So as you can probably tell, I've been a little busy to blog lately. But I thought I'd better post at least once this month... As I was saying, life's been busy with all kinds of good things, Josh's 4-H (that's him leading his goat "Maripossa"), soccer for both of the older kids, and ball for Josh, our regular kids club windup fun night, birthday parties, school field trips, face painting for the school field day, company and of course the yard and garden. Too many things to do outside to be afforded the time to sit and blog. Now that hubby is off for the summer I'll sneak in a few more entries, perhaps even with a bit of regularity. But truthfully friends, I need ideas. I'm sure you're all eager to hear about my everyday life, but I'd be glad to share my vantage point on any number of topics. Perhaps as an open discussion of sorts via BBlogger. What do you think? Leave me your comments/ideas and I'll tell you what I think. (AND STOP LURKING YOU LURKERS, TAKE A FEW SECONDS TO POST A HAPPY HELLO AT LEAST!) I look forward to hearing from you.

What If?

What if instead of wasting our grey water (from washing hands and dishes, bathing, etc) we used it to water our lawns and gardens? (That is assuming you're using phosphate free, all natural soaps)

What if instead of throwing away our produce peels and refuse we composted them?

What if instead of tossing out bits of plastic, cardboard and "garbage" we actually recycled them?

Better yet, what if we bought items with little or no packaging?

What if our governments actually helped make the switch to earth friendly transportation and industries?

What if we really cared about our planet and each of us did everything we could to live healthy, responsible lives?

I think it would be the end of the world as we know it: things would change in our bodies, our homes, the planet.

Jars full of Rocks

I found an blog post a while back (can't recall just where now) about the importance of carefully placing the "rocks" in our lives. The author gave the analogy of placing rocks of varying sizes in a jar. We all start out with an empty jar each day and each of us get to choose which rocks we will place in the jar on any given day. The rocks of course being the things we hope to accomplish during the course of the day; things we choose to spend our time doing or being a part of. The part that struck me and has stuck with me is how if you fail to put in the important rocks first, inevitably the sands of busy-ness will simply blow in, your jar will be full of all the little irritants of life and you'll no longer have room for what's important. However, if one chooses to add the big rocks first (God, family, friends, ministry) you'll have room for them, and for a whole pile of little rocks (dishes, laundry, work, whatever). Those little bits of sand (untimely hangups, accidents, unplanned for delays) will of course find their way into our jars, but with all the other rocks in there, the sand will seem infinitely smaller and less bothersome. God is so good at helping us prioritize; He gives us a great example through His Son Jesus. What more can I say than for us to follow that example, do what is eternally important, take care of what is necessary and enjoy the simple things all around us. Jars. Rocks. God. It's all good.

Workin' on Lovin'

Few relationships in life allow us to be real, honest, positive and negative in the same breath, or to feel as deeply as a marriage between a man and woman who really love each other. Sometimes we all hit a rough patch, a bump in life's road. But it's so good to know God's word and the promises therein are exactly what we need, when we need it.

I am blessed. Blessed to know this man I have married. Blessed to know we'll be together through it all. Blessed to know no matter how bent out of shape I get over life stuff he'll stick around to offer an ear, shoulder, or strong set of arms to love me. I am blessed to have a husband who can be the hands of Jesus here on earth for me.

You know I love you Michael. And thanks for loving me. You really are the best.

Minimum of people around the table at any
given meal while away: 12


KidZone hotel room and water slide: $135.00


One happy family of Guteks, great memories
and amazing friends on a fun holiday: priceless

OH DEAR...

Oh dear oh dear oh dear. How very long it had been since my last post here on my blog. I hate when life gets in the way of my fun time. I really must try harder to make the time to enjoy my creative rambling type writing.

Here's my life in a nut shell lately: EAing at the school more than usual lately, travelling a bit over the school break, friends having babies, cows having babies (not ours, but inadvertently our friends animals delivery dates effect our simple town lives; alas I am a bovine widow every other Saturday as hubby helps on the farm), spring cleaning, garden planning, assembling a few Ikea things which as we all know leads to even more organizing to make it all fit and rid our home of the extras, and lastly painting in hopes of putting up the hardware to hang curtains so our neighbors will be less inclined to peer into our open window. Hugh. That's a lot. Did I happen to mention a birthday party, a school Book Fair and reading night as well as a few extra church functions? But life is good. We are blessed.

"But where did you visit on your travels?" you say. Well I shall tell you. We visited some (actually 15 families) very wonderful people we knew during our college time in Red Deer, AB. The bulk of our time was spent in the city but we also included some time out at Sylvan Lake to fellowship with dear friends whom we enjoyed the company of when we lived there. The kids played, the adults visited and played (after trying the game here at home I will never attempt the card game "Pennies" ever again!) and all was well. Our family even spent one night at a hotel in RD to swim and water slide and veg out just the five of us. (After two other visiting families Michael went to school with left). Other than the lack of sleep, we all enjoyed our trip.
It was so great to see old friends and to note how their kids have changed so very much over just a few short years. We wanted to see as many people as we could on this trip for the simple reason that some will move away shortly *(some of you farther than others Talena!) and we hadn't seen a few of them last time we were there. It was hard to say good bye again. Not to the hectic, crazy-busy city, but to our very wonderful friends there.

The only very minuscule silver lining in my departure from there was the promise of stopping at Ikea on the way home. Which was indeed fun and exhausting. So much to find, in such a BIG place, with so little time and three not wanting to shop kids half hanging from the stroller/cart. Michael was incredibly patient and helpful and the self professed Ikea hater actually enjoyed himself and even attested to wanting to go back there sometime. Miracles do happen. Believe me, that's a miracle. Upon arriving home, we assembled our purchases yet all the while a nagging thought ebbed away at the back of my mind: am I missing something here? Never having put together anything Ikea, the instructions in the packaging seemed too simple. And there weren't any parts left over. And the things we built actually look and function like the ones in the show rooms. Again, miracles do happen.

One last highlight to share with you is my very high opinion of Kirby vacuum cleaners obtained today by my spring cleaning spree today. A friend lent us their unit (I say unit because it's not just a vacuum, it shampoos, sands wood, blows up inflatables, polishes and buffs and can even be used as a paint sprayer!) So I've cleaned just about every cleanable surface including all those very icky dust mites and billions of dead skin cells in our mattress. Ya, that's really gross to say, but check out the Kirby site or better yet, have Kirby send out a rep. for a demo and you'll see what I'm talking about. I love to clean and it's great to know what I've cleaned is actually clean. How many more times can I say clean? CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN I feel a song coming on, or perhaps a Robert Munsch inspired book....

Alright, that's enough rambling for one evening. Perhaps I shall return to you sooner than I did this time. Love to you!

Grrrr

Feeling a wee bit snappish today. Could be the long week of winter cold. Could be the lack of sleep from last nights cozy movie watching. Could be PMS. Could be that my children don't seem to have OFF switches when momma needs them at bed time. Perhaps a nice warm bath would be just the thing to escape for a small snatch of time...