P.H.R.T.F.L.

Wow - 4 posts in one week!!!! That must be a record! But here we are, at the end of a week. It's Friday, we made it! Yay!! It was a long week with Nathan being gone and it being oh so frigid outside.

But I must say, I am proud of myself! Why?! Well, I am still sane. I only left the house once this week, and that was to go to the hospital with Keziah. That's it. Once!! And the fact that my family is still intact, as well as my mind, well, that is something to be thankful for. I have come a loooong way from a few years ago. Being home two days in a row would have sent me to the edge. Being home two days in a row without any adult interaction would have made me whimpering for anyone to talk to me, anyone taller than 3 feet and with a vocabulary larger than, "Mom, where are you?". 

But, by the grace of God, we survived 4 days home without much adult communication at all and the icing on the cake is we are still happy. I did use you, my readers, though to fill that void of adult conversation - hence the 4 posts in one week. Yup, I have been using this blog to interact with someone, anyone out there. Thanks for 'listening' while I chatted away about stuff, stuff of some importance and others of not much relevance. While I didn't hear much from you, other than a comment here and there, no worries. It really isn't much different than communicating with my hubby - me yakking his ear off about anything and everything and him listening with glazed eyes, a quiet "uh-uh" and "hmmm" politely placed in the 2.5 seconds of silence in between my gabbing.

With it being Friday, that means it is P.H.R.T.F. L. time! It has been almost a month since my weekly, or obviously not so weekly, Pretty, Happy, Real, Thankful, Funny and Love installment. So here it is:

Pretty:

Seeing a splash of red just outside my window.

Happy:
Daddy's home!!! This meant for some very happy kids!! Yes, I was happy too but I didn't think you needed to see a picture of that. Wouldn't want to make you blush or anything....:o)

Thankful:
So thankful for our warm house that we have been blessed with, especially when the outside temperatures dipped to - 40ish degrees Celsius.

 

Real:

What my family room can look like on any given day, which our computer guy found out. Sigh. Oh well, it's reality - something that cannot be avoided with a 4 and 2 year old that love books. 

 

Funny:
I took down the Christmas tree this week, and I noticed there were a whole lot more decorations on the tree than I put on. Ah, darling Keziah, who felt the following items were necessary to make the tree that much more beautiful: 3 turquoise shaving cream lids, a musical instrument, wrappings from gifts, a hair clip attached to the red ornament, a bracelet attached with some ribbon, her purple necklace, her Herman (orange googly-eyed finger puppet), and at the bottom of the picture you will see 2 rope handles that were broken off from a gift bag.

Another funny: Nathan was going to come home sometime in the afternoon, so while we rested on the couch, Keziah felt the need to wear her ear muffs so she wouldn't wake up when he came in the door. :o)

Love:
Grandchildren may be great for the grandparents, and vice versa, but it is also 'grand' for us, the middle generation, to witness the interactions between the older and the younger generations.

Bet you've never seen a more fierce tiger than this one below!!! I just love this picture of him :o)

I love it that Keziah is really learning how to use a pencil. She drew this picture in Lincoln's birthday card, a picture of her and Lincoln holding hands. Talk about melt my heart!!! She knows how to print her name and in his card, she copied his name from off a paper. Sob - she is growing up! How can you love and hate this fact at the same time?!

(oops, posted the picture before flipping it. Sorry!)

 

I hope all of you stayed warm earlier this week! Thankfully we have a warm weekend coming up - warm enough to break out the shorts and flip flops as it'll be above 0!!





Two!!

In between hospital visits and snow/ice storms, my baby turned 2. Sigh.

But don't mis-read that sigh. While I sigh due to the fact that I truly no longer have a baby, I also sigh with a smile on my face. Why? Because this boy is so. much. fun!!!! He is fun in his actions, and now that he talks, my, how we howl!

And talk he does, with  "I do it!" and "I got it" being the top two sentences. His top words that he says at least 136 times a day are "Cars", Trucks", "Zah!!" (Keziah), "lunch?", "supper?". I counted how many words he has in is vocabulary just before he turned two and it was well over 100. Oh dear. Another chatterbox :o)

Here are some pictures of his actual birthday. Please don't laugh at his cake - there's a reason why there is no "Pin It" to Pinterest on it :o) But hey, he didn't care what it looked like. Actually, I should re-word that. He DID care about the cars/truck on his cake, not too impressed with that, seeing as that is not where his cars/trucks belong.

Opening up gifts first thing in the morning:

My sister and her boys came to help celebrate. That meant cake time!!!  He had polished off his first piece even before I had finished serving everyone.

