Woman in Real Life

It's Friday. Have a good one. And don't worry too much about your Christmas shopping. It will get done. It always does. (By the way, that little encouragement was just as much for me as for you -- I have barely bought a single present.)

Normally I would call this Insta-Friday, with the "insta" representing cell phone photos. But I am mixing cell phone and camera photos, because I am tired of the quality of my cell phone photos. Nope. No iPhone 5 over here. Not that I'm jealous.

I am including this photo of fruit to illustrate a story about kids...my kids. I sent pears and apples in their lunches yesterday. Mostly they came back untouched. So, I cut them up after school and put them out like this. They ate it all. Apparently they are too lazy to bite into a whole fruit.

This was my lunch yesterday. Not much in the house, so I sauteed some frozen veggies with Bragg's and garlic powder. I served it with a Sol mushroom and rice veggie burger topped with salsa. It was good but I was starving in about two hours.


It was my husband's birthday this week. I made a chocolate cake with a peanut butter icing. I bought some "Happy Birthday" templates from the dollar store. Cool idea. I'm not very patient though. This is how it turned out.


We fit in a visit to the tree farm last weekend in between basketball games. The question then became where do we put the tree. We have two couches in the family room now and we didn't want to take one out. So, we squeezed her in the kitchen.


When I say squeezed, I do mean squeezed. I like my Christmas tree as tall as possible, but we only have 8-foot ceilings. I cut down the middle branch at the top and the star is still tilted. Never mind our usual angel. She had no hope of fitting.


This is one of my favourite ornaments from childhood. We had a mouse in a matchbook too, but my sister took it. She claims that one was hers and this was mine. I disagree, but whatever.


This one is another childhood favourite that we made with my mom...a Raggedy Ann and Andy sun catcher ornament. I believe Andy's missing leg came later, ie. from my kids.


A modern addition to our ornament collection. It reminds me of the Halloween episode where Spongebob trimmed down his head and exposed his brains. That was so gross.


One of my husband's students gave him this countdown to Christmas clock. The kids love it. I'm ignoring it. It reminds me of what I haven't done yet...like making cookies, cleaning the house, shopping...


I got this card holder from the dollar store. Cute, eh? We had no cards when I got it, so my daughter quickly drew up one for each of us.


At school one year, she made this cute Nativity Scene from a clementine crate. We light it up with green lights at night.



Just thought I would give you a peek at my husband's favourite part of our house -- the music room! Those are just the acoustic guitars on the wall. There are a few electric ones around too. The piano is for him and the kids, although my daughter stopped taking lessons this year. She would not practice at all. My son does just enough to get by from week to week.

I love my house. It offers us shelter, warmth and comfort. We are blessed to have it. You know what I don't like about my house? Paying the mortgage. This contest could help.

Win Up to $500 Towards Your Mortgage, Car Insurance or Credit Card

If you are feeling the pinch financially this holiday season (and who isn't?), enter the 12 Days of Piggy in the City Contest from LowestRates.ca. You could win up to $500 towards your next mortgage payment, car insurance payment or credit card balance. 

Each day, from December 13th to 24th, a new picture will be posted on the contest Facebook page.  In the spirit of the  "Where's Waldo?" books, guess what Canadian landmark Piggy the piggy bank is standing in front of for your chance to win. The prize pool starts at $0 and increases by $1 with each additional entry until it reaches $500 – so tell your friends to enter! 

The entrant with the most correct responses will win. If there is a tie, a winner will be selected through a draw. On Christmas Day, LowestRates.ca will announce a winner and donate $50 to a food bank in the winner's city or town.

LowestRates.ca provides Canadians with a fast and convenient way to save two of their most valuable assets – time and money. By using LowestRates.ca to search for mortgage, insurance and credit card offers, you could save thousands of dollars in just minutes. Based in Toronto, LowestRates.ca provides a free independent online service that helps consumers compare personal financial products offered by Canada’s leading financial institutions.

*This is a sponsored post.


Linking up to An Aloha Affair and: