We’re just three days away from Christmas and I **think** I am ready. My baking was done a while ago, the presents are all bought with all but one wrapped (**note for the shopping list – pick up wrapping paper), and I believe I have all the food I need. Continue reading “Merry Christmas, Love from the Dyck Family”
People typically know that asking a women if she is pregnant is a fairly risky thing to do. Because of this it is generally a culturally accepted fact that you don’t say anything at all until a woman is most certainly pregnant.
Why then is it not a culturally accepted fact that you must continue to watch your tongue even after a woman is most certainly pregnant?
Being seven month pregnant and friends with a group of people who are either also pregnant, wanting to be pregnant, or just recently gave birth, I have heard my fair share of comments from people I think should just know better.
Just last week I was told twice in the same day that I was “huge.”
I watch television shows where people have new babies and these people look exhausted. I mean they say they are exhausted and they do funny things because they are tired, but they also looked so tired.
Now I can’t say anything about how I have appeared the last nine months, but I don’t feel like I ever felt that mommy exhaustion. Yes, I have been tired, but typically I have just had to make it to when my husband got home from work and then I could crash. Either for a nap, or for the night, sometimes at 7:30 p.m.
Today though, I feel like I might look like those exhausted moms on TV.
Tonight I logged onto my blog to check out my stats. I wanted to know exactly how many of you faithful readers are really out there. In the process however, I became distracted by scrolling through and reading bits of old blog posts. It wasn’t until I came across “This proves you never quite know where you’ll be in just one year,” from November of 2011 that I really felt the urge to write about what I had been reading.
I started this blog in March, 2010 and didn’t really start writing regularly until June of the same year. At that time the blog was really just a place for me to write whatever was on my mind. This was a transitional period in my life, I had just finished school, ended a serious relationship, and just began working full time in the journalism world. A few months later, I moved to Alberta and I bravely put my blog out there for all of my friends and family to read. It was the simplest way to share some of the stories we would have otherwise shared over coffee.
However, in scrolling through the old posts, I realized this space had been so much more than a place to share fun life stories. It was a place for me to reflect and challenge anyone who took the time to read the post. And for that reason, I am going to divulge in a bit of reflection.
Continue reading “A little reflection is a good thing from time to time”
I recently came across this article while scanning through my Facebook newsfeed. While reading it, I can’t help but feel as if the author were writing a page directly from my own heart.
This may sound strange to some people who are just getting to know me, but the truth is one of my largest weaknesses is creating the type of bond that would create a “village” of people that my family would not only trust, but respect and love. This weakness, however, does not mean these bonds are not something I desire.
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Growing up I believe my parents had a “village” of people to help raise us. When my siblings and I were small we would run back and forth across the field between our house and the chicken farm next to it to play with the neighbour’s kids. My parents had close friends who we quickly called “Aunt” and “Uncle” as a sign of respect, but also love. There was also a large group of families from the church who watched us grow and change and prayed for us each and every step of the way. These families supported us as we went off to post-secondary education, when we got married and when we started having babies. These families are the reason I have two homes. The place I currently reside with my loving husband and son and the place 4,000 kilometres away where I learned what it meant to be supported, the importance of respect, and the power of faith in Christ.
Living in Grimshaw and recently becoming a new mom has made me realize more than ever, as the article alludes to, that our modern housing arrangements of fenced yards, closed doors and helicopter parenting doesn’t encourage the ideal of having a “village.” When 20 minutes is a significant distance to travel for a visit, and when social boundaries and personal inhibitions prevent conversations and relationships from being formed at the park, creating a network or village becomes even more of a thing of the past.
The article has me thinking, and while the idea of opening myself up to people in the hopes of creating positive and lasting relationships is scary (because we all know how difficult it is to make real friends in new places), I’ll never help create a village for my little monkey if I don’t start trying.
Alright, so I’ve received notice from a few people regarding the lack of activity on my blog. So here’s where I promise to be better at writing, but we all know I’ve made that promise before. Just keep reminding me you’re waiting for new posts and I will do my best to deliver.
For today’s post I am going to share some of the best experiences and products I used during my pregnancy, in the hope that it may help someone else, and the worst experiences.
For those of you who saw me at eight and nine months pregnant, you knew that being pregnant was no longer super fun for me. While I did put on some excess weight (hello licorice, chips and Kentucky Fried Chicken), a lot of my size at the end was in fact swelling. My hands were big, my legs were big and my face was big. Check out the photo. The progression goes 16 weeks, 28 weeks, 40 weeks.
I know shocking. Needless to say, I was super excited a week after baby arrived when my ankles returned and my chins started to recede.
Prior to being put on bed rest at 34 weeks, pregnancy was pretty good. Sure my feet hurt and my back hurt, but my sister became an Arbonne Consultant, which means I had a direct connection to a cooling foot cream and herbal massage gel. These are two great products for pregnant women. Cody would use the foot cream on my feet almost every night and the massage gel on my lower back whenever I could convince him. The massage gel has a strong smell, one Cody said burned his nose…so he didn’t like using it.
