by Amy | May 16, 2014 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house
In all the commotion of telling you about the what’s been going on underground, I almost forgot to mention what’s happening above ground. We are getting a new roof. This, however is a project we felt better left to the professionals.
So, the last few days we have had a yard full of…professionals.
They seem to be good at their job. The job is getting done. There is also a fair amount of smoking, throwing cigarette butts in the yard and taking breaks on the patio going on. But who am I to judge the work of fine artists? All I know is, the shingles are going on…and these guys are braver than I am for climbing up those insanely high ladders. Oh, and I do know that their work is guaranteed–so that is in our favor {no matter what happens to their lungs, I know our roof won’t be leaking any time soon.}
They say it’ll be done tomorrow.
I’m really glad to have the basement underway that the roof almost finished, but somewhere deep down, I’m also a little bummed. While extremely necessary, these aren’t the “fun” projects. I can’t help. I don’t participate. I just sit back and let the pros work. Oh, and scrimp and save until we have the budget to take another step toward a cozy, finished, livable basement. {Projects cost money, you see.}
On another note, the weather here has been sweet.
by Amy | May 14, 2014 | Blog, Devotional, The Art of Faith
Sometimes sermons haunt me. No matter what I do, I just can’t stop thinking about what was said in church on Sunday. Sometimes it’s a thought provoking–new knowledge of a well known passage. Other times it’s convicting. Still other times it can be something else all together that causes what the pastor said to stick with me.
Once upon a time I went to a church with a very elderly, very old school, and sometimes very offensive pastor. {I think some of you may know of whom I speak.} Now, there are a few instances that have held fast in my mind. But one in particular keeps cropping up these days.
As many of you know, I’ve been injured. That means I’ve basically had to quit teaching classes at the gym…and it also means I can’t do the heavy lifting involved with my other favorite pass time: house projects. All this has left me wondering what comes next. It seems like another fork in the road. I crave a productive life. In the wake of the choices that lay ahead of me for my future {possible without those intense activities}, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I should do. What has happened to my body is no one’s fault but my own. I worked too much, I lifted too many things, I ran and jumped and challenged myself all the time. Was I wrong to do that?
That’s where the old pastor comes in. Something he said in a Sunday sermon has haunted me since I was a newly married girl, back in 2009. It made me so angry at the time I wanted to get up and walk out of church.
Now, older, wiser, {slightly} less hot headed, I’ve been considering his words again. I long to be a Godly wife. A woman who does good, and is someone God–as well as my husband–can look upon with pride. So I have thought back to that fateful Sunday morning to see if what he had said only offended me because of my young, self-centered pride. I don’t think so…but you be the judge.
What he said went something like this:
A wife should not feel compelled to busy herself outside the home. Sure, she might think working is a good idea. You might even think it could bring in a little extra money. But let me break it down like this. If she is going to be employed outside the home, she’ll need her own car, she’ll need new clothes, fancy shoes, money for gas,…the list goes on. Throw in the cost of child care while she’s away and all the money spent on meals out because she won’t be able to prepare dinner…and have you really gained anything at all? I’d even bet that a working wife costs the family money in the end.
Really. He said it. I couldn’t make logic like that up.
As his words have gnawed at me, I’ve gone to a better authority on women and wives and what we should {and shouldn’t} be doing…God. After all, he created them. I’ve decided to stop looking at the world, even pastors, for advice on what I should be–or if I have ruined myself, or if I should cut out my driven heart with a knife borrowed from Snow White’s step mom. Instead, I’ll be looking into the Word. The Bible has all kinds of wonderful advice on how to be a great wife, how God cares for his women, and why women are poised to have a unique place in Christ’s great commission. One of the places I’ve looked lately has been Proverbs 31, at the woman the Bible refers to as a “noble wife.”
The woman in Proverbs 31 is so productive, so respectable, so lovely. I just can’t help but admire her. I’m actively trying to define what she does right and apply it to my own life.
