Thursday: Spring!

5 Things I love (and look forward to) about Spring:



1. Daffodils. They are the first flowers to blossom in my yard and their sunshine yellow colour makes me happy.




2. All the green! I love it when the grass gets green and all the leaves come out on the trees. Ever look up at the trees and see how beautiful the leaves are against the blue sky? I just love love love it!




3. I mentioned the blue sky in the last one. I love the colour of the sky when it is that amazing, brilliant blue on a nice sunny day. That is my very favourite colour. Even on a cold day, that blue sky does wonders to this winter-weary girl!




4. Kids playing outside! Can I get an Amen? We are all tired of being cooped up, time for fresh air, running, swinging and sliding!




5. The thing my and my family love most and are looking forward to is going to the beach! No swimming in spring but lots of shell collecting! My boys love to collect shells and skip rocks in the water and I plan to spend a lot of my summer at the beach!




To check out more 5 Things Thursdays, go visit my good friend Peanut and maybe even link up yourself!