Christmas at Dads

Today was my Dad's Christmas celebration and what a wonderful time! Everyone showed up and we ended up with 22 people for dinner. My brother, the chef, was in charge of the kitchen as usual and he prepared this incredible salad of tomatoes and "REAL" mozzerella and black & green olives on a bed of mache with 3 different kinds of sausage, lamb with rosemary and mint, sausage with apple, and another with cheddar and green onion. Rob buys these sausages from someplace near his home in Oshawa where they are made. Absolutely incredible flavour. Over the top of this salad he'd drizzled a pesto vinigrette. Man! I would have been perfectly happy just eating that for dinner. Oooh lala, my bro is the best!

Dad had cooked up 2 turkeys and my sis provided a ham. There was the whole usual accompaniement of mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, sweet potatoe casserole, dressing, coleslaw, homemade whole wheat dinner rolls (courtesy of moi), peas, and of course the yummy gravy. A veritable feast fit for a king. And since all of my dad's kids were Kings' at one point, how appropriate eh? :)














Then after dinner there was this to contend with...I was strong! I did not give in. I did not touch one crumb of the sweet table. Heck, I didn't even help them clean it up after, no way was I putting myself in temptations path!


See that big white cake? My sister made a 3 layer homemade carrot cake. People were drooling over it. And the cake in the bottom left corner with dollops of whipped cream? That was for adults only ~ our good family friend informs us that there was a good 8 oz of rum in that baby, 1/2 cooked in and 1/2 soaked in mmmmm num nums!

Not one thing on that table was low sugar or gluten free :( poor Vic (lol).

Now, since I was such a good girl I think it only fair that when I weigh myself on Monday for my bi-weekly weigh in, I should see a dramatic loss. What do you think?

All in all, a wonderful time had by all and we were all home by 10pm and my dad and Linda are probably fast asleep now as I type this.

Night Dad, night Lin. Love you guys and thanks for a wonderful time!

First things first...Isabella turned 1 on Thursday!

Remember my niece, Isabella? She was born last Nov 27th prematurely at just 3 lbs 4 oz?












Well, look at our little beauty now! She's walking and talking (in her own language lol) and she's already bilingual. Whenever Kathy was talking to her and Bella wasn't listening, Kathy would revert to Greek and Bella would perk right up and look at her. It was hilarious.


Here she is wanting to play with Simon and his little army men. Isabella took a really strong liking to Simon as soon as she saw him. I think it's because he was the smallest person there besides herself lol.


When she first came in she was fascinated by Linda's little lit up tree. Every time she'd go to touch it, I would say "no no" and she'd pull her hand back, reach out, grab my finger and pull it to the tree to make me touch it. A very smart cookie she is!


Picture of her with Dad.


Wearing the little hat I made for her.


What a sweet thing! We are all so excited and pleased that they have moved to Belleville and we will be able to better watch our Bella grow up.

Bloomfield Christmas Parade

Tonight was the Bloomfield Christmas parade and our church's youth group was involved in putting a float together with the 1st Baptist Church youth group. This was a great opportunity to get the different youth groups together and form the start of a relationship between them. I hope to see our youth groups get together again soon, perhaps on a once a month basis. Actually, it would be great to see a bunch of the youth groups get together and show people that although we all come from different churches and denominations, these are all just teens who need to have companionship, mentoring and fun.

This is Amy's first year in the youth group (now that she's officially at teenager) and she's loving it. It's been great watching her blossom and reach out to new people. Actually, last Monday evening she went out with 3 other teens to the ROC for Campus Life led by our good friend Andrew MacKay of Youth for Christ. The child didn't get home until 10:30pm! Now, mind you I wasn't worried about her, since I knew she was with good kids and I trust them all. But really, 13 years old and she rolls in at 10:30 on a school night? Good thing we homeschool and have some flexibility in the mornings lol. She's also lucky we are cool parents who don't lose our cool easily. We actually are very happy for her and it was beyond her control that they were so late, but that's another story haha.

So, back to the parade. Our youth group was responsible for making a couple of 10' banners for the float and we spent last Sunday afternoon painting the banners and having a great time in fellowship with other teens and parents. There are pics of that day, but I will have to get Pastor's wife Sally to forward me the pics so I can post them.

I am posting some pics here of the parade last night. Now keep in mind, it is a night time parade and the lighting wasn't too good so this is the best that I was able to get.





Here comes the parade!



Our float

Tree Time

Jay got today off work and with his crazy schedule these days, we figured it would be best for us to take the kids out to cut down our tree and start Christmas decorating.

