mmmm!

i love him!!!

and i want to shout it!!

i'm sure he's not feeling the love right now because i was rather dumpy when i dropped him off this morning, but i'm about to go pick him up from work and i'm just dyyyyying to see him. 

i love him and his books and all his pens and highlightersssss and i love them all over our tables!!!  

and i love his eyebrows. 

(i'm jealous of them, honestly.)

i hope our babies get his eyebrows.

they'll be so happy.

and they'll thank their papa.

oh my mr. chhangur.

i love you forever!!

bramasole

breakfast at bramasole on saturday.

***

we had a busy weekend.

lots of visiting and meals with dear people and lots of laundry and dishes not done!

and so thankful for the time change that means longer days and more sunlight. 

and so happy about melting snow and puddles and above freezing temps.

and really encouraged by this little bit that mikey texted to me last week:
"the hard work of christian growth is not what you think it is-your personal improvement and moral progress.  the hard work is washing your hands of you and resting in Christ's finished work for you, which will inevitably produce personal improvement and moral progress.  christian growth is forgetting about yourself!" -from jesus+nothing=everything by t. tchividjian. 
encouraged to think more about the savior than i think about my sin. 

oh-and i loved this post from al's blog last week.  she said it so well.  i want to remember that my hope is in Christ alone, and no amount of productivity in my days will any more commend me to God than my most frazzled and sinful days. and this is because my hope is in Christ alone.  He alone can commend me to God.  and i'm so thankful for that truth.  that's good gooooood news for me.

my husband is home and we are going to snuggle up for the rest of the evening with some books.
hope your week is off to a good start friends!!

xoxo

what brit read: february

what an adventure.  what a story.  tolkien was just genius. 

it's wonderful to the point that it's difficult to put into words.

they have the best greetings and farewells, such as:

"farewell!  o elvenking!" said gandalf.  "merry be the greenwood, while the world is yet young! and merry be all your folk." 

"farewell! o gandalf!" said the king.  "may you ever appear where you are most needed and least expected!  the oftener you appear in my halls the better shall i be pleased!"

and i cried as bilbo sees his hill from a distance on his way home.  i just feeeeel his yearning for his home.  

and basically, i am a hobbit.  not only am i of small stature, as hobbits are, but i love being home, i love my tea and not just one, but two (!!!) breakfasts, i love my routine and quietness and being cozy, and basically all things hobbits love.  

i actually started this book a while back, but hadn't gotten very far.  so i finished it up this month.  it was phenomenal.  i love elyse fitzpatrick.  (she wrote counsel from the cross and she co-wrote give them grace, both wonderful books as well.)  i appreciate that she is always gospel-centered in her teaching.  i feel like its rare to find female authors whose teaching are theologically strong.  or maybe i'm just out of the loop?  anyway you should order one of her books (i recommend "counsel from the cross" first though!).

mike says this one doesn't really count as one of my february reads, but i'm posting it anyway because you should read it.  we are actually reading this together, one little bitty section a day (they are tiny) and its wonderful.  i thought surely milton vincent must be one of the puritans or a contemporary of j. edwards for sure.  but nope.  he is alive today and wrote this wonderful little primer to help us remember the gospel everyday, and to preach it to ourselves everyday.  i kind of just hope we read it over and over until we are old.  because even then, we will still need daily reminders of Christ's love for us.  mike has read it before, but this is my first time going through it.  one little quote, from one of the previous days:  "on my worst days of sin and failure, the gospel encourages me with God's unrelenting grace toward me.  on my best days of victory and usefulness, the gospel keeps me relating to God solely on the basis of Jesus' righteousness and not mine."  so good, right?  my friend allison also mentioned it on her blog a while back, so there you have 2 recommendations.  buy it.

***

so now its your turn.  what have you been reading this past month?  feel free to leave recommendations in the comments, or if you have done a similar blog post recently, leave a link!!  

hope everyone is having suuuch a great weekend. 

we have quite enjoyed this saturday together.  

xoxo

carrot-raisin salad

this is actually, more correctly called "fierce bad rabbit's carrot raisin salad", from my "peter rabbit's natural foods cookbook". (order here.)

so good!!

i actually made it tonight for dinner (with fries, of course.  we always pair salads and veggies with fries!) but with celery this time.  the celery made it look nicer, and taste better too!
and i love recipes that involve ingredients that i usually have on hand.  this is one of those. 

