living in the moment

Yesterday I had to go to a hospital 45 minutes from our home. Nothing serious, just an ENT Specialist  appointment regarding the hearing loss in my left ear. Turns out my body created too much calcium during my pregnancies, causing calcium build up in my ear, calcifying an ear bone, causing 60% hearing loss in that ear. Officially it's called otosclerosis and there's a simple surgery that will fix it, replacing the damaged bone with a prosthesis. I can't wait to hear again.
That's the side story though...the important part is that I stumbled across an antique market.  I only had thirty minutes, so I only scratched the surface. 
Check out the eye candy:

Rusty maple syrup goodness. 

Not sure what it was about this lamp that drew me in to take a picture.

This table must become a night stand in our house. And the roaster? Huge! Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas. YES!

Yup. These must come and live with me too. MUST.

Oh the canned goods that would be stored in here? And perhaps a few…

We were blessed with a lot of table games this Christmas. Mikail is so much fun to play games with now because he's actually 'getting it'. Olivia is still learning to take turns and is also learning not yell 'I'm WINNING. I'm WINNING!!!!' after every turn, even if she is not winning. And then when she loses? Oh the drama and tears. But she will get it eventually and we just keep on trying.

Do you play games at your house? No, I'm not talking, Wii or games on the iPad. I am talking old fashioned table games.

All of our games are still packed in the trailer, but we received many this Christmas and we love them all. Here are the ones we've been playing a lot (which is all of them-ha):

The Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game



Candy Land



Don't Break the Ice



Go Fish (but this isn't just regular Go Fish - you have to match sets of 4, not just 2)


And we just may all go a bit crazy while we play. Just maybe:



I think Mikail is ready to play 'Sorry'. I can …

When I am hungry, my mood is greatly affected. Jason ‘affectionately’ tells me that I’m ‘Hangry’ when these moments arrived. Hungry meets Angry. Hangry. As soon as I am fed, my hunger and my anger leave.

The other day I was thinking about how much this relates to my spiritual life as well. When disappointments, anger, discontent, etc. set in, I find that I am spiritually hungry. But the sad this is that often when this happens, I am not interested in digging into the WORD and filling my spiritual hunger with spiritual food.

Yet, there He is. God’s spiritual food ~ His WORD is there for us ~ for me. I just need to open my Bible and Jesus offers an abundantly satisfying meal.

Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105

Be blessed,

So, here I sit in the local coffee shop.

I have two hours to myself.

A hot cup of tea, a pecan tart, my computer with a Word Document open. Blank. Ready to be filled.

I've been waiting for this, but now that I am here, what do I write? I'm drawing a big blank. A big fat blank. Nuscht. Nothing. Nada.

So that's me right now...

Be blessed,

So, we went outside.

The wind was howling.


We lasted 5 minutes.

Three of those minutes were Olivia crying, but I was determined to get some 'cute' snow pictures and get a bit of snow cleared.

No snow cleared.

And tear filled photos.


  Not so cute.

 Experimenting with Mikail's new Hot Wheels Colour Shifters was a much bigger hit:


Back to slowly going crazy...

It has been snowing, storming, snow squalling all week.  I haven't left the house since Sunday.  Well, I took Mikail to the bus stop on Tuesday and picked him up, but that's still on the property. School's been cancelled the rest of the week. 
I am slowly going CRAZY 1,2,3,4,5,6, switch. Crazy going slowly am I 6,5,4,3,2,1 switch.
There's a 3 foot drift around my vehicle and I dread going to dig it out, but at the same time feel super blessed because the business next door plowed the driveway. There's a huge snow hill now, so really I should bundle up the kids and head out there. They will be busy on the hill while I dig out the car...and then freedom is mine...if I dare go out on the icy road.
Anyone else going crazy in their own part of the world? From snow or heat or extreme cold or whatever it is that mother-nature is throwing at you right now?
Aren't the colours so pretty?  (like my positive twist on MORE SNOW? LOL)

It IS actually quite beautiful, though,…

(click on photo to enlarge)
I've been dying to post about this here, but I had to wait until Christmas was over, so as not to spoil any surprises!

This Christmas I had the opportunity to have several pieces of custom acrylic canvases painted as gifts. I went to high school with Cheryl, the artist, and although it's been about 20 years since we've last seen each other, I vividly remember her talent even way back when.

She made several of these personalized family tree canvases for us and we had one made for ourselves too. I love the detail of one bird flying towards heaven, to represent our first baby that we never got to meet this side of heaven. Such a beautiful inclusion.

She has many other original abstract paintings available to purchase in her Etsy Store as well as custom order options. Colour selection (I sent her a picture of a painting we already had, that I wanted it to compliment in colours and she took it from there), adding personal details, and communication …

Do you make New Years Resolutions? I gave up on them a few years ago because I don't seem to stick to them. What I did do a few times, that was successful, was choose a word for the year for myself to focus on. I haven't done this for a while, but 2015 is the year I am doing this again.
I am choosing the word blessed. I am so incredibly blessed and with our current situation I am having a difficult time being thankful and seeing these blessings, but when I look at our life, we are truly blessed. So much to be thankful for. I am choosing to have a positive outlook on life and dig deeper in my faith. For months now doubt has been darkening my soul and where there is doubt, there is little room for faith.
Along with the word blessed I am choosing two pieces of scripture to meditate on this year. A reminder of God's promises. A reminder that He has not forgotten me. He's working on something new and wonderful:
Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill hi…