Peace Of Mind

A few nights ago, PChad & I were enjoying a rare night together watching a movie at home.  We had decided to watch “The Time Traveller’s Wife”.  PChad had commented when it first came out that it looked interesting, but it didn’t really look like something I’d enjoy.  Perhaps a bit to sci-fi for me (I’m so not into sci-fi).  But I had seen the movie at Walmart a few months ago & bought it from he cheap movie bin.  So, we watched it & I’d like to share a few snippets of conversation that took place during the viewing…

 

PChad: “This movie is really slow moving.”

 

Me: “Did I tell you…”

 

PChad: “Shh, this is kind of a pivotal scene.”

 

**SPOILER ALERT**

Later in the film, there’s a scene where Henry knows he’s going to die very soon.  Clare asks him if he is afraid…

 

Me: “If you know Jesus as your Lord & saviour, you have nothing to fear in death.  He has prepared a place for you…”

 

PChad: “Really?  You’re evangelising to a movie?”

 

There was also quite a bit of discussion during the entirety of the movie about what the operatic song was that was featured in nearly every major scene of the film.  Never a dull moment in our household, I tell you.

You Be Illin’

Asher often tells me from the backseat of the truck that he is feeling “truck-sick”.  I understand that he says that since we are in the truck rather than the car, so saying that he’s “car-sick” just wouldn’t make logical sense!

 

Yesterday we were at Walmart, & we’d been there for quite awhile since I had a long list of things we needed to get.  After about an hour, Asher told me, “Mummy, I’m getting home sick.”

 

I asked him, “What does it mean to be home-sick?” since I wasn’t sure what context he was meaning.

 

Asher then explained it thus, “Home-sick is when you are at someone’s house & you want to go back you your own house, but you never do.”

 

So, he understood the meaning perfectly, but I really enjoyed the way he phrased it.

Prayer Pockets

Yesterday morning PChad was putting a hoodie on & Asher commented, “You can put your hands in your pockets, & hold them together!”

 

PChad agreed that it was possible to do so.  Asher thought for a few minutes about how neat that was & then he came up with an even better idea.  “You can put your hands in your pockets & pray!”

 

“You sure could, that would be a good thing to do, wouldn’t it?” PChad said.  Asher then quickly ran to his room to find a hoodie of his own to wear.  Later when I was at Walmart with the kids, I was glad about his sweater choice, as it came in quite handy that I could remind him of his prayer pockets when he was unable to stop touching items on the shelves!

Too Smart For His Own Good

In Walmart a few weeks ago, I was calling for Asher to come since he had wandered a bit further afield than I was comfortable with.  It takes a bit to get his attention sometimes, so I called, “Asher… ASHER… ASHER!!!”

 

An employee who was in the vicinity heard me calling him & asked, “What’s his name?”

 

About that time, Asher had joined me & answered for himself, “My name is Asher! A-S-H-E-R”

 

Then he began to sing for her…

♪♫ “There was a Daddy had a boy & Asher was his name-o!

A-S-H-E-R, A-S-H-E-R, A-S-H-E-R, and Asher was his name-O!” ♪♫

 

The woman said, “I like that name, I’ve never heard it before!”

 

At that moment I thought I of saying, “Really?  Because I feel like we’re here all the time!”

 

Then, since Asher’s song had garnered such attention for him, he started to act goofy to entertain the lady some more.

 

She then commented, “He should stay here tonight, we’d be entertained!”

 

Asher tried to jump on that bandwagon, but I told him that he was only allowed to stay if he got a job, to which he replied, “I’m not old enough to work here!”

True-A-Loop

I took the kids to Walmart last week, both to pick up a few things & to get out of the house for awhile.  As we were walking down the toys aisle, Asher suddenly proclaimed, “Mummy, it’s a ‘true-a-loop’!  Girls know how to do these!”

I was trying to get him to join me in the next aisle, so I said something along the lines of, “oh, that’s nice!”

Apparently that wasn’t quite where he had been heading with his little speech.  His next query was, “Mummy, can YOU do it?”

I sadly told him, “No, I don’t think I can.”

