naptime post

Normally during nap time, I do a 30 minute work out and take a shower.  Today, I was so sore from doing yard work and starting to work out again (Jillian Michaels ALWAYS kicks my butt), that I decided to just take a shower, drink a cup of coffee, and sneak one of the snickerdoodles I made for our youth dinner tonight.  MM!

Monday was a wonderful day!  The kids and I went for a walk on the dock and the entire day just flowed so beautifully.  It felt so good to be active all day working on things and both of the kids were so good.  Shea and I worked out in the yard while Hailey took her nap.  We have this huge compost pile off in our woods a way.  Jeremy built me a box by our garden, so I moved three wheel barrows of it.  MAN. It isn't THAT long of a trek, but there are some dips and I had already taken a walk and worked out that day, so I got tired quickly.  After that, I cleaned and leveled out most of the garden and the beds.  Jeremy has been reading more about gardening and talking about it a lot more lately, so I am excited to have more of his help this year (he was helpful last year, but its different when he gets a little passionate about it!).

Here is what it looks like out there right now.  We are hoping to take down the fence or do something with it this year, but we have to move all the rose bushes out of it.  You can't really see any of the work I did in this picture, but oh well.  A lot left to do!  Jeremy also started taking apart our deck yesterday - it is rotting and full of termites!  We have to wait and see what our Landlord wants to do, but we are hoping to turn it into additional garden space, since the lawn is dead under it anyway.

The past few days have been so lovely.  Last night, Jeremy and I got so much done around the house after the kids got to bed, and still had time to relax and read for a bit.  For the past couple of weeks, Jeremy decided that he wanted to be doing more around the house.  All the sudden, the house is clean every night when we go to bed and I don't feel totally drained at bed time.  We are coming up on our 7th anniversary, and I have to say, its only getting better!

Today, the kids were in a dress up and take pictures mood!  Shea dressed up all of his toy story dolls and begged me to take a picture of him posing with them.  Then Hailey came up with her bee costume saying "bee! bee!" So she go dressed up, then she looked at me and said "CHEESE!" over and over until I took a picture.  When I held her up in the mirror to see herself, she just giggled her head off she was so thrilled at how she looked.

Shea really wanted to take a picture of me.  I am in weird, random stretchy mom clothes and my hair was atrocious, hence the headscarf, but I just though the series of pictures was funny, so I'll share it anyway!

I cannot believe how big our chicks are already getting!  Their feathers are coming in and they are jumping all over the place.  The light gray ones (there are two) are the most skittish about being picked up.  The one on the right is the oldest, and the darker one is the youngest of them all.  They are a different breed than the black and white ones, so I think they just have a slightly different temperament.  I am learning more about chickens than I ever thought I would!  So far, they are super easy to care for, and the only annoying thing is during the night when they wake up (when they are older, they will be more docile at night, but have short sleeping patterns right now) and throw all their feed around.  And I am pretty sure that only  bugs me because we are just up in the loft and can hear it so well.  We haven't named all of them yet, but one of the black ones is "cocoa" (its hard to distinguish them all) and the small gray one is "Fedora".  Shea wanted to name them all "chicken poop" but we quickly vetoed that suggestion.

Hailey is sleeping.  Jeremy is preparing for youth tonight.  Shea is sitting quietly reading library books.  I am going to go work in the office for a little bit to get the other half of it cleaned up.  Then we are headed off to the church to get dinner ready for the youth.

I hope you are all having a good week!

productivity, power out, chickens, and spring

I felt like I had a very productive day yesterday.  I went out and did a huge grocery trip with the kids.  Finally restocked our pantry and have an actual meal plan for the next week and a half.  I got caught up on some cleaning and cooking, and have a little more I want to make ahead and freeze today.

I spent some time playing Legos with Shea while Hailey napped and did diaper laundry.  I still haven't gotten us back into the swing of schoolwork or me working out yet, but I decided to just let it go until Monday.  

After dinner, The power went out at 6:30PM and didn't come back on until 7:30 this morning.  I'm not sure why, it wasn't stormy at all last night.  It came at just the right time though - after dinner and after I finally got a shower. 

