Thursday, December 31, 2009

Spiritual Journeys in Emerging Adulthood: A Narrative Study

My sister's Master's Thesis is online! Check it out, if for no other reason than to acknowledge and honor the blood, sweat and tears that went into completeing it. I'm still amazed at the amount of work, time and dedication that it took to complete. Well done!

Heather, your acknowledgement even made me tear up a little bit, and not because I'm not mentioned :)

New Reading Material

My sister finally lent me the first 3 books in the Twilight series. I've seen the first 2 movies, but had had no desire to read the books before hand. I couldn't understand what the thrill was. Now that I know, everyone has successfully convinced me that the books are a MUST READ. And, as we all know that the book is always much better than the movie it's been made into... I'm looking forward to my reading time!

See you in a few days LOL!

Awesome Coloring Book Idea

Both Mikah and my neice Clover are very interested in coloring. Clover, being 4 and a girl, is an advanced colorer. Mikah, who is almost 3 and a little boy, simply loves to fill a page with various colors. I wanted to get him some coloring books for Christmas to help him with his artiscic endeavours, but nothing really seemed appropriate. Every coloring book is either full of cartoon characters, to which he has little or no attachment to, or pictures full of tiny details which would be impossible for him to color. I think I eventually found a Christmas coloring book, but I wish that I had seen this idea instead.

Kathy, from Merriment Design, shares an awesome tutorial for making a family themed coloring book. I haven't attempted it yet because we are still at my parents farm, but when I get home... look out! With any luck I'll be cranking these babies out left and right!

Come back soon to check out my attempt, and check out Kathy's tutorial now.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Anti-Viral Tea and a Little Christmas

The kids and I have been have been fighting off a cold since the beginning of October. It never seems to fully go away, and I am so tired of snotty noses and night time coughs that I could just scream. I'm always willing to try something natural, so my sister-in-law told me about some horrid sounding tea made with ginger, cayene pepper, garlic, lemon juice... need I go on?

I did manage to buy the supplies but never got around to actually making the tea. I honestly don't think that I could have managed to drink it. So I went on the hunt for something similar and I found this... (here)

Strong Anti-Viral Tea
Step One
One cup of peeled, chopped and minced fresh ginger

10 cups of water
 
Step Two

Apple cider (1/2 cup per serving)

Lemon juice
 
Directions

Peel and mince the ginger (a food processor makes little work of this job).
Simmer the minced ginger in 10 cups of water for an hour or so. Strain.

When ready to have a serving place 1/2 cup of the strained ginger water in a pan with 1/2
cup of apple cider and a squirt or two of lemon juice. Heat and serve.


Ginger is fantastic and treats so many things. Fortunately this tea tastes great, which will definately encourage me to drink it for a ginger lover I am not.


Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Random Thoughts From A Tired Mammma

Mikah woke me up at 5:30 this morning and Lukas at 6:00; such an awesome start to the second day of holidays. Mikah is quite sick with another cold though so I can't be too mad at him. He looks sick too, so that makes it alittle easier to deal with his super bad behaviour as well. Well, maybe only a bit easier.

Of course this is the pre-Christmas rush as well, so I have tons to do around here and not much time to get it all finished. I'm stressed and that makes me a less than stellar mommy. Does a good mommy lock her kids out of the kitchen, then crank the music to drown out their fighting and whinning while she tries to get some Christmas baking done? Somehow I managed to drown them out enough to have these random thoughts while rolling cookies:

  • Drinking alone shouldn't be such a bad thing; it would be amuch better idea than encouraging your kids to drink with you.
  • I wonder where the cat is living. I wonder why I care.
  • What ever happened to Uncle Kracker? I should download some of his music.
  • I wish foam wreath forms weren't so darned expensive.
  • Maybe I should watch The Sound of Music sometime. I can't believe that I've never seen it. I wonder if I'm the only one?
  • Crap, I forgot about the van full of stuff that I have to take to second hand!
  • I wonder if Alek will recognize Santa's wrapping paper after he saw it in the back of the van?
  • God I need a drink.
  • I really have to stop saying "shut up" all the time. And I have to stop smiling when Lukas says it. Not good parenting behaviour.
  • I should download Love Actually to watch tonight while I'm wrapping presents.
  • I hate wrapping presents!
  • What was I going to use my glue gun for? Why did I take it out?
  • When I make our Chrismas Eve Clam Chowder I should laddle some aside for Laura before I add the clams. Why have I never thought of this?
  • I'm not sure I can manage spin class. I might really die.
  • Why won't they shut up and play nice together? Will it ever happen while they are still living under my roof?

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Christmas Miracle

Today the unthinkable; the unimaginable happened.

