Wordless Wednesday

I've decided to follow other bloggers and have Wordless Wednesday every week. I'll post pictures that have some meaning to me. Hopefully they amuse you.

Thinking About The Future

So, the price of dairy has gone up. Apparently so has the price of eggs and meat. The reason? Grain. A poor growing season has made it very expensive. This is just one more thing for me to think about when planning the future.

I have been thinking of ways that my family can be more self sustaining. We put in a vegetable garden every year but I have to admit I'm so bad at actually taking care of said garden. We rarely get much out of it with the exception of tomatoes. Tons and tons of tomatoes. Even though I have been so lazy when it comes to tending to my garden I have learned so much about what we can grow, what will actually grow here. This year I'm going to use those lessons and get serious about my past time. I want to be able to feed my family with my garden. I want to be able to can food for the winter. This year we WILL build the potato box.

This spring I will be getting chickens too. We go through quite a lot of eggs and it feels like every week the cost of eggs is just a little bit higher. I think raising chickens with also be a great learning experience for the kids. The responsibility of chickens will be a good thing.

Richard has been plotting out our freedom from hydro as well. He would like us to be off the grid and I agree. He's coming up with plans for solar and wind power. He is a total nerd for this kind of technical stuff so he's been running with it. It feels really good to see him so excited and committed to a plan. We won't be going with solar or wind power in this house since we hope to sell this year so he has lots of time to come with a solid plan. We need to be less reliant on commercial hydro. The bills have been insanely high and they will only get higher, unfortunately.

There are so many changes I want to make for the benefit of my family's future. Changes that need to happen. I just need to remember to take it one step at a time. I get so overwhelmed just thinking about everything all at once. One step at a time, Erikka. One step at a time.

Mug Rug. What Every Coffee Cup Needs!

I am a Craftster swap addict! I love joining swaps that challenge me. Joining different swaps gives me the excuse to try a new craft. Recently, I joined 2 swaps. Keep Me Warm Swap and Mug Rug Swap. The Keep Me Warm swap is all about the hot drinks we consume to keep our bones warm and toasty so the mission is to send your partner hot yummies, something cozy to wear and an accessory for said hot yummies. The Mug Rug Swap is just that, a swap of mug rugs. Never seen a mug rug? Here's a pretty one. Basically, they are a small place mat for your mug. They are usually quilted. I have never quilted. I have always wanted to quilt. Perfect! An excuse to learn quilting.

I've already mentioned the Keep Me Warm Swap. Hey! An ideal situation to practice said mug rug! So I sat down with some fabric scraps that were sent to me with a fabric I purchased on Ebay and this tutorial on Stash Manicure , this tutorial for binding from That Girl...That Quilt and this binding tutorial from Oh, Fransson!

I would like to tell you it was so easy I had it done in 15 minutes.. but I can't. I can say, though, that is was very straightforward and once I figured each step out it was much easier. I really need to learn to measure, measure, measure!

The binding was a bit tricky but after making a royal mess out of the first try with a binding I made too narrow the second try was much better. I think with practice it will only get better though.

Overall, I really enjoyed making this and I really hope my Keep Me Warm Partner loves it just as much as I do. I'm darn proud of that mug rug!!

Oh! Wanna see it?

Tada!

*I'm not sure what's going on with the colours in this picture but the purples are much nicer and all the orange you see is actually pink. Odd camera I guess.*

Summer summer summer

I suddenly felt this huge urge to update this blog. Hmm.. Could it because I've been MIA all summer? Maybe..lol

This has been a crazy busy summer. ALl the things I had planned on doin this summer never happened. I was planning on a couple of neat science projecst for the kids to do over the course of the summer but they fell to the wayside when they both realized that the summer drop in was way more fun than anyhting mommy could do. To be honest, I was totally ok with that.

