Through the Glass Dimly

Ellie is at a stage where she'd prefer to do everything herself. She wants to be able to brush her teeth. She wants to be able to eat yogurt with a spoon by herself. She'd prefer to be allowed to stay up until she wants to go to bed, which is always much much later than when she is actually tired. Tonight, I watched her as she was frustrated with all that she could not do on her own and felt like I could really relate. Two years ago, last week, we mailed Josh's immigration application in. We were told the process would take about 8 months to a year. Last week, two full years ago to the date, a decision was supposed to have been made regarding his immigration. We are sitting in anticipation of what the outcome will be. Meanwhile... I worked for a full year during Josh's immigration process, and then the Lord graciously surprised us with a baby girl in December. A month later, Josh was granted a work permit, and we felt finally free and able to get back on our own

I remember laying on my twin sized bed in my college apartment, in tears, wondering how I would be able to afford a wedding dress to get married in.  I honestly thought I might not be able to have a wedding dress. Of course I got married in this amazingly beautiful dress that was super unique and completely me, unlike the other 5000 dresses I looked at and disliked. And I found it about 60% off, and it fit me like a glove, other than needing to be taken up, as it was a little too long. I had a song, which is written about my favourite passage of scripture, played at our wedding by my wonderfully talented brother, because of how I doubt God sometimes, and how silly that is, because I've always been provided for in ways that from time to time have blown my mind. I wanted that song to be our theme song for our marriage, and the first year of our marriage proved that it was. I look out the window the birds are composing    Not a note is out of tune or out of place  

In an effort to reduce our monthly grocery spendings we are going to be eating less meat. Tuesday (my husbands Saturday) I sat down and went over the grocery store flyers to find out what was on sale, and build my menu for the next two weeks based on sale items and reasonably priced foods.  Tofu was on sale......  dun. dun. dun!!! So, for a dollar I could get a package of tofu if I bought in groups of 3.   I liked the idea of buying this cheap tofu because I was looking for ways to increase our protein while cutting out several "meat meals" a week. But I have NEVER been brave enough to cook tofu. So, I  scoured the internet for interesting recipes that I could make with tofu that sounded fun and interesting to make. And then I came across this recipe: Tofu Alfredo What a great idea, says I. Alfredo Sauce is one of my loves BUT one that I always feel guilty about because of all the heavy cream and heart clogging factor.  ... and on the menu it went for tonight: Who

This has been an unusual week. We live in the basement suite of a house. Over the last month of living here, I've been irritated on numerous occasions with the tenants above us who have yelling matches and frequently make use of the "F-bomb" during said yelling matches. Not good when you have a one year old learning to speak. And also not good when you are trying to get a baby to nap during the day. I had just imagined that we would probably move out at the end of our 6 month lease because of this (although we love the basement suite-its quite cute!), but last weekend we found out that these loud tenants would be moving out. They are an odd pair of roommates. A woman who seemed to be in her late 50's, who most obviously has lived a hard life, and a man who appeared to be in his mid 40's. The man had a bad temper, and the woman was always peaking out her windows in, what was to me, an I-Spy-With-My-Little-Eye creepy kind of manner. I never actually met either o

Josh and I had the opportunity to go for an ultrasound of our baby #2 last week. We learned that day that we are having another girl whom we had already decided to name Margaret Anne Barnett, aka Maggie. Here is Maggie's picture. I'm pretty sure she's adorable. So Thursday was my regular prenatal appointment for this month. It had been a week since our ultrasound when we found out who we are expecting. We got some less than awesome news about our little Maggie Moo.  Maggie apparently has a cyst in her brain, but no other abnormalities. Its called a Choroid Plexus Cyst. Apparently these cysts are quite common and tend to go away on their own before the end of the pregnancy, if there are no other issues. However, it does mean that she has a greater chance for Trisomy 18, which is normally a 1 in 3000 chance for a normal pregnancy, but when there is the presence of this type of cyst the chances go up to 1 in 300. So we will be monitoring our sweet little Maggie, and havi