15 Favourites from 2015

I watched the cutest video blog this morning and was inspired to share my 15 favourite things from 2015. I'll spare you a video though as I have a cold and sound frog-ish and my computer microphone isn't working. Maybe someday. Let's get started (in no particular order):

1. My journaling Bible! I am so glad I stumbled across this two years ago. Abigail is getting her first journaling Bible for her birthday this month and I'm excited for her. It was on her Christmas list, but I was waiting for the NIV release (that's the version she does all her memory work from in school).

   

   one of my favourite pages

2. My Documented Faith journal. This is the most consistant I've EVER been in keeping a journal of any sorts and I think it's because of the art and faith components. I smile looking through it and my littles ask me regularly if they can look through it, too. 
   
3. Instagram. I signed up for IG several years back when we bought an iPad, but never really explored it until we got smart phones. I love the community, the inspiration... all of it! Username: mrsgingras
   
4. Microfibre dishcloths. I am not typically the kind of person that recommends recipes and cleaning products etc., but I really like the microfibre dishcloths with the mesh back. I bought mine at Sobeys and it's their house brand, but they're available pretty much anywhere now. I have all dark grey ones and that's great because they don't stain as easily.
5. Young Living essential oils. Everyone gets sick - that's life. Our quality of living while being sick greatly improved with the help of EOs. I would also say that we've chased away many colds that didn't have the chance to take hold thanks to EO use. My mom and my sister gave us the premium starter kit for Christmas in 2014 and even blended some little friendly oils. Those ones, the blends, are my all time favourites and I use them all the time.
   
6. I'm exploring art more and more and my favourite go-to supplies are: Staedtler Pigment Liner pen 0.1 in black, pencil and eraser, Martha Stewart multi-surface craft paint, watercolour pencils and my Heidi Swapp date stamp.
   
7. Mysterious Benedict Society books by Trenton Lee Stewart. David read to me the whole series this year and it was a great diversion from the everyday. It's a very imaginative series written for middle aged children, but they're so fun that we enjoyed them immensely. 
   
8. Rocky Mountain Soap. Not limited to 2015, they have been my only soap supplier for years. Completely chemical free and I can use them without flaring up any eczema spots. Just tried Vanilla Mint and hmmmm, it's so refreshing.
   
9. Pajama Van. This continues to be my favourite family outing. (Almost) weekly, after supper, we bathe the littles and put them into pjs and load everyone up into the van. We put on a movie using our portable DVD player, stop at Tim Hortons for tea and timbits and drive for as long as the movie is. David and I get to have a "date" in the front seat and we all love pj van! As a result of driving for a couple hours every week, our littles are seasoned and great travelers, which comes in handy when we drive to Alberta to see the family.
10. My kitchen table! David, with some help from one of his students, built me a GREAT kitchen table. It's huge and solid and will be a central gathering place for our family for many many years to come. He got the plans here and adapted them to suit our family needs. He has plans to build me some mission style furniture for my living room next. I love getting to receive his handiwork.
    
11. Sushi. Specifically the avocado and cucumber rice rolls (I don't know what they're really called other than "yummy") from Sobeys. Yes, grocery store sushi. I love it! David and I dip in caesar dressing.
12. Rend Collective. My favourite music discovery of last year was definitely these guys. I love how fun and catchy and well written their songs are. 
    
    
    
13. Serena Wilson Stubson. So, we met because our children are in the same school/class, but seriously, have you seen her art?! It's awesome. Serena gave my David one of her wood block mounted art pieces as a thank you Christmas gift (David is the parking lot patrol guy and the parents like him keeping everyone safe), anyway, I've stolen it. It's gorgeous.
14. Favourite movies of the year go to Jurassic World and Star Wars. Both nostalgic and both really well done. Plus, David I got to see both together in the theatre (a rare occurrence).
15. My favourite outing involves a body of water. I discovered just how much I LOVE to be by the water. We are fortunate to live in a city with rivers running through it and several lakes within driving distance. Beach combing for sea glass with the wind and the crisp air - LOVE!

Checking In - It's OCTOBER?!

Wow! Did September fly for you, too? It was an amazing September for us and I can't even express how grateful I am for it. Let's get to it!

