Doggie Daycare

Some of you may know that we take our dog to daycare 3 times a week. DH and I work about an hour from home (he slight more than an hour, me slightly less), and we work long days, so typically we're away from the house for at least 10 hours, usually 11 hours though. I feel bad for the dog because he doesn't eat or drink during that time so that he doesn't have to go to the bathroom, we're also tired when we get home, so he doesn't get a lot of long walks to burn off the energy from sleeping all day. So Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays Drake goes to daycare and plays with lots of other dogs in the playroom all day (he even has a little lunch pail for some kibbles cause he's working up an appetite). The ladies at the daycare tell me about his little friends and his girlfriends at daycare that he plays with, there's Buddy the boxer, Summer and Taffy the goldens etc.

Tonight when I went to pick up Drake from daycare (yes he went 2 days in a row), the young lady at the counter asked me if I noticed if he was extra tired last night. I hadn't but apparently my DH had. So anyway since we couldn't get out of Drake why he was so tired she informed me of how he spent all day Wednesday fulfilling most men's primary fantasy. Yes dear internets, he was in a three.some, apparently today Drake had her all to himself, but was apparently a little worn out from yesterday.

So now I have to wonder when the ladies at day care mention Drake's little girlfriends. And I know why he gets so excited when I turn the corner towards daycare, and I so naively thought it was because of the daycare ladies paying attention to him and he getting to play all day with other dogs.

Good thing Drake's fixed or we'd have a lot of puppy support to do. Daddy's thrilled to know his "little dude" as DH calls Drake has gotten to experience safe relationships with other female dogs, he was concerned that after being fixed Drake would not get the opportunity.

This didn't come out quite as funny as the talk with hubby about Drake's escapades at daycare, but I was trying to use clean language and innuendo so as not to be picked up by a bunch of search engine results. Maybe we should drop the "D" from the dog's name...

The 11th province vs the 51st state

Lately I've been hearing advertisement on Canadian radio stations for Florida tourism, billing the southern state as Canada's 11th province. Out of curiosity I decided to visit the website to see if it was a particular company, or if the advertising was sponsored by state sponsored tourism. Looks pretty offical to me, the footer says that the site is the "Official Florida Tourism Industry Marketing Corporation" you can visit the site at sunshineprovince.com. I wonder if there are any other states billing themselves as the 11th province to Canadians to promote tourism, and I wonder how Americans feel about that.

Personally every once in awhile I hear someone expounding upon Canada being the 51st state, and personally I really don't like that. I'm a proud Canadian, I love my country, I get teary eyed when I hear the national anthem, and though I love my American friends, I don't want to be the 51st state. Going through Wikipedia and Google links most references to Canada or any other country being termed the 51st state is usually used either in jest to indicate the influx of American culture to the country or well not in a positive context and I'll let you go and research it.

So what are your thoughts on states billing themselves as the 11th province to promote the state?

Goals - January

So not exactly taking it one day at a time to talk about a whole months worth of goals here, but I didn't think you'd want to read that many posts ;)

I've decided to add once a week a good habit to my routine. This week it was going to the gym to work out once.

Since I'd like to get back onto a healthy diet and exercise regime, I've also decided that my weight loss goals would be small, 5 pounds every other month. For example in Jan I'd like to lose 5 pounds, then maintain that loss in Feb, lose 5 more in March and maintain the total 10 pound loss through April etc until I reach a weight I can maintain (and if that's the weight I am right now, then I'll have to learn to accept that).

Starting Monday, I'd like to add a daily 15 minute walk about to tidy up the house every night, now I've had that on my list before, but it didn't stick, so we'll try again in the coming week.

I've started using my composter more, so I'd like to add another environmental goal, I just have to think about it...maybe taking public transit to work once a week? Bring a coffee cup to work? Limit prepared foods to ones where the entire package is recyclable or reusable? Limit prepared foods (including meals out) to no more than 3 meals per week? Well I have lots of options for months to come anyway.

Visit The Lazy Organizer for more SMART Habits

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!

Tzatziki recipe

For Chrissa. I don't actually make my own dip, but if you want to try this recipe is from About.com Home Cooking.

