Town Mouse and Country Mouse

I biked into town this morning for our Mom's group at church.  It was fun, but so much work biking against wind for 4 miles!  On my way out after our meeting, hopping back on my bike, I had a moment that I don't know that I've ever had before!  I was actually considering the benefits of living in town.  I've never lived in a town in my life or wanted to at that.  Well, I did live in one for about 2 months, but that hardly counts.  I LOVE, LOVE where we live and wouldn't have it any other way at this point in our lives.  On my way out the door of church this morning though, I heard a lady saying to another woman (who was new) that whenever she was out for a walk next just to come knock on the door and they could walk together.  How easy is that?!!  For me it seems like WAY more of an effort and more purposeful and deliberate to make those kinds of decisions.  To go for a walk with someone, I have to arrange it all few days in advance,  pack up my child/children in the vehicle with all our things, drive somewhere, get out and unpack everybody, ect..  So then it just doesn't happen very often if ever.  haha  It's the same if I want to have someone over for tea, or go out for a little visit, it just seems to take a bit more time and effort then it would seem to just walk over somewhere for a few minutes.  So I've just been contemplating if the community of living in town is a lot more beneficial to relationship building and making new friends  Maybe I'm way off the wall here and just dreaming about what I think it must be like and of course it totally depends on the type of town/community you live in too.  I have never lived in town so these are just my great perceptions from the outside looking in.....  I must mention, we do have fantastic neighbors where we are!  We love them dearly and they are very good to us, but there are still only 4 houses on the mile road and it's still a bit of a walk and our yards are still so private.   We don't just see each other on a walk to get the mail, or while we're doing yard work across the hedge or while we bring our garbage out to the road.  It still takes more effort to put yourself in someones path.  

I also have this weird fear of raising children here on our private little spot.  I have these ideas in my head that our children will have trouble making friends because the town kids will have the advantage of just running over to each others homes all the time and my child will feel left out.   I grew up on a farm yard, but had my cousins live right across the yard and growing up we were each other's greatest and best friends/playmates.  We were inseparable.  In school we always had a friend.  So I really hope that my children are able to make good friends like that and maybe our home in the country will be a haven for those who don't get a chance to have such a great private space to run and play. 

Anyway, this post really has no point so you my friends may take from this whatever you jolly well please.  If that's nothing than that's completely alright! 
Bye, bye for now!  Off to make some sort of square for a party...

Blankets!

Blankets and more blankets!  I've made quite a few blankets over the last couple of months, and now that I've given them all away to their designated persons, I can post pictures of them!  I discovered a new way to make a double receiving blanket and have been quite enjoying them!  It's called a self-binding blanket and it's so simple to do!  I hope to make a few more for our own baby.  I have started on a blanket from scraps for a boy if we happen to have one.  Fabric is SO pretty!  I love going to the store and picking material to make blankets.  That's way more fun than actually sewing them, although the sewing part isn't too bad either.  :) 

 

 We have a spot for a new garden!  I am so hopeful that this time it will work!  Mark cultivated it up the other day and my Dad brought us a big load of chicken manure to work into it.  I hope to get some peat moss in there as well, and then HOPEFULLY it will grow something!  I didn't have too much luck with my last attempt.  I gave it 4 years and didn't get anything from it.  If it doesn't work in this new location I think I will give up.  :( 

 

21 Weeks Pregnant and more

I am now 21 1/2 weeks pregnant!  It sure feels like the time is flying by this time around.  That is a good thing I think!  It's strange.  I am looking forward to the arrival of this baby a lot more than last time around, I think because I know and have experienced it once before and know the joy of a baby.  Before I had Adalyn I had no real exposure to babies and had no idea what to expect.   This time I find myself looking back at photos of when Adalyn was smaller remembering the cuteness and cuddles and holding new babies makes me want to hold mine all the more.  There is also a lot more apprehension as I remember the sleepless nights and wonder how on earth I'm going to survive without a million naps and sleeping in, which won't be happening with a 2 year old around. 

Dressed up for a wedding at 21 weeks.

