After months of what seemed like non-stop studying (for Zac) and non-stop mothering (for me) we both needed to get a away and just forget about school and books and get to know eachother again. We all had a lot of fun and managed to fit in some relaxing!
Here are some pics.
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The past few days my sewing nook has seen more action than the last few months. With summer coming up and a large stack of fabric I felt obliged to make Sophia some summer clothes rather than pay inflated prices for them. The girl is very demanding and pretty much refuses to wear shorts, pants or capri’s so I really have had no choice but to get reaquainted with my sewing machine and make her some dresses. I still have a few more to make, but I thought I would post a few pics of what got finished today.
Still doing the ballet poses. I guess 6 months of ballet made more of an impression on her than I thought! Anywho, this style is a peasant style dress that is super easy to make – I only had to rip out seams once! I love how she looks in this dress.
I decided to make a matching skirt for Ellie out of the same fabric. She looks so precious in it. I still need to make her a matching shirt; I am thinking a red one would be be perfect.
I love the skirt, but my favorite think about this picture is her pudgy little hands. She is almost 3 years old and still has these petite little baby hands complete with dimples on her knuckles.
Once the shirt is done for this I NEED to make a headband to go with it. Hopefully she will wear it long enough for me to take a picture!
All this sewing has been a nice diversion from my lack of a husband the last week. Thank goodness for a sewing machine and a good friend who spent the day sewing with me!
So, Sophia will not be participating in her recital. She missed all of her March classes because of either her or Ellie being sick and she just hasn’t enjoyed it since the new year. Since January the kids have been practicing only their recital routine. For one hour. Every week. You can see how that can get old quick to a 3 year old. She had fun before they started practicing their routine, but I honestly had to drag her there every week in February – so come April she just didn’t want to go back and lost all interest in ballet . . . until we picked up her recital costume. She has since begged to go back – especially when I told her what a recital was. Yes, she does like attention. Anywho here is a video I took last night of our own personal recital!
A few weeks ago Alabama experienced a rare occurrence that caused mayhem and a frenzy like no other event could in Alabama. My Canadian friends and family would laugh if they knew how this one singular event could affect the whole state. I’m talking about an inch of snow that lasted for about 24 hours. No joke. But I digress, for a state that sees snow like this once in a decade I suppose all the commotion is justified. Just don’t ask me to get excited.
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Rachel happened to be visiting that weekend and we got some pictures our girls with her experiencing her first snow. This first picture is of the girls when they were happy to be outside – catching Alabama snowflakes with their tongues.
Here Sophia attempts to throw an Alabama snowball at Miss Rachel. Alabama snow makes some fine snowballs – I however do not make great snowball throwers. I think she missed. You will notice that there are no mittens on any of the girls.
This last picture pretty much sums up how the three girls felt after ten minutes outside with no mittens, and how I feel about the snow here, there and everywhere. Crazily, Alabama snow is no different than Saskatchewan snow; cold, wet, and miserable.
Here’s another one for good measure.
And just in case you are wondering, I didn’t deprive these Alabama girls of an Alabama snowman.
The next time we get enough snow to make a snow man – in ten years – my girls can make it themselves. Maybe by then I will learn to have an emergency pair of mittens hanging around.
Last week I got the bright idea to drive to Virginia – which is over a 10 hour drive. With stops it took us 12 – 13 hours each way. Still the 25+ hours in the car was worth it! We used to visit the Rondeau’s once a year and we hadn’t been to see them for a year and a half. I needed a fix. We were down, they were down so on Sunday we commenced on our road trip. We were treated, upon our arrival, with the most delicious venison steak and a balsamic reduction sauce and a yummy side dish – mashed butternut squash and potatoes I think. The Rondeau’s know the meaning of hospitality!
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Anywho, here are three of my favorite pics from the few days we spent with them. The first is Isaac on the swing looking very sweet, as usual. He and Sophia got along swimmingly – which might pose a problem for Sophia’s future with Caleb:).
The next pic is of Micah – who I almost stuck in the van to bring home. I love all the Rondeau boys, but Micah was my little pet when I was there always begging for a tickle from the tickle monster. He is so precious and DOES NOT look like Tom Brady. He’s way cuter.
And last but definitely not least is Caleb. That kid has energy. A big head. Lots of brains. And he can read. He is five. He’s reading chapter books. I sat with him one day and pointed to all these words that I thought too difficult for him, and he said each one quickly and well. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The craziest part of it all was that Matt and Liz did not do anything systematic to teach him to read. From what I remember Liz told me that they did teach him the sounds of the letters and letter groups and he just learned to read. Crazy.
