A Kings Life

Wow!

2011-11-26T09:54:00.001-08:00

I forgot how to access this account even! It has been far too long, Feeling a little bit like blogging again... Keep with this one ? Or start fresh?

Spring is coming!

2011-03-14T13:58:00.000-07:00

The time change( while messing up our routine somewhat!) felt like it brought spring instantaneously with it!We have had guests for the past couple of weeks with more on their way... looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet and digging in the garden! The yard is just full of birds today. Can't wait to rip the plastic off the windows, open them wide, hang laundry on the line... plus a million more things really! Quiet recovery day in our house today anyhow ( guests take it out of us!) trying to keep a flu at bay.
Shamefully, I have aquired yet another spinning wheel off of Craigslist. It was only used for display in someones home and is in perfect working order. It is a Country Craftsman model which unfourtunately is not in production anymore. I need to find a woodturner to help me make some more bobbins since it only comes with one. It is so beautiful though and spins like a dream. It came with a spinning stool, as well as a distaff which is perfect for spinning flax...( but I have been wanting to process nettle fiber from the woods behind our house!!! The distaff should be helpful there!) For 150 dollars I think it is well worth it. The boys cried when I told them I will have to let go of my other wheel likely. We are all a little bit emotionally attached! I think that the Ashford Traditional will have to go( I can sell it for the same price as I got the new one for... thus the new one being my " upgrade"), and that I will keep the traditional Cowichan spinner that I got last year for mothers day.

Stormy!!!

2011-03-02T08:28:00.000-08:00

Hurricane force winds predicted for the North coast today. The weather warning says 140km / hour winds. 110 TO 120 here! The lights are flickering as we speak. candles are ready, dinner and snacks ready, wind up radio on the ready!... quick post before we lose it!

Spring cleaning.

2011-02-28T09:09:00.000-08:00

I think I have been a little ( maybe an understatement!) down in the dumps for a bit here. Overwhelmed! Things seem to be lifting though. I think the whole asessment process gave me a lot of clarity and also rallied a bit of extra support , which I really needed.
Yesterday I spent the entire day doing some spring cleaning, only managed to do the kitchen. Our neighbour redid his entire property last year, including levelling his entire yard and levelling the huge slope in his yard. They had the bobcat going for the entire summer last year! We got the joy of a huge increase of dust in the house. Since I was pretty darn overwhelmed and pretty immobile with the joint stuff, I didn't get to ANY of the deeper cleaning all year. I felt like I was doing well just to keep the surface stuff livable! So I did every single nook and cranny of the kitchen.... washed walls, moved and cleaned underneath and behind everything, dusted the ceiling , washed the floors... everything. It feels so different in there! Clean and fresh and ready for spring ( kind of like my mental state right?!) Put up the window shelving to find some space to start seeds for the garden! Yay!
Things just feel on the right track again. Sprouts, ferments, flowers, plant starts, good creative food again. Whew. So nice to feel that fog lifting! Really looking forward to spring.
Spent the morning watching homesteading videos with the kids, planning and learning how to use the second hand greenhouse we got last year. Just about to dig around in the crawl space to find some pots and trays, and dig out the seeds to see what we have to look forward to!

Aspergers!

2011-02-17T08:08:00.000-08:00

We finally decided to go for an evaluation for my eldest son through a private psych. Last meeting she handed me the book " Aspergers Syndrome and Your Child". She said that the final report will have that in the notes with " probable ASD " or something of the like. Then we go through the pediatrician and Speech and occupational therapists to confirm if we would like to go for full ministry Autism stuff. Sounds a bit scary. I still need to talk to some other moms about that I guess. It sounds as though you are assigned a social worker ... which I would liek to hear a bit more about. The psychologist was eying my younger guy, wondering when we will get him evaluated too. sigh. I know full well that they are both on the spectrum.... but still... It is pretty overwhelming. I am so happy to have some recommendations in place, and all of it written into his learning plan. The supports, even with homeschooling , are going to be helpful... not to mention that it will be in place if they ever go to public school.

Eldest has been going to a weekly after school program with the local kids for an environmental club thing. I was hoping that it would be helpful for him to meet more people. I know the mom who teaches the class and she tells me that he is doing great. I peeked into the class the other day and everyone was in a circle thing with the chairs. He had his pulled back from the group by about 10 feet. I kind of hate it when people tell me " he is fine... doing great" when obviously he could use a little more help or encouragement. I feel like they are just thinking I am overly concerned and trying to appease me! My son told me that everyone stares at him all class, but nobody talks to him.... but " thats ok , because I prefer being alone anyways". Meh. Not exactly my intention when trying to encourage social outings! Always a bit of a shock when you hear that he is doing well, but when you finally observe the behavior it seems the opposite.

We are doing well anyhow. My health stuff is still a mystery so far.... with a few things ruled out now, I am going to a rhumatologist to rule out ( or likely confirm) a connective tissue disorder. All of my symptoms actually fall under the umbrella perfectly. Since I have lost strength over the last year from feeling unwell, my joints have gotten progressively worse. They are all super loose and floppy, going out many times a day. Both the physio and chiro have been commenting on how super hyper mobile I am. I was so active before that my muscles were really helping keep me all stabilized! I have had these issues from birth... so this would be a huge relief to finally have a diagnosis and have a plan in place to get strong again! Hiking and biking , here I come!

The reason I haven't been around much...

2010-11-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

I have been dealing with some pretty hard core health issues for the past 10 months or so... a bit too private in the details here, but the surgeon suspected a mass in my reproductive organs. My mother passed away from breast cancer a week after her 30th birthday ( I turned 30 this summer, so psychologically this was poignant timing) and her mother died of ovarian cancer in her 40s. I was put on a wait list for an ultrasound, and stayed there for 5 months. I called a couple of weeks back and they said that it would be 4 more months of a wait. Drs are so busy up here, and I wonder if there is some stigma with trying to fast track your patients... mine wanted me to wait and get the specialist to do it. Meanwhile I have been in pain constantly, affecting pelvic joints and pressing on nerves all through my pelvis, back and bladder. I couldn't hike much, or bike much( it hurts to sit... so that is a lot of pacing!)... and I was moody and distracted. The helplessness of waiting was turning into regular panic attacks. I have been an irritable mess. And I dropped 30 pounds without trying. I have been no fun at all really!( poor kids. they are all amped up in their behaviors and I have been in no place to deal or be patient properly)
I saw the surgeon last Friday and he got me in for a scan the next business day ( what a relief!) . I haven't heard back yet.... good news? The tech said that my intestines all looked swollen and gassy. Next stop colonoscopy!
So.... it would have felt a bit false to put up photos and stuff through that period.... not really up to it. I kind of withdraw through periods like that.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T18:58:00.001-07:00

Had an impromptu trip down to my folks this week( a one day trip with a friend who is a professor in the city)... 6 hours in the car , and too much anticipation was just too much for the boys. I think that they get glutened every single time from feeding the dog a million biccies and all of the doggie kisses that come after. The last few days have been pretty trying! It was still fun though. I took them to the arena to pay in the snow.... then they rode the escalator a million times in the mall giggling like mad! Grandpa was fun too!
Now for halloween plans... youngest insisted that he was going to wear a pumpkin ON his head this year... It work out surprisingly well! Eldest is still on the Greek mythology obsession and plans to be Zeus. We made him a plywood lightening bolt a sheet as a toga, and a wreath on his head made of ivy. I told them that I will take them trick or treating this year and will trade them their goods for a small Playmobile toy. Just for the experience of it all. I will probably pick them up some sort of allowable sucker and a piece of good chocolate as well. But in the meantime? The Great Pumpkin of course!

Backdated Tofino trip

2010-10-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

We finally made our way out to Tofino for a day trip this summer. While I had been before , growing up on the Island, my hubby had never been. It ended up being a chilly day, but was gorgeous anyways. The road out there felt a bit sketchy though... people who are used to it sure drive fast! I sure love the coast!

Going to rally up the boys to get up into the bush for a bit today. Hoping to have caught the tail end of the chantrelles... maybe grab some oregon grape root while we are there. Get out the rain gear!

Finally back!

2010-10-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

Just hooked up our new, used rebuilt computer! That only took us , what...6 months to save up for? Soooooo nice to have a computer again. Missed the music and online documentaries most of all. Homeschooling is so much nicer with it too!
Busy and lovely ( short seeming) summer, really crummy gardening.... life just flying by! Here are a couple of piccies! ( I had to BEG the boys to let me get a photo of them for Great Grandma. Youngest is hardly ever seen without sunglasses these days... both indoors and out)And... we have a household friend! This is our sweet little indoor bun! She is litter trained and just the sweetest most playful thing ever. A military woman got called off to duty and couldn't keep her anymore. The boys benefit so much from having her around. Sweet little snuggle bun!

Computer troubles

2010-05-31T11:44:00.000-07:00

My computer has bugged out on me... trying to do what I can in safe mode, so I can't do photos or much of anything really. Wishing that a bit of warmth and sunshine would come... it would be nice if I could be up off my butt and actually able to get busy outside!! I should be back soon anyhow!

Ugggh

2010-05-12T11:24:00.000-07:00

Papas mother has been in the hospital for three days now. Without going into personal details, she has been really ill for a while now with freaky symptoms and no answers. I am awaiting the phone call this morning regarding her brain and spinal cord MRI. Fingers crossed. To top off the stress, papa bit into dinner last night and the tooth( the one that has been bugging him for a couple of years now) cracked in half. Lucky for us, the 6 month pay in for the dental plan just finished last week... talk about good timing. The copay will still be a large chunk unexpectedly for us this month ( especially considering we racked up over 100 bucks in chiro visits, got the fish and game club membership and payed our archery pass for the year. Gahhh. those were supposed to be our unexpected costs for the month!). I literally sent my hubby off today with the change scrounged up to pay for it. I have one chicken in the freezer left and one dozen eggs ( plus a pound of organic chicken livers and some bones for beef broth) until payday a little over a week from now. I am going to have to be SUPER creative. I figure if I cook the chicken up I can stretch it for about 5 nights worth of food ( If I split it into three portions and freeze the cooked meat) plus a good pot of chicken broth. If I use the eggs now I can freeze a few loaves of bread in the freezer ( cause I do have 3 kg of peanut butter in the cupboard?) and that will be the most economical way to use them. Good to have had the really frugal times because now I can look in my cupboard and not panic too badly when this happens. Just praying that we don't have to drop everything and somehow get to papas mom anytime soon.

I put out my back, but...

2010-05-11T17:21:00.000-07:00

... it was worth it!

Two in a day

2010-05-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

Q&A from StoryCorps on Vimeo.

This was just so nice (i think you need to pause the music at the bottom of the page)

Visitors

2010-05-09T07:28:00.000-07:00

Papas birthdad came for a visit this weekend. We always have a great time together and his visits are much anticipated by everyone. We had good food ( too much) good drink ( anything is too much for us lightweights) and fun conversation. A great part of the weekend was heading out for the first time to use the archery range. Grandpa had told papa that he would be bringing him a much beloved bow of his for a belated birthday present. He has been so excited... practically sleepness in the nights leading up to it. When he showed up, he actually bought ME a bow as well so that I could be included in the fun( he even looks like santa a bit!). How cool is this! I had made plans of knitting and carding wool under the eves of the clubhouse... which I would have enjoyed as well... but this is super duper cool! We went to the target range to practice and I was so struggling with the bow ( it wasn't really set up at all. no knock point, arrow rest in the wrong spot, and the string wasn't set up properly... fun to watch me fumble with that ridiculous set up). I am so stubborn, that in my frustration I will just become more silently determined to MAKE it work. So this camoed out army general guy yells at me " Excuse me!!!... what are you doing?" and he comes up right in my face square in front of me and takes my bow. I could feel all of my boys bristle and grandpa was right in next to me ready to intervene at a milliseconds notice. I was all very odd and intense, and if you know me I am a really solo" go off and figure it out myself" kind of gal. Think stomping toddler " let me do it myself!" I relaxed as much as I could manage and tried to hear this guy out. I could tell we didn't like each other much right off, but he kept through and forced a lesson on me. Thank goodness! It was the hugest blessing ever that he was there. We warmed up to each other a ton after a handful of minutes , and after 5 or ten minutes of his interfering ( lol) I shot 6 arrows in a row straight into the bullseye. He took me to the long target and I wasn't so great, but got them all in the bag in a straight line right down the middle. Pretty sweet! Anyhow I am so glad that this guy was there. He taught me a style that is perfect for me , and a set of actions to follow that reminded me of the Japanese ritual archery... like a meditation. We also checked out the 3D archery trail. What fun that is... exactly like frisbee golf but with bows and arrows! You hike up the trail and the beginning is marked. Everyone looks around for the target and the boys shout out " its a raccoon!!!" or " Its a cougar!!!! in complete delight. Twisted I am sure... sorry to my vegan friends! I can't wait to go again. I finished the day with a super relaxed stoned feeling ( I get that after spinning wool too) ... a sure sign of an activity that is good for my body and mind.

Tring to finish up my backlog of school reporting this week... in between a new knitting project that I have started. Last week I had finished a simple contemporary shawl thingy which I absolutely love ( I will get a piccie this week) and when browsing patterns I fell for another shawl dealy. I had seen the finished shawl before by the designer on Etsy, but it cost over 300$. Beautiful though. While browsing furthar for design inspiration I saw that she offered the pattern for sale. It was pricy for a pattern, but I splurged and spent the 8 bucks as a treat to myself for mothers day! So I am just in the process of starting that ( 420 beginning stitches makes it feel like you are starting it forever, even though I have been working on it for hours already) Nice to be excited about a project.

