Budget '14

Here we are back into cold wintry mornings with crisp sunrises. The kind that make your lungs buckle with frosty air.

The hubs and I are giving it a go, again. The zeal of money managing has been stoked and we're off and running with the budget of 2014. We've a clear direction now, thanks to many wonderful blogs I read that help to gently pluck those budgeting heartstrings. Yes, I have budgeting heartstrings...they lie next to my shopaholic strings...it's a dangerous place in my heart...there's a constant orchestra being conducted and it's either playing one tune or the other.

In keeping with a Dave Ramsey style cash budget for the past 8 or so years, we've done a great deal of good. We're moving up in our baby steps (for those of you who aren't familiar with Mr Ramsey...please google. His baby steps are your key to financial freedom.)

Looking forward to a few baby steps being crossed off this year...yahoo!

Here's a link to a blogger whom I very much admire, she's real and funny and she and her husband love the Lord. It's Stacy from Stacy makes Cents. http://www.stacymakescents.com/10-reasons-youre-broke  there's a link to one of her husbands articles.

Anywho, off to feed the babes! chat soon!

Reasons..

It's for reasons like these that we don't do the door knocking, treat taking tradition. http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/30/for-some-wiccans-halloween-is-a-real-witch/?hpt=hp_c2

But hey, to each his own, and if you do go out, hope everyone can stay dry tonight!!

Alberta

Lake Louise, Alberta.



We had such a good time, it was like a second honeymoon! I have a pile of pictures, but I haven't found the time to edit the personal ones. I was also taking pictures for Dwights company while we were on the Dairy tour portion of our holiday, and those are all edited and uploaded here Alberta Farms. =  You can just click through the folders and it will show you all the different farms we visited and the cheese making plant. (If it doesn't work, let me know)

This is my favourite place on earth...for now :)  Lake Moraine. It's a completely different blue than Lake Louise, and it's only 15 minutes away from there. It's also much quieter, .. Lake Louise is a tourist trap that has thousands of people visit each day, and although it's beautiful...it's not Lake Moraine.

Gorgeous isn't it?

Le spasm of le back.

I bent. I broke. The end.

It was the beginning of a stellar Monday. You know the kind...you wake up with a hop in your step, the coffee in your mug is enough to make you spill over with pure caffeinated glee, and you're feeling especially grand because the night before was the beginning of the new health kick...a power walk every evening.  oh boy, was it ever power-filled. The hips were a-wiggling....the fat was a-jiggling.

Back to Monday... there I was getting the jobs done, garbage bin brought back in garage - check, laundry load started - check, preparing to clean the house - check. I marched down the hallway and bent over to pick up the bathing suit that laid in my path .. and that was the fateful moment my walking legs became non-walking legs. I bent and *pop* down I fell, like a sack of potatoes.

The pain burned its way down my spinal column and left me writhing in spasmodic pain, finding no comfortable way to sit or lay or lean, I just collapsed and screamed for poor Gabe, who I'm sure thought he should start planning my funeral. After ensuring I was not dead, he made a tear filled call to Oma.

My hero's came in the form of my sister in law, who thankfully ignored my 'I think I should be okay..' text, and showed up anyway, and my mom who dropped her schedule to help me for the entire week. They cheered me on as I crawled to the living room carpet to die. I couldn't heave my weight onto the couch, as it was too painful.. so there I lay. Eating while laying down is a whole new experience, lemme tell ya.

Anyway, that happened almost 2 weeks ago, and I still feel it. It's much better and ice and ibuprofen are helping. Please pray that it's all healed up before we go on holidays! Muchos Gracias .... y'all have a wonderful week!

Shoes..

There's a reason I like the dirt under my nails.  And I'm sure its because I saw her doing it.

She has filled many shoes over many years, my favourite pair being the ones she wore in the 80's and early nineties. It wasn't for their particular style, rather the way they tread.... softly, gently, always heading in the right direction. They weren't flashy or even trendy for that matter, they were dependable ... and grace filled.

These shoes ...this woman... became a fixed part of my life from very early on. She shared more than the smiles of an Oma, she also shared breakfast, lunch and dinner and I grew to know her as my own. Many days she shared life as my mothers 'better half', and it was she and mom who knelt beside my bed when I told Jesus my life was His.

God has these great ways of making diamonds from coal ... especially in life and love. Her silver hair is as He promised too, a worthy crown of wisdom. In a time of great need He provided hands and feet of grace and truth, with a little dirt under her nails.

I have a deep desire for His creation, and it's something that's been cultivated in my soul. It started early watching her stooped in her garden picking beans, watering flowers and winning trillium awards and it's only grown over the years.  I've yet to even step into her shadow when it comes to green thumbing, and there's doubt I ever will. She'll be 87 this year and she still cares for the many gardens at her retirement home.

We chatted the other day about the birds that come to visit, she has several feeders and many a fine feathered friend in her garden. I've recently set up my own feeder and was overjoyed to tell her about the six golden finches that have decided that my feeder is THE place to be. She shared my pleasure and went on to tell me the delight that she has found over the years with watching her birds in the birdbath. Guess what's on my birthday list? :)

As the years pass I see the importance in gleaning from her what I can, before her days in glory and an eternity in a garden of incomprehensible beauty.... after all, she has exceptional shoes to fill.

Summer Time and the livin' is easy..

