Felicia's Engagement

The only thing that could express my happiness for my dear sis is the tears that have periodically streamed down my checks the last week. You can read her story on her blog "To The Ends of The Earth"

We got to meet Teunis during Christmas, and he is wonderful. As you will find out once you read her story. I asked him if him and his family would plan the wedding since they did such a good job with the engagement. Sigh, I don't think it's that easy since the wedding will be so far away from them. I have my work cut out for me until June. Can't wait! And now my dear faithful readers I'm off to spend the evening with my own wonderful man.

Boots for Edith

I bought new boots a couple weeks ago, really wonderful soft warm comfy boots. They felt like slippers, and I sprayed them up real nice so they are waterproof(ish). At the time I thought they were mine, but I was wrong, they were for Edith. I didn't get to meet Edith until today. Every six weeks our church group volunteers at Fishes and Loaves, we serve soup to homeless people. It is hosted by a church in town and they have 6 groups on a rotation to serve lunch. We also give people clothes and toiletries if they need them. That's when I noticed a lady having a hard time finding boots that would work, so I asked her to try mine on. It was the most simple and natural thing to do, but it blessed us both immensely. She was so touched that I would give her my boots she cried and totally opened up to me. She shared her whole story with me, how she got to be in that situation, and how it changed her heart so much. She blessed my heart in what she said and encouraged me more than I think I've ever been encouraged. It's hard to explain how much it meant to us both, but that's the beauty of those moments. They are God moments. He knew what was going on while I bought the boots, and while her shoes were being stolen, as he was forming us he knew we would both have size 9's with bunions:-) I've never been more thankful for my wide feet! I have learned a great deal today, about people, and how God works, and about listening and obeying. Oh and I realized that my nose tingles when I first start to cry, happy tears today, lots of happy tears.

The New House

Pictures of our unfinished house, still very much in limbo with much unpacking left to be done.








No pictures of our room yet, but it's the same pretty blue as the very colourful kids room. Oh, and look at what I did to my hair this morning! I like it. It wasn't supposed to be this dark, but I think it was a good mistake.

Pretty Paper

This website is AMAZING! I'm in love. They are having a contest to win beautiful paper. I hope I win.
Owen is emptying a huge box of straws all over the kitchen floor. I'm just watching. Did I mention that we moved into our new house?!?! I'll do a house post tomorrow.

More Trees

I found these from two talented artists on etsy. Katelyn has a new imaginary friend named etsy, you have no idea how happy this makes me. The sketch picture is done by "Creative Decor". And the painting was done by "Barbara Swimmer"
I also found this AMAZING shop, check it out if you care to. Incredible photography that she alters with paints. Her collages are incredible too, she said they can take years to make . She cuts out flowers and intricate details with an xacto knife. Intense. (the barn photo is hers)
In other news, it's snowing today. Not just any snow. The kind that falls gently, blanketing the earth with it's huge fluffy flakes. It makes the world seem like a quieter place, like you need to just take the time to walk through the woods. We made french toast, which made the day nearly perfect. But not quite. I'll tell you what made it perfect. Upon opening the fridge for the cream I found we only had milk. Milk in coffee makes me want tea instead, that's how much I hate it. Soooo..... I heated a whole pot of milk, whisked in some chocolate, added some mint extract, and poured that over our incredibly strong coffee. Mint Chocolate Lattes, voila! Then we sat looking out our huge kitchen window eating a wonderful breakfast with our very funny kids (and "etsy" of course). How can a day be bad after a morning like that?

A Tree

In our new house (which we're moving into next week) we have a bonus room which will be half play room half craft/sewing room. I know that sounds like a disaster, but in the end it will win me more sewing time. My kids are very content to play, as long as I'm in the room. When I'm not in the room I plan to be super organized and keep things put away, and have most things behind doors. I know you're all laughing at me and my lofty ideas of organization and thinking I should know myself better by now. But whatevs. Anyways, that's not my point. My point is that we have a very big plain wall in that room, it's a vaulted ceiling. A very big plain wall in a hideous neutral colour doesn't suit crafting and playing, so I'm going to paint a tree on it. I'm thinking about something whimsical, but not to immature. So here's some ideas

