New Year's Resolutions

Being that time of year again, I've actually spent a little time pondering my new year's resolution for 2008. I've decided this year will be the year of making a difference.

Like many, I wish for world peace and harmony at Christmas, but honesty, what do I really do to promote that? If I'm not willing to compromise and sacrifice on an individual level, then how can I expect it of the world as a whole? Answer, I can't.

I also wish for my life to leave an impact on the world, be it large or small, but unless I'm willing to take the time or acknowledge making the effort, then I'm likely to feel unsatisfied. I do believe that we all make an impact on the world, daily, just we fail mostly to acknowledge what that impact is (large, small, good, bad, neutral). I want to be more conscientious of the impact of my daily decisions, and to do more things that I want to do to make a difference.

Here are somethings I'm thinking of for making an impact.
Environmental:
Be better about using and managing my compost bin
Get that hot water heater blanket
Look into replacing the furnace with a more efficient one

Helping others:
Get Drake certified as a therapy dog so that he can go to long term care hospitals and centres to brighten the lives of the sick.
Volunteer, donate

Whew - first week back

I've been very busy this week catching up at work after having taken a week off, and it pretty much feels like I need, make that **NEEEEEEED**, a vaction again.

I've almost finished Christmas shopping, I just have to get hubby something, I'm debating getting him something off his wishlist, but many of the items are hard to find locally and usually need to be ordered online (I got 5 of them for his b-day last week). So if you could give me some hints for good hubby presents. He like video games, but he wants the XBOX 360 next, not a Wii, so we have to wait for the new chip on the 360 first. He's into sci-fi & alternate history for reading (i.e. William Gibson and Harry Turtledove). He like geeks toys. He's not hard to shop for and he's pretty vocal about what he likes, you just have to order it all rather than going to the store, and I'd like it to be a surprise. I've debated making him something, but I'm not sure what I'd like to make. Hubby is not handy or into do it yourself projects, so nothing like that would do. Any ideas?

Vacation Week - Thursday

I woke up late again today, 8:20 because hubby reminded me that we had to finish putting out the recycling before the collector comes. I don't have any big plans for today, mostly just lazing around the house. Maybe I'll do some cleaning today, get rid of those cobwebs I just saw coming down the stairs this morning.

On another note, last night I was reviewing my BBTs pre m/c because I felt I was ovulating a little late this month. Looking back I was ovulating before around day 16 and menstruating around day 21-23, so I have a very short luteal phase, or at least I did during the summer when I was last tracking my temperatures. My cycle was longer last month but I wasn't tracking my temperature for that cycle, so we'll have to see how long this cycle is, I'm thinking about going to buy B6 vitamins to help lengthen the luteal phase. Yes, I am now aware that a short luteal phase makes pregnancy difficult as you start your period often before implantation can occur and if it does occur you menstrate soon after effectively causing a miscarriage. So I should go to see my doctor for my annual check up in March, by then I should have 3-4 cycles tracked so we can see if my luteal phase really is short, or if that was just a symptom of coming off birth control.

Vacation Week - Wednesday

Today will be a busier day, Drake's off to daycare again and we're having breakfast with hubby's parents (dim sum).

Hubby wants to go downtown, so I'll be dropping him off and then going shopping more locally for Christmas presents again. After that I'll head home and try to finish this course of mine so that I can take the final exam either Friday or on the weekend.

More to come later.

Breakfast was nice, then I went shopping at Fairview (hubby went downtown on the subway). Although I was intending to buy Christmas presents, instead I bought bras for myself, then I found a new winter coat at Melanie Lyne (red) and since I was there and there was this great red suit, I bought that too. So much for Christmas presents, maybe tomorrow.

Now I'm off to study my course until hubby comes home.

Vacation Week - Tuesday

Today is hubby's birthday, so at midnight I gave him his prezzies, we decided to open one of them, some books from Indigo that he had on his wishlist. Since I woke up late yesterday I didn't go to sleep until about 2am, and I didn't sleep very well, my neck is achy today. Hubby tried to wake me up at 9:30 and gave up by 10, the snoring pup wake me cause he's so cute and I got out of bed at 11.

This morning I woke up at 11, and since it's so close to lunch I decided to just have OJ and coffee for breakfast and I'll have salad or leftovers for lunch. It snowed again last night a couple of inches, so good thing we bought a new shovel (sorry mom, maybe I'll take one off your hands anyway so we can both shovel the driveway).

I spent the afternoon playing with the dog and watching TV, we went out to dinner at Spring Rolls, while out we visited Best Buy and hubs picked up a copy of Terminator 2 for $7 and BattleStar Gallactica: Razor which was released on DVD today.

All in all a quieter day for hubby's birthday.

Vacation Week - Monday

I figured I haven't blooged in a while, so I would bring to you a week of blogging about what I did on my winter vaction ;)

I woke up late around 10am. Hubs and I took Drake to daycare and then went to breakfast at Cora's. I had a raspberry Begian waffle, yummy.

Then off to Markville to do some Christmas and birthday shopping. I purchased my brother's birthday present (it's on the 20th) and perused a number of stores looking for prezzies for mom, bro, SIL and hubs. Hubs bought track pants (sweat pants).

