Monthly Archives: July 2013

Family, Household Chores

Be Having A Baking Cupboard

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I love our new house! Yes, I said it.

This 1960’s well built home is on a dead end street and is reminisce of my childhood home. Sexy Neck and his crew have done an amazing job renovating to rid the house of its smoke smell.

One of my favourite parts of the house, is the kitchen. We renovated the kitchen for under $5000 with half of that budget being a mix of old and new appliances. We found a Bosch dishwasher online for only $200.

We have an amazing amount of cupboards in the kitchen plus a Dutch door pantry.

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We decided to have one cupboard for my baking supplies. I can’t decide whether I should leave the doors off or put them on. They are currently in the basement waiting for their next coat of paint.

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Baking cupboard in the morning sun

Any opinions – doors off or on?

Family, Parenting

Be Writing A Letter To Cancer

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Yup, cancer. The big C. The beast. The indiscriminate illness. One of our worst nightmares. I am talking about you little c-a-n-c-e-r.

First, I want to introduce you to my mama. She’s magnificent. Really magnificent. She celebrated her seventieth birthday in a March. In April, she rode in a Tour de France training Camp for two weeks riding sometimes 90 kms per day. She even fell off her bike three times.

Yup, that’s my mom, she’s one tough, athletic, caring and beautiful woman.

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She came from a small farming town where she rode a horse to school. She is resilient.

She loved helping her dad around the farm rather than hanging out with her mom in the kitchen. She is strong.

She was a leader at school as well as an academic and basketball star. She is all around smart.

She put herself through University to become an excellent teacher and then she gave up her career when my sister and I came along. She is passionate and compassionate.

She went back to work once I hit school and she managed to do it all – work, home cooked meals, travel, organize our lives, plan fabulous parties and I could go on. She can do it all!

Cancer, I almost forgot to tell you, if my mom is feeling tired and weary from trying to cast you away. She’s got my dad at her side. Her knight. Her partner in crime. No cracks have I seen in their 42 years of marriage. He’s even put his golf clubs on the shelf, so watch out. He is a force!

Plus you’ve got to add one power into this “thing” you are trying to do in my mom’s body – God. My sister and I plus our hubbies, we know Jesus. We know his power to heal and transform lives. You bet we will have our mom and dad covered with prayer. We know the angels will be sitting by her beside. We will also be by my mom’s side to love her up and keep her going, especially with a few good books, reality tv shows and neck kisses.

And if that ain’t enough, we have got family and friends all over the world ready to kick your butt. Special niece in Spain, nephew up north, siblings to the east/south and friends in PG, Vtown, Western Canada, Australia, and 100 Mile. You don’t know who you are dealing with.

So, cancer now that you’ve met my mom, and her team brace yourself because you aren’t going to know what hit you! And we haven’t even met her medical team yet!

Boys, Family, Flexibility, Jesus Christ, Parenting

Be Enjoying A Move From A Small Town To THE Big City

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We have moved! After two months and fourteen days of living in my awesome parent’s basement while doing renovations, our family of five and all our stuff has arrived at the new house.

Bye bye twenty foot storage container

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Hello to life with a swimming pool

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Yum for cheaper sushi. Our family’s favourite food! JC even ate Miso soup with me.

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Yeah for new discoveries: a frozen yogurt buffet where you choose from twenty different frozen yogurts, add a topping if you want, then weigh it to find out the damage.

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Now to just get everything into their rooms in a somewhat organized fashion.

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Stay tuned!

Boys, Family, Flexibility, Goals, men, Parenting

Be In A Restful State

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I feel that I have a healthy understanding of what my strengths and limitations are. I know that one area I need to work on is learning how to “rest”.

I think the physical posture of rest is important for me to learn. I have endured numbness, tingling and muscular fatigue in my limbs and face for almost four years. I think learning to physically, mentally and emotionally rest is the key to my healing.

Day two in our new house and Sexy Neck modelled “rest” for me well, even with our three boys mulling around.

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Boys, Family, Parenting

Be Sporty Spice

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I have an issue with clothes – I don’t really love them. Nothing ever fits. After having three babies in six years and being pregnant or breast feeding for seven your guess is as good as mine as to what size this flabby figure would be.

Actually, I think being a woman and six feet tall makes finding clothing difficult. If I lived in the good old USA, I am a medium, but up here in Western Canada where clothes are made for a more Asian (aka petite) market, I am a grand old XL.

This morning as I got dressed, I had a light bulb moment. I was searching through my suitcase (yup one more day of suitcase living before we move into our house), when suddenly i just grabbed for undies, a sports bra, a tank top some comfy shorts, flip flops and we were off to our new house and neighbourhood. p>

Brace yourself new neighbours, six foot tall and slightly overweight Sporty Spice is in the hood. A can’t sing, but boy can I be loud. And with three wee boys and Sexy Neck as part of my “group”, we can sure create a ruckus. (Blog friends, check back her to see what ensues.)

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Hello me! A new opportunity for me to be myself and not to try to be Posh or Ginger or one of the other people that aren’t me.

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Christianity, Family, Jesus Christ, Parenting

Be Not Knowing

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Hmpppff, we are two months and ten days into a six week renovation project.  We bought a “smokers” house.  Here and here are the sordid details.   It has been a difficult process for me.  More of the groaning and moaning here.  But nothing compares to the constant not knowing of the “mass” that lays in my mama’s abdomen.

Here’s my mom!

As we have been renovating, we have been living with my parents in their basement.  (No we don’t play video games!)

I have been completely baffled watching my mom in pain, on the couch or in her bed.

MY MOM RODE HER BIKE IN SPAIN IN APRIL WITH PEOPLE TRAINING FOR THE TOUR DE FRANCE!  MY MOM WAS RIDING 90KMS PER DAY.  MY MOM EVEN FELL OFF HER BIKE THREE TIMES!  HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENING? Now my yelling will stop, sorry about that.

Anyways, the ebb and flow of my parents lives has changed into this every day living of “unknowing”.  Unknowing of whether my mom will get out of bed or will be able to fall asleep.  Not knowing what she will want to eat that day.  Unknowing of how to help or not to help depending on what she needs.   When to sit beside her and when to step aside.

I am living between two words right now, the one we are trying to create in our new home 60kms down the lake and my life here living with my parents and trying to support my mom and dad through their pain and grief.

Every day though, I have hope.  Hope knowing that God does know.  Hope knowing that He has placed people around me who can empathize, who really listen and hear what I am trying to convey.  I have hope that God wants to prosper us all, not by the words standards, but by His!

Glory to God alone.  It’s okay that I don’t know.  It is going to be very interesting to see how everything works out.

(This post has been percolating for awhile in my hamster wheel brain and I pray that it conveys the strength of my parents, the shock of this illness and the hope we place in God. )