Relaxation

What Relaxes you??

I know that some people relax when they can get out with friends, some its watching a movie or TV and others its sitting in a quiet place alone. I could go on and on but I think most of you have already thought about what relaxes you.

For me if I am feeling a little stressed or just need to think about something or even if I have had a busy week and just want to have a break. There are two things that relax me, first its sitting and having tea with my best friend my husband and the other is to clean....yes that right clean! 

I really enjoy cleaning and organizing our house. My husband finds it a little weird that I get energized when I clean. Just last week he came into our sons room where I was sorting through clothes that were to small and organizing his dresser. When Chris came in the room he started to laugh and said "you know that you are not normal and that most people avoid cleaning the way you do and here you are getting energized by it".

He does laugh sometimes and even try and convince me that we should watch a movie together instead of cleaning something. Then there are other times when he will tell me how wonderful it is that I am willing to clean out old closets and toss things that we don't need or use anymore. 

I remember before we had children we lived in this great little townhouse. I would re-organize a whole room while Chris was at work. Now I am not just meaning I would move furniture but I would find a new place to put everything in that room. I lost tract of how many times I re-organized our kitchen. There were times when Chris would come home from work and look at me and say "did you have a good day and where can I find a cup?" Chris has always been very patient with me as I re-organize and clean out our house. 

One other thing that I enjoyed doing is Spring Cleaning, only in our house instead of being once or twice a year it is more like once every 6-8 weeks. 

I always seem to be looking for a better way to use the space we have therefor some things that are not being used that are broken (that I am never going to fix) I will donate to someone/somewhere where else.

All this to say that I think its about that time again. My over sized bookshelf in my living/dinning room is looking a little cluttered and I think I will make myself a cup of tea and put on some music and start cleaning!

Relaxation

sick kids = singing kids

This morning the kids and I stayed home from church because they are still a little sick. This past week both kids were sick, Jaclyn had a cold and an ear infection. David had a cold (with me watching for changes and signs of pneumonia), on top of that we are dealing with their asthma. 

It has been a long week for all of us, I am glad that they are both starting to feel better. I am looking forward to spring coming soon and being past the cold season.

Anyways, because the kids are starting to feel better they are wanting to do more then just hang out on the couch or bed and watch movies or read books. This morning they wanted to make videos for their Gramma and Grandad. So here are the videos that my kids have requested that I put on my blog for their grandparents.

David Singing ABC's

Jaclyn Singing ABC's

During the time it took me to upload the videos and publish this post both of the kids have curled up beside me to watch another movie. At least they have a little more energy everyday!

sick kids = singing kids

Busy Weekend, Anniversay Weekend

This last weekend was a busy one for our family. I went away for two nights to a ladies retreat with some of the woman in my church. It was a wonderful time and I got to know some of the woman better and I am blessed to have these beautiful ladies in my life. 

While I was gone Chris stayed home with our children. When I left David had a bit of a fever but seemed to be on the mend and Jaclyn wasn't sick. Chris had big plans for his weekend with the kids, he was going to build them another castle out of a card board box, build puzzles and mostly just play lots. 

This weekend while I was gone Chris ended up having two sick and cranky kids who constantly asked for me and if I was coming home soon, they even woke up in the middle on the night asking for me. My wonderful husband never complained to me about how hard in was or how tired he was when I got home he just gave me a hug and asked me how my weekend was?

Chris is an Amazing dad and David and Jaclyn are blessed to have him as their father. 

This last weekend was also our Anniversary. I am sure some people would read this and think "didn't she just say that she was away all weekend". So yes, I was away this year for our anniversary. However, I do believe that we have only ever spend two actual anniversaries together where we are either in the same house or even Province. For the first few years Chris worked over our anniversary weekend. If I remember correctly Chris worked an overtime shift last year (we needed the money) and I was sleeping by the time he got home. Don't get me wrong, we always make some time during the month of March to spend time together and celebrate it is just not usually on the actual day.

Last Saturday 6 years ago I married my best friend. When Chris and I were married he was already my best friend and I loved him more then I could have described to anyone and today just over six years later he is still my best friend and I love him ever more!

Over the time the we have been married we have lived in eight houses, a few Provinces, we have two amazing children and thousands of wonderful memories together. Like all couples we have had our ups and downs as we have certainly learned more about each other along the way.  It has been a busy six years but it has also been a wonderful six years and I am glad that I was able to share every season and change in our lives with my best friend, my husband!

