TOMS

Two posts in one week...that's right!
So Noel finally broke me down after weeks of asking me (literally) for money to buy new shoes...she got a new pair :)
Ok, so do you know about Toms yet?
Here's how it works, you buy a pair of Toms shoes and a child in need somewhere also gets a pair of shoes! GENIUS idea right?!
If you want to know more about the Toms Movement <-----check it out.
Even better they are super super cute shoes.
So using a bit of our tax refund, Noels tiny toes have been adorned with this adorable shoes!
I should also add, they are made really well! Nice leather soles...words from Noel..'comfy'
[note they do run mostly true to size but appear small at first as they are made to stretch out a bit, the website talks about this]

Ok so now if we're talking about good causes how about mommy getting a pair of Toms too...like
these!!!

Anyway...cute shoes + great cause = awesomeness!

In other good news take a look at these beautiful blooms!

My orchid has 5...count 'em FIVE new flowers!!! and lots more buds.. H E L L O spring!

Keeping this post as random as possible and to wrap it up....
Two nights ago, I was doing my good need of putting my dish sponge in the micro to sterilize the thing. Which I might add I typically do for 1 min. I remembered my dad mentioning something about putting it in for 3 min. to do this..
[enter thought process] my pump parts go in their little 'steam clean' bag for 3 min. to sterilize, maybe my dad has something going here?!
so popped that sucker in there for 3 min....cooked to a black crisp... fail
now my microwave smells like burnt sponge...double fail...

oh well...p.s. I gave up complaining for lent...it's not going so well ;0)

fruition

As much as I would like to be writing about some eco-green, amazing thing we have been up to lately, so that I may say that I have been living up to my pursuit.
But if I am going to be honest, I don't think we have done anything *green* in a while.  Unless re-stocking our green cleaning supplies....what a big move right?!
We DIY'd a bunch of Christmas gifts that I had all intention of blogging about, but since starting this blog I feel my priorities have shifted a bit.
MUST have something to do with growing 2 small people.

I will say we are still doing cloth diapers, and with both girls. (go green!)

But really in this post I want to talk about fruition.
Fruition as by google definition is: "the point at which a plan or project is realized
Wow, talk about not giving this word enough justice!

My quick definition..fruition...to come to the fruit! So think of it this way. You have this tiny tiny little seed (lets call it hope). You plant it, in which you hope is good soil. Sometimes soil looks good to start and then gets dry or overwatered. Basically you can plan for good soil, but circumstance (or neglect) can change what was intended to be good. But you always remember that little seed, even though you haven't seen it in a while and it's now almost seems lost buried beneath the dark black soil.  But you know it's there [faith].
So you nurture it, you care for it the best you can...of course only some comes from nurture the other part nature (my philosophy anyway).
But then finally what feels sometimes like eternity...you see a tiny little GREEN sprout!
Oh the joy...new life!!! And then...that little sprout seems to take an eternity to turn into a stem, a leaf...but without you hardly even realizing the centimeters it gains, there you have a stem...a stem strong enough to hold a bud!
And now the bud grows and grows and opens up to a flower...a fruit!!
Fruition...Amen!

I feel like we have been through this growth, new life, growing life. Some of it hard, some of it teaching us something, some of it amazing. But when you've been seeing good for a while, it's like you could almost be satisfied with the stem and leaves and then......fruit!
God is so good.

Not saying we're there, or when or what kind of fruit we're growing...but some days it feels like we have enormous buds of potential fruit just waiting to burst open.

God is so good.

homemade halloween

It has been a brutal week around here with stuffy/snotty noses and cutting 4 canine teeth which all in turns in lack of sleep for all...except Moose who somehow gets a win win situation. No disturbed sleep for him and as soon as one of us is out of bed he takes that as his cue to hop in and cuddle up to the lucky one still in bed.
Then it occurs to me on Thursday night...yes..yesterday that it's Hallelujah night (a Halloween celebration, think bouncy house, games, & candy!) at church Friday, yes...the NEXT day! and Noel does not have a costume!!! YIKES!
Then starts the debate in my head after lack of sleep Thursday night..who am I kidding, lack of sleep ALL week!

Is it worth getting both girls out of the house by myself to pick up the needed supplies to make a costume???

Will I even realistically have the time to get the costume made???

Will all the stars naps align that I can have such time to assemble a homemade costume???

Is my teething, snot nosed 18 month old even going to feel up to going to this outing???

YES, YES, YES...and if I say YES to the first 3 questions...the 4th is going to be a yes after going to all the work!

But really it's ALL worth it because someday I would regret looking back and thinking that we skipped Noel's 2nd halloween costume...hence an hour and a half of prep to get out of the house, 2 hours spent @ the mall & JoAnn Fabrics, and home to 2 napping girls...viola! we have a costume & we had a great night!
[Mila took the little sister hand-me-down as a lady bug...Noel's costume last year, but I have personally promised her that she will get her own costume next year]

So here's what I did:

My first homemade Halloween costume...makes me feel like a Mommy :)
Happy Halloween Everyone!

