A Week in the Life – Saturday’s Photos

Hello, Friends!

I have one last day of “A Week in the Life” to share with you all:

Remember the epic production of The Last Battle? That took place first thing Saturday morning.

I loved everything about this little project. I’m always a big fan of anything that will use all of Anika’s imagination and creativity, and will entertain both girls for hours and hours!

Things did get a little frustrating, though, because the audience kept falling over…

Soon it was time for Ben to leave for work. He never works on Saturdays, but this has been an unusually crazy week for him, so he had to get some work done on this Saturday.

Since I had hardly any pictures of him all week, I took some while he was saying goodbye to the girls, which he thought was kind of ridiculous!

Anika returned the favor, and of course Ben had many hilarious comments to make about this whole process:

After all the goodbyes, it was time to make waffles.

And then it was time for our new ministry to move in. The Baby Blessings team arrived with all of the donations that will be stored in our basement until they can be delivered to women who need them.

Since I couldn’t be of much help to them, I cleaned bathrooms instead…

…and kept an eye on my friend’s girls while she was busy moving stuff into the basement.

Everything got moved in fairly quickly. Everyone left, we ate lunch, and then I started working on my photo book design for this last week’s worth of pictures.

Anika and Kaylia played together really well, which was awesome, because I wasn’t feeling very well, and needed to just sit.

Ben came home from work, and we were all very happy to see him.

We had a rehearsal dinner to go to that evening, so the girls watched a little video while we were getting ready to go.

We fed them a quick supper, took them to our friends’ house, and then drove to Ben’s parents’ house for the rehearsal dinner.

After the dinner, we went back to Joel and Sarah’s house for some Once Upon a Time. We stayed far too late, ate far too much junk food, and enjoyed ourselves very much.

When it was time to head home, we scooped up our girls in their sleeping bags, and brought them home to their own beds.

And that is the end of A Week in the Life 2013.

Thanks so much for joining me, and for all of the sweet, encouraging comments about this project! It’s been fun, but I’m looking forward to getting back to regular blogging now!:)

Have a happy week!

A Week in the Life – Friday’s Photos

(“A Week in the Life” is an idea started by Ali Edwards, and involves photographing everything your family does for an entire week. Her ability to capture the most ordinary, normal, everyday kind of stuff, and making it beautiful, inspired me to give it a try…)

I would have to say that Friday was our most epic day of the week. Kaylia gave herself a drastic new make-over, and the girls spent the entire day preparing for a Broadway presentation of C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle, performed by an assortment of Disney characters and Polly Pockets.

The day started out normal enough…

I made some breakfast bread for the girls, and then did my exercising while the bread was in the oven.

Then I had my own breakfast – rice cereal with mixed berries, walnuts, and chia seeds.

The girls started playing while I had my breakfast and did a few things on the computer.

We had a few issues with Kaylia trying to cut the mane on one of their toy horses, which made Anika very upset. I had a little talk with Kaylia about not cutting the horse’s mane. This has been an ongoing fascination for the last few weeks, but it’s the first time she’s ever actually cut anything…

We got the situation under control, and I went back to my breakfast. Suddenly, I noticed that it had been too quiet, for too long. I asked Anika, “Where’s Kaylia?” and Anika said she didn’t know. In the back of my mind, I remembered hearing the pantry door close, and I knew. I ran for the door, and there she was, with long strands of hair at her feet…

I burst into tears, Anika screamed, and Kaylia beamed proudly. I grabbed the phone to call Ben, and he burst out laughing. I told him it was cut above her ears on one side, and he laughed some more. Then he said, “At least she didn’t cut her ear.”

I hadn’t thought about being thankful for safety yet. Good thing he balances me out a bit!

So we made an emergency hair appointment, and jumped in the car to go find some professional help.

Her new look:

It is very cute, but it will take awhile to get used to! Thank goodness it could be saved!! We have family pictures coming up next week!!

We went on with our day, a little sadly – Kaylia, because she didn’t want such short hair, and me, because this is all a bit of a shock to my system!

But thank goodness we had Anika around to distract us with her elaborate schemes for a production of The Last Battle. We listened to the story on CDs all day, while the girls busily worked on auditioning the Polly Pockets, making costumes and sets, and planning out every last detail.

While they were busy with this, I used my clothes shaver on a stubborn cardigan…

…and made some gluten-free biscuits.