As soon as Lincoln turned 2, it was like he knew how to talk on the phone. The day before, if handed the phone, he would just want to push all the buttons. But on his birthday, he truly talked on the phone, answering questions, looking all important. So funny!

It was a fun day! We are incredibly thankful for this bright, mischievous blue-eyed, finger-sucking, truck-loving little man that brings so much joy not only to his parents, but also to his sister. She is so thankful to have someone to boss play with. And his love for her is very apparent. His sister is everything to him, the first person he asks for when he wakes up.

We pray that God will continue to watch over Lincoln, and that we may be blessed with his presence for many, many more years, Lord willing.

Warmth? Anywhere?!

Well, if you live in North America, it is pretty much guaranteed that you are experiencing below normal temperatures. Where I live, it is something like -20 but feels like -35. Yup. Cold. So cold that even the garbage men are having a day or two off due to fear of frostbite! So where are all the Global Warming gurus now?! (well, except for the two yahoos in B.C. that managed to sneak on stage where our Prime Minister was sitting). All I've been hearing lately is about a Polar Vortex. A what?! Where do they come up with these words?! Has it even been used before?

I don't mind the cold because usually that means the sun is out. But it is the wind. That howling, blustering, bone-chilling wind that keeps me indoors. Having said I don't mind the cold, I also definitely wouldn't complain if winter was a short 2 months - well, maybe 1 month, and it was spring, summer and fall for the rest of the 11. No, wouldn't complain at all.

With it being so cold, I don't know about you, but I sure could use some heart-warming pictures. The following pictures are still from the last few weeks of December, which was filled with many heart-warming moments:

Heart-warming Moment #1:

When a dear friend comes out on a Saturday night to rescue you and your family from the first snowstorm. We were stranded in our car, a car that apparently sprung an oil leak, which we didn't know until, well, we had no more oil! Due to the oil leak, dear friend piled us all in his nice warm car and took us home.

Heart-warming Moment #2:
Opa reading to his grandchildren. He does this almost every time he comes. Seeing our parents with our children is a sight we thought would never happen. And so we treasure this.

Heart-warming Moment #3:
One Monday night, a very kind and caring soul came knocking on the door and delivered a very full bag of mostly Dutch treats. And if they weren't Dutch treats, they were chocolate treat!!! This bag was packed with yummy things like peppernottens, chocolate peppernottens (you haven't tasted nothin' until you've tasted chocolate covered peppernottens! ), chocolate letters, cheese, meats, sour herring, chocolate bark, pistachios, cookies, stropwaffles, candy canes, very yummy caramel and chocolate patties, a Ti-Cat shirt (my very own!!), a Bible Story book, and well, you name it.

Lincoln and Keziah did not think the mosquito cheese was heart-warming (mosquito cheese....toenail cheese....it's the gouda cheese with the spiced little fleckies in it. I have no idea what the real name is of this cheese), but that is okay. More for me!!

I did think that I had the whole jar of sour herring to myself, but apparently my son loves it as well! I don't mind - having something in common with him warms my heart ;o)

Heart-warming Moment #4:
Our family is unique in many ways. One of them being, that our names are all in alphabetical order.

Getting warm yet? No??! I know, it's THAT cold out there. Well, here's a few more then:

Heart-warming Moment #5:
Watching my husband be a kid. He can be so serious sometimes, and work can weigh him down, yet when I see him with our children, he is a different man. Fun, loving, crazy. My heart melts. He will do anything for them.

Heart-warming Moment #6:
My children. It isn't easy for me to be at home, all day, every day, and sometimes my children feel the brunt of that. However, it never lasts long, especially when I take the time to enjoy my time with them, that we are under no schedule pressures (like school or work etc.). I love them. Dearly. And they warm my heart every day.

Hopefully now you are warmed up a bit. I am. I may very well just sit here all night long and stare at these pictures to keep me warm. Going to bed alone on such a cold night is not so welcoming. 2 more nights sleeping and he'll be back home! Yippee!!

Ice Storm of 2013

While I am typing this up, the wind is howling and snow is falling once again. Another 20-30 cm is forecast-ed, with some more tonight. The kids (not mine :o) were supposed to start school today after a 2 week break, but alas, school is cancelled today. All those that rushed back from Florida in time for school to start now have an extra day to unpack and unwind and get a bit of a taste of what they've missed ;)

Seeing as we are on Storm #3 already, I better post some pictures before I get these storms all mixed up. Seeing pictures of a snowstorm is somewhat common. Seeing pictures of an ice storm is not. While the ice storm did a lot of damage to the trees, as well as disrupted life for many as hydro was knocked out for days, there is something to be said about the beauty of ice hanging everywhere. Especially when the sun comes out.

