(Very Late) 2017 Q&A

What can I say? I'm a few weeks behind, ha ha.

1) What did you do in 2017 that you'd never done before?
Made a move across the province based totally on faith, joined a school council, see Queen + Adam Lambert in concert, canning vegetables.

2) Did you keep your new year's resolutions and will you make more for next year?
To play more games with my kids, yes. To be healthier, not so much.

3) Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nope.

4) Did anyone close to you die?
Yes, my brother-in-law

5) What countries did you visit?
As usual, we didn't even leave our province.

6) What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017?
Better anxiety management.

7) What dates from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
November 7th, for sure, the night that my brother-in-law's mortal journey came to a quick and unexpected end. Also, June 16th because it was the day we finally moved to Magrath. July 4th, for the concert, as well.

8) What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Honestly, getting through it was my biggest achievement. I was battling some extremely big trials.

9) What was your biggest failure?
I don't know that I'd call anything a failure, they were all learning experiences. (exactly what I said last year, but it still holds)

10) Did you or someone close suffer illness or injury?
Brettley's ear was sliced open really bad in November.

11) What was the best thing you bought?
The concert tickets!

12) Where did most of your money go?
A lot went toward moving, and we had to put quite a bit in to our van as well.

13) What song will always remind you of 2017?
Believer by Imagine Dragons

14) Compared the this time last year are you more happy or more sad?
I think (?) I'm happier. I was struggling a lot with anxiety at this time last year. I'm getting a good handle on my life the past couple of weeks and I feel positive about the future, so I'm definitely improving.

15) What do you wish you'd done more of?
Learning how to manage my anxiety better. That is probably my biggest goal for this year.

16) What do you wish you'd done less of?
Being depressed (?). Not a lot I could do about it, but I wish I hadn't needed to go through it.

17) How did you spend Christmas?
We did Christmas morning in our house (our nephew was here as well). Then we hosted a movie day in our garage for our most of our nieces and nephews, had supper with everyone (lasagna, garlic bread and Caesar salad) and then played Dungeons and Dragons with several of our nieces and nephews.

18) What was your favourite TV program?
Gilmore Girls (rewatching the series for the 5th time right now) and I got in to watching The Good Doctor.

19) What were your favourite books of the year?
All of the James L Ferrell books I read. They were all amazing.

20) What were your favourite treats/food in 2017?
Miss Vickie's Sea Salt and Malt Vinegar Chips (as always), SASH pizza and bacon.

21) What were your favourite movies of the year?
Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them. And Moana.

22) What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
I turned 33. My dad was here that week, my brother came for a visit and I had very bad brain fog adjusting to a new dosage of my meds. Oh, I also had a few appointments that day.

23) What one thing would have made your year measurably more satisfying?
Not struggling with severe anxiety and depression.

24) How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017?
If it fits and it's comfy then we're good, ha ha. (same as last year)

25) What kept you sane?
John, my niece (Charli), Aunt Christine, Alicia, Gilmore Girls and Dr Pepper

26) What was a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017?
Trusting in Heavenly Father and acting upon that trust, even when you can't see how things can possibly work out, will result in blessings that you can't even imagine at the time.
Also, don't try to fight your battles alone. Ask for help when you need it!

Finally, that severe depressive cycles won't last forever. YAY!

August 2017 Pt 2

John came home to stay on Friday 18 August. He got in super late, but it was such a happy moment for us. The next day we cleaned at the church and got a new (to us) barbecue. We haven't had one for a few years, so we are very excited to have one again. Then John and I went on a date to Firestone (yum, my favourite) to celebrate him finally being home with us.

I got to help can my 20 pints of kernel corn from our garden. It's fun learning these new skills that are so useful.

John's mom was home briefly on the 25th before they took off to bring her to her mission field. John was able to give her a blessing before she left. The kids miss her a lot. We send her an email every week to update her on how we are.

On Sunday I saw that they announced that they are rolling "Come, Follow Me" in to the Priesthood and Relief Society lessons next year. I am super excited about this. I loved this when I taught the youth and think it will be an amazing thing for these adult classes.

We've spent most of the last week under a heat warning here and several days with air quality issues from the smoke as well. I'm really looking forward to after Thanksgiving.

