a little whine with dinner

I've got some sort of head cold/flu thing right now. I'm achy, have been feverish, and am just ill in general. Blah.

In any case, I've had time to sit and ponder over the last couple of days a bit, because I have no energy. This can be both good and bad.

Good: I was really ready for Sunday School this morning. I really like the new book I'm using for curriculum. I'm really glad that we may have picked up a new family with 3 young children.

I really love seeing my kids interact well together. They can be so loving and sweet to each other.

Running a yard sale isn't too hard when you live on my street. Traffic is steady, and it's nice to clear out some junk...I mean treasures.

Less than great: running a yard sale is a bad idea when your husband isn't home. Otherwise, your 4 year old can get stuck on the toilet for an undetermined amount of time waiting for you to come wipe her up. There will be tears.

My kids don't always play well together. There can be tears.

My inlaws (parents in law in particular) have managed to frustrate me yet again. There might be tears.

Seriously though, they are going to Disney with my SIL, BIL and their kids at Christmas. Nice. Yet, they don't even so much as send a card when my middle child turns 4. To use an expression I don't particularly care for, WTF? Wait, make that WTH, I should keep this G-rated. Is it wrong that this bothers me? I mean, they haven't even called us since we got home from vacation, yet they told us that they miss us. Funny way to show it, if you ask me.

After - lots of pics

This is actually a "during" shot, because it was taken before the backsplash went in. Note, new dishwasher that doesn't have to be rolled across the floor and hooked up to the sink. Also, a hood fan! yay!



New cupboards, new paint, new countertop, new sink, new floor....new layout!


Our new pantry. It's HUGE!


My repurposed pantry, turned computer desk/art supplies storage



The old pantry, too small to hold anything much, now painted and cute!




The new pantry, all organized and stuff


The new backsplash. Not the prettiest pick of tiles, but it's hardly a designer kitchen... it's a well loved and very happy kitchen!

Funerals stink

Especially funerals for 22 year old boys (men) who are killed in car accidents.

Kitchen "before" shots

These photos really don't do the awfulness of the kitchen justice. Really. Hard to see the buckling and missing chunks of countertop. Not to mention the big marks on the floor, and the dents in the cupboards. Did you catch the missing cupboard door? Tried to fix that too. Oh, and the sink was leaking and the faucet was loose. These are slightly older shots, as the baby in the corner is almost 3. 48 shades of beige kitchen is no more!

good/bad

What's good:

kitchen renovation going well, and looking good. I can't wait to post "after" pictures!

What's bad:

the hubby trying to fix the upstairs bathroom sink. We've hit an impasse and have no faucet in there right now. Further proof that I did not marry a man with good handyman skills. Good thing he's cute.

on being content

While we were on the West coast, we had the chance to visit with a family we've known for years The husband and R went to school together, and we attended church together. They had two little girls back then, now they have a son and another daughter too. Those little girls are now preteens and look SO grown up. The husband (RR as a nickname) is also an Anglican priest in a small town, in a slightly isolated area, like us.

I really am thankful to be where we are. The more we talked to RR and his wife (JA), the more we could see just how good it is where we live. Our church generally doesn't eat us alive. R hasn't been working under a bishop who likes to intimidate. Our home is in much better shape than it could be. Our kids aren't getting bullied on a daily basis at school, resulting in having to make school changes. We're making friends, good friends even.

Much as I have complained (frequently *blush*) about life here...I really need to be thankful. Not thankful that I am where RR and JA are - that would be missing the point. I'm thankful for all that is good here, and there is a lot of good here. There are many blessings to our little family to be living where we are, in the situation we are in. I am thankful for those blessings, and am ever mindful that things can always change. I'm praying for change for the friends I mentioned, and offering prayers of thanks for what is our life here.

ahhh....

the sweet feeling of returning home. It's nice. The last day of vacation spent wanting the road home to be shorter, the pressure to drive faster to get there sooner, the excitement of wondering what is in the mailbox, what you left in the fridge.

We're back after more than 3 weeks away, and it's nice.

