Lunch Time

I think it's funny how our minds work these days - baby is on the edge of the table making a big mess and instead of moving her to safety and cleaning up the mess, I run for the camera to take pictures!

I guess these pictures are pretty self-explanitory.  Big sisters came home for lunch and left stuff all over the table.  Little sister decides to feed herself because no one else seems to be around to take care of her.  When I came back into the kitchen, there she was having a grand old time!

Then she showed me how it was done!  Dip the knife in the jam and then eat it.  Then dip it in the peanut butter and eat it.  Fortunately, there was only one knife mark into the butter - I guess the peanut butter and jam tasted better than the butter.  And see the full tin of open hot chocolate powder in the top left corner - I'm sure glad she didn't discover that!!!  And look in the lower right corner - that's Lacie again, waiting for some crumbs to fall from the table!!!

And there is the sweet little sticky face!!!

Today my baby is a little under the weather.  I don't think it had anything to do with what she ate for lunch yesterday!!!  She has a slight fever, vomitted once and is a little lethargic, which basically means that she wants her mommy to hold her all day.  I'm nursing her right now as I type one-handed.  I delight in being a mommy and being able to offer the comfort my little people need when they reach their arms out to me.
There is nothing more delightful than baby snuggles!!!

I Love to See the Temple

I LOVE to see the temple - in my home!!!

Doesn't it just make sense to display things in your home that are important to you - like your family, the Savior, the Temple?

So here are some of my Temple pictures . . .

I love this picture of the temple - aren't the colours beautiful!!! 

My friend Shirley gave it to me about a year ago (a friend of hers took the photo).  I put it in a frame that was given to me by another friend of mine, Shirley!  I'm really looking forward to finding a special place for it in my new home.

This is the picture we had of the temple - hanging over the piano for about the last 20 years.  And it was lovely there too with pretty things around it, but I've always preferred photographs to drawings.  So it might end up in the office in the next house!

And now for some new temple pictures that I especially love!!!

Isn't that gorgeous!!!

And yes, I made it myself - well, I assembled it.  Haha!!!  Kd was the wonderful gal who took the photo and assembled all these kits for us.  We just had to show up at the craft class and paint it and put it together.  Have I mentioned that I LOVE beadboard? 

Anyway, crazy me - I hid this away and made myself not look at it so it was more of a surprise to me when I opened this thoughtful gift to myself on Christmas morning!!!

Can't wait to find a wall for it too in the new house!

Here's a closer view of the photo Kd took.  Isn't that a great view - I love being able to read those special words.  And I love seeing it through the tree.  Have I mentioned that I LOVE trees?

The picture is simply held in place by a piece of glass that is screwed through the beadboard by four little bolts in the corners - love it!!!

And here's another favourite . . .

Isn't this beautiful!!!

It's a 12x12 photo and vinyl lettering modge podged onto a tile.  And again, I wish I could claim credit for this but another friend of mine, yes, another Shirley, took the gorgeous photo and put this together for her ward Super Saturday.  She let us borrow the picture and idea and tons of ladies in our ward made them too (actually, I have two left here that haven't been picked up yet - I just might want to keep them!).  I made one for myself and my two oldest daughters - they are so quick and easy and I love it!!!  And this I already have displayed in my house because it doesn't require pounding a nail in a wall!

And here's another oldie . . .

. . . of me and my sweetie, taken way back in 1989.

This picture will probably always have a place of honour in our bedroom - it's a biggie (16x20) and I will always love it.  It was a wedding gift from Richie's parents.

We were married at 11:00am and were the 41st couple getting married that morning.  Needless to say, we had to wait in line for those special spots for the photographs!  Twas a gorgeous day!!!

Have a mentioned that I LOVE my husband?

Anyway, I delight in having friends named Shirley (got about 5 of them, and an aunt too!!!).

But more importantly, I delight in the Temple and the knowledge I have that I am sealed to those I love most, and can be with them beyond this earth life and throughout eternity.

My family is forever - what could be more delightful than that?