Hubs and I skipped lunch, because well we were still full from breakfast and went home. Once home he shovelled the driveway and broke the scoop portion of the shovel right in half.

We had a nap from 4 to 5 then went to Lick's for burgers for dinner at 5:30. We picked up Drake from daycare and then went to Canadian tire, Home Depot and Canadian Tire again looking for a snow shovel.

I finished the laundry, dusted the main floor while listening to bodyrockers, read a comic book and watched Heroes (which cut their season short due to the writers strike).

And I didn't look at my work email at all, although I did think about it. I have to submit some receipts at work by Friday and it turns out I will have to go in to do it because the tool doesn't work over VPN at home. I also have to finish an online course I'm taking for work by the 12th, so I'll be doing that this week too.

Voila

So here's the new bathroom (sorry I forgot to take before pics and the ones we had from the purchase of the house are lost).

The vanity:



The tub:




The picture from the manufacturer, because it's almost the same and they had a professional photographer :) (Copyright Vanico-maronyx)



I took a picture of me, but it looked like I have an even larger spare tire than I think I do and I wish to remain in denial.

Finishing Touches Day

So today the master bath should be finished. Mom and I are putting on the final coat of paint, and so long as I can paint the trim and I don't wear out the bathroom (minus the shower curtain) will be finished. I suppose I should go pick up a tension road from Canadian Tire for the shower curtain so we can use the upstairs shpwer tomorrow morning.

New Stuff

Time for a new post I'm tired of looking at the last one!

It was another release weekend this week, it went very well and pretty quick (3 hours). My project was pulled from the release on Wendesday as we were not comfortable with the robustness of the new infrastructure and technologies we were implementing. So we're now intending to deploy in January so I'm updating the documentation to indicate the current state and since we have 3 more months adding detail to functionality that was descoped due to lack of detail and time.

I think this week the contractor is going to come to redo our master bathroom which has been in a state of disrepair for 2 years, I guess I should take some before and after photos for all of you. One thing though, I primed it in order to repaint and never repainted, so the cover plates are off all the lights and plugs, etc. Just a warning for the before photos :)

Are you excited? I'm excited just writing about my first major home reno (the biggest one I've done to date is replacing the handles on the kitchen cupboards, and I still haven't finished that).

The return - TMI

OK, not so finished Friday, if you don't like bloodily fluids stop reading now.

It all started up again on Saturday, went to the hospital as I passed out from blood loss. They brought my blood pressure back up and I stopped passing blood and clots on my own, but since it was 11pm the OB/GYN wanted to see me in the hospital the next day for a potential D&C. Well Sunday I didn't have any issues, so they sent me home. Monday of course I started bleeding heavily again, so I was back in emerg, which was packed and it took 8 hours to see a doctor. Strangely when I finally got to see another OB/GYN when she checked me out I had stopped bleeding again, so she was going to send me home, but before she did she wanted to check the size of my uterus, which was tiny she said and I bleed all over her and the table, so she decided I was bleeding and she did the first exam again and decided on an immediate D&C and more blood tests to see where my hemoglobin count was (it dropped from 107 to 79 in the 6 hours between test, so no wonder I was dizzy and weak, the normally value for a woman is 115).

Anyway, the D&C is pretty quick, they wheeled me out of ER at 12:30 and I woke up in the post op at 1:20 and pretty lucid, although I got sleepy again when they were wheeling me to my room, I stayed overnight due to my weakened state.

I'm home now recovering, still weak and headachy. Today hubby and my inlaws stayed, tomorrow, my hubby is going into work late and coming home early and my inlaws will stay with me in the intervening time. I hope my mom doesn't read this before I get to talk to her, I didn't want to let her know what was going on on Saturday until they made a decision, Sunday morning she left for a short vacation, forgive me mom the docs didn't know what to do with me until Monday night, well technically Tuesday morning.

It is finished

Well at least I hope it is. Since Saturday I've been spotting very lightly, yesterday it finally got a little heavier with cramping, but then went away. Today though, the cramps were strong and the bleeding heavy. Strangely, I only feel relief that it's finally resolved, not grief or remorse, I expect that will come in time. For now, I shall relax and be thankful that it was quick and not as emotionally draining as I expected it might be. Tomorrow is another day, and when the emotions flow I'll deal with it then and not wonder why I'm not a basket case now, hopefully, I'll remember that I was thankful to God that I'm not a basket case,

What's new pussycats? Whoa oh oh oh oh

I guess ya'll would like an update? Hmmm? Maybe? Maybe not?

So in my last update I had shots to terminate a potentially ectopic pregnancy (they think that 1 out of 4 ultrasounds showed a mass on my left ovary).

Anyway, my horomone levels at the time were 9K (on Wednesday the 29th). Tested again on Saturday (19K), Tuesday (20K), Friday (19K). Monday I went to see the doctor in the hospital and he wanted more tests to see where we were at so he could determine a course of action, since my hormone levels were steady, not dropping or rising (I'm 8 weeks now I suppose). So we did, he was on call, so I guess he had to go deliver a baby, so he writes the results and next steps in my file and gives it to the nurse to tell me. The results? "Ultrasound looks normal, come back to hospital Friday for more blood work".

