Excited to clean? You better believe it!

Yesterday was a long day. Today was a long day. I am still not feeling 100%. But...what did I do with  my extra 7 minutes I had while the pasta was cooking and Matt was playing with Hannah downstairs?

I swept and mopped our floors on the main level and cleaned our toilet!

Why?

Not because we had people coming over that I needed the place to look perfect for.

Not because there was an urgent mess on the floor or in the toilet that needed to be cleaned.

Because I was so EXCITED to clean with my new products I just couldn't help myself!

Not too long ago my friend Leah became a Norwex consultant. Norwex is not well known in Nova Scotia. It is big out west, but I had heard a little about it and I was excited when she first shared about the products, but we were trying to figure out if we could afford a house at that time and its a big investment for some of the products, so I didn't get anything right away. But then we moved and we have beautiful floors, that look not so beautiful if I don't sweep and mop them all the time and let's be honest, with a kid and working part time, I don't have the time or energy to pull out the mop and bucket every other day! So I had been dreaming of the Norwex mop.


I had a party this month, and low and behold I got a free mop as a result and also some other amazing products like the toilet bowl cleaning system (hence cleaning the toilet)!

Now not only is cleaning fun (novelty will wear off soon I'm sure) and easy and fast, but also super healthy for my family and good for the environment. 

Well worth the investment/hosting the party and supporting Leah. 

And now after a long start to the week I'm relaxing with a cup of caramel coffee starring at my beautiful clean shiny floors about to watch an episode of Parenthood. 

Life is good. 

Thanks Leah!

Ruined or well-balanced girl?

It is a funny phenomenon how little girls and boys are born differently. Even at a young age you can see the differences in how God has designed each sex unique. It's funny how little boys just seem to know to make the car sounds and little girls want to rock and cuddle dolls. But does that mean as parents we need to stick to those stereotypes in order to raise the perfect little girl or boy?

3 confessions that I did this week that will not help my daughter be a better "young lady" someday

1) In the bath she farted and all kinds of bubbles filled the bath. I couldn't help but burst out laughing and man did she love that. So much that somehow I don't know how, but she continued to fart. She would look at us first with a little smile, fart and then laugh hysterically. I may have instilled a love for farting because I laughed!

2) I lost it and raised my voice today. Not at her, but in front of her to Matt. I've gotten her cold and it really has taken a lot out of me, after a morning of getting ready, church and getting lunch together I was done and I took it out on him. I did not set a good calm loving example.

3) While skyping with some of my family tonight, I don't know what inspired it (I swear I did not tell her to do it at all!) Hannah started biting Matt's feet. It was so random again I found myself laughing. I couldn't help it, so of course she started laughing and trying harder to get to his feet! I sure hope I have not created a biter!

So the question is. Do these non-female stereotyped behaviours that we all inevitably encourage or set examples in, mean we are ruining our daughters from being beautiful nice young women? Or is us being real and showing them the other sides helping them be more well-balanced people?

I believe in the latter. I think it's healthy for girls and boys to experience both sides.  Although we still do have to be careful of the examples we set. yes I want her to know I'm real, but I don't want her to think yelling or biting or farting all the time is okay. I want to have a well-balanced daughter. I want her to be tough and play rugby if she wants. I want her to be confident and not afraid to speak her mind. I also want her to have that loving soft side as well.

The reason I feel like she is pretty well-balanced right now is that she did some pretty cute "girl" things this week too. Like going up on the rocking chair and reading to her bear and baby and then rocking them to sleep or today after church we heard the report that she was the one that when any of the babies came in later, she went right to the door and gave them a toy to play and when any babies were upset she left what she was doing to pat them and give them a toy to make them better.

She is a sweet crazy girl and we are blessed!

I pray that I help her to become a well-balanced girl, especially how God created her to be!

The gift of patience

I have a short attention span. I get bored easily and like to be doing a lot of stuff. Being a stay at home mom, especially at the beginning when Hannah didn't do that much was an adjustment to say the least. But an adjustment that I love! Being a mom is a wonderful gift! And today I was thinking of what the gift of patience would do for my daughter.

I really have been trying very hard to not get bored and always push her to the next activity. If she is having fun, I try to keep it going that way and not turn her into my clone with a short attention span! It is a challenge. Especially if we have already read the same book 20 times! I'll admit I have tried to hide books under the couch or in boxes, but somehow she always finds the one I'm most sick of!

