Our Church (and probably yours too)

We go to church. We go often. We go because we are trying to love Jesus and this is a part of the few ways we know how. We want to be around other Christian people. We want to learn with them and worship with them. We want to get to know them better. 

This is hard. But we were reminded recently that we can't do church without other people. And beyond that, I'm hesitant to try being a Christian without other people. You miss something. You don't have the same accountability. You don't have the relationships and the discussions and the involvement in something bigger, something attempting to show the bigness of God.

But we are a group of very different people. So different. And this is good, wonderful even, necessary, and, ultimately, unavoidable. It means that we don't always see eye to eye. We don't always agree. We don't always have the same ideas. We don't always pursue the same things. And if we're not traveling in the same direction, then we start to pull apart. 

I am a grumpy person. I get irritated easily by other people. Some days I try really hard to not do this. This means I have to stop, think and reply more slowly. More openly. I need more understanding. More selflessness. More thoughtfulness. More often than not, I do not. I rant. I tell people  how much I don't like someone, some idea, some action. I get upset. I threaten to leave. I growl. I throw my hands up. I shake my head.

I am not patient with anyone over the age of 10. And so attempting to get along with 100 plus people who are over the age of 10 often feels a little impossible. Really impossible. So many ideas, personalities and seemingly little direction right now. 

My hope is that the new group leading our church has passion and their ideas can come into fruition. That we can back them up and go with them, even if we're grumpy and impersonal people. And that we can show the world that we can be better than those grumpy and impersonal people we are. That we can overcome that impulse and we can love. We can love that idea that wasn't ours. That project that doesn't fit with our vision. That person who is not our cup of tea. 

If we stopped and remembered that we're all joining together in a building, a park a home, for the same paramount reason, maybe, just maybe, we can do something wonderful together. We can move together and grow together. We can get a small step closer to being what a community of God-fearing, Jesus-crazy people should be. We can show the world a tiny glimpse of who God is and of the love He showed us.

And possibly I can start be thankful that I'm not the only idiot floundering in this big world with a bad attitude and silly ideas.

Our Second

I have yet to write a post exclusively about my sweet baby girl. And sweet she is. 

'She' was a surprise. We weren't able to find out her sex before hand and I was busy assuming we were having another boy. "It's a girl," said the extremely nice and patient nurse who was, at that moment, my hero as she was the one who helped get the child out. "Really?!" said this exhausted and slightly ridiculous mother. (I mean, come on, no, the nurse was just kidding.... what a stupid question. These are things that happen when you've just gone through labor... and not the worst parts either.) But there she was. Not nearly as loud as her brother, which wasn't exactly a good thing, but they got her screaming. Just took a little more effort and she's definitely as loud or louder than him now. The little angel was a week early, too. What a lovely babe.

And there she was. After 9 months of not knowing, we knew her.

She is the sweetest little thing. She is all smiles and wonder. She loves playing and music. She is already sitting on her own. She likes to be included and is starting to like other people too. Which is obviously nice. The little peach was pretty anti-social for a while there.

I dress her in pink, because I can. She has perfect blue eyes and chubby cheeks. She squeals with delight when she's around something or someone she really likes (mostly Caed, cats and possibly other little humans.) And loves to hear herself talk.

She's pretty amazing.

 

So now we have two. Two perfectly wonderful kidlets, who have me smiling constantly. (That or counting to ten for patience.)

Our Week

This. Has been a busy week. And I have not posted enough to do it justice, 'nor will I, as it will be summed up in this single, too small post.

We celebrated our 5 year anniversary last week. 5 years. It's been a good 5 years. We've done lots. Probably not enough. We've figured things out. We've discovered we don't know what we're doing. Together we've made a couple littles. And together we've fallen in love with them. And together realized we have no idea how to be parents. But we're learning. We've talked and cried and yelled and laughed and walked and smiled and prayed and. And it's been good. Really good. And I'm excited for the next year and the one after that. He's a pretty wonderful guy and I'm trying to keep up. 

And then my baby turned 3. He turned THREE. What? Somehow he has stolen my heart and yet I still can not believe I have him. What a wonderful, exciting, loving, sweet, rambunctious, crazy, loud, inclusive, funny little man. He amazes me everyday. And frustrates me every other. But that's just growing up. It's a little hard and a lot incredible. My little man has changed in unimaginable amounts and yet he will always be my baby. This sweet little boy I held in my arms for the first time while he screamed and I loved. And I still get to hold him. How wonderful is that?

