Ebates

Do you do any online shopping? 

If so, you will want to know about Ebates! 

You can earn cash back on your online shopping purchases. If you shop at Amazon, Macy's, Groupon, Kohl's, Walgreens, Omaha Steaks, Clinique, Walmart, and many, many other stores, check out Ebates today and start earning cash back on your every day purchases!

If you are ready to start buying all the items on your Christmas gifts list, there is a holiday sale going on now that you won't want to miss. Sign up is free and fast and you will be on your way to making money on your Christmas gift purchases. Check out Ebates today!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support!

Weekly Menu Plan {14 October}

Happy Canada Day to all my dear friends up north! I hope you've had a wonderful weekend full of family, friends and feasting! I am also wishing a happy, happy birthday to my sweet niece Kendall and my beautiful friend, Carol B. today. Much love from Virginia!

I am late getting this posted today, so on with the plan for this week.

Monday - a rare dinner out at a local Mexican restaurant (yippee!)

Tuesday - Turkey Dinner, in honour of my little Canadians!

Wednesday - Stir Fry with Chicken with Bok Choy, jasmine rice

Thursday - Leftovers

Friday - Pumpkin Soup, bread sticks

Saturday - Maple glazed salmon, rice, salad

Sunday - Snack-y supper


Have a wonderful week! xo


I'm linking up with Menu Plan Monday at Org Junkie. Pop on over and check out all the great menu ideas. 

Polestar Calendars {Review}

Hello friends and Happy October! 

Some of you may remember Polestar Calendars from my mention of them last year around this time. If you missed it, you can check it out HERE. I have the opportunity to share their 2014 Polestar Family Calendar with you today. Isn't the new cover so beautiful (as they always are)?

I love supporting family businesses, which is exactly what Polestar is, an independent, family-run business owned and operated by Ruth Porter and Julian Ross. They live and work in rural south-eastern British Columbia in the beautiful Slocan Valley, where they have been publishing books and calendars since 1983.

If you are in the market for a new calendar, this just may be the one you've been looking for. I LOVE it! I discovered Polestar in 2008 and consider their calendar a must-have in my busy household. It is 8x10 inches, spiral bound and contains 168 pages. They have included all of the useful pages needed in helping with organizing life and all the craziness that comes with it.

This bestselling calendar provides a flexible, spacious format for recording the entire family’s daily activities. Features include:

• monthly double-spread planning pages
• three part daily planning guide
• weekly To Do/To Buy lists
• ample space for meal planning and messages
• unique reference pages including Items Loaned & Borrowed; Family Profiles; Dates to Remember; 2014 and 2015 planning calendars
• sturdy inside back-cover pocket
• perforated corners and tear-out shopping lists
• plus encouraging weekly quotes
• printed on 100% post-consumer recycled text paper, processed chlorine- and acid-free, using vegetable-based inks

The calendars are printed in Canada on 100% post-consumer recycled text paper, processed chlorine free using vegetable-based inks, Forest Stewardship Council approved.

You can purchase directly from the website for $16.95 (shipping within Canada is $3.00 and to the US is $6.00). For US customers, click the photo below to be taken to Amazon (my affiliate link).

I realize not everyone needs a family calendar, so if you don't have need for the Family Calendar, Polestar also offers six other products that may suit your needs better.

Student Calendar 2014 ($11.95)

Polestar Planner 2104 ($12.95)

Business Calendar 2014 ($19.95)

BC Almanac Listeners Lens 2014 Wall Calendar ($17.95)

Fruit Labels 2014 Wall Calendar ($17.95)

Inner Reflections 2014 ($14.95)

I am thrilled to be able to share this fantastic and thoroughly useful calendar with you again this year. I wouldn't want to plan our lives, activities and adventures without it! 

xo

Disclaimer: The Polestar company sent me one copy of their 2014 Family Calendar in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was received. All opinions on this blog are my own. This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for your support.

A Thankful Heart

I have been intending to sit down to write a thankful post from the past week. All seven of us share a laptop so I am grabbing the opportunity now before someone needs it for school!