Ingredients
1 container (16 ounces) plain lowfat yogurt
1/2 English (seedless) cucumber, not peeled, seeded and finely chopped plus a few thin slices
1/1-2 teaspoons salt
1 to 2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint or dill plus additional sprigs (use dill preferred)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper


Instructions
Spoon yogurt into sieve lined with cheesecloth or coffee filter set over bowl; cover and refrigerate overnight. Transfer drained yogurt to medium bowl and discard liquid.

Meanwhile, in colander set over bowl, toss chopped cucumber with 1 teaspoon salt. Let drain at least 1 hour at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate up to 8 hours. In batches, wrap chopped cucumber in kitchen towel and squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible. Pat dry with paper towels, then add to bowl with yogurt.

With flat side of chef's knife, mash garlic to a paste with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add garlic, chopped mint, oil, vinegar, and pepper to yogurt and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 or up to 4 hours. Serve chilled or at room temperature, topped with cucumber slices and mint sprigs.

Yield: about 1-1/2 cups

Per tablespoon: about 17 calories, 1 gram protein, 1 gram carbohydrate, 1 gram total fat (0 gram saturated), 1 mg cholesterol, 182 mg sodium.

A to Z(ed) Meme and other things

A - Available/Single? Married
B - Best Friend? Hubby
C- Cake or Pie? Pie, apple please
D - Drink Of Choice? Coke
E - Essential Item You Use Everyday? Touthbrush, if you don't ... ewww!
F - Favorite Color? Red
G - Gummy Bears Or Worms? Neither, but bears if I have to choose, the sour ones preferrbaly
H - Hometown? Thornhill (borders Toronto on the north side)
I - Indulgence? Poutine
J - January Or February? February, it's short and then it's March.
K - Kids & Their Names? None yet, but I have a high fever
L - Life Is Incomplete Without? Hubby
M - Marriage date? October 23 2004
N- Number Of Siblings? 1 younger brother
O - Oranges Or Apples? Apples, baked please :)
P - Phobias/Fears? I don't like spiders, a baby sitter told me that they could bite me, lay eggs, and a red welt would appear and get bigger over time and the doctor would cut it open and baby spiders would come out. Now I imagine baby spiders that some of those baby spiders would get into your veins, how gross!
Q - Favorite Quote? I love you - anyone
R - Reason to Smile? Hubby and puppy cuddling
S - Season? Autumn
T - Tag 3 or 4 people? Chrissa, Val, Jenn, Karen
U - Unknown Fact About Me - How about a little known fact - I have 3 moles I want to remove because they get pulled by my clothing sometimes.
V - Vegetable you don’t like? Mushrooms (They usually make me throw up)
W - Worst Habit? Not flossing every single day (getting better though)
X - X-rays You’ve Had? Teeth, once a year. Feet, once when I broke one, twice for orthodics. Abdomen, gave me x-rays instead of an ultrasound for the gall bladder, stupid med centre.
Y - Your Favorite Food? Currently Dante's pizza
Z - Zodiac Sign? Virgo accurate for me, I'm also a Rat in the Chinese zodiac, similar to Virgo, so I'm doubly blessed with being detail oriented.

Well to end off my vacation I have a cold, I don't feel too awful right now, just under the weather and weak.

Personality Traits

Hmmm, mine sounds a lot like Laura's

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations.A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you.You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people. Conscientiousness: You have high conscientiousness.Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life.Most things in your life are organized and planned well.But you borderline on being a total perfectionist. Agreeableness: You have high agreeableness.You are easy to get along with, and you value harmony highly.Helpful and generous, you are willing to compromise with almost anyone.You give people the benefit of the doubt and don't mind giving someone a second chance. Neuroticism: You have low neuroticism.You are very emotionally stable and mentally together.Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly.Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is high.In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas.You'll try almost anything interesting, and you're constantly pushing your own limits.A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything.

