It really DOES get easier

The girlies have been very busy today.

Busy working on a project.

A project they thought up all on their own.

They stayed in the basement for hours upon hours.

Quietly working.

Working together.

No fighting.

No crying.

No whining.

Only asking me for help to knot their thread.

While they worked on their project

I worked on my projects.

Some work needing to be done from home.

A little bit of this

and a little bit of that.

And at the end of these many hours

they showcased their work.

Barbie Sock Fashions.

This one is on the risque side of short...wouldn't you say?

But look at the ribboned shoulder.

Hannah's grandma taught her how to hand stitch.
She put her skill to use hand stitching these pants
and halter top.

Check out the sweet heart neckline on this one
and the hemline on her skirt!
Emily made it all by herself.
My 5 year old scissor genius.

And we'll start taking orders.......

....now.

Cottage Time

Every year on the last day of school

I head to the cottage with my girlies

and my sisters and their children.

We celebrate Canada Day

at The Village at Blue Mountain.



The five oldest cousins worked together
in completing a Scavenger Hunt.
It was smoking hot in The Village.
The kind of hot when you feel irritated
about having to breathe.



We ran into my husband's best friend.

These two have been friends
since they were just young boys.

He was our best man.

I love him too.

It was nice to see him...in his own words

"I nearly crippled myself on the mountain today".

Translation:  this guy likes the extreme sport
of downhill mountain biking.

We're glad he didn't cripple himself
and we could take a picture of him smiling.

For the past 8 years my family
has had a garage sale.

We find the most success in having
these garage sales at our parents' cottage.

This year we had a bake sale
and Alison sold her paintings.

All money raised was to be given to a project
 that our church helps support
(i.e. Kids In Crisis Project).

A total of $84.50 was made!

This will allow a child in
Guinea, West Africa
to attend school for one year.

About 6 months ago Alison started painting on canvas.

After completing her first painting
she decided that she would sell it
at our garage sale in the summer.

Imagine her delight
when she sold
THREE
of her paintings.



This little nephew had some trouble selling the toys. 

And this little nephew needed to sit
 beside his big cousin and help.

He kept asking "what can I do to help?"

These two dads were lots of help.

Seriously though...they sat only for a little while to read the paper....

....amidst the mad rush of garage saling people. 

At the end of the day

we put everything left over from the sale

at the end of the road.

We made a sign
so no one would be confused
with what may have looked like garbage...



 ....except, of course, for one priceless thing.

The real me

My blogging friend posted a "real me" kind of post yesterday. 

I think it's such a great idea.

Often times we view each other with such distorted lenses. 

 We may think "she" is the perfect wife,

the perfect mom,

the perfect housekeeper,

never makes mistakes,

never yells at her kids,

never has a dirty house,

always washes the floor,

always bakes from scratch,

always exercises.

But we don't live with one another 24/7.

Our husbands

kids

sisters

know the real-er us.

Here's the real-est me I can show you:

I'm actually very insecure.

I prefer to buy cookies than bake cookies.

I really do like my curly hair.

I wish that I had completed university.

I don't think I could have completed university.

I'm not so nice to my children sometimes.

During the winter we watch a LOT of t.v.

Recently, I gave UP t.v. and God has richly blessed me for this committment.

My heart still flutters when Tim walks in a room.

I only surface clean...unless certain people are coming for a visit

I can't concentrate on worshiping when Tim sings on the worship team.

I'd love to get married all over again so my "now" friends can see me get married.

I'd also love to be given showers so that I can have new dishes, pots and pans, towels, etc. 

I am counting the days until I can go away with just Tim.

I worry about things a lot. 

I wish I wasn't such a worry wart.

I struggle with jealousy.

I was not that sad when the kids' hamster died after only 6 days.

Sometimes I want another baby....

....then I hold my sisters babies and that's enough for me.  (read:  I LOVE my nephews).

I would prefer to eat dessert than dinner....

Sometimes I only eat cake for breakfast.

It's the real me.

Where I began....

About 8 months ago I hurt my back. 

 I was in bed for four days at the time and my back hasn't been the same since.

Yesterday the pain was quite bad. 

 By the evening I was feeling very sorry for myself.  Sorry enough to have a full out one-person pity party.

 I went out to the garden to water the plants.  I used my own tears to water said plants.

As I stood crying over my peonies I tried to think of some Scripture I could recite to make me feel better.  Something to remind me of God's goodness and faithfulness to me. 

But I was drowning in my self-pity and could think of not one verse. 

And so I returned to just crying about and dwelling on the pain.

I sat down this morning to journal about this all. 

A verse came to my mind....I couldn't recall it word for word

 but I remembered it as saying something about God not giving me anything I can't handle.

I wanted to know the exact verse and so I googled it. 

I was quickly reminded of what the actual verse says.

1 Corinthians 10:13 says "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. 

And God is faithful,

 he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. 

 But when you are tempted he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it".

So how can I apply this to me right now?  To my pain...my frustration?

Although this back pain isn't a temptation to sin directly,

 I am finding myself tempted to and even guilty of giving up. 

 I'm frustrated and feeling sorry for myself. 

 I am lacking patience with and compassion for my kids.

  I certainly am not exercising self-control.

This verse reminds me that God will provide a way out for me during these times

which makes HIM the way out for me. 

 I looked up "stand up under it" in my Greek dictionary

and it lists "to endure" as another translation for these words. 

 Asking Him all day long to give me all that I need to ENDURE the day and the pain.

I will continue to be frustrated if I continue to try to do it on my own.

