The Weinhardts

Mother's Boys

2012-01-27T09:43:00.000-05:00

My grandma, Helen Pavkov, was an amazing woman. Unfortunately, I only knew her through the eyes of a child, but after reading many of the poems that she wrote over the years, I am catching a glimpse of the woman that has had such an impact on my life. How I would love to sit and talk with her now that I am a mother myself!

Aunt Peg sent the family an e-mail the other day and shared a poem that she just found and had never seen before. This e-mail has sparked some very encouraging and interesting e-mails that have gone back and forth between family members since then! I would love to know when Grandma wrote this, how old Uncle Ken and Uncle Russ were at the time she wrote it and what kind of conversation or event triggered this cute, but honest poem!

Mother's Boys

Yes, I know there are stains on my carpet,

The traces of small muddy boots,

And I see your fair tapestry glowing,

All spotless with flowers and fruits.

And I know that my walls are disfigured,

With prints of small fingers and hands,

And that your own household most truly

In immaculate purity stands.

And I know that my parlor is littered

With many odd treasures and toys,

While your won is in daintiest order,

Unharmed by the presence of Boys.

And I know that my room is invaded

Quite boldly all hours of the day;

While you sit in yours unmolested

And dream the soft quiet away.

Yes, I know there are little bedsides

Where I must stand watchful each night,

While you go out in your carriage,

And flash in your dresses so bright.

Now, I think I'm a neat little woman,

And I like my house orderly, too;

And I'm fond of all dainty belongings,

Yet I would not change places with you.

No! Keep your fair home with its order,

Its freedom from bother and noise,

And keep your own fanciful leisure,

But give me my splendid boys.

Helen R. Pavkov

Ah yes, give me my splendid boys! I made the comment to all in the e-mail link that I had both laughed and gotten choked up when I read this poem because just a few moments before, I had barked at the boys about slamming the recliner into the wall yet again when they jumped on it, putting another dent in the wall! One of the e-mails that came back to me said, "There is something so simple, but loud about little boys that endears them to their moms forever more! Have a wonderful day! (A little spackle and paint will repair the hours of fun on your wall! :)" How true, Aunt Bonnie, how true! However, I do think that I will wait another ten years to repair this wall ... again ... because I would rather have my sons' hearts warm toward me than to have a perfectly painted wall!

Grandma had a way with words that proved to us all that she was a normal housewife, mother and woman who wanted nothing more than to be the person God wanted her to be. Her poems, although written decades ago, could have easily been written yesterday with the reality that they portrayed. She was blessed by having her poems published at the age of 93, and I am blessed by reading them and gaining godly wisdom from that amazing woman that I called Grandma.

Popcorn!

2012-01-19T23:37:00.000-05:00

I grew up with popcorn. Dad always loved his popcorn and I can remember having it as a staple in our home growing up. Sunday nights seemed to be popcorn nights a lot, as well as nights that we had a babysitter. Mom used to use her Farberware skillet to pop the corn and we loved hearing the popping kernels bang away on the lid, steam seeping from under the lip. When it was done, the warm popped corn was dumped into the large, green Rubbermaid bowl and then salted. Sometimes we had the treat of melting bacon grease and pouring that over the top first. We are all convinced that Dianne made the best popcorn and somehow talked her into making it for us all the time!

I guess traditions like this don't change much. Our family today is growing up with popcorn, too! One of my favorite Christmas presents every year is a 12.5 pound bag of popcorn from Dad that he gets from Dannemillers in Norton. That usually lasts us until spring when we somehow have to get another bag from him. Around the middle of July we get another bag that we try to make last until Christmas again. It's not always easy, but seriously, there is no better popcorn than Dannemillers so I try not to run out of this precious commodity.

Since I babysit several children after school, one of their favorite snacks to have is a huge bowl of popcorn, too! I usually just use Watkins Butter Salt on it, but unfortunately, it's been discontinued, so I'm just getting the generic stuff from Bulk Barn now. When we want a treat, the boys will sprinkle Watkins Seasoning Salt on theirs or maybe even cinnamon sugar, but my all-time favorite lately has been to sprinkle Watkins' Jalapeno Dip Mix on mine! OH YUM! It's sooo delicious, and no extra calories. Bonus!

I also make several popcorn snacks for the kids that we all love and I'll rotate them to make everyone happy, but usually, just a plain bowl of popcorn makes everyone smile! I think I am making popcorn at least five days of the week, if not more, and we never get tired of it.

Here are some of our favorite recipes. Feel free to share yours, too, because chances are, we'll try them!

Cinnamon Popcorn
4 qts popped corn
1/3 c. butter, melted
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. Watkins cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
Mix ingredients together, pour over popped corn and toss. Bake at 300F for 10 minutes.

LuAnn's Party Mix (I have no idea who LuAnn is, but I love her recipe!)
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. taco seasoning mix
3 qt. popped corn
12 c. Crispix cereal
6 c. tiny pretzels
1 c. peanuts
Candy corn or M&M's optional
Mix together and bake at 325 for 5 minutes or microwave 2 batches for 1 minute on high.

JELL-O Rainbow Popcorn
8 c. popped corn
1 c. peanuts
1/4 c. butter
3 Tbsp light corn syrup
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar (or white)
1 pkg (4 serving size) JELL-O strawberry or lime
Over low heat, cook butter and syrup in small saucepan until butter is melted. Add sugar and gelatin; stir until completely dissolved. Bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce to low and simmer 5 minutes. Pour over popcorn, tossing to coat. Spread into foil lined pan. Bake 10 minutes, cool, remove from pan and break into small pieces.

Baked Caramel Popcorn
1 c. margarine
1/2 c corn syrup
1/2 t. baking soda
2 c. brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
20- 24 cups popped plain popcorn
Melt butter in medium saucepan. Stir in sugar, corn syrup and salt. Bring to a boil stirring often at medium heat. Boil without stirring for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and soda. Pour over popcorn which has been placed in a huge bowl. Stir until well coated. Turn onto 2 large shallow baking pans. Bake at 250 for 1 hour. Stir every 15 minutes while baking. Pour into a bowl and toss once in awhile while it cools so that it is not all stuck together.

Store in a airtight container.

Mom's Caramel Corn
6 qt fresh unsalted popped corn
2 c sugar
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 c. boiling water
1 Tbsp butter
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 c salted, skinned peanuts (optional - added to corn before pouring syrup on top)
Mix sugar, tartar and boiling water thoroughly. Over moderate heat, boil gently for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, cover pan. Uncover and continue cooking w/o stirring, but watch closely until syrup takes on a bright caramel color. (If too dark, it will have a bitter flavor.) Remove from heat at once and stir in butter and soda. Mix thoroughly. It will be foamy. Pour immediately over the top of the popped corn, covering as much corn as possible. Quickly lift and mix until all corn is covered with the candy. Spread onto waxed paper to cool. Do not press together. When cooled, break into smaller pieces and store in a closely covered container.

Ouch

2012-01-17T21:07:00.000-05:00

All I did was cough! That's it! Honest. I coughed a few weeks ago because I had a cold, one of those really bad ones where you cough and cough and cough until you just can't cough any more... and then you cough again. I think it was one of those 'again' ones that did it to me.

Ouch!

Something really, really hurt in the vacinity of my ribcage! Within a few hours, I couldn't sit, lie down, laugh, sneeze, or cough! To be honest, sometimes I could hardly even breathe! It hurt so very badly!

No, I haven't seen a doctor. No, I haven't gone for x-rays. No, I haven't gone to a chiropractor. I HAVE taken ibuprofen and I've iced and heat packed it. I've also "Ouch! Yow! Eech-oochie-oh"-ed my way through all my tasks as well. That seemed to help the most. If I could express the pain out loud (mostly when I was alone because, seriously, who wants to hear all your gripes and moans and groans anyway?) then it seemed to be easier to endure.

Now it's been two full weeks of this and I've had a hard time sleeping because I can't lie on either side, can't lie on my back and for sure I can't lie on my stomach! I struggle sitting through a day at church because the angle of the pews is just a tad bit off and the pressure is too great. I can't sit on our couch, recliner or rocking chair. I also found out that I can't really go skating with a five year old who is still learning to skate! I can, however, stand and walk with no problems whatsoever!

I've heard that these types of injuries can take a long time to heal. That's not good, but I am thankful that I'm feeling better now this week. I still can't sneeze without screaming in pain, but I can at least bend over to help pull on a stuck boot of that same five year old and I can catch a deep breath every once in awhile. I can sweep my floor again and I can carry the laundry basket upstairs. I was kind of hoping I'd be able to get out of shoveling the snow because of this, but hey! We haven't had any snow to shovel anyway so I'm already getting out of it!

I'm not sure how long this will be a pain in the side for me, but I'm so thankful that it's not worse than it is. If you think of me, pray that it will heal fast. It's hard for a mom to be slowed down by things like this! Oh, and try not to make me laugh or sneeze in the meantime. Thanks!

Kaitlyn Clarisse

2012-01-05T22:57:00.004-05:00

Kaitlyn Clarisse Weinhardt December 14, 2011

This is my newest niece, Kaitlyn Clarisse. She was born on December 14 to Fred's brother Henry and his wife, Jo. She came early and captured all of our hearts and certainly all of our attention for the sixteen brief days that she was with us. I'm so thankful that I got to meet her when she was only 2 days old, but unfortunately, she had just come out of surgery and I wasn't allowed to even touch her beautiful baby hair. Katie doesn't know it, but she was used as an instrument of God in her short life. She has taught us all so many lessons: total dependence on God, the power of prayer, the importance of practical support during a trial, the freedom of peace from above, the healing practice of rejoicing with those who rejoice and of weeping with those who weep. Katie has had more of an impact on many of our lives in sixteen days than most people have in a lifetime! My book of a thousand gifts is FULL of thanks from those two weeks that she was here with us. God is good, even when there is deep sorrow. God loves even Kaitlyn, even Henry, even Jo, even Elyssa, even all of us. God is good ALL the time!

Jo, Henry, Kaitlyn

December 30, 2011

It is with deep sadness that we share the loss of our dear Kaitlyn. She died peacefully in her mother’s arms and daddy’s hands at 4:50pm today. Her 16 days with us were each filled with all our love and already we miss her. In our sadness we also have joy knowing that she is now completely well and someday we will meet her again.

Her life was a precious gift to us for which we are truly grateful. We are also thankful to you all for your love shown in so many ways.

With all our love & gratitude,

Henry, Joanna and Elyssa

Mommy was right there to comfort her!

Kaitlyn peeking out at Daddy

Mommy singing during a special cuddle time

Kaitlyn had to endure so much in her short life. She was dependent on machines and monitors and respirators and tubes. She even had surgery! She endured much, but she gave much and we will be forever changed because of her life. Thank you, God, for blessing our family with your precious little princess! What comfort to know that she is now in the hands of the Great Physician!

One Thousand Gifts

2011-12-22T15:35:00.002-05:00

My dear sister-in-law gave me a book for my birthday that is slowly changing my life. The book, One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp, is one that I probably would not have picked up on my own, simply because I don't really have time to read for pleasure these days. Oh, am I so thankful for this gift, though! It is not an easy read for me. The author's writing style is not one like mine and I found that I had to keep rereading what she wrote because I was never quite sure where her emphasis was intended. This, however, became a blessing because I was forced to read and reread certain phrases and paragraphs and therefore the truths that she penned became more apparant each time I read them again.

I will not give away the details of the book, but I encourage you to find a copy of this if you have the time to read. And if you don't have the time to read, I encourage you to find a copy and MAKE the time to read! Ann Voskamp shares a personal, spiritual journey after accepting a dare from a friend to name one thousand gifts in her life. As she keeps a running list of her gifts, she is drawn closer and closer to the Lord and discovers that in giving thanks, her eyes are opened to a life of gratitude and to the relationship with God that she has been searching for.

After starting this book, I let a friend of mine borrow my copy because I know that she is going through some difficult life experiences and I felt God wanted me to share this with her. The two of us remind each other often that it is in thanksgiving that we can fully live in Christ. Eucharisteo - the Greek word for "he gave thanks", speaking of Jesus when He broke the bread and shared communion with His disciples. The author refers to this word often, and reinforces the grace, thanksgiving and joy that are entwined in this word eucharisteo. My book-sharing friend and I are growing in our desire to practice and learn eucharisteo - giving thanks in all things.

This past week has brought some very difficult events into our extended family and there has been both rejoicing and weeping. There have been fears and sorrows and questions and ... peace... yes, peace in the middle of this gut-wrenching storm. Throughout this trial of 9 days so far, peace and thankfulness are carrying me through. My heart is breaking because of the unfolding events, but as I take out my own notebook of One Thousand Gifts, I can list my thanks and my blessings and see that God is good and that He loves me and each one of us who are suffering. He has given such perfect provision in these circumstances that at times, despite my weeping, I run to my notebook and chronicle yet another "gift".

Hard eucharisteo, giving thanks when it is difficult, brings joy and peace. It does not discount sorrow nor shame our emotions, but it reminds us that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lord! God is good, and He loves me. I am His beloved. I hold my hands out empty, to be filled.

A Day With My Sons

2011-12-01T22:36:00.000-05:00

What a great day I had today! I was at school all day long and I loved every minute of it! Today was my day "off", but I was at school longer today than I have been in years and years and years!

I started out first thing in the morning in Stephen's class. I helped the kids get their art projects finished and then up on display for Arts Night, where all their work would be displayed for their parents to view. I also got to help the kids with their math work and truly enjoyed it. They're working on symmetry right now and their "work" today was to take a mirror and draw different pictures in perfect symmetry. Now, this may not seem like fun to you, but would it change your mind if I told you that Stephen's math classes are all in French and that his teacher is French and therefore speaks French?! Even to mother volunteers?! The kids and I had a good laugh because she would tell me what to do and I'd look at them with a panicked face and they would translate it for me. They thought they were being so helpful...and they were!

Soon it was time for the first nutrition break, so I surprised Timothy and told him to go get his coat because I was going to take him to Tim Horton's for lunch. Oh, the look of joy on his face was incredible! He was beaming so brightly that I thought the whole school would know about our little date today! Not only was he thrilled to leave school to go have lunch with Mommy, but he even got to have a vanilla dip donut with Christmas sprinkles on it for dessert! Joy, joy, JOY! I could have sat there all day watching his face as he ate his lunch with such excitement! To top it all off, our server somehow prepared two cups of coffee for me by accident and had both of them sitting on the counter in front of us. I asked her what she was going to do with that second cup and she replied that she was going to give it to me. I wish I could have captured Timothy's facial expression just then! He burst out, "Mommy! Mlle Campbell drinks Tim Hortons! We could give it to her!" So we accepted the free cup of coffee and when we got back to school, he so proudly handed her that free cup of coffee and told her it was just for her, once again, face beaming! Oh, how I wish my eyes were a video camera! I want to remember those moments forever just watching pure joy on my son's face as he had Mommy all to himself for a lunch date, and then to watch him share that coffee with his teacher - thrilled to give a gift to her! May my memory retain this day for many, many years!

After Timothy and I finished blessing Mlle Campbell with her coffee, I left Timothy in his class and headed down to Room 1 to spend the afternoon with Christopher. Unfortunately, my time with Christopher was not initiated because of a pleasant experience. About two weeks ago, his teacher, Fred and I finally put two and two together and realized that Christopher was being bullied at school so I was invited into the classroom to not only provide some emotional security for Christopher (oh, that just tears my heart to pieces just typing that!), but to be a second pair of hands for the teacher whose hands are way too full right now. It was Christopher's day to take the afternoon attendance chart to the office and he was supposed to pick a girl to go with him. He turned around and walked straight over to me and said, "I pick Mommy." Because of what all my little boy has been through the past few weeks at school, Mrs. W. and I glanced at each other and then quickly looked away because I think we were both ready to lose it. He held my hand the entire two hours that I was with him today, except when he was at the art table cutting out pictures of an Easy Bake Oven (because that's what he keeps asking for as his Christmas present!). By the time I left his room, he was comfortably sitting with the class ready to start music class. We blew each other good by kisses and I left, but not before I made a plan with Mrs. W.

We've arranged that I come in at least every other Thursday, but more often if I can, just to be that emotional support for Christopher. His class is a tough one this year. There are two ESL children in there who have anger issues, most likely because of the lack of understanding, and an extremely immature whiner who cried every time something went the opposite of what she wanted, and then there's the bully ... and the rest of the class. The rest of the class who has to sit there while Mrs. W. has to stop the fighting, quiet the whining and reign in the runner (one of the ESL kids who bolts out the door whenever he feels like it!). I feel for her. She's doing the best she can, but she really needed an aide in there! Thank God, after these incidents with Christopher and a few others in the past few weeks, the principal has finally arranged for her to have some classroom aides assigned to her class! She told me that things have improved tremendously in the past week because of the extra eyes and hands that she has in there! While things may be improving, can you please join us in praying for Christopher? He used to love going to school and now he complains of stomach aches, refusing to get dressed on school days, cries all morning and at the bus stop, etc. It makes me so sad to see that his joy in attending school is gone. Pray that it will come back and that he will forget those moments of bullying that have taken place. We pray every night for the little boy who has punched and kicked him, and we talk often about how it's important to love him despite the hurt he gives Christopher, but I don't want this to affect him long term.

And after that adventurous day at school (oh, did I mention that I also spent about 45 minutes with the art teacher refilling glue bottles?), we headed back there tonight for the Arts Night - a new idea for the annual Christmas program. I won't dwell on that much because I seriously am trying to establish a heart of thanksgiving in everything, but I will say that it was CRAZY and I do believe that the administration needs to reconsider how they planned things for tonight! I was thankful to get home after that stressful evening - does that count for my attitude of thankfulness?

It's been a long day, but one I wouldn't have traded for anything! It's such a blessing to be able to go into the school and work with my sons' teachers, the librarian, the art teacher, the principal. I want my face to be known in that building and I want the teachers to appreciate my presence instead of dreading it. I want to be a help and a support in their classrooms and to add joy and thankfulness to the days of my sons, their classmates and their teachers. What a gift this is for me! What a great day I had with my sons!

First Day of School 2011

2011-11-07T23:10:00.000-05:00

My "baby" getting ready to start Senior Kindergarten!

Timothy wanted to decorate his Grade 2 sign.

Stephen, looking so grown up as a Grade 3 student!

I'm not exactly sure what Timothy is doing with his eyes, but this was the best shot of him outside ready to head for the bus stop.

I know I'm way behind in posting the first day of school pictures, but hey, it's ONLY November 7! I can't believe how grown up these boys are this year. I remember asking Mom one time what age she enjoyed the most while we were growing up and she told me that she enjoyed them all because each one brought new joys. I didn't quite understand that at the time because Stephen was only a baby when I asked that, but now I get it. I'm LOVING having a third grader who comes home with the most fascinating facts that he learned that day (plus, third grade was always my favorite to teach, so I'm a bit partial here). I love having a second grader who is so very into writing stories, so much so that I feel like I'm an audible dictionary at times, spelling every other word for him. And I so love having a kindergarten student who is old enough to enjoy going to school, but who is also young enough to be home every other day with me! We're off to a good start here in 2011, and I know it will only get better!

Flex Time

2011-10-13T21:57:00.000-04:00

In a conversation with my friend the other day, she said, "Martha, you always seem to be so busy! You are always talking about how much you have to do and you're always doing something for someone else. When do you do something for yourself?" I told her that I didn't usually have time to do things for myself because I have so much other stuff to do. I rush all day to get things done before the kids come home from school and then when they're home, I have to give them all my attention. Then there's supper to get on the table once the babysitting kids are gone and then supper clean-up, homework time, tidy up time, bedtime snack, pajama time and off-to-bed time. Once the kids are in bed I have to clean up after the whirlwind of disaster that has been left behind. And this is usually all done with a very negative spirit. It's a never ending cycle.

That's when she threw out the lifeline comment: "I work on flex time."

I felt like I just smacked myself in the head! Duh! Of course! Flex time! She said that when her family gets home from school and work, that's when her job starts up again so she works on flex time by taking some time off during the day to do what SHE wants to do before her afternoon/evening shift starts up again. She said, "It cut out the resentment when I was the only one cleaning up after supper and everyone else was lounging around. They finished their jobs and have earned their free time, but my shift starts up again when they get home."

Now, why in the world did I never see this before?! I do NOT have to run around like a crazy woman trying to cram everything into my days, thereby burning myself out and causing resentment to flare up, uncontrolled. Even Christ went out in a boat to get away from the press of the people and to be ALONE and REST! He even took a nap!

So, I've been trying this flex time method the last few days. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!! My attitude has improved tremendously because I know that I have already had a break during the day and now cleaning up the supper mess and packing lunches and directing traffic is not done with constant griping and (ouch) whining anymore. I'm quite cheerful, if I may say so myself!

I've also found that I've been getting a lot more done in my day because I KNOW that my free time is coming up and I want to finish my projects before I stop everything to take a break. I've been focused and, yes, even more organized if you can believe that coming from me! Haha!

Is it working perfectly? No. My to-do list today was very long and my tasks were not all quick ones that could be killed off in a matter of minutes, so I started to panic this afternoon and was rushing around trying to do as much as I could in the little time that I had left. When I realized this was happening, I just set the timer for 30 minutes, grabbed my book and plopped on the couch. When the timer rang, I went back to my work and kept going, but with a much more relaxed feeling. What a difference. And guess what? I DID get it all done before the kids came home so I could sit and talk with them, listen to Christopher read his Green Eggs and Ham book to me, watched a little Peanuts video with the boys because they kept telling me to "watch this, Mommy" anyway so I just went in and sat with them and I got supper finished and ready to serve in no time!

So maybe most of you are reading this saying to yourselves, "But of course! I've always done that!" Well, I'm a slow learner, I guess. I also want to be a quick learner because I'm sure loving this new attitude toward my "job"! Flex time. Who knew?!

To my friend: God bless you for sharing this wisdom with me! You have given me fresh wind for my sails. And thank you for holding me accountable for my rest time every day. You are a blessing to me more than you realize!

One Tomato, Two Tomatoes, Three Tomatoes ... MORE!

2011-09-28T18:45:00.000-04:00

I haven't been on here lately. Have you noticed? Ah, but of course you have because some of you have reminded me that I haven't posted anything recently. How could I? I've been overloaded with tomatoes and HAD to deal with them before the fruit flies did! FINALLY I am finished dealing with all my tomatoes so I can sit down here and tell you what I've been up to.

We had our first frost warning a few weeks ago, so the day after that warning, I decided to take a trip up to Mennonite farm country to see if anyone had any cheap tomatoes that they needed to get rid of quickly. My hunches were correct as I drove along and found a sign at the end of a lane at the corner of Northfield Drive and Line 86: Long Lane Farm - Roma Tomatoes - No Sunday Sales. Ahhh.... just what I was looking for! I drove up the long lane and found an old order Mennonite woman standing on her porch surrounded by bushels and bushels of tomatoes! They had to pick fast the night before so that they didn't lose the rest of their crop to the threatened frost.

The tomatoes looked beautiful! I told her I'd take a 1/2 bushel because they looked so nice and she started sorting through them, pulling out ones that had tiny blemishes. I asked what she was going to do with all of her seconds (that really looked like the "good" stuff that you'd find in any grocery store) and she replied with a heavy sigh that she would probably have to can them for her family even though they had more than enough for the year. I offered to take the seconds off her hands so that she could sell the good ones at the produce auction and not have to worry about what to do with the seconds. I ended up getting them for $10 a bushel! Well, being the bargain lover that I am, I decided to take TWO bushels of seconds!

What in the world was I thinking?!