My mom and uncle drove up from Texas and spent a few days with us. Mom got sick before they came and didn't feel well the entire time they were here, so that was a bummer. But I was thrilled to have them here again and so very thankful that they made the very long drive. And the reason they drove was that they were bringing a wonderful gift.

Mom had recently had trouble with her car and after a time of researching vehicles, bought a new one. I knew that she had found someone to put a new motor in her old vehicle and just assumed that she traded it in on the new one. But at Christmas she said she wanted to give us her old vehicle, now that it was repaired and in good working condition. What a surprise!

So she and Gerald made the long journey to bring us our second vehicle (which we actually bought from her). It's been ten years since we've had two cars. We did not need two vehicles in Canada due to living in a very pedestrian-oriented community. There were only a few times when we had to rent a second car, in the event that we needed to have more people riding with us than just our family of seven.

Of course, that has changed being back in the States and in a non-pedestrian culture. It's kind of sad for us in a way and one of the biggest adjustments, but we are adapting and it has been part of the journey and adventure to try to make one vehicle work. Bob and I have been having 10 "mini dates" every week whenever I drove him to and from work. I have enjoyed listening to several audio books as I taxi him and everyone else to their necessary destinations.

It has been an adjustment (although this one won't take too long, I think) to realize I don't have to run him to work in the mornings or be ready to go and get him in the evenings. What a great freedom having a second vehicle is giving us.

Thank you to Uncle Gerald for giving up your time and making the effort to do all the driving on the way up. And thank you to Mom for your continuous generosity and sharing. I am thankful, thankful, thankful!!! xo 

And thank you, Father, for Your provision and continual love and blessings in our lives. I am amazed, once again.

Saying Goodbye

To 2012, that is.

I've been reading back through the journals that we keep during our prayer and worship times. WOW. I am blown away at the memories of what the Father has done in our lives in 2012. It's probably been one of the hardest years of my life. Missing Canada has been hard. Starting a new life here has been very challenging. It's also been a year that has brought incredible change and growth in me and in our family, along with the pain and tears.

I am going to be reading more of the journals tomorrow and may have more thoughts to share or thanksgiving to offer for what we've experienced. We'll see. I did notice some interesting themes in our dreams, visions, prophetic words and prayers.

One thing I am thankful for is this beautiful home and the fact that the Father sent us TWENTY overnight guests (not to mention friends who just came for an hour or two or eight). What an honour it was to have each and every friend, old and new, or family member in our home. We have some beautiful memories with you guys. And we are looking forward to finding out who He will bring to us in this next year!

Tonight, as I wait on my oldest to get off work, I have been working on my brand new 2013 calendar!

{If you missed it back in October, I posted a review of the Polestar Family Calendar. You can read it HERE.} 

I so love having all these clean, white blocks that are just waiting for new, colourful ink to adorn them. I am praying through our few extracurricular commitments and asking for wisdom to know when to say "yes" and when to say "no" this year. I am praying for all of the yet-unknown names of individuals and families that we will have the honour of inviting for dinners or coffees or play dates. I am praying over the trips that we will take. The schoolwork we will accomplish. The birthdays we will celebrate. The time we will spend in worship and prayer. The overnight guests we will host. The moments we will take reading God's Word, being refreshed and strengthen and enlightened by it. The milestones we will mark. The games we will play. The books we will devour. The movies we will enjoy. The laughter. The tears. The joy. The adventure. 

There's a new day and a new year dawning. Happy 2013! May the Father bless you immensely and be your Hope! 

 May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing [through the experience of your faith] that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.

Romans 15:13

Celebrating Benjamin

Here is Ben on his first birthday...

And today we celebrated his first decade! Boom! Double digits, already!

We enjoyed a family day at Cracker Barrel for lunch...

And then we went to a local apple farm to continue a long-standing family tradition we began in Canada...

And he just like in that top photo, the boy still loves cake...this year he chose Gingerbread Cake and hot apple cider for his birthday treats!