Today it was "The Wheels on The Bus".

Over, and over, and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again we read it!

I was honestly starting to loose my voice, but man was she having fun and I took a minute to notice the things she was taking in with each new time we read. At the beginning she just liked it for being a book, then she got into the actions  and started doing them with me, and got really good at them the more she practiced. Then she started to notice all the different dogs on almost all of the pages (and noticed when there wasn't a dog). She noticed the baby when it was sad, and then when it was happy and responded to that one time. It seriously felt like with each repeat of the book she was soaking something else in and she was loving it so much. So I sucked up how much I hated reading it over and over and over and over again because I want to give all that I can for Hannah and a little patience for her to learn and discover and enjoy reading books is well worth it in my mind.

(although I will admit, I may hide that book before going to bed tonight, just for a little awhile to have a break!)

And just because pictures are fun. Another time that I had to be patient this week and not get ready for the day as fast as I would have liked was when Hannah found daddy's slippers and wanted to wear them around. It took awhile for her to get used to walking around in such big shoes, but man was she proud when she did!

Grace defined

One thing I love the most about Power to Change, the missions organization that we work for, is the focus they have on the people and giving them time to invest in their relationship with God as a higher priority than getting things done! Such a priority is set that we have to take a "day with the Lord" every month where you can do no work and it's just unstructured time to connect with God, the reason we do all that we do! In all honesty we all do better when ministry and talking about God is an outflow of our love for God and not something we are just doing! We are blessed!

We had one this past Monday and my favourite thing to do is to get out of the house, away from my family and list of things to do and hang out at Starbucks with a great drink, music in the background and the ability to just focus on reading and writing!

My goal was to read all of Ephesians and focus on the family relationship part at the end and do a little study with that, but...I didn't get that far. I was once again struck by the idea of grace and the gift from God! So I never got past chapter 2!

I encourage you to go read Eph 2 it's so full! I started doing some studies on some of the words and co-relating verses. Here is a highlight of what I was struck by.

First off here's the dictionary definition of grace

Grace
noun

1.

elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action: Wewatched her skate with effortless grace across the ice.Synonyms: attractiveness, charm, gracefulness,comeliness, ease, lissomeness, fluidity. Antonyms: stiffness,ugliness, awkwardness, clumsiness; klutziness.

2.

a pleasing or attractive quality or endowment: He lacked themanly graces.

3.

favor or goodwill. Synonyms: kindness, kindliness, love,benignity; condescension.

4.

a manifestation of favor, especially by a superior: It was onlythrough the dean's grace that I wasn't expelled from school.Synonyms: forgiveness, charity, mercifulness. Antonyms:animosity, enmity, disfavor.

5.

mercy; clemency; pardon: He was saved by an act of gracefrom the governor. Synonyms: lenity, leniency, reprieve.Antonyms: harshness.

One highlight was that I ended up going to Rom 2:4 which talks more about God's kindness (grace)

"Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"

Wow! That hit home! I take God's grace, kindness, patience and character for granted!

This is what my ESV study bible had to say on the passage "Do you presume" is probably directed against the Jews who thought that their covenant relationship with God would shield them from final judgemet. After all, they had often experienced "his kindness and forbearance and patience". They thought such blessings showed that they were right with God and had no need to trust in Christ, but Paul says the opposite is true: God's blessings should have led them to repent of their sins.

That I meditated and prayed on for awhile and that I wanted to share!

It's a small glimpse of my study that I may go into more later, and I am working to do a larger study on grace. I'm excited to once again be so in awe of God that I am led to repent and strive to be the best I can be!

Interesting fact: Hannah's name means grace. It is special because while pregnant I was learning another real lesson on how great God's grace is and well what a special meaning for a name! 

a "Lord help me through the day" prayer day

we all have those days. Those days that before they even start we know they are going to be difficult = a challenge. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that as a mom you have more of those days because how your family is doing directly effects you and your day.