The Five Factor Personality Test

Eight Things Meme

These are eight things about me:

1. I've never been passed out drunk, came close to falling down once, I had to hold the walls, it only lasted about 15 minutes, but I found it very funny. No hangover the next morning, felt like I hadn't had a drink 2 hours later. Don't you wish you were me? Until I tell you it took 1/2 a mickey in an hour to get there, and another 2 hours from consumption to process it enough to have to hang onto the wall.
2. I've never smoked a cigarette, and I'm still not sure what MJ smells like, although I know I have smelled it on more than 1 occasion.
3. I don't drink coffee for the caffeine or the taste, I drink it for the sugar hit and cream, take that away (as I have over the last month) and I only drink it to ward off the withdrawal headache. Really should get myself off coffee, maybe on my next vacation.
4. My favourite colour is dark red
5. I love animals and wish I had a cat.
6. I need to get a library card to a decent pleasure reading library, I've been reading a lot lately, and it's becoming an expensive habit.
7. I would love to try more home improvements, but 2 things hold me back - one, the time, I'm afraid I'll take on something too big and it will take too long, two, that I won't do it perfectly enough that it will bug me to no end :)
8. I miss my mother's backyard garden, it's very lush and green. I never appreciated it while I lived there, but it really lifts my spirits to spend a few minutes back there with the dog when we visit.

I tag Jenn, Hope, Laura, Karen and anyone else who wants to that hasn't already done this meme.

Tackle it Tuesday

By request, my tackle today shall be something for me, I'm not really sure what yet, but here's where my thinking is right now:
Relax
Do not take the laptop home and think about doing work
Watch Doctor Who (taped it last night)
Either go to the gym and workout and/or take the dog for a walk

No cleaning, no fixing, no organizing :)

Back to 5 minutes for mom for more tackles!

Menu Planning Monday

So didn't get through all the meals I planned for last week, and I still have to do a grocery shopping.

Meal 1
Salmon with mustard sauce (mustard, mayonaisse, vinegar, sugar, I think I might throw in a few capers). Rice and veggies

Meal 2
Honey mustard chicken, rice and veggies

Meal 3
I think I'll make another spinach and ground beef dish, but this time I think I'll use ground tofu. (Heat tofu in large pot, add spinach, cooked rice, pasta sauce of choice and pine nuts, stir until well blended, serve as a hearty stew).

Meal 4
Tofu tomato and pork with rice and veggies (a little olive oil in the skillet, cook meat of choice, season as desired, add soft tofu cut up and tomatoes cubed 5 minutes towards the end, sorry there's not much more detail than that, I usually make it lightly flavoured with garlic salt and paprika).

Meal 5
Cajun chicken stew (Cajun chicken, or regular but then add paprika and chili powder, 2 cans of cream of anything and the corresponding water, frozen veggies and egg noodles).

Menu Planning Monday

For more recipes, head on over to Laura's blog.

Monday: Ground Beef and Spinach stew (Ground beef, frozen spinach, rice, pine nuts, something tomato based and garlic salt - basically a clean the fridge of leftovers recipe, everything can be substistuted for something else).

Tuesday: Tofu tomato and beef (cook beef strips add tomatoes and tofu at the end)

Wednesday: Honey mustard Chicken and snow peas (honey mustard is 1 part old style dijon, 1 part honey, 2 parts regular dijon, spread over chicken before baking, reserve some for meal)

Thursday: Salmon with mustard sauce and veggies (bake salmon sauce is equal parts dijon mustard and Miracle Whip, white vinegar about 1/4 cup, sugar to taste).

Friday: Pizza or leftovers

Saturday: Anti-Hestivus (Girls whole day out, while the boys do Hestivus - eat junk and watch Charleston Heston movies).

Sunday: Chicken Rouge (in a casserole dish combine chicken fillets, canned, diced tomatoes, green pepper, onions, spices of choice, cover bake I think it's about 50 minutes at 350F - Dr Bernstein recipe). Serve over rice if desired.

House Keeping

An hour ago I was telling hubby that I appreciate that he swept and dusted the dining room yesterday and I'm sorry I didn't tell him then. Also how I wish I could keep the house as clean as my mother did, but I'm not that kind of woman (yet) and perhaps my eyes are now more critical than they were as a child to young adult, it's not until I had my own home that I started noticing. Although my apartments were cleaner than this, although I think in part I kept my mess and disorganization confined to my personal living space and not the common areas which helped alot. Anyway, I've been feeling lately not only do I eat like a pig, I live like one, so I've decided to add a daily cleaning challenge to my kick the pig blog. Today's shall be cleaning the master bedroom and bath, which will include doing the laundry, although since hubby's downstairs I'll take it down, he can do the switching.