Oh, and the kitchen is mostly reno'ed too!

if you can't say anything nice...

why do you have to be competitive? Seriously. If you feel the need to be competitive about whose kid is better, or bigger or whatever, at least pay attention enough to get the names of my kids right.

GAH

On Vacation

Yeah, I know, I'm on vacation. Should not be blogging. We're at the BIL and SIL's house, they are at the family cabin. It's a nice place, and a good size for us to visit (as opposed to living in full time). However, I just can't figure out where their stuff is. They seriously have NO stuff. I've never seen such empty kitchen cupboards, closets and clear surfaces. It's kind of mind boggling.

I guess that's what happens when you have
A) two less children, all younger
B) more closets, you know, a linen closet

But still...I'm both awed and disgusted with myself.

leave a message at the beep...

I'm not available right now, and will be mostly off line until Labor Day. Please leave a message, and I'll get back to you when I can.

now I shall complain

There could be some news on the horizon for me, health-wise. What's frustrating about that potential news is that I *could* have had the right dx a couple of MONTHS ago if the doctor I had seen had not discounted me off the bat for frivolous reasons. "You can't have X because you don't look like it, and your obstetrical history says otherwise". Um, yeah. Maybe if he had *read* the blood work *he* ordered, I could have saved myself a couple of tanks of gas, and a lost day overnighting in the city. Crank, crank.

On a lighter note, for my fellow Jane Austen fans:

The Jane Austen Drinking game, for all the movie adaptations of the books.

that was a new experience

Yesterday, the hubby officiated at a wedding. This was the first wedding that he "did" that our whole family was able to attend, ceremony and reception.

The ceremony was lovely. Even including the extra entertainment from the couple's 4 year old son waving his grandfather's cane around in the air, and my middle child asking why the Catholic church's stained glass windows look like pizza pepperoni.

After the ceremony, I took the kids home for naps/rest. Just in time to head out to the ceremony, it started POURING rain. Nice. We made it out to the reception without getting too wet. The reception had some elements I've never seen before. I've never seen a gift opening in the middle of the reception, before the dancing. I've also never seen a wedding supper catered by KFC, with only coleslaw as a "veggie". One for the scrapbook. We came home and snacked on snap peas. Although, I'm still feeling a bit queasy from the grease.

Worst Toothpaste EVER

There is a bit of a debate going on in my home right now regarding toothpaste. Last time we were in the city, I picked up some new toothpaste. It was on clearance at Sobey's. The fact it was on clearance should have been a sign. It's Aquafresh Extreme Clean with PowerWhite. I don't know what PowerWhite is, but it sucked me in. I like the idea of PowerWhitening my teeth. It sounds appealing. PowerWhite. Say it three times, it's fun!

Anyhow, it's orange and white. It's bold, it's big. It tastes like brushing your teeth with a cough drop. A combination of cherry and traditional green mint Halls cough drops to be precise. It's nasty.

I declared it the worst toothpaste ever. The hubby informed me that, although the toothpaste does indeed make him somewhat ill, this wasn't the worst toothpaste I have ever purchased. What? How could there be something worse than this? Apparently, the time I bought a vanilla mint toothpaste in a squeezy bottle, *that* was the worst toothpaste.

I'm pretty sure that he's wrong though. In any case, this will teach me to stray too far from the old favorites. Really though, it's toothpaste, how wrong can you go?

Well, my mom currently does have something purple and fruity in a squeezy bottle at her place. That's pretty wrong too.

It's Sunday morning

...and I'm baking muffins for church. Strawberry banana crunchy muffins to be precise. Church is currently late enough in the morning for me to whip up some snacks for the kids before we go. Technically, we don't "do" Sunday school through the summer, but I'll probably take all the kids out for a snack towards the end of the service. We'll probably have 6 kids there, between age 18 months and 6 years. I would rather stay for the service and let my kids play in the cuddle room at the back if they don't want to sit, but I'm not sure if that will be possible with the other kids there. The combination of the 6 who will be there can get pretty loud pretty quickly.