Yesterday, after our lovely library trip all went down hill! Hannah slept a total of 50 minutes (40 in her first nap and 10 minutes when she was loosing it for her second nap). I spent a total of probably 3 hours off and on trying to get her to be able to sleep. She was exhausted, anytime she was near me she would lay her head on me and shut her eyes, so I knew she needed sleep, but I also knew something else was going on. Thing is she had no fever, I wiped her nose twice and she sneezed a few times, so maybe a cold, maybe getting an ear ache, but no other signs, nothing else to tell me what was going on. Oh and she is teething again, but still not sleeping at all and being whiny for the rest of the 5 hours she was awake is not normal, not even teething normal! Needless to say I had lost all patience before Matt finally came home! It was a rough day. And it continued to be a not good night. Not even Tylenol would fully settle her to sleep and she woke up as soon as they Tylenol wore off!

So today, I was prepared that it was going to be difficult and unfortunately today is the day Matt is gone until 6, so basically all of Hannah's awake hours! This morning I prayed that "Lord help me through the day, please give me the patience and love that Hannah needs" prayer. I'm so glad we don't have to do it on our own. And truth is, today has been better than expected! My mom suggested maybe she had a sore throat which I don't think she has ever had before and I think she may be right, because today came the full blown cold and wiping her nose all day long, none stop, but still no fever so I don't think an ear ache (and I'd be happy to keep it that way). Thankfully God has answered my desperate prayer. Although its been tough, I was more aware of what it was that was bothering Hannah, I had the patience to deal with her as she is more easily frustrated and whiny, and think up things that she would like to do. And you know what has worked the best to keep her calm and me a chance to drink a cup of tea today?

                                        
That's right! Barney! I never thought I'd see the day I was a fan of Barney and getting my daughter to watch it, but we were listening to and singing songs on youtube and we came across a Barney one. And...she LOVES the big kids, she LOVES the singing and dancing and she LOVES Barney! And I LOVE her being happy, calm and not whiny! So God gave me Barney today and the patience that I needed. She's sleeping now and then just a few more hours before Matt's home and bedtime!

Thank you God for being there in our good times and challenging days!

a benefit to suburb living

Recently we bought a home and in all honesty we could only afford if we bought out of the city in the suburbs. It has been an exciting time, but also full of adjustments. Some amazing, like for me getting to enjoy a backyard finally with Hannah and a park just down the street! But there have also been difficult ones, like Matt having to get used to account for traffic and more commuting time, which means waking up pretty early in the morning so he can be home before Hannah goes to bed! There are pros and cons for sure, but one big benefit in my mind is the library here.

Do you see them? Parking spaces and there are way more to the side and front of the building! AMAZING! No more spending 10 minutes looking for a parking spot, then get out the stroller and walk the 4 blocks you need to to get to the library in the city. Now it's just park the car, take Hannah out, walk up and enjoy! The facility is also pretty great, with lots of places to play (doll house and train set that Hannah loves) and some great programs. Today we tried a reading and song time, Hannah loved it all except for having to sit down so other kids could see. That part we really need to work on! 

I'm a big fan of spending time at the library especially with my daughter so getting to park so close especially on a rainy day like today is a huge bonus! 

"Mommy WOW I'm a big girl now!"

This weekend was our weekend to do the kids ministry for primary to grade 3s at our church. So that means Pizza church Saturday night and Sunday morning service. There doesn't tend to be a lot of babies in the nursery on Saturday nights so they started putting the babies in with the toddlers and man did my daughter love that! I think honestly she was a little put off when she went in the normal nursery the next day! It was when I picked her up from the toddler room that I really felt like I had a big girl since I had to wait for them to get Hannah's picture.

Here it is! Her first picture that she did at church, appropriately, proudly hung on our fridge!

You have to look closely to see the actual colouring...she's just getting the hang of it!

Then Sunday morning her favourite nursery worker was so kind to bring her in into our room since we still had a lot of kids at the end of the service and what did she do? went right to the table where I was with the grade ones, saw the crayons, motioned to be sat up on the chair at the table and started colouring on my sheet! And boy does she love running around and playing with those "big kids"! 

Other ways I feel like she's getting so big (way too fast) 

- She told us she was ready for bed! No lie. Friday was a different day, where she didnt go down at all for her afternoon nap and there was a crazy snowstorm that happened. We so happened to be near campus at a co-workers working on our newsletter, so at 5pm when we went to leave, we ended up getting stuck in traffic in the bad conditions trying to get home for 2 and a half hours! After awhile Hannah gave up and fell asleep for an hour. I thought that this would mean she would be way off schedule and not ready for bed until later, but when we were upstairs for some reason and I went to bring her back down, she refused, and then pointed to her door, I asked if she wanted to go to sleep, she nodded and sure enough she went right to sleep after we got her ready for bed! When did she start telling us when its bedtime?! 