So, first thing in the morning we told them we were going for a drive and ended up in Napanee of all places! LOL, Amy had it figured out halfway there, but Simon didn't remember the Christmas tree farm we went to 3 years ago so he had no idea we were up to something.

I forgot of course to take my camera with me to the farm, but I did get a pic on my cell phone which I will have to upload another time.

We came home and spent the day decorating the tree and the house, drinking hot chocolate, vanilla hazlenut coffee and just having a nice family day together.






















Amy took this neat shot of our tree after dark.

Tiny little post

Here's a tiny post 'cause I just have to make sure I'm not away too long.

uh huh, uh huh, I'm doing it, I'm losing it, knocked 17lbs of lard off my ....okay you get the drift.

I was actually in dance mode this morning when I stepped on the scale and found I'd lost another pound. Gluten and sugar are my enemies and I laugh in their faces. Hmmm, maybe I'm not laughing in their faces, more like waving a sad adieu as I fear we shall never be friends again. I love my bread and pasta and bran muffins full of raisins. I love my sweet sauces and oatmeal cookies and maple bbq sauce. I love my double breaded chicken wings and shake n' bake pork chops (whimper)

HOWEVER, I think I love my smaller jeans more teehee. I love looking in the mirror and not seeing that extra big roll on my back. I love how my hubby stops once in a while and looks at me differently. While he says he loves me no matter what, I know he appreciates the difference and is being so very supportive of my dietary changes.

So anyways, that's all I have to say.

Night...sleep well my friends

Why I've Gone Private

Good Morning Everyone! or at least good morning to all our friends and family :)

As of yesterday our blog has gone private. I was convicted to do this after speaking with a friend about how our kids photos are on display for all and sundry to see. One never knows who is looking at these pictures and it would be very easy for some unstable individual to figure out where we live. Sad to say, but I have to be careful.

I have to admit I'm going to miss seeing all the different countries that like to visit.

I went skating again today

...and this time I did more than hug the wall :)

I let go of the wall for a while and shuffled along in my attempt at skating (nothing too graceful about me on skates folks). I actually stayed on the ice for an hour, until my feet were screaming.

I need to get different skates. The ones I have are way too narrow for my feet.











I did find some really cool ones online at Canadian Tire that I want, but they're $129... a little dear at this time :(




Look no laces and they look like runners. Very very cool.







Oh well, I will make do with the ones I have for now.

In the meantime a pic showing me on the ice. Look ma, no hands! I actually look like I'm praying in this pic lol. I was actually clapping like a kid (insert embarrassed grin here).

The kids and I will be going to the arena twice a week, so remember me in your prayers hehe.

Gluten issues or something else? and Guess Who Went Skating?

I have been gluten and sugar free now for 38 days. I have been heartburn free for 38 days and migraine free for 30. My good friend Karen, who has gluten issues, has been concerned that my migraines may be gluten induced. I wasn't so sure. I'm still not 100% sure that they are, but it's been an interesting experiment so far. I have much to research but so far I am leaning towards Karen's assumption.

I have made a decision to remain sugar and gluten free until Christmas Day. That day, I will decide whether or not to partake in the stuffing and gravy that will be served with our turkey dinner. Dessert won't be such a difficult choice though since I am not a huge fan of sweets.

At this point I'm not feeling any desire to break. I'm even making, by hand, homemade bread every other day for Jay and the kids. Last night I made buns with onion, garlic, rosemary and cheddar cheese in them. The smell was incredible and they all were oohing and aahing over the flavour. I on the other hand didn't even feel slightly tempted. Weird but true.

So as of Monday November 3rd, in 28 days I have lost 13.5 lbs just by taking out all gluten, sugar and starches. I will be slowly adding in natural fruit sugars on January 1st. These will consist of berries and melons and the lower sugar fruits. In effect I am on a low carbohydrate, low fat, low sodium eating regime and I am feeling so much healthier for it.

Oh and guess what?! I went skating yesterday! For the first time in 37 years, I was skating.

Okay maybe skating is stretching it, but I did make it around the rink once and up and down one side about 6 times. Jay went around with me on the ice to help keep me up. My balance is shot and I have to work on strengthening my core.

By the way, many many thanks to my friend, Andrew, for loaning me some Extreme knee and elbow pads. He answered my prayer as I am terrified of falling on my knees. I have very bad knees as a result of a motorcycle accident in my twenties. Betcha never would have guessed that I used to ride a motorcycle did ya? ;)

A friend posted this video on her gmail tag today with the question "what on earth do I have to complain about?" .

