OH my I just found the best websites for charts! I do very well if I've got a weekly chart where I can write down everything that's happening for the week, I love my day timer but if I have something that I can put on the fridge it's even better, they help me to stay on track and not forget anything. So here are the websites: www.theprojectgirl.com, this one was great, she has a weekly meal planner and then depending on which style you choose there is a list on the side or bottom of the page where you can keep a running tab of what you need as far as groceries go, it's even listed out in sections: produce, canned goods, dairy, frozen etc. Then there is www.mintprintables.com, this was a weekly calender, the one that I loved had a retro pink border (shocking that I would pick pink, I know! lol) the top of it says 'Daily appointments for the week of:' and then it's got the week below it with lines to write whatever you want for each day in. Another website www.organizedhome.com gave several different options for charts that you can print and make into a book, it even gave a cover that you can print! Then there was one that I found that has kids chore charts (Alexa will be so pleased I'm sure) www.mommiesonline.net. I have found printable chore charts on other sites but I didn't like them as much as this one. I should also mention that these were all FREE! Now I just need to decide which ones to use! lol
ps: If I knew how I would put links to these website on here....sorry.
About Me
- Adventures of the Homemaking Mommy
- Beautiful west coast of British Columbia, Canada
- I am me, just looking for a place to talk.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
It's been a while......
Wow has it really been over a month since I last blogged? Time went by so fast I had no idea :o) So how have you been my blog reading friends? I have been doing well. Things around here have been busy and go from one thing to the next. I am feeling much better since being sick, I am still quite tired, I suppose that is left over from the infection that I had. Alexa had her dental surgery, she had an extra tooth that was up in her gum that needed to be removed, it went well and she was already back to her normal self within a couple of days. Dale started a new job, driving a tow truck, he enjoys it and the girls and I enjoy having him home every night. I was a little worried about having him home all the time because I was so used to being alone so much and wondered if having him here that he would get on my nerves. I had heard other truckers wives say that this happens to them as well as women who's husbands retire. Well it has gone really well, we've been getting along great and have even had the opportunity to take a course at our church called Love and Respect, it's about the differences between men and women and how they react to each other, I highly recommend getting the book, it's very interesting. The book is called Love and Respect.
I would really like to get back to blogging regularly but I need some ideas from you about what to write about, maybe you don't like reading about my life. lol
I would really like to get back to blogging regularly but I need some ideas from you about what to write about, maybe you don't like reading about my life. lol
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Changes!
I have some exciting news! I will first start with a little background and then tell you sort of like when tv programs advertise something and they place it at the very end so that you will be forced to watch all the way to the end. haha, I'm just kidding of course but doesn't that drive you nuts?
Anyways, my husband Dale has been a truck driver since he was 19, he's 40 now. He has been working with the company the last company for 13 years driving on the highway, now I should clarify what "on the highway" means, for truck driving families this does not always mean the same thing. Our friend 'D' works "on the highway" but he is gone for months at a time, his family really only see him at major holidays, I can't imagine what that must be like. Dale's "on the highway" means driving 2 trips a week to Alberta, he has gone as far as Winnipeg, so he's home sometimes 1 night during the week and then 1 or 2 nights on the weekend depending on how the week goes. We have been looking for something else for him to do, another place to work or something that would allow him to be home more for a long time and have been praying about it for years. Well something finally came up about 3 weeks ago, about the same time I started going through my health issues. A friend of my Dads (my dad is a mechanic) had a tow truck and had it for sale, and he had a contract with the kidney foundation hauling away cars that people donated to them for scrap. Well we bought it and Dale is on his second week doing it! He is home every night and we are all loving it!!! We are trying to get more contacts and Dale is handing out business cards everywhere so hopefully that will get our name out there and Dale will get even more work.