- I'm fairly confident the time has come for 1 nap. The bright side is that the past 4 days she has slept in because of it, which means the earliest she has woken up as been 7:30 and latest surprising us all on Saturday at 9! So although it will take some getting used to in the day I guess its not all a bad thing. The true test will be when Matt wakes up at 6 tomorrow again, will she listen for him and wake up then too like she used to? 

- she LOVES the slide now at the park, she could go on the big one over and over and will push herself down so I need to be ready! 

- she loves to help with everything now and the favourite of this past week has been baking! I was dreaming of this day to come Im not going to lie! 

There's so much more, but really that picture hit me the most that my baby isn't such a baby anymore! 

Things that warm my heart

I was inspired by a friend who was going through a rough time, but still wants to praise God during those times to really focus on the good more and thank God for those little special moments. Yesterday overall was a pretty good day, and here are some special moments that warmed my heart.

Hannah said "thank you". (I opted not to use the classsic "ta ta" with Hannah, I decided I would use normal words and if she changes how she learns and can say them at least she knows the real word and isnt learning the easy version and then what it really means later on.) Hannah does not have a lot of clear words that she says. Definitely has her own langauge as she reads to herself or tells you some story, but she does have a few clear ones and "thank you" is in that short list. It just warms my heart when I give her something and she promptly responds with a smile and a "thank you". She is such a sweet girl!

A cup of tea in a large tea cup like this one (except mine has a fun pattern and was a special present from mom this Christmas)

in the afternoon while Hannah was sound asleep. I just love the feeling of wrapping my hands around a warm cup of tea I get to enjoy!

Hannah wanting to hold my hand during prayer. For the most part during dinner prayer Hannah fights to get her hand away and wants to just eat. Last night I didnt even reach for hand, but she was fussing about something, I opened by eyes to see her reaching out for my hand. I grabbed it, she smiled, patted it and held it through the rest of the prayer. That was special!

Getting to spend time with some amazing friends at our small group from church. We kind of got distracted a lot during the study time, but as Matt said its more than just the study, its the friends and spending time encouraging each other. Its a special thing to be a part of a group like that! It was fun and I left uplifted!

I don't think there is ever a perfect day. We all have moments we don't enjoy in the day, but we also have special moments that warm our hearts and it's these I want to take some time to treasure and thank God for more.

(I can also thank God for the difficult moments because those too hold value, but that can be for another post).

You are Special reminder

I think my favourite christmas present Hannah got this year was the baby version book "You are Special" by Max Lucado. I love that book. I love the message it holds!

I read my version this morning. And I was refreshed once again that its not about what others think. Its not about being the best mom in public. Its not about being cool on campus to students. Its about realizing that our maker made us special, He made us unique and he loves us for who we are. Just as we are. 

The key is going back to those promises, going back to spending time with our creator so that that message rings true in our ears and the lies that society tells us, that we are not worthy do not stick or impact us! 

Sometimes I really struggle to find the time to spend time with God being a busy mom now back to work part time and just moving into a new house Im trying to get organized. 

Sometimes I worry about Hannah and the world she is going to grow up in and the lies that she will be told. 

The way I can help Hannah the most. The way I can be the best mom and wife is going back to spending time with MY CREATOR, MY SAVIOUR, and being refreshed by HIS promises that will ALWAYS be true. I do have time, I just have to make it a priority! When I am full of that joy and truth, Hannah will see it, Hannah will benefit from it and my prayer is that I can pass that on to her! So I was reminded yet again that I am special, I am worthy, but I need to go back to spending time with God every day and give him the time he deserves so I can be and live the way he desires for me to be! 

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.^[a] 

Wonderful are your works; my

 soul knows it very well." 

Ps 139:14

Crockpot saves the day!

Since recently going back to work part-time I have had to get used to our new realities. One of the biggest things was figuring out dinner after a day on campus! To be honest the first few times by the time we would pick up Hannah and start to head home (out of the city now), I would be so tired I just resorted to fast food. But that is neither in our budget nor something that's too healthy to start depending on so we had to get out of that habit (even if its only once a week). So, I knew I had to start thinking ahead and the best answer for a good meal after working away from home, when I knew I would be tired with limited energy and not a lot of time to spend with Hannah before bed (so I wanted to protect time even against quick 15 minute meals) = crockpot!

