you can tell it's Monday...

...by the spoons in the drainboard.

My usual Monday to Friday routine includes doing the dishes in the morning while Madeline is practicing piano before school.  I let them air dry and put them away later while I cook supper.  Tonight as I was putting them away, I grabbed the silverware and thought, "I can tell it's Monday!"  I can tell that because there was one fork, a few knives, and the rest were spoons.  We use spoons for our breakfast cereal and Sunday lunch after church is always soup and bagels; usually on the weekends we're out for Saturday brunch or visiting somewhere or have finger food meals like pizza or chicken fingers and fries... and Monday's dishes show predominantly more spoons than any other day of the week. 

layouts and a new 'do

M wanted a cut - this will be easier for her to look after, being quite a bit shorter and thinned out.  She still managed to have it in a ponytail for church today, though. Another view:

**********

I don't think I've done any 'real' scrapbooking - one page, rather than a whole project - since the retreat in October.  But that's what I took Tuesday to hang out with the girls (and found out another one is booked for this year's October retreat!  I think that makes three times the number of us that went last year - good times!)

I started a couple of pages there, and finished them last night.  I've been having a good time down in my studio lately, rearranging and getting inspired again.

RETAIL !

One bad and one good for today:

The bad is that M's Grandma McCall took a spill yesterday and broke her collarbone.  She's in the hospital for a while, until a spot is available in an extendicare facility.  This is a sad day, but one we all knew was coming eventually.  We're just glad that it was just a collarbone and not something more serious.

The good is that my magic bags are going to be sold in the gift shops at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum and the Saskatchewan Legislative Building!  Very exciting!  When I got a bulk order before Christmas from a girl who wanted to sell them in her massage studio, I started thinking about retail.  Carla does the books for the Museum and she suggested I try there, since they are all about Saskatchewan made stuff.  So this morning I went down with a letter and a sample for the lady that runs both those shops and she said absolutely.  She's taking half a dozen for each shop now and will double that for the tourist season later in the spring.  I'm going to have to get sewing!  And start thinking 'tourists' in my fabric choices.  (Oh, and I named them 'Perfect Heat' since magic bag is a registered name already.  Don't want to break any copyright laws, you know!)

And speaking of sewing, Kadence got her birthday apron in the mail today.  I forgot to take pictures before I sent it, but they'll send me some of her in it and I'll post them for you.  She's so cute you may not notice the apron, though...

Please leave me a comment with what kind of magic bag you have and your favorite use for it.  :)  Mine has been living in Madeline's bed lately.

Comments??

I was just informed by my mom that she has been commenting and they haven't been showing up.  Help me test this and see if I can't get it sorted...  leave me a comment with something in the last day or so that made you smile.

I'll go first -

ABIDE

My word for the year this year is ABIDE.  I was reminded of that pretty strongly this morning after a week of being out of routine: We were snowed in Monday and M had Friday off school, so the middle three days I drove her to school, went to work then picked her up.  I didn't have one day last week that was normal in the sense that I saw Sean off to work and M off to school and then had me time to sit by the window with my Bible, to just be quiet and pray.  Honestly, some days the Bible doesn't even get opened; some days I even just fall asleep.  But that little bit of quiet, and the sense that I am taking time to relax with God is like vegetables.  I need it to be healthy.  It's also like chocolate - so sweet and something I enjoy.  Hm... chocolate vegetables.  Not sure about that.  The best of both worlds, maybe.

Anyway, I was pretty low and this morning just sat wrapped up in the warm blanket by the one sunny window in the back of the house.  I wrote in my journal, thought about someone other than me, read my Bible, and remembered that the reason I chose abide to be my word was because I need it.  I need the time to just BE with God.  My TNIV translates it "remain in me."  I also chose it because of the lack of doing - it's not something to add to a to do list, it's not a task; it's simply to be aware of God, to talk to him, to be with him.  To remember that he is right there and to be aware of that.  To be more aware of him.

John 15:1-5 - "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, so that it will be even more fruitful... Remain in me as I also remain in you.   No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

Photos of our week.

Here's my new ride...  I was waiting to show you until I could get a better picture than this, but this will do for now because my dad wants to see it!  It's quite nice to drive - smaller and easier to maneuver than the van, but still roomy and practical.  It still has the same 'I'm up high and can see everything' feel, but way more sporty.