***

we've had a busy week.
i guess every week is a busy week these days.
mike has his 5 days off now, which is exciting that it fell on the weekend, buuuut he is sick. :(
and we got dumped with snow this week.  sooo much snow.  i need to take more pictures but really, i just haven't been that into it this winter.  just ready to put the winter coat and mittens AWAY. persevereeeeee.  spring will come.  
and summers here are dreamy, remember? and this one.  and this one.  ohhhh just one more.
so i'll leave you on that happy and hopeful note.
happy friiiiiday.

happy birthday x2

(last year's video.)

my mom is the funniest lady i know.  

and paul, the most patient man.  

so lucky to have them, for sure.

(and weren't they adorable little ones!?)

thinking of you today and this week and missing youuuuu.

xoxo

pizza date

(some of the pictures are weird.  i had the camera on weird settings.)

we are on a stricter budget these days than ever before in our married life.  (which has been so good for us!!)  so we have decided that when we do go out, we need to choose restaurants wisely.  (no more 'pizza pizza' delivery!!)  we need good experiences.  and we want to support businesses in our neighborhood.  so we tried newport this past week when mike reeeally wanted pizza.  it was lovely!!  and the pizza was so good.  (obviously, not much was left!) 

hope you have had a good monday.

xoxo

yesterday we went grocery shopping...

favorite purchase #1:  tea with the perfect amount of ginger.
 it doesn't burn your nose...its just perfect.  i'm enjoying coffee less and less these days (maybe because i've switched to decaf?) so i'm thinking of switching to just tea. 
oh! aaaand it was on sale!

favorite purchase #2: rainboots!
loblaws (our grocery store, which we love!) has a line of clothing that is adorable and CHEAP and its called joe fresh.  so occassionally, when i have allowance money (because yes, we get allowance!) i like to peruse this lovely little store and yesterday i found these rainboots on sale for 19.95!!  i have been wanting a pair of these so bad (who doesn't, right?) but they are soo expensive and we aren't rich and i don't get everything i want!  so i was super excited to find some that looked exactly the same (minus the "hunter" label, which i don't care about!) for sooo cheap!!  they might be replacing my snowboots!  (see?)  and if you have ever spent a spring in canada, you know how necessary rain boots are...its one gigantic puddle up here in april!!

sorry this post is a little lame.  my husband thinks its quite hilarious that i'm so pumped about these rainboots.  but i know some people will appreciate it, like my mom.  maybe just my mom.  haha.

anyway, hope you have a lovely lovely loooovely weekend, friends! 

vday home-video

this sweet little restaurant is just a few blocks from our apartment.  weren't their decorations so cute?!  they went all out for valentine's and we had a feast!!  always good to celebrate with some indian food.  i told michael we will probably eat indian food everyday in heaven.  and shawarma. 

(song is "the winner is" by devotchka.  i forgot, we used this song in our wedding as our family was being seated.  husband's geeenius idea.  such a sweet song.)

ps.  you should enter this giveaway!!  wonderful stuff.  from my dear tiff.
i mean, aren't those the best wedding invites you have ever seen?!?  really!!!

good morning

best bagels ever maybe?  

***

oh friends, its been a week i tell you. 

i'm just so happy its saturday.  sooo thankful for a little rest-time.  i'm planning to run, read, hem curtains, make cards, read...and its supposed to warm-up to maybe +1 today!!   

and monday is "family day" in ontario so its a long weekend!!!  (only, my family will be sleeping because he works from 7pm-7am sunday night.)

this.  awesome.  i want to scream.  look at that baby's face!!

this.  not sure whether to laugh or cry.

my friend leila's lovely blog.  some really incredible recipes and lovely pictures.  such a sweet little home-maker.  i want to be just like leila when i grow up.

my friend brittany's blog, which is so honest, and hilarious, and i just find her to be so candid and charming and clever with words.

have a sweeeeet weekend.

 xoxo

 

valentine's craft

i decided to get a little crafty saturday night, while mike was working at the hospital.  i figured hearts were the appropriate theme for this month, and they turned out quite nice!!

we are going to celebrate the big day with an indian food date at aahar and maybe ice-skating on the canal!!   

what are your big plans??

honestly, we aren't that crazy about valentine's.  we love to celebrate love, but no need for a big commercial holiday with all its pressures and stress and money-making schemes.  but i guess its always a good excuse for a date night!!
xoxo

color.

(i spy a sweet little cat!)

i spent saturday morning getting my natural color put back in my hair.  we left the ends with the bleach, so its a nice little ombre, though its hard to tell from the picture.  i loooove going to get my hair done.  my husband is so generous and we saved our pennies because my roots were getting crazy!! 

