Days 34-36 Ramblings (It could be a long post)

Well, I'm proud of myself for getting to blogging today.  Thursday and Sunday were kind of the two days I was hoping to do it each week but that doesn't seem to be really happening.  Oh well.  Today was somewhat productive.  I washed down some of my cabinets in preparation for painting.  I used TSP to get the grease off but I think it may have taken off most of the finish, instead.  Since I'm painting, I don't really care.  Painting is getting closer and closer so I'm getting excited about it!!

The crazy busy part of my week is over and now we can relax a bit.  We have a play date tomorrow morning, which I think will be fun.  We don't do many of those because the kids get their interaction at Auntie's and church.  I'm looking forward to this, though.

I've done some more more scrapping so I've got several layouts to post.  The first two are ones I did for challenges at the Digi-Designs by Nicole forum.  I joined this and am having a lot of fun (and actually doing some scrapping!)

Credits: Sable Brule Collaboration by Mere Poule

Flourish from Sable Brule Collaboration by Joey

Alpha is Plain Alpha by FlowerScraps

Credits: Terre de Feu by Flolinette

Campfire outline created from Digi-Designs by Nicole Outdoor Adventures

These next pages are my week 2 pages from my project 365:

Page 1:

Credits: Hot Chocolate Collab by Digiscrapbooking.ch

Single frames from Charming X-mas by Delicious Scraps

Greenery from Ete a la Camagne by Bellissa's Scraps

Alphs is Rusty Alpha by Cottage Arts

Page 2:

Credits: Hot Chocolate Collab by Digiscrapbooking.ch

Greenery from Ete a la Campagne by Bellisa's Scraps

Did you know that since I posted that picture of Evan and Xander in their winter clothes, and commented on how Evan HATES his winter clothes, he has completely flipped.  He hasn't cried about them since that picture and now he even sits down and WANTS to get his boots and jacket on!  Go figure.  (I'm not sad about the change, though.)

Now on to my current pictures!

Day 34:

This is me at my gas station, filling up with gas.  Since I've started dropping Jason off for work at 8 a.m., I have a bit of time before 8:30 when I have to be at work.  This means that if the gas light comes on at the beginning of the week, I just fill it up on my way to work.  I go to the Shell station (for the Airmiles).  It is not very busy at 8:15 a.m. but let me tell you it is CRAZY at 5:15 p.m.  I went after work once and the only open pump was one where you had to pay at the pump.  You know, I really like that.  Ever since then, I don't bother going inside.  It's a little cold in the winter but oh, well.  This also proves that I do now know how to pump gas.  Other than the one time my brother made me do it in high school, I've never really done it much until now.  Full serve is harder and harder to find!

Day 35:

This is a series of books that I'm currently reading.  I'm actually almost done the second last book.  I borrowed them from my mother-in-law and have really been enjoying them.  It is a Christian author and the books are set in pre-WWII Nazi Germany/Europe.  I love books from this era and I find they really make me think.  It's so hard to imagine yourself in those situations but I always wonder what I would do.  There are only two choices, darkness (the way of Satan) or light (the way of God).  Would I be the one who bravely fights the darkness regardless of the cost?  Would I be the one who tries to fly under the radar and go unnoticed?  Would I try to sit on the fence even though there is no gray?  Would I be deceived by the lies told?  I have no answers.  I know what I hope I would do but I've never been in that situation (I am thankful to God for that!).  It's very convicting to try to put yourself in these situations and then realize how there are battle between dark and light going on around us every day and we need to stand firm in those small battles, too.  It also makes me ponder current world events.  My husband has studied WWII history a significant amount and from our discussions, the author seems to have done her homework.  It is sometimes discouraging to see how a little backbone from England and France could have prevented WWII but, rather, they wanted to practice appeasement, in an effort to not inconvenience their citizens too much.  In the end, suffering increased and they went to war, anyway.  I'm not a huge fan of going to war, but it makes me wonder where that kind of thing may be happening today.  Anyway, I've rambled on long enough for this picture.  One more to go!

Day 36:

This is our house in wintertime.  I'd like to try to take a picture of it in each season (I'm not so sure spring and summer will look much different, though).  I took this from across the street.  Notice how you can barely see our hedge because of the snow on the boulevard (and this is after they took at least half of it away!)  I love our house, even though it has been making strange noises lately.  It's just those things that all houses do.  We have been so blessed by this house and the location that we were able to purchase in (several years ago before the boom, thankfully).

Anyway, this has become a really long post so I'll stop rambling now and let you get back to whatever it is you're doing (surfing the internet, maybe?)

Until next time...