Let the renos begin!

Check out the current state of our basement.










The renos have begun! This last picture is going to be our guest room...and guests, that's your bathroom that you will be using. And yes, Darth Vader is overseeing the whole project.

Let me just say, I'm not a huge fan of renos going on in my home. I like my house to be clean, and clutter free. Neither of those is a possibility with renos going on (even though it's way down in the basement). Sawdust always seems to be dragged upstairs, and there are piles of stuff every where around my house. We dont have a lot of extra storage space, so everything that was currently being stored in the basement, has found a temporary home around the house.

It is however exciting to see some progress. This is 100% Andrews space, and Andrews project. I am not allowed any input in the project at all (no decorating, or anything...heck I'm probably not even allowed to go down in the basement at all). Since the women of Andrews life have taken over the rest of the house, this is HIS space, his man cave, his lair, whatever he is calling it.

Coral and I did sneak down there though right before the renos began to do some painting on the floor hehe.

Valentines Day at the Hodgsons

Ohh life as a parent. Rule number 1: expect the unexpected.


Coral woke up last night and called for me. This is very unusual for her. She normally only does that if she has a bad dream, or if she's sick. When I went in to get her she told me she's sick and needed medicine. She seemed fine to me, no temperature, so I put her back in bed without giving it any more thought.

As I watched her this morning, I knew something was up. My first clue was that she was laying on the couch, and not moving....at all. That almost never happens. My second clue was the goop dripping from her ear. I touched her ear, and she screamed, and again said she's sick and needed medicine. So Andrew came home from work so we could take her to the walk in. Sure enough, she has her first ever ear infection. The dr was surprised at how good natured she is and after looking at her ear said she should be screaming in pain right.

And so now, our Valentines day will be spent nurturing our little girl back to health. We plan on ordering some take out after she has gone to bed, and snuggling up in front of the tv, listening for her to call for us.

Valentines day as a parent...sigh...I wouldn't trade it for anything though. Feel better my sweet little girl.

Some more changes in the Hodgson house

There have been lots of changes to our main floor within the last month. During the week that I was painting our kitchen, I also decided to change up our sitting room....yes that week was chaos. That room doesn't have a light in it, or windows, so it's very dark...lamps can only do so much. The fact that we had a big black book case, plus a black leather couch, didn't help at all.

As I mentioned before, we are starting renovations in our basement, which meant that everything from the basement had to be cleared out. Andrew had decided that he didn't want to keep the black leather couches down there, so we decided to sell the one upstairs too since they are a set. I searched high and low in kijiji and craigslist for a new couch to replace the black one, but couldn't find anything. In the end we actually found it cheaper and got a much better deal to buy a new couch at the Brick.


And, while I'm selling things, I should probably get rid of the black book case that is making the room feel like a cave. Here's the room before:









And after:











This beauty was a roadside find from my sister. It was outside her neighbors house and she saw the potential it had. Look at all those drawers! And nope, I actually don't want to paint it. Shocker right! I'm keeping it exactly the way it is.

The room is so much brighter and more welcoming with the new changes. In fact we actually visited in there on the weekend when my parents were down, which we never did before with the old stuff.

What do you think? Much better?

Coral First Sledding Experience

A couple of weekends ago, Andrew and I decided to drive down to Port Rowan for a surprise visit. My parents had no idea we were coming and were quite shocked when their little munchkin walked through the door. Needless to say, that surprise weekend turn out to be a blast.

I have to admit, I didn't pack properly for the weekend at all. I totally forgot all our bathing suits, but luckily my mom had one for Coral at her house. Coral had a blast swimming with papa...or should I say slashing papa. She mostly sat on the steps and swung her little arms with all she had trying to splash him. Meh, it's his fault for encouraging it right?

We also got to have "bun day" at my grandparents (which is a tradition where every Saturday my grandparents make fresh buns and dinner for our whole family). Coral was pumped to be using different pottys at different peoples houses. My parents have a puppy seat for the little ones, and my grandparents have a Dora seat. She loved that.