 

This was our Monday.  M getting her first look at all the snow that had us stuck at home.

 

Outside playing in it.

We shoveled the walks as part of our 'game' - we survived a plane crash and had to go look for other people or roads... It was very long and involved forts and sos's on top of the race trailer...

This was pre-shoveling, obviously, and by the time we got to the front to do this part, the neighbor had done it with his snowblower.  :)

This was the third time in 3 days that we shoveled the walks.

A little Wii after the snow, with some happy results.

The school buses didn't run all week, and today (Friday) is a day off, so I drove the kid to school Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, and then me into work until it was time to pick her up again.  Being in the office for 6 1/2 hours instead of 4 sure had more of a full time feel, but with Monday and Friday at home, I'm still pretty spoiled.  There are definitely perks to working a flexible part time.

In other happy news, on Wednesday night I sent in the last paper for my last class for the program I was in through Carey Theological College.  I will graduate with everyone else here in the Regina satellite campus this spring, and then I'm planning on taking at least a year off before I decide whether I want to pursue the full masters or not.  I've got 13 courses under my belt now, so if I were to continue with the Masters of Pastoral Ministry program I initially signed on for, I would have 5 or 6 courses left.  If I upgraded to their new Masters of Divinity program, I'd be about half done now.  So we'll see in a year or so what I'm feeling like doing!

 

And this is Christine's house, where I went last night for a 'Sew Whatever' party.  How fun!  Heidi, Kari, Jenn, Karen, Jill and Suzanne were all there, too, and that's Christine in the blue in front.  I won't tell you what I was sewing, cause that might spoil the surprises in the mail... but Jen, if you want to send me a picture of it on her when it gets there, I'd love to have one!

SNOW DAY!!!

The schools are open, but the buses are not running.  The funny thing is I was planning on driving her today anyway, because I was going to go on a field trip cross country skiing with her class today.  But if the buses aren't running, then there's no trip either, so we stayed home.  No point braving the roads and other stuck drivers if we don't have to.  I called work and Henry was the only one there... with M having a day off on Friday, I guess I'll be working 3 full days this week.

So far we have:

• done the dishes
• gone over math times tables
• practiced piano
•  had cinnamon buns for a morning snack

Now we're going out to play in the snow (and shovel).  I'll be back later to update this post with the other adventures in our snow day!

Part 2

We were outside for an hour or so - Madeline said her favorite part was that I made the chores be part of our game.  When she first said let's play that we were in a plane crash and we have to figure out how to survive in the wilderness and all we have is..., I thought it makes me feel old that I'd rather just get the shoveling done than use my imagination and play in the snow with my kid.  How sad.  But I did make the right choice, people.  We used 'pieces of the plane's wing' to clear a path to the area where we thought we heard some other people, Madeline made us a fort to sleep in while I made a big SOS (clearing the snow off the top of the trailer), and then we explored to see if we could make it to that big road or runway over there...  It was fun, and good to be out in the fresh air.  When we got to the front to shovel the last bit, the neighbor had already attacked our front walk with his snowblower! 

I worked a little bit while lunch was making itself on a couple of projects - can't check anything off our list for that, but, like a puzzle, they are a couple steps closer.

Now, it's room cleaning time for her and paper time for me.  Pray for FOCUS!

<< contented sigh >>

What a good day.

We were up early to take M out to Dallas Valley Ranch Camp for the Girl Guides camp, and the new vehicle stood up to the challenges of slick streets, lots of new snow and rural driving.  Sean and I went out for brunch and browsed around at a couple of stores (including picking up some stuff to make for supper, making later easier!) and were home by noon.  Normally after sleeping in on a Saturday and doing all that, the day is half over!

When we got home, there was a call from our hair salon advising us that we'd need to change our appointments since Treena was in an accident and would be out for a few weeks.  What??  Treena is a good friend, so I followed up and sure enough, she fell on the ice and broke her leg and was in the hospital.  :(  That's obviously not what made it a good day, but it was so nice to have the time and freedom to drive down and have a visit.