 Awe, he's just the best. 

My granny and papa were out too. So much fun. I love my grandparents, and it's harder to travel now that we have two little babes and I'm so happy they could make it out to see us. It was wonderful to see them. And especially to show off my newest to them. They had yet to meet my sweet Danae. And now they have. My heart sings.

 

Basement time!

So, since I've last been here, we finished half our basement! So wonderful! My wonderful, wonderful husband hung the drywall. I semi-helped mud, but he mostly did all that too, and the sanding. He has improved immensely since our main floor renos... practice really is helping! Although I'm certain he still doesn't enjoy it. Since I was very pregnant, my parents and him primed and painted it, and then we had carpet installed. We now have a play room for Caed/an entertainment area (aka. where Josh puts his big tv). 

First off, my parents are the best, because my procrastinator (yet lovely) man I call husband, would NOT have finished painting before the carpet people came. It just wouldn't have happened. And I wasn't supposed to be painting, so they came. And spent two long nights painting after work. Parents are the best. And my sweet Caed didn't help any, as he found a roller with mostly dried white paint and decided to paint over the brown paint that walls had already got painted. Such a dear.

My second point is simply this- carpet is extremely hard to pick. There are a million combinations. High piles, kind of high piles, berber, a million shades of brown, and grey, or you can still get those blues and greens! It is by pure luck that they named a color "puffball" a name we instantly thought was fun. And the color looked as if it just might work. And it does. So thank you, carpet color namer for your fun and creative names, we might still be staring at tiny carpet samples if not for you. (I'm fairly sure it took longer to pick what we wanted than it took the guys to install it. Have I mentioned the crazy amount of choices? I do not have that designer's eye.) 

The carpet keeps it warm and toasty, along with the insulation Joshua added to the walls when we did them. What a wonderful space. Some day we will finish everything!

 Paint is finished! Just in time for the carpet people to come tomorrow!

 Soft stairs.

 Caed "sleeping" on his new soft floors. A bit more cozy than the plywood.

So now Caed's toys are mostly down stairs, just in time for us to fill out main floor with baby items and toys. But I wouldn't get rid of that baby swing for anything. It's a life saver. 

Worst Blogger Ever

I got pregnant and tired, grumpy and whiny. Then I had a baby and got even more tired (and grumpy, and whiny. Well, maybe not as whiny...). This I didn't realize would be possible. Alas, it is. It's a different tired though. Before it was more of an "I am SO uncomfortable and am getting up every hour to pee" kind of tired. Now it's more or an "as soon as I'm given permission by my tiny human I will hit my pillow and sleep hard for as long as she'll let me because I'm not sure when it will happen again" kind of tired. 

But aside from that, having two babies is wonderful. And scary. Mostly wonderful. Our new little is as beautiful as the first, and aside from their good looks and unbelievable amounts of drool, they are totally different kids. It's so fun to watch.But now what?

God gave us these two perfect and tiny humans and now we are tasked with molding and shaping what we were given. Some days I'm all full of myself and thinking we are clearly the most wonderful and amazing parents to ever walk this earth (this isn't actually true, I've seen the YouTube videos of small children playing the piano with incredible talent, I will never be the best parent and I know this.) Most days I feel completely inadequate. 

I'll keep trying my best, I'm certain God picked me for these two babes for a reason. And I pray I'm up to the challenge. For their sake. I love them more than I thought I could... although sometimes I'd be willing to loan them out for a couple hours. Any takers?!!??!

This doesn't even come close to making up for months of inactivness!

Summer time.

Summer is going. Fast. We decided that August is sad, because it means summer is almost over. But enough being sad, we said! Lets do stuff, we said. And we did.

We drove into the big city on the long weekend and checked out the science centre. It. Was. A. Blast. Seriously. If you have kids under 12 go. Do it. They'll have a great time. And no worries if they're a lot younger. As long as they like to play you will find something for them and easily kill a few hours. The "creative room", as I believe it was called, maybe, was just perfect for Caed. We spent a couple hours in there and didn't even finish checking everything out. There was just so much to keep him busy. Go. Just do it. And if you want to do the zoo as well, then splurge for the spark pass. It's definitely worth it. We also decided to spend the little bit extra and check out one of the shows in the dome theatre. It was fun. I'd spend the 8$ again. Caed fell asleep, but I think we wore him out from playing and not having a nap, I do not think being bored was a factor.