Anyways, my husband Dale has been a truck driver since he was 19, he's 40 now. He has been working with the company the last company for 13 years driving on the highway, now I should clarify what "on the highway" means, for truck driving families this does not always mean the same thing. Our friend 'D' works "on the highway" but he is gone for months at a time, his family really only see him at major holidays, I can't imagine what that must be like. Dale's "on the highway" means driving 2 trips a week to Alberta, he has gone as far as Winnipeg, so he's home sometimes 1 night during the week and then 1 or 2 nights on the weekend depending on how the week goes. We have been looking for something else for him to do, another place to work or something that would allow him to be home more for a long time and have been praying about it for years. Well something finally came up about 3 weeks ago, about the same time I started going through my health issues. A friend of my Dads (my dad is a mechanic) had a tow truck and had it for sale, and he had a contract with the kidney foundation hauling away cars that people donated to them for scrap. Well we bought it and Dale is on his second week doing it! He is home every night and we are all loving it!!! We are trying to get more contacts and Dale is handing out business cards everywhere so hopefully that will get our name out there and Dale will get even more work.
Mommies can't get sick
So I have been a little out of the loop for a while, I saw that my last post was on the 7th of Feb, here it's the 24th! Oh well I have a good excuse, I have not been doing too well lately. It started in the middle of January and I'm still fighting with it, I am supposed to be taking it easy, no housework, no lifting anything more than 4lbs, not too much sitting, no exercise etc so that really limits what I can do. I have had to go to an ambulatory care clinic every day for just over 3 weeks now and that has been hard too, just yesterday they said that I can now come every other day so that is awesome and I go see a surgeon on March 3rd so hopefully I will get some answers then, I'm hoping that I will not have to have surgery of course, then I will be really hooped. So this is why I have not been blogging too much, I've been on the couch watching tv and reading, not that this is necessarily a bad thing but when your house is falling apart around you it can get to you. Now I'm not the best house keeper to begin with, I really struggle in that area but this was getting to be a bit much for me. I was home alone with the girls and Dale was on the road so it was just me, no one was coming to help me with the house so I had to do it anyways, so how does one go about cleaning and tidying up when your mind is fine but your body is screaming NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?? Well I just did what I could as I could and tried to make the best of it. When Dale did come home from his trips he would unload and reload the dishwasher and help with meals a bit but that was about it, I did cry to him about how badly the floor needed to be vacuumed and he did do that, so that was good. Dale has a very traditional idea of the men and women roles in the home and so he really hates helping out in this way, this has been quite difficult for me since I got sick because I feel guilty asking him for help.
Though all of this I have seen the Lords hand in our lives, I have an amazing friend who has made sure we've got meals, several others have given us meals too and Alexa's school even gave my friend $40 for her to go to M&M's to get us some meals as well as someone from there has been bringing lunch for Alexa for almost 3 weeks now! Amazing! I am so thankful! When you are going through something that is very difficult you will find out who you can rely on in tough times and sometimes it's surprising who it is, God has used my friend and I don't know if she even knows it, she has been an amazing blessing to me and there is no way I could ever repay her for her kindness.
Though all of this I have seen the Lords hand in our lives, I have an amazing friend who has made sure we've got meals, several others have given us meals too and Alexa's school even gave my friend $40 for her to go to M&M's to get us some meals as well as someone from there has been bringing lunch for Alexa for almost 3 weeks now! Amazing! I am so thankful! When you are going through something that is very difficult you will find out who you can rely on in tough times and sometimes it's surprising who it is, God has used my friend and I don't know if she even knows it, she has been an amazing blessing to me and there is no way I could ever repay her for her kindness.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Out Sick
Hello my lovelies! I have been out sick for 3 weeks now, I'm not better but I thought that I would just pop by and say a quick hello. I have had an infection from a rash and I had the check up today and they said I'm doing too much: no running, exercising, picking up my kids, picking up laundry baskets, bending, vacuuming, all I'm allowed to do is walk, stand and lay down and dust....dust? lol I thought that was funny. So I've been mostly out of commission for 3 weeks now and 3 weeks ago is when my Christmas tree was going to come down, guess what? It's still up and I want it gone!!!! But I can't do it, so I watch everyone drive by on the street and go "they must be laughing at me right now" hahaha, oh well, at least I can enjoy the pretty lights a bit longer. Through this I have been so blessed by a few friends, Carole has been awesome, she has taken Brooklynn for me several days and she organized several moms from Alexa's school to provide meals for us, what an incredible blessing!!! Thank-you so so much!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, January 22, 2010
