Snow drifts and Gingerbread

Our house faces the coulies ( for those if you who don't know that meant river valley) and is completely unprotected from the wind. Which, happily, means that our sidewalks are constantly being filled with drifts of snow. And for some reason when snow is blown horizontally it becomes hard as opposed to the fluffy quality it has when falling vertically. So we shovel and shovel and are threatened to not have our mail delivered unless the sidewalks are 'safe'. The neighbor kids are always asking for a dollar for shoveling out sidewalks. They rarely finish because we have a lot of sidewalks (we live on a corner).

So the other day while out shoveling two of the boys came over offering to help. The are very polite and helpful, so we have fun shoveling and talking. Then up comes the subject of payment. They would really like a dollar, each. I tell them I don't have a dollar but if it is ok with their Dad they can have a gingerbread cookie. This is fine with them, so I go inside and a few minutes later they come knocking on my door to collect. Matt gave them a whole stack. So now I am the cookie lady and am handing out cookies to all the kids that live in my row of houses. Plus 'one for my sister/dad/dad's girlfriend' but they LOVE the cookies so I don't mind. All of these kids have single parents and not a lot of money. I think I'll make a new batch this week just so I have enough! And as requested ice the cookies too.

Happy thought: It is December= almost Christmas, the Wedding, Julia's birthday and my birthday I will be 25 eeek!

Super cute crafts!

So my wonderful Mother in Law posted a really neat Christmas craft from this sight. Which lead me to this sight. And I found these other ones. I am constantly loosing my kids socks, and we have tonnes of mismatched socks, so these cute little crafts are perfect for us and I'm sure for lots of other mommies out there too!

No-Sew Baby Rattle

Materials

• Mismatched baby booties
• Cotton batting

• Bell (we used a plastic cat ball with an enclosed jingle bell)
• Ribbon

1. Stuff a baby sock with cottonbatting. Place a bell inside the batting, then twist the end of the sock and wrap it back over itself to form a ball.

2. Put the rattle inside another sock and securely tie the end with a short, double-knotted ribbon.

A Flock of Baby Socks

Materials

• 5 baby socks
• Fiberfill stuffing
• Thread
• Small beads and a needle
• Tacky glue

• 5 small felt triangles
• Scissors
• 3 yards of narrow ribbon
• Embroidery needle
• 6-inch embroidery hoop

Instructions

To make each bird, stuff a sock just up to the ankle with fiberfill. Tie a piece of thread securely around the toe, about an inch or so from the end, to make the head. Use another piece of thread to tie off the tail as shown. Sew on the bead eyes (or draw them on with a permanent marker). Then sew or glue on a felt triangle beak.

To hang the flock, cut the ribbon at varying lengths (we used 8, 10, and 16 inches). With the embroidery needle, thread a section of ribbon through the back of each bird. Knot together the loose ends and trim them. Then loop the ribbons around the hoop so the birds hang down. To keep the ribbons from sliding, you can attach them to the hoop with a dab of tacky glue. Hang the mobile with three additional loops of ribbon (be sure it hangs out of your baby's reach).

I also found THIS which is really cute and useful!

Happy Thought: We got paid today instead of tomorrow because tomorrow is a Holiday!

The light at the end of the tunnel!

We have had a break through!! Julia went #2 on the potty BY HER SELF. I have been working with Anita for over a year to potty train and we are making progress at a snails pace. Julia has started to insist and ask to go potty when I change her. This morning after peeing and then running around half naked she was back in the bathroom and calling to me to come see what she had done!

What a big girl!! Wow, I think it will be way easier this time around!

On another note I have a great friend who is watching the girls tomorrow while I go to the doctor. She also nannies two little boys, and will have all four kids at once. What a champ!

Happy thought: Matt was late for work this morning because I was having a bad morning so he stayed till I felt better. What a good man!

Grandma

My Grandma passed away this summer. As I sort through the items I have received from my mom that belonged to Grandma, each one smelling of her home, I am glad that I have these material things to remember her by. A prettily embroidered tea towel that I don't recall seeing before suddenly makes me cry. Oh Grandma, I miss you.

I'm so thankful for the gospel. I know that I will see her again. I know I can pray and receive comfort. What a blessing. Its difficult when family members start getting older and their bodies start to fail. It makes me want to live a healthier life to make sure that I can live as long and as healthy as possible for my children, grandchildren and the rest of my family.

I am grateful to live in a country where we can live in comfort and plenty. We have doctors readily availably to us, who cares if we have to wait and hour or two to see them, some people in the world have never seen a doctor. We take so much for granted and I feel that we need to remember out blessings more often.

I love that I have a home and a safe place to raise my children and have so much. Too much really! I am so grateful for the generosity of others, for the blessing of being able to stay home with my family. To be able to teach them and love them.

I hope I can be like my Grandma, that I can lead a life like her. Everyone loved her. Its not the love of other I'm looking for, I want to be the type of person she was, she served in her community and church she created beautiful things, she got a university degree in her 60's or 70's. She traveled, she was truly a woman to be emulated.

I love most of all that I have a daily reminder of her, my own sweet little Anita. I hope she can be like her Great Grandma Anita. I hope that I can too.

Sleep Tight.