Beets are Good

Things I want to do before we move in November

Move in November?! Yes that's right, you heard it here first. I finally get to move! Hopefully this will be the last time for awhile. We've had our house that we're currently living in for sale for about 8 months. Finally we decided to rent it out. The perfect family came along and viola! It's done! This family seems pretty amazing, I'm stoked to have them as neighbors. Anyhoo, here's my very ambitious list of things to do before the big move. This is besides packing of course.
-Make these baby bloomers for Owen
-Finish Felicia's Scarf
-Make a few pairs of these cute slippers
-finish Chace's baby quilt
-finish the Kiss's wedding quilt
-finish Christmas gifts that I'm making, and Christmas decorations. I have no idea what I'm doing for this, I just keep getting ideas and starting projects, so I'll have a lot to finish by the time Dec 24th comes around.
-Sort out my deep freeze which really means making about 10 ice cream pails of soup, making Saskatoon jam, making perogies (I figured if I can sneek pureed veggies into them it would be worth the effort to make them from scratch), making squash bread and many many other squash delights as I have about 200 pounds of squash to use (seriously not even exaggerating), making pate (yum), making a few freezer meals to have on hand.
-use up some stuff from my fridge like a HUGE thing of cream cheese, what was I thinking?!?!
-use the rest of the tomatoes so they don't go bad. I'm making batch number 2 of salsa (yes Melissa, I'm totally using your moms recipe this time!) I'm also making green tomato chutney, which will later be used in mince meat tarts, so good.
-finish the apple juice and apple sauce, which won't be hard because I'm already half done that right now.
-digging up all the roots that are still under ground. Carrots, potato's, rutabaga, and beets. I'll probably can the beets because that's how we like them the best around here.
-I'm really getting the itch for baby number 3, but that might not get done what with all these other things going on. This is really just a test to see if I get a reaction from this comment, ha ha. June is 9 months away. I'm very busy in June. Therefore baby number three will just have to wait a bit.
-I'd also really like to finish the house that we'll be moving into. This means painting painting painting. And shopping for light fixtures and other such things. I have some pretty great neighbors and friends that are offering a lot of help in this area. Couldn't do it without them.
-making these lists are very pointless for me, as I never really do half the stuff on them. I made a list in the spring and I would laugh to look at it now, I won't even allow myself to look at it. But if you want to look at it here's the link.
And with that, I'm out! Got a lot to do!

Just Stuff

These pics just make me feel better about life right now. I feel so blah and whatever. But when I look at these I remember the good times lately.


My sweet friend Jessie got married this summer. GORGEOUS wedding, just incredible. Everything about it was brilliant. The vows, the setting, the music, the food, the people. It was great.

Us at the wedding!

Laura, Amy and I. Too bad there were some important people missing from this photo. Boo. Oh well, next summer there will be another wedding, we can try to get everyone in it then

These are some adorable baby quilts I made for my friend in the spring. She waited so long to have a baby, and then she was blessed with twins! I was just so happy for her.

This one turned out really nice, and it was easier than a "real" quilt with binding

See this adorable chicky? We let it grow up all nice and fat, then we killed it and ate it. It's pretty tasty chicken, and cute too.

The Ultimate Coolest Ever Blog (and a stroller I'm selling for a friend)

Like the title says, this is the best blog ever. It's what I want my blog to be. So maybe I'll just stop blogging and keep putting different links from this blog on here instead. It will take me awhile to look through all the wonderful stuff she has on here. So far I'm amazed.


Oh, and here's a pic of this wicked awesome stroller that my friend is selling. She's away for a couple weeks and she's letting me use it while she's gone. We're hoping that by me walking around with it (and two cute kids) it will gain interest and we'll make a sale. It's great for people with two kids thinking about three. Or one kid, having the second, and knowing a third will come along someday. It's just really great, it has wonderful features, too many to go into. There, that's my schpeal on the good stroller that you should buy. Here's the link to her ad if you want to know more.

Little Wagon

 

Ok here's a random thought. Picture a wedding with a couple cute flower girls and ring bearers. Maybe one ring bearer is at that lovely age of 18 months where they like doing their own thing. What 18 month little boy wouldn't like to be pulled in a wagon? So my thought is, rather than having him walk down, why not let the older ring bear pull him in this little wagon that I have laying around the yard? It might look like a little kid parade, but it'd be cute right? This is all totally hypathetical of course...... heee hee.

