The Promised Pictures

Top picture: The birthday party that Connie brought along. It really is just grape juice and Keith really isn't sloshed.

Middle: At the Ethiopian Restaurant. I don't think the guys really knew what they were eating. Sheldon will correct me if I'm wrong.

Bottom: Pretty obvious, I guess.

Here's a little van update. Our "new" used window arrived today and Keith put it in this afternoon. Yay!! It's so nice to be able to see. Here's the fun part though. Keith also asked them about a radio when he got the window and they threw in a radio/cassette player for nothing. (Our cassete player doesn't work, and it's a bummer when the kids can't listen to stories when we're traveling!) Also, our rear defrost didn't work, which is also rather unsafe up here in the north. So tonight when I drove, I turned it on, and wouldn't you know, it works. I'm so excited about that! I guess that's the silver lining in our little cloud.

Old Fogies in the City

Well, the big trip was here gone. But the good memories linger. Do you want me to share them with you? If not, then don't read on, I guess. Otherwise, you're in for a play-by-play...

We arrived in the city shortly before 6:00 on Thursday evening. We didn't make great time on account of construction, getting behind a funeral procession, my, um pregnant bladder situation, etc. But we made it. We stopped at one store quickly, then went to Olive Garden where we were meeting the others at 6:30. We thought maybe we could get our names in early and not have to wait so long. But, they had the same idea and were there and waiting. They only waited about 15 minutes and we got in soon after we got there. They, of course, felt a need to make a big deal of my age, etc. There was a balloon bouquet and a goofy pin that said I am 40 and "old, old, old" which they expected me to wear during dinner. We had a great dinner and good time starting to get caught up. We wondered if we might get kicked out for being so loud. :-)

During dinner, Sheldon brought us all up to speed on our plans for eating the next day. It was a revelation to me that a recent interest of his is finding little one-of-a-kind and ethnic restaurants rather than big, "boring" chains. Well, there went my hopes of eating at Perkins. Which really was fine because we had way more fun this way. Anyway, at Olive Garden they were telling us how he had pages of info printed off the internet about all of these restaurants and spreadsheets for all of us to vote on where we wanted to eat. Oh, and he had the ladies opinions weighted higher than the men's and mine weighted even a little higher. I guess there are some advantages to being the birthday girl. We all had some good laughs at/with Sheldon, but it really was fun.

After dinner we headed for Value Village. (We are high-class, big spenders, after all!!) I was tickled to find a bunch of clothes for Caleb and Josiah and a few things for Keith and me - all for $40. :-) The others found some bargains too, and of course, that made us all happy. (We are a bunch of tight-wads, for sure!) :-) Then Keith and I headed to "Eddie Wal-Mart" to knock some necessities off of my long list and the others headed back to the hotel. When we got back there around 10:00 or so, they had a table set with goblets, sparkling grape juice, candles, chocolate and presents. So, we had a little party and, would you believe it, Connie made me an apron!!! I hadn't even told her I wanted one. So now I am sufficiently aproned for years to come!! We stayed up late talking, laughing, and voting on Friday's supper destination.

Our room was quite warm and I didn't sleep the greatest. Maybe because I'm old now, I'll have more trouble sleeping in new places. (I slept great the second night, though!!) We were up and at 'em relatively early because Keith had booked a tour of the Mint for us at 9:00(!?!) We had coffee and muffins in our room and thought that should get us through the tour and then we'd get some real food. :-) When we got to the Mint we found out that our tour was actually at 10:00. Hahaha. But they had one at 9:15 so that was okay. It was very interesting, of course, to see how our coins are made. If Keith were blogging, he'd write a whole essay about it. But since it's me, I'll just say it was pretty amazing. After the tour was over we ladies sat on a bench and had some serious "lady talk" while the guys wandered around and looked at guy things. Finally our stomachs urged us to hit the road.