 Crescent Beach 2004

Busy Weekend, Anniversay Weekend

My Diva

A little while ago I was talking to my girlfriend on the phone and while we talking Jaclyn changed her outfit twice. My friend asked me if I would document a day in the life of Jaclyn and her many different outfits.

So today I had my camera ready for her and here are the outfits from today.

This is the First outfit of the day

The Second

The Third (notice the socks)

The Fourth

The Fifth and final outfit of the day

I love my little diva!!

My Diva

Birthday Princess

My beautiful daughter turned 3 this week. 

Every year for my children's birthdays I ask them what type of theme they want for there party, this typically means what kind of cake they want. This year Jaclyn asked for a Mickey Mouse theme, and there were a few things in particular that she requested.

 Our Birthday Girl

These are Minnie Mouse ears that I made. We had either Mickey or Minnie ears for all the kids who came. She had seen mouse ears in a picture and decided that she really wanted them, and we found a pretty easy way to do them.

 

 Of course, there always has to be present openings, which is always a bit of a stretch for her, since she would much rather just check out the first thing she gets than to continue on.

One of the biggest highlights for the kids was Mickey and Minnie cake pops, which was certainly a departure from the regular cakes I do.

These are the Mickey & Minnie Cake pops.

Basically, it is cake on a stick dipped in chocolate

I think they turned out pretty good.

Happy Birthday to our lovely daughter.

Birthday Princess

Review: Couples Who Pray

Couples who pray
By Squire Rushnell and Louis Duart

My Review:

Finding a quality book dealing with prayer can be a difficult thing. It seems as if everyone has seen an over-crowded market and said ‘me too’. That being said, prayer is one of those areas that seem to be a perennial difficulty in the lives of Christians. We all know that prayer is important, but actually having a prayer life that is real and growing, and finding ways to share that with your spouse...well that doesn’t always happen. As a matter of fact, it seems to happen to a statistically small portion of people.

My husband and I were looking for a devotional to go through together, and from the brief write-up, we thought this would be perfect. A time to spend some quality time in prayer together, being directed to pray for things or in ways that we might not naturally think of.

Unfortunately, this was not what this book was about. This book has much more to do with couples who have decided to pray together and their stories than it does about any sort of guidance in going through prayer for 40 days. Luckily, after getting over our initial disappointment at the misunderstanding, I did find the book contain some good parts. Even just getting this kind of a challenge out can be important, because many couples have kept their own devotional and prayer lives separate, continuing habits developed while single, and the move to shared times of prayer can be a huge way to purposefully be open with each other and each person’s desire for God.

That being said, I found the sheer amount of stories and name dropping to be fairly overdone, and I think, a bit of a cover for the lack of depth to the book itself. The authors do not even get to the actual details of taking the 40 day prayer challenge until Chapter 3 (out of 10), and when they do, they go through it so quick you wonder if you missed something

After quickly sketching out taking the challenge, they give 10 tips in helping, some being a little odd (at least in my opinion)

1. More prayer, more power. Simply talk to God. The more you pray, the more it will come to you.

OK, not to quibble, but shouldn’t it be ‘the more prayer, the more God’. This is not a magical formula to get power from a genie, this is talking to God, and the foremost benefit would be that relationship growing.

2. Make time to pray.

3. Have an attitude of gratitude and vulnerability.

4. Confess and request forgiveness.

5. Pray out loud with your spouse.

6. Keep it short. The author’s point here is to not feel that you have to go on forever, but that could have been done in a way that did not suggest the best way is to keep it short enough to be a twitter...

7. Use everyday language.

8. Pray for your marriage.

9. Pray for others and for self.

10. Expect God to answer your prayers. OK, this is one of those ones that really needs to be unpacked if you are going to say it. Because it can easily be implied that you have to force a belief in place for God to do something through your prayer, this can be a slippery argument that can tend to hurt people easily...unfortunately, they don’t take much time to make it clear

After this,the book deals with some general ideas about issues faced in marriage and how prayer together can help them, which could be very helpful for people who are in the trenches in one of these issues and could give them that added push to start praying together.

Rating: 2 out of 5

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Thomas Nelson Publishers has provided you with a complimentary copy of this book for me to review. 

I am not required to give a positive opinion but I am required to give my honest opinion.

Review: Couples Who Pray