Another Canvas

So I finished my latest canvas project.  It actually turned out pretty good I think. It was SO easy!  It cost me about $4.25 for the whole thing.  $2.00/canvas and $0.25 for an old dictionary that I found at the thrift shop.  I pretty much copied the one from this website, http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/2010/08/pretty-bird-wall-art.html so I can't take any creative credit for myself!  Now I just have to figure out where to hang them and get Mark to put in some nails.  That's about where my DIY skills stop! haha

 

Adalyn is on the move.  Very slowly so that you almost don't notice the position change, but she's definitely maneuvering her way around.  I'm not even sure if she realizes what she is doing.  The other day Mark sat her down facing the couch and over a period of about 45 min she landed up like this...  Mark and I watched the entire process and still aren't quite sure how she manged to get this way!  hahaha

One Heart

Mark and I went to the One Heart service in Winnipeg this last Sunday.  It was so good!  The churches of Winnipeg (I'm not sure how many are involved, maybe 60?)  get together once a year for a huge gathering at the MTS center.  The arena holds 15,000 people and it was pretty much full!  All people there to worship one God and Saviour, Jesus Christ!  I've always believed that unity of the church is a big thing on the heart of God.  The devil has done a good job at separating churches, causing small disagreements and styles to get in the way of the family of God being effective and loving each other.  It was so cool to see everyone uniting and coming together to celebrate Jesus and what he has done for us and praying together for the city of Winnipeg.  I choked back tears a couple of times during the morning.

I was SO blessed and encouraged by the words of a song we sang...  Mark and I have a really big decision to make in the next week and I was feeling overwhelmed and very fearful.  God spoke to me in this song.  God really DOES SPEAK!!

Today Is The Day by Lincoln Brewster

I'm casting my cares aside

I'm leaving my past behind

I'm setting my heart and mind on you

Jesus

I'm reaching my hand to yours

Believing there's so much more

Knowing that all you have in store for me is good

Is good

Today is the day you have made

I will rejoice and be glad in it

Today is the day you have made

I will rejoice and be glad in it

And I won't worry about tomorrow

I'm trusting in what you say

Today is the day

I'm putting my fears aside

I'm leaving my doubts behind

I'm giving my hopes and dreams to you

Jesus

I will stand upon your truth

I will stand upon your truth

And all my days I'll live for you

All my days I'll live for you

I made a project the other day.  My cousins have introduced me to Pinterest.  haha I had never heard of it before, but it is awesome!  I am getting so many great ideas and DIY projects.  My latest bout has has been  with canvas art.  I had a canvas I'd been saving to do something on for quite a while and when my Mom gave me a little note with some Truths about God, I knew I wanted to put them on a canvas.  This way I could look at them all the time and be reminded of truth and stay in the peace and freedom that believing the truth brings.  

Here's my project.  

 I stained the canvas with tea and when that wasn't dark enough I used some old water paint I had lying around to touch it up.  I made the text on the computer, then printed it in a mirror image onto a T-Shirt transfer.  I ironed it onto my canvas and very carefully peeled the backing off the transfer.  I then put ModPodge over the whole thing to give it a finished look.

My next canvases are almost done as well.  I will post a picture of those when I'm done.

Christmas was a good time again this year.  Of all the years of my life so far I think this was the year I cared the least for the presents.  I think the older I get the older the presents thing is for me.  I feel like such a grown up.  haha  Adalyn did very well with all the activity.

Here are a few pictures from our Christmas.

Adalyn opening her first present

A big present for a little girl!

 Brother Paul shows off his goods

mmmm... wiener roll ups!

Pretty girls in pretty dresses

A Thiessen family portrait.