So what does that mean any? I'd take it as positive, but well they did give me a nice chemical cocktail to end the pregnancy, so maybe "ultrasound looks normal" means nothing on the ovary and development of the embryo stopped somewhere around 6.5 to 7 weeks (i.e. soon after the shots), so expect HCG levels to drop and miscarriage to start? No ask to make a doctor's appointment after the blood work Friday, tough, he's getting a visit anyway. Either Friday or Monday or the next time one of them is in the office.

Tests, Tests and more tests

So had more tests on Wednesday, not good. The doctor found a mass on my left ovary and although he's not sure, we're treating our pregnancy as ectopic just to be safe. So last night I had shots that cause the termination of the pregnancy and I have to have follow-up blood work and doctor appointments for the next 3 weeks to make sure my hormone levels drop (because this method only works in 75-90 percent of cases).

I'm feeling better today, I didn't sleep very well, so hubby took me out for brunch which has me in a better mood now.

I'm taking the rest of the week off work and I think I'll go read a book now.

Results

So my hormone levels are up again, a good increase of 3700+ to 5500+ the radiologist can't see an ectopic embryo in the ultrasound either. Until I can see the OB/Gyn next week I'm going to go with positive thinking that we're a go, although high risk and I'll likely be closely monitored.

I'm in shock, so I don't have anything more to say and I think I'll go relax now.

Where have I been?

I haven't felt much like blogging lately, too busy and tired, then dejected, now disappointed.

For the first couple of weeks of August I was too tired.
Since mid August I've been feeling dejected.
Aug 19 things changed. I started spotting mid cycle, not unusual, but it was bright red. Since DH and I are trying to conceive I decided to take a pregnancy test, ya, it was positive. So all week I've been going to the hospital for a variety of tests so the doctor can determine just what is going on so he can determine his course of action. He believes I'll miscarry (I don't disagree, and I'm OK with that), right now he wants to make sure it's not an ectopic pregnancy. So anyway, it's been a quiet and hectic week, so I'm taking Friday off to do tests and then the afternoon as a brain break, I always feel more emotional after the test results.

Maybe I'll blog more about the results tomorrow.

SMART Habits Saturday - Aug 4

So it's Saturday and time to develop another habit, please go to Lara's blog to join in.

Last week went terribly for my new habits, not a one of them was followed. So this week should probably be a follow my habits week.

Previous SMARTs

15 Minute Walkabout Nope none at all

15 Minutes with God also not good this week, does Friday's post count?

2 days/week extra curricular activities Nope none at all

Control Freak I forgot entirely

15 Minute Fridays - August 3

Yesterday I had networking problems, so I could get my post up.

John 3: 1-36

This week in chapter 3 of John 2 things are covered, Nicodemus visiting Jesus and learning that to be part of the world to come he must be born of water and spirit. The second being John the baptist teaching his own disciples about who Jesus is, and that all should follow him.

I wonder what Nicodemus wanted to know when he came to Jesus. He came to Jesus acknowledging Jesus being a great teacher and obviously loved and acknowledged by God because of the miracles he can perform. I think Nicodemus came to Jesus with questions to ask about the Law. Nicodemus was a member of the ruling council. The council decided Jewish matters in Jerusalem and were a moral authority. I guess they are a lot like the Pope and his cardinals in deciding what the correct interpretation of scripture for all Catholics. I could see why Nicodemus would have questions, that's quite a burden, and it's been along time since there's been a teacher touched by God to correct the paths of His people.

What kind of questions would you ask Jesus if you had the shared responsibility of deciding the interpretation of doctrine for all of your country men? I think I would ask Jesus if I was leading His people away from him. I'd ask what needs to be corrected, certainly after 400 years there are corrections to be made. I'd wonder if I've followed God's law correctly. I'd also hope whatever the answer it wasn't too hard to do.

Before Nicodemus can ask a single question, Jesus says to him "I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again." I could just imagine myself thinking, but I thought we had to honour God by following rules, what rules have we led God's people to break, have we all broken God's covenant and that's why the Roman's rule us. Have we misplaced some of Moses' writings, there is no mention of being born again in the Law. So Nicodemus asks how to be reborm and Jesus tells him with water and spirit. It took me a while to make some sense of this in my understanding of the Jewish Law and the observances at that time, apparently Nicodemus didn't get it either.

What does being reborn of water and Spirit mean to you?

In terms of the Law (and I'm no expert in it, or accepted opinion of what these teachings mean not having any formal teaching) I see that for water, the Jews had a lot of rules about ceremonial washing, so I could see water as being a renewal of cleanliness and righteousness before God. The Jews also had a lot of rules around ceremonial defilement and the sacrifices required. So water makes my body clean from defilement, and sacrifice makes my soul clean from defilement. I remember reading all the sacrificial items and when individual sacrifices had to be performed, I knew I would never be considered cermonially clean, or at least not for very long following those rules, and that was based just on the nature of my mensus alone during that first reading. If that's even close to what Jesus meant, I guess I could see how Jesus would say to Nicodemus, surely as a teacher of the Law and interpretter of when and how to wash and sacrifice for removing defilement, and knowing that being defiled you cannot come before God, certainly a teacher of that should understand that to come into the permanent presence of God you need to be renewed by water and Spirit.