Quick dinners

2010-05-01T17:35:00.000-07:00

Spent the day out and about today. Hit the thrift stores( how impossible it is to find a new water canner this time of the year. Mine rusted out on me and I have mango chutney canning in the plans) and then spent a large chunk of the day out at the fish and game club getting our membership in order.What a BEAUTIFUL property! As obscure as I still feel it is to be a member now, it really is possible for it to be a perfect fit for our family. The archery facilities are soooo super cool ( I will write more later I am sure, but it involves an archers cabin with a woodstove, a frizbee golf style 3D archery trail and a pretty all round sweet set up!) as well as opportunities to volunteer for some pretty amazing environmental conservation initiatives and helping with thier hatchery. We spent a few hours looking around ... the most fun was an area in progress where they are building a " cowboy shooting" area, with an entire old west town ( saloon, houses, jail, general store etc) for these crazy timed cowboy shooting competitions. Wild stuff!

On these days I just don't have time to cook like usual, so we resort to something quick and simple. Today... hot dogs. Our style though. Gluten and dairy free smokies, home made sauerkraut, bread and butter pickles I made yesterday ( baby cukes from the farmers market and organic sugar and aple cider vinegar!), caramalised onions,chopped tomatoes. All of this we wrap in a nice big leaf of romaine lettuce ( grain free yummy!) Then we break out whatever condiments we like for on top. Hand cut fries on the side! Fast food dinner in our house.

another month?!!!

2010-04-25T10:05:00.001-07:00

Trying to plug through the end of the " school year" here. I am behind on everything! There is too much to do! Gardens to make.

The boys are really into archery right now and we have outgrown backyard practice. I am considering building a target in the meadow down the road against a clay bank and doing practice there... but it looks as though we are going to have to get a membership to the local rod and gun. Which is hilarious! ( if you know us!) But they have a private beach on the lake, a stocked lake for trout fishing with the kids, and a beautiful archery trail ( frisbee golf style) through the forest, as well as camping. And you really can't beat the price. 85 bucks for the entire family for the year. As far as the cost of doing things with the family, that is super duper cheap for the perks.My hubbys dad is bringing him a bow as a birthday present next week, and he just found his old hunting number from when he was younger. My hubbys boss from years back would love to have him as a hunting partner. They are both really concious people... not the good ol boy hunting type, and they will make perfect companions. We will probably all cry when he brings home a deer, but will be thankful for the good meat and hide and bones.

We found morels yesterday!!!!! I have never found them here before ( someone told me that they dont grow here... classic morel hunter keeping thier secret so they can have them all to themselves!) and we are planning an expedition when my hubby gets home from work today. I dried what we found yesterday and they dry really quickly overnight. How yummy will that be , to have morels to use next winter! I hope we have luck again today!

Trips, guests and more guests!

2010-03-08T09:16:00.000-08:00

Just at the tail end of a busy window of an out of town trip and a house full of guests! The wind down! Managed to get down to Victoria for a visit with my folks and a trip to the museum.

We had such a nice time down there. The boys coped pretty well and we really were digging the museum this time around. Especially me! The fiber arts displays, tools and handicraft specimens ( the most incredible beadwork, basketry, and embroidery) definitely caught my attention much more now than they every have in my dozens of trips to that museum on school trips and such as a child! The boys were right into it as well, since they have been really digging primitive arts and tool making lately. It was especially awesome when it was quiet... almost magical in there. Then the school tours started and the boys were irritated and stiff and had thier ears covered. School kids are noisy! Sadly it can be tricky for them to recover once they are overloaded like that.

When we came home things were all out of whack. The littlest one has been bedwetting and verbally stimmy and angry ( the likes I haven't seen since we cut out dairy a year ago) and the oldest is crawling around all over the floor, flappy and stimmy and really just completely out of it( looking at me with that completely blank but very unhappy stare). For the first few days I just assumed it was just a recovery from the trip, then I started worrying that they were regressing for some reason. ( I had just pulled the autism and sensory processing books off the shelf last week to donate to the local elementary school. A little premature and overly optimistic maybe?) My tummy has been awful all week, itchy skin and just not right, but I hadn't put it all together until yesterday. I all of the sudden had the vision of a box of kellogs corn flake crumbs on the counter when my folks made hommade chicken strips. My dad is gluten/ casein/ soy free, but isn't careful AT ALL when it comes to the condiments and hidden gluten sources. I had already saved the meal a pile of times from questionable seasonings and such .( I research every single product we use and contact the company if unsure. we also never use anything if there is ever a question, or just make our own versions that are safe). Anyhow, despite all of my neurotic checking and rechecking, I somehow gapped on that one! It used to be that it took about two weeks to recover from being glutened, so we will have to see. It has been one week and a little bit and the kiddos are still looking pretty affected. It was actually a blessing though because the boys have been talking about gluten and dairy lately and thinking that they have been missing it. They are clear in thier minds that they DO NOT like feeling like this though. Since it has been a long time since we were contaminated they have been unable to make that connection. Better so have a small slip up than to sneak a bite of something really gluteny or cheesy when they are at class or something!

And another month flies by!

2010-02-14T09:17:00.000-08:00

I don't know how this keeps happening! Another month has flown by... a very gray, rainy, dreary month! About the last time I wrote we found signs of a mouse in the house. It never got into our food, or garbage or anything, but we found little signs. Like holes eaten in my sweaters!!! I thought that it was some sort of moth problem with the fleeces or something, so I was carefully sorting through everything. No moths, but I did find mouse poop. The horror! We have lived in this 120 year old house for 7 years and have never had mice before... it makes me crazy. What made me extra crazy was when searching and cleaning ( and not finding more than a dozen little turds) we opened the furnace vents and found the main pathway. Mouse crap in the forced air furnace. We turned off the heat completely until the landlords agree to clean the vents. Thank goodness it has been a mild winter so far. So I was completely neurotically panicked... we have been under the weather for most of the winter, and the boys are asthmatic. So after the cleaning, bleaching, plugging every teeny crack with steel wool, and neurotic waking up to every little sound I heard( i am embarrassed to admit the part where i sprinkled baby powder over every single surface to see if i could see where it was coming from.... that was fun to clean up!).... I came down with the most awful flu. Like freaky fever, chills like i have never experienced, toilet hugging passed out on the bathroom floor for three days, heart racing and sweating, barely conscious for a week kind of weird flu. ( of course the family should be banned from google , because they were convinced I had hantavirus! I think the doctors were even a little freaked out about it) It never progressed to the lung collapse and total system failure part though!... it took a couple of weeks to get better. Good news though. the mouse is gone. I think that it may have only been one. None of the traps ever got any, and there has been no sign of it at all. We bent back one little metal piece on one of the vent grates and I think that it was just out of place enough before that it could JUST squeeze through.

Got a little bit of knitting in. A friend had a brand new baby, so I pulled out that skein of my first ever hand spun. The one I did on the spindle... the cause of this slippery slope obsession with all things fiber! I used the free pattern for the manly Pebble Vest on Ravelry, but thought it was girly enough. I knew that i wouldn't have quite enough for the entire vest from the original skein, so I spun some of that nice cheviot mushroomy brown fleece. It is really nice and soft spun up. I had bought it from a farmer who washed it already. She wasn't a spinner though , so it isn't washed quite as thoroughly as the stuff that I do myself. I still have 3/4 of the fleece left, so I may rewash it all when the weather gets nicer. So here is the finished vest. I don't think the pics quite do it justice... it needs a nice squishy new baby inside of it!

Been busy for the past couple of weeks trying to " get out there" a bit more. I am trying to expand the kids comfort zone a bit. They don't do crowds or outings too well, but we can't just be hermits all of the time! Eldest son is really doing so well these days out of the home, finally making friends and just happier around others and not so overwhelmed. Youngest son is improving. We tried to go to a show featuring an African children's choir. We got there too late and sadly we are too passive to handle people shoving through while we waited first in line to see if they could squeeze us in with some rearranging. Then we tried to go and watch the Olympic opening on the big screen. I was grumpy, and am not an Olympics fan at all, but thought it would be an OK way to have the kids experience community in that way. It was going all right until a woman and her teenage son sat down directly behind us and she proceeded to comment on EVERY SINGLE thing that was going on. Describing what they were wearing, what she thought about everything, reading what it said on the screen out loud. It was just so bizarre that I got the giggles until tears were streaming down my face. We left halfway through and watched it in the quiet comfort of home instead! We went to a busy ( and awesome) travelling Science World show yesterday and it was just too much for the youngest... his coping skill is to punch himself in the face and hide under tables, and generally growl at anyone who looks in his general direction. After many breaks and snacks and walks around the building to recoup, he came around a bit. Enough to get a sweet fossil of an octopus leg from the paleontology exhibit! Eldest son even volunteered to go up to take part in an experiment during the show. Something that never ever would have happened a year ago! I got to hit the thrift store in the next city over, and could hardly contain myself when I found the final desirable cast iron piece that i have been lusting over... a wicked muffin tin. For cheap cheap cheap! And to top it off, a copy of the encyclopedia of Country Living, which is pretty cool and I usually am about 40th on the wait list when I want to re read something from it! It was a good day!

2010-01-19T10:52:00.001-08:00

In photos...

2010-01-19T09:10:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the tip Miranda! I need to brush up on my photo skills!

What this doesn't show are the multiple batches of salsa and tortilla chips that I devoured while I knitted away furiously. I am the type who will get way too focused and forget to eat all day... so snacks are a must. I only mention this for one important reason. I froze about 30 or 40 pounds of tomatoes from the garden this year, all in serving size baggies. I always have great intentions, and they do eventually get used up when I run out of the cheater cans of tomatoes in the pantry! It is the blanching and peeling I dread! So I have been successfully plowing through the tomato supply with this great salsa recipe!!!

Slide the frozen tomatoes straight out of the bag onto a baking tray and throw on a couple of cloves of unpeeled garlic and an Jalapeno pepper .( I have been skipping the hot pepper and instead am putting in one chipotle pepper in adobe sauce. The kind in the little cans) I use a large mortar and pestle to make my salsa but I am sure that a food processer would work. I have also seen the japanese style suribachi for much cheaper than a good mortar and pestle and they work great. Even for hard spices like cumin seeds... http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Unique-Cooking-Tools-641/suribachis.aspx Throw the whole pan into the oven under the broiler until the skin on the tomatoes blisters and turns black. If the tomatoes are the cherry type they will be finished at this point but if you are using other tomatoes flip them over and blacken the other side... the jalapeno too, because this makes it super easy to skin. While you are waiting use the mortar and pestle grind up a pinch each of cumin seeds and dried oregano. Mush the roasted and peeled jalapeno{seeded if you want} ( or chipotle) and garlic cloves into the spices until you have a smooth paste. Then I slip the skins off of the tomatoes and throw them into the mix as well ( my huge mortar and pesltle is my favourite kitchen appliance. i even leave the salsa in it to serve it up.) and mash it up until you have something that resembles salsa. I throw in a half of an onion finely diced, a handful of fresh chopped cilantro, a capful of apple cider vinegar and a pinch of good salt.

I love this salsa. Not quite a fresh salsa and not quite a cooked one... a good in between traditional tasting one! Best of all an easy and yummy way to use up those bags of tomatoes sitting at the bottom of your freezer.

Arrgg!

2010-01-18T20:01:00.000-08:00

I really am still around! With all of the spinning I was doing I decided that it would only be practical if I taught myself to knit.( knitting meaning more than a scarf!) All I knew how to do was to knit and pearl. In the past month I made myself a lovely pair of socks and I handspun some wool and made my hubby a beautiful celtic knot type of cabled hat. I didn't go into it easily! I even had to read a pattern graph thingy
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter09/PATTknotty.php
It turned out really nice but the camera just doesnt want to show the cables properly. I am pleased with myself though... I no longer hate knitting! Good thing... as it takes hours and hours and hours of my time! The fact that it has been raining pretty much non stop over the past month helped things along as well.
I really mean to write more often... things are interesting around here and there is no shortage of things to write about. Just got distracted for a bit!

Time is flying!

2009-12-16T17:15:00.000-08:00

Things are busy and flying by around here. Night walks and sledding in the snow, Christmas community events and all of the rest! The baby birds are full grown already and are sleeping cuddled up on the perch with thier mama... funny little things!
Things have been a tad intense around here lately. Eldest son came into the bedroom late the other night in tears. He was laying awake in bed thinking about the purpose of our existance and the " point" of it all. An eight year old in the middle of an existential crisis. Those parenting moments that you don't quite know how to handle properly, then worry and fuss over it in your mind for days later. Gah! I wouldn't be surprised if the boy developed an ulcer , all of the worrying he does.
Putting together the norfolk pine houseplant" Christmas tree" tonight I think. Pretty casual here this year. The first time in a while though that we are doing it by ourselves. I will definitely miss being with my family. Looks as though we can afford new tires for the van by the new year if we are really frugal. Then we can make our visits in January.

Oh.My.Goodness!!!

2009-12-03T17:01:00.000-08:00

So I found a pickling crock on Craigslist today for 30 dollars. I couldn't pass it by as I have been looking for something for large batches of pickles. Sooooo.... it turns out that 15 gallons in my head... is WAYYYYY smaller than it is in real life. I am seriously shaking my head at myself right now!

For reference, it is 2 feet tall and that is a 45 pound child in there.

Baby bird pics

2009-12-03T15:26:00.000-08:00

The first one is from about 5 days or so. The second pic is from today and the babies are about 3 weeks old! The pink on his beak is from the vitamin block that his mama has been feeding him

I thought I was finished canning...

2009-12-02T08:35:00.000-08:00

But an old friend dropped off about 30 pounds of quince on my doorstep( along with venison bones and garden goodies). Today I will be up to my elbows making quince butter. To top it off... quince brandy! Yummy! This will be my first experience with this amazing looking fruit.
My camera battery needs to be charged, but the baby birds are at thier cutest right now. We take them out of the nest to get some human handling time ( in hopes that they will be more tame as adults) . They wobble around and flap thier little wings! And we all sit around cooing from thier incredible cuteness! We are going to keep both of them for sure now. They are getting mighty noisy now. Interesting how the household evolves!