For the next two weeks I was up to my eyeballs in tomatoes! I canned tomato soup, spaghetti sauce, tomato juice, diced tomatoes and more spaghetti sauce. Then my friend Jenny shared the most delicious roasted tomato sauce with me and I fell in love! I so regretted not having that recipe at the beginning of this whole ordeal because it quickly has become my favorite! So much so, that when a friend of mine told me that their family was going to be out of town and they needed someone to use their tomatoes from their garden, guess what I did? Yep. I went and picked another half bushel just because I wanted some more of this sauce!

I do believe now that I'm done with tomatoes. My house has smelled like pasta sauce for the past two weeks and we have plenty to keep us going for a long, long time, but oh, am I thankful for those delicious, fresh and fragrant tomatoes!

Here's Jenny's recipe. You HAVE to try it, especially if you are up to your eyeballs in tomatoes! Tweak it as you see fit. I used many different varieties of tomatoes and I also added several cloves of garlic. I also ate some of this incredible deliciousness as is after it was roasted and before it was blended. Mmmmm! Then I tried it warm as a soup and then cold as a gazpacho variation and then on pasta and then mixed in with leftover, fresh tomato soup and then with crackers as a dip. I'm telling you, this stuff is fantastic! You won't be disappointed!

Roasted Tomato Sauce

Some of my homemade spaghetti sauce

Makes 3 cups

2 1/2 pounds plum tomatoes, quartered

1 yellow onion, diced

1 green pepper, cut into 1 in pieces

1 red bell pepper, cut into 1 in pieces

1/2 cup extra virgin oil

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

2 tsp fresh oregano

Preheat oven to 375 F. In a 9X13 baking pan toss together tomatoes, onion, bell peppers, oil, salt and crushed red pepper. Roast for 1 hour. Remove pan from oven and fold basil and oregano into vegetables. Cook for 30 min more.

In a food processer, blend vegetables until pureed. Use immediately, refrigerate for up to 2 weeks, or freeze.

Jeremiah 15:16

2011-09-28T09:27:00.000-04:00

Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16

This year it was Timothy's year to pick the birthday cake for his birthday. Since he and Christopher share a birthday, we switch between choosing a birthday cake and choosing the birthday meal every year so that they both get a chance to choose something and I don't have to make two cakes.

Timothy, Mr. Creative, decided that this year he wanted a Holy Bible birthday cake. He gave me specific instructions on how it should be made, what color it had to be (he insisted on black and I kept hinting that brown would be just fine), there needed to be a red bookmark with pointy ends and the pages needed to be gold. Oh yeah. And it HAD to say Holy Bible on it.

Yikes. How in the world could I do a cake like this?! I'm so thankful for my friend, Barb, who I happened to be telling about this cake that I had to make and she said, "I have an idea. Come over on Wednesday." That's when Barb introduced me to fondant! WooHoo! She was amazing! She had fantastic ideas of how to make the pages gold (yellow food paint with food grade glitter mixed in and then brushed onto white fondant), she had cut out letters for Holy Bible, she designed the red bookmark with pointy ends and made the beautiful black cover. In real life, it looked just like Grandpa's well-loved Bible! Did she do a fantastic job on this cake or what?!

Barb and her finished work of art!

When the kids got home from school that day, they all hovered around the cake and one of the after-school kids said, "Holly Bibble? Who's that?" While I held back a giggle, Timothy ran over to the book shelf and pulled out his Bible and replied, "It's Holy Bible! Have you ever seen a real one? You can look up verses in here and everything!" and then he proceeded to look up some verses that he's memorized and told the kids that they can read this Bible any time they wanted because we have lots of them! What a witness he was. What a blessing.

Timothy's joy was undeniable!

I made tabs with their names and ages.

We did enjoy eating God's word in the form of a cake and we're so thankful for our sweet birthday boys, Timothy - 7 and Christopher - 5.

Maybe Mothers Shouldn't Multi-Task

2011-08-27T23:07:00.000-04:00

Seriously, I'm thinking after today that maybe mothers should NOT try to multi-task. Well, maybe I should just be speaking to myself. Ever have one of those days, moms? (Please agree with me here!)

I may as well just jump right in and tell you why I'm saying this. No need to beat around the bush (since it burned up at McDonald's anyway. Hahaha! Ok. It's late at night and my humor is lacking.) so I'll just tell you what happened.

This afternoon I decided to freeze corn so I got all my supplies ready, had the water on to boil and started filling the kitchen sink with cold water to stop the blanching once the corn was done. I couldn't remember how long I was supposed to blanch the corn, so I came over to the computer and looked up pickyourown.org to find out how long I should keep it boiling. (By the way, this site is really good for telling you where to find pick your own produce as well as telling you how to preserve just about anything! Check it out sometime, when you're not doing anything else.)

As I was sitting there reading how to freeze corn and getting totally sidetracked by all the pictures and links and suggestions, I remember thinking once that I should turn off the water at the sink. Being distracted by the discussion on enzymes and blanching, that thought of the water didn't cross my mind again. In the back of my mind, however, I heard a fountain of sorts, you know, running water in a continuous stream that is quite soothing - uh - when it's out in nature ... but not when you realize that it is coming from your kitchen sink and is now flowing across your kitchen floor!! Oh boy! Did I ever jump up fast! Water was absolutely everywhere! I've never, ever in my life seen a kitchen sink overflow, but I'll tell you right now, I wish that I could still say that.

Christopher, my little helper, ran to get the mop and did a great job (for an almost five year old) of cleaning it up. There was way too much water, though, and both of us worked and worked at it to keep the water from going much further. What a disaster. What a mess! All because I was trying to do more than one thing at a time.

And by the way, I never did find out how long I was supposed to blanch the corn because by that point, those cobs had been boiling away for quite some time! I froze it anyway, so we'll see if it really makes a difference in the long run.

Earthquakes and Fires

2011-08-23T16:10:00.003-04:00

I heard that there was an earthquake today. Some people around here said that they felt it, even though the epicenter was in Virginia. Supposedly the ground was swaying a bit here and people felt "wobbly" for a few seconds.

I was trying to figure out why I didn't feel anything. Nothing. Well, maybe I did, but not really. I'm not sure. We were at McDonald's for an after-blueberry-picking treat with Auntie Jo and as we were sitting there I heard a terrible rumbling sound and the ground was shaking but that was from the guy in the front of the store who was using a jackhammer to rip up the old sidewalk. The thought briefly crossed my mind (seriously!) as I watched a girl pull through the drive-thru that I wonder if she thought that was an earthquake. Hahaha, my tired mind thought. Why would anyone think there would be an earthquake around here?!

We finished our ice cream cones and headed out to the van. As I opened my door to get in, a thin trail of smoke in the mulch of the flowerbed next to me caught my eye. I stuck my foot out and tried to stamp it out, thinking that some irresponsible customer must have thrown a cigarette butt in the flowers. The funny thing was the every place that I tapped my shoe, another blackened and burned spot appeared. I figured that I should probably warn the employees inside that there was something smoldering outside so I went in and told the teenagers behind the counter that there was smoke coming from the flowerbeds. (Those oblivious teenagers, I thought. They won't take me seriously.)

I went back out to the van and an older manager came out to check it out. She stamped it a bit and then said, "Thanks. We'll keep an eye on it." and went back inside. I finished buckling in the kids and turned around to see a modern day version of Moses' burning bush next to me! The whole thing was in flames now! The mulch, the flowers, and a bush! Smoke was billowing up in the air and into the van.

I went running in, pushing past the long line of people and shouted, "There is a fire out in the flowerbed! You need to get it out!" The teenagers stared at me blank-faced and then repeated, "There's a fire in the flowerbeds" to which the manager shouted from the drive-thru window area, "I know. I told her I'd keep an eye on it." I shouted again (across the whole restaurant), "NO! THERE IS A FIRE IN THE FLOWERBEDS! The whole thing is on fire!" They really didn't seem to care, so I went back out, along with a few more customers who could see the evidence and watched as the area was totally going up in flames. A man ran to his truck and pulled out a huge fire extinguisher and started to blast the fire when the manager came out with, get this, a cup of water to pour on the fire! Another employee came out chowing down on her McChicken Wrap and a third stood there and said, "Wow. There really IS a fire." Well, DUH! Do you think I'd go running in there shouting like a maniac that there was a fire out there if it wasn't true?!

By this time, a few more customers had grabbed fire extinguishers from their vehicles and were spraying the whole thing down while the manager waited until they had finished and then she bravely walked over and dumped her little cup of water in the middle of the smoke. POOF! By this point, Jo and I were no longer sympathetic, but laughing with great amusement at this manager. This McDonald's had just been remodeled and the finishing touches were being made. They spent a pretty penny on this place and she wanted to put out a flowerbed fire with a little cup of water. We pulled out and backed away and she impishly glanced at me and mouthed, "Thanks." No problem, Ma'am, but the next time someone yells to you that there is a fire in front of your new store, you should probably take it seriously.

And so sometime in the middle of all that ruckus, there was an earthquake. And I missed it. Sigh.

And Now ... the Rest of the Story

2011-07-26T21:01:00.002-04:00

You don't think that the incident we had with the carrier on the way home from Virginia was the end of the story, do you? Well, read on, dear friends. Read on.

Fred and I left the carrier on top of the van because we're going to the cottage this weekend for a week and we decided to keep it on instead of taking it on and off. WELL......I was coming back home from a visit with my friend Jenny today when all of a sudden I heard flapping around on top and saw the straps that were once securely tucked inside the carrier now flapping behind me. A transport truck was flashing it's lights at me so I pulled over on the 401 as soon as I could and saw that the other lock had now lifted from it's secure position and the straps that were stored INSIDE were now hanging outside and nothing was secure anymore.

I climbed up and tried to pull the straps back into place to maybe secure it again when a truck stopped in front of me. I heard the beeping of it backing up and thought, "This is the last thing that I need right now - some trucker telling me what to do and trying to 'help' me." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the guy get out of his truck and run over to me. Can you believe, it was Chris, Jenny's husband!! He had seen me on the side of the road and thought, Look at that. Someone else is having problems with their carrier (because he had read my blog last night and laughed about it, so said Jenny), I'd better stop. Once he stopped, he saw that it was ME! How amazing that God allowed HIM to be on the 401 at that exact moment! Chris climbed right up there and buckled that thing down like it was no big deal at all. I couldn't have gotten it strapped up without him there. What an amazing blessing to have him on that 401, see me, and then stop just when I needed it.!! Thank you, Lord!

Now, I hope that this really is the end of the story.
Anyone want a car carrier?

Well, THAT Was A New Experience!

2011-07-25T10:10:00.000-04:00

Saturday morning our family left the Eastern Mennonite University campus in Harrisonburg, Virginia and headed north on 81 toward our afternoon destination of Syracuse, New York. Fred and I were recapping our week at Eastern Camp and had only gone about 15 or 20 miles when we heard a whump - THUMP on the top of the van. I didn't recognize the sound, so I glanced behind us to see if we had hit something on the highway. OH NO!!!! What I saw sure surprised me and we all started shouting as Fred tried to find a place to safely pull over. Somehow our car top carrier had opened up and our clothes were ALL over the road! I still have visions of cars and semis driving over our clothes, dragging some of them down the road and blowing others into the ditches. Unfortunately, Christopher also saw his sock get blown down the road and run over by several cars.

When we were finally able to pull over, we noticed two cars in both northbound lanes stop and the traffic backed up behind them. As we backed up, the kind people in those vehicles had jumped out and were gathering up our stuff. One lady ran over to me with a handful of my dirty underwear, handed it to me and we both just burst out laughing at the awkwardness of that brief moment!

As Fred was running across the lanes gathering up as much as he could and the other helpful strangers did their grab-and-runs, we noticed a van had stopped ahead of us and was backing up across the now-empty lanes to our side of the road. I glanced up and recognized the license plate of our friends Gary and Darlene who had left Camp later than they had hoped - but designed perfectly by God to be on that long stretch of highway at exactly the time we needed them! Gary helped Fred fix the carrier enough to keep temporarily until we could get to an exit to buy a bungee cord or strap to tie around the carrier and I got to decompress for a few moments with Darlene as we talked about how embarrassing this was, yet how thankful we were that it was just a few garbage bags of dirty laundry that had exploded all over the road.

We think that what happened was that a burst of air had somehow managed to get between the top and bottom lids of the carrier and just sucked it open, ripping the locks and clamps off of their "secured" positions. It must have just been a freak thing because Fred said that he had double checked the security before we left the parking lot. All I know is that it was a shock and we're thankful that God protected us through that whole ordeal!

Poor Christopher, though. He was so traumatized by that sock that he saw that he wept and wept for about 15 minutes straight until he finally fell into an exhausted sleep. Timothy wanted to know when we would go back to pick up the rest of the items that were in the ditch on the other side of the road and we had to convince him that it was ok that they were left there and that we would never see them again. We did our best to reassure the boys that we can replace socks and Sunday shirts and underwear, but we could never replace Daddy if it had been him or Mommy if it had been me. We had so much to be thankful for since it was ONLY dirty clothes and not someone in our family or another person.

The rest of our trip was quite uneventful, but we will never forget that experience, that's for sure! It also didn't help that it was another hot and humid day in Virginia. Running around on hot asphalt with your adrenaline pumping at extreme levels does NOT help for remaining cool and collected! We are now home, all clothes are washed and it looks like only one pair of shorts has been destroyed by tire marks. We are missing some articles of clothing, but nothing that can't be replaced. God is good and we are safely home! HOME SWEET HOME!

The Treasure Hunt Birthday

2011-05-23T21:14:00.001-04:00

We had decided several years ago that when the boys turned 8 years old, they could have a "real" birthday party, so this year Stephen asked to have a Treasure Hunt birthday. It was such a fun idea and the kids LOVED it! Bonus for me: it wasn't that hard to plan, execute and clean up either!

We decided to celebrate twice, though, because we babysit several children after school and Stephen wanted all of them to participate as well as his best friends from church. I'm thinking that maybe it was a good idea to do it twice. That way I had a trial run the first time and fine tuned it to run MUCH more smoothly the second time! I have a year and a half to convince Timothy, though, that two parties is not only unnecessary, but it will also be non-existent. We painted and then decorated treasure chests as part of the party favors for the kids to take home. After each game we played, the prize was another "treasure" for them to put in their boxes: chocolate coins, candy necklaces, Hershey's kisses, and $100 paper napkins that were supposed to be used, but the kids all wanted to save them and put them in their boxes!

At birthday party #1, we had X Marks the Spot cupcakes. Inside each cupcake was an M&M treasure. So simple, but such a hit with the kids!

We also had several treasure hunts. This is one of the teams reading their next clue after finding this one on a jar of jam in the refrigerator.

Here are two of the treasure chests that the kids made.

And here is the REAL birthday cake! A treasure chest FULL of treasures!

Wouldn't this tempt any child?! They loved this cake and had such fun helping to decorate it! (Thank you FamilyFun.go.com for the great idea!) Stephen's joy and excitement was worth every moment spent preparing for this special party of his. I think that what touched me the most, though, was the way he handled himself and was very kind and considerate and gracious the whole time. I was surprised at his maturity because I had seriously thought I'd have a wild and crazy kid to deal with at his one and only "real" birthday party. I guess he's growing up. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Just yesterday he was a teeny tiny preemie and today he's showing the beginnings of becoming a fine, young man. Thank you, Lord, for my precious son!

Coffee

2011-04-20T21:08:00.000-04:00

Coffee has been on my mind lately. I never drank coffee until I was about 30 and my co-worker, Margaret, would start off her day in our little office with the most wonderfully, aromatic cup of coffee. The folks at the office would tease me since I was the only n0n-coffee drinker so one day I set out to prove to them that I just did NOT like coffee! Well, I lost that proof. I fell in love with it! We never really had coffee growing up at home. Dad was a tea drinker. He'd fill that green, insulated cup with black tea, saving 1/4 of an inch for his sugar and milk to fit in. It would be swimming over the rim of his tall cup and then he'd complain when we'd shake the table and make his tea spill. Mom would make coffee VERY rarely when we had a party or guests, but not often enough to have us get used to drinking it. So, I didn't grow up with coffee, but I sure love it now!

During the month of March, the coffee king restaurant, Tim Hortons, had it's Roll Up the Rim contest going - buy a medium, large or extra large hot beverage and roll up the rim to see if you won a prize of cash, bikes, barbeques, cars or free coffee and donuts. Or the most frequent "prize", as my friend Chris always says, "Tim Horton's is so nice to me. They always let me 'play again'." Yep. When I played Roll Up the Rim, we mostly won "Please Play Again" to the point that when we would drive past a Tim Hortons, Christopher would say, "Mommy, do you want to go get a "Please Play Again?" Over the course of the month and a half that Tim's had this contest going, we ended up winning three free donuts and a free coffee. The boys were thrilled to choose their own donuts and share a hot cocoa from these winnings and we felt as if we had won a lottery!

Other random coffee comments:

Stephen came home from school a few weeks ago and was so excited! He asked, "Mommy, have you ever smelled coffee beans before?!" Well, as a matter of fact, I have. Why? "They smell sooooo good! But I don't like the taste. Maybe some day I will."

During a conversation about the definition of caffine, Timothy says, "When my next tooth falls out, I want to drink a cup of coffee before bed." Why, I ask. "Because I want to stay awake and see if the tooth fairy is real, or if it really is just you."

While sipping on a lovely cup of vanilla flavored coffee recently, Stephen again commented on how good my coffee smelled. I offered him a sip, but he refused with shock on his face. "But I'm not 10!" he said. 10? What does that have to do with anything? Well, I guess someone told him that you weren't allowed to drink coffee until you were 10 and he was so shocked that I would offer it to him when he was still seven! He ended up politely telling me that he'll wait until he's 10 and until then, he'll just smell my coffee beans.

Even though I enjoy a delicious cup of coffee, I am happy to say that I am not addicted to it either. Sometimes days go by before I realize that I haven't had any, yet other days, I know that if I had a whole pot here, I'd probably drink it all non-stop. I'm the only coffee drinker in the house, so it's not uncommon for me to go without making any for long periods of time. Besides, for some reason, it's always more enjoyable to drink that hot cup of coffee when you're sitting with a friend anyway. Anyone want to come over for a cup of coffee?

A Few Thoughts on Aging

2011-03-31T21:21:00.000-04:00

I always had a love for older people. Maybe it was because of all the time we spent at Angela's as teenagers (when she was in her 80's and 90's). Maybe it was because, growing up in East Akron, there were no age boundaries in our church. We were friends with the youngest, the oldest and everyone in between. I love talking with elderly people, asking them questions, cracking jokes with them, getting emotional with them, just sitting and watching them! When I was getting ready to make a decision as to what my life's career path would be, I knew that it would be either elementary education or geriatrics....working with either the young, or the old. I choose to work with children because I didn't think I could handle becoming so attached to someone, only to know that it was a matter of time before they would die. My thoughts on aging are changing now. I have been forced to be an active participant in the struggles of the elderly - forced, meaning that no matter how hard you may try to pretend that the aging process is not affecting you or your loved ones, it truly is a reality. Fred's dad came back from a vacation in Phoenix where he was with my sister-in-law and her husband for several weeks. We were hoping that it would be a warm, sunny and relaxing time for all of them. It was not easy to hear Esther tell about the struggles they had with Dad while they were gone. It was tough for him to walk, to move around, to use bathrooms that were too small for him and a caregiver to occupy. The hardest thing though, was to hear that Dad didn't have memories about their place in Phoenix. It seems that there were a few moments of some recognition, but for the most part, he didn't remember that this was a place that was special for him and for Mom, and that they were there every year for many years. I was with Dad on Wednesday afternoon for several hours and I thought again about how helpful it would be if we could start our lives out as old people and work our way backwards so that NOW I could have the knowledge of how to serve my aged father-in-law the best. If I had already been old, I would know whether or not he appreciates my constant chattering or if he would like his shoulders rubbed. Maybe he would like me to tell stories of the kids or maybe he would like me to talk about places that he had been as a child. Maybe I would recognize what truly brings him joy and what would please him the most when I visit. I don't know these things, so I guess and sometimes I guess correctly and sometimes I realize that I'm heading down the wrong path and I just shut my mouth and sit quietly with him watching the birds at his birdfeeder. What I do know, is that I am learning to give him greater respect and to keep his dignity. I try to put myself in his shoes and I treat him the way that I hope my children will treat me some day. It seems as if most of the time that I am with him, he doesn't have a clue who I am (he knows that I am connected to him, but I don't think he knows how or why), but I still want him to know that he is loved and respected and has worth in his old age. And those are my latest thoughts on aging.

Cheap Entertainment

2011-03-14T21:38:00.000-04:00

This is what happens when you give little boys a digital camera to play with so that you can have a decent conversation with other adults who are visiting. You never know what they will think is important to capture!

I must say, it certainly was a cheap form of entertainment and kept us all laughing afterward! Who knows? Maybe the photography gene truly is present in this family, too!

Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes

2011-02-15T21:30:00.000-05:00

The past couple of Tuesdays I've been cutting tons and tons of potatoes! I've been spending a couple of hours at a time cutting bins of potatoes, and now this week I also got to cut celery and green and purple cabbage as well. I cut purple cabbage this week until my hands were stained as if I had just cleaned ten pounds of elderberries! Why am I doing this? A friend of mine introduced me to the Ontario Christian Gleaners in Cambridge, Ontario. Wow! I'm addicted now, I think.

If you have time, poke around the website to see what it's all about, but in a nutshell, a few years ago a Christian from here in Ontario heard about a similar organization in British Columbia and decided to come back home and establish an Ontario-based distribution center (or centre, since it IS Canadian). Two and a half years ago, this operation opened up here in Cambridge. The Gleaners receive surplus fruits and vegetables from nearby farmers, food production facilities and food distributors (in places like Toronto) and volunteers come on a daily basis to sort through the bins and pallets of produce, gleaning what they can from the donated food. This is then sent through a chopping machine that dices it fairly small and then it's spread on a conveyor that goes through a massive dehydrator that dries the produce. It's stored in bins until there is enough to package into bags of "soup" that is then ready to be distributed to places in need like Haiti, many African communities, Guatemala, Peru, Mexico, Romania, etc. One bag of dehydrated vegetable soup can feed 100 people. These bags are very lightweight, so many of them can be shipped at a time at a very low cost.

I wish that all of you could see this production! I am amazed every time I go and I just can't get enough of it! As I stand at my table, cutting my bins of vegetables and chatting with all the other volunteers around me, I can't stop wishing that Grandpa could have seen this! He would have been in there and involved in absolutely every aspect of this operation! And he probably would have had a thousand contacts for even more donated materials and equipment and volunteers. This week, there was an 80 year old gentleman standing across from me who reminded me so much of Grandpa. He knew this person and that person and knew where each piece of equipment came from and who designed it and where they got the materials donated to make it. He found out I was from Ohio and he told me that he was just there last week buying some milking cows. He said, "I was in a little, little town in Ohio that you probably never heard of before." I told him to try me. He had been in Berlin! Ha! Small world!

Anyway, this blog post isn't turning out like I wanted it to. I am so overwhelmed with the magnitude of this little endeavor of the Ontario Christian Gleaners and I wanted to somehow get that awe across in my writing, but it's just not happening. I think it must be similar to what John felt when he tried to talk about Heaven. Although his words are beautiful and create anticipation for us, they probably sounded like just words to him since he had a greater glimpse of that reality. I just can't describe to you the blessing that I feel going in to that building every week, never knowing what I'm going to be digging through or cutting up, but in my own little small way, I am helping to feed some child or some mother somewhere who may feel that there is no more hope...until they are blessed with this nutritious soup that someone far away prepared for them. It reminds me of the story of the man walking along a beach that had thousands of starfish washed up from the ocean. He saw someone bending down and throwing one starfish at a time back into the water. When he stopped and asked the man why he was doing it, seeing that there were so many that it really wouldn't make a difference if a few were thrown back in, the man stooped, picked up another one and threw it in and said, "It made a difference to that one...and to that one... and to that one." I cannot feed all the hungry people in the world. I cannot go to places like Haiti or Ghana or Peru to help feed the hungry. I CAN, however, spend a few precious hours a week sorting through rejected potatoes or crushed celery or sometimes slimey cabbage to glean food for the other children of God that have none.

