Post of Amy singing today

Amy sang today at the Christian Women's Ministry luncheon in Belleville.

Poor child was so nervous but did really well. The only real sign of her nervousness was the fiddling of her fingers on her shirt and the swaying back and forth LOL.

Our very dear friend Michelle Found accompanied us (actually drove as well) to the luncheon, played piano and sang harmony on one of the songs. Unfortunately, Michelle wasn't miked so you can't hear her very well, but her voice and Amy's blend so beautifully when they sing together.

Actually, you can hear them sing the same song here from a previous post.

It started out so well...

Yesterday Jay and I took the kids to a local park for a picnic and some relaxed schooling/family time. It was so nice.

Before Jay and I had kids we would go on 'French' picnics. We'd take a French stick, cheese and wine and just lay in the sun talking. So yesterday, we packed fresh french stick, cheese, carrots and juice (in lieu of the wine lol) and went to Delhi park. It was lovely. We ate, talked, Simon played a bit and then we all spent some time reading. Amy ended up reading a book all about Canadian beginnings. Simon read about Vikings, I ended up reading about the Undergound Railroad (finished it at 1am lol) and Jay read a bit and semi napped. It was so nice. To just spend some time relaxing as a family and being grateful for some time with each other.

Now, move ahead a few hours at home. Our phone is now disconnected and quite possibly our internet will be soon. I am so tired of playing 'catch up' with our bills. The "world" intruded into our little family day. (We received some other awful news as well, but I'm not ready to write about it, I'll try in a few days †)

Our pastor has been preaching about money, tithing, giving etc. Being faithful and good stewards of the money God has given us. Jay and I can both admit we haven't been really good at any of these. We are good at misjudging our spending. We are pretty good at giving gifts of money when we have it (and sometimes when we don't) but we haven't been very good at tithing. It's been so hard to tithe when the amount that comes in is less than what is going out. How does one tithe 10% out of a cheque that is just a couple dollars more than your mortgage?

People have suggested that tithing your time is a good alternative until we are financially stable. Thus my reasoning behind becoming a member of our board and helping out with the Youth Group.

However, we both decided (were convicted) a few weeks ago to start tithing fully again. That first cheque was the hardest one to write. It felt like so much (and it could have paid the phone bill). Malalchi 3:10-12 says ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. ¹¹ I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. ¹² "Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land," says the LORD Almighty.

We are to test God in this. If we are faithful in our giving then He will bless us more than He already does. We are standing on that promise. I am trying to hold back the demons of fear and worry. It's hard, but I keep telling myself that as long as my family is healthy, safe, and together, then all will be fine. God has already blessed me with a wonderful, hard working husband and two good, sweet kids. We have good friends who have been so faithful in their prayers for us and advice given. I am blessed.

I feel greedy writing this next part. Are we ever going to be blessed financially? Will the nighmarish uphill struggle ever ease up for us even a bit so that we can pay off our debts and start over? Pastor said in one of his sermons that having lots of money isn't the answer.

While I totally understand his reasoning and even agree to some extent (no one needs millions of dollars) I can't help but disagree to some extent. Having enough money to be able to cover our debts, utilities, mortgage etc. would be nice. Having enough money to buy a decent vehicle that doesn't break down constantly (and if it does, it'd be nice to be able to fix it). Having enough money to be able to take our children on a real vacation maybe once every couple of years. It'd be nice to be able to stop saying "no, we don't have the money" to Simon when he asks for something at the grocery store or Amy when she needs new jeans. It hurts so much to deny your children things that are just basic like a Yop or a pair of new jeans that actually fit her properly.

How nice it would be to have a little savings in our bank account for an emergency (like when our furnace broke down this winter) and know that we can cover it. Guess I'm dreaming

...but I'm also praying and trusting that God is going to show us the way.

Hopefully I will start to get some more shifts at work (really need 25 hours a week) and that will help.

So, I need to get off this and try to get something accomplished today. Still have to dig up the garden and plant my 'freecycle hostas'.

I'll end this post with some pics from our picnic.

And the winner is....

RED!

Red Mahogany that is.

After all the wonderful advice I received about what colour to do my hair...natural grey versus keep colouring. Keep colouring won. I guess I'm just not ready to go the completely grey look yet. Don't think it will look as nice on me as it does my sil Chris.

I love it! At first when I took off the towel I thought I was gonna bawl. It looked purple! Purple would have been fine 10 years ago, but I'm thinking 46 years old is a little too old for purple.

Thankfully it dried a lovely mahogany colour that makes me smile. Big plus, I get to play with different colours of makeup again. Before as a dark blonde some of the bolder colours had to be put away, but oooh I got some new eyeshadow today from Avon that are sooo fun!

So with no further ado, a picture (that I actually like) of my new hair...what do you think?

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!!!!!