A Clean Heart

This past year Liam and I have been spending the first part of Libby's nap working on something called Kids Of Integrity. It's something we found online from Focus on the Family that provides lesson plans complete with objection lessons, Bible stories and practical ways to apply the truths in everyday life here at home. We started doing it because we could have sent Liam to school this last fall but decided to hold him back. Part of the reason was so that he could be emotionally more mature and we thought learning about Kindness, Patience, Respect (to name a few of the 18 subjects they offer), would help him and us.

Our first one was about Kindness and we spent a couple weeks working through it. Halfway through there was a object lesson about God being able to make our hearts clean. Liam really connected with the lesson and had lots of questions for the next couple days. During that time he told us that he would like to ask God to make his heart clean but wanted to wait a bit. We didn't want to push him so we just kept praying. A few weeks later we were visiting our dear friends (Craig & Jen) in Regina and on the Sunday morning I happened to think of it and asked him if he had thought any more about asking God to make his heart clean. He looked at me and said, "yeah, mom, I did it last night in my sleeping bag!" We were so thrilled and later shared the story with our church family here in Nipawin. Our Pastor asked if Liam would mind coming up to the front some Sunday and so back in March Pastor Bill presented Liam with a special book and prayed for him and us. God is good!

Hanging with Nanny & Pappy

One of the greatest parts of Nanny and Pappy coming to our house for a weekend is the time they get to spend with Liam and Libby. Here we have Nanny playing a game in the living room with Libby and Pappy playing hockey with Liam in the hallway...oh, I mean "the rink". Our hallway lights are now known as the "hockey lights". So, does that make me the Zamboni driver when I move through there with the vacuum? When my parents are here we have to arm wrestle the kids to be able to spend time with my mom and dad. I personally love the look on my dad's face as he tries desperately to keep Liam's shot out of the net.

Overnight Cinnamon Rolls

For those of you from Nipawin Moms 'n Tots, this is my submission for this month's recipe exchange. For the rest of you who have come to my blog in the past, here's a yummy recipe and a shout out that I am still here. We've had a busy school year here at NBC and graduation was just yesterday. Time to get to some of those things that I have put on the shelf...like blogging. If it makes you great bloggers feel better, I haven't written in our family journal since February 12! Anyway...here's the recipe.

This recipe makes enough for two 9x13 pans. At 3:00 or 4:00 pm measure 9 1/2 cups flour into a large bowl and set aside. (Using 4 cups whole wheat flour and 5 1/2 cups white flour works too.)

Blend the following together in a blender or food processor:
3 cups warm water
1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) dry traditional yeast
2 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter

Pour the blender ingredients into the flour and mix well. Cover and set aside.

At 10:00 pm that night mix together:
1 cup whipping cream
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup butter

Place this caramel mixture in two 9 x 13 or 11 x 13 baking pans. Roll dough out into rectangle. Spread with butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins (if desired). Roll dough into tube and cut off thin slices. Usually about 3/4" - 1" in thickness. Place slices into prepared baking pans on top of caramel mixture.

Cover with towel and place in a draft free area. I put them in the oven with the light on. Let rise until morning. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Enjoy!

Makes approximately 40 rolls of heavenly goodness! :)

Mr. & Mrs. Brad Skeldon

On September 25, 10 years and two days after Lindsay and I were married, we celebrated with Brad & Rachel on their wedding day. It was a beautiful sunny day and the day had some signature Brad & Rachel moments. Instead of lighting a unity candle or pouring sand into a vase, they poured water into a vase and made iced tea! They added some choreography to their recessional song and for their kiss they stepped back from each other, and leaned in for a little peck. Brad was handsome in his suit and Rachel beautiful in her dress. It was a great day and I'm so proud of them.

