Focus on Family - March 23

Well, this week had been wonderful and taxing at the same time.


The best news first:  I mentioned last week that there is some really good news. I have finally been given the go ahead from my sister, Anne, to tell everyone that she is PREGNANT! ...with twins! This is a total answer to prayer, since she and her husband, Ken, have been trying for several years to conceive. I totally admire those women who have to deal with two of everything at the same time... breastfeeding, teething, poopy diapers, sleepless nights... one at a time is more than enough for me. Anne is due in October, and she has been feeling fairly well, she just has to make sure she eats a bit more often. There are already some ultrasound pictures, and as soon as I can get a picture of them, I`ll post it here. You can see the individual sacs, and it one resembles a frog right now.


Bad news: when Isabel woke me up at 4:00 a.m., I discovered that it was snowing. blech. Here is what it looks like outside the front of our house:

But when I looked over to the right side of the house, I found our neighbour shoveling our shared driveway. He also shoveled the sidewalk in front of our house! It's not the first time this year that he's done this, so I think I might have to make him a pie or something.

Alexander is sick this week, having little to no patience for anything. He is also not sleeping through the night. I always thought that sick kids would sleep more than anything; I mean, that`s what Alexander has done the other times he`s been sick. But not this time. He woke me up yesterday morning at 2:15 a.m., wanting to `nuggle` (his new word for snuggle). I was way too tired to bring him back downstairs to his bedroom, so he `nuggled`with us in bed for about 10 minutes. His wiggling around drove me insane, so I gave him more medicine and put him into his own bed. Thankfully, that`s what was needed and he went back to sleep.

Alexander with his "blue star"

Isabel is testing my patience as well. She doesn`t seem to like to sleep during the day at the moment. Well, she does, just not on her own. As long as she is attached to me, she`ll sleep, but as soon as I put her down, she wakes up and cries. And Isabel is not the kind of baby who will just cry herself to sleep - she cries until she can`t breathe, and when she catches her breath, she cries more. loudly. grrrr.

***CAUTION: Following paragraph contains poop content.***


Isabel presented me with the BIGGEST poop of all time. Well, the biggest I`ve ever encountered. I mentioned a while ago on my facebook status that Isabel keeps on giving me poop-soup diapers, which means that there is so much poop in her diaper that the diaper is not absorbing the poop anymore, and it just sits there and looks like soup. Hence, poop-soup. Well, yesterday, she pooped out of her diaper, up her back, and down through her legs. I didn`t even bother trying to change her on the change table, I put her directly into the bath tub to take off her clothes and diaper. It was dis-gus-ting.


***END of poop content.***

As you can see, I've been needing to relax and unwind. I think I need to stretch my patience muscle. A few weeks ago in church, during communion, there was little discs of air clay (clay that dries in the air) with fruits of the Spirit written on them; we were to use them as reminders of that particular fruit. There was joy and patience from what I could see, and there was more on another part of the table. I picked up joy, but I think i should have picked up patience. I need it.

This week I worked on my weak culinary skills and made cheeseburger soup. And it turned out yummy! If you want to try it, it's fairly simple, and most ingredients you would find in most kitchens, so chances are, they are in yours!

• 1/2 pound ground beef
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 3/4 cup shredded carrots
• 3/4 cup chopped celery
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups chicken broth (I used beef broth)
• 4 cups cubed potatoes
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups cubed Cheddar cheese (I used 3 cups Old Cheddar)
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup sour cream (I didn't have sour cream, so I just used table cream)

The directions to make it are found here.

Yesterday I got an envelope in the mail:

and I thought that it was a personal letter. There was no return address on it, so it could have been anybody! I was so excited! But then I opened it:

what a disappointment! I don't even know how these people got my name and address, as I've never been to this dealership.


Jeffery bought me a laptop yesterday. We have been wanting to get a laptop for a long time, and we had a budget in mind of around $500, and there was one on sale at Best Buy (Jeff always keeps his eyes open for things like this), so when he saw this great deal, he picked it up. It`s nice, because now I can go on the computer while Jeff is playing WOW (World of Warcraft).

This Saturday I am going to be selling my cards at a mom2mom sale in Burlington, and I`ve been using every spare minute I get to make more cards. I look at the box I have prepared with the finished products in it, and it doesn`t look like there`s all that much. I also have a lot to do still with Robyn`s Big Shot, so I'm going over to her place tonight after the kids are down to make more cards! I love working with the Big Shot (and with Robyn)!


Until next week...