Sheldon had picked out a Danish restaurant for lunch so we headed that way and made a couple of "quick" stops at stores that we saw along the way - some supplements for me and a Mac store to drop off Keith's computer to get the CD/DVD drive fixed. (Good news, it's under warranty!) We finally arrived at the little cafe and it didn't disappoint us! The highlights were the fresh crusty bread, and the cream puff we all shared for dessert. A bunch of us had veal or chicken schnitzel and it was good! Connie was very impressed with her soup and Keith's sweet and sour cabbage was very good too! It was like a mild and sweet sauerkraut.

By this time it was mid-afternoon and we tossed around going to the Forks or something like that. I finally piped up and wondered if I could just go back to the hotel and have a little nap. I am pregnant, after all! Turns out all of us women were in favour of a rest and the guys rested a little and/or went shopping and walking around the city centre. I had a wonderful nap!!! Then it was time to get dressed up and head out for dinner. I guess the theme of the weekend was good eating. :-) The voting for dinner headed us to an Ethiopian/Middle Eastern Restaurant. It was unique and very interesting. The falafels were very good except they mis-communicated and put the hot sauce on them. Connie and I had to order milk. :-) It didn't seem to bother Darla much. She's a tough one, I guess. :-) The guys all had more Ethiopian dishes. No one was raving about how delicious it was, but it was good and interesting. The owners were really neat people and very friendly. When we were done, they brought us tea "on the house". I think it was black tea with cloves or something like that. It really was good.

After that we scurried off to the symphony. Wow, what fun that was! It was an open dress rehearsal for the "real" performance on Sat. night. So, it was less formal and the conductor talked to us in between pieces. We got to hear him give directions to the orchestra and hear them practice things a bit. We had quite good seats, so that was really fun too. The conductor was funny and Michael thought maybe his parents had wondered if they should put him on Ritalin when he was young. :-) It was really amazing to hear Beethoven's Fifth live. I was only familiar with the first movement, but the last one was really good too. I'd like to get a recording of the whole thing, and also Haydn's "Surprise" Symphony which was the first one they played.

After all that we really had to head to Dairy Queen for some ice cream. Mmmmmm. Good! Then back to the hotel. Of course, we couldn't go to bed since it wasn’t midnight yet, so we hung out in Mike and Connie’s room. Sheldon treated us to some crazy songs and other songs from his computer and transferred pictures from his computer to our flash drive. The others had a time of prayer for Keith and me (how did we get so privileged?) before we headed to our rooms for the night.

Sat. morning we had to pick up Merv T. at the airport at 9:15 (he’s a counselor from Edmonton who’s here at Stormer Lake for several weeks). The Minnesotans thought they should sleep in since they didn’t have any such deadlines. So, we packed up and when Keith went to load the van, he discovered that ours and Sheldon’s vans were both broken into during the night. Sigh. Our rear window was broken and Sheldon’s driver’s side window. Sheldon’s Oakley sunglasses were taken, and we had various small things gone – my jacket, my bag from Value Village L, a few Wal-Mart purchases. So, that kinda put a damper on the morning. We zipped over to the airport with our “air conditioning” and found that Merv’s flight was delayed a bit. We were early anyway, so we headed out to look for cardboard. After a few unhelpful stops, we went to Lee Valley (they’re such a great place, surely they’d help us, right?). When we stopped there, Keith looked across the road and there was a dumpster with a bunch of cardboard in it. So we went and helped ourselves. Thank the Lord Keith’s Leatherman wasn’t stolen or the tool bag with the duct tape in it. We cut and taped and then ran out of tape, so Keith ran back to Lee Valley to get more. They were very sympathetic and helpful and offered to let us use their shop vac. Yay! So we headed back over to their loading dock and vacuumed and swept up the glass. The guy even gave us some heavy plastic in case we needed it. It was sure a blessing to experience some human kindness after being violated like that!

We got to the airport just in time to get Merv and then spent the rest of the morning finishing up our shopping. I hadn’t noticed yet that my Value Village stuff was gone, or we could have gone to a different one to look for more stuff. Oh well! We headed out of the city by 1:00 or so, and as we were cruisin’ down the TransCanada, suddenly a van full of waving, smiling people passed us. It was Sheldons and Michaels! We all pulled over at the next road and had a little chat. They already had their window fixed and had eaten at a cool little Italian bakery. :-) So we had a nice chat and then headed for home.

