Respect Part 2 & Outdoor Wednesday

This is what I see out of my music room window. Our Mountain Ash changed color over the weekend and many of the leaves have already fallen off. The rest of the photos are of the Mountain Ash and the shrubs that surround our side yard.

I love the red berries on the Mountain Ash, they remain almost all year round. At Christmas they look so pretty piled with snow.

Now on to more important things. Yesterday was "C" and today is "H".

Part 2 of Respect. Husbnds say "I feel respected when..." "H" is for Hierarchy: I feel you appreciate my position as overseer (my desire to protect and provide and even die for you) when you:

- say to me "I really do look up to you for feeling responsible for me"

- tell me that you are deeply touched by the thought that "I'd die for you"

- praise my commitment to provide, i.e. "bring home the bacon"

Have a wonderful Wednesday. Today I am joining The Southern Daydreamer for outdoor Wednesday. She is showing her pumpkins this week, I only have changing leaves to show, but be sure to check out what other lovely blogs are contributing to Outdoor Wednesday. And thanks Susan, for hosting this fun blog party.

Big hugs to all,

Cindy

Respect

Thank you Cathy, Ana, Rhonda and Sarah for telling me about your wonderful husbands and what you do to keep a marriage fresh and happy. Rhonda has been married to my oldest brother for 29 years, it brought tears to my eyes when I read what she wrote. In fact, it brought tears to my eyes when I read what you all wrote.

Today I will begin to tell you what men from across America say make them feel respected.
First of all let me explain that Emerson and Sarah Eggerichs wrote the book "Love and Respect" and this comes from the material that we received at the Love and Respect conference this last weekend. They came up with the acronym CHAIRS to explain the man's side.

The "C" is for, and I quote, Conquest: I feel you appreciate my pursuits in my field (my desire to work and achieve) when you:

- tell me "thanks" for going to work everyday for the family
- cheer my successes whether in business or in sports
- ask me to talk about my dreams

Next post will reveal what "H" stands for.

I know we all desire to live happy, fulfilling lives and as for me, I need all the help I can get. So
maybe I can help somebody else, too.

I am very sorry that I don't have any images to show today, Blogger is giving me great Trouble!

Have a wonderful day,

Cindy

Happy Monday

Monday, October 26, 2009 is really the date. Don't pay any mind to the date stamped there, I can't change it without starting over.
I hope you are all having a wonderful Monday. Monday's around here tend to be busy, we do everything that we did not get done on Saturday.

We went away for two and a half days to a Love and Respect Conference that was happening in Alexandria, Minnesota. It only lasted Friday night and Saturday until 1:30. It was wonderful! So much learned and still so much to learn. The main idea of their teaching comes from Ephesians 5:33 where it says "...let each man of you (without exception) love his wife as {being in a sense} his very own self; and let the wife see that she respects and reverences her husband..." Studies show that women desire to be Loved and men most desired to be Respected. Emerson and Sarah Eggerichs teach women how they can communicate their respect to their husbands in a way that he understands it. And they also teach men how to communicate love to their wives. Stay tuned, because I am going to share with you what was learned on a questionnaire that was entitled "As Your Husband I Feel Respected When..." I will tell you what men said. It is so good!

Thank you for all of your "Get Well" wishes, I appreciate them so much.


Please tell me what you respect most about your husband. I would have to say that I respect my husbands impeccable character. He is one of the most completely honest and truly good people I have ever met.

I am so grateful that I have met all of you and we share so many of the same interests, that's why we read the particular blogs that we read and comment on, right? So, again I want to say THANK YOU, I wish I could see each one of you face to face and give you a hug, but I can't, so suffice to say, Thanks, girlfriends, you mean a lot to me!

Love and Hugs,

Cindy S.

Thank YOU

I want to thank all of my dear readers for their ideas and help concerning my kitchen renovation. All of your input helps, I really do need ideas and another perspective sometimes.

Thank you also for your sweet words regarding the Award that I received. I am embarassed at how un-creative my post was. After I read French Kissed, especially. She is one beautiful, brilliant and talented lady! Go read what she revealed about herself. She is an Attorney! Also Greet from Belgium Pearls, another beautiful,sweet, talented lady, read about her, if you haven't already. I am humbled to realize that these ladies read my blog and say that they enjoy it.

