Not much new.....

Not alot has been happening around here, mostly just trying to get back onto a schedule with the girls and getting used to Rob's new work schedule. He is enjoying the new job and goes out for coffee with his friends to get that human interaction that he needs. LOL!!

I just started a new Beth Moore bible study on David and am really excited to get into. I really enjoy Beth Moores speaking and have watched a couple of her videos on youtube. This is a really good one

Beth Moore - Get Out of That Pit

We are still downsizing around here too. Since the beginning of this year we have gotten rid of ........

4334 items!!!!

I have no choice but to believe this stuff is breeding in dark corners! We have slowed down but will be continuing to get rid of stuff for awhile yet. We haven't even got to the shed yet.

Gratitudes
1. That spring is coming!!
2. That we have more than we need.
3. That the boys are doing well and enjoying school.

Update

Sorry I haven't been posting, but life gets in the way sometimes. Here is what has been happening the last few weeks:

I am starting to feel better and get my energy back. I spent a week in the hospital and was released on March 1st. They admitted me after a trip to the emergency room for a really bad gall stone attack. They did bloodwork while in ER and found out my liver and gallbladder enzymes were very high, which meant I had a severe infection in both. They figure one of the gall stones had blocked off a bilary duct and caused the infection. They put me on 2 different IV antibiotics to get the infection under control and fluids because they didn't want me eating in case they couldn't fix the infection and needed to do surgery. Nothing by mouth for almost 5 days and I lost 5lbs!! Not that I would want to do that again though. When they let me go home they put me on 2 more oral antibiotics for another week. Now I am off all the medication and am feeling alot better. I still need to get my gall bladder out though and have a consult with the surgeon next week. So please pray that I won't have anymore flare ups or pain until they can get me in for surgery.


Rob started his new job last Monday and is enjoying it. I like the hours much better than what he had before. He is doing janitorial for the daycare that is in the basement of our church. He works 12 -5 Monday through Friday and then 3 hours on the weekend to clean the other building they have. He has less hours but higher pay so it will work out about the same. We love that he is home for dinner every night now and we have the weekend do stuff as a family.


The kids are all doing great. The boys are enjoying their classes this semester, with one exception. Jake is finding his math class way to easy for him, so his counsellor is going to get him moved to a higher level math next year. The girls got a nice break from school with me in the hospital so now we are working at getting back on schedule. Frank is trying out for a musical production at school, he enjoys acting and singing so hopefully he will get it.


Gratitudes
1. That I am feeling better.
2. That Rob, Frank, Jake and David all really worked together to make sure the girls were taken care of  while I was gone, and they kept the house reasonably clean.
3. That I recieved some beautiful flowers from our pastor's wife and from Aunt Jacquie and Uncle Russ, ad I am still enjoying them. 

Happy Valentine's Day!!

This past weekend the girls had a Valentine's Day party. They had to do everything for it, decide on the food, make the invitations and then do all the set up and clean up. They had so much fun and did a wonderful job. It was very busy and the kids were running back and forth that everything was a blur so I didn't get any pictures of the party but we have a few of the food, the craft and the girls making the invitations.

 

Rob gave me the roses for Valentine's Day early, I think with the girls talking about the party nonstop he thought it was actually on the weekend. They loved having them for a decoration.

 

 

Gratitudes

1. That the weather has been amazingly warm here for the last little while.

2. That Max is doing alot better.

3. That we have so much!! Much more than we need. God is great!!

 

 

Belly Dance Recital

 

Just before Christmas the girls did a dance recital, they had an great time and they did amazing . I am very proud of both of them.

 

This past week has been crazy busy and expensive. Rob and the boys went to Brooks and helped Tracey and Riley get moved up to their new house. I haven't heard from Tracey in a few days so hopefully they are settling in quickly.

 

On Thursday morning we took Max to the vet as he was throwing up large amounts of blood. They did some tests and he has pancreatis. They figure he had it for awhile but because it is controlled with a strict, bland diet we had it under control, because we were dealing with his IBS. Anyways they kept him overnight to make sure that is all it was and give him IV fluids and antibiotics. When we brought him home on Friday evening we were told keep a close eye on him and to keep him calm and resting for 3 days. Anyone that knows Max knows how interesting that was going to be. LOL. Anyways we called Joe and told him he couldn't come over for those 3 days, poor Joe, but Max adores him and goes alot crazy when he is around. Then let Tracey know that Emily and I weren't going to be able to help with the move. Max is doing great now and is back to his old self.

Gratitudes
1. That Max is better and it wasn't anything more serious.
2. That the girls are having fun with piano lessons and I get to hear them practice everyday.
3. That the weather has been really nice lately.

Field Trip to the Firehall

Last month the girls had a field trip at the firehall, they really enjoyed it. Rob took them so I stayed home and had some time for myself, which I really enjoyed.

These girls are so adorable.

Update on the downsizing : I am still getting rid of stuff but slowed down this week and focused on the girls school work. We are still down more though and have a new total of 1475 items gone!!


Gratitudes
1.That the bible study is finished and I really enjoyed it.
2. That I have decided to do the Breaking Free bible study and Shirley asked if she could do it with me.
3. That after all that being sick and nothing getting done, the girls are almost caught back up to where I wanted them to be.
 

Relaxing Weekend

We had an amazing, relaxing weekend. We did absolutely nothing!! The boys didn't work so we basically stayed in our pajamas all weekend and played video games or watched movies cuddled up. The only thing that would have made it better is if Rob had the time off too.