We had rest time…

…and then we went down to the basement to work on getting it ready for our big day tomorrow: We are adopting a ministry! Baby Blessings is a ministry that collects used baby items and delivers them to women who need a bit of help financially. The items have been stored in our church building, but since our church will be going through major renovations for the next year and a bit, Baby Blessings needed to find a new home. Since we don’t do much with our basement, we offered to take them in!

Tomorrow is Moving Day, so we finished getting the space ready.

After that, it was time to get back to work on the play. Anika needed a Colormen army, so I helped make some armor:

Pocahontas is ready for battle.

Ben had to work another long day, and couldn’t get back for supper, and I was fairly exhausted after our wild day, so we threw some food on the plates, and called it a meal.

After supper, we had some major clean-up to do, me in the kitchen, and the girls in the living and dining room. We got everything ready for putting on the play first thing in the morning, as soon as Daddy wakes up. We got some programs ready for the Polly Pocket audience…

..and then the girls headed off to bed. I worked on pictures (again!), and Ben finally came home.

One more day, and that will be the end of our Week in the Life! Here’s hoping tomorrow isn’t quite so memorable!?!

A Week in the Life – Thursday’s Photos

(“A Week in the Life” is an idea started by Ali Edwards, and involves photographing everything your family does for an entire week. Her ability to capture the most ordinary, normal, everyday kind of stuff, and making it beautiful, inspired me to give it a try…)

Thursday already! Only two more days left, and I’m still feeling good about it! This surprises me. I thought I would be sick of my camera, and be tired of the whole project, but for some reason, it’s been a lot easier than last year. I’ve been enjoying each moment a lot more.

And being at home today was nice. We had some bumps throughout the day – the girls seemed tired, so maybe they needed to recover from a busy day on Wednesday, just like I did.

Here’s how we spent our day on Thursday:

I climbed out of bed, got dressed, and took the garbage out. I should always go outside first-thing in the morning…

We had our usual morning snuggle time in Kaylia’s bed, and then the girls got up and Anika read Kaylia a story while I made breakfast.

After story time, they ate breakfast while I exercised.

After I had my breakfast, I got the laundry started.

Then it was time for Anika to start her school work…

…and Kaylia decided to write a grocery list for Daddy, because she was hungry for pears, grapes, and blueberries, none of which we had.

She entertained herself at the table for awhile…

…and then it was time for Anika’s piano lesson. Kaylia loves helping with the flashcards!

After that, we had lunch, which was leftover “Mock Taco Del Mar”! We layer rice, black beans, taco meat, tomatoes, and avocado on our plates, which is not quite as good as the real thing, but pretty close! (Note: I’ve been eating fresh cilantro, tomatoes, and avocado on everything this week! I think all my meals look pretty much the same! It’s been a delicious week!)

After lunch, Anika (unwillingly) helped me give her room a very thorough cleaning. She has to clean her own room regularly, but this was the Big Clean, involving purging, reorganizing her bookshelves, etc. She’s not ever super excited to start, but she gets into it along the way, and by the end, she is very happy about her clean, neat room.

Once her room was clean, I was ready for a nap, so the girls played quietly in their rooms. Then I got up, got supper going, and we all had a snack. We had friends over after that, but I totally forgot to take a picture! Too bad. We had a wonderful time with them! You’ll have to imagine that part.

Our friends left, Ben got home from work, and we had supper.

After supper, we cleaned up, Ben played with the girls for a bit, and then it was time to get them into bed. I folded some laundry…

…and Ben did some work on his laptop, while I went through my photos for the day.

With organizing, editing, and writing a blog post, I find it takes me about an hour’s worth of work. I thought I would get pictures into a photo book during this week already, but I’m finding that I don’t have enough time, so that’s a fun project that will have to wait until next week!

What did Thursday look like for you?

A Week in the Life – Wednesday’s Photos

(“A Week in the Life” is an idea started by Ali Edwards, and involves photographing everything your family does for an entire week. Her ability to capture the most ordinary, normal, everyday kind of stuff, and making it beautiful, inspired me to give it a try…)

Wednesday was a whirlwind! Oh, my word. But it was so much fun. Can’t wait to do it again next week!

Because Ben had worked a really long day on Tuesday, he stayed home for a bit in the morning, which made the girls very happy, as they hadn’t seen him at all the day before. Of course, the morning had to begin with Ben very loudly, fakely snoring to signal his need for some girlies to come “wake him up” from that very deep slumber.

Then it was time for some morning piggyback rides.

It was rice cereal with cinnamon apples for breakfast today.

Ben packed us some very cute lunches while we got ready to leave for Winnipeg, and then we zipped off to his parents’ house.