I have not been around much lately. I have had the flu for nearly two weeks and I am still not getting over it. My creativity level is at zero. So all I can do is reflect on a beautiful verse that has great meaning for me. Even when I am not feeling well I can still talk to my Creator, my Maker, the lover of my Soul. I love Him so much. I am so grateful for the intimate walk that He desires of us and I can have with Him. It is not an arduous thing to serve the Lord, but rather, it is my greatest pleasure. There are times when all we can do is look up and know that He cares, He is there and that He understands.

Hugs to all my dear readers,

Cindy

An Award!

Thank you, Greet of the gorgeous blog Belgian Pearls, for awarding me with the Kreativ Blogger Award! I have never received an award and never expected to, so I am slightly overwhelmed with this. One of things I must do is tell you seven things that you might not know about me.

I have already blogged about the most important people in my life, so you know that my children and grands are the most important thing next to Jesus Christ, who is first and foremost and then my sweet husband Ray.


These two above bring sunshine to my life each day, when I look after them after school.

And I have already told you about my sweet daughter and her family, and that I love feathering my nest...so I must think of seven other things.

Okay, here we go:

1) I was born to a minister and his wife who were living in an Indian Village in the state of Washington right on the ocean. I was born at home, the doctor came to our house to deliver me.

2) Thus my great delight in large bodies of water, particularly the Ocean, we then lived close to the Ocean for the next nine years while my dad pastored a church on the Reserve.

3) I have two sisters and three brothers. We are all very close, my two sisters are my very best friends. I am the next to oldest.

4) I am a loyal friend and I love very deeply, but I do not make friends easily. In fact I have very few close friends.

5) My husband and I were each married before we married each other. He had two girls, I had a boy and a girl. So, now I am blessed to have three wonderful daughters and a daughter-in-law who are my next to best friends. I have an amazing relationship with each of my girls and I thank the Lord for them every day.

6) I knew when I was just a little girl that I would marry a minister one day.

7) During our first six years of marriage my husband and I lost all four of our parents and our oldest daughter had cancer. Thank God the last thirteen years have been much better!!

I am supposed to nominate other bloggers, but I want to give it to all of my favorites, so I will just say, the ones on my sidebar are the greatest and definitely the most creative. And by the way, I have noticed that many of them don't accept awards. So I am just going to pass it on to the one lady that I have met and who lives only a thirty minute walk from me! Millie of Wreathmaker. Please go check out her blog, it is so pretty

I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and don't forget the One who blessed you with the day!

Hugs, Cindy S.

Thankful Thursday

If you haven't got all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don't have, that you don't want. ~unknown

I found this quote over at Restyled Home, another Canadian blogger. Take a look at her blog it's very well done.

I am very grateful for the things that I don't want and do not have.

I have been baking! I am so thankful that I can bake bread. I enjoy the whole process so much. I made four loaves of bread and four dozen buns.

My husband and I went to Home Depot today and purchased a new Range with a Convection Oven to go into my new kitchen, I will get it some time in January when everything is installed. I cannot wait for it! I am so thankful that I will be able to bake so much at one time and everything coming out evenly cooked. Do you have a convection oven? Do you like it, if so why? If not, why? We got a very good deal on the range and an over the range Microwave Oven. Thankfully, we have gotten some great deals purchasing our new appliances. I am also very thankful that I have a husband who understands how important an efficient and beautiful kitchen is to me.

I hope you have found several reasons to be thankful today,

Cindy

Planning a New Kitchen

We have hired Visions Kitchens to do my new kitchen for me. Today I want to show you my inspiration pictures. I keep collecting these in an attempt to get a really clear picture in my mind of what I want.

I love the black counter top, so that is a must. And I will have white cupboards, another must. I have the choice of the shaker style with just the flat two inch trim on the doors, or I could have a piece of quarter round inserted inside the trim to round it out. I like that idea. What do you think?
My house is over 80 years old and has all of the original oak flooring, except in the kitchen and all of the original wood trim.

The kitchen designer suggested that we try to match the oak flooring and put that in the kitchen. That would be a great idea, except that we are on a budget and I am afraid that would add way too much to the cost. I love the look of cork flooring, but it too is pretty costly, too. But I found some cork laminate that looks exactly like cork and it has the same colors in it as the oak floor. So, I am considering that. I have thought I would like a chandelier in there, also, but I am wondering about the cleaning aspect. I don't fry food much, but I do cook a lot. We have a sit down meal every night and I cook from scratch. We don't do microwave dinners.:-P

My cupboards are going to go clear to the ceiling, like this one above, only those will have glass doors on them. I have several large white pieces of stoneware, and they will go up there.