Friday night we went for a swim and then Caed got pretty sick. Fever and puking all night. Which, I mean, doesn't really make staying in a hotel super fun, but it really wouldn't have been better anywhere else either, so we just got through that. The only unfortunate part (I mean, apart from the whole fact that our baby got sick in the first place) was the daunting three hour drive home with a puking kid. We had planned to do a quick trip to IKEA Saturday and debated skipping it. We did not. We decided to try it. Gave the Caed some Tylenol and headed over. He was sick on the way. We were almost there and had to clean him up anyway so we got there, cleaned him up and decided maybe a quick walk through wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. And this isn't completely because of my like of IKEA. I am not the worst parent in the world. Obviously not the best, but it ended up being a good choice. His stomach settled, he actually ate some lunch and kept it down and I was really happy we decided to stop for a bit and let his poor little body get sorted. Kind of. He slept most of the way home and after another good nights sleep my baby was fever free, albeit a little bit grumpy from not sleeping well.

And now we are here. Josh is back to work for a few days. The weather isn't crazy hot like it was. A little sad and a bit of a relief. I'm still hoping for a couple scorchers so we can enjoy the water park a couple more times this month. That place is a blast. And free. What a wonderful city.

Next week Josh's parents are coming out and we have a decently full schedule for their trip. And then we're looking very close to September. Scary.

A little catching up

So I've been busy, or lazy or sick a lot and I haven't been here in, well, a while. A bunch of stuff has happened. Like my kid turned 2. And that was a lot of fun. I mean, I have a two year old. We survived traveling in Ontario and made it through a wedding. The little man even did his walk down the aisle like a pro. We knew he was going to look smashing in his 3 piece suit, but we didn't actually know if anyone was going to see him... mostly because we are pessimistic parents and, lets face it, he seems to know when he's supposed to do something and choose that thing as the only thing in the world he does NOT want to do. His uncle and new aunt are champs though and brought a wagon into it. Boy loves wagons. Josh got an official year older. I celebrated mothers day #3 (I was pregnant that first time, but VERY pregnant so I'm counting it. Nothing says you're already a wonderful mother when you're overdue and not complaining... too much. And ya, I just called myself a wonderful mother. This is only true some moments. But I just fixed a train track, so right now I'm doing pretty good on the mom scale.) And, oh ya, we told everyone we were pregnant for round 2. 

This baby is being much nicer than the Caed. Not to say that I haven't spent many, many a time hanging my head over the toilet (or bag in superstore as life should have it.) And evening after evening laying on the couch wanting to cry because I felt tired and sick and not like a wonderful mother, or wife or human. But that 14th week hit and I'm actually starting to feel better sometimes. Which is a huge improvement over the first time I did this.

Summer is here, the weather is nice and we get to play outside lots. Beach time and backyard time and hanging clothes on the line time. Josh has also been convinced to take us camping on his next days off. He had to be bribed with mountains, but hey, seems like a pretty decent deal to me. Now to see if this love of the mountains extends to wanting to buy me a slightly bigger tent...

One can always dream.

The Forhead Lump

My baby boy hits his head on things when he doesn't get his way. It's a bit concerning. He basically has a permanent bruise and bump on his forehead. It is not a way I would choose to live life. It looks painful. I can only imagine how much it hurts to actually do and I'm completely unsure of what it's accomplishing. Maybe so he can rreeallyy cry? I mean he has a pretty wicked fake cry, but it's mostly just hilarious. He's working on it.

The thing is, he has been doing this for a ling time. And then, a couple months ago, he stopped. He would hit the table or floor or whatever instead. But that was a vast improvement. Now we're back to the permabruise. At least the rest of his face is cute.

He's starting to talk. Hasn't said anything that would help make life a little easier, like "snack" or "milk" or "mom, I'm screaming because...". He does LOVE the words he knows though. I'm sure he says shoe 50 times a day. "Yes!" is a response to anything as long as it's not "ooo". As in, "no that is not what I want, please try again."

But he's a blast. He's growing like an insane person. SO TALL! And huge feet like his father. And his dads big head. But that's enough of that.