Sad turn of events

2009-11-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

In a tragic turn yesterday night, the papa bird died suddenly. He took a bite of a toxic plant when he came out. As always we beat ourselves up. I knew that the plant was on a toxics list... he had accidentally nibbled a leaf before and I put it aside in my head that it must not be too poisonous.( kind of like poison control for babies where they actually have to eat a ton of something for it to be harmful). Last night though he bit into the rib of the plant and died within minutes. There was nothing at all we could do. He died in my hands. We were all devestated. I was so worried and still am for his mate. They are best friends. I cant even put into words how close they are. Her sad calls for him last night just reduced us all to tears. We went and bought some bird formula just in case she has trouble feeding them. I am still unsure of how it will go because he always fed her. If we come close to her she makes little nibbles in the air waiting for someone to feed her. She is eating this morning though, and I watched her feed the babes. We took the plant out in the night last night and buried him with the boys. So sad.

Hmmm...

2009-11-26T09:28:00.000-08:00

The dyeing didn't quite go as planned. All I have access to here right now are the Dyson dyes. I was experimenting really! I had really good success with the other wool I dyed as it turned out nice and dark and super saturated. I tried the Dyson Cold dye at first but it didn't take AT ALL. I had washed the fleece really well this summer , so I didn't think that it was because of the lanolin. I ditched the cold dye for the time being and just used the colours that I had in the regular dye. Too bad because I was looking forward to a bright leafy green in there too. When I was dying the rest of the wool the tips were taking the dye, but the rest wasn't. I thought that it was going to just become a learning experience, but as it is drying the colour is looking a bit brighter. The opposite of what I have experienced before! Not my favourite colours necessarily but will make a really cute baby sweater or something. I can't wait until spring to get into natural dying. I am much more drawn to the colours I could get from the natural dyes. Outdoor dying is appealing to me as well!

We have guests coming this weekend. Papas sister ( second time we have met her) and she is bringing her mom who we have never met. I am planning on an East Indian feast of some sort! Any excuse to put on a spread!( and since I have to cook more " boring" stuff for the kids usually!) So cleaning, grocery shopping and meal planning are in the cards today. National Geographic videos online have been my best buddy this very very rainy week! Oh the shame!

Just pics

2009-11-25T17:01:00.001-08:00

Whew!

2009-11-24T10:18:00.001-08:00

Just finished a spinning project this morning. I was given a bag of fiber a few months back and it is just really weird stuff. I don't know what breed of sheep it comes from, but it is super stretchy and slubby and weird. Think stretchy cobwebby. I tried carding it but it didn't help at all with the slubbiness of it, so I just decided to spin it from the locks... even though it wasn't very lock like! Oh well. I couldn't bear to just toss it so I thought that I would spin it, dye it fun colours and then give it all to a preggy friend who really loves to knit. Maybe some longies and soakers for the new baby? It turned out cool anyways. A bit thick and thin and slubby, but soft and sproingy. I dyed one skein about a month ago to experiment with dying and it turned out nice. I have no idea how it will knit up though. I finished about 600 yards more and was finally finished plying this morning. I had planned to get out the dyepot this afternoon but it was so pretty and creamy looking in its natural state. I called up my friend and gave her the option of keeping it in its creamy natural white colour and she would love to give it a go that way. I still have a bag of cheviot/shetland mix that I am going to dye in locks this afternoon. Maybe I will throw some onsies in there to tye dye with the boys as a gift. Now I am looking forward to spinning something consistant and clean looking!

I have been looking for ages ...

2009-11-23T07:28:00.001-08:00

I have been looking for ages on Craigslist and at thrift stores for a good bookshelf. They are hard to come by! When I do see one that is real wood they are in the 250 dollar range. We had made do for almost 10 years now with one my father in law built out of some sort of awful prefab coreboard. It has been saggy and terrible looking for the past 8 or so of those years! Finally yesterday we purchased some wood... we walked into the wood store and there were tons of pine shelving bits for sale. We put together a nice big bookshelf in an afternoon for MUCH cheaper than anything we could have bought used... besides, it is really nice and big. We both went to bed with big smiles! Anything that makes our 800 square foot place more organised and livable... hey! It makes me very happy!

I sold a loom that I had bought used yesterday, gave away another that I had been given ( who gave us a bottle of wine!) , decluttered and organised the boys play/ learning space ( got 5 bags off to the thrift store!) . I has been productive around here!

Somehow I have been super supported in the fiber arts community and have recieved 2 new looms in the past week. A beautiful Salish upright loom, a nice lightweight rigid heddle as well. You meet fiber folks everywhere you go. A woman fom the local fiber guild was telling me that the youngest member in the guild is 60 years old. Some are in thier 90s and are just itching to pass on thier knowledge. My hubby and I were marvelling at how somehow I have amassed everything that I needed for spinning including two lovely wheels, carders, combs, spindles, niddy noddys, an antique skein and bobbin winder, and 6 fleeces all for under 200 dollars( over the past year). People have been very generous! I really NEEDED something like this in my life though for sanity reasons! ( parenting can be so intense and creative balance is a real need in my life. )I am very thankful when I feel so supported by the universe in these ways.

Piccies

2009-11-22T19:59:00.001-08:00

So in the end only two of the eggs hatched and the final egg was empty and unfertilised. The babies are doing great and are super cute!! The oldest we named Piper and the younger one is Cricket. We just started taking them out of the nest briefly to clean the poop out. So there is a quick pic in the meantime.

We have a baby!!!!

2009-11-11T07:58:00.000-08:00

Baby budgie number one hatched yesterday night!!!! I could hear little peeps from inside the egg yesterday and by bedtime last night the peeps got a lot louder . I knew something was up yesterday because papa bird was super attentive and all of the sudden squished into the nest with mama... weird beause he has never done that before. I was worried about him squishing the eggs... but they seem to know what they are doing!!! He squishes in there and feeds the mama, and preens her and coos to her. A loving papa!lol I watched the mama turn the baby over and around to get access to its little beak and feed it. It is like a little pink bald jellybean!

I will take pics of the baby (babies?) in a week or so. I don't want to disturb them too much.

Into fall!

2009-11-04T09:17:00.001-08:00

Brrr! The mornings are getting chilly! I can hear my hubby scraping the windows of the van before heading off to work in the morning.... at his new job!!! Good news, as EI would have run out soon. Was hired and started last week as the Maintenance Manager at a very large hotel!!!! I am seriously crossing my fingers that this will work out long term. Partial medical/dental and life insurance... luxuries that we have never had! Working in the same place every day, regular schedule. I cried when he got it. I will always make it work... living on 1400 dollars a month for the past 6 months has gotten to me though. It will take us a while to catch up again, and I will be so thankful to have the basic needs covered again.

Things are good here, getting back into a routine of things. We have all been under the weather for a bit here, so it will be nice to get back into the swing of things. Interesting news, our budgies have laid three eggs. If they are fertilised and all goes well, they may hatch in a little over a week. We are all prepared for natures will... not trying to get our hopes up. It would be nice though!

Yesterday the boys and I took on the task of trying to make felted soap! Fun project , even for someone with fine motor difficulties. All of our soaps worked out! Today we are going to try to make some felted acorn ornaments for our Norfolk pine houseplant. Last year we made origami ones... should be cute with the acorns. I think we need to go hunting for another acorn tree to find more caps because these would make perfect Christmas gifts for the grandparents.

Swinging into fall

2009-10-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

Whew! Things got busy over the last couple of weeks! Youngest son turned 6 last week, we had unexpected house guests for 4 days and things are just plugging along.
Good news. The gallery here in town wants us to put some of our copper and wood jewelry in her storefront. This is so great. Galleries generally take 40 percent profit but the owner has offered to knock it down to 30 percent. It sure eats into any money we could make( putting a ton of time in to only make a teeny bit over the cost of supplies) but I guess any little bit helps right?!
Eldest son went to the environmental club for the past two weeks and it has gone so well. My last post I was feeling pretty down about the whole thing but this has been such a booster in morale! I know the mom who runs the program ( a happy surprise!) and she has been so helpful in checking in. She has been sure to make the food they cook together gluten free ( which is cool because I was a support for her family a couple of years ago when they tried gluten free for thier family) and has phoned to check in to make sure things are going well. I can't say enough how much I appreciate the support. ( Thanks Janet and Louisa for the comments last week as well. It really means a lot!)
Papa still isn't working yet. Still little trickles of stuff here and there. We were waiting on a new condo project which would have ment months of steady work... then the owner/ contracter had a heart attack and died. All of the construction just stopped for the project now. We are trying not to panic but slowly we have gotten into the hole over the past half of a year. EI runs out in March. We could really use a bit of luck right now. We sold our old lathe this week for grocery money. Bonus though,oil is wayyyy cheaper this year than it was last year. With a coupon we managed to fill the tank for the same price that it cost for half of a tank last year.
The last week has taken a different turn for us. An elderly gentleman in the community had approached my hubby a few months ago to do some editing and to type up a chunk of his biography for him. My hubby did it as a favour to him and now it has turned into more editing and visits. He hasn't said anything but I know that he is dying right now. He doesn't have any family around and is super lonely. He wan'ts to pay me to cook for him... I have got too much on my plate already. And I just CAN'T take money from someone who just needs a little bit of help. I am going to try to save portions of what we cook so that he can freeze them for meals. He has lost so much weight already. I know that truly he just wan'ts our company and that is the most important thing. I just feel a little bit overwhelmed. Dang! Yesterday he took me aside and asked me to make him a necklace with a very special cherokee arrowhead( he has a cherokee background) that he has been saving. Like a talisman for this last bit of his journey.( I am actualy excited about this project. It kept me up last night trying to come up with the perfect design.)He is SUCH an interesting character. He gifted me with some cut burmese emeralds that he was saving as well as a jar of raw opal. He gave the boys a bunch of his fossil collection too. He is so kind to us... I hope that I can be there to help him. What a bizzare existance we live sometimes! No groceries, but opals and emeralds!lol The universe takes care of us in unexpected ways!

Still around!

2009-09-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

Having a little bit of a stressfull week last week and didn't feel like writing. All is fine though and now we are all a little flu-y and tired and drained!
Tried out an afterschool program last week for my oldest so that he can be out in the community and meet some kiddos... try a drama program. It was a disaster! A one hour program ending with me being called into the directors office after. I was told that there was just no way... he cowered with his ears covered the whole time. I don't tell many people about the sensory stuff or autism spectrum stuff very often. If you see him he is outgoing, bright and completely functional the majority of the time. I felt like a complete tool for so many reasons. I should have mentioned it... maybe should have stayed for the first class( he is eight though and has taken a class before. I didn't want him to be the only eight year old whos mama stayed). I got a comment from another parent with a spectrum kid that was in the same class about school being the right place for kids like ours... it teaches them to just get used to it( with the whole loaded implication that we really shouldn't be homeschooling). Just all of the doubts that go along with it all... and I guess my denial at times where we go through periods where things are so much closer to what it is for regular families. The director suggested that he take a program with older kids and said that they would call me right away about that. They didn't call. We go this week to try an environmental club that is outside( quieter) and may be a good match. I don't feel like people understand... the disability seems invisable to them. I can see the eye roll or the glint in the eye when I do share things... like " yeah right... your kids are perfectly fine." sometimes they even say it out loud. Then something happens where it is obvious and then it feels like I am doing the wrong thing then as well. I think that there is something different that families with highly functioning spectrum kids deal with. Nobody can really see how far we have come or what we have had to go through to get to where we are now. Not a pity party or anything. Sometimes I just feel really lonely.
I watched an amazing movie last night called The horse boy. Here is the trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYkT_GndKtE
I found a place online where I could watch it streaming. What a beautiful movie. It symbolicly captured so much for me. Really really wonderful.

Didn't have the camera with me...

2009-09-04T16:04:00.000-07:00

But today while picking crab apples in the orchard we saw a cougar!!!!!! At 2 in the afternoon, sitting in the middle of the road ( the one we had to take to get back home). Luckily we did have the binoculars with us , so we each had a chance to view it twice! It was really young and quite small. I was expecting to see a mum at anytime but we never saw her. We were pretty excited and nervous walking back home. we cut the trip short! I had to call the conservation officer because of the age of it, the lack of fear and the fact that it was in broad daylight. The fire cheif came to the house to visit and the conservation officer is now outside and will likely bring the hounds. So amazing... likely we will never ever see something like that again.

So the back story..

2009-08-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

So the back story of the last post was this! I was out with the family for an after dinner walk and some random 40 something guy flashes us... not once but twice. Then waves and gives me the thumbs up. Right downtown in our teeny little town, main street in front of the post office. I couldnt believe my eyes. I have been flashed more than a handful of times in my life ( growing up in the city) but never ever when I was with my family. When I flipped out and yelled at the guy he said that he was sorry and had a couple of drinks and thought that we were someone else. Truly though, how drunk would you have to be to not notice that there were kids around. And he was by himself lurking on a property with that sort of manic high air about him looking like he was just waiting to do it again when we were on the way back home. hmmmm...Bizzarre.

Today my mama is coming up for a visit and we are going to the fall fair. Yippie! You know that I will be eying all of the yummy fleece! Hope the kids can cope. We have had an illness just trying to seep in , but not quite. The kids have been super stimmy and my youngest spent a couple of hours hitting himslf in the face yesterday. Not cool and stresses me out big time. It is sure hard for people to deny that it is autism when they see them in that state. My mom only sees them maybe twice a year for an afternoon or so, so hopefully this will go well.

It turns out....

2009-08-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

Exposing yourself to me in front of my kids.... is a very bad idea. The kids got to see me in all of my glory when I absolutely flipped out at him. If I had a phone I definitely would have called the cops. ( sadly they often don't come out our way even for violent domestic abuse calls) Being flashed just infuriates me, let alone in front of my children. Enough to make me lose my shit. Gah!!

Almost school time... again!

2009-08-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

Wow did the summer fly by! We have been spending the last week canning like crazy... peach conserve, blackberry jam, chutney, apple butter and the list goes on! Tried for the Oregon grape berries, but I think that that really hot spell did them in this year. Bummer though, because the Oregon grape jelly we made last year was our favourite.