Oh and yes, you read that right. Cody did massage my feet almost nightly. I know, I’m spoiled 🙂 However, what that means for me now, post-pregnancy, is that I can’t get a foot massage to save my life. Something about reaching my quota a long time ago…
Another worst and best was the heartburn. For anyone who has seen our little guy, you know why I had heartburn. For those of you who haven’t seen him, check out the head of hair below.
After I had downed a bottle of Tums (keeping within the recommended dosage of course) my mom let me in on a little secret. Celery eases the discomfort of heartburn. The best part about this knowledge was that you don’t have to limit the amount of celery you eat when pregnant, so if the heartburn was particularly stubborn, I could just keep eating celery.
I’m sure there were other things I wanted to mention in this blog post, but now that Baby D is here, I’ve forgotten. For those of you who are wondering who Baby D looks like more, I’ll let you decide. Below is a group of photos, Cody on the left, Baby D in the middle, and me on the right. Let us know what you think!
Things around Grimshaw have been interesting, that I cannot deny.
On Monday the weather was absolutely gorgeous, to quote a friend, it was “sweat weather.” For a brief moment I even thought maybe we would get to experience Spring when Spring arrives, instead of in April. I should have known better. I woke up this morning, went to the gym at 6:30 a.m. and was hit by the most unpleasant bitter cold wind.
From there it only got worse. I went home, showered and got ready for work. My outfit called for flats and because the snow is melting and the cold wind kept the mud frozen today, I figured flats would be an excellent addition to my cute outfit. Boy was I ever wrong. It was cold when I left my house to go to Berwyn for an MD council meeting. It was snowing when I left the council meeting at noon for lunch. At 2:30 p.m. when the meeting was over there were two inches of fresh fluffy snow just waiting to fill my cute flats with it’s icy coldness. But at least my outfit was still cute, right?
I’d also like to say my contacts are now working just great. Following my second appointment last Wednesday, I am now wearing a different brand with a better optical quality…and a stronger prescription. I went to see this eye doctor nine months ago and told him I thought my prescription had changed. He told me it hadn’t and I thought, “well you’re the expert.” Last Wednesday after approximately 15 minutes of me trying to convince this man I could in fact not see clearly and that I was in fact trying to read the letters, he decided to try a new prescription. Presto, I can see! The world is so crisp and clear!
I started this blog some time ago and figured it was about time to finish it. Here is the original beginning….
I got off work a little early this afternoon went home, did a bit of power yoga and then sat down behind my computer to read a few old blogs. I started with ones I had written about the same time last year and then went a little further back. This post is all about my sense of uncertainty in regards to the future and my sure determination to find great professional success. Thank you cards and rent cheques is all about the mass amount of excitement I felt as I prepared to leave my home province of Ontario.
While most of these posts made me smile and think fondly of all the great people I met along my way to Grimshaw, I can’t help but think that everything I thought God was gearing me up for was wrong. God didn’t send me to Grimshaw to get the experience I needed to one day work at the Globe & Mail. He didn’t even send me to Grimshaw to gain the experience I needed to return to live in beautiful Sarnia, as I had once thought.
And this is the new part….
God brought me to Grimshaw, away from everything, just so that I could find Him. Since graduating from High School I went on a bit of downward spiral spiritually. Of course I still believed and never did I ever think about turning away from God, but I wasn’t filled with the spirit and often made decisions based on my own wisdom, instead of first consulting Him. Even now when I face one of the day’s problem Cody always asks me if I’ve prayed about it. Sometimes this question irks me because, well, I haven’t prayed about it (and the fact that I feel irked is indicative of something else I’ll discuss a little further down). But I know that spiritual accountability is one of the reasons God has me in Grimshaw and subsequently, Cody in my life.
Now that I’m in Grimshaw a small part of me still wants to achieve a type of career where my name is recognized among journalism students, or in the very least a piece I wrote about. A friend told me she accepted a new job the other day. A definite step up from where she had been, and that made me a little jealous. Yet, I know that what I have here in Grimshaw and at the Mile Zero News is exactly right for me (and with an upcoming staff meeting regarding a website and colour printing, hopefully the newspaper will be well on it’s way to catching up with the rest of the media world!)
Besides, God brought me to Grimshaw to show me that life isn’t all about work. Life is about relationships.
In the last year and a half I’ve gone from being career driven, to relationship driven. I used to not care whether the people of Grimshaw knew who I was, and while a certain degree of anonymity is a good thing, especially when someone doesn’t like what I’ve written (I can’t write good news all the time!), having people know who I am, know who I’m dating and know where I attend church is a good thing.
Further to all of this, God is working a number on my heart. I know I want to be filled with the Holy Spirit and use the gift of the spirit that God has given me – even if I’m not totally sure what that is. I’m being stretched in all directions. Sometimes I can recognize the work of the Spirit when I feel it, other times I’m stubborn and rebel against it (Or just feel irked…). Then, about two days later, I know the silly temper tantrum I threw with God (and any other poor person who happened to step in my path) was childish, and I can see the work He is trying to accomplish in my life.