G'day!

How are ya?

I went through my typical reading list this morning and thought I'd share the link to my friends blog. She's is the parent of 5 kids and her last baby is waiting in Sick kids hospital for a new heart. It's really incredible to read of her daily struggles and see her faith grow and to give God the glory in it all.

http://6andahalfhearts.com/2013/07/16/we-believe/

We are enjoying summer and squeezing it for all its worth, days are long and hot and the kids usual bedtime hour has become quite blurred. We've s'mored and swam to our hearts content. I looked back at our calendar, and in the month of July we've only had 2 days without guests at the house! There's something about those long late nights, with a cozy fire burning in the chimnea (momma found that one at the side of the road, and boy what a treasure its become :) and fireflies flickering over the vast crops, with kids giggling in the dusk, that makes me re-think my dedication to the season of fall. This is where it's at!

Happy Canada Day!!

We enjoyed a beautiful day yesterday on the family farm, this is a shot of all the walking grandchildren. There are 2 more babies and one on the way.

The kids enjoyed a full afternoon of swimming, milking the cows, playing with cousins and wound down the night with s'mores and fireworks and sparklers.

 

 

Old memories were remembered, and new memories created, it was a wonderful day.

 

Happy Canada day to you!!

 

New looky...

I like to shake things up, shakey-shake.

Have your heart right with Him...

“If you long for Him, He much more longs for you. No sinner was ever half as eager for Christ as Christ is eager for the sinner; no saint was ever one-tenth as anxious to behold his Lord as his Lord is to behold him. If you are running to Christ, He is already near you. If you sigh for His presence, that sigh is the evidence that He is with you. He is with you even now; therefore, be glad.
Go forth, beloved, and talk with Jesus on the beach, for He often walked along the seashore. Commune with Him amid the olive groves, which were so dear to Him in many a night of wrestling prayer. Have your heart right with Him, and He will visit you often. Soon enough, you will walk every day with God, as Enoch did, and so turn weekdays into Sabbaths, meals into sacraments, homes into temples, and earth into heaven. May it be so with all believers! Amen.”
Charles Spurgeon
Joy in Christ’s Presence, 15

Quote found on Disciples Notebook

My girls..

Its this crazy thing that happens...the years, they just disappear. We all come with new stories and lace these tighter strands. There are new characters in our stories, our everyday people. I may not recognize them, but I know them through these shared moments with my girls.

We met again last night in a cozy corner booth, and life around us stands still. There isn't another person in that place so far as we care...except for the waiter with the girly name who brings us the decadence of food not made by our own two hands.

There are few who can have me whispering in sadness, sharing grief and tears streaming .. who feel what I feel...with me. And it's these women who un-do me and remind me I have muscles in this belly that can still hurt from a laugh that hasn't been laughed in too long.

Our boundaries are widening yet again, this time out west. We've gone south twice and we've proved these strands only get stronger and fonder.

Lets test these western waters girls, we're cowgirls after all ;)

Simple Beauty...

Just put this little sheboppy together....thinking of using it in our school room downstairs.

And I had a good peruse-y through some of my ol photos and loved this one of the girls...that tanned skin makes me drool for summer.

 



And then theres this ol fave:

 

 

Annnd one more for good measure ...

 

 

 I ordered myself a whole whack of seed catalogues to stir that old dirt desire right up and get it percolatin' through my green thumbs. This picture reminds me of when we moved in and lovingly planted all that triple rated, grade A, high-end, super pricey grass seed and ran out, so we spread a little extra over the whole she-bang ...we found that 'little extra' in an old freezer at the farm...I do believe it should've been labelled properly as 'Weed seed' but alas...it was free...and we are cheap. So in doing so, we tainted the whole lot (heh heh...our whole lot..) with this beautiful specimen.

 

Of course, as we were diligent Dave Ramsey followers, we were waiting to ensure the proper fundage and best deal for our grass hacker .. and as we scoured the net and used equipment sites, the heavens opened and poured much needed rain all over our parched seeds. Seemed as though our 'weed seed' was extra strength and though most of our grass seed had dried up, that mustard flower was just a waitin' for a drink.

 

Lo and behold a week later we had a full 2 acres of the most brilliant yellow, ya ever did see. T'was a sight to behold. A beautiful house in the midst of a field of flowing weeds. Wasn't long before those weeds were knee high and full of bees. So much so, that our poor children couldn't even run to the trampoline for fear of a sting.

 

I threw all good sense to the wind and bought the first lawnmower my eyes did see that had a reasonable price tag. It wasn't green, I can assure you that. More of an aged orange..or terra cotta. To be honest, that first ride as it shook my internal organs and flung my body forwards and back with every move of my untrained hand (I was used to a foot control, like a car, not a hand control...like a car for the disabled..) I couldn't have cared less. It was me against those freaking yellow flowers and it felt gooood. The wilder the better...if it was hurting me, it was hurting them more. 'Take THAT you friggen flower freaks!! Ha haaa!!'  It was the pinnacle of power! And I WON.

 

They were gone. I woke up to brown cracked earth with slain yellow flowers strewn all about. I grinned smugly to myself as I sipped my morning coffee. Good Riddance.

 

It wasn't until I had uploaded those early photos of the building lot and this little jewel popped up, that I actually saw the beauty in it all. The more I stared, the more I saw. What simple beauty I had missed.