Women's Retreat 2009

This weekend I attended the women's retreat that is put on each year by our Nazarene district. It is a great opportunity to spend some time with friends and even create new bonds of friendship. This year proved to be this and even more! We had an excellent speaker who presented the story of the woman at the well through drama and music. The theme of the weekend was "Living Water" and how everything you need in life can be found through a relationship with Christ. It was inspiring and thought provoking and has led to some questions in my own heart and mind about my life and what God desires for me. My life is not my own and my greatest desire is to be not only the wife, mom, friend and person that God desires, but a vessel through which which incredible love and mercy can flow through. Yet, the struggle comes in when the daily things of life and ministry vie for my attention, time and energy. It is not a matter of choosing between good and bad, if only it could be that easy! Mark always says that rather than managing your time, you need to manage your energy, which is so true. So, this week for me will be a time of prayer, meditation and quiet time spent "in my deep place where nobody goes" where I sort through these questions and seek guidance and direction.

I also bought a few books this weekend! How could you not when they have this fabulous book store just waiting for you to snatch them up? One of my all time favourite books when I was growing up were the Berenstein Bears! I believe I have read almost all of them and now am reading them to Kaley. At the bookstore, they had a Christian series of Berenstein Bears books!!! I was so excited. So, I decided to buy them for Kaley as a present. I can't wait to read them to her!



I also bought a health book to help me get back to a more healthy lifestyle. I *know* how to be healthy and what I need to do to get to that place, yet I just have to choose to make it a priority over being lazy and a habit that becomes second nature.




I love the refocusing and redirection that a retreat can offer. What a gift!

10 Daily Habits List

An excerpt from Dr. Paul on the GraceConnexion website:

"Change your habits, change your life! We all know that it is the little habits that powerfully impact our life - for good or not so good. Some habits are life-giving and some are life-taking. Changing them is an inside job.

I have not found any amount of "should, ought to, must, have to" energy that has been enough to change my habits over a sustained period of time. I'll bet it's the same with you. Doctors can tell us, parents and spouses can nag us, we can use God to guilt us, even children can beg us to add or drop a habit and it's rarely successful. What is missing is the "want to."

Negative energy has to come from outside us and there is a cost - guilt, shame, pressure, fear, anger. Ever know anyone who seemed to need to be angry to get something done? How often do we use the pressure of some deadline and the adrenaline-rush to accomplish something "just in time?" But what is the cost to us and to others in our life affected by our need for negative energy? The most frequent emotional payback we get from doing something because we "have-to, ought-to, must do" is relief that it's over and we don't have to do it again for some time period. "Thank God that's done. I don't have to do that until next _______."

Positive energy comes from finding the "want to" in the tasks we choose and the habits we create or drop. The energy comes from the process itself and does not need an outside source. The emotional payback in usually a sense of healthy pride and accomplishment. In fact, we find ourselves saying, " I look forward to doing that again."

A 10 Daily Habits List is a tool I use and recommend to the people I coach. I confess that my pattern in actually using it has been inconsistent. What I know is that whenever I am not using the 10 Daily Habits List my life is less fulfilling, more pressured and chaotic.

It is not rocket science but it is a helpful tool. Simply make a list of 10 Behaviors or Choices that would improve the quality of your life and begin to practice them. These are not the 10 Daily Habits someone else wishes you would develop! This is not an "OUGHT TO DO" LIST but a WANT TO LIST! Remember the BT 1 exercise "What do you want?"

They don't have to be huge changes to make a significant difference. Start with what may seem small things (floss daily, make bed daily, drink more water daily, walk daily, etc.) that you want to develop into routine actions that happen almost automatically. Do them for at least 30 days and when they become routine add another one.

What is on your 10 Daily Habits list? You can add a 10 Daily Habits list for a specific area of your life: work, relationships, spirituality, etc. What would yours be?" Dr.Paul Fitzgerald

Important Lessons Learned

Today Kaley made some "significant" leaps today:) Okay, so not really, but in our world, anything new that she learns is an exciting thing. So, she found a whistle of mine from last year in a cabinet and she was walking around with it all day trying to figure out how to make some sound come out of it. I showed her how to use it, but she just couldn't figure it out. We worked and worked on the blowing thing, which is not that easy to do:) It was a blast though, she would laugh and laugh as I showed her how to blow air out of her mouth. In the afternoon after her nap, she picked up the whistle and did it!!! We were able to catch a bit of it on the video:



Then, we moved onto sniffing!! That was just about as easy to teach her as the blowing air out was:) She found a bowl of potpourri in the bookcase and kept trying to "sniff" it, but ended up blowing air at it. It was really cute. It didn't help that the potpourri was in the shape of cinnamon rolls and berries, so keeping them out of her mouth was no small task. We caught a cute a expression of her while trying it out...(pay no mind to the parenting happening behind the camera).

We made it through!