It’s funny where God can lead a person in just one year. Away from everything that is familiar, away from everything that is entertainment (and distraction), and into something completely new and completely life changing. All I can say is that when I return to Ontario (and I will return, it just might not be as soon as my family hopes it will be), I’ll be a person of integrity and spirit-filled. I’ll be ready for whatever God has for me, the people, the situations, the employment.
Tonight is my second shift at the recently constructed Mile Zero Regional Multiplex and while it’s incredibly boring, it’s nice to sit here and eavesdrop on all the people who are 100 per cent impressed with our town’s brand new gorgeous facility.
The Fieldhouse is not yet open for public use, but it’s one of the first things people see when they walk into the building and so it’s definitely a conversation piece. One elderly lady told me on Thursday that Grimshaw was going to be the envy of the whole Peace Country because of our facility. Another Peace River woman had to pick her jaw up off the floor when she realized the Fieldhouse had three full-sized courts. A Peace River hockey coach turned to a Peace River hockey dad and said “Look at this, and it’s in Grimshaw!”
I’m excited that the fieldhouse will open on Nov. 1, which will mean my job won’t be quite so boring. Some of the things I’ve done to fill my time include the following.
1) Caught up on reading my Maclean’s magazines, I’ve fallen way behind so it’s nice to be able to read them now.
2) Studied the multiplex rate sheet, there are so many different levels of membership that using this time to memorize the list is a good idea, even if full memorization might be a bit of a stretch.
3) Looked through a Regal catalogue. My supervisors’ kids must be selling Regal through school and she was nice enough to leave a catalogue on the desk. It also brought back fond memories of selling the products for GEMS.
4) Completed a story and charts for next week’s paper about PRSD test results. I knew the story would take a bit of time to complete, it’s a good thing I had five hours to space tonight!
5) Caught up on reading about some recent events. It’s bad when you’re a newspaper reporter and not sure what’s going on outside of your tiny little town.
6) Begged Cody to visit. He stayed for 15 minutes, and that was 15 minutes when I wasn’t completely bored.
Now that Minor Hockey is in the building, it’s not quite so silent and with only 40 minutes to go, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Now I just need to figure out what to do during tomorrow’s afternoon shift.
This blog post is more than long overdue and for that I’m sorry. And despite being a little unseasonal, I will be telling you all about my first ever Thanksgiving Dinner preparation adventure!
About one week before Thanksgiving Cody and I went grocery shopping. I was a little apprehensive about doing the dinner since not many of our girl friends had committed to coming, but Cody was optimistic and decided to buy the largest turkey and ham he could get his hands on. He even opted out of buying a Butterball turkey simply because the ones at the grocery store were not large enough.
As the weekend approached a few more people committed to coming, but it was evident we would still have way too much food. Cody didn’t see this as a problem because he was already dreaming of Turkey sandwiches and leftover potatoes. And if we didn’t have enough food, on Saturday Cody and I spent the day in Grande Prairie and come home with more potatoes and brussels sprouts (Cody’s special request, I think they’re disgusting) to add to our already very large list of Thanksgiving Day offerings.
In the weeks leading up to thanksgiving I was also practicing my bun making skills. Unfortunately I did not master them prior to Thanksgiving Monday, but the ones I made for Hot Lunch on the following Thursday were pretty well near perfect. Perhaps that’s because my dear boyfriend leant his helping hand, and together we got the buns in the oven and ready for 50 hungry teenagers.
When Monday morning rolled around I got out of bed at a decent time and drove over to Cody’s place. He was already up and preparing to bring a large table over from his parent’s house to set up in the living room. The table was perfect. While I got started on stuffing my first turkey, Cody continued to clean the house and do other things.
Stuffing the turkey was easier and less gross than I thought it would be. I also got the ham ready for the crock pot (one part ginger ale and one part water, topped with pineapple slices, made for a delicious piece of meat). Five hours later I began to panic. My beautiful turkey was still quite pale and the kitchen smelled of everything but turkey. Cody’s mom came over to check things out and advised us to turn the oven way up. Thankfully I was cooking a thawed turkey and with the oven at a much higher temperature, things were ready to be served at the right time!
When everyone arrived we were not quite ready, but that was ok. Cody and I got all of the food moved out to the table. Are you ready for the list? We had turkey, ham, potatoes, a mandarin orange romaine salad, broccoli salad, brussels sprouts, carrots, beans, a delicious mushroom and snow peas dish prepared by Cody’s mom, homemade buns, cranberries, and squash. There was a lot of food. For dessert we had homemade pumpkin pies with maple whipping cream, pumpkin pie cheesecake squares, macaroons, pumpkin cookies, and peanut butter cookies.
Delicious.
During dinner Cody remembered that I had told him of a tradition my family does each year at Thanksgiving. Each year we go around the table and list one (or many) things we are particularly thankful for. This meant the world to me and really made our Thanksgiving dinner feel like it does at home. I found out later that apparently my family neglected to follow through with this tradition this year, which is kind of funny.
The boys (Mat and Cody) cleaned up all the dishes while the girls went for a walk around the block. All in all it was an excellent day that I couldn’t have pulled off without the help of Cody and the gift our guests gave us by being there.
It was a beautiful Albertan Thanksgiving.
Our Family Chatter 