If it were not for the Ontario Christian Gleaners, this produce would have been dumped and tilled under and just thrown out! Honestly, most of the vegetables that I have worked on are in better condition than the ones that I buy in the grocery store!!

If you are ever able to volunteer a few hours at the Gleaners, I greatly encourage you to do so! There is so much love poured into that work and God has really blessed this organization as it blesses so many, many lives! For you out of towners come for a visit during the week sometime and I will take you with me for a morning of gleaning. It will change your life.

Now, since I've worked on so many potatoes and cabbage this week, I'm off to make some vegetable soup for supper tonight! It just seems like a good idea today.

Cultured? (Only if this reference is to something that has soured)

2011-01-22T21:11:00.000-05:00

Recently another stay-at-home-mom friend and I decided to take advantage of a free noontime concert at a local university that was open to the community as well. The website said that it was to be a piano duet that day, and I was really looking forward to this! It has been a long time since I've done anything like this, so I had really geared myself up to getting a little taste of 'culture' again!

Unfortunately, our parking meter gave us a bit of a problem so we were a tad bit late getting into the recital hall and we had to wait outside the doors until the first movement was over and we could slip in. I couldn't really hear much from out there. The pianos were muffled and I wasn't really able to follow any type of melody or anything, but it was probably because we were not yet sitting in front of the pianists, enveloping ourselves in their music.

Finally there was a break in the music and we quickly slipped into our seats near the front, anxiously awaiting this culture that we were going to experience! For the next forty minutes I sat there mezmerized ... and dumbfounded ... and confused ... and terribly amused. I should have clued in that this was NOT what I was expecting when the lead pianist was leaning into her piano and then bellowed some sick sounding noise in at the strings as we were walking in. Then she started banging on the piano and tapping it, but not with any type of rhythm that I could pick out. I honestly thought that something was wrong with her piano and this was her way of dealing with it - not so professional - if you would have asked me.

It just got weirder from there. Looking at the program a bit closer, my friend pointed out that it was improvisation and the two pianists seemed to just go at it in their own little worlds. Nothing made sense to me. It just sounded like a bunch of noise thrown out at itself and banged around until it finally fell onto the dusty stage floor and got kicked under the pianos. To top it all off, there was an elderly gentleman sitting on the other side of the recital hall who seemed to have nasal and breathing issues like you wouldn't believe! Oh*my*goodness! This guy's breathing was soooo distracting that I wanted to just burst out laughing! The "music" was hard enough to concentrate on, but then to have this man's consistent, obstructive-sounding breathing echoing across the seats was just too much for me!

I didn't want to say anything to my friend because she does know a lot more about music than my measly four years of failed piano lessons and four years of very elementary alto sax lessons. If she was enjoying this, I didn't want to let her know that I was about ready to die in there! It was unbelievable. Since I couldn't focus on any of the musical elements of the pianists' work, I just took in my surroundings. I noticed the paneling behind the pianos and how they tended to stick out and wondered if the patterning of the pieces was done on purpose to reflect the sounds more appropriately. I noticed the layer of dirt on the stage floor and wondered why someone didn't take a quick swipe of a dust mop before the concert. I noticed that one pianists' clothes didn't match in the least and that the other was wearing jeans, and Birkenstocks with SOCKS! I noticed that people were getting up and leaving and we were still sitting there! Sheesh!

That's when my friend leaned over and whispered, "If we hadn't have come in late, I so would have been out of here long ago!" Ha! The truth was out! She didn't enjoy it either! That sure relieved me because I didn't know how I was going to have a conversation about this ... this ... this noisy stuff that I was hearing! I could hardly wait to get out of that place, but I remembered that I was being cultured, so I sat and patiently waited until they were done so I could politely clap and then leave. The audience all must have felt the same way because the applause died out so quickly and everyone jumped up to leave and the two pianists didn't even have the chance to come back out for a second bow. That's quite alright with me. I needed to get out of there before I lost it royally!

So, yes. I feel that I was cultured because I sat in a university recital hall, in a plush, maroon seat that folded down, but the "music" was so sour to my ears that I left feeling quite cultured in my stomach.

Next week is a string and piano duet. I think I'd like to try it again and give this culture thing a second chance.

My Friend

2011-01-13T19:44:00.000-05:00

My heart is heavy today. I received some very sad news about my best friend from high school yesterday. According to her sister, my friend's little daughter found her yesterday morning after she had passed away. There is all kind of speculation as to what happened but I'm not here to spread rumors or tell breath-taking stories. All I know is that my friend is gone at the age of 43, leaving behind three children, one grandchild and a lifetime full of friends and I am sad. Even though I haven't had much contact with her at all over the past 25 years, there will still be a hole there where my friend used to be.

I know most of you don't know her, but that's ok. I'm really just writing this for myself because I'm so sad to think that I will never have the opportunity to spend time with her again. It was so sudden and no one was prepared for this. Madelyn was beautiful, intelligent and knew what it meant to be a friend. I sure will miss her.

2010 in Review

2010-12-30T23:04:00.000-05:00

2010

Doesn't that number sit well with you? I LOVE even numbers! My friend, Bethany, teases me because she's an odd number person, but I'm even. I love that I was born on an all-even day: 10-18-66. I am not so fond of my anniversary date since it's all odd: 03-27-99. I just feel a bit off when numbers can't be divided evenly, but 2010 ... that's so nice and even! You'd think that it would have been a wonderful year.

The truth is, this has been one of the most difficult years of my life.

There was hope back in January that despite Fred's unemployment, we'd be turning corners and life would be easier. God did bless him with several months of work as the manager of a group of subcontractors and things went well job-wise for a while.

In the spring, I noticed that some of my MS-ish symptoms were popping up again - tingling on the right side of my body from the top of my head, down through my cheek, my right arm and on down to my ankles and toes. I had a scare when I was out walking one day and was afraid I might not even make it back home when my leg decided to go numb altogether on me. I was able to manage this just fine until the stress of events set me back over the edge in the summer.

Late spring, Fred's parents came back from Phoenix and his Tante Lene went back home to Germany. His mom had an undeniable cough that seemed to hang around even though she tried to hide it. After many doctor's appointments and tests and x-rays and the whole gamut of investigations, Mom Weinhardt was diagnosed with liver cancer in late summer. Mom was always the strong one, the one who pulled things back together again, the one who gave encouragement and love. This time she was the one who was hurting. As a family, we reeled in emotional pain as she dealt with her physical pain.

This all happened at the same time that Fred's subcontracting work was starting to ebb and my MS symptoms started showing up big time! Stress was working it's way into our lives.

School started. My baby began his Junior Kindergarten year and I was mourning the loss of my time with him when God decided it was time to mourn an even greater loss. Mom W. passed away in September, and although we knew it was coming, the shock of reality still hit us hard. Work slowed down to pretty much nothing for Fred and once again we were forced to crunch our finances even more. When you're down to the bare minimums, it's hard to find even more ways to economize, but God is creative. He found ways!

I started babysitting before and after school for several neighborhood children. The beauty of this is that about half of the kids are only at our house for about 10 minutes total per day, yet they still pay the full price. This has allowed our family to still have our own time together in the afternoons and evenings.

In October, when I was fully overwhelmed with the burdens of grief, lack of income and worry of the future, several of my dear friends surprised me for my birthday. I thought I was meeting only two of them for coffee one night and I walked in to a table full of my closest friends who showered me with blessings of encouragement (and socks)! Even though I told them this, I don't know if they'll ever fully understand how important all those words of kindness were to me.

November began the annual Cookie Kitchen business so baking began in earnest. So did the pressure from some of the residual ridiculousness of some legal issues that have been hanging around from the sale of our business two years ago. More pressure built as Fred had to spend hours in meetings, on the phone, typing e-mails and talking out the scenarios of this mess.

By the beginning of December, I was just in auto-pilot. I did what I had to do and did most of it without any emotion whatsoever except frustration at times from the overwhelming burdens. I was so very ready for a break, for some relief, for some hope.

Last week we were able to go to Ohio for our annual Schley Christmas celebrations and I got my Schley-fix! Being with my family always gets me back on track. We laugh. We joke. We have fun. We laugh some more. This year we also surprised Dad with an early 70th birthday party where we had CAKE and gave him a wii from all of us. What fun this past week was! I am feeling rejuvenated and revived. I'm feeling like there is light at the end of this long, long tunnel, despite the fact that there is still no constant income, nor any resolution for the legal mess that will be ongoing. Yet, I've been able to come up for air and I've gulped some deep breaths so now I can go on.

Despite the tough year, I can still say that God is good. He has been faithful. We have never been in want, even when we have wondered how we would make it. We have been blessed with so much that I can't complain. He has allowed us to go through these struggles because He knows that we need them, and that we will be able to comfort others with the comfort that we ourselves have received. God is good. He loves us and He will carry us through.

2011, even though I don't like that you are an odd number, I welcome you because I know that God will continue to be faithful as He has in the past. Despite the trials that you will bring, we will press on because we know that you will also bring joys and blessings.

Welcome, 2011. The Lord is opening the door and we'll walk right in with Him!

Purple Cauliflower

2010-12-18T21:16:00.000-05:00

I found this purple cauliflower at the Farmer's Market and decided to try it. We LOVE cauliflower, so I didn't even have to think twice about buying it. I just had to decide on purple or orange.

I sliced it and sauted it with some sliced garlic, added a little salt to it and that's it! There were no leftovers, just people asking for more and more and more! This is our favorite way to eat cauliflower, no matter what color it is!

Crazy Hat Day

2010-12-15T22:16:00.000-05:00

Christopher's Crazy Hat
Timothy's Crazy Hat

Stephen's Crazy Hat

The Three Stooges & Their Hats

Crazy Hat Day at school sparked an afternoon of creativity in this house! The boys are finished and ready to go for school!

Kindergarten Mom

2010-11-23T21:02:00.001-05:00

Today I got to be Kindergarten Mom. I volunteered in Christopher's class this morning. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed being in a school classroom, but it didn't take me long to remember how thankful I was that I never taught kindergarten! Wow. What a lot of activity in that room today!

I got to work with the rhyming station - helping the kids match rhyming words with pictures. It was exciting to see the ones who got it, and frustrating to work with the ones that didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I know that all comes with time, and those kids will get it eventually, too.

One thing that really shocked me was what I saw during their first nutrition break. I was a bit curious to see what other kids had packed in their lunches because, naturally, I was comparing my kid to the others. I was shocked at how much junk food and convenience food was packed in these little kindies' lunchboxes! Snack packs of meat, cheese, crackers and a mini candy bar, yogurt tubes, Jell-O cups, Twinkie stuff (they're called something else here, but I don't remember because I never buy them), candy, candy and more candy. That's not to say that I don't ever give my kids a fun treat with some of this kind of stuff, but seriously! Some of these little kids had lunchboxes FULL of convenience foods! Not only is it not good for them nutritionally, but think about how expensive that can get, too!

I was also shocked at how much Christopher ate at his first nutrition break. They have two breaks during the day and the kids are supposed to eat half of their lunch during the morning break and half during the afternoon. Christopher ate almost everything during the first break and then asked me if I had anything else in my purse that I could put in his lunchbox for second break! Yikes! I think I'd better pack him a bit more next time. The only problem is that I'm running out of ideas of things to pack. We can't pack anything with any type of nuts, nor are we allowed to send egg-based dishes...no egg sandwiches, egg salad, boiled eggs, etc. It's a school wide policy because of allergies.

Anyone have any suggestions of what to pack in a lunch box for hungry boys? We also have a very 'green' school. We use reusable , recycleable or compostable containers only, and we're asked to keep garbage to a bare minimum. I'd love to hear some suggestions of non-messy, economical and delicious ideas to send in the boys' lunches! Thanks!

After Christmas I get to be Kindergarten Mom and Grade 1 Mom! I'm looking forward to that. I already help out in Stephen's class, but it's mostly on a drop-in basis, or send-work-home-with-Stephen basis. I love being in the kids' school and appreciate the fact that I am getting to know the staff and students and vice versa. What a great way to be involved and to be a part of their lives and to let the staff get to know our family.

I'm also glad that I'm not a kindergarten teacher. Oh, the headaches I would have! On the flip side, I'd also be blessed with hundreds of special little gifts and drawings and tokens of affection. I guess maybe it wouldn't be that bad after all!

So Sweet!

2010-11-22T21:28:00.001-05:00

I got to meet my new niece, Elyssa, today! She is soooo addictingly sweet! I'm sure that Henry and Jo will agree with this, but this little baby is almost perfect! The whole time I was there she was just looking around as quiet as could be ... until Mommy tried to changer her diaper, that is. She wasn't so thrilled about that, but after that disruption was over and she was back in Mommy's arms, she was calm and quiet again.

Methinks girls have different temperments than boys right from the beginning. None of my guys were this calm and peaceful at five days old! Holding that little sweetpea ALMOST made me wish that we would have had a girl, but then I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and remembered why I'm glad that we don't. I'm not a girl's mommy. I'm really not. I don't know how to do hair or clothes or shoes or decorating or shopping or any of those other feminine things that 'girls' do. I scrape by looking presentable in all those areas, but I just don't have the knack nor the desire to deal with things like that. Ok, so I can cook well enough, and I can bake. I can take care of kids. I can snuggle with my husband. But that's about it for the stereotypical girl stuff, I think.

Before each of the boys were born, I had experienced quite a bit of panic at the thought of one of them being a girl! What if the baby would have been a girl and then grown into one of those types that was all lacey and frilly and loved perfumes and princesses and parties?! What if I would have had to learn to French braid hair or tie bows on poofy dresses?! Would I have to go into the girls departments to look for ruffle-y socks and tights with patterns that matched dresses with flowers on them?! I guess I probably could have learned all that, but I do believe that God knew that I could handle boys much easier.

OHHHH and another thing! Last weekend my friend (who is a mom to five girls) and I were helping out with a friend's daughter's wedding. We were peeking into the future when our own children might marry. My poor friend is going to have to plan FIVE weddings!!!! I will get to attend three. Whew!

And what about that adolescent time when girls' hormones start to act up and emotions begin to run rampant?! Oh my goodness! I can hardly handle my own crazy hormones at times! How in the world would I be able to deal with a bunch of girls that are just being introduced to theirs?! I'm sooo thankful for my boys! God sure knew that I could handle boys and not girls. I think it takes special women to be mothers of girls and I am so grateful for all of you...because that way I didn't have to be one of them. God has given you a very special gift and I admire that in you.

Now, that all being said .... I can hardly wait to get back over to Jo's this week to go see that little princess and hold her and squeeze her and kiss her and love her ... and then give her back to her rightful mommy who will help her grow up to be a beautiful woman inside and out! Welcome to the world, Elyssa Margaret! I've fallen in love with you already!

(I'm not sure why this is not breaking up into paragraphs. I've tried to fix it several times and it just isn't cooperating. Sorry about that!)

Birthday Winner!

2010-10-19T21:31:00.001-04:00

Yeah!!! We have a birthday winner! Ohio_Momto3boys, congratulations! You may pick either the Cinna Cream Sprinkles or a bottle of Watkins Original Barbeque Sauce as your prize. Either way, you won't be disappointed.

I apologize for the delay in the announcement of the winner, but that's because I had a beautiful surprise party last night that threw me for a loop and kept me up late so I never had time to post yesterday.

Congratulations Ohio_Mom! You can contact me privately to let me know which prize you would enjoy!

Time for a Birthday Present

2010-10-08T09:57:00.001-04:00

Well, it's October again! That means that it's time for another Watkins birthday present for one of my readers. This year I'm going to give my winner a choice of gifts. It's fun to win prizes, but sometimes it's even more fun to win when you get to choose your own prize - kind of like how the boys feel when they go to the dentist and they get to pick out their own toy from the Big Prize Tooth bin.

This year's winner will get to choose either a jar of the amazing Cinna Cream Sprinkles or a bottle of our delicious Original Barbeque Sauce. It'll be a tough decision, unless you already know if you are a 'sweet' or a 'savory' person.

The simple looking Cinna Cream Sprinkles will quickly become one of those cold-morning treats that you'll start sprinkling on your toast, your bagel, in your coffee, maybe even into the palm of your hand so that you can tickle your tongue! I like to refer to this as a glorified cinnamon sugar blend. Your first taste will tell you that you are enjoying cinnamon, sugar AND a beautiful hint of vanilla! My customers that are already in love with this purchase several bottles at a time because it's only available at this time of year as part of the Seasonal Favorites line. Timothy loves to sprinkle this on his popcorn and begs for it every time!

For those of you who are savory people, you will want to choose this bottle of Watkins Original Barbeque Sauce. It has a tangy and sweet taste with a tiny bite that causes you to keep the bottle open on the table because you always need 'just a little bit more' for whatever you are eating! We love putting it on chicken, hamburgers, meatballs, barbequed pork (put a pork roast in your crock pot and chug a big glug of this sauce on top!), dipping in fries or chicken nuggets, fish, roast beef...you name it, we use it! You won't regret choosing this gift if you win!

Now, here's the deal. In Canada, if you win a prize, you have to "earn" your prize. Many companies like to give skill testing questions like "The following timed skill testing equation must be answered without any aid: 4 x 3 + 12 - 6 + 244 x 321 - 23 x 468 + 2943 = Ok. That's exaggerating a bit, but I can't stand math to begin with so I am a bit saddened by the fact that in order for me to win a prize I have to answer a MATH question! Why don't they ever ask us to name the author of a book or ask us where to find a certain scripture or to identify a flower or something like that?! No. It has to be math! Well, since I'm in charge of my own contest, I'm going to choose to ask my contest participants to use their story telling and writing skills to tell me about one of the most memorable gifts they ever GAVE to someone! Tell me about a unique gift giving experience, the most meaningful gift you gave, the funniest gift, the most memorable setting of your gift-giving, etc.

This contest is open to anyone in Canada or the US, or family members in Paraguay or Indonesia. You can enter by commenting on this post or by sending me a private message at mjweinhardt at yahoo dot ca. This contest will be open until my birthday, Monday, October 18, at 7:30pm at which time my children will choose a winner.

Thanks for telling me your stories and helping me to celebrate my birthday!

2010-09-23T21:49:00.000-04:00

Margaret Weinhardt

1928 - 2010

I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of rightousness, which the Lord the rightous judge,

shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

2 Tim. 4: 7,8

Margaret grew up in a loving family in the German village of Neu Pasua in the former Yugoslavia. The youngest of three sisters, Margaret spent her childhood assisting her godly parents, Friedrich and Eva Schwald, at home, in their fields and nearby vineyards. They instilled many lasting values in her life. When the war came to their homeland, the family eventually had to flee to Austria. On the way, when Margaret was only 16, her mother died of complications from surgery. Though the war years were difficult, seeds of faith were growing in her heart. A few years later, her father and sisters settled near Neuheutten, Germany. There she made two life-long commitments: first she committed her life to Jesus, her Savior. She was then baptized along with Daniel Weinhardt with whom she would make her second commitment of marriage, and was married in October 1952.

In 1956, the loving couple moved with their first three children to Canada. They built a new life together, working hard as the Lord blessed them, and the family grew from five to eight in the Kitchener area. By 1968, needing more room, Margaret and Daniel built a new home in Cambridge that became their homestead for the next 48 years. Margaret served her Savior with an open heart and home where many visitors and family were blessed by her gracious hospitality. In later years, she and Daniel were blessed to enjoy winter months in the Arizona sun.

Her strong faith and confidence in God allowed her to have complete peace throughout her illness. Early Saturday morning, September 18th, she passed away peacefully in her sleep and was carried by the angels to receive her eternal reward. Her warm smile and tender heart will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her.

Mom & Dad's beautiful backyard

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Prov. 3:5,6

School Boys

2010-09-15T09:24:00.001-04:00

September 7 was the first day of school for Stephen and Timothy.

September 14 was Christopher's first day.

Looks like he's adjusted quite well already! He told me yesterday that all he did was "play and play and play and play, oh and I read a book at my table with the lights off. That's it."

Now that we've celebrated the first day(s) of school, we're celebrating birthdays today for Timothy and Christopher! It's been quite a busy time around here.

The Little Businessmen

2010-08-23T20:37:00.000-04:00

Can you believe that they actually made $5.00 that hot and sultry day? Of course, their first sale wasn't until 6:30 PM, but hey! They made a sale! (Thank you dear neighbor who happened to see them and stopped by specifically for those two zucchini!)

Now Timothy wants to sell rocks. Either that, or his homemade board games. Maybe I'll let him do that so that they can leave this house and I won't be the bad guy for making them disappear. Anyone need some rocks or a board game or two or three or ....

Peaceful Turmoil

2010-08-08T22:40:00.000-04:00

Peaceful turmoil? Is there such a thing? If there is, this is what we're going through right now. Fred's mom hasn't been feeling well since they came back from their winter stay in Phoenix. She has been through test after test, scan after scan, doctor visit after doctor visit. She's been brave and she's been strong, but now we know the source of the conflict and the peaceful turmoil is beginning. It's pretty certain that Mom W. has liver cancer.

While we all hoped and prayed that it would be something much more simple than this, it seems that God has placed her on this path and we are all walking with her. We know that Mom is holding the hand of her Saviour, and that gives us the peacefullness - that, and the many, many prayers that are being offered for all of us. We can rest in the peace that all is well with Mom's soul and whatever happens from here will not be something that we have to endure alone. However, because we are human and we are suffering because she is suffering, there is turmoil. It's not easy to watch someone you love endure such pain. It's not comfortable to think of what the near future may hold. It's not easy to make difficult decisions when your emotions are so closely tied to the situation. This causes the turmoil as well.

During this turbulant time in our lives, please pray for our family, for all of us. Pray for Mom as she endures the pain and soaks up all this precious time with her loved ones, that she will say what she needs to say, bless those she wants to bless, enjoy her family to the fullest and rest in peace during the long and painful days and nights. Pray for Dad as he watches Mom, unable to help her. Pray for his comfort and his heart. Pray for each of the children, their spouses and their children. We have a wedding coming up and babies to be born in the next few months, and it's hard to balance the joy of these events with the sadness of wondering if Mom will be here to enjoy them with us.

It is a time of peaceful turmoil that is a time of trusting in the Lord like never before. He IS our peace and He wants us to cast our burdens on Him, because He cares for us. Thank you for lifting our whole family up to the Lord in prayer.

Are We Home Yet?

2010-08-02T16:08:00.000-04:00

Our family LOVES to travel and to be on the go, but I think we've hit our travel threshold for awhile. Usually the constant question is "Are we there yet?" but lately it's turned into "Are we home yet?"

In the middle of July we left for our annual church camp in Harrisonburg, Virginia, but before we even got there, we started our adventure. We headed down to the middle of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg to be exact, to meet up with my cousin Tim who is assistant manager at the coolest store ever: Bass Pro Shops! We spent a LOT of time wandering around the store while Tim showed us the neat things in every nook and cranny of that place. From there we headed to Maryland to meet Robin, a fellow Watkins associate. Robin, her husband and two lovely girls live on a cattle and sheep farm. We spent our way-too-short visit with them on one of the hottest weekends ever!

Finally we headed down to the Eastern Mennonite University that our church rents out every year for one week in July for our church "camp". It's really not a camp. It's more like a conference because of the air conditioned facilities and all the amenities of a university campus, but it's always been called "camp" since waaaayyyy back, Webster Springs, WV was a real "camp". Anyway, we had a wonderful week at Camp, despite the 98F/38C temperatures. The boys enjoyed it, too, and you could tell because I ran out of Band-Aids in the first three hours that we were there. They got a lot of playing accomplished in those first few hours!