If you aren’t familiar with what I’m talking about…read the whole chapter here. If you just need a refresher, let me enlighten you. Her husband trusts her with all that they have, he knows she is smart…not only book smart, but in practical ways too. She can make wise investments, she is savvy. She uses her skills to make things for her home and family. She likes creating things to much that she uses her smarts and her talents to earn extra money for their family. She works hard and she turns a profit. She is so thrifty and lucrative {not only with household funds, but also the money she has earned herself} that she knows her family is securely provided for–in turn she gives generously and is compassionate to those with less.
I love this verse:
She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.
She’s strong and not intimidated by manual labor. I love that.
She works vigorously.
This is not a woman who is confined that old pastor’s ideal of wives. Her husband doesn’t restrict her. He doesn’t insist that her endeavors are silly or unimportant, or costly to the household. Quite the opposite: Her husband trusts her to make big choices, to work hard, to accept physical challenges. She works, both in the home and in the marketplace. Her mate does not stifle her by insisting that the things she enjoys could never be part of their life. He doesn’t tell her that her skills should be put aside because he doesn’t want to waste his money on nice clothes or a cart to haul her wares. Nope. That isn’t in this chapter at all. Her husband looks at all she does and tells her that she surpasses all others. He likes his hard working, creative, fit, savvy bride.
I’m not saying any of this to say that working outside the home is what every wife should do. Or that it’s the only way. Or to demean stay-at-home wives and mothers. No matter what you do, and where you do it, God calls us ladies to work hard and have some fruit {whether linen to sell in the market place like Miss Prov31, or wonderful-God-fearing children} to show for it.
Will I ever be able to go back to working as vigorously as I once did? Only time will tell on that front. But I am at peace, resting assured that my drive and ambition are not out of line with what God would want from me. I think God likes girls who get stuff done. Now I’ll try to be patient {and low impact} as I wait for what He will challenge me with next.
xo
Amy
by Amy | May 13, 2014 | Blog, The Art of Projects, the house
When we moved up to Practically Canada we had a few home options in mind. Derek moved up before me, so he visited properties and acted as our eyes and ears and gut instinct. I did the searched online and sent him addresses to check, names to call, places to scout. We knew we wanted another fixer-upper, and we found this place. So we bought it and moved in.
It had a lot of good features, no wall paper to remove, it was out of the flood plane and was settled in a nice, safe neighborhood. Sure, it only had one bathroom, offered only 1150 square feet of finished living space and needed a lot of updating…but all that aside, it had an ace in the pocket that we couldn’t ignore: a full, unfinished basement. {Click here for all of our house’s before photos.}
So we started small with painting. Then we moved on to other things that made the main floor look presentable. Last summer, I renovated the second floor and did a lot of work in the yard. Which means we are finally ready {and have money saved} to start on the basement. The big goal here is to add a couple hundred more feet of living space, which will include a second bathroom…yay!
While the beginning stages of this giant undertaking are not my idea of fun, I know it has to be done to get down to the parts that I actually enjoy. First thing that needed to happen: clear out everything.
Gross. I mean, there’s a reason I left all that stuff stored in the basement. It’s like, I like that stuff, and I don’t want to get rid of it, but I don’t want in the part of my house that people see all the time, and I like, need some it of, but I don’t want to take the time to go through all of it, and I just hate looking though boxes, and couldn’t we be watching an episode of Dateline right now? You know what I mean?
But it had to happen. So slowly we’ve gone through everything in the basement. And like any good “start of a project” post, I’ve got oodles of before photos to record this occasion. Before you start judging the hot mess that you see before your very eyes, let me explain. I took these when we had started sorting through and clearing things out. All good organizers know that the mess will usually look worse before it looks better. So, yeah.
To give you an idea of size…I circled an object that appears in both photos above. It’s the same half of the basement, just from two different sides.
