Mary and I had a wonderful mommy/daughter date this morning. We started out by going into Horton’s and she got to pick whatever she wanted.She was so excited to have a whole apple juice to herself that she only had three bites of the cookie!

After that we went thrift store shipping. It was really fun and she picked out a few books. I always have great intentions to look at everything but I rarely come out of a thrift store with anything other than books. We found some really cool books, this one especially excited me:
This is the atlas that I used when I was in elementary school. I loved looking at atlases as a child, I was thrilled to see it on the shelves of the bookstore.

Once I got home I was flipping through the pages and reminiscing about colouring maps and other geography assignments when I got to this page:
Hmm. Something isn’t right here! I don’t know if you can see it but I’m pretty sure the ‘Union of Soviet Socialist Republic’ is no longer in existence. That made me feel old.

Then I came to the page on Canada:
Now my dear American friends may not see anything wrong with this picture but Canada looks a little different today. In fact we have an entire new province now!

So I guess that when my kids are ready we will be buying a new atlas. I’m going to keep this one though, Mary has already spent some time flipping through it with me and I suppose it will be a good example of how things change over time.

That’s where Mary prefers to play these days.

Poor girl, every time she sits and tries to do something Luke is all over her. He wants nothing more than to be where she is and doing what she is doing. Mary has become very good at finding different toys to try and distract him but sometimes he just won’t have it and I let her take her toys to her bedroom to play.

This is one of her more recent solutions. We have had to set up a chair on it’s side to keep Luke out of the entrance/bathroom. We needed something that Mary could easily get over when she needs to use the bathroom and so far this has been working great! In that picture she is having a tea party. It works great, Luke is content to stand at the chair and watch her and she can set everything up so he can’t wreck it.

…is free books! I recently noticed the ‘free book’ cart in the children’s portion of our library. I was so excited to discover this:
It is the Narnia Chronology and it’s so cool! It’s in amazing shape, one page had a pop out that needed to be taped and that was it!It’s full of fun little facts and illustrations and every page has some sort of moving component. Normally I would never buy one of these books because they are so easy to wreck but for free… I made an exception. 😉
Our new library has heated underground parking, it is fantastic to be able to take the kids out of the car, take their coats off and get Luke in the stroller before going in. I have a feeling there will be may library visits this winter.

Outside My Window::

::It’s dark. No time for blogging today so it had to wait until everyone else was in bed.

I am Listening to::

::CBC News: The National as I type this. I don’t often get a chance to watch the news and I’m starting to remember why I don’t try harder. There isn’t a whole lot of uplifting news to be had.

I am wearing ::

::Jammies, comfy warm jammies. A cup of raspberry tea and a cozy blanket make it just about perfect.

I am Thankful For::

::My husband coming home every night! Have I mentioned that yet? I can’t even begin to explain how wonderful it is. Even though we only get to see him for a couple hours every night it’s still wonderful.

I am Reading:

::West From Home: Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder and I love it! I adored the Little House books when I was a child and I was delighted to find this book on amazon!

From the Kitchen::

::Lots of pita pizzas, perfect for lunches and so yummy! I borrowed the Canadian Living baking book from our library and it is amazing, I have a whole bunch of recipes queued up and waiting to be tried!

I am Thinking:

::that it will be a complete miracle if Nathaniel’s shift doesn’t get changed between now and February. We are planning on going to the French carnival in the town Nathaniel’s grandparents live in and right now it falls perfectly in his days off!

I am Creating::

::Mittens!! I am kitting them, the first one is complete and I’m so proud! I have the softest alpaca wool, they will be so soft.

On my iPod::

::Dr. Ray and Fred Penner. Dr Ray keeps me company while I’m cleaning and Mary is napping and then Fred comes on when she gets up.

Towards Rhythm and Beauty:

::I’m getting there!! We have settled into a nice routine and now I’m fine tuning it to make things run even smoother.

I am Hoping and Praying:

:: That Nathaniel’s shift won’t change!! We have talked about going to the Carnival since we moved here and I am so excited to go!

Around the House:

::All signs of Advent and Christmas are gone. Mary still asks for some things but she seems to be okay with everything for the most part. I think she misses her Little People Nativity the most.