All in all, it was a really good trip. I guess it’s not so bad to have a “major birthday” if you can have a fun trip like that! I’m glad the break-ins didn’t happen the first night, since that could have messed up our day on the town. I think Keith and I are over our anger and frustration. (There was some forgiving and accepting to do there!) Now, I’m just wondering what God has in mind for a coat for me to wear this fall/winter. The one that was stolen was the outer shell that a fleece zips into. And it’s about the time of year to start wearing them together. The good news is that Keith found a used window from a place in T. Bay and it should be arriving here tomorrow. He thinks he and his Dad can install it themselves. I’ll be really grateful for a window, since it’s rather scary driving without being able to see behind you!!

Well, if you’re still with me, you are now definitely informed!! I’ll post pictures as soon as Sheldon sends me the one of all of us together. (No pressure, Sheldon!) That's all for now!!

Happy 40th to Me!

Top picture: just so those of you far away can really believe that I'm pregnant.

Middle: pancakes in our pajamas.

Bottom: Helen and me with our cake. The 40 is for me and the extra 8 candles are for her. You can do the math. :-)

Well, it's officially here and (almost) gone. I'm really 40 and I just can't seem to wrap my mind around that. It just seems sort of impossible or surreal. Old people are 40, you know. And I don't feel old. Just tired. :-) So, now I need to adjust my brain to this new reality and it might take a little while. I was reading an essay about turning 40 the other day and it changed my perspective a little. It's our worldly culture around us that hates to get old. But there are a lot of things to look forward to: wisdom, maturity, more to offer other people, a deeper, closer relationship with my heavenly Father, etc, etc. And getting older is sure a lot better than not!

The other day I read about a bumper sticker that said, "I'd rather be 40 than pregnant!" Somehow I didn't find that too amusing. :-/ How would you like to be both?? When we were married 9 years ago, I really hoped I'd be done having children by the time I was 40. Well, I guess we didn't quite make it. So, here I am 40 and pregnant! And it really doesn't seem any different than yesterday when I was 39 and pregnant. :-)

Thanks to family and friends, my birthday was celebrated in fine style. Kendra hosted a birthday party for me last night at her house. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. There were 10 or 11 of us ladies there and lots of yummy food. I got really cool presents too. I got two aprons!! I've really been wanting one, since I'm such a sloppy cook, and Lisa knew that, so she made me one! Elise didn't know I wanted one, and she didn't even seem to know that the package of hot pads she gave me included an apron. But there it was and it was really a nice one too. So now there's no excuse for grease spots, etc. on my clothes!

This morning I slep in a little. At a little after 8:00, Keith was making pancakes and I was showing him my presents. Suddenly I heard singing outside and there at the door were Wendy and her kids in their pajamas with flowers, balloons, and cards! Wow! Of couse they all stayed for breakfast and we had a great time. Then Keith left to cut firewood and took Caleb, and Wendy took Logan and Josiah with her for the rest of the morning. So, I had a quiet, refreshing morning. You can hardly get a better birthday present than that!

Tonight my family was here for Thanksgiving dinner. Dru made a cake for me and for Helen whose birthday is in a week. My boys gave me a good can opener (yes!) and Keith gave me a new Philips, Craig, and Dean CD (yes! yes!!). So, I feel well-celebrated and I still get to go to the city later this week. Okay, maybe I'm a little bit spoiled - or very much blessed!

Home Improvement

It’s always fun to do a few little (or big) improvements around the house. I just thought I’d share a few with you. We recently had the top of our table refinished. Let me just say it pays to hire a professional sometimes. I wish I had taken a before picture, but those of you who have been at our house might remember what bad shape it was in. It was embarrassing! Now it’s so nice. I think the finish is better than the original because you can see the grain and color of the wood better. I’m really enjoying it!

Then I hung some plates above the doorway in the kitchen that I’ve had for years. They were a gift from my Grandma M. Thanks to Iris for the idea of where to put them. And, yay ebay, for the plate rack!