These pictures were taken Sunday morning - at the beginning of the ice storm. By the end of the day the ice was much thicker!

We spent the day with friends on Sunday, who had power. But then they lost it (power, that is:o) mid afternoon. So we left them (after lots of thanks!) and went to Nathan's parents, who never lost power. Many of the roads were blocked because of downed trees.

We came home the next afternoon (after a quick trip to Sick Kids for Keziah), back to heat and light! And more snow which laid so beautifully on top of the ice that had formed. Our poor birch trees, groaning and creaking under the weight of it all. Today, those very same trees stand tall and proud again. Amazing!

On Tuesday, Christmas Eve Day, the sun out, shining out on the beauty of the ice everywhere. It was breath-taking!! Of course, my camera could not capture it, but imagine millions of sparkling diamonds everywhere you look....diamonds on the ground, the trees, the bushes, structures, all so brilliant and shimmering. Again, we can only be struck by God's awesome creation.

This is what so many of the wires around our area looked like. Either with trees/limbs hanging all over them, or the wires were down completely.

And then the sun began to set, setting the icy tree tips aglow, which took on the look of fire.

And if we thought the sunset was gorgeous, we had the pleasure of seeing the sun rise the next day, Christmas morning.

While it most likely will not be a Christmas that will be forgotten quickly, I am thankful to God for not only showing His destructive power, but also His awesome creativity, as well as keeping us safe.

P.S. Nathan is gone this week so lots of time to catch up on some blogging! In between all the storms and hospital stays, we did manage to find time to enjoy each other's company. Oh, and somebody snuck in a second birthday as well. Not sure how that happened so quickly, but yeah, the stinker is now two :o)

The New Year

Folks, whether you like it or not, it is 2014!! Do you remember the whole Y2K hype, 14 years ago? Many predicted the world was going to come to a crashing halt. And if not the world, definitely all our computer systems. Many people packed and stored up food, water and the basic necessities of life in preparation for everything standing still while technology figured out how to deal with the two zeros.  I don't recall even a blip or malfunction of any system.

And here we are, 14 years later, putting 2013 behind us as we enter 2014. How was 2013 for you? Good? Difficult? Joyful? More ups than downs? Uneventful? Was it what you expected? Did you achieve much?

What is your mindset going into 2014? With groans? With rejoicing? Eager for a "re-do"? Of new resolutions, promises and hopes?

I will admit that for years, I wasn't always the most eager for a new year. I welcomed a new year always with a bit of trepidation. I would be nervous and filled with apprehension of the unknown of what will all happen in the new year. I would look at the past year, think of all the difficult things I or others have gone through - losing loved ones, losing dreams, having to deal with life-alternating situations, health problems, loss of jobs, broken relationships, hurts and well, you name it. And then I would bring all those "losses" into the new year and wonder what will this year be filled with.

Pretty pessimistic thinking, eh? And not only pessimistic, but even worse, how un-trusting (I know that's not a word, but I think you know what I mean). To go into a year with hesitation, doubt and even a degree of dread is such an insult to God. I spend so much time focusing on all the difficult things of the past year, that I can fail to recognize the many blessings we've received from Him as well! In fact, there have been many blessings of 2013 that I haven't even recognized!

Sure we don't know what is in store for us in 2014. And yes, you and I will most likely have to deal with some very difficult trials, but we may go forward with one thing that remains steadfast and has remained steadfast since before the beginning of time, and that is God. He doesn't always choose the path we would choose, but knowing that He is walking with us every step of the way, every single day of 2014 is something to put my apprehension and foreboding aside.

We may enter this year with His words:

"You hem me in - behind and before;
 you have laid your hand upon me. 
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain. 

Where can I go from your Spirit? 
Where can I flee from your presence? 
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; 
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, 
if I settle on the far side of the sea, 
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast." Ps. 139: 5-9

It is our prayer that we will hold these words close to our hearts as we travel through 2014. And may you also feel His presence near you.

(*I am not one to make yearly resolutions due to the fact that I don't like promising things that I know I'll just fail in anyway. Making daily resolutions is hard enough for me to achieve, never mind yearly ones. I will not promise to lose weight, to work out more, or be better at daily devotions, or have more patience for my children, or serve others more, or even blog more. I'd rather just take a few hours at a time, not try to tackle a new change for a whole year. But speaking of blogging,  I do hope to spend the next couple of days updating the blog from the last 3 weeks. It'll mostly be pictures - yay! so stay tuned!! :o)