Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends!  

May you have a lovely day spent with family or friends mindfully giving thanks for all God has blessed you with.

Keep Calm and Tulip On

Bye, bye sad little tulips that didn't open

Round 2....Looking much better!  

As I thought C*stco took the other ones back, no problem.  Hubby decided he wanted to not take a chance on another bunch from there in case they were the same batch and wanted to try the other grocery store nearby, so that is what we did.  The floral attendant told us that tulips don't like flower food that you usually get with cut flowers and to add a splash of lemon juice instead.  So that is what I did and so far, so good.  I 💖 tulips!

What a Difference a Day Makes

The classic definition of spring in Southern Alberta:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

(the kids and I worked hard to make those snowmen in the morning in a field of snow and by suppertime all that was left was our lonely snow family)

Thursday

Spring erratically trying to make her presence known.  How is spring looking in your neck of the woods?

Letting Go

Full disclosure here.  I think I'm burned out a bit.  As I sit and look at my blog, I am sad about the utter lack of content other than Friday's Fave Five posts.  At least last year I also had book reviews.  And way back when I used to write a lot.  But this year, I feel like I've so far hit a wall.  I don't know what it is.  Delayed grief and exhaustion from the last 3 years probably has something to do with it.  Tired of working a 50 hour work week is a lot of it.  I've been chatting with my consultant from the agency trying to figure out a way to go part time in this job of childcare but the options are very, very limited.  I can go down in the number of kids which is nice but I would still be working the same hours and for less money.  I could try and change my program from a 5 day a week to maybe a 4 day or 3 day a week. But that has it's own issues especially with the childcare saturation climate that is in my city right now.  In a knee jerk response to not enough child care spaces, government has licensed way too many new daycares to open and now the ratio is out of balance the other way where now we are competing to fill our empty spaces and cutting back on open days might put me at a disadvantage.  The constant trying to think it through has, frankly, been exhausting.  That is how my mind works. It just keeps replaying everything trying to find options I haven't thought of.  

If I pause, though, my spirit whispers another story.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

Lean not on your own understanding,

In all your ways acknowledge Him

and He shall direct your paths"

Provers 3: 5-6

So much wrapped up in those 4 short sentences.  It asks me to trust in the One who has been faithful in the past and will be in the moment.  To let go of relying on myself.  That is a hard one for me coming from a background of "God helps those who help themselves".  But instead of striving to help myself, God is calling me to simply acknowledge Him in this crossroads, ask Him because He knows so much more, because He has a plan.  And if I do that, the beauty is He will be directing me and placing things together that I might not even understand right now.  It's His timing, not mine.  And when it comes right down to it, no matter how I slice and dice it, it's going to be a step of faith.  Because that is what He wants to grow in me.  If faith is never tested, how do I really even know if I actually trust God?  It's easy to verbally say I have faith in the good times, but if it's never put on the line,  do I really?  Jesus never said life would be easy, but He promised He would always be there and never leave me or forsake me.  Do I really believe that?  I'm working on it.  And I've come to the conclusion that in this lifetime, I will never have arrived.  It is a step by step, day by day growing of my faith and trust in the One who holds me in the palm of His very capable hand.  

Jinx!

Well then.....

....guess I spoke too soon about the mud being gone

A Cup Overflowing

What a wonderful weekend it was.  I took the day off on Friday so that we could head up to the big city, not to shop Black Friday deals, but to work a shift at the Operation Christmas Child processing facility.  It was a cold and foggy morning when we got up, had been for a couple of days.  So as we drove this is the stunning scenery we were soaking in:

And it was no less incredibly beautiful within the city.

We all would comment over and over how we couldn't believe how thick the hoar frost was. 

Saturday we headed to the Processing Center. So much fun getting all those precious boxes inspected and taped and packed for shipping to all the wonderful children around the world.  They announced that the day before they had processed 28,825 boxes.  We were ready to add more!  The process boxes 6 days a week, about 11 hours a day for about a month!  That is an amazing amount of Canadian packed shoeboxes!  And that is not even the ones done online!  