I just took a little trip down memory lane when I was looking at the picture of the plates. Way back when, my cousin Sue and I had some rivalry going on for whatever reasons. Well, when Grandma picked out plates for us (we are the two oldest granddaughters), I was jealous of hers. She got four (!) plates and I only got two. (Insert childish whine.) Hers had pink flowers as I recall, and mine were orange, yellow, and black, of all things. At that point in time, pink would definitely have been my pick over orange and yellow. If I remember correctly (and I might not) she liked mine - maybe because of the cool, octogan shape. We were pathetic. So now, many years later, I'm finally hanging my plate up and I'm so glad I have the orange and yellow ones! I've actually developed an affinity for yellow and orange - in the right places and amounts. Pink wouldn't look nearly as nice in my kitchen and two plates is just right for that space. And I love the octogan shape. There should be a moral to this story, right? I guess it's that we need to trust God to give us what's best because He see the end when we're only at the beginning.

And lastly, I finally made a curtain for the “pantry/misc. storage” shelves in my entryway. I always felt like they were an eyesore. That’s what you can see when you look into the entryway from the kitchen. So, now it looks much better, I think!

The Fans are Clamoring

Well, actually, Iris was just wondering if I'm stuck in the freezer. So, instead of doing my before-bed routine, I'll type out a little morsel here. I've had things in mind to post, but no time. Can anyone else relate to that??

Homeschooling is proving to be quite an adjustment. It seems like it takes so much of our day. I think part of it is that I'm also now responsible for Logan's piano practice as well as Caleb's (Keith did it last year). Caleb is more independent with it, but I have to sit with Logan for most of it and help him. Add to that some discipline/relationship issues between Logan and me, and it can mean a stressful, long practice. Gotta pray more about that one!! Also, we sort of mix our chores right in with school and piano, so by the time we get all of that done, it can seem like the whole day is gone. So, we continue to work at it and I'm praying about my attitudes and parenting style, and we plug along!

As my dear sister has pointed out in the comments on the previous post, next week is a big milestone for me. Rhonda had asked me what it was going to take to numb the pain, or something like that. Well, this is what it will take: a trip to the city! Next week, Keith and I are meeting my brother Sheldon and his wife Darla, and our mutual friends Michael and Connie (who also hit the big 4-0 a little while ago) and we're going to just have some fun in the city! I'm looking forward to a little shopping (the men don't want to do much!), a nice hotel, a tour of the mint, Olive Garden and Perkins (hopefully) and the Symphony on Friday night. Yay!

Wendy and her kids are going to be at Stormer Lake for a couple days (Jeff is working up there somewhere) so tomorrow we're heading up there for the day. We asked Marvin to have a little "field trip" for the kids - show them how the generator works, or something. And we're going to make soft pretzels. And hopefully relax and just hang out with Yvonne for awhile. That should be fun!

I've really been enjoying the CD "Let the Worshippers Arise" by Philips, Craig and Dean!! Their lyrics and music are both so powerful!

And in the "things-you-really-must-know-or-your-life-will-never-be-complete" department:

-It seems like for the last month or more, every time I do laundry, it rains so I can't hang it out to dry. But inevitably, it seems, the day before or after is beautiful and sunny. Why??? I'm a cheapskate and it bugs me to have to dry it all in the dryer. Grrrr.

-We tried on snow pants, coats, and boots today to see what we need for the winter. So, of course the boys had to go all-out and dress to the teeth. They tried to play outside that way, but it didn't last long. It was beautiful outside!

-Josiah has had gooey eyes for the better part of a week. His eyeballs aren't red, but underneath his eyes it's red and swollen. Should I take him to the doctor? The others had a milder case of the same thing and they've all had runny noses...

-I got a little extra spending money so I bid on a place setting of my china on ebay. I got it for $20.50 which is really cheap for Old Country Roses. Then I got the invoice and the shipping is $22.54!! Huh! It's still a good price over-all, but it kinda makes me disgusted that the shipping is more than the price! And I'm sure that's more than the actual shipping will be. Oh well!

