Blessings

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

I've been a little under the weather over the last few weeks...feeling bummed at times that the recovery process has been a little slow...especially during the time of year when there is so much to do. But as a friend reminded me, I need to remember God's blessings.

I am blessed with an amazing husband who has had to do so much more over the last few weeks and has never complained once.

I am blessed with an amazing church family which has provided meals and even cleared snow too.

I am blessed with an amazing Heavenly Father that knows what his daughter needs....

Last Friday I was feeling really cooped up and wanted to get out for a walk. With the nasty weather, snow and being unsteady on my feet, I thought a walk at the mall would be perfect...but had no one to take me. As I humoured options of who could take me and whom I would feel comfortable taking their arm for support, I thought..."I want my dad". I knew my dad would be the perfect person to walk me around the mall...but I also knew that it wouldn't happen as he lives 45 minutes away and would probably be working. I decided I would just have to get hubby to take me after he came home from work.

But God had another idea.

At 3 pm, the door bell rang and when I saw whose face was pressed against the window, tears welled up in my eyes. I flung the door open and said to my dad as I gave him a hug..."Oh dad, I'm so glad you're here. I wanted you to come." I had not called him to come...but my Heavenly Father knew I needed my dad and had him come. Isn't that cool!

Back to School - Grade 2

Last week C started Grade 2. She was so excited to be going back to school, and even more excited that a couple of her friends were in her class. I'm not sure if I'm ready for grade 2...she's growing up way too quickly. At least she still wants to hold my hand as we walk to school...even on the playground.

To continue what I started last year, here is my grade 2 school photo. Same ringlets...just a little longer...and it looks like mom did a better job on my bangs (or perhaps I start still better). I'm not sure how long I'll continue this tradition of posting my school photos...it starts to go downhill around grade 5 when I cut all my hair off and started wearing glasses that were half the size of my head.

Missing Daddy

Hubby went away to a conference a couple of weeks ago and was gone for five days. C was quite upset the first night that he left, even hovering over the answering machine to hear his voice on the message he left to tell us he had safely arrived at his destination. When it came time for bed C had a tearful request that melted my heart.

"Can I sleep in one of daddy's shirts?"

"Sure. Go pick out one of his T-shirts from the closet."

"Which shirt does he wear the most?"

"I'm not sure C. Why don't you look and see which one you remember him wearing the most."

"I think it's the sail boat one."

"Alright, wear that one. Why do you want to wear the one that he wears the most?"

"Because then it feels like his arms are around me giving me a hug."

Wordless Wednesday - Toothless

Thanks to my sis for the pic.

Soccer Season I

Back in March hubby said..."I think we should sign C up for soccer. She needs an outlet for all her energy". At first I wasn't keen on the idea as there were practices or games twice a week. But after some thought I realized that it was only for 2 months and it didn't hurt to try it. It would be good to expose her to sports so that she wasn't sports challenged like her mother. I was always picked last for school gym teams and avoided most sport activities like the plague as I have no confidence or skill. The last time I was coaxed to play a sport (family friendly church baseball game), I ended up in emergency getting 3 stitches. I tried to catch hubby's pop fly, but missed and caught it with the side of my head.

It was a good soccer season and I was quite surprised at how much I enjoyed watching the games. We were also really impressed with how well C was doing by the end of the season. Every once in a while she would get a burst of energy and on a breakaway would take the ball up the field and try to score a goal. Pretty proud parents we were. We would love for her to play again next year, but we doubt that that will happen as we realize that soccer is not something that overly interests her...we'll see what she says next year. But at least with one season under her belt, she has more sports ability than her mother.

Proverbs 3

"C, God tells us in the Bible that if we follow his commands it will go well with us...and we'll live a long life. Do you want it to go well with you?"

"Yes"

"Do you want to live a long life?"

"Well....I do want to see Grandma..."

Father's Day Coupons

C could not wait to give hubby his Father's Day gift that she made him at school. So Friday after she came home, she requested if she could give the present to him early. She was just too excited to wait. She had made a coupon book in class of things that hubby could "rip a coupon out and ask for". Hubby and I had a good laugh reading them.