I FINALLY saw the new batman movie. Yes, it's been out for a long time. But the previews made me scared. Bane looks ridiculously creepy. The face thing. But it was so good. Those are the best movies. I really enjoy them.

This is all I have to say.

rocks and sweeping

I have rediscovered curling and how wonderful it is.

My baby likes to sit and watch with me.

He is the best.

That is all.

Caed's Quiet Book

The book. 

As I mentioned in my last post I took most of my ideas for Caed's book from Stephanie at Imagine Our Life. She has some really fun ones AND she gives the pattern. Double bonus. She does each of her pages separately and then "binds" them with binder rings. I liked this. I could add to the book as I went. If I ever wanted to take out a page I can, and since I think I'll keep making a second book, because I had so much fun, we can pick and choose which pages we want on any given day.

Because I didn't make it an actual book, I wanted some way to keep it all together. I saw lots of ideas for quiet book covers and this is what I came up with:

 Handles so it can be carried like a bag.

 A strip to clip the binder rings around.

 

I used interfacing to keep it a bit stiffer and so it would sit nice.

I'll probably put "Caed's Quiet Book" on the front at some point. I should have done it before I sewed it all together, but live and learn. I'm also a little hesitant because I don't want it to be too busy... and the pattern is pretty cute. Opinions? I think I'll also put a pocket inside for some of the pieces that might not stay in so well during travel... I am NOT losing pieces in the airport!

 Here we go!

 Tie the shoe laces and a mail box!

Now most people who have ever had a quiet book will have seen a tie the shoe laces page. Classic. I got that pattern from here. Caed saw them and chanted "shooes, shooes" for about 3 minutes straight. He may not be quiet old enough to tie them but he knew what they were! The mail box was from Imagine Our Life. (Surprise!) It opens up and there are envelopes inside. I need to put some letters in them!

 (Like my stripey socks?)

 Planets! (Imagine Our Life.) It's mostly a button page. It was more of a planets learning page on her pattern, but I wanted a button page and decided it could be both. Do you know your planets?

Wait for it...

Bam! Shapes. And colors. They're supposed to be cookies which you can place on the cookie sheet (which they are already on in my picture.) There is a button on the lifter so you can move the cookies all proper-like, and of course a glass of milk to dip them in. (There is plastic over the glass of milk so you can actually dip them "into" the cup.) You, obviously, match the cookies to the shape in the cookie dough and when moving them back (with your lifter...) match the icing color to the button. (Imagine Our Life.)

 This is the pattern that got it all started. I was doing a preliminary, kind of a perhaps I'll make a quiet book, some day, maybe, if I find anything I like, web search and came across this page. I thought it was pretty super cool. Match the socks! They come out of the drier and then you match them. Simple matching game, plus life skills disguised at a fun game. There are magnets in them which I thought was pretty fun too. (Imagine Our Life.)

 And last but not least. My baby loves his cars, so I made him the city pattern from Imagine Our Life. I did magnet roads (because I think magnets are fun. Caed thinks they taste good...) with magnets on the back of the vehicles. You have your ice cream parlor (because what good is a town without ice cream?) and its delivery truck. The church. A school and school bus. The grocery store with a fruit truck, fire station and fire truck, and apartment building and car. It took the longest to make, so many tiny parts to cut and sew, but was super amounts of fun. The last page is hanging clothes on the line. Even though the concept was simple enough I used the pattern from here. Once again, I am not artistic. And her pattern was really cute. The clothes can go in the basket and you can hang them on the line. I think I'll need bigger clothes pins, these ones are a bit hard to use, but super cute, so that's something...

 The end.

And this is Caed's quiet book #1. I had a blast making it. He needs help with most every page, but I think, at the very least, he enjoys the shapes and colors. I guess it will give me something to do on the plane anyway...

Thank you again wonderful people who share their patterns! You make life a little easier and my quiet book a lot prettier.

I got bored... again.

I am good at starting things. I get bored. So didn't feel like posting pictures of the bedrooms... they're not very exciting. That's why. The rooms I posted are exciting. And we use them lots. And I like them lots. But our bedrooms... they're just kind of there. And used to sleep in. 

And so I didn't post anything.