We had a wonderful time with everyone and look forward to when the Rondeau’s visit us next this summer. See you guys soon!
When Sophia was just a few months old and we talked about having another baby soon people were a little stunned – and that’s an understatement. Why would we want another time-consuming, money-consuming, wake-you-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-creature so soon after having one. We even got advice that it was not fair to your first child to have another baby before the first was 3 years old. Well we had many reasons why we wanted another baby so soon – but I see the wisdom of our choice most of all in how good of friends our girls are. They do fight over things on occasion everyday – but they also have the most tender moments that I sometimes catch on film digital picture card.
This morning when Ellie woke up we brought her into our bed to cuddle for a while. Often times she will just lay between us, other times she will crawl right into our arms on top of us. This morning when she heard Sophia awake she quickly lowered herself off of our bed and all I heard was quiet for the next 5 minutes. Very unusual. Our girls normally wake up with lots of energy. So, being curious, I got up and peeked into their bedroom. This is what I found.
They really do love each other more than any other siblings I have seen. They are not perfect and they do fight – but it never prevents them from still loving each other and having these tender moments. Giving Sophia a constant friend was the best thing we have done for her (besides of course sharing Jesus with her).
If anybody has been paying attention to by blog the past few days, particularly my links, they will have noticed my newest link is to Compassion International. I love this organization. During a mission conference at Briercrest a representative was there with the profiles of many children awaiting sponsorship. I looked through each one wondering about the lives of these children; if they had enough to eat, or a warm clean house to live in, or access to an education. How could I chose just one? But I did. I chose a little boy from Honduras. That was eight years ago. Through the years I/we have gone through periods of unemployment, one income – sometimes not much more than minimum wage. God has always provided enough for us to give to our little guy. What we gave was but a small portion of our income – what was given to Luis was much more priceless.
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Compassion is an organization that understands both needs of children and families; physical and spiritual sustenance and provision. With the $32 monthly donation the child is provided with access to an education, better food, and health care. This is all done through local churches where the children are also taught the gospel. When you sponsor a child you also get to correspond with your child. In the letters that I get from Luis he is always full of praises to God, and always tells me he loves me and is praying for me. Sponsorship through Compassion really is priceless!
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This week several sponsors are visiting families, children and communities where Compassion has impacted and blogging about it. It is well worth the ten or fifteen minutes it will take out of your day to check out some of these links and read about the work of Compassion – to be convinced if you are not already that sponsorship does make a difference. In many cases, an eternal one.
A Tale of Two Houses – by The Pioneer Woman’s Husband, Marlboro Man
When Need and Ability Collide – by Brian Seay at A Simple Journey
Yes We Can – by Shaun Groves at Shlog: Section B
Dominican Diaries: Day 3 – by Challies Jr
Domincan Republic – God’s Hidden Gifts – by Challies.com
A Room Full of Hope – by Mary at Owlhaven
Thirty-two dollars AND . . . – by Jennifer at 5 minutes for Mom
The Irony is that I’m eating Oreos right now – by Melanie at Big Mama
“She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.” Proverbs 31:20
Last Thursday the trees in front of our house looked like this; the very tops with just a hint of fall. Just four short days later . . .
the trees are brilliantly yellow and orange! I’ve never really observed how quickly the trees change but with these two beautiful massive trees in our front yard. Apparently other people in our neighborhood also appreciate these trees too. Yesterday I got a knock on our door while the girls were napping. It was a couple with their children asking if they could take some pictures in our front yard! Certainly if they could go to all that trouble I could throw some clothes on the girls, wash their faces, comb their hair and mosey on outside for some pictures of our own.
Of course, 4 o’clock on an empty stomach right after a nap is not the best time for pictures, but I was motivated! Another few days and the trees will be bare naked . . . and that would not be appropriate for family pics.
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I put this one of Ellie up on facebook and I struggled to come up with a suitable caption. Within seconds Leah commented with a line from “The Sound of Music”: “the hills are alive, with the sound of music”. Very appropriate.
My beautiful family!
And just to keep it real – Ellie with her finger up her nose. I challenge anyone with a two year old to get through a photo session without a photo a little nose-picking. I think I’ll frame this one.
For the past few months, since moving back to Alabama, I have been faithfully writing a weekly menu plan. I got thrown of track when my family came to visit because of all the eating out, and driving to and fro. The week after my Mom left I was in a funk and we ate, but I also made too many trips to the grocery store. Finally, today, I made a menu plan! I always do it in my hand drawn chart with 3x 7 columns. I am not going to recreate that here so I will just share our breakfasts and suppers.