I have been going through closets and bookshelves downsizing alot here and it always confuses me how much stuff is actually laying around unneeded and unloved. Especially since I am always getting rid of stuff, where is it all coming from? I think it might be breeding in dark corners and backs of closets. LOL!! So I have decided to give all those things new homes this year. The challenge was to get rid of 2013 items this year, so far I have gotten rid of 1308 items!! I have decided to push myself a bit harder and see if I can reach that goal by the end of January. I don't know if I can but I will give it a shot.


Gratitudes
1. That I got to spend the weekend cuddling with my kids.
2. That Rob bought me the Little House on the Prairie TV series! Can't wait until me and Emily are done reading the books and then we will start watching it!
3. That the dentist was able to schedule the boys appts for this week while they are off.

 

What's Happening.....

All the tests are back and I do have gallstones. So I will go in for a surgery consult in the next few months, and the surgeon will decide if  the gall bladder needs to be removed or not.

Things have gotten back to normal around here. The girls are back at the school work and are enjoying it. The twins have been studying for finals as today is the last day of first semester. They will be writing their finals next week.  I am teaching course 2 of the cake decorating series right now and can't wait for it too end. LOL!! This course focuses mostly on royal icing flowers and it is not my favourite icing to work with.

We have been going through the house and getting rid of plenty of stuff. I decided to join a challenge that another blogger posted about getting rid of 2013 items in 2013. We have been flying along with it and have already gotten rid of almost 700 items. I just put a piece of paper up by the box of stuff to donate and whenever someone tosses something in they put down a tally mark. So far it is working really well! I regularly get rid of garbage bags full of stuff, so it is always surprising when we can find this much more. Emily has even gotten excited about it and that is a huge thing. Considering she is usually the one refusing to get rid of anything, because it is all special. When I told her how proud I was of her she told me why she wants to have less stuff. Her plan is that we get rid of lots of stuff so we can buy a motorhome like Aunty Fiona, Uncle Fred,Opa and Vadie, then we can live in it and Fluffy will be able to go everywhere with us. LOL!!
The biggest thing for me was going through a bunch of storage bins and when we were done realizing that 3 of the bins were now empty! How much money do we spend organizing and storing our stuff!! STUFF that maybe we don't need.


Gratitudes
1. That the weather here has been amazing!
2. The beautiful sunset last night the sky was shades of purple!
3. That the house feels so much lighter and roomier with all this stuff gone!

 

We All Managed to Get Sick!!

We have all been pretty sick over the last week, but everyone is starting to feel better and get back to normal routines. Frank had a sinus infection and the flu, Emily had a throat infection and the flu, Rob had the flu and the start of an infection, Jake just had a bad cold and I had a recurrence of strep throat and an ear infection. Frank and Emily ended up on antibiotics, Rob was given a prescription for antibiotics but was told to fill it only if got worse(he hasn't needed it), and I was put on antibiotics and an inhaler.

As if that all isn't bad enough, I had 2 episodes of chest and abdominal pain before Christmas and just kind of let it go. Last week it happened again and was so bad Rob took me to emergency, where they ran alot of tests. It felt like someone had placed a vise around my rib cage and was crushing me, the pain was also shooting up my right shoulder and my right arm would go completely numb. I will be getting the rest of my test results this week but they did rule out any heart any lung problems, besides some congestion in the lungs which the inhaler is for. They think it is most likely my gall bladder. What a relief it was when they told me that!!

I have had 2 more "attacks" since then and will be very thankful once they tell me what is going on and we can decide what needs to be done about it.

Needless to say, with me sick for the last part of the week the house fell apart, so on top of having the usual clean-up after a round of the flu, I have to get everything else done too. The boys helped a bit this morning and I will work at it the rest of the day, taking lots of breaks, so I don't wear myself down again.

Gratitudes
1. That we have access to wonderful medical care here in Canada.
2. That we are all getting better.
3. That all this sickness waited until after Christmas!!

Slow Down

After the rush and bustle of Christmas this article is a great reminder to slow down and not miss all the little moments with our children. I don't want  to look back and regret the time I didn't take to spend with them. I want to have the memories of jumping in the puddles, cuddling, stopping to look at the bugs and, yes, carrying them to bed.

http://rachelmariemartin.blogspot.ca/2013/01/carry-me-momma-catching-sweet.html



Gratitudes
1. That with the whole house sick today and them all in bed sleeping it is very quiet, I hope they all get better soon, but the silence is so peaceful.
2. That we have a warm chinook blowing here and everything is melting.
3. That I went through a few cupboards yesterday and found a few more things to get rid of.
 

Crazy Cats

Cold day and the cats refused to move for me to make the beds.

The silly cats actually lined up after I put their food down.

 

Okay, I have been not posting again and have been geting alot of calls asking when I am starting again. So here goes again. LOL!!

We had a wonderful Christmas with my mom and Aunt Jacquie and Uncle Russ all making it out. We all had a really good visit and played lots of cards.
Uncle Russ got the flu while he was here, but luckily no one else got sick for the holidays. Until yesterday of course, Frank got hit by the flu bad and spent all day in bed and is doing a repeat performance for today. Emily woke up this morning with a fever and chills so after a warm bath she was back in bed, she just woke up again. Jake and me both have sore throats, hopefully it won't go further than that.

Gratitudes
1. That everyone made it for Christmas and had safe travels.
2. That Rob isn't sick yet, praying he stays healthy.
3. That I have managed to get rid of lot more stuff from the house, it feels lighter and roomier everytime I get rid of more.