Update

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes concerning my mom. She is now back at home. She's still quite weak and she's lost a significant amount of weight (and she was ultra tiny to start with)... but she's slowly on the mend... AND she's home for Christmas. Thank you Lord for watching over her! And again - thank YOU all for your well wishes and prayers.

It's hard to believe that Christmas is in 2 more days. I still have much to do. Tomorrow will see me wrapping gifts and other last minute touches...

And then tomorrow evening we'll head to church for the candlelight service - something I've been looking foward to very much. Especially so, this year...

Wishing you all a very Merry and Christ-filled Christmas!

Prayers Needed!

I'm so sorry that I haven't posted in over a week, and when I do, I'm asking you for more prayers. But I know dear friends, that you will understand.

My mom is back in the hospital and I would very much love if you could add her to your prayer list. The doctor's drained 4 litres of fluid from her lung and chest area. All this from a 93 pound woman! Her blood pressure was sky high as well.
Most of you may know that she was in the hospital about a year ago when her one and only kidney failed. She is still battling health issues.

We would dearly love for her to be home for Christmas and will be praying that she becomes well enough to do so.

Thank you dear friends! And I promise to post more soon!

Hugs and Kisses to all of you!

Why I Think I'll be Saying Goodbye to Scrapbooking

I’ve been procrastinating in making a decision about my scrapbooking. Mainly because recording my life’s events is a HUGE part of who I am. Scrapbooking seemed to coincide PERFECTLY with my life journaling. And for about 6 years, I’ve had a great time scrapbooking. I have some pretty amazing pages to show for it!

However I think the time has come to say goodbye to paper scrapbooking. Since becoming a mom to Luke, recording our life’s events has become even MORE important to me, however the available time I have to do so has decreased dramatically. I don’t like the feelings of guilt when I realize how far behind I am with scrapbooking Luke’s life story. I’m STILL working on some pregnancy pages!!

This year though, a dear friend of mine offered to create some digital scrap pages for me, so that I could create a bound photo book with them. She is extremely, extremely talented at digi-scrapping. The pages she created (24 in total), she did in days, whereas that would have taken me weeks if not months. And I don’t think I could have done a great a job as she did. I just emailed her the photos, along with the text, poems, etc that I wanted to include in each layout.

The resulting photobook that I’ve created with these scrap pages is stunning. I’ve ordered a couple to give as gifts to the grandparents. And the best part is – it cost me a fraction of what an entire scrapbook would have cost me to make!

I’ve also purchased a whackload of gorgeous chocolate brown leather photo albums to place my photos in. I’m not content to view them on a computer. I like to hold them in my hands and like to have something to show family and friends who visit. So I’ll be placing all of my photos in these photo albums, which will look beautiful on my bookshelves, and will be creating yearly photobooks with a coordinating chocolate brown leather cover to capture the memorable events of the year.

Another reason I’ve decided to say goodbye to my scrapbook stash is that I’ve declared 2008 to be my year to Conquer the Clutter! I want to Live More with Less!! I want to simplify my home and it’s organization. There are a few trouble spots in my home that I’ve had a hard time keeping in an organized state: paperwork, clothing, books and craft supplies. I am committed to dealing with the first two, REFUSE to touch my beloved books, but I know that I can definitely make an impact with my craft supplies.

My dear crafting buddies – not to worry!! I will still have LOADS of projects to work on for our weekly Craft Nights!!

Note: You can create photobooks at all sorts of websites that are cropping up. Shutterfly.com remains a really popular one. Check it out!

Menu Plan Monday

I've been an Org Junkie lurker for quite some time...and really enjoy her Menu Plan Monday meme... I'm going to join in this week (a little late)... and hope to make it stick!! Boneless chicken breasts are on sale for half price this week - can you tell?!!

Monday: Chicken fingers, roasted baby potatoes and sliced tomatoes

Tuesday: Maple Cranberry Chicken, whole grain rice, broccoli and a tossed salad

Wednesday: Ham and Veggie Egg Bake, whole wheat toast, glazed carrots

Thursday: Tuna Tetrazzini

Friday: Leftovers - and appetizers for my knitting party

Diamond.... Lost

I woke up yesterday morning to discover that the diamond from my engagement ring was missing… I’ve worn this ring for just over 15 years… so I’ll bet you can understand when I say that I was devastated. But since I’m pretty sure that I would have noticed if the diamond would have been gone the previous night, I was pretty confident that I’d find it amongst my pillows and sheets.

Well, that confidence is starting to waver. I have not found it yet. I feel lost without that ring on my finger. I will keep searching and I pray that it turns up soon.

What a lovely Christmas present it would make. Will you say a quick prayer for me – that it turns up?

Jesus' Christmas Letter

Dear loved ones,

As you well know, we are getting closer to my birthday. Every
year there is a celebration in my honor and I think that this year
the celebration will be repeated. During this time there are many
people shopping for gifts, there are many radio
announcements, TV commercials, and in every part of
the world everyone is talking that my birthday is
getting closer and closer.

It is really very nice to know, that at least
once a year, some people think of me. As you know,
the celebration of my birthday began many years ago.
At first people seemed to understand and be thankful
of all that I did for them, but in these times, no
one seems to know the reason for the celebration.
Family and friends get together and have a lot of
fun, but they don't know the meaning of the
celebration.

I remember that last year there was a great
feast in my honor. The dinner table was full of
delicious foods, pastries, fruits, assorted nuts and chocolates. The
decorations were exquisite and there were many, many beautifully
wrapped gifts. But, do you want to know something? I wasn't invited.
I was the guest of honor and they didn't remember to send
me an invitation. The party was for me, but when
that great day came, I was left outside, they closed
the door in my face .... and I wanted to be with
them and share their table.

