Thankful Thursday!

we had a really busy week!

it was also a very very fun week :)

this week i am thankful for:

-the "big mess run" with great work friends and miss Meggie!

(we actually did the Run or Dye)

-small crafty art projects inspired by a Hallmark bag

-Annie! who helped me shuffle our upper cabinets around for a more open feel

(even the ridiculously gigantic square shaped hole made me laugh when we found it!)

-funny "to do" lists

-dinner with faraway friends

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

Thankful for:

-friends celebrating Thom turning 30 this past week :)

-Sunday mornings with rowdy worship and dancing and fun fun fun!

-seeing Isla run over and sit with Isaac and Auntie Mary on Sunday morning

-cuddles on the couch later in the day with my girlies

-getting out running after an almost 3 month hiatus! 

-also thankful for no longer blistering frostbiting-ly cold temperatures! sheesh!

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.

Books read in 2013

So... my goal of reading 40 books this past year was apparently *ahem* a little ambitious.

I think it actually wasn't that unattainable but Thom put a Sudoku book in my stocking last Christmas, and while I breezed through through the first three quarters of the book, the last section, the diabolical section, had me stumped and I would pick it up and put it down and then pick it up and then threaten to throw it out and then pick it up again.

Finally in the second week of December, I tossed it. Unfinished, but no regrets on that one!

(oh and let's not forget that new "Harry Potter book" debacle!)

I think getting wrapped up in the Hunger Games trilogy really helped push me to stick to reading and let the Sudoku go for good.

Here is the completed reading list of 2013:

1-Loving Your Kids on Purpose

2-Animal Stories

3-This Will Be Difficult to Explain: And Other Stories

4-The Twelve Tribes of Hattie

5-Her Fearful Symmetry

6-"Who Could That Be at This Hour?"

7-Almost Amish

8-That Scatterbrain Booky

9-With Love From Booky

10-As Ever, Booky

11-The Help

12-The Power of Three

13-The Real James Herriott: A Memoir of My Father

14-Half Magic

15-The No. 1 Ladies Detective Angency

16-Castle in the Air
17-The House at the End of Hope Street

18-The Dog of the South

19-An Irish Country Doctor

20-The Hunger Games

21-Catching Fire

22-Mocking Jay

just over half of my goal.  Wop wop.

feels a bit lacking.  

I'm going to basically keep the same goal, but up it to 41--basically just so it feels like a new resolution.

My faves from this past year:

Fiction: The Hunger Games Trilogy 

Non-Fiction: Loving Your Kids on Purpose

I honestly thought I had read a lot more non-fiction, but I think I did some major starting and not finishing!!

On the list to read this year:

-A Wrinkle in Time Quintet

-A Million Little Ways

-Finding Ultra

-The Harem Midwife

Any more suggestions? 

Also, I am loving my new Kobo and love love love that I can download books from the library to read on it!

Thankful Thursday

i am thankful.

thankful for the people i work with.

thankful for new Church in the 'Hood beginnings.

thankful for a day that google helped troubleshoot small person sleep troubles (instead of those days that all the most unhelpful info is at the top of the search results!)

thankful for vaccines that keep people healthy. 

thankful for the OSC seed catalogue coming in the mail!

thankful for downloading library books onto my Kobo.

thankful for small people cuddles and smiles and love.

thankful for life.

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!

Thankful Thursday

so very thankful this week for:

-date night! (and baby sitting swaps with friends who also have littles)-

-strong legs to take me running-

-Megan learning to say thank you all by herself-

-brunch on Saturday with the "Ladies and the Babies" (this is what Isla called it)-

-finding some cute pair of velvet skinny jeans and a polka-dot dress 

for Isla for a total of $5.23 at Value Village-

-Isla's first day of Sunday School *sniff*, she's in the 3-5 year old class, 

graduated from the nursery, where oh where did the time go?-

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. 

Day 19: myself, a year ago

(can you believe how small this tiny is?)

wow.
a year ago seems like a crazy amount of time ago!
i probably either just found out, or was about to find out i was pregnant with Megan!
i had a fresh new one year old on my hands and I had been back to work for a couple of weeks.
what a difference a year makes!
now i have a 2 year old, an almost 4 month old and i have been on mat leave for 5 months
(seems weird considering i was just back at work at this time!)

we had just moved into the Dearing's basement
were getting used to life without Olivia and life with 5 other people ;)

Isla had just started walking more than crawling!

whenever i watch videos of Isla from a year ago, i'm almost uncertain as to whether it's the same girl or not!

Day 13: something i'm proud of

this time last year, Thom and I made the decision to move into our friends' basement.

we made this decision to be able to pay off our line of credit and save for a down payment on a house.
i was just back at work (and pregnant!), Thom was at Stats Canada and Isla was just starting daycare.

it was a bit of a crazy time, we are so thankful to our friends for inviting us into their home and sharing their space with us (two families and one kitchen!!)

in the span of 8 months we were able to pay $8000 off of our line of credit and save for a down payment on our house (which we purchased in May and moved into in July).

it was a miracle in our lives

our house officially ours!

a few months prior to that i had been looking at our situation and our finances and seeing that it did not add up to us having a house anytime in the near future (or even not so near future!).

it was through the love and kindness of our friends, our diligence and budgeting, and most importantly the grace and favour of God in our lives.

and i am proud of that.

