A Glance Back Through 2015

I used to write newsletters at Christmas time. I liked the opportunity to look back at the year. I blog instead. Let's see if I can do this in a reasonable sized post.

January: I chose the word FIGHT for the year. Fight for what is right, fight towards the Lord, fight for Abigail. We settled into routines of a new year. I began Documented Faith! We started to ride a roller coaster of highs and lows with our Abigail. I began a year long string of unsolicited commissioned sewing work (so honored and blessed by your support!).

February: Our church went through "Forty Days of Faith" - I really enjoyed the daily devotionals that went along with that! We decided that we couldn't help Abigail on our own and began seeing a family psychologist. Our faith in God's provision was tested heavily as many of our physical things were breaking down. Of course, He proved Himself to be faithful and generous! We had a fun family Valentines with a dance party and little treats. We trudged through cold and flu season, but with the addition of essential oils (thanks to my mom and sister) our quality of life during sickness was much improved.

March: For the first time since moving to Winnipeg, we walked on the frozen river and explored the Forks in the winter. I remember thinking "this is by far the coolest thing about our city!". We are looking forward to more river exploration this winter! We attended our second family retreat weekend at which David and I hosted couple's game night. It was such a great weekend but slightly touched with frustration and sadness with Abigail and her anger our family.

April: I love April. It was a busy month and not without it's challenges! David and I worked most evenings creating for a craft sale fundraiser in May. Abigail's behavior issues caused every outing to feel like a gamble. I witnessed a domestic violent act and wept and struggled for quite some time over it. We started Theraplay with Abigail at the psychologist appointments and honestly, David and I both struggled with the method of "help" we were getting. I had a great birthday with a family date and a date with my David and a party with my girlfriends! Spoiled!

May: Things escalated with Abigail and we called upon our pastors for help. Something was terribly wrong and we were battle weary and scared for our baby. Our pastor and an elder came over and prayed for and with us. We were so encouraged and relieved because that was a turning point for us all. Abigail was tormented and we prayed for her release. We are still learning and growing, but that was a game changer in our family. The results of which we wouldn't fully recognize until the summer.

June: We began what I call "Happy Abby Days". I took Abigail on a mother daughter weekend along with friends of ours. We went on many mini adventures and started to savor family times together.

July: Summer vacation kicked off with Canada Day (my favourite holiday) and our VANiversary. We went on several outings and began our summer long goal of dating each of our littles.  We got lots of use out of our backyard pool. Abigail got baptized!

August: we went camping with the use of a friend's trailer. We went on day trips and chased storms. David and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. Our church began to focus on how to hear God. I loved this focus and learned a lot. THE BEST summer since moving to Winnipeg!!! David finished building my gorgeous kitchen table.

September: a new school year feels fresh and with two in school on some days we all fell into a nice rhythm. My Dad got to go home from the hospital after almost 11 months time. I celebrated in my heart from afar. My goal for the month was survive the adjustment and it was so much easier than I had anticipated. I ended the month with a doozy of a cold, but we made it!

October: I was struggling with the mundane and repetitive life of domesticity. I cried out to the Lord for an attitude adjustment and a sense of purpose. My moms' group began a study on GRACE. Much needed and difficult to receive. I hosted an art gathering for local artists participating in Documented Faith and Illustrated Faith. Spent a lot of time choosing to TRUST in God and studying what that meant. We had a federal election, the results of which caused a lot of stir. Again, trusting God and His plan.

November: We saw a lot of cloudy days and I struggled with some depression - nothing went wrong, really. Just couldn't shake the heaviness. The world was rocked by terrorist attacks, though my own struggle was the imbalance of reaction based on where the attacks occurred. Terrorism, regardless of location, is tragic. We celebrated Christmas early with our friends and I worked through my large list of projects for Christmas and ministry.

December: We had several events to keep us busy early in the month and with my depression lifted, I began to really enjoy the preparation for Christmas. Our church proceeded with our 10th year of Bethlehem LIVE! and I participated on behalf of our family as a woman at the town well. David was sick through the entire weekend (plus before and after) and sadly missed participating. We carried out several mini traditions as a family that we love. We were intentional to make plans with friends throughout the holidays so as to not feel so lonely away from family. I think we found a nice balance (though, of course, we still missed our families). We were blessed by God's generosity to us through many friends and family and even anonymous givers. We spent New Year's Eve at a prayer meeting and I think that is my favourite way to end the old year and enter into a new one.

