40 days - Day 6

I completely forgot about writing last night. When I finished work, we helped a friend who was having car trouble and after I exercised (20 minutes of hills on the treadmill and then a 20 minute DVD weights workout), I went to bed! Yesterday was a good day - drank the water and didn't eat the forbidden foods! Today... well... today was going well until Earth Hour tonight. Steve brought out the veggie chips (yum) and made tea. We played Yahtzee with the kids. Turns out it takes over an hour for 2 adults and 4 children to finish a game of Yahtzee. Rebekah won! So, I ate after 8, ate chips and didn't exercise at all. Oh well. Tomorrow is another day! Sorry, Marie! We have to pick ourselves up and keep going!
Steve and I attended a 'Couples Connection' day today at the church. It was facilitated by our lead pastor and his wife, and featured four segments of talks by Andy Stanley. It was very well done and a worthwhile way to spend the day. It was well-attended, with about 50 couples present, and the kids had a blast in the program the youth put on for them. Jonathan missed most of it, having been at a sleep over last night and then going straight to gymnastics from 12-3 this afternoon.
I purchased a device today for loading the photos from my camera onto the computer! Yay! It's a disk reader and even came with a spare Scan Disk. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of interest! Just this lovely photo of the inside of our microwave. It's actually not ours anymore. It went in the garbage after I had a fire Monday. It was scary! The instructions on popcorn warn the person providing 'adult supervision' not to 'leave the popcorn unattended.' I thought about that warning as I left it to go to the ladies' room, shall we say, and I could hear the racket from there. I rushed back to the kitchen to a spectacular show in the microwave. I opened the door, and everything stopped, but the popcorn, sadly, was not popped, or even affected in the slightest by having been in the microwave, but the microwave was done. So, we haven't had a microwave all week. I haven't missed it, quite honestly.
The only other exciting thing to mention is that tonight we booked our trip to Virginia! Last year, we went to DC, and this year our plan is to get to Williamsburg. Let the planning begin!
Mommy

40 days - Day 2

After Steve and I got back from our cruise, we went into high gear getting ready for Christmas. Our service at church was really neat, with the 'band' behind a curtain and most of the service incorporating a live nativity play and lots of singing. We had a great time visiting with both sides of the family.

When we get together with my side of the family, my young cousins are there too, which makes for 8 children, ages 5-12.

There's something I love about being at my parents' house at Christmas. I am quite a nostalgic person, and thinking of my grandmothers, who were always there, and often slept over at Christmas, makes being at 'home' the perfect place to be at Christmas.

Rob and Mandy gave Elizabeth a princess outfit which she was very pleased with, and modeled frequently for the next few days!! A highlight for the girls was the gift of a Maplelea doll for each of them, and Jonathan was thrilled to receive a RipStik, which he has been riding around the basement, waiting for the better weather so he can take it outside. The kids all love their Webkinz, too, so Elizabeth is holding her new Himalayan cat in this picture too. She is at the home of Steve's sister and her husband in this photo. Their house is probably my favourite, and it dresses up beautifully at Christmas. We had a good visit with Steve's family too, and the kids got some fun new games for their Wii. Elizabeth has become a pro at Outdoor Challenge! She talks me into playing Mario Kart with her too, although I am not very good at it.

Before Christmas, we also had the opportunity to see the torch as it passed through our neighbourhood. I am ridiculously patriotic, so I found it a bit emotional! We all enjoyed watching the Olympics as they were broadcast on CTV, which we were able to bring in on our television using a set of rabbit ears!

As for Day 1... I learned that I am a carbo-holic! I was able to stay away from chocolate and chips and cookies, but crackers and peanut butter called my name all day. I managed to get in my five glasses of water, but the last two were downed right before I went to bed! I swam 52 lengths at the pool, so I got home quite hungry, but managed to talk myself out of a snack, since it was 10:00pm by then. Whenever I start to get tempted to eat something I shouldn't, or to skip the exercise, I can think of Marie, and pray for perseverence for her! It's a good memory aid, and hopefully I can encourage her from my own experiences with this.

On with the next day...

Mommy

Sunday!

We've had a busy day! I played the piano today at church, and Steve was running the slides, so we were all to be at church by 8:00am. The kids do so well even when they are there that early, and they had fun playing with a friend while we rehearsed.
Pastor David really outdid himself today with the message. I was rivetted and could have sat there all afternoon. He preached on the Israelites' time in the desert and had many interesting photos and maps to show us. It was like a history lesson and a spiritual kick in the pants at once. He challenged us to read Deuteronomy this week, so I'm going to give it a shot. Two services later and we were on our way by about 1:30pm.
I shovelled this afternoon and got most of the packed-down snow off the driveway. I always enjoy the days when it's a bit milder and I get a chance to clear the driveway... just in time for it to snow again on Tuesday! Back to church for AWANA tonight, and home for the night.
I'm feeling so much better now that I've got a few days of my new iron supplement in me, and I sure hope I do better at getting to the gym this week.
Elizabeth wore her new skirt and top today, but I forgot to get a picture. So cute. So big. We're off to the doctor tomorrow for all the January birthday annual visits, so we'll find out just how big they all are. No needles! Woohoo!
Hello February!
Mommy

A Wonderful Day

Rebekah was baptized this morning! We were so excited when she told us she would like to be baptized, and the weeks leading up to today have been surprisingly emotional for me. Strangely, though, when the moment came, I was fine! No tears, just pure joy. I was so proud of her. Stephen had the privilege of baptizing her, and giving her a life verse. She just smiled all the way through and spoke clearly when stating her intention to be baptized. She seems so big. My mom was at the service, and afterwards we met my dad for lunch. The kids were so good at lunch and we had a great visit. We just got home from AWANA now, so we're all pretty tired! Rebekah even finished her Red Book (Book 1) at AWANA tonight, so it's been a big day for her. We have a big surprise for Rebekah on her birthday, so I'm going to be getting ready for that this week. It is supposed to be so cold this week, though!!

I'm going to go to the gym tomorrow. I have to! I know it is so good for me mentally and emotionally, and I think there is also something about knowing that I've worked my body hard and that I'm contributing to my good health. Rebekah once said that she likes knowing that her mom goes to the gym. That's pretty good motivation! I'll need to remind myself of that at 5:00am tomorrow morning...

It's been a great day. What a wonderful way to start a new week.

Mommy