Thankful Thursday

this week i am thankful for:

-camping with friends who love our kids (and our kids lu-urve!)

-watching my uber-cautious daughter becoming more brave than i was at her age

-s'mores and this girl (even when she wakes up at 4:45 am!!)

-this dad and his small girls

-sunny summer days and sunsuits

-early morning time spent with Isla and in the Word

-love this girl so so much!!

today we also had a goodbye party for my friend Kerry.

she is a lovely co-worker/co-nurse of mine who initially replaced me on my first mat-leave.

she is moving to the states in a few weeks and we are all very sad.

i am so thankful to know her and to have worked with her.

i am also thankful that we were able to bless her with a lovely surprise present.

a little Pandora bracelet with some meaningful charms.

it has been a lovely week indeed.

and i am super thankful to be off to the spa with my girl Becky tomorrow!

woop!

Thankful Thursday

This week I'm thankful for:

-being back at blogging :)

-Isla attending a morning of Junior Kindergarten (how did that happen?!?!)

-voting with these ladies

-these lovely Toms from a thrift store! Holla!

-morning runs in sunshine

-and cutie cute tiny boots

Thankful Thursday

this week:

-watching Isla fall in love with puzzles!! girl after my own heart!

{all by herself!}

-having my mom visit this past weekend

-talking to Auntie Rozzy on speakerphone and having Megan shouting "HI! HI! HI! HI! HI!"

       (we love our Auntie Rozzy!)

-family day pyjama day dance parties!

-my job

-having my lovely friend and co-worker Becky babysit last night... and i totally forgot to leave any kind of putting Isla to bed instructions... whoops! she feels like such an old friend that somehow i just assumed she knew the bedtime routine... even though it was her first time at our house! Sorry Becky!

-date night that turned into free meal date night because they forgot our order in the kitchen! i have no problem spending an hour chatting with my husband and get a free meal for it!!!

Thankful Thursday

this week I am thankful for:

-these lovely lasses. sigh.

-a 30th Birthday weekend away (for my bestie!) with 6 ladies and a baby: 

time to sleep in, eat good food, laugh, shop and reconnect

-Olympics!!!! Yay!!

-My mom coming in on the train today

-Isla. Here are some things she has said this week:

           "look, my breathing is dusty"  (in the cold)

           "Mommy? When I'm a woman, can I drive your car?"

           "You know everything don't you?" (to her Gramma Kiki)

           "Uncle Ryan is silly, huh?... And Uncle Noah... And Mike"

           "You came back!" (to me after I was away for the weekend)

         

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for:

-a great retreat with the young adults last weekend--Megan and I joined them and had an amazing time, we laughed, we cried, we ate some good food!

-Megan doing awesome on the drive! Our first trip with someone other than Thom... Thanks to Uncle Noah for braving the drive with us!

-the school we chose for Isla to attend in the fall-- and the way God confirms decisions by having pt's rave about the school... total divine appointment!

-Breakfast date with Isla before going to check out her school

-New friends

-dinner out with my co-RNs-- love working with those ladies!

-and last but certainly not least! that my nephew is awesome.

yup, that's an 18 month old on skis.

no big deal.

Thankful Thursday

ahem.

excuse my little absence. no real reasons. just life ;)

thankful this day for family, a lovely Christmas, a new year and good friends.

thankful for this past year:

-old friends with renewed friendships (or first "real" friendships)
-watching Meggie and Isla become closer and enjoy their sisterhood and friendship
-growing closer to Thom, seeing our friendship and love get stronger and tackle more
-my wonderful job and co-workers
-new friendship with a "destined-to-be-friends" friend
-becoming a runner
-losing 30 lbs (say what!?!)


life is grand!

resolution update

back in January i resolved a few things to happen over this year.

here is the updated list:

1-to finally stop biting my nails for good -- disgusting habit, even more so when you are a nurse. blech.
update: well, they aren't being bitten, it's been about 2 months i think, but i go back to work next week, so we'll see if they last til then!!

2-to go outside with the girls in the winter! -- this is tricky for me, i don't like being cold and it seems like a 
tremendous amount of work to bundle up 2 littles when i don't want to be outside in the first place!
update: we went out a bit. proof: 

on this day Isla refused to let Megan sit on her lap

so she sat on Megan, then as we were coming home, the sled tipped, Isla barely fell out but cried like she was dying, and poor little Meggie basically did a starfish face plant into the snow, a poor little old man walking down the street jumped over about 3 snow banks and almost fell down to try and pick her up, small babies stuck face down in the snow i guess are a little alarming! anyway, when i picked Megan up she just blinked at me. This is a pretty accurate demonstration of first-born vs. second-born. 

just a little snow this winter

3-to get back into cloth diapering -- i was a cloth fiend with Isla, and i had a pretty decent start with Megan, but kind of fell off for awhile (mostly they get cleaned and then live on top of the dryer for weeks at a time!)
update: after a few fits and starts, we've been back on full time with Megan when she's not at daycare and with Isla during naps.  Yay!

