Saddle pads, arena riding, and switching callings

My brother in law is helping me out by riding some of my beasts at the feedlot so I started a wool pad for him. Should fill up my down time for a while! 

AND we actually made it to the arena!!

We haven't ridden all winter and it was nice to get back. The horses did pretty good. A couple got a little fresh but nothing unmanageable. 

Poor penny has a cold

Ellie is exhausted.

Andy had a nap so he his wired.

And Lucy is being overly helpful.

I also switched stuff with another lady from church. We swapped callings so I dropped off the enrichment things and picked up the activity days things. 

It was a fun full day and tomorrow looks about the same.

Football Sunday

Our family has had full weekend. It was just one if those weekends I could repeat and repeat. 

We started off by dropping Penny off at the rink to meet her coach. She played her first game in an opening tournament but my older girls were off to 4-h Speak-offs. Penny was thrilled and my other girls were nervous!

The club speak Off was fantastic. So many of the kids worked so hard on their speeches. 

This is Lucy's prepared speech. It has to be between. 3-5 minutes.

https://youtu.be/rvAyjE8vUfY

This is Ellie's impromptu. They are given three topic and have 30 seconds to pick and then 1 minute to write down some thoughts. It has to be between 1-2 minutes.

https://youtu.be/fZncx3I-fK0

Lucy placed 3rd and Ellie placed 1st so Ellie will now head to compete at districts.

We got home late and were up early and headed back to hockey where Penny had two more games let to play against some Calgary teams. It was great hockey. Penny won the first game Friday 10-2 and then we tied the second game 9-9 and the third game we won 11-9. As soon as we got home we headed into the high school basketball game. It was a super exciting game and ELLIE and Penny had a great time. My poor friend I was sitting with had to explain things going on... Hahaha clearly not a watched or played sport in our house! 

Now football. Pizza. Dips. Pop. 

Life doesn't get much better than this!

Meetings

I have had a week of meetings. We have a few projects on the go and life seems to be moving like a jet plane or freight train or something remarkably quick.

Next year I hope our life schedule looks different but part of my balancing resolution is making the best of the commitments we have currently. Yesterday as I was driving I was grumbling to myself so I stopped to try and think of something good. 

This is a silly thing but I LOVE my coat. 

And I love loud music.

And I love driving around.

We had a few other adventures. On Tuesday night my dogs were going wild in the front yard and then I saw a giant rat scurry out from between them.

They must of caught a muskrat from the swamp. Poor thing. Dusty says they're vermin but we are overrun with cattails and that's what they eat so....

The kids were pretty amazed at the swamp rat and have a new adventure of trying to catch one. 

The weather changed and so the animals were all set free from their captivity in the barn. Everything is happy to flap and run and buck and bunt. 

The weather looks like it will hold for a little while so that will be a welcomed change for everyone!

Perspective

Andy is mischievous 

Even if your back is turned momentarily you can turn to find utter disaster.

I am not exaggerating 

Today my brother and sister in law stopped in.

We visited MAYBE 10 minutes in the doorway.

As they were exiting, Penny sees Andy is the toilet.

He dumped toilet water all over his hair.

We have hockey...

We are trying to get ready....

It's my birthday celebration today....

I was annoyed...

I still am sort of...

I bathed him.

Found him ANOTHER outfit to wear to go to town

A friend posted this on the Facebook.

I think part of me feeling like I am balancing my life will be a shift in perspective. 

I will not let 5 minutes alter my day...

You may find me repeating this phrase while banging my head on the wall.....

Soul Face

Today we almost had all to ourselves.

His face expresses the joy in my heart perfectly.

We spent all morning in this blissful state.

Even the bus was on our side and got stuck in a snow bank on the way home!

The girls came home much later and with tales of pushing the bus and breaking chains...

Good day the whole way around.

1 hour

Today we are back to routine.

Today, instead of 8, we are up at 645.

My eyes are burning.

Ellie has no voice. 

Even Dusty moaned in protest when the alarm sounded off this morning.

It is also the busiest week of my life.

I am trying my best to avoid it 

But

It won't work.

As soon as the bus departs with my children

My life comes into full swing.

