on what i've learned...

as this STINT year is coming to a close {the short-term project has come and gone and our fellow teammates, nick and trevor, are heading back to canada on tuesday} i've been pondering and mulling over the things i've learned over this past year.
one thing in particular is actually all-encompassing and i've described in so many different ways.

giving thanks.
finding joy.
seeking beauty in the every day. in the mundane. 
splashes of glory.


i took a facebook hiatus from about october to sometime in february. it was so good for me and my soul and it really helped me become more confident in who i am apart from the praise of man, which is so easily found on facebook. or the interwebs in general.

how many likes did that status get?
look at all those comments on that cute picture of my boys!
that blog entry got so many page views!
what a great tweet by me. so many people retweeted it!


i took a step back and am learning to embrace who i am apart from everyone else. who God has fearfully and wonderfully made me to be. and to STOP comparing myself to everyone else.
and even though i'm back on facebook, i'm feel so much more aware of what i post. the words i choose. am i being salt and light? am i encouraging those who happen to see my statuses or am i merely looking for an outlet to boast or complain or seek justification? i'm definitely not seeking to present a false image of who i am. i am not happy all the time. i don't gush with love and patience and joy in every moment. i am not perfect. but i am aware of the fact that social media can be used for good and not just fill a void. or become an obsession.

and so these things that i've been learning over this past year. i want to share. to show that life is not easy. it is hard. and filled with challenges. but we have a choice. to choose joy. to choose our words so that they drip with life-giving encouragement instead of bitterness, grumbling and complaint.

the other day i was reading Abide in Christ by andrew murray and he spoke about how we are the branches and Christ is the vine. how all we need to do to abide in Christ is come to Him as we first came. in faith. trusting in the strength and life and love of the Saviour {our true vine} to do everything that he has promised He will do {help us to love, trust, abide, find joy and love others}. and that includes helping us to see the beauty in the mundane when everything around us is begging for negativity.

these days i've been struggling to love someone. i think we all have a person we struggle to love, at least at some point in our lives. part of me feels justified in this difficulty but i am praying for love because i know it's not going to come from anything within me. it's just not. so i'm praying and i'm trusting in my True Vine to come through and provide.

so i'm still learning. and growing. and it's good. HE is very, very good.

lesson {re}learned

i thought i had blogged about it before but i checked. i haven't.
so we took family pictures for our christmas card back in october.
for the most part, they were a massive fail.
i mean, in the end i did put together a decent christmas card {reveal to come soon!} but i did have to use multiple pictures due to...well...this:

or this:

or this:

and get a look at this fantastic shot:

i believe this picture really does say a thousand words. this one's going down in the family yearbook for sure.

the aftermath/bribing with the promise of lollipops if we got smiles:

oh family pictures. the lesson {re}learned? lower your expectations.

jude's face says what mine wanted to at the end of this photo sesh.

the flip side

so life is not perfect here.
it's not all giving thanks and seeing the shiny side of things.
and i am far {f a r} from perfect. i never want to give the impression that i am floating around with my magic wand pointing out all the lovely things in my life with one of those gag-worthy smiles pasted on my face.
jesus gives me joy and i am s l o w l y learning to give thanks in all things, but i am often a slow learner.
like today.
both noah and jude are sick.
jamie woke up sick as well.
i was grumpy at times.
i gritted my teeth when jude broke a glass left on the table and angrily told him to stop touching mommy & daddy's things. {and then promptly melted when he came over to me and sweetly looked up at me and said, will you forgive me, mommy?}
i threatened, raised my voice and was impatient.
i let the boys watch movies pretty much the entire afternoon because they were both sick and we had power {for the first time in awhile}.

and then as i huffily sat in the bathroom overseeing "water play" before bed, i couldn't help but let a smile wash across my face as the boys looked at their coloured water {my mom sent these little tablets that colour bath water} and commented on what colour their penises were.
i watched with quiet contentment as jude copied exactly what noah was doing with his boat {sink, sink, sink. dump, dump, dump. float, float, float.}.