Mark surprised me with the giving of my gift.  I wanted to open our presents on the 23rd of December as we were busy the 24th and 25th.  He told me he couldn't give his to me as it required a bit of planning.  On the 27th of December he told me I needn't worry about supper as he was taking care of it.  Later in the day Matthew showed up at our place to babysit Adalyn for a couple hours while we went out.  I figured there wasn't enough time for us to go to Winnipeg, but Mark turned that direction after leaving the house.  I was slightly confused as we needed to be back before Adalyn's bedtime and there certainly wasn't enough time to go into Winnipeg.  I figured he must be taking us a round about way to Steinbach to confuse me.  A short time later he turned onto a gravel road and I was sure he must be going around the countryside to take us into Steinbach, but then he turned into a farmyard.  I had no idea who lived there and was very confused.  We went to the door and there stood our friend from church who is also a hair stylist.  Mark had asked her to do my hair before we went out for supper.  I had left the house in a pony tail and feeling a bit scruffy so this was wonderful!  Mark left for a bit while I got my hair done and when he came back we went for supper and he presented me with my Christmas present.  A beautiful pair of diamond earrings!!! The photo isn't great, but they sure are something like I've never had before!!

The diaper story

Mark is off to the Jets game this evening.  Well, ok, for him it's not the Jets game.  It's the Boston Bruins game.  Though, yes, they are playing the Jets tonight in Winnipeg.  I'm pretty sure he's going to be the only one wearing yellow.  I sure hope he doesn't get mauled!  He told me his dad would protect him. haha I sure hope that works for him!

In the meantime here I am.  I was hoping to watch the game on TV but, alas!, we don't get the TSN Jets anymore!  I suppose I'll have to be content to watch highlights a bit later.  

Presently Adalyn is sleeping and I'm working on baking some caramel popcorn.  At least I'm attempting.  :)  I wanted to try a new snack for Christmas this year, something a little lighter than all the chocolate I normally lean towards.  So far it looks good, but it's not in the oven yet.  I'm waiting for the oven to cool down from some banana loaf I just baked.  Popcorn has to bake in a fairly cool oven for about an hour.  

A little while ago I mentioned on facebook that I was boiling diapers on the stove.  This elicited quite a response, much more so than I expected.  I thought I might follow up on that statement and explain myself a little better and hopefully encourage someone else who may be using cloth diapers.  

Cloth diapering really isn't as difficult as it seems.  In fact I love it!  There are a lot of benefits which I won't go into, however there was one benefit I was wrong about.  Perhaps I was a little ignorant in the matter, but I figured the soft cotton diaper must be way better for a babies bottom than the plastic, synthetic (or whatever they're made out of) pampers and that I wouldn't have to deal with as much diaper rash using cloth.  Well, I was wrong.  All you cloth diapering experts will think me silly, but I had to learn from experience.  I am using just a very plain, simple flannel diaper.  Nothing fancy at all, just a couple layers of flannel shaped like a diaper with velcro to attach it around the waist.  I didn't realize that because cloth diapers don't take the wetness away from the babies bottom, diaper rash can be more of an issue.   

Well, when Adalyn first began to get splotchy and red I was horrified because I thought I was dealing with ammonia.  I had heard about this one so I immediately assumed this must be my problem too.  The rash got a lot better when I had her in disposables for a day or two so I knew it was something in my diapers.  I started reading and discovered that another cause of rash is build up from detergents.  I figured this may also be my problem as I was just using Purex detergent with all the extra things.  Brighteners, softeners and fragrance which are not helpful when washing diapers.  They are in fact a hindrance.   My reading sources suggested stripping the diapers.  This would get rid of everything foreign on the diaper.  Ammonia included.  One way to strip diapers is to soak them in boiling water for a while and then wash them really really well.  So I went to the store and bought some all natural detergent and proceeded to go through the process of cleaning them up.  The final step was washing them in my new detergent and rinsing them a million times.  

