pancakes, again???

Yes, pancakes again. And I'll tell you why.

day one: I pull out the pancake mix, add the egg and then realize too late I don't have 1 cup of milk. Or even 1/2 cup of milk. I improvise, but get, "These pancakes don't taste right, Mom."

day two: Out comes the pancake mix. I am determined to give some good eats this morning. Here's a little tip I learned that I'm giving you for free today. Don't put pancakes to cook in the skillet while you help your kids shower and try and get a load of laundry done. You only end up with, "These pancakes taste burnt, Mom."

day three: No distractions. No forgotten ingredients. No comments on pancakes gone wrong.

Success!

Jesus is Born

Merry Christmas to all!

Hope is come. Man is restored to God through the gift of Love:Jesus

Merry Christmas.

An early Christmas presents to my blog readers...

A repost from last Christmas.

My journey to collecting embarrassing moments started young.

This is one of the memories I always recall at Christmas.

Enjoy!

Find it here!

Attention all single ladies..new theme song

For everyone who used this Rebecca St James song as a theme song. You now have a new song to put onto your iPod.

You remember my pal, Greg...from here?

He's done it again. A theme song for all you set apart girls who are waiting and praying as God brings you your beloved.

It happened to me. Trust in the Lord, He will bring you the desire of your heart.

..Maybe even Greg! Find your theme song here.

Friday Flashback: Cookies, and globes and fun...oh my!

Our college girls came over last Friday...and what a blast!!!

They got to open Christmas crackers that we made from toilet paper rolls and they found the mustaches!!! (templates found here and here).

Charlie Chaplin? No, it's L-girl!

Now that I see this pic, I should have taken the pictures like an old Western WANTED poster.

G-girl, you look a bit like the Pink Panther's Inspector Clouseau!! G-girl reads my blog and therefore shall get a shout-out for the unique woman that she is!!!

We made cookies with icing sugar and loads of sprinkles...

K-girl brought the little silver balls that she admitted was afraid to eat as a child because they looked like metal ball bearings! And then my children thought they were metal ball bearings. And then we all ate one to show them that they weren't metal ball bearings. How many times do you think I can slip metal ball bearings into a story?

Check out the fine detail on the reindeer and the bell. K-girl seriously rocks using sprinkles.

This has got to be the easiest gift to pull together. And when I say easy, I mean, I put one together while the girls were playing their French horn, harmonica and violin in the other room. Get directions here.

L-girls instrument playing clown. Honest. I know the photo doesn't show it, but trussssst me.

The snowman globe.

I love our college girls. We ended the night with a fantastic time of prayer and we're looking forward to meeting in the New Year.

The No Wax Revolution

I've had a tenuous relationship with facial hair waxing, Dr. Psychiatrist. I believe the reasons are deeply rooted in my past.

When I was a child, I remember watching my Grandma never getting dressed until she "put her eyebrows on." She had very little eyebrow hair.

And my mom use to pluck her chin hairs and sigh heavily as though wishing one day it would all end, but knowing it wouldn't.

My Grandmother never grew leg hair. I didn't get her genes. I got my Dad's. His hairy legs and his blackish coloured hair.

When I was a teenager I was driving a little boy to school for a friend. The sun was shining through the windshield, and we were smiling at each other.

Then he looked at me and said, "How come you have a mustache?"

When I was working in television as a producer, we needed a segment with a new on-air host.

Now, I was currently growing out my eyebrows. Which means, my last experience at a beauty parlor was a 20-minute grueling session of hearing the wax eyebrow-artist say "omigod" and "wow" over 100 times as she tried to groom my eyebrows. Those words by were followed by her bringing over other hair stylists because "You've got to see her eyebrows. They are poker straight". Then she used the scissors--yes, scissors-- on my eyebrows!!!

(Ok, they were small eyebrow-sized scissors. But still.)

So needless to say, I was growing them out and avoiding getting them re-done.

At work, we decided that I should do the new 2 minute segment. In the meeting with my team I said, "Thanks. That's great."

Then a friend piped up, "But wax your eyebrows before you tape anything, ok?"