Funny story from there - another friend had knee replacement surgery on Thursday, so I thought I'd find out if she was in the same hospital and pop in to see her, too.  Not only the same hospital, but the same ward, and next door!  Treena and Rose had their heads up against the same wall!!  What a funny coincidence.  And so I got to visit with Rose, too.

At home I got a few chores done, work prepped for tomorrow morning, and a good hour in on my paper, along with taking a big chunk of time to sit and read.  That's why it's such a good day - still hours to do stuff, but so much accomplished and so much relaxing done already.  Nice.

Here are some pictures for you:

This is M all prettied up for dress up day at school.  I picked up a new top and shoes for her (she had 0 pairs of dress shoes and was lacking in the dressy top catagory, too...) and with her sweet pants, new headband and sparkling necklace from the Friesens and earrings, she was beautiful.

This is one of my favorite shots from the last month - sledding in the valley by the farm on boxing day.

And M and cousin K.  The hand-me-downs we took at Christmas will take a while for her to grow into, but she was pretty thrilled to get them, I think, and it was really cute to see her in this one!

Black Clouds & Silver Linings

My van is done.  Head Gasket.  It's a sad day - not because I love my van, just because it costs so much to replace!!  It was having problems early last week, and Sean tried a couple of things, then it was still acting up, so I had it towed from my place into my mechanic, who ruled out the lesser gasket problems and said, at 5 to 5 on Friday that it was the big bad one. 

I think Sean's going to call him tomorrow morning and say not to even bother fixing it - we won't even get as much on it as a trade in as it would take to fix it...  We'll see on that one.  Bottom line, I'm getting a different vehicle.  We went shopping all afternoon and have it narrowed down pretty good.  Sean's been online and tonight and already found a better price for the same vehicle we were looking at, so hopefully tomorrow evening we can pick that up and make it mine - amazing how fast something like this can go.

Yuck, car payments.  Yay, new car!  Of course by new I mean new to me.  The one we're thinking of is a 2009, though, which is pretty new in my books!

I'm going to go get on the treadmill to try to improve my mood.  This, rather than chocolate, is my new method.  (Let's see how long I last...)

Helping Haiti through Compassion

We sponsor children through Compassion, and while neither of ours is in Haiti, there are many children in the Compassion programs there.  This is what they have to say about the earthquake that happened there this week:

The catastrophic earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12 has resulted in unfathomable chaos and devastation for hundreds of thousands of children and families.

 

Compassion sponsors and donors serve more than 65,000 children in Haiti. At least a third of them live in the areas that were hardest hit.

Compassion International is working rapidly to assess the situation and determine the full extent of damage:
• Sadly, we anticipate there will be many deaths.
• We anticipate thousands of children and families will have lost everything.
• We anticipate many of our church-based child development centers will have been destroyed.

Without a doubt, the children we serve in Haiti are in shock and face immediate needs for food, water, medical care, shelter and counseling. We have teams prepared to respond, and we are deeply committed to helping each child.
 

We need your help immediately. Please reach out in the name of Jesus to bring relief, comfort, love and restoration to precious children and families whose lives have been devastated by this crisis.
 

If you want to make a donation to help Haiti and the families affected by this earthquake, go to Compassion's Disaster Relief Donation page.

Thank you for helping Compassion International help Haiti.

 

(Haiti Earthquake)

Spring in January and the Molympics

Yesterday it was +6 degrees!!!  Today I only saw it go to 2 above, but wow, what crazy January weather!

That's partly why M was outside playing after school yesterday for so long.  When I went out to check on her, she said, "Mom!  Come out and see the sports I made up for the Molympics!" (That's pronounced moe - lympics.)

The first one was sliding down the pile of snow on the back deck to the grass, on her back, head first.  She had crafted a nice little curve at the bottom, and said this event was for speed.  The next one was a two-step-and-flip-over-your-head move from the sidewalk to the snow pile on the side of the walk.  I wasn't about to try either one, because I wasn't dressed for the snow... But I did try the third one, and walked away in my Sorels with a Gold Medal in the long jump off the deck.  I had her by a foot.

Tonight M is off to Girl Guides, Sean is off to play shinney with a bunch of guys, and I think I'll start on my last paper...  The tree came down last night and as soon as the box is gone from the living room, Christmas will be over for another year.  While I was doing that, M was laying on the couch doing homework and Sean was being Mr. Fixit, installing weather stripping stuff around the doors and doing other odd jobs.  A productive night all around!