Full Days. And Sleepy Eyes

It's been a luxury to sleep in while school was off but today was a reality check.... We are not ready. The alarm for hockey disrupted our blissful routine with utter rudeness this morning. It made me panic for its return on Monday. 

Dusty took Penny to hockey and I made birthday Breakfast for Gubbers. 

Pancakes and whipped cream and berries and icecream and syrup

Heaven 

His presents this morning- a drill, tool box, and donuts from his sisters...

Then we were off and running to a centennial celebration for 4-h. It was nice to see people I hadn't seen in ages and some of the awesome new people I have met. My kids disappeared for most of it to run around with their friends. 

It was perfect. 

Then it was off to my Grammas to help clean clean the basement. We ordered pizza and Andy played with his new toys while the munchkins helped drag stuff from the crawlspace (I had exaggerated when I used the term basement)  

Then the hockey game with all of our minor hockey. We sat with some awesome friends who have a son who is actually Andy's best bud so they played and cheered and ate slush cones (thanks to some other awesome friends). It was perfect. The day was so perfect that everyone fell asleep on the way home....

That's how you know it's been an awesome day. 

How we Roll on a Thursday

This Thursday was a half Thursday to get us ready for the full Thursday next week. We still had loads to do and things that were unfinished tonight at bedtime but we survived and that on a Thursday is counted as a win.

Penny was back in the ice today after a Christmas Haidas and she said it felt good to skate. She rocked the net and her drills. I missed the smell of the rink and was glad to be back home. 

We have an epically busy couple days ahead of us with 4-H and so we had icecream for supper.

This is what supper looked like tonight. No chairs required. Everyone got out to bed and I got to have a brief phone call with Cherlyn and then I got a text to pick up my baby uggs. So as I dashed out the door all the church ladies were pulling in to my house to have a meeting I had totally forgotten about! Whoops!! 

My days seem to go like that lately. 

Maybe tomorrow we will eat real food and wear real clothes and do the dishes but it was fun to wear pajamas and eat icecream and leave the mess for tomorrow.....

Resolute in Resolutions

We have had some exciting things happen to us the past couple of days. First off, ELLIE got her hair cut. She has been requesting this for quite a while..... Months..... You will have to wait for a picture since I FORGOT to take one today!

Lucy went swimming with her friend today but came home and declared she was going to get the same thing done to her hair!

Andy terrorized the place while I tried to catch up on some of banking and other things I had been neglecting over Christmas break. I am sad my kids are heading back on Monday. It never seems long enough.

My kiddos also got to go see Trolls the other day at the theater and Lucy had been learning to curl her hair and she looked pretty grown up as we headed to town.

We have 4-h bottle and battery drive coming up and I thought I would try to get most of it accomplished while dusty was home....

It started off sort of grumpy but it actually turned out pretty fun by the end.

Now- part of my resolve this year is to limit my complaining (which is going to be one of those things that I will constantly have to recommit myself too) but my next statement is not complaining but just a mere declaration for history sake and it is that it was freakin cold. Like bone chilling stinkin rotten cold. The mind of cold that makes you wonder WHY people inhabit this part of the world..... But I am not complaining.

Also- our farming streak that I was hoping wouldn't follow us into 2017 decided to make its presence known......

Yep- another injured eye..... 

I think safety glasses for all living things might be a valuable investment....

Resolutions

I know I am double posting but I have time and I didn't get to cover New Years....

Our kids are big enought to get in on the action of resolutions so this year Dusty and I cooked a "fancy" dinner...

You know one that doesn't get cooked often...

So the menu for the first dinner of the new year was:

Steak 

Baked potatoes with homemade sour cream

Tossed salad

Sour dough bread

Spinach artichoke dip

And sparkling apple juice.

We went around and talked about our plans for the new year. This year:

Ellie- wants to write in her journal everyday

Penny-wants to speak kinder to her sisters

Dusty- wants to ride his horse more

Kristin- wants to find better balance in life

Andy- wants to be potty trained (he is just in denial about this right now)

Lucy-wants to read her scriptures before bed every night.

I am excited to see what the new year brings for us. We had an up and down sort of year last year so hopefully this year is less hilly for us!