In truth, that didn't surprise me because in
the last few years all close their doors to me.
Since I wasn't invited, I decided to enter the party without making
any noise. I went in and stood in a corner. They were all drinking;
there were some who were drunk and telling jokes and laughing at
everything. They were having a grand time. To top it
all, this big fat man all dressed in red wearing a
long white beard entered the room yelling Ho-Ho-Ho!
He seemed drunk. He sat on the sofa and all the
children ran to him, saying: "Santa Claus, Santa
Claus" .. as if the party were in his honor!

At 12 Midnight all the people began to hug
each other; I extended my arms waiting for someone
to hug me and ... do you know ... no one hugged me. Suddenly they
all began to share gifts. They opened them one by one with great
expectation. When all had been opened, I looked to see if, maybe,
there was one for me.

What would you feel if on your birthday
everybody shared gifts and you did not get one? I
then understood that I was unwanted at that party
and quietly left.

Every year it gets worse. People only remember
to eat and drink, the gifts, the parties and nobody remembers me. I
would like this Christmas that you allow me to enter into your life.
I would like that you recognize the fact that almost two thousand
years ago I came to this world to give my life for
you, on the cross, to save you. Today, I only want
that you believe this with all your heart.

I want to share something with you. As many
didn't invite me to their party, I will have my own celebration, a
grandiose party that no one has ever imagined, a spectacular party.

I'm still making the final arrangements. Today
I am sending out many invitations and there is an invitation for
you. I want to know if you wish to attend and I will make a
reservation for you and write your name with golden letters in my
great guest book. Only those on the guest list will be
invited to the party. Those who don't answer the
invite, will be left outside.

Be prepared because when all is ready you will
be part of my great party.

See you soon.
I Love you!
Jesus

P.S - Even though it's been really hard for me to get back on track with exercising... I seem to have lost 1/2 pound!! YAY!! I'll take it! I thought for sure I had GAINED weight!!

Freeze it Friday!

I really love having meals that I can pull out of the freezer. And especially now that I have a daycare - it's nice not to have to cook from scratch EVERY single day. So one of my goals for the new year is to do more Cook Once, Eat Twice kinda cooking... where I make a big batch of a recipe that is freezable. Tonight I'm making my most favorite spaghetti sauce... AND it happens to be one that Luke likes! It's chalk full of veggies.. but don't tell him that (OR my DH!!)

Sneaky Spaghetti Sauce

Serving Size: 4+4Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Kids LOVE this sauce, even though it has WAY more veggies than meat. Shh, don’t tell them – they’ll never know!

Ingredients
1 lb (500 g) extra-lean ground beef
1 tsp (5 mL) canola oil
1 onion, grated
2 carrots, grated
1 sweet green pepper, seeded, cored and grated
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp (15 mL) Italian herb seasoning
1 tsp (5 mL) fennel seed (optional)
2 cups (500 mL) frozen mashed squash or canned pumpkin
1 can (26 oz/796 mL) tomato sauce
1 can (5 1/2 oz/156 mL) tomato paste
1 cup (250 mL) red wine
1/4 cup (50 mL) ground flaxseed

Preparation
In skillet, brown meat; place meat in a strainer in sink. Run under hot water to drain as much of the fat as possible. Set aside.
In large saucepan, heat oil; cook onion, carrots and green pepper until softened. Add cooked ground beef. Stir in garlic and Italian seasoning. Add fennel seed (if using).
Add squash and heat through. Add tomato sauce, tomato paste and wine. Simmer for at least 20 minutes or for up to 1 1/2 hours. Stir in ground flaxseed. Serve with whatever pasta you love.

Tips
This sauce recipe rinses away much of the saturated fat and loads up on hidden vegetables, which virtually disappear during the cooking process. It contains four to five times as much vegetable as meat, a health ratio.
Don’t be shy to cook with wine, even when the kids are eating it – the alcohol burns off very quickly, leaving just an amazing flavor behind.
Stir the ground flaxseed into the sauce at the end of cooking to maintain all of the "good fats." This invisible seed adds fibre. Do not use the seed whole because our bodies cannot break the hull down to digest all of the goodness.
Frozen mashed squash is not always available but cubed fresh or frozen squash is a good substitute. Simply add it and mash with a fork as it cooks and softens. In a pinch, I’ve also used canned pumpkin!

A MUCH Deserved Day Off!!

Yesterday, I had the day off – my first day off during the week since my maternity leave ended back at the end of August. Luke had an eye appointment with a specialist scheduled for the late afternoon, and I decided to book the entire day off so that we could have some quality time together. We had SUCH a good time – it really makes me miss my maternity leave days when ALL of my days were devoted just to being a mom to Luke and a wife to DH.

We spent our day off by attending a playdate with some fellow moms at the local Science and Technology Museum. We had planned this quite some time ago and was really looking forward to it. I thought that Luke might be a little too young (he IS only 15 months!! LOL!!).. however he LOVED the children’s area… BIG smiles and giggles during the entire visit.

And it felt really good to be getting out and about! I feel blessed to be able to run a home daycare business as this has enabled me to afford to stay home with Luke, so I hope I don’t sound ungrateful when I say that I really wish I had more flexibility in my day, so that I could attend some playgroups with just Luke.

The appointment in the afternoon also went well. Luke’s doctor and I were slightly concerned over the fact that his left eye appeared to be smaller than the right. However the pediatric ophthalmologist said all was well with his eye – that the lid just drooped a bit, making the eye APPEAR smaller. So that was a relief for sure!

All in all – a great day off! Would it sound ungrateful to say that I look forward to my next mid-week day off?!!