This is one of the issues in our church - children, and what to do with them. I try to keep my kids well behaved and quiet enough in church. I'm also parenting solo on Sunday mornings, teaching Sunday school, and always outnumbered by my kids. Often, I need to make the judgment call "is what they are doing more disturbing than me stopping them?". My youngest likes to dance to the songs, in the aisle. All three of my kids are very comfortable in church, and have all tried to talk to daddy while he's working more than once. We're working on it. I have to say that church with my oldest is pretty much night and day from when he was 2 to 3.

The problem comes in when us younger moms, those of us with children under age 10, run into the people who make it clear that kids being kids isn't acceptable. To be clear, I don't let my kids run amok in church. Not at all. I do the best I can though, especially in a smaller building where there isn't anywhere to hids. Yes, they are louder in the hall after church, but they aren't terribly loud in church. There are some people in church who do come from the school of "children should be seen and not heard". These people were the exact people I ran up against a few weeks ago, when I had finally had enough. Enough of people trying to parent my children when I am *right there*. Enough of people shushing my kids - and making much more noise than the kids were in the process. Enough of the looks (and if you are a parent, you know what I'm talking about) and eye rolls.

So I said something. Loudly. Publicly. At a women's meeting. There was fallout. There were some tears. There was anger - on all sides. There were meetings to follow up and discuss (with snacks - we are Anglican after all). This was the issue I alluded to recently.

Which is really leading into new understanding. Understanding that our culture isn't what it was. That church is not attended out of duty anymore, but out of passion. That when we spend our time hurting those we worship with, we help push that passion out of them. When we don't make church a safe place for us all, we can't worship together, and grow. Grow in faith, understanding, in numbers. That when we work work work as a church, we can't spend time in worship and in ministry. That when we make children be seen and not heard, more often we end up with children who are neither heard nor seen in church - something that many of the people in our church can attest to, as their own children are not church attenders. That when we are so focused on fund raising that we miss out on bible study, fellowship and growth, we are essentially missing the point. We're a hurting church, who has suffered a lot of loss. Instead of holding each other up, we've done too much hurting each other in our own pain. We've been so focused on meeting budgets that we're too work driven, and not Christ-driven - to sound a bit too "church lingo"ish.

This is being rather well received in our church. Surprisingly so. We have a lot of changes to make, and it's going to take some time. This is not going to happen overnight, but we are recognizing that what we're doing isn't working, now or for the long term. That we won't continue to do anything but maintain unless we truly rethink what we are doing here.

I feel rather bold even typing all this out. Like I'm calling our church out. The thing is, this is very much part of the process. We need to recognize the shortcomings if we are going to work towards fixing them. We need to name the illness instead of just worrying about the symptoms. This is something that the hubby and I have been seeing since we arrived here, but it's taken over 3 years of investment and time for us to be able to fully clarify the issues and to identify them, and to be able to speak the truth of them. I think that for a small, rural church it is WAY too easy to get stuck in the mindset of "meet the budget, and do what we think church should be, because that's how we've always done it". Now we're praying that God can transform us, as a congregation, into the church he desires us to be. That we can be healed of all of our hurts (there have been far too many funerals in our congregation lately) and focus on finding our healing and joy in Him.

This could be an interesting journey.

"I wish the world was flat like the old days...

...Then i could travel just by folding a map
No more airplanes, or speed trains, or freeways
There'd be no distance that could hold us back."*

If only! It's way too far between here and there. Oh, for longer visits. More coffee (or tea, depending). More laughs. More conversation. More funny kid antics.

I guess that's the sign of a good visit, it leaves you wanting more.


A visit from the most wonderful friends, those who understand you best. Kids of matching ages (almost exactly), lives that are similar but different, choices made that compliment each other. It all leads into good conversations on the deck in the morning sun, drinking coffee while the kids play. Board games and more conversation after the kids go to sleep. Fun times. We miss you already. I think we owe you the next visit. Let's line up the day timers.

*The New Year, Death Cab for Cutie

ooh! almost forgot!