Canadian Thanksgiving

We were so blessed for the days of October 8th-10th.
We started off the weekend Friday October 7th with an attempt at celebrating Keith's 28th birthday.
We grabbed our gift certificate for Acme BBQ in downtown Williamsport, wheeled out our new Phil & Teds stroller & were going to hit up First Friday.
This is when we quickly discovered how differently our "nights out" are now with two babies.
Noel decided she wasn't really hungry nor did she want to ride in the stroller, she wanted to cry & walk. But walking downtown for an 18 month old consists of going in the opposite direction, wanting to walk off the sidewalk onto the street and touch everything!
So we sadly ended our night early and headed home for early bath & bed times. With all the craziness of my first week back to work, I didn't even have the chance to get the ingredients to make Keith the chocolate peanut butter pie I had decided to make (via Pinterest)...so a late birthday dessert will happen (hopefully this month)!
But Saturday mid morning we were graced with the presence of great friends & new friends for the celebration of Canadian Thanksgiving.
Andrew & Annica from Canada came for a visit and brought three wonderful ladies with them, that are studying in Canada for the year from France.
Keith's "best man" Andrew who is a trained chef (not that he needed any of the schooling!) made us a scrumptious meal in celebration of Keith's birthday the first night they were here.

apple crumble

cutting up steaks

adding the onions

steaks with onions...my mouth is still watering

wine that I like..woohoo! Oh! and if you look behind Keith's right shoulder you will see the beautiful bouquet of flowers our beautiful friends brought back for me :)

Needless to say it was already looking to be a great weekend.
After enjoying cooking and scarfing a meal together, and trying to learn some french, we settled in for the night and woke up to this....

This is "pain perdu" meaning the lost bread. it was used taking the leftover day old bread (or in our case bread from the bread thrift store) and making a french toast-like dish adding fresh apples and raspberries.
Oh yumm!
The rest of the day was filled with amazing aromas wafting from the kitchen, the front porch swing and dining room table or couch filled with french girls studying and speaking beautifully.
Taking advantage of the 80 degree weather we loaded up our 'family' for the weekend and headed down to the Susquehanna River walk way.
Upon returning home Andrew put the chicken (although traditionally still a turkey for Canadian Thanksgiving, we opted for a free range chicken) in to finish.
Few things are more enjoyable than a house full of friends preparing an amazing meal.
7:30-ish pm we started our Thanksgiving meal. Which the understatement of the year would be to say that is was delicious!
So here is my 'public' display of gratitude for friends that drive distances and bless our house with their hospitality and friendship.
Happy Thanksgiving Canada! and a small piece of France

my love of pinterest

If I haven't already gotten you addicted, maybe this will convince you.

I love love love reading the Young House Love blog. I never followed a blog until this one, and it's mostly still the only blog I do follow. They have so many DIY ideas, they are so great for explaining what they do and how they do it and give you the confidence to try things on your own.  I mention them now because it is this blog that introduced me to my new love....Pinterest...(imagine an affectionate sigh).

Of course I did not say that it's my first love (note to Keith as he will be analyzing my every word), but a love I do have :)

If you already know of Pinterest and share this love then you will know what I speak of.

First of all I really don't even know how to say it. I first thought it was P-interest, but now I say all one word pinterest. which makes sense because you are "pinning" ideas onto your own "boards"

It's the solution to finding ideas online or in magazines or from your friends when you think, "oh I want to try that" or "I like that" or "I want to cook that" but then you miss place the recipe the picture of the sweater, or that clever DIY project.

So the purpose of my post is not only to proclaim my love for this "social network" of sorts...sorry facebook you have moved WAY down the priority list!!!

But also to make myself feel less guilty for pinning all the time to share with you the fact that we have accomplished a lot of the projects that I've been pinning
p.s. since I only discovered pinterest in the recent past, these things have all been done while being VERY pregnant or with a new born..yah!

So go to My Pinterest Boards to check out the 'things' I'm pinning and "follow" me if you would like.

green dishes

Quickie post as I'm trying to load up some new pics and type a blog while both girls are napping.
So I made some homemade dishwasher detergent! yah! go green & cheap!
I found my 'recipe' on Pinterest.

1 cup of Borax: 1 cup of Washing Soda: 1/2 cup of Kosher salt: 4 packets of Lemonade Kool Aid

Mix it all up in a bowl

I'm storing mine in a mason jar, so that it looks cute sitting on a shelf in my kitchen
So simple!
You simply add 1 tbsp to your dishwasher (2 if really heavy duty pots and pans).
For a little extra clean fill your jet dry spot with some vinegar. viola! We have ran our dishwasher several times and find it's doing a GREAT job!! (and this is compared to the expensive gel detergent packets)

Happy Columbus Day to all Americans and Happy Thanksgiving to the Canadians!

rainy day anniversary project

Here I am trying to write something on my poorly neglected blog :0/
We did this a while ago, but we are starting a tradition of making a project as a family each year for our anniversary. We thought it would be a good way to see how our family grows each year in number and or talent!
last year we did this:

my hand & foot in pink, keith's in blue, and noel's in green.

We played off the term from our wedding "as 2 become ONE" ...and then our ONE became 3 and well as the story goes...we quickly doubled ourselves in FIVE years ;) 

This year we did something a bit practical. As Noel is growing and doing more things for herself we thought a step stool would be great so here we go...

Now our anniversary is July 7th, but we held this project off until (as you can see above to Aug. 6th) as we needed to wait for our tiniest foot to make it's debut on July 27th :)
Moose's foot didn't make the cut for the top as we couldn't get a good print from his fluffy paw. but we did add it to the bottom, under the date as you can see here.
Total cost of project: $0 !!!
Keith's mom picked up the stool when she was down (THANK YOU!!!!)
and we used some left over pink paint from Mila's room.

What do you think?!