It's been quite the summer

So many fun things that I haven't had enough time to blog about all of it! Brad just got married yesterday and tomorrow the kids and I are off to Wisconsin with my parents for two weeks. As summer has turned into fall the busyness has increased. I plan to get back to blogging soon but in the meantime I thought I would blog a couple pics of the kids from summer while I'm on my parents computer with high speed! Oh bliss. It's sooooo fast. ;)

Camping

In July we headed down to Ogema, SK for a family camping trip and a family reunion. We camped for five nights and it went SO MUCH better than I had envisioned with two kids! We did quite a bit of camping when I was a kid but I do remember that it usually rained on a Skeldon camping trip. In fact, to this day when I smell rain, I usually have the urge to go camping! Surprisingly it only rained a bit on the first day. What was more detrimental was the wind storm that blew in while we were setting up our brand new tent (only been tested in our backyard once) and caused one of the poles to snap and rip the sleeve that it was going through. Not so good but duct tape came to the rescue...thank you Red Green for teaching us it's the handy man's secret weapon. :) The rest of the week was sunny and hot. A nice switch for the cold and rainy weather we had been having up in Nipawin. We had fun cooking outside, playing at the park, driving around the countryside, swatting only 4 mosquitoes, and playing games in the evenings. Besides the tent incident, we had a really great time.

She's got style

Okay, is that what it is? Style? I think the phrase we are looking for here is "style of her own." Coming from someone who doesn't necessarily follows the styles, I think she's doing fine. She's creative and has a special love for shoes. In these pictures she is sporting Liam's footwear and is coming up with new ways to carry a purse. The last two pictures show her wearing Liam's pj shirt in a whole new way...as a shrug sweater. We laugh at her now but maybe she will be designing her own line of clothes some day!

Summer

Here are some shots from the last few weeks. Hope you are all enjoying the warmer days where you are.

The boy has a green thumb

This is the third year now that Liam has helped me plant all the potatoes. It has definitely become a tradition in the Anderson home, or should I say garden? Each year Liam is able to help a little more than the last and this year he finished off a row all by himself. I was so proud of him. This tradition is actually partly responsible for why Liam likes eating potatoes. As a 2 1/2 year old he was not crazy about them at the supper table until I was able to tell him that what had put on his plate (once again) was a potato that he planted! He stopped, looked at me, looked at the potato and proceed to inhale it like his mother would a piece of double chocolate cheesecake. Ever since he has been fascinated with the process and loves to have his afternoon snack in the garden among the veggies and raspberries. That's it, I've mentioned cheesecake and raspberries in the same blog. I think my subconscious is telling me that I need to make some dessert :)

I Brad, take you Rachel

The day has come. Last weekend my brother Brad asked Rachel to marry him! They plan to get married this fall, probably in September. For those of you scrapbookers out there, Brad called me up last Friday and asked where I would go if I needed to purchase a really cool scrapbook. I gave him some direction and then he proceeded to explain his plan. He was going to put together a scrapbook for Rachel and then tie the ring with ribbon to the last page. Apparently it went over very well. I'm excited to see the ring he picked out. For those of you that don't know Rachel. She's great! She and Brad were students at Nipawin Bible College together and dated while here that year. They decided to end it at that point and got back together after a couple, three years. Not sure on the exact dates. We are super excited that she's going to be a part of the family. It actually feels like has been that already. We are thankful for God's timing and his plan.

I'm still a cityslicker aren't I?

Yes, after almost nine years of living in Nipawin, Saskatoon has gradually lost it's position of "home". Lindsay and I will be celebrating 10 years of marriage in the fall and we've lived here for most of it. We've had wonderful times up here and I have had a chance to broaden my experiences. The city has many things that we love but I had never been quadding or snowmobiling before we moved up here. I think that fact was really obvious to my friend Joanne two years ago when I ran her quad into a bush, thankfully it was not a tree and she's very patient! Lindsay learned more about farming when he worked at large operation south of town for two summers. I tried water skiing for the first time in Codette Lake. I pick Saskatoon berries...in the wild! I've learned how to garden. I've been to a pig roast or two...where you actually watch the impaled pig turn around and around over the fire while you fellowship and play games. At first the thought of this kinda grossed me out but then I tasted it. Yum. I've been on several sleigh rides with real horses, a real sleigh and real people getting pushed off. :) I've even got used to hearing coyotes in the middle of the night. I know they say they rarely come onto campus but some nights it sounds like they're so close that they could just as easily be in my kitchen, opening up the fridge and having a midnight snack. I feel like I've come a long way from my city years but other times, like the other day, I realize I have a ways to go.