Where I'm at right now is trying to understand verse 8 which follows more examples about what reborn means Jesus says "The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." What does this passage mean to you? How do you know if you've been reborn of the Spirit? How does a person, being reborn of the Spirit identify with what Jesus says about the wind?

SMART Habits Saturday

Lara's computer is on the fritz, but I think I'll participate anyway. This week has been a tough one at work, and I'm actually feeling dejected, not much in my control though, but I don't like having to give unwelcome news, or basically tell someone to shape-up. So on to this week, I think I should concentrate on what I can control and let go of the rest. As the prayer goes "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference".

Previous SMARTs
15 Minute Walkabout really bad this week (1/7)
15 Minutes with God also not good this week
2 days/week extra curricular activities 1 of 2, went to work out at the gym on the treadmill, fun but hard to get up the energy to do it. I guess I did 2, if reading counts, I did it as a second...

15 Minute Friday - July 27

So this week I had 2 ideas, the first is related to the book of John. In chapter 2, the wedding at Cana, Jesus turns water into wine. The one thing in this description of Jesus' first recorded miracle in John is how Jesus responds to his mother, here's the passage:

John 2:3-5 When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine". "Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come." His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

I've tried to imagine Jesus saying this to his mom, and it just seems rude to me. Maybe it's the "dear woman" translation, it seems very formal and distant to me. I decided to look up the words as I am likely adding my own tone based on my own time and culture. Dear refers to something of value, precious and near to your heart, at least this is the interpretation I wish to allocate. So that would then mean dear woman is an endearment of a son for his mother. I wonder at why Jesus' mother involves him and why he thinks his time has not yet come. Maybe his mom sees something he doesn't. There's not mention of Jesus having disciples previously in his life, and in 3 days time he now has 5. Maybe people had wanted to learn from him before, but he discouraged them from following and now he was accepting them. I think this needs more pondering.

The second thing I was thinking about is the Lord's Prayer, have you ever really thought about it? It really blows my mind. For instance, it begins 'Our Father'. I tried to fathom that, so I tried to calculate the volume of space that 6 billion pennies would occupy, so I guesses at the width and diameter of a pennie and figured out how many would fit in house I grew up in. (The house is 1800+ sqft and I just used a volume of 100ft x 50ft x20ft. Anyway, if my calculations were correct, 6 billion pennies would fill that volume 33 times, that just astounded me. And to think of knowing and being able to identify each penny uniquely, and we're a lot more complex than a penny.

The second line "Who art in heaven" I tried to conceptualize heaven. I used to think of heaven as somewhere further out in the universe, and I still default to this. But heaven isn't within our universe, it's outside it, because the universe is God's creation not His living space, just as I don't exist within something that I might create. I don't think I spend enough time thinking about heaven, I wonder how my attitudes and values might change if I did spend more time thinking about heaven.

I'm still working on the third line "Hallowed be thy name". What it means for God's name to be holy, what does holy mean? I turned to my dictionary again for this and looked up hallowed, which has 2 definitions: to make hold or set appart for holy use; and to respect greatly. Holy means: exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness and righteousness; devoted entirely to the deity or the work of the deity; having a divine quality. Holiness is a difficult concept for me, the dedication, reverence, respect I see in the old and new testament of the Lord's prophets is foreign to me.

So what have you done this week with God? How do interpret the exchange between Jesus and his mother before his first miracle? What does the Lord's prayer mean to you? Should you think about heaven more?

SMART Habits Saturday - week 3

So last week's habit of spending 15 minutes with prayer and/or bible study every day worked out well, and I've decided to have a regular feature on my own blog of 15 minute Friday's. This past week I've come to realize that if I organized myself into having commited things to do evenings and weekends, I might just work less overtime and feel less stressed and have a healthier work/life balance. Therefore, this week, I will find 2 things I want to commit to for myself during the week.

Visit The Lazy Organizer for more SMART Habits

15 minute walk about not so good 2 days only

15 minutes with God great 6 days

15 Minute Friday

This past week as part of my SMART Habits Saturday I've been working on spending 15 minutes with God every day. That being said and by Jenny V's request I'm going to start 15 minute Fridays.

Every Friday I will post on my week's journey with God and faith. So a travellin I shall go.

For the last few weeks I've been studying the gospel of John. Now a little background on this gospel, it's different from the other 3 in that it's very much about who Jesus is, John the Baptist's testimony of Jesus as Messiah and Godly love and redemption. It's quite often given to people seeking more information about Jesus and Christianity. Now to be quite frank with you, had it been given to me, I might not be a Christian, because I just don't get it, I find it really frustrating so far. I have read this gospel all the way through for an overview, and I'm currently concentrating on Chapter 1. Here's an example of something that frustrates me. One of the questions in my study guide, What did eah of the first 5 disciples find out about Jesus and how did they find out. Now, let's take Philip, Jesus finds Philip in his [Philip's] home town and says to him "Follow me". [John 1:43]. Philip, presumably spends some time with Jesus, although the next couple versus explain where it happened, not what occurred to make Philip a believer and then has Philip running off to find Nathaniel to tell Nate that they have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and about whom the prophets also wrote [John 1:45]. Nathaniel didn't believe a Messiah could come from Nazareth, but comes to meet Jesus anyway. Jesus says Nate is a true son of Israel and when Nate questions the comment, Jesus says he 'saw' Nate praying under a fig tree before Philip found him. To this Nate replies "Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel [John 1: 46-49].

