A Solid Foundation in a Marriage

I've been evaluating and attempting to improve several areas in my life. Inevitably, marriage came up as an area to look at and make sure I'm giving it my all.

Corey is the author of Simple Marriage. I really appreciate how he shares his marriage experiences and asks questions that make me pause and consider how things really are in my own marriage. My hubby doesn't know this yet but he's going to be asked these questions randomly and without context from me ... I love to keep hubby on his toes ;)

Corey says that , "in the midst of struggle and crisis know that [marriage] is survivable. You can come out the other end better and more alive. ... And[,] ...be willing to stick it out through the tough times.

No marriage is immune to struggle - in fact, no life is either. I’m not an advocate of making your marriage work at all costs, if you are married to an abusive spouse or a habitual cheater then you are really putting yourself at risk by staying. But I do believe marriage is a big commitment and deserves a great deal of respect and effort.

My hope is that when the rough times come in your marriage, as I’m sure they will again to some degree in mine, you will step up, grow up, and work through it together.

A marriage fully alive doesn’t happen by chance - it’s designed by both of you."

Ah, such wisdom. Doesn't it make you stop and think that the small squabbles really aren't that bad and what it is all about to be in a loving relationship? Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy a squabble here and there, but knowing that it isn't going to make or break our relationship because our foundation is built on so much more than that makes me feel secured and loved.

Things That Make Me Happy

MamaKat always has great writing challenges to inspire blog posts.

Today, here are 10 things that make me happy (thanks also to Live. Laugh. Pull your hair out for inspiring some of my top 10).

1) "Happy Pills"

2) Chocolate.

3) My house cleaners

4) Crafts

5) Home Decor (this only makes me happy when I get my way or convince hubby to compromise ... LOL)

6) My nuclear family
7) My extended family
8) Paying off loans & financial planning

9) Decluttering

10) Mommy time

Check out MamaKat's place to see other assignments.

Weekend Plans

This week's question: What are your plans for the weekend?

My children are having a bit of an early weekend at my parents' place (bless my Mom & Dad) and therefore, hubby and I are catching up on some much-needed sleep. I think we even had a bit of a conversation last night without a young one taking over or making us forget our train of thought! I also appreciated the distance from the kids as I am pretty excited to see them after a day or two and some rest has ensued.

Anyhow, back to the original question ... this weekend we are meeting up with my parents and my children to celebrate two of my (much) younger cousins' grade 8 Confirmation.

I wanted to be creative with their gifts so I have come up with a "Survival Kit from God" for each of them. Here is what the "letter" says (and what I'll be putting into the kit). I hope this is cool enough for a 14-year-old?!

Lollipop to help you lick your problems
A Rubber band to help you be flexible and not to break
Snickers to remind you to laugh in the face of trials.
A Paper Clip to help you hold things together.
Caramel to help you chew the fat with good friends (PALS)
A Sweet Tart to help you accept and appreciate the differences in others
Stick of Gum to give you stick-to-it-iveness.
Piece of String to help you tie up loose ends.
A Pin to pinpoint problems
A Lifesaver to keep you from drowning in everyday chores.
Lemon Drop to remind you that "if live gives you lemons, make lemonade"!
A Penny to give you extra "cents" that everyone needs.
Nail to help you remember how much you are worth to me.
A Hug and Kiss to remind you how much I Love You.

Do not try to shoulder all the worlds problems.......That's My Job!!!

Love, Your Heavenly Father

The Trash Challenge

Darn it to all of these smart people out there who are coming up with projects and theories and world-changing movements for me to read and get inspired by *sigh*. So now I have another daily living consideration - my trash and what do I throw out? Thanks to Mandy at Organizing Your Way, here is my latest home initiative.

In her introduction of the Trash Challenge, Mandy writes, "I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few weeks wondering what exactly fills our trash bags each week ...(we) fill up 4-6 bags of trash a week. ...With that in mind, I’ve decided to issue The Trash Challenge – to myself and to any readers who want to join me this week!"