In a lot of ways this pregnancy feels a lot different than Adalyn, but in many ways similar.  I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm living a different kind of life this time around.  I was quite sick with Adalyn (eg. like puking 5-6 times a day)  and I only really stopped puking at about 20 weeks.  This time around I was only sick for maybe a month and only throwing up 2-3 times a day.  It seemed more manageable this time and maybe that is because I knew how to cope with it better and was able to do so because I was at home not at work.  (Taking naps, resting often and frequent snacks helped A LOT!)  I have been feeling much better for a couple of weeks now and am beginning to get my energy back too.  I made an amazing discovery today that should be helpful too. haha 

The last couple of days I've felt very discouraged about my energy levels.  I felt so slow and lethargic and I wanted to be doing things, getting out and exercising, but just felt blah.  I knew part of the reason was probably because I wasn't drinking enough water, but it's just so hard for me to do that.  Today I filled a pitcher with water (approx. 8 cups) and determined I would not drink anything else until that pitcher was gone.  I finished it by lunch time!!  And I feel SO good today!  It's 2:30 and I've already been climbing trees trimming dead branches, cleaned them all up, I mowed a good chunk of the lawn, ran around with Adalyn, and dusted and cleaned up our bedrooms.  I didn't feel like I had to make myself do anything, I felt like doing it and had fun, and it was 30 C out today.  And I'm not napping now!  So that's my amazing discovery.  DRINK WATER!  haha So profound I know.

We had our ultrasound last week and the baby was quite active and doing well.  I defiantly feel that this one moves around more than Adalyn did at this point of pregnancy.  I wasn't sure whether it was just because I noticed it more because I know what it feels like, or if it was actually true. 

Also another amazing discovery I made the other day that has been quite encouraging to me is this blog...
 http://www.frenchpressmornings.com/p/encouraging-wednesdays.html

She has some beautiful artwork with verses you can print out to put up around the house.  I've been setting them as my desktop background on my computer and have been very encouraged so far.  It gives me a verse to think on and meditate on during the day.  I think the biggest thing for me is that I am a visual learner so to have it written up pretty helps me get the words better. 

I also downloaded a weekly cleaning list from her blog and am excited about that too.  I'm on Day 2 of following it and I already feel so much better about the cleanliness of my house.  I'm hoping that it will help me maintain cleanliness rather than let it get so dirty and then do a major cleaning.   I'm usually pretty good about tidying up, but the cleaning part I usually skip out on.  haha.  That's why when you come over my house might look clean, but it's really just lazy tidying.  :)  There. I let you in on my secret.  

We've been trying to go out for more bike rides lately.  I made a goal to exercise at least 20 min. (preferably more...) 3 times a week.  I was in really good shape right before I got pregnant and I don't want to lose it all.  :(  I really wanted to keep running, but because I felt so sick at the beginning I gave up running for about 2 months and when I tried again I was quite discouraged with my regression so my mid-wife encouraged me just to start small again.   I LOVE going for walks/runs and being on the road in summer, but it's just been a bit harder this summer.  Adalyn doesn't do walks very well anymore.  She doesn't like to stay in the stroller so a 2 mile walk that would take me a certain amount of time turns into a 1 mile walk in the same amount of time.  I could go in the evenings after she's in bed and Mark is home, but I've been tired in the evenings and that is when Mark is around so I don't like to always be leaving for an hour for my walk.  So we've been doing bike rides!  Adalyn loves the bike cart and I can go for 40min or an hour and she's happy the whole time.  It's a good workout too, pulling the cart on the gravel roads and I can go during the morning or afternoon when I have energy.

 It's hard to believe summer is almost over.  I was walking the other day soaking in the sunset, the hazy sky from the harvesters, the golden fields, the crickets and grasshoppers chirping and realizing how much I love every season.  I absolutely love the season we're in right now, but I look forward to the leaves changing color, the smell of the crisp fall air, the pumpkins, and everything else about fall too.  God has made one as well as the other to enjoy!  I love that we are able to experience all of this in Canada.

And now for some random things...
Lately whenever I ask Adalyn to smile for the camera this is what she gives me...

Adalyn loves the sidewalk chalk she got for her birthday.   I do too!  We wrote a message for her Daddy when he came home from a job.  :)  

Well, until next time, be encouraged!  May everything you do and put your hands to be for the praise of God from whom all blessings flow!  

2 years old! -- An Adalyn update

We now have a 2 year old!  It's hard to believe how fast time has gone by!  I see babies who are 1 years old and remember thinking how big Adalyn was at 1 year and now I realize how little she actually was!  She is definitely not a baby anymore and most certainly a toddler.  We frequently hear phrases from her like 'I do it', 'I did it!!', 'No Mommy', (which she seems to practice by repeating it over and over at different speeds and tones), and a lot of things have become 'Anoun's.' (Her version of Adalyn's)  She's been pointing to our car and saying 'Anoun's car' and the lawn tractor is 'Anoun's tractor' and a lot of other things are now Anoun's.

She amazes me with her cuteness and beauty and frustrates me with her stubbornness and relentlessness.  Ahhh the joys of a 2 year old.  The other day she surprised me by excitedly pointing out a jet in the sky and saying 'People in'ere!'  That was Mark's lesson for her I suppose.  She is learning things at a rate I can't express!