My Sister is in LOVE!!!!

 

Yes indeed, this beauty found the man she's always been waiting for. I'm thilled. I'm so giddy I have been smiling for two days straight. I don't wander far from the computer for fear of missing a skype call or some other such exciting event. I'm so happy for her, just beyond words. It was all such a God thing and just totally amazing. I can't wait to see what will happen next! I'll try to post a picture of him, I'll have to steal it from his facebook account, hee hee, I'm so sneeky. His name is Teunis and he stole her heart, yay!

Broken Promises

April 2! That's almost FOUR MONTHS of non blogging! Poor lonely little blog, so cold and all alone! Well, I'm here now, but I can't promise I'll be back soon. It seems like every time I promise to be a faithful writer I break my promise.
Where do I start to catch you all up on the last four months? My to do list, sadly, isn't much different. It has grown a lot, that's the only difference. Gardening is the newest and greatest stuff that has happened. What a depressing spring of weather we had. At one point I was ready to rip the garden out and move to B.C. !!!! A true Alberta girl ready to betray her province! That must mean it was truly horrible. And it was. Windy, cold, dry, just terrible. I'm really tired of starting my garden from scratch every year. I've never got to build it up nicely because I'm starting in a new yard every year. We've been getting hot days lately and everything is looking very happy out there now. I have fallen in love with Alberta once again this month. All it took was a lovely drive home from the farm one day. Just me in the truck with the windows down, the country music blaring, at that glowy time of evening. Fresh hay bales out spreading their sweet perfume, bright canola fields swaying in the slight breeze. Glorious. It made me wonder why I wanted to move to the dessert, all cloudy and depressing in the winter. Boo B.C. Boo! (although I'm super excited for a B.C. trip in the fall to buy some apples and see very dear and wonderful friends and family)
Other new things going on? I'm pretty obsessed with a cook book I've had for awhile called Nourishing Traditions. It's a new way of cooking (for me) that takes some getting used to, and a lot of thinking ahead. She soaks all her flours and grains for baking, ferments milk and veggies, sprouts nuts and seeds before eating. It's much more than just a cook book. She goes into SOO many things about healthy and nutrition, I love it. It's my fav. So I've been cooking a lot, and getting healthy. Oh and I grew wheat grass! It's nasty stuff! But apparently really good for energy. Another thing we've been taking is called Youth Juice. I'm really loving it and noticing a difference in my energy, and in how well I sleep. People are saying it's been helping with digestion, injuries, sicknesses, diabetes, etc. etc. It's 7 berries (all grown in the lovely B.C. wink wink) and 3 sea weeds from the Canadian Pacific. I really like that it's "local" ish. I also like that it makes a difference. It's loaded with anti oxidants. Oh and it's yummy. Ok, you get the point, I'm excited!
The kids are doing great. the Monkey is at my favorite age ever, just the best! He's 16 months now, still baby, but a bit of kid too. He's a lazy little talker, I wouldn't even give him the credit of saying he had a vocabulary at all. He says "hi" and "dad". Yup, that's it! What he lacks in vocab he makes up for in physical activity. I'm just shocked at what a nut he is. Just go go go, no stop, all the time! I'm also shocked that we haven't been to the hospital with him yet, ever! Although I do have poison control, the doctor, and health link on speed dial. Yeesh. He's such a cutie though. And Munchkin's doing great too. Still a little too smart for her own good. She has such an amazing imagination. I catch myself sneeking in to just watch her play by herself. It's amazing what this girl comes up with. I need to write down more of her stuff, she's clever.
Well that's all the fun and wonderful stuff that we've been up to, guess it's time for the bad stuff now? It's been a really rough year for me. The worst year of my life so far actually. My parents split up this year, after 30 years of marriage! In a way it's like mourning a death, the death of a marriage I guess. I'm still sad a lot, and trying to move on and readjust. The other totally shitty thing is that my Grandma just passed away. Excuse my language, but that's how it feels. It still feels like a big shock, even though it was more than a month ago. I miss her so much. She was a truly great Grandma, and I'm super thankful for the memories and the time spent with her. I'm also thankful that she didn't have to suffer for long, and that she is at the feet of God, more blissfully happy than we could ever imagine. It just sucks being stuck here feeling weighed down at times by the pain in this world. I've been hearing about a lot of people I went to school with who are splitting up. I just don't understand! I feel really sad about things like this right now. Sorry to sound depressing.
But it's much to sunny a day to waste blubbering away in here! Sure we can feel sad and weighed down, but life goes on eventually, little by little. There is so much to be happy about, and to keep one going.

