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Be A Liebster

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WOW!  I am humbled!  Chana and Rebecca have nominated me for a Liebster Award.  Their blogs have been inspiring to me.  I appreciate Chana’s encouragement.  I am honoured to answer these questions and to nominate nine other bloggers I read on a regular basis.  Yes, I know it should be eleven! 🙂

Find Chana  at http://littleduckies.wordpress.com  and Rebecca at http://thedissocialmom.wordpress.com/

The Liebster Blog Award is given to new bloggers with less than 200 followers.  The rules are:

1. Tell 11 things about yourself.

2. Answer 11 questions from the blogger who nominated you.

3. Nominate 11 bloggers, and post 11 questions for them to answer.

Eleven Facts About Myself:

1.  I am a northern girl, from a redneck, sports-minded, outdoors, pulp mill, sawmill kind of city. It was a good place to grow up.

2. I married my true love by choice at 23 years old.

3. My love is my family, including Sexy Neck and my 3 boys, but my passions are coaching, being active outside, and organizing the heck out of everything.

4. I love Jesus ever since I met him in University.  He is alive!

5. My friends are very important to me and I have and incredibly  great circle of friends who encourage my crazy ideas.

6. I am not afraid of change, but I find change hard.  Hmmm…

7. I don’t eat wheat.

8. I am a teacher who struggles with schooling.

9.  This year, for over a year I have been following Ann Voskamp’s blog and counting 1000 gifts.  Today, I wrote down my 1,200 thing that I am thankful for – It was: “Being outside in the sun with my boys.”

10. I am Canadian, eh!  Can you tell by all my words having extra “u”‘s in them – favourite, neighbourhood, honoured etc.

11. I love the blogging world because of its authenticity and instant communication.  I am honoured to join this world.

Eleven Questions from Chana (little duckies.wordpress.com)

1) The 3 most important things in my life are my relationship with Jesus, my husband and my boys… well that is more than 3! hmmm… how strict are the rules?

2) I decided to start blogging because I love writing, I love sharing and I needed an outlet during a very challenging time.

3) Books or television?  Books, we got rid of television once I realized I had an addiction to reality TV.

4) If someone accused your child of bullying theirs, how would you react?  I would pray hard then teach my child and my child’s friends on what to do with a bully.

5) I love reading books that my book club members recommend, self-help books about money and self-improvement and christian fiction.

6) What do you consider to be the most important factor in a marriage? Quality time, not quantity as we have three wee boys bouncing off the walls.

7) There are many, many older (30+) singles today, as well as a high rate of divorce.  What do you think is the cause? Lack of perseverance – life is a sequence of choices and consequences.

8) Why did you choose your city of residence? Weather, outdoor activities, proximity to relatives.

9) How do you and your spouse handle finances? We follow a budget, talk about most major household purchases (over $200) and we each have our own pot of money that we do whatever we want with.

10) What is your favorite household chore?  washing windows

11) The classic: If you won the lottery, what would you do with the money? Pay off our mortgage, buy a new car, donate money to our church and a school in Rwanda, buy my parents a trip or a condo on a golf course, give my nieces and nephews some money for school.

My questions for my Nominees:

1. What website do you check almost every day?

2. Favourite colour to wear?

3. Coffee or tea? Why?

4. What is your favourite season?

5. What are you reading right now ( book or Kobo etc.)?

6. Why blog?

7. Who is the most inspiring person in your life right now?

8.  Do you have a comfort item? If yes, tell us more.

9. Favourite childhood memory?

10. What job did you want to do when you were little?

11.  The classic: What 3 things would you want if you were on a stranded island?

My Nominations:

https://foodiegardeningclub.wordpress.com (My foodie friend’s blog)

http://journeythrugrace.wordpress.com/ (Well said, I can relate!)

http://notsospanish.wordpress.com/ (My cousin who inspired me to blog)

http://enjoylifeforonce.com/ (Love the realness of this blog)

http://rogertharpe.wordpress.com/ (God speaks to me through this blog)

http://tutordoctorofwny.wordpress.com/ (Love this teaching blog)

http://brownpaperbelle.com/  (What a beautiful, inspiring blog)

http://jaydonanddaddy.com/ (He’s a Liebster, but I love Wordless Wednesdays)

http://my3monsters.wordpress.com/ (She has 3 kids too!)

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Be Board

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Sexy Neck has a whole lot of wood around the outside of the house – in his shop, down the side of the fence, under the addition.  

Today the boys wanted to have a pajama day.  This involved staying home in our pajamas.  There was no sleeping to be done though.  

The boys took two pieces of boards that were lying along the fence and decided to run, jump, climb along them at various angles and speeds.  Strap yourselves in, here we go:

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With one giant jump from JC, the board broke in half.  This started a whole different type of play.  

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In my life as a mother, I am never bored!

Family, Goals, Parenting, psychology

Be Aware

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As a strong, determined woman in the 21st Century, I used to “think” that I should be able to have it all!

The feminist movement in the sixties was incredible for women’s ability to vote,  having choice about birth control and other incredible liberating things.  It has taken us to a place where we can be:

  • the sexiest wife
  • Mary Poppinish mother
  • Martha Stewart in the Kitchen
  • CEO of a Fortune 500 company
  • PLUS have a house that looks like tags on Pinterest

Whew, I feel my anxiety rising, how about you? 

My dear sister (and men who know women!) we CANNOT have it all.  If you choose to work, go for it.  If you choose to stay at home, just do it!  If you choose to do both, make it work for YOU!  But something has to give.  We cannot be the BEST at everything.

The Dalai Lama visited Vancouver, BC, Canada in 2010.  He was of the opinion that Western women will save the world.  If you are reading this blog, I bet you are a Western woman or know one!

Let’s stop trying to be the best at everything.  Could we agree to be the best at one thing? RELATIONSHIPS – PARTNERS – ELDERLY – CHILDREN – TEENAGERS – WIDOWS

Here is the epiphany that I had today, whether we stay at home or work, let’s be aware of those around us.  Let’s stop making lunch when one of our children wants to show us a drawing.  Let’s look up from our computer when someone at the office needs a five minute pep talk.  Let’s really see the people around us, that God has placed in our lives.  What a gift they are – even the annoying ones!   It’s all about the relationship friends!

In this age of our time on earth, where we can have it all.  Let’s not try to have it ALL, but let’s try to be enough to those around us!

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Be A Fleecer

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After my oldest son’s birth, I went back to part time teaching.  It became very clear, very quickly that I couldn’t do this “mother thing” and “teacher thing” at the same time while not having my heart crack into two pieces.  

Sexy Neck and I decided that we needed to come up with a creative financial solution so that I could stay at home from work.  This involved selling our first “forever” home and finding a house with income.  This process took over a year and involved using our “fleece” to help us figure out where we should move to.  

Here was our fleeceImage

Fleece: The things we wanted in a house, our rankings plus all the houses we looked at.

What is a fleece? 

First, Sexy Neck and I believe that God has a plan for our lives… how can so many things be coincidences?

Second, there is a story in the Old Testament (before Jesus lived) about Gideon.  I am not a preacher so I will leave it up to God’s word.

Here is what it says:

Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised – look I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor.  If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” (Judges 6:36-37)

My faith sometimes falters, my mind wanders, I get confused, but I know from experience that I can trust God completely.  

Today our house has been sold – signed on the dotted line. 

We have also created our “fleece” for our new home, praying that God will guide us the entire way.  

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Sexy Neck and I will now go look at some houses, rank them and see what unfolds.  We have 11 weeks to find a new place for our family of five to live.  Go God! 

 

Boys, Jesus Christ, Parenting, psychology

Be Sad

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I am “hollow in the pit of my stomach” sad.

I had a picture of how my life would unfold, where I would live and specifically in which town. My husband, Sexy Neck, has been working 60 kilometres down the lake since July.

We are moving so that we can have more time playing/eating/wrestling together as a family, instead of Sexy Neck spending two hours per day in his “steel box on wheels” with just the ability to talk with us on the phone.

BUT I AM SAD!  Right now my “work”, with the help of a very wise, God-loving woman, is learning to acknowledge what I am feeling and what my children are feeling.  I didn’t realize that my body lets me know how I am feeling even before my mind tells me.  This is a profound thought for me, as I am very in tune to my body due to many years of competitive sport.

My sadness comes in the form of a hollow stomach, my anger comes in sweaty hands/ battering heart and my fear come in tension in my shoulders and down my arms.   What does your body do/tell you?

My children love this new habit of me acknowledging their feelings, getting down to their physical level, naming their feeling (anger, frustration, happy, sad, excited) and giving them a hug/kiss.  This simple acknowledgement seems to diffuse almost every situation that occurs in our home.

So here is the house with the for sale sign:

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Not many people knew that we were going to sell our house.  We had an offer even before we put it on the market. Glory to God alone! The realtor had told us that it would take between six and twelve months.  God is helping us move forward, but I am not quite ready.

I am still sad.  I wish that as people found out about us selling that they could acknowledge my sadness.  The normal response is pointing out all the great things, activities, schools, people, areas about the new city that we are going to.

What is wrong with being a little sad?  Please let me grieve so that I don’t have to see a counsellor about this issue in ten years.

Today I will be with my feelings… tomorrow I will probably be jumping off the walls with excited.  I will keep you posted!

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Be A Gift Giver

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I come from a pair of expert gift givers. My parents are probably the most giving people I know. The see a need in our house and they fill it. The spend their time and financial resources to bless us immensely.

Here is the latest gift to show up on our counter:

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A brand new camera that my dad had bought my mom from Costco. My mom already had a camera she liked! Have you noticed my bad blurry pictures that I have been taking with my husband’s ITouch? My parents did.

Then a few days ago another gift showed up in my mailbox – a bottle of hand lotion for my very dry hands. How do my friends know?

What do you have hanging around your house that you could pass on? We do only use twenty percent of what we own. Now let the other stuff go. I have been blessed!

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Book, Boys, Family, psychology

Be Conscious of Your Children’s Brain

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Whew, I got hit over the head this morning. WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

We are pretty conscious of what we allow our children to see and read. We got rid of the television when our oldest son was six months old mostly due to advertising and my addiction to reality tv. We also limit our boys computer time and tend to stick to shows in the two to four year old category on Netflix. We also stopped watching Treehouse because of the advertisements that portrayed beautifully perfect unrealistic women.

Here is the story my oldest, JC “wrote” this morning:Image

Here is a book that we got from the library last week:

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We cannot underestimate a child’s brain, the things they take in, the things they remember and what they will do with it.

From a library book, to remembering it one week later and now a story today, my son is a perfect exam.

Now how about those computer games, constant television watching or this book my boys were reading with daddy this morning:

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