guns, fruit and dessert

Saturday night Paul and I went out on a date to Players Chophouse.

 Afterwards we went to our dear friend Kari's house and we brought dessert. Dried sugared mangoes, strawberries and I made Reese's Peices Bark.

 Sunday we went to the gunrange. Paul has his certification so he set up the guns.

 The rest of us waited patiently. and we looked super cool in our helmets.

 Monday I had this for breakfast. Mmmm

   Jenna and I went to bootcamp last night. I am QUITE sore now. My entire body aches. I think I didn't help it any by staying up after bootcamp and making 3 casseroles and 12 breakfasts. Standing in the kitchen always gives me a backache even though I love being there.

I have some deep thoughts coming but work is busy today and my body hurts, so depth will have to wait.

As promised...before and after pics...

Newly organized cupboard, including my recipe binder of favorite recipes from google

 Before and After

 

 Deep Freezer. Yay!

 Before and After

 

  

 

And lastly...before when the previous renters had our master bedroom, and after, our master bedroom.

Steeped Tea Friday

I feel that title is mis leading because Friday is not the only day I love to have a steeped tea from Timmies. Having steeped tea on a Friday does not make the tea better. It does make the Friday better. In fact it makes any day better. I had one yesterday and Wednesday and it improved both days. OH plus I had one Tuesday. Just saying, Steeped Tea is aweosme.

I was looking back at the old pictures from when we first moved in to our house. There were many things that I organized but now over the past months they have changed, gotten better, fuller, more efficient. Sometime soon I am excited to post pictures of these changes, before and after! Especially as, after posting pictures of pantry on FB, I received comments saying the organization would never last. I would like to happily point out that my pantry is still most definitely organized and now contains even more to organize!

Pantries are interesting thing. Same with Deep Freezers. Now that I have the space to stock up or buy in bulk I find I really want to. The problem is, do I really need that much stock? If the Zomb-pocalypse happened, sure I'd have tons of food to keep us going...but would we have power? Would my freezer stay cold? would I be able to cook the food I have? My can opener would still work, but would things be bad? Or will the power remain on and Paul will have to find a way to barricade the window that overlooks my pantry so people don't loot from us? These are some pretty deep things to think about, I know.

Mostly though I feel intense joy and satisfaction to know that I am prepared and organized.

Last night I rushed home from work and went to bootcamp with Jenna. Our Bootcamp is located in yaletown under the Cambie Street Bridge. Interestingly our parents house is on the other side of the water, just next to the Bridge. They have an awesome view of the water, and so do we when we excersize. It makes me like it so much more! Our bootcamp instructor thinks Jenna and I are funny. She's right. We make a funny pair, we feed off of each other. I wouldn't still be at bootcamp if I hadn't planned to go with Jenna. I'm very glad I made that happen. Bootcamp is hard, and tiring. It's hard to say it's worth it as I still look like I have a baby belly and I am not pregnant. BUT everyone says it's worth it, as this will help me not die early. So, I keep going.

After Bootcamp I got home and Candace & her Fiance were cooking dinner. It was tasty though spicy. The four of us ate together and laughed which was realy nice. It was an impromptu hangout and I loved it.

After dinner I helped Candace and Earl put together a few invites. I had a long warm shower. I drank some Sangria and watched TV with Paul and was tucked in to bed by 10:30, meaning I would get 8 1/2 hours of sleep! This is epicly wonderful.

Tonight Paul and I will be babysitting Connor so Jenna, Colin and Austin can go to the youth retreat. Jenna is so excited. She normally can't go due to all the babies and is super super happy. I am looking forward to spending some time with Connor and I know Paul is too. He will be spending the night at our house.  He will go to bed by 8 tonight, so while he is asleep I will be prepping food for my 2nd Big Casserole Bake on Saturday.

