Checking In

Feeling grateful today, despite my weariness and fatigue. There have been many moments of Mama stress this week, but I love my littles so much and today I'm just grateful.

• We had a scare with Micah yesterday. The door at the top of the stairs was either not quite latched or Malachi has figured out the child lock, either way, Micah found the stairs. He fell down ONE stair and the mere possibility of what could've happened set me into a puddle of tears on the floor. Guh! My heart is still in my throat at the thought. It was so stressful for me that I did a lot of yelling at my precious littles for the next hour and felt so terrible. What precious gifts my littles are and I am so grateful for each one of them. I am in tears as I type. Thank you, God... words cannot express!

• In happier news... Valentines Day was lovely. With the help of my friend, I borrowed ingredients and tools to make a fun dinner. (it was the day before payday and the cupboards were scarce). We laughed at our "fancy" grilled cheese dinner. David gave me a lovely card in the morning and bought me a song on iTunes that I played most of the day. After dinner we had glow stick scavenger hunts with the littles. That was a huge hit. We cracked ten sticks and played hide and seek several times. Glow sticks are cheap fun! David and I finished the day with him reading me more of The Hobbit. Great day!

• We had a hugely productive weekend. David and I prepped 22 meals in 2 days. I am not a fan of cooking, so having meals prepped and ready to bake or throw in the crockpot is HUGE! I've had a few people ask me about this process, so I think I'll make a separate post about how we did it. I can tell you that my David is a CHOPSTAR!

• My friend posted a picture on my Facebook page that got my wheels turning. Here's my version of the popular Pinterest pin, the upcycled men's dress shirt apron. I used David's old uniform shirt and "girlyfied" it up. Tutorial here. It turned out really cute. I then gave it to my friend who organized the freezer meal co-op as a "thank you".

• My David has a conference this weekend and men's retreat next weekend. I am glad for him and support him in this fully, but am a little bit weary at the thought of the long weeks. A dear friend has offered to take Abigail and Malachi for one night next weekend, which is a great gift. I miss my David just thinking about it though.
• David spent some time calculating and if we're careful and don't have some crazy emergencies, we will be debt free in two years! HUGE! We are so thankful for the wise teachings of Dave Ramsey. It's so exciting and it feels great to have concrete plans and goals.

Checkin' In

Happy (almost) Valentines! It really snuck up on me this year and I find myself two days away without any plans. We have had a lot of other things on our mind. In the meantime, let's get to it!

• Today is my meal planning/grocery list making day. I work one month at a time... payday to payday. Last month I worked on emptying my freezer stores - work with what we had, so nothing goes to waste. This month, freezer meals! I've been invited by a friend to join in a small group cooking co-op night. The idea is that we each are responsible for 2 recipes that we make enough of for each family. We then go home with a nice variety of meals. We get to work together, which makes the kitchen work much more enjoyable and we get to have a great variety to go home with. These meals will be some of my months plan. I have a Pinterest board with links to sites full of great recipes. I will be choosing a few of them. My hope is to have at least half a month of freezer meals. I'm not a huge fan of cooking and this will be nice to have. 
• David and I have been exchanging mirror messages this week. Fun and easy and encouraging!

• I finished the iPad mini cover. It turned out pretty good.

• My David made doughnuts last week... from scratch. DANGEROUSLY YUMMY!

• I received love in the mail. Packages are great, surprise packages are awesome! By the way... LOVE this darljeeling earl grey!

• I've had to patch my couch cover. It's in rough shape, but the patches will hold until I can re-cover the whole thing. I've been inspired by these and would love to try my hand at something that fun!

• Valentines Day may have snuck up on me, but it has been on my mind for awhile. I took these pics a week ago.

• I had planned on making Valentines, but with our printer dead (sad day that was!) and not having sent them in to get printed... well, maybe next year. Enjoy my intentions:

• I've been really enjoying quiet time in the Bible lately. I've had to re-prioritize my day to make it work and it's been worth every minute!

• Micah has had a terrible diaper rash until recently. Thanks to my mom and sister (they sent me the base for it at Christmas), I whipped up a batch of diaper cream and it totally did the trick. It also, by the way, cleared up my dry and cracked hands from all the washing I'd had to do. Jenny, if you want some for Ezra, I have some extra!
• David and I are taking control of our finances. Friends lent us The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey and we are SOLD! We're working on baby step one and are so excited. It will be hard work, but worth it in the end.
• Road test in two days. Nervous. More nervous this time than the last. Oh well. This IS THE WEEK!

Checkin' In

January is gone. It was a looooong month and yet, I find myself surprised that it's over. Funny how that works. The weather and a broken car kept us housebound for most of the month, I usually love winter, but am feeling a longing for spring. Let's get to it.

• We celebrated our Abigail's fourth birthday this month. We kept it simple and as a matter of fact most of our Winnipeg "family" couldn't make it this year. We had a simple family celebration on her actual birthday, then we had a tobogganing party (it miraculously warmed up last weekend) followed by cocoa and cupcakes a week later. We had a good time.

I asked her what she loved and this is what she said.

• I made an e-reader cover for a friend who was going on vacation... unfortunately, we both forgot to make sure she got it before she left and is away on vacation without it. I didn't use any one tutorial, but the features of several. I researched on Pinterest and went from there.

• A Christmas present I haven't shown you yet, was for Micah. He was our only little without a hooded towel and since I found a different tutorial than the one I used for the other ones, I thought I'd give it a try. I like the hidden seams, but it does make the hood smaller and it won't fit him this well for long.

• After having rainbow cupcakes for her third birthday, Abigail requested to have them again. This time David made them and his colours were so vibrant and beautiful. He did a great job!

• I have an iPad mini case under construction for a friend's birthday. I was far too tired to touch it today (the littles were up way too much last night), hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow.
• I forced Micah to like his soother again. Thankfully it's working.
• Still working on my crochet sampler afghan. I'm loving it, though I am also dreaming of crocheting some Hudson's Bay stripes onto a pair of scarves for me and my David. He thought of it and now I can't stop thinking of it. I'm itching to give it a go. Finding the right colours for the stripes may be tricky, but I'll love having the iconic stripes in my wardrobe. I've also pinned quilt and knit versions of the point blankets in hopes of re-creating my own version someday. Unless I can score a second hand one, as new point blankets cost BIG bucks!!!

• I failed my road test. I have my next one booked for the 6th. I want a party when this is all done. Phew! What a crazy experience it's been. Maybe I'll blog about it sometime. UPDATE: I re-booked for the 13th - the logistics worked better that way.

• We have an awesome second hand children's store here. I recently picked up a pile of clothes for Abigail and a pair of shoes for Malachi. The total would have been $32, but I only paid $2.95 after selling a few clothes and using up a gift card that I had. I love the thrill of a good deal.
• I recently confessed something to my friends here and I was so blessed by their gracious and loving responses. I am beyond grateful for the beautiful community we have here. Ladies, you are so precious to me! Thank you for forgiving me and loving me through all my "stuff".
• We are all feeling tired of the cold. My poor littles are about bursting with cabin fever, not to mention this Mama! We went to the mall and let the littles run in the play area for quite awhile last night. It was cute, Abby learned that in order to play tag, you eventually have to do some of the chasing, too. We all needed the change of scenery. I am, however, still loving the snow scene outside my living room window. We live in such a pretty city.