Jennifer ... how dare you make me start blogging again! LOL... just kidding. I don't know why I haven't in so long!

B. best friend? Male - Aaron of course. We've known each other almost 5 yrs, been married 3yrs (as of Aug 27th) and we've shared so much joy and sorrow. Female - Colleen, who would've thought we'd still be friends at all! We've known each other since we were born pratically but never really became close until she offered up a roommate position - wow have we had fun!

C. cake or pie? Pie! This is a very tough question because both are especially tempting. I choose cake today, birthday cake with ridiculously sweet butter cream icing and lots of pretty flowers on it!

D. day of choice? Sunday! Church and then a really fun day with Aaron home and usually getting out to visit and have fun with friends/family!

E. essential item? I think its swiftly becoming "Nave's Topical Bible" (but the bible by itself is right up there... good old instruction book for living!) Look up any topic (today its patience) and read every verse in the bible that makes reference to that topic! My pastor suggests that if you are having a struggle in your life to memorize 10 verses to help with it and you will get victory over that struggle. This bible is soooooo helpful for this!

F. favorite color? as a child it was always sunny yellow, until in grade 2 every other girl said pink so I felt left out and said pink too. But I wear a lot of blues.

G. gummy bears or worms? they both taste the same.... so... bears are much more appealing.

H. hometown? A Prairie town in Manitoba.

I. favorite indulgence? Cheesecake, something light like fruit, lemon or lime.

J. January or July? Do i have to pick one? Both are a little unappealing... January's too cold and July is far too hot. January is slow and relaxing, July is hectic and fun-filled. I pick neither!

K. kids? Two. My daughter Danielle, and my son Jack. They are 19 months apart and are oodles of fun! We are hoping to have 2 more yet.

L. life isn't complete without? God.

M. marriage date? August 27, 2005

N. number of brothers & sisters? One older brother Vern and his wife Chelsea. Aaron is the oldest of 6 siblings, Corinna, Brittany (married to Alex), Joseph, Jonathon, Andrew. I've married into a nice large family with lots of siblings and I sure do love it coming from just Vern and I!

O. oranges or apples? Apples

P. phobias? I can't do any fair rides anymore. Aaron and I were in a terrible roll-over just over 4 years ago and since then I can't go on fair rides or go mud-bogging.

Q. quotes? "Pray without ceasing" AND "when you know better, you do better"

R. reasons to smile? my kids are napping right now! AND I know I'm going to heaven when I die!

S. season of choice? Definately fall! Perfect weather, gorgeous trees, bringing in the garden harvest (although I don't have a garden this year I get to help reap the benefits of my MIL's)

T. tag seven peeps! Seven? I haven't been blogging in so long I don't think I know seven other bloggers.

U. unknown fact about me? I echo Jennifer's sentiments, it would now be known if I typed it here... but really I am an open book, I don't think there is anything I don't share with almost everyone!

V. vegetable? roasted asparagus

W. worst habits? I am an over-eater.

X. x-ray or ultrasound? I choose ultrasound! but only if I'm pregnant again! LOL, no I'm not yet.

Y. your favorite food? This is really hard. I haven't met a food yet that I don't like. Today I pick king crab, with rice pilaf, piles of steamed veggies and delicious hot garlic butter.

Z. zodiac sign? Virgo.

A little conviction?

Its been a while since I've posted anything spiritual... I guess its time!

Shortly after I got saved I really felt God's hand in my life and it was really exciting and wonderful. As these couple short months have passed I've felt myself getting less and less enthused about the things of God and easily making excuses to not read my bible or spend time in prayer. Thursday evening was my very first communion (well at this church, I've taken communion at other churches) and I found myself forced to examine myself
1 Cor 11:28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
1 Cor 11:29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
I realized that I'm just not spending enough time with God... He's supposed to be my closest friend and I haven't "called" Him in days. The times I have talked to Him all I've done is prayed and prayed and told God everything on my mind but haven't listened for his reply (aka have not been reading my bible regularly)

My biggest excuse is time. I fill up my day with so many things but haven't made room in my schedule for God. My conclusion, I've decided that I need to wake up earlier. I usually wait for my kids to wake up before getting up. This is silly for a number of reasons... the main reason being that I need time to do devotions. I'm nervous about typing this because it will make me accountable. I've concluded that I need to start getting up at least 2 hours before Jack. That means 5am. I know it sounds crazy but both my kids sleep through the night so I really have no excuse to be so tired. I just need to put myself to bed earlier. So far its Saturday, 2 whole mornings have passed where I've had the opportunity to get up earlier and I haven't. I think I need to be accountable. I need to get up. (I really need to start by going to bed earlier to make this work)

Ok well there is my babble.

My new sling!

