tummy troubles

the big cheese put the girls to bed tonight

and a little while later i thought that i heard someone crying

i went upstairs and sure enough papaya was

she usually hits the pillow and falls asleep, so this is unusual for her

i asked what was the matter, since boo-boo was already sleeping

"i don't feel good, mommmmmmm! my tummy feels funny!"

next logical question "do you feel like you are going to throw up?"

"no, but i don't want to miss out on tomorrow and be all sick, and

not get to dress up and go trick-or-treating and have to stay home and.... and....."

well the big cheese and I figured out the problem pretty quick

no one is sick and the cure was remarkably easy, we asked

"how about you sleep in our room?"

there hasn't been a peep since!

don't you just remember those feelings though?

when one day seemed like forever?

when anticipation just about consumed you?

when all the little things, really were big things?

when you waited for the event and didn't think of all the work?

when you were in wonder about what tomorrow held?

bleary

you got it right, 2:30 a.m
i needed to finish paperwork for the accountant, year-end stuff
and i just finished
amazing really, because once i started
i didn't feel tired at all
but now it is settling on me like a heavy fog
if you read this
could you pray for me tomorrow
that i might be a graceful mother inspite of being tired
nighty..nighty

my 3 year-old tarzan

in the middle of school today, papaya says "i am going to see what's the matter with boo-boo, she has a sad look on her face"
so i follow papaya into the family room to find our 3 year-old dissolving into a bucket of tears
surprised by this seemingly unexplained emotion, i sit down on the floor, take her into my lap and ask "what's the matter?"
by this point, she has escalated to full throttle crying
i am completely wrapped up in this

and not paying attention to anything else
(this i learn latter was my mistake)
so i keep trying to find out what's the matter, i speak sympathetically and assure her to talk to mommy and say "tell mommy what's the matter, you won't get into trouble"
well, apparently that was all the encouragement she needed because she then freely offered, "well, i was trying to swing from those (my curtains) and that (the rod) broke" ahhh! i had been had! but the irony of it was so funny, i pulled her closer to me and tried to stifle my laughter
good thing she had the disclaimer "you won't get in trouble" because at that point it was too funny anyway
when asked why she would try that, she said

"i wanted to see if it would break?"

and "mom when my friend comes, it would break if she tried it too!"

sigh....next time mommy might look a little closer before she speaks...

cookie decorating party

here is one of our family's yearly traditions

some years we even do it twice

almost always in fall, and often again at valentines day

we started it a few years ago, and the girls absolutely love it

it is MUCH easier now that the girls are older

how it works is each of the girls invites a few friends

we had 12 today, including my kids

each friend needs to bring a take home box, container of icing and

decorations to share

i bake up a mess of sugar cookies, believe you me, it is a mess

spread out a disposable tablecloth, cookies and decorations

their friends descend upon our house for a couple of hours and create to their hearts content

and then they take home a container full of decorated cookies to eat and share with their family

it really is a fun tradition, one i think we will keep on doing for a few years to come

tea anyone?

feel like a spot of tea?

last night the girls set up a tea party for their special friends

before bed i asked them to move the china

so that no one would knock it over in the middle of the night

this morning when i glanced at the "party"

i realized that almost all the elements

were homemade except this pink bunny and the dishes

the pillow below matches papaya's new quilt seen in an earlier post

the dolls (first and third picture) were bought at a garage sale quite a few years ago,

i made new homemade clothes for them and the girls love them

the quilt (below) is papaya's baby quilt

a friend and i made the puppy dogs in mass a few years ago

for our kids, cousins and friends at Christmas time

and the dishes were given to bugsy by a friend of mine

who thought she would really enjoy them

did she ever guess right on that!

i found the tea party again this morning

after I had dropped my kids off for a fun day at the pool with their friends

since i am a homeschooling mom i don't seem to have a lot of time to get to projects around the house, so i came home grabbed my dust cloth and vacuum and went upstairs to clean! yay!

at some point during the morning i did wonder why i felt so satisfied to be cleaning, while my kids played...am i demented?...thoughts for another day!

so when i came to boo boo and papaya's room and found the tea party i was in a dilemna

i had a need to clean and it was spread out on the floor in a 3" x 4" square

hmmm.....what did i do? what would you do?

poor barbies

as the girls went outside today they grabbed their barbies

at first i kind of rolled my eyes (i know i teach my kids not to do that)

but i perish the thought some days of all the clean up

a while later though, i was walking past the window and it made me smile

to see them playing in the leaves and it made me laugh because the poor barbies were still dressed in shorts and capris with no thought of the season change!

good thing i put their summer clothes away

otherwise they might have been outside in shorts too

i took some shots of the front of my house

i absolutely love house flags and this might be my favourite one of the collection

unfortunately it seems like we whip through fall and into .....