Day After Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was yesterday!!!  Here's the family sitting down to the Valentine's Day feast.  Don't you love Richie's tie?  He's informed me that he'll NEVER wear it to church but I think it's cute - guess I'll put it away with VDay decorations!  Can you see the tree in the background over his shoulder - yup, it's still up!!!

And the technologically difficult dinner . . .

. . . heart shaped pepperoni on the pizza, turned out great!!!  I had planned to cut them with scissors, but my brilliant facebook friends suggested using cookie cutters.  So I found the perfect size one in Gramma's kitchen drawers (mine are packed!) and it worked like a charm.

But this post is titled "Day After Valentine's Day" so enough about yesterday!!!

I was doing what most people do on February 15th - preparing my payroll remittance at the kitchen table because we don't have an office right now.  Mackenzie was off playing quietly in various places.  So I got the paperwork finished and turned around and . . .

. . . it seems like she decided to empty some kitchen drawers.  This is actually a pretty mild mess compared with some of the kitchen messes she makes.  I don't even know where the jello packages come from - we're sharing drawers with Gramma and that's her stuff.  And there's the dog - always around when someone is in the kitchen, just in case there is food involved!

Anyway, babe was getting grumpy by now so I went to feed her and put her to sleep. 

Around the corner I found . . .

. . . she'd emptied some DVD's and her books again!!!  We clean up this pile about a dozen times each day because it is the main pathway through the house, and very visible from the front door!

And the next sight that greeted me was . . .

. . . in the bedroom.  She'd decided to rearrange her clothes.

And then I noticed that someone had left the bathroom door open.  At least she doesn't get into the toilet and toilet paper anymore.  Now she prefers to . . .

. . . dump hair stuff all over the place!  (At least that's an easier mess to clean up than the toilet!)

 

And yes, that is bedding in the bathroom.  Katia had croup so we made the bathroom into a cold room for her to sleep in - cracked open the window and closed the furnace vent.  Works great!  She made a point of telling everyone she saw at church that she had croup and sounded like a seal.

I didn't even take a picture of all babe's toys in the living room because that's always a mess!  And I went downstairs to see what havoc she wreaked down there with all the little toys like Pet Shops and Polly's, and it was completely tidy - imagine that, no mess where the mess is supposed to be!!!

And where is the little angel while I get to clean up her afternoon work?

Why, she's . . .

. . . sleeping of course!  Gotta get more energy for the next round of destruction!

Now what can I find to delight about today?

How about - I delight in "stuff". 

Look at all that "stuff" we have in the various pictures.  "Stuff" that makes our lives comfortable and "stuff" that is there for you when you need it.  I delight in having so much "stuff"!!!

Gotta go - she's awake!!!



Message Board

This is a Dinner Menu Board that I made about two years ago for our ward Super Saturday.  We colour photocopied it and copies of it have been sent all over - you might even be the proud owner of one!!!

Anyway, the Menu Board has been working great so I wanted to come up with something similar for messages.  It seems like we always have little pieces of paper all over with different messages for different people, and I wanted to clean up this system and keep everything in one place. 

A long time ago I bought another frame to match my Menu board frame - I prefer the Document size frame as it is slightly bigger than the 8x10 frame - more room for writing!

Last week I came across the stickers I had leftover from my DINNER frame (must have been searching for stuff to make Valentines with!).  My first thought was to label my new frame MEMOS but I didn't have enough M's.  So then MESSAGES came to mind but, yup, not enough S's.  But the words

MESSAGE BOARD worked out just right!

You can see my doodling where I wrote out my letters, determined what was the center point and worked backwards from the center so it would be centered nicely on the frame.

My next thing to do was change my Menu Board, because I'm not having burgundy in my kitchen in the new house (still love burgundy but want it in the family room this time!).  So I gave my old Menu Board a face lift into colours that will blend better in the new house - blues, greens, browns. 

(Don't worry, I still have the original papers and oven mitt if I ever want to change it back.)

Like it? 

 I added the words "Quality Time" by the oven mitt because supper time truly can be quality family time.

I love the little quote:  "What your children really want for dinner is you."