It is such a blessing being able to be involved in so many steps of those shoeboxes reaching their final destinations and being placed into the hands of excited children!   We sadly gave up our table after our 4 hour shift was done. 

Waiting for me at the doors was my friend who I have not seen or given a hug to in 10 years.  We had made a point of setting this time aside while I was there to have a coffee together.  She had moved to another province and eventually made her way back.  What a thrill it was being together again.  As good friends do, we picked up as if we had never been apart. Then it was on to a nice birthday meal (#3) for Hubby at his favorite restaurant to go to in Calgary, The Spaghetti Factory!  A great meal was had by all as we headed home to just relax and and be together.  

 

My cup was filled to overflowing this weekend!   How was your weekend, a holiday one for my U.S. friends?  Did you brave the malls for a deal?

Hanging in There

After a hot start to September, the middle of the month has seen the temperatures take a drop.  Though we haven't had to run the AC in the day there has been a couple of rainy and cold days where the heater kicked in during the night.  Some of the flowers in the garden seem to have gained a second wind and are  flourishing at the moment and I'll just stop and drink in of their loveliness before they will be dug out or trimmed and prepped for their winter sleep.  

After a super slow start to their flowering and growth, the front porch is flourishing!  The red impatiens were bought at a huge discount as they were past the end of the buying season and almost dead.  That was one small lone little plant and look at it now.  Once the alstroemeria (white and pink flowers) got blooming they is no stopping them.  Tough it took until the end of July.  I was tempted to pull them, so glad I didn't.  

Some of the front flowers.  The oval flower bed needs lots of work.  It's a real mish mash.  The zinnias were scattered left over seeds from a dayhome project with the kids and they finally flowered in August but they are all over the place.  The sweet Williams are "freebies" that either wind, birds or deer brought over.  Have no idea but I love them cause they flower all summer.  I'll have to do some major thought and planning into this bed.  I originally built it to hold a peony I had brought over from my mom's garden when we sold her house.  And my Incrediball hydrangeas have turned an even nicer pink.  Can't wait for the blooms to grow bigger than my head.  Please, oh please, let me prep them for winter well so they don't die.  They are good to -40*C (-40*F also) so they are hardy and seem to do well around here.  

And the deck.  Considering I have torn out, trimmed and reconfigured some of these pots  several times due to flowers dying from who knows what,   some are now doing well.  It was not a great year for the petunias, don't know what was going on this year with them, but these are the ones that survived me tearing both them and my hair out.  

Hopefully we'll get a few more weeks of  lovely color before real coolness of fall sets in.  I need to really rethink how I am going to plant next year.  And use a good measure of self control in the spring.  The prices have  gone up so much this year and having to remove dead and dying plants was a real frustration  and a hit to the pocket book.  Oh well, I'll be thankful for this end of the season gift of color while it lasts.

Insert Christmas song here

Well the the white flakes of that which we do not speak of have arrived.  Now where did I put my boots?

Send Heat!

25* colder than normal!   -45*C with the windchill.  That's even too cold for Olaf.  Someone needs to tell Elsa to calm down and take some anger management courses!  Yikes!  

Blogger Woes today!

Hey everyone!  Just want to put up here that there seems to be a problem with Blogger and the save button when editing the sidebar.  In other words, Blogger is not saving changes!  And not only is it not saving changes but it is dumping whole lines underneath my new additions every time I try and hit the save button.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is don't edit your sidebar today until they get it fixed!  Apparently posting is saving fine.  

Or is it just me that get's to experience the privilege of this unwanted random purge of my sidebar?

Noooooooo!

Well my mother always told me to wait until the May long weekend (May 24th this year) before planting anything out.  Mother knows best.  Except maybe Mother Nature, she's pretending she's Elsa today.  Whoever made her mad, please go apologize!

Unfortunately, the last while the one on the left is where I've been sitting, but this week?  I'm aiming for the one on the right!  It's learning to retrain my thoughts.

