I'd like you to meet Charlotte

I worked on this sweet little girl for many nights leading up to Solstice! She was made using the Wee Wonderful pattern available here. I had never made a doll before and she was not difficult, but it did take longer than I had expected.


Zara was absolutely thrilled to see her on Solstice morning. She immediately named her Charlotte (that was the name of Laura's doll in Little House on the Prairie!). Since that morning, the two girls have been inseperable. I laughed out loud the first time I saw Z go flying by, holding Charlotte by one arm saying "Wait up Charlotte....you're going too fast!" They have so much fun together!

One night last week, I was tucking Z in to bed and I asked if Charlotte was okay in there with her, or if it would be better if she slept on the edge. Z answered, "She keeps my heart warm at night". My heart was certainly warmed that night!

I had pictured Z treating her fairly gently as she's a handmade doll, but I don't know what I was thinking! I may need to sneak some extra stitches around her arms and legs at some point. Ahhh, she's well loved and that's what I'd hoped for.

Wishing you all a wonderful New Year!

Days at home at home with kids

I love getting a day at home at this time of year. Yesterday we had the whole day at home and it was lovely. It wasn't just a regular quiet kind of day at home - there were "Big Doings" going on. We all had something we were working on and some of those things were secret too. Closed doors now mean knock and wait for permission before entering. I have been finding little notes here and there throughout the house - Santa's coming, Only 28 days left, and other such things. One note was taped onto my sewing machine yesterday. I spied it when I went to work on another artist tote.

I love that my boys find this time of year magical. I love that they want to hide away and create gifts all on their own to give to loved ones. I love the ideas that they come up with (some of which are secret from me as well).

And I love that at the end of a day of crafting and working E can make us all dinner. Yesterday he learned how to make a roux properly. He added some "secret ingredients" to his homemade cheese sauce. With E, even a simple dinner can become "Big Doings" too...and why not? If we celebrated more of the little things of life wouldn't we just have that much more appreciation for the small stuff? Those little bits of goodness that happen throughout every day? Like kids' notes on the light switches, a game of soccer with the dog, pets and kids in the kitchen and secret ingredients in the cheese sauce. After all, life is made up of mostly small bits - our daily round - if we wait to celebrate only the big things in life then the day-to-day can become something that we take for granted.As you can see all the animals in our house like E's cheese sauce too. ;-)
Pssst - wanna know his secret ingredients? A hint of mustard, a dash of Frank's hot sauce and a scoop of Romano cheese along with the cheddar...but you didn't hear it from me. ;-)

Autumnal Equinox treats (or how to choose a husband)

My friends all tell me that I've got it pretty good with my husband. I know it. I chose carefully. ;-) One of the first things to tip me off that he was a keeper was that he baked for me. Chocolate chips cookies. What more did I need to know?

He is also an excellent pie man. Last night he made us a delicious dinner with pumpkin pie (his speciality) for dessert as part of our equinox celebration. We enjoyed our fire while sitting on a beautiful walnut bench he built out of a friend's walnut tree - saved it from being cut into firewood - and recycled concrete planters. Is that my kind of guy or what? Happy equinox.

Pets...an endless source of joy, amusement, entertaiment, and frustration

Our oldest cat has been a part of our family long before we had children, she is going on 16 this year. For the last few years she has been in pretty poor shape (such that when we go away I dig a grave in the garden just in case she dies while we are gone). I have seen some improvement with trying different diets with her -changing from kibble to raw and now to mostly cooked sardines and oats with some additions. For my own health lately I have started eating coconut oil - yes, straight from the jar - and since she was watching me as I was eating a spoonful I thought I would see if she wanted some too. I have been feeding it to her for just over a week now and I feel as though she is improving even more, although it could just be that Spring has finally arrived and she is feeling better because of the warmth and sunshine soaking into her old bones (I can relate!!). At any rate, she has been a real source of entertainment to us this past week. It is as if she thinks that she is a kitten again. She hides behind the laundry basket in pounce position; tucks herself in by a big plant my Uncle just gave us, as if she is queen of the jungle; swats at yarn and tries to jump on it and run after it; runs, hops (!?!) and hides when we come round a corner and all manner of other silliness. The other day she was watching intently as I picked dried bits off an aloe plant that was up on our table, I decided to wiggle the bit a little to see what she would do.For a cat who could barely get herself onto the seat of the couch several months ago (and was barely able to walk a year ago) I was delighted to see her reaching up to the table top to play. Last night W was in the garage, he looked out the back to see her in the backyard heading back towards the steep stairs leading onto the porch, he rushed out so that he could help her up the stairs only to find that she was already on the porch.
Pets...there are times when I wonder what on earth possesses me to bring them home and then there are times that I can't imagine my life without them.

Learning at home

There are so many things that I love about learning at home with my boys, so many benefits that I could never list them all...I probably couldn't even begin to understand them all. One benefit that has always been clear to me though is how close my children are because of this time together. Of course they have their moments of discord - who doesn't? But those are few and far between. E adores his big brother and W loves his little brother.