Mandy's plan is to write down everything that goes into her kitchen trash this week so that she can come up with strategies to eliminate the trash going forward. I read her list this week and it consists of a lot of items that my City composts or recycles. I think we only put out one small white kitchen bag of garbage plus diapers from my home daycare which is unavoidable at this time.

Mandy suggests burning the compost-able items and paper that her City doesn't take. The other way is by reducing the amount of packaged food her family eats. For example, she purchased a head of lettuce rather than a pre-bagged salad and is considering homemade popcorn instead of microwave popcorn. Interesting points that I am going to consider going forward, especially as we are attempting to reduce (not eliminate as I'm not super-duper Mom here folks) gluten, processed foods and sugary snacks ~ I almost wrote for the kids but yes, I need to reduce all of this stuff too.

If you want to be inspired, visit this couple's Rubbish Free Year challenge. They have committed to one bag of trash for an entire year. The one bag wasn’t even a garbage bag, just a grocery store bag! I hope they succeed but how in the world are they going to manage that one?! People have such ambitious goals. I admire them. At this point in my life I'll just have to focus on reducing the over-packaged products we bring into our home and perhaps purchase the new biodegradable plastic bags that are out there.

Will you join Mandy and I in this challenge? What is the first item you are going to try to focus on for reducing your households garbage output?

The Daily Connect

I have been feeling uncreative lately but I have been reading several interesting blogs. I thought I would summarize my favourites over the next few days and topics that interest me. Forgive the "cheater" posts but I hope that you find them as interesting as I and perhaps you will get addicted to more blogs also!

Click on the Blog title above if you want to head over to the original link. And thanks to The Creative Mama for today's post inspiration.

"Do you connect on a daily basis with those you love? I’m not talking about the passing hello, or the quick “love you too” at the end of a phone conversation. I am referring to the sincere connecting that only happens with intent and passion. ...Carving out time to connect is vital - whether it is with your children, your husband, your aging parent or a good friend."
~ The Creative Mama

I really need to start focusing on this with my family. It is so easy to get caught up in the chores I need to do and to not sit down and enjoy them as they are so little and precious. Especially since I know they will grow up so fast and get swallowed up into their own independence as the years progress. This is a great statement to why I stay home with the kids and have a home daycare so I can enhance the quality of all of our lives.
~ More Than A Mom


How are you connecting with those you love? Do you find it difficult to find the time, or does it come easily to you? I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

Menu Plan Monday ~ May 25-31

Note: all meals and snacks are served with milk.

Monday
Snack ~Graham crackers, oranges
Lunch ~ Waffles with blueberries, yogurt
Snack ~Celery and Pretzel Butterflies ~ Cut a small piece of celery for the body of the butterfly. Spread some cream cheese or peanut butter inside of the stalk of celery. Add 4 small folded pretzels for the butterfly wings. Add 2 strings of black licorice for the antennas.
Dinner ~ Mango Chicken Salad recipe. Serves 4.

Tuesday
Snack ~Multi-grain Cheerios (dry), banana
Lunch ~ Tuna fish sandwiches, oranges, cheese slices
Snack ~Ants on a Log ~ Needed: Raisins(ants) or prunes (bugs), celery, peanut butter (make sure no one in your class is allergic). Give each child a piece of celery. Have the children wash and dry their celery. Next, have them spread peanut butter on the celery and put either their ants (raisins) or their bugs (prunes). Eat up!!!
You could also use cream cheese if you have children in your class who are allergic to peanut butter.
Dinner ~ Lemon Asparagus Pasta. Makes 4 servings.