The basement is pretty small. But there are a lot of weird things down there. Let’s see…we’ve got faux wood paneling on the walls, some other wood nailed right into the cement on other walls, a make shift closet that Panda chose to use as a litter box for a while last summer {that was a nasty surprise to find}, a couple weird work benches that have been attached with a combination of nails/screws/bolts {yes, bolts}, not to mention the most precarious electrical work I’ve ever seen. All that stuff had to come out too.
We started sorting through our things about a month ago. At that point I hadn’t gotten any results back about my back from an MRI or anything like that. I held to the philosophy that if I hadn’t been shown proof that there was something really wrong, I could work through the pain, no big deal. Well…turns out the MRI did show some nasty news and I’ve since been ordered to refrain from all lifting, twisting, and lots of stair climbing. So while Derek has been doing the fun part of the job, ie: tearing out walls, ripping down paneling, and being awesome–I’ve been upstairs finding new NPR apps to download and working on some computery projects. {Being useless is so lame.}
We’ve contracted a company to do waterproof the space. That’s something we don’t know how to do ourselves, and it seems like a better investment to let someone else do it, who will guarantee their work. In order for them to come get the job done everything has to be off of the walls. As you can see, what we found behind the weird paneling was not the prettiest thing in the world. Damp, cruddy, yuck walls.
Even the stairs had to be taken away from the wall. That proved to be the hardest part of the prep stage. Our stairs run right down the side of the foundation, but the pros told us they’d have to be moved. So Derek set to it. Naturally, he found a few ancient layers of linoleum under the carpet. But he also found the most jimmie-rigged staircase I’ve ever known to exist. Tiny pieces of wood all nailed together, stacked on top of each other, all to fill in a small gap. Tiny nails barely holding anything in place. Long screws holding a scrap of carpet in place.
All these pieces of wood were stacked on top of each other in this little gap.
Really, it boiled down to two 3″ nails toe-nailed into the rafter at the top of the stair case.
Like I have told you before, Derek is awesome. So of course he got the stairs moved.
But it came at a price.
The first casualty. Every good project comes with one. Like this.
I heard a crash and came running to the basement doorway, only to skid to a halt, just shy of stepping off of the kitchen floor and down onto the basement foundation. The stairs weren’t there. They had fallen down…apparently with Derek on top. Yikes. He walked it off. No stitches, really he’s okay. The stairs have since been secured more safely–out just a few inches from the wall. I’m sure this is just the first of many odd stories to come from this very large endeavor…
Wish us luck. Especially Panda. All this construction noise is very scarey for her.
xo
Amy
by Amy | May 10, 2014 | Blog, The Art of Art, The Art of Living
I’ll be honest with you. {As usual…I like telling you how it is.} I haven’t had the best week. I started to write about it. But then I stopped. Because writing is a happy thing that I do. And I wasn’t being positive or happy or uplifting or having an artful day.
And, although I strongly dislike the movie Bambie {remember this is a judgement free zone}, I agree with the sentiment that if you don’t have anything nice to say…you shouldn’t say anything at all.
Thanks Thumper.
Now I have lots of nice things to say. Today was lovely. It was the kind of day that reminds me that there is art in everyday existence. In the pretty things all around us and in the way we spend our moments.
The amount of work stacked up on my computer to get done has gone down a bit, so I was able to devote a good chunk of the day to things outside the screen. Instead of telling you about this lovely day…let me show you.
I sketched and painted up some drafts for a paint-along party I’ll be hosting here at my house on the 19th. I haven’t painted in probably a full year. Once I started I had a really hard time stopping. I missed it. And I think I’ll do more. Lately, I’ve been drooling over Rifle Paper’s designs…so you can see that her work had a heavy influence on me.
Tonight Derek is having the group of high school guys he works with on Wednesday nights over for a night of food and fun. So when I was done painting…I started working on the preparations for my first cookout of the season. {Will the presentation be lost on teenage boys? Probably. But I don’t care.}
The guys are even planning to watch a movie on the screen outside. My fingers are crossed that this nice weather hangs on from here on out.