I am considering putting a school house light in there. I love the look of them! Brooke Gianetti has them in her white kitchen and they are TDF! And I would love a white farmhouse sink, but I crossed that off my list after I saw the price of them. I will probably just go with a stainless steel under counter sink.

I want pulls and knobs like this kitchen. And two glass paned doors on my main bank of cabinets. Like the one above.

There is a door going down to the basement from the kitchen and I want to replace it with an old wooden screen door something like Brooke's. If you click on that you should see her desk with the door in the background.

I am trying to get a good picture of all of this in my head before I go over to visit Lisa at Visions Kitchens. Are you getting a picture of what I am wanting? On a budget, though, mind you.

If you have any ideas for me, I will gladly hear them!

Hugs, Cindy

Just Say Noooo...to Winter!

My grand kids were out of school today, so I kept them for the whole day. Not long after they arrived, Jon wanted to know if we could take a walk up to the park. At about 9:30 I was hoping the sun would have had time to warm things up a bit. Seeing as how it had gone to minus 6 deg. Celsius overnight!So Naomi and I walked...

While Jonathan rode his bike.

I always take the long way so we can walk along the river...

then we stop at the park on the way back. (Oh, oh, I forgot to insert a picture of the park.)

We met a kitty cat, who decided to follow us home, not so good, because he almost disappeared inside my house. One of the kids caught him just in time!

My house was looking so pretty, despite the fact that it only has ONE coat of new paint all around and the painters won't be back for the second coat until it gets considerably warmer.

You can see my new Autumn wreath...so nice for AUTUMN.

The kids lounged and watched a video while Grandpa stayed home with them and I left for a couple of hours to visit a new friend here in the city, only a ten minute drive from me. Her name is Wendy and she has a lovely home where she and her husband have three children of their own and four sweet little foster children. I am so impressed by her, she dearly loves the children and gives them her all. She is such a wonderful mother!

Back home again, though (the color in this photo is so washed out), I built a candle fire in the fireplace because...

Winter is showing it's ugly...I mean, sweet little white face!

I am not very happy about this! It is only October the 9Th! Oh well, we can't fight the elements, we must learn to live with them instead.

All in all we had a lovely day, the grandloves and I made some good memories, I enjoyed a new friendship and fresh snow is on the ground.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend...with NO snow, wherever you may be.

Hugs, Cindy

Sweet Inspiration

When we lived on the coast of B.C., we would pop down to the state of Washington and go to Stoney Ridge Farm every fall with our grandchildren, daughter and son-in-law. Of all the photos I have ever taken this is my favorite. Our little Bethy is only two and a half in this photo.

It is raining here today, snow flurries with rain, is in the forecast for this weekend. I am not ready for that!

Happy Wednesday!

Hugs, Cindy

A New Clock and A Finished Project

I bought this clock at Winners last week for $27.00. I just love it, it is quite large and a nice dark reddish-brown color. But alas, I cannot get it to work. Do you see you see the little leaf pillow peeking out from the lower right hand corner? I made that out of an old vest with a Whistler's tag on it. Whistler, BC is where the 2010 Olympic skiing and board sports will take place near Vancouver.

Isn't the clock pretty and so perfect for the space.

As for a finished project, I got this chair at a Garage Sale for $2.00 about six months ago.

It is now finished and is sitting pretty in our Master Bedroom.

I made a slip cover for it, because I realized that reupholstering it would be a bigger task than I was ready to take on. I don't like the way the lace curtain looks in this photo. I didn't mind it in real life, but photos always show things up, don't they?! We have neighbors across the street who sit on their front steps for hours at a time and that gave me some privacy with the drapes open. I shall have to think about what to do. Do you have any suggestions?

I hope you are enjoying a beautiful Monday,

Hugs, Cindy

Lake Winnipegosis

Last week my husband and I spent five days in Camperville.  It is north-east of us.  We follow Hwy. 16 part of the way to Camperville and this is the only place in Manitoba that we have seen hilly terrain.  I love the trip because of the hills and the lakes in that area.

 

My husband and I love images of old churches.   Everywhere we go we look for them and photograph them when possible. 

 

This one is in Dauphin.

The one below is near Camperville.  A very old Catholic Church, made from local rock.

    

This is Lake Winnipegosis, a very large lake that the highway follows for many miles.  This beach is at Duck Bay.  The lake is so huge and the waves were so large that it felt like I was at the ocean.  Yes, that is me, just LOVING it!

 

Thank you for visiting today, I hope you enjoyed the photos.  I am using a new program today, so I am hoping that this comes out right.

I hope your Thursday is going well!

Hugs, Cindy