***
this week...

i slipped twice on the icy sidewalk.

once yesterday walking to the bus stop, and once pushing the babies in the carriage while talking to my father-in-law on the phone.  i am really not cool.  my knee is so bruised, and my pride, gone.  of course, i tried to laugh when the little kid on his way to school asked me if i was ok (so sweet!!), but really, i was so embarrassed!!

mike survived his 2 overnight shifts and now has 5 days off!!  what a champ!

i miss my friend heidi.  here's a thoughtful and encouraging post from her blog.

i spied the best wedding photos i have ever seen.  ever.

well, i'm off to have a little bowl of cereal and a cup of decaf, and curl up with 'the hobbit', and the husband.

cheers!!

to listen (a guest-post)

i am so happy for you to meet one of my dearest friends, christina.  we met so many years ago, and we shall be friends forever.  and what this girl can do with words, i can't even begin to tell you...its lovely.  i'll say it here and now, i think this girl will be published someday.  at least i hope.  because the world should have more access to this girl's brain and heart.  and even more than her talent for writing, and the way she thinks, and that we share so many loves, i just love her for her.  she is a wealth of wonder and imagination, and a faithful friend.  so i am thrilled to share a bit of her with you today...enjoy!! 

I'm up before the sky awakes, the clouds still huddled beneath the blanket sky.
Before I can organize my mind from jumbled sleep, daily tasks invade my thoughts.
Click, click, click ... rapidly they flow in, seizing my will and tugging on my "responsibility".
Like bees, the thoughts swarm in, attempting to stifle the stillness still available to me during those first sweet moments, before my morning dissolves into routine and the sound of motion arrives.

The wrestle to preserve the quiet.
Not only for ourselves and our own solitude.
But for others -- to be silent enough, within ourselves, to hear the voices of others.
To enter a conversation aware of the other person.

When I read --
Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost , I witness the barriers of thought, the barriers of communication in Adam and Eve's language. And I learn how seductively language can be used against me as well.
Milton's work attunes my ears to pay attention, to recognize the subtleties of rhetoric.

Or Tolkien's tale of Bilbo Baggins, as he wields the sword of riddle and poetry to win a war of words over Gollum. Again, the art of conversation proved essential.

Or I read the great Psalms and unravel tangible light to uncover the dark path beneath my feet, reminding my heart to sing, to speak, to communicate with language, my heart to God.

To read is to practice listening, to sharpen my awareness of others' voices.
Even to learn to recognize my own voice, and the commonalities between us all.
We share so many hurts and insecurities, joys and delights,
and to recognize our shared experience with one another breeds encouragement, hope, and love.

 ... just one more reason to spend the weekend all cozy and curled up with a cup of tea and a good book.

cheers friends,
a wild civility

[ thanks for having me ]

what's for dinner?!

cow milk & cereal.

(i don't know why i insist on calling it specifically cow milk?  i just like to announce that its not from a nut and its so yummyyy!!)

the hubs is working some crazy 12-hour shifts at the hospital, which leaves me at home eating awesome dinners like this and blogging.  the poor guy has 4 12-hour shifts in a row, 2 day shifts and 2 night shifts (booooo!!) then the lucky duck gets 5 days off!!  pretty sweet!  but those 4 days on are brutal!

my good, faithful, hard-working man.

COME HOME ALREADY!!!

love.

i was looking through pictures from last summer (because i miss summer so bad!), and came across this. 

and i just stopped and kind of stared. 

i've got a crushhhhh.

just like i did back in 2008, when i would look through all his facebook pictures over and over and over and over.   

 (again, sorry for the shirtless dude in the background!)

xoxo

ps. have you seen 'steel magnolias' lately??  i happened to watch it this weekend while babysitting, after the babes were in bed.  and i sat and cried my eyes out.  its so SO good.  

pps. wonderful and exciting news over here!!!

guest-post from allison!!

al is just wonderful.  we met our first year out of high school (too many years ago!) at an internship we both worked at.  i only wish she lived closer.  i like the books she reads, and her perspectives on being a mom and wife.  her heart (and her blog) encourages me a ton, and so to share a bit of her with you, i asked her to guest-post here!
ENJOY:

