Yummers.

This week I have stopped drinking coffee. Its not because I wanted to and I hope it won’t be for forever. Last week I was having stomach aches every morning. So, the first thing I did was check to see if I had accidentally eaten any gluten. Negative. Second thing I tried was to cut out coffee. So far, there has been no more stomach aches, “Yea” and “Nooo”!

So its me and tea in the morning. Tea and me.
My friend Janine wrote down this recipe for me to help fill the void of my coffee every morning routine. I tried it tonight for the first time, and its a winna winna (chicken dinna)!

1. Fill a mug with milk, leaving about 1 inch room at the top.
2. Dump the milk into a small pan, add 1 tsp honey, and bring to a semi boil.
3. While the milk is warming up, put a tea bag (I used earl grey) in your mug with a little bit of water to get the tea going.
4. Once milk is ready, pour it into your mug with the tea bag.

So good! Winna winna chicken dinna. (I just like saying that.)

 

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1. Summers in Montreal ROCK! On Saturday Dwight, the boys, and I went first to the park and then onto the Canal for a picnic and a long walk.
 

2. Really excited about Dwight and my trip to California in a few weeks!!!! We are visiting with Jason for a few days and then spending the rest of our time there with other Acts 29 church planters.

3.  Nehemiah is into painting these days. Malachi is almost sitting up on his own and is trying to do some sort of army crawl.
 

4. One of my favorite worship songs right now is “He Is Faithful”.
“He is faithful, He is glorious
He is Jesus, all my hope is in Him
He is freedom, He is healing right now
He is hope and joy, love and peace and life.”

5. Did you know that you can listen to Initaitive22 sermons online? I had a friend that doesn’t live in Montreal mention to me that she wished she could hear Dwight preach every week. You can my friend!! Click here to listen to Dwight preach (and sometimes Brian and sometimes Sam).
 

6. Looking forward to summer plans with family. My Mom, Jana, and little Justus are coming to visit the beginning of July. Dwight, the boys, and I are going to Maine for a few weeks at the end of July. And then my Dad and Mom are planning to visit Montreal towards the end of summer. Yeah, yeah, yeah!!

7. This recipe is super easy and really good. This craft is also easy, quick, and fun (win, win, win).
 

8. Sad. There are so many weddings and grad parties that I am not able to attend to this summer. Why oh why does Montreal have to be 14 hours away from Indiana? My dear friend says it best: “Well lame. But we will be sure to post lots of pics for you. Anyway, I’d rather have you be where God wants you! We’ll party hard in heaven one day soon anyway.” True story.

9. Dwight and I love date nights. In fact, it is one of the few things we are legalistic about. Friday nights, oh how I look forward to you. If you are newly married or have been married for 20, 30, or 40 years – have a date night once a week (or every other week if thats the only option)! Its so, so very important.
  

10. Shout out: to all of you who have watched Nehemiah and Malachi so we could go on a date … you so rock!!! Sometimes you agree to do it the night of the day we ask you. You always do it for free. You do it and our boys have such a great time with you! Merci, merci, merci!!!

Room Redo.

As promised here are pictures of the room that Dwight (here is your shout out love!) painted for me last week.

The before:

The during:
  

And voila, the after:

Now, we’re on the lookout for a new bedspread, pillows, wall decor, and eventually a new bed.

Simple.

Quick beautified gift wrapping.
Needed: Paper, yarn or hemp, and markers.

Color the yarn/hemp.
Wrap the gift with the paper.
Beautify the paper with the colored yarn/hemp.
Simple.

*** Psst! Check out my sister’s blog, Granted Grace. Today’s post was just wonderful! Jana and her husband Bryce are in the process of adopting and … well, check out the blog post and you’ll see :).
Did I ever tell you how much I love my sister and her family??? Well, I love them A LOT! I wish they lived right down the road from us. I am always telling Jana that God is able to work in anybody’s heart and could tell them to “move to montreal!” Just sayin’, it is possible ;)

Oh yes, it has happened

We have switched Malachi over to cloth diapers!!

Because most of my friends with little ones do cloth diapers for their kids, its always been something I’ve thought about doing and even wanted to do. But its quite a bit of money upfront to buy them. So, disposable diapers it was for us! 1. Because we not have the money to buy cloth diapers when Nehemiah was born. 2. Dwight’s grandparents have bought our kids disposable diapers from day one! Yes, its been amazing and we are so thankful to them for helping keep our little boy’s bums clean!!
One of my closest friends here in Montreal, Severine, asked me if I wanted her cloth diapers (her three kids are all past the diaper stage ) …  for free!!! There was a “let me talk to Dwight about it” and then a “YES!!!”. Thank you, thank you, thank you Sev!!!