Wednesday
Snack ~Strawberry muffins, applesauce
Lunch ~ Fish sticks, grapes, toast with cream cheese
Snack ~Edible Spiders ~ You'll need: round crackers peanut butter mini m&m's Pull-n-Peel Twizzlers (cut into 1 inch pieces) Give each child 2 crackers, peanut butter, 2 m&m's,and a piece of licorice. Have child spread on peanut butter with popsicle stick on one cracker. Pull apart licorice and place eight "legs" on the cracker. Place other cracker on top. Dab two spots of peanut butter on cracker top and stick on m&m's for eyes.
Dinner ~ Tomato Basil Quiche recipe. This spring recipe for quiche makes 10 servings, so you’ll have plenty of leftovers for later.

Thursday
Snack ~Vegetable crackers, applesauce
Lunch ~ Grilled cheese, deli meat, banana
Snack ~Caterpillars ~ Recipe: Shred 1 leaf of lettuce, spread cream cheese on 4 Ritz crackers. Layer the crackers slightly on top of each other to form the body of the caterpillar, the crackers were placed on top of the lettuce. We then took 2 raisins for eyes and 6-8 chow mien noodles for legs.
The children loved eating their caterpillars as much as they loved making them.
Dinner ~ One-Pot Chicken with Beans & Vegetables. Makes 8 servings.

Friday
Snack ~Graham crackers, grapes
Lunch ~ Chicken nuggets, apples, yogurt
Snack ~Worms and Dirt ~ Supplies: Gummy worms, Oreo cookies, sandwich bags and paper cups. Place Oreo cookies in a sandwich bag and let the kids crush them. Then dump them into to paper cup and add gummy worms. Then they can eat worms and dirt!
Dinner ~ Pizza Braid served with salad

Saturday
Lunch ~ Hot dogs, rice crisps, fruit
Dinner ~ Spaghetti with broccoli and meatballs plus garlic bread

Sunday
Lunch ~ Pemeal bacon, eggs, toast
Dinner ~ Leftover buffet

Our Gluten-Free Diet Attempt

We had our first appointment with a naturopath to discuss possible allergies or other reasons for our 3-year old daughter's wild personality moments (or hours). She suggested we try a gluten-free period for 7-10 days to detoxify her system ... and reduce processed & sugary foods too (which I was starting to think she was getting too much of anyhow). But what IS gluten-free? Super simplified, gluten is a form of protein found in many grains, such as wheat, barley (malt), and rye.

Of course I Googled and found on Wikipedia that:

"a gluten-free diet is recommended amongst other things in the treatment of celiac disease and wheat allergy. It is a diet completely free of ingredients derived from gluten-containing cereals: wheat (including kamut and spelt), barley, rye, and triticale, as well as the use of gluten as a food additive in the form of a flavoring, stabilizing or thickening agent. Additionally, the diet may exclude oats. Some people for whom the diet is recommended can tolerate oat products and some medical practitioners say they may be permitted, but there is controversy about including them in a gluten-free diet because studies on the subject are incomplete."

I attempt to prepare healthy and well-rounded meals for our family while catering to the notorious toddler pickiness. This adds a slight cramp in my style but thankfully the Internet is a wealth of knowledge and the experience (and recipes and meal plans) of others who have a lifetime of gluten-free living is at my fingertips to tap into. Actually, the more I am reading about the gluten-free diet, the more I am considering it for all of us (at least for a few weeks to detoxify).

Thankfully, plain meat, fish, rice, fruits, and vegetables do not contain gluten so that is a huge weight lifted off my shoulders.

Do you and/or your family adhere to any special dietary restrictions or choices? If so, how did you transition and make it a part of your daily living?

Menu Plan Monday ~ May 18-24

I know I am late with this but it was a holiday yesterday for us and I just wasn't into menu planning. Today I'm not totally into it either so I'm cheating and using from I'm an Organizing Junkie. I just changed some of the days around.

This week I'm going to make an effort to make prepared frozen meals and then have my plans centre around them.

For this week though, it's ...