Started a couple of tinctures , Oregon grape root as well as a whole plant echinacea. Hoping for some usnea when things get a little moister around here... maybe some hops and mullein? Trying to figure out what would be most beneficial for us this year. I worry about the boys with the flu because we have spent a ton of time in the hospital with their asthma. I have been getting them to enjoy herbal teas daily, with them helping to mix herbs for them... I am hoping that tea drinking can become a really enjoyable thing for them and then become an easier way to give complementary medicine! I have had some sort of bug this week, so I think I am in flu easing mindset overdrive! Started a batch of sauerkraut, kimchee and am being extra brave and trying a batch of Tibetan fermented greens. Our fermented ketchup turned out sooooo yummy. It tastes a little bit more like chili sauce maybe, but so yummy all the same. So between the ferments, fish oil , nourishing herbs and good resting, hopefully we can keep healthy this fall and winter.

I realised that I didn't take any pictures of the garden this year . It is winding down somewhat now but the tomatoes are just getting into full swing! Back to having yummy tender greens now that it is cooling down as well. I sure hope that we can get a cold frame together in time... I need to plant that NOW.

Meanwhile we have guests coming for the next two weekends, learning plans to write ( I will write a post later about the years possible plans for the boys) wool to wash before the rain comes. Papa still isn't back to work yet... got the word today though that the company landed a couple of bigger jobs coming in the fall. Good thing! It is really hard to make 1400 dollars a month stretch to get us through... won't be happening come the time where we have to heat the house. ( I don't like having to worry about feeding guests either... between you and I! lol) Trying to take advantage of the free fruit and am putting as much away as we can right now. The landlords haven't fixed the roof yet but the plan was to put insulation in the whole back of the house since there isn't any... it gets so cold back there... think 12 or 13 degrees all winter. We found a folding door today at the Re Store for 5 dollars(!) so that we can shut off the front of the house at night to keep the living area a little bit warmer. The bedrooms and living room are all in the front and we keep it at about 18 degrees all winter. It will be nice to be able to just heat the living room extra once in a while when you want to be a bit warmer. I closed the door today and realised how thankful I am to create that tiny bit of separation from the rest of the family. Our house is about 800 square feet... while it is plenty of room it still feels like we don't have privacy or much peace from each other. Today the boys watched a video, I shut the middle door and couldn't even hear them. I put on CBC radio loudly and they couldn't hear me... it was great!lol I am so much more productive when I am not overwhelmed by constant kid noise! ( between regular sibling noise, sound effects( ahhhhhh!), beatboxing and a heck of a lot of verbal stimming, this can be one noisy household!) Doors are a good thing.... a very good thing!

Ramble, ramble!

Family Record!

2009-08-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

Nothing like burning off a wedding hangover ( 2 glasses of boxed wine just does me in... lol) like taking a big 6 and a half hour hike. Went to Paradise Meadows again, but this time went for the challenge of the 15.5 km hike!!!!! That is definitely our family record. Needless to say, we are all exhausted!

Plums!

2009-08-13T18:27:00.000-07:00

Imagine us, strolling down the road, bedsheet and buckets in hand and helmets on our head ready for the harvest! Well elder son was actually wearing a big plastic Bobby hat... at least we always make the neighbours smile when they see us coming! We all spread out underneath the wild plum trees in the bush, each with a corner of the sheet in hand, cover our heads and squeeze our eyes shut as one of us shakes the tree. We went to our usual spot where we find little yellow plums that are just a bit larger than a really big cherry. Lucky for us we spotted a red plum tree too! More of a dusty pink and really pretty. Tonight we will sit and pit them... they arent the ones that are separate from the pit, so harly anyone even makes use of them... they can be a bit of a pain. But they make the prettiest yellow sunny jam ever. With the pink in there I think it will even be nicer. Since we discovered that we can use the jam to make a quick home made asian style plum sauce we are ready to make even more than we usually do. Yummy! I will try to dehydrate a batch as well...

Days in the shop

2009-08-11T21:01:00.000-07:00

Finally finished and delivered the jewellery commissioned for a friends wedding and I forgot to get a photo of it. It took a little bit longer to do because I was having anxiety and perfectionism problems because it was for her wedding and all! I think it worked out well in the end though. Was up in the middle of the night with all sorts of creative ideas and plans. I almost had to get up and meditate to slow my mind down... the mosquitoes buzzing in the room didn't help much either! Waited until the end of the day to get into the shop and it was just one of those days. The saw blades were breaking and things were flying everywhere and my project just didn't work out. Stubborn as I am , I just couldn't leave the shop with nothing to show for it, so I buckled down for an impromptu idea just to get the obsessive part of my brain to let it all go!lol If all else fails, make yourself a pair of hair sticks! Mmmm. This pair is from some king wood that I had leftover from a commissioned piece, local beach stones that I found and drilled, and our old reclaimed tongue piercing jewellery from back in the day. I like! I am satisfied and able to leave the shop and mess behind and not have to one mindedly slogg away well into the night.

Also a piccie that was on the camera when I loaded things up... a flour flower? Cool!

New discovery

2009-08-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

Went on a berry hunt today but was a little bit early for the blackberries. Had a chance to check on the local plum tree in the bush that we harvest from and it should be ready within the next week or two. Went to a different location to continue our hunt and instead found some other type of berry. Picked a few as well as some leaves so that we could identify them at home... turns out to be service berries, or Saskatoon berries!!! Edible and they were abundant. We plan to go to that location tomorrow to collect enough for jam and a bunch to dehydrate! Yay! When we went to check a final location for blackberries, we found instead a huge area full of plump rose hips. Should be the perfect harvesting spot come fall! So although we didn't find the berries we were looking for, it was a VERY successful outing.

Made our second batch of crock pickles yesterday. The first batch was so yummy that we ate it all within a week! This batch has garlic from the garden even. This time of the year makes me so happy! We have decided to make a family nature observation journal with dates that we harvest certain wild foods/garden veg and fruits as well as weather observation. Thought that it would help us keep track of the harvest, successes in preserving and help us to be more aware of natures rhythms. Worth a try! I am also starting a sketchbook of local plant identification and information... somewhere I was reading about a 100 species challenge. This should help solidify my local plant knowledge and force me out of my comfort zone of what I already know.

Relief!

2009-08-05T10:21:00.001-07:00

Finally it is cooling off a bit! So much easier to do the day to day things when it isn't sweltering!

Things are good here. We have been pretty worried about papas dad who has been evacuated because of a big wildfire. His house is going to be one of the first to go if the fire gets any closer to town... we havent heard any updates and don't know where he is staying. I had nightmares about fire the night that they would have been evacuated. Spent the whole dream night going from room to room in my house trying to figure out what to take with me while I could see burning embers falling all outside the window. I woke up with an urgent need to both simplify the amount of stuff we have, and to get rental insurance. We tried before , but the insurance place had a huge list of stuff that our landlords needed to do before they would insure us... weird stuff that nobody has in our neighbourhood like a concrete barrier around the oiil tank. We had just left it at that... didn't help that they treated us like criminals saying we weren't eligable because it was fishy that we had never had insurance before. There always has to be a first time right?! We were young and all of our stuff is from the thrift store or freecycle!lol It hadn't seemed important before! Oh well. We will try with a different provider that we have our roadside car insurance with. I hope it is within our budget.

Littlest one has been weaving lately on a hommade loom we found at the thrift store. He picked a red thread for the warp and is using our handspun for the weft. This kid has some serious patience! I showed him once and he has done the rest without help or supervision.

Made a couple of salves this week. A warming one and an all around use one with plantain and calendula. I prefer using a bit of lanolin in ours ,and since none of us are sensitive I can use it. A friend had given us a bunch of stuff from Australia before she moved back, and all of the Aussie salves are in a lanolin base. I really like it that way. It is my birthday this week and I am getting a couple of really good medicine making resource books from Amazon... super excited. Should be a smart purchase.

Another week flies by

2009-08-02T18:47:00.000-07:00

I don't know where the summer is going! Spent lots of time at the rivers all week again to beat the heat. Took advantage of the summer layoff to explore the area a little more. The rivers are gorgeous, clay bottomed with gorgeous formations... fossils too! Both of the boys are happily paddling around in thier life jackets. Such a huge difference!! I don't know if it is connected at all, but my youngest who has always kept his shirts completely tucked in ( as in compulsively tucks his shirt in all day long) has kept his T shirt loose and relaxed for the past couple of days! For people who understand rigidity and the issues that come along with it, you can understand how great it is to see some of those behaviors relax a little bit! So within one week he went from never before putting a toe into the water , to paddling about on his own... and tubing down a mini rapid on his own!
Yesterday we ended up at a local festival. We have never gone to it before because it is known to be really busy... and pricey. My hubby volunteered for a four hour span to do the electrical and we all got free tickets. It was pretty good considering. Everything was way out of our price range ( the unemployment budget!) but I got the info from the local wool gatherers guild so I can join (? maybe) and learn more about spinning and such. Today we went to the river again and on the way home saw a sign at a farm stand for basil. For 20 dollars The woman took me back into the greenhouse and filled two grocery bags packed with basil and she gifted us with a really pretty hot pepper plant which looks like mini purple eggplants until they ripen to a bright red. When I got home I buzzed it up with some oil and packed it flat in freezer bags to break off chunks. In one large bag I mixed up all of the fresh herbs for an italian seasoning and buzzed that up inhto a paste... who knows if that will work? Smells nice though and should last me through the winter. I am considering doing the same with a popcorn seasoning that I make with fresh sage and garlic. It would be handy to have it on hand and ready to go. Cut lots of ecchinacea , the constant stream of calendula blossoms, the bee balm , lavender and chammomile to dry and put up for winter storage. Should be ok this year if I can keep on top of it all... at least it all helps the lack of funds issue be a little bit nicer!. I sure hope that work starts up soon.

whew!

2009-07-29T17:04:00.000-07:00

It has been SUPER hot for the coast lately. Today was around or over 38 degrees (100F) ... The thermometer actually says almost 47 right now, but it is outside in the sun, so reads a little high. The kids ( and us too!) haven't been sleeping very well at all, so are all just clinging on to what little sanity we have left. The house doesn't cool below 30 at night even with fans going and windows open. We have been going down to the lake daily... even the kids have actually gone into the water (yippie!) until I got a nasty looking case of swimmers itch! Gross! We made our way to the river instead yesterday, along with everyone else in the valley! The youngest hid in the forest growling... not exactly a successful outing. Transitions just suck sometimes! Today we broke down on the " no guns" rule , andspent some of the grocery money on squirt guns. Now we are all soaked and happy... I took the brunt of it! Safe way to take out pent up annoyance at me perhaps! Fun stuff anyhow. Hope you are all staying cool and having fun times!

Hot !

2009-07-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

Beautiful weather we are having here! The garden is just getting huge! I think that I overplanted... I don't know how I will even get in there when it grows more! The mystery squash are taking over. I love going out there in the mornings though, and I find myself lingering for a lot longer than I need to. The ecchinacea, lavendar and calendula are in full bloom and I can see tiny buds of chammomile starting. We are eating lots of peas and greens and herbs so far... the bounty is coming though. It looks like I will have hundreds of tomatoes this year and far too many beans! Dilly beans here we come!

The berries are in full swing . When we go on a forest walk now we come home with baskets of goodies. I made fireweed jelly for the first time last week. Such a pretty colour and tasty too. The wild blackberries are just getting ripe... I bet if we go up into the bush in the next couple of days that we will catch some. My neck was out for the last three days, so we havent been out much... the house is disasterous!lol

Scored yesterday at the thrift shop. For a couple of bucks I came home with a very clean blue glass 5 gallon water jug. So pretty! Since our house and pipes are so incredibly old and sketchy, we are forced to buy water. I hate using the plastic, but it seems to be the lesser of the two evils... especially since the tap water gives me tummy upset in the summer anyhow, never mind the heavy metal and rust ingestion!

Looks like the landlords are finally going to replace the roof! It has only been leaking for 5 years! I think that we convinced them to finally put some insulation in the back of the house in the roof as well... should make for a warmer winter! I hate to know that our heating is just literally flying out the roof. Especially when our main source is oil.

Heading into the shop today to finish those commision pieces for my girlfriends wedding. Hopefully we can break some ground this week and get started on our cold frame as well.

Eight!!

2009-07-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

My biggest guy had his eighth birthday today. Sweet little bug!

He woke up for the day excited... ready to go... and ready to have cake for breakfast! What could be better?! He wanted cheesecake, but I didn't have time to do two cakes... since not everyone in the family can eat dairy we went with a chocolate mousse tofu cheesecake. It was actually phenomenal. I am not a tofu cheesecake fan, but we would all happily gobble this anytime. Bonus, we discovered that the batter makes for the best dairy free pudding ever! T received the 7th Harry Potter book from us. It was the last of the series and he has been waiting for it for months, rereading all of the others multiple time while patiently awaiting the final book. He was pretty excited and started plowing through it right away.

We had a tricky time trying to find something special to do for the day. We had the idea to go to a local island for a day trip and beautiful hike. When we looked online at the ferry cost, it would have cost over 80 bucks just for the transportation. Poo... we scrapped that idea ( It cost us 200 bucks to get off this island to the mainland... we have been off once in 8 years! ) Then we researched a local small caving tour. It had a price tag of almost 70 bucks for a 25 min tour. Eeep! Harry Potter movie for the family? Another thumbs down on that idea. Ok. We are super duper frugal. My hubby has been layed off for over 2 months now and employment insurance pays 1400 a month which doesn't even cover essentials truly. We do a ton of fun stuff all of the time.... we just happen to enjoy things that are free! We are so out of the loop of what things even cost these days! I was a bit bummed to say the least. We just couldn't spend a weeks worth of groceries for a couple of hours of entertainment. We finally found the perfect thing. About a 45 min drive away there is a wildlife reserve that does local wildlife rescue. They have a nature museum, education center, lots of permanent resident animals plus a ton of rescue animals. It was soooooo perfect .... and under 20 dollars to boot ( I would gladly donate the 90 bucks it would have cost for the ferry trip to an organisation like this one!) We will definitely go back there. We did a little trip after to the next town over and what luck.... T s favourite musician( ok... he was really into him for a couple of years , but now it is all about K'Naan... but still this was a cool coincidence) was busking outside! http://www.shanephilip.com/ So it ended up being an awesome day. Happy birthday monkey!