Promised Before & After Pictures

Ahh, ladies here they are the promised pics, bigger if you click on them:

The Basement Bedroom

Before

After (yes it's a slightly lighter colour, I was going to do it the same colour as the living room, but it ended up problematic around the door frames for the closets, so I tried to match the original colour)

The closet in the basement bedroom with the gift area for Laura (left side only, right side is Laura's wonderful odds and ends solution, I have tape, lightbulbs, pest control, power bars, and child safety electrical outlet plug covers in mine. Looking for more items to fill it).

The living room for Chrissa (so she can see the Ikea rug) , you can see where I'm in the process of finishing this blog on the left there :) well not me obviously, I'm taking the photo, but the laptop and water bottle.

Today I've actually been hanging a lot of pictures, like our wedding pic you see in the living room above. Most of them are gifts we gave each other for various anniversaries (dating and wedding). Monday is our second wedding anniversary, we'll be going out to dinner tomorrow, but seeing, framing and finally hanging a lot of these beautiful momentos (2 of which hubby drew himself) has made me feel rather sentimental and romantic today.

Sunday Funday

(Updated with rug pic below for Mrs. Happy)

So this morning hubby and I went to Ikea for breakfast, and we picked up a rug for the living room. Drake, like a lot of little ones, wanted to explore the new item before hubby and I had finished placing it down, so imagine us moving the rug around with an 80lb golden retriever on the rug. Eventually I did put him outside for 5 minutes where he barked to let me know hoe thought it was unfair that I tricked him into going outside by going out first myself. Hey, whatever works, and I didn't pretent to say hi to Soup, the neighbours dog who sticks his head under the fence to say "hi". They are digging holes under the fence to one another, but I think they've reached some roots or hard earth, because they haven't dug any deeper for about 6 months, and it would need to be pretty deep to get Drake or Soup under there. Soup is about 10 pounds less than Drake, but a better digger, he's husky and black lab.

Anyway, have about half the room in the basement back together. It's painted and the bed, side table, lamp and phone are back in. I do have to empty out the closets and hang some shelves and decide what else is going back in there before I take a picture. Hopefully later today I'll update this post with pics. In the mean time to avoid doing the work, I think I'll start the story board with the old pic :)

Hahaha, Drake's doing the baby thing with his rope toy where he lies on his back and holds the rope in the air over his mouth and chews on it. That's one of my favourite things he does. :)

It's beige (seisel like) rimmed with dark brown. When I take a pic of the basement bedroom, I'll also take a pic of the living room so you can see the carpet there.

Inspiration

So many inspiring and heart felt posts today, I feel the need to share them.
Hope in frustration
Julie in Beauty and Prayer
Laura in recognizing your limits

I feel so much love, hope and peace flowing through me and from me. Have you felt the empowerment? What can I say? I often have the heart to reach out and to stand with the others, but not always the written word. So this is me, taking to you, something wonderful, so that you can participate too and have your day uplifted, and feel united with people across the world. If only we could all feel so united across the miles, maybe there would be more peace and love and understanding in the world. If we could remember that everyone has a story, a hurt, something to share, value. We are all equal, may we put principles above personalities and love each other in a very special way, even if we can't love ourselves yet.

Reach out to someone today that maybe you wouldn't have reached out to before, let your heart and soul move you, not your head. Commiserate with your fellow traveler whom you might overhear speaking of a hurt they've experienced, because we are all responsible for those hurts, even if we didn't directly commit them, the survivor may need to hear, an apology or that not every person that fits an archetype is like their experience, to break down barriers that separate us. There is more that unites us, than separates us despite what our natures may say.

Update on my Tackle

So yesterday what I did for my Tackle it Tuesday (I was going to use the acronym and then decided against it). In the first picture, see the white Beaumark box in the lower right and the brown cardboard box beside it? I went through those 2 boxes and tossed stuff. The white box actually contains all of our manuals for things. The manuals and warranty cards were filling up my fling cabinet, and I wasn't good about filing them, so now we just throw them in here, works for me (i.e. my Works for me Wednesday - unofficially of course). The other thing I did was to quickly look into every drawer and cabinet and box and if I saw something that I didn't want, need, or recognize, it was chucked out (don't worry hubby I can at least recognize it as being mine, if I wasn't sure it was mine I kept it). I also finally took the clothing donation to the local pickup station and dropped it off as well as doing the grocery shopping.