After Camp we headed to Grandpa and Grandma's in Ohio and spent the evening with Uncle Roger, Aunt Amy, Daniel and Ryan as well. Five boy cousins cooped up in a house while a major wind and rain storm beat down outside = lots of noise and activity in an otherwise quiet home of the grandparents.

Finally, we were on our way home to Canada for a few days while we washed clothes, mowed the lawn and repacked for our next adventure! Several months ago, Fred came across a fantastic deal from a golf resort up north - with the condition that we listen to their time share presentation. No problem for us! Since we've never really taken a family vacation like this and since we are not easily swayed by those kinds of tactics, we headed up to the "We Saw The Beach" (Wasaga Beach) area for a mini vacation. That was a LOT of fun! We spent our time swimming in all the pools, going to the beach, splash pads, recreation centers at the resort and touring around the local ski resort/tourist areas. On our way home from there, we stopped by Uncle Henry and Auntie Jo's cottage since it was so close. We enjoyed a BBQ supper with them, but didn't get to go for a boat ride or for a swim in the lake since it rained. Oh well. Time for home anyway!

Today is a holiday here in Canada. These Canadians love their holidays! We had plans to maybe go to Storybook Garden in London or down to Niagara Falls. Those plans scaled back to just going to Riverside Park's splashpad, but even that took a back seat to just being at home!! I'm the only one who left the house today and that was to go grocery shopping. We are HOME and are going to stay put ..... for awhile anyway.

Conquering the Weeds

2010-07-14T22:55:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I was pulling weeds in the garden and the thought went through my mind that if I just gave this garden a few more years, I could finally get all these weeds under control and I'd have a beautiful, weed-free garden! I had some amazing visions of this picture-perfect garden that I would have ... but those visions only lasted milliseconds because my mind immediately started searching the memory banks for gardens that had been tended for years. Naturally, I thought of Grandpa's garden and compared mine to his, hoping that I would recall visions of weed-free rows of vegetation.

But that's not what I saw in my mind as I yanked out yet another clump of weeds. I saw pictures of Grandpa, slightly bent with his hoe gently chopping the ground around each precious pepper plant. He'd stop, tip his hat to wipe his forehead, look around a bit, and then bend back down and continue tending to that garden. Even after some 70 years of tending that same garden, he STILL had to deal with weeds!

Stephen has been interested a lot lately in Jesus' parable of the sower who sowed seeds on different types of soil. (Matthew 13) In this parable, some seeds fell among the thorns and were choked out. Jesus said that the seed - God's Word - can fall among the thorns, or the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, and the Word of God is choked out and the seed doesn't grow.

Because we've been talking about this often as a family, I had to think about these weeds that I was pulling out of the garden. Sure, I had the hopes that if I could just pull ALL the weeds out of the garden over the next year or two I could have a perfect garden, but in reality, those weeds will never be totally conquered in my garden. Look at Grandpa's! If I could have truly observed Grandpa's spiritual garden, I bet he was still pulling weeds in his 94th year! Grandpa didn't have a weed-free garden after all those years, but he sure knew how to deal with them! He was in that garden every day on a regular basis taking care of the weeds that were a threat to his precious plants. He didn't just let them go and have a defeatist attitude about the fact that there would always be weeds and he'd never be able to get rid of all of them! He worked at it consciously! The Apostle Paul said that he "died daily" - it was a routine thing for him to work on his "weeds" in his life!

Ok, I'm writing this late at night, so some of my analogies may not be perfect, but I do believe that God wanted to teach me a lesson in my weedy garden this week. I want a beautiful garden. I want a productive garden. I don't want to have to work hard at it. God is showing me, though, that in order to have a beautiful and productive garden, I DO have to work at it! I need to consciously tend and care for the garden of my life and make sure that the seed of God's Word falls on GOOD ground and that if there are weeds there, I need to deal with them - and I will need to deal with them on an ongoing basis, but it needn't be a struggle all the time. If I care for my garden daily, taking care of a little weed here or there it will not overwhelm me. I can routinely care for my garden to keep the weeds at bay that will choke out the good seed.

I'm encouraged! Working in a garden in the heat of the day is not always pleasant, but if I deal with these weeds first thing in the morning, every day, I can start my day with a clean plot and nothing there to choke out the Good Word of God! Yes. Starting the work of pulling out those weeds of distraction in the cool of the morning with the Lord can make my garden beautiful every day!

How We Are Keeping Cool

2010-07-07T22:52:00.000-04:00

It's HOT ... in case you haven't heard. In fact, it's downright miserable if you're not used to it, and we're not yet. Here's how we're handling this heatwave.

* Boys get to camp out in the basement at night
* Jump in a friend's pool (ahhhh!)
* Turn on the octopus sprinkler
* Give the boys the "job" of watering the garden
* Strawberry Smoothies
* Invite over friends w/no air conditioning for an evening of fun
* Enjoy Chapmans Canada Flag ice cream - vanilla on the outside, red Canada maple leaf on the inside. Slice the box of ice cream for a beautiful Canada flag!
* Dissect an owl pellet to find the skeletal remains of a rodent with the intention of reconstructing the thing. (ICK!!! NOT my first choice of something to do, but it sure kept the kids occupied for a long, LONG time on a hot and muggy day!)
* Have everyone crash on the living room floor with the ceiling fan whirring away while Mommy reads chapter books to everyone

Yep. We're managing in this heat; suffering a bit when the BBQ is also blasting extreme temperatures in your face, but thankful that we don't have to heat up the kitchen every night, too! As Grandma always said, "This, too, shall pass."

What are you doing to keep cool this week?

The Princesses

2010-06-30T22:36:00.000-04:00

I was a bit nervous, a bit apprehensive, but very much full of anticipation last Sunday evening. My friend Lydia and I went through the instructions again out loud: Park in the lot to the right. Go to the gate at the main entrance. DO NOT RING THE BELL ... we will see you. Proceed to security to begin the clearance procedure. We stood outside the tall gate, capped with rolls of barbed wire, looking in at the buildings that sat in front of us. We had no idea what was in store for us, but we believed we were ready because we had covered ourselves in prayer long before this moment.

The security guard was quite friendly. He took our two forms of ID after he had carefully pulled on his white gloves and got his scanning machines ready. He handed us a key to our locker so that we could put in all of our stuff, valuable or not, while we were in the interior of the building. He handed Lydia a security button to attach to her belt, just in case there was an emergency. He explained that if the red button were pushed, no alarms would sound, but help would arrive within seconds and we'd be surrounded by people who would be there to cover us. Then we were told to go sit in the cafeteria and wait for Rosemary.

Several months ago, Lydia had asked me if I would be interested in being her partner in the women's prison ministry at the Grand Valley Institution for Women. I was interested immediately, and as soon as I gave her my answer, we started the process of getting a background police check, etc, and then we waited for our official invitation to attend Worship With Rosemary - the Sunday night chapel service for the inmates.

What happened that night is not easy to explain. I tried to soak it all in, but the experience was so overwhelming that most of the time I just sat in awe of what was going on around me. The room was already busy 15 minutes prior to the start of the service and more women kept coming in. We were told that it was a smaller group than usual, probably because of the hot, sticky weather and the rain that eventually came pouring down outside. Still, there were about 40 women in attendance, I would guess.

We began with some worship songs and then Rosemary, the prison chaplain, asked a question: Who is God to you? Wow. The answers those women gave immediately caused me to reconsider who they were, where they had been and who they were becoming! We sang some more. Rosemary asked more questions. More answers blew me away. I didn't hear the story behind all of the women in that room, but I was told that some of them had come from The Max (maximum security), some from isolation and some for much shorter and less severe sentences. One amazing woman, Ruth, is in there for life. She had killed her husband. She has gone through so much since that time - painful confession and repentance and memories. Now she is a Princess of the King of Kings and is being used as an encouragment and tower of strength for her fellow inmates. During the course of the evening, there were tears as one woman shared her story for the first time ever of being sexually abused. Another woman had to leave the room as she was weeping over the condition of her past. Yet another confessed her anger toward God because He had allowed her 17 year old brother to be killed. One woman acknowledged that her (sexual) violator was caught in a cycle of abuse from three generations past, and when she found that out, she could finally forgive him. She still had to serve her sentence for her sins, but she could forgive the one who started her on this path.

I could go on and on about the stories that we were told, but it was one of those times when you really had to be there to understand the depth of the healing that took place and the power of the Holy Spirit that was working that night. Lydia shared her testimony with the women, sharing her struggles as a teenager with bulimia and how she finally found victory over this when she realized that she was a princess in God's eyes - totally loved by Him! Her encouragement to the women was so evident as all eyes were riveted on her and no one moved the entire time she was speaking. My job (this time) was to cover Lydia in prayer as she shared what God had placed on her heart, so I didn't really have a part in the evening physically. Rosemary emphasized over and over again that more importantly to the women was the ministery of presence rather than the ministry of speaking.

Ministry of presence. Lydia and I have since talked about this often. Ministry of presence. Those women were more blessed by the fact that we had come in from outside the gates to just SIT with them, talk and laugh and cry with them, share a bowl of ice cream with them, talk about our families with them than if we had been preachers of a thousand sermons in that room! Even if we had not said a word (and we didn't speak very much at all, actually), our presence in the room with the women was more important than anything.

Lydia and I can not stop thinking and dreaming about our experience with those amazing women in the prison. THEY know what it's like to rely on God! THEY have come from the depths to the heights. THEY are true princesses, despite the fact that they are living out their sentences in a high security prison. THEY taught me more lessons Sunday night than I could have learned anywhere else.

Pray for those women in the prison. They all have families that they are not with. They have regrets and guilt and sorrow that are unfamiliar to most of us. They have fears about leaving the prison and making it on their own again. Pray that the faith that they have found in the Lord will prepare them and carry them through the rough days inside and outside of the prison gates. Pray that they will be strong enough to reach out to others that they can relate to. Pray that they will believe that they are Princesses because they are Daughters of the King!

And the Giveaway Winner Is ....

2010-06-29T15:57:00.000-04:00

Pauser!

Thank you everyone for participating in this giveaway, and thank you especially for all the wonderful suggestions for summer activities! Some of these we already do as a family and some of them are new to us. I look forward to using this bank of ideas for those days when the boys complain that they are bored. I knew I could count on you to come up with some unique ideas and I was not disappointed!

Pauser, congratulations on winning! See me this weekend for your lovely Lavender Hand & Cuticle Salve tin from Watkins!

Father's Day Spice

2010-06-26T21:58:00.000-04:00

Fred got the most amazing Father's Day gift from Timothy that their class at school made this year. It's so amazing that I think I've used it more than the father around here! Of course, Timothy makes sure I ask Daddy for permission before I use it each time. This gift is a little jar of spice mix called "Father's Day Spice" and it came with the recipe that I want to share with you. Naturally, you'll be using Watkins spices to get a superior flavor!

Father's Day Spice

1 tbsp Watkins granulated black pepper

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tbsp Watkins parsley flakes

1 tbsp Watkins paprika

1 teaspoon Watkins garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Try it. You'll be hooked and won't want to buy another commercial spice again!

"It's Almost Summer" Giveaway

2010-06-17T16:27:00.000-04:00

It's almost summer here in our neck of the woods and that means that the kids will be done with school and our holidays will begin! Having three very active little boys here who like to get up early and stay up late and run non-stop between those two times can be very exhausting for any mom, let alone a 43 year old woman who would love to sleep in during summer vacation! Since I can't sleep in and I can't take afternoon naps (what are those things again?!) and I probably won't be able to just curl up with a book whenever I want (not that that has happened much in the past few years anyway), I need to find other ways to relax, even if it is only momentary. How do I do that? With lavender!!

This is where my giveaway comes in. I have a 2.1oz tin of Watkins Lavender Hand & Cuticle Salve to give away to one of my readers. This lovely salve smells soooo delicious and just one whiff of it can start the relaxing that is needed on these action-packed summer days! I love to put this salve on at night, not just on my hands and cuticles, but I also put it on those rough spots on my feet because I love to go barefoot in this warm weather.
How can you win this natural Lavender Hand & Cuticle Salve from Watkins? Simply leave me a comment with an activity that you do/did with your children in the summer that they loved, or an idea for adding some responsibilities to their daily routines that are FUN, but in reality, they are actually helping around the house! Am I fishing for ideas????? YOU BET! You may comment up to three times for three separate entries into the draw (I need LOTS of ideas!!).

Anyone in Canada, the US or Paraguay can enter to win.

Contest will close at 4:00PM Daylight Savings Time on June 29 - my kids' last official day of school and the moment they will be home for the summer.

Contestants may enter more than three activity suggestions (PLEASE), but a maximum of three entries will be valid for the draw. For those of you who lurk and don't want to comment publicly, you may e-mail your suggestions to me privately, knowing that I may refer to some of them on future blog posts.

Good luck! You may start sending your ideas NOW!! Ummm, I mean, you may enter the contest at any time. Thank you.

Angela

2010-06-02T22:15:00.000-04:00

I'm missing Angela today. I made salmon patties and it made me think of her. She would have been proud of me, I think.

Some of you have heard my Angela stories before, but for those of you who haven't, I'll share a bit about this 90-something woman who had a great impact on me as a teenage girl and beyond. Liz, Karen and I were introduced to Angela by my mom who used to take her Meals-on-Wheels. Angela was in her 80's at the time, lived on her own and was able to see only with her periferal vision so she would ask Mom to thread some needles for her every so often when Mom would drop off her meals. She mentioned one day that she wished she knew of a girl that could come help her. Mom told her that she knew of three girls. Guess who?!

We started going to Angela's house once a week for an hour to thread needles, read her mail, and maybe make a bowl of Jell-O. We got paid .50 for that hour - but it was usually with a beautiful fifty-cent coin, so it was worth it! That was about all we could handle as 11-12-13 year olds. That one hour a week gradually turned into several hours and several days and even though we groaned about going, we didn't believe Mom anymore when she would keep telling us that Angela was going to die soon and then we wouldn't have to go anymore. Year after year passed, and Angela was as alive as ever! Our responsibilities changed, though. We would still thread needles and read mail, but we also cooked and cleaned and learned about all the saints in the Catholic church and how to make corn silk tea and (poisonous) poke berry jam and tuna patties. We made rum biscuits and honey cookies and tapioca pudding. We cleaned toilets, cut toenails and filed teeth (well, one of us did that!). We accidentally dumped holy water, unintentionally wiped Latin blessings off the front door and haphazardly fixed broken rosaries. We patched cotton stockings for the 87th time, rolled hair balls to put back on Angela's head and made our own envelopes to mail recycled Christmas cards. We painted black leather shoes outdoor-house-paint green, along with a matching black leather purse and a fabric belt from a cotton frock (one can't go to church without wearing something summery and bright, now, can they?). I drew the line at painting the bottoms of her cooking pots with that same flat, pukey-green house paint, though!

Ah yes. Angela was a character, that's for sure! She had a way of lying on her porch glider and belching so loudly that it would scare the daylights out of you! She memorized her grocery list alphabetically and then called it in to the Supermarket downtown Doylestown for delivery. The only problem with that was that she didn't always remember what she had tried to write on her list, so we'd be sitting next to her shouting the next item to her so that she could hear, and then repeat it to Dave, the Supermarket man. By the time Angela told him the item, I'm sure he had heard us shout it about 3 or 4 times already.

I continued to work for Angela through my high school years and on into college. Mom still promised me that Angela would die soon and I wouldn't have to go. I still didn't believe her. I continued past college graduation and several years more until at the age of 97, Angela's family finally convinced her (or not) to give up her independence and moved her into a nursing home. I continued to visit her until I moved to Phoenix, about 12 years after I met her. Angela did pass away at the age of 99 after I had moved away, and I would never have believed this ten years prior, but I missed her. I still do. I would love to sit down and talk with her again and listen to her stories and humor her by recycling the strings from potato bags, saving the plastic sleeves that soda crackers are packaged in and collecting dandelion leaves for her tea.

So many Angela Stories have impacted my life. There are way too many to tell here, and honestly, they are much more entertaining to hear in person. Sometime you can ask me in person about the time she wanted me to make her a brasier that she could adjust with her fingers that had no feeling from the knuckles down.

Some day I may be an old lady with stories to tell, odd ways of doing things and curious behaviors that make no sense to teenagers, but if I am an old lady some day, I want to be like Angela. I'll try not to belch when other people are around and I'll make sure that I get some dentures instead of relying on my three good teeth. I will wash my hair more than once every two months and I will refrigerate my leftovers instead of storing them on top of the fridge. I may call my "girl" Toots, just to be like Angela. And if I am still making my own tuna or salmon patties, by golly, you can be sure I'll be frying them in PURE LARD, because at that age, it really won't matter any more! Making those salmon patties the other day brought back special memories of my years with Angela, but patties fried in cooking spray just didn't taste like hers!

Weekend in a Nutshell

2010-05-27T14:37:00.000-04:00

Last weekend was our holiday - Victoria Day - or better known around these parts as the May 2-4 Weekend. You cannot say May 24 Weekend, you must distinguish between the two digits - 2 and 4. It was the May 2-4 Weekend.

Our family had a wonderful time in Syracuse, New York at the wedding of Lucas and Melissa. It's kind of weird going to the weddings of my friends' kids when we're still dealing with three-year-old issues, but I guess this just means that I get to observe and learn from my friends as they go through the process of letting their children go.

We stayed at a hotel near the church that had a pool. THIS was the highlight of the weekend - if you ask my kids. Christopher is STILL talking about "the cold pool" and "the warm pool" and "is that the building with the swimming pool right there?" He just loved being in that pool! I must admit that it was fun, but after 90 minutes in an indoor, over-chlorinated pool, a mom really wants to just move on already! This little mini-vacation was a great memory maker for the kids.

My memory-maker of the weekend wasn't all that fun, though. At the end of the reception when we were gathering our ducks to go home, we couldn't find Stephen. We looked and looked and asked all the kids if they had seen him and went all around the perimiter of the church looking for him. We started to get a little concerned because the boys (ALL the boys and some of the girls at the reception) had been playing in the woods behind the church and there was a lot of scruffy underbrush there. No one had seen Stephen recently, but almost everyone commented that he was in the woods in the "fort" that they had built. A large group of adults started plowing into the underbrush hollering Stephen's name, as well as Austin's, who was also MIA and seemed to have been with Stephen. We hollered and yelled and tripped and ran and (I) tried not to cry because my son was nowhere to be seen! After gaining nothing but scratches and a huge blister on my foot (since I was still in heels running through this brush), I came back out to the clearing in time to see Austin's mom holding Stephen's hand saying, "I think you'd better tell your mom where you've been. She's awfully worried about you."

There he was, standing so clean and cool (while the rest of us were sweating like the outside of an ice cold glass of lemonade on a hot and muggy day) and totally oblivious to the panic that was going on around him. Where was he? Well, he was just in one of the Sunday School rooms with Austin, playing the piano! WHAT?! No wonder we couldn't find him! I NEVER would have thought to look for him inside the church and certainly NOT in a room with a piano! He was writing music notes on the whiteboard and Austin would play that note on the piano. They were quite content in there, enjoying their activity and the coolness of the building. Sigh. Always an adventure with that boy!

And speaking of adventures with him, that wasn't the last. On our way home from Syracuse Sunday night, we stopped at Fred's brother, Dan's, for a campfire and fireworks. The kids were given sparklers and they were having fun waving them around and enjoying the experience. We were, too, until I heard a piercing scream coming from Stephen ... somewhere close to the creek. Sure enough, he was so intent on watching his sparkler and dancing all around with it that he didn't realize he was so close to the muddy bank of the creek and OOPS! Down he went! The poor, overtired guy freaked out because he had mud everywhere and wanted us to strip him down and throw his clothes in the fire. Being overtired can make you quite irrational. Since Mom and Dad Weinhardt live right next door, we just went over there, put him in the shower and pulled some clothes out of the suitcases that were in the van. What a day!

Now we're back in our routines and looking forward to another weekend full of adventures with our cousins, Daniel and Ryan!

My Husband, the Servant Who Honors

2010-05-15T14:48:00.001-04:00

Servanthood that honors, honors others with more servanthood.

This afternoon I have a moment here to write because my husband, the servant, has blessed me with a beautiful act of service this afternoon! His servant responsibilities started last night. He went to his parents to help get his dad ready for bed and then spent the night so that he could help him get up this morning, too. Dad W. has really slowed down in the past few years and it's getting more and more difficult for Mom to care for him physically. Fred was serving/honoring his parents last night with his care for his dad. All the siblings are pitching in, but last night was Fred's opportunity to be there.

He got home late morning and then surprised the boys (and me) by telling them that he was going to take them to the Playland at McDonald's for lunch so that I could have a few hours to myself today. I'm all teary-eyed as I'm writing this because I am touched by the servant-heart that I saw in Fred again today. He knows it's been a rough week on me, and even though he hasn't been home himself for almost a whole day now, he chose to honor me by giving me some quiet time without the activity of the boys here.

I've been able to do a million things this afternoon, it seems. I've mended a puppy who's been losing stuffing for months. Poor Timothy has been asking me almost daily for several weeks if I would fix him. I finally honored him and fixed his puppy ... I even sewed his ear back on that was held in place with a safety pin. I am baking Fred's favorite bread, because it will honor him. I cleaned up the boys' blocks that used to be a garage on the living room floor, because I want to honor them.

Sigh. I must cut this short because I just heard the garage door open and the house will no longer be quiet, but I just want to reiterate the statement at the top of this blog. I can see today that servanthood that honors will honor others with more servanthood. It's a beautiful cycle to be a part of.

The Crazy Story

2010-05-14T14:19:00.001-04:00

Once there was a blank piece of paper with nothing on it. Timothy didn't draw anything. He went to the bathroom to get toothpaste. Then he had to wash his hands. He left his eyeballs alone.

He gave himself a kiss because he was very strong. He watched TV while he was riding his bike. He hit a tree and then ate a popsicle. He scurried off in a wink to his neighbor's to find a dog.

The End

This is the story that Timothy and Christopher wrote today on a whiteboard that Grandma gave us. The two of them were messing around so badly today and fighting about every little thing. I was out of ideas of what to do about them anymore, so I grabbed the little whiteboard and just started writing a story about Timothy (the loudest whiner at the time). After that story, I asked Timothy to give me a sentence and with his smart alecky voice he recited "Once there was a blank piece of paper with nothing on it!" HA! He thought it would discourage me from writing a story, but nooooooo! I was desperate, remember? So I asked Christopher for the next sentence. Then they both started laughing and getting goofy and this is the story they came up with. They had so much fun that they wanted to write the next one and share this with you, too. Now they are quietly illustrating their stories and I'm going to finish this and get off of here and get some stuff done while they're quiet for a change!

Once upon a time, Meat was crazy. He jumped on his bed and cried La La La La La. Then he got hurt on his bed and decided to paint a picture. He went to the kitchen and ate a clown. It tasted funny. He wrote a message to his mom.

He went to the garage and saw a funny bear. It was jumping everywhere! He saw his mommy coming into the garage. He gave his mom $20.00. She was happy and went and bought a new harmonica. As soon as she played it, the bear ran away.

The End

Toy Lending Library

2010-05-13T14:52:00.000-04:00

Our local library branch has a wonderful toy lending library. We can check out a toy for a week at a time and have a lot of fun with it. At the end of the week, we count all the pieces, put them in the bag and take it back. The boys love it because they can get Rush Hour (our favorite!), Hi Ho Cherry-O, Pegs in the Park, Little People Pirate Ships, etc.

Here's the latest favorite that kept the boys busy for days! The barbeque!

Aren't they cute together?!

(And yes, Christopher is grilling a donut.)

Those Watercolor Ponies (and other pieces of art)

2010-04-19T16:00:00.001-04:00

Fred took the boys on Saturday morning so that I could have some time to clean up from the weekly tornado that blows through this house. He loves doing it. The boys love doing it. And I love when they do it, too! So while they were gone, I was cleaning up Timothy's scraps and muttering the whole time about how he just doesn't see the mess he makes when he's creating something new.

