Life at Oak Grove

Honestly I think I am the luckiest woman in the whole wide world.  My husband is just the best because he is there no matter when I need him.  I seriously think I got the jackpot when he entered my life.   But I also know that God knew what was best for me.   Even after 14 years being together, I am amaze how we complete ourselves in various ways.

Let me explain.

In the past two days, I had on and off pain in my lower abdomen.   Thursday was the worst for the pain was constantly there.  Not a bit pain but it was bothering me.   I prayed about it and it seemed to somewhat disappear because on Thursday evening while we were having our date (the kids having Awana) I barely noticed it.   Compared with the afternoon sensations it was better.

On Friday morning I didn’t feel anything.   I thought it was gone.   But in the afternoon it was there – on and off…   I could feel it at times while other times I was fine.   That morning for some reason I woke up at 311am and couldn’t go to sleep.   No reasons in particular.  Just insomnia I guess.

So in the afternoon I took a cat nap for a short period of time.   I got up at 4pm because I needed to prepare supper.   At some point before we sat down to eat, I asked the kids to pray for mommy’s pain because I could feel it again.    We ate and my daughter kept complaining that her belly hurt.   We both knew that she dislikes the mixed vegetables she had in her plate so we encouraged her to finish her plate to get dessert.   We have a rule in our house – you can’t finish you plate then you don’t get dessert.  

After supper time, she kept complaining more again.    I thought she was doing so because I asked for prayer for my own abdominal pain and sometimes she copies other on that.   So I told her to lay down on the sofa and rest a bit.  She took off to play instead.

We went to bed at 9ish…   at 1115 or so I heard crying – more like whimpering.   We don’t have a dog and I knew immediately that it was Jasmine.

I got up and she talked to me with a whining tone saying something like “You didn’t give me a bowl.”   What is she talking about?   But before I opened the light the stench smell hit my nose.   NO!  Opening the light I saw the mess on her bedroom floor (which is carpeted by the way) and in her bed.   Even one of her Barbie's is dirty.

Poor sweetheart… her belly was REALLY complaining.   But at this point in time, maybe because I wasn’t in my plate myself due to the pain and the lack of sleep and also because of the smell, I felt overwhelmed.  Almost borderline going to cry.    I didn’t believe her…  Where should I start?   Somehow my brain was not thinking properly.

So I did something that usually I wouldn’t do.   I woke up my husband and told him I needed help.   You see my husband has trouble to fall asleep.   Oh he can but if I wake him in the middle of the night it can take hours for him to get back to sleep.   I knew he went to bed after me but I didn’t know at what time (he was working on his computer as he reformatted it).    So unwillingly I woke him up.   He got up rapidly and came with me.  He couldn’t believe his eyes.  I mean the floor was covered with it.   The bed, her favorite pink blanket, one Barbie, the bed sheets, even her PJ.   (For the sensitive hearts reading this I am sorry for the details… but it was overwhelming!)

His reaction was “Oh my goodness!”   We immediately kicked in geared both of us.   I took care of the bed sheets while he took care of the floor.   We picked up the mess, vacuumed, and even washed the carpet.  All this at 11pmish.   There was no way that she would be able to fall back to sleep with the odor in her room.    I gave her a shower, changed her pajama, put some clean bed sheets in her bed.   However I had to tell her she couldn’t get back her pink blanket yet has it was dirty.  She understood and asked for the one with princesses on it.   Within 30-45 minutes, we were able to put her back to bed.

At 12:15 her door closed quite loudly.   I went to check and she only had to go to the bathroom.   

It took a while for me to go to fall asleep.   But at 715am I was awake again.  Thought that I heard her calling me again but she was playing downstairs with her big brothers.

She seems to be fine right now.   She is back to her normal self.   Me?  Well I am a bit tired but happy that I had help to clean up.

Before going back to bed, I apologized to wake him up but my husband told me “Don’t worry about it.   I’m glad you woke me up.   Besides I had just went to bed.”    I told him I felt overwhelmed and he said “No kidding.”   

Last night I learned two important lessons.

Lesson 1:   When one of my kids complains that he/she doesn’t feel well – believe it.   I mean they don’t have the habit to complain so there might be something to investigate.   Though I have taken her temperature but she was fine.

Lesson 2: Don’t hesitate to wake up the husband when these kind of situations happen.    After all we are one and we can support each other through health and sickness.   We worked as a team last night.   It took less time than if I had to do it myself…  

So my question today for you is simple.   How does your husband rock your world in challenging times?

I know that I have been unhooked for over a week.    When we got back from Toronto, we had internet issue for a whole day.  Then on Wednesday my husband kidnapped my laptop to upgrade it.   Actually, he had to do a backup before he prepared a new to me laptop with a bigger hard drive.  

So I am uncertain when I will get the “new” laptop…

Knowing my husband I know the set up will be perfect.   It just takes time.

Besides, we were out yesterday visiting a Maple Bison farm.   We had a blast learning about making maple syrup and doing some four-wheeling….

I promise to post the A to Z on gratitude and the pictures on their respective dates when I get the laptop back.

I will admit something to you today.

I am getting a bit tired of reviewing books/products.

But somehow, after working so hard to get my blog where it is now, I can’t seem to be able to pull the plug.

So I am seeking God to see what he thinks about it.