This coupon is good for...

...Dad's day out
...make breakfast in bed
...I'll take you out for dinner
...games
...back scratch
...tuck him in at night
...me making lunch
...Tickle party
...bedtime story
...movie and popcorn

It was so cute, because in her mind I'm sure she was thinking that she enjoys these things...so daddy would too.

Quest for Curls

A few weeks ago our church organized a Princess Tea Party for all the daughters of the King. C was very excited about going to the party. We planned to wear matching dresses (thanks to my sister who had made C a dress for Christmas from the material left over from her wedding) and C wanted to have her hair curly for the event. Now C did not get my curly hair...she got hubby's dead straight hair. I didn't think it would be that difficult to curl her hair, but I was so wrong and very glad that we experimented ahead of time.

First I tried to curl C's hair with a curling iron. This has always worked very well for me, but curling curly hair is totally different than trying to curl straight hair. I wrapped her hair around the curling iron and waited a little bit. When I released her hair, there was only a little curve at the very bottom of her hair. I wrapped the hair around the curling iron again and waited longer. This time I got a little more curl...but not a lot. After about 5 minutes, I gave up on the curling iron.


I then tried to curl C's hair using hot rollers. I've never used hot rollers before and didn't really know how to use them. My initial attempt looked pretty pathetic. My second attempt was better as I figured out how the pin worked to keep the roller in place. The hot rollers did give more curl than the curling iron, but the curl quickly fell out.


My sister-in-law told me to try rolling C's hair in foam rollers and have her sleep on them. So I went and purchased foam rollers from the Dollar store and rolled C's wet hair in them. In the morning, C was quite happy with the outcome and I was impressed with how well the foam rollers worked.


The curl stayed in longer, but by mid afternoon it was droopy. I figured if I used more rollers and put less hair in each one, I would be able to get a tighter curl. So the night before the Princess Tea party, I put 30 rollers in C's wet hair.

I thought the curl would fall out of her hair if I took the rollers out too early, so I waited until 45 minutes before we were to leave for the Tea Party to take the rollers out. We both got the shock of our lives as the curl was so tight, her hair sprang up above her ears.

She was NOT impressed and quite upset. I tried to stay calm and reassure her I could fix it (even though I wasn't convinced I could). I tried to pulled some of the curl out by running my fingers though it to separate it. But it was still really tight. So I pinned the sides up so that they didn't fall in her face and hoped the curl in her hair would start relaxing soon. It did and looked great.

The Garden Battle

Here are the gardens in our backyard. Actually, just half of them as there are more gardens along the back of the house and in the front yard. The previous owners planted them all.


You probably think it looks really nice...except maybe the sandbox in the middle. Lets take a closer look.



The weeds and plants are out of control. Every year we battle to keep the weeds out of the garden and the plants out of the lawn...but it looks like this year they have already won. It looks awful and extremely overwhelming. We have avoided using pesticides for the last 3 years thinking we could control weeds without the use of chemicals...but now realize it's impossible unless we plan to spend all our free time in the garden. So this year, we were going to use pesticides to regain control of the yard...but can't because pesticides have been banned in our area. So all I can do now is covet my neighbour's beautiful garden free backyard which also has a really nice deck and shed.


Although the task is daunting, I still love to see the new growth of the wanted plants coming back.


C was a great help in the garden this weekend...digging weeds and pulling out dead growth. I was a little shocked though at what she chose to do when she wasn't helping...cutting worms with a stick, or cutting an ant with the snipers, or poking holes in snail shells because she wanted the slug to come out. After I requested numerous times for her to be nicer to the bugs, she got upset and told me I never let her do stuff like this.

Sharing Jesus

The other day C told me about how she tried to witness to a friend on the school playground. It went something like this...

"I asked L ... Do you go to church? She said ... Sometimes. I said ... cause if you go to church then you are going to come with me to a new earth because this earth will be destroyed by bad people. L started to freak and said ...I CAN'T leave my mom and dad!! I told her...Your mom and dad are coming too! L kept freaking and then told the teacher. The teacher said...Some people go to church and some people don't. It's our job to be nice to each other. That's not true. It's our job to tell other people about Jesus!"