oops, can't say that word yet! okay! maybe i just won't

no, i am most definately not in denial about seasonal changes

this is the front of our house

once we buy our pumpkins, no pumpkin patch here

the girls carve one each and we set it out on the front bench

then light them on Halloween

wordless wednesday..almost

our new haircuts

tuesday the terrible

today feels terrible
yesterday felt terrible
Sunday was bearable
i feel grumpy, unmotivated, blah and depressed
i have been sick
feels like i am the only person in this place
the weather is overcast and gray and i feel chained to the things i have to do everyday
the laundry is unfolded on top of the washer and another load is unfolded in the washer
i haven't vacuumed, i need to rake, haven't even considered what's for dinner
and i perish the thought of exercising today
i feel like an observer and wish i had that magic wand my daughter talked about
i just want to crawl back into bed
sigh...how do you get past this?
honest thoughts albeit not happy ones today

does God have a magic wand?

as we were finishing lunch

boo-boo looked out the kitchen window and commented in awe "look it is so beautiful"

after a quiet moment, she continued and asked

"mommy does God have a magic wand?"

i couldn't help but smile because even though God may not have a magic wand

the world he created is truly magical

and as i look at the pure wonder of my three-year old

i think, i need to stop, look, listen and wonder too

now as I re-read this post she is sitting in my lap wondering why God didn't make flying horses

so that we could fly over the mountains

this picture shows bugsy with her best friend, Jesse

the two of them share a special relationship all their own, its pretty neat to see how an 8 yr old can understand a dog so well

true confessions

okay here is a secret about me

about a week ago i made cookie dough

love to eat it like that

once it was baked i stuck it in the freezer

yesterday we took out the last of them

just now i found myself pulling apart cookies searching just for the chocolate chips

i love them like that, bits of cookie attached to the chocolate chip

i don't really care for the baked cookie

i had ripped through two before i realized i was even doing it

i threw the cookie remainders in the garbage and had to walk away

or i might eat the whole container...sigh!

i did it all by myself

okay so their is a little history to this post

about 18 months ago i decided that our master closet need a serious revamp

the shelves and dowels in the closet were all made from rough lumber

nothing was square or "plumb"

so i ripped, stripped, filled, sanded, primed and painted

then i measured for and bought a closet organizer

our closet is a basically 6' x 8'

so i had the organizer go around on three sides

afterwards i had one bare wall

last winter i decided i would make a hook rack

to get the "transition" clothing (worn, but not dirty) off the floor

so i found a piece of lumber and routered, stained and varathaned it

then i had a REALLY bright idea!

i asked my wonderful husband if he could hang the hooks on it

while he watched hockey one night

well, many games of hockey passed, playoffs came and went

and now we are into a new hockey season

so today i decided to get it done by myself

and it turned out great

wordless wednesday

finally done

what can i say?

i am so excited that this quilt is done

it was a Christmas quilt for papaya last year

made it under the tree with no binding

and for many reasons, i haven't found the time to sit down and sew the binding on

this weekend proved the perfect weekend to finish it

we had a glorious Thanksgiving Monday with nothing on the agenda

so i sat in the sun and stitched til it was done

papaya waited eagerly, she has been so patient for it these last 10 months

she was absolutely thrilled when it was done

we had to nail her down to the spot for the picture

then she bounded all the way up to her room and remade her bed

daddy (aka "the big cheese") also hung a shelf above her bed

this shelf has been waiting for longer than the quilt

and is now adorned with her Webkinz (yes they have bought into marketing...ugh!)

this is a close up of the finished quilt

totally different fabric and colours than I usually pick

but the girls really like it

this story is a little bittersweet

see, i made two of these quilts

same pattern, same size, just a slightly different take on fabric

so essentially i have one down and one to go

but what's new? i will always a project, or two or three on the go

life doesn't feel complete without it

Not me ... no way

i didn't leave thanksgiving dinner dishes on the table and watch "without a trace" after company left, no way i would have them done before i'd do that

i didn't go to bed and still leave all the dishes from dinner sitting on the table, no way! who would do that?

i didn't get up the next morning clean the whole kitchen before i would even think of feeding my kids, even though they were "starving", i couldn't possibly have done that, no way!

and i most definately didn't stay in PJ's till well after lunch, talk on the phone while i had a bubble bath in the middle of the day! wrong person, no way

but if i find that person, i'll be sure to let you know

simply profound

i was in the office this evening, stalling to go upstairs and put the girls to bed

not doing much of anything

"the big cheese" was watching hockey with a couple of friends

then something quietly caught my attention

it was one of those things you can't quite ignore

so i went to follow the sound and as soon as i was out the office door i heard it clearly

the girls were singing upstairs in bugsy's room

all three were on her bed singing and she was teaching them a bible verse

i was stunned, humbled, pleased, thankful

she also made up her own saying and it goes like this:

"truth is God's passage to heaven,

lies are Satan's passage to hell"

after I tucked the younger two into bed I found her furiously scrambling to write it all down (see below). She said "I know it isn't spelled right Mom, but I just needed to get it all out quick so that I wouldn't forget it." In the left margin she wrote "big thing: love God", on the right side it says "always tell the truth", on the bottom she is giving instructions for day to day "love your neighbour as yourself, read bible, and read "Night Lights Bible" (a special kids bible we have)

There is nothing left to say after that! I truly feel blessed!!

My Redeemer Lives

GodTube.com - My Redeemer Lives - Team Hoyt

here is a link to an awesome video on god tube

the first few times I watched it I cried

each time I watched I realized that I was responding to different things

first, the love of this father for his son and the opportunity he gave him

second, God's love for us and that he runs the race with us

third, I clearly saw myself as that disabled son and that God was carrying me through my journey

hopefully it touches your heart where God needs to meet you

here is a few of the words

"Who taught the sun where to stand in the morning?

and Who told the ocean you can only come this far?

and Who showed the moon where to hide 'til evening?

Whose words alone can catch a falling star?

Well I know my Redeemer lives

I know my Redeemer lives

All of creation testifies

This life within me cry

I know my Redeemer lives, yeah

The very same God that spins things in orbit

runs to the weary, the worn and the weak

And the same gentle hands that hold me when I'm broken

They conquered death to bring me victory

That the payment for my sin

Was the precious life He gave

But now He's alive and

There's an empty grave

a fun day

today our homeschool program organized a family fun day

we went to the local pool and rec center and went rock climbing or belaying

the girls had a blast, all three of them were able to manage some part of the course

our youngest was able to join and although she didn't make it to the ceiling

she got high enough that I couldn't touch her feet anymore, she did a lot of bouldering

the older two girls tried alot of different courses and were up by the ceiling alot papaya went up too many times to count, she was the last one begging for just one more run

bugsy was doing lots of runs too but took a real fancy to bouldering on the outside of cave

it was a really fun adventure and of course mom couldn't keep her feet on the ground, i tried my share of runs and they just kept giving me harder ones until finally my arms didn't want to cooperate anymore, I hung up my harness after that! now i should convince rick it would be a great place for a date night....what man wouldn't like that?

here's the scoop

for over a year all I have had in my house is 100% whole wheat flour

its all I use when I bake along with my brown sugar or sugar in the raw

i have felt rather proud of my "pure" tendencies and the effort to give my family the best

however when my mother-in-law was here recently she purchased white flour

a whole big 10 kg bag and it is powdery, silkly and bleach bright white

it is so white and bright that it has been calling my name every time I open the pantry

taunting me to try it and taste the difference

so i gave in and made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies with white sugar!

ahhhh! how i have fallen to temptation

the sad thing is, that if I am honest, those cookies really rock

they melt in your mouth, are sweet and tender and plain delicious

i hate to say it but on this one, you can taste the difference that "processing" makes

Half way around the world

So in the last months, the rick and I have felt a little restless and have wondered what to do this fall and winter.

For those who don't know, our summers are so busy with our business and work there is not time for much else. We literally put our noses to the trees in May and emerge again sometime in August.

We had been thinking that maybe this winter our family could do a missions trip and we had been doing a little bit of searching to that end. The answer we got was different in two ways...it wasn't for our whole family and it involves a part of the world we never even considered.

To summarize rick is going to Bangladesh at the end of November. He is going with a group of men mostly from BC and Alberta to look at supporting local business men. This is a introductory trip to this area. It is an exciting opportunity and unbelievable at the same time. We will keep you posted on the details.

the discovery

our girls were getting ready for bed

you know the basics

PJ's, teeth brushed, potty

when "Oh, gross!!" is shrieked from the bathroom

as I arrive I am informed

that our youngest is indeed wiping, as she has been taught

but that the toilet paper is still attached to the roll on the wall

not sure if this is some time-saving trick

or a new take on reduce, reuse and recycle

but the next time I wipe, I might just check twice

a good example to follow

i was making breakfast this morning and turned around to find kaleigh trying hard to read ... she was reading out aloud and making up her own story while reading her sisters books ... she doesn't know her letters or the sounds they make

but figures her sisters spend so much time at it

that it might be worth a try

little girl pink

kaleigh decided she wanted to do ballet this year

here she is all ready to go to her first class

we needed to stop her from floating around the house

for long enough to be able to take the picture

she absolutely loves going