Catching Up

I know it's been a really long time since I was last on here.  I have come through a time of feeling overwhelmed with life!  Which translates into not knowing how to even express it... In the last few months God has continued to stretch me and teach me new things.  

Who am I?  How do I treat people? Are they safe with me even when they aren't around me? This is what I want friends to be sure of.  That they don't have to wonder if I am talking about them in anything other than the most positive light possible.   Of course as I teach Tessa about friends, the old adage "if they talk about someone with you, they talk about you with someone else" is one life's biggest lessons.  I know that Tessa will go through pain with this, but I hope for her that she can learn it early.  

So now that one of my life lessons is out of the way.... I am so excited because my entry way is finally, almost done.  We are definitely one of those 80% people.  I would say at least Dan is one of those people, but really I know that I am too.  Now that life has developed a sort of rhythm we are trying to finish up the 20% of work that is not finished on our house.  Of course the basement is a whole different story.  :)  I am actually still amazed at the amount of work it all is.  But on the positive side, 80% is more than enough done to full enjoy the fruits of our (Dan's) labour.  We have enjoyed having people in and feeling like we can accommodate so much more than we used to.  Seeing that we usually have 3 or 4 or 5 times the number of kids to adults and they aren't all little people anymore it is wonderful and we are so glad that we did the additions.  

It kind of feels good to be back, talking to myself, putting thoughts down, not knowing if they'll be read, and being kind of glad about that..... 

Crazy Life!

How can life get so crazy?  I actually shouldn't even be doing this right now... 2 kids are in the shower (wow do they get dirty) the other two need a shower... Dan is possibly bringing over "new" neighbors so I should be obsessing about my house... and I worked all day...mostly on an order for 700+ blinds, but as a mom too... piano lessons for the big two and even took the little two to the park for an hour and a half.

So I had my moments of angst, but I really did have moments of joy today too.  Love Chris Tomlin and had him on in the van... makes my 14 minute drive to town a pleasure and an awsome worship time.  Love my husband who worked like a dog for me today...love my entryway :)  and am thankful for all the wonderful, stressful things in my life because they are where God has me at this time!

So I don't sound super spiritual, here's the dialogue sitting up to the table tonight.  Me "Am I kind of scary tonight?"  Bo "Ya!"  (I laugh, Dan laughs from the entryway) Bo "well you are..."  Of course I apologized.  Thank you Lord for giving us apologies.

Happy Mother's Day to Me!

Sunday was Mothers Day.  I had a good one.  It could not be about food this year as I am "on a cleanse" this is a good thing.  Somehow, all the celebrations in my life usually revolve around food.  This has not been the case for the last month and a half and mother's day was no different.  It was a little hard for the kids to not be able to bring me breakfast in bed, Tessa, bless her heart, loves to do this, but she brought me coffee and it was... well ok, black and reheated, but nice never the less.

My mother's day gift was what I have been asking for for the last few years... an under the sink composter with a charcoal filter!!!  Yay!  Really, I'm serious Yay!  I love to compost, but I hate the reek of rotting food in plastic under my sink, so this is great!

The other thing we did to celebrate was meet my sister and mom (and families) at the Devonian Gardens.  Note to self: don't go to the Devonian Gardens before the plants in my own yard have bloomed as we will just be looking at the same thing as what is in my own yard.  Nothing was even green yet.  Dan asked "what did you expect?"  

Then Dan brought me to a green house.... it was a good day.  I am thankful for my mother, Dan's mother, and the fact that I am a mother.... we are blessed.

Where did April go?

Ok.  I really can't believe it's been a month and a half since I did this.  Life is busy.  I thought it would be less busy with Dan around a little more, but of course the opposite is true.   Life is full and busy and really, I have much to be thankful for.  

Since I last wrote we also got a new puppy.  That has definately added many minutes/hours to my days... though I have to say he really is great!  We don't love our mornings so much as he is so hyper then.  But he is finally getting into the groove of family life, which is pretty good considering he is only 11 wks tomorrow.

A couple of weeks ago we had our Women's Leadership Retreat.  It was really great for me.  I was looking forward to it, but it also was another 24 hours away from home and I didn't feel like I had the time for it.  We had a fantastic prayer time and when the women gathered around to pray for me I asked them to pray for me to live in the here and now.  We read a book that called it "nowhere".  It's either No where or the Now here, depending on where you break the word up.  

I am still struggeling with it.  God does give peace when we ask for it though and that is what I want from him.  His peace, in family life, in marriage, in my work, in Dan's work.  But I want to live in each moment... to enjoy the 2 minute snuggle with my snotty nosed little boy, to enjoy a happy loud dinner with the family, to be in each second of "hanging with Dan or my friends".  Life will be far too short if I haven't really lived it because I've been thinking (worrying) about the future.... that may not even happen.  

