Garden Update

With all the rain and sunny weather combined my gardens are flourishing! Remember a few posts back the pics I took? Well, I took some more pics today and the difference is amazing!


















































Remember the Clamatis and how you had to squint to see it? Look at my babies now :-)






















Even my honeysuckle is growing!
















I've decided to put in another garden on the shady side our house where it looks so awful all the time. This side of the house gets the morning sun and then is shady for the rest of the day.

It was truly a wonderful surprise yesterday to receive a freecycle email offering up Hostas.
Check out my score! I believe there are 5 Hostas in there, plus a couple other plants given to me.
















We are going to dig up the area around this bush and put in a shade garden with stepping stones. I have this idea of making my own using concrete and painting bible verses on them. I have this big bag of cement in the garage begging to be used for something and my creative juices are starting to flow. I'll post pics once I make them and IF they turn out.
































This grass is always so nasty looking, what a difference some Hostas and flowers are going to make.
















Simon worked hard on Monday putting rocks all around the border of this "garden in the works". Last year it was full of transplanted 4 o'clocks. I'm curious to see if they come back. Unfortunately, I have to leave it looking pretty much as is until I can tell if there will be new growth (other than the weeds).

All this rain means beautiful flowers for my gardens

Summer's coming!!!

I love the summer. Camping, swimming, picnics, boat rides, strawberries in June, Family Camps in July and August, gardening. All these things I can associate with different smells. Right now, I'm imagining the smells of my peonies, roses and honeysuckle.

My gardens are becoming full of green and my Clematis made it through their first winter and have small shoots growing up.


















Even the Hostas are poking their noses up :-)
















If you look very,very closely near the wooden stick on the left you will see one Clematis shoot and on the right another
















Aren't these lovely, they're called Icicle Tulips. The only bulb out of 20 that survived the squirrels :-(
















Pretty soon I will have all these lovelies gracing our gardens again...
















Oh, how I hope I get another rose bouquet like this one. It was so incredibly beautiful.
















Day lilies

































Soothing Lavendar, right under the window. The scent is unbelievable.
















My one and only Beebalm...see Karen I did plant it,
















and I still don't know where the raspberry bushes came from.

Grrrrrr! English is my new favourite subject to hate...

Hate is such a strong word. But boy oh boy, I cannot think of another word ADJECTIVE right now that better describes my feelings at this moment.

Nominative case pronouns, subject nominative case, predicate nominative case, objective case, possessive case, demonstrative, indefinite, prepositional phrases, interrogative pronouns...arrrrgh! Enough already and don't get me started on adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections and all their many variations.

I thought math was my passionately hated subject until this year. English has now taken it's place. Why can't things be simpler for those of us with simple minds?

I get that it's important to learn these things, but unless you plan on being an English teacher, writer, journalist etc., give me a break.

I love Rod & Staff's curriculum and if I'm burning out how can Amy not. How do kids retain all this information? I don't remember learning half of this stuff in school. I don't even remember a 1/4 of it now.

Amy's gone with the Lester's today to meet Sydney's plane (coming home from Belgium) and I thought I'd take this opportunity to read through her English book and makes some sense of it all. God help me! It's gonna be a looong day!

Rainy days and Mondays

It's been raining all day today and tonight which doesn't make for a very fun day. Both kids were feeling the rainy day blues today so I sent them outside to play in the rain.

Amy chasing Simon while on the tire swing...
















...caught!
















































two very wet, but very happy children :-)
















"Leave the muddy boots outside kids and come in for hot chocolate"

A major shift in our lives...

Well I did it. I got a job. A part-time job working evenings and weekends.

A challenging, never boring, high energy position on the front desk at...

The Waring House













Wow, how exciting right? It should be exciting right? I should be excited right?