So now on to creating my Message Board.  First thing was to determine what sort of message taking spaces would work for our family.  I kept it simple with To:  From: and Message:

 Then is was just a matter of choosing papers and lining things up and doing some glueing - sounds easy enough but that's what actually took the longest!!!

 And the Mesage Board is finished!!! 

The large rectangle at the bottom says Notes: and the funny little thing above that is just a little decoration that says Family.

In using the board for a few days, I can see that some clothes pegs glued to the side would be handy - to hold things like invitations and miscellaneous small papers.  So I'll add that someday, embellished with ribbon, when I find my boxes full of craft supplies like clothes pegs!  I could tie an elastic around the frame to hold another dry erase marker, but I figure they can share the same marker as they'll be side by side on the wall in the kitchen office of my new house.  Now just gotta train the family to look to the message board whenever then come home.  Our only rule is that whoever the message is to, they're the only person who can erase that message.  It's working great so far!

And there they are - the new Message Board and the redone Dinner Menu Board in co-ordinating colours.

I love polka-dots in case you hadn't noticed!

Aren't they delightful!!!

I take delight in having a house of order, and these are certainly helping with that!

Jazzy's Weekend

Jas had a great weekend!!!

First of all, Friday and Saturday was a home basketball tournament.  Our first game was a really boring game as we played the team that ended up in last place.  We beat them by over 50 points and it could have been much more but coach kind of turned it into a practice by making our girls pass the ball five times before they could make the shot.  Jazzy said it was wierd to hear her coach quietly wishing things for the other team like:  "come on - get in the basket" and "call a foul ref"!

But they made up for that sleeper game with the next one being too close for comfort.  We ended up winning by two but the girls were only shooting 14% - an off game for everyone!!!

And that put us into the finals - another nail biter!!!  But a bit better one as we were usually the team with the higher score.  But the girls worked hard and were able to pull off a win by 3 points!!!

So that made the Panda's the winners of their tournament!!! - that hasn't happened since at least before 1999!!!

The Varsity Pandas with their plaque and individual trophies - Yay!!!

Jazzy is #5, back row, right end.  Cousin Jaime is back row, second player from the left.

I'm delighted that Jas can be part of such a great team - not only great athletes, but really nice girls.  She is certainly learning a lot this year!

And the other great thing that happened for Jas this weekend was . . .

. . . receiving her Young Womanhood Recognition Award today in church! 

She's been working on this since she was 12, so about four and a half years worth of goals and value projects.  She will now continue on and work on the Honour Bee award.

She did some wonderful Value Projects, including reading The Book of Mormon, Indexing, sewing costumes, participating in a stake choir, cross-stitching the local temple, etc.

We are so proud of her and all her hard work.  And it was especially nice that she received it today because this evening we had New Beginnings.  And Carlee was one of those new Beehives who was welcomed in.

And yes, that is a black eye!  And the other cheek has a nice yellow bruise on it but you can't see that!!!

And here's a better view of the medallion. 

The girls get their choice of gold or silver now.  Jas chose silver to match her pretty new CTR ring.

Isn't it beautiful!!!

And my delight for this entry is simply Jasmine!!!  She's so great!!!

The Year So Far

Today I have some time (amazing eh?) and I'm sharing a multitude of various things that have been happening throughout 2011 so far.  Enjoy the crazy journey with me!!!

I have to start with this picture of Mackenzie because she's just too cute!!!  She found this hat and loves to wear it around the house, along with one mitten (she lost the other one).  Don't ya just want to kiss those sweet little cheeks!!!

So January just seemed like a really busy month.  It started with me being released from 2nd Counsellor in Relief Society.  I served in this position for over two and a half years and really enjoyed it and sure learned a lot.  Now I am serving as the Secretary in Primary - delighted about this because secretary callings are my favourite!  So I've been spending a lot of time at the computer, getting things in order and up-to-date.  Don't have a printer right now so I type things and email them to myself then print them at the library! 

Rich also has a new calling - 1st Counsellor in Sunday School.  No more 11-year-old scouts for him.

And now on to some of the things that made January seem like a busy month.