Tackle it Tuesday

My Tackle it Tuesday will be organizing one dresser, box or bag in this room:



It actually looks worse now because I brought all my sewing, crafting, candles and Bible Studies into the room, the rest is to go out. That little bit of floor space you see in the middle of the second picture, that is now stacked with my stuff and the only remaining space is maybe a discontinuous strip of 8 inches width on each side of the bed. This room will be many Tackle it Tuesdays and weekends. I'll take pics of exactly what I tackled when I do it tonight.

P.S. Yes that is a life size Darth Maul to the right of the first picture. His light sabre is somewhere else in the house, I think probably the room next door to this one known as "the office" that room is another week long project.

Cleaning Day

Today is cleaning day, and hubby is going to help me clean at the same time that I am cleaning. We've never done cleaning at the same time (or at least the same amount at the same time), so I'm wondering how we'll do it. Often I tend to break it out using Julie's 10 minute regime. i.e. I'll do something for 10 minutes. Here's what I have:

Tidy every room (bedroom, master bath, kitchen, dining room, living room, TV room
Sweep (kitchen, dining room, living room)
Wash Floors (3 bathrooms, kitchen, living room, dining room)
Vacuum (2 stairs, 2 halls, TV room, bedroom)
Clean 3 washrooms
Clean kitchen counters and stove
Dust (living room, dining room, TV room)
Vacuum furniture in living room and TV room
Wash laundry
Wash walk out window (muddy paw marks)
Wash front door (muddy paw marks)

I'm tempted to get started with the bathrooms and washing the 2 doors while hubby sleeps, but maybe I'll go ask him how he wants to clean first (by floor or by task), then I can get started on mine. Well hubby's too sleepy to respond, so I guess I'll just pick. I think I'll go by task. Usually when he helps he sweeps and mops, I hate vacuuming, and it's kind of like sweeping and mopping, so I'll leave him those three things and get started on the rest.

I shall begin with tidying.
Tidied kitchen, cleaned kitchen, cleaned bathroom, cleaned front and back doors, dusted dining room. THis took me 2 hours, and hubby actually did the dusting part. Now I'm taking Drake for a long walk while hubby does the washing of the floors.

So the main floor is clean, I might do the bedroom and bathroom while getting ready to go see my in-laws. Then that will be all for today most likely, but it will just leave vacuuming, the basement and laundry to do.

A meme from Ravenbajan via Mrs. Happy

I can't sleep, so I thought I'd fill out this meme. Why is it called a meme anyway?

I am thinking about: This meme, and why I can't get to sleep, my to do list for tomorrow and the one I came up with for my whole vacation (wishful thinking).

I just said: Nothing, in the last 10 minutes, although I did ask the dog if he wanted to come curl up with mummy. He doesn't, he's not the cuddly sort. Good thing I suppose because he weighs 80 pounds.

I want to: go to sleep and organize the guest room by pulling every paper, book, box and empty all the drawers into the hallway, hubby would freak :)

I wish: the filing would do itself and the dog could be trained to do chores. I know I can teach him to put away his toys and sort laundry. I'd love to teach him to vacuum, I hate vacuuming, I think he likes it though, he tries to jump on the vacuum and then when it goes near him he barks and jumps away. He also tries to chase the broom and mop and eat them and with the broom he'll grab his piles of hair that come off the floor.

I regret: That I'm not asleep because mom's coming over to help me paint tomorrow and I'll be too tired. That I didn't do better in university, but I think I would now because I know better how to apply myself for longer periods and what to apply myself to.

I sing: When I'm very happy, I make these silly little la la, da bum bump sounds when I'm happy. Hubby laughs at me, I only noticed that I did that when we started dating, I guess I wasn't really really happy before that :). My brother does it too, only much much much louder than I do :)

I hear: the dog sighing and the laptop humming and my keyboard clicking, and huuby just burped.