Now I try to put myself in their place. If someone asked me to follow them, I'm not sure I would without an explanation, or at least some knowledge gained from my own acquitances of who the person is. So let's say I followed, chances are I'm not going to running off to my friends to tell them the Messiah has been found. And if someone told me they had seen where I was and what I was doing before I came before them, Son of God is certainly not the first thing that comes to mind. I should likely have gotten along much better with the Pharisees.

Now seeing the experience of the first 5 disciples and how they came to believe in Jesus as Messiah, this gospel doesn't explain how seeds were planted or the thought processes of the disciples or what transpired in the intervening hours. I have to wonder, if I were to write out the beginning of my own story, what would it be, what made me cross that line from seeking to believing. If I told you my defining moment of belief, it would probably seem to you, like the first 5 disciples seems to me. So here it is:

Standing in my friend Jon's living room, he playing piano and a few of us singing a new worship song we had learned recently, Shi.ne Je.sus Shi.ne (by Graham Kendrik). Over the piano is a framed poem called Footprints. By the time I reached the end of the poem, I was well aware of how much God loved me and wanted me and that this is what I had spent all these years looking for. So what might have John written about my conversion? Jesus found Kim singing praises and said "Trust me" and is that really so different from the "follow me" that John overheard Jesus say to Philip?

Take the next 15 minutes and think about your experiences with a higher power, whatever form that may take. Although it's always a journey, is there a defining moment? Would you share?







Take what you like and leave the rest.
Kim

SMART Habits Saturday - week 2

SMART Habits Saturday is hosted by Lara @ The Lazy Organizer.

This is my second week and I think I'd like to alternate habits I want to make versus ones I should make. So this week's habit will be to spend 15 minutes with God every morning.

Here's the list:

15 Minute Walkabout 2 days last week, not so good

SMART Habits Saturday - July 7

SMART Habits Saturday is hosted by The Lazy Organizer being inspired by Lara's blog I've decided to participate this week in a smarter habit, but oh which one shall I do, I don't want to overdo things, just one habit a week is all I need as soon there will be lots and lots of good habits.

Cleaning: Do a walk-about every day. I can't find Laura's posts on walk-abouts although I know she's posted at least twice, plus her own daily 15 minute tidy up. Actually I guess I want to do a 15 minute tidy up, since I haven't taught the dog to put away his toys yet :)

Menu Planning Monday

Monday: Tilapia Fish with ginger and green onions, brushed with soya sauce and sherry. Veggie black bean stir fry on the side

Tuesday: Vegetable Enchildas

Wednesday: Pork and green beans stir fried in Olive and garlic sauce, tomatoes and tofu in oyster sauce

Thursday: Lemon Chicken side unknown

Friday: Salmon marinated in lemonpeppercorn sauce, side unknown.

Vegetable Enchiladas

Nutritional Information (based on actual recipe, not the jambalaya leftovers):
Calories: 309
Protein: 12g
Carbohydrate: 23g
Sugars: 14g
Fat: 19g
Saturates: 8g

Ingredients:
I use leftovers from the Vegetable Jambalaya, but these are the actual ingredients.
4 large four tortillas (I used 9 small whole wheat tortillas)
3/4 cup grated hard cheese (I used extra sharp cheddar)

Filling:
2 1/4 oz spinach
2 tbsp olive oil
8 baby corn on the cobs, sliced
1 tbsp frozen peas, thawed
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 leek diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red chili, chopped
salt and pepper

Sauce: (I used the leftover canned chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, some vegetable stock and garlic salt for the sauce)
1 1/4 seived tomatoes
2 shallots, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 1/4 cups vegetable stock
1 tsp super fine sugar
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:

1. To make filling, blanche the spinach in a pan of boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain well, pressing out as much excess moisture as possible and chop (oK, I use chopped frozen spinach and thaw it)
2. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the baby corn, peas, bell pepper, carrot, leek, garlic and chili, saute, stirring briskly, for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the spinach and season well with salt and pepper.
3. Put all the sauce ingredients in a heavy bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring constantly for 20 minutes until thickened and reduced by a third (I mixed my version in a bowl and stirred well, no cooking).
4. Spoon the filling into the tortillas, spinkle a little cheese inside, roll, place in baking dish.
5. Once all enchiladas are rolled, spoon sauce on top making sure to cover everything then sprinkle with cheese (I spinkled with cheese and more garlic salt).
6. Bake for 20 minutes at 350F.

Vegetable Jambalaya

Nutritional Information:
Calories: 181
Protein 6g
Carbohydrates: 25g
Sugars: 8g
Fat: 7g
Saturates: 1g

Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown rice
2 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red onion, cut into 8
1 eggplant, diced (I used 2 more bell peppers, zucchini is good too)
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 3/4 oz baby corn on the cob, halved lengthwise
1/2 cup frozen peas
3 1/2 oz small broccoli florets
2/3 cup vegetable stock
8 oz can chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp creole seasoning
1/2 tsp chili flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Cook the rice according to directions on bag/box
2. Heat oil in heavy bottom skillet and cook garlic and onion stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes
3. Add eggplant, bell pepper, corn, peas, and broccoli to the pan and cook, stirring occassionally for 2-3 minutes
4. Stir in the vegetable stock and canned tomatoes, tomato paste, creole seasoning and chili flakes
5. Season to taste, cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender
6. Stir in cooked rice, mixing well, for 3-4 minutes. Serve immediately.

