On Track.... ish

Wow - it's been a while blog-o-sphere - sorry about that.
Two things:
1) I'm going to start posting here more regularly - promise. HOWEVER, I may post about boring/weird/awkward/bizarre situations that are generally just, y'know LIFE. Ugh. So, consider this your fair warning. If you wish to just be amused and not challenged in any way shape or form by the internets then please click here instead: Go fun times!

2) I will not be posting What Mama Wears on Talk and Tea Leaves any longer. WMW has it's own new shiny home. And it can be found right here! What Mama Wears


SO - what's new, you ask? (Well thanks for askin!) Um, everything and nothing. Obvs. I'm still unemployed, except that my little sister and I have a totally home-based, friends of friends cake business! Yay! Actually it's super fun, we have a great time baking and creating and we want to share the love of cake (Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkeeeeeeeeeeee) with everyone. It's called Candy Girls Cake Co. Because we both used to have the last name Candy! And it's so sweet! And fun! And kitschy! And this is a lot of exclamation points!

Other than that. I've gained weight. Ugh. So not fun, but terribly terribly true. Which is one of the reasons I've started up WMW again because let's be honest, plus-sized clothing for tall girls with boobage is so ugh.

My kiddos are SO big now. We went on our first ever family vacation with just the 4 of us - yippee! Except that we decided to drive from Ontario to Alberta to stay in Calgary with friends. The staying in Calgary with friends part was AWESOME, the driving 40 hours there and 40 hours back with 2 kids in a jam-packed 20 year old Nissan Sentra was..... less.... awesome.

My littl'un is actually going to start school in September - all day, every day Junior Kindergarten. Which means..... Mama is going to be lookin for a job! But I need that job to have me work Mon-Fri between like 9:30am to 2:30pm... I know, right - TONNES of options. But I digress.

So now - because you've been such good little readers, I will leave you with some pictures from our family vacay - just the highlights here kids!

Talk soon!
Tea

 

My boys, hangin at the Hoodoos!

 For reals kids! That's the woodchipper from Fargo! Yeah? Yeah! Jeez!

 Just me, holdin hands with Toby Keith like it's NBD

 Dog River! Word!

 Corner Gas Baby!

 The Ruby! Hey, Kids! Get that F & E off my lawn!

 Littl'un and his buddy T-Rex at the Royal Tyrell Museum, Drumheller

 Best. Day. Ever.
Hubs? Can we move to Banff?

Corner of Moose & Squirrel in Downtown Banff

 STAMPEDE!

 Miss you so much already! Friends are the Family you choose. :)

Make it: Advent wreath

So, I'm officially fed up with the crazed commercialization of Christmas. My kids are on complete overdrive! It seems like the second that Hallowe'en was over, Christmas advertising started.

Recently, we asked our boys why we have Christmas - their responses were expected: Santa! Presents! Christmas Tree!

Boy oh boy - we have some work to do.

I asked them if they knew WHY we celebrate Christmas? Nope. I asked them if they knew what Advent was? No clue.

We decided that this year, as a family, we would work on what Advent means to us, as Christians in today's world. It's a time of preparation, of anticipation, and rejoicing. To help remember these lessons I made an advent candle wreath for our home, which we will light with the boys each Sunday evening of Advent before they go to bed. That, along with the advent calendar of books I'm preparing (another post) we're hoping to have some real, honest, open discussions with our boys about why we celebrate Christmas, what we believe, and how to make that a part of our everyday lives.


Onto the project!
I started by gathering supplies:

  - Grapevine wreath (Michael's $4.99)
 - votive candles (Walmart, $1 ea)
 - White pillar candle (Walmart $2)
 - Christmas decorative sprigs (Michael's $1.69 ea)
 - side cutters
 - scissors
 - LED light pack (Michael's $7.50)
 - labels
 - twine or leather stringing

Step 1

 Cut apart the decorative sprigs using the side cutters and weave them into the top of the wreath for some colour

 Note the quality control inspector ^

Step 2

 Weave the LED light string into the wreath from the bottom

Step 3

 Using hot glue, glue the four votive candle holders evenly spaced around the wreath.
Step 4

 Create Hope, Peace, Joy & Love labels for each of the four votive candles. The Joy candle is the pink candle
Step 5

 Using leather stringing or twine place a dot of glue on the back of the candle holder to start to attach the string, wrap a couple of times around the votive, slide on the label, and then keep wrapping until the end of the string. Secure with hot glue.

Place somewhere in your house and put the white Christmas/Christ candle in the centre.