and then it was time for bed and jude screeched and screamed with tears and snot mingling together on his face because he didn't want to get out of his bath.
and then noah and jude couldn't agree on the same bedtime story and noah teetered on the edge of an epic meltdown before giving in to {tyrant toddler} jude's demands for the cars story instead of aristocats.
sigh.

they are in bed now.
so is jamie.
i am headed there soon.
i pray that tomorrow will be less tiring. that jamie will feel better. and the boys too.

being

life here is full and yet quite simple and slow-paced.

i reflected the other day that my life may appear to be boring and mundane.

but we are happy and well-fed, not worrying about where our next meal is coming from or what would happen if we got sick and had to go to the hospital. 

a care package from "gramma"!

we are blessed but the tricky part is to not become comfortable. 

i told jamie i don't want to become comfortable in my life here.

the view i will never tire of.

i want to be challenged.

i want to sacrifice and give and find joy in the everyday. 

i think when you stop giving and being challenged then life stops being an adventure.

i made bagels. they were quite the process {make the dough, let the dough rise, make the bagel shape, let the bagels rise again, cook in boiling water, then bake} but they were worth it.

i'm so grateful to be living this slow life. 

nowhere to dash off to, and no jam-packed schedule to keep up with the joneses.

i'm finding it's more about being than doing here.

and i like it.

cherishing each moment as it comes.

finding the joy and laughter in weddings next door that blast their awesome 90's hits and songs put to reggae beats.

singing at the top of my lungs that this is the good life on our way to church and being unable not to smile at an incredible men's a cappella singing group.

having impromptu photo shoots with my two littles and marveling at their gorgeous eyes. how can they both have "green" eyes and yet look so different? amazing.

being at peace with mess and chaos and continuing to learn patience and grace.

taking a "sick day" and watching movies and eating popcorn and recognizing the blessing of electricity and power.

learning to take nothing for granted and to always give thanks.

mint chocolate brownies

we've been in uganda for 4 weeks today.
that just seems absurd to me.
but here we are.
this morning we were invited to a different church and so {reluctantly} i agreed and we went.
it was at 9am so that meant no big Sunday brunch. *sad face*
after about 1.5 hours of sitting quietly and then running around outside in the mud and puddles i grabbed a crying {mucky} jude and walked to our waiting taxi with noah walking behind me.
we were going back home and we would do church there.
it was a good choice. for me and my attitude and for my kids. they just can't sit still for 3 hours.

anyway so i was able to have lunch ready for the guys when they got home and i made these.

well, they were mint chocolate brownies.
they were just so good we ate them up far too quickly for me to grab my camera.
no joke.

one of the cool things about being in another country is they have food products that you can't find at home {and vice versa, usually}. the range of cadbury chocolate bars is unsurpassed. like, amazing. they've got your typical fruit and nut bar, dark chocolate bar, milk chocolate bar - but then there's things like top deck {half white chocolate and half milk chocolate}, snack bar {like a fruit and nut, but it's basically fruit and cookie - it's good!} and my favourite - mint crisp. it's a milk chocolate bar with pieces of crunchy mint candy inside. so.stinkin.delicious.
it's become clear to jamie as well as nick and trevor that the mint crisp is my favourite and it seems that they keep picking them up for me when they see them. so at one point i had THREE mint crisp bars in the fridge. then i saw these on pinterest and i knew what i would do with them.
so here's my recipe for mint chocolate brownies. if you can't find a mint crisp bar {too bad for you}, you can use whatever kind of mint chocolate bar you can find - or mint chocolate chips. but it's absolutely DIVINE with the mint crisp bar.

3/4 cup butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 bar of cadbury mint crisp, chopped up into chunks {or equivalent minty chocolate)

blend the butter, sugar and vanilla. then add the eggs - beating well after each addition. combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt & chunks of minty chocolate in another bowl. gradually beat in the egg mixture making sure not to overmix.
pour into a greased pan and bake at 350F until sides are pulling apart from the pan.
my oven is hotter than mount vesuvius and so it took just under 25 minutes but yours may take up to 40 minutes depending on your oven. also, i guesstimated the temperature.
serve warm on its own or with a big hunk of vanilla ice cream.

also, this is a great recipe to win over a man's heart. just sayin'.

