The past two weeks

The past two weeks have been quite busy! Last Wednesday we left at 8pm with our two babies and mother in law for a long, well worth it, 12 hour drive! Thank God our friends Ryan and Beth lent us the Chronicles of Narnia on audio CD's! The best part of the trip was watching the sunrise!

When we arrived at 8am at Jonny's sister Trisha and husband Gaetan's house we were welcomed with hugs and kisses! We spent a lovely, short but sweet evening, and were blessed with awesome Indian food made by Trisha, one of the best cooks I know!!!! (I'm still dreaming about that Indian food and cheese cake and how yummy it was. I would have had it for breakfast if there weren't those yummy blueberry bagels and if no one was watching me) She also treated us with some bubble tea that I had never even heard of! It was so strange yet satisfying.

Friday morning we departed again to Val-Des-Monts, Quebec and arrived almost 3 hours later at my parents. It was very nice to see my family. They had not met Li'l Guy yet! We took some really pretty family pictures and I'm excited to take more at Christmas time with all the children!

My immediate family. ⬆

With spouses. ⬆

Brother and sisters. ⬆

The purpose of our trip was for our uncle Alain's wedding. I did not want to miss it for the world!! They had the most prettiest home made sailor themed "Anchored in Christ" decorations. (I sure wish I had more pictures, unfortunately they are all in my sisters phone and lucky girl is in Cuba right now! I'm not jealous at all...)

I helped decorate while my better half kept Li'l Gal and Li'l Guy. The wedding was the next day (Saturday). It was perfect! and it was so nice to see all our Aunts and Uncles that Jonny boy had never even met! Even after 5 years or marriage! Distance can be tough!! I even sang wish my sister in law Elvis Presley "can't help falling in love with you" on my ukulele!

Apart from the wedding and enjoying my nieces and nephews, one of my favourite highlights was seeing Jonny and Li'l Gal playing in my brothers hot tub. She looooved it.

There was a lot of late nights, but this week end was one to remember!!!

Next month we are going again for Christmas! How I am blessed!

On other news, before we left on our grand adventure I wanted to make a small batch of pickled beets that were about 1 and a half months old sitting in my fridge haha. they were still good, but getting soft. I made 2 jars with about 8 or 10 beets.

Here is the recipe:

Shelley's Pickled Beets

2 Cups vinegar

2 Cups Sugar

1-2 TBLS pickling spices (in cheese cloth or nylon stocking)

Directions:

Boil vinegar and sugar with the spices in the pouch for 5 minutes.

-Boil beets until you can stick a fork in it.

-Poor cold water over beets and the peel will come off easily

-Cut up beets into bite size slices and  fill 2 large (sanitized) mason jars.

-Take bag out of brine and pour brine in the warm mason jar.

-Fill with one inch left at the top.

-Make sure the jar is wiped clean so no mould gets into it.

PS: Sanitize clean jars in oven on cookie tray for 10 minutes at 200 degrees,  and boil lids in water on stove top.

(For 2 large mason jars I used 3 cups of vinegar  and 3 cups of sugar. and 1TBLS spices, but above is the actual recipe for 1 large jar I believe)

Enjoy!

With love, Vanessa Sante

Roller Coster Brain

The past two weeks have been my roller coaster weeks. More so in my head. Just in case you thought you were the only scatter brained, absent minded, moody, procrastinating woman out there, rest assured. Your are not.

Jonny boy, Nanny, Li'l Gal, Li'l Guy and I went to a friend's two year old daughter's birthday party. It was really fun, such nice and original decorations and REALLY yummy food!

We all dressed up as bandits. It was the easiest and fastest costume idea I could find/think of.

This event also marked Jonny boy's first deer ever to have shot. I am very proud of him. He went hunting for his first time, alone, waited 3 hours and BANG got a deer with one shot! Usually I wouldn't be the one to post a dead animal like this. It looks cruel and it's just sad. Jonny actually said he wouldn't post it on Facebook because for him it's a way to feed his family. Not for show. But I was too excited I needed to share it!!

 The (REALLY) fun, yet long day was all worth it. The only stressful part was trying to get SOMEBODY to nap... Which resulted in screaming and crying for hours. How fun...Terrible twos, is what they call it??

This whole hunting ordeal was very exciting, but also reminded me of my dad who also hunts and was very proud of us. It just made me homesick. Again. Gladly my sister in law offered that we have Tuesday Tea at her place every Tuesday (not only every second Tuesday like before). Now I am my nieces art teacher! This week I taught them how to paint a multi-colour zebra! These are the results! I am a very impressed teacher.

My other "dilemma" is our tiny house. It is very difficult to be thankful and content when there is no room to put anything. We have a two bedroom house and no where to put Li'l Guy! I ALWAYS need to remind myself to stop feeling sorry for myself, and remember that God blesses me SO MUCH!!!!! Its hard to look outside my shell if I'm being selfish. Wednesday God calmed my heart down through a Bible verse that I get in my emails every day. He knows what I need to hear.  

Colossians 3:15 

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Nanny helped me REARRANGE my living space to make a bit of room for the playpen in the living room. I know could just put him in the room with his sister, but I'm not ready for that chaos yet.

All this talk is making me hungry!! Which reminds me of an AWESOME panini sandwich I made and couldn't wait to share it with you!!!!

PESTO PANINI!!!! (found on Pinterest)

2 slices of bread

green pesto

Tomato

Cheddar cheese

Margarine/Butter 

Love

Spread pesto on both slices of bread, cut slices of tomato and cheese. Slap it all together add butter on frying pan and on top of sandwich and make grilled cheese! 

Soooooooooo Yummy. But I think all food is Yummy haha.

May God bless your week and give you peace that no one or nothing else can provide. 

Until next time...