Monday: Steak, potatoes, mixed vegetables

Tuesday: Omelettes

Wednesday: Homemade cheeseburgers, fries, corn, and green beans

Thursday: Maple Glazed Chicken served with salad and steamed carrots

Friday: Pizza Braid served with salad

Saturday: Spaghetti with broccoli and meatballs plus garlic bread

Sunday: Leftover buffet

Head over to orgjunkie.com and find out what's on the menu this week!

The Underappreciated Gardener

I was very excited to surprise my husband with some gardening. He has been complaining that the children have been picking his flowers (he is the gardener in the house ... or was ...). So I thought I would spend time today making distinct rock garden areas versus "paths" that I put cedar mulch on to encourage the children to stay on.

Throughout the day I pulled weeds, "fluffed" the soil (yes, my official gardener lingo) and moved the rocks out of the garden and to the edges. All the children and I were proud (they got to choose which rocks went where). And then my husband came home.

I think the husband mistakes me for his toddler daughter instead of the mother of his children because there was no thank you, just "you didn't put underlay under the cedar mulch - you just wasted it" and "you don't know what were weeds and what were my flowers! you plucked out everything" which in my defense I ONLY plucked dandelions because that is all I know to be weeds and I made a special point of NOT touching anything that looked like a flower or like it was about to sprout.

Needless to say my feelings are beyond hurt. Here I am, medically depressed, on day four of a new medication (which is emotional to begin with and I did warn the husband about this) and here I am being berated and told I don't respect the man, quite loudly and with neighbours directly on the other side of the fence within a few yards I might add. Am I such a terrible wife for wanting to help my husband get to some of the outdoor things he never gets a chance to do or to want to feel good about myself for accomplishing a project or for wanting a simple "thank you for trying to help me"?

I Love Games

I have always enjoyed playing games. I even tried for a while to do a family game night on Saturday nights but hubby would sit and read the weekly flyers while I was playing with my then 2-year-old daughter and the baby slept. Yes, that was a fun time ...

Now I'm on Facebook and playing games. They are okay but limited. I just found Free Realms and it seems really cool (so far). Come check it out and let me know what you think.

Spring Cleaning Party ~ Day Six

Today’s focus is the bathrooms and linen closets. These tiny rooms can easily wreak a lot of havoc in an otherwise organized home, because they serve as storage for a wide range of products. From half-used toiletries, to hotel freebies, to medicine, to extra sheets, bathrooms can be filled to the brim with clutter.

Once A Month Mom - May Menu

I am VERY excited about this pre-cooking adventure I am about to embark on. Wish me luck ... basically these gals at the website have prepared a FREE monthly menu with FREE recipes, grocery list, labels and instructions for having a once-a-month cooking "party" either by yourself or with another "chef extraordinaire". This should make managing a household's famous "what's for dinner" issue a non-issue because you can just go to the freezer and pull out a pre-made, just warm me up dinner!

Check it out and let me know if you would like to join me (either online or in my kitchen as I'll need a partner!).

P.S. I was thinking of cooking two recipes a day for one week. Do you think this will work? I doubt I'd be able to do them all in one day - especially with at least two toddlers "helping".

Spring Cleaning Party ~ Day Five

Today’s the last day on the kitchen! It feels really good to have the hub of the home cleared and ready to use, and to know where all the cooking tools are. Since the food is inventoried and ordered, it’s much easier to organize everything else.

I did this a few weeks ago in the kitchen and for some reason cannot find my before and after photos. But where is the food inventory list? Anyone know of a good one?

Spring Cleaning Party - Day Four

Day four is part one of the kitchen. Spring cleaning the kitchen can be a doozy, but thankfully, it’s so much easier each year you keep at it. The key here, as in all rooms, is to truly have only what you need and love.

How To Twitter

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Tip Junkie for her 3-part series on how to Twitter. I just joined the Twit band wagon and I am getting so much more out of it since her tips.



Here is a summary of the 3-parts but feel free to check out the full articles at Tip Junkie's website.