-I also bought Logan a dress shirt and tie on ebay. He often begs to wear a tie on Sunday (!?!) and he doesn't have anything that works right now. So I got him something. It might be a Christmas present. Not sure yet. We'll see how much of a problem Sunday mornings are for awhile! :-)

-I'm going to post soon about the on-line course I'm doing now about food addiction. It's been really good! I'm telling you this now so that I have to actually post about it.

-On Monday I'm going to be 40. That's just crazy. How did that happen??

Okay, I'm going to go now before you're all bored to tears!! Night-night!

Eating Out of the Freezer

Awhile ago I told you about the cooking day we did. Several (well, two) of you wanted the list of recipes we made. So, here they are. And I must say, it has been wonderful pulling supper out of the freezer!! So far nearly everything has been a success. Not that little Mister Picky has liked it all, but that's just normal for him. I'm not sure if we'll have too much soup at the end of the month or not. It seemed like we made an awful lot of soup for one month. So, we'll see how it goes for next month...

Soups:

Chili
Lentil Stew
Potato Chowder (made without the white sauce. I'll add that when we eat it.)
Hamburger Barley
Cicken Wild Rice
Vegetable Beef
Cream of Broccoli/Pea (not a milk base. It's a pureed soup - mostly broccoli, peas, onions, celery, spices. I love it and Keith tolerates it.)

Casseroles/Main Dishes/Side Dishes:

Curry Chicken
Chimichangas
Mashed Potatoes
Burritoes
Yumzetti
Chicken & Rice
Tater Tot Casserole (made with a gravy base, not mushroom soup)
Lasagne (my vegetarian, tofu recipe. It's really good. Really.)
Chickenetti
Pakistani Kima (a hamburger, vegetable curry that you put over rice)
Breakfast Casserole
Rice & Veggie Casserole (sort of a Mexican Beans and Rice deal)
Chicken Gumbo
Sauce-baked Meatballs
Meatloaf
Taco Meat

That's 21 different main dishes, but some of them made LOTS. I love leftovers for lunches! I'm looking forward to doing it again, but I think I need some more chicken recipes. It seems like most of them were beef. Does anyone have any good freeze-able chicken ideas?? Or anything else? I don't want to make all the same stuff every month.

So, what are you having for supper tomorrow night? We're having potato chowder and I think I'll try to make bread sticks. Anybody wanna come over for supper?

Hilda the Housewife (and Schoolteacher)

Thanks for the home-schooling ideas! This started out as a comment on my post, but it got too long, so I’ll just post it. You'd think the "after-lunch-while-he's-sleeping" solution would be a no-brainer. I hadn’t really considered it though because I was thinking I want to get it all done in the morning or something. And, that's my nap-time too. Thankfully, my naps are much shorter than they were and sometimes I can even skip them! So we're going to try that. Also, this morning, Caleb took his "table-work" that he can do mostly on his own to the basement and we shut the gate. That worked quite well! Less distractions for him too. As far as Daddy is concerned, he is doing the Bible stories and also the science activities. So that helps a lot. Anyway, today was a better day.

I also had the idea to insert regularly scheduled chores in each morning in place of the school work that we'll be doing in the afternoon. That feels good too. It was okay that Caleb and I were doing language at 3:00 because we had already folded all of the laundry in the morning. I’m thinking of the following schedule: Monday – swimming lessons, no extra chores, Tuesday – clean bathrooms and either dust or change sheets (those last two might not always happen. tee hee.), Wednesday – fold laundry, Thursday – send the kids to their Grandmas – no extra chores, Friday – vacuum and mop.

While I’m on the subject of housework, I’ve been meaning to ask sometime…. What is a favorite “routine” or household tip that really helps you get something done, stay organized, make a job you don't like easier, etc.??? I’d like to hear some good ideas from lots of people. We all have little things that we do that make housework more efficient. I thought it would be neat if we’d share some of our favorite ideas. So, let’s hear it for – and from – all the Hilda the Housewives out there!

