Frugal Friday

A few months ago, I noticed a trend of people wearing jean vests (please tell me it wasn't a passing trend and I'm already out of style).  I really wanted one because it reminded me of my good old days  as I had a great one in 1996, but I didn't want to pay $50.00.  A friend mentioned to me that she just went to Value Village and got a jean jacket and removed the arms.  I went, found a GAP one for $9.99, and my mother in law lovingly removed the arms and stiched it up for me.

Tada!

The only thing I would mention is that I should have gone for a medium rather than a large.  If you end up making one, go smaller!  Usually the arms are what are too tight for me, so with them gone, you can definitely go for a slimmer fit.

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend, everyone.

Love,
Louise

Thankful Thursday

Thankful for:

1.  Encouragement & Support.  When you make an announcement about a major life change (example: becoming foster parents) you get a lot of responses.  I'm thankful for the encouragement.  I know it's not going to be easy, I know it could be terrible, I know that it affects my whole family BUT we're taking it one step at a time, starting some pretty intense educational training, and we know that even if something is really hard, it's usually worth it.  Imagine if you were scared to do anything because of the unknown or potential harm?  I never would've quit my job and gone to volunteer in Kenya (LIFE CHANGING).  I never would've taken our kids on the longest plane ride in the world to go to SE Asia (AMAZING...even though Gary had food poisoning and Kai got Dengue Fever). Maybe I never would have married Gary (BETTER THAN I EVER IMAGINED).

2.  Kai being able to go flying with Opi. He tends to get car sick so I was nervous but he loved it!  My mom would've loved it.

3.  Another great daycare.  I only work once a week and had an ideal daycare situation but she is headed back to work. In a few weeks I will be swapping daycare days with another momma so I think it should work well!  Both of us do not work long days so that definitely makes it more doable :)  And seriously, who wouldn't want to babysit this bundle of cuteness?!

4.  Nya's MEC rainsuit.  I got it second hand (yahoo!) and it works so well.  I love great deals and I love quality products.

5. Living close to so many great stores.  I love living 5 minutes from Costco.  I have friends that live in small communities and I know how much of a big deal it is to do a Costco run when it's 4 hours away!

6.  A foggy morning this week to explore the trails at Tynehead with Nya and Koen.  I love photos in fog and I will never, ever tire of taking photos of my monkeys.

7.  A walk through the mall with one child.  So relaxing. You don't realize how exhausting three kids are until you just have one.  We just walked hand in hand and it was lovely.  We were checking out various wooden play kitchens as they are very hard to find second hand.  PS Is it bad that I've never put money in any of these rides?   They get enough joy just sitting in them :)

8.  Being able to work out during the day again.  With just Nya for 3 days a week, I have time to work out during the day because I'm not refeering between Nya and Koen. 

9.  More moments this week when these two played nicely without fighting. PS Can you see Nya's lab coat shirt that we got at Science World? 

10.  Free preschool programs like Strong Start and Noah's Ark.

And a bonus one..

11.  Kids that eat almost everything I make.  We've been eating a bit healthier these days and they dig into the quinoa with kale, the endless broccoli and cauliflower, and the turkey meatballs with veggies instead of breadcrumbs in them.  Nya does not embrace everything as much as the boys do.  They still get their pizza on Friday nights :)

I hope you are having a good week!  I know I've said this a few times but I would really, really encourage you to think of things that you are thankful for.  Maybe even write them down.  It sets the tone for the day, and besides, it's Thanksgiving this weekend!

Love, 

Louise

PS Feel free to share some things you are thankful for in the comments! Ali, that means you :)

Run For The Cure 2014

May our children never have to run in memory of us.  Look at all these little ones my mom was never able to meet (besides Ani).  It's sad, but at the same time, her legacy lives on as she was an awesome mother and some of that rubbed off on us all.

{The picture above was taken by the Abby News which we saw on their facebook site! Super dad!  I promise I was there, I'm just behind the lady with the pink hat :)}

Kai Bear ran the whole 5 km and finished in 33 minutes.  Koen ran about 2 km of it and jumped in the stroller with Nya for the rest (Gary pushed them and finished well ahead of Kai and I).  I finished about 30 seconds after Kai. 

{The picture above is from my sister Jackie.  I'm red faced and cheering but I love that I'm finishing  the race with my daughter; Nya Greta, named after my mom}   

We finished the run by celebrating Thanksgiving with my side of the family.  The kids are at an awesome age for it which means that the adults can get a bit more conversation in.

And then....Kai Bear got to fly from Chilliwack back to Langley with Opi, Ani and Izzy!  Apparently Kai asked Opi to do a barrel roll and he `pretty much did half of one'.  Not sure about that :) 

Thanks for hosting Thanksgiving lunch, Nana Jo.  Thanks for being a fun grandpa, Opa Jack! 

Although I no longer have my mom (and greatest cheerleader), I do have a giant team behind and around me.

Love,

Louise

Meadows Maze

This morning we went to Meadows Maze which is part of Hopcott Farms. We've never been there before and I love that the Golden Ears bridge now makes Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge so accessible to families like us in the Surrey/Langley area!

We arrived when it opened at 11am and put on our corn maze attire; rain boots!

They have hay rides, a hill top slide, `pumpkin' bowling and a petting zoo.

There were bunnies, pigs, goats, chickens and turkeys.

It was a bit drizzly but there are a lot of under cover areas.  I love the all the different coloured rocking chairs.