Today is day two using the diapers on Malachi and so far we loveth them! Thankful that Dwight trusts me to go with this (without even giving me a hard time)! What a man! Looking forward to giving you updates on the cloth diapers front as time goes on.

 

Randomness

If you are in Canada, happy Victoria Day!  So far today we have enjoyed this holiday by watching Dwight paint a room (major props love!) (pictures to come at some point this week), took Nehemiah to the park and then to Starbucks to get myself an iced coffee and Dwight a caramel macchiato, then a quick run to the store with N to get more paint. Now both boys are napping! Hanging out the rest of the day then heading to our friends house later for a bbq!

Now, for some randomness!

Please, do yourself a favor and check out this fun show called Olive Us. It brings a smile to my face. Like this –>  :) Here is the trailer.

Need some new hair inspiration? Check out this site: Join the Mood.
Speaking of hair, I got my hair cut last week. After having a baby and losing a ton of hair, I was in desperate need of a healthy trim! Here is a before and after picture for my sister, Jana . (Btw, the curliness in the after picture my hairdresser did with just a blow drier and a round brush. She said, “Your hair wants to do this!” Well, it obviously doesn’t want to do it for me!)
 

Date night this past week. We went to “Yeh!” for the first time and I do declare that it might be my favorite date night place to go for the summer!

Fun times with N on the balcony!

And for the last picture, check out this cutie patootie! Who, by the way, doesn’t sleep swaddled anymore. Perfect time for the hot summer with no ac!

City Life

Yes, its finally here and we love it! City dream stroller, for two.

We are also able to turn the seat that Malachi is riding in around so that he is also facing Dwight. But, as of now, he likes looking at Nehemiah and his feet aren’t long enough to get in N’s way. So thankful God provided us with a way to get this stroller (I have been drooling over wanting it for over a year and half). He is faithful even in the tiniest of things.

Nehemiah calls it a truck, which is fine with us. Whatever floats his boat…err, truck.

Aren’t all three of my guys just the cutest together? Feel free to say “yes” to that!

Bienvenue!

Welcome to our apartment, the Bernier home!

Left Picture: the first flight of stairs, from the sidewalk. Right picture: second flight of stairs and Nehemiah giving a welcome with a thumbs-up!

 

Left: 1st door is the entry door, second is the closet. Right: skylight! Probably the best part of the entry way!

 

Left: First thing you see when you come inside (designed by yours truly). Right: Door on the left is the entry door and the door on the right is the closet (the only closet in the entire house might I add!).

 

Closet.

 

Left: 1st and 2nd door on the left go into Dwight and my room and last door goes to Malachi’s room. Right Picture: Did I ever tell you that we have death stairs? Well, we do. We have already had one kid (not ours) fall down the stairs (he was ok!) and I am sure there will be more falls to come. If you ever visit, hold on and watch your step!

 

Can’t eat Gluten?

If you eat gluten free, you will enjoy this website!

When I Went Gluten Free

:)

Have a great night!

Keeping it Real

What is something that all these pictures have in common?

 

 

If you guessed Nehemiah’s face, then you are correct! His face in these pictures describes this last week perfectly. He has officially hit a whole new level of understanding … in disobedience. And Dwight and I, as his parents, are getting into a new level of training N. We are becoming students, studying how we raise him, as Jesus as called us to.

And, we are not left alone to figure out how to raise our two boys (and future little Berniers). 2 Timothy 3:16 says “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.”

This post is titled “Keeping It Real” because I don’t want this blog to just have a bunch of cute pictures of our kids or post about all the “good” and “right” things they are doing. Although those post in and of themselves aren’t bad, it is a fact that our kids are sinners. I don’t want to make excuses for their sinfulness. I don’t want to take credit for when they are good. It is Jesus that makes their hearts good. And, God has called us as parents to help them, even though is exhausting, hard, and very repetitive.

“James 1:2-4 says ‘Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trails of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.’ So according to these verses we should be joyful and thankful every time that we are provided with an opportunity to point our children to their need for Jesus by training them in His Word”  (Don’t Make Me Count to Three! by Ginger Plowman).

It is Jesus that makes their hearts good.