It was while I was journalling this that Galatians 5:22 came to mind

 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,

 faithfulness, gentleness & self-control". 

And how can I live in the Spirit?

2 Peter 1:3 tells me that "his divine power has given me everything I need for life and godliness".

So although I remembered the verse wrong....the Holy Spirit took me on a journey today to remind me of God's faithfulness to me....which is exactly where I began yesterday.

And in other news...

we added someone to our family yesterday...

Our vacation in numbers

15 - # of hours it should take to drive to Myrtle Beach
19 - # of hours it took us (including 11 thousand bathroom stops)

36 - eggs our family consumed during the week (don't ask me how our family managed to eat so many)
0 - # of meals I prepared in the last week
17 - # of meals Tim prepared in the last week

60 - # of minutes it took after leaving the house before someone asked "Are we there yet?"
11 - # of times we asked eachother "Can you believe the weather we're having?"
30 - degrees Celsius every day
700 - # of pictures taken this week

0 - # of fish Tim caught on the pier
12 - # of shark the old lady caught on the pier

350,000 - # of bikers in Myrtle Beach this week for the Memorial weekend bike rally
3 - # of those people we saw wearing motorcycle helmets
6 - # of times I lost something (i.e. all the money) during the week and thought I was losing my mind
20 - hours spent on the beach

6:20 - time alarm set to wake up for early morning shell hunt

3 - # of stuffed cats Emily purchased with her vacation money
4000 - amount of money Tim could have been fined if he had been caught bringing weed killer over the border
0 - # of bags of weed killer Tim brought over the border
17 - # of times we thanked God no one was sick

He thinks it`s ghetto, I think it`s brilliant!

We're driving to Myrtle Beach for our family vacation.

  It's supposed to take us 15 hours of driving time.

It'll likely take us more than that...seeing as there are four female bladders in our car which equals many many bathroom stops.

But that's ok with me...it's part of the adventure of a road trip.

And plus...with today`s modern gadgets

we have the option of having a tv in the car.

Mazda wanted us to pay an extra $8000 to add the built-in dvd.

Ok...maybe not $8000...Tim`s at work right now so I can`t verify the exact price...

but, believe me, it was not worth the high price they were asking.

So Tim, with his ability to make anything, gave us our very own built-in dvd system.



It attaches to my headrest.




It both pivots AND swivels.




Seriously,  look at the craftsmanship on this thing.



When I told the girls this morning about the marvel that is their dad,

Alison replies:  ìt`s a good thing you married him, mom.

I totally agree.

And then I started thinking about how maybe we were making life too easy for our children.

When I was a kid we went on long long road trips every year.

I didn`t have a t.v. strapped to the back of my mother`s head.

We read books and played license plate games.

But we also sat without booster seats or seatbelts

and lay flat on the floor of the minivan to sleep.

And of course there was the heavy usage of gravol

...which I may or may not also do...we`ll see.  :)

Either way...my kids will get to travel in style...

even if it is a bit ghetto.

It Made me Cry

It's Mother's Day today. 

My family honoured me and loved me and made me feel very special.

Emily made me a tea and biscuit gift at school.

In true Emily form....she ate the biscuits
 when she came home from school on Wednesday. 
Oh Emily...how I love you. 

Alison, our in-house artist, painted me a beautiful picture.

And Hannah wrote me a poem.

It made me cry.

I am respectful and honest.

I wonder if I'll be a mother like you.

I hear your wonderful laughter.

I see you helping the family.

I want it to be easier to take care of me.

I am respectful and honest because of you.

I pretend to be like you.

I feel safe with you.

I touch your soft hand.

I worry when you worry.

I cry when I'm upset.

I am respectful and honest because of you.

I understand when you're upset.

I say you're the best mom ever.

I dream about being like you.

I try to help more often

I hope to be as nice as you.

I am respectful and honest because of you.

I cried because I didn't realize until today how much

my girls really respect me,

and look up to me,

and watch me.

Everything I say...and do....and wear...

(by the way,the girls bought me a new outfit to match a pair

of shoes I bought yesterday.

I had nothing to wear with brown shoes...

so they bought me an entire outfit to match them!!)

And it's probably so dumb that I've never realized this until today.

But you know how sometimes you have these "light bulb" moments.

This was one of those days.

So I've been thinking about it a lot today.

It makes me think of a picture book I read recently.

"The Prince & The Gift" by Janet Surette.

This book tells a story of true beauty. 

A story of a prince looking for his princess;

the one who can offer to him the most beautiful gift.

The tale follows a young maiden and watches as she

shows true beauty thru the virtues of

kindness, courage, generosity,

honour, self-control, and sacrifice.

All the other girls in the village only cared about

having a beautifully decorated gift to give the prince; many of them

wasting their time on wrappings and ribbons.

When it was time to present the Prince with their gifts it was the girl with the

plainest box of all whom caught his eye.

Her true beauty glowed from within.

It's this story that is on my mind today

mingling with the thoughts of Hannah's Mother's day poem.

How am I living before my girls and my King? 

Am I more concerned about my own affairs?

or taking the time to help those in need around me?

Am I yelling at the girls on Sunday morning...

worrying more about their outward appearance and how it will reflect on me?

Or helping them prepare their hearts to hear from the Holy Spirit while in Sunday School class.

Today's poem reminded me today that Hannah wants to be like me when she grows up.

But I want her to be able to see virtues in me like

self-control, generousity, loving-kindness, and courage.

I want her to see a mom whom is prayerful, faith-filled and

dependent on her Heavenly Father.