Garage Sale Tips: Part ONE

It's over. It's finally over and now I can breathe and sleep. (I went to bed at 8:59 last night - too bad my kids were up multiple times throughout the night or else I would have gotten 11 hours of sleep - thanks to my wonderful husband who got up this morning with the boys.)

I was probably on my third coffee at this point.

So, you want to have a garage sale and make it worth your while?
I can't guarantee anything, but follow these tips and you'll definitely do better than if you hadn't!

First: HELP

I could NOT have done it without these ladies!

Assemble a team of people who will help you throughout this process. Here are a few key people to have:
a) Organizers - people who thrive at putting systems together and organizing things. These people will help you to organize your things and get past the daunting experience of staring at a garage full of things and not knowing where to start. These people will be helpful both the week before the sale as well as the day of.
b) Networkers - these people will help get the word out about your sale via word of mouth as well as on the internet.
c) Hard workers - :) These are people who will help you do just about anything. They love you and want to help you. These people are KEY. These people can fit into either previous category and can also help you organize, move things, clear things, run errands, POSTER your neighbourhood, etc.
d) Childcare - if you have small children (as I do) it would be really helpful to you to have someone to watch your kids. At first I didn't think Jamie was going to be around, but it turns out he was able to stick around until noon to watch the boys while all the ladies organized and sold stuff outside. It worked out wonderfully. The boys were outside for a bit, but it was too cold for them to be out there the whole time and so they came out, played with the toys for a bit and wandered around and then went back inside. It was definitely nice to have Jamie around to help with this.

Second: WARMTH

Note that I have changed to a winter jacket. It was COLD.

If at all possible, I would not do a garage sale until at least May - especially if you're living in Canada. There were a lot of cold moments - postering, sorting and pricing in a cold garage and then bright and early putting things out on a cold Saturday morning. Granted, it was a gorgeous day for this time of year and I am so so so thankful for that, but if you have a choice, pick a warmer month.
It also helps that people are more into garage-sailing mode in the warmer months and you may get more traffic.

Third: ADVERTISE

Doing the first round of posters. (This was just a small arrow pointing down our street.)

This is key (as I found out). Here's what I did:
a) I posted an ad on Kijiji for free. I got over 20 email responses and over 300 hits on my two ads. On the recommendation of my friend Jen, I posted an ad in the "garage sale" category, but I also posted an ad in the "baby" category - guess which one got more hits? Yup. The "baby" category.
b) I/we postered. I give full credit to Jen and Shereen on this one. Shereen and I postered 4 main intersections on the main road that we live near and then later on Friday night Jen & Shereen went crazy with the posters in our subdivision which I credit to the huge amounts of traffic we got for an early April garage sale! We did 2 types of posters; one had our address, time and that it was a garage sale with an arrow and the other type were just 2 pieces of paper, one that said "GARAGE" and one that said "SALE" and they filled the entire piece of paper. Jen & Shereen put these up with arrows all around our subdivision and they looked awesome! Simple, but they did the trick (although now I have to go and tear them all down!).
c) As well as Kijiji, I posted on Facebook and emailed people to let them know that we were having our garage sale. We had a whole bunch of friends show up and it was fun to see who came out.

Fourth: HOLD OUT

There is a trick to holding out your price to those seasoned garage sailors that come early and haggle with you without losing the sale. Here's one thing I learned: Don't bring your price down for early birds. If someone is willing to come early to get the good stuff, then they should be willing to pay full price - especially for a good item.
For instance, I decided we would sell our djembe drum. We don't really use it and we'll be in Africa if we do want to purchase another. I put it at $10 which I knew was an excellent price. Well sure enough, a man and his wife showed up and started picking up items and "shopping" through all our stuff at 7:40am while we were still setting up. I decided to let them but when he came up to me with the djembe and said he'd give me $5 for it, I told him he'd have to wait as the sale hadn't actually started yet. Well a few minutes later he came up to me again and said he'd give me $5. I was so distracted with getting things set up and organizing things that I just wanted to get rid of him and so I took the $5.
Only minutes after 8am, our neighbours from across the street came over and asked about the djembe and I told them it had already been sold and that's when I realized my mistake. It was a good item and I could have totally gotten full price for it, had I held fast to my original price.
In the grand scheme of things, $5 doesn't matter too much, but it was the principle that really stuck with me and I definitely learned a lesson of holding fast to your price - especially early in the morning.
In the last hour we started telling people that everything was now 50% off the marked price.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's final tips, some praises for my amazing team of ladies who helped and the final count of how much we made.

Elbow pop

Today Noah's elbow popped out for the third time in his short 2.5 years.

I knew right away that's what had happened because he was holding his arm and refusing to move it and any time it shifted in the slightest he winced and whimpered. I gave him some Tylenol and since it happened (I don't even know how it happened this time as I was upstairs, Jamie was downstairs with him and had just turned around to get something when it happened - we still don't know!) right before nap time I just sat and talked with him quietly and then eventually he had a nap. He woke up crying and wouldn't move it again so I texted Jamie to tell him one of us needed to take Noah to emerg. I even called our doctor's office to see if we could go there since I hate going to emerg, but they didn't have any appointment available for today. I couldn't wait until tomorrow - especially with Noah in the condition he was so off I went to the hospital with Noah.
And what does he do the second we pull INTO the hospital parking lot (that you have to pay $6 to get out of!)? He lifts his hurt arm to point at the hospital.

Sigh.

Oh well. So we go in and he starts using his arm to reach for something or to put a snack in his mouth.

Anyway, it was only 1.5 hrs from start to finish so I can't complain, really. By the time we saw the doctor Noah was using his arm again so I'm guessing at some point along the way it popped back in on its own or at least did partially as the doctor said he felt a small pop.

And I did make sure to get the doctor to show me how to pop it back in on my own so we could avoid coming in next time.

Anyway, so all is back to normal and unfortunately according to this doctor there aren't any strengthening exercises we can do. It's just something he's supposed to grow out of. I certainly hope so!

What's in a name? from Vanessa Strickland on Vimeo.

Restaurant FAIL

On Tuesday our family plus our staff team (1 other couple and another male and female staff) went out to dinner at Jose's Noodle Factory (sort of a Tex Mex style restaurant).

Noah had been having an off day - not really eating much, starting to get sick, not listening but we went anyway because generally Noah is really good in restaurants.

It's obvious from the title of this entry where this story is going, but I'll just write it out anyway.

So we get to the restaurant and Noah sits in his highchair for all of 5.7 seconds and then he's done. At first he just walks around and visits the other staff at our table, but then he's crawling into other booths (no one is in them of course), crawling under tables, and then he starts doing his loud call - HELP MAMA! HELP DADDY! when he finds himself standing up on the booth "unable" to get back down (or probably unwilling).

At this point we have all ordered and have received our food and have just started to eat. Noah starts screaming and making a scene and I know it will continue for the rest of the meal (luckily Jude is doing amazing despite this being his cranky time of the day). At this point I've already taken him to the women's washroom and told him that the next time he screams we are going home.

So true to my word (I don't like to threaten unless I am willing to follow through) I have to ask the server to pack up my food and so Noah and I drive home.

I am frustrated.

Angry.

Embarrassed.

We get home and I just let Noah play with his toys while I try to explain to him what happened.

"Noah. We are at home because you were not behaving properly for the restaurant."

"Yeeeaaaaah."

"You screamed and ran around in the restaurant."

"Yeeeeaaaah."

"You didn't listen to Mommy & Daddy."

"Yeeeaaaaah."

*sigh*

I know that at this point that spanking is NOT the way to go, so I let it drop and when he brings up "Baby Jude" and Daddy being at the restaurant I just continue to say that we left because he wasn't obeying Mommy & Daddy and so we left because it's not okay to behave like that.

He gets an early (and much needed) bedtime and is asleep by the time Jamie, Jude and the rest of our staff team arrives to hang out for the rest of the evening.

I'm not sure what the lesson is, but I think I would do the same thing all over again if I could. I would have given him the opportunity to eat dinner with us, but he probably would still be unable to handle it and so I would have left with him again. But...it's always worth a try I think.