It sounds, in some ways, that it was a bad year. I don't remember it that way. We had challenges and triumphs and growth. To me, that's a good year. I'm looking forward to what 2016 holds and pray for the grace to handle each situation as it comes.  Happy New Year, everyone!

Checking In

Phew! I've got a lot of catching up to do. So much has happened in the last two months, I'm not even sure of where to begin. Looking through pictures, we'll just go in order...

• December 1st was our first annual Gingras family Christmas pyjama (spell check says this how to spell it, but it looks wrong to me) dance party. With our fall family ball being such a hit (I just realized that I forgot to blog about that, I posted it on facebook) we decided to combine our pj tradition with a dance party. Everyone rocked out new pjs and we bought a fun light ball and a bunch of glow sticks and danced the evening away. Unfortunately, I was unable to actually dance as I suffered an awful case of pelvic mis-alignment for the bulk of December and wasn't even mobile enough to lift Micah. David stayed home from work the entire month to help me at home and chauffeur me to the many appointments I had trying to resolve the issue. I am happy to say that aside from minor nursing/posture pain, I am recovered.

• December 20th was our 9th yellow day. It's a funny little tradition that we continue to carry out.

• December 20th we went in for fetal assessment (baby was breach and we wanted to be sure she turned) and found out who our Gingras baby was. We shared the news with our littles and had a little celebration.

• December 25th, of course we celebrated Christmas. We had our handmade gifts that we were excited to give our littles. Dance ribbons, jewelry box, bean bag toss with 6 bean bags, plus all the gifts that friends and family sent. It was chaotic and memorable. David spent the afternoon cooking a wonderful ham dinner which I could barely eat as I was I labour.

I didn't wrap any gifts this year, we just used these Santa sacks I found at the dollar store.

• December 25th, 11:21 PM Hannah Noëlle was born at St. Boniface hospital. My midwife went on leave at the beginning of December and I was "assigned" a new midwife. Julia Allen, if you ever read this, YOU ARE AWESOME! I am so grateful for Julia and I hope she has just as great help when she delivers her new baby this spring.

• We spent New Year's eve at home and it all seemed so quiet.
• David began potty training Malachi. He must have been ready because he has had very few accidents in comparison with our Abby when we first tried to train her. The difference in potty training a boy vs. a girl? You have to do laundry not because you've run out of clean underwear, but because you've run out of clean super hero capes.

• January 11th we received a call that sent us reeling. I don't want to share much about it here, as it feels really personal, but David's dad, Richard passed away. This sent us into a whirlwind of planning for the unexpected trip to Alberta. 

• January 15th we attempt to leave for Alberta only to have to turn around due to terrible weather/road conditions. The rest of the day and well into that evening were spent tending to a sick family. Flu hit in full force - yuck! Thankfully it was a short lived sickness and we found we were ready when the roads opened up to leave the next day. FYI, our van is a dream to travel in!!!

• We stayed at the Days Inn in Regina... they have a great family suite that our littles especially loved. Side note, it's really difficult to book a single room for a family our size. If we couldn't get this family suite, we'd be forced to pay for two rooms due to capacity issues.

• We had to postpone Abby's birthday party, we did get to celebrate her with family, which was a special treat. Grandma June and Abby baked cakes, we took her to West Edmonton Mall Waterpark, on a visit to the Santa Maria replica and she got one ride at Galaxyland plus a special dinner with Mama, Papa and Hannah. It was a full day. Just wait until you see what she got for her birthday. (That will follow in another post.)

• Hannah is already a month old! Wow! It's been a crazy roller-coaster of a ride, but we are now settling in to find our new "normal" (whatever that looks like).

Yup, a lot has happened. I have at least a dozen projects in my head I want to get to, a family retreat to help plan and life to live. We'll see how we adjust to our new "normal", but I'm sure it's all going to be quite adventurous. Until next time,

 

Party Post (part one) & An Announcement

Well, the party was a success. I think everyone had a good time and we all went away with lots of laughter, full tummies and great swag! Have you heard of a Favourite Things Exchange Party? Well, as soon as I read about it, I knew I had to throw one! It's been in my head for at least half a year and I finally had an "excuse" to throw one. Here's my invitation:

The Basic idea, everyone brings four of the same item (a favourite) and goes home with four different items from the other guests. The items varied from beauty products to kitchen ware, to magazines and even tomato plants.

the SWAG!

