Christmas 2012 at Our House!

No words needed ....

 

 

 

Sick baby ,,,,

My last day of work for 2012 was on Thursday, December 20th. I've enjoyed this entire week off and still have another week and a half to go. Bill had to work yesterday for not quite a full day and the same today, then he is off again until January 2nd. Today, I heard him leave but he was trying so hard to creep around so I could sleep a bit. Catching up and regaining some energy for the coming year is the plan this holiday season.

 

However, my plans to ice cookies and write all day got a bit sidetracked when I was woken up by Chelsea, who crept into my room with a very sick boy in her arms. We all snuggled in bed until she was able to get an appointment for him at the clinic at 11:30 a.m. While they were gone, I had a warm bath, then made our bed and set up our family room to be the "hub" for the day. They got home around 1 (the verdict was tonsillitis) and we settled in for the afternoon, taking turns rocking our sick boy and getting his fever down to a more manageable temperature. He slept, sipped, fussed, cried, moaned and then finally asked for some pasta, which after it was cooked and brought to him, he promptly took one bite and declared he was "all done"!

Despite the snag in my original plan for the day, I did make the icing and made a scrumptious Turkey Pot Pie for dinner tonight. Bill came home at 3 and whisked me away for a quick trip to Costco so I could pick up some ingredients for our meal. Came across a scrapbooking pad of paper and embellishments from one of my favorite artists, Susan Branch. Sells on her website for $29.95 but on sale at Costco for a very reasonable $10.95. Looking forward to having some time over the holidays to do some scrapbooking.

Beckett is having a miserable time tonight. Bedtime is next on the agenda. Can't wait to have our sweet little guy back again. Miss his grin and his fun, goofy personality!

 

Warm again!

It's been a bitterly cold Christmas so far,

with temperatures sitting around the -30 mark.

 

Today, it's going up to a balmy -5.

 

Loving the warmth of the sun peeking

thru the blinds in our master bedroom.

 

Laying on the bed, reading blogs, I look up to see this:

 

 

And feel a peaceful calm in my world today.

 

Christmas love has melted into New Year's love.

 

And all is well ....

Catching Up!

I have been a terrible blogger over the last few months. The last time I wrote was in the summer! So many things have happened, I could take all day writing a post just to catch up. Instead, I'll just jot down a few of the key things that are memorable and worth sharing.

We had a lovely summer, full of rebuilding our deck and redoing our garden. And then, when all the work was done, we sat back and thoroughly enjoyed the time we were able to spend outside in our new space. Space that is now open, beautiful to look at, comfortable to be surrounded by and oh so sweet to smell. Cedar was definitely the way to go, especially with the price we were able to negotiate, then negotiate again with Home Depot, creating a bill in the end that was lower than using a much cheaper wood. Score one for us!

Pictures to follow.

My job has changed a bit and I'm still trying to work it all out. It's a good move but one that has added more responsibility to my plate. I'm feeling a bit resentful that my co-workers are not bogged down with the caseload I currently carry but I truly believe in time that we'll be better off in showing the need for creating a new position so I can have staff, instead of just volunteers.

The increase in my job created some stress and I ended up with bronchial pneumonia in the fall. Not a bad case but one that knocked me down for a bit. Still trying to get my energy back, which means half the week I'm running like crazy, on the days I feel good, and the rest of the week I'm trying to regain my energy. Vicious cycle! Still seeing my naturopath - love her! She is helping me reclaim my body and live a full life, instead of the one my doctor insisted I live.

 

Our oldest dd is living with us now full time, with our little Beckett a big focus in our daily life. We now have a routine and it feels like this is how it's always been. I can't quite remember our life a year ago, without him here. Keeps us on our toes and makes life fun every day!

 

Change is good and on that note, I've decided to change the name of my blog to better reflect our life. I hope you like the change and will continue to read along.

A few pictures to end this post. Apologies in advance for the poor lighting. Candles are my favorite but not great for photos! My love and I out for our Anniversary Dinner. We celebrated 31 years together this summer, with our 28th Wedding Anniversary in August. A favorite spot but one that is tres expensive, therefore, visits are reserved for very special occasions!

