goodbye

The Minister at our church recently accepted a position in another city and yesterday was her last Sunday with us. And guess who got to make the cake for her reception?



Yesterday's service was a lovely send off to a lovely woman. I really wish she could stay with us, but am glad to have had her as long as we did.

Lent

Today in Sunday School, Lent was a big topic of conversation. Or so I hear from Abby, who came back up declaring we all had to give something up for 40 days.

Me: Well what do you think you should give up?
Abby: Not TV! Please don't say TV. I couldn't give up TV.
Me: Ummm you have to decide what to give up. I'm not telling you to give up anything.
Abby: Well, that's good because I really couldn't do it.
Me: Okay pick something else then, but remember it should be something that's a bit of a challenge.
Abby: Okay, chips. I'll give up chips.
Me: That's a good idea.
Abby: But I'll start tomorrow because we're going swimming with Grandma and she'll probably have some as a treat for after swimming.
Me: Ummm
Abby: I guess now she'll have to bring cupcakes instead.

There you have it folks... Lent and my 8 year old.

Are you giving up anything for Lent?

i'm gonna shout

The girls are still singing at church every Sunday... well Abby is. Maya sings about 12% of the time. She's a champ at practice though. We are very lucky to have an incredibly talented choir director at our church. She's presenting lovely music every week with both the junior and senior choirs. Pretty much every week I die from the cute when the little ones sing.

So in what may become a regular feature I've decided to video their weekly song. This week I just have the Abster singing. Maya ran off set just before we started to film. Yeah, she didn't sing in church either today, so no shock there. I've toyed with the idea of filming the actual performance, but there is more than just my kids up there.... so....

I do know there will be a small market for these types of posts if nothing else... I'm looking at you Granny, Uncle Dave, Auntie Mel and TLP.

Enjoy.

I'm Gonna Shout

still loving it

So I do realize it was almost a whole week ago, but I've finally got a moment to talk some more about the fabulous pageant the girls got to be a part of. Not surprisingly, Maya refused to take part in the evening show. She watched from Nikki's lap and sang along from the front row.



Abby was just as excited to perform again in the evening, especially since it was a full house and she had all her grandmas there, plus Papa, her godparents, a couple of great Aunts and some really great friends to cheer her on.



I know I've told you this a gazillion times, but it was just so lovely. I want to see it again and again. I am so proud of my Abby girl and so incredibly thankful that we were able to share it with so many of our favourite people. It was an overwhelmingly crazy busy weekend, but definitely can be counted as one of my best weekends ever.... even with the migraine.



And now, a clip... it's just about a minute of the finale, when the kids joined in. I wish I'd kept my camera going for another few seconds to catch their very adorable bows at the end of the show, but what can I say I was distracted by all the kerklempt-ness I was experiencing.

angels calling

I promise I haven't fallen off the planet, it has been a busy and amazing few days here in Blogmotherland. Abby and Maya have been rehearsing for a Christmas pageant at our church for weeks and weeks and weeks..... and weeks. It's an incredible show, I can say that now that I've seen the whole thing. Up until now I've only seen the parts the kids were singing. I should mention that the entire production is sung and it's completely original... lyrics, music... the whole nine yards. Written by the incredibly talented father of our incredibly talented music director. I should mention that she, herself, is still in highschool. It's just..... wow.

I got through much of my life feeling overwhelmed.... not in a stressed way, but overwhelmed by the good things I have in my life. It makes me prone to tears and general weepiness. Today at church we sang Christmas carols that we used to sing at my Grandmother's on Christmas Eve. Oh boy, did I miss her a ton this morning. She would have LOVED to have been at church today to see her great granddaughter perform in such a beautiful show. And then the show.... the musical is so beyond beautiful. The singers are incredibly talented. More than a tear or two slipped down my cheek this morning because I was just overwhelmed with love and pride and happiness and maybe a titch of melancholy for those who couldn't be with us to see it today.

Maya, not surprisingly, has refused to take the stage..... you never know, she may this evening because she's nothing if not a riddle, but I highly doubt it. She did, however, have lots of fun during all the rehearsing and that seems to be good enough for her. Abby, though, performed the heck out of her part this morning. The junior choir sings a large part of the production and all the kids were just so impressive. I can't wait to see it again this evening.

too much

Today at church the reading was about Jeremiah and when Maya heard our Minister say the name she turned to me with a big smile on her face and said....

She's talking about me.

Get it?

Jer-a-*Maya*!

how abby getting grounded turned into the best day ever

So today was a big day at our church, it's Anniversary Sunday and our church is over 200 years old.



Today in celebration the junior choir was to sing with the senior choir. Wanting the girls to look their best I got Abby up in the morning and asked her to please get into the shower. She didn't want to have a shower and I was pretty insistent that she was going to have one. I hopped in to have mine and asked her one more time to get ready to get in when I was done. I felt it was a pretty reasonable request and there shouldn't be any further problem. But I got out of the shower and she had made no move to have hers. So I grounded her.