Then on Sunday, we took Coral sledding for her first time. My brother had his kids that day, so he took us all to his neighbors house to go down the little hill. Again I did not pack for this, but lucky for Coral my brother had everything that she needed from boots to snow pants to mittens.













She had no expression at all going down the hill, but when you asked if she liked it she would say "ya".




She loves her uncle Jeremy.










My sweet little niece Chloe insisted I go down the hill with her. I could never resist that cute smile of hers.







Coral with her papa.













Little nephew Kendal.







Playing with the snow for the first time. We took her out last year, but she was so little, and was not impressed with the snow at all.




She soon discovered that you can make a ball out of the snow. Even better, you can make a ball, and then chuck it at papa! This turned into a snowball fight, papa against the grand kids.







After this we went to uncle Jeremy's house to warm up. Ok, if your kids don't have an uncle Jeremy, they need one. He has a chicken coop that you can go in and feed the chickens, or collect the eggs. He has a huge fish tank (Corals fav), two cats, and a dog! Plus his house is full of fun toys to play with, and yummy snacks and juice boxes. Coral was in her glory playing with her cousins there.

As we were leaving to go home my dad said "ok, surprises us again next weekend!" and then shut the door. Maybe soon dad :)

Devotions for a almost two year old

Lately I have been thinking about how I can bring more of Jesus into Corals every day life. What does that look like for an almost two year old? We do prayer with her everyday, spending time focusing on different people to pray for, and letting her pick what she wants to pray about. For instance, a lot of the time she wants to pray for her her uncle Joel. Now in her little mind there are two specific things that she thinks uncle Joel needs prayer for. The first is "uncle Joel fall down". At my parents house Joel was sitting on the children's table, and it crashed, and he fell to the floor with a great big boom. Coral was quite upset that he got hurt.This was months ago, but in her mind, Joel still needs prayer for it.

The second is "uncle Joel ate allllllll the chocolate", referring to a time at Christmas where sneaky uncle Joel and auntie Crystal ate the whole chocolate orange behind everyone's back. It was quite funny (as the rest of us were searching for the already eaten orange and the guilty couple giggling at the table), but again, in her mind she couldn't believe they did that. She has not forgotten it, and still thinks Joel needs prayer for this (sorry Joel we have done our best to explain forgiveness to her, but she hasn't gotten it yet).

Anyway, my point is, she has got the prayer thing down, and I love to hear what her little toddler mind wants to talk to Jesus about, but I want there to be more. More talk about Jesus, and more ways to bring Jesus into our every day activities. But what does that look like when she is not even two yet?

We're starting out small. Every day after she wakes up from her nap, we have devotion time. A time where we sit down, and read a story out of her little Bible. Then we talk about the story, and then we do an activity. Usually we end up drawing. Drawing a picture specifically for Jesus that is. Yesterday Coral drew a rainbow for Jesus (which was really just a bunch of scribbles of different colors) but Jesus understood and loved it. Sometimes we write letters to Jesus, either thanking him for something, or just saying what is on Corals mind.




The other day I asked what she wanted to say to Jesus in her letter to him. She looked at the paper and said "ALVIN" (or she pronounces it Albin)...."I wanna say Albin to Jesus". I laughed so hard..it was so cute. In case you don't get it, it's from Alvin and the Chipmunks, and the guy always screams Alvins name. Anyway, she thought Jesus would get a kick out of that, and I'm sure he did. She loved hearing that that had made Jesus giggle.

She also loves to listen to her "Sunday school" music. She knows a lot of the songs by heart and can do the actions to them. I love as I go throughout my day I hear her singing about the Lord. I love when I'm cooking or cleaning and she busts out "cast your burdens unto Jesus, for he cares for you." Amen sweetie bear!

So we're starting out small, and as she gets older we will find different ways to include Jesus into our day. I love that even though Coral is only two, she constantly challenges my mind and heart to have faith like a child.