One of My Favorite Things:

::My new camera!! I finally got it and oh boy am I excited!! You can expect to see lots more pictures now, it is so much easier to take a point and shoot places than my big camera. Hooray!!

A Few Plans for the Rest of the Week:

::Sticking with our routine. We’ll go to stories Wednesday, probably playgroup Thursday and then Friday is Nathaniel’s first day off!

A Picture Thought I’m Sharing:

Outside My Window::

::It is cold. C.O.L.D. -28 to be exact… brr!!

I am thinking::

::how nice it it so have my husband coming home every night. He gets up at 4:30am and doesn’t get home until 7:30pm but I’m thankful for the hour I do get to see him! He is such a hardworking man.

I am wearing ::

::long johns! Did I mention how cold it is out there?

I am Thankful For::

::my children sleeping in today! They must have known it was mommy’s first day on her own. 😉

::the wonderful Christmas we spend in Prince George. God really opened my eyes to a few things I needed to work on and it had awesome results!

I am Pondering:

::“Attribute to God every good that you have received. If you take credit for something that does not belong to you, you will be guilty of theft.”
-St Anthony of Padua

I am Reading:

::Choosing Beauty: A 30 day spiritual makeover for women. It’s awesome so far, two thumbs way up!

From the Kitchen::

::all sorts of good things! I had to go grocery shopping yesterday to replenish our food supply so now I have all sorts of yummy fresh fruit and veggies. Except peppers… and bananas… I think I may have left a bag at the grocery store. I know I bought both peppers and bananas… but they are not here! It’s a mystery.

I am Thinking:

::I need to find some new foods to feed Luke. I have no experience feeding a baby because Mary never wanted to eat… This whole baby food thing is a pain!

I am Creating::

::mittens! Alpaca mittens on double pointed needles! It’s much easier than I had imagined. I also have a pound of sheeps wool waiting to be played with. We found the cutest wool shop when I was home over Christmas and I almost jumped for joy when I found out she sold carded wool!!

On my iPod::

::podcasts! I love podcasts. It is so nice to be able to listen to The Dr. Is In, Catholic Answers Live, and Open Line whenever I want!

Towards Rhythm and Beauty:

::Time to establish a new routine. Nathaniel hasn’t had a come home every night job in a couple years so it will be interesting. I’m not sure if I will put Mary to bed before he gets home or let her stay up so she can see her daddy. Having him come home really gives me a reason to cook and clean (isn’t that sad? When he is gone I tend to let things go a little..)

To Live the Liturgy:

::Now that Advent is over I’m starting to look towards Lent. Mary loved our Jesse tree so I hope to do a Jesus tree for Lent… with 40 ornaments to make I’m thinking I better start now!

I am Hoping and Praying:

:: Nathaniel’s birthday dinner turns out well tomorrow. I probably shouldn’t be trying a new recipe but oh well.

Around the House:

::A tiny bit of chaos… I hate coming home from long trips. There is just too much stuff! Clothes and toys to put away, food to organize. Stuff stuff stuff.

On Keeping Home:

::Finding a new rhythm for this too. I am kind of excited to get all of our Christmas/Advent things packed away and start fresh. I really like having less stuff around! I wish I knew how toys reproduce… Is there a toy BCP? I suppose that’s not a very moral question but seriously! I take all the toys out of our living room and there are already too many in here again! It needs to stop!

One of My Favorite Things:

::Just one? I have lots of new favourite things to share with you! Down filled winter boots… Tetley raspberry white tea… I will have to post about them soon!

A Few Plans for the Rest of the Week:

::Celebrate Nathaniel’s birthday

::Pack away Christmas decorations

::Restore some sort of order to the laundry room!

A Picture Thought I’m Sharing:

or not. Sorry. I haven’t looked at any pictures from Christmas yet, no time! I will soon though and get some new pictures up!

I in fact did not die! After finding out Nathaniel’s work was going to keep him busy until very close to Christmas the kids and I packed up to spend a few weeks with my mother in law. It was wonderful and we had a great time but blogging kind of fell off my radar because they have painfully slow internet!! Lots of exciting stuff brewing around here so hopefully there will be some more exciting posts soon!!