You’re Too Shy, Shy…

Rarely does Asher shy away from the camera.  So when he was in a grumpy mood the other day, I thought a sure-fire way of getting him out of it would be to get the camera out…

 

Boy, was I wrong!  He wanted nothing to do with it, choosing instead to bury himself in the chair.

I even tried asking if I could SEE his grumpy face.  That merely elicited a muffled, “No, you may not!”

(At least he was polite in his refusal)

 

A few weeks later I tried the same camera trick on a grumpy Chancery.  Gone was the sad face!

 

When I requested to see what her grumpy face looked like, she turned her head away & said, “It looks like this, Mummy!”

(Her grumpy face does not, in fact look like this, but I was glad to see her in a better mood)

Re-Takes

I realized after we did the “Sunday Pictures” photo session last week that I hadn’t done Chancery’s hair yet.  I decided to try to get all her hair in 2 pigtails, & was quite pleased to discover that her hair is finally long enough for it to work!

So, then I had to take pictures of the finished product…

and if I’m taking pictures of one, I have to take pictures of both…

It’s like they were born knowing about photo sessions!

…but Asher wasn’t quite ready yet

He decided he could take this gig on the road.

Asher: “Ready to go!”

Friends (For The Moment)

Asher began yelling from the other room, “Mummy, come & look!  Mummy, take a picture!”  So I went to see what all the fuss was about.  Asher knows that sitting with Thanet is a rare treat & he has to stay totally still if he wants it to last.

After I took the first picture, I asked, “Asher, are you HAPPY that you get to sit with Thanet, because you sure don’t LOOK like you’re happy about it!”  Barely moving his lips he muttered, “Yes.”

 

I told him, “I don’t think Thanet will notice if you smile just a little bit.”

Destined For The Spotlight

During our worship services, just before the sermon, all the kids go up front for the children’s message.  Usually Asher has an answer for every question, sometimes they are complex answers.  Yesterday, the kids were asked what a mirror was for.

 

Asher answered, “So you can look in it & see what you need to do… like when you are fixing your hair.”

 

It was a good answer for the question.  He had his moment that everyone heard him talk.  After the children’s message comes the children’s song.  It changes from month to month, & this month they are singing “The Wiseman Built His House Upon The Rock…”  Since the song has actions, the song leader set the microphone on the pew so she could do the motions with the kids.  Asher seized his opportunity, grabbed the mic, & proceeded to lead the rest of the kids in song.  After church he told PChad, “Sometime I’d like to sing a song all by myself.”

Sunday Pictures

Asher – 4.5 years

Chancery – 2.5 years

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Asher: “I’ve got a motorbike, just like Daddy has.”

 

Chancery: “Well, I’ve got a SHEEP, just like he WISHES he had!”

 

Asher: “I’m not too sure he wants a sheep, Chancery…”

 

Chancery: “Of course he does, it could eat the grass & then he wouldn’t have to MOW it!”

 

Asher: “No, it’s too expensive, it would cost more than four dollars!”

 

Chancery: “Really?”

Asher: “Maybe more than FIVE even!”

 

Chancery: “Sorry, Daddy, I guess you can’t have a sheep!”

It’s Friday Indeed!

We all want our five minutes of fame, but a friend of mine put it best, “You don’t want to get famous for the wrong reason.”  And here is a prime example of what she meant…

 

 

HAPPY FRIDAY, EVERYONE!!!!

Foil Pack Taco Chicken Dinner

I got this recipe from my sister-in-law a few months back, & when I needed a quick chicken recipe, I decided it was time to try it.  What I like about it is that You can make it for 1, or you can make it for 15.  All you need is a potato & a chicken breast per person.

 

Foil-Pack Taco Chicken Dinner (for 4)

4 Potatoes, peeled & thinly sliced

4 Chicken breasts

Taco Seasoning

Salsa

1 C Tex Mex Shredded Cheese

Sour Cream

 

-Spray the foil with cooking spray to prevent the potatoes from sticking

 

-Peel & thinly slice a potato, & place on the center of a large sheet of tinfoil.

 

-Sprinkle a chicken breast with taco seasoning, & place on top of potato

 

-Add salsa & top w/ cheese

 

-Fold up the foil, folding the sides & ends to seal.  Make sure there’s some room inside for air to circulate

 

-Place on cookie sheet & bake at 400 for 30-35 min.  Cool 5 min.

 

-Cut holes in foil to release steam before opening

 

-Top with Sour Cream

Brought To You By…

We’re in the midst of March break, so today I thought I’d share some photos from failblog.org.