Laying in bed with Anita at the end of a difficult evening, after the unexplained crying has ended, I finally feel myself relaxing. She must have felt it too because she put her sweet little face next to mine and wrapped her arm around my neck and said, " It's ok mommy I'll keep you safe."

I'm so glad that I have forgiving children and no matter how short tempered I've been, some cuddles and quality time seem to heal all the hurts I inflict.

I've been doing so well the last week, we have been using positive labeling. Which works well but requires lots of control on my part, but Anita responds well to it.

But I really need to get it together this week because Matt is leaving Wednesday night for a meeting in Calgary. He will only be gone for a little more that 24 hours. I'm sure we will live.

I need to read my scriptures more.

I'll do that right now I think, now that they are sleeping.

So sleep tight, and I'm glad that some one will be keeping me safe while I sleep.

Thanksgiving!

Whew what a week!

We had a wonderful visit with both sides of the family. The girls saw almost all of their living (great) grandparents, we spent some good time with Duncan who just came home from his mission, the girls weren't too shy of him (this was J's first time meeting him) and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with my older sister and family.

I am so thankful for our new car so we can go and visit people, and that Matt has a job so that we can afford to go and visit people.

I'm thankful that my brother is marrying a great girl with a great family!

I'm thankful for my children and our health.

I'm thankful for our friends and our ward.

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband, who is so willing to help and so patient with me.

I am thankful for the Savior, the Atonement and the Gospel.

And I am thankful for prayer.

This is the short list, maybe I'll add one thing at the end of each post that I am thankful for each week. There are so many other things. It was a great week away, and I'm looking for ward to Christmas.

Picture update

I need a good camera. The other night the clouds looked like they were painted onto the sky, it was so pretty but also looked completely unnatural!

I also took some pictures of my coat! so here they are...

I am so excited to wear it. I just need an occasion!

Since I was putting pictures on the computer I thought I'd share a few more. Here is anita's birthday from June.

I thought that these cupcake flowers were so cute! I even came up with it all by my self!

I found neon food colouring, it gives much more saturated bright colours, not so pastel as regular ones.

I am excited to get some Fall/Halloween decorations. There are so many cute things I could do!!

The bad and the good.

I will start with the good.

Yesterday we went garage saleing*. We LOVE garage saleing. Matt got me a super old but pristine copy of 'Gone with the Wind' which is one of my favorite movies, but I have never read the book. And I found a beautiful long wool coat with a fur collar. for $3!!!

Today was Stake conference and I probably heard half of it which is a lot more than last time.

A friend stopped by this afternoon with some cookies and treats.

The bad news is that our van died yesterday, and it looks like it might be for good.

I can barely walk. My back started hurting this morning and has gotten steadily worse, might be making a trip to the hospital tonight.

A few more things on the positive note, Matt has been SO great tonight, he made supper and cleaned up everything. We also borrowed Auntie C's van till tomorrow and another friend has offered to lend us one of their vehicles for a few days too.

Hopefully my back feels better by tomorrow.

(* Saleing - I don't think this is a word but oh well. I couldn't think of how else to spell it. Maybe sale-ing?)

Apples Fall

Fall seems to be in the air. On saturday we went over to Auntie C's house to pick apples from her tree, the kids played in the yard and I climbed up the tree to get as many apples as we could. Everyone else used the ladder or picked from the deck or ground. We even held a blanket under the tree as we shook the apples off and fried to catch them. There were a few injuries, but I think the apples got hurt more! We finally picked all the apples we could reach but there were still a couple branches we couldn't get too. So we cut them down!!

It was lots of fun, and there a tons of apples!

Hopefully we will make lots of pie and dried apples!

A list

OK my friend posted this on Facebook and I think it is SO great!! A list I will use.

Find it Here. I think I'll put it on my fridge.

Could you pass the motivation please?

How do I motivate myself ?

I have NO idea. One of the many things I lack is motivating myself to do something I don't want to, like cleaning for example. I know how to clean but would rather do about a million other things.

I can make the house look presentable in half an our when there are people coming over, but I can't invite guests to our house every evening, we would all be tired of that after a while.

I have tried pretending there is going to be company but that never works either. I do love the feeling of a clean home and the satisfaction of accomplishing a lot in a day, its just tough to get going.

So what do I do? Work harder is the only answer I can come up with. Maybe I should get some good energetic music ( flight of the bumble bee anyone?) maybe that would work.

And just doing it. It seems that seems to be the answer to a lot of things, just do it and it will get better and become a habit and maybe even enjoyable.

So...now what?

I have reached a point in my life where my planning has come to an end. That is to say, all my life I had planned for certain events to come to pass and they have. Now I am kind of at a loss as to what course I should take. Thus the name of the blog.

As a child I looked forward to certain milestones in my life, getting Baptized, going into Young Womens ( in my Church at twelve children leave primary and go into the youth program), being 16 and starting to date, graduating high school, going to college, getting married, doing the poor student/newly wed thing, having a few kids. And now my husband has just gotten a job and I feel like I'm not quite sure what I should be doing.

Obviously I am busy being a Mom and trying to keep up with the house work, make good meals, get my calling at church done etc. But what else? How do I go about planning for my family and myself?

I hope that through this blog I can learn about myself and what I should be planning for and looking forward to over the next few years and beyond!