Lately

So I'm basically freaking out about the fact that in one week I am back to work.  By freaking out I mean:

trying to do some Christmas advent prep
cleaning the house from top to bottom (hopefully?)
making a meal rotation plan
shopping, stocking up, organizing
studying (or actually, blogging even though I should be studying)

Ah.

It just dawned on me though, why am I freaking out? Going back to work means I'll be working into the night, be on my feet for 12 hours, get germs all over me, not know what I'm doing, constantly be multi-tasking, at peoples' beck and call...

Wait!  Stop!  That has been my stay-at-home-mom job description for the last year.  Phew.  No need to panic.

Except I'll be paid.  And have a coffee break.  And no one will be watching me when I pee. (Score!)

I'm actually dreading it more than I am letting on.   The very notion of carving out a new normal, weaning my baby boy, and being gone for much of December brings me almost to tears.  But then I breathe and remember that life will go on and that I AM excited about adding teaching to my 'back to work' jobs.  BCIT hear I come!

But besides crying, freaking-out and planning, I've been trying to distract myself from the inevitable return to work by...

[1] Attending our amazing women's Christmas brunch book swap.  Pinterest inspired decor, amazing speaker and song-writer Carolyn Arends, two new books to take home [Poisonwood Bible & the Guernsey...], incredible brunch food and a great entry into the Christmas season.  Way to go NLCC!

[2] Decorating for Christmas.  I love re-purposing old decor in new ways.  I have to say that I still adore the colour combo of gold and burgundy.  I'm not so much into the modern addition of purples, blues and silvers.  Not my style.

my mantle:

(p.s. the 'sign' is pinned to the back of our usual picture on the mantle. Maybe tacky, maybe brilliant)

Oh, and with the kitchen renovating yucks behind, I'm super happy with an open shelving concept now because I can jazz it up seasonally.  So fun.

[3] Taking-in extra kids.  But I mean, how cute are they?

(future daughters-in-law on board!)

[4] Baking

Dairy consumption is getting so close I can almost taste it on my lips (and feel it on my thighs).  I have been dairy-free for almost a year because of Toby's allergy.  I'm actually getting so used to it I was thinking of continuing to abstain...but then I saw this and this on pinterest.  What better season to re-introduce dairy into my diet? Good-bye self control.  

But this is still dairy free baking.  As you can see, Silas has a sweet tooth like mine:

[5] Re-doing my blog

Notice any changes?  Why has it never occurred to me that my husband works in I.T. and can do fancy things with a computer and websites (and therefore ask him to help me fix my blog?)  Or maybe it was my secret plan all along...woo him with baking and then sabotage all his free evenings with my own internet projects.  Mua ha ha ha.

(Notice any changes?)  Trying to think up a new way to make my banner and organize it all.

[6] Starting the advent madness!

Silas and I packed a compassion box the other day which was very fun.  I love that we prayed together and that he's learning about giving.  I need to be a better model of giving on a regular basis...

Yes, he is asking if he can have one of the suckers

[7] Chasing these crazy boys.

[8] Reading about random things.  Including (but not limited to):

orphans

home-schooling

globalization and the effect of buying things 'cheap'

and

women who have dealt with adversity

All this to say: my head is full, my days are busy, my prayers are many and it's all about to get a bit crazy.  If you don't hear from me on my blog, well, that's why!

Monkey Party

Monkeys monkeys everywhere.  We hunted for bananas hidden around the room, spread PB on them and decorated them with yummy treats. We read monkey stories, ate monkey cupcakes, played with 'monkey dough' and Toby ate cake for the first time.  

Too fun.

Having a themed birthday may just become my new addiction...

 Loved decorating for this.  Will include a link to tutorials here later.

Advent Part 2

A few posts ago I wrote about the Christmas Advent Journey we've started this year.  I have been busy shopping, creating, planning and conspiring since then.  So far, I've compiled my 25 days of Christmas activity list (but it still needs some fixing), I've found a bunch of fun gifts to include and started collecting supplies for all the fun activities we'll do.  I also found a bunch of used Christmas kids' books (to wrap up for each day) and splurged on one new one.  I think we'll buy the kids one new Christmas book every year.  

But the main thing I needed to do asap was actually make our advent calendar boxes.

I found a bunch of cheap (1-2 dollar) boxes from the dollar store, found some christmas cookie tins from Value Village and Salvation Army (as well as some in the back of our tupperware cupboard).  I also had some old jewelry boxes my mom donated.

I got some gold spray paint from Michaels and hosed down the tacky boxes from the dollar store and bought a few sheets of scrapbook paper.  Then I went to work making some cute/scrap book style numbers for each box.

And presto, here is our advent calendar:

They were super fun to make and will be even more fun to fill.  I hope these will bring about a lot of fun family memories.