Cue the waterworks, the stamping of the feet and the slamming of the bedroom door. After, of course, she begged me to let her have a shower. No dice..... I'm mean like that. I mean it wasn't like she was filthy, but since she's been swimming almost every day her hair gets really dry and it really needed a good conditioning.

Everything about Abby leads me to believe that she's going to be one of those girls who does the whole puberty thing sooner than later. All of the sudden she's moody, defiant and argumentative - oh and prone to tears... that one's my favourite. It's a new experience to both of us.

So we talked and I explained to her that I didn't ask too much of her, but when I did ask her to do something I expected it to be done, that it's not a suggestion. That particular issue is becoming a very large problem and that's why I felt the grounding was warranted and necessary. So we went to church, shared a potluck lunch afterward and then we headed for home.

Mike left shortly after to run some errands and then to work at the farm and it was just us girls. No TV. No friends. I was prepared for a very crummy afternoon. Instead I got a teeny tiny nap while the girls played beautifully together with their new to them Littlest Pet Shop house. Then Abby coloured quietly by herself while Maya took over full control of the Littlest Pet Shop kingdom. Abby and I played Downfall (very cool two person game that I highly recommend). Then Abby attempted to teach Maya the finer points of Connect Four. We finished reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid (can't remember which book it was). I got a foot massage from both girls. Abby is thinking these days she'd really like to work at a spa giving massages. That gave way to more Connect Four - Abby and I this time. Dinner, granola bars, then a bath, more Connect Four and then bed.

Several times today Abby commented that she was enjoying being grounded. She said as much to Mike when he called to say good night to them. "It was lots of fun, once you get past not playing with your friends," she told him. She mentioned it again when I was tucking her into bed. Going so far as to say that she was glad she was still grounded tomorrow. And you know what, I enjoyed it as well. The kids have been in bed for an hour and I've still yet to turn on the TV. Now Maya wasn't grounded from TV, but yet she never asked for it all day either. And Abby even asked if we could have more TV free days. A very big yes to that.

On one hand you could say that perhaps then she missed the point of the grounding, but I don't think so. Because today she was much more like herself than she has been in a few weeks. And for that I think we were both very grateful.

sunday love

Well the weather may have been miserable, but there was still much to love about this Sunday.

Walking to church with umbrellas. The girls thought that was pretty great. What little girl doesn't love an umbrella?

Maya actually sang this morning. Usually she just stands up there and scowls at the congregation, but today she sang. And it melted my heart into a puddle of goo because they were singing Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in the morning, Jesus in the evening, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus when the sun goes down. Dudes, that is a lot of 's' sounds for my lispy little girl to make. Adorable!

Now Maya rarely sings in church, but the choir director tells me she sings out the loudest at practice. Maya has crazy love for the choir director and I am right with her on that one. She is an absolute doll. She's just a young high school girl but she is so talented she knocks my socks off every week. Seriously, Mike is getting so sick of me telling him how talented she is each and every week. Whateves, I only mention it five, maybe six times. Even if you don't believe in God you wouldn't regret sitting through a service just to hear her play. Yeah, that good.

I wore a sweater to church today I'd hadn't fit into in quite some time. It fit today. Michael was suitably impressed, so were three other lovely ladies at church. Compliments are nice, yo!

After coffee at church both my girls pulled a chair up to the sink and happily helped out with the dishes.

Flowers from my new neighbour that she cut from her garden. Gorgeous daffodils. More importantly I think she still likes me after she popped in for a chat and had to climb over my vacuum hose that was in the middle of the entrance.

Leftover DQ ice cream cake in my freezer. A gift from my original bestie Robin for my birthday. I would have been happy with that, but she also had the first season of GLEE!! for me. I may have squealed a little bit when I opened it.

Dinner out, thanks to Grandma Sandi and Papa Old Beard.

Michael bathed the kids tonight. I had done the 6784 previous, so he kinda owed me.

Not a bad little Sunday, huh? How was yours?

the play

The Sunday after game night the girls were supposed to be playing angels in our church's Christmas play. I heard through the rumor mill that they wanted me to play one as well, but me... on the stage? HA! You must be joking. Anyway after such a late night laughing with my besties the night before I can't tell you how much I hated the idea of the play. There was no way I wanted to get out of bed, get me and the girls into church worthy attire and head on over to our little church around the corner. And Mike does Sunday morning chores at ML & T's dairy farm, so I would be on my own.

So I grumbled and complained and whined about it a whole lot little bit, but since ML's boys were playing shepherds we decided we'd wrangle our kids there together while our men dealt with the livestock.

We arrive at the church and I head the girls back to the hall to find out where they need to be and to get them into their halos. Maya, not surprisingly, refuses to participate. I think it had something to do with her dressing room. Perhaps the Perrier wasn't chilled to her liking or perhaps they accidentally left in a green M&M. Either way she was having none of it. Instead she spent her time doing this....