• Why was it such an amazing September? Answer: Abby. There has been such a remarkable difference in how she is handling change and this fall we've had a couple of minor incidents and no major meltdowns! This is the first peaceful back-to-school season we've experienced. Abby has had her fair share of behavior issues and the fact that we can finally reason with her and help to adjust to new situations without lengthly meltdowns is huge. I miss her now that she's in school for five days a week and I'm so glad to be able to say that. If you've had a child with behavioral issues, than you know that it isn't always easy to be around that child. Now, I look forward to her coming home each day and I don't have to brace myself for potential conflicts.

• With such a change in Abby has brought a change in our family. We haven't merely survived September, but have taken the time to enjoy it.

• My parents have had a lot to celebrate. Daddy has been through a huge battle and has a way to go, but he's alive and they celebrated the one year anniversary of his medical event (I don't know how to refer to the day he almost died and ended up in a wheelchair). Thank you all for your prayers, love and even financial support. We are all so blessed! 

• We took our annual trip to a local farm's pumpkin cart. They decorate the yard with lots of picture worthy spots and it's a highlight of our fall each year. 

cash wallet for budgeting

• I'm still open to custom sewing orders and finished up a few in the last little while. I am still so flattered that y'all want to hire me and I love being able to personalize items to fit your needs. I am much more careful with your projects than my own, in case you saw my recent blunder on Instagram. 

Essential Oils Cases

• We are in the midst of a federal election here in Canada. David and I took advantage of the advance polling station this year. We were both eager to vote and it was nice to walk in with no wait time at 7:00 in the evening. It seems to be a very pivotal and important election and I'm praying that the best people for our country will be in leadership.

• We celebrated Thanksgiving this past weekend. Friday we had a traditional turkey dinner at "Auntie" Trudy's. We started a new #gingrastradition for Thanksgiving with a BBQ steak dinner. We enjoyed the warm weather by taking a nice walk at the park on Sunday and we stayed warm and cozy on the cold Monday at home. 

"every woman should have flowers for Thanksgiving" - my David

• I'm hosting an art gathering for locals involved in Documented Faith and Illustrated Faith next week. This introvert is rather proud of myself for this and a bit nervous, too. It's going to be great and I've come a long way from planning a party that no one shows up for. I love a good party full of swag and good company, so I know it'll be great. Stay tuned for a blog post about that after the party.

"I'm so glad I live and world where there are Octobers" - Anne Shirley

An Art Update: Part One

Part of the summer fun for me was having lots of art practice time. I was our family "art director" for the summer and I look back with fondness at these times. Although...

family art is something that I have to work hard at. In the end, I'm usually glad that I put in the effort. I am not a fan of messes that I don't make myself and so I have to focus on the fact that it's a family creative initiative and it WILL be messy. If I prepare myself ahead of a time for that reality then it helps me not to mind too much. This summer we did more family art projects than ever.

Sun painting was the first art project we tried. I saved this for our camping trip so that we'd have something fun to look forward to (I'm not a great camper and this helped me to have something to look forward to). The idea is that you paint the fabric with diluted paint, then place leaves etc on it, lay it in the sun to dry. We followed this tutorial here. We didn't have much direct sunlight that day, so only a couple turned out the way we had hoped, but they were all colourful and we had fun doing it.

Tree faces is a family favourite and we've already decided that this will be an annual summer tradition. Tutorial/instructions can be found here. 

Stick painting might have been one of my favourites. (I chose family crafts that I wanted to try and it helped to keep my focus off the mess and onto the creative effort). We had some grumpy-ness during this craft and it was uncomfortably hot, but I loved the results and still have them in a vase in my kitchen.

Paper making was a two day process and the results weren't as satisfying with this method, but I think the children had fun with the process, so I can still feel like it was a success. Tutorial that we used is here.

Bubble painting was another children favourite. The picture above of them blowing the bubbles is before we got the paint to water and soap ratio quite right. The littles were less interested in the art than the bubble blowing, but I got some cute stationary out of the deal. Tutorial/idea from here.