We had two birthday parties for her in the last week which she enjoyed immensely.  I decided to go very simple with cakes and food and it was very good.  By the second party she knew when I brought the cake out and was running around shouting 'Party, party, party!'   She was so cute opening her gifts and said 'Wow!  in a wonder filled voice at each one she opened.  I didn't get great pictures of the birthday parties but here are a few.

With the Penners...

With the Thiessens...

In other news, this mama is working on being a mama of two!  The baby will show his/her face sometime at the beginning of January if all goes well!  Adalyn has already looked under my shirt to find the baby and when she didn't see it there proceeded to put a doll under my shirt, I guess that makes more sense to her at this point! hahaha
      

Beauty in the small and ugly

There are some things a 2 year old can show you.  Glorious things.  Things from God.  Life things.  I feel like I've been given an incredible gift.  I've been dealt a load of grace.  Grace to see beauty.  Grace to see things differently than I always have. 

We have a field of dandelions.  I don't think they're so bad when they're blooming, bright and yellow and cheery against the lush green grass.  That I could maybe see as beautiful.  But the puff balls?  Those great, ugly, dead dandelions rearing their ugly heads of puff.  I've always thought those were ugly.  And then the thought of how many seeds are in each of those puffs and how many new ones we will have the next year.  Ugh.  I've never liked them.  Until yesterday.  

Adalyn holds out her hand to me.  "Hand, Mommy?"  She grabs my hand and walks me across the yard.  We walk up the little hill.  I stay at the top while she runs down the other side into the field of dead dandelion puffs. I wasn't paying attention then.  My mind was probably thinking how tired I was or of some other petty little problem.  Then she's back holding out a dandelion puff.  She says "Blow Mommy!"  So I blow gently, trying not to disturb the seeds so they won't plant their little selves all over the place.  She blows too.  Then she's running back.  So excited.  She grabs another one, running up the hill.  "Blow Mommy!"  So we blow.  A bit harder.  And she giggles.  She's so excited.  She has my full attention now.  She keeps running up and down bringing me puffs and we blow and giggle.  I see a glimpse of the joy of my Maker.  Delighting in the things He has made, and it's beautiful.  It's not ugly.  It is so beautiful.    Thank you for this grace Father.  I don't ever want to forget.

One Sunday Morning

So this morning while Mark and I were getting ready for church, Adalyn found the Cheerio's box I had left out on the table.  Mark was in the shower and I was in the bathroom doing my hair.  I was glad she was finally off doing something on her own, because she is constantly at my feet and where ever I go she is.  I did, however, hear a strange sound coming from the dining room and other than that sound it was strangely quiet, so I ventured out to look.  There she had dumped the entire contents of the Cheerio box onto our carpeted dining room floor and was having a great time walking all over them mashing them under her little bare feet.  Grrrr.!!  I wish now I had taken a picture, but I was too upset at that moment to think about that!   I wish too that I had had more patience in the childish behavior of my little Adalyn.  She had already been asking for my attention multiple times throughout the morning, but I was too busy completing my tasks to take time for her.

Some how Sunday morning's tend to be a little stressful for me.  By the time we are in the car on our way to church I just have to breathe a big sigh.  I'm sure I'm not the only one.  Anything that God has meant for the good and benefit of his people, the enemy wants to distort, disturb and disrupt.  What better way to get people than on their way to a place where we are so often uplifted and encouraged, to take our focus off of Jesus and the reason why we go to church and onto the little, pidly problems of  life that matter little in the grand scheme of things.
Thoughts anyone? 

Random info

Adalyn got sick and puked for the first time in her life today.  Of course she had those little spit ups as a baby, but she has never been sick to her stomach puking before.  Amazing that she's been healthy this long!  We are truly so very blessed!  I wasn't home this afternoon, so unlucky for Mark he had to experience the yuckiness for the first time.  Poor little girl!  It was so weird though because she threw up and then was running and playing like nothing had happened, so we thought it was just a one time thing, like maybe she had spun in circles to much after eating her lunch or something, but then she hurled again and a while later again, so she must really not have been feeling the greatest.  I hope she sleeps good tonight! 

This is my second month now doing a one month grocery shop and menu plan.  It is SO great!  I don't know why it has taken me this long to realize that I can do it and that it works.  I think we will save a lot more money this way, eat better, and I'll save time too in the afternoons not paging through my cookbooks all afternoon wondering what to make!    

Well, I have plans to run on the treadmill for a while and must go deal with some of my groceries.   I plan on running a 5 km race in May so I must keep up my exercise.  Yay, my first 'run' entry!  The other day I ran 4 miles outside in 38 or 39 min.  I was using my regular watch so it was a bit hard to see exactly where the minute hand was. lol.