There was Kingdom Kids up at the church, so we decided to go see if there was any power.  There wasn't, but it was just Shea and his cousins there, so Gramma and Papa (who run it) did songs and puppet shows in the dark, and then they shared a snack.  All the kids had so much fun - it was such a special night.  I remember having "black out" night at Awana growing up, and loving it so much.  When we came home, we put the kids in bed and heated up some tea water on the wood stove.  Jeremy really wanted toast so he made some on the stove and we ate it while reading our books with flashlights.  After a bit, we just cuddled under blankets and played a card game.  I don't know why the power being out instantly makes me feel like I'm 10 years old again, but I love it.  It is such an interruption to life.  It was so quiet in the house without the refrigerator or Hailey's fan going.  The kids slept great anyway, and I loved the quiet.  I forget how out in the country we are.  And how thankful I am that we heat our house with a wood stove when the power goes out!

1. cleaned the kitchen, including the empty canisters in the pantry, cleaned and prepped all of our vegetables for the week. 2. made a mushroom, black bean, and brown rice soup - it was AMAZING and devoured by all of us. 3. it poured rain and I enjoyed sitting on our couch listening to it come down on the skylights.  I even walked outside for a moment and stood in it.  So refreshing.  4. Reading again.  I'm actually ready 4 books right now.  One that I can't put down is, "The Hidden Aggression of Girls".  I've had it sitting by my bed since summer, and am only now getting to it.  I have several more coming from the library too, so I need to finish these!  And my book club is starting up again with a new book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle".

My binder.  This has been a brainchild for a while and I finally found some time yesterday to put it all together.  It has our "rhythm" (sort of a daily guideline of what we do and when it happens), a to-do list for me, activity/school plans for the kids (a weekly and a monthly sheet for planning), meal planning and grocery lists, and a monthly calendar.  It has been very helpful the last few days in keeping myself focused on the house and kids during the day, and my hobbies and interests at other times.  It also helps me keep my goals and to-do list shortened so I don't try to go crazy getting everything done and not have enough energy for the kids.

Jeremy and I have been getting antsy to get outside and start getting the yard ready for spring.  I have lots of plans in my head for our garden this year - I'm excited I get to start earlier!  But I need to get it down on paper and start collecting some seeds.  Our chickens will be hatching any day now - one of them hatched early, but the others haven't shown any signs yet.  My friend, Amber, who is part of the preschool co-op, has a big flock and we have been talking casually this past year about getting some chickens from her.  She is giving me about 10 chicks for free, and I'm going to take the kids over to see them hatch when they are ready. They will live in a box for about a month or so before we move them outside.  Jeremy's dad is building us a chicken coop for Christmas and has been collecting lots of wood for free the past few weeks.  Shea is ecstatic about having pet chicks and has been coming up with names already.  

So, expect a lot of cute little chick pictures soon, ha ha.  

We will probably give back any roosters we end up with, I think we are just going to have hens for a while and then possibly add to the flock later on with some fertilized eggs.  I am picking up a book from the library today titled, "The Chicken Whisperer", so hopefully I learn the rest of what I need to know from that for now!  Looks like my little homestead is starting to come together :)

Currently, the kids are playing peacefully together in the other room, I really want to heat up the leftover coffee from breakfast and enjoy a sip before I get going on cleaning up from breakfast and tidying up before Jeremy gets back (he's only working a few hours today) and we go out to finish some errands.  

Love to all!

finally, energy again.

I am finally feeling back to normal after about a week of being totally low-energy and sick.  I came down with a cold the day after Christmas (actually, most of Jeremy's family did).  It seemed like it was only going to last a few days, but it has been lingering on and on and on.

Yesterday, I suddenly felt very sick all over again.  I had zero energy, was very sore, had an awful headache all day, and was super tired.  I laid down on the couch at 7:30 after the kids went to bed, and then headed up to bed myself after an hour.  Boy, did I need the sleep! I have felt so weird the last week, totally unmotivated to do any of the things I have been wanting to do and feeling very anxious about getting them done, but never finding the strength to do them.

Needless to say, the kids ended up watching a lot of movies (although, we did unhook the TV and took it back out to the garage right before Christmas) and Jeremy washed a lot more dishes than normal.

Hailey was discovering Shea's "bed" he made in one of our cabinets.  I'm not sure how he fit in there with all of his dolls, but he made it work.  He was convinced he was going to sleep there at night! ha ha.

Part of this may be that Hailey got sick after me and was up three nights in a row.  I had to hold her upright, because this girl can not figure out how to sleep with a cold, poor girl.  She wakes up crying from not being able to breathe, so I bring her to my bed and lay upright with her.  After a bit, she gets very wiggly and starts asking for her "night-night" (her bed) so I put her in.  20 minutes later, she is up again because her nose has replugged and she can't sleep again.  This really wore me down by the third day.  The fourth night, she finally slept, but then Shea was up 4 times that night when he normally sleeps all the way through.  I definitely needed the sleep last night.