The main attractions are their three different mazes; The Farm Tracks Maze (20 minutes and perfect for small children), the Farm Scene Investigation Maze (30-45 minutes and great for my kids aged 2-8 years old) and then the Mega Maze (giant maze with over 6 km's of trail!). 

We did the Farm Scene Investigation Maze.  The kids were given a clue book and at each checkpoint we found we had to look at the picture and identify a weapon, location and suspect.  We would hole punch those items and then in the end, after all the checkpoints, would be the remaining weapon, location and suspect (like the game `Clue').

The boys really, really, really enjoyed it.  I think I'm terrible in corn mazes as I have no idea where I am and where I'm going.  I guess that's the purpose of them!

It was muddy and pretty slippery for Nya.   Thankfully she had her MEC rain suit on because she fell into two large mud puddles.  Even though she was dirty, she had a great time running around and attempting to hole punch her booklet.

We definitely enjoyed the corn maze and if we had bigger kids, we may have done the larger one too.  It's only open for a couple more weeks so if you enjoy a good challenge, you might want to head out there.  It would also be great for youth groups as they have a night time maze walk.   And finally, you know me, I must talk about the price.  There is no family rate so it would be $46 for our family which is just too high for us BUT there is a coupon in the Entertainment Book for 25% off up to four admissions.  That would bring our total to $34.50 which is much better :)   If anyone wants my coupon, let me know!  It's open until October 19th.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Love,

Louise

**Disclaimer: Our family received a pass to Meadows Maze for this review and these opinions are 100% our own.**

Frugal Friday

Six months ago we joined `Team Power Smart' with BC Hydro.  We have lowered our usage by 25% since then!  That is huge, esepecially considering we were pretty careful with our usage before we joined.

We have saved about $20/month which really adds up.  What was one of the biggest changes?  We used our programmable thermostat to lower our daily temperature by a couple of degrees and our night temperature by even more.  We also lowered the thermostats in our bedrooms by about 5 degrees.

Did you know that turning down the heat 2 degrees saves 5%?  Even better, lowering it by 5 degrees for 8 hours (night time!) can give you a 10% savings!  Yes, our home might be a tad bit cooler than most people's but we just put on a sweater during the day or use our fleece sheets at night!

Their website has a lot of tips for saving electricity and money if you are interested!

Have a great weekend.

Love, Louise

Thankful Thursday

Thankful for:

1. A sister on a maternity leave!  Nya, Koen and Isaac had a great time running around together at Redwood Park.  

2. Pigtails. I may have been thankful for them in the past but seriously, NYA HAS HAIR!!

3.  Free family fun at Science World.  I went in with low expectations (I thought it would be busy and the kids would complain) and was really impressed! 

4.  Moments where Koen and Nya show their love in a quiet way.  Yay,they do hug!

5.  Gary coming home tonight!  He's been hiking Garibaldi Lake with his LEAD class and I've been subbing for him this week so it has been a tad bit crazy.  Thankfully the kids are healthy which makes a huge difference (compared to when they got the flu when he's been gone before. Twice).  Last night was probably the worst as I had to take all three kids to climbing lessons when Nya had been up since 5:30am (no nap) and was so grumpy at tired the whole time there. 

Yes, a bit overwhelming with them wearing the same colour in this picture. Oops!

6.  Siblings.  I love that these three have each other.  I do sort of wish Nya had a sister but she'll just have to do with having her mom as her buddy when she's older :) 

7.  Starting our Foster Parent Training!  Finally!!!!!!  We just got the information and it starts in three weeks.  Unfortunately it coincides with Kai's climbing lessons so hopefully we can figure out a solution for that.  I hope to share a lot more about the process because I think the more you learn about something, the more it becomes a feasible option for some!

8. Sushi with Kai Bear.  Kai and I had the chance to get sushi and eat it together while watching Amazing Race.  He LOVED spending that time with me and having sushi as we don't get it often.  I really need to go on more mother/son dates with my boys!  Kai was extra cuddly with a few extra `I love you mom!''s in there.  It was great.  I really should have gone for sushi with brown rice...next time.

9. Our storage ottoman.  We have all the baby toys in there so it doesn't get opened much anymore.  One day I'll have a nice coffee table, but for now, in order to prevent stitches, this 8 year old soft ottoman works well!   It is a jumping platform, a ninja warrior obstacle, and something comfy to lay on when watching tv together.  Oh ya, and it hides a whole bunch of toys.

10. No spiders found in the basement while Gary was gone.  This might sound crazy, but seriously, we've found some huge guys down there.  I just avoided the basement as much as possible while he was gone because what I can't see won't hurt me!  

I hope you had a wonderful week.  

Love, 

Louise

The Power of Your Words

I've just started reading `The Power of a Woman's Words' and I want to share two definitions with you.   I am a `Words of Affirmation' type person so what is said, how it's said, and when it's said, are so important to me.

`What exactly is encouragement? My dictionary defines it `'to give courage or confidence to; to raise the hopes of; to help on by sympathetic advice and interest, to advise and make it easy for [someone to do something] to promote or stimulate; to strengthen."  In contrast, discouragement is `'to say or take away the courage of, to deter, to lessen the enthusiasm for and so restrict or hinder."  (pg. 25, Sharon Jaynes).

I would encourage you (ha, yes, encourage) to take just an extra second before speaking or writing to consider your words before using them.  It is so incredibly easy to strengthen someone, or to deter them, with our words alone.  I think back on some of the biggest decisions I've made in my life and they were often made with some encouragement from a loved one.   Sometimes all we need is a `You go, girl!'. 

Love, 

Louise

`Sticks and stones will break our bones, but words will break our hearts.' Robert Fulghum