hi there friends & readers of britney's!
i'm quite grateful britney gave me this opportunity to share my blog with you guys... which really is all about my heart. i am a wife, mommy & homemaker. i love my job! i don't feel like i can call it "my job", because although it wears me out & frustrates me beyond what i can handle at times... it is my joy!
i was thinking today about the word "homemaker" & that it's simply that... making a house a home. i love it! i love that i get to decorate it, fill it with music, words, imagination, wonder, learning, prayer & hopefully laughter over crying. ;) i get to make the barker house a home for my amazing husband & our 2 sweet boys +1 (& we have a baby on the way from Uganda, follow our journey here). i was also thinking today about how i cleanup messes & things just get messy again & really what is the point? there is purpose in the hours of cooking & then cleaning stacks of dirty dishes, in cleaning up messy boys & throwing their clothes in the hamper to be washed later, piles of laundry to be folded for hours on end, cleaning up trains that will just be pulled out tomorrow. & i have the joy of loving my family by serving them & making our home a refuge, a place of peace, where they feel like they can retreat.
what a high & beautiful calling it is to be a mommy, to train & disciple & show our children the grace of our Father. i feel so inadequate & failing at times, but praise God for His grace. i desire to be better at what i do & He is sanctifying me.
thanks for reading. check out my site & spread the word www.afterhissmile.com. :) now enjoy some pictures of my joy...

 

al

found.

this is my new blanket. 

just what our pink chair was needing.

i love value village.

tuesday night. 

i just had some banana bread and tea. 

i should have gone to run tonight but i had a huge headache so i stayed home and had tea instead.  feeling better though.  i am finding it so hard to get out and run in this cold weather.  but so many people here do it.  so really, i'm just being a wimp.  its time to get tough!!  tomorrow!!!! 

haha. 

love, b

saturday

xoxo

sunday

such a nice sunday.  church in the am, and then just resting like true kings and queens, snuggling up in bed with books, munching on popcorn and sipping as much coffee as we want.  reading 'the hobbit' now, and we had to laugh at how much we are like two little hobbits, just enjoying our little home, and quiet..."with the kettle just beginning to sing!".  and i love when gandalf first comes to visit bilbo and invites him on an adventure (horrible idea to a hobbit) and tolkein says of bilbo that "he had only just had breakfast, but he thought a cake or two and a drink of something would do him good after his fright."

i'm thankful for good literature, and how it just wakes up something inside of you sometimes.  something intangible and adventurous and nostalgic.  i can't wait to have children and tell them stories all the time.  i hope we are a singing and story-telling little family.  

well, here's to a new week.  

hope your weekend was lovely.  

xoxo

ps. of course, we can't wait for this. 

pps. gandalf must muuuust be the great great great great greeeeat grandfather of albus dumbledore!!

project for the weekend

(mike & brit, circa september 2010)

(mike & brit, circa august 2011)

this weekend, i'm redecorating our bedroom.  (on a $20 budget)

it needs a bit more romance.  i want to use lots more pics of ussss on the walls.  (like the ones above, and a couple others taken over the past year and a half of married life!  i am terrible about never printing out pictures!!)

but anyway, i think i have been mostly inspired by this home. i want to make that pretty white garland.

***

friends, we are boring

just nothing happening around here.

so, not much blogging! 

this week...

i was in bed before 8:30 for 3 days in a row.  lame.

we had freezing rain and snow and rain and ice...and any other kind of wintry mix you can imagine, we probably had it.  and sometimes all at once.  january is almost over.  spring is getting closer and closer.

i also realized how much i LOVE cow milk.  for the past while, we have had nothing but homemade almond milk.  and the last month or so, we've switched back to organic cow milk and i'm dyyyying over how good it is.  as much as i really HATE to admit it, i L O V E that stuff. (of course, that's this week!)

i realized how much i think i need to have everything perfect.  because when things aren't perfect (i.e. our budget not organized, the floors not cleaned, dishes not washed, and so many other silly things) i get suuuper anxious (which is a nice way of saying, i get stressed and scary) and if the lack of order is causing me to sin (which it is), then its probably (definitely) an idol in my heart.  i need the gospel.  everyday.  i'm guilty everyday, and everyday, the good news is good news to me. 

my husband cares for me so well.
sooo well.

speaking of the husband, he blogged this week.
i think he is genius.  and quite charming. and witty.
(all things that i am not.)

i read the first 2 chapters of "charlotte's web" to the little girl i nanny (she is 4, and awesome!) and my heart was dyyying to be on a farm.  it was weird.  i usually prefer the city, but i was just dying for animals and sunshine and hanging my laundry out to dry and cooking biscuits in the morning and raising baby pigs.

these pictures of south africa made me want to jump on a plane right now.  did you know that durban has the largest indian population (outside of india) in the entire world??  that little boyyyy!! indian babies are the cutest...just my opinion.

i liked this work-space.

have a fun weekend!!!
maybe i'll blog more next week...
xoxo