Books
What have you been reading lately? I am really into chick lit and like the escape so I have been devouring all of Sophie Kinsella's books even the ones that she wrote in her real name, Madeleine Wickham, Sophie Kinsella is a pen name. I have never read so much before I started last summer and I've read more books since then than I have in the last 10 years, terrible I know. lol
So the first book I read from Sophie was The Undomestic Goddess, I loved it, it was funny and kept me interested then I went on to the Shopaholic series, these were good but the main character irritated me but I pushed through them and then read Remember Me, also a great one, it is about a woman who wakes up in a hospital with amnesia. Then it was Cocktails for Three which was written in her real name but I didn't like it as much, it follows the lives of 3 friends and I found it hard to keep track of everyone. Now I just finished The Gate Crasher, this one took me a month to finish it was very hard to get through, again another irritating character and I hated the ending. In between these I have also read a few from Emily Giffin, they were also good, the first 2 I loved but then the last one I finished was another hard one to get through, I found myself being tempted to skip whole sections of the book because there was so much internal dialog from the main character, like pages of it. I find Sophie's writing style interesting she seems to write good story for about 3/4 of the book and then the last 1/4 it gets so good that you can't put it down. I'm not sure what I will read next, I have a book from Emily Giffin that I might start but Dale wants me to read a financial gurus book that he loves, I'm not into non fiction so much, I like to read to escape from reality and I think his book might be a hard read for me. lol
So the first book I read from Sophie was The Undomestic Goddess, I loved it, it was funny and kept me interested then I went on to the Shopaholic series, these were good but the main character irritated me but I pushed through them and then read Remember Me, also a great one, it is about a woman who wakes up in a hospital with amnesia. Then it was Cocktails for Three which was written in her real name but I didn't like it as much, it follows the lives of 3 friends and I found it hard to keep track of everyone. Now I just finished The Gate Crasher, this one took me a month to finish it was very hard to get through, again another irritating character and I hated the ending. In between these I have also read a few from Emily Giffin, they were also good, the first 2 I loved but then the last one I finished was another hard one to get through, I found myself being tempted to skip whole sections of the book because there was so much internal dialog from the main character, like pages of it. I find Sophie's writing style interesting she seems to write good story for about 3/4 of the book and then the last 1/4 it gets so good that you can't put it down. I'm not sure what I will read next, I have a book from Emily Giffin that I might start but Dale wants me to read a financial gurus book that he loves, I'm not into non fiction so much, I like to read to escape from reality and I think his book might be a hard read for me. lol
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Seeing Blessings In The Storm
Well today I'm going to talk about something that I think the Lord has been trying to teach both Dale and I in the last while, something that I know all of us need to learn but it has been a difficult lesson.
As a lot of you know things have been hard for us financially and it has been very stressful. It seems as though there is something new everyday that happens that's not good. Last week Dale had to get new tires on the truck (almost $1600) and that was only for 4 of them then on Friday on his way into Edmonton a set of springs (like shocks on cars) broke so on Saturday he had that fixed ($1300 something later), then on Sunday on his way home something else happened with the truck and he ended up having to leave his trailer for someone else to take home and he babied the truck home.
On Monday the truck was back in the shop the result of which was, there is nothing wrong ($400 something) and you need to get 4 more new tires, another almost $1600. So Dale gets back on the road on Tuesday night and he is at his work and the boss says "ok Dale you are ready to go." So Dale goes out and hops in the truck and pulls the truck away from the dock to close the doors on the trailer, well they were not finished in his trailer and one of the guys that works on the dock was IN Dale's trailer when he pulled away and hurt his foot and the other dock guy was about to drive in the trailer with the fork lift, thankfully he didn't crash! Dale felt awful and of course he's going to check from now on to make sure that they are done. After this happens Dale gets on his way and the police are pulling trucks over on the on ramp to the freeway, Dale gets pulled over and they check his log book, well he had one thing missing on it and so he gets a fine. The rest of his trip went well and he will be home sometime this morning.