If too spice add butter or cheese to the jambalaya. I use the leftovers for Vegetable Enchildas.

Menu Planning Monday

Here's my nutritional menu for the week, low cal and low fat. For more participants see Org Junkie's list.

Sunday: Vegetable Jambalaya

Monday: Vegetable Enchiladas (using leftovers from Sunday)

Tuesday: Late Father's Day dinner out

Wednesday: Beef Stroganoff (from Dr. B recipes)

Thursday: Lemon Chicken

Friday: Tilapia fish in black bean sauce

Saturday: Tofu and veggies, pork and green beans - chinese style

Sunday: Kraft Foods Bruschetta Chicken Bake

Recipes to follow, I forgot the cookbooks, where I have it available I'll include nutritional information

Happy Mother's Day

Today is mother's day, and I really owe my mom a lot. I realize as I grow older just how lucky I am, and I owe that to 2 main things. God's grace, and mom's teaching.

I'm happily married because I had a good mom who loved us, cherished us which taught us to love ourselves and cherish ourselves, so that we would be able to give the same of ourselves to others. She taught us compromise and sacrifice as marriage is about that too. I'm lucky that my husband was also raised by a mom who taught him these things and that God gave us these wonderful mom's and each other. She taught us to be individuals and self sufficient, so even unmarried we would be happy.

We're not struggling financially because my mom taught me always to do my very best, to educate myself to strive to do things that I thought I might not be capable of, not to settle for good enough, when I know I can do better, but to also have compassion for myself and to give myself a chance to learn new things, they don't have to be done perfectly right away. She taught me to get an education and finish that education and not waste my intelligence. Because of this, I'm gainfully employed, even if I work too hard and I'm hard on myself if I don't complete things to my satisfaction in the timeline I set myself, I do set my expectations of myself very high.

I'm healthy because my mom taught me the importance of regular medical checkups. I see my dentist and doctor regularly, I could eat better, but I could also be worse, at least I know when I'm not eating well.

When things feel bad I learned that the world would not stop moving right along, because honestly if it did whenever someone felt bad, the world wouldn't ever move. So I learned that this too shall pass, it applies to the good and the bad though :)

I learned a lot about life from my mother, and hopefully one day I'll realize all the important things she's taught me about motherhood and I'll be able to pass them on to children of my own.

Happy mother's day mom and to all the mommies out there, may you all realize the impacts you have in the lives of those around you.

7 random things (since I was tagged....)

by Jenn!

Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. At the end of your blog, you need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

1. When I interlace my fingers, my left thumb is on top, although I'm right handed.
2. For all of my adult career life I've always had to explain what I do (even though I've already had 2 careers). I enjoy explaining it more than doing it.
3. Used to run my hand along the wall when I walked down a hallway, I also sometimes try not to step on lines or cracks in the tiling.
4. When trying to figure something out I would have a conversation with myself, I can do this in my head now without moving my hands. I used to walk down hallways at university mouthing words and waving my hands.
5. I make funny little noises with notes sort of when I'm very happy. I discovered this when dating my husband. He smiles so widely that tears come and his jaw aches.
6. My brother does #5 too, but very loudly.
7. I notice little things about myself that remind me of my mother more and more. (Like this week I realized I don't like the windows down in the car anymore, I don't like the wind moving my hair around my scalp, my mom doesn't like it either).

Tagging: Chrissa, Hope, JennyV, Beck, Michelle (Scribbit), Antique Mommy, Laura (Org Junkie)

Wedding Day

Today is the day my little brother gets married. It's funny saying that... little brother... not getting married. I still think of him as about 15, probably because I don't feel very old myself (18-21 ish rather than the 34 that I am).

Today is an absolutely gorgeous day, a surprising 23 degrees Celsius, considering that on Monday it was about 5 degrees. I've been hoping for the last 2 weeks it would be warm and sunny for them, no flowers, but at least it will be warm taking pics down by the beach. Most of us are wearing suits, the Bride will probably be fine, we'll all be sweating.

I wrote my speech early this morning, I hope it's OK, I haven't practiced it a lot. Anyway, off to make myself pretty for the family photos.

Home coming

Thank you all for praying, Ron is coming home today. He's not healed yet, and still has 5 rounds of chemo, and still blind, but praise God he's able to come home, please keep praying.

Have you ever wanted to see a miracle?

Have you ever wanted to see a miracle? Or better yet participate in one? Over the last few months I've been praying along with many many others for Annie and Ron, you can read the details of their story here. Today though I feel compelled to invite as many people as I can to pray too, because the timeline of Ron's story matches that of a miraculous season in the Christian calendar.