Yesterday we went the the school and the boys got to take a tour of it. They each saw their new classrooms and met their new teachers. Brettley is very excited that his classroom has fish in it. Ty has opted to go by Tyrell this year since there will be another Ty in his class. Caleb has 2 teacher, but only was able to meet 1 of them yesterday. They also got to spend a couple of minutes playing in the school's new indoor playground. We brought their school supplies home and got them all labeled and ready to go for Tuesday. I also sorted and labeled all of the school supplies for my sister-in-law's kids yesterday. I do love me some school supplies. However, I'm really going to miss having my kids at home. I was so spoiled last year in getting to do things on our own schedule and having them to keep me company as we learned things together.

Fun note, just as I finished writing the previous paragraph, our heat warning was finally lifted. Why? Because it's ONLY going to get up to 28C today, ha ha. I'm so grateful that my bedroom is in the basement.

It's That Day Again & Are You Wearing Green?

1) I am grateful for the motivation I've had to stick to counting my calories and doing my exercising. I've lost over 30 lbs since the day before Brett was born. Sounds like so much, but I still have quite a way to go to reach my end goal. However, I take it 10 lbs at a time and earn a Booster Juice for every time that I lose that much. It seems a lot more manageable that way. I love how healthy I feel when I exercise.

2) I am grateful for www.foodstoragemadeeasy.net and my Relief Society's food storage group. They have me excited about getting my food storage going (I must be Mormon for saying that). I'm serious, though. I started my water storage yesterday as well as figuring out what I need for my initial 3 month storage. If you're looking for something to help you get motivated to do your food and home storage or something to help make it look a lot less daunting, definitely check out Food Storage Made Easy.

3) I am grateful that I am able to start figuring out my own routine again. My visitors are gone and John is back to work, so it's just the three boys and I during week days. It's been an interesting few days trying to get back into the swing of things, but I'm definitely getting it. From what I hear, this is the hardest switch to make (2 kids to 3 kids), but it's the last time we get to experience any of this stuff, so we're appreciating it a lot more (yes, we are totally, completely, 100% done having kids).

So I guess that's about it for today. Happy St Patrick's Day and have an awesome weekend.

Early Update

I'm doing my update a little early because I fell asleep on the couch a couple of times today and can't seem to fall asleep now because of it, even though I'm still really tired.

So the last few days in my house have been spent trying to catch up a bit on housework. I assign myself a few chores to do each day and some to John as well. We use www.cozi.com so that I can update John's to do list each day and he can check it from wherever on his iPhone. We also have the family calendar and shopping lists on there since I do the meal plan and make up the shopping lists, but he's the one who's actually out there buying the groceries. I wasn't sure I'd use it when I first signed up, but we both love it and it definitely suits our needs. I would highly recommend it.

Last night we had our weekly date night. I had planned on making Jell-o and playing Mario Party 8 on the Wii, but I was super tired and also got a bee in my bonnet about making nacho dip, so we made Epicure Cheese Nacho Dip (we love it) and John suggested watching M*A*S*H, so that's what we did. It wasn't anything super creative, but we both enjoyed it and that's what matters.

Today we had to get to church a little bit early so John could meet with a high councillor from the stake. We knew as soon as we got the phone call yesterday morning what it was about. John is our new ward financial clerk, taking over for our brother-in-law who was in the calling for 4 years. So we ended up at church for 6 hours today, me having such bad Braxton Hicks that I actually thought I was in premature labour at one point and my kids crying because they wanted to go home. John has talked to the bishopric and they are totally cool with him dropping the kids and I off at home right after church and then coming back to do tithing and what not. I think this will be a really good calling for him and am more than willing to support him in it. Now can someone please remind me of that every Sunday while he's at the church? :)

Our ward's Relief Society is start a Food Storage group that will meet once a month. I won't be up to going for the next 2 months, possibly 3, which I'm very sad about. But they handed around sheets today that had the website they are basing it off of and I checked it out. I'm really excited to learn more about it than I already do and to work towards building up our food storage. If you are curious, the website is foodstoragemadeeasy.net This month they are talking about Emergency Plans (Family Plan, Disaster Kit and Evacuation List) as well as Shelving For Your Food Storage.

I think that's really all that's new. My goal for this week to add to the 4 I'm already doing is to get changed for the day before noon. I know, it's shocking that I needed to make that a goal. However, when you're 31 weeks pregnant, in lots of pain and have no where to go during the day, it's easy to stay in PJs as long as possible. Hope you have a great week and I'll see you on Thursday:) Have a good one!