I knew that I wanted to make an item, so I sewed little zipper pouches and included my favourite pen inside. Tutorial/pattern here.

Vision Elite by Uni-ball

This represented several favourites for me

1. sewing
2. bags/purses
3. learning new crafty things (I learned how to paper piece)
4. mix tapes from my childhood - who doesn't love a good music mix?

Thanks, L, for the inspiration! Your zipper pouch is coming in the mail.

Laralee's zipper pouch

I also have one to giveaway. (Sorry, pen not included) Just leave a comment and in a week, I'll use the good ole random number generator to pick a winner.

WIN ME!

I should have taken a picture of the food. I asked everyone to bring a favourite snack/beverage etc. There was Soooooo much yummy food! I served Tazo Chai Lattes and Lay's Sea Salt and Pepper chips. 

Tazo Chai latte syrup purchased at WalMart

The ladies also surprised me with cake and ice cream. I specifically didn't put on the invitation that it was a birthday party. I didn't want anyone to feel like they needed to bring a gift or anything beyond their favourites... sneaky ladies, I had a lot of lovely gifts. Thanks, friends!!!!

We played a little game to begin the evening, and I was beginning to think we'd never get to the food or favourite items. There was great conversation over our favourite things. Everyone "won" a prize. I made a surprise ball and everyone passed it around until all the layers were revealed. A surprise ball is basically a streamer layered ball with goodies hidden in it. Each person unwraps the ball until they find a surprise and then it gets passed on. Nothing spectacular, just little novelties. 

Party Post Part Two will include details on the surprise ball, the party decor and the mix CD, but I want to share an announcement before this blog post gets too carried away....

Twila Mae Photography - yes this is from when we expecting Micah, but it's fun!

We are pregnant again! We're due Dec 31st and super thrilled.

Checkin' In From the New House!!!

Phew! I feel like I'm just now catching my breath. Here's my check in for now:

• My Abigail turned 3 years old! We had a mini celebration on her special day, but planned to have a party for her in our new home. She did get a special cupcake (for breakfast) and she got to open her present from Grandma and Grandpa... a Jessie doll to add to her Toy Story collection.

• We've moved! There were some hiccups and so, we're still settling in, but I'm so happy to be here! I wake up in the morning thinking to myself "I get to live here!". I love it! Our door is on the right and opens to the stairs to go up to our home. We occupy the entire top floor. Oh, and random fact for you, it's been a really looooong time since I haven't had shared wall neighbours. I have a window in every room of my house! Woo hoo!

• Last week, three days in a row, we woke up to hoar frost. We have these great trees out front of the house and I'm captivated by our pretty street view. No more crazy traffic like we had in our old apartment. We were often awakened by accidents on the corner of Panet and Reenders, not to mention the constant sirens. 

• For the first few days, we didn't have the children's toys accessible, I gave up fighting and just let the littles play in the cupboard. They're "locked" now with elastics, but it was a good distraction for awhile.

• Both of our littles have been sick. Ugh! Abigail was in emergency one night and then Malachi in the doctor's office the next day. My children are amazing in public and waited so patiently (for the most part - though it got so late they both hit a bit of meltdown). Here they are watching Río on the iPad. Soooo thankful for the iPad these days! Both are recovering, though Malachi still sounds terrible.

• Abby has been fascinated with pictures lately and often asks for her picture to be taken. Here she is with her kitchen in our new kitchen. The sink is still packed somewhere.

• I was pleasantly surprised by this delivery on Saturday. My David pre-ordered flowers to come to our new home for me. Such a timely blessing during an especially trying week. Aren't they gorgeous?! They also came with chocolates. My man knows how to bless me! Can you believe the guys at work gave him a hard time for sending flowers 9 days away from Valentines Day?! It's obvious why they aren't married!

• House tour will be posted, when I feel more settled. We had to post pone Abigail's party another week because of sickness and honestly, that just gives me more time to get my house in order. I had hoped to decorate and there was no way it was going to be done last week.