 

Though I personally think this one is more of a win…

Everyone knows you need a trailer to haul a cat!

 

And this might come in handy this summer…

“Turn that KEG into a SIX-PACK!!”

Beneath The Night Tree -review

Beneath the Night Tree by Nicole Baart, is a story about a single mother who is also parenting her younger brother with the aid of her grandmother.  The four of them are living quite functionally for what appears from the outside to be a very dysfunctional family.

 

 

I was about 2 chapters into the book before I figured out that this is the third book in a 3 book series.  Normally this would not bode well, but the story is so well told that I understood what I needed to for the book to be enjoyable & complete on it’s own.  Reading the other 2 books will be welcome prequels to this book.

 

I liked how real the people in the book are, just because they are Christians doesn’t mean that their lives are easy, or that they don’t have struggles.  I’d definitely recommend this book, & though I’d probably recommend they read the 2 previous books (After the Leaves Fall, & Summer Snow) first, this is also a good stand alone novel.

Sunday Pictures

Asher – 4.5 years

Chancery – 2.5 years

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Asher: “I have a little truck, & I always pretend that it has candy in it… would you like some?”

 

Chancery: “And I have a little bear, that I took from Yumi’s room awhile ago, & I love to play with it!”

 

Chancery: “Did you see that, Asher?  There was a dog outside!”

 

Asher: “Nope, I don’t see it, Chancery.”

 

Chancery: “That’s because you looked the wrong way, Asher!”

 

Asher: “Oh yeah.  Oops!”

Chancery: “You’re so funny, Asher!”

A Little Help?

I don’t know about you, but this is DEFINETLY what I mean when I ask for a ‘jump’…

 

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!!

Oreos

My mom sent me a box of American Oreos a few weeks ago & I have been rationing them carefully.  There are a few major differences between American & Canadian Oreos.  In Canada, the cream is made with icing sugar & is much softer, but the cookie itself is MUCH crunchier, & if you are a cookie dipper (which I am), you have to SOAK that cookie in milk to soften it even slightly!  American Oreos, have a firmer middle, & the cookies dissolve much quicker in milk.  There’s a quick 2 dunk limit if you are eating American Oreos, otherwise your cookie will fall apart into your milk.  PChad prefers Canadian Oreos, & I prefer American.  It comes down to what we grew up with, so having both kinds in the house, which will our kids prefer?

We had a pack of each country’s national Oreo in the house, & the kids wanted to have one of each.  I’m not sure they could tell that they were different, but 2 cookies is better than one, right?  So, I pointed out which was which for Chancery…

 

Me: “These are American Oreos, and those are Canadian Oreos.  Which ones do you like best?”

 

C: “I like the American ones.”

 

Me: “Those are my favourite too.”

 

Then Chancery added her own insight as to why she was drawn to the American cookie…

C: “They’re so soft!”

Sacrifice

We have been encouraging the kids to pray their own prayers at lunchtime, which has resulted in Asher developing a prayer & proceeding to sing it.

 

“Thank you, God, for everything.  Everything around us when we are outside, & everything around us inside.  Thank you, THANK YOU for everything, everything, ♫♪ eve-ry-thiiiing!♪♫

 

Chancery caught on, & began using Asher’s prayer as well.  Even this prayer started to become rote, so we told the kids they should be more specific about what they are thankful for which resulted in Chancery’s…

 

“Thank you for my fork, and thank you for my milk, and thank you for…  *sigh* Daddy’s fork.  Amen!”

 

So the other day, we were quite surprised when Asher came up with the following prayer out of the blue.

 

 

“Dear God, when people are dying, they have to kill a lamb so the lamb dies instead of them dying.  Amen.”

 

Apparently he got confused about the story of the Passover (Exodus 12) that we had read during devotions the day before…

Offspring

Yesterday I was driving the kids home after picking Asher up from school.  I’m not sure if they had been reading Bible stories that morning, but Asher began the conversation like so:

 

Asher: “When I grow up & have a baby boy, I’m going to name him ‘Judas’.”

 

Chancery: “And when I grow up to be a lady & have a girl, I’m going to name her ‘Judas’ too.”

 

Asher: “No, Chancery, you can’t name her ‘Judas’, because then there would be TWO Judases & that would be too confusing!”

 

Me: “When you grow up & have a baby, you can decide with your wife what to name your baby.”

 

At this point the conversation went quiet for awhile, then Asher spoke up again…

 

Asher: “Chancery said it was ok to name it ‘Judas’.”