Tomorrow we will go for a walk with Connor. We also want to go swimming with him. At 3 we will bring him to the next babysitters house and I will embark on the actual putting together of the Casseroles for my Big Bake. Hopefully this should only take 4 hours, which will give me 9 casseroles for the month! Plus an 3 extra meals for the week from the bake leftovers! At 8 I am heading to Kari Siewert's house to hang out and watch girl movies. Her kids are away at a youth retreat, and her husband is away at work. My husband has homework to do. It's the best of both worlds. Kari is the wonderful woman who, along with her husband, did our premarital and I like her sooooo much.

Sunday I have a meeting with a friend, Lydia, to hear about her recent engagement, then will get my eyebrows threaded (eeep) and buy plates at the Dollar Giant. We will then be going with our dear friends Kathleen and Prakash to watch/help them with their engagement photo shoot. Afterwards there is church (where I am in charge of the coffee service) and a family dinner at 6....phew! Long weekend, but good.

And now for work I will make the Executive Travel Calender, do a lot of Data Entry and look forward to the end of the day.

Craft Cabinet

This weekend was very productive. Saturday my friend Laura came over to help me organize my craft area. First though Paul and I needed to clear out the back storage area (which was home to all my craft supplies and all the random junk we have). Before Laura got there Paul and I took everything out of the storage area and sorted it. We put all random things in to 3 piles (paperwork, stationary and belongs somewhere else in the house) to sort through later (in bags now in the storage area, clearly labeled and ready to be worked with). We went through 15 or so boxes and by the end we had narrowed all the stuff in to 5 rubbermaid bins of things we wanted to keep and everything else was going to the thrift store (6 garbage bags of random clothes, pillows, blankets, household items, etc). Our back storage area finally was clear of everything junk. We had things we want to keep put nicely away on the shelves (rice cookers that don’t fit in our kitchen, bread machines, Christmas decorations, etc) and the rest of the room was ready to become my craft area. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of before, because the transformation was miraculous.



This is what my empty craft room looked like before Laura and I started:

And this is what my craft supplies looked like before sorting and organizing.

We spent 5 hours working away at it and this is what it looks like now!

All that is left to do is take my GIANT stack of patterned and plain paper (which are all sorted by color) and put it in my new cabinet. I bought a cabin that I can do crafts at to either go next to the orange craft cabinet or in another room (Paul still has to put it together for me, I only bought it Sunday, and then we can decide if it can be in the living room or if it too should be in the back craft area). It’s so nice to have a home base though where all my crafts go!

Resting Contentment

   Most evenings are very busy for Paul and myself. I try to plan to have 2 nights in the week where I am busy and he can be at home studying and writing papers, which is busy for him but in a different way. I try to pick one night a week to be at home and not do anything. I picked one a night a week to spend with my sister and on weekends we see people.



Mondays usually Jenna and I have bootcamp from 6 to 7 and I try to meet someone for coffee and a hang out at 8 (this way Paul can be at home doing homework, unbothered). Once a month P&I have a Deacon’s meeting on a Monday (this week we had VIP – a church wide meeting – and Deacons on a Monday!) and once a month Paul has a men’s leadership meeting thing.


Tuesdays we have lifegroup and discipleship group which means I feed (very happily, because boy do I love to feed people!) 4-6 women at discipleship group at 6, we meet and then we walk 3 doors up for Life group. Tuesdays are long days.


Wednesday I try to make my at home rest night, but this is often difficult as our weekends get full quickly and there are many people my heart wants to visit with.

Thursdays Jenna and I usually have bootcamp and then we hang out for the evening. Once a month our Mom joins us.

Fridays and Saturdays Paul and I either attend gatherings (games nights, parties, celebrations, etc) at people’s houses or host friends at our place. Alternatively we go out of town and visit people at their homes. 

Sundays we have church from 3:30 to 5 and afterwards we either have people over, have family dinner or go out to other people’s houses.