My new little friends!! My sweet - and little - salt and pepper shaker set! Aren't they darling? I found them at the bookstore, and had to have them. Not a huge splurge at $4. The pair of them fit in the palm of my hand, but just cheer up the table so much.

away from Vancouver

It has been raining for days now. Well, to be honest, it was clear on Wednesday morning. We've been doing Vacation Bible school at Rob's smaller church this week. Not the best church to do that in while it's raining. The lack of a hall (and running water - running across to the Legion to pee in the rain) makes it a bit harder to work with the kids. Overall, though, it was fun.

I just spent the last 2 hours unpacking all the VBS supplies and getting them put away (or sent back to the church) and cleaning the living room while the kids napped/had quiet time in their room. I was getting ready to head out and weed the garden - a task I am sadly behind on. In my defense, its been darn near impossible to weed in the pouring rain. Rob barely got the lawn mowed the other day before it rained on him. My garden beds are in sad shape right now. I look outside, and it's most probably about to storm again. Again.

This is reminding me of one of the many things that made it easier to walk away from Vancouver 3 years ago. Rain. I don't mind a day of rain here and there. I really don't. It's actually fun. Days and days of rain? Not so much. Not that I love snow and -40 days, because to say otherwise would be a lie. At least when it's cold it's sunny. Even on the shortest days of the year this far North, it's still brighter than Vancouver in a March rainy stretch.

I hate the dark, oppressive sky of rainy days. The month around when we planned our move here was one of the wettest on record in Vancouver, and that really helped us make the decision - and the packing easier too. I think I tend towards a bit of SAD, not something easy to cope with in the dark rainy season that is a Vancouver winter. This last week has had me feeling so low, sleepy, cranky and chilly. I don't really adore the cold and snow for months on end (as I've complained about here)....but there is more sun and bright days. For now, that's making here seem more attractive than there.

after a week away

I'm home again. To sum up the last week or so:

What I'm loving
- kids who smell of outdoors, sun, wind, water and sunscreen
- sunny days at spray parks
- iced cappuccinos from Tim Horton's, chemicals and all
- hearing my children laugh with pure delight
- central air conditioning
- Wall-e
- Yam fries and dip from Avocado (great margaritas too!)
- fresh hair cuts on small children, well worth the slightly higher cost when it includes glitter hair gel
- growing good friendships
- dinner and bookstore dates with the hubby
- A generous husband, who chose to turn his annual birthday cheque from Grandma into a bike for his son
- sangria
- party planning
- fantastic thunderstorms that make you jump
- children all dozy and drifty in the van, after a fun afternoon out


What I'm not loving
- slight sunburns
- forgetting extra diapers during Wall-e
- the garlic aftermath of the yam fries and dip (yet still SO worth it)
- central air that fails to work on the hottest day of the week
- the calories of the Tim Horton's iced caps and sangria
- forgetting to renew van insurance. I'm still covered, but need new stickers. Whoops.
- killing yet another bird while driving on the highway. It was cute and little. Until it was smooshed on the grill of the van. Thankfully the hubby took it off for me when he got home.

Ever time I drive by abandoned buildings, I wonder about them. Who lived there, what made them leave. I suspect that this house may still be in use of some sort...but when I pass it I just wonder about it's story, it's history.

Also, given it's very close proximity to the lake, I wonder how often it flooded.

Summer...ahh summer days

I love warm summer days. Especially in the shade, with a cool drink. I also love a good road trip on the perfect sunny day. Like yesterday.

Candice and her girls were actually up in this area (shocking since nobody comes up here). Since she was within a 2 hour drive, we decided to meet up for a picnic and playdate with the kids. It was the perfect day for a drive. Fluffy white clouds, huge blue sky, green everywhere....I must say that living here is really growing on me. It really can be beautiful around here, really.

We "harvested" our first handful of strawberries yesterday from the garden. The grass is so green, the big tree in the yard is giving the patio fabulous shade, the shasta daisies are attempting to take over the back garden bed. Near perfection! I should make some lemonade.

Instead, we're taking off. Heading to my mom's place in the city for a bit. Rob is taking a much needed Study Leave week and we're heading to the land of central air, just in time for what looks like a hot week here. Hoping for a fun week!