I was then amazed by the question C asked me after her story was done....

"Should I tell my other friend about Jesus?"

She was not going to let the teacher's, or L's, reaction discourage her from telling others. I asked her why she wanted to tell her friends about Jesus. I was curious to know what the motivating force was...or rather how she would explain it. She became emotional and said that they were her best friends and she didn't want to leave them behind.

There are some days where I don't know what to do with my feisty firecracker of a kid...and then there are days like this where I see her boldness funnelled in a good direction. I have to smile as I realize she's getting it...the important it. She might not get it yet that bedtime is not the time to be goofing around...but she understands that people need Jesus.

Wordless Wednesday - Love at First Sight

Happy Birthday / Blogiversary To Me

This blog and I are another year older today. I thought I would share a few pictures from birthdays past.

When I think back to some of my childhood birthdays, I think of cakes. My grandma would often make our birthday cakes. We'd ask her to make the cake a specific theme and she'd try her best to do so. The cakes probably weren't anything special to a cake decorator, but to us, they were awesome.

Marshmallow Truffles

C loves to help cook. I'm not sure if she loves it because there's always the possibility of getting messy, or because she loves food and realizes that helping usually means sampling. For C's class Valentine's party, we made marshmallow truffles. I came across this really simple recipe on the Kraft website and knew it would be the perfect thing for us to make. Nuts are not allowed in the school, so we improvised and tested out some other options. Sprinkles, coloured sugar, Oreo cookie crumbs and drizzled pink chocolate (which ended up looking more like candle wax than chocolate). We also experimented and used mint chocolate chips instead of bitter-sweet to coat some of the marshmallows. These ones were really yummy, but the chocolate didn't coat the marshmallow as nicely as the bitter sweet chocolate. Next time we make them, (and we don't have to be concerned about nut allergies) we'll probably try some coconut and chopped nuts. Any other suggestions?

Wordless Wednesday - Cousins

Dear Jesus, please put a rainbow in the sky...

Here's a story from my pre-blogging days (Spring 2006) that I thought I would share here.

C has become quite fascinated with rainbows.

On Saturday night we drove to the lake. Saturday had been a cloudy and rainy day, but as we got closer to the lake...we got closer to being out from under the cloud cover and we could see the sun shining. Perfect conditions for seeing a rainbow. So I said to C...

"It's raining and the sun is shining...we might be able to see a rainbow."

So we watched out the car windows, searching for a rainbow. It was during this time that I over heard C praying quietly as she looked out her window.

"Dear Jesus....please put a rainbow in the sky...amen."

Then she announced quite loudly and confidently...

"Jesus is going to put a rainbow in the sky!"

I searched the skies harder. After hearing her prayer, I really wanted her to see a rainbow. Within a few minutes I spotted a rainbow out C's window and yelled at hubby to stop. We pulled into a parking lot so that we could point the rainbow out to C. She was so excited to see her first rainbow. As we left the parking lot, I heard C say...

"Thank-you Jesus for putting a rainbow in the sky".

It is so neat to see that God cares about the prayers of a 4 year old who wants to see a rainbow. And to see Him answer her prayers with an awesome rainbow. A rainbow that was vibrant and arched high in the sky, unobstructed by clouds or buildings. You could see the entire rainbow from one end to the other. It was beautiful.

C's Life Plan

"I'm going to move in with H and S (two friends from school) when I'm 20. We're going to live on a farm with a cow, 3 dogs, 13 pigs and 100 cats. H wants to have 90,000 babies. I don't want to have any babies or get married...just have a boyfriend."

"Why don't you want to get married?"

"I don't want to have my stomach stapled. Will you live with me?"

"...Sure."

For some reason she associates babies (stomach stapled) with getting married...to the point where she's seen a bride in a park getting pictures done and asked if that's the girl having a baby.

Another Look at 2008

To start the new year off, I thought I would post a few pictures and stories from 2008 that I never got around to blogging about during the year.