So now we're coming to the end of the summer and we need to get in to the swing of some amount of schooling again. I've decided we are goin gto try workboxes this year. ( I'd post a link but I can't seem to find it.. I'll come back to that later.) The idea is the set out the days worth of work in boxes, drawers, file folders, whatever works for you. Every activity is number and the child just works from 1 to 12 over the course of the day. I really liked this idea because I think it really encourages self-motivation, the ability to work independantly and problem solving skills. All of which the little man needs to work on.

So I went out and bought a few of those plastic storage drawers and I'm going to make up the numbered labels and put this plan in to action. When I get this on the go I'll post pictures.

I really thing using workboxes will be motivation for me too. I find that it's way to easy to get sidetracked and not do the work that I had planned to do with the kids. I have terrible issues with organization so hopefully this will help that as well.

Anyway, it's been a busy summer but I'm looking forward to the fall ( I can't say the same about winter, though. Ugh. ).

Mmmm! Hummus!

I have this new obsession. I'm obsessed with hummus. I used to buy it from the grocery store every now and then for snacks for me and Erynn. ( We were the only 2 in the house who liked it) Recently I bougth some and it was horrible! It was the same brand I always bought but apparently they felt it needed improvement. The improvement was an epic fail. It had a weird bitter after taste. The baby thought it was yummy though so I decided it was time to make my own.

I looked all over until I found a recipe that looked right to me ( you would not believe how many different ways there are to make hummus! ) and then I tweaked it suit me. Thanks to http://www.allrecipes.com and my own taste buds this is what I came up with:

Hummus

garlic cloves, 1 or 2 to your tastes
19 oz. can of chick peas, drained but keep the liquid
3 big teaspoons tahini
4 tablespoons lemon juice, this can also be adjusted
1 tablespoon olive oil
cumin, to taste ( I used about 1/2 tsp)
salt, to taste

What I do is crush my garlic either in the blended or the garlic press first. Then add your chick peas, tahini, lemon juice and salt. I puree it until it's smooth and then add cumin. Puree again then add the olive oil. Spoon it in to a bowl and serve with pita pieces or veggies. Ta da!

I LOVE this stuff! Ruby and Erynn just devour it. Bryan won't try it because it didn't come out of a box or have some cartoon character attached to it. Grr.

I think this is the handiest stuff to have around for snacks or to put on sandwiches. Yummy!!

I just realized I should have taken some pictures..lol Now it's all eaten. Next time.

In a Sea of Snot

That title made me a gag a little.lol It's the truth though.

Today the majority of us are sick so we are all taking a sick day. No school today. The kids are pretty miserable. Erynn is tired because she spends all night coughing, Ruby is miserable because she can't breathe and has a cough that keeps her up all night. She wants to nurse but she can't breathe out of her nose so she can't nurse, but that's all she wants to do because she doesn't feel well. Poor baby..

Bryan is acting like he has cabin-fever. This is the kind of day we would have all went out to do something away from here but with all the sickness it's not an option.

Needless to say, I am also miserable. I'm tired because the baby is keeping me up all night and I'm not feeling great either. Everytime I cough it feels like my lungs are on fire. When I woke up this morning I also couldn't breathe.

Blah! I hate when we're sick. I'm going to go load up on EmergenC.

Mother Nature Likes to Play With Dolls

This morning I was sitting on the bed, getting the baby ready for the day. Erynn was standing behind me playing with my hair and Bryan was dancing in and out of my room.

On one of Bryan's twirls through my door he tells me " Mother Nature plays with us when we're sleeping." Odd.. and a little shocking.

I asked him how he knew that and he said he just knew. I told him that must be why I'm so tired all the time.

Then Erynn chimes in, still playing with my hair, " Mother Nature plays with us all the time, like dolls." :O

For those of you who know little Miss Erynn every now and then she comes out with some pretty interesting stuff, this was one of those mornings.

Ever wonder if children know things, important things about how the world really works, that we as adults don't know?

I was going to ask more questions but it just turned into an argument between the two monkeys about when Mother Nature plays with us.

My kids are crazy!