Crazy Crunch Popcorn

The first time I tasted this I loved it! It was given to me in a basket as a gift. So sweet.....

You will need:
8 cups of popcorn
2 cups of nuts
1 1/3 cups white sugar
1 cup butter/margarine
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup corn syrup

Boil sugar, butter, syrup, vanilla for 8-15 minutes

Mix in popcorn & nuts

Spread on to cookie sheet to set

Promises

After taking this picture at the end of our driveway we search rainbows on my Bible App and we read....no we actually listened to the story of Noah's Arc (it's a cool App).

We were driving into the city this week and I noticed a rainbow in the sky....I wear polarized sunglasses which always creates more vibrant colors, so I did the usual "look,look"! And I pass the glasses back to Brodie. We started to talk about how many rainbows we have seen this spring. Brodie then replied Gods been making a lot of promises lately.... I took a deep breathe and felt all the craziness of a rushed morning and stress from the last few weeks just melt away. I knew at once it would all be ok.
I believe God will protect us in the big and small things of daily life if we just open our eyes and our hearts to the possibility.

Roasted Potato Salad

I found this amazing salad off the blog A Pretty Life in the suburbs. It's is so much easier than the traditional boiling, cooling, waiting....
I did leave out the 6 dill pickles, since Jay ate a jar of pickles when he was a kid and has never gone back!


6 medium potatoes chopped
Medium sweet potato chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
pepper
2 roasted red peppers
2 green onions sliced ( I used chopped onions both times (1/4 cup)
6 dill pickles, sliced
1-2 tbsp fresh dill
4 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
1/4cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream


Mix both potatoes, peppers, onions with oil and spices
Place on a greased cookie tray

Cook at 400 degrees for 25-35 minutes
peppers do not over cook

Best Friends

I had a great opportunity yesterday to just hang out with my best friend, Lana A.K.A Elle. I had told her last year that I would love to go to the beach and read and close my eyes and just daydream without worrying about supervising, feeding and bath-rooming the boys. The beach to me is one of those places that are meant for kids but it's hard to really relax when you are that close to large body of water.

Well Elle and I met after I dropped the boys at school and daycare. It didn't turn out to be the hottest day but really it's only May in Manitoba. We talked, we laughed and then went to the city and had a late lunch at the Olive Garden yum! It was just what the doctor ordered.

I have known Elle since Jr High: bad hair, bad choices, great fun and many adventures. We have had our growing pains but always have come back to being in each others lives.

Elle knows who I am, where I have been and where I am going, what I believe and what drives me crazy.....and she still loves me. I am so grateful for that acceptance and love, I can truly tell her anything and it's ok and because of this Jason and I asked Elle and her husband Donnie to be the guardians for Brodie and Korben. I was in tears when I asked her. It felt so huge and scary to even consider the idea of leaving the boys, and what if it was just too much for her and Donnie. I told her I wanted them to take the time they needed to think it over and do you know it was shortly after we left that lunch that the two of them said yes. I can't tell you what peace that gave me. I am so grateful to both of them for this gift. Who better to raise our kids but someone who knows us, gets us and loves us. I believe that is what God intended when he invisioned community, unconditional love and family.

Gratitude Gifts

We just celebrated Week of the Early Childhood Educator and this is what I put together. Candy Jars!

When Brodie was born I worked in the field and we ventured to day care together each morning. I cried every day for the first week. I had chosen to return early, Brodie was 9 months old, this allowed me to stay with him and helped financially to balance things out.
With Korben I took the whole year I had changed careers so returning was a separation. I had the security of knowing his provider but he didn't, so it was a big step for him. Leaving him felt like a giant leap for me.
Korben is now in a centre closer to home, which gives him about 10 extra hours a week to play rather than being locked in a car seat. I didn't have the prior relationship with this centre and it's been a slow dance to learn, one step at a time, off we go.

P.S. a few weeks later I made a mini jar for birthday gift to hold a toys r us
gift card

Pussy Willows

I have the next 8 days off, my husband asked me "What are your plans?" "To clean and organize" was my response and he replied " and to have fun right" ? Good call Jay.

I have spent about a month reading all kinds of blogs, I have tried a few receipts, shared blogs with other friends,
and have a crazy amount of projects I want to try with the boys. BUT I also stopped doing much of anything else around the house....I'd rather read about cleaning schedules than create one, yikes! I can clean but maintaining I have not mastered. I can blame it on the full time job or a husband that doesn't really care what the house looks like.Or having a 2 year old and an 8 year old but the truth is cleaning kind of bores me. But I do feel better in an organized environment. Oh and by the way the 8 year old has a very clean room!


Spring is always a difficult time for me emotionally, why I am not sure so having a break from work and a few hours to be home alone without the boys should  do my soul and my house some good.

I decided that I would start the next 4 mornings off in a positive way and put the to do list aside for an hour or so. Meadow (our lab) and I took a walk in the back in search of pussy willows. Now we have lived in the country for 3 years and I always seem to miss the pussy willows some how......the same goes with the raspberries that grow on one side of the house, I see them flower and then I think the birds or bears must eat them.
Anyways I did find the pussy willows in varying degrees of opening...how fun is that! The pussy willows remind me of being a child and how exciting it was to find them. Here is to a spring of more discoveries......

Ready....set.........go

I've wanted to do this for awhile but like most projects I run out of time or energy by the days end. I went for a walk on Saturday with our black lab. I had spent time that morning reading different blogs and then I hit a wall "Is this thing to have a theme...one clear direction" and then I realized that doesn't fit into life, we all have many parts that fit into one whole that we call life.I have a desire to write, it has always been there. I feel putting words to paper helps me process the world around me; I like documenting this journey: what is and what shall be, so here we go, I hope you will come along with me.