Have a lovely Friday night. Have you sent your mom something yet?
xo
Amy
by Amy | May 6, 2014 | Blog, The Art of the Moment
Meet my friend Allison, she’s the one with the belly. I’m so happy to call her a friend. She’s one of those super-cute, super-cool moms that makes me feel like I could {someday} do the whole get-pregnant, be-a-mom thing.
I had a great time taking some maternity photos for her. It was extra special that Zoe, now a full two years old, could come along. She’s a bit of a tough client. Her smile, while lovely…is usually fleeting. On the request of a professional holding a camera, it’ll only last a fraction of a second. Better hope you catch it.
In my brilliant {cough, cough} mind, I had the great idea to move the shoot to a local cookie shop. I’d give them both cookies, I could bribe Zoe with sugar and I’d get my much sought smiles.
This didn’t work so well. Now, instead of a child unwilling to smile, I had a child who didn’t want to look at me at all…and I was catching weird photos of her chewing. {#unflattering, even on an adorable toddler.} When I took the cookie away for a moment, we were met with a mini-meltdown. And a baby, crying in the street because I cruel photographer has taken her cookie…is just too heartbreaking to bear. So, sadly, I had to revoke her modeling privileges until we could get the hot pink icing out of her hair and off of her face.
Okay, enough about Zoe. Isn’t Allison flawless?
After the cookie had been fully consumed she perked up for a few photos at the end of our time. Really, I just couldn’t keep this face out of the view finder forever. She’s simply too sweet. And wanting a cookie is no crime, after all.
Thanks for letting me hang out, ladies! Everyone else…stay tuned for a new born session!!
xo
Amy
by Amy | May 1, 2014 | Blog, The Art of Living, The Art of the Kitchen
Recently I helped out with a funeral at church. I have to say, it was quite a privilege. I mean, I spent all of my growing up years watching at the “church ladies” serving our congregation…making Swiss steak dinners, doing dishes after the pancake breakfast {naturally using those adorable church dish towels that all church kitchens seem to have}, working concession stands at the fair. As much as I dislike admitting that I’m a grown up, it’s very exciting to finally be one of those “church ladies” who is serving. I think is suits me.
This story is not, however, about church lady nostalgia. It’s the latest edition of Practically Canada Culture Shock.
Okay, I’ll admit…I’ve never written specifically about the PraCan culture shock. But I should have started a long time ago. Over the last year {almost 2!} I’ve alluded to how drastically different things are up here in the great, white north. It’s different like I didn’t know different can be. And the most charming thing about it is that the folks up here don’t even realize it’s quirky or offbeat.
They don’t realize that “normal” 80-something year old women don’t typically make social calls without complaint in -60 degree wind chills. It never crosses their mind to think that skirts and cropped pants aren’t usually worn in the “heat wave” of a 40 degree day. They poke fun at Wisconsin accents…but insist that rag is pronounced “reg” and bag is properly said “beg.” A casserole is a “hot dish” and the correct response to hearing about a friend’s weekend away is “Oh, for fun.”
It’s a different world up here.
I’ve seen a lot and been surprised by a ton. But nothing has taken me aback as much as the funeral food I prepared from behind the counter of First Baptist Church Minot.
I was put on sandwich duty. When I was shown buns, ham, and chicken I thought everything looked pretty regular. I should have known better. This isn’t Indiana, Florida, Oklahoma or anywhere else. This is PraCan…so there’s always a twist.
Sandwich instructions:
One bun split open. Spread margarine liberally one the upper half. Add one piece of lunch meat. Close bun. Place on tray.
Just meat and fake butter?!
Yep. And we made trays of them.
Next up, I was taught to make open faced sandwiches. Now, where I come from this means a bun split open with hot roast beef or turkey, topped off with mashed potatoes and covered in gravy. Or something vaguely similar.
Now, hang on tight. What I’m about to describe is not for the weak stomached. In Practically Canada, an open faced sandwich is made like this:
One half of a sandwich bun. Add a thick spread of Cheese Whiz. Top with sliced green olives from a jar. Eaten cold.