 

Me: “Chancery is your sister, she can’t be your wife.”

 

Asher: “Well then who’s going to be my wife?”

Sunday Pictures

Asher – 4.5 years

Chancery – 2.5 years

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Asher: “I’m going to read you a story about ‘Johnny Tractor’ today.”

 

Chancery: “I’m tired of that story.  I don’t want to hear it.”

 

Asher: “Well, it’s a fun book, with lots of flaps!”

 

Chancery: “Well, I’ve seen what’s under the flaps already…”

 

Asher: “Fine, I’ll read it later.”

 

Chancery: Would you like to play with me in the meantime?”

 

Asher: “Sure, let’s go, Chancery!”

Beatbox

This guy is pretty amazing.  He’s doing all the sounds at once, all by himself!

 

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

Career Aspirations

My friend Natasha was riding in the truck with us this morning, & asked Asher what he’d like to be when he grows up.

 

Asher: “I want to be a person who works at Tim Horton’s!”

Chancery had to let us know that she had given some thought to the subject as well.

 

Chancery: “And I want to be a big man when I grow up!”

 

Natasha: “Well, that might be a bit difficult.  Do you think you could be a lady when you grow up instead?”

 

Chancery: “Yes.”

 

****

I was telling PChad about the conversation over lunch, & the kids told PChad their vocational choices.  Chancery still wanted to be a ‘big man’…

 

PChad informed her, “You are going to be a lady when you grow up, Chancery.”

 

“I want to be a BIG lady!” she retorted.

 

So I asked her, “Do you want to be a big, important lady, or a big, fat lady?”

 

Chancery responded with enthusiasm, “I want to be a big FAT lady!!!”

Living In A Dream World

On Saturdays we have a tradition of going for breakfast at McDonald’s.  We let the kids play, sometimes some friends will join us there.  After that, we generally talk about what we’d like to do that day, sometimes going for a drive, but in the winter, we generally either run errands, or go home.

 

Asher had a request a few weeks back when we were discussing the day’s plan…

 

Asher: “I want to go to the mall with the escalators.”

 

Chad: “We don’t have a mall with escalators around here…”

 

Asher: “Well, I had a dream that there was a mall with escalators, & I want to go to it today.”

 

How, exactly does one counter that?

Phonetics

There are a few phonetic sounds that Chancery has trouble saying, particularly ‘k’, ‘l’, & ‘r’ sounds.  I usually don’t have trouble figuring out what she means since I’m used to her speech patterns now.

 

When she says ‘car’, it comes out as ‘ta’.

When she says ‘truck’, it’s ‘tu’.

 

Last week, I was having her say ‘car’ & ‘truck’ to demonstrate to some friends her particular speech deficiencies.  I decided to have her try to say ‘clear’ since it has all the sounds she has issues with… it was pronounced ‘tia’.  Then Chancery decided to turn the tables on me…

 

Chancery: “Say ‘ta’, Mummy.”

 

Me: “Car?”

 

C: “No, ‘TA’!”

 

Me: “Truck?”

 

C: “No, ‘TA’… ‘TA’… Mr. Harrie is ‘ta’!”

 

Apparently she meant ‘tall’.  Sometimes even I need a translator.

Recovery Time

Asher was feeling under the weather yesterday, so he & I stayed home from church.  Chancery also seemed to be on the verge of getting a cold, so as we were praying for our lunch, prayers for feeling better also went up.

 

Asher prayed, “God please help me to get better in 5 days.”

 

And it seems there is always a spirit of competition in our house, when it came time for Chancery to pray, she submitted, “God, please help me to feel better in…  2 days!”

Sunday Pictures

Asher – 4.5 years

Chancery – 2.5 years

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Chancery: “Today Asher is sick & staying home with Mummy.”

Chancery: “So I get to be in these pictures all by myself!”

 

Chancery: “I’m going to show you something I like to call

‘The many faces of Chancery’.”

 

Chancery: “Funny face…”

Chancery: “Angry eyes…”

 

Chancery: “Cute face!”

 

Chancery: “Hopefully Asher is feeling better soon.  It’s nice to have someone to play with!”

It’s Snow Cold!

In honour of all the snow we’ve been getting, I thought I’d stick with a snow theme this week.

 

Sometimes it’s helpful to be a bit old fashioned…

 

Here’s a picture from West Prince County, PEI.  We really have been dumped on this year…

Can you imagine meeting another vehicle on that road?

 

And this is truly how I feel about it at this point…