Logan's Birthday

I guess it's been a month since Logan's birthday, so it's time to post the pictures, eh? Since he turned five we did a bigger party than usual. We planned a beach party since, well, it was August. Makes sense, doesn't it? It was So Cold! Oh well, the kids had fun anyway! We had the party at 3:00 and then had the Grandparents over for pizza in the evening. You can see how Logan felt by the end of the day. The funny thing is, since he turned five, he finally doesn't take a nap most of the time. Just once in awhile.

School Daze

Yeah, I know it's a lame pun, but I haven't the talent to think of something truly witty. We’re getting into the swing of home-school around here. I think it’s going pretty well. Then I remember that neither of the boys is doing their Language Arts yet. So, there are more challenges to come!

My biggest challenge right now is what to do with Josiah!! I’m asking all home-school Moms for advice. He’s 20 months old and just LOVES to do everything his brothers do. This doesn’t work so well when they’re writing/coloring/cutting at the table. He’s all over and into everything. Aarrgghh! Yes, I’m very willing to use purposeful swats to the backside and I do, but it seems to have no effect at this point. He spends a good chunk of time in his room with a gate across the door and toys to play with. He does well with that, but I can’t leave him in there all morning!! This morning I put him in his high-chair with crayons and a paper – and soon he was just eating the crayons. Later I tried the high-chair again and gave him playdo. That worked well for a little while, and then the playdo ended up all over the floor. Sigh. Is this just something we have to put up with?? Or do any of you have ideas for how to occupy and train him?? When we’re not doing school-work, he’s quite good and happy most of the time.

For those of you familiar with Sonlight, we’re doing Core C this year with both Caleb and Logan. It’s better for Logan, but I find it's not too challenging for Caleb. I’m thinking of what I can do to give him some more to do, but not just “busy work”. Several options I’m thinking of: some really good Canadian History books for kids (anyone know of any?) and/or ACE Science or Animal Science PACEs. Right now he’s finishing up a couple of Sonlight Science books that we didn’t do last year.

On a happy note, we’re really enjoying “The Boxcar Children” right now. That is a book I read many times when I was little, and it brings back memories for me! Also, I’m looking forward to Caleb’s Language Arts (Sonlight). I’ve hardly looked at Logan’s yet so I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to it or not. And here's one little funny. We were reading some "Mother Goose" rhymes today. After I finished one Caleb remarked, "That was lame!" And he was right! :-) Okay, enough rambling. I’d love to hear from you home-school Moms out there that I know read my blog and never or rarely comment.

Who Turned Down the Thermostat??

In honour of the snowflakes we saw yesterday (someone forgot to tell us about global warming!), I'm finally posting pictures of us picking blueberries - in much warmer weather! :-)

We were so thankful for the blueberries this year! After quite a few years of not-so-many berries, they were plentiful this year. Thank you, Jesus! It was also very special to pick berries with good friends from out of town. Carolyn S. and Jennifer M and her kids were here right over blueberry time. We had one little trip out to the bush together. That time Glenda M. and Mary Elaine P. were there too, as well as Lisa's Mom and Grandma! Lots of foreigners in the blueberry patch! That was when we almost had to pry Glenda’s fingers off of the bushes so we could go home. :-) She could hardly stand to leave those beautiful berries there. Jennifer and her kids stayed with us and it was so good to see them again. Iris and I went out a couple times as well and did all the damage to the berries we could!! The picture of the four boys is them having a "moose poop fight". Boys will be boys, after all. In case you're not from the North, this moose poop is hard and dry, not soft and gross. :-) Well, it's still sorta gross, but hey, they were having fun and not bothering us while we were picking! :-)

God of the Little Things

I have a little story to tell you, just to brag on my God a bit. This past spring we had what seemed to be a rash of technological breakdowns. The VCR and CD player both quit around the same time. (Well, "quit" isn't quite the right word for the VCR. It was more like a victim of a murder at the hands of a cute little toddler!) I know our desktop computer also died but I'm not sure of the timing of that one. At the time, God had been speaking to me about living simply, being content, spending less, giving more, etc. I determined to pray for these "needs" and not just rush out and buy all new stuff.