I was also listening to some of my "retro" music (read: Christian contemporary from the 80's) while I was cleaning. I was struck with a deep conviction as I was scraping Timothy's plasticine from the carpet under his chair at the table. He had been busy making a multi-media picture of outer space and parts of the Earth and Mars had fallen on the floor and went undetected in his excitement of creating this masterpiece. So as I was scraping bits and pieces out of the rug, Wayne Watson's song, "Watercolored Ponies" came on and my complaining screeched to a stop. If you've never heard this song and you have little children that drive you nuts sometimes, listen to the link and read the lyrics below. This song always brought tears to my eyes even before I had children, but now that I have my own, it's even more touching to me.

Watercolor Ponies

by Wayne Watson

There are watercolor ponies

On my refrigerater door

And the shape of something

I don't really recognize

Drawn by careful little fingers

And put proudly on display

A reminder to us all

Of how time flies

Seems an endless mound of laundry

And a stairway laced with toys

Gives a blow by blow

Reminder of the war

That we fight for their well-being

For their greater understanding

To impart a holy reverance

For the Lord

But, baby, what will we do

When it comes back to me an you?

They look a little less

Like little boys every day

Oh, the pleasure of watching

The children growing

Is mixed with a bitter cup

Of knowing the watercolour ponies

Will one day ride away

And the vision can get so narrow

As you view through your tiny world

And little victories can go by

With no applause

But in the greater evaluation

As they fly from your nest of love

May they mount up with wings

As eagles for His cause

But, baby, what will we do
When it comes back to me an you?
They look a little less
Like little boys every day
Oh, the pleasure of watching
The children growing
Is mixed with a bitter cup
Of knowing the watercolour ponies
Will one day ride away

Yes, there are pictures galore around here and an endless mound of laundry, but Fred and I have been chosen by God to fight a war for these children. We're in the heat of the battle right now, but soon ... very, very soon ... our part of the war will be less physical and even more spiritual. One day those water colored ponies will ride away and we'll be left with memories of their childhood and no pictures, sticky handprints, muddy shoes, or a million pieces of Lego to complain about. (Remind me of this next week when I've forgotten about this song and am once again frustrated to no end about the mess that I'm cleaning up after them!)

When I Was A Kid...

2010-04-11T22:32:00.000-04:00

When I was a kid, I was expected to do my own homework, finish my own projects and be responsible for my own schoolwork on every account. I guess things have changed. Tonight I was browsing www.Kijiji.com looking for some good deals and I stumbled upon the following ad:

You hate writing essays. You can't stand finishing Seven chapters of math equations. You dread writing that 10 page book report.

That's where I come in.
-- I'll write your essay
-- Finish your seven chapters
-- And write that 10-page book report

For 10$ an assignment, I'll get you an A no matter where you live.
- I know what it's like to be in highschool and not have the time or patience to sit down and get to work. All I need is a copy of the project/assignment outline, your name, the requirements, and any other useful information I need.

Contact me at this email - mailto:Gottaluvstewie@hotmail.com

Is this unbelievable or what?! This guy is actually offering to do homework for high school kids so that they don't have to do it themselves! I just can't believe this. He probably thinks he's being super-innovative by placing an ad like this, but come on! I don't know who Stewie is, but I don't think I gotta luv him!

And that's my rant for tonight.

MS Read-A-Thon

2010-03-31T08:25:00.001-04:00

Our school is participating in the MS Read-A-Thon for the next month. Generally, I don't push participation in our fundraisers at this point because the boys are young and we're bombarded with fundraiser after fundraiser while we're struggling to keep our heads above water ourselves. We contribute to many causes through our church and other organizations, so I don't tend to push the school-based ones. However, I will encourage the boys to participate in this one for two reasons: a.) Multiple Sclerosis touches me personally and b.) the boys love reading!

About twelve years ago, I was sitting at work and my eye seemed a bit blurry so I rubbed it and kept working. Over the next hour, it kept getting worse and worse and I was frustrated with myself because I thought I smeared my contact more and more each time I rubbed my eye. I even went out at my lunch break to buy some contact lens cleaner to deal with it properly, but it didn't help. Within an hour after trying to clean my lens, I was starting to get quite concerned. My eye was no longer blurred, but I had lost sight in the bottom half of my eye. I called the eye doctor immediately, left work, and by the time I got to the doctor's office, the vision in my right eye was completely gone. The doctor examined me, asked a ton of questions, and scheduled me for an immediate MRI. I really had no idea what was going on at that time, but in between the my visit with the optometrist and my MRI, I spoke with my brother-in-law, Joe, who very calmly asked, "Did he say anything about MS?"

Whoa!!!! MS?! As in Multiple Sclerosis?! Uh, no! That was not mentioned ... until the MRI results came back. I was told that I had Optic Neuritis - inflammation on the optic nerve. It was NOT MS, but this is one of the early signs of MS. I was put on prednisone and was monitored closely for any other MS related symptoms, but while living in Phoenix, was never officially diagnosed.

Fast forward a few years to the year I married Fred and moved to Canada. That first summer that I was here, the blindness returned, but this time in my other eye! I started a whole new battery of tests with my optometrist here: eye exams, in depth questions, field of vision screenings, MRIs, blood tests, nerve tests, appointments with neurologist, opto-neurologists, etc, etc. For the past eleven years here in Canada I have had appointment after appointment trying to pinpoint exactly what is going on with my body. I've had vision issues, physical instability, vertigo, numbness and pain in my hands and feet, tingling in my face and scalp, confused thoughts and slow speech. I sometimes can't tell where my feet are while I'm moving and I have fallen down stairs (breaking my tailbone once!), tripped while walking many times, struggle with depth perception, etc. When I am over-heated, over-tired or over-stressed, my vision starts to fade and my body coordination starts to slip. I was out for a power walk once and while I was still far from home, I lost control of my leg to a point. I got scared because it felt like my brain wasn't telling my leg what to do and I had to literally push my leg forward with my hand so that I could keep walking home!

It can be quite scary at times (like when holding a baby and panicking at the top of the stairs because you don't know if you can make it down in one piece or not), but God has been faithful even in this trial! I have NOT been diagnosed with MS. The specialists don't want to label me because the symptoms are not severe, nor do they seem to be progressing rapidly, so they want to spare me the complications of having an official diagnosis. I do appreciate this because there really is nothing that can be done at this point. It is just something that I have learned to live with and have to make lifestyle adjustments to manage day to day activities. The symptoms come and go and have never been so debilitating that everything grinds to a halt. They're just annoyances at this point. For me, life goes on, but say MS, and my ears are perked up!

As for the boys, Stephen especially is really into this Read-A-Thon. The students were given a pledge sheet that has an hourglass picture on it with 20 minute increments that can be colored in as they read. K-3 students who read at least 400 minutes get to have their name put in a draw for a year's subscription to Chirp magazine. Stephen LOVES Chirp, so he is determined to hit that 400 minutes! He has until April 21 to do this, but it's only day 2.5 and he's already up to 160 minutes! He has been setting the timer for 20 minutes and then dives on the couch with his book! The timer goes off, he colors in his next space, resets the timer and gets lost in his book again. This morning he told me that he's disappointed that he reads so much in that 20 minutes because his book gets finished too fast.

Well, there you go. This is why I'm happy to support this year's MS Read-A-Thon at school. The money that is raised not only goes to the MS Society, but some will go to our school AND the bonus of my kids reading is all worth it. Happy Reading, Brigadoon students!

Food Fun

2010-03-20T22:52:00.001-04:00

Guess who is behind these fun, food creations.

You guessed right ...

Timothy!

Daylight Savings Time and March Break

2010-03-20T22:45:00.001-04:00

We're at the end of March Break here. Boy, am I glad that it was this week, following the disorienting removal of an hour of time from our lives! Last Sunday really messed us (ME) up and I'm so glad that Monday was Day 1 of our March Break from school! The boys actually slept past 8:00! I'm not sure when that has happened before.

We have had a busy week. I'm so thankful that the weather was BEAUTIFUL!!! We had warm (16C) days and sunshine just about every single day! Perfect week for March Break!

We spent time with our friends Paul and Barb and had a Wii-fest with them one day. We met some friends at the Huron Nature Trails and checked out the beaver dam, the still frozen pond and the mud. We hiked Topper Woods Trail in our neighborhood with some friends from the neighborhood and then played at the park where Stephen finally mastered the monkey bars!

We did a lot of playing outside, hiking, playground playing, etc. We were busy just about every day and it was fun! Come Monday morning, we're finally back into routines and schedules, and I can't wait for that. We had a wonderful week together, but our family does much better when there is structure to our days! Here are some highlights of our week.

Becoming A Reader

2010-03-09T20:50:00.000-05:00

Stephen is becoming quite a reader! I can't believe how much his reading skills have taken off this past year and how much interest he has in books. Well, I guess I can believe it, because he comes from a family of readers! I was just telling him the other day that I have memories of going to the Doylestown Public Library in the summer and bringing home BAGS full of books that were probably supposed to last us a few weeks, and we'd have them done in a few days. I love the series books, you know like Ramona the Pest and The Boxcar Children and Nancy Drew. I just couldn't get enough of those books!

Today Stephen brought home The Littles Adventures. Usually after school he is begging me to play on the computer or is asking me what he can do. Not today! He came home, had his snack, told me about Mrs. Groulx's (pronounced Grew) jokes and then headed straight for the couch with his new book from the library. All the kids (mine, and the ones we babysit after school) kept coming in and asking him why he didn't want to play with them downstairs, but he was too busy.

I love that he loves to read, but I'm also finding that many books at his level are geared toward girls. I'm open to hearing some suggestions for books that are appropriate for boys at 1st, 2nd or even 3rd grade level. I'm not really into series like "Diary of a Wimpy Kid", but something that has more substance. Any suggestions out there?

Sledding

2010-02-27T20:44:00.001-05:00

Today two crazy moms took their kids out in the cold and blowing snow for wonderful day of sledding! We wanted to help celebrate Connie's birthday, so we jumped at the chance to go sledding with our friends when she suggested it.

The little bump of the hill in the background looks pretty tame...until you get to the top! Here's the group ready to go: Maddie (in front), Timothy (please note that this is the only picture in which he is smiling), Christopher, Braden, Caitlin and Stephen. Oh yeah, and I'm in the back, too.

Caitlin, Stephen, Braden and Timothy ready to head down the hill!

Christopher and I hit one of the huge bumps and were tossed off. No injuries!If you look closely, you can see the tears on Timothy's face. For some reason he had a very difficult day here and spent most of his time laying halfway down the hill with his face in the snow wailing. Eventually all the sledders just made two paths around him and just ignored the crying kid on the way down. Each mother would stop and try to convince him to come up, but no one was successful. That made me feel a little better ... knowing that it wasn't just me.

Christopher and Maddie enjoying their hot chocolate and cookies after our adventure on the hill.

Stephen and Braden

The whole group having our tailgate party at the end of a very tiring morning! Christopher took a three hour nap and STILL went to bed without an argument tonight! What a great day!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Connie! Thanks for inviting us to your sledding party today!

The Perfect Healthy Potato Chip

2010-02-26T14:34:00.000-05:00

Yaaaaaay! I finally have a healthy recipe that I love! I am a salty-greasy-crunchy kind of girl and would prefer a bag of chips over a batch of cookies any day! The only problem is that when you try to find the "perfect" chip out there, they are so high in calories and fat content that you can only enjoy one before you've hit your limit for the day. Either that, or you find a "healthy" one that tastes like homemade paper.

Well, my dear Aunt Heidi posted a recipe on her blog this week for some homemade potato chips that I have now made several times and I LOVE them! They satisfy my need for crunch and salt, but eliminate the grease. You can visit her blog for the tutorial of how to make them, but basically, just thinly slice a cleaned potato, toss it with a bit of oil and microwave it in a single layer on parchment paper for four minutes. Stand and watch the microwave while it cooks. Why? Because ... who knows why. You just do it! You can't help it. Then lightly salt it when it is done. Exercize a bit of patience so that they can cool off a bit, and then enjoy!

I tweaked my procedure just a bit because I wanted to see what I could do with this and was quite pleased with the results. I sliced my potato uniformly thin, put it on the parchment paper and microwaved on high for about 5 minutes (mine didn't crisp up right away for some reason). When they came out, I sprayed them with my Watkins Cooking Spray and then sprinkled Watkins Seasoning Salt on top. Yum, yum, yum, yum, YUM!! For the past few days, I've had only potato chips for lunch. One red skinned home grown potato (thanks to Chris and Jenny) gave me a nice handful of chips and I figured it was about the same as having a baked potato for lunch, but with much less fat and a ton more crunch! Mmmmm mmm!

If you're a salty-greasy-crunchy person like me, try these! They're fabulous! I want to keep experimenting with some other seasonings like the Fiesta Dip Mix or maybe the Blazin' Cajun Dip Mix. They are awfully good with just plain old sea salt as well!

Try it and let me know what you think! You'll fall in love, too.

Dear Little Baby

2010-02-20T22:41:00.000-05:00

I wrote the following letter eight years ago to our first little baby. Even though many things in our lives have changed since that time, I still read this letter every year and I pray for all women who have ever had a similar experience. I am feeling convicted to post this here on my blog this year, even though it is a very personal and intimate letter that I wrote to my unborn child.

II Corinthians 1:3-5 "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ." I believe that God allowed us to go through this experience so that we could be comforted by God, and now we can comfort others with that same comfort that we received. If you are suffering in a difficult situation in your life, believe that God will comfort you, and most likely it is so that you are also able to comfort others with that same comfort that you receive. He makes no mistakes.

Dear Little Baby,
Today is the day that the doctor said you would be born. February 19, 2002. I watched him as he calculated the day on his little cardboard wheel, but I already knew what he would say. I was so excited when I found out that you were actually growing inside of me, that I looked at all kinds of information on the internet. I wanted to learn everything I could about you and I already knew that you would be due on February 19. That date was burned into my heart! That would be the day that I would finally meet you!

Today is the day you were to be born. We kept the knowledge of you a secret for almost three months. We wanted to be sure that everything was fine with your development before we told anyone about you. We had heard so many stories of other babies just like you who, for reasons that only God knows, weren’t able to live very long and we saw the pain in their parents’ eyes. We prayed that you would be healthy and that God would protect your little growing body so that we wouldn’t have to know that same pain. We had a little secret going – you, your dad and me. We counted the days before we could finally tell the rest of the world that you were on your way here!

Today is the day that we told your grandparents you would be born. We made cards for them telling them to look forward to February 19 because you would be here today. They were so excited! We asked them to wait one more week before they told anyone because we wanted to be sure that you were ok. We told your aunts and uncles and cousins, too, and they wanted to hear all about you. Uncle Henry was excited because his birthday is tomorrow. He was hoping that you would be born one day late so you could share his birthday. Aunt Karen and Opa were hoping you would be born on the 27th, on their birthdays. Auntie Claudia, Oma, and Uncle Bob were hoping you’d be early and come close to one of their birthdays. I didn’t really mind what day you would be born, as long as you were safe in my arms! February 19. That’s the day that I was waiting for.

Today is the day that I marked my calendar with little hearts and smiley faces. I didn’t know your name, so I couldn’t write that down, but I was going to do it as soon as I knew. We had baby name books. We looked up name lists on the Internet. We talked about what names we liked if you would be a boy or if you would be a girl. There was no rush to choose a name for you because we still had six months to get ready for the big day! We wanted to make sure that we picked the perfect name for you because you would have it for the rest of your life.

Today is the day that we were going to have everything in place for your arrival. There would be a room all of your own. There would be clothes ready to put on your beautiful little body. There would be a rocking chair ready to hold us as we held you. There would be toys given to you as gifts waiting for the day that you would be old enough to play with them. There would be car seats purchased and a crib assembled and tiny bottles of gentle bath supplies just for you. There would be bibs and bottles and blankets ready to wrap around your precious body to keep you warm. Everything would have been in place waiting for you to come today.

Today is the day that now breaks my heart. You are not coming today. You won’t be coming tomorrow either. Or ever. Today, February 19, 2002, is now permanently scarred into my heart. One week after we finally shared the special news with your grandparents, and only the day after we told some of your cousins, our dreams of the future with you came to a crumbling end. We changed our plans to leave on vacation that day, August 3, because I knew that something just wasn’t right. We prayed with all our might that God would protect you. We asked our family and our friends to pray, even though some of them didn’t even know what they were praying about. I finally cried out to God that He would pry my hands off of my hopes and dreams to see you and to hold you and to be your mommy and that He would take you from me, if He knew that He could take better care of you than I. God heard my prayer, because He chose to take you from my body before I could even see you or hold you or be your mommy. And I am grateful to Him for doing what was best for all of us.

Today is the day that I will remember you. I will remember the first hint of your conception. I will remember the days that I was so terribly sick because you were growing inside of my body. I will remember the excitement of dreaming about you and sharing the news about you with the people we love. I will remember my fears of losing you and I will remember each horrid detail of that coming to pass. But I will also remember the arms of my Father holding me as I cried for you. I will remember the overwhelming peace that He placed in my heart as He took you from my body. I will remember that His ways are higher than ours and that His love is perfect.

Today is the day that you are at Home. Not here with us, but with your Father. And I know that today you are safe and are loved by the One who is greater than any father or mother here could ever be. I will always remember today. Sometimes with overwhelming sadness, and other times with immense peace. I loved you, my child, for the short time that we lived together, and I will always remember you on February 19 because …

Today is the day that you were to be born.

Never a Dull Moment

2010-02-19T23:16:00.000-05:00

There is never a dull moment in this house! And if there is...that's when I need to worry!

You know, I've repeated Mom and Grandma's (and probably every other adult in this world) advice to the boys many, many times: Don't run with scissors in your hands! The problem is, I don't think that I've ever actually told the boys not to run with a newly sharpened pencil in their hands either.

This afternoon, Timothy was running through the kitchen to the front hall where he was going to write a note of some sort for their game. Unfortunately, he rounded the corner from the living room and his socks slipped on the floor (maybe because I had washed it for a change?!) and he came crashing down. I watched it all happen in slow motion, and then was horrified when I realized that he had been holding his newly sharpened pencil in his hand! We caught each other's eyes and I ran over to him as he started to scream. The pencil had gone right into his face! It caught him just between his cheek and his chin, a bit below his mouth. He didn't want to let me look at it for awhile, but when he finally took his hand away, I was thankful to see that it looked like just a puncture wound. The pencil tip was still on his pencil, and there was red blood coming from the tiny hole where it had stabbed him.

I convinced him to let me wipe it first with an antibacterial wipe and then put some polysporin on it to kill anything that might have gotten in there when it hit him. I can't see any pieces of the lead, so I'm praying that it is not as bad as it could have been. This was all happening moments before the little girl we babysit was to go home and a business associate of Fred's was supposed to arrive for supper.

Tonight he went to bed with some Petro Carbo ointment and a band aid on his face. He was so proud of that thing that he asked if he could wear it to school, too. The poor boy doesn't go back to school until next Tuesday, but he's bound and determined to keep that band aid (that "looks just like my own skin, Mommy") on his face until he can show his friends at school.

I don't know why I ever thought that I would enjoy being a nurse when I was younger. I can't stand things like this. I have no idea if I did the right thing, or if I should have done something more, or what I should look for tomorrow morning. My stomach churns thinking about that pencil puncturing his skin and sinking deep into the tissues in his face. Blech! That's why I'm praying hard tonight that if there is any graphite residue in that hole, that God would make sure that it squirms its way out so that I don't have to deal with it tomorrow. I'm also praying that there will be no infection and that it will heal quickly. It's ONLY a teeny tiny little hole, but I still don't like stuff like this.

I wonder what adventure tomorrow will bring ....

Olympics 2010

2010-02-16T22:14:00.000-05:00

I've been enjoying watching the Olympics with the boys this year. Last Friday, Stephen really, really wanted to watch the Opening Ceremonies, so we let the boys stay up until all the athletes had entered the stadium. I was touched by the interest that they had in each of the countries as they walked in. The boys were comparing the numbers of athletes, asking where each country was in the world, asking what the different events were that some of the athletes had posted under their pictures. But the most touching moments were when the boys were asking questions about Canada. I realized then that I was the only American in the room, and yet this was all about my children's country! They were so focused on the displays by the First Nations and wanted to know what everything meant. It made me realize that I do need to brush up on my Canadian history a bit, because I could only give them basic information at times.

This past weekend, together we've watched long track speed skating, mogul freestyle skiing, snowboarding, short track speed skating, pairs figure skating and tonight, Canada vs. Norway hockey! I had to laugh at the boys because after every event that they watched, they then moved around the house mimicking the motions of those athletes. They'd go sliding along the kitchen floor, flapping their arms like the speed skaters, they'd go jumping down the stairs like they were jumping moguls and then would have to do a fancy jump at the end...without falling, of course. The funniest, though, was the other night after they watched the pairs figure skating, Timothy and Stephen were spinning around the room holding on to each other and then I heard Timothy say, "Stephen, pick me up and spin me!" Of course, as Mom's wisdom was always shared with us, it was all fun and games until someone got hurt. Timothy tried to pick up Stephen to spin him, but it didn't work and they both came crashing to the ground and blamed the other one for the error.

Tonight, "Uncle" Rick came over to watch the Canada vs. Norway hockey game with us. I'm sure that he wanted to watch the game, but instead, he was bombarded with, "What's that mean?!" "Why is there a broken stick on the ice?" "What do those numbers mean?" "What happened?!" "Did they score?" "How come they've played so long and there's no goal yet?" I appreciate Uncle Rick's endurance with all of the questioning tonight as he explained things like power plays and icing to us, all while putting up so patiently with some goofy boys who were so excited to have him here that they couldn't calm down all evening. Stephen wanted to stay up and watch the end of the game so badly, but he finally agreed to go to bed as long as I promised to tell him if Canada scored any more goals. I'm happy that I can tell him that yes, WE did score more goals - a total of 8 - 0 to be exact!

This year's Olympics are going to be very different for me. I have to know which athletes are Canadian and I have to root for the Canadian athletes this year. I have to keep tabs on the medal count for the Canadians. I have to cheer every time a Canadian does well. I have to acknowledge every Canadian flag that is shown. I'm not saying that I don't want to cheer for the Canadians, but I am saying that I'm feeling a little traitor-ish and I'm just not used to ignoring those American flags and American athletes. The reality this year, though, is that my kids don't really care about the Americans. They only care about the Canadians. It's so sad. (I'm saying this with a bit of facitiousness in my written inflection.)

Because the Olympics are in Canada this year, and because my Canadian children are learning what it means to have patriotism for their country, I will cheer for the Canadians. I will get excited when I see the Canadian flags, and I will enjoy the excitement of the Games with my family, no matter who wins each event. The Olympics have always fascinated me and I'm glad that my kids are enjoying it, too.

Go Canada ....... and GO USA!!!!

Wordless

2010-02-10T20:33:00.000-05:00

A few days ago I wanted to update this blog since I seem to be slipping in my consistency. I had some great ideas of posts. I took some marvelous pictures of the snowstorm we got stuck in when we were in Ohio last weekend. I wanted to be positive and encouraging. But Blogger wouldn't let me. For some reason, I couldn't log in to Blogger. I couldn't get anywhere on this site to do anything! Not even comment on other people's blogs! It just wouldn't let me do a thing!

So now I'm here and I can write and I can post and I can comment and I can put up pictures, but I can't right now. I'm wordless. I'm depleted. The window of opportunity for me to be positive and encouraging and maybe even funny has passed. I hope it's just temporary, but right now I can't think of anything blog-worthy to write about that would make people smile.