For awhile the table looked like this . . .

Yup - time to do that quarterly GST remittance.  So there were receipts and papers spread all around for awhile.  When my life is in order I try to do it monthly, but life isn't really in order right now, and besides, it was Christmas!!!  But I got it done and paid in time!  Oh, and Richelle often sorted all the receipts, but she's not around anymore.  I would have started training Jasmine to do it, but . . .

. . . her life consisted of two things:  basketball games/practices, and studying.  She was taking all three sciences (Bio, Chem, Physics) last semester and spent an awful lot of time studying.  Her discipline and study habits were really amazing.  She certainly planned her work and worked her plan.  During exam time she cut back to two hours a day basketball practice, rather than the usual four!  It paid off though - she got a 97% average!  Jordyn and Carlee also got excellent report cards - only one person got a grade lower than 90!

Basketball season took up a lot of time in January.  There weren't a lot of league games for Jas due to end of semester studying and exams, but between Jas and Carlee, we had a game or tournament every weekend, as well as weekly league games for Carlee in Grade 7.

This is what basketball season means to me, the mom . . .

. . . Lots of laundry!!! Grade 7 uniform (Yellow #3) and warm-up t-shirt, and home and away uniforms for Jazzy on the Junior Varsity and Varsity teams and warm-up jerseys for each. 

Let's see some uniforms in action . . .

That's Jazzy on the foul line, shooting the shot.  And yes, it went in - both of them did!!!  This was the Junior Varsity game and we won.  It was one of Jazzy's best games ever with her netting 16 points, getting tons of rebounds and making numerous assists.

And its Carlee, our Grade 7 Panda!  She's had a great year and learned tons.  League play just finished and her team finished second in the league (but they have beaten the first place team!).  Playoffs start next week.

And back to Jas . . .

. . . in last nights game.  She's ready to box out the shooter and get the rebound!  That's Jaime (her cousin) in the other white uniform.  Oh, and sadly, we lost this game by 7.

And, this is what Jas looks like for most of the season . . .

Okay, you can see the scratch on her forehead, the bruise under her eye, and the bruised elbow.  What you can't see is the bruised lip and chin, sore jaw, gouged forearm, massive bruise on her hip, other arm just as banged up, cut under thumbnail, blisters on the ankle under the ankle brace (because of a rolled ankle) and the knees are a complete mass of bruises.  She must really love the game!!!

 

And I truly do find great delight in watching my girls do whatever it is they do!!!

Now I know what you're thinking!  You're wondering:  What's happening with the house?  After all, a large number of my previous blogs have all been about the house!  Well, let's just say that winter weather has been cold and miserable!  Richard has been working on the inside of the detached garage.  It's all painted now and has cabinets installed and light fixtures - good stuff like that.  The storage shed we were renting is emptied out now and all the stuff is in the garage and trailers.  Rich has been working on organizing his new garage - he has tons of stuff so it's taking awhile!!!

And he's been doing other jobs to support his family!!!  Can't build forever!

Okay, what else?  Ahhh, yes!  Last weekend we got to see . . .

Gramma and . . . 

Grampa!!!

We haven't seen them for a year because they are missionaries in South Carolina, and weren't expecting to see them for another six months, but sadly, Grampa's sister Jean died and they flew back for her funeral.  So while it was a sad occasion that brought them home, it sure was wonderful to see them for a few days.

We were just planning to be gone one day for the funeral, but that one day ended up being three days and two nights.  We weren't prepared to be away for any nights (sure glad I threw my toothbrush/paste and deodorant into my bag at the last second - roads were bad and I was thinking we might be stranded somewhere) so it was kind of an adventure!!!  Luckily we had enough diapers and insulin, and didn't leave the dog stranded at home!!!

Sure was nice to see them again, although Mackenzie . . .

. . . kept trying to get away from Gramma! 

She was so cute at the funeral luncheon - just wandering around climbing up on chairs and finishing people's punch, making lots of friends.