Yesterday afternoon W went for dinner and a evening at the pool with a friend. E was sad when they left and spent some time on his own (I didn't know what he was doing) then he came up and seemed content. Later that night I asked him to get his jammies on; when he came up to brush his teeth he asked if he could phone W to find out when he would be home. I was just about to remind him that W was in the pool (not the best place for a phone call) when we heard the door open. E called out for W and ran to the door for a big hug and I could tell that W was pleased to be missed. Isn't that what we all want in life? To love, to be loved for who we are, and to be known? It made my heart so glad to see them.
When W sat down for a second dinner (swimming makes you hungry, don't you know) E gave him another hug and a card that he had made earlier. Here it is. On the front is a picture of E with tears because he is missing W. Inside are pictures of both of them going out to bounce on the trampoline together.

See the happy faces? When you ask people what is the most important thing in life, most people will say their family, their health, their friends/sense of community. If someone were to ask me what my kids are learning by "homeschooling", I think that I could say that they are learning one of the most important things life has to offer.

**I love this so much that I had to post it on both blogs. :-)

Nature-Deficit Disorder?

I want to recommend this book: I grew up on the land. I had a childhood spent playing, exploring and just "being" in Nature. Unlike my own rural childhood, my sons have been raised in the city. That means that instead of living right in a completely natural setting, we have to leave our man made environment and travel (luckily for us it's walk or bike ride away in proximity) to the woods. It is something we have done throughout their childhood and continue to do, as we feel it is important our boys have time and place to roam and explore the natural world.
"Unlike television, nature does not steal time; it amplifies it. Nature offers healing for a child living in a destructive family or neighborhood. It serves as a blank slate upon which a child draws and reinterprets the culture's fantasies. Nature inspires creativity in a child by demanding visualization and the full use of the senses. Given a chance, a child will bring the confusion of the world to the woods, wash it in the creek, turn it over to see what lives on the unseen side of that confusion... In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a place distant from the adult world, a separate place."

I found this book to be insightful. It also carries a warning. If we keep on as we have been over the past decades, in the way we have treated and viewed the natural world, we will not only be losing our environment. We will lose our future - our children. We all need the natural world.

Blearily typing this...

When I get up in the morning (usually about 9am) my eyes are half shut, I grab my big fleece dressing gown and shuffle into my slippers to go to the kitchen to make myself some rooibos tea.

Usually the house is quiet. R has already gone to work. L has usually been up all night on his computer and gone to bed for the day. K and S often stay up late and don't get up until 10-ish.

Today I'm sitting here in the family room at 9.40am and all the kids are here, L's music is playing on his computer and the smalls are playing with the Lego.

What went wrong? I love the peace and quiet of the first hour of the day, drinking my first cup of tea, and I don't like doing anything for anyone else until I'm properly awake.

L hasn't been to bed yet - he's been up since just before dinner last night. The smalls weren't too late to bed last night, as R and I have decided that leaving them up to play just results in us being disturbed. So the lights were out in their rooms when I went to bed. This morning, I had just got up when S came in and proudly told me he'd been up since 5am. He does this every now and then. He was dressed and his teeth were brushed. K was up but in his pajamas.

So much for my peaceful start to the day!

Cute kids

Aren't these such cute faces? Of course, I am totally biased - they are me and my husband as babies! I scanned these old black and white photos in last night....and I'm glad I did, because if the photos ever get damaged, I'll have them on my computer.

Now I'm challenging my blog partners to show us photos of them and their dear husbands as babies or children.

Sing!

I tend to sing a lot as I go about my daily round. If I have music on I can usually sing all the words to my favourite songs, but if unaccompanied, I tend to only recall a few lines, and sing them over and over. The other day, when I was distractedly singing bits of the Heatmiser song, my husband commented that perhaps there should be a rule that I should know more than 4 lines of a song before I can sing it aloud. Hmmmm, I wonder if he meant that to be a deterrent. One would think he would know me better than that by now. As I was singing bits of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang yesterday (such a happy song, and I was sooo happy), I got 'the look'. Well, I do so want to be an accommodating wife so, with a quick google search, I was able to learn ALL the words to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and with a little practice, I will be able to sing this lovely song to my dear hubby. All. Day. Long. :-)

**go on, click on the link and have a listen. (then it will be in your head too)

Mom can use a Jigsaw!

Sawdust, glue, power tools and laughter. That's what our afternoon was comprised of yesterday as my sons and I worked with my husband. We got to experience a taste of what a work day is for the bread winner in our family. I am in awe. It's one thing to hear about what your spouse does for a living. It is quite another to be there alongside trying to do it as well. Our previous forays into D's world had the three of us helping in the unwrapping of cabinets, hanging cabinet doors and adding drawer and door pulls to the finished kitchens as you can see in the following photos...