I am: mindwarp or warpie or war pie. I think I need a new nick, my mind isn't as warped as it used to be.

I dance: in my living room

I'm behind: on cleaning, as usual, I hate cleaning, domestic goddess I am not.

I cry: at movies and books. I cry cery easily at these things, so if a movie doesn't elicit tears from me, it must have really sucked (unless it wasn't supposed to, but most have the hero go through a down part)

I am not: a guy. One of my male friends in university thought I was just one of the guys, made me choose whether I wanted to be one of the guys or a girl. I choose girl, since I know all about that.

I forgot: What day of the week it is, a good vacation should be like that :)

I confuse: the dog I think. He still doesn't get excited at the words, "walk" or "car ride", and he's just started responding to treat in the last few months. I think it's because I take so darn long to get ready that until I get the leash he doesn't respond, and then, he usually actually jumps away like a game when I try to hook up the leash, or he rolls over and shows me his belly if he was napping on the floor.

I write: when I'm confused about something, or it's on my mind. I'll write out my thoughts in a journal.

I need: Food, tummy is growling still.

Today's Goals

I figured I'd better blog about my daily goals or I'll never get it all done. So today's goals are:
Eat healthy
Walk Drake (the dog)
Sand Basement hallway
Replaster where needed
Resand the newly plastered areas
Prime the basement hallway
Clean up the TV room
Take a picture and post the TV room for Chrissa
Empty the basement bedroom so it can be painted too
Empty the laundry room of stuff from the TV room and get it organized
Move the one dresser from the master bedroom to the basement and use for storage.

Here are before pictures of the hall and basement bedroom:




Progress Update
Walked Drake
Finished first round of sanding and vacuumed
Took pics of the TV Room, which is in the basement and I painted last week, you can also see the new desk we bought last month.

View from the back of the room (standing beside the desk)



View from the front of the room (standing in front of the TV)



View from the doorway (so you can see the desk better)

DIY: Painting

You know, I like painting, I like the sense of accomplishment, however, what I don't like is the rest of it. For instance, to actually get started painting you have to move furniture, prep the walls by filling holes and dents you made while moving the furniture, sand it, prime it, lay the drop clothes, tape off things you don't want to paint, get the painting gear out (cans of paint, brushes, roller, cloth for wiping up mistakes quickly) change clothes. Then you can get down to painting. Afterwards, there are the washing the brushes, pickup the drop clothes, move out the painting gear. Once dry there are touch ups to bare spots, fixing where you might have laid the ladder for a second and it left a black mark on the wall, touch up the trim and ceilings where you got a little careless (i.e. tired from painting), dust tables, vacuum behind that furniture you haven't moved since the last time you painted/moved/rearranged the furniture. Might as well organize while doing this and not put back stuff that doesn't belong there.

I'm currently at this second round, where you do touch ups and paint the trim (yes I do that last, many people do it first, makes no difference to me because I end up having to redo, even if taped once I've painted the wall). So I suppose I should get down to it, although first I'm going to walk the dog again and pick up those pina coladas :)

Tagged by Hope

OK, Hope tagged me here is the first thing that comes to mind about the 4 words she gave:

Stinkbomb - Actor Jack Black letting one rip.
Pie - American Pie (the first movie)
First Base - kissing
Favorite - colour red :)

I tag Jenn (Tales of a mom of boys), Julie (The World according to Julie), Helen (What lies beneath)and Laura (org Junkie).

Your words are:
Telescope (because I couldn't spell kaliedescope)
Flower
Dune buggy
Sherway

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Roman Pan Fried Lamb
Italian Chicken Packages
Lentils and Mixed Vegetables
Chicken Couscous
Chicken Pepperonta
Salmon with Caper Sauce
Wine and Herb Salmon
Pasta in creamy tomato vodka sauce.

We won't necessarily eat them in this order, it depends on what I feel like cooking, today is the lamb though as it's already on the stove. Hubby's home today and he likes lamb, I've never cooked or eaten it before, so we'll see.

Oh the Joy of it

It's so nice to be able to share the joy of the Lord. Today's sharing is like a soft glow, peace welling up inside making you smile and cry a few tears of joy too.