Special girl

I know that in the past I have blogged about how difficult our Kara Hope can be.  How we don't often see things eye to eye and that disciplining her has been a real frustration for me.

That's why I wanted to write today about how lovely my little girl is!  Ever since having Judah, she has completely risen to the occasion and is the most wonderful, loving, helpful big sister ever!  Whenever Judah is crying, she right away tries to rock him or give him a soother or just quietly shushes him.  When I ask her for help (which is many, many times a day) she always says "sure Mom!"  She has been extra cuddly and wants to give Curtis and I lots of hugs and kisses and often says "I love you Mom" for no reason.  She has become very perceptive about what's going on around her and has said things like "I know it is really nice for you when I help you, Mom, so I'll even clean up Jonas' toys".  Wow!  I have to admit that I am loving this girl.  And I'm working hard to tell her every day how much I appreciate her help and terrific attitude and loving heart.

I know that we'll still have bad days, and I will love her through them, but I sure am enjoying her on these good days!

This mornings project

We are so close to getting the kids' room all done.  This morning I wanted to hang pictures and do another small project that I thought would help with our clutter problem.  It turned out to be a fun project that only took a short time and everybody was able to pitch in - perfect thing to do on Curtis' day off!

The idea is that this will serve as a tack board to hold Kara's millions of art projects that are spread all over the house!  We took an old barn frame and sanded it down and then painted it white.  We spent $4 at the hardware store to buy a piece of wood that was soft enough for tacks to push into and cut it into sizes that would fit the frame.  Then I bought some cute fabric and wrapped it around the wood and staple-gunned it to the back and voila!  A quick and easy and relatively cheap project that will help organize our lives a little bit more - always a good thing in my books :)

Reno pictures

I have had lots of requests for reno pictures, so here are a few.  The bathroom pictures aren't great, but you can see the new tile and paint colour.  Before it was all a dark tan colour.  Now it is multiples versions of grey.

Here is the kids room.  Before it was two shades of purple - not really boy friendly.  They both love these colours and we're happy with how it turned out.  I still have to hang things on the wall, but otherwise it's pretty much done!  Hooray!  LOVE crossing this off the list!

Now we just have to convince Jonas to sleep in here :)

Purging

So I know that I still have 3 months to go until this baby arrives, but I'm starting to get antsy about sorting out rooms and toys and books and beds and clothes and ....

We're in the process of painting Kara's room to make it more friendly for Jonas to share.  Curtis thinks he can finish that tonight (hopefully!).  We put up the bunkbed - the kids are so so excited about that.  It's still a huge novelty - I'm sure they'll get used to it!  This afternoon I started purging books and toys to downsize in the room - going from a 1 kid room to a 2 kid room means they each only have half as much space for toys.  I got both Kara and Jonas to help and it actually went great!  We made a keep pile and a giveaway pile and a baby pile and they really got into it!  I was so proud of them.  Curtis even admitted that they were better at that than he is!  I concur :)

Next step is to sell a shelf and fix up closets and then move Jonas in with Kara.  And then ... my, the list goes on and on.

Slowly but surely we are getting there.  And I'm sure we'll be ready when this baby makes its' arrival. And the truth is - I love this!  I love organizing and purging and sorting.  It helps to calm and quiet my mind when the space around me is calm and quiet too.  

Now if we can just come up with a name ...

Curtis the handyman

I love love love that my husband is so handy around the house!  Pretty much any crazy scheme that I can dream up, he can do it.  And what I mostly love about it is that he does it out of love for me.  Most of the projects we do don't NEED to be done, but he does them because his heart is full of love for me. How blessed I am to know that.

So anyways, the most recent project is redoing the main bathroom.  We (of course I mean that in biblical sense!) redid all the electrical, plumbing, tiling and painting and it's turning out great!  Curtis is grouting the tile as we speak.  I hear lots of huffing and puffing, but not a single complaint.

One of the fun side affects of having no functioning bathroom, is that we get to do hilarious things like this (well, the kids think it's hilarious anyways):

Our next project is painting Kara's room to make it more boy/girl friendly for when Jonas moves in.  Stay tuned ...

Halfway!

Did I mention that I was pregnant?  I'm sure you've heard by now ... news travels fast!  We have finally hit the halfway point and I think I've made a turning point too.  I'm down to only one pill (anti-vomitting drug) a day and only random vomiting :)  I'm feeling kicks on a regular basis and we are beginning to think about names.  I had an ultrasound this morning and we saw our little miracle - legs crossed and hands in front of his/her face.  Pretty cute considering it's still fairly alien looking!

I'm really feeling like this baby is a gift for us - a bonus gift.  I know all of our children have been gifts (all seven of them) but this one feels like the icing on the cake.  We have longed for a third child, but had decided that we were content with just two.  I was worried about my "advanced maternal age" (blech!) and so we had given ourselves a timeline about how long we would try for another one - as long as I would be 35, I was OK with that.  Well, this baby will arrive 8 short weeks shy of my 36th birthday.  Thank you Jesus for giving us the desires of our heart - You know us and You love us!  I am thankful.

Blueberries

I know it has been a terribly long time since I have written anything.  And I think that maybe that's why I've been avoiding it!  How do I sum up the last 8 months?  So instead, I will pretend like I have been blogging all along and just pick up with today - that seems much more manageable!

So to begin again I picked the simple topic of blueberries!  My kids love these berries and eat them everyday by the handful.  Thankfully, they are now much more affordable and are even local (well, as local as we get in Drumheller - the grocery store has ones from Abbotsford).  Last night when I was asked to make some squares for a funeral at church today, I came across this recipe and they turned out AH-MAZE-ING!  I great way to use blueberries - and mostly pretty healthy too if you cut down on the sugar a bit :)  Enjoy!

Blueberry Oatmeal Squares

Ingredients

• 2-1/2 cups (625 mL) rolled oats, (not instant)
• 1-1/4 cups (300 mL) all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp (15 mL) grated orange rind
• 1/4 tsp (1 mL) salt
• 1 cup (250 mL) cold butter, cubed
• 3/4 cup (175 mL) packed brown sugar
• Filling:
• 3 cups (750 mL) fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup (125 mL) granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup (75 mL) orange juice
• 4 tsp (18 mL) cornstarch

Preparation

Filling: In saucepan, bring blueberries, sugar and orange juice to boil; reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 10 minutes. Whisk cornstarch with 2 tbsp (25 mL) water; whisk into blueberries and boil, stirring, until thickened, about 1 minute. Place plastic wrap directly on surface; refrigerate until cooled, about 1 hour.

In large bowl, whisk together oats, flour, sugar, orange rind and salt ; with pastry blender, cut in butter until in coarse crumbs. Press half into 8-inch (2 L) square parchment paper–lined metal cake pan; spread with blueberry filling. Sprinkle with remaining oat mixture, pressing lightly.

Bake in centre of 350°F (180°C) oven until light golden, about 45 minutes. Let cool on rack before cutting into squares.(Make-ahead: Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days or overwrap with heavy-duty foil and freeze for up to 2 weeks.)