4-to sew some things -- really i just want to sew, anything at all. 
update: sewed some amazing bunting for a friend's little nursery, and started a quilt! oh, and made some little face or bum cloths, hurray!

5-to read 40 books this year -- as mentioned here.
update: just finished my 13th, i would probably be further on if it weren't for the longest most disappointing finally give up JK Rowling book. 

World Down Syndrome Day

my brother-in-law has Down Syndrome.

he is fun and loving and such a true delight.

he loves his mom and his dad

and puts up with merciless teasing from his three(!) older brothers.

as you can see my girls think that their Uncle Matthew is pretty much the greatest thing of all.

i read this article today:

http://www.thespec.com/opinion/columns/article/905852--down-syndrome-day-celebrate-being

Uncle Matthew will teach our girls how to care, how to laugh and how to love Jesus.

He will teach them to be thoughtful and caring towards people who are not exactly the same as them.

my husband is a more caring, considerate and patient man because he grew up with  brother with Down Syndrome and parents who taught him that every person is worthy of love and patience, and frankly, of life.

We love you Uncle Matthew!!

how little ones point us to Jesus

can i just say that i love being a mom?

an unexpected part of being a mom this time around was discovering again how much i need Jesus.

it's an amazing thing, this truth that i've always known...


but now.

now it seems even more evident.

little ones can test your patience, without meaning it, without doing anything other than what a little one is meant to do.

they ask a lot of questions, forget tasks, wander off, and make messes.
they take their time responding, and eat all the peanut butter.

it can be overwhelming, this take take take.

but this is what:

Jesus is bigger, he loves me, he loves my children and he matched us up.
I am learning what it means to not have control of my children, to give them grace, to let them grow.

just as God doesn't stand there, tapping (or stomping!--not that this ever happens in our house!) his foot as I am learning new things, he gives me guidance and patience and love.

another slightly more painful and a little gut wrenching is how God uses our toddlers to show our least becoming behaviours.

a few notes on that:
-we are teaching Isla to use nice manners, to speak nicely and ask nicely is a kind thing to do, and I've realized that I often forget to say please or thank you when I ask her to do something for me

-attitude! the other day Isla was asking for some juice, from the basement, while I was making dinner.
I asked her to come upstairs and ask nicely, which I'm going to hope she maybe didn't hear? a few minutes later this is what happened- she walked to the bottom of the stairs and shouted: "I said, 'I want some juice!!'" and believe you me that 'I said' had some serious sass to it.
 almost like she was repeating a tone she had heard an adult say use before... strange that.  ;)


for me, God is gently pointing out the immediate reactions that I sometimes have when I don't get my way or when I feel misunderstood or unappreciated.

I am thankful so much for these moments in motherhood,
for the stretching and growing and light that it brings.

and the fun, oh the fun it brings!!

Day 10: a favourite recipe

i grew up with my mom making amazing chocolate chip cookies.

they were amazing, so tender, so moist, so chocolatey.

my mom's cookie recipe was the best of all the mom's, no one every matched her homemade recipe.
nobody.

here it is:
 

• 3/4 cup  Shortening
• 1 1/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

• heat oven to 375ºF
• combine shortening, brown sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Beat in egg. Combine flour, salt and baking soda. Mix into shortening mixture until just blended. Stir in chocolate chips.
• drop by rounded measuring tablespoonfuls 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheet.
• bake 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies, or 11 to 13 minutes for crisp cookies. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet on a cooling rack. Remove cookies to rack to cool completely.

seriously, you have never tasted a cookie recipe like these.

when i was in second year university i called my mom to get this recipe. she started reading it to me over the phone.
halfway through she paused and said, "you know, you can just get this on the back of the Crisco box"

so you've never tasted cookies like these unless you followed the recipe on the back of the Crisco box, and my childhood was a lie.



a big fat cookie lie.

the one thing i change about this recipe is that i make the cookies tiny. they are like little chips, which is great but problematic as you can eat about 14 in one sitting.

you can find the recipe here.

oh jimmy.

when Isla was still just super tiny,
and we were doing the whole nursing every few hours on the couch kind of thing,
i would watch Late Night with Jimmy Fallon which played the next day at a very reasonable time on E!

for some reason they took Jimmy out of the daily schedule at some point during that year :(

but oh how i laughed and laughed while watching that show.

Jimmy is your best friend.