Bad Luck Comes in Threes - I Hope

This week has been full of adventure! Even though most of it has been bad luck we have been pretty blessed  because it could have been worse! 

First of all, last week I was preparing dinner for our company and our stove/oven blew up while I was cooking the meat. Everyone was expected to arrive in less than an hour and I had a pan full of uncooked meat and nothing to cook it with. Thank goodness for a calm husband who saved the day by suggesting the microwave and the crockpot  for a fantastic taco soup. Everything worked out perfectly.

Yesterday, I was boiling an egg before church. While I was taking it out of the pot of water it fell back into the water splashing me, scalding my arm and burning me quite badly.

Finally, today Patrick was headed to work on site just outside of Edmonton and because of the treacherous road conditions he was in a pretty serious car accicent. Luckily no one was hurt but the other car was a complete write off with over $20, 000 in damage.

I look back on all three of these events and I can see many blessings in the things that have happened. We were blessed to find a 'new to us' stove for a reasonable price that was a step up from my old stove, my burn could have been way worse than it was and Patrick was driving the work truck and not our car which may have saved his life. How blessed we are! I am so grateful to have a Heavenly Father who loves us and is always looking out for us.

Just a Hobby

A couple years ago I decided to get into cake decorating just for fun. I have always loved making cakes for my kids birthdays but I wanted to learn some of the more challenging techniques. So I decided to do some research and learn the craft of cake decorating.

After many hours of experimentation I have learned a lot and really enjoy myself. My family even enjoys helping me wherever they can.

Last week a friend asked me to make her a cake for her daughter's 2nd birthday. She wanted something that had a safari theme but pretty much let me take creative licence in designing the cake. This is what I came up with.

Keeping up with the Arts

When we decided to homeschool Leah I knew it would be challenging to keep the arts alive in our curriculum. She came from a performing arts school so I wanted to continue to educate her at the same level that she had been learning at with her school. But lets be honest, I am not the most artistic person in the world. Even my stick people need help. I am probably the least crafty person I know and as for my musical talents...well I can't really say too much about those either. I can remember fighting my mom every day on the way to piano lessons as a kid. I hated them! I played flute as a teen and I continue to play my flute whenever my husband dusts it off so I have a basic understanding of music but I am definately not a natural talent. Thank goodness I have such a wonderful mother who knows my strengths and weaknesses and urged me to get Leah into lessons. She also bought Leah a keyboard on her last visit. Now she has begun taking lessons from a real expert (not me!) and she is loving it! Thanks mom! (Notice Dillon singing in the background. These kids definately have McKee genes!)

We also study a different artist every Friday and then recreate his painting. Last Friday we learned about a famous Russian artist named Kandinsky. He was the first artist to create abstract art. We learned about different colours and how they work together and how they make you feel. This is Leah interpretation of Kandinsky's piece.

This is Kandinsky's painting. I think Leah did a pretty good job. Dillon did one too but unfortunately his ended up in the garbage as do most of his things. He is kind of going through a destructive phase as I am sure you have figured out from my other posts!

Seafood Tonight?!

Whenever we go to Costco we are always tempted by the king crab legs in the seafood section but we never buy them as they are not a necessary item. However, on our last trip we decided to splurge and get a couple of legs.

It took quite some time to convince the kids to eat the crab legs but once they did they were sold.

Craft Time Gone Wrong

Dillon made the cutest pipecleaner carrots in his playschool the other day while learning about healthy food choices. He was so proud of his carrot...for about 10 minutes.
While I was busy teaching Leah a math lesson he was destroying his new creation downstairs in the basement. All of a sudden I heard frantic footsteps and a little cry and I knew there was trouble. Dillon proceeded to tell me that he had taken one of the googly eyes and shoved it in his ear. Why he did that, I'll never know. I guess boys will be boys. I looked in his ear and could barely see the edge of it. My first inclination was to get my tweezers and try to pull it out but on reinspection I knew it was too deep and I would do more damage than good. So I did the next best thing, I called Patrick.
He told me to bring him in to the office and he will take a look.  I drove him out to Spruce Grove and Patrick put him under the lit microscrope and used his special tweezers and pulled the googly eye right out.
I was sure grateful that I had an engineer in the family with all kinds of tools to save me from the torture of a 4 hour stay in the emergency room. Way to go Patrick!
As for Dillon, no more googly eyes for him! 

Leap of Faith

For the past year I have had a nagging voice telling me that I should consider homeschooling Leah but I had always believed strongly that homeschooling was not for me and I would never be very good at it. I had dismissed the idea as quickly as it came. Unfortunately the idea had not dismissed me. Last summer I had this horrible sensation in my stomache that was urging me to consider it more fully. Still I was not ready to be one of `those` parents. So I told myself that I would put her in school in the fall and if things went well then my concerns would be put to rest. Well, September was...how shall I say...dreadful! I knew homeschooling was the answer to my prayer but I was not yet ready to accept it. I was terrified and not in the least bit prepared to take on that responsibility. I just kept telling myself that things had to get better. So I started volunteering in the school and helping out wherever I could but nothing seemed to be working. By December we were at our wits end and I knew something had to be done. Patrick and I made a promise that if Leah was at peace over the holidays and there was happiness in her eyes again, I would pull her out of school in the New Year. That is exactly what happened so I pulled her. I was terrified but it is without a doubt the BEST decision that we have ever made for our family. Leah is so happy and doing so well. Infact I am even having fun! As it turns out I am one of those parents, who knew. I guess the Lord really did know what this little family needed He was just waiting for me to follow his promptings. Next time I won`t wait so long!

You know you are having a bad day when...

you spend six hours making a beautiful cake for your daughter's birthday and then this happens.

I cried and laughed and then I dropped to my knees and began cleaning up the mess. Leah was mortified when she saw her cake on the floor. Her first reaction was to run to her room screaming and crying while Dillon and I cleaned up the mess but within minutes she on her knees hugging me telling me how sorry she was and how awful she felt for me. I was really proud of her, what maturity that showed for her to recognize my feelings in this situation. She really is growing up to be a great little girl!!!

I spent the following day working on birthday cake version 2.0. I think it turned out better than the first (thank goodness). Now the hope is that it will survive until the day of the party. Only 24 hours left, so far things are looking good. Lets hope they continue!