Yesterday, we helped in the construction end of things. We were helping to put together countertops in a multi-unit complex. D had various work stations set up for each us so that we formed a family assembly line.
Our oldest son has helped his dad before and has some experience with the power tools necessary to get the job done, but yesterday pushed his experience into uncharted waters. He now was to use the saw to cut angles into strips of wood that would be the reveal on the front edge of all the countertops. The angles had to be cut properly so that they would match perfectly at the countertop's corners. No gaps allowed! Then glue and use the pneumatic gun to pin the strips to the countertop edges.

Our youngest son was the build-up man. His job required securing the build-up materials to the underside of each counter top. More glue and the pneumatic gun for him to accomplish his task. D actually cut all the pieces that G would need, much to his son's delight. Those big saws are intimidating, dangerous and so noisy. Leave their operation to the expert.

I was given the task of cutting out sink holes in all the countertops for the kitchen and bathrooms in each unit. This was my first time using a jigsaw and provided much entertainment to the boys. Gloves, earmuffs and goggles on... then give 'er go! Sawdust flying I learned how to handle this noisy power tool, but not without some mistakes and definitely without the speed and skill my husband has.

The best part of the experience? Being together working towards a common goal and hearing from my husband that we really helped and that we managed to get more done than he'd thought we would. I know I also left with a better understanding and appreciation of the demands, skills and physicality of my husband's job. I wouldn't trade responsibilities with him even though I look forward to joining him on the job again soon.

Snow, snow, snow

We decided to head to the lake for Christmas to spend it with family. It was the first time in ages that I haven't been responsible for Christmas dinner and it was a welcome change. Much of our time was spent outdoors walking and enjoying the snow, the quiet and the antics of the dogs. We also spent a lot of time sledding. Here is a picture of our sledding hill, you can see part of it on the right-hand side of the photo below. What you can't see is the big pile of snow that my Dad had been making with his tractor for weeks, it gave us quite a slope to start us off on. * Heather's handy hint -Kneeboards (meant for using behind the boat) make for super fast sledding and it is always a good idea to be aware of how fast something goes before heading towards a drop-off.

Just a little further and I might have been taking an early polar bear dip. On the rest of the runs we decided to aim for the wagon...a risk of a bit of a quick crash stop seemed a better idea than a drop down the bank into the lake.
When he wasn't eating the snow E had fun making an angel. We also spotted these tracks. Deer or reindeer? You decide.

Pumpkins and Samhain

I love fall foods. I have been enjoying hot porridge for breakfast some days with cinnamon, raisins, flax oil and a little turbinado sugar. I made an apple pie for dessert the other night. And last night, I made caramel popcorn for the first time, using a recipe from The Garden of Vegan but substituting agave for the corn syrup. We don't go trick or treating so that was the equivalent of the kids' Halloween candy. This was a tasty stew that I made a couple of nights ago that seemed very autumnal. I soaked and pressure-cooked a packet of dried chestnuts. I mixed them in with sauteed onions, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower and pumpkin, a little stock and tamari, and a splash of vegan Worcestershire sauce.
The boys have been carving pumpkins of course.
Last week, we had a lovely time at J's house. We were celebrating her daughter's birthday. The kids dressed up in crazy costumes, they made masks, carved pumpkins and decorated cupcakes with lots of frosting and sprinkles. Unfortunately, we had to leave early but we would have been quite happy spending the whole day there. Thanks J, it was a great party.
We had a quiet evening at home for Samhain. Some of our friends have colds and a joint celebration didn't come together, so I put together a simple "altar" in the centre of the dining table at dinner time. The tall centre candle I lit for my Uncle John. I had a call yesterday to say he's dying. The prostate cancer that was in remission had returned and spread to his liver and lungs. We don't know how long he expects to live, but it will be measured in days or weeks. He lives in England so I won't get to see him before he dies, or even attend the funeral. My father has never been especially close to his brother, and I haven't spent a lot of time with John over the years, but he's family and we have kept in touch since I came to Canada.
The other candles we lit for family members who have already passed "through the veil" - all four of my grandparents, all four of R's grandparents, my aunt Chris (Uncle John's wife), and the last candle for all those unnamed ancestors.
Now it's November, a month which can be rather blah, but I have that feeling of drawing inward, cutting back on the commitments, and burrowing in for the winter.

Back to normal

*Sigh of relief*

Aaaaah, back to normal. Following our holiday in Quadra with three generations of our family (husband's parents, me and husband, three kids) we returned home and had the in-laws stay for a further ten days at our house. It's true what they say - nice to see them, nice to see them go!

It really is a mixed blessing having family members visit. Let's think - on the plus side, help with the cooking and preparing of meals, help with dishes, the kids get to reconnect with their grandparents, some home maintenance gets done (this time, the deck steps were reinforced and a basement room was finally painted).

On the minus side, you lose your privacy, you can't relax properly as you have to make conversation, find ways to keep your guests busy, feel that they are judging your lifestyle and parenting/education choices, try to avoid saying anything that could start an argument, and try not to feel offended when they find something to clean, even though you think you did a pretty good job of getting the house ready before they came!

R and I are both happy to be able to just sit down after dinner and read or talk to each other without feeling like the world will end if the dishes are not done immediately after the food is eaten - or sooner!!!