To Do List

Backing, quilting, and binding for Katelyn's huge quilt
Blankies for the twins
Five more sock monkey's (at least)
Katelyn's summer dress
Owens "Huckfin" pants
Apron (for me)
Apron (Aunt Eileen)
Eat some chocolate and relax
Get un-addicted to Farm Town
Bib's and sheet
Organize and file paper work
Take in recycling and give away's
Wedding quilt
Order seeds for garden and Lee Valley stuff
Read two parenting books on my list (Grace Based Parenting and Shepherding a Child's heart)
Do the sticker swap thing with Katelyn
Think about packing, just get into this mind set, hopefully we'll be moving soon
Help Matthew paint next door, figure out what to do with kids
Start "the window quilt" and figure out who to give it to
Make bean bags for the kids (I bought a bunch of beans, might as well use them)
Make a summer skirt for moi
Pillow case for Katelyn
Picnic quilt
Make doll clothes for Katelyn's birthday gift
Send in receipts for benefit thinger


I'm sure the longer I sit here the more things I'll think of. I realize how boring this is for everyone except me. To me it's hilarious, especially considering I have three SLEEPING kids right now (babysitting another kid this week and next) and I'm wasting time on the computer. Not to mention I haven't even cleaned up the kitchen, thought about supper, done all the basic stuff to keep the house running. Sigh. Ha ha, but I love it of course. I love lists and accomplishing things. I think now that I have it here I'll be a bit more motivated.
Last night I was wasting time here on the computer like usual, only this time it was looking at old pictures of the kids. It was SO funny watching Katelyn learn to talk and walk, you forget those little things so easily. Here's some newborn pictures of both kids. Big round of applause for anyone who can tell me which one is which. I think they look totally different but I'm interested to see what other people see. Mom, don't give it away if you figure it out right away, you're biased;-) Ryan, I realize how boring this post is, I'll try to think of something clever and interesting next time, but no promises.

Happy Birthday Owen!

Just click on the collage to see the pictures bigger.....

 

Here's my little monkey's birthday pictures! Lots of sugar, sock monkey's, few toys amongst many children, a smokey oven, a very tired mommy. It was a hit! Matthew and I had gone to Edmonton to pick up our kitchen cabinets and got home right before the party. It was a quick trip, but so worth it. We were waiting around Ikea ALL day, so annoying. Anyhoo, it was really good to get home, see the kids again, and party! These other pictures I took intending to make birthday invites, but it never happened. Cute pictures anyways. Happy birthday little guy!

 

Deceptivly Delicious

So I'll be honest, I've been decitful lately. Or at least trying to be. I've been sneeking veggies into our family dinners, gasp! The horrors! I got this cookbook that has great ideas to work off of, Deceptively Delicicious. BUT I'm horrible at following recipes. Just look at the difference between the lovely glossy photo of these chicken fingers.... Then look at mine..... right. Mine are black and have visable spinach puree peeking out, there is nothing sneeky about this. Try convincing a very smart almost three year old to eat this!!! I'm convinced this pretty photo in the book is a fake.

 

But I'll not be put off so easily! Now I'm inspired to do more, these recipes will not limit me. Tonight, while feeding my family "store-bought" perogies, and feeling miserable about it, an idea was formed. I've made home made perogies before, but didn't think it was really worth all that work. But what if there was pureed cauliflower, sweet potato, or squash in those lumps they are happily gobbling up? It could work! So as soon as we devour our costco box of perogies, I'll get on that, yipee!
Any other ideas out there for veggie eating? Not just for the kids either, I'm not crazy about veggies. I would very rarely choose to eat salad, and never eat veggies before my meat and starch. No wonder my kids are picky! Actually I can't complain, they're pretty good. I think Katelyns dinner fights are more of a power struggle and have very little to do with the food in front of her. Sigh...