Back to the workshop I go.

[I plan on including daily/weekly collages of all our December activities!]

Next up: a birthday party for Toby who turns 1 in a week!

Busy Bags

An oldie but a goodie: 

This summer I attended my first busy bag making party. What a great way to meet new people, swap some fun tot-stuff and get my creative juices flowing.  

I made 8 of them.  Silas loved playing with them while I put them together:

This was the one I made: dyed pasta, cut up straws, beads and pipe cleaners.  

Favorite moment over the summer with it?  On a dinner cruise where few other families had activities for their kids.  It went longer than expected and I whipped out this 
bad-boy. 

Crowd pleaser.  Soon I had 10 kids surrounding me and fighting over pipe cleaners.  Good times.  

One received from my friend: cupcake decorating!  (Good one Michelle!)

Advent and the Christmas Countdown

More time together.  More anticipation.  

More planning.  Less spending.  

I've been inspired by a lot of Advent Conspiracy videos and a lot of the home-made, crafting ideas found on pinterest - especially this and this.  How can we return Christmas to it's true meaning, it's true beauty?

Silas is almost 3 and I am so excited to start making some Christmas traditions happen.  I've done lots of reading and have started planning.  We want to teach him the true 'magic' of Christmas:

giving, loving, family, thankfulness, worship, joy, peace, Christ.

Here's the plan:

• Each morning, the 'wise men' on camels will move a little bit from one corner of the house to the nativity scene (as they came from far away).  First thing in the morning he will get to see where they are and we will also share a bit about the Christmas story. 
• Each afternoon Silas will open a box for advent (big or small) with the name of the activity we are going to do that day, with a little present (that most likely will contribute to that activity in some way), and an ornament to hang on the tree (ones we already own)
• Each evening we will do an awesome, family-fun activity that is in the spirit of true Christmas
• Each bedtime Silas will get to un-wrap one of 25 Christmas books (most used, most that we already own, some from the library, all wrapped up fancy-like) and we'll read them together

So excited.

First step:

Make advent boxes. I have collected 15 boxes so far which I will wrap up or paint (haven't decided) and have started searching for cheap Christmas tins as well.  I'll affix numbers on them and decide where to put them.  Stay tuned for our mega-exciting, anticipation building, fun-filled 25 day activity list.  Post to come...

Any activities we must have on the list?  What are some of your favourite Christmas activities?

'Tis the Season

Went to the pumpkin/apple tree farm today.  It was fun for the most part.  The drive was long, but I think the boys had a great time!  Wagon rides, playgrounds, animal petting zoo, apple picking, apple-cider-slushie drink, sunshine, dirt, pumpkins- how could they not like it?  I wonder sometimes though, if it's illegal to text while drive, how is it also not illegal to dangerously toss toys, food scraps, and other things back at your children in car-seats in order to avoid the inevitable energy crash that ensues on a long drive?  Yikes.  I was swerving along trying to placate escalating children with snacks and distractions on the way home.  Worked up a sweat, but we made it.

Anyways.

At the end of this random adventure I get to update my open shelves with some cutey pie pumpkins in honour of our upcoming 7th year wedding anniversary (they were part of our table decor).  Oh.  And we picked and ate apples. Yum.

 What am I supposed to do with those things?!

 The goats were eager to make friends but Toby wasn't game

Toby LOVED the wagon ride! 

White pumpkins: thanks for filling in my open shelf decor!

 Like.  A lot.

 Reminds me of our wedding day.  Sigh.

Renos Continued

9 weeks and counting.  

No, I'm not pregnant.  That's how long it's been since I've had a sink, a dishwasher, cooking supplies, a family room, and a kitchen.  Unexpected kitchen leaks are not my cup of tea (or so I've found out).  

I think the 'idea' of making one's house better is great when you can prepare for it, plan it, do it in bite sized bits, and have some control over it.  However, due to insurance taking forever with their paperwork and other such delays, we are still yet without a kitchen [awaiting counters, plumbing, and we need to paint the lower cabinets].  

I've realized that my environment in chaos is the main part of this whole thing that is stressful.  I don't mind people in and out (it breaks up the day).  

I don't mind the cacophony of noises (what's more noise when I have two boys?)  I don't even mind, in some ways, the uncertainty of when the final end will be.  What I DO mind, and what has caused me the most angst, tears, and internal restlessness is the invasion of all that was in those two rooms into the rest of my home.

What do I mean? 

canning jars in my dresser drawers

toy bins in my fire place

glasses and plates on the landing halfway up my stairs

cookbooks in my bedside table

coffee table in our bedroom

and large intrusive pieces of furniture taking up desperately needed floor space for two active boys

Yuck.  Hurl.  I am a hater of clutter and chaos.