 Voila! Family advent wreath. :)

Here's a couple of resources for Advent and kids that I have been using to help me prepare for this season with my kids:

http://ministry-to-children.com/advent-lessons-nativity/
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Advent/preparing-children.html
http://simplekids.net/advent-2012/
http://www.focusonthefamily.com/parenting/holidays/making-meaningful-christmas-memories/celebrate-advent.aspx

How are you celebrating the season of Advent with your kids? Do you have any go-to resources?
Here's to the season of waiting, anticipating, and preparing.

Tea.

Valentine.............

Ah, Valentine's Day. A day where some embrace the cheesy, lovey quality of an admittedly corporately created holiday, and some rail against the proclamations of love and hearts and flowers and chocolate and all that's sweet.

I had a friend on FB remind everyone this morning that St. Valentine is actually the patron saint of bees, epilepsy and plagues. I wished him many plagues of seizing bees. I do what I can.

Thankful....

Thanksgiving.

I love thanksgiving. It's one of my favourite holidays in the whole year. Here in Canada, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday of October. It's a great time of year - the leaves are starting to turn, pumpkins are ripe, the fall harvest season is at it's absolute peak and the farmer's markets around our town are packed with squash, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, corn and so many other great fall vegetables. Thanksgiving makes me think of life as being warm, and golden. And Thanksgiving weekend is a weekend absolutely packed full of great food and family and laughter. All things that make life feel full and ripe like the earth around us.

Things I'm Thankful for this weekend:

 - My family. I love my large extended family, and am so blessed to have a tight knit, hilarious, loving fam. My in-laws are wonderful, loving and an integral part of my life. But I'm especially thankful for my wonderful Hubs, my two wacky kiddos: big'un and littl'un, and even my silly fur-baby. Only 4 months after losing our latest angel baby I find myself feeling a little twinge of sadness at what might have been, but being surrounded by my little family makes me exceedingly grateful for the blessings I have.

 

Thanksgiving Weekend walk at the cottage

Easter - and the things kids say

I'm certain I've posted previously about the *ahem* wonderful things that my almost-4-year-old "big'un" says from time to time - like the time he condescendingly told another child at the playgroup
"You know, SOME people don't know how to share... and THAT'S sad."
Me - praying that the other child's mother didn't hear MY words just come out of my kid's mouth - eep!

And this year around Easter - my kiddos had some real gems - so I thought I'd share them with you. Laugh at my socially-awkward-child-induced horror if you will.

A couple of weeks before Easter, Big'un tells me he "needs to go to the library and get a book". Fair enough, so off we go to the library. We head over to the kid book section and he's looking around and I ask him "What kind of book are you looking for buddy?"

"An Easter Book"

Meanwhile, the kid's been sorting through the 40-odd Easter books that are right. there. on the shelf in front of him.

So I say
"Well, there's a whole bunch right there, so why don't you just pick one?"

He eyes me, as if to say - duh, Mom, OBVIOUSLY the book I'M looking for ISN'T here - and says

"I'm gonna ask the Lady" (he means the Librarian).

Well 2012 - let's see what'cha got!

SO.... I took a little break from blogging - mostly because I was crafting my lil' fingers right down to the bones trying to get everything done for Christmas. It was a hard slog - but we made it. The grand total?

• MANY jars of jam, pickles, sauces, etc. Too many to really count
• 1 pair of knit socks, men's size 12 for my brother-in-law - the FIRST socks I have ever knit, especially considering I just learned to knit in the round this past year. They fit - hallelujah!
• 3 freezer paper t-shirts - 2 for my other brother in law: a Star Trek inspired red t-shirt that says "Expendable" and a blue shirt that says "I'd agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong". (If you know my b-i-l, you'd understand). And one black on black tee with the batman symbol and the words "I'm Batman" in batman font in the middle (batman/big bang theory fans) for my hubby
• A gaming pillow for my sister's boyfriend. He has a bad back and needs something a little bit more supportive to lean on when hanging out at home. He called it a torso pillow because I made it out of a sweatshirt - hey - as long as he likes/uses it - he can call it whatever he wants!
• 2 super hero capes, personalised with freezer paper, and 2 super-hero utility belts with flashlights, noise stick thingies, and pouches for my two lil'heroes 
• knit infinity cowl for my super-fash sister who works downtown (and knew what it was right away - thank goodness - since my Mother looked at it said "What IS that")
• 1 knit slouchy hat (by request) for baby sis plus a huge vinyl purple flower pin, hand sewn
• 1 pair of knit mittens for my sister-in-law
• A knitting loom - made by hubby for my mother-in-law
• A rain stick, made out of abs pipe, filled with kidney beans, and modge-podged like crazy for my Dad
• A knit cardigan for my Mom (my first ever real garment)

PLUS I made all of our Christmas cards
PLUS I did the requisite amount of Christmas baking

I. Was. Exhausted.