Just when it looked like there was hope in this whole Micro-Aid business sale and all that, discouragement has hit again today, and it has hit hard. When will this trial ever end?! This morning I was meditating on the truth that God does allow His children to suffer, and it's usually because He has a greater good in store for them. There is refining He wants to accomplish and purifying and glorifying that He wants to have done. Well, I'm not sure what His plan is for us, but He sure is trying to do it all, it seems! We have been brought back to the point that only trust and faith in the Lord will hold us up emotionally right now. I know that others go through much worse than we have been/are going through, so I don't want to whine. I just want to say that through it all, I want to be thankful and praise the Lord for all these difficult things that He is allowing to happen, and that He is walking through with us.

We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed... II Corinthians 4:8-9

Mr. Creative #2

2010-02-04T16:34:00.000-05:00

Remember Mr. Creative who is happy to create (messes) out of anything? He found my chocolate from my cookies and decided to work his creativity again! He was in his glory with this melted chocolate, as you can see from the pictures.

Today his report card came home from his first term of Senior Kindergarten. It was no surprise to read his teacher's comments, "Timothy is an excellent artist and enjoys writing stories and illustrating his stories during his free time. He explores a variety of tools, materials, and processes of his own choice to create visual art forms in familiar and new ways." We can certainly attest to that!

I wonder how he'll be using this gift as he grows and matures. He's one creative little dude, that's for sure!

Healing from Sin

2010-01-28T21:16:00.000-05:00

James 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

I have been convicted many, many times over of something "good" that I was to do, and yet I have been ignoring it, running away from it, pretending that I was exempt from this, etc. I was in a rebellious denial that there was "good" to be done, and I avoided it ... and according to this verse, I was sinning.

Over the years, I have prayed about it, cried about it, attempted to do the good that I was supposed to do, but I think in the back of my head, I still thought that God would understand all my excuses and that He would forgive my blatant sin, without any change on my part.

In the last few weeks, God has been working on me, though. He's been tenderly asking me to listen to Him and to "do good" and free myself from this burden that I've heaped upon my heart. When I heard His voice this time, I wanted to run away again. I didn't want to face this because it brought back too many painful memories and too many situations of unforgiveness on my part. I wanted life to be perfect and rosy, and if I listened to God this time, then He would try to make me change and am just too depleted emotionally to deal with this right now, so I thought.

Thank God, He has greater plans for me! A few weeks ago I was at a breaking point with this. I was so tired of carrying this burden, but didn't know what to do next. All my past attempts at doing "good" had failed, and only more hurt and rebelliousness and unforgiveness grew, and grew out of control. I had begged God many times in the past for help, but it was always with the condition that * I * still be allowed to be in control and call the shots. This time was different. This time when I begged God for direction, He gave it to me! Within moments of asking God to send someone my way that I could 'confess my faults to, one to another, and pray for one another so that I could be healed', an e-mail popped up from a friend who asked me how to pray specifically for me. I knew this was my answer!

I immediately met with my friend and for the first time ever, confessed this sin of not doing good out loud. Sure, I had confessed it to God many, many times, but when I heard the words of my pride and rebellion pouring out of my lips, I was stunned! I could immediately feel the healing begin, because I had taken the first step toward restoration with God. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It didn't end there, though. Satan immediately bombards God's children when he knows that he no longer has control, and trust me! He started working extra hard to mess with my mind and my heart in order to stop me from doing "good". This past Sunday in church, the message was about facing our fears. Dan so lovingly encouraged us to face our fears and be courageous in doing what was right, despite our fears of failure or success, and the responsibilities that would go along with that. I realized that my sin...my lack of doing good...was because I was terribly afraid of further damaging relationships of those close to me. I thought that by doing nothing, I was protecting those relationships, when in reality, it was building more walls. God was challenging me like never before to face those fears, do "good" and stop sinning!!

More confession was needed because more soul searching and repentance was occuring deep inside. I faced my fears, thanks to Dan's gentle encouragement and exhortation in Sunday's sermon, and I met again with my friend where more deep-rooted confessions poured out and prayers were prayed. The effectual, fervant prayers of a righteous man/woman availeth MUCH, because I walked away from that time together feeling as free as I felt when I had first given my life to the Lord twenty-seven years ago!! What an amazing feeling! I am not 100% where God wants me to be yet, but I do know that He has forgiven me and that with His help, I can finally do "good" without all my conditions and restrictions and pride and rebellion attached.

I know this post was long and pretty vague, but really, this post today is for me and not my readers. I need to put this down in writing so that in the future when I doubt that God has forgiven me and think that I cannot do "good" anymore, I will have this testimony to remind me. Freedom from sin, whether gross and blatant or small and seemingly insignificant, is a blessing that cannot be equalled. I want to encourage you, if you are facing a sin in your life of any magnitude, get rid of it. Confess it , pray with someone about it and be healed!

Blessings in the Inconvenient

2010-01-23T08:53:00.000-05:00

Last year about this time, Fred and I decided that, financially, it was in the best interest of our family to go down to one vehicle. I know that many of you have done this yourselves, and it is quite workable, but the adjustment can be beyond frustrating and so very inconvenient! When you are used to having a vehicle at your disposal, it can feel terribly inconvenient to not have your own means of transportation.

While this can feel crippling when you are used to having your own freedom, over the past year I have seen many blessings in this inconvenience. This past week I've been frustrated again, as I had errands to run while Fred had appointments to keep, so I thought if I "count my many blessings" here today, I will once again appreciate what we have been blessed with.

* Auto insurance payments for only one vehicle
* Auto maintenance and repairs for only one vehicle
* Gasoline for only one vehicle (and usually I don't have to be the one to fill it up since I'm not driving!)
* With Fred being laid off, most of the time his schedule was flexible enough that we could work something out between our two vehicle needs
* We've combined our errands and therefore have spent more time together as a couple (with at least one child in the back seat jabbering away to us the whole time) and as a family
* Other frivolous spending has been cut back. When you have access to a car, what do you do with it? You feel you must shop. My closest friends and family know that I am NOT a shopper by any stretch of imagination (I hate it!!), but still, when you are in a store, chances are you will see things that you really don't need and you will buy them! When you don't have a car, it's more of a hassle to explain to your husband exactly which type of cheese you need for your recipe than to just improvise and/or do without.
* Since I can't go anywhere, I have had more people over for visits here. That's been great because I don't have to pack up kids or convince them that it's time to leave when we're out. Besides, I enjoy having my friends over!
* I can get more done during my day here at home because I'm not out running around town
* I've been able to help people out by babysitting for them because, chances are, I have no plans to be anywhere!
* I get in some exercize because I have to walk to the store at the corner or we walk to the park instead of driving some other place for fun.

There are many blessings in the inconvenient situations in our lives and I'm trying to recognize and even verbalize the blessings more so that I can maintain a heart that has learned to be content in whatever state I'm in. I'm not always sucessful at this (Ask Fred. He's heard my gripes and complains about feeling trapped and stuck and all that.), but that's why I want to verbalize it here to all of you so that I can make the blessings my focus instead of the inconveniences.

That all being said, now you know that I have no car to run around so you can come visit me whenever you want! Chances are, I'll be here. We can have a coffee or tea together and some type of snack which may be improvised since I may not have all the ingredients on hand for a fancy treat. Not to worry, a can of baked beans or some dry saltine crackers can be just as fun to eat when you eat it with friends over coffee and conversation! Truth be told, my most fun visits with friends lately have been with the kids playing downstairs and we moms are upstairs playing on our borrowed Wii!

Jobs I Could Never Hold

2010-01-16T21:16:00.000-05:00

So tonight when I was sitting there waiting my turn for a haircut, I was watching the girl cut the hair of one head after another and I just got really grossed out. I could never, NEVER work in a hair salon. I know that sounds silly, but if you think about it, all you're doing is snipping dead cells from someone else's body! Blech! I just don't think I could ever enjoy that job.

On a similar note, I could never be a dental hygienist. First of all, it'd probably take me too long to remember how to spell it when I'm filling out forms that ask for "Occupation." But mostly, seriously, WHO wants to stick their hands in someone else's mouth and clean their guk from their teeth?! I remember when I was younger than 12 (because I was still going to school at Hazel Harvey), I went to the dentist after school and the hygienist asked me if I had had a BLT sandwich for lunch. I was so impressed with that woman! I couldn't believe she could know what I had for lunch that day! It impressed me so much that I finally had to ask her how she knew and she told me that she found pieces of it in my teeth. DIS-GUST-ING!!!! Eww. And I know that my hygienist wears a mask on her face, but what if you were picking at someone's teeth and a chunk of who-knows-what flew up and hit you in the face?! Even with a mask on you'd feel the impact of that thing. Ugh. I couldn't be a hygienist.

I also don't think I could be the one to empty and/or clean port-a-potties. Nope. I just don't think so. I can change some pretty pukey diapers, but that's from my own kids! I don't know that I could stick my head in a toilet that who knows how many other people used and clean it out. I'm sure they get paid good money for that, but I'll pass...or I'd probably pass out.

As much as I love kids, I don't think I could ever be a bus driver either. All that noise at the end of the day?! What if a kid throws up on your bus? What if someone pees? Has a bloody nose? I'd have to deal with that, and just like the port-a-potty, I could do it if it were my own kid, but a busload of others? Ummmmm, I'd have to be desperate.

Probably one of the worst jobs, though, would have to be some sort of job at Best Buy. I know Fred would be in his glory there, but me? No thank you! I'd be so bored stiff and soooo ignorant about my job that I would hate it. I would be of no service to the customers and I'd have a terrible, terrible attitude. I love working with people, but certainly NOT in a store that sells modern technology!

Can you tell I was bored tonight waiting my turn at the hair place? I had a lot of time to think about jobs I would never be able to handle. I am thankful for my job(s). God put me in the right place!

Ice Skating Irks

2010-01-13T18:22:00.000-05:00

I have a new irk with this district school board. I don't know if it's just with this school board, or if it's an Ontario thing or maybe even a national issue, but I'm a bit frustrated tonight.

Stephen brought home a permission slip to be signed to let him go ice skating one day this week and one day next week. I guess, from what I've been told, each class gets to have two hours of skating time at a local rink as part of their physical education program. What a great idea, I thought! Then I realized that we had to come up with a pair of ice skates, a helmet and some experience for our son!

If we would have been back home in Doylestown, Ohio, that would have been no big deal since we had a LAKE (Mom, it wasn't just a swamp to us!) behind our house and ice skating was a norm in the winter. But here we are, living in a city with only ice skating rinks to go to that you also have to pay to use. The school kids get to go for free on these two days a year, but they have to have their own skates! As a family, we have not gone ice skating since we don't have skates for everyone, so Stephen has no skates, and no experience. We DO have a bike helmet, so we've got two out of the three requirements covered.

We were given a pair of very old, used skates for Stephen last year, but this year, he has grown and his skates no longer fit him. We had no other option today when he went, so the poor kid crammed his feet into a pair of size 12 skates when he really should have had size 13 ones instead! He has one more day of skating next week, and when I say "day" of skating, I simply mean an hour of skating, and I hate to have him jam his feet into that little pair of skates yet again. I know that other kids are very into hockey and skating around here, but we are not. We don't have the finances nor the time for it, and honestly, not a desire to get into hockey, so what are we supposed to do? While I thought that this was such a great opportunity for the boys to go skating with their class, I'm finding that it might become one of those thorns that I'd rather not have prick my children. I'm not about to go out and buy a pair of skates for my son just so that he can spend one or two hours a year on an ice skating rink. At the same time, I don't like the fact that my kid is going to be made fun of because he doesn't have skates and can't participate.

My opinion on all this may change over the years as my kids get older and more involved, but for now, I'm really irked with this event and wish that next Friday were over already so that Stephen doesn't have to go through this torture again. If any of you can explain the benefits of this program to me in greater detail, that might be helpful to get this bad taste out of my mouth. In the meantime, thanks for letting me vent.

Watkins Open House

2010-01-11T14:57:00.000-05:00

In November, we held an open house here for Watkins, The Cookie Kitchen, Pampered Chef and Steeped Tea. I thought I had taken more pictures than this, but it looks like I only have ones of the displays that I set up the night before. I have nothing for the other businesses, which is too bad because it was such a beautiful night! Connie had the dining area all set up with our Cookie Kitchen samples and boxed cookies for sale. Last year she had this fabulous idea of making mini versions of each of our cookies so that people could taste them that night. This year we made minis again and we also had boxes of cookies already made up for cash and carry purposes. That turned out really well, and we want to do that again next year, too! My neighbor, Linda, won the draw for a free 3 dozen variety platter of cookies. You should have seen her excitement! You would have thought she won a million bucks!

This is the Body and Home Care area. I had out samples for customers to try as well as products for them to purchase.

This is one of the displays that I had out for some of the kitchen/cooking products. I'm thankful that a lot of my stock was sold that night. It's always a gamble to purchase what you think your customers will be looking for, because if it doesn't sell, you don't really want to have all that stock on hand.

The atmosphere that night was so pleasant with people lingering and visiting and sampling. It was the perfect night out for ladies, that's for sure! My friend, Marianne, won my draw as the Mystery Hostess for Watkins that night. Her name was drawn and she got to choose products that she wanted as her prize. How exciting is that?! You attend an open house for fun and end up being a winner!

So now that the open house is over and Christmas gift-buying is over, I need to ramp up some business again. The extra income the past few months certainly has come in handy here, but I need to keep going. I need your help, friends! Give me ideas of what I can do next to promote my Watkins business without becoming one of those people that others avoid because they don't want to feel obligated to buy something. What has drawn your attention to direct sales businesses in the past? What do you like? What turns you off? What do you think I could do to get some more customers and/or associates to work with me so that this business can excel? Feel free to comment here, or send me a private e-mail. I believe that God has opened this door for me to be able to stay at home and do most of my work here, but I also can't just sit here and wait for people to knock on my door! I'm open to any ideas that come to your mind and I thank you in advance for them!

Cucumbers for Lunch

2010-01-06T21:59:00.000-05:00

I've been getting on Stephen's case lately about the food that he's bringing home in his lunchbox. Our schools here don't have one lunch break like we had growing up, but they have two "Nutrition Breaks" during the day; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The students are encouraged (by their teachers) and threatened (by their mothers) to eat the healthy foods during the first break and the fun foods during the second break. Sounds good! And Stephen has done that, up until this week for some reason.

Let me also insert here that Stephen LOVES vegetables! He really does! I have had no problem sending cucmbers, carrots, celery, even raw mushrooms, cauliflower and broccoli with him, and they have always been eaten! But this week, for some reason, his cucumbers kept coming back home.

So I kept sending them back.

And they kept coming back home.

His only response was that he didn't feel like eating them.

Tonight I got a bit perturbed with this whole cucumber thing and frustrating thoughts were going through my head as I was packing his lunch for tomorrow. I was ready to throw that same silly container of cucumbers back into his lunchbox for day number four when I thought I'd better at least open them up to see what was so awful about cucumbers all of a sudden! They are his absolute favorite and most requested vegetable!

Boy, oh boy! Did I ever get a stinkin' surprise! That $1.99-English-cucumber-from-Zehrs-that-I-told-Fred-to-splurge-on-because-I-knew-that-Stephen-would-appreciate-it vegetable was COVERED in fuzzy, grey mold!!! Poor guy! No wonder he kept bringing it back home and wouldn't eat it! That stuff was worse than nasty!!! I pitched it away so fast and practically threw up while I was doing it. There is no reason that that cucumber should have been so disgusting since Fred JUST bought it, but after I tossed that stuff, I remembered that when I was cutting it, I did notice a little soft spot on the skin but I just zipped it off with my knife and dropped it into the container anyway.

I need to apologize to Stephen in the morning for getting so upset with him for not eating his vegetables this week. If I would have probed a little more into WHY he wouldn't eat them, or if I would have actually LOOKED at them the first day he brought them home, I wouldn't have put either one of us through so much torture.

Tomorrow he's getting fresh mushrooms. I know that they are good because I sampled some as I was putting them in his lunch. And if they come home again tomorrow, I'll force him to tell me why he wouldn't eat them .... after I look at them myself.

We're Having a Wii Bit of Fun

2010-01-05T23:19:00.000-05:00

A few years ago, Liz told me that my nephew, Taylor, was going to get a Wii and that he was going to go stand in line for it so that he could be sure to get one. When I heard that, I thought, yeah...whatever. It's some new technological entertainment gizmo that I'd never have any contact with, kind of like all the other gaming systems out there. I was happy that he was happy, but I figured that he was just doing the teenager thing by getting all excited about this new system.

Not long after that, Dylan, our nephew from Utah, brough his Wii to Oma's house one summer vacation and taught us all how to use it. With so many relatives in the Weinhardt family, I actually never had a chance to play it, but I did catch a glimpse of all these kids, teenagers and a few young adults huddling around the screen. I guessed it was a 'young cousin' kind of thing to be doing.

A few years later, my friend Julie bought a Wii and told me all about it. Yeah...whatever. I figured she was just trying to pretend she was back in her teenage years by getting in on this Wii craze. THEN - - - she invited me and our friend Connie to come over and play a few games of bowling and tennis with her! There we were, three moms taking turns playing Wii Sports together while we made our children sit on the couch behind us and watch! (Now I realize the torture we put our little ones through, but at the time, it just seemed the most reasonable thing to do. To keep everyone from fighting, you know.)

Julie doesn't know this, but ever since that day I have secretly wished that she would invite me over again so that I could play with her Wii. I had fallen in love with it, but she was the only one close enough that I knew that had one. I waited and waited. I have been there many times since, but she never offered to let me play and there was NO WAY I was going to let her know that I really, really wanted to play it again. I WAS a forty-something-year-old woman, you know! I didn't want her to look down on me for wanting to come to her house just to play her Wii!

Well, last night she invited me over TO PLAY HER Wii!!!! Seriously! She specifically invited me to play on the Wii! She was so sweet about it, too. We played a few of the new games that she had, and then she said the most considerate words ever, "What do you want to play, Martha? We can play whatever you want!" Oh joy!!! I chose tennis, and then bowling. And then more tennis and then more bowling. I could have kept going, but it was getting late and I remembered that I was a wife and mother and that I had to be up early the next morning, so I left. I left, not knowing when I would ever be able to play bowling on Wii Sports again. Sigh.

Moving along to reality ....

Today I spent the morning at a friend's house, helping her out as she and her family have been extremely ill the past three weeks. She has been in and out of the hospital several times since just before Christmas due to a blood clot that was found in her lung. Her daughter and her husband came down with pink eye and the other daughter caught chicken pox and the flu right before Christmas! This poor woman needed someone to come give her a break! So I spent the morning at her house cooking and doing laundry for her (why is it always easier at someone else's house?!), and as I was leaving she said something that was equally as sweet as Julie's comment the night before! She said, "Martha, would you like to borrow my Wii for a month? I'm not allowed to do anything strenuous for six weeks and I'm the only one that uses this, so rather than have it sit here, do you want to borrow it?"

WOOHOO!!!! Trying not to show too much exaggerated excitement, I told her that that would be wonderful and that I would love to borrow her Wii for a month! The two of us had tried to do Wii Active several months ago, but life got busy and we both quit, but NOW I can start it up again! At least for a month, that is.

This afternoon, I brought home this glorious gift and have been able to use it as incentives and rewards and just plain old fun for the entire family! Christopher is getting pretty good at bowling, Stephen and Daddy are playing baseball together. Timothy and I are challenging each other at tennis and bowling and we're all having loads of fun! After the boys went to bed, Fred and I played tennis together (he creamed me) and then bowling (I wooped him, as he said), both games several times. It will be sad to say goodby to this monthly gift of a Wii, but for now, we're just loving it!

And that is why we are having a Wii bit of fun right now!

2010 - Here We Are!

2010-01-01T15:58:00.000-05:00

Ten years ago we were worried about Y2K. Ten years later, and so much has changed, yet so much remains the same. Those thoughts are too deep for me to deal with right now, so instead of making this a thought-provoking, heavy duty post, I'll just keep it lighthearted.

Here are some quotes from the kids already on this first day of the year:

Christopher is sleeping soundly upstairs during a much-needed nap. I tell Stephen to sneak upstairs and get his socks so we can go sledding outside. Stephen creeps ever-so-quietly up the stairs, gets to the top and turns around and SHOUTS, "Mommy! I sneaked up quietly just like you asked!!" So much for that much-needed nap.

As we're sledding outside, I am starting to freeze so I tell the boys that since I don't have any snow pants, I'm going in. I warn them about being careful and to bail out if the sled gets too close to the fence and to watch out for each other, etc. I tell them that they are each other's partners today and that if someone gets hurt, the other must run in immediately to get help from Daddy or me! Stephen says, "I really hope Timothy gets hurt bad because I can run like the wind! I can get help for him really fast. I hope he gets hurt." (Thankfully no one got hurt and no one had to run like the wind.)

Timothy asked for a snack. I gave him some candy-coated sunflower seeds. He said, "I think I would like about three of them, or maybe 2,000." (Because those numbers are so close?!)

We're filling out our new 2010 calendar and I tell Timothy to put a birthday sticker on September 15. "Why?" asks Christopher. "Because that day is your birthday and Timothy's!" I tell him. "Can we have cake NOW?" asks Christopher with such elation! Watching that bubble burst was sad and comical at the same time.

Happy New Year to all of you! May you enjoy the little treasures of life as you interact with God's creation of humanity all year long!

Christmas Preparations

2009-12-29T08:04:00.000-05:00

My little helper, Christopher, always HAS to help when I start the baking! This is HIS section of the counter with HIS rolling pin and HIS dough and HIS cookie cutters and HIS cookie sheet! When he starts trying to take over MY side of things, I conveniently put him on washing duty and he's equally as content.

Of course we had extra help as we were making chipa with Ruth and Anita for Anita's class project. I'm not sure why the girls are so happy and the boys have such sour looks on their faces, but we ALL had fun that night! And the chipa was fabulous as always!! (Maybe I'll make some more today, come to think of it. We need something to warm up this kitchen anyway and I DON'T want to make another cookie for a long, long time!)

Mr. Creative

2009-12-19T11:10:00.000-05:00

This is Timothy. Timothy is also known as Mr. Creative or Mr. Mess, depending on what he is making at the moment. Here he is being a scuba diver. Please notice his flippers. What a kid, I tell you! He is constantly making new games, cards, costumes, and messes. I just love him!

The Sunday School Christmas Program

2009-12-14T22:10:00.001-05:00

Well, it's over. The Sunday School Christmas program is over for this year. I'm happy and sad at the same time. This is my last year as the coordinator (I kind of hope) and even though it was extremely stressful this year, I will still miss being with all the children every Sunday, morning and evening. It's not like I won't ever see them again since I'm scheduled to teach again in two weeks, but it will only be with my 3rd and 4th graders instead of the 3 year olds up through the 12 year olds.

The highlights for me from this year's program:
* The tiny tots' poem, "Wise Men Travelled From Afar". It had hand motions and the kids really got into this little piece (Christopher LOVED it!! Ask him to do it for you, and he'll readily oblige!).
* The excitement in "Go Tell it on the Mountain" from the Tiny Tots and the Primary Choirs (ages 3-8 combined).
* The amazing handbell choir that accompanied the Junior Choir on several pieces. The sounds just resonated throughout the sanctuary and brought tears to my eyes.
* Simon's solo. THIS was my ultimate highlight. "The Lord Never Closes His Eyes." This young man beat the odds last night as he had a major headache and was so worked up before the program that he couldn't even walk in with his choir, but sat in the foyer on a chair sobbing because he wanted to sing so badly, but couldn't. I was distracted by other details, so once he went into the restroom to calm down, I moved on to the next "issue". Before I knew what was happening, I looked up and saw Simon standing in front of the microphone at the front of the church and singing with such a beautiful voice, a piece that had me truly in tears standing in the back of the sanctuary. That young man blew me away with his voice and the words of his song, and with the emotion that he put into it despite his overwhelming nervousness. Well done, Simon! God was honored by your gift last night!
* The cooperation of the directors of the choirs, the pianists, the handbell choir, the guitarist, the helpers, etc, etc, etc. It could not have been done without the help of everyone.