Needless to say after I had done all that work, Adalyn's rash still was not healing!  It would get really bad every time I put her back in her cloth diapers.  I was frustrated and didn't know what to do.  Someone had given me some baby Arbonne samples and included in that sample package was some rash cream.  I'm not sure why I hadn't pulled it out sooner, but I discovered that stuff is amazing!  It really works.  The other diaper rash creams don't work like that stuff.  I was much encouraged after using it.  Then I also found out that if you put a piece of fleece between the diaper and your babies bottom it helps to keep them dry.  So I went to the store and bought some fleece cut it into strips and it's been working fabulous!  Adalyn's diaper rash is gone and staying away!  Yay!  Perhaps in the end it was a combination of all my solutions that solved my problem, but whatever it was I'm glad it worked. So that's my diaper story.  Sorry to all who are bored by now....

On a completely different note, we need some advice.  Mark and I want to paint our house, but we don't know what color to paint.  Here's our main room.  Ideas welcome!   We were wondering if we should paint the cabinets and doors white, but that's a very brave thing to do and we're not sure we're that brave. haha  I'm so excited to give this place a face lift, but I'm just not good at picking colors. 

Ramblings

Christmas is in the air.  Normally at this time of year Christmas would be just barely making it onto my radar, but this year for some reason is different.  I was so excited for Christmas things already in the middle of November.  I think the first snowfall drew me in!  I turned Christmas music on the first day we had those big white fluffy flakes coming down.  

Mark and I set up our Christmas tree and a couple other decorations the other day, we've been Christmas caroling and I spent a whole day at my moms baking Christmas cookies the other day.  Shopping is started and I have a list of what to buy for the rest of it, so all we have to do now is go out and buy it.  Thinking of ideas is the hardest part I find.  Often we end up wandering the stores looking for ideas which is NOT fun when the mall is jam packed with busy shoppers. This year I determined to have a list of things to get BEFORE we went shopping, so hopefully it will be more enjoyable.  

I've been thinking a lot about organizing lately.  I've been feeling like a lot of areas in our house are getting a bit cluttered and it's difficult to maintain tidiness without organization.  I have a difficult time being positive and happy when my house is messy so I think one of my winter projects will be to sort through and tidy some areas of the house.  Because our house is quite large we often end up just tossing things into closets and it doesn't matter if it's messy because there is a lot space to hide things.  I always admire people who have everything labelled in bins and this is what I'm going to work towards.  Besides it looking better to have it tidy, I really do enjoy tidying though I'm not a perfectionist in this area by any means!

We took Adalyn on her first road trip last week.  We drove 9 hours to Nipawin, Sk for the Nipawin Bible College Alumni weekend.  She did really well for her first time on a long drive.  She was happy while sleeping and not quite so happy while awake, but that was alright because she slept most of the way!  I wish I would have taken some pictures while we were there to prove that we went, but I didn't even pull my camera out once the whole weekend! It was so nice to see old friends and Mark's siblings again.  It was made more difficult having a baby to look after.  Other parents make things look so easy.  Before I had one of my own I had no idea of the conflict.   I wanted so bad to treat the weekend just like I used to, doing all the things I would have done had we not had a baby, but a little person just can't handle all the activity like I can.  Not only were nap schedules messed up, but there were also loads of people and noise at every place we went.  She was a bit grumpy on Saturday, but I was still proud of how she handled everything considering.  She did great over all and recovered some of her sleep in the couple days after. 

Our little one is just barely 5 months old.  Her latest accomplishments include sitting on her own!  She's been kind of sitting by herself for a little while now, but in the last day or two she's really seem to got the hang of it. 

Jolly jumping is her new favorite activity along with squealing and screeching.  

She has finally mastered the art of falling asleep on her own, and though this is lovely most of the time, her mommy still wishes sometimes she could hold her and rock her to sleep.

She has the most contagious giggle.  When she gets going I can't contain myself.  It's so awesome how freely the laughs bubble out of me when she laughs.  Little does she know how precious that is to me!!!  I treasure those moments laughing with her like crazy.  

The singer/songwriter Carolyn Arends has some beautiful poems/songs about babies and mothering.  One in particular really blessed me...