Alek and I cleaned his room. And I mean, cleaned his room. But the true miracle was that I managed to convince him to throw away and give away more stuff than he actually kept. He is a packrat to the extreme so this was no easy feat, but today he did it happily.

Somewhere the angels are singing.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Funny Jesus Story

First a little background info...

A few of the other teachers and I were standing around this morning discussing Christmas; which led to a discussion about beliefs, which led to a discussion about how Alek wondered how Jesus could really be a son of a god, which led to a brief discussion about his most likely illegitamate birth (IMO), which lead to us talking about Mary, which led to this...

One of the teachers had a little grade 2 student who came up to her one day and asked this question...

Student:   "Mrs. K, you know how there's the Mary that is Jesus' mother?"
Mrs. K:   says quite hesitatingly (while wondering just where this was going to go), "Yes..."
Student:   " Is she the same Mary that had the little lamb?"

We roared. hopefully the hilarity translated on here to.
Oh, the things that kids come up with.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The True Extent of My Patheticness

Hmm, while on my daily forays into the bloggershere, I have noticed a recurring theme lately; wishlists. Some of the lists are full of crazy dream items, some are realistic dream items, and some are a mix of both.  Well, why the hell not? I feel like I am so busy always putting the kids and everyone else ahead of me, maybe this once I could take the time and indulge in a little web window shopping just for me. Let's see...

I have an extreme love for African dance. I think these should help fill the void in my life due to the lack of classes here in Saskatoon...



Kukuwa Dance Workout DVD $19.99






~Edited to add... Ok, I started this list over a week ago and saved it to return to as I thought of other things to add. I finally decided to post it because this is really all that I came up with. Pathetic.

What You are About to See

Let me just start by appologizing. I'm so sorry, but you are about to get picture overload. It has been a long time since I managed to post on here and an even longer time since I managed to download pictures from my camera. Which explains what you about to experience. The below posts are some family highlights from the last 3 months...

Christmas Pirate

Last night was Alek's school Christmas concert. The grade 3's addition to the program was a skit about pirates. Let me just say, they all looked awesome! Lev tried to get a video of the skit, but the little ones weren't cooperating. As he was trying to tape it, Lukas was busy digging in his pants pocket trying to make off with his wallet and phone, while Mikah kept trying to cover the lens with his hands. That was annoying enough, but Lukas decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to try out his "ho, ho, ho." Loudly. It's all you can really hear.

I was reminded of the scene from Parenthood when they go their kids Christmas concert; there are times when you just have to sit back and enjoy the ride.

I did manage to get some photos of fierce Pirate 6.








Welcoming Willow

My sister and sister-in-law started a new family custrom when I had Lukas. Or, was it Mikah??? Anywho, they showed up at my door dressed as Geisha and treated me to yummy eats and a relaxing good time. So, we thought that since Becky just gave birth to our beaautiful neice, Willow, it would only be fair that we treat her to the same experience. But Geisha wouldn't do again. So, I'd like you to meet...
Inga and Oona, the Swedish baby nurses. They were bossy yet super efficient. They spoiled the mommy, hugged the baby and brought supper and goodies.





Hmm, I think poor Oona needs to work on her sexy Swedish
babynurse look. Looks more like she's about to pick her nose.


p.s. here's the new mommy breastfeeding in one of my wraps (which Inga made for her). They are a lifesaver I tell ya, a lifesaver.














Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Birthday Cake & A Chef


Lukas loves his mom's birthday cake.


A lot.


So much that he got right to work in his kitchen
making another one.

Celebration Time!


Nothing says, "Thank god I've finally finished my Thesis defence," than a
bottle of Baby Duck!

Well done Heather. Well done.

~Mikah just saw this picture and he laughed and said, "Auntie Heather got some rum for me."
Thanks for that dad.

Forestry Farm...


Lukas sees the bears.


Oops, Lukas sees a bench. Fun!


A wolf sees Lukas.


Mikah sees a Llama.


We see buffalo.


I see brotherly love.


I see a little boy climbing a BIG hill.


The cougar sees Lukas too.


The camera sees a mom and her number one boy.

Halloween 2009


First Trick-or-Treat


Happiest Sock Monkey Ever.


Baba Feeding the Monkeys

Spooky 9th Birthday

Alek celebrated his 9th birthday with a Halloween party. I, of course, got to go nuts making gross food, and the kids got to go nuts gobbling it up.


Witch's Fingers & Blood Sauce



Chocolate Covered Armpit Hair & Used Q-tips


Bloody Worms & Eyeballs


Catlitter Cake


A Couch of Clone Troopers (the irony was lost on them)


Serenading the Embarassed Birthday Clone Trooper.

Blue Eyes