Individual craft time can also reduce the mess. Malachi did a cute printing paint project (similar to this method) at Michael's and the mess stayed at the store - worth the $2! Abby and I had a mini art date one quiet time and we did make a large mess, but with it just being the two of us it was still manageable. Both littles appreciated the focused one-on-one art times.

Some art projects require no mess at all! Shadow play was something we all had fun with this summer.

This wasn't exactly a family craft project, but we all certainly benefit from the result! My favourite art project of the summer, was definitely my table! David, with some help from a student he mentors, built me this gorgeous kitchen table. My David's love for me is all over this table and I'm so thankful!

Summer Lovin' Check In

I am loving summer! I'll skip the apologies for how long it's been since my last post and just say "I'm playing!" I did want to pop and in and give an update as to what we've been up to. Let's call this one July and I'll stop in again with August, okay? Let's get to it...

We kicked off the summer with my favourite holiday, Canada Day. (And our 2nd VANinversary) We went to St. Norbert and took in some of the festivities including The Red Ember pizza truck, local musical talent and fireworks.

 Let's just say that we are all SUPER Happy to have David home for the summer! Hannah's face says it all.

We are doing our best to just have a great time together on as many mini adventures as possible. River and beach walks, lots of parks, picnics, tandem bike work-outs and even waiting at the doctors office can be an adventure if we are all together.

David and I are trying to take the time to date our littles one at a time (sometimes together and sometimes one on one). So far, we have taken Abby to her first baseball game, Micah to his first movie, Malachi to kids club at Michael's and Abby to a Zumba class. 

We had the joy and privilege of baptizing our Abigail. We've had such a journey with her and we are so pleased that she's making such a profound decision to follow Jesus and to tell others about it. If you're curious about why we do this, you can read about it here.

This could technically go into my August update because that's when it was finished, but David and a student He works with spent several hours in July on this beautiful kitchen table! I'm so pleased with how it turned out but mostly with the hard work and time that my David put into making it for me (okay, for my family). I have a list of other items I'd like him to build next. Its so exciting!

 It's hard to believe that July could be summarized so simply, because it's been a grand adventure! I'm so glad that we have a few more weeks before it's back to the daily grind. I update Instagram regularly if you'd like to keep up there. My user name is mrsgingras. Otherwise, stay tuned for an August update (sooner than I'd like).

Checking In

Phew! What a crazy month April (and into early May) turned out to be. Let's get to it...

• April is my favourite month to throw a party! My birthday is as good of a reason as anything else, right? I knew that I wanted to have another My Favourite Things party and when I asked a few people what they thought, the resounding answer was "YES!" It's such a great party and it almost throws itself. You can read about the last party here and here. How it worked is I had everyone bring 4 of their same favourite item/s (under $10) and every one went home with four others' favourite items. My favourite items this year were a carton of Tazo Chai Latte mix, fun socks, a pen, a soap sample, straws, an essential oil sample and a couple of dishcloths (Compliments - microfibre - seriously the best dishcloth EVER). I had so much fun with this! By the way, if you didn't get invited, please don't be upset. I wanted to invite so many more of you, but my place can only hold so many. In my heart, you are all welcome!

My favourite things package

• Here's a list of what everyone brought.... Soy candles, journals, Starbucks gift card, jellybeans, pens, mugs, hairspray, lip balm, cuticle cutters, jar mugs, drink tumbler, napkins, chocolates (store bought and homemade), soaps, homemade laundry detergent, collapsible bins, zipper storage bags, a pansy plant, various stationary items, mesh laundry bag, socks and candy. I think that's everything. It was so great to hear things about the gals that I didn't know as each person had to answer a random question about something that was a favourite. I also had everyone bring a favourite drink or food to share and once again - the BEST party food!

London Fog cupcakes from my friend, Sugar Momma and her truffles, too!

• I chose to set up an Italian Soda Bar as my favourite beverage to share. David and I enjoyed testing these and David made the strawberry, orange and butter rum flavour syrups. I'm a big fan of "help yourself" so I doodled instructions and let everyone do just that.