Still, I'm thankful that it's over now. One less stress that I have to deal with here. The Lord's name was lifted high last night and many parents, grandparents, neighbors and other family members watched and listened as their children told them the story of the birth of Jesus, some hearing it for the first time. And that was the point of the whole evening.

The Silence

2009-12-08T22:33:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd better touch base here and explain the silence of the past two weeks before you all start to worry. You should all know by now that when there is silence on this end, it just means that things are busy ... or else there are computer problems. This time it was a little of both. My sweet, computer-driven husband installed some type of anti-virus on this old laptop that would cause everything to snag and hang and eventually crash. It has become quite frustrating, so we finally just took it off. Now it's just old-age that is slowing things down. Old-age of the computer, that is! I'm still a spring chicken, you know!

Things HAVE been busy around here, too. The Cookie Kitchen is in operation just about every day. I'm so thankful that we have orders to fill, that I don't want to complain, but seriously, I think it was much, much easier to do this volume of cookies when the boys were younger and didn't care what I was doing in the kitchen! Now they want to help EVERY time they hear my mixer going or the trays banging on the counters. Christopher runs in to see what I'm doing, and in that time, Timothy has already run to wash his hands, pull up his stool and is yanking a Home Depot apron over his head. They want to help sooo badly, but I lose time, cookie dough and patience when they want to help. I was in a hurry the other day to get some shortbread cutouts made and they insisted on having some dough for themselves. I gave it to them, but I was constantly barking at them to quit coughing, sneezing and spitting at the counter! I finally threatened them that if they kept it up, I'd make them roll their cookies out on the floor! One look at the expressions on their faces and I realized I had made an inappropriate threat! I took that one back awfully quick! When they help me, they have their own dough, their own rolling pins, their own cookie cutters, their own trays and their own half of the island. They love their responsibilities so much that I can't take it away from them, but I usually have to end up doing a second batch to make up for the loss after they are in bed. THAT is why I have no time to blog!

I was hoping to get some pictures downloaded, too, to show you what I was up to last weekend, but being technically ignorant, I don't have those downloaded yet. I was at the Christkindel Market downtown Kitchener, working in the Belgian Waffle Wagon! What a load of fun! I think I have lost all feeling in my fingers and toes as a result of the cold (our booth was outside), but it was great! I was exhausted and behind in all my work around here, but as always, God provides for us in the best ways! I made more money in those two and a half days than I have made in ages! AND I got to get out of the house and work with adults!! Despite the cold and the exhaustion, it really was loads of fun and if I have the opportunity to do it again, I will jump at the chance!

So that's some of the silence explained. The rest has to deal with the issues we're still having with the business and the bank. It's far from over. The stress is still great and the waters are getting murkier (is that a word?), but I pray for wisdom for Fred ALL THE TIME! He's got some tough decisions to make and he needs the Lord's wisdom for sure! We don't know how this nightmare will end, but we do know that God loves us and has proven Himself faithful over and over again! He's dealt with much bigger issues than this in the past, so this is nothing for Him!

I'll try to be a little more conscious about posting, but I can't promise anything. Until Christmas, those cookies are taking priority! Can you smell them? I have about 95 of Ingrid's Jam Prints waiting for me to deal with them. I'd better go!

I Need to be Thankful

2009-11-25T00:16:00.000-05:00

Today was not the easiest day to be thankful for me. More junk has shown up regarding Micro-Aid and what should have been a done deal almost two years ago now. Phone calls in the afternoon caused my stomach to churn and my eyes to leak, but I'm thankful that even during this time, God is giving me reasons for thankfulness!

* The boys have NO clue what is going on in the "big" world. They are so trusting of their father, that he will provide for them, that he will fix everything, that they are safe with him. I am thankful that my Father can do all that and more! (If only I didn't understand all the "big" world stuff, though!)
* The support group that we have that is bringing this situation to the Lord in prayer. At the moments that I feel so overwhelmed with it all, a peace will come over me and I KNOW someone just prayed again!
* That all of tomorrow's responsibilities out of the house for Fred and for me are all taking place around the same time and in the same part of town. This sure helps for a one-vehicle household because carpooling tomorrow will be perfect!
* Some of our after school babysitting kids are going to be leaving this week until after Christmas. Ok, I'm just a bit thankful for that because we need a break from them sometimes, but I was wondering how we were going to supplement that income, as it is my grocery money. Well, God provided with another occassional child whose father needs a babysitter for the exact time that the other children will be gone! That's reason for thanks around here!
* For my dishwasher ... enough said, right? Whew! It's a blessing every day!
* For God's mercies that are new every morning. May He grant us many new mercies tomorrow!

Monday's Thanks

2009-11-23T22:59:00.000-05:00

* I'm thankful that Roger and Amy, Daniel and Ryan made it to Ohio safely despite the long flights from Indonesia!
* For Timothy and Christopher's cheerful willingness to clean up the basement with me today
* For the boys' commendable behavior at the funeral home tonight as we went to give our support to my cousin Ron's wife, Tammy, whose father passed away as the result of cancer. The boys don't have a clue who he is, but they were so respectful and well-behaved tonight!
* For Connie who pulled together a beautiful, gigantic platter of cookies for an emergency customer tonight
* That I was able to get ALL the dirty laundry washed, dried, folded AND put away today! I think I did six loads and now they're DONE!
* For the many people that are praying for our stressful week (issues with the sale of our business that we thought were dealt with have NOT been, and now they have come to a head this week)
* Isaiah 23:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Weekend Thanksgivings

2009-11-21T20:34:00.001-05:00

* Miriam's delicious Whole Wheat Dried Cherry and Chocolate Chunk Scones recipe that she shared with me. Mmmmmmm!!!!
* Another successful Watkins event today
* My husband who is sooo good about taking the boys for me when I have responsibilities with Watkins
* My mother-in-law who loves when Fred brings the boys over when I'm doing those above mentioned events
* The surprise gift of a Pampered Chef stoneware from a friend who decided she just didn't know what to do with hers...heard I broke mine and passed hers along to me!
* For the ability to whip up a supper from leftovers in the refrigerator that the family loves (Thanks, Mom, for teaching by example!)
* For friends who have gone through something similar to what I am going through now and their willingness to share the good, the bad and the ugly...as well as encouragement and Godly wisdom
* For the piece of REAL mail that came in my mailbox this week!! Thank you, Lilly! It's up on my refrigerator in a place of honor!
* My crockpot which will soon be simmering tomorrow's pork stew for lunch

Tuesday's Thanksgivings

2009-11-17T22:31:00.000-05:00

* That our furnace is working well tonight
* For the friends I've reconnected with on Facebook
* For Christopher's laughter
* The look on Stephen's face when he gets a joke. I told him Grandpa's favorite of being able to knock down a wall. He didn't get it at first, and then his face just beamed with the comprehension of this joke. I love it!
* For my neighbor who invited me over for a wonderful cup of white tea from Steeped Tea today
* For Fred's stability throughout our ongoing storm
* For Christian lawyers
* Fresh, homemade popcorn with Watkins butter salt (all the flavor of REAL butter, but with NONE of the fat!)
* Christmas decorations tastefully displayed
* When my heart just bursts with song and I start belting it out (the boys would NOT put this down as a thanks ... especially Christopher who starts whining, "Stop, Mommy! Stop singing!" He just doesn't appreciate good singing, I guess.)
* My friend's relatively pain-free day!!!
* Praying with my husband

I'm Way Behind

2009-11-15T22:47:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy week. I'm way behind on posting my thanks, but that's ok because I've been telling God directly what I'm thankful for, even if I didn't write it on here!

* The absolutely beautiful weather that we had all last week!
* My dear friend who let two of the boys stay at her house ALL day on Friday so that I could finish getting ready for the open house (Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!)
* For God's blessings on the open house, not just for Watkins and The Cookie Kitchen, but for the Pampered Chef and Steeped Tea representatives that also did very well that night
* For Connie and her ideas of improving The Cookie Kitchen this year, including a beautiful and professional flyer, delicious new cookie recipes, gorgeous packaging for the cookies we sold on Friday and for her meticulous bookkeeping. I couldn't do this without her!
* For Christopher's non-stop entertaining today at lunch. He had Elysha in stitches the entire meal! Especially his insistance that he MUST have bread with his lunch...since when?! He had us all roaring at his comments that just never ended.
* For the boys' behaviour (look how Canadian I'm becoming! :) in church tonight when they were standing in front of the congregation singing. They were so well behaved that I could hardly believe they were our boys! They made us so proud of them tonight that we went to McDonald's for a french fry treat afterward! I was thankful for that, too, because we had enough free coupons saved up from various places that we all got our own small fries for free!
* For the message this morning in church that encouraged us to be on guard for lukewarmness that can creep into our lives without us even realizing that there is a problem.
* For a free haircut, thanks to a friend's offer!
* For Cherry Rose Sencha tea that for some reason brings back special memories of Grandma ... probably the rose in there.

Two Days' Worth of Thanksgiving

2009-11-10T23:32:00.001-05:00

Oops. I'm getting behind! Here we go:

* For warmer days

* For a husband who loves to put the kids to bed

* That all the cookies I needed to bake for Friday's open house are DONE!

* Knowing God sees the big picture of life and that He knows our struggles

* For my dishwasher

* For Zehrs (grocery store) that sent me coupons for a free 500g brick of cheese, a box of spare ribs appetizers and a quart of fresh orange juice because I'm "a faithful customer" (??? Whatever! I'm accepting it, even though I'm certainly not loyal to Zehrs!)

* For people who are eager and excited to volunteer their time to work with the Sunday School Christmas program at church, and on top of that, they are competent and I don't have to hold their hand the whole time!

* For my bed, which is calling me

Sunday's Thanksgivings

2009-11-08T23:22:00.001-05:00

* My wonderful Sunday School class! Those 3rd and 4th graders were sooo attentive today and we had a fantastic discussion about Moses' last words to the Children of Israel before he died. We started out talking about what WE would say to our children if we were fathers and knew that we would be dying soon. Most of the comments were very special and even tear-jerkers, except the second comment out of the blue by a little girl in the second row, "I would say, 'Don't look backwards when you drive.'" Hmmmm????
* Warm, warm, warm weather for November 8!
* The lady at McDonald's that gave us four extra Monopoly pieces tonight because I told her that my kids were hoping there would still be game pieces on a large fry treat.
* The smell of peppermint
* Watching Timothy diffuse a fight today by letting Christopher have the huge truck to play with instead of fighting him for it.
* The security of God's love. Even when our burdens cause us to wonder if God is really there and listening to us, we still KNOW that He is... and that He does love us...and that He does care. And we know that His security is a fact because even when we doubt, He reminds us again with circumstances, through His Word, with the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit, through His children...
* Friends ... for my friends, my husband's friends, my children's friends ... just friends! You know who you are (ALL of you!!)!

A Month of Thankfulness

2009-11-07T11:06:00.000-05:00

November is the month of Thanksgiving for Americans. I was gently reminded this morning by my friend that we're almost a week into November now and she misses posts from our family about our thanks. To make up for that, let me give you a list today of MANY things that I am thankful for just now!

* SUNSHINE! Even on a cold day
* My husband who took the boys to a school carnival for the morning
* Music playing in the background (Fernando Ortega, not Wee Sing Sunday School songs)
* My 10 year old Kitchen Aid mixer that was a wedding gift and is humming right now as another batch of cookies is being churned out
* Long distance plans that allowed me to talk with my sister this morning until my phone battery ran out (It wasn't a long conversation. My phone battery gives me about 20 minutes these days. Haha!)
* God's provisions at the perfect moments
*A clean house - I don't have one, but I am thankful for them
* A sense of smell because those gingersnaps are smelling mighty marvelous
* Stephen's love for me. He asked me what prize I wanted from the carnival today because he wants to win me a prize. I told him that if they have chocolate, he can try to win me chocolate.
* Timothy's creativity and all the "books" he's been making me lately (Not thankful for the mess that results from scissors, glue, tape, staples and markers, but I love his drawings!)
* Christopher's infectious laugh and constant conversations with whoever might be listening - or not
* REAL mail that comes in the mailbox with a stamp on it, my name written in a familiar handwriting and a personal note inside the envelope. I haven't gotten one of those for a while, but that's why I'm thankful for them!
* Peace in the midst of a storm
* For my friend who is struggling with extreme difficulties at this time and feels free enough to call me and just cry and beg for prayers
* My thyme that has survived the frosts

Family Pictures

2009-10-30T21:25:00.000-04:00

Remember Nancy? That wonderful woman that was with us in Paraguay? Well, a few weeks ago she took our family's picture to put in our new church directory. We spent some time with her on Thanksgiving morning (back at the beginning of October, remember?) where she used her gift and snapped shots of all of us. Unfortunately, it was a bit nippy that morning, both in regards to temperatures and with a few attitudes of a certain boy that didn't want his picture taken on a wall ... thus the red cheeks and noses in some pictures. Nancy is absolutely a joy to work with and she does really well with getting the kids to cooperate. We had fun, and we have these beautiful pictures to share with you!
I'll post more pictures later, but here are just a few to share with you for now. Aren't ALL my guys cute?!

Warming Up the Kitchen

2009-10-26T21:20:00.000-04:00

Ingrid's Jam Prints

It's that time of year again! I'm warming up the kitchen baking up some trial batches of new cookies for the Cookie Kitchen! This is our third year in business and we've made a lot of improvements.

Here's a picture of one of our new additions this year. This recipe came from our friend, Ingrid, who makes the cutest little cookies every year for our families. When we asked her permission to borrow her recipe for the Cookie Kitchen, she kept saying how honored she would be if we would use her recipe. And here we were feeling all honored that she was excited to let us have it! Ingrid usually rolls hers in crushed walnuts, but because we already have a cookie that is rolled in nuts, we decided to keep these plain. Wow! Are they melt-in-your-mouth delicious! These are Stephen's favorites and he just goes crazy when he sees me trying another batch.

I asked Ingrid what type of jam she used in her cookies and she suggested apricot, sour cherry or rosehip jam. I hadn't thought of rosehip jam for ages! Well, since my sisters and I worked for Angela, anyway. That would have been about 25 years ago. The story of Angela is too long to get into just now, but let's just say that Angela, who was in her 80's and 90's when we worked for her after school, introduced us to many new things. One of those things was rosehip jam. If you've never tried it before, I highly suggest you go to some specialty foods store (or you might have them in your mega grocery stores in the US) and buy a little jar of it. You will be hooked! It's got a smooth, tarty-sweetness and I just can't get enough of it. Mmmmmm!

We're also adding some gluten-free cookies this year. These are not for those who suffer from Celiac disease, but for those people who have a gluten intolerance. Our kitchens are not gluten-free, so we cannot claim that our cookies are either. We have had many requests for gluten-free cookies that actually taste good, and we have found some! I've let some of my gluten-free friends taste test some of our experiments and they have been given rave reviews so we're excited to add these cookies to our list this year as well.

Pray that this year's endeavors will be better than last year for us. Unfortunately, last year the enconomy tanked just as the season started and no one wanted to buy cookies. We did ok, but definitely not as well as we had hoped. We need our "cookie money" to help us get through some rough times here and we're praying that this year people will be willing to splurge again on homemade Christmas cookies. We love baking these and using our creativity this way, and even if no one buys them, our families are thrilled with the abundance of cookies at this time of year!

Here's to another year of The Cookie Kitchen!

YAAAYYY! I'm Back!

2009-10-23T20:27:00.000-04:00

Well, I truly apologize for disappearing here for awhile. I have NO idea what happened, but I could NOT get into Blogger no matter how much I tried! Unfortunately, that came exactly the day that I tried to post the WINNER of the chicken soup giveaway! So, let me catch up here.

The winner of the Watkins Chicken Soup and Gravy Base is ... LILLY!! Congratulations, Lilly! As cold as it is up here right now, I'm sure you'll be looking forward to a nice, hot cup of chicken soup yourself! Thanks to all the rest of you who participated in the giveaway. I do wish that more of you silent readers would have participated because I was so excited to share my birthday with you, but oh well. Maybe another time??

Good news for all of you who participated but didn't win. Here in Canada, the chicken soup (as well as all the other soups) are on sale in November for $1.00 off. I'm assuming that the US site will also reflect a savings for the month of November, but I can't guarantee that at this point. Sorry.

Oh, and by the way, for those of you that didn't know, my birthday was October 18 and that's the day that I tried to get on here to tell you all that Lilly had won.

Now that I have access to Blogger again, I'll try to catch up on things. It's good to be back on here with you all! Once again, congratulations, Lilly! Your soup base will be delivered shortly.

Blogging Problems

2009-10-14T22:59:00.000-04:00

Sorry for no posts lately, but I'm having trouble posting anything to Blogger just now. I don't even know if this is going to go through, but rather than spend more time typing all kinds of stories out for you, just to have them hanging in cyberspace until I finally close it all down, I think I'll just leave it at this for now. This way you know that I am at least TRYING to post some pictures, some stories, and whatever.

Until Blogger is working again for me, it may look like I'm not here ... but I am, really! Stay tuned!

Info on the Chicken Base

2009-10-10T10:23:00.000-04:00

Since some of you have been asking, I thought I should let you know how you can get some of this chicken soup base if you don't win my birthday present this week (Hint hint - only a few more days to go!). Watkins' soup bases are $8.99US for the beef, chicken, cream, mushroom and onion varieties. They will make up to 50 servings per can (some a little less), and they can just be stored in your pantry as opposed to the refrigerator. In Canada, the beef and chicken bases are $10.49 each and the cream, mushroom and onion bases are $10.99.

You can order them online at www.watkinsonline.com/mjweinhardt or click on the link on my blog here to start browsing. Because I'm in Canada, the catalog defaults to the Canadian version, so if you're from the US, just click on US Catalog at the top. Local folks, you can always give me a call if you want to combine orders to save on shipping. Non-local folks, you can get a bunch of friends together to combine orders to get free shipping if you order over $150.

On a side note here, the mushroom soup is absolutely fantastic!!!! It's soo much better than that goopy canned stuff, especially if you've got a craving for some quick and delicious cream of mushroom soup! There are real, dehydrated mushrooms in it that look, feel and taste like real mushrooms and not rubbery little cubes. It makes a quick and easy mushroom gravy, too. Mmm. Mmmmm! Good!

So remember, just a few more days to tell me about your favorite birthday present! I've been enjoying your stories and memories. Thanks for sharing!

Watkins Chicken Soup and Gravy Base

2009-10-08T21:43:00.000-04:00

Well, you still have some time left to tell your favorite birthday present story on my post below! It's not my birthday yet! I thought that maybe while we're waiting for the day of the drawing, I would give you a little taste (Hahaha!) of the soup base so that you can anticipate your gift!

Watkins chicken soup (as well as the beef and cream soup bases) are gluten-free. They are also low in sodium with only 430mg per 1.5 teaspoon serving as opposed to over 700mg in many other soup bases. Watkins has no added MSG in any of their products, including the soups, so no need to worry about those nasty headaches and other symptoms that appear after consuming MSG! To top it all off, there are only 15 calories and ZERO grams of fat per 1.5 tsp serving (1 cup prepared)! We're heading into the cold season and a cup of instant Watkins Chicken Soup on those chilly days is fabulous!

Here are a few suggestions on how to use your chicken soup base (other than that cup of steamy broth):

Add a tablespoon of the soup base to your rice when cooking

Sprinkle soup base on a roasting chicken in the crock pot. Add a little Watkins Seasoning Salt, some Watkins Poultry Seasoning and a bit of sage and let it cook on low for several hours.

Use the soup base in place of any recipe that calls for chicken bouillon, chicken broth, or chicken flavoring.

Adding a spoonful of the soup base while boiling pasta gives a delightful flavor

To top off all these wondeful facts suggestions, my friend and I sat down one day to figure out just how much money we save when we use one of these cans of soup. Anita figured out that one can of Watkins Chicken Soup Base equals 15 one liter tetra boxes of chicken broth. Around here they are around $2.50 for one of those 1 liter boxes, so that means that you can save $37.50 by using one can of Watkins Chicken Soup Base! That's a significant savings! Now, I know most of you probably don't use those boxes of ready made chicken broth, but you have to admit that having that available is quite handy. Well, think of this: your recipe calls for one cup of chicken broth. You open one of those boxes, use one cup and then you have the rest of the box that you have to figure out something that will use the rest of it before the two week time that you are supposed to use it expires. Well, you forget about it and a few weeks (months?) later you find that opened box shoved in the back of the refrigerator and it doesn't smell so great anymore. You take it out and pitch it! Money down the drain! Watkins soup bases don't need to be refrigerated and you can always make ONLY the amount that you need for your recipe!

There you have it! If you don't win the birthday present of the soup mix, you can still get a can of it for yourself. This stuff is great and I always make sure I have some in stock because either I'm using it, or someone is calling me to replace their empty one! That's it for my Watkins spiel. Now you can just sit back and wait to see if you win! Good luck!

Birthday Present

2009-10-06T23:05:00.001-04:00

My birthday is coming up, and along with birthdays, there are usually presents. I told you about winning the lavender wand on my Aunt Heidi's blog last week and I'm anticipating receiving it close to my birthday, so I'm going to get at least one present this year! Well, I'll probably also get a slew of handmade Monopoly games because that's the latest craze around here, and I'm hoping for a few hours alone with Fred, and maybe an hour or so over a cup of coffee with a friend, so I'm good for presents for my birthday this year.

But I was thinking that maybe this year, instead of having my gift expectations skewed as I highly doubt I will be getting a Wii Fit system which would be BEYOND wonderful as a gift since it's sooooo extremely unlikely to happen, I want to shift the focus on me GIVING a gift as opposed to RECEIVING one.

My inspiration for this was winning the lavender wand from Aunt Heidi on her Steps on the Journey blog. I was so thrilled to find out that I was the winner and I know that people love winning things. Sooooo..... I'm going to offer my own little birthday present giveaway here!

Here's the deal: you readers (including the lurkers) have until my birthday to either comment on my blog here (Anonymous comments count, but I'll have to know who you are if you want to win!) or send me a private e-mail at mjweinhardt at yahoo dot ca. If you know when my birthday actually is, you have an advantage of knowing how long you have to procrastinate in order to qualify for this gift. If you don't know when it is, then comment now. Hahaha. In your comment, you need to tell me about the best birthday present you ever received!

On my birthday, my family will randomly choose the name of one of you who participates. The winner will receive a 10 oz can of Watkins Chicken Soup and Gravy Base. This link is from the Canadian catalog, but if you are from the US, just click on the US Catalog tab at the top of the Watkins page. http://www.watkinsonline.com/productdetail.cfm?Product=21176&gCatalogLocale=CAN&ECredit=375794
The can that you receive will look slightly different than this, but the product is the same.
Feel free to let your friends who may also know me in on this giveaway. Just direct them to my blog and remind them to comment! This contest is open to everyone worldwide, but if you happen to live outside of North America, I can't promise you when you will receive it. If you live in Indonesia or Paraguay, you may need to come visit in order to pick it up (Hint, hint, dear siblings!), but we'll deal with that if you are the winner.

Good luck to all of you! I'm looking forward to hearing your stories of your favorite birthday presents!

Our Little Composer

2009-10-05T22:45:00.001-04:00

Please sit back and enjoy this original piece by Timothy. One never knows what this little boy will come up with next. He is quite the artist in all aspects and we love and appreciate him! Unfortunately, I accidentally cut off the first line of his song, but you can still hear the farm-y twang in his voice as he sings the rest. In case you can't hear the words, the lyrics are posted below. Enjoy!

Down By the Farm

Down by the farm, down by the farm, everybody likes the farm!

Down by the farm, down by the farm, everybody likes the farm (meh meh meh)!