After dropping the girls off, I went to my movement class, where I spent the hour with some ladies I had never met, trying to turn our bellybuttons and pelvic bones toward our right knees, and other such lovely movements. I have many moments of being very thankful that the only people who see me during those classes are all women who are in the midst of looking as ridiculous as I do. And then I think of Sunday’s bike ride, and the progress I’ve made, and I turn my bellybutton with fresh vigor.

 

After my class was over, I picked up the girls, we ate lunch while driving, and went to the University of Manitoba for our first day of swimming lessons! Anika and Kaylia were pretty excited about the shuttle ride from the parking lot to the swimming pool!

 

 

 

Anika’s swimming lesson started first, while Kaylia had to eagerly wait her turn.

We are in a slot with four other families from our homeschool group here in Niverville, and I had no idea how much fun this would be. It is so great to be able to spend two hours with these other moms, and for our kids to be able to play together.

Also? These four little girls lining up for swimming lessons was so extremely cute! Us moms sit around imagining what good friends they’ll be as they grow up!:)

Anika also had a gym class after swimming, and then we went shopping at Superstore for some fall clothes, but I didn’t  get pictures of everything!

After Superstore, it was time for our chiropractor appointments. While we waited, we read French books and pretended we knew what we were reading. (Our chiropractor is French, so the French children’s books are very plentiful. There are a few English ones Kaylia enjoys, but yesterday, she only chose French!)

After our appointments were over, it was time for Kaylia’s usual balancing act. This must happen each time we visit the chiropractor, so I’m really glad I got a picture of it! Also, I think the lady’s expression in the background is amusing, but I kinda wish I knew how to photoshop her out of there! She’s ruining the sweet moment.)

We got home just in time to make some supper. After supper, Anika disappeared to her room, and Kaylia played with toys (wearing the new shirt we bought that afternoon, of course).

Ben and I cleaned up the kitchen, and then he got the girls in the tub while I started going through my pictures from the day!

At bedtime, Anika was very excited to have Ben read to her. Right now, they’re reading Watership Down, and she is loving it.

Once the girls were in bed, Ben and I watched the last episode of “Amazing Race Canada”, and then went to bed.

It was a fun, full day, but definitely challenging to take my camera everywhere with me, and remember to get photos of stuff! I’m glad for a day at home today!

How’s your week going so far? Do you prefer “at home” days, or “out and about” days?

A Week in the Life: Tuesday Photos

Tuesday was a really nice day. I liked it a lot.

I heard once that test results showed a significant decrease in stress levels when people called home to talk to their mom on the phone. (When I mentioned this to a friend, she said her stress would rise significantly, so I guess it depends on the relationship!)

If a phone call can lower stress, I wonder what a visit home does for a person? I wasn’t stressed, but I sure loved spending the day at my parents’ house! This made my day great.

But first, I got to enjoy a lovely, quiet morning, because my girls spent the night at my parents’, so I got a few things done before I went to join them for the day.

Here’s Tuesday:

Reading.

Listening.

Eating.

Ironing.

Driving.

Arriving.

Feasting.

Swinging.

Remembering.

Jumping.

Climbing.

Hugging.

Smiling.

Playing.

Reading.

Leaving.

Anyone else out there who needs to spend the day with their mom?

A Week in the Life: Sunday Photos

Last day. I’m feeling relieved!

But I also feel glad that I did it. I took pictures of many things I might not have thought of, and I know that a few years from now, these pictures will give us a really good taste of what life was like for us right now.

Here’s our Sunday:

Waking up.

Breakfast.

Church.

Lunch.

Playing.

Reading.

Tickling.

Working in the kitchen, making a dish to take to a potluck.

Getting home (after forgetting to take a picture of the potluck!) and working on pictures for the day.

If you’ve been following along this last week, you’ve probably seen a lot more of my family than you’ve ever wished to see! There are a few thoughts that have been in my mind as I’ve gone along with this project:

1) Everybody has their own “normal”.

I post photos of our little life, and our “normal” way of doing things, but it could be completely different from what other people think of as “normal”. I think it’s awesome that we get to choose our own version of “normal”. We do family and home the way we feel best about it, and it’s going to look different for everybody. Thank goodness!

2) Things are not always the way they seem.

My friend said to me the other day, “Your kitchen always looks so sparkling in the morning!”

Two confessions: Sometimes I move a little junk out of the way to make a prettier picture. Sometimes I just leave it.

And…a good camera can blur the mess in the background right out so that no one can notice.