Folks, I cannot make this stuff up. And we made trays of them. And get this…they were the first to be eaten. When the mourners came down from the funeral service to the luncheon I saw folks stacking two or three of these bad boys on their plate. The ladies in the kitchen with me reminisced about how much they love open face sandwiches, and it’s such a bummer that they are only eaten at funerals.
What?!
It’s a funeral food. What I can surmise is that this delicacy is something quite special. While to the average PraCan outsider it may look like a disgusting sodium trove, to the natives its ceremony. Like the Matzah Ball on Passover. Like mulled wine at Christmas.
A friend who happens to be about my age, and not a native, came through the food line. I was busy on the other side of the counter pouring lemonade from one of those class church-kitchen-pitchers.
“Did they make you eat one of the open-faced sandwiches?”
“No one could ever make me to that. That is straight up nasty. Why do they eat that?”
“I don’t know. It’s funeral food. Maybe it’s like the bitter herbs of Passover. It reminds them of bad times and makes them feel sad inside.”
That’s a theory. And I think it’s pretty viable. It made me sad just to make them. I guess there are some things that separate the wanna be Practically Canadians from the natives.
xo
Amy
by Amy | Apr 29, 2014 | Blog, The Art of Living
Something I get asked a lot is “How do you get so much done on your own?” As in, how do I stay so self motivated and self disciplined to get all the things done that I heap on top of my life. I’ve always been a busy bee. It’s just kind of how I roll. But lately I’ve thought about the things that really help me stay self motivated and the things that drag me down. {Especially after my lent promise.}
Tonight I’ve put together five things that help me remain motivated and push me to get lots of stuff accomplished. {Not just thought about.}
1. Set parameters
It’s easy to think that you are more disciplined than you really are. If you are anything like me you may start the day thinking “Oh, I’ll just leave the TV on as background noise…” Next thing you know you are working at half speed, and convincing yourself that you can wait until the end of “one more episode” before moving on to your next task. Understand yourself and set up parameters so that you don’t fall into those traps.
Make your work parameters reasonable. Find a way to hold yourself accountable to it.
2. Pick out some healthy rewards
I’m a huge fan of healthy rewards. Everyone knows the concept of a reward system. But if you are giving your self a junky prize after a job well done, you are setting yourself up for failure. I have found that self discipline grows fastest when we extend it even to our indulgences. Now, I’m not saying you should never treat yourself. You should! But–I think those treats should happen when you’ve given it some thought and are responsibly treating yourself.
You shouldn’t hinge your productivity and progress on unhealthy indulgences…and your unhealthy habits should hinge on your productivity. Eventually, you’ll find that a bowl of ice cream after every much accomplished day is making you feel fat, lethargic and not at your best. From there, you’ll find that your reward isn’t as desirable…and your productivity will wane.
Instead of rewarding yourself with unhealthy treats, think about some good-for-you prizes that you enjoy. This method got me all the way through college with a consistant spot on the Dean’s List and I never put on the dreaded freshman 15. For example, I love being outside and going to the gym. Most days I’d set a homework or reading goal. When I’d reached it I would go to the gym or for a walk outside…or better yet, play sand volley ball with friends. If I didn’t reach the goal, I stayed in and finished.
Now I use other things {especially since my back gave out last month.} When I get my daily work done I spend some time playing the piano, playing a board game with Derek {you know how I love those} or working on a DIY project {which, to me is much more fun than working on a computer.}
Consistently rewarding yourself with good things will keep you motivated and train you to view healthy payoffs as things worth working for.
3. Create realistic goals
To me, there is nothing more frustrating than failing. Wait…there is: failing regularly. Seriously, I can’t think of a worse feeling that spending day, after day, after day feeling like you’ve failed. I’ve been in that situation and it is no fun. None at all.