My friend from the office next door is in the hospital with appendix issues.  He's been in almost a week, and he's got a ways to go before he's fully healthy again.  If you're a pray-er, lift one up for Byron and his family.  He's the youth pastor, and his sponsors are doing a great job carrying things along.  (Since he was away and Henry was at a retreat and David was at a course and Janet's in Hawaii, Darren and Elizabeth and I had staff meeting at Roca House today...  :) )

Snow People and Torches!!

The big paper is done and in and I feel wonderful!
One more and I'm DONE.

*************************************

In more important news, we got to be part of the fun of the Olympic Torch Relay today, as well as the Ice & Fire Carnival.  Here's some shots of the day:

Most of the kids in the group.

 The Olympic Mascots!!

Look at that video camera in her face!

Here's the group in action...

and M in action.

Check out the snow sculpture in the background of kids

(they're fake - it's just clothes!) and the giant snowball.

M and Sean after the performance.

The Olympic Party in Regina...

and the torch right in front of us!

The Ice & Fire Carnival continues tomorrow, so if you're around, M's dancing in the processional at 3 and then performing again at 4:30 and 5:30 at the circle stage.  (This is all at the Rider practice field between the Mosaic Stadium and the Lawson Aquatic Center.)

Aarrgghh...

Can't blog now... writing a paper... why is this so hard???

But I will be here soon with my word for the year, with some holiday photos, and maybe a story or two from the trips to see our families.  So stay tuned!

Oh, and so sad that the US beat Canada in the World Juniors - there's nothing like going to a game to get you in the spirit of the tournament.  Nothing like having it in your back yard to make going to a game possible!  (I was writing my paper, not watching, but I did catch a few of the replays after things erupted in the living room...)

Pierced!

Madeline has wanted her ears pierced for a long time now, and I've told her she could get it done when she's 12, because that's what my Mom told me.  It's a good put-it-off tactic.  It also makes it a good surprise when you let her get it done early!  I wrapped a pair of earrings for Christmas, and when she opened them, her eyes got really big and she asked, "I'm getting my ears pierced?"  Such a great reaction and expression!

So yesterday Manon and Michelle came over (Manon has been one of M's closest friends since kindergarten, and Michelle's her mom), and Michelle brought her supplies.  She used to have a salon, so has been the one to pierce the ears of all their friends when they get it done.  M was excited, but nervous.  She brought Pooh bear with her to squeeze, and Michelle let her pierce the bear's ears to see what it was like.  So Pooh has little gold heart studs in his ears...

Here are a few pics from the adventure:

The Nerves

Look at her expression as she pulls the trigger!

A few tears... I like the one dripping off her nose.

We did it!

Manon, Michelle and Madeline

sick :(

Nothing like a day with not much planned except last minute baking and wrapping to get puking sick.  Sean and M ran out to the store tonight, and I didn't move from my spot on the couch the whole time they were gone.

I was out for about 5 hours, but I'm feeling better now, thanks.  I managed to get cinnamon buns made, and they're pretty good - I hear - I had an apple, but that's it.  (Ok, no that's not it - I also had some Lay's Stacks.  They're our new favorite, and when Sean pulled them out I had a few...  Can't eat healthy even when I'm not eating or healthy!)

We went to the store this morning to order pictures: their one hour machine was down + we got instant prints for the price of one hour = no need for a trip back.  Sweet.

PS - When Sean brought home the new computer yesterday, he also brought a new 20 inch flatscreen monitor...  Merry Christmas to me!  (And then he listed the old monitor and half empty computer on Used Regina, and had it sold within 5 minutes.  The guy came right after work today to take it away.) 

Computers.

Just after I wrote on Friday, I figured I would upload my pictures from the camera.  I had been doing that on the laptop all year, but with that gone and a new external hard drive in place, I thought I would start putting them on the desktop again, since that's the one I use mostly.  So I got the camera, plugged in the cord, and shocked the computer to death.  Unreal.  And the new external hard drive that had everything backed up?  Nothing on it.  Sean went to our friendly neighborhood Saturday morning and ordered a new computer, and came home with a casing for the hard drive - you pop your hard drive into it, plug it in to another computer by usb, and presto, there was all our desktop info, safe and sound.  Nice.  So, a few hundred dollars later (and we just got the laptop back this week remember) we'll have a nice shiny new desktop, too.