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UPDATED WITH LINKS FOR RECIPES
Breakfasts
Stone ground oats and banana
Whole wheat blueberry pancakes with cinnamon cream syrup
Pumpkin muffins
Yogurt (homemade) smoothies – blueberry, raspberry, banana
Cold cereal
Suppers
Paste e Fagioli soup and corn bread
Turkey Burgers on whole wheat rolls and butternut squash oven fries
Ham and Potato soup with whole wheat biscuits, fruit
Pork chops, rice pilaf, oven roasted brocolli
Sassy Sausage and Black bean soup and corn bread
Spaghetti Pie and butternut squash oven fries
Pizza or Calzones
With Christmas coming up, hopefully we can stick to our menu’s and save money for gifts!
When I look back I think I really just wanted to be in control. When people get emotionally involved quickly in relationships they lose control. I didn’t want to lose control. As I drove away from Zac I felt like I was in control. I had been too cautious. I realized this over the next few hours.
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As I drove home and the thought of never seeing or speaking to Zac again sunk in. I realized that I had been too guarded. I knew that if I jumped into a relationship with Zac there would be no turning back – that marriage would be the eventual outcome. I realized that it wasn’t Zac I was afraid of, but marriage. Over the course of the last few months, realizing Zac’s intentions of pursuing me (marriage), I did something I think most people don’t do. I’m not joking when I tell you what I am about to tell you. I sat down and “interviewed” a single person (a missionary) and a few married people about what it was like to be single and married, respectively. I actually went out for dinner or sat down for coffee with these women with the intent of asking them about the advantages and disadvantages of their respective situations. I didn’t know what conclusion to come to, but after driving away from Zac and thinking that I would never see him again, I knew I couldn’t live without him. Before getting married I had this list of qualities I wanted in a husband and Zac eerily fit every description; he loved the LORD, he knew the scriptures better than anyone I had ever met, he loved the church, he was passionate and BOLD in his love for God, he was tall (this was seriously on my list), he was funny, he could play a musical instrument (also on my list), he was smart (he truly is a genius) – there are a few more that I can’t remember but it truly was uncanny how similar he was to this guy on my list.
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That evening I made up my mind to call him. I called his dorm room only to find that his phone line was no longer connected. I really did give up hope that I would get through to him. I sat for a few minutes frustrated with myself that I never got his number in Birmingham, and that he didn’t have mine in Saskatoon. It dawned on my then that there was a hall phone that I had called a few times before so I picked up the phone ready to talk to Zac – with no number in my memory. I wracked my brain looking at the numbers on the phone – I only needed to remember four numbers as the first three were the same in the whole town. Within a few seconds those numbers came to mind and within a few minutes Zac was on the phone. I was ecstatic that I got a hold of him, he was ecstatic that I called as he also thought we were done.
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That summer we talked on the phone nearly everyday. He continued to tell me he loved me everyday. For months (since March) I didn’t feel like I could say it back. Finally in July I knew I had to call him and say those three words that I had dreaded from him just a few months before. I called him and hemmed and hawed for a few minutes before I got it out. Shortly after that he started talking about marriage. I was hesitant. I don’t know why. I knew he was the best man I had ever met – a treasure to cherish, but I hesitated. I think it was that I hadn’t really committed to him until we were apart that I hesitated. I needed to see him and confirm that I could still feel this way seeing him in person. I bought a plane ticket to Birmingham for August. A week or so before I left he told me he was going to propose to me when I got there. I truly did not know what my answer was going to be – and Zac was not so sure either, but he said he was going to ask. For those of you that know Zac this shouldn’t come as a surprise to you as you know he does NOT like surprises.
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When I saw Zac at the airport he was so nervous – I wondered if he was going to get down on bended knee right there! Good thing he didn’t because I was still unsure of what I was going to say. We got in the car and started driving back to Birmingham (from Atlanta) and we both started to be more at ease. For the first time he grabbed my hand to hold it. I don’t know why, but at that moment I knew I would say yes. Up until then I felt so unsettled and unrested, but just being with Zac I felt at peace. I knew that God orchestrated it so we would meet. I knew that God had created us to love him but also to love each other and to walk through this life together. We really were perfect for each other. It was a beautiful thing. It is a beautiful thing.
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Just a few days later while at his Mom’s house Zac proposed to me – he gave the most incredible little speech about how much be loved me and would love me no matter what (my medical issues always being a concern) and how he didn’t want to go through life without me. I, of course, said yes. We lived happily ever after.