I don't remember what all happened with the computer, but Keith talked to a friend who "builds" computers and we ended up getting one from him for nothing. Since we have the Mac as well, we just needed a basic PC to run a few windows-only programs we use... Thank you, Lord for the computer!

I was praying for a cheap VCR and CD player - although the CD player seemed a bit more of a "stretch" for God. Y'know what I mean? I want a decent little stereo with at least a 3-CD changer. I looked at garage sales, etc, for a VCR, but found nothing. I waited and prayed. Then one day a friend stopped in (I think she was dropping off one of her kids). I had asked to borrow a few DVDs since we don't have many. She kindly brought some and also added, "You said you don't have a VCR. Here's an extra one we have. You can borrow it." I wondered if they wanted to get rid of it and she thought they would part with it for the $15 they had paid for it at a second-hand store. There you go. Answer to prayer, #2.

Now the CD player. That's another story. We waited. I prayed. An "expert" told me that no one fixes that kind of stuff. We looked around and considered buying one. We couldn't find exactly what we wanted. I put the stereo down in Keith's shop since it was dead anyway. I reminded God that I wanted a CD player. We waited. One day Keith came home from work and said he had sold one of his kayaks. I had nearly forgotten he had it since he's never used it since we're married. Hmmm, $200 of unexpected cash. "Say, honey, do ya think we could buy a stereo with that when we go to Winnipeg?" Maybe. So, when we were there last month we looked around. We almost bought one that was on sale but it wasn't exactly what we wanted and we just weren't ready to do it. Then I really wondered when or how we would ever get one.

On Labour Day, Keith was putzing around in the shop. At the supper table he calmly announced, "I fixed the CD player." Get this: he took the cover off and it had a CD jammed in it! That's all that was wrong with it!!! Wow! Thank you, Jesus. I was so excited I could hardly stop sputtering. And that explains that missing CD as well. And guess what it was?!? Jungle JAM! Teehee. So, I guess the $200 goes to a Third-world country!!

This whole thing has been such a good lesson for me! 1) God knows and cares about the "little" stuff! 2) If I don't rush off to meet my own "needs" God has a chance to show me what He can do. 3) Sometimes it's good to go without stuff and realize our "needs" might just be "wants". So, that's my happy little story for today. We serve a wonderful, amazing God who can do anything and loves us each individually and intimately! Wow!

Life With Little Boys

Rock and Roll, Baby!!

This post has nothing to do with rock and roll, or babies! But, I have some seriously good news to report! Today, my dear friend, Rita, (who also happens to be my sis-in-law Rhonda's Mom) came over and we cooked up a storm. I mean some serious cooking! But, I must go back a few months and tell the whole story...

A few month ago I was pondering my up-coming year with home-schooling, parenting (chasing) a toddler, and then having a baby in January. I was wondering how in the world I was going to manage all of that. I was realizing that I simply cannot do it all! I need help with something. I'm sure there are many, many women in the world who can home-school with 4 kids under 8 and "do it all" but I've come to the conclusion that I'm not one of them! So one morning as I was pondering this (I'd like to say that I was praying about it, but I can't say for sure that I was) I had this idea which I think was from God. Keith was okay with my idea, and today it started to happen.

The plan is that for the next year or two, I'll hire someone to help me cook one day a month and I'll put as many meals in the freezer as possible. Cooking is not my passion or first love, so I find the constant demand of it to be quite draining. So, today, Rita came and we cooked like crazy. She was here from 8:00 until after 4:00. I didn't really start until after 9:30, after I had delivered the boys to their Grandmas, but then I worked until supper and still had some clean-up and putting away to do. We made 20 different things today and a few of them were more than one meal. Most are large amounts that will probably make a supper and lunch at least. I can't wait to see how some of them turned out and also just see what it feels like to just pull supper out of the freezer! A few things need to be thickened or have a sauce added that I didn't think would freeze well. One problem I ran into was how to freeze it all. Your can't just stack up a bunch of casseroles or bags of soup or they won't freeze fast enough. I ended up taking a bunch of stuff to my Mother-in-laws freezer so it could all be spread out. Once it's all frozen, I think we can get it all in our freezers. :-)

We didn't get the meatloaf and meatballs made, so I'll do that tomorrow, and since I'm on a roll, I might do taco meat and bbq beef yet. We used a food processor to grate cheese and chop, slice and dice piles of vegetables. I chopped up 12 - 14 cups of onions, and I still had to do a few more at the end. :-) The fun part was that once all the meat was cooked and the vegetables cut up, it was so fast to throw some stuff together.