The days are getting a bit away from me!

2009-07-08T14:37:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely and busy weekend with guests again! Still no work, so family coming by can be a little bit stressful. Luckily there are lots of greens in the garden and we could brave the bears for bowls of free cherries! It has been raining like crazy for days now and we got to enjoy a rare thunderstorm that lasted for about 6 or 7 hours the other night!!! The garden is very happy though and seems to have doubled!

Since I last wrote I spun up about 600 yards of wool( 300 plyed). The first time ever spinning a skein on the wheel... plying too! it turned out lovely. I made up two touques and they don't even seem itchy. I started the epic job of spinning 1500 yards of finished plyed wool ( so about 3 km worth!) last night hoping to make myself a sweater. I have 3 flats of raspberries in the kitchen and am right in between stages of making jam. Papa has been helping an elderly neighbour with editing his biography. A great thing to do while layed off! Tomorrow I take the boys to a protest/ rally for inclusion/ peace and diversity after a highly publicised hate crime and racially motivated beating in the valley. So surprising... but not I guess. There isn't a lot of diversity in the valley and there is still a ton of racism. I don't see it in my corner of the woods, but I do know it is there.

This little guy had an amazing weeked with his Grandpa. Notoriously this little guy is so avoidant of touch.... never accepting any hugs or touch from anyone outside the family. Even when he was a baby he tucked in his arms to his side when you held him. He doesn't high five and has been known to pick highly dangerous senarious in order to avoid touch from others. So this weekend he discovered that he LOVES head massages from his grandpa. He had these huge smiles and sat there for big sessions of long massages all weekend. When it was time for the guests to leave he ran over and said... " how about you guys hug me, and I don't do any hugging?!!" He sidled up to them, arms stiff by his side to allow them to hug him! Might not seem like a big deal to some, but for us this was huge! Not only did he initiate, but he enjoyed it!!!! So cute.

Ready to spin!

2009-07-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

So, nerdy as I am, I was so excited to deal with the fleece this morning that I woke up at 4 AM and couldn't get back to sleep. We washed the entire fleece in small batches in about three hours. It was so grubby that I didn't want to bring it inside so I did it all in a galvanized tub which could only handle about a pound at a time. What a crazy job this was! We strung up a piece of garden netting and created a giant drying hammock strung up between the posts of the swing set!. It was a perfect nice hot day with a breeze, so it all is almost dry. This afternoon we attempted a Canada Day outing ... the music was loud at the mini community gathering and my oldest started to get upset right away. He was saying that it was "his definition of chaos" and he was out of there before we even had a chance to even get in there at all. Poor little bug. He was all clenched up and stimmy all of the way home and just hasn't recovered all day. I wasn't really into it either to be honest, but I try to get the kids out there when there is an opportunity. You never know when they will be able to function at a gathering... we stayed at a birthday party last weekend until the very end. That was the first time ever! Usually we last half an hour or so, or are notorious for politely making excuses of why we can't come in the first place. Spectrumy behaviors have actually been pretty minimal lately all in all. At a playground a couple of weeks back the boys played with a group of kids, invited new kids to join them and looked to be the perfect little socialites! I was so happy off to the side watching thinking about 6 months previously when my youngest surely would have been hiding under a bench growling at anyone who came near him. Cool anyways. The ups and downs of it all. What can you do other than just be there and cheer them on inside!

So this afternoon I broke out the carders and carded and rolled a basket of the wool... pretty different than the dung encrusted mess I started with this morning! Now I am super ready to sit for a spinning session after dinner. I am really still getting the feel of the wheel. It isn't fancy or perfect and I just need to work around that a little! I didn't want to just spin fancy expensive combed top from the wool shop. I didn't have a project in mind and it just feels wasteful while I am learning. I had put that all aside in my mind because of finances even though I LOVE the little taste of spinning that I had done. Anyhow... that was why I couldn't sleep this morning. I was ridiculously excited. I even have a hat pattern picked out for it!

Impromptu farm visit

2009-06-30T18:08:00.000-07:00

Got a call late this afternoon.... my plea for wool was finally answered. We are very very broke right now, so I really didn't wan't to be spending much of anything extra. We drove up to a beautiful property and the owner came to greet us from the fields. One of her steers got loose and she had the hay all newly cut in the field. He was where he shouldn't be and she couldn't get him back in. She got my hubby out there with ski poles in hand to try to round him up. LOL what a ridiculous and slightly anxiety inducing sight! They got him back into his designated area in record time and then we went to meet the sheep. She thought that they would be too shy but all of the sudden they stampeded the kids. The look on thier faces were priceless. They all had names and they had nurslings still. So awesome. We went to the outbuilding with the wool and I bought one fleece. A mama named Tippy. The owner threw Tippys daughters fleece as well as an older bag of a beautiful black and brown girl to see if we could salvage it. So for twenty dollars I came home with three bags of wool, a gift of a bag of prawns for my hubby and possibly work in trade for some grass fed beef in the future. It was an awesome outing and we all had smiles plastered on our faces. Better than yesterday where papa sharpened the lawn mower blade and slipped while putting it back on the mower... requiring a trip for stitches. Well, the kids thought that that was pretty epic. The nurse even let the boys watch. Funny life we lead!
Tomorrow we attempt the huge feat of washing the wool!! Wish me luck!

I am still here!

2009-06-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

The weeks are flying by! I think I have been swept up into the day to day stuff a little bit lately. Papa still isn't working... gah... None of the electricians are back yet in the valley, so it is nothing personal. Still, it has been over a month, maybe over two already. Things are unique and fun at first where you can take advantage of more family time. By a month and a half in I am raring to get back to my own routine. It is too tight ( as in not nearly enough) and I need to start saving to put oil in the heater come september plus tires for the van before winter. So I am crossing my fingers! Papa is getting a ton of writing done though which is a nice bonus.

Lets see... What have I missed out on sharing? We went for a beautiful bike ride on fathers day . We drove to the next town over and biked along the ocean. There are chainsaw driftwood carving competitions there yearly and so the path is lined with all sorts of carving art. We biked about 6 km into the town to the farmers market and then hung out at a playground and had a picnic. We are eating a lot of greens out of the garden right now... a head of lettuce a day, plus lots of kale, herbs, broccoli and edible weeds! We got 3 days of good rain this week and a bit of cooler weather which the garden seems thankful for. We dug an entire new section of garden a couple of weekends back when my brother brought over a bucket of jeruselum artichokes to plant. I sure hope that they thrive because it is the perfect thing for someone who has trouble with starches like I do.( I am feeling so crappy eating too much potato and stuff lately... I struggle most with my health when we are broke. I can't eat the grain we get for the rest of the family and can't afford a ton of meat and veg... which is kind of all I usually eat. I end up filling on potatoes and then get a really bad tummy, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis if I eat too many. It seems cumulative) I can't wait until the rest of the garden is producing! A friend gifted us a beautiful little vintage chair and ottomon a couple of days back. Our house is teeny tiny, so bringing in anything means that we haveto arrange the entire house to make it work! It looks super cute though and I like the new layout. The boys look so sweet jammed into it with the weighted blanket reading Astrix!

Yesterday we went up into the bush in the pouring rain. Someone had spotted a downed arbutus tree. They are protected here, so you cant just cut any down! The wood is rare to find. We didn't find it but I was so sketched out in the woods... I am convinced that a cougar was tracking us. Oh well... maybe I will come across some soon ( a piece of arbutus and a bag of freshly shorn dirty fleece are on my wishlist right now!) A close friend called yesterday and asked me to make her some jewelry for her wedding!!! Yay! I am so honoured, a little pressured and most of all inspired. I spent a chunk of yesterday afternoon in the basement and make a nice part of a necklace for it. Hopefully she will love it and we can come up with something lovely. We will be meeting Tuesday to draw up more of a design and pick up some materials if we need to. I will show it off when it is done!

My oldest little guy turns 8 in two weeks!!!! Where does the time go? He has asked for the final Harry Potter book which we ordered yesterday, and a hommade broomstick, which I still need to go foraging for the parts for. Thankfully he doesn't wan't any big party... just a nice ( specific!!) dinner with the family.

You know you walk a lot when...

2009-06-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

You get to the end of a 9 km walk and everyone is disappointed that it wasn't longer! None of the pictures I got quite captured the beauty of it. We went up the ski hill and hiked through alpine meadows and forests. There were lots of boardwalks built all of the way along as well. We are planning to go back in the next couple of weeks to try doing the 16km loop. I really don't know if the boys can walk that far though. They can easily make it 10 km but we haven't tried more... they were still running by the end of the hike today though.... maybe? If we plan to leave early in the morning and give ourselves all day, they could surely make it. It only took 2 hours and a bit to do the hike today!

We have been taking advantage of the lay off and have been adventuring all over the neighbourhood! In the past week we have done 2 8 or 9 km hikes, one 18 km bike ride and multiple bikes and swims in the lake! Impressed at the boys ability to keep up... stamina and energy are definitely not lacking! We ate our first broccoli out of the garden and have been eating greens from it daily.

It turns out that my skin nerve pain that I was having was some sort of trapped nerve from my hip and back. I have been seeing the chiro for the past couple of weeks and the pain finally cleared after two whole weeks! We REALLY can't afford to go to the chiro right now because the employment insurance doesn't even really cover the basics, but I really needed to go. I got great news though that I won 100 bucks US in a draw for doing online survey thingys. Pretty much exactly what I needed to cover the chiro appointments! Things certainly do come when you need them! Hopefully work will pick back up soon. There were 22 housing starts in the valley last month, so hopefully that translates into the electricians being back to work next month! Oh well... everyone is in the same boat. At least we are resourceful! Speaking of which.... off to sample the home made rhubarb wine I made a couple of weeks back!

Bread making binge...

2009-06-04T09:15:00.000-07:00

We have been making flour like crazy over the past couple of days.... my biceps are going to be huge!!! So far we have ground brown rice, white rice, millet, buckwheat, red lentil, yellow pea, and toasted mung bean into flours. I have sprouted and dehydrated garbonzo beans as well as brown rice, to grind into sprouted flours today. I also have a jars of quinoa and oats on the go to make sprouted flours out of.

Last night I put together a gluten free raisin bread batter with a mix of our hand milled flours. I added a cup of our home made sourdough starter and let it sit overnight. In the morning I just added the eggs and let it rise a bit again before baking it. I can't even taste grains because I get really bad psoriasis and arthritis if I do... torture for a cook to serve food that he or she can't even taste first. My hubby is getting better though at describing flavours and textures to me so that I can tweak and improve recipes... not in a critical way at all, but more acting like my taste buds! He says that it is delicious. A teeny bit of grit, but so super fine that he would be happy to eat it every day. Everything else is perfect. No bean flavour at all either... and the beans add some great protein and nutrition to the bread for the kids. I am really hoping that the sprouted flours will be really sucessful too. It was too much batter for 1 loaf pan, but I wasn't sure if it was enough for two, so I put it in a round casserole type of pot... it looks flatter because of that, not because it was dense and flat!

It has been super warm here for the coast. It is 22 degrees in the shade right now at 9:30 in the morning. The weather report says that it will get to 32 on the city next to the water... we are inland and the temp is regularly 10 degrees warmer than that here.(and 5 to 10 degrees colder in winter!) Our outdoor thermometer has been over 40 degrees in the late afternoon all week long. Can't be good for the rainforest!!! Oldest son had a heat headache last night. I used to get them as a kid easily too... like a migrane. I have never been able to regulate heat well. Interestingly I have read that some other spectrum and sensory kiddos have similar inability to handle heat well. Secretly I am doing the rain dance!

What luck

2009-06-01T17:05:00.000-07:00

Checked the local community news mailout today and in the free section.... a manual grain mill!!!! We actually were the first to call as well! It is an old cast iron one that unfortunately had been used for gluten flours of course. We scrubbed it down and took the dremel wire brush to all of the surfaces. I scrubbed it down and soaked it and brushed it and went to town on it! Lastly I coated it all in a thin layer of coconut oil to protect it. We took it outside on the back steps as that was one of the few VERY sturdy places that we could attatch it. It is EXTREMELY( !!!!!) strenuous; we could only handle short bursts of time on it. We managed to do about 4 pounds of brown rice in maybe half an hour , taking turns in bursts(we had to put it through in progressively finer adjustments too)! Now we are exausted! It looks wonderful though. It will be the perfect interm mill until we can afford something efficient( expensive!lol) I would still love to be able to grind bean flours because I don't tolerate any grains. We are going to be one fit duo! As usual we keep up our nutty neighbour image, grunting and groaning and giggling out there. Doesn't help I suppose, that the temp is reading 38 degrees Celcius in the sun... not that it would be any less funny to be out there in winter!

And more guests

2009-05-31T20:48:00.000-07:00

Another weekend with family visiting. We drove up Island to an area that we hadn't been before and saw some beautiful falls and had some great hikes. Now we are wonderfully tuckered after a full day and full tummies( baked bread in the firepit tonight!) So nice! Having so much trouble with photo layout for some reason lately.... must iron out that bug!

Fossil hunt

2009-05-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

Instead of the island bike trip on the weekend we decided to have another down day in order to get better. We took a van ride about an hour up island to a beach... we were tipped off by some seasoned ( kids are now grown) home learners, that this was a great beach to look for fossils. Sure enough it was! We didn't dress properly because we didn't really know what to expect. Next time we will bring gumboots. 4 inch barnacles and sandals don't mix... or at least all of your focus goes towards stepping carefully.

We are all on the mend, but I had something odd happening. I have had this odd band of skin and nerve pain across my upper thigh and around my butt. The skin hurts to touch and gets stabby pains too. I went to the doc yesterday ( hadn't been in over two years!) and got poked at to be sure that nothing was pressing on the nerve from the reproductive area. Nothing was, so I walked away armed with a prescription for a heavy duty antiviral just in case I come up with shingles... It would make sense since I have been so run down. So it is day four of the nerve pain, but still no rash. Wait and see I suppose! I never thought that I may be the one to give my family the chicken pox!