Happy Belated Birthday to My Boys!

2009-09-30T23:11:00.000-04:00

I just realized that I never posted any birthday pictures of Timothy and Christopher's birthdays! Maybe that's because my cake this year was the most pathetic cake I've made in a long time. And that's simply because it was Timothy's request! When I asked him what he wanted this year for his cake, he said, "I want a grown-up cake, you know, the kind that's round with frosting all over it and candles on top." So I made him a grown-up birthday cake with some Cars candy on top from Grandma and candles for Timothy and candles for Christopher.

Here are some of the cakes that Stephen tried to convince his brothers to ask for, after seeing them at the Wayne County Fair. I'm glad that Timothy stuck to his decision because there's no way I could make these cakes. (The favorite was the Monopoly board since the boys are soooo into Monopoly at this time!)

Here is the only picture we have of the boys' cake this year. It was a busy day on their birthday with Timothy's first day of Kindergarten and the Open House at school, and I just didn't think that this cake was really too worthy of lots of pictures. Notice the lower left hand side of the cake is sliding off? I'm telling you, it was a pathetic cake this year. I felt badly about it, but the boys were thrilled! (Also, the coloring is poor on the video. Our kitchen wall is NOT pink! And the junk you see in the background is just a figment of your imagination. It's not really there. They just don't make video cameras like they used to. Haha!)

So Happy Third Birthday to Christopher and Happy Fifth Birthday to Timothy!

What A Great Day!

2009-09-26T19:26:00.000-04:00

I don't want to spend much time on here tonight, but I just HAVE to recap my great day!

1. Customer Appreciation Day at my chiropractor's! I got a free adjustment for a neck that hasn't been able to turn for weeks!

2. Her massage therapist was also there giving out free mini-massages! Woohoo!! Got a free massage, too!

3. I was HOPING that I could also say that I won a draw for a free massage, but they never contacted me today, so I guess I didn't win. But that's ok because ...

4. I won the draw for a lavender wand from my Aunt Heidi's blog today!! I can't wait to receive it because I have developed a real love for lavender.

5. I spent a day in a barn with the Lord! A Christian woman who lost her husband several years ago has turned her barn into a place of retreat for those who need to spend time with the Lord for healing. I had the privilege of going there today and didn't even realize until I turned into the driveway and saw the name on the mailbox that it was my optometrist who is a friend of the Weinhardt family! Because my "invitation" to spend the day there was through a third person, I didn't realize that it was her place until then! What a wonderful day!

6. I spent several hours praying and reading the scripture today and a lot of spiritual healing took place. When I left, I felt a peace that I haven't had for a long time. I was able to have uninterrupted time to cry out to God about some wounds that I had allowed to fester and asked Him to clean them out and bind them up. I'm ready to move on. I'm worn out from all my crying today, but as any woman knows, crying always seems to help! The vials of tears that God collected from me today are many, and they have gone from bitter tears of anguish to sweet tears of thankfulness.

7. I met up with the rest of the family at our local community center where they had a little kids' fun fair today and had free hamburgers, popcorn and cotton candy for supper.

8. The boys and I just finished a game that they borrowed from the library. Christopher won and that's a good thing since he's overtired and winning made him happy again.

9. Tomorrow is Sunday and I'm looking forward to a day of worship at church. I'm teaching Sunday School again and I love my class (despite those that try to chit chat the entire time).

10. Once the kids are in bed tonight, I get to spend time with my husband who I've missed the past few nights. He's been at his dad's helping him out while Mom is in Germany visiting her sister. It seems like I haven't seen Fred for days, although we have been together taking care of kids and an elderly father.

There you have it, my friends! A recap of my great day! How was yours?

God's Great Sense of Humor in Answering Prayers

2009-09-25T22:53:00.000-04:00

God answered a prayer for something that some may think a silly thing to pray about, but for me it was HUGE! You see, I lost a crinoline this week. A crinoline is the slip that a bride wears under her wedding dress to make it poof out. I had a crinoline, and this week it was not there when I went to look for it!

My friend's daughter is getting married on October 24 (Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!) and her seamstress told her to check with me to see if she could borrow my crinoline. I've had it for the past 10.5 years and have let many of the brides at church borrow it, and the seamstress knows that, so Kathy asked me if they could borrow it for Shelly's wedding. "Sure!" I told her, and we planned a fun little coffee date out of the exchange of the crinoline.

Monday morning I went to pull it out of the top of the boys' closet, where it has always been, and it was gone! GONE! I'm not sure how one can lose a crinoline, but mine was GONE! Fred and I searched every nook and cranny of this house, including inside suitcases, boxes, under beds, behind computers ... I even looked under every bathroom sink (not knowing why I would have ever shoved it under there). Nothing. Nada. Nope. Nowhere.

I contacted the last several brides and asked if I might have let one of them borrow it and I forgot. Nu'uh. I called the mother of the last bride that I know had it, just in case, but we both relived the moment that she handed it back to me in the parking lot at church two years ago. I knew she didn't have it.

After much, MUCH prayer and tears, begging God to remind me where I may have put that crinoline, I wrote an e-mail to another friend of mine and asked her to help me pick my brain and figure out where in the world that thing could be! Little did I know that while this e-mail was floating around in cyperspace and being read and answered by her, Kathy, Shelly and I were out looking at cheap and junky crinolines that might have to do. I even dug through racks of used clothing at Value Village and Goodwill because I had promised Shelly a crinoline and by golly, I was going to give her one! But no one had anything.

I came home, still all worked up about this whole thing and sat down to an e-mail from my help-me-pick-my-brain friend, Corina. She said, "I think we have a bag in the closet downstairs that has a crinoline in it, and I think it's yours!" WHAT?! God, did you just answer my prayer?! On a whim I wrote to Corina asking her to help me think, and lo and behold, SHE IS THE ONE WHO HAS IT?! She's been married longer than I had that crinoline in the first place, and her daughters are nowhere near marrying age, so why did she have my crinoline in her closet?! Oh yeah!!! She had borrowed it for our couples group at church last year, but for some reason, that evening was cancelled, the wedding dress and crinoline went into the closet and we all forgot about it...until yesterday!

I know some of you are reading this saying so what?! Why this whole post on a missing crinoline? Well you know what? If it's a small thing to you, that's ok, because to me, this was monumental! You don't know the agony I went through this week looking for that thing (Ask Fred. He can vouch for my agony. And the boys who heard all week, "Where in the WORLD can that thing be?!") I confessed to God that I thought it might be a silly thing to ask Him to tell me where that crinoline was, but He cared! He cared so much that He let me write that e-mail out of the blue to Corina, and He cared so much that He let her and her girls remember that I had let them borrow it! God loves me! And He loves to answer my prayers in funny ways! I'm sure He's done this to you before, too, hasn't He? Well, go ahead and give Him the praise for it, because He deserves it! Thank You, God, for finding that crinoline for me! Now Shelly and her mom can breathe a little easier, too! You would have been a beautiful bride even without that thing, Shelly, but I'm so glad that you can now wear it!

Volunteering

2009-09-22T21:26:00.000-04:00

Today I got to volunteer in Stephen's French Immersion classroom. Wow. I wish I could be a fly on that wall every single day! I learned more French today than I've ever learned in my life! As I was sitting at the back table stapling little French books, I had to think about Liliana in Paraguay. While Nancy and I were teaching English to the first graders, Liliana was sitting in the back marking her students' work and trying to be inconspicuous while she repeated all the words we taught the kids! That's what I was doing today! I almost shouted out loud when I knew the word for "mouth" before any of the kids did!

I also found it interesting to watch Stephen in action at school among his peers. He was so much more gentle and calm than he is at home, and responsible, too! As the Capitan of his group, he had to get and put away all their supplies, make sure the desks were straightened, etc. He did so good... AND WITHOUT BEING TOLD A MILLION TIMES! I felt like I was watching a stranger. I did notice, though, that I heard his name mentioned a lot by Madame because during their circle time he liked to pester those near him. THAT was not a surprise to me!

Being back in the classroom today ALMOST made me want to run home and see what I would need to do to get my certification up to date here in Canada. ALMOST, I said. While I would love to be back in the classroom again, first grade is way too young for me, so that was a deterrent today. Plus, I went home with a pounding headache and was reminded that having three little children constantly asking me questions and hovering in my personal space was enough just now, let alone twenty of them! They had just come in from recess, and boy, could you smell! I mean, boy could you tell!

Yeah. I miss teaching. No question about that, but I believe that God wants me here at home for my kids at this time and He's letting me have the joy of volunteering in my kids' classrooms where I can still participate, but not be 100% responsible. I had a great day at school today and would love to go back!

First Day(s) of School

2009-09-19T22:44:00.001-04:00

Stephen started school on September 8. He was quite excited to be moving on up because he was going to be in first grade after all! He was looking forward to going to the big kid playground at school and being able to go every single day instead of only Tuesdays and Thursdays, like Timothy. That excitement lasted about one day! By the beginning of the next week, the excuses started: "Mommy, whenever I think, I don't feel very good. I can't go to school today."

I can tell that this is going to be a rough year for us in the mornings. Our bus driver not only likes to be prompt, but she likes to be EARLY!!! The first day we made it with only a minute to spare. Several other mornings so far we've made it just in time as well. I hope this isn't going to be a pattern.Two days later, Timothy had his first day of Senior Kindergarten. He was a pro at getting ready in the mornings and was up and dressed for his "very busy day" (as he prayed the night before) long before anyone else was stirring! It's nice to still have him home on Mondays and Wednesdays because he and Christopher keep each other company and play very well together. I can tell they miss Stephen because they have their bored moments, too, but life sure picks up again as soon as that bus comes in the afternoons!This year Timothy doesn't look as tiny as he did last year when he got on that big yellow bus! I think, though, that I got more choked up over Stephen this year than I did the past few years! He's my firstborn and even though he is definitely the live wire around here, I was sure that I would miss him because he would be gone every day! And I do. But I also appreciate the decline in sibling rivalry for a few hours a day as well!

The (Short) Life of a Goldfish

2009-09-18T07:26:00.000-04:00

Saturday, September 12, 2009 we went to the Wayne County Fair in Wooster, Ohio.

Daddy let Stephen play a ping pong toss game (this is Timothy in the picture, but Stephen played first). Why?! I have NO idea, because the prize was a goldfish! "Don't worry!" Daddy said. "He'll never get a ball in one of those bowls!"

Well, he did! He got that little ping pong ball in a bowl and he won a goldfish!

How in the world are we supposed to take a goldfish back to Canada with us, without it dying first?! How about a plastic water bottle? Ok, fine, but really, HOW do we get it back to Canada without it dying first?! (By the way, we did NOT have a passport for little SeaGirl, nor did we claim her at the border. Since she was only worth $1.00/7 balls in the game, we figured we didn't need to claim her ... besides, we seriously thought she'd be gone by then!)

The plastic water bottle worked and SeaGirl came to live with us for five days until I found her lying on her side at the bottom of the fishbowl.

Yesterday, Daddy explained the realities of life and death and funerals and the process of what happens when you flush a toilet. Thankfully it wasn't too traumatic for anyone and after the whoosh of the toilet, the little fireman ran off to put out fires, the architect returned to perfecting his Lego ship (notice it in the lower righthand corner?) and the little bouncer bounded off to find a leftover balloon to bat around. Whew! We survived our first pet.

Good-by SeaGirl! We enjoyed you while you were with us!

Why I Have Not Been Blogging

2009-09-16T22:07:00.000-04:00

So, you want to know why I haven't been blogging? Well me, too! I really have no excuse except that silly one that I keep using: I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DOWNLOAD MY PICTURES! (Fred has this intricate way of downloading on his laptop and then putting it on a drive to some day/some how get it onto my computer. However, after it's on my computer, I can only access it from this ONE computer, but then I want to blog from another computer (yes, we have more than one in this house ... Are you surprised?), but I can't because the pictures are not on the hard drive, but on some pin drive somewhere, blah, blah, blah. Whine, whine, whine. Sorry.

The other reason is because things have been moving pretty quickly around here the past few weeks. School started (pictures are somewhere on some computer or other apparatus that I don't have access to!), the Wayne County Fair happened, Timothy and Christopher had birthdays on Tuesday, Meet the Teacher Night occurred, and canning tomatoes took place. My trusty little computer here is slowing down, after all, it IS getting old. Because it's getting so slow, sometimes I think it's not worth the time to get on here and try to post anything because two paragraphs can take me 45 minutes to write and post! Fred cleaned it up for me last night (Isn't he sweet?!), but my excuse is now that I still don't have current pictures to post.

So just to update a bit here, Stephen is in his second week of Grade 1, French Immersion at school. He's really loving it. He comes home and tells us the newest words that he learned. Even I know that some of them are incorrect in the way that he's pronouncing them, but hey! For a kid that can't read French, he's doing great! He even wanted to watch a cartoon in French today because, "I am learning lots of French, so I'll probably understand it before you do." After about five minutes he was ready to turn it off. Soon! Soon, he'll be watching it and understanding it!

Timothy, sweetheart that he is at five years old now, told me that for this year's birthday cake he wanted "a grown-up kind. You know, Mommy, one that's just a circle with frosting and candles. That's all." But then we went to the Wayne County Fair and he and Stephen fell in love with the Best of Show cake ... MONOPOLY! Daddy took a picture of it because that's the closest we'll ever get to having a Monopoly cake! Timothy ALMOST changed his mind and wanted the round watermelon one with the ants on it, but he ended up getting excited about a plain, round one with chocolate frosting and some Cars candy from Grandma. Whew! That was easy!

Christopher is now three and has decided that he will indeed start Sunday School on Sunday, as long as he can play with cars. I'm really hoping they have cars in their Sunday School room because I'm going to be teaching the Grades 3/4 class and I won't be able to deal with an upset three year old because there are no cars in his Sunday School class! Maybe I'll let him put one of his own in his pocket to play with AFTERWARD!

We're thankful that God has been providing us with some part-time work, contracts and one-time jobs. Some days it's easier to trust than others, but God has been good! He also provided me with a super-easy before and after school babysitting job for some kids from Turkey. The second grade girl is also in French Immersion, so she and Stephen have really hit it off. The boy is in Timothy's class... but he doesn't speak ANY English! This will be a very interesting year for sure!

There you have it! When I get the pictures downloaded to where I want them and can use them, I'll post them. Until then, use your imagination!

Water Fun!

2009-09-02T23:01:00.001-04:00

Summer is almost over. I'd better post these pictures of our water fun this year before it gets too cold to look at these! (Notice Stephen's cast here? We had to tape a plastic bag around it because we found out the hard way that it wasn't waterproof, only water resistant. There IS a difference!)

Our Baseball Team

2009-09-01T23:09:00.000-04:00

The other day the boys and I were outside in the backyard playing baseball. As we were getting ready to play, Stephen yelled, "I'm the batter!" Timothy yelled, "I'm the pitcher!" And Christopher yelled, "I'm the Narrator!"

Two bigger boys and one mommy fell to the ground in laughter as the little three-year-old Narrator looked at us in confusion. The start of our game was delayed as he joined us on the ground laughing.

Zucchini

2009-08-26T21:49:00.000-04:00

Zucchini! It's about the only thing besides the weeds that are growing in abundance in our garden anymore. The spinach did GREAT at the beginning of summer and the green tomatoes will eventually turn red, but that silly rabbit got most of the carrots, beets, peas, beans and even the raspberries. The cucumbers never showed their faces, but the canteloupe just may survive and provide us with about three melons. I had Timothy digging for "treasure" the other night when I needed a few potatoes for supper, but we'll see how well those did in a few weeks yet.

But back to the zucchini ... we've been blessed. We've had it on the grill. We've had it breaded and baked. We've had it raw on our sandwiches. We've had it cubed and sauted in scrambled eggs. We've had it added to soups, casseroles and spaghetti sauces. Beyond a doubt, though, our favorite this year has been Zucchini Bread! I shared some with a friend the other day and she called this morning asking me for the recipe and I stuttered a bit because I wasn't sure what to tell her. See, I'm one of those people who likes to substitute and change recipes when I'm in the kitchen. Not sure where that gene came from, but all of us Schley kids have it. I finally did give her what I THINK was the recipe that I used on that particular bread and I'm going to record it here so that I can come back here and try to duplicate it again some day. I was using four (yes, four) different recipes and tried to combine them to get the "perfect" zucchini bread and I did it!! I just wish I could remember exactly what I did. (NOTE: She called me this afternoon and said that the following recipe turned out fabulous, so this must have been the correct combinations of ingredients that I used before!)

ZUCCHINI BREAD

3 eggs

1 cup oil

1 3/4 c. sugar

1 tsp. Watkins Double Strength Vanilla (or 2 tsp. other vanilla)

2 c. zucchini, grated

2 c. flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp Watkins cinnamon

1 c. chopped walnuts

large dump of chocolate chips

Mix eggs, oil, sugar and zucchini together. Add rest of ingredients and pour into two loaf pans (I greased mine just in case.) Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.

Stephen and the Tooth Fairy

2009-08-19T23:23:00.000-04:00

Stephen lost his second tooth today. He was quite thrilled about this fact and even came in to wake me up bright and early this morning to show me that he pulled it out himself this morning in bed! He put it in a baggie and put it under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy tonight.

Now, Stephen knows quite well that there really is no Tooth Fairy, but we play along with the whole idea just for fun. This evening Fred and I were asking him what he thought the Tooth Fairy did with all the teeth it collects. He said that the Tooth Fairy puts them all in his (the TF is male in his eyes) mouth, of course!

I just got back from Stephen's room where I was going to trade his baggied little tooth for a coin, but found out that I don't need to leave him any money after all! You see, along with his tiny tooth, he had also placed his own golden coin under his pillow in case the Tooth Fairy forgot, I guess. He kindly left "him" 50 Guarani!

(Tonight's conversion shows that this is worth 0.0104US or 0.0111CAD.)

Ahhh... I Can Breathe Again

2009-08-16T23:03:00.001-04:00

VBS is over. The final program was tonight and it was wonderful! The kids did a fantastic job singing their songs for us tonight and it was a great reminder of why we put so much work into a week like this past one.

Ok. MOST of the kids did a fantastic job. For some reason, MY kid (who shall remain nameless) decided to be a complete GOOF up there in front of everyone! I'm still not sure what he was doing, or what he was thinking, but there is no reason a six-year-old kid (see, I'm not saying names) should be sticking out his tongue and sitting down on the stairs and rolling his eyes and laughing at nothing in front of the congregation during a program. I'm into creative correction at the moment, so when he came and smashed in between Auntie Jo and myself after his choir was done, I told him that since he acted like a two-year-old in front of everyone, I'd have to treat him like a two-year-old when it came time for our snacks in the back room. Daddy made him sit at a table while DADDY chose the snacks for Ste ... I mean, our son, to eat. He wasn't happy about that, but hey. He doesn't need to make a fool out of himself for nothing up there! I am hoping he got the point.

Yesterday was our VBS picnic. Blech!!! The activities and the fellowship were great, but the temperatures were sheer torture! Nancy and I were kidding that we felt like we were back in Paraguay! I was dripping from every pore in my body! Stephen, poor kid, was sweating soooo badly that his hair was just plastered to his head. I'm thankful that he at least had his cast off now (yeah!!!) and he wouldn't be sweating in that thing. It smelled bad enough all ready and it sure didn't need more stench because of a sweaty arm. Those kids had the time of their lives playing games, climbing on the playground, kicking the soccer ball and swinging at the pinata, but wow! Was it ever HOT and muggy!

Our busy VBS week is over, but now we move on to the next busyness. BEANS! I'm picking beans tomorrow morning and am hoping to get quite a bit done for the winter. Once the beans are done, I'm hoping to be able to pick our peas that ended up coming up despite being nibbled down to the stem by a hefty rabbit when they first came up.

And of course, since school is only a few weeks away, we have to get LOTS of play time in, so we've got a lot planned for the next few weeks as well. Life is always full, isn't it? Thank you, God, for giving us full lives that remind us of YOU!

This Week

2009-08-11T22:53:00.001-04:00

We have VBS this week. Can you say, "Busy, busy, busy!"? You are right! We're out the door early and cramming our mornings FULL. Since Fred and I are sharing our one vehicle this week, I have to try to do everything I can on the way to or from VBS so that I can get my errands done before I have to rush home so that he can leave. From here on out, we've still got packed days ... including FRIDAY when Stephen finally gets his cast off!! He's thrilled because that means at Saturday's VBS picnic, he'll be able to swing at the pinata with both arms.

Since I don't have lots of time here today, how about just one funny leftover from Camp? Our boys have been enjoying some StoryKeepers DVDs lately. These are stories of a baker who lives during the time of Nero and is The StoryKeeper who tells people the stories of Jesus. They are always trying to keep the Christians away from Nero's soldiers who want to throw them to the lions. The boys have been watching these same DVDs over and over so much, that they are now role playing and quoting the stories verbatim.

So, one evening at Camp just after supper when there is a bit of free time for everyone on their way to the sanctuary, Timothy, in his own little world, decided to do a little StoryKeepers role playing. For those of you familiar with Eastern Camp, he climbed the amphitheater stairs in front of Campus Center and stood there with his arms wide open, and shouted at the top of his lungs. This would have been fine, except that this time he was playing Nero and I heard him shouting to all the passersby, "WHERE ARE THE CHRISTIANS?! BRING OUT THE CHRISTIANS AND THROW THEM TO THE LIONS!" He repeated this over and over again as loudly as he could. I tried to get his attention, but he was too far up on the stairs and, like I said, he was in his own little world so he didn't realize that I was trying to get him to stop shouting such a violent command! I'm not sure if anyone paid any attention to him or not, but Fred and I stood there just laughing hysterically at our little actor. I mean, of all places to be asking where all the Christians were! Hopefully our church camp was FULL of Christians ... and there was no threat of any lions anywhere.

Niagara Falls

2009-08-05T21:49:00.000-04:00

Here are some of our pictures of our side trip to Niagara Falls after Camp in July. It was a beautiful day while we were there and about 15 minutes after we left, it poured and poured! Thankfully, we had a wonderful time there.

This area is so commercialized and pales so much compared to the pictures that Laurel took when she was in Paraguay. They are posted on Karen's blog (at the left). We love Niagara Falls despite it's high population of tourists and get the same thrill every time we stop and soak in God's wonderful creation!

It's rare that you would go to Niagara Falls and NOT see a rainbow ... excpet on a rainy day. I'm thankful ours was perfectly sunny!

The Maid of the Mist! Have you ever taken that tour? It's an amazing experience. We didn't do it this time, but some day when the boys are older, I am sure we'd all enjoy it again!

If you ever want to see Niagara Falls in person, please let me know! We'd be happy to have you come visit US and then we'll take you on a personal tour around The Falls! Seriously! Take me up on this, ok?

A Few Miscellaneous Funnies

2009-08-04T22:02:00.000-04:00

Christopher at Camp on our way to the Tiny Tot Choir practice: I am NOT going to choir! Little boys don't go to choir! (This little boy went to choir after all.)

Stephen when he heard that he had four weeks of cast-wearing ahead of him: The good thing is that we'll be at Camp the first week! That will make my time a lot shorter!

Timothy getting ready for his yard sale in the kitchen today: Mommy, I'm going to put $100 on my hearts that I'm cutting out. (Honey, I don't know that anyone will buy those hearts for $100.) Why won't people buy my hearts? (Because they are cut out of a piece of scrap paper, maybe? --- I did NOT say that to him! I just told him that today wasn't a good day for a yard sale because it's a Tuesday and most yard sales are on Saturdays. He and Stephen got to work cutting out more shapes for a Saturday yard sale now! Anyone want to buy a little 3 inch paper heart for $100??)

Mommy to Daddy when he got home this evening: Seriously! The boys were GREAT all day long, until you walked in the door! What did you do to make them so goofy tonight?! They're all yours now!