Oh, and one thing we learned. Don't buy a frozen chicken labeled: "Mature. Ideal for Stewing". What it really means is, "Tough old bird. Not good for eating!!" Rita chopped it up small and mixed it in with the other chicken, so it will probaby be okay. Now I need to drag my weary body to bed and see if I can recover. :-) I might post some pictures of our adventures one of these days... when I can borrow a flash drive from someone!

Sunday afternoon!

I want so badly to post a pile of pictures, but we're having a small technical problem - our flash drive is misplaced. I won't bore you with why I need it to post pictures. Anyway, I'll do that as soon as I can.

In other, more exciting news, we had a very fun scrap-booking day on Friday! Wendy (and Dylan), Iris, Lisa, Leona and I were there and our 14 children were at my house with babysitters. (It's a good thing two of Lisa's are older and could help since one of our sitters couldn't come untile 2:00!!) We "scrapped" like mad and then took a break to go out for lunch for a friend's birthday (Shelley, in case you know her). Then we "scrapped" some more and took a little break for supper. Well, Wendy had to go home and Lisa just kept working and we brought her some leftovers. Leona left before the rest of us, but we were on such a roll that Lisa, Iris and I went until 1:30 or so. Yikes! We got lots done. I could have gone back the next day and kept right on going, but... Real life was calling my name so I stayed home. :-)

Iris had put her kids to bed here and then also came here to sleep. So we enjoyed Keith's pancakes in the morning. :-) Oh, I forgot to mention that when I did get to bed around 2:00, I didn't sleep well at all. Maybe I was just too over-tired and keyed up! Needless to say, a long nap was a necessity on Sat. And today. I feel like I'm still catching up! I'm not sure if old, pregnant ladies should do stuff like that, but it was sure fun!

In other, more serious, news, I mentioned once awhile ago that I have a real problem with over-eating. Sigh. A friend told me about a web-site that looks really good. The address is: settingcaptivesfree.com. They do a lot of stuff dealing with various addictions - including food. Man, it sounds so harsh when you call it an addiction. Anyway, they offer a 60-day online course for free and the point of it is to teach you to fill up your heart with Christ and break the emotional need for food. So, I'm telling you this so that I can't turn back. I'm going to take the course as soon as I have a chance to sign up. There's also a "diet" that goes along with it that I can't do because of being pregnant. (It involves fasting, eating half portions, etc. Basically just eating less food.) But I've made up my own diet restrictions that will be good for me anyway (such as limited sugar or no breads on certain days). I have to say that I'm scared about this because I've tried so many times to get my eating under control and I'm seeing just how much it controls me. I really do want to learn to find my soul satisfaction in Jesus and not be a slave to food!

Keith and the boys are outside building a fire in the fire-pit and Iris is coming over with a bunch of corn-on-the-cob from OH!!!! Yippee! (speaking of food!!) Add to that, Keith's home-made sausages on the grill and s'mores for dessert! The important thing is to not over-eat, I know, so I'll be careful tonight!

This post is becoming very random. Hope you don't mind. I baked bread the other week and it just did not turn out right. It didn't raise much and the loaves were small and kinda heavy. Yesterday I tried again, and I had a new bag of flour. It was called "Best for Bread" (the other time it was just plain old whole wheat flour). I still had the same yeast. Anyway, the bread was gorgeous!! Hmmm. Any words of wisdom about such things? Does flour get old pretty fast? Or was it because I had the "Best for Bread" kind?

Well, I had some more thoughts, but Iris and crew have just arrived. More later! And I hope your Sunday afternoon nap was as satisfying as mine was!!