However, today, OH JOY today I said "enough is enough."  The room beside our kitchen that is essentially our family room/play room had become a storage room of uninstalled cabinets, our dishwasher and other such things.  Well, it was largely cleared out last night and so began a domino effect of greater and greater happiness.

I hadn't intended on doing it but as I started putting things back into the kitchen/family room it created such incredible pleasure that I kept going... I assembled ikea lamps, I put up newly hemmed curtains, I uncovered couches, rearranged toys and before I knew it I was purging and organizing and...

Dang.  It felt good.

For the remainder of the day, my finally toy-less living room (which had become our living space these last months) and my almost finished kitchen/family room kept capturing my eye.  I was floating around the house.  "Look how great those curtains look?!  Look how great that new rug looks in our living room!  Look!"

I know, I know.  It's just a room, with things in their intended places.  What's the big deal right?  Well, the joy it brought me just to see some chaos lifted made it pretty clear that my environment affects me.  It almost made me understand why people do renovations for fun.  

Almost.  

Not quite.

Let's just say, I'll be VERY appreciative of the final product. 

(Hopefully in 1 more week, please God, PLEASE)

[My Ghanian Quilt] the Journey Continues...

This post has been in progress for awhile but with the chaos of our living space right now, it's been back-benched.  So here's the story of my quilt.  

Rewind: 3 years ago.  No kids, no home, no 'jobs' and we were doing missions work in Burkina Faso, West Africa.  During our time there we had a mini 'family vacay' down to Ghana.  Funny, things on the map always seem so close.  Case in point: "Ghana is right next to us let's visit the coast!"  Ha ha, 12 hours later (felt like the longest bus ride ever) we arrived in beautiful, colorful, loud Cape Coast.  I was forever admiring Ghanian cloth before this trip and everywhere we went during it.  If you've ever been to Africa you know that cloth is pretty significant.  You buy cloth then have a tailor make clothes specifically to fit you.  Burkina cloth was nice but Ghanian cloth, well, that 

was something else.

I have always wanted to make a quilt so decided to buy a bunch of different colours of Ghanian cloth to make it into said quilt as a memory of our trip.  However, shopping turned out to be quite the ordeal.  Sweaty, busy, loud, pushy, aggressive marketplaces.  Hot sun, indecision, walking walking walking. Not like shopping for cloth here.  

We had a lovely trip at the coast and finally did find all the cloth I wanted to (phew).

We then carted those cloths home through 5 European countries and stored them until we were back in Canada and bought a home for them to reside in.  

I didn't have a sewing machine which delayed my project and then I had this handsome project delayer:

Finally, when Silas was almost 8 months old I just threw caution to the wind and as I often do, dove headlong into this outrageous quilt project.  I didn't research, didn't plan, just started cutting. 

My grandmother donated me her mother's old, quality, swiss Bernina sewing machine (affectionately known as 'Bern') and I was off.

That was 2.5 years ago.  YEARS.
And it's still not done.
I finally cut it and sewed the top of the quilt together, bought back material and filler, and basted the whole beast together.  You might have remember a post with me displaying what the quilt looked like at that point.  

Through one maternity leave and entering into another one the quilt was finally 'almost' complete but then I had another cute project delayer:

Funny, having not researched I didn't realize that all of the above, which took me over 2 years to do, was actually the FASTEST part of the project.  [So funny].  I put it in my calendar "stitch whole quilt together" on one evening.  I had no idea that the actual quilting begins now.

Oh.

So back in November before baby boy the second arrived, I had a King sized quilt that still needed to be sewn together.  Oh boy.  I could send it out to get someone to do it, do it by machine (which would be tricky since it's so thick) or do it by hand.  Well, even though no one hardly does this anymore, I opted for the less convenient, most time consuming, and ridiculously tedious job of hand stitching/embroidering this gigantic memory blanket together.

Once I resigned myself to how much work this was going to be and stopped focusing on the end result, I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying the process.  Stitch by glorious stitch I am making my way.  I get to sit.  I get to think and pray.  I get to enjoy the bliss of seeing my dream project come together.  Me.  Who often enjoys getting much done in little time, the queen of efficiency, this fast-talking, multitasking mama is enjoying the slow pace of hand sewing.  Crazy.  I am realizing that a lot of things in life are like this quilt: garden growing, child-rearing, relationship building, character change, spiritual development,  all of these happen little by little.  One square a day, stitch by stitch.  And here's the kicker: the process needs to be experienced and enjoyed every bit as much as the end result.  I am learning a lot through this memory making.

 So here it sits.  Like this.  And most evenings or nap times, if the blinds are open and lights are on, you will see me sitting here stitching away.