Happy Resurrection Day!!

 Though our streets are empty remember so is the tomb! 

We have hope for desperate times 

and that hope is found in Jesus!

Happy Easter, Everyone!

Southern Alberta Fall

Something kind of very backwards about this picture

Sunday and Monday are supposed to be 14*C (57*F) and 17*C (63*F) respectively.

Welcome to fall in Southern Alberta

Snow day in September

Living the igloo dream in my fair city 

It started Saturday morning

and blew in with a roar

Our measuring stick for amount of snow fall

and roof drift is the bbq on the deck

Sunday morning it was building pretty good.

Some of the highest we've had.

But then the beast just grew...

( for reference my Hubby is 6 feet)

...and grew

...and grew

(My daughter said I'm being way too entertained

by the snow on the bbq)

Until we woke up to this monster today.

Who knew Jaws was coming to visit my land locked city?

my fantastic view out the kitchen window

Even the cat is stunned and can't stop staring

Unofficial totals for the city came in...as of  8:15 a.m.

this Monday morning

55-60 cm

(23.6 inches!)

And what is one to do when mother nature is tantruming?

Make Hungarian comfort food, of course!

Chicken Paprikash with Nokedli (tiny dumplings)

Then rent a movie, pop some popcorn and make a pot of coffee

Oh well.  If the temperature forecast holds

this should all be gone by Friday.

The Minimalist Game Conquered

This year the KonMari buzz has overtaken the internet.  You cannot go onto any social media platform without a plethora of posts or videos showing people either joyfully or with much stress and moaning and groaning piling heaps upon heaps of stuff onto their beds.  While I knew I needed to do a good declutter, and why not in January when it was cold out and I was hibernating inside the house anyways, the thought of unloading whole closet and cupboard fulls at a time was just too much for me.  I work from home in child care and pretty much use most of the space in my house on a daily basis so that principle was just a no go for me.  And unless I take a vacation to declutter who on earth has hour upon hour all in a row to devote to such a thing?  So in pondering how I would like to approach the task of mindful and intentional decluttering, I came across a little thing called "The Minimalist Game".

The basic premise was to take 30 days to declutter a whack load of stuff.  On day 1 you get rid of one item.  On day 2:  two items, on day 3:  three items and so on and so forth until day 30 when you've worked yourself up to 30 items that day.  You get the picture.

Now this sounded a whole lot more doable.  It did not require me to unload whole rooms into a pile that would take hours upon hours to go through.  I could take a few moments here and there in the particular room I was in and remove items, still under the idea of "non-usefulness" and "no joy", and let me work at it until I had the required amount for that "day" slot.  If that particular number took me three days then so be it.

NO PRESSURE AND NO STRESS!  As soon as I had the required number a pic was taken and when I had a box or bag full off they went to either donate or trash or recycling.

Can we just pause a moment in this post and ask ourselves why on earth any individual needs to have 24 pairs of 3D glasses in their cupboard?  I have no answer.

I was amazed at how motivating this was.  I started to look forward to what else I could get rid of.  I would scan rooms and areas as I passed through them.  It was very liberating.

Now on that note may I say that I did not touch any of my husband's stuff.  This is important.  You cannot force another person into your decluttering head space.  In fact, in that pile of blu-rays and dvds any that were his I got his permission.  Andwhen I asked if he was sure a few days later, he took another look and took a couple of them back.  Which is totally ok.

And now aren't you amazed that as you scrolled through this post that in about the 6 weeks that it took me to do this I got 465+ items out of my home.  Let's just think about that.  Four Hundred and Sixty Five pieces of stuff that was sitting around my house.  Shocking, isn't it?  I know I was stunned.  I thought it would be hard.  Amazing how something as simple as this can have such a great effect.  Now I'm motivated to go beyond the surface stuff and go a little deeper into the backs of closets, cupboards, drawers and bins.  The things that might require a bit of a tougher decision.

Have you been KonMari-ing?   Or have you been KonMari-ed?