Here is a synopsis of Ron's story:
Dec 22 2006: Diagnosed with a brain tumour
Dec 23 3006 moved 1300kms from home to get the care he needed
Dec 27 2006: Biopsied the tumour, its inoperable and malignant
Jan 10 2007: Arrive at the cancer centre for treat of a grade 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme, treatment won't erradicate the tomour, only try to control it
Jan 23 2007: Radiation and chemotherapy treatment starts
Feb 21 2007: Ron has declined very rapidly and the doctors estimate he has 5 days left
March 6 2007: Ron is moved to a palliative care centre and his life expectancy is extended to 3 weeks.
March 21 2007: Ron continues to improve and is getting stronger each day although he is unable to see and begins the chemo portion of his treatments on the 26th.
March 26 2007: Ron begins chemotherapy

Those of us that have been praying for Ron already know God has done so much for him and his family and blessed those that have been praying for them. There is no denying the glorification of God when you participate in His miracles.

Today I have felt called to share Annie and Ron's story with more people, to encourage more people to pray during this week, especially this week, known as Holy Week to Christians.

So if you've been praying keep it up, if you haven't start, and if you wouldn't then I challenge you to challenge yourself, I dare you to move out of your comfort zone and see what we see, experience what we have experienced. God is moving very powerfully in this direction join the flow.

Change of Face

For a few years now I've been thinking of changing my handle. A handle for those of you that don't know is your online nick. So no more warpie (originally a derivative of mindwarp) now it's odat (or odat_kim), its the acronym of the new title for my main blog (One Day At a Time). It was between odat and C2C and serenity (C2C = courage to change). So anyway, odat it is for now, it may change again (although it may take 10 years like the last change). Anyway, new handle, new face, new perspective.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my mom's birthday, so in honour of the occassion, this post is dedicated to her.

Moms
Moms are incredible people, and my mom is no different than any other. It astounds me how moms can accomplish so many things, things that I bet none of them ever thought they could before that fist tiny helpless bundle arrived in their lives to change everything. I was that bundle for my mom. Moms sacrifice a lot for their families and from what I can see from my own mother, rather than bringing resentment it brought pleasure and I think that's one wonderful thing about my mom. I'm also astounded by all the things moms can accomplish in a 24 hour period or a 7 day week, or a 52 week year, bet you never did that pre-kids and you don't give yourselves credit for it now... give yourself a pat on the back for all those years of taking care of the family and managing all the to do lists, and still raising great, well adjusted, healthy kids, that's a major accomplishment!

My Mom

• My mom raised 2 kids, cared for a sister and husband.
• She single handedly took care of all the chores and day to day needs of so many of us, even when we could bloody well do it ourselves, and should have, lazy unappreciating buggers that we were. I dont ever remember my mom losing her temper or cool about it though. I appreciate it and recognize it now mom, I have no idea how you managed to do it all, and your deserve being recognized, however late, that it is appreciated, and your amazing.
• Mom taught us values in knowing what matters to ourselves and not being influenced by others to abandon our core beliefs
• Mom taught us honesty, she rarely got mad if we made a mistake, only if we hid it from her. Maliciousness of course was not tolerated.
• Mom taught us respect, for ourselves, for family, for others, for things. By teaching us this, we can take care of ourseves and don't fall into what the crowd might be doing, we acknowledge when we've done wrong and stick around to accept the punishment. We respect others and their things so that we get along with others, the world does not revolve around our needs, wants and desires and we take care of those without infringing on the right of another to meet their needs, wants and desires. We also know the value of a sincere apology.
• Mom taught us cooperation, because we can't do it all alone, and it lifts each of us up and builds relationship to cooperate, no man is an island.
• Mom taughts us independence, which came from respect and values, we don't ask for things we can do ourselves, it is not another's responsibility to meet our needs.

Go Green for March

In honour of Going Green for March I will endeavour to do the following:

1. Turn down the thermostat 1 degree (day) 2 degrees (night)
2. Replace as many lights as I can with high efficency bulbs, (save the still working floursecents for where I can't do replacements)
3. Buy more organic food
4. Buy food with less wrapping
5. Have a box in the upstairs washroom and basement for compostables
6. Unplug unused electronics
7. Buy a houseplant
8. Make the toilets into lower water use ones
9. Wash large pots and bowls by hand so I can fit more into the dishwasher
10. Use dishwasher and laundry/dryer in off peak hours
11. Weather strip the cold cellar door
12. Only boil as much water as I need for tea/coffee
13. Look into wrapping the water heater and checking the temp on it (can I turn it down a degree or two)
14. Walk more often (i.e. to the buss when I take it rather than getting a ride)
15. Evaluate my water and electricity usage for waste of resources
16. Eat more fruit and vegetables (less packaging)
17. Buy things in bulk (if there is less packaging)
18. Look for fewer disposable items that I use regularly
19. Look into reusable feminine products
20. Look for items I need in reusable/refillable containers
21. Look for biodegradable cleansers
22. Consider manual rather than electric replacements for items that might need replacing this year
23. Find local battery recycling (cell phones too if possible)
24. Freecycle
25. Buy items used or reconditioned
26. Rechargeable batteries for our devices
27. Borrow instead of buy low usage items (i.e. hedge trimmer)
28. Take more public transit
29. Make shopping lists and take them with me when I leave the house so I can just make one trip, or do it after work and then take the bus home
30. Re-learn riding a bike (yes you do have to relearn to balance well after 20 years! And it takes awhile because those seats are *not* comfortable)
31. Use a dust rag for dusting rather than paper towels

Lent

Ash Wednesday I believe is this week. I don't often observe lent, or at least not in any major way. However, letely I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with God and His Holiness (see my 15 minutes with G blog).