So then he decided to inform me, “Katie (the neighbour girl) can do it, because she’s a girl!”
*****
A few days later, we were again in Walmart, this time with PChad in tow.  As we passed by that aisle, Asher decided he needed to show PChad these cool ‘true-a-loops’, but much to his delight, there in the middle of the aisle was a girl with her grandmother, working their true-a-loops like nobody’s business!  Asher turned back to me & said, “Mummy, that lady can do it, and she’s a LADY, not a girl!”

Making Plans

Chancery came up to me the other day & said, “I am running away.”

 

So I asked, “where are you going to go?”

 

Chancery: “Walmart.”

 

Me: “You’re going to Walmart?”

 

Chancery: “Yes, I am.”

 

Me: “Are you going to buy something?”

 

Chancery: “Yes.”

 

Me: “What are you going to buy?”

 

Chancery: “Popcorn”

 

We have a whole boxful in the basement, she could have just asked for some.  But I do understand her need to just get out of the house sometimes.

Negatives

Now I know you're probably thinking this post is going to be about things I don't like, things that are bad, or something of that nature..... Well, you are mistaken!

For the past 10 years there has been a bag in my deep freeze that takes up space. I kept adding to that bag until about 2 years ago. That's when we bought our digital camera. I'm not entirely sure why I store my negatives in the freezer, my parents always did, so I took up the practice as well. I figure that if the house burns down, they aren't as likely to get wrecked in there if there's no other reason. Maybe they just store better there............ Hmmmm.

Once I got my portable hard drive for storing my pictures I knew it was just a matter of time before I needed to do something about those negatives. PChad's parents got a scanner last year that will scan negatives, so when we stayed w/ them last summer I brought my bag of negatives w/ me. I knew that there was no way I'd be able to scan them all in in the 2.5 months we'd be there, but I was hoping to make a sizable dent. I made it through 120 pictures. Not even a year's worth. Of course I did have other things taking my time as well, but the scanner worked quite slowly & the only other thing it was possible to do on the computer at the same time was solitaire. Well, after 2 weeks of solitaire, that got pretty boring too, but you had to stay by the computer to switch the negative strips.

Now that we are settled in a bit I thought it was time to revisit this problem, so I asked at the local drugstore's photo department & they said it would be $.25 per picture plus $3 for each disc that would hold about 200 pictures. I knew it would be costly, so I decided to check the electronic store to see what they had for scanners that would take negatives. They had the same model as PChad's parents for $200. At that point I was trying to figure out what my time would be worth & decided to go the drugstore route. Still it was a large chunk of change, so I checked online & found a photo shop in town that could do it. I called for prices & was told it was $2 per picture unless it was a large quantity in which case the price would go down to $1 per picture. I thanked them kindly & as a parting thought asked if they knew of anywhere else I could try. He suggested Walmart.

I'm not sure why I didn't think of Walmart before, but I called them to ask & was told the price of a disc was $5 & I could get 120 pictures on each disc. I thanked them & hung up, calculated the cost & called them back to make sure they knew I was asking about NEGATIVES not pictures to be scanned in. They assured me that was the cost, so I headed down there the next day!

Three days later I returned & was handed a bag w/ all my negatives, 10 CDs w/ my pictures covering 12 years, & a bill for just under $50! The pictures are a little bit out of order, but that's a small sacrifice compared to the YEARS I would have spent scanning them in by myself. I've made it through 6 CDs & almost 1500 pictures so far. I am totally chuffed that I finally have them all on the computer, & once again Walmart has shown me why I love it so!

Works For Me Wednesday - Groceries

I can't tell you how many times I've carefully set my groceries in the back of our Pathfinder, carefully driven home, opened the back of the truck to discover everything has rolled out of the bags.

We have thought of many different options to solve this problem, but most of them cost quite a bit of money, so we keep doing nothing & keep having to re-bag the groceries once we get home. Then it's countless trips in & out of the house to unload all the groceries.