My other friend, "Defintely."

The only man in the room squinted his eyes and studied my eyebrows. And let out a slow, "yeahhhh. Do that."

Well, I have found a good wax lady now. She's my best friend for $17 every six weeks.

But lately I've decided to come up with a new solution.

A revolution, if you will...Join me, friends.

We could change the world with this, could we not?

Because we all should say 'Top of the Morning To Ya!' more often

Sometimes, just for fun, I pretend I have an accent.

There are several reasons for this:

1. I want to see if anyone will seriously consider that I'm from a different country

2. I always wanted to act, but don't have the time...or the skills

3. It's fun saying "Jolly good."

I recently went into a gas station and felt that it would be nice to mix things up and practice my Scottish accent. But I wanted to pull off an accent that sounded like I'd been in North America for awhile. A gentle lilt, if you will.

And this is what happened:

"Excuse me, pump five is not filling my tank up."

The people who just finish paying look at me. I know what they are thinking, "Where did this person come from. Ireland? No...she sounds more like Braveheart. Perhaps Scotland?" They look at me with inquisitive stares.

The clerk behind the counter gestures for me to repeat myself. (Apparently my accent is a little hard to understand, maybe?)

So I repeat myself, "Pump five is empty. I noticed stalls two and three are empty too, but they have markers. I believe pump five is empty."

The people in front of me look out the window to stall five. They nod their heads. I know what they are thinking, "She's visiting from Scotland and has come to our town and the first gesture of kindness she gets from us is an empty gas station...or do they say petrol station in Scotland?"

The clerk leans against the counter. I know, I just know, he's ready to apologize for the inconvenience seeing as I'm from out of town and all.

So he says, "O.K. Thankyouverymuch. Pull around your car and try pump seven."

He says it in an Indian accent...as in a person from India who has moved over here to start a business and make a better life for their children. Someone with a REAL accent.

Sigh.

So, much for my vague attempt at being a worldly traveler who is a mysterious stranger with a can't-quite-place-it accent. I've just been upstaged by a man with a genuine accent.

Do you see what I mean about not having the skills for acting??

Friday Flashback: The Tim-Tam Slam

Here's the cool thing about my church. Our church is really intentional about building relationship and creating community that fosters an environment of confessing our sins one to another, but also supportive and encouraging in our walk with Christ.
The young adults came up with this BRILLIANT idea. It's called the Lunch Program. Young college kids are partnered with a family or someone who is older then them. Again, wanting to foster an environment of intentional relationships within in the Body of Christ.
We have three amazing college girls that we feed once a month. And they have introduced us to the TIM-TAM Slam.

Do you know what a Tim-Tam slam is? Tim-Tam is this cookie chocolate bar thing that they bought at Wal**mart.
Step One: bite one corner of the Tim-Tam
Step Two: go to the bottom of the Tim-Tam and bite the opposing corner, thus creating a straw.
Step Three: Slurp the hot chocolate through the Tim-Tam straw
Step Four: Stuff the Tim-Tam into your mouth because the hot chocolate has completely melted the Tim-Tam as it travelled up the straw. This is the SLAM part...as demonstrated by K-girl and G-girl in the next two pictures.



Me (with sad looking hair--sorry to burst all your illusions about my diva-high hair) giving the Tim-Tam some kudos and love.

We did this a few weeks go and now they come tonight for latkes, hanukkah fest and a talent show at our house. I love my church community!

Q-What did the chicken say to the apple?

A-Don't mix us together or we'll look like barf on a plate.

My crockpot and I have been bonding lately. Mainly due to the fact that my hubby cannot drive himself to and from work due to his injury. We pick him up from the office and bring him home. It's great having him home at 5 pm everyday, but it threw our dinner routine into a bit of a whirlwind.

When I would normally be getting dinner ready, I'm now bundling up my kiddo's and warming the van up. (Did I mention that it is -38 degrees Celsius here? The van needs warming!!!)

We don't mind this trip at all. It's quite fun for the lot of us. The only downside is that dinner was getting started later and I love to have dinner for my man when he gets home. It's great family time to reconnect.