We always wish that our children wouldn't grow up so quick and look so longingly at the pictures of when they were first born! Well, last week, it seemed like we turned back the clock and had a newborn in our house again, at least this time around I was in a much better mind space:)

This last week we experienced our first bout of sickness with Kaley. Tuesday afternoon she woke up from her nap and had gotten sick and it quickly turned into the flu that lasted until Friday night. The poor thing couldn't keep anything down and had a temperature and basically slept her way through most of the three days. At night, she woke up every couple of hours to drink some water and then slept fitfully the rest of the time. By Friday, she was keeping most of her food down and lived on a diet of liquids and rice cereal. On Saturday she was SO HUNGRY but her body just was not ready for regular food yet, so she got some chicken noodle soup which was a welcome change:) By the time Sunday rolled around, she was almost back to normal and had two good naps. The first one was during the worship service which she hasn't done since she was six months old! Although, it was really cute when she tried "talking" to daddy and couldn't figure out why he wasn't paying attention to her:) In the midst of her being sick, I enjoyed being able to put things aside and take care of her and got LOTS of snuggles in:)

Unfortunately, during this whole time, poor Mark was dealing with his own issues. He had a sore throat which quickly turned worse and he found himself in the ER at 6:00 in the morning because he couldn't deal with it anymore. The attendant that saw him told him it was a viral infection and to take cold and sinus medication! So, that was what he did. Long story short, he went to see our family doctor and the nurse practitioner took one look at him and said that had strep...yes this would have been helpful 10 days ago!!! Lovely, eh? Thankfully, Kaley did not catch anything while she was sick, so we are grateful. Here are some pictures of our week:

We should have known something was up when she was just laying on the floor doing nothing:)


Kaley having some special daddy comfort time!


Just not doing well!!! So sad, yet still so dramatic;)


She bent down to find her toy...and fell asleep while she was down there. why not?


We couldn't resist this, SO not happy to have her picture taken!


And finally, 6 days later, she is back to normal:)

What NOT to do with a sick child!

So far in Kaley's life, we have been blessed to have a happy and healthy little girl. The only time that she has been sick was due to teething and a cough that she had during holidays. Well, we obviously were on cloud 9 a little too long.

Kaley had 3 HUGE molars cutting through in the beginning of the week with some other bumps starting on their way. She had gotten sick when she woke up from her nap on Tuesday, but after she was changed, the bed linen changed and a drink of water, she was running around, smiling and having a grand old time. I thought it was a fluke thing and that she was fine...Then the mistakes began!

Advice on what NOT to do when your child is sick...
1) Give them a cup of whole milk to drink.
2) Giving yogurt (even though organic) does not settle a stomach (duh!)
3) Pepto Bismal is not made for babies, even when you try and convince them it is candy.
4) When your baby does not respond to one flavour of Pedialite, do not go buy 6 more flavors to try out!
5) Cups of water are great, but wait a bit of time before giving another. What doesn't have room to fit will come right back up!
6) Change out of your nice clothes at the first sign of your baby being sick.
7) Don't try to get Tylenol in the medicine dropper in the dark...SO STICKY!
8) Forget trying the emergency room, they are useless (we actually didn't go there, but Mark did last week and we just found out NOW that he had strep, helpful eh?)
9) Don't try to self diagnose using the internet, it will just leave you feeling like an absolute failure as a parent.
10) Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill. Life happens, kids get sick!!!

In the midst of all of our mistakes, we did do some things right. We had a clean supply of sleepers and bedding all ready to go. We quickly went to water and dry toast for a day, although more than ever I wished that I was still nursing her and could give her what was best! I did sleep with her in the guest room this week which was wonderful. Mark was sick and was able to get some uninterrupted sleep and I was close by for Kaley during the night when she wasn't feeling well. We also got a lot of cuddle time and snuggles in! We also were able to take some time, slow down and rest while taking care of her.

Kaley isn't quite out of the clearing yet, but her fever is gone and she is keeping food down again which is great! We are going to the doctors next week just to make sure everything is a-okay! What a week:)

I Am-Nichole Nordeman

Nichole Nordeman is a long time favourite artist of mine. Her songs are unique and original and paint a beautiful picture of the seasons of the Christian walk that we go through. She has a unique perspective that she offers on our relationship with Christ and this video is no exception. I found this video on You Tube and had to share it with you!

The Importance of Grandparents

Family has always been important to both Mark and I. We both have fond memories of our grandparents who took an active roll in our lives and helped shape us into the people that we are today. There have been many lessons that I learned from my own grandparents about life, family, God, priorities and values that I hold onto even today. I count them as one of God's greatest gifts and blessings that he has given to me.

Now that Kaley is a part of our family, it is now our parents turn to leave an imprint on her life as her grandparents. It is always a joy to see them spending time with her and watching their relationship form its special bond. We are very fortunate to have a happy and healthy relationship with both of our parents that allows this bond to take place, and for that, we are grateful. Kaley gets their undivided love and attention and someone who prays for her on a daily basis. They nurture her with love and kindness, and make sure that she has all the prettiest things that a little girl may want or need. We are honored to have two very special sets of grandparents to partner with us as we guide and teach Kaley to be the person that God desires her to be.

To Kaley's Grandparents...Thank You!!!

Grandparents, A Special Gift
Few can bring the warmth
We can find in their embrace,
And little more is needed to bring love
Than the smile on their face.

They've a supply of precious stories
Yet they've time to wipe a tear,
Or give us reasons to make us laugh
They grow more precious through the years.

I believe that God sent us grandparents
As or legacy from above,
To share the moments of our life
As extra measures of His love.

~Author Unknown~