ALmost ready for Easter.....

Well today was a day about friendships:)  Usually Thursday is the day I take the morning to do a walk with 3 of my "besties" and we go for coffee afterwards.  Today it was a quick walk and short coffee with 2 of them as we had other stuff to do.  It was a nice visit and the sun was out but still a little chilly. Later in the morning I had my friend, Sue over and she brought some lunch and we did a bit of crafting...mostly talking.  It was wonderful!  She's good for the soul.  You know when you have a real connection to people?  You have wonderful talks about stuff that really matters?!  Sometimes there are tears..sometimes there are tears from laughing so much too...just great connections.  I feel so fortunate to that with a handful of really good FRIENDS.

Today was also the day that Victoria's best friend moved into a new home.  Her Mom had called me in the afternoon and I stopped by to pick up some stuff to bring over to the new house and then left to get the kids from school.  I brought them all to Mc D's to get some dinner and they wanted to stop at Petsmart.  There are weekly requests to go there so we can check out the pets...YES we have enough here...we are NOT getting any more LOL  After that we had a bit of time before we were to meet at the new house.  I wanted to bring some flowers so we stopped at Fred's and I picked a hydrangea plant and then a roasted chicken, some potatoes and veggies and dip.  We worked at unloading the 2 vehicles and the moving truck.  I went to work at cleaning up some in the kitchen and set up the microwave and cleaned and put away fridge contents.  I wasn't going to stay long...but I'm glad I did:)  I was going to go get groceries but that wasn't going to happen...I will have to go Saturday.


My  grocery list is long, I don't have the eggs to decorate yet, I haven't figured out what I want for the table.....

Today was a good day:)

  I'm tired and I'm not looking forward to the grocery shopping but I was there today for people.  My purpose today was made clear...THANK YOU..I heard you:)

Feeling better....feeling busy

Hard to believe that February is coming to a close soon....I have been doing well at creating my weekly Project Life pages and enjoy doing them.  Virg read over the last couple that I did and really enjoyed them, makes me feel good:)

Last week we had the second wedding of the month!!  It was a nice ceremony of Virg's longtime friend, Ravi.  Then back on Valentines Day his younger sister, Leticia was married.  Both weddings were planned kind of last minute but were both happy occasions.

With last weekend being the long Family Day weekend we enjoyed a weekend away with 3 other families.  Unfortunately Victoria was sick and ended up missing another 2 days off school and although I felt like I was catching the same bug I was able to fight it off with vitamin C and echinacea so that was a blessing!!!  The kids had fun being together and above they are in the clothing section of the COOLEST store The Bomb Shelter in Akron, Ohio:)

Not much longer until our family vacation to warm and sunny places...I can't wait especially now that I hear we are in for more snow tomorrow and colder temperatures for the next 5 days...ugh...spring come NOW...PLEASE:)

I was reading one of my favourite blogs this morning...Lucky 13 and decided to check out how to add some icons to my side bar....and ended up downloading a new template design..I LOVE it!!!  I certainly need to fix it up (and trying to figure that out:) perhaps I'll ask Ethan!  Some things are needing to be corrected such as the wording on the header isn't really properly centred.  Learning as I go along.

Today is the beginning of the COLD.  Although the sun was peeking out a bit and some fat flakes were floating down it did look pretty and happy to be INSIDE looking out.  I need to write up my to do list for the week.  I started it as part of my weekly routine to get stuff done.  I do a better job having it written down and am a geek about checking it off...it makes me feel like I did accomplish something:)

Last week was a great week for accomplishments.  We finally have the wheels in motion to get our staircase done.  We have had our hardwood upstairs done since last March and feel like we've found the right guy to finish the stairs.  This also means painting the hallway so I was able to bring Virg to Home Depot on Sunday and I have picked up 3 colours to sample.  I think the middle one is it but may do the lighter one on the left.

Tonight is a meeting to help/inform parents on helping our high school students for next year choose their courses....still can't believe next year both my kids will be in high school...eeekkk  She says she's excited, a little nervous....must say I feel the same way.  You see I can still see her and hear her...her little 4 year old self...and now she's the big cousin to this girl...time flies by.

Today was creativity day..yeah!!!

Well I had a to do list for some creative things I wanted to accomplish today....

I got my Project Life title page completed...

I have 1.5 cards done:)  and I signed up for Ali Edwards  One Little Word at Big Picture Scrapbooking!!  I have listened to the podcast and have my handout printed out and some ideas written down for my January assignment.

The sunshine today was gorgeous and hoping the rain holds off until later in the day tomorrow...looking forward to seeing the ladies for coffee in the morning.  On Friday I have plans for lunch with my Mom and dinner with Keri...yeah lucky me.

Word of the Year

It's funny...I know I'm driving my hubby nuts:)  I have been contemplating my word of the year for awhile now. My word for last year was  embrace and even though I fell off the monthly assignments I did really try to live my word.  Whenever a situation came up I would just say to myself "embrace" and move forward.  No judging...no second guessing...just embrace.  I made a point to embrace and spend time with those who matter and mean the most to me.  I would embrace the more difficult times, the questions...look to where I knew hope would lie.   I will continue to use my embrace tactics as I continue in this new year...I want to accomplish a lot.

I kicked around words such as finish, plan,  hope, trust, fulfill, grace and thought it was create because that sounds good:)  But really the word picked me....as I searched dictionary.com and looked up quotes...there it was   accomplish

I know Virg listened to me and he said create....he knows me so well, I know he wanted me to have him say that...because I DO love the word!!!

But we've been talking about things we want to complete around the house, in our lives, with our kids...and really this word is to encompass my whole life not just the fun, happy things, right?

 If you are to accomplish all that one demands of you, you must overestimate your own worth.
                                                                  
Our wishes are presentiments of the abilities that lie in us, harbingers of what we will be able to accomplish.                                        
                                                                                     Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I have done page layouts and canvas with my OLW in previous years...not sure how I will visualize accomplish for this year.

Part of my plans include having the kids plan and prepare one dinner a week, one day a week for creating, actually setting up an etsy site, finishing renovations in the house...number 1 the stairway:), and Virg has been kicking the idea around of a half marathon...now this one...I'm not sure I can do that.  Guess I should look at the first quote :)

Tomorrow is the day to take down and put away Christmas decor...this holiday went by SO quickly.

Christmas of 2012

Here's some of our photos....our holidays were filled with fun times together baking, opening gifts, being together with family and friends, enjoying a real Christmas tree and real SNOW for Christmas!!!  After the tragedy in Connecticut,  this season really became focused on enjoying the moments....SO many times I felt myself thinking about those families and I have prayed for strength and love to be sent their way. SO many things to be grateful for this year...really happy that no one was ill.  It seemed in the weeks leading up to Christmas there were so many around who were sick and I had my fingers crossed:)  also had vitamin C ready in the cupboard as well.

Looking forward to some more days spent with the kids and time at the cottage and the beginning of a new year...here's to a year filled with more moments of joy.

Christmas is coming....

December has flown by...today is my Dad's 70th birthday!!  Wishing him the bestest of days XOXO

Today is the shortest day of the year and finally we have SNOW:)  Now it finally feels a little more like Christmas.

I have my December Daily set up and have been journalling daily...have yet to put pictures in it yet...

I did get Christmas cards made and sent, gifts are wrapped except for 2/3, stocking stuffers are bought, turkey and food for Christmas day is bought.....still to do is watch It's A Wonderful Life...my favourite of all time and just such a part of my Christmas celebrations.

LOVE our real tree this year!!

Not many more days left..hoping the snow sticks around:)