Know what's coming up fast? April. Know how I know this? Because I have a plane ride with an almost 2 year old to think about. I do not particularly like planes. Often I have a miniature panic attack before we board. It makes my head hurt. And then we had a kid. It makes it so much worse. Now I'm not only worried about falling out of the sky, I am constantly thinking about what will make getting through the airport easier, how will we entertain a small, extremely active child for 4 hours on a plane (after a 3 hour car ride) and how will we get him home happily. And last year I need not have worried at all. He slept. But he's older now. And I'm scared again. Also I'm flying back alone... my arms might get tired.

So I am working on yet another project. This one doesn't necessarily have a finish so when I get bored, my husband can't make fun of me. Or constantly suggest that I work on that *enter unfinished project here* whenever I ask what I should do. But Caed has the working of a quiet book.

I knew I would make him one at some point. About a year ago I was helping my parents clean out the house we lived in for...... 18? years... a long time anyway. There was A LOT of stuff in it. So. Much. Stuff. Memories. So many memories. And we came across quiet books, that I believe my Aunty Kathy made us when we were little. (If it was you who made them, and you are not my aunt, I apologize. And I will correct this story.) I still remember playing with them... until we lost a bunch of pieces. But such is life. Hopefully I can keep up with any missing pieces from our book and just replace them.

It's fun. I like finicky sewing. I do not want to make clothes or anything else that needs some element of perfection. That is not me. Not even close. But if you need some sort of something in the shape of a triangle. Done. I can do that. So, since I'm artistically lacking in the drawing abilities I was a little bit worried how I was going to make it, you know, look like something. Let alone semi-nice and so that maybe Caed might kind of want to look at it, let alone play and learn. But I found the most wonderful lady of all time. She IS artistic, and then she shares with us unable. I can trace like a pro!! I change somethings up. But mostly, I'm just a great instruction follower. Thank-you Stephanie! (Ya, I just linked her blog twice. She's that wonderful.)

I made my own, all by myself today. It was a counting one. I couldn't find any number pages I liked anywhere... so I took elements of ones I found and made it up. I could only do this because I printed out numbers and then cut straight lines. But I think it turned out good... I may be biased.

I still have an unfinished afghan I was knitting for Caed before I knew he was a Caed.

(I don't think I remember how to knit anymore...)

The bathroom.

I think this was maybe one of my favorite rooms to redo. Granted, I didn't have anything to do with the plumbing and I definitely had a lot of help with the tiling. And I didn't demolish, frame anything or insulate or put up drywall or install the wainscoting.... But I did most of the mudding, painted and, the best part, picked everything out. Except the tub. Josh picked it out. I like it a lot. Good pick, hubby! I have probably posted too many pictures, but I think it was a pretty cool transformation. You may have seen some of these before.

 The cupboard looks out to the hallway. If you're looking through it you can see our bedroom door on the other side. I actually looked into a closet with the washer and drier. It's placed above a shower-less bathtub. I'm really not sure what the point in it was...

 

 The wall to the right is going to come out! As is the window.

 

 All openned up. We took out the closet in what is now Caed's room as well as the laundry closet in order to make the bathroom bigger. The laundry closet both openned up the bathroom and allowed us to put a closet back into Caed's room, albeit a bit of a smaller one.

 

 The brothers finishing taking out the closets. The picture is taken standing in front of the bathroom window so you can see the two bedroom doors there as well as part of the hallway to the side door.

 

 Taken from Caed's room. The big opening is where the closet was and the smaller opening to the left is Caed's now closet.

 Stripped to the studs! In order to re-insulate and put a water resistant cement board in.

 The bathtub. It's in what was once Caedmon's closet.

 

 Cement board in and partially mudded.

 Paint.

 In-floor heating. By far the best part of the bathroom. Thanks dads for helping me put it in!

 

 The controls to keeping my toes warm.

 Adhesive to stick down the water-proof barrier. (I'm sure it has a more technical term.)

 

 Dad mixing the grout.

 Ain't this bathroom getting moldy or rotting! The previously mentioned water proof membrane.

 

 Starting to tile.

 

 Brother Josh giving tiling a go.

 

 Before it's grouted.

 Grouted and wainscoting is starting to go in.

 

 Everything is installed and the bathroom is pretty and ready to use.

 Lived in and used daily bathroom. The finished product!

Well. That is our bathroom. It isn't huge, but I think it's a nice size. No en-suites in this house so it's our one and only right now. But we like it and since the Caed only uses it when I make him bathe we get along just fine.