A few weeks ago I got tired of this rig-a-ma-roll. I went to Walmart & I bought 2 of the cheapest laundry baskets they had. Now when I load my groceries into the truck, I put them into the baskets & they stay put on the ride home. Once I'm home I take the baskets out, & instead of 5 trips, it takes 2 or 3 to unload the truck. And that works for me.

Go over to Rocks In My Dryer for more ideas & to link up with what works for you.

The madness is soon to begin......

.....And they call it vacation! Hah! Wednesday we will be starting our successive trips. We're going to Grand Rapids to visit some friends & Chad will be attending the Festival of Faith & Writing which he has wanted to go to for a few years, but since the Seminary never gave them time off to attend it, he was never able to. Hence, this year, we're going. We'll be coming back home late Saturday night, then Chad has to preach at 2 different churches Sunday.
Not bad so far, eh? But Monday we leave for 2 weeks to England (with a side trip to Ireland). I know now that you're saying "Stop your whinging, you get to go to England!" But I'll have to do laundry in there somewhere too & I'm a little worried about what to pack for Asher. Normally we can nip into Walmart on a trip if we forget something, but that won't be an option over there.
When we get back, Chad leaves the next morning for a 3 day men's retreat for church, so I'll be a single mum for a few days. I don't mind so much during the days, but I really miss having him to help at meal times (and of course his company at night as well). Chad gets back from his retreat Saturday night & has to preach again on Sunday. Then we get 2 days of normalcy before the next leg of our journey.
Wednesday we'll be going back down to Grand Rapids for Chad's Seminary graduation. Yay! I'm excited about this. Coincidentally his 10 year highschool reunion falls on the same weekend. Yes, he's been in school all this time. This summer he'll be up for candidacy and ready for his first REAL job!

Our Upcoming Trip

We are planning a trip to England this spring & decided there was a deal to go to Ireland for a week that we really couldn't pass up. We were discussing it at the dinner table & Chad asked Asher if he wanted to go to Ireland. Asher replied, "Des!" So we asked him to say Ireland. His reply was, "Ireland, Walmart!" He really does love his trips to Walmart, any time we are going somewhere, he'll say "Walmart." So, we had to explain there is no Walmart in Ireland. Poor guy looked so disappointed..........

Placemats

Let me tell you a funny story.....

Somehow, since we moved, most of my placemats are missing. So I went to Walmart to purchase some new ones. (Now, keep in mind, if you will, that I am a cheapskate.) To my astonishment, placemats cost upwards of $2 EACH! I was planning on purchasing 8 lovely, matching placemats. I looked for some cheaper ones. I found a 4-pack for $5. Sounds pretty good, right? They were made of plastic though, so they were not the ideal placemat. As had been evidenced by my spilling my drink on my mother-in-law the previous week, I needed to get cloth ones so they could absorb spills. I looked further. I found a clearance shelf! They had yellow and blue placemats for $0.66 each! What a bargain! I bought 4 of each colour, and happily went home. I soon discovered why they had been such a deal, or perhaps why they were not a great deal after all. They were made of.... wait for it folks..... PAPER! They look great for one meal, until your butter-covered knife falls off the side of your plate and leaves a big greasy stain on the PAPER placemats, that b/c they are made of paper, you cannont wash. (incidentally, I did rinse one off, and now it has an interesting ruffled edge, side, and middle.) I suppose at that price they should have been marketed as disposable.

Canada Takes it's Holidays Seriously

So today I realized we were short on some groceries, and thought Asher & I could go do some shopping. I realized after trying to go to the bank this morning that it's a bank holiday (I really should have rushed to the bank Friday before it closed, but I figured the bank would be open Saturday morning....), but I figured the grocery stores would probably be open.

First I went to the discount store, but the lights were all off, so I thought I'd try the Superstore, it's the only big grocery store in town, and I figured it would have shorter hours, but it should be open, right? Nope. Closed all day today.

My last option was Walmart. It's ALWAYS open..... or so I thought. The parking lot was totally empty, as was every other parking lot I passed along the way, so I gave up. I suppose we can make it one more day without milk, and peanut butter, and sugar....

It's difficult to figure all the little details out when you move! Hopefully tomorrow we'll have better luck.