She said, “Oh good, can  you take a picture of me with that fancy camera of yours, and blur out the stuff that isn’t perfect?!”

And I thought of how perfect she is to me, no fancy camera or blurring necessary.

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I love my life, I love my family, I love that I get to spend every day with these sweet girls of ours. It is not perfect. Sometimes the background needs to be blurred a bit.

But all of this, the messy parts, and the shiny parts, the joyful parts and the whiny parts…all of it make up my life right now and I’m so very, very thankful for it!

I hope you’re seeing all of it, in your own life. I hope you see the steam coming off the pancakes, and the sun streaming in the window.

A few years ago, I was walking outside with a friend on an evening when the moon was so full and bright, it was absolutely breathtaking. All I could do was gaze at that moon, not even watching where I was going. Finally I said to my friend, “That is just incredibly beautiful.”

And she said, “What?”

Oh, that I would always have eyes to see the moon, and the little hands leaving little toys in funny places, and the mess that’s made because my family is here in this home with me. My floor is always dirty, and the dishes and the laundry never stay clean for long, but there is so much beauty in our mess.

That is what I’m thankful for this week. That is what I want to remember. That is what I always want to see.

And so, as you start this new week, I wish you many moments of truly seeing all of the little joys before you. May this week in your life be a good one!

A Week in the Life – Saturday Photos

I liked this weekend.

We started off with our usual Saturday morning pancakes and Happy Music. Ben always, always gets out his laptop and plays our “Happy Music” playlist on Grooveshark. If he forgets for any reason, Anika shouts out, “Hey, we need Happy Music!”

While the girls were waiting for their pancakes, they got into the photo albums, which have been a big favorite of theirs over the last few weeks. (Can’t wait to add this week’s album to the collection for them to enjoy!)

After we finished eating, it was time for Saturday chores. Anika was extra motivated to get her chores done, because she was having a friend over mid morning, and she needed to be done her work by then. She’s been so excited, she actually decided to wash the bathroom floor on Friday night already, so that she would have less work to do on Saturday morning!

Her chores these days include dusting and tidying her room, cleaning the bathroom, and washing the bathroom floor. Once she’s polished up her bathroom, she puts signs on the door, letting us all know that we are not allowed to enter and mess it up!

Ben and I decided that this Saturday was the day for tackling our basement. We haven’t organized it since moving in six months ago. With Ben working on finishing up his Masters, there was a long list of projects we’ve put on hold until now.

Well, he’s officially graduated, so the list of projects is starting to shorten! Last weekend it was the garage, this weekend the basement.

Ben needs to build some shelves, but we feel much better about the current state of our basement:

We did some cleaning upstairs, too.

And then Ben did some grocery shopping with Anika while I stayed home and read books with Kaylia.

We all went outside for a little bit in the afternoon.

Ben shoveled our driveway, Anika helped, I walked to the mailbox, and Kaylia sat on the doorstep, whining to go inside. And I took a picture of our house, because I haven’t yet.

The big excitement of the afternoon was the delivery of our new Ikea bookshelf! My friend Sarah got a special pass, and went shopping at Ikea even though it doesn’t officially open for a week. She asked if I wanted her to pick anything up for us, so we requested this shelf for the girls’ room.

In the evening, after Kaylia was in bed, Ben went out with friends, and I finished watching “High School Musical 2” with Anika. After she went to bed, I had a quiet house to myself, which was kind of nice, for a change! As much as I love spending time with Ben, I also enjoy doing stuff on my own.

After that full day, we are ready for a relaxing Sunday!

A Week in the Life – Friday Photos

Friday was good. Busy and full and fun.

I made sure to get a picture of Ben leaving for work, as I’ve missed doing that all week. I think part of me is still getting used to the idea of him “leaving for work”. I miss seeing him walk out the door and down the path to the lodge, and running back and forth a few times a day, whenever he needed papers or a snack or whatever.

Now he officially “leaves for work”.

After Ben left, I had breakfast with the girls, and they spent a little time playing while I got ready for the day.

Then we headed off for the city with my friend Sarah and her two little girls, Cadence and Lexi. We went on a field trip for homeschoolers.

 We attended a Science event which was all about toys and the scientific explanation for how they work, like bouncing balls or wind-up toys.

While Anika and Cadence were having their science lesson, Lexi was educating Kaylia on the uses of an iPhone. Equally educational.

We went to McDonald’s for lunch after, and the girls played for awhile before we came home.

Later in the afternoon, my friend Nikki came over with her girls, for our weekly piano lesson and play time. I’m teaching her daughter Calli, and we all enjoy the excuse to spend time together every week.