Then why do I feel so overwhelmed when I have to leave for work. Today I had to make Jay pull over on the curb (on the way to work) because I started crying. I don't want to go to work. I hate leaving the kids. My thoughts, energies, passions and dreams have been tied to these two precious children for the past 13 + years and I'm just not sure I'm ready for things to change.

This is something that has been coming for a while now. We desperately need for me to work and bring in another income. I seriously thought I was ready and even imagined myself looking forward to it, but I have to be honest and admit that now it's here, I wish it weren't.

Maybe if the position wasn't so incredibly demanding and overwhelming. Maybe if things were a little better organized and everyone worked on the same wave length. Maybe if it were a perfect world the sun would be my favourite colour instead of yellow.

I guess I need to suck it up and just plug away.

I'm sorry if this is a downer of a post and I seem to be whining, "but it's my blog and I'll whine if I want to".

Honestly working at Sobeys or McDonalds is looking better and better. I really was looking for something a little more mindless and repetitive haha.

Now I get to learn all about The Waring House, Claramount Inn, Barley Days Brewery.

I have to learn about all the wineries in Prince Edward County;

I have to learn how to pronounce French words like Table d'hôte (tablaadoe LOL)

Table d'hôte is a French loan phrase which literally means "host's table". It is used as restaurant terminology to indicate a menu where multi-course meals with only a few choices are charged at a fixed price. Such a menu may also be called prix fixe ("fixed price"). The terms 'set meal' and 'set menu' are reasonably common as well. Because the menu is set, the cutlery on the table may also already be set for all of the courses.

Why can't they just say "the fixed food and price menu"?

Ah well, I'm tired after my evening shift and I need some shut eye. I'll come back later and whine some more.

Okay, it's now time to be a little more grateful here. I am grateful for this opportunity. I'm am grateful to my friend Jeanette, for putting the bug in my ear about this position. I am grateful for the confidence that God gave me during the interview process which compelled them to hire me right away.

Regardless of which way this all goes, I am grateful for the opportunity. All whining must be viewed as a mom being separated from her babes and waiting for it all to become easier as promised.

I now leave you with this...

...finally the end of the stomach flu

Oh boy! I hope I'm right. We have been battling the stomach flu ever since early March in this house.

First Simon wakes me up and climbs into our bed at 1am. Proceeds to lose his supper IN our bed! So, I'm up with him from 1:30am to 8ish. Looong night :(

Passed out after a rough night poor baby :(
































So, Simon recovers fairly quickly (oh for a child's disposition) and now all I can think of is "who is gonna get it next?"

A day passes, 2 days pass, a week passes...nothing. Two weeks pass and bam! I get it on March break weekend (Saturday night) waaaah. This nasty bug had me out for 3 days plus a week before I started feeling semi normal. Tuesday night comes around, poor Amy gets it. She's out 2 full days.

Drinking a cup of tea after her rough night
















fell asleep with her cup of tea :)
















Simon's not sick here, he just didn't want to sleep upstairs by himself since Amy was sleeping on the couch.
















"Okay Lord, that's three of us, please let Jay get it on his days off so he doesn't miss out on any work" (believe me I was trying not to be selfish).

Another day passes, 2 days pass, a week passes...nothing. Two weeks pass. Wow, we made it, Jay can't get it now it's been over two weeks.

BAM! Saturday morning, he calls from work, "I think I got the flu, I'm coming home". Waaaah! I am so selfish, all I can think of is "why not on his days off Lord, why?" Two work days down the toilet, literally grrrr.

Hubby comes home, goes to bed and sleeps. Kids and I go out for evening (couldn't cancel plans on Amy) and when we come home where is Jay? On the couch passed out cold and snoring his head off. IT hit while we were out.

Sunday afternoon eating a bowl of what else? Chicken soup.
















So, poor Jay gets the flu finally and it has run it's course through our house. We pray. Stomach flu doesn't recycle does it???? Please God no.

Excuse me? Oh, you ask, why are there no pictures of me with the flu? I hid the camera!! hahahahaha!