Italian Soda Bar

• I could've easily spent a month on the plans and preparations for a party, but thankfully I didn't need to because I spent the month sewing and crafting for my first craft sale. Our church hosted a craft sale fundraiser for some missionaries who will be going out with Wycliffe. David and I spent every spare evening and weekend working on growth charts, (David did the bulk of the work on those. I just lettered them) scrap buntings, mini scrap buntings and cake toppers. I had a goal of 12 growth charts and 40 each of the other items. We spent many evenings late into the night making. It was fun and tiring and my poor house got pretty neglected. I met my goals! David's amazing growth charts sold really well. I came home with three and they're now all spoken for, too. I have most of the rest of the products still. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet, but I'm so relieved to have it all finished that I'm okay to just put it aside for now. Sadly, there wasn't a whole lot of customer traffic at the sale, but we recovered our costs and were able to make a small donation to the missionaries. 

Buntings!

Craft Sale Booth

• Michaels Arts and Crafts are moving into my neighbourhood! It's going to be nice not needing to drive across town to shop!

• Mothers' Day was a quiet and relaxing day finished off with my favourite family "date". We call it Pajama Van. It's usually a Saturday evening tradition, but I'm glad we saved it for last night it was perfect. (pajama van is where we load the littles up in the van in their pjs, put on a movie for them to watch, grab tea and timbits from Tim Hortons and go for a nice long drive).
• I got quite spoiled with mail lately! I love my dear pen friends!

Top pictures are my birthday package from dear Annemarie and the bottom two from dear Donna!

• I was crazy spoiled for my birthday, too.

L-R ink and pens from David's family, essential oils from my family (card signed by my Daddy - a big deal for a partial quadriplegic) flowers from friends and a drawing book from my David.

• And in case you needed a reminder of how adorable my David is...

 

Bethlehem LIVE! 2014 Begins!

our Malachi as Jesus (photo credit)

Tonight Bethlehem LIVE! returns to Winnipeg. I'm not directly involved this year, but my David will be guiding tours through Bethlehem and praying with those who would like someone to pray with. I will tour Bethlehem with my older two littles (the babies are sick) tonight and with a new scene added, I'm particularly excited. I didn't get to attend last year (I had severe mis-alignment issues in the last month of my pregnancy) and I missed it! Bethlehem LIVE! is an interactive live nativity that our church hosts every year. There are hundreds of volunteers who gift the city of Winnipeg with a Christmas tradition that won't easily be forgotten.

Abigail's favourite scene: King Herrod's palace 

I've had the privilege of participating in BL four times. The first year I sang as an angel, heralding the good news from up high. The second year, I brought baby Abigail with me and we were in the town well scene and also sat in as Mary and baby Jesus for a few tours. Abby was 11 months old, so a little difficult to pass off as a newborn, but people especially love to see live babies play the special role.

David as a tour guide with Micah waiting to begin

The third year, our Malachi was weeks old and David played Joseph while I was Mary and Malachi was baby Jesus. What an especially memorable time that was! There was a tour that came through that I remember with extra fondness. The group had been ushered from our stable scene and on to see the shepherds and hear the angels, when a lady came walking back to the manger side. She had tears in her eyes and a smile on her face as she softly said two words... "Thank you". You could tell that she was so impacted at the reminder of why we celebrate Christmas. It snapped me into an attitude of awe and gratitude at this incredible gift that we've been given.

Baby Malachi plays baby Jesus

The fourth year, I brought baby Micah to the well scene. Once again we sat in at the stable scene for a few tours and I got to see the delight on everyone's faces as they witnessed the miracle of Christmas. That does not get old!

We try to tour BL every year as guests, too

Hannah hasn't been to BL, yet. Since my Christmas baby was born on Jesus' birthday, she has a different honour. Our hope is to someday journey to BL as a family and serve together. This year, we release David to serve and pray that this gift will be a blessing to many.

Every tour group gets to hear a mini sermon message from one of our great pastors

If you're in Winnipeg come to Gateway Church at 851 Panet Road
tours run every 8 minutes and last approximately 40 minutes
Thursday 6-9
Friday 6-9
Saturday 12-3, 6-9
Sunday 12-3
Come early and expect to wait, but know that it's worth the wait! Visit the BL website for details and more pictures.

Malachi as Jesus