Here is today's meal. Actually the best part is that this is our left overs after we enjoyed our warm bowls of chili on this cold winter day! It will probably do us at least 2 more meals! Awesome!

What a wonderful creation!

Victory!

Victory in getting our (smaller) couch downstairs!

Victory in communicating well and not killing each other in the process!

This proved to be a good exercise in communicating and understanding the other person in our marriage. That said I don't want to deal with anything like this again for a very long time! Making the room look good and putting it together can come later. I'm pooped! I'm just glad we did it!

A price tag for frustration?

This week we bought a couch. We were in desperate need of some new furniture for our new place (mainly something to sit on in the basement). I jumped at the amazing deal I found. This couch for $20 on kijiji!

Not sure if you can tell in the picture (that quality is not very good), but there are some cat scratch marks along the side (although most I think I can fix up to the point of barely noticing it). 

Still a great buy in my books! 

However, I started questioning how amazing it was when my husband and an amazing friend after getting it in the pouring rain struggled and tried for what seemed like hours (but I didnt keep track) trying to get it down our basement stairs! Part of which included staying outside the side door in the rain! These guys are amazing and gave it a valiant effort, but alas it was not going down! It was just too big. 

So Im always okay with a plan B. We could keep this one upstairs and move our slightly smaller one downstairs. No big deal. Matt and I tried to do that this afternoon. 

It was not good! 

After a lot of frustrating moments this is how we left our couch. 

One could start to wonder if our great deal was such a great deal with all the frustration it has caused. But the thing is we realized it may be impossible to get ANY couch down our stairs! And it is true the former owners only had a desk and desk chair down there. I have not enjoyed the frustrations, but I still hold true to our great deal of a couch and I still love it! We will figure something out and worst case scenerio we sell it. 

Poop and the worst kind of it!

Right now Im dreaming of my life without poop! Okay so not realistic, since it's a part of how we were created, but a life with a little less poop than this week would be nice.

My beautiful daughter

 has had a rough week! Teething has always been very difficult for her. She has always only gotten one tooth at a time after nights of pain, sleepless nights, and diaper rashes! Molars have proven to be WAY worse! With each sleepless night full of SCREAMS of pain, we have also enjoyed countless poop explosions of diarrhea!  This week if I only had to change her outfit 3 times and only 4 really bad poops I celebrated! Even though I remember a day when she was a newborn and pooped every time she nursed those poops were nothing. These poops STINK! My stomach turns when I change her. I love her, but I have had a hard time being around her more than a few times this week.

Praying her last molar comes in, her big girl, normal poops return and we all get good sleeps again soon with no pain for her! That will be the day!

spicy mustard

spicy mustard

Not sure if this will work right from the paint site or not, but Im trying!

Im dreaming of my next big project. To be honest I'm scared of doing our basement, upstairs if we drop paint on the floors its easy to clean up, but if we drop it on our new carpets downstairs not so easy to clean up and I do not trust myself not to drop some paint or step in some or something like that! So instead of thinking ahead to that Im dreaming of our kitchen. Someday I want to do it all, I want to redo the counters (cheap style dark green in colour currently), I want to add a backsplash, etc, but until then I want to paint/stain the cabinets, paint the walls and change the hardware and voila it will be a new space!

If I paint cabinets white Im thinking I want a fun different colour on the walls to pop and add some character. Keeping in mind we have cream coloured tiles and the green counters that are staying for now. Also Im considering doing some open shelving which would show some teal and brown dishes, so...Im thinking this maybe...its different but may be able to work...Im not sold though so Ill keep thinking and dreaming! Good thing I still have time with different projects to complete before we tackle this one!

First comes first

So my list of things to do is still very high! We got back this week, finally able to settle in, but we also jumped right back into work and everyday normal busy life! This week I did manage to finally finish painting Hannahs room! Ill post pics of that soon. We had a free Saturday and at first I had so many things I wanted to get done around the house, but alas somethings were just more important...

We only have so many times to be together and hang out as a family and this was our first snowfall to enjoy really together! Taking time to buddle up to play in the snow was definitely time well spent! Everything else can wait! Family time trumps the "to-do list"!