January was so busy that I didn't have time to undecorate the Christmas tree.  And I wasn't too motivated to do it anyway because Richie said he liked the tree - it makes a nice night light!  So to please my husband, I left the tree up.  But then February arrived, and I was getting tired of picking up Christmas ornaments from around the house (thanks Mackenzie!). 

 So our Christmas tree had a change of heart and became . . .

. . . our Valentine Tree!!!

Katia and I had fun decorating it while everyone else was at school.  See, it's just a little tree, up on a table so Mackenzie couldn't destroy it (she did manage to destroy all the bottom branches though!) so it really doesn't take up too much space at all in the living room.  So we get to enjoy it for a few more weeks!!!

We have fit quite a lot of game playing into our schedule with the checkerboard/Sequence game I made Richard for Christmas.  It sits on the coffee table so it's always there and we play a lot.

And there are all sorts of fun things you can do with the pieces . . .

. . . as Jordyn and Rich can demonstrate!!!

Now, let me complain a little about something that is taking up more time than I want . . .

. . . Lacie is very hairy and is shedding!!!  Blah!!!  Furballs everywhere!!!  Vaccuming, swiffing and sweeping all the time! But I do love her with her big hair, and she always looks so funny after we get her clipped.  But soon I'll go completely insane over dog hair and off she'll go to get groomed and we'll spend more on one appointment for her than the rest of us in an entire year!!!

Lacie looked so cute on this huge pile of snow in a mall parking lot at the end of our "one day funeral road trip".  She looked like the lion king on her mountain!!!

Confession time.  I think I got my baby addicted to . . .

. . . The Wiggles DVD's!!!

I'd put it on for her to keep her occupied so I could work on my GST remittance, and now it's almost all she wants to do, besides eating and bringing daddy books to read to her.  She sits on my bed and watches the little TV and gets up and dances and sings (although it sounds more like screaming - I've come running in more than once to see what's wrong, only to find her dancing and singing!).  Maybe she's not addicted but simply developing her talents!  Yeah, that's it!!!

And let me mention a good thing I'm doing.  I'm reading a book called . . .

. . . The Proper Care & Feeding of Husbands.

We're reading it in our Homeschool mom's support group and it's a great book.  Richie gives it a thumb up!!!  The reason I like it so much is because it is helping me to find delight in my husband.  Kids and other people will come and go throughout life, but he's the one who I'll be with for eternity.

And I delight in that knowledge!!!

My Words

Happy New Year!!!  I started this tradition last year - choosing a word for the year to motivate me, rather than making some New Year's Resolutions that are soon forgotten.  So first of all, my favourite word is

SIMPLIFY

and that word is my motto for life.  I have a nice sign or two in my house to remind me of this, and a nice book about how to simplify - more at a spiritual level than a physical level.  But those wonderful things are all packed up nicely somewhere in boxes, waiting to be rediscovered again someday.

However, I did not pack up my word for the year.  The crafter in me would not allow me to have a word and not make a craft to be a visual reminder.  So I made this little block that sits by Mason, my teddy bear, on my bedside table.  This was my word from last year . . . 

I'd like to think that by having Patience as my word for the whole year, that now I'm an expert at being patient.  And I must admit that I was pretty good two days ago when I was waiting in line at the grocery store for 40 minutes!  But being perfect at patience will be a lifelong pursuit for me.  I love the talk in the May 2010 Ensign by President Uchtdort called "Continue in Patience".  I think I'll be reading that one over and over and over and . . .

 

That brings me to my word for 2011.  I made my little word reminder craft today on the backside of my wooden block - so one cube block will last me four years as I put my word on each side.  Someday I'll have a lovely little collection of my words!!!

So the word I've chosen for 2011 is . . .

Delight!!! 

My blog is helping me to find Delight in the things around me.  I have so many blessings and have so much to be thankful for but I often lose sight of them.  As I try to find delight in the things around me, it helps me keep an attitude of gratitude and find joy in this journey through life.  So when I'm faced with making dinner again, I will try to find delight in the fact that I have food to eat!!!

What a delightful year it will be!

The scripture says, "Let thy soul delight . . . "

(Doctrine & Covenants 25:14)