   We are busy. Our life is filled with friends, family and activities we love. We are doing the things that God has put on our heart. We love the Campus & Career aged people at our church. We love the families. I love to spend time with women of all ages and Paul loves to meet with men. We also, somehow, find time in our week just to be together. Other than occasional moments of tiredness (which, truth be told, would happen even if we weren’t so busy) we are so happy with where God has us at this moment. I get to look for a new job in the fall and am praying for miracles. Paul will be beginning to raise support to go in to full time Campus Ministry. We are moving forward not only in to the things God has for us, but also the desires he has put in our hearts. What joy!

   Last night was a Wednesday. Usually I spend a lot of Wednesday evening cleaning, tidying, cooking, etc. This isn’t very restful, which is unfortunate because Wednesdays are supposed to be a night for resting. This week Discipleship Group and Life Group were cancelled so Tuesday became “doing-stuff-around-the-house” night and Wednesday became a REAL rest night. I only had 2 rules for Wednesday night this week. I could do no more than 2 house/cooking related tasks and MUST be in bed, ready for sleep by 10:30.

   My commute home is usually a rush to get the bus to the Canada Line, a rush to get past the masses on to the train, and a rush to walk home to get out of the rain and finally get home. Last night I realized I had no reason to rush! It was a warm-ish, pleasant night out. I took the bus to the Canada Line and remembered there was a Tim Hortons right there. I had a free drink ticket from “rolling up the rim” this past weekend and decided to treat myself. I sat outside of Tim Hortons, enjoying the beautiful clean night air and a delicious cup of steeped tea. I felt so free and happy. I listened to worship music and prayed. There was so much peace within my contentment. It was a wonderful way to “waste” half an hour. I took the long way to the Canada Line and window shopped without buying anything! By getting on at the next station I managed to get a seat and arrived home in good time to complete task 1 of the evening; making dinner. Candace was home so we cooked chicken taco’s together and I ate with her and her fiancé. Task 2 was making Peanut Butter Cups to bring to work today. Success! I even had time to have a glass of Sangria and watch Amazing Race and America’s Next Top Model. I was in bed talking with my wonderful husband by 10:15 and going to sleep by 10:30.

   I woke up today feeling rested (shocking!) and ready for the day. So far I have successfully made it to work on time, finished all my morning tasks, and organized my life. I am definitely looking forward to the rest of my week and weekend! Tonight, bootcamp and a hangout with Jenna, tomorrow dinner with our friends Jesse and Loreili Hutch and Saturday all day organizing my craft area with my dear friend Laura followed by dinner and games with Laura, her husband, and Paul. It’s all goooood.

   Life feels like it's in Sepia....not black and white...but totally covered in a nice, warm, sunny hue. You can tell I stopped at Tim Hortons this morning; steeped tea always makes me more lyrical.

Cleaning up

I am a messy. It’s true. I have struggled my whole life to be clean. It has generally been a losing battle.


There are a few things that will help me be a bit tidier: a) a nicely decorated room b) sharing a room with someone and c)a place for everything. Until last week I had never had all three at once. I am proud to say that I have kept our room clean for 1 week and 2 days. This may seem like a small thing to you, but to me it is a huge victory! This also makes me want to clean the rest of my house!

Saturday my sister came over and she sat in my kitchen and hallway with me while I organized our kitchen cupboards and shelving (all the Tupperware containers now have labels with what’s inside) and finally, 10 months later, organized all the books on my shelving and unpacked all my boxes of books and it finally looks good!

Also this is the view I get to see each morning as I walk to work after I get off the bus:

As I mentioned in my last post Paul and I have a new, organized bedroom. We have two bedrooms, one we used as a master bedroom and one we used as Paul's Den/Study. Since we are hoping to get a homestay student in the fall and in the meantime have our dear friend Candace living with us, we thought it was time to move in to the room with 2 closets (one which contains all of Paul's hunting and camping gear) and a whole wall of shelving (which as you can see I got to fill with BASKETS. I love baskets! Candace is organizing her room but soon I shall show pictures of our “rental” room.