Sun is shining, weather is sweet yeah! Makes me want to move those dancing feet...

2009-05-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous weather out... to bad that I have vomiting children! We managed an easy stroll by the river to look for fossils the other day, but really don't have a lot of energy. We are hoping to go on a bike trip to a local island tomorrow, but as it stands at bedtime tonight, I don't know if we can make it. We will just have to play it by ear. A day long biking trip just doesn't match up well with regular nebuliser treatments! It would suck to be stuck somewhere with sick kids, on a bike, with a ferry in between any possible way home. I hope that we can do a trip like this one day though... walking onto the ferry is super cheap. Bringing the bikes seems to be the way to go.

I got in the shop for a short while this evening and made this..

It is a nice simple hair fork made from recycled school gymnasium maple flooring! A friend had scored this at a local demolition place with gym lines painted on it and all. She did her home flooring with it and it looks lovely. I took a small bucket of end pieces home to rescue it furthar. The fork is super cute and slides in and holds like a dream. Sometimes simple is best!

Have to mention that I cooked dinner out on the campfire in the backyard tonight! Yippie! It worked so well. I am feeling good about having this as a cooking option when the power goes out in the winter time. Doubles for some good heat too.

Mango

2009-05-20T14:30:00.000-07:00

I have been up to my elbows in mango juice for the past couple of days. Mangos are in season and on sale this time of the year... 6 bucks a case here. Pretty fabulous, as they can be as much as 2 bucks a piece in the off season... otherwise, off limits! I bought three cases and dried two of them yesterday. Today I sliced up the final case for some mango chutney.

As the years go by it feels as though we do more and more canning! In the months where we don't have to heat the house, the extra bit of money seems to go to canning supplies and garden odds and ends.( gas and provincial park parking go in there somewhere too!) Even though I put out the extra funds for cases of fruit, organic sugar( I react to conventional white sugar. Don't know why I don't react to organic cane sugar, but I don't!) and other ingredients, I am sure that it all comes out as being frugal in the end. And let me tell you, there is nothing like opening a jar of mango chutney when you are dirt poor mid winter to serve with a bean and rice minimal dish. Or serving your Christmas turkey with some salal and oregon grape jelly that you lovingly put together months earlier. My preserves have been wedding gifts, additions to care packages, hostess gifts, bartering tools, and shared with lucky neighbours over the past few years.( we usually don't have many exra funds on one income , so having something like this to use for gifts is so fantastic) People ask to pay for thier favourites... strawberry jam, caramel spice pear butter and dilly beans. My hubby covets his chutney and the oregon grape jelly. We make great use of the orchards in the forest behind our house, full of fruit that just falls to waste on the fround. Apples, pears, plums, cherries, berries all right out the back door. We don't buy many condiments anymore. Being gluten free makes us a little bit wary of conventional products. Home made preserves can be used to flavour plain yogurt, whip up a plum sauce, meat glazes, toast, salad dressings and the list goes on.

All you need to start can be found at a local thrift store usually. Water canners can be found for well under 10 dollars, and jars can be found for under 3 dollars for a box there too. The bonus of the jars from the thrift store is that there are unique shapes, sizes and patterns of glass. I find the new ones to be a bit bland! You can find a lot of great canning literature online now, and the library has some great preserving books. You will need brand new lids for the jars keep in mind. For under 20 dollars you can get started on your first batch of home made jam, jelly, chutney, sauce etc. Pretty wonderful.( all you will need past that point will be the ingredients themselves)I keep a pretty decent supply of jars on hand so that I am ready to can right away if I am presented with a surplus of some type.

Just thought I might share the joy and simplicity of home preserve canning( for the frugal too!) in hopes that maybe someone else may be inspired. Off to jar and process my batch as I finish this! Yum yum!

May day

2009-05-18T19:55:00.000-07:00

Had a busy day today... parade, petting zoo, bike ride to the lake, fire and art in the backyard. A fine day to end the long weekend!

I came home the other day to find an odd package on the doorstep: a plastic bucket with a note in it. I read it as " I came to throw these paint filled ballons at you".... but it actually said" I came to your house to throw these paint filled balloons with you" . OK .... lol. I was wondering who I had wronged there for a second, a nd confused about why they would leave them for me.... to throw at myself?! Inside were a few dozen paint filled balloons left over from a close friends art class,( homelearners dream to have a freind who is an art teacher!) along with some pieces of cloth to splat them on. Fun stuff! It took a couple of days for the boys to work up to the activity. Since they can both be a little bit sensory avoidant they came up with the plan to sandwich the ballons in between the two pieces of cloth so that they wouldn't have to get too messy. Here are some pics...

This picture somehow sums up the boys all too well! One child who is over the top enthusiastic ( works with all emotions these days though... ) and the other ( check out the sweet get up! ... not sure what is up with the homeboy look) looking at the balloon, wondering if he can get out of this somehow and not able to imagine how he can possibly come out of this without getting messy. This totally makes me giggle to look at it.

Big brother handled most of the stomping in the end. Pretty cool project I must say!

Road trip.

2009-05-17T15:18:00.000-07:00

Took a day trip down island today to meet up with an old friend and her new girlfriend. It had been years since we saw each other, but feels the same! Took a nice short walk to some waterfalls and planned for a farm visit or two... youngest though came down with some hard core diarrhea and barfiness, so we had to cut the trip short and come home. Gorgeous day though, and the long weekend still isn't over! May Day parade and all that jazz tomorrow.

Freaking out!!!

2009-05-16T12:32:00.000-07:00

Came home from the market day today to find.... our baby mantisis have hatched!!!!!! There are over 100!!! We thought maybe the sack was going to be a failure. Our house was chilly and we didn't spray it as much as we thought we should. But it actually happened!

More wool!

2009-05-10T16:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Mothers Day all!

I finished about 65 yards of plyed yarn on the drop spindle last week, my second try using it. It was great and turned out beautiful. I am having a hard time taking pictures, as the colours aren't coming out quite accurately. It was a bit tricky to spin any quantity using the spindle, especially since I don't have any equipment other than my hands and a little creativity. It worked out in the end!

The woman at the local wool shop has still offered me the use of her wheel in the store, but I haven't had the time to get in there... store hours aren't really conducive to me being kid free. Even though the kids love the wool shop, I am not sure that I could relax and focus much with them there. So I have secretly been lusting after a used spinning wheel, but with a laid off hubby, and not much ( if any!) dispensable income, I just lusted without attachment! The used wheels I have seen are going for well over 300 dollars. I just had faith that something would come my way if I was supposed to have one, at a cost I could afford and at the right time. We went for a forest/ beach walk today for a mothers day jaunt. I am still under the weather with very little energy. It feels like I work up a fever whenever I exert myself the teeniest bit. I was feeling pretty crappy, but requested a quick stop into my favourite thrift store on the way home. What do I see right the second I walk into the door? A spinning wheel!!!!!! Not priced or anything as it had just come in the door. The woman that runs the store gave it to me for 40 dollars!!! I went out of there with the biggest grin on my face.... and my hubby had that laughing look on his face, because I seem to have that kind of luck when it comes to thrift stores! We don't do gifts for many holidays other than the biggest ones... not really even birthdays. It is just too expensive to buy things just for the sake of buying things. It kind of felt like the universe gave me my mothers day gift! It is perfect and simple... but still has those nice lines that I appreciate. We oiled it up and tightened the belt and it looks wonderful. If I can get up enough energy, I will be using it this evening!

Dandelion time!

2009-05-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

Dandelions are in full bloom right now. With all of the rain they are just lush and happy! We made a wonderful batch of dandelion honey last week by plucking the petals and just stirring the right in. It makes these lovely little glowing slivers of gold all through the honey. So pretty on fresh bread. We also made a huge batch of dandelion syrup. I tried a new method I read about , and instead of painstakingly picking off the petals and discarding all of the green, I made it with the whole flower. I was afraid it would be bitter... but it wasn't at all! It is so incredibly delicious and thick and pretty. Sure beats buying maple syrup at 40 bucks a litre. Hubby just went out to mow the lawn and I ran out yelling with a pot in my hand... to save the dandelions. Surely I am living up to the crazy neighbour lady notorious reputation. Ready to put another couple of litres of syrup by anyhow!

Beaver fever

2009-05-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

Down with a bit of a tummy bug for the past couple of days. It has been pretty rainy, so I guess it could be the good ol' spring run off tummy rot. Joy!

So in my nauseous stupor two nights ago, I made myself a drop spindle out of some bits I had in the shop. I have never spun before, but got the idea when admiring the beautiful 70 dollar hardwood drop spindles at the farmers market. I thought " I could do that!" ... so I did! I bought a small portion of fleece at the local wool shop yesterday. Walked down there in a sweat, trying to be fast andto minimise any contact as to not spread whatever sickness we have. Took my first try at spinning, or handling fleece for that matter! This is what I came out with!

Awesome success! Now I have the spinning bug! I need to make another spindle with a heavier whorl on it this time, but all in all I am very happy with this as a first attempt. The lady at the wool shop was surprised and offered me the use of her spinning wheel if I would like to try it in her shop. She doesn't spin at all but has a beautiful one on display. I am definitely going to take her up on the offer this weekend. What I would really love to do is to play with natural dyes. Especially since we are in the bush foraging anyhow, I would love to make use of some of the local dye and fiber possibilities.

Busy weekend!

2009-05-02T14:39:00.000-07:00

Just have a brief moment of peace! We have had a very packed house of out of town visitors this weekend. Papas folks are up and my mom and niece came for a visit at the same time. For a 780 square foot house and two very sensory overstimulated kiddos... this can feel a little overwhelming! It has been nice though. Today we hit a couple of garage sales and a yearly rock and gem show. I only picked up a couple of small pieces to use for jewelry when I get back in the workshop. At the garage sales I picked up 2 boxes of jars and a decent pressure canner for under 20 bucks( oh yes... and an anvil to use when I am jewelry making too!) I really hadn't thought about the potential of a pressure canner past the thought that it could come in handy. Now though, I am super excited! I have a huge stock on the go right now and am planning to can a bunch tomorrow. I usually have two large plastic Tupperware type of containers that I store the stock in in the freezer. They are the only two containers I have and have thought of using glass in the freezer... but it is a small one and I would be happy to free up room in there anyhow!. I love the potential of canning it and not needing to wait for it to thaw as well as having it on hand for sick neighbours ( I am old fashioned that way... I have a thing for bone broths and feeding them to anyone who is sick... I swear that I am going to be the chunky grandma who constantly feeds everyone!). Making extra large batches of sauces and soups and canning them too. It is much more frugal to stretch a meal into something larger, so this excites me hugely! So it looks as if I will be experimenting with the pressure canner for the next few weeks so that I can get the hang of the routine before the harvest season even gets here. In the meantime... back to socialising with guests... and trying to help the kids stay sane!

Burn on top of a burn?

2009-04-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

So, in my regular fashion I whipped up my usual remedy for sunburn on the weekend. I cut open a fresh aloe leaf and scoop out the gel, then add one drop of lavender essential oil. This usually works really well for me. This time I had a new bottle in the cupboard waiting for its multitude of uses. I put on my trusty remedy and it stung like heck... I thought I spent a little too much time in the sun, but nothing serious ( for a redhead it seems like enough time to water the garden without 45 sunscreen can be too much time in the sun these days!) , but it felt like a really awful burn now... stinging like a regular kitchen burn. I thought it seemed weird that the sunburn seemed to be " showing up" so fast all of the sudden but thought nothing more of it, other thatthe fact that it was hurting so much. I woke up the next morning and everywhere that I put the remedy I had a bright red dry chapped burn, which included around my eyes. It seemed weird because I had never gotten a sunburn so close to my eyes before. Finally today, as the burn is looking worse instead of better and unlike the regular course of any sunburn I have ever had, it dawns on me that this looks like a chemical burn. ( I was freaked out about it thinking that I was having an unusual reaction to the sun and googling lupus symptoms... darn internet!!!) This can happen sometimes when solvents or chemicals are added in the oil distillation process, but the company I use states that thier product is guaranteed 100 percent pure. I wrote a letter to the company just in case they get any other complaints. I patch tested the aloe earlier and have no trouble with it. I just bravely patch tested the lavender on healthy skin and it seems ok so far... but I can't exactly replicate the damaged sunburnt skin... nor would I now. But it doesn't look as if I am having an allergic reaction to it at all. Thank goodness I didn't use this on the kids or on a larger burn. Lesson learned... be absolutely sure where the product I am using comes from. So disappointed! Don't know if this shows it well but you can see the big patch where I applied it... it looks awful in person and is still very angry and red and really painful.

End of a nice long weekend!

2009-04-26T18:48:00.000-07:00

Another weekend in the garden again! Today we made a plot for the echinacea in the front of the garden, weeded the rhubarb patch and built a fire pit. It was beautifully sunny and I think I got my first burn of the year... even though I was wearing sunscreen. Yesterday we went for a wander down to the marsh... we spent a long time in a secluded spot just sitting there watching. The red wing blackbirds were putting on a show with their mating ritual, the ducks were out, the frogs were active. We spent a while digging some early spring burdock. Boy those are a pain to dig! They were delicious though, quick fried in a pan with other root veggies and braggs and sesame oil.

Papa is still of of work, though some should be coming soon. We went to the beach last week on a weekday. Secluded and gorgeous. Another day we went to the docks in the next town over and looked at all of the sea life. The jellyfish were thick! There are definitely some bonuses of a few extra days off.

Here are a couple of pics of the week. Here is my toilet super hero. He has been wearing these all week.

The garden with the netting up... isn't so pretty, but we make do. The neighbours don't mind! Besides , it will look lovely when everything is green. Everything looks a little drab in the spring!

Our fire pit trail run. Should be fun. As usual it is all scrap material! It ain't no show home!lol ( I think we are going to take it apart and do it up proper... maybe a washing machine drum one?)