 

All for now but more as the days progress!

Second and Third Levels

The Parlour.

Master Bedroom.

Upper Hallway.

Oops, the maid forgot to sweep!

Sewing/Craft Room.

Second view.

The Nursery.

The Bathroom.

Third Storey Hallway.

The Music Room.

More Dollhouse Pictures

These pictures show the main level,

starting with the kitchen ....

.... moving on to the dining room ....

.... full view ....

.... central hallway and front door ....

.... sitting room ....

.... fireplace ....

.... and finally, the library ....

.... with another fireplace!

More pictures to follow of the second story later.

Inspired!

I have been inspired this weekend to get life in to order. A big announcement is brewing in my world, created by me, supported by my boss, encouraged by my family ~ an announcement that will take my job to a new level and add to my workload. A good move, a great plan and part of the legacy project my husband and I have been working on for the last 16 years. Now all the small pieces are fitting in to place and the big stuff begins!

But to do this, it was really important to me to have life in order. Phase one was this weekend. Here's what we accomplished:

* took apart our leased office and program space to sort out what is not needed, what we still need and to move things into the middle so we can patch and paint the walls, make new curtains, sand and paint the furniture, hang new pictures and dejunk! More to do but this was the biggest piece to get the rest going.

* our son came over and helped us get the garage under control again. Still need to do a bit more but most of it is now complete.

* took apart our makeshift pantry we created a few years ago in our laundry room, that really didn't in the end, work well. Too cramped and we forever throwing our coats over the shelf because we couldn't reach the actual closet to hang them up properly. And because we couldn't always see what we had, we often would buy something then come home to put it away, only to discover we already had it! Not very efficient. So we created a new pantry today, in the kitchen, accessible, without any barriers and it looks great.

* cleaned out and sorted the kitchen cupboards. This resulted in many items being donated as we discovered we had doubles of some many "things". Yikes! But from there, we went thru the house and came up with lots to donate, including clothes, toys and books we no longer need. Love the feeling of purging.

* cleaned all the bathrooms, dusted the entire house, vacummed and scrubbed all the floors, and took all the recycling in.

* caught up the laundry. Never ending job. But all is well now, clothes hung up or folded and put in drawers, towels away in both the bathroom cupboard and the kitchen drawer, all bedding washed and back on the beds. The laundry basket now has just a few things to be washed by hand.

* rearranged our bedroom so that it functions better, leaving us more room to move. Created a new desk area and am so relieved that I now have a dedicated spot for my writing.

* sorted out the art studio/sewing room/guest room and the library/scrapbooking so that the items needed are back in their respective places.

* found our Brita that had been stored away. Ironically, Home Depot had the filters on sale this weekend. Tonight, we enjoyed fresh, cold, filtered water. No need to buy water now!

In between all this, we did treat ourselves to some fun Canada Day fun, including spending time at the activities our community organized, took our grandson for at least 6 long walks, visited the Antique Mall and visited with our son. It was a great weekend and I`m now focused to carry out this new project with a renewed energy and a house that is all put back together.

To reward myself and inspired by Mrs. Thrifty over at New Beginning http://craftthriftandlove.blogspot.ca/, I am now enjoying this yummy, fresh, warm Raspberry and White Chocolate Scone from Cobs Bread. Yum!

Learning to Watermark Pics

Thank you to Alicia from Time Worn Style who blogged today about Watermarking Pictures to reduce the opportunities for others to take credit. I'm still learning but here's the blog post:

http://www.time-worn-style.com/blog/2012/07/watermarking-your-online-photos.html

And here's my first attempt:

I can't figure out how to centre the watermark but at least now, this pic is protected!

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian Blogging Buddies. Raining & storming here, which has curtailed our plans today, which is ok, as I woke up with a raw throat & the beginnings of a cold. Bad timing as it's a busy week but have started overdosing on Vitamin C, so hopefully it will go away soon.

Enjoy your day. Hope it's sunny, whereever you are!