This was unbelievably easy! Thanks to a good friend I acquired some rings yesterday evening and sat down at my sewing machine to make my sling. It took me no time at all... probably 20 minutes from start to finish - well I suppose quite a bit longer once I realized that I hadn't pre-washed my fabric and my fingers were stained bright blue! LOL... but after hang-drying my newly washed sling overnight it was ready to test out on my more than willing kiddos this morning. Yes thats right, this sling can hold up to 30lbs and since Danielle is around that weight I let her have a turn also! Anyways, I'm hoping to head to the fabric store sometime today to pick up some more fun fabric while its still 40% off!

It only took 10 days!

Well it only took 10 days before I sat down to blog again... hehe. I decided to take on some sewing projects. I really wanted to sew a baby sling because they are fairly expensive to purchase and according to these instructions reasonably simply to sew. So I picked the beautiful fabric pictured to the left and set out to make a sling. If you read the instructions you'll have noticed that I also needed 2 - 3inch, 4 guage metal rings which are commonly sold at western shops. Being that this city is a fairly 'country' town there are a couple of western shops. Only one of which was open in the evening when I decided to start my project and they only had one 3inch ring left... very disappointing. I went to a couple other hardware type stores and had no luck. I came home fairly discouraged and Aaron suggested that I call Michael's the craft store. So I did. The sweet lady on the phone told me she indeed had 3inch metal rings in the leather working section of the store. I asked if they were 4 guage. She didn't know but assured me that they did indeed look very sturdy and heavy. So once again I traveled excited that I was going to complete my sewing project and once again I was thoroughly disappointed. The rings were certainly not 4 guage and certainly not that sturdy looking. :( So my beautiful piece of fabric will have to wait for the rings I ordered online.

On a brighter note. While I was at the mall I noticed a really neat idea. It was a head pillow thingy for traveling. I've seen them before but had just gotten back from a trip to the big city where my poor kiddo's heads kept getting flopped around and kinked in awkward positions while they slept. Since there was a big sale on at the fabric store I picked up some fleece and stuffing. I started making Danielle's while I talked to my mom and she thought it was a great idea so I made her one too!

I don't like fishing.

Much to Aaron's dismay I do not like fishing. But it looks like Jack might. Fortunately Aaron has friends who like fishing and I am still playing tennis regularly. Unfortunately, Aaron is still trying to convince me that fishing is fun. The one time he caught a fish, I felt sorry for the fish... poor sad suffocating little fishy. This blog entry was mostly to share these very cute pictures!

Honey mustard curry chicken

Jennifer asked me for my honey mustard curry chicken recipe. I made it for supper tonight (well except for the peppers, I ran out so I'm having mixed veg alongside also)

I have a couple ways of doing this.

boneless skinless chicken breasts cut up
onion
peppers (whatever you have - I like the yellow or orange)
honey
prepared mustard
curry powder
flour

brown the chicken, chop up your veggies into chunks and add to chicken. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of curry powder on (depending on how spicy you like it), pour on about a 1/4 cup of honey (or less, I've never measured... I just make it kinda saucy), squeeze on a few rounds of mustard (again I've never measured). Once its simmered for a while and the veggies are tender-crisp then I sprinkle of a teaspoon of flour just to thicken the sauce and serve over rice or noodles like a stir-fry.


OR


Bone-in skin on chicken (breasts, legs, thighs - whatever)
curry
honey
mustard

Arrange chicken in baking dish skin side down (the meat seems to soak up the sauce better this way). Mix about a tablespoon of curry, 1/4 cup of honey and a couple rounds of mustard in a bowl and pour over chicken. Bake at 400 degrees F for approx 45 mins. Serve with rice and steamed veggies. (aspargus or green beans are nice)

Tennis Anyone?

Wow, I'm not good at blogging.

So I've taken up tennis. I've decided that this is the summer that I'd like to get into shape so I've discovered that I LOVE tennis (who would've thought?) and am trying to take a really good long journey at 2-3 times a week aside from my regular Monday evening tennis game. That's part of the reason why I haven't been blogging.

Spiritually things are going really well. I'm doing pretty well at reading my bible or at least my devotional book daily. I'm still really enjoying trusting God in all the little things of life. Its nice to know that when things are rough I can count on Him to be there for me.

I'm also having oodles of fun buying Usborne books lately. www.jmb.yellowducksonline.com Pictures cannot do these books justice. The man who created this line of books did so to compete with TV and video games and I really believe he's done an excellent job in doing so! I'm not keeping up with reading other people's blogs. I have a hard enough time sitting down to read the bible everyday! I'm not a reader. (but I'm hoping that with fancy fun books I can help my kids become readers... reading is important, I was a tv watcher as a kid - no tv in this house!)

I think I'm done blogging now... good night!