And our treat. When I was a youth my friends mom used to make these banana treats in the campfire. They had chocolate and marshmallows I think. Since we don't do the refined sugar thing, and I haven't yet perfected my own marshmallow recipe, we do ours a bit different. We cut the banana , spread some peanut butter or other nut butter and a drizzle of honey. Then you sprinkle on chocolate chips( except youngest who hates melted chocolate) and maybe some crushed nuts and chopped dried fruit. We wrap it all up in foil( arg... I hate using the stuff... this is the only thing we ever use it for) and nestle them into the coals. We have done them in the oven too. Cook it until they are all gooey like a hot banana custard. If we weren't casein free I bet it would be good beside some vanilla ice cream!

Sun!

2009-04-22T13:02:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful time of year! The garden is now officially ready to go. We finished the deer fencing on the weekend and put in our lettuce seedlings and kale and planted some peas. It is going to look great in the summer. It feels like we have added another room to the yard and I am even contemplating trying to come up with some sort of seating in there. The neighbours are moving and passed us along a really cute outdoor table. Now I can go and enjoy a cup of tea out there! I had to include this pic of the hummingbird... it looks like it is joyfully diving in for the nectar! That is how I feel in spring too.

dirty nails!

2009-04-17T20:10:00.000-07:00

Finally spring is really here! We have been spending a ton of time revamping the garden. We tripled the size now. Dug double deep, AND broke up all of the clay underneath with the mattock. We also lay the sod down underneath that all root size up. Later we built a wall to tier our incredibly sloped yard and papa built some little stairs in. We hauled in 10 buckets of compost and have dug holes for posts since we need to put up a deer fence. We found a large amount of netting to use for it.We still need to find posts for, and put up, the deer fencing. As well as finishing my old herb boxes, build our potato boxes.... then plant! It still looks a little rough, though it always does this time of year. ( it was -4 out the other morning!) I had to go take pics, because it looks a lot different from the top picture. It really isn't anything fancy, even though we are proud of the progress! We only used scrap materials for it because it is a rental after all ( it only took us almost 7 years of living here to actually take the plunge and do some more work on it!)

On top of that I have harvested and dried buckets of nettles, made violet medicine, dried violet flowers and made a batch of violet oil for papas tinnitus. I painted the inside floors with linseed oil, cleaned up the workshop... plus the other multitude of busy things that happen in a regular day around here! That is why I haven't written... if you need an excuse!

It looks like papa is layed off for a while. There were only two housing starts in the whole valley this month. 7 permits pulled for anything at all in the whole area. ( I think that the population is around 60 thousand in the entire Valley) Yikes! I hope things pick up. We are enjoying having papa home for the extra couple of days though. I need the break and the boys always have more fun when papa is home. We always get a ton done, plus a bunch o fun along with it!

The kids are incredibly whiny and needy right now. Hayfever is making them stimmy and chaotic. Picked up some fish oil and some enzyme mix that a natural pharmacist made up for us. Hopefully along with some herbs we can get the allergies under control. I feel so badly for the boys. It just looks exausting. I have to encourage them to try to take it easy in a hepa filtered room and just to chill and watch library videos.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T14:04:00.000-07:00

We have been trapped in the house with very bouncy children because it has been pouring rain all day. We got about 3 hours of sleep between waiting for the kiddos to finally fall asleep and the boys waking us up about5 times through the night asking if the easter bunny came yet and if it was time to get up. Easter bunny brought allowable gluten/ casien/dye free treats ( hence being sugared right up!) , a mason bee observation nesting box and life cycle poster, gardening gloves, seeds... and bug/sunscreen lotion for when we bike through the marsh to the lake!
Now we are all crashed and sleepy... enjoying a supplementary cup of coffee and a square of 85% vegan chocolate! Yummers! The sun is peeking out at this very moment and I am contemplating running out to work on the garden.
We picked up some fish compost and bone meal yesterday from papas old boss. He didn't charge us at all and gave us some fantastic gardening advice and told us to come back next weekend and he will help cut us some netting for deer fencing and give us some bedding plants!. Thank goodness, because I had no idea how we would manage it all this year!
Happy Easter all!

Whew!

2009-04-09T08:11:00.000-07:00

Spring has finally sprung! We had a guest this weekend... papas birthmom who we have only met a couple of times. She is so amazing and fits into the family so easily that it is almost comical!

Papa is trying to take as much work as possible right now, as the work situation in the valley seems to be drying up somewhat. He has been working some evenings... sometimes we all tag along if it is sunny and the kids and I explore the different neighbourhoods.

The days have been busy. We only have 4 weeks of school reporting to do until we meet our requirement for the year, so this time next month and we will be " done"! Nothing really changes... but I don't have to write down what we do all day, or type out reports weekly for the boys. I still have a bunch of funding to spend. We are thinking of getting a rock tumbler, audobon mineral and rock guide, rock picks( and eye protection!) and some mineral guide books of the area. We will probably get a couple of other guidebooks to beef up the collection as well. I don't know what to allot the funding to for my youngest. I purchased a LOT of paper becauase he was so into bookmaking, some Sensory Therapy play books and the Autism book Building Bridges for ideas to help through the social/ sensory issues( dairy is still helping amazingly by the way!), and the mantis egg stuff with his funding. He has met with all of the ministry guidelines for the year so doesn't need any actual curriculum at this time. He is really a builder and a maker... he has k'nex and lego.. Does anyone have any ideas of neat things that they have spotted? I was even trying to find a good source of online art supplies that was good quality ( not crayola) that is based in Canada, but wasn't having any luck. The Canadian dollar isn't doing so hot and I don't want to spend all of thier funding on huge shipping expenses!

A few weeks back we recieved an order of ours from Lee Valley Tools for my oldest sons learning plan.They did a reprint of the 1915 book series ( maybe it was a magazine then?) Boy Mechanic. It is a series of four books, each with around 1000 projects. Everything from kite building ( 10 different fancy types even like box kites, separate leveled kites, etc) , glider making all of the way to human sized, how to fish/ set traps/ build shelters/ camp. Then it goes all of the way to building steam powered motorcycles/ boats/ cars etc.!lol Anyhow , the stuff that was acceptable fun for kids/ youth back then is so different than it is now. Of course we use more safety precautions now which is fantastic, but now we just buy prefab things and set them loose on structured activities. When it snows for example, there are 2 dozen ideas for making different sleds. Some are beautiful and complicated patterns if you have the time, some can be thrown together in an hour out of scrap just in time to have fun still. Now we just buy a sled from Walmart when it snows.( well, not us cause we still have my hubbys old GT snow racer from when he was a kid) It feels like your mind would be so expanded by trying to make more things for yourself. Anyways... the boys freak for these books! My oldest reads them for hours and the youngest looks through them for ages( he is the engineer type) and then builds cool stuff with k'nex. They do have older materials that are hazerdous to use... but next to impossible to find these days anyways. Many of them are awesome projects to make with creative kids though... to get them used to using tools and being creative with what is available. Anyhow, I highly recommend them!

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&cat=1,46096,46100&p=32453

We are definitely looking forward to building some great stuff with them this summer.

This was all a little bit fragmented... kind of like real life feels right now! Now the clock is ticking on getting the garden finished! I planted some inherited raspberry canes in the old side garden last night. I still have to finish cleaning up the newly 3 times expanded main garden, and tier the darn thing before I plant anything. Looks like that will be the plan this weekend. In the rain!

April Fools?

2009-04-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

It isn't the first year that we have lived here that it has snowed on April fools day. Maybe nature has a good sense of humour? I have the feeling that this may not be the last of it... which will definitely make it the latest snow that I have seen. Pretty anyhow. Truly though, I am so ready for more springtime weather. The snow in the trails and hills behind our house is still crusted, making biking tricky and demanding that we walk certain sections if we are with the kids.

Heres to fingers crossed for a beautiful spring!

I made gluten free bagels yesterday for that boys. They had never had a bagel before. I did the whole baking/ boiling/ baking routine. They looked great. Since I don't tolerate any grains, I couldn't try them. They looked a little dense. The boys gave them BIG thumbs up and ate so many that they had to lay down afterwards. lol I guess that I can count that as a success?

Harry Potter mania!

2009-03-31T18:01:00.000-07:00

Violet syrup

2009-03-30T14:24:00.000-07:00

So I took the plunge in making violet syrup today. Yesterday we spent two hours picking the violets. I put my neck out somehow earlier yesterday morning... so the violet picking was quite the feat!

The colour of the infusion was this gorgeous brilliant purple colour. The recipe that I used called for honey. When it came to a boil it turned brown... too bad. Since I knew that you can use violets as a PH tester, I decided to add a bit of lemon juice to see if that would pink up the colour a bit. It did... but now it is reddish brown. I am a little disappointed because I really pictured a vibrant purple syrup to use through winter next year. That is what happens when you have expectations I suppose! Oh well... I have some other violet tricks up my sleeve to try in the next couple of weeks, so I may manage to capture that lovely violet essence yet!

Last nights festivities

2009-03-29T08:58:00.000-07:00

These lanterns are all made out of cloth. It is the first year that the festival has been completely outdoors. Usually it is indoors for the actual lanterns. There have typically been a lot more lanterns and the festival runs for 3 days or so. This year was only one and quite small. I think that our teeny town is having insurance issues because so many events have been cancelled or really scaled back.

A lantern tree with hundreds of lanterns done by children.

A huge rattan lantern on a burner .

Ok... it was really tricky to get a pic of these. They released about two dozen lanterns into the sky. It was so pretty. A little nerve wracking because it was really windy... the firefighters only had to put out one fire!... but that just made it exciting!

It was a beautiful night with a very very cold wind. The kids did really well in the crowd with only oldest growing increasingly jumpy and flappy and maniacally giggly as the night went on. Youngest one deals with it all by wrapping in a blanket all the way over his head and snuggling up in a parents arms. It was a late night for them!

It really is spring!

2009-03-28T21:02:00.000-07:00

Busy day today! We went to a Taiwanese lantern festival tonight.... I'll try to upload some piccies in the morning! Went for a little outing into the bush with my oldest before dinner tonight and this is what we brought home...

Nettles for supper and wild violets which are in the process of becoming a special syrup right now.

Creepy crawlies!!!

2009-03-25T12:06:00.000-07:00

So we recieved the first exciting package in the mail today! We used a teeny portion of our school funding to purchase a praying mantis egg sack. The box was carefully carried the entire 2 km home... and only dropped twice. Luckily it seemed to be well packaged. Now it is in it's new safe home in a terrerium on our kitchen table. Very very exciting!

Time for a booster seat finally!

2009-03-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

Littlest one is up another TWO pounds this morning! This totals 4 pounds in the last three months. The last couple of pounds have gone on in the last three weeks or so. There was a lull there in the middle when we were all sick and I even think that he had lost a bit of weight. Anyhow, that is almost a whole years worth of growth in the past 3 months! I had been so worried when we cut out dairy, that he would lose weight and not thrive... looks like we found the culprit. I was a little bit worried about a month ago because it looked like he was regressing and losing the new skills that I had seen at the beginning. He was moody and angry a lot again and retreating into himself a lot more. Over the past week or so I am seeing the improvements again. He even played with the one little boy that he couldnt even be on the same block as before. If there was anyone that could throw him into an instant meltdown it was this sweet little guy with no personal boundary sense! My guy would see him coming from blocks away and freak out. Last week we saw that he was in the teeny little store that we were going into. I immediately said that we would just hit the store on the way back insted. Little guy said " No ... I think I can handle it!" . My jaw almost hit the floor. He DID handle it, and then they played for a minute out front of the store together.So shocking. And awesome!
So he has gone from being completely off the growth chart to the 25th percentile in only three months( and has finally hit the milestone where we can get a booster seat for the car). He has gained 2 or three years of social skills in the same amount of time. My other son showed this drastic of an improvement when we cut out gluten 4 years ago. Now hubby wants to cut dairy for him as well and see if some of the lingering behaviors start to improve as well.

Really incredible. The sensitivities definitely are genetic somehow and cause neurological symptoms. Looks like autism... but autism doesnt just go away. We are by no means " cured", but we are able to tolerate life and navigate the world sooooo much better now. I think that they are going to find a " new celiac" type of genetic issue with gluten and casien. I have been pointed towards metabolic/ mito disorders but just am not finding a match... even though my gut says that something like this is going on.

Busy week!

2009-03-22T19:45:00.000-07:00

We spent the entire weekend in the garden!! I am completely exhausted , but in that tingly well exercised body kind of way. We doubled our garden. That entailed a ton of breaking up the field grass , so was a lot of work. We hauled it all back into the forest. We moved our compost and turned the finished stuff back into the garden, the unfinished to continue its process in its new location. We repaired the fence in the multiple spots where the bear tore it apart last year. We made a gate in the back fence... cause the neighbours are moving and we don't want to inconvenience any new ones by trouping through their yard multiple times of day. Besides, it will make it a lot easier to get the bikes in and out into the trails this way. We moved the old strawberry bed into the newly expanded garden. I wanted to make everything more central so that the watering isn't such a chore. In the past everything has been spread out all over the yard making watering a little more time consuming. If we have trouble with the water source like we did last year it will help to have everything in one spot so that no water is wasted while hand watering. We raked the neighbours yard to take advantage of the leaves for mulch. I harvested a large bucket of spring dandelion root and have them soaking, ready to chop and lay out on screens to dry. I expanded my herb garden by building another raised bed beside the old one, enriching the soil and moving some of my older herbs to the new garden. It made it much easier to get the grass bits out . Now I have the space to weed out the old one properly and get it ready for more plants.
On top of this we grocery shopped, picked up canning jars at the thrift store... and I made three spring, light toques. One left to make tonight!
My neighbour came back from Egypt and brought the boys back some Egyptian currency, some sand ( I think that might be illegal... but the boys were stoked and looked at it under the microscope)and some papyrus and bookmarks with hieroglyphics so that the boys could make codes. I don't make them plan schooly things with their supplies, but painting hieroglyphics was the first thing that they wanted to do on it. They were pretty freakin excited.
So I am super duper tired and ready to crash out... knew I hadn't updated for a while. Feeling soooooo happy to have a bit of spring. I have to say, after a long spring day and a glass of wine we tore all of the plastic off of the windows last night. It lets so much more light into the house and a little bit of flow. It is always such a liberating sensation! So much more hope this time of the year!
I will be sure to post this week.... we have some pretty sweet things coming in the mail during the workweek that I am excited to share!