Looky What I Got...Part 2

I had a Norwex party the other week and boy did I ever score! Besides the opportunity of having a bunch of good friends over to socialize with and eat good food (mmm brownies), I earned a bunch of Norwex products FREE just for hosting the party.

I am sooo grateful to my friends for coming (thanks guys) and helping me to earn these items since ya all know I can't afford to buy things like this right now :)

Here's a pic of my score. Karen, this could be you! Or you may be able to get your mop!

















Starting from top left: box of scotties (not part of score), Antibac Microfiber Mitt ($14.25); Kitchen Scrub Cloth ($13.99); Dish Cloth (($6.00); 2 Antibac Window Polishing Cloths ($37.98); Cleaning Paste ($27.99); 3 Antibac Enviro Cloths ($47.97);

Through the middle starting at left Silver Care Dental Floss with bactericide ($9.99); Spirisponge ($4.99); Spirinettes ($4.99).

Would you believe that is $168.15 worth of free stuff just for hosting a party and hanging with your friends!?

I love Norwex. I am going to finish this post and go wash some dishes with my new dish cloth :)

By the way ladies...I have your orders here!!!!!

Square Dancing at the Alisonville Town Hall

Yeehaw!

What great music! What great dancing!, What a blast!...

What sore muscles this morning LOL

Last night Jay, the kids and I joined up with the Griffins (minus 1), Dave Inch from the 1st Baptist and some of his youth group for an evening of square dancing! What a hoot!

Dancing started around 7:45pm and didn't end till midnight, and I am feeling it in every part of my legs and feet.

There was great music provided of course by Michelle and Blake Found plus my hubby again on bass. A lovely cold buffet meal and 14 dances of which I believe I danced to 11? Not quite sure of the number, it gets kind of blurry after 8.

Simon danced even more than I did and well, I have to say that boy is sure quick on his feet. I would have been lost without him. He picked up most of the dances pretty quick and was guiding me quite capably. He even managed to throw in a couple of his own little moves much to the amusement of our dance instructor and fellow dancers.

Amy was off with her own group and her "man" of the evening Amy Sedore.


What a great night and I can't wait for the next one. Okay...maybe I can wait, the mind is willing but the feet need time to recuperate.


















Paul and Sally. Oh my goodness! Sally was sooooo funny last night. Jay and I were still laughing, after we went to bed, at a funny little incident involving the food line, the topic of square dancing and 4H!

































Simon doesn't look too impressed here, but he was just concentrating hard lol.
















The silverhaired gentleman in the white shirt put on a little tap dance show for us during one of our breaks. He is really quite good :)
















A couple of lovely men.
















Me and my dance partner.
















The 2 Amy's :) Man how they've grown since we first met Amy S. in Emily Fennel's voice classes.
















Michelle, Blake and Jay providing the wonderful music and sometimes musical comic relief (eh honey?)
















This was actually shot 'before' he started dancing. Notice the "I'm in this chair for the long haul stance"? haha
















From this shot you'd think they were bored wouldn't you? Actually they were resting and watching some other dancers practicing. Doing exactly what they were told, "watch and learn". I think Paul was ready to leave at this point, but Colleen wanted to stay right till the end.
















Funny note here: All the way to the hall in the car, Simon was miserable. "I'm not dancing", "I don't like square dancing". To this I replied (in a loving, motherly fashion) "okay then just sit in a corner and be quiet...don't ruin the evening for everyone else". Now you can see me saying that calmly and lovingly can't you?).

Look at the grin on his face!
















Simon and Colleen































































The Amy's

The Passion Promise by Cullen Webb

This video was made by the son of Pastor Rich Webb of Michigan. Pastor Webb has been to Wesley Acres now several times as a Family Camp Evangelist.

This is a very powerful video that Cullen has created, and to be honest, I am still shaking inside after viewing it. You can find more about and by Cullen and his passion at his blog Nation Pains.

Be blessed...

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