But I completely forgot to take any pictures! I’ll have to stage some photos next week.:)

After they left, I got supper ready, which was leftovers. I don’t get it when people say they don’t like leftovers. Of course, food doesn’t taste as good as on the day it was made. But it’s so fast and convenient! We love leftovers around here.

After leftovers, it was time to clean up the house and get the girls ready for bed. Anika wanted a special movie night, so after Kaylia went to sleep, Anika and I watched “High School Musical 2”. It’s been awhile since we’ve watched that one! Ben and I had forgotten exactly how cheesy it is, and how catchy the music is! Ben kept joining us on the couch for his favorite songs.:)

And that was our Friday.

Just the weekend to go! Almost there! I’m taking less pictures as the week goes by, so we’ll see what happens with Saturday and Sunday!

A Week in the Life: Wednesday Photos

And now the rest of us are sick.

I wasn’t sick enough to lie around all day, doing nothing. Just sick enough to feel really grouchy.

Apparently Kaylia takes after me. She was a total grump when she woke up this morning.

Fortunately, Anika was able to cheer her up a bit.

And then they were ready for breakfast.

And I was ready for my smoothie.

I had to go without one the day before, which made this one even more enjoyable.

After that, things were slightly less enjoyable.

It was one of “those days” – the kind where nothing goes right, my sick grumpiness is making me rather unpleasant, I fold half a basket of laundry only to realize it was still dirty, and start thinking it might have been better to spend the day in bed.

But there were some good parts scattered throughout the day. I’m glad my camera forced me to see them!

Things like morning sunshine while doing school work.

And my new Norwex mop.

More laundry conquered.

More muffins baked. (For Anika’s Christmas program practice.)

And a delicious yam for lunch.

In the afternoon, I delivered Anika and our five dozen muffins to church, and then came home to cook my spaghetti sauce…

…and read stories to Kaylia.

When Ben and Anika got home, we ate supper, cleaned up, got the girls in the tub, and into bed.

And then I was ready to go to bed myself. Fortunately, Anika recovered very quickly from her little bout with the flu, so Ben and I are anticipating an equally fast recovery.

Notice how most of my pictures are from earlier in the day? I guess as things deteriorated, I picked up my camera less and less…

Here’s hoping Thursday is a healthy, photogenic kind of day!

A Week in the Life: Tuesday Photos + Stories

Anika threw up first thing Tuesday morning.

I was worried about how the day would go, but she was fine after that. She spent the day resting on the couch, and perked up around noon.

Kaylia was very eager to help make a bed for Anika on the couch, and offered to read her a story.

She continued to be very “busy” all day, saying the most hilarious things.

While she was getting dressed: “This dress is good, Mom. It’s long. It’s hollow.”

While helping me bake muffins: “Baking day is a lot more funner.”

While playing Polly Pockets: “Oopsy daisy, head! I threw it in the box!”

While playing paperdolls: “Pa is singing the Chippy Song: ‘We’re picking chips, we’re picking chips!'” (As in wood chips…)

I also took time to enjoy what Anika had to say. Once she started feeling better, she started telling stories with her dolls on the couch. She does not like it when she knows I’m listening, but she never noticed when I sat down at the table and started taking notes!

The following story is used by her permission, and was inspired by the book One Hen, which is just amazing, and is about an African boy who buys a chicken, and eventually saves enough money to buy a huge chicken farm.

Here is Anika’s version, in which Belle is apparently trying to buy an over-priced chicken from a farmer:
“That greedy little farmer,” muttered Belle as she left the farmer.

Then she went into the forest to pick some berries. Then she came back, had something to eat, and took her berries to the market to sell. She was able to sell her berries for a good price.

When she got home, her mother eyed the coins suspiciously. “My, you’ve sold your berries for a high price! You’ve done well,” her mother said.

Belle got her money, and went back to the farm. She left one silver piece and on small gold piece on the table for her mother to use.

She handed all her money to the farmer.

“Little Peep for all that money? I’m afraid not, my dear. It will take much more money,” said the farmer.

Finally, after three weeks of giving the farmer her money, he gave Little Peep to her. Belle knew her work was being accomplished….

….She would buy books, and then sell them to many people. They would poar over  them many, many times. It all happened because of her egg money.

When I wasn’t being entertained by my girls, I was doing housework.

And baking.

And reading Anika’s Social Studies book to her.

I wasn’t excited about a sick day, but it turned out to be a good one! We’ll see what Wednesday holds…