I wanted to put it here to share with my readers. This is an amazing man, full of God's love and grace. Thanks Michelle for sharing this :)

Big Brainz Timez Attack

I have got to tell you about this totally awesome multiplication software program. It's called Timez Attack and using it this past month has brought up both Simon's and Amy's multiplication memorization ten fold. Simon has almost all of his table memorized and Amy (who has dyscalculia) has really, really improved! I'm so impressed with it I had to tell everyone. Now they've been using the free software version but today, I decided to buy the full version which has more levels and more interesting graphics. Big Brainz is offering a $10 discount until Nov 10th, so I figured this was too good a deal to pass up.

Go check it out!

Timez Attack

She's Back!!!!

I am so excited. Amy has finally performed in public after almost a whole year off. Jay and I are really hoping this is a turning point for her. Her confidence has been very shaky over the past year and she's refused to sing anywhere, even at home for her dad and I.

A young family friend called back in September and asked Amy to sing at this fundraiser she was organizing to raise funds to help less fortunate children to have a Christmas. Amy agreed to do it. This fundraiser was called "Kids Helping Kids" and all the performers were kids. It's incredible how much talent there is in our community!

I have been so nervous and uptight the past week. There have been several song choice changes and some tears on both parts, Amy's as she deals with her insecurity and me as I deal with watching her and feeling her fear.

I didn't have anything to worry about as this video will attest.

Our little singer is back!

The first song is ABBA's "I Have A Dream" which only hours before Amy decided to sing a capella after deciding she didn't like the performance track :)

The second song is "When the Angels Sing" and she is accompanied by her dad on bass guitar, Blake Found on fiddle and Michelle Found on keyboard and backup vocals.

*Just a note, I'm really disappointed in the quality of the video...my mistake I forgot to zoom in while recording (was too busy praying her through it) and had it on auto focus, so for some reason there is the occasional almost pulsing glow coming from Amy.

.

I've been tagged

Okay, so Janna tagged me and I guess I'm suppose to do this haha. Have fun learning some totally useless stuff about me~~ :)


1. Link to the person that tagged you
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
4. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website

1. I talk to myself all the time, no matter where I am or who's in the room. Jay and the kids thinks it's so funny to hear me in a room all by myself having a great conversation or teaching myself something.

2. I hate telephones. I write or email everything and use the phone only as a last resort or IF I need info right away. If I had my way, Alexander Graham Bell would have been a ballet dancer.

3. When eating eggs I have to make my mind blank so that I don't think about what they are. If my mind does go in that direction, I usually end up heading in the direction of the 'ole porcelain god'. This all stems from opening an egg at my dad's that had been fertilized if you get my drift? gag!

4. I am a great organizer but terrible on follow up. For example, I can organize our classroom schedule and a months worth of lessons so that everything will run perfectly (haha in a perfect world) but when it comes to actually following through? that schedule isn't worth the paper it was printed on. Or I can clean and organize my desk at night and by mid morning it looks as though Hurricane Vic flew through!

5. I'm the last of the great procrastinators. I leave everything to the last minute but usually end up completing a task stupendously! albeit with a few more grey hairs and frazzled nerves to show for it lol.

6. I always go to bed at night with guilty feelings for all the things I know I didn't do right during the day. Like having more patience with the kids during lessons, teaching more and staying off the computer (uh duh, what am I doing right now?) or getting angry at them and yelling and forgetting that these kids look up to me as an example and I worry about the type of example I'm setting for them.

7. Okay I thought of one more...when I put on my makeup for some weird reason I almost always start singing the "I've Been Working on the Railroad" song. Don't know why but it just happens and I have to literally make myself stop (?)

There you go! I was tagged and I answered.

Tags:

Ann-Marie

Karen

Chris

Michelle

Homemade Laundry Soap Day

I'm back to making my laundry soap again. Jay bought me a beautiful Whirlpool Duet front loading washer and dryer














a couple years ago and I have been buying that HE stuff ever since. THAT stuff is more expensive dagnabbit!

I'm tired of paying so much more for something that obviously has less of something else in it. Sort of like diet or low fat foods. They're always more expensive than their higher fat, higher calorie cousins.

Here's my recipe for homemade laundry soap (which is also HE since it doesn't suds up much). I've actually doubled my previous recipes active ingredients and kept the same amount of water creating a stronger mixture, thereby resulting in less being used per load.