And I thought, hmmm... maybe I should bring up that humidifier and get rid of some of this static.  Little late, don't you think?

And the pictures are still on the camera.  Some day I'll have some to show you.

sick kid, cancelled parties, and takeout

We went to bed last night and had just gotten settled and warm when we heard Madeline get up - and throw up. Glad her floor was nice and tidy! She slept the rest of the night, half in her bed, then half on the couch in the living room, which I found out when I went to wake her up this morning and she wasn't there. She was not 100%, and she was running a bit of a fever - 99.7, so I sent her back to bed, where she slept for another couple of hours. No cough or pains, just fever and not feeling great. I took her into work for an hour so I could do a couple of things that needed doing today, then brought the rest home. She laid in front of the TV this afternoon while I did work and home work, and didn't prepare supper.

Tonight we were supposed to go to the Andres place for a moving party, but with M sick, Sean was going to go solo. I called over when he got home, and they must have had a bunch of keeners on the job since the unpacking of the moving truck was all done. Sean didn't want to go solo just to eat and visit, so we ordered 2 pizzas and bread sticks and cinnasticks and coke... what a feast. So good. Both the food and the not having to cook!

So that party wasn't cancelled, but having M sick threw a wrinkle in the plans. The other party that was cancelled was tomorrow night's get together at a friend's place... we had a sitter booked and everything. Oh, well. I'm happy to stay home, too.

Have a nice low key weekend - may you find a quiet moment in the dark to sit and watch the lights on your tree.

A little bit of catch up

I don't know where to start! Being a one computer family means that when I have "I should blog that" thoughts, they get put off and go astray before they get blogged. My friends just left our meeting here and Sean is out playing pool with a friend, so I'm grabbing this minute for me. And you.

The biggest thing is that I am THANKFUL. My Dad had an adventure this weekend where his semi met a cliff... and he's not dead. That is a miracle, and I am thankful! To God, to the kind people who helped out, to Rebecca Schroeder who prays for my dad's safety on the roads every day...

The friends who were over tonight? My DESIGN TEAM. I am enjoying my role at the church as "Coordinator of Worship Arts and Communications" and I am more aware now of what it requires, and what I can produce, and thankfully, I am aware of a few people who have creative minds and knowledge of design software and production. Tonight was the first meeting of the 5 of us, so I ran through what kinds of things I am working on, what kinds of things we could dream about for the future, and got some specific input of some of my current projects. We had lots of laughs and I'm so glad that they're all super stoked to be involved.



I had a fiction craving this weekend. I love to read and find that's my best escape and way to relax. I try not to have too many books around the house when I'm working on a paper because it's far too easy to read instead of write. But Friday I went to the library and picked up two books. One was huge, and one was small. I started reading the huge one that night, and because Sean was busy with other stuff, I just kept reading. Till 1:30 AM. I got half done. Saturday? Yeah. I finished it. The Book of Negros, by Lawrence Hill. I'd highly recommend it. Thanks, Mom for mentioning that one to me.


Last week, I had taken Madeline down to the dentist for a filling.  I was driving her back to school and we were goofing off, dancing around to the radio, when she says, "Anna..."
Anna is one of her best friends.  She called me Anna.  Not Madam (her teacher, though I get that once in a while, just like teachers get called Mom), but her FRIEND's name.
I'll take that as a compliment.

Help Joe's Place

Joe's Place is a youth center in Moose Jaw that was started 14 years ago by Joe Dueck, a guy we went to Briercrest with. They've entered a competition for some funding and if they get enough votes, they'll be able to afford to put a kitchen in the drop in center and expand what they do there. Please take a minute and go here to sign up and vote once a day for the next five days. They do great work at Joe's and this would be a great Christmas miracle for them.

Roll Over

Yesterday the odometer on my van read 199999... and I saw it roll over to 200000.

I may have had my eyes on the numbers more than on the road for that km, but I was still safe. I promise.

(And soon after that, I gassed up, but could only fill half the tank - because it was TOO COLD to stand outside long enough to fill the whole thing!)