I took the kids outside to try and take a picture of them for my mom.  The only good one I got was in front of our window with the broom handle!  I don't know why I didn't choose a better location for a backdrop...

This morning, we went to story time at the library - the first time I have taken both kids since Hailey has been too big to just be in my front pack.  Luckily, she is kind of scared of people she doesn't know - especially in large groups, so she just sat in my lap through the whole thing, too scared to get up and walk around. haha.  I'm sure she will warm up soon though, and it will be a little harder.

New Years Eve we put the kids down to sleep at Jeremy's parents and then walked down to the Indianola beach for the polar bear swim they do each year.  We didn't go in the water, but they had a pretty big group of adults and kids run in.  There is a big bonfire where people bring their christmas trees to burn and they set off a bunch of fireworks.  The tide was out soooooo far!  It was beautiful.  I haven't been down there when it's been out that far in a very long time - especially not at night!  We walked down "big rock stairs" which are these super steep stairs (maybe 100 steps) closer to Jeremy's parents house.  We used to go down these when we were engaged all the time, but now we never walk up that far to get to the beach.  I felt like I was 19 again running around the beach at night like that.  It's amazing, because even though there were so many people by the dock, you can walk out and be completely alone.  Love it and miss it.

The youth party we threw was fun.  I had forgotten what middle school boys smell like, but I got over it pretty quick, ha.  We are planning a nice dinner and bible discussion in a week.  We are keeping things very low-key and spaced out so we don't get burned out.

Hailey hung out with us at the party, eating as many "cocos" (cookies) as she could.

So much more is going on!  The treasurer at church is going to be gone for the next 5 weeks, so I will be having to keep up with the bookkeeping a little more than usual.  Preschool starts tomorrow - which I am planing on spending a chunk of time tonight getting ready for the next few weeks.  I meant to plan all last week, but then I got sick and never got around to it.  We are also...getting chickens in a week!!  I'll have to share more about that later, though! :)  Loved hearing from everybody this week!  Here are a few more random pics from today, just because.

The kids played SO nicely this morning and after lunch before their rest.  Shea and Hailey are getting along together better and better every day.  It is so much fun to see them play and work things out on their own.  But let me tell you, once Hailey can really talk, Shea will be in trouble.  She comes straight over and says "shea shea!!" when he does something to her.  At least he is very honest and always tells us what happened.  Gotta admit, I'd rather have a boy who gets himself into trouble a lot and fesses up to it than a sneaky one who doesn't cause much trouble and lies all the time.

Shea was making ridiculous faces at me this morning.  Isn't his hair insane?  Both Jeremy and Shea are growing out their hair.  I give up. ha ha.  I almost have the shortest hair in the family!

and an over exposed selfie! WHY?  Because I actually got dressed nicely today and felt like myself.
My eyes are weirdly colored in this picture.

I have a baby and I am loving it!

Ladies, being a mom is all I expected and more, I absolutely love every second of it!  I had debated having someone at the birth to take pictures and I am so glad I didn't We had an extra midwife here (two midwives and a student midwife) and the extra midwife made sure to take lots of pictures when he came into the world.  I got to catch Eli, his entrance was way better than I could have imagined.  The transition part of labor was harder than I expected, and every other part was way easier, and I felt completely in control.  So after feeling out of control for hours and having horrendous back labor where you could feel him bulging my back, pushing him out felt amazing, dare I say nearly painless.  The "ring of fire" was comfortable compared to the hours of back labor I had.  And I knew he was going to arrived in minutes, so I was excited , calm, peaceful.  Paul actually left to go to the bathroom after holding it for hours because I didn't want him to leave my side and I had my first push where Eli crowned and I said "I don't want to push I want Paul to be here" and so I just let him sit there and stretch.  Delivering Eli was the most empowering thing I have ever done, I wouldn't change a thing about his birth. 

40 week photos that have my little man in them!  I couldn't have come up with a better ending myself...except I dreamt about this ending a million times. :) 

I could take pictures with my little gentleman all day long.  Though he isn't really a fan...

He is a little jaundiced so we are trying to do some sun time when we can, he also isn't a fan of being naked, but he puts up with it for about half an hour before deciding he is really hungry and would rather be eating. During sun time one day I took a few photos, I definitely need to take some more pictures with my real camera and not just my phone, but the phone is so convenient! 

Nana and Grandpa came over two days after he was born and they were so in love. I guess at first Nana was saying she didn't want to bother us and didn't need to come over, but then when she saw pictures she was practically begging to come over, which is saying a lot for someone who doesn't really like to leave the house. 

First family picture of 6!

Matching outfits! I love comparison pictures. :) 

I dreamed about the ending to this picture as well! I realllllly wanted it to end with a baby and not to spill onto the next line of 41 and 42 weeks pregnant.  

Our amazing midwives.  I don't know what I would have done without each and every one of them.  I have wanted a home birth for as long as I can remember now but having one made me realize I never want anything but a home birth.  Jessica (the middle one in the picture/student midwife) is a doula as well and the pressure and pain relieving techniques she used were incredible.  They all made me feel like a rock star during labor and it was fabulous.  

Now for the iphone drop of pictures Baby boy was quite sqaure in my belly as I was writing thank you notes a few days before he came to this world.  I had been getting tired because I worked friday through monday and it turned out to be a little more than my body thought was ok.  I got sick Saturday but kept working through it, determined that I would make it.  I did, but I still have a wet seal like cough and intermittant headache that has been following me for over a week now.  And lets just say having a deep wet cough did not make labor any easier! I spent my evenings watching tv and bouncing on my ball and then lots of sleeping during that four day work weekend. 

That belly picture was taken on Monday as I left work, baby boy and I made it through our last 32 hours together with quite the group of trying patients. Tuesday morning 9am we had a midwife appt. Roxanne gave me popcorn with maple syrup and essential oils on it, which I ate all day long. Then I made a belgium waffle for dinner.  And then at 8:35 my water broke. 

But before we get to that 8:35pm mark, I just had this feeling, this feeling that it would be my last day with little one inside my belly.  And as I did my few chores I documented everything.  I did two loads of laundry, made a double batch of chex mix, cut up and ate an entire pomegranate, cut up a bunch of carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower, wrote thank you notes and tied up some loose ends on the computer while drinking lots of tea and water. 

Paul worked 11-7 and brought home some sparkling red grape cider that we were going to celebrate new years with.  He wanted to fiddle on his phone so I kept watching one of my favorite shows, White Collar while cuddling my kitties.  Then I stood up to go to the bathroom and felt like I was slowly peeing my pants, except that it didn't feel like peeing my pants.  It took my 10 minutes to decide if my water had really broke because it was slowly trickling out.  I decided I had, so  I called Roxanne and her and Jessica headed over. 

We watched fireworks on tv and decided to all go to bed at 12:30am as my contractions hadn't started yet.  I went and laid down and my contractions immeaditelly started. They were mild and didn't hurt, just uncomfortable.  They were 6-7 minutes apart at first and quickly came up to 2-3 minutes apart.  At 2:30am I couldn't lay in bed anymore so I bounced on the ball, had pressure applied to my hips and pelvis, and rocked my legs with the arms on the bed.  Then all picture taking stopped till baby was born.  I got in the water at probably 5am or so and stayed there for a few hours, then I was still only dilated to a 6 (I was a 6 when I got into the  water) so I got up out of the tub and came downstairs and ended up laboring on the couch through transition for a few hours.  Not where I intended on being but once I laid down I could't get up.  My back labor was horrendous and I was discouraged from all the painful contractions and no progression of labor. Well once I finally got off the couch a few hours later and back into the tub I ended up starting to push less than an hour later.  I pushed his head out in 3 contractions and his body out on the fourth.  I could have pushed in less but didn't want to tear, and it worked!  No tears. :) 

Eli Matthew Fernandez was born at 12:19pm into his mommas arms.  I had wanted to keep his cord connected till it quit pulsating or until the placenta was delivered but he had other plans.  When I looked down to see if it was a boy or girl his cord was dangling.  I grabbed his cord and the midwife grabbed mine and we clamped everything. It all turned out good in the end, though little man is a little jaundiced and the extra blood was supposed to help with that. Oh well, at least that cord did its job till the very last second! 

The midwives were at the house till about 2:30pm, and then Grandpa and Grandma Fernandez came to visit at 5:30pm with dinner in hand! Gabe came to visit the next day at 11:30 and brought pho, teriyaki, and bags of my favorite ice (taco time or sonic ice).  The midwives came around 1:30 to to baby's pku and footprints and check up on me.  Then Sara visited around 4:30 in the afternoon. The rest of the day was full of snuggles and breastfeeding and figuring out a rhythm to our new life. Oh Paul did lots of laundry and brought me lots of gatorade and water as well. And food but I wasn't super hungry that day. 

Eli loves having his hands at his face and we can't stop taking pictures of him! He is pretty precious and we couldn't have asked for a better baby.  Our first night with him we got 9 hours of sleep! Granted it was broken up but I felt soooooo good with that much sleep after not sleeping for 36 hours previously. 

Mullet head, tootsie toes, sunshine, and the cutest snuggles you can imagine. I look forward to waking up with this little man every morning. :) 

Friday at 11 Nana and Grandpa came to meet little one and then my parents came after that.  Baby boy doesn't get set down all day long, but at night he sleep in his swing all alone like a champ! 

We weighed him two days after birth and he was 7lbs 8oz.  Not sure if the original weight was super accurate but this one definitely was! I can't wait to weigh him again now that my milk has come in and he is eating like a champ. Oh and I made that onesie with my silhouette and plan on making many more cute and personalized ones! 

 We have gone on 3 walks since little one has arrived.  Granted they are short because my body is still recovering but I call them a success! The first day Paul had to walk with me to the bathroom because I was so weak from lack of food and blood loss.  But today I feel like a champ and I got to use my solly wrap and baby boy loved it! Snug as a bug he slept the whole way.

Huge thanks to my mom for cleaning the whole house.  I love having everything spic and span and I know I would have overdone it if she hadn't helped out.  Paul had been doing an awesome job keeping everything clean but I felt so bad laying in bed and having him do everything, it was hard to let my mom do it all too, so against my nature, but I know my body was telling me it was what I had to do.

This morning Paul talked to comcast to try and fix our super slow internet, called the insurance and added little one, and figured out what peditrician we would see and made an appt.  My husband is my superhero!  I just had to call my insurance and made sure my leave was set up correctly, which it was.  Phew!

And that folks is my new life and I couldn't be happier.  I get Paul home for 5 whole weeks and I am in heaven.  We watch a lot of tv and never put our boy down.  We can't get enough snuggles!  We have had a steady flow of visitors and that keeps us quite busy.  Little one still hasn't been in a car seat (we listened to a sermon online on sunday as I decided going to church would be way too hectic) so Wednesday will be our first outing to North Bend and Thursday to Renton for his pediatrician appt.  Friday we have pictures to take.  Its a crazy busy end of week for us. :)

Quick update

I did finish my goals yesterday!  I may have overdone it a tiny bit and legs aren't so great today but I'm resting with the sliding glass door open and the sunlight streaming in.

Goals for today:

• Enter in 10 receipts
• Finish "Bird by Bird"
• Write in my "One line a day" journal from Angela
• Capture Joe for some 1:1 time
• Start organizing my control journal

This seems silly but for the last month I have brushed my teeth twice a day, even when I had depressed days, and for the last two weeks I also flossed daily.  Feeling like it's getting to be a routine now.  For the last week I've also spent time in meditation and prayer each morning.  It is so difficult to quiet my head, but if I just sit and be patient and every time I remember say "Oh yeah God, where were we?" then eventually I can just sit in his presence.

=D

I am Auntie Amber!  I can't wait for Angela to put up pictures (when have you ever heard me say THAT?!)  Eli is precious and I can't wait to see him again.  Candice, your dad had the funniest comment on a picture of me with Eli on Facebook - "There must be some way I'm related to that cute little baby!"  I can't wait to hear her birth story in full detail!  (If she wants to share it, that is!)

In slightly related news, not to be shared with her family yet, Heather has asked me to attend her birth!  OH MY GOSH!  What an honor, it will just be me and her husband if I understand correctly.  Wow wow wow.  This will be the second birth I've attended, though I expect I'll be more hands on.  I have bought two doula books and am taking notes for how to help her have the best birth possible!  Angela and becca, share your tips please!!  Also what you would love to happen for your next birth if you have one!  Though this will definitely be a hospital birth.

One of the books was "The Doula Guide to Birth."  It had tips for both women and attendants.  I actually bought the kindle version on Amazon, read the whole thing yesterday, and then returned it for a refund so that I could buy the paperback copy!  (I wouldn't have returned it just because I'm a fast reader; that would be wrong!)

The other book is "The Birth Partner" and I ordered the fourth edition, which hasn't actually even come out yet - I have to wait until the 7th!

 With Heather's baby girl due in June and our Spain trip in July, this would be a perfect time for my legs to start working - and in the last week they have been working very well!  In fact, the physical therapy people called me and I was like "Um, I'm not sure if I actually need PT now."  I had a dream that I walked around the block.  I've been doing exercises - really just made-up depending on what feels good for my legs.  I feel like I did in July before I thought anything was seriously wrong.  I still get out of breath really easily but I can do the stairs and laundry and be up and about for like ten minutes at a time.  I'm still sleeping SO much but maybe it's good for me.

I don't know if this is the medication (doubtful since it's not intended to help symptoms and I've been on it less than a month) or a remission.  But since the first time I noticed the symptom was in July, the MS nurse told me I might have a remission soon so I hope this is it.  And especially I hope that they will fully, not partially, recover.  I'm sure being an active birth partner (and not just drinking tea and watching a woman in a tub) takes some strength and energy. 

And I do not want to take the wheelchair to Spain.  Actually lately I've been hating the chair and having to convince myself to get in it.  Maybe that's a sign that my body is like "Noooo I'm working to get betterrrrrr!"  Anyway I haven't told too many people this, I really want to wait a few more days to see if it lasts.

So here are my brags:

I am almost caught up on laundry.  I have gotten up early and come downstairs to make Joe coffee four days in a row.  I have spent time with Jesus every day for probably the last two weeks.  Since Janae helped me clean up the downstairs for our New Years Eve game night, I have kept it tidy.

Here are my immediate goals for the day:

• Finish up the clothes laundry and start on the blankets.
• Take care of 10 receipts.
• Work on reading my Anne Lamott book, Bird by Bird - recommended by Janae to help me not procrastinate on my writing!  I got the ebook version from the library so I need to finish it before it expires.

At a Good Place

Hello Hello!  Merry Christmas (Belated) and Happy New Year!

It has been too long since I posted.  I know I don't have to apologize to you ladies, but I do want to post more.  I always do things and think that I need to post about it, and then I don't...but now I am. Finally. :)

We had a great Christmas.  I had the whole week off of work, and I really needed the break.   I was starting to feel burned out.  My sister came for Christmas week, I hadn't seen her since last Christmas.  We had fun catching up and spending the holidays together.  I'm working this week, but only 2 and a half days.  Today we're just hanging out at home, cleaning up and watching the Hockey Winter Classic game (I'm not really watching, Justin is, but I look up when they score).

I have no desire to go outside (although I might venture out to get our mail-they no longer deliver to our house, we have to walk a few blocks to get it).  Right now it's 10 F, but with the wind chill, it's at -6 F!  I can feel the cold seeping into our house.

I was trying to think about what to post about, and I decided to just look around my house and take a few pictures.  I have my IPad from work here, so I can make a collage this time!

I've been enjoying some loose leaf tea from my mother-in-law, she gave me a box with teas from around the world.  This afternoon I enjoyed some cinnamon tea from China.  I got inspired by my students and have been keeping my nails painted for about three weeks now.  It helps me feel a bit more cheery in winter.  I also hung up a new photo calendar I made for 2014, this month has pictures from Justin's family photo shoot from last February.  I love have a warm snuggly dog on winter days! Beatrix is like a little heater.

My latest project is this faux fur cowl.  It took me about 15 minutes to make, and it so nice to have outside in this weather!  I wear it over my regular scarf, and it's great because it blocks out the wind and covers up my chin.  I had seen one at a Christmas fair, but it was $20.  I went to a fabric store and bought a metre (about a yard) of faux fur for $15 (it was half off), and I've made four.  One for myself, one for my sister and sister-in-law, and then I made a small one for my 16 month old niece.  

I'm so thankful for the rest and relaxation I got over the holidays.  For the past month and a half I've been feeling a lot more content with life.  I've always struggled with contentment.  Most of my life I've moved and things always changed, so if I didn't like something, I knew that it would change sooner or later.  I've lived in Canada for 6 and half years now, and I feel like I'm finally making my peace with living here.  I've struggled a lot with loneliness and wanting to find friendships and family similar to ones that I left in the Philippines and Seattle.  I'm not sure exactly what changed (I think it's been small things over the last few months), but I'm actually grateful for the people I have in my life now and family that I have here.  I've realized that I can't keep on looking for the same things that I used to have, but that what I have now is different, but still good.  I also needed to realize that I haven't lost the relationships I used to have, they have just become something different and are still treasured because I'm able to maintain this relationships even though I'm far away.  It has been a long journey, but I'm praying that this contentment will stick (I'm sure I'll still have times of loneliness but I don't think it'll feel as hopeless as before). 

Thank you ladies for being my friends and for sharing your lives with me.  Here's to another great year of blogging in 2014!