Yesterday a letter comes in the mail and we are getting audited by the Ministry of Small business for our fuel tax. When you have your own trucking company and are independent you have to pay fuel tax quarterly and so they want to check everything over and make sure we've been paying all we were supposed to, they pick people at random. So I open and read the letter and I start having a tight feeling in my chest, I'm like oh my goodness I'm having a panic attack, so I just breathed and calmed down and after a bit I was ok.
So do you think this is a lot? It is for me, I've been trying to figure out why this is all happening, why is the Lord letting this happen to us? What is He trying to teach us? What has come to both Dale and I is that we NEED to be thankful in ALL situations, it is scriptural Ephesians 5:20 says You will always give thanks for everything the God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Psalm 34:1 says I will praise the Lord at all times, I will constantly speak his praises. So how do we do that? Well I heard one time a pastor explain it this way: if you are on the side of the road with a flat tire and you are on your way to the airport to make a flight you simply say "Thank-you Lord for this situation I'm in" it doesn't necessarily mean that you are happy about it but you are thankful.
Through all of this we have also been blessed and I think that is the Lords way of saying "I have not forgotten about you, I LOVE you" Last week we were given a free turkey and then this week I am getting a free pair of glasses which I badly needed, my prescription has changed a lot and I went and priced out glasses but they are just way out of what we can afford. These things are what I use to remind myself that we are not forgotten that through all of the frustrations and through all of the difficulties we are still being taken care of, HE will never leave us or forsake us.
As a lot of you know things have been hard for us financially and it has been very stressful. It seems as though there is something new everyday that happens that's not good. Last week Dale had to get new tires on the truck (almost $1600) and that was only for 4 of them then on Friday on his way into Edmonton a set of springs (like shocks on cars) broke so on Saturday he had that fixed ($1300 something later), then on Sunday on his way home something else happened with the truck and he ended up having to leave his trailer for someone else to take home and he babied the truck home.
On Monday the truck was back in the shop the result of which was, there is nothing wrong ($400 something) and you need to get 4 more new tires, another almost $1600. So Dale gets back on the road on Tuesday night and he is at his work and the boss says "ok Dale you are ready to go." So Dale goes out and hops in the truck and pulls the truck away from the dock to close the doors on the trailer, well they were not finished in his trailer and one of the guys that works on the dock was IN Dale's trailer when he pulled away and hurt his foot and the other dock guy was about to drive in the trailer with the fork lift, thankfully he didn't crash! Dale felt awful and of course he's going to check from now on to make sure that they are done. After this happens Dale gets on his way and the police are pulling trucks over on the on ramp to the freeway, Dale gets pulled over and they check his log book, well he had one thing missing on it and so he gets a fine. The rest of his trip went well and he will be home sometime this morning.
Yesterday a letter comes in the mail and we are getting audited by the Ministry of Small business for our fuel tax. When you have your own trucking company and are independent you have to pay fuel tax quarterly and so they want to check everything over and make sure we've been paying all we were supposed to, they pick people at random. So I open and read the letter and I start having a tight feeling in my chest, I'm like oh my goodness I'm having a panic attack, so I just breathed and calmed down and after a bit I was ok.
So do you think this is a lot? It is for me, I've been trying to figure out why this is all happening, why is the Lord letting this happen to us? What is He trying to teach us? What has come to both Dale and I is that we NEED to be thankful in ALL situations, it is scriptural Ephesians 5:20 says You will always give thanks for everything the God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Psalm 34:1 says I will praise the Lord at all times, I will constantly speak his praises. So how do we do that? Well I heard one time a pastor explain it this way: if you are on the side of the road with a flat tire and you are on your way to the airport to make a flight you simply say "Thank-you Lord for this situation I'm in" it doesn't necessarily mean that you are happy about it but you are thankful.
Through all of this we have also been blessed and I think that is the Lords way of saying "I have not forgotten about you, I LOVE you" Last week we were given a free turkey and then this week I am getting a free pair of glasses which I badly needed, my prescription has changed a lot and I went and priced out glasses but they are just way out of what we can afford. These things are what I use to remind myself that we are not forgotten that through all of the frustrations and through all of the difficulties we are still being taken care of, HE will never leave us or forsake us.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)