Horses. Beautiful creatures but I definitely lack the confidence. I'm sure my lack of confidence comes from my lack of knowledge but the few horror stories I've heard about broken backs has left me unwilling to dive in...or climb up, as the case may be. The other day Andrea called and said that they were taking the kids to the McArthur's to ride horses. Perfect. All I heard was "kids ride horses" nothing at all about moms! I'm in. We got there and it was only a few minutes before Liam was up on one of the horses with his friend Lincoln. It was great that he was not the only little person there that day because I'm sure he was encouraged to try because they did. They were on the horses for quite a while and were guided all over their land. Libby was very interested in the horses. I realized about half way through our time there that I would have to get on one of these horses. I've only been on a horse a couple times and not since high school. Thanks to Curves getting onto the horse was pretty simple and thanks to Judy, who guided our horse around the yard, riding was pretty simple too. I felt a bit like a little kid at the carnival grounds. Better that though than a freaked out 30 year old making a fool of herself in the middle of a field as she gallops away on an out of control horse. My friends might have voted for the latter option though. All in all it was a wonderful day. I was so proud of the kids and it was neat that we are one step closer to being Nipawin veterans. Here are some pictures of the day.

Our little lady...she's growing up fast!

Soon to be a year and a half, Libby is full of life, loud squeals and spunk. I'm actually a little worried that she will take after me in the brat years department but we are praying for mercy. :) Most moments she is joy to be with. She loves to cuddle and I'm soaking in every minute of that because Liam was not so much that way. She loves to try on shoes and clothes. Okay, so she's not taking after me in all areas. One wardrobe change a day is good for me. Many times a day she comes up to us with jacket and/or shoes in hand "asking" to go outside to play. She really could be compared to a hyperactive dog who tears the house apart when someone mistakenly whispers the word "walk".

As I write this post Libby is in the living room by herself and she's watching hockey. She's been a bit out of it all afternoon and has a lowish grade fever. Now that she has some Tylenol in her she's sitting in her little rocking chair and "dancing" to the warm up music of the Vancouver/Chicago game. She definitely keeps smiles on our faces. Come on now, with the following looks coming at you every day, you'd be smiling too.

The Skinny

Has it really been that long since I posted last? And I was doing so well for a while there. These last couple months have been a struggle for me physically. I've been to the doctor four times, been on three different antibiotics and at the end of it all found out I had pneumonia. I've had a very patient husband through it all and children that are flexible. Thankfully there were only a couple weeks out of that time that I really felt sick. The rest of the time I just had absolutely no energy and was tired all the time. Along with that the medication I was on made me feel nauseous and slightly worried that I was pregnant again. I'm not...for all you people that think we should have more children. :)

So what have we been up to during all this? Our school year came to a close and we said goodbye to all the students after another good year of learning and growing. Thankfully the learning and growing was not just something the students did but the faculty...and their wives as well. I feel like God has been teaching me a lot lately which is exciting but not always completely enjoyable.



Following graduation the kids and I headed to Saskatoon to spend the week with my family before my cousin Taylor got married on April 23. It was a busy week with all the wedding preparations but we still managed to have some laughs, lots of coffee and the kids had a blast. Liam and Libby were in the wedding as ring bearer and flower girl. Brad and Rachel were in the wedding party and Lindsay was an usher. It was a beautiful wedding and we were so thankful that we could be there to help and celebrate with Taylor & Kirsten.
















Now that we are back home there is much to do for Lindsay at work as he prepares for the golf tournament and chairs the exec committee as Wes is on sabbatical until the end of September. I'm looking forward to gardening, getting some stuff together for a yard sale at my parents house in May and plan to work on Libby's scrapbook while Lindsay reads his newest books for a MA class he is taking in June.

So that catches you up for the most part and I will do my best to get on here more often...now that I am not coughing up a lung!