My solution to this dilemma is my crock pot. Blessed thing. Throw things in there, let it cook all day, and presto-change-o you have dinner ready just when you pick up your husband from work.

But today, things went awry.

Dunh-dunh-dunh.

My girlie got sick. Puking sick. Mama-I-don't-feel-well-and-I think-I'm going-to-just-be-in-bed sick. A quick phone call to my man to let him know we won't be picking him up and could he please find a ride home. I'm not too worried the crock pot is working it's magic.

4:45 pm I put the rice in the rice cooker and things are cooking

5:00 pm Hubby comes home to much pomp ad celebration from the kids

5:06 pm I break an ornament we had spent all day making ( Sadness to the power of ten)

5:09 pm Vacuum is now forever in the on mode. Not sure why. Unplug and move on.

5:15 pm Dish up dinner. A new recipe (in my quest for trying out new things in a crock pot):

Chicken in Applesauce.

If you are saying, "Ewww, gross." Then your voice is rising with the clamor that came from my house this evening. In my defense, it sounded like a good idea at the time (The time may have been late at night).

Girlie isn't feeling any better. We help her puke in the toilet and then return to the kitchen and we look at the crock pot's offerings. The gloppy, bland, runny and neutral colored offerings.

Just a word to the wise...between friends and all.

Don't make applesauce chicken...because not only does it look like puke. It tastes like puke.

Why you shouldn't use Christmas greeting cards to send a subliminal message that says "I've got my act together"

I was going to use my old standby stamp this year for decorating the outside of the envelopes. It's pretty--a dove that says PEACE. After two years though, the bird needs a break. So, I came up with this:

It's a drawing of mistletoe (it is so!) above the name and then lipstick mark of being kissed. Underneath that it says, "Kiss ya under the mistletoe!" Fun, eh?

And this year, we had enough set backs with my hubby's injury that all thoughts of getting our family picture done went right out the window...so we did thumbprint drawings. That's me at the bottom right hand corner. My eldest did the artwork.

And then, I realized that some people can't be sent the envelope with the mistletoe kisses on it. People that are important to you, but you would rather give them something more formal. Something that makes you seem a little more dignified and put together. So you go to the fall back stamp and say: There, they will get a smile seeing that and they will thrill over how precise and amazing we are. Until...

they turn the card over and realize that I've sealed it upside down

A guide to staying off your blog...

...and having a life!

I am not on the internet very much, and yet I have a blog--isn't that a paradox? No, no it's not. But let me tell you the tricks that I use to get lots done on the net and still have a life-maybe some will work for you.

1. Ditch the H1FacebookN1 virus- I think I've made it clear that I dislike Face*book. I know that for some this is a great tool for you, blah, blah,blah.

Here's my beef with FB, I actually think it lulls people into a false sense of relationship with one another. If you want a real friendship with someone, have them over to your house. (yeah, yeah I know...what if they live in Africa? Get a calling card.)

Real relationship is built up over time spent together, memories made and conflicts being resolved. (I also think that conflict is the catalyst for deeper relationship if handled properly, but that's a post for another day). Ditch Facebook if you are on it more than once a day and redeem the time!

2. Put a Time Limit On It- I love being a wife and mom. It's where I want to focus the majority of my time. But I'm easily distracted. (Anybody remember the time where all I did was post what I saw on youtube???!?!) So, time limit's work well for me. I have an hour and a half a day to do my computer stuff. And it's between the hours of 5 am and 7 pm. Once it's 7 pm, I am done with the internet world and on to more important things like hanging out with my husband.

3. Work the Time Limit- Here's the power of pressure. I know I only have an hour and a half and it forces me to be efficient. Often times, I am done all my blog, homeschool searching, emails, etc. within 45-50 minutes. Frees me up to make water xylophones with my kids orbake smooshed cookies.