1 quart Water (boiling) (4 cups)

2 cups Bar soap (grated) I use Lavender Ivory (2 bars)

2 cups Borax

2 cups Washing Soda

10 - 15 drops of essential oil for scent for every 2 quarts (optional)

1 large stock pot, enough to hold 10 quarts (40 cups)

• Add finely grated bar soap to the boiling water and stir until soap is melted, turn down heat and stir in Borax and Washing Soda. Stir well until all is dissolved.
• Add 8 quarts of water, stir until well mixed.
• You can either pour all of this, while warm into a big bucket with a lid and scoop out what you need or do what I do which is...
• Let sit in pot overnight till cooled and gelled. Stir with hand blender until liquified and pour into empty laundry soap bottles or whatever size bottles you want.
  
• Use 1/4 cup for each load of laundry. Shake or stir the soap each time you use it as it will gel up.

Some pics of the ingredients needed ...


















The hot mixture...

Untitled post

Here's my dilemma. Today was communion at church. This involves eating a wafer and drinking some grape juice to represent the body and blood of Christ. One must have the right frame of mind when taking communion. That frame of mind consists of no hidden or unconfessed sin and thankfulness for the gift of salvation that Jesus gave to each and everyone of us. I try to be in that frame of mind whenever I take communion.

On those days when I know that I am struggling with a sin issue, usually a forgiveness thing where I am struggling to forgive someone a hurt they caused me or my family, I won't take the elements. I let them pass by and I take it to God in prayer asking Him to help me forgive and ask Him to forgive my stubborness.

This morning I ran into something a little different. I haven't told very many people about the 'diet' I am on. People know from my ticker at the top of my blog that I am losing weight but they don't know the reasons how and why.

Let me spills my guts here. I am 45 years old. A wife to my best friend and a mom to two wonderful children. I am also incredibly out of shape. I've allowed the last 15 years of my life to go by taking care of my family and forgetting about myself. I've allowed the pounds to pile on, the physical activity to fall by the wayside and my time with God hasn't been all what it should be. I keep making the excuses that I am too busy or I'm too tired. I want to watch my children grow up, marry and have children of their own one day. Being an older mom to young children, I am already older than most of the other moms in my church. On the path I was going, I could die from a heart attack or stroke anyday.

There is no excuse.

So, I made a commitment to myself, my family and my God to take better care of myself. I have removed all white food products and sugar out of my diet. I am trying an experiment to see if gluten could be a cause of some of my health issues and general brain fogginess.

I have eaten nothing with wheat or gluten in it for 4 weeks. I have eaten no sugar in any form for 4 weeks. I have lost 12 pounds as a result. I have not picked up my exercise too much yet, although I intend to relearn how to skate so I can skate with my kids for 4 hours every week.

So back to the reason for my post. After accepting the elements this morning during communion it suddenly occurred to me that in each hand I held something that had each of the two items I have been avoiding for 4 weeks...gluten in my right hand and sugar in my left. I was shocked but even more shocked at my train of thought. All I could see was gluten and sugar, NOT the blood and body of Christ. I'd lost my focus on Jesus. My focus suddenly was on me and my weight.

I could have just put them down, prayed and left it at that. Instead I panicked, asking Jay what to do. I love my husband and I know he understands my issues so when he told me to take them "in faith" I know he meant the best. Another friend told me it wouldn't affect anything.

I realize that to most people this is a no brainer. Take the elements "in faith" and be obedient. Or put the elements aside and leave it.

I didn't do either. I took the elements. As I put that wafer in my mouth I started crying feeling that I was betraying both myself and God. I'd promised to be good and not eat this stuff, and I'd promised God that I would never take this very special ceremony without the right frame of mind, proper repentance and thankfulness. I'd bowed to self imposed pressure feeling that my husband and friend wouldn't understand why I didn't take them.

Another friend said afterward to just ask forgiveness and move on. I have always been the type for self flagellation, except since I can't handle physical pain, I impose all sorts of mental pain upon myself. A sin. Self-pity, self-indulgence.

This is my blog and I've always been honest about my feelings on here. It's the one place I go to write out my thoughts and feelings. These are my feelings. I make no apologies for this post, I ask for no answers or opinions here. I am just writing for the sake of purging these feelings. I have to deal with these feelings and spend some time with God in order to understand why I have them and ask forgiveness for them as well.

That is all.

A belated birthday gift.and a food fight

I finally finished a pair of socks I was knitting for Amy's birthday (Sep 20), just a month and a half late lol.

I used this monkey sock pattern with a toe up revision. I love this pattern and think I may use it again soon.






















































On another note, last night after dinner I had made a simple jello and 'real' whipped cream dessert. Whipped cream is a dangerous thing our house as these following pictures will attest.

















Poor Simon :-)