This play was a little different then the usual Christmas Story production. It was told by the animals, so the humans were just set dressings in this one. It was incredibly cute and well acted by the members of our congregation. Abby, of course, was the cutest angel there. For all my complaining I had a really great time and enjoyed the service immensely. And to make it just that little bit worse the service was filled with the hymns we used to sing at my Grandmother's house on Christmas Eve. We sang carols every year after dinner. I'm sure it was an exercise our parents invented just to distract us kids from the gifts for an extra 15 minutes while the after dinner tidying was going on. So I was all misty eyed through the entire thing and so glad I went.

cookies for Jesus

Okay the sugar cookies may be becoming "a thing". I love making them so much and they look so pretty. I am thinking about incorporating them into my Relay for Life Fundraising. I am thinking about working them into some fundraising I will be doing at work and for Abby's school. Sugar cookies are on my mind a lot.

So much so that when Mike mentioned that this Sunday was the potluck lunch at church I immediately said....

Oh, I should make sugar cookies.

And Mike said.....

Yeah, too bad you didn't have a cross cookie cutter.

And then he laughed, because that would be funny.



Yeah, I totally did.

kaboom

It's that time in the service when the children gather at church. I'm in the back pew, but my two little angels are up at the front. Maya wearing her turquoise blue butterfly sunglasses and attempting very hard to ignore the Minister and Abby sitting with her friends eager to take part. The Minister is talking about giving our worries to God and asks the kids what kinds of things we worry about. Abby's arm shoots up in the air and I am interested, but wary, about what's going to come out of her mouth.

Finally Margot calls on her and she says.......

When I yawn I'm worried that my mouth will explode.

And as if we hadn't given them enough to laugh about, this is what Maya HAD to wear to church today....

what i love about sunday #4

Today Papa and I were sharing the back pew at church. The kids had departed for nursery care and Sunday school. I had the hymnal in my hand and as I do every week I attempted to open it to the exact hymn we would be singing next. Not even close, I was about a hundred hymns off, but then that's pretty typical. I rarely get close, but it's a little game I play with myself every week. As I thumbed through a hundred hymns trying to get to the correct one I can see, out of the corner of my eye, Papa gesturing with his hymnal. I lean towards him and he whispers, "Look I'm off by one. We used to play a game when we were kids and try and open it to the right page. I'm only one off."

You know if I hadn't been 100 hymns off in my own game I would have told him I was playing too.

Know what else I love about Sunday?

Them.......



The girls sitting on the steps of our church.

what i love about sunday #3

The first barbecue of the season. Mmmm. Burgers Mike grilled in the driveway after he dragged the barbecue out from where we'd stored it for the winter. That's how desperate we are to pretend spring is on it's way.

Finished knitting another hat, even if it did end up being too small for Abby. Again. Into the donation box it goes, so all was not lost.

Watching a movie with Mike that my secret boyfriend, Luke Wilson, had a cameo in. Mmmm Luke Wilson.

Hershey's kisses, the New York Cheesecake version. They are delicious. No, I will not share. I've hidden them, so don't bother looking.

That our junior choir appears to be growing. We had 6 kids singing this morning, triple what we usually have.

That attending church service this morning was uneventful. Sure Maya still chatted through some of the service, but nothing was broken, nobody cracked their head, there was no screaming, no crying and no shouting out - "where'd Gamma go" through the entire service. Hallelujah.

what i love about sunday #2

Abby singing a solo at Church with the biggest smile on her face.

All the lovely things people had to say about my daughter this morning.

That Granny was able to be at Church to hear Abby sing.

That Abby wanted to make sure she sung loud enough for Papa to hear her in the back row.

The opportunity to wear my new winter coat.

An impromptu mini-massage.

Being able to comfort my poor sick Maya.

what i love about sunday

Hearing Papa sing behind me in church.



This cuteness. Please note their matching leopard print Mary Janes. Abby has wanted to wear them non-stop since she got them.

That Abby feels confident and secure enough to stand up in front of the entire congregation and tell them that she is "celebrating my Mommy because she lets us have Family Movie Night".

By and large most of the congregation (including Margot) smiles indulgently at Maya as she natters through the entire service.

Listening to Margot's sermons.

Brand new choir robes that are rather stunning.

"The Project" - it is underway.

That Papa and Grandma Linda pack Abby/Maya approved treats in case there isn't anything they like for fellowship after Church.

The walk to Church is different than the walk home from Church.

Returning a found wallet to it's rightful owner.

Impromptu photo shoot with Abby and her bestest friend on that leisurely walk home from Church.



Oh and this cuteness. Okay, this was from Saturday, but I still love it today. Thanks to Grandma Linda for the way too cute shirts.



Getting the warm coats and hats out of storage.

Feeling my heart swell when I watch Abby sing in the choir. And smiling big while she does because she asked me to.



Homemade soup for dinner on a nippy fall day.

Hearing Wesley Centre is anxious for knitted scarves.

Having four completed scarves and one on my needles.

What do you love about Sunday?