SMILES - Carolyn Arends

Today the gas man came to change our meter

He got distracted by the baby 

He coo-chi cooed and peek-a-booed....  

She smiled.  

He was transfixed 

Transformed  

Awash in her light.  

Gee, 

He said, lingering at the door  

That's the nicest thing that's happened to me all week.  

People 

(Relatives, friends, strangers) 

Will do anything to make 

her smile  

And when she does 

Their own countenances 

change...

They are softened 

Surrendered. 

Radient.

 She does not smile 

out of obligation 

or politeness 

She has not yet learned 

to wear a mask 

She doesn't know what

pretense is.  

She smiles because she wants to

and that is her power.  

There is something in the Bible

about unveiled faces 

and how they reflect the glory of God. 

I believe it

I've seen it 

In the unveiled smile of my baby 

And, if only for a moment, 

In the light of the face of 

whoever's smiling back.  

 

You're weird.

My two babes lounging after church.

Adalyn and cousin Isabelle playing

Simply Life Lessons

Today is one of those cool, windy, cloudy, kind of dreary fall days.  The kind of day when it’s best just to stay inside and bake, drink some tea and clean house.  So that’s just what I’m doing today.  I have a batch of buns on the go, some water warming for a cup of tea and my house is relatively tidy and the baby is sleeping.  Ahhh…. Time to relax a little and write down some thoughts.

 I think the reason I haven’t written anything for a while is because I haven’t felt there is anything to write about.  We are back to normal life around here (or maybe we are becoming more accustomed to our 'new normal').  We haven’t done anything or gone anywhere special in the last while and we are just putting along merrily as the days go by.  Far too quickly I might add!  I just packed up the first batch of clothes that Adalyn has out-grown.  I’m so excited to watch her growing and learning new things, but at the same time it’s so sad to see my little new-born doll getting bigger.  It’s funny how that works.  She’s not that new tiny-wee baby that everyone oohs and ahhs over when I go shopping anymore.  She’s become just another baby to everyone else, but to me she’s still my little darling and I marvel over her cuteness every day!  It’s really quite awesome to watch her take everything in, her eyes wide open in wonder at the smallest things.  Things like the leaves blowing on the trees, or a pattern on a couch, or a stuffed pig.  She’ll giggle and get so excited over little things, like seeing herself in the mirror, or standing, or Daddy singing a silly song to her.  God has truly given us a gift and I think we as adults have a lot to learn even from a baby.  Oh the JOY of life!!  I don’t want life to get old and boring; I want to keep my eyes open in wonder at all the marvelous things Jesus has done and is doing, and to marvel in all the things that God has created!

A visit with my Great Taunte Lena.

It’s easy right now to feel like my life is just the same old story day after day.  My days mostly consist of playing with Adalyn, feeding Adalyn, changing Adalyn’s diaper, helping Adalyn go down for naps, doing our laundry, tidying, making food and cleaning the kitchen.   I have discovered that if getting married required you to get rid of your selfish ways, then adding a baby to the mix creates the ultimate environment for working on selfish behavior!  We only have one child and I can imagine it only gets better as you involve more kids. Haha (or worse, depending on your view point!)  It’s not that I don’t enjoy the things that I do-- this is always where I wanted to be in life --  it’s just that sometimes I get tired of doing them and lose the perspective of how important my role is.  It’s a hard concept to describe. There are just times that I wish that I could do what I wanted, when I wanted and have no one else be affected.

  

I was reminded of an old song the other day, the chorus goes like this…

”We have this moment to hold in our hands,

and to touch as it slips through our fingers like sand.

Yesterday’s gone and tomorrow may never come,

but we have this moment today.”