The other thing I just learned is the fact that today... right now.... this is my only opportunity to "live abundantly".  Isn't that cool.  If it's a living thing it can't happen in the past and it can't happen somewhere in the future.  It's only available right now.... Moment by moment.... and that's what I really want to live abundantly!

Blog

Well, It's been almost a month since Dan's "last day".  Where has the time gone.  I can't believe that my last blog was almost a month ago and I was wondering what my life would look like now.  Now I wonder what my life will look like in six months.... isn't that the way it always goes?

Life has been full and busy and we are feeling blessed.  So that's a good thing.  God is proving himself faithful and Dan loves to do his work now.  We are getting the hang of this working from home thing.  Though I don't know how long realistically it will continue.  We are praying for the right office space at the right time at the right price.  (smile) Not asking much eh?

I can hear Eli snoring from the living room couch.  What a little man.  He hasn't been feeling well the last couple days and I so love his "need" to crawl up into my lap and just melt into me.  Dan was reading our devos. out loud to me this morning and Eli just crawled up and over and into his arms.  It made me tear up.  It was such a picture I want to remember of that little boy finding his way into the arms he wanted to feel around him, even though he was sort of being ignored, he didn't care he just wanted to be where he wanted to be.

No More Plan B

Today is Dan's last day of work for PennWest!  Wow!  I know we are just beginning a new part of our journey, but we are just ending one journey.  A journey that Dan began 16 years ago with he and his dad out for pie one Saturday when he was home for a weekend from Prairie.  Dan really had no idea what he was "going to be when he grew up" he wanted to be a hellecopter pilot, but I think knew that he didn't have the money to do it so was on to plan B from the get go.  His dad told him that he could be a gas plant operator:  he would be able to correspondence on his own and challenge the exams, they didn't have to work hard 75% of the time (they are essentially babysitters), he could likely get a job up in Fox Creek if he went about things right, and they made pretty good money.  So that was what began his career in oil and gas.  He worked hard at 18 and was essentially a mail boy/secretary (smile, he'd love that I'm saying this) but they got to know him and respect his hard work. He worked on his tickets on his own in the evenings and shortly before he turned 20 was hired on by Chevron as a power engineer.  

From there he has moved up in experience and seniority to the point that he is leaving as acting forman of the plant at Acheson.  He has been "acting" because they knew he was leaving them, to finally pursue a career that he is excited and passionate about.  No more plan B.  Now even though he was living plan b in his work life, it enabled us to live comfortably and we have enjoyed his shift work days with little ones and then have enjoyed his "regular shift too" we haven't been living a "plan B" life. 

My kids are home from school today and Dan is at his last day of work.  He won't really be doing any work. (Smile) He is trying to stay out of everyone elses way so they can work, they'll take him out for lunch and then he'll come home.  The kids are so excited!  They are busy "cleaning up" so we can decorate to celebrate with Dan when he gets home.  We are all excited for this next section of the journey that God is leading us in.

Dogs

For months before Dan and I got married whenever Dan and I would talk (we lived in different towns) or when we would see each other Dan would just randomly say "SURPRISE!"  It drove me nuts... but I loved it of course too.  My "Surprise!" was our dog Buddy who we had for 11 1/2 years.  He was my wedding present from Dan and we had him our whole marriage until this fall.  He was a great low maintenance dog for a growing family who, since having kids, really didn't have much time for an overly needy dog.  He knew his place was on the floor and was happiest there, could wait 12 hours (we didn't do that often) to go outside if we ended up having a long day away from home, he'd "walk" himself when we were camping (we just attached his leash, or not, and let him go out first thing in the morning while we continued to sleep) and was just a great dog who was oh so cute.  He was truly a member of the family and I miss him still.  

People are sometimes surprised that we don't have a dog yet, because we are totally dog people, but after you have loved and lost (to death) a dog, replacing it is not the first thing you want to do.  The grieving process was actually much longer than I thought it would be and I still tear up when certain things about Buddy come to mind.  That said we have begun our search for our next dog.

Yesterday I spent some time on Kijiji and it is going to be so hard to know which would be right.  I don't want to be stuck to a certain breed, just the right temperment.  We thought for awhile that we would go the outside dog route, but I know it would just end up back in the house and then we would have a hairy, inside dog.  So, inside it will be.  The kids can hardly wait and you know, I'm really excited too!  The only one we have to get on board now is Dan.  Of course knowing that he'll be home a lot more during the day in a week definately helps me be excited because I know I won't be the only one to be running the dog to the bush to house train.  (Didn't I just do my last kid?)