4. Priorities, Priorities, Priorities-My family is my priority. Making my home a safe haven for memory-making, mistakes and laughter is extremely important to me. Instilling the values and the truth of Jesus is priority numero uno. When answering emails, looking at blogs, I ask myself, "How does this contribute to my family's goals? Does this build me up spiritually? Could I be having fun with my kids right now instead of reading up on macrame?" Knowing my priorities let's me be selective and productive on the internet.

5. Splurge-Internet killed the video star. People can spend hours on the internet in total amusement and caught up in eye candy, the same way people were glued to the TV tube a generation ago. Sometimes it's ok to splurge and take an evening and get caught up on blogs, and surf around and look for random things that you type into google just to be goofy. Every once in a while I get on the net for a few hours and let loose. But don't make it a lifestyle. Make it a splurge! A random occurence! Something you do now and then! Someth--you get the picture.

There you have it! This is what I do to make the most of my time on the internet and still have a life.

What do you do?

Homeschool Day #3

Day Three of highlighting our homeschooling adventures. And, as predicted it has helped me come to some conclusions...

Today we had loads of errands and chores: groceries, coat shopping, eating candy canes, you know...errand stuff.

Followed by a quick discussion with Constable Werner and an apology for setting off the library alarm...which turned out to be a false alarm, we didn't set off the alarm. A blog post for another day!

Then a safe, mad dash home while we discussed on visibility and invisibility, weather and what a blizzard is and why we shouldn't be on the road.

puzzle time

reading books

dinosaur play

teddy bears in great distress and must be rescued by the super hero family!

Learning how to blow up a balloon without using air from your lungs.

Pouring the baking soda into the jar and watching the CO2 make the balloon blow up big

Another bubble experiment. A bubble bo*mb

Insert backing soda time-delay package into the warm water and vinegar mixture and watch ziploc bag swell. Do this some place safe where it is ok to have exploding vinegar solution go everywhere. We were disappointed though. The bag only swelled a bit and then slowly inflated.

Another gem from Sally Ann. 40 cents for the Diego game!

Mural drawing on newsprint

Dealing with attitudes followed by tickle wrestling

Playing quadrille

Our favourite book at present. Lots of great ideas in here and some magic tricks that got the kids thinking I'm a genius at knowing which card comes next!

Reading, reading, reading

Finished the puzzle

More sound experiments with a homemade oboe

Drawing pictures

using shapes to create (I picked this up at a rummage sale for .55 cents!)

made wreaths

mad dancing and Christmas carols

Investigation of the boots

Locked in the house due to blizzard circumstances...

dessert party with Daddy

If you liked the way I did my homeschool layout then check out one of our favourite homeschooling blogs. Great photos and ideas are here at Ordinary Life Magic.

Homeschool Day #2

A lesson on not leaving our toothbrush in the kitchen

Followed by discussion on germs and proper hygiene

Going through the Jesse Tree advent activity

Water play

Read Christmas books

Oldest reads to us

More cuddling and reading

Acting out the nursery play house story we read. I now have 12 grand-teddybear-children

Stacking power

More sound experiments with the cookie tin drums

Geography of Canada

Copywork

I'm sticking this pick in for my sister. I've had this nativity scene since I was 11. Remember, Ames?

More Christmas collages

Drawing

Drawing

Drawing

Review of Family values-- a morning tradition!

Folding and laundry. My girls do a pretty good job, eh?

Numbers, math, lessons on subtraction and counting

Oldest rolls her eyes as mad dancing with the elephant occurs. Hey, this song is catchy!

The ice sculptures come inside and we investigate how to get them out

A lesson on cold things. A discussion on licking cold things

A garbage can has met it's end. Talking about expansion in freezing environments.

Time to make the tower

The ice tower in it's completed state

Followed by outdoor play

Hot chocolate

Discussions on hot and cold

Sound experiment. Tchaikovsky worked great for this because he is "crashier and louder" than Mozart. We laid a cookie tin on top of a speaker and poured rice on top of the cookie tin. Then we cranked up the music (music with good bass) and watched the rice move.

A lesson on cleaning up the mess we make!

Reading more books

Dominoes

Food,food,food

Off to the post office to mail some goodies to friends

The practical uses of a cardboard box...namely walking into things!