Hooray!

2009-03-14T08:32:00.000-07:00

We FINALLY got the owed pay in its entirement placed in our hands yesterday. I don't think that we have ever been so happy to get a paycheque before! We had huge smiles on our faces all the way into town to the grocery store! We did the classic " go shopping when you are really hungry" grocery shop... lol.
I know a few people were checking in ( thanks!) so I wanted to give a quick update. We are fed and happy! Now maybe the tone of my posts can take a more positive tone!

sigh...

2009-03-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

Still no good news. My hubby called and told me that there is no guarantee that he will be paid this week at all. So that totals up to 2 grand that we are owed. I called him back suggest being laid off so that we are at least guaranteed some money for rent if they lay us off retroactively to the point where they couldn't pay us anymore. The only other option is putting a lein on the business owners. We have a car payment coming out on the weekend and will have to find some sort of loan so that we don't default. We really shouldn't be put in this situation... it is the business owners responsibility to find the money somehow. They should get a loan. My hubby feels badly because they are all in the same situation. I don't feel the same way. They are business owners and should know to keep a buffer for payroll or at least have proper insurance so that thier employees arent put into this situation. They put THEMSELVES in the situation if they don't have enough for thier own groceries. It was thier choice if they haven't made proper business decisions and risked that for themselves. They don't have hungry families at home that this is impacting. I am pissed. There is NO OPTION for them at this point. We NEED to get paid by Friday.
My brother just got laid off from one of his jobs and is struggling himself. He has suggested that he buy some meat and bring it over and I will cook up so we can have something yummy. It is nice to be able to band together anyhow.

Circus performance

2009-03-09T18:02:00.001-07:00

So cute. The camera wasn't working well for some reason. I didn't want to get the flash in everyones faces through the whole show.

No pay again today. I think that today was my cuttoff for major stressing out. I all of the sudden have huge tension pain all up my back and neck and a big ol headache with it. The kids aren't looking so hot either. Not really sure how to fix it all either....

Backyard baseball

2009-03-08T15:15:00.000-07:00

Beautiful day out there! Good day for some backyard baseball and a little yardwork!

It's not pox!

2009-03-07T18:49:00.000-08:00

It looks like hives... or mystery bumps of some sort. Thank goodness! I really think that that would have put me right over the edge! Scary to imagine having to deal with a potentially very sick hubby at this point. We had gone to the doctor a couple of years back to see if we could get my hubbys immunity tested for the pox ( I know that you can have your titres checked in the States) but they don't offer the test. My hubbys brother had had the chicken pox when they were young but my MIL said that hubby never got them in his childhood. They offered him the vaccine for two doses at 80 bucks each, but he didn't want to get it if he was potentially immune. I have some homeopathics put aside for him just in case, and good access to a herbalist in an emergency so that we could at least keep him comfortable... just didn't really want to deal with that right now. It feels like I have already been playing nurse all winter already.
It was an odd day outside today. Sunny, and snowy all at once. We got out there a bit, cleaned the house really well today and even got the bikes and skateboards out for a bit outside. I did some cupboard organising and some creative cooking! I found some beef bones in the bottom of the freezer and a small bag of freezer burnt strawberries. I roasted some bones and put on a stock for tomorrow. Not sure what I will make but I made a really nice soup a couple of weeks ago with homemade curry and chickpeas seasoned with homemade chutney. The kids don't like it but they will have to just deal with it I suppose! I took some dried pears that I had tucked away, simmered them and took off the peels , threw in some dried apples and the freezer burnt strawberries and made some strawberry applesauce something. It smells yummy! I found a bag of millet, a small amount of quinoa and a package of gluten free hot cereal mix that the kids don't like. I spent a little over an hour and ground it all up in the coffee grinder. Even though I can't eat the grains, at least the boys will have some flour to make bread over the next couple of days. I think that I made about 3 or 4 pounds of flour, so that will make for some good bread with the soup! So it was busy today but I managed to make the strange random bits of food into something edible! Thank goodness for my hours and hour of food prep and drying in the growing season! I am just finishing the last of the nettles from last year just as the new ones are about to come up again! This year I plan to be even more organised ( I even have my special trees in the orchard which I know make the best apple rings, best tart plums, best apple butter etc etc!) and at least double the garden. I couldn't grow much of anything last year because the water reservoir was vandalised in our community and we weren't able to water the garden. Therefore I wasn't able to put anything at all away.
Times like this really make me remember how important it is for us to have a good pantry and stock of foodstuffs from harvest time. How much it helps to have those things when you only have beans and rice.
We might go into town tomorrow, but would rather not use the gas. We have to go into town on Monday for work and circus class and it would probable be more cost effective to save the gas for then. I have a 25 dollar gift certificate ( one of those ones that you receive if you spend a certain amount of money on a grocery shop) so we should be able to get eggs, water( our pipes are 80-100 years old and the water makes us sick to drink so we refill our big jugs at the store), rice milk , dried beans, garlic and onions. That is about what we can get for 25 bucks these days.
Hopefully we will get paid on Monday sometime because we are out of EVERYTHING! I really need things like laundry soap and dish detergent.
My oldest kiddo has his circus performance on Monday afternoon. I promise some photos... it should be so fun!

Not today either.

2009-03-06T16:15:00.000-08:00

The bosses talked to the main contractor/ owner of the project and used the words " hungry, families, food bank," and he said that he would be back with the chequebook. They asked again today and he somehow has left on vacation for the weekend now. The other employees went to the food bank yesterday. They know that it is a lot harder for us to use the food bank because of the food issues. They don't usually have much of anything that is gluten/ casein free... besides, dry grains and legumes are the only things that I DO have. We are in need of some protein sources and something fresh.... fruit and veggies would be nice! I searched out in the bush for nettles today but only found two tiny little heads/ buds. It is calling for snow tomorrow so I don't think that I can hope for nettles as greens for at least another couple of weeks!
I have some sort of cold/ flu bug and felt that I just needed a little something. I harvested some Douglas fir needles for tea ... it is soooooo delicious. Lemony, fresh and yummy like a Christmas tree!

My hubby just called me into the bathroom to check my littlest guy who has a huge cluster of spots on his lower torso. I am not sure what it is yet... I will have to wait to see if they develop a blister or not. My hubby hasn't had chicken pox. I want to crawl into a hole for a little while ok? lol

Still no pay....

2009-03-05T15:12:00.000-08:00

And it won't be anytime today. Hopefully they will come through tomorrow. One week late. I guess that it is a good thing that I paid all of the bills with the money we had before last payday, but it left us with no grocery money at all left over because we were expecting payday. I have stretched the last two week shop into a three week shop. We spent 50 bucks of our final tiny bit of money left on asthma meds on the weekend and had enough to buy water and eggs and onions. I have awesomely stretched out what we have in the pantry, but it is running super low. Maybe we have enough to get through the weekend before we run out completely. So here I am crossing my fingers that everything will just sort itself out. I was trying to search for labour rights and such to see where we stand or what our rights are or how to cover our butts here. Essentially , if the company can't pay out, my hubby took the gamble of continuing to work even though he wasn't paid ( because all of the sudden there are NO houses being built and a ton of tradespeople are out of work... he feels happy to be employed at all and reluctant to put himself in the position of losing the job) so as of tomorrow he will be owed for two pay periods ( payday again next week). If they can't pay, we are completely screwed. And it isn't even like we are unemployed! He is still out there working a normal 40 hour workweek! Enough bitching about it, but It worries me that a ton of people may see themselves in this situation. At least if you get laid off you can get the ball rolling for unemployment!

Ridiculously enough the boys have over a thousand dollars of learning investment money that I need to spend within the next 9 weeks we have left of school reporting. ( I have to show receipts and the purchases need to match their learning plans in some way, so it is not as if it is OUR money... just to clarify !) We have met most all of the age required ministry outcomes for the year and are trying to figure out where the funds are best spent. Our learning consultant has given the suggestion and go ahead to purchase a video camera for my oldest son as he has been into photography for a long time and has been spending a ton of his time making movies with the video camera function on his camera.

So there is something completely bizarre about purchasing a 300 dollar video camera for your kid when you don't have groceries in the cupboard!lol. Truly this is out of my hands, but since I am not a big consumer in the first place I have this weird sense of guilt! So great to have this funding and it really insures that the kids learning needs/ desires are met. We would never be able to provide them with such wonderful ( read excessive!) resources.

So if you see us at the food bank documenting our adventure on a brand new video camera... life is funny sometimes!

Lazy rainy day

2009-03-03T13:57:00.001-08:00

Still not paid yet. At what point do you stop working until you have that owed pay in hand? We can't afford to take time off right now. Kind of a bind to be in!

Dang!

2009-03-01T09:56:00.000-08:00

It was only three weeks ago when we were recovering from the last bout. Bummer.

Not stoked...

2009-02-27T16:31:00.000-08:00

Hubby didn't get paid today. Well actually, he was the only person to get paid and they gave him enough for rent because we have a family. But nothing else. So no grocery shop that we were planning this weekend ( the every two week shop). I got that sinking sick feeling in my gut. They are working on a huge job and supposedly the contractor didn't pay ANY of the trades working on the job. So a huge huge amount of companies involved. My hubbies company did a huge bunch of extras for them this month, spending a ton of thier own money on the project, not expecting that there was any chance that they wouldn't get paid.
Oh well. Nothing we can do about it. We are going to enjoy our typical pre shop( but without the shop) bacon and egg dinner by candlelight and just enjoy each other. Cause that is all good!

It is working!

2009-02-26T18:56:00.000-08:00

I just KNOW it is working!!! I was almost moved to tears tonight when I went for a walk alone with my littlest guy. A few posts back I mentioned my internal struggle with taking him off of dairy and casein. Already we have seen an increase in his appetite and more than a two pound weight gain. Tonight he was super chatty on the walk and was thrilled to have found 3 different types of new spring flowers peeking out of the snow. We headed to the little health food store in town and there was a new woman working there. My little guy walked up, said" hey guess what?", and proceeded to show as well as tell her all about these flowers. He talked to the staff there, multiple conversations and multiple topics, for the entire time we were there.( small town so talking a lot to shop owners and staff is the most common appropriate social behavior!) He looked at them, showed them things and asked questions. This is probably not anything special for most 5 year olds.

One month ago though , this would have been an entirely different picture. Usually we would go in and he would hide in this tiny crevice crouched down the entire time. If a child came in or anyone tried to talk to him , he would leave the store and growl. If he knew you well enough to talk to you at all ( even if he knew you he wouldn't respond to greetings or questions much more than half of the time) , he wouldn't look at you and would walk in circles while he spoke. His speech wasn't clear so on the part of the circle where he wasn't facing you , you wouldn't have a clue what he was saying at all. Through this tiny bit of" conversation " he would be shrugging or making random wild arm gestures that wouldn't match what he was saying at all. People always had a puzzled look on their face when they tried to interact with him.

At the end of the conversation and as we were leaving he said goodbye and offered to take them on a flower walk if they couldn't find any... he could help them out!

This has all been pretty gradual, and when I stepped back today and realised what progress he has made in such a tiny span of time I was shocked... and so so happy! Doctors don't usually give credit to dietary changes in my experience... who knows, maybe he has had some strange coincidental incredible leap in development. Clearly though, it coincides perfectly with the dairy removal. And it is SUCH a huge leap in development... like two years of development in a month!!
Just one little added thing... a month or two ago he was very very negative all of the time. He was angry and hated everything, and most everyone. He said disturbing things a lot too. He was talking tonight about how much he loves helping people and helping the earth. He just seemed so much more positive and confident and all around in a better place. I am so happy to " see him" again. I know deep down that his is who he is, and that he isn't such an unpleasant seemingly mean little guy. I just hope that he continues to feel better through this!

Survivalist mindset

2009-02-20T15:31:00.000-08:00

I've been noticing that collective bit of panic these days around the ol internet. The back to basics, need for stockpiling and basically getting back to frugality as a lifestlye. I feel thankful often about my personal situation and what it has taught me. Many things have brought us to our ( somewhat forced) frugal lifestyle. Having two kiddos with special needs/ special dietary concerns has been a huge force for needing to learn different ways of being and living. We simplified everything in order to live a more peaceful life. We moved away from the city so that we could afford to rent a place with a space for a garden at least... and so that we wouldnt have to share a home when we had an extremely high needs baby who cried seemingly ALL of the time! The neighbour thumping on the floor every time my son cried added a huge element of stress to an already stressful situation! The potentially negative part of living outside of the city centers can often mean that jobs are lower paying ( as costs of rent can be!) and few and far between.

When we realised the extent of our dietary limitations we very quickly had to learn how to be very resourceful. In the most dire situations we knew that we couldn't rely on the foodbank to save our arses if we got to that point. ( gluten free or allergy specific goodies are hard to come by at the food banks if you need any ideas of what would be useful for them by the way!) I quickly learned how to survive off of a 150 dollar a month budget for food and was just as quick to find everything I could in terms of wild edibles. By the time we had two super sweet and high needs boys we just knew that homelearning was just going to be the right option for us. My own guilt about not providing a paycheque to the household led me to make it worthwhile to my family... trying to even it all out in the savings I made around the house! I have had to become very very creative and resourceful. I am so thankful for this. We have had to accept and ask for help along the way though... from strangers even ( what an amazing experience that is, let me tell you!) It isn't always easy. I definitely feel like I am coming out of it all with more confidence in my own abilities, a happy and healthy family and a in an awesome community. I think that I have a lot of skill and knowledge to offer.

What was making me think of this was that, if the shit goes down in some manner, I feel inadvertantly prepared. There are a few things that I would love to have around like a grain mill say... because again, it isn't easy to get things like flour that isn't contaminated with gluten. I couldn't just take it to the local lady that grinds grain because the equipment is contaminated. I can't imagine feeding my kiddos gluten no matter how hungry we are because it just renders us pretty sick and useless.

Anyhