Drippy winter

I stepped outside with the camera today, even though there was water dripping off the trees at me, threatening to soak my camera. I must say that I'm ready for spring!

So my photo of the day was this...

Beside me, this was going on!

And behind me, were these sad looking hydrangeas!

Cable hat

I just learned to cable knit! I love the look of cables and have always wanted to try it. So here is my first hat, from this ravelry pattern.
This is a great hat to start with if you're new to it. I had no problems at all.
Happy knitting!

gee tar

Picnik

Have you played in Picnik before?? They are closing shop!! I'm not too sure why, or what the replacement will be...but I do know that they are letting us use all their premium features (that you would normally pay for) for free until they close in April. So go there and have fun! There are lots of cool things to do to your photos...like putting font on, rounding edges etc. etc.

Go and have fun!

Sunday afternoon cartoons...

Jumping starfish!!

Mrs. Sickie

Well my near 3 day fever has broken, but I feel very sick still. I am quite sure it is strep. I have what feels like a sock, lodged in my throat. Any attempt to swallow, even my own saliva, is terrible. Talking is hard. I have no appetite (which is rare) and feel nauseous when I eat or drink. I am still a little light headed, probably due to the lack of food.
I really hope the doctor calls early tomorrow with some results from the swab, or I'm going to have to march on down there again for another one.
Greg has done great in taking care of the kids all weekend and letting me rest, as honestly I could barely get up. I need to take over now so he can get to work! and I really hope he misses this one!

UPDATE: I did march back to the doc and now he could definitely see the strep. So I'm on antibiotics and now G is off to the doctor and I'm still swallowing knives (or so it feels). I have an impossible time trying to sleep as I wake up every time I swallow. So....we're a really sad state of affairs over here! Thankfully the kids seem to be doing alright.

Flood!

Did you know that if you put a washcloth over the drain in a shower stall, that the water can come up over the top of the lip and spill out over onto the floor, down the vents (into the family room below) and then out 3 feet into the carpet in your room??
Riley figured that out yesterday. After a 10 minute "bath" in the shower, he opened the door and yelled down to us "FLOOD"! I'm not even kidding, it took a mop, 10 towels and then more downstairs where it was dripping from the ceiling. ARgH! So daft.

Yesterday was a busy day for me and I was feeling worse by this morning. I've been fighting something, but I don't know what. This morning I took a shower and the room was completely spinning. I barely made it out of the shower and plopped onto the bed all soggy. I eventually got to the doctor and though he said it looks like I'm fighting some viral thing, I don't have anything like strep. My fever was ok, but my heart was racing like a train. He did a urine test to make sure I wasn't pregnant (have mercy) and concluded that I'm dehydrated. With the occasional nauseau, it is hard for me to even want to drink, but I've taken some gravol and gatorade and am laying here feeling dead on the couch and oh, so tired.

Bless Greg, he took the boys out skiing tonight and Shea over to D's so I can have some peace. Please pray that I can get over whatever it is that I have as the chores are piling up around me and I get that sinking/overwhelming feeling that I'll never get on top of it all.

Thanks

Hockey mom...

We're spending two hours a week at the rink (plus lace-up time) now. Liam and Riley both go for an hour each. Liam just started an Intro to Hockey class, and Riley is in the daytime hockey league. Shea does not enjoy sitting in the cold rink that long, but thankfully he was able to hang with Grandpa and Grandma so I could take pics of Riley on the ice without him wiggling on my lap!

Lost your marbles?

(first photo taken with my lensbaby composer pro)
(second photo taken with my portrait lens)

I hope you're not sick of all these photos yet! Just to warn you, we're only in January so I have a ways to go! You'll have to bear with me as outdoors looks pretty dirty and dead and so I'm stuck inside with a lot of still life photos. I have been doing good about only using my manual settings, so am getting more familiar with my camera. I did the photos of the kids the other day in manual, but it can be tricky with their quickly moving bodies! Shea also doesn't like to be in pictures lately!
Here is Shea, feeling almost normal again...enjoying our ball pit.


(lensbaby)

Vitamins

I went to the store today and bought...
a) A cold mist humidifier
b) Children's multivitamins, and
c) Oranges

Hmm...is it obvious that we are sick and/or fighting germs with a vengeance?

If you do not have a cold mist humidifier, it is time for you to try one out during this cold season. We have borrowed my parents, and the perpetual night coughing stops almost immediately. I picked a smaller one up today and am hoping it'll be just as effective. It was high time that we had our own, and I hope you have one too. In the winter in Calgary, I used to get super dry sinuses and I remember complaining to my doctor about it and he had no suggestions. So now, lesson learned...I was dried out and needed a humidifier! duh
Do you take vitamins? I never did too much because I eat fairly well and figured I get most of my needs from my food. However, this past week I was watching "Food Matters" on Netflix and felt convicted at how much my body needs vitamins and how little our over-processed food contains. So to help fight the germs this season, I am currently taking a One-a-Day women's multivitamin, a Vitamin C and Zinc. I also picked up the multivitamins for my kids to help them get a little boost as well.

Anyway, best of health to you! Shea is finally on the mend. I kept him home from school one more day to be sure, but I think he'll be good to go on Thursday. Phew.

Cousins make you smile.

Today Ella and Isaac came over to visit. They are so cute and so much fun and helped Shea to smile more than he has all week.
A little tea party.
A little playdough.
What more do you need.

Bokeh, Baby...

There are so many fun things you can do with your camera if you only have the time to mess around and get to it! How handy that Shea has been so sick (this is day 5) so we are home alone while the big boys are at church today.
I've been wanting to try this forever. I made two black covers for my camera lens and punched out a star and a heart shape to create this cool bokeh!





You should really try it sometime!
Here's the how-to! (thanks to Pinterest)

Blue Steel. 10 year old version.

Poor Shea is sick again. He had strep throat in June and now has it again. I didn't think of it this time as he didn't complain of a sore throat much. He has had on/off fevers for a few days, no appetite, his heart will race, and he pretty much groans throughout the whole day and night. After two nights of not getting any sleep, I took him in this morning to make sure I wasn't missing anything. He just got over an ear infection right before Christmas, and has had a sinus cold and the cough for weeks and now this. Poor guy. It was good to see him up and playing Uno with me today after two days of being in bed. So hopefully he's on the mend. He may be one of those kids prone to strep and a candidate for getting his tonsils out. Time will tell I guess. I know how terrible strep can be as I had it lots through high school.

Hopefully life will return to it's regular program and we'll all get caught up on sleep! With the lack of sleep we've had in the past month, I feel like I have a newborn again!

the magical beans...

(Any guesses as to what I did to get light under the beans?)