I used to look out upon my day and imagine all the things I could get done. The looong list of everything I needed to do and a whole 24 hours to do it. So I’d start whittling away the task list. Then life would get in the way. Derek would come home from work early and want to go for a walk {why would I turn that down?}, a gal from the high school youth group would call me with a broken heart in need of a cookie and some conversation and prayer, my computer pooped out, something that should have only taken an hour ended up taking several…
What I’m saying is, I spent a long time making a list of “daily tasks” and I failed. Every. Single. Day. It stunted my productivity. It made me crabby. I’d get mad because when things came up that were actually more important than any to-do list I would wind up feeling guilty for doing them instead of tackling another item on the list.
I’m not advocating that you should put playful whims before work. That’s not going to make you productive either.
Goals are great. They are vital to a productive lifestyle. I recommend making a list of tomorrow’s tasks at the end of every work day. Create your goals, but the key is to be realistic. Don’t set yourself up to fail. Make a list that you can reasonably get through in the course of a day, week, month, or whatever increment you choose. Leave room for error. Leave room for life. Take it from a person who has been there: You’ll be happier, healthier and more productive when you are riding the high of goals accomplished instead of the lows of a list left incomplete.
4. Start and end with something you get excited about
This is a big one.
I do not like getting out of bed in the morning. Which is weird, because almost all the people I am closest to love the morning. When the alarm goes of, I’d rather hit snooze six times, then lay in bed playing my Boggle app for 20 minutes before rolling out and starting the day. That–however–is not a productive habit.
To combat this, I always try to start my day out with something I’m looking forward to. This means I usually try to book fun meetings over morning coffee {it gets me up and looking decent first thing in the morning}, or I just book regular appointments that I have to show up to first thing…also, so I have to get out of bed early. If I don’t have anything scheduled, I make the first thing on my realistic to-do list something I actually want to get out of bed to do.
The same principle applies to the end of the day. We all know that draggy 2pm feeling. Sometimes I just want to curl up on the couch with Panda Cat and watch some reruns of Call the Midwife. But alas…things must progress. So I schedule something fun, or plan to finish my day with another task I look forward to. It’s like sandwiching the day’s mundane tasks between things you really enjoy.
5. Tell someone
My final secret to a motivated existence is accountability. Tell someone. Tell them your dreams, your goals, your parameters. Tell them what you hope to accomplish tomorrow, invite them to join in on your healthy reward. Once you tell someone what you are going to get done it becomes a lot harder to be lazy.
Your person should be someone you talk to pretty much every day. So whether that’s a spouse, a bestie, or a sibling…it doesn’t matter. It just needs to be someone you trust and someone who will be consistent. Tell them to check in on you. Make a point of sharing your progress with them. Swap stories of self motivation and productivity. I pinky swear, getting it out verbally will keep you motivated.
Did I miss anything? I’d love to hear your tips and tricks for self motivating! Leave me a comment…I read them all!
xo
Amy
by Amy | Apr 23, 2014 | Blog, The Art of the Moment
This is Ariel.
Isn’t that just the best name? I’ve never known an Ariel. But boy am I glad I met this one. She called me up…looking for a senior portrait session. You see, she’s graduating this spring. Yeah, a little late in the game.
She even told me she wasn’t going to have senior portraits taken. Get this–she told me she didn’t think she’s very photogenic. I think you’ll agree with me when I tell you that that notion is a big, fat laugh. Ariel is beautiful, charming, incredibly polite {she was raise in the South, after all}, and just lovely in front of the camera.
Not only is Ariel completely gorgeous…with hair more beautiful than a Disney princess…she’s also super smart. She is tied for valedictorian at her high school. Their class motto–which will be mentioned in her graduation speech?
Daring Greatly.
I love that.
Now, you may be wondering…Was it cold in PraCan on April 13th? Answer: Yep.
Cold enough that it was snowing. Cold enough that we scurried from car to location and back to the heat-blasting car again. Ariel was a real trooper, though. No complaints, no crazy looks when I drove down back alleys and asked her to sit on a fire escape. I love a girl who can smile through snow.
In the fall, she’ll be headed to Minnesota to study nutrition. I’m so happy to have had a chance to get to know her!