These thoughts got kind of mumble jumbled, but I think in the end I wanted to say that I want each and every day to be lived in fullness of joy and in a way that brings glory to Jesus.  Mark and I have been reading a book by Joseph Prince called ‘Destined to Reign.’  What a revelation of GRACE!!  I think I have been missing this point for a long time!  The only way to live this way in joy and bringing glory to Jesus is to believe in His grace and the fact that our sins are already paid for.  We have been made righteous through Christ!  It is not something we have to work towards.  We ARE made righteous by the blood of Jesus.  Right believing leads to right living.  Become Jesus conscious, not sin/self conscious!  Anyway, hope that all made sense in the end!  

Routine?

Routine.  Is this really what having a happy baby is all about?  I’m interested to hear other mother’s perspectives.  How soon do you need to start a bed time routine and how do you establish it if after you go through the routine they still aren’t sleeping and it’s another hour or two before they go to bed for real (after you feed them again and end up nursing them to sleep yet again?)  Some articles I’ve been reading say this is the key to helping a baby self-soothe themselves to sleep, but is 2 months old too early to try this?  In the past Adalyn has been really good at going to bed.  At about 5 ½ weeks old she started to consistently fall asleep at 10 and sleep until about 5 or 6 in the morning.  In the morning she would get up for a feeding at 8 and then sleep again till 9 or 10 in the morning.  Just lately though she has been fighting sleep both for naps and at bedtime.  We’ve let her cry for a while as there is obviously nothing wrong but the fact that she wants company and attention, but she never settles herself and usually it gets to be 11:30 or midnight by the time she sleeps.  I’ve tried putting her to bed earlier (like 9:00) and she’ll sleep for about 15 min and then be wide awake again.  It’s so hard to know what to do.  The book ‘Baby Wise’ says never to put your kid to bed while they’re sleeping, but this is the only way it seems to work these days.  Perhaps it's my new mothering skills once again causing me to be uptight and unsure.  It also doesn't help that I'm not necessarily a person who does well with establishing routine.  I was hoping some of you great experienced women could give me some good advice?

Summertime

I miss running.  It sounds odd, but it’s true.  Running was therapeutic for me.  It was calming, relaxing and refreshing.  It was my time alone to think, and my best times with God were on the road running, listening to music and worshiping. There are not really any words to describe a beautiful August evening, the fields ripe for harvest, the smell of summer in the air, the crickets and grasshoppers chirping, a combine humming in the distance…  Somehow walking isn’t quite the same and doesn’t give me the same rush as jogging does.  I realize I could start up again, and I hope to, but it doesn’t get to be relaxing and refreshing until I’m somewhat in shape, which I wouldn’t be now!  Running to me now would be exhausting and I’m guessing pretty frustrating as I was running 3-4 miles 3 or 4 times a week last summer.  I’m sure if I tried now I would barely make it one.  I’m a bit upset with myself with how little I’ve gone for walks this summer, but now with Adalyn it always seems like so much more work.  I think actually getting out there is the hardest part, but once I’m out I love it. 

We’ve had some interesting things going on here in the last couple of weeks.  Here’s a picture to capture the first one…That hole, my friends, is the result of our extremely talented and desperate Black Lab dog whom Mark accidentally locked in the shop.  I suppose he must have been pretty desperate to get out chewing through 2 bits of plywood and some insulation!  

Next, we sent another house on it’s way!  Yay!  It feels good to say good-bye to another one! 

And of course we can’t forget the Adalyn picture updates…  She is such a happy girl, though I have yet to capture a really great picture of one of her beautiful smiles.  They melt my heart!  She is growing so fast and learning so much!  Her favourite thing to do these days is stand. Haha She’s so strong!

Adalyn and her friend Kayla from church.  Kayla is one month older.

Sitting in her own chair!

Bonding.

We enjoyed a lovely day at Falcon Lake with Mark’s parents the other day.  Adalyn’s first time on the beach.  Now that summer is drawing nearer to an end, I finally feel like I am able to enjoy it!  Too bad we’re almost into September already!

Grandma and Grandpa babysitting.

Lounging on the beach

Angela and Isabelle trying to enjoy the water.  She didn't like it so much this time!

 

 I'm thanking God for all these awesome blessings!