We had a great day celebrating you, big guy! We are so thankful the Lord gave you to us and want you to know that our lives are so much richer with you in them. We look forward to seeing how you continue to grow and what opportunities God gives you in this next ten years. Love you!!!

Superb September Hike

The children and I have missed hiking so much. We have decided that the area where we lived in Canada was hiking heaven. We have found one or two places here but hiking doesn't seem to be as common an activity. We had not been in so long and so we decided today was the day. And boy was it perfect! We have been thanking Jesus for the gifts He gave us on this hike and the chance to be back at it again.

Is this a Sycamore? It was beautiful.

The lovely Potomac River

And ladies and gentlemen, that white and brown dot in the middle is a BALD EAGLE!!! There were two that were flying over the river. One of the most incredible sights we've even seen. 

Happy Mama and happy children!

One year ago

13 June 2011...I packed up the car and with three brave girls, headed out of Hamilton, Ontario. Our men (Bob, Austin, Ben, Elliot the cat and Diego the gecko) stayed behind to supervise the moving truck that was coming that morning to load up our worldly belongings. They would follow the next day.


We had already been on this journey for several months. God had spoken to our family through dreams, visions and prophetic words about leaving our life in Canada and moving back to the States. I knew we were doing exactly what He was asking of us, but it was difficult. We had lived there 8 years. Emma was 6, Austin was 3 and Ben only 7 months when we moved there from Texas. The little girls were born there and it was the only home they had ever known. Pulling up those roots took serious effort and so many tears.


The girls and I said goodbye to friends and neighbours and headed to Northern Virginia. We did not have any reservations for a place to stay that night. We were just following His lead.


I cried the first three or four hours of the trip. Friends and family were texting and praying us through the day. I am so thankful for that support and encouragement.


We must have listened to this song 20 times that day.





It really became a theme song for us...in hotels, a beach condo, a bed and breakfast, house sitting for friends, vacation rentals and more hotels. We followed as the Lord led us one step at a time. It was a crazy journey. At times we questioned whether or not we had heard Him correctly. At times I questioned my sanity (the enemy loved to whisper lies along the lines of "you've lost your mind..."). But the Father was and is faithful and true and good and loving and generous. He never changes, no matter how much our situation or circumstances change. He remains faithful, even when what He asks of us does not make sense, humanly speaking.

We desire to live our lives to please Him, no matter the cost. Jesus died for us and rescued us from sin and gave us new life! We want to know and experience Him and follow Him wherever He takes us and no matter how difficult the journey. We loved our life and our friends in Canada. It was not a piece of cake to say goodbye to all that (not to mention all of the "possessions" that He asked us to give away). It was not a cinch to let go of what had been established there. But He told us over and over that we would be settled and established in this new venture. We hung on to Him and that word.


We are still hanging onto Him and singing about His faithfulness. In the past three or four months during our family worship times, we have enjoyed a new song that started coming on my Pandora. The theme still concerns God and His faithfulness. The first time I heard it I couldn't believe my ears, since we live near the mountains now and it does feel like we are on the battlefield most days.


Never Once by Matt Redman




This was our reality for the first 6 months of the last 12...

And for the past 6 months, this...

We sense He has us here for several reasons, but we are really just at the beginning of this new volume He has commenced writing for us, so it is in process of being fleshed out. We continue to seek His face and to sing of His love and faithfulness! 

Praise God, everybody! Applaud God, all people! His love has taken over our lives; God's faithful ways are eternal. Hallelujah!  Psalm 117:2 [MSG]

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. Revelation 19:11 [NIV]

Just reminiscing here

I'm walking down memory lane a little bit tonight. So much has happened in this past year. Here are some sweet shots of what was going on in our lives last May and early June.

Packing and goodbyes....

This is just a glimpse into our lives a year ago.

We have been given so many beautiful gifts of friendship. We love all of you (and those of you not pictured, especially our neighbours Kelly, MC and Pip) and we cherish the time we had with you. What richness and beauty you have bestowed on our lives. We have been strengthened and challenged by you and we loved doing life with you in Canada. You are in our hearts forever.

We are so very thankful!