To receive the benefits of Twitter you need to build your twitter audience.

a. Expand your audience by clicking on names your twitter friend’s reply to.

b. Check out what they tweet about and if interested follow them.

c. Many bloggers will post on what twitter users they enjoy, you can also check out #followfriday on Tweet Search and see who people have recommended.

d. @MrTweet is an online “personal networking assistant” that can provide you with suggestions of good follows for you based on your network and tweets.

e. Go to Twellow.com and search around for people to follow using keywords that interest you.

The #1 way to increase the number of people following you is to follow others. Also by providing value to others through your tweets by re-tweeting messages, participating in conversations and answering other’s questions. Follow liberally, you can always unfollow tweeters that you don’t enjoy later. Also be careful, Auto- follow-back applications may seem like they will make things easier but in the long run they can lead to spending lots of time fishing out spammers.

Master the Art of Twitter Conversation. When fellow tweeters feel a connection personally with you they are more likely to be interested in what you have to offer business wise.

Create your twitter Persona. Do you want to be personable, humorous, friendly or knowledgeable? When fellow tweeters feel a connection personally with you they are more likely to be interested in what you have to offer business wise.

Work on the design/appearance of your twitter homepage.

Learn from the masters and follow them. Notice how often they post links, reply to others, participate in conversations, learn from the “twitter stars.”

There are many applications to take Twitter to the next level, don’t let them overwhelm you, when you feel ready just try one out.

Spring Cleaning Party - Day Three

Today is day three, which is part two of the living areas. Remember to declutter, clean and organize. I am feeling SO great about myself. I even pulled out the furniture and vacuumed behind them and the baseboards! Let me know if you can see more of a difference from today's part two in the room versus part one and what you think of it!




















I moved the television up high to stop little hands from pressing all the buttons ~ although dear hubby tells me that it is too wobbly and it might topple and kill a child. Well we don't want THAT so we'll be moving it back promptly.





















Finally, that bookshelf/toy storage unit. Before it was a clutter disaster (check out one of the photos above to see it) but after ... be still my heart!














I also changed the location of the couch so that it would divide the computer area. I love it! And here is the computer area ...

Spring Cleaning Party ~ Day Two

Day two is part one of the living room, or wherever the central area is in your home. Some of you may have more than one space, which is why it’s helpful to take two days to really get this space decluttered, cleaned, and organized.

I am going to do our basement family room as the living room. You're going to love the before (photo on the left) and after photos (on the right).

Side Note: I am looking at the before and after photos and even though I feel like it is clean I am realising it is not as tidy as I would like. Thank goodness there are two days in this room. These are more like the before and "still working on it" photos.

Spring Cleaning Party ~ Day One

The first day’s task is a “clean sweep.” The goal is to quickly sweep through your home, throw away trash, and toss items you no longer need or want into a box for later. And that’s basically it - a project that should only take about two hours max (more or less, depending on the size of your home).

Menu Plan Monday ~ May 3-9

This week's menu plan ...

Sunday ~ Wendy's Take Out
Monday ~ Pork Tenderloin (leftovers)
Tuesday ~ Chicken Florentine
Wednesday ~ Grilled Fish & rice & beans
Thursday ~ Chicken breasts with barbecue sauce, mashed potatoes, steamed green beans
Friday ~ Pizza Night (thin crust, ham & pineapple topping), baby carrots
Saturday ~ Cheese Quesadilla (high fiber tortilla with sprinkle of cheese, chopped onion, salsa), light nonfat

For more meal plan ideas, don't forget to check out I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Having One of Those Days

I'm having one of these lives with the kids ...

Six Word Saturday

Planning to post daily in May!

Favourite Friday

Thanks to CarmaSez for showing me Janana Bee's Friday Favourites.

Description: It's Friday Favourites time! Oh yes it's time to pay homage to all the things that got us through the week, and give credit where credit is due! Here are my Friday Favourites this week....

My mother is my favourite this week because she took young Ava for a few days to let me catch up on some of my sleep debt. I love the child, however, she still doesn't sleep through the night and clings to me like a fly on stink.