In February, hubby was invited to speak at a Father and Daughter Banquet at a local church. I thought I was going to have a nice quiet evening at home, but about 15 minutes after they left, hubby called home. He had forgotten his shoes and asked if I would bring them to him. Not such a hard task except...it was snowing quite hard out and I was driving a vehicle I wasn't accustomed to (my in-law's truck which was on loan to us while they were on vacation). I had to drive though the country...following the car tracks in front of me because the road was covered in snow. I slid a few times and was quite frazzled by the time I arrived at the church with hubby's shoes. I told him he owed me.

I found a really neat book at Winners about how to make different types of puppets as well as a puppet theatre. I taped a couple of cardboard boxes together and covered them with tissue paper. C and her friend had a blast painting the theatre and sticking stickers to it. The book showed curtains made out of tissue paper but I figured I could string a cord across the top of the box and hang some real material curtains. I found some scrap material and set about sewing the curtains on C's toy sewing machine. I became a little too zealous on the sewing machine and ran over a pin which broke the machine. The curtain project was put on hold...and the theatre boxes ended up being used for everything besides a puppet theatre...eventually ending up in the garbage.

A highlight for C during our regular hospital visits where the nights that the Therapy Dogs visited my mom's floor. The owners would ask for C when they arrived and she would follow them around...wanting to pet the dog, hold them, or feed them treats. I think the requests for a pet became much more persistent after getting exposed to these dogs.



For C's birthday, we made a pinata. I know I could have purchased a pinata, but I figured that C would enjoy making one since she loves getting her hands messy. What I didn't factor in was that she also likes getting her legs, feet, arms and face messy too. After the first layer of mache was applied, I was starting to regret the idea. There was glue everywhere...including all over C, who for reasons unknown to me, rubbed it all over her arms and legs.

Our church has started a kids club program that runs on Wednesday nights and I've been coordinating activities, as well as running some of the craft nights. In addition to making garden stones, painting T-shirts, puppet making, and cooking, the kids also practiced for a number of weeks and performed their first drama. I was very impressed. I've enjoyed running the craft nights with the kids and I learn things every night. I've learned which kids are the tactile kids and must be monitored during painting activities. I've learned that it's not obvious to everyone that glass should not be put into a garden stone sticking straight up. But most of all, I've learned that kids love the freedom to be able to express themselves artistically the way they want to...even if it means drawing a knight inside a Christmas card, or painting around dots.

C lost her first tooth in July, and has lost 2 others since then. She was so excited to lose her first tooth...an event she had been talking about for months leading up to the day it finally came out. She asked me straight out if the tooth fairy was real and I told her "No"...but she didn't believe me and wouldn't put her teeth under the pillow in case the tooth fairy took them.

I loved Little House on the Prairie when I was young. I've seen every episode of the TV show multiple times and have read and own all the books. This fall, C has fallen in love with Little House on the Prairie too and after watching a couple of shows, brought the book home from the library (she didn't know I had them already) for us to read to her. It's a nice change of pace from reading her picture books all the time.

In November, we went to baby Faith's 1st Birthday Party. A party to celebrate a miracle as a year ago, Faith was on life support, her body organs shutting down and the doctors giving her no chance of survival. Read these links (here, here and here) for an amazing miracle story. C insisted that she had to make Faith a blanket for her birthday...which ended up turning into a pillow after she stitched the sides together and filled it with fiberfil. She was so proud of it and couldn't wait to give to Faith. This is the second home-made present she's made recently...the first being a 2x3 foot "picture frame" she made out of twigs taped together for a 16th birthday party.

I finished C's stocking about a month before Christmas. She loved it and was so excited to have a fancy stocking with her name on it. I found the kit last year after Christmas and started working on it during my hospital visits but it got shelved half done when C and I started making cards.





For Christmas this year, C gave hubby a race track (so they can race cars together) and a "#1 DAD" key chain with a basketball and net engraved on the back (Basketball is hubby's favourite sport). Chloe was so excited that she said she didn't think she could keep it a surprise until Christmas. She loved the key chain and I thought I might be getting a key chain too after she asked me...Can you take Daddy and I back to that store and then leave for an hour?