 *Special shout out to all the grandmas, omas and nanas that helped me along the way: my great 'grandma' Carole for her sewing machine,  Oma Brink helped me baste it together, my mom: Grandma helped me figure out Bern, and Nana purchased my fine quilting frame.  

my baby Aniwools

I've been waiting for quite some time to post one of my fall 'crafts.'  I didn't want to post details because they were Christmas presents for our nieces and nephews.
Thanks to my friend Kim who re-taught me how to crochet! I've decided to name them 'aniwools.' Think I should start a side business?
Here they are (minus the polar bear and orange elephant)

Some of the kiddies with their stuffies!

Let's see if I'll have time to accomplish a quilt before back to work....doubtful.

Recipe Stories

I have recently started enjoying getting recipes online.  I also refer to some good, basic cookbooks.  However, I love love love stealing recipes from others.  By this I mean, eating something someone makes, asking 'can I have your recipe?' and copying the delightful gem down.  

Why?  

Because then my recipe book is a history of stories, of friendships, of places I've been and people I've met.  When I open my recipe book to pick something to make, it makes me smile and think of people and moments, together.  

I like that.

Take, for example, this crowd pleasing orange-chocolate-chip muffin recipe.  I added this one to my cookbook around 7 years ago.  The recipe owner?  She was a lovely, enthusiastic and passionate Quebecois gal.  I think she was going to be a doctor?  I dunno.  I don't even remember her name.  But I do remember her face, and her muffins of course.  I met her while living in Montreal and doing missions with Campus Crusade for Christ (now Power to Change).  I ate them.  I loved them.  Now I make them all the time.
Who ever thought to blend up WHOLE oranges to make delicious muffins?

Yum.

Orange Chocolate Chip Muffins

Put in blender:

1 whole orange (not mandarin, with skin on it and sticker removed)

½ cup margarine or soft butter

½ cup orange juice

½ cups sugar

Blend until Smooth

In separate bowl mix:

1 ½ cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ cup of chocolate chips (I always add more)

Mix wet ingredients with dry

Blend well

Divide evenly in muffin tins and bake at 400 F for 15 minutes

Makes exactly 12 muffins

Or take this lovely, delicious, spoon licking Butternut Squash Soup recipe.  Easy, delicious.  It was made for me by my darling (can older people be darling?) landlord.  She was our first landlord just after we got married.  She made us feel welcome and even left flowers in our suite to greet us after we arrived back from our honeymoon.  (Is that sweet or what?)  She had a lovely garden, and had us over for dinners.  This was one meal she made.  I always thought I could never make soup.  But, turns out, I can (with the right recipe).
Make it.  Please.  It's soooo good.

Butternut Squash soup:

Ingredients:

1 large or 2 medium butternut squash- peeled and chopped into cubes

1 onion, chopped

1 Gala apple, peeled cored and chopped

¼ cup of butter

900 ml of chicken broth

1 cup of whipping cream or sour cream

Dash of cinnamon, salt to taste

3 tbsp of maple syrup

 

Do all prep work (aka chopping)

Melt butter in a large pot - add apple and onion until softened

Add broth, cream, squash, dash of sage or other herb you want, cinnamon and salt

Bring to boil, cover, and then simmer for 20-25 minutes on low heat (until squash is soft)

Puree in blender (in small amounts) and blend until smooth 

Tip: wait until cooler so that the top doesn't blow off the blender

Add maple syrup

Enjoy!!! Oh so yummy, creamy, smooth, thick.

You can serve it with sour cream over top if you wish.

My whole recipe book is like this.  My homemade tortillas are from a honduran-born American missionary I met in Burkina Faso [you sound so exotic Flo!].  My favorite pasta recipe was scribbled on a 'Jus Booster' napkin - from my employer: a women who in mid-life became an entrepreneur.  My best curry recipe came from British expats in the desert country bordering Mali.  

I love people.  I love being in the kitchen.  And I love stories.  So, I like my recipe book being a meeting place of all these things I love.

What are some of your recipe stories?

a Smattering of Thoughts

I realize I haven't posted anything other than photos of my 'do'ings lately.  
Ever have so many scattered thoughts and insights about life and yourself, that you don't know where to start?
That's where I'm at.  


I guess I'm still learning something.  Without being redundant and depressing, God is still teaching me about suffering.  I'd like to be brave and state that every moment I'm faithfully fixing my eyes on the future: a heaven free of tears and difficulties.  However, that'd be a lie.  The day in, day out of being just plain tired [of being tired] is not glamorous.  In fact, it sucks.


But I still believe that God is working good even in the bad.  That no matter how difficult this season is, He can still redeem this time, for His glory.  


I have to admit though, suffering through continued insomnia is dreadful.  
Enough said.


I'll lose myself in posting pictures instead.  [Posting pictures is much more fun than cleaning my very dirty house as I should be, while Silas sleeps].  

fort langley cranberry festival (the 3 above and this one below)

who likes socks anyways?