A number of years ago my pastor said that if we want to do something for Lent to examine our lives and see if there is anything that stands in our way of our relationship with God or spending time with him, then for Lent endeavour to remove (or insert) that objective.

This year, I'm going to leave my laptop at work, over the last 18 months that I've had a laptop I've spent fairly regular time on it at home, so I'm going to leave it at work so that I can put other relationships before work. I do have to make a few exceptions. Firstly for the next release, I'll probably have to bring my laptop home that weekend. I may also bring it home if a snowstorm is predicted so I can work from home the next day, lastly if I'm on call I need the computer. Other than that it stays at work, I'll even endeavour not to work late as whatever it is can wait for the next day.

Funny puppy

I think I have mentioned before that I think it's very funny how Drake sleeps on his back. Although he does it very often as soon as you bring out the camera to snap a photo he stretches and rolls over, losing the shot. Well we finally got 2 shots, yes he woke up and started stretching. As you can see sleeping against this particular wall in the basement is where we spends about half his sleep time, and he sleeps on his back with his paws on the wall as you can see from the chipped paint and scratch marks (I painted this wall in late September, and the marks have been there for awhile now, I wonder if the chipping was him eating it or not).

Anyway on to the pics.

Works For Me Wednesday

Well I was going to post this last week, but since that was a themed WFMW, I'll post it this week.

I redid my filing cabinet one night when I couldn't sleep because it was taking me too long to file.

First I put all the files I likely wouldn't need again at the back of the cabinet behind the divider (i.e. non current tax years, I have to keep them in case I'm audited).

Then in front of the tax year folders I put folders that I need rarely, like insurance (I only get one letter a year), car repair bills (4 times a year). Investment files from previous years etc.




In the front on the drawer I have the following 6 hanging files:
Household Bills (hanging file) with folders for: water, gas, telephone, electric, property tax (shred old bills)
Credit Card - Each card in it's own folder (shred old bills)
Banking - Each bank in it's own folder by year (i.e. CIBC - 2007 moves to the back of the cabinet at the end of the year)
Investments - each company with year in it's own folder i.e. "Fidelity - 2007" then that file moves into the Fidelity folder at the back at the end of the year
Pay Stubs - usually moves into the tax folder for the year
Taxes - 2007 - folders for me and hubby


This makes my filing easy for me, it took me about 2 hours to rearrange things and complete a few months of filing (not much, since it's bills and paystubs). Now it takes only 2 minutes to do a month of filing, whoppee!

For more Works For Me Wednesday solutions head on over to Rocks in my Dryer.

Menu Planning Monday

Monday: Slow Cooker Pot Roast with potatoes and carrots, salad (OK so I mofied this by cooking on low for 8 hours and adding the cut up potatoes and baby carrots, peas too)

Tuesday: Steak Fajitas

Wednesday: Ground Beef Stew

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Dinner with the girls

Saturday: Chicken Cordon Bleu in slow cooker

Sunday: Irish Stew in slow cooker

Head over to Laura's blog to participate. By request I've added all the slow cooker recipes, which by the way I get from Sandra's blog on Thursdays, I also haven't tried any of these! :)

Green Earth

Reading over Chrissa's and Julie's posts, I too think I should do something for the environment on a regular basis, especially considering that's what my degree is in (Environmental Science and Biology). Actually I'd like to encourage everyone to do something for the environment in 2007. Here are some ideas:

1. Take public transit on a regular basis if you don't already (i.e. if you drive everyday, try once a month on the bus)
2. Walk to the store on a nice day, if you normally drive it
3. Eat fewer convenience foods, good for you, less processing and less waste
4. Volunteer on a rehabilitation project (like plantings in a marsh that's being rehabilitated)
5. Take a daily walk and pick up one piece of litter that you see on the ground, even better if you can recycle that litter.
6. Turn off/unplug appliances you don't need regularly (do you really need to see the time on your microwave if you're not using it several times a day? Stereo?)
7. Turn the water off while you're brushing your teeth
8. If you have a large tank toilet put a full bottle of water on the side of the tank to help reduce the water consumption 500ml or 16oz bottle (provided this doesn't start to mean you have to flush twice).
9. Wash your pots in the sink rather than the dishwasher, means you can fit more in your dishwasher and you use less water and electricity
10. Let your dishwasher air dry rather than heat dry your dishes (if you can)
11. Choose an energy star appliance the next time you have to replace one.
12. If you have a radio alarm clock change to one you have to wind up
13. Get rechargeable batteries
14. Don't fall asleep in front on the TV with the lights on at night, go to bed
15. Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs (next time you change one and if they fit in your light fixture).
16. When doing the laundry hang hard to dry clothing for awhile so it doesn't take your dryer as long to dry them (i.e. towels, jeans). Choose a quicker cycle on the washer, you're clothes are likely not that dirty, if they are, pre-soak in a bucket of hot water, then wash. Also wash in cold water.
    
    If you have more ideas let me know!