I already reduced the number of reviews I was doing.  Quite a bit.   Limiting the books to about 4 or 5 publishers.

I think my joy of doing it has left me along the way.   Might be a season too.

But I am questioning myself… wondering why I am doing it, what are the advantages, what is the best for my family.

I sense that I need to reduce more…

So I pray and try to listen to God to hear what He has to say on the matter.

I just don’t know what to do…

For the past week, I have put many thoughts on personal branding.

Not only because of this specific course titled Introduction to Social Media but because of an email I received this past week from Mom Central.

Last Fall, Mom Central Canada has decided to put a Blogger Grant Program.   Bottom line is that they are awarding grants over the next year to Canadian bloggers in their network.    The first grant program was about a post that you would like to write.     In January 2011, I learned that I was one of the ten recipients of this first grant of 250$ from Mom Central Canada.  My application was the following:

The blog post I would like to write about would be RVing with young children‚.   In it I would give tips on how to choose an RV for a young family as well as tips and tricks on travelling long distance with young children.   We ourselves are rvers and we have 4 kids ages 3 to 9.     We learned a lot over the past three years about travelling with children and how to have fun as a family.    I would also suggest some fun activities to do together on the road or while visiting a new place.

Turns out that the post was a bit longer than I thought and I decided to split it in two different posts.   If you feel like reading them here they are:

Buying an RV. Are you ready?

RVing with young children

Where am I going?   Well I knew that the new grant will open up soon and I was starting to think of the next subject I would like to write.   Imagine my surprised when I received a Mom Central  email last week – about personal branding…

The Mom Blogosphere is brimming with talented, smart, passionate and ambitious women. We feel so grateful and want to do our part in helping take Moms' personal brands to the next level: be that a broader audience, getting media exposure, becoming a spokesperson, starting a small business, or better monetizing your platform. The possibilities are endless, and tie inextricably to the vision you have for yourself. So whether $2,000 could get you media training, graphic or technical help, a site redesign, shared office space, some intern hours, new business cards, let you self-publish a book, launch a new blog, or attend a key conference - we want to pitch in to provide the support it takes to get to the next level. So tell us what inspired you in the first place, your journey to take, and what you aspire to do next - because we care, and we want to help!

We know you do what you do for a reason, with a mission and vision behind it.

We love that.

We want to jumpstart more successes to come.

We want to support YOU!

And there would be five winners of 2000$ each.

So I started thinking seriously about the personal branding.

The questions linked to the application are all geared toward the personal branding theme.   What is the vision behind my personal brand, what do I aspire to do next, how will I use the grant to better my influence and personal platform, what I have done already to achieve my goals, what are the biggest challenges in achieving the goals for my blog and personal brand,   what are the top three things I learned along the way in building my brand and platform, and more.    In total I need to write a proposition of over 5000 words!

And to spice up the competition, the votes will be done on facebook of all places!
So I decided to embark on this new adventure.   I will try it again and see what will turn out of it.   I am fortunate to have my social networking course to help me discover aspects that I can explore with the personal branding and where I could expand my influence in the blogosphere.

On a bright note, I got offered to join the Woodall’s blogger team.  The past two weeks were all about thinking about the offer and filling paperwork.   The involvement will be for a period of six months with a post per week.    I had to submit some previous work I had done before.    Apparently I would be a great voice for the Woodall’s Family Camping Blog and they have been searching for a blogger to carry the torch for Canada.

Honestly I am not sure where all this is going but I am excited of the new opportunities opening up for me.    This afternoon I will have training with Woodall’s on how to use their platform.  Should be pretty straightforward…   Soon I will be able to post my blogs on their site. 
Do you have any suggestions that you would like to share with me on how I could make my application for the grant stand up above the other ones?   Please note that this application will be for my review blog – Canadianladybug Reviews!.

Let me know I am curious!

This month I decided to take up the L2L Challenge from Mommytography 365 Project. 

The challenge is to interpret the scripture below with a photographic image (or images).

"Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl." ~ Deuteronomy 28:5

I didn’t really know what I would do.  But this morning, as I decided to make special tea biscuits for the kids it dawned on me…  Why not mixing Valentine with this cooking activity.

The kids helped and it turns out that my neighbour and her son are sick.  So we dropped some heart shapes tea biscuits this morning at their house.   Giving them love as Christ would have done!

As for my project, here it is!

I’ve entered a challenged.. which is to blog everyday for the month of February.

I will try to give my best shot as I feel I have much on my shoulders yet.   But it should be fun.

If you want to participate, go to http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=180703188635282 and join the rest of us.

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Feb 2nd, 2011.

Weather warning in effect.  It is snowing a lot.

It is suggested that we should stay home.    It was Survival week at the swimming lessons and the kids LOVE this.  But it is better to be wise sometimes than facing possible problems while driving in a snow storm.

So we will stay home.   Do some school this morning (a bit), clean the first floor, and squeeze something special for the kids later on.

It is windy outside.   And the driveway will have to be shovelled later.  Maybe oldest son will be willing to do it…  *grin*

I also have to do an assignment for my social media course for later this week.  Mind as well do it now…

A couple of reviews to post including giveaways!

So the day will be busy even though there is a storm outside. 

Note to self:  wear a long sleeve shirt today!  Brrrr!