Day 11: three years ago today

it seems fitting to be remembering on this; Remembrance Day.

 

my Poppa was on the HMCS Gananoque.

Albert Van Impe

we had a visit with him and my Gramma today.

it's nice to be able to spend time with them.

They have 8 children, 17 grand-children and 8 great-grand-children.

I am very very thankful for all that my Poppa did for us, in the war and in his family to give us the family and life that we have to enjoy.

 

as for me, i'm not sure exactly what was going on 3 years ago today, i know that i was close to quitting my job at the hospital, that we were still in the 6 month waiting period after my molar pregnancy, and i was in School of the Word Canada.

 

i like that you can look back on facebook and find out what was going on, it definitely helps when i think that Megan should be sleeping through the night, but then see that Isla was not at the same age.

on November 11, 2009 i found this:

 

Oh, thanks Kate!!! It's my great honor to be a friend of yours.

Thanks for your voice that encourages me a lot. Thanks for everything! Praise the Lord.

it is from my friend Gwanggil.

he's nice.

 

i'm not really sure what it was in regards to, but it sure was a nice thing to read!

 

small style #51

Isla is having the most cute days lately.

she is saying so much,

she has started saying: "k mommy" when i ask her to do something

she also will say: "please mommy"

which i just love.

look at how big this girl is:

how can this one be from just a year ago?

she looks like an entirely different child!

pretty much 1 year and a few days from today!

what the what.

little baby is getting big.

this is where miss Isla started:

seriously,

little baby...

where did you go?

wee Isla, 

not so wee anymore.

boo hoo hoo.

from the top photo:

shirt: George

shorts: Old Navy, consigned

shoes: Sand N Sun

i can only imagine how quickly life will fly once there are 2 little girlies!!

weekly dozen

a good friend of mine, a faraway friend who despite distance and a lack of constant communication, remains a very very good and close friend, started a group of us off in the New Year doing a weekly dozen list.

this is a list of 12 things that we have been thankful for in the last week.

there are 8 of us.

me, the above good friend, her sister (also a good friend), their cousin in law (who, though briefly meeting at first good friend's wedding, i would consider a good friend as well), a good friend of the first 2, 2 good friends of the good friend's sister, (still with me?), and a new good friend of the first good friend.

i have met 4 out of the 7 (7 not including me). I have heard of 2 others through facebook and emails and conversations, and 1 is a brand new friend.

5 of us are moms, 3 are god-moms to one of the others kids.

this is confusing.

the point is this:

i am loving being part of this little email group. i look forward to Sunday when i get to let these lovely ladies know how my week has been, and it is a good practice to reflect on the week and pull out some of the moments to be thankful for. big moments, and small moments.

when i was in high school and journaled like it was going out of style, i went through a time where i wrote 10 thank yous each evening. it was a very good way to remember to be thankful in all circumstances, and to always thank God.  again, there were big things, and small things.  for some reason today i can picture the words of this thank you: "Jen always says 'bless you'" - she sat behind me in english and always said bless you when i sneezed, and one week it did bless me indeed.

how do you keep track of the thankful moments?  do you journal, blog, email, talk to someone regularly? 

it seems like a practice that we should all make an effort to have in our daily/weekly lives.

some thoughts

i took a few days off of blogging post 30 Days Hath November, it was a very interesting challenge to put myself up to just at the same time that i was going back to work.

it was indeed some days challenging to remember to post, but it felt nice to be writing something every day.

some of the things that i truly enjoyed was:

Day #17: My Family - i'm going to try and post a family picture each month, a little portrait of where we are at, and what we've been doing.

and Day #15: Some Style Inspiration for the Season - i think doing the 'kids style' as inspiration was pretty genius for me, as i am always loving the cute clothes that kids wear. i may not make this a monthly feature, but expect to see it around again!

and a few others that i enjoyed and may play off of are: 

Day #2, Day #4, Day #12, Day #13, Day #16, Day #24, Day #26.

you can probably expect to see something more like: 

-something/someone/some blog that is inspiring/ me

-some quotes/scriptures/sermons that i've been hearing/listening to/inspired by

-something/someone i'm proud of/means a lot to me

thanks for reading last month!

Day 28: a skill i'd like to learn

i've been seeing a lot of this around the blog world lately:

source

source

source

source

i did some screen printing in high school, but that does seem like a long time ago!

it seemed like it would be impossible to have all the necessities to actually do this again;

we had a big machine that put the vellum on the screen and lots of space and ink and the necessary tools.

the 're-love affair' with printing started with this lady holding a fabric swap.
here are some of her prints:

i discovered that a lot of them have been done by stamping ink on fabric.

i have (incidentally) also done some stamp carving (also in high school)

and i think that i could do that again and make some of my own prints for things.

fun, no?

ps. miss Leslie Keating is a Canadian gal living in Australia 

(i'm starting to think that maybe i am drawn to Canadian bloggers 

the same way that i am drawn mysteriously to Canadian authors)

Day 27: myself, one year ago

here i am a year ago.

a very unedited photo, you know, so you can see real life

note on the armrest of the couch:

phone for updating family, nipple cream, pen and journal for recording feeding and pees and poops, remote for watching many seasons of How I Met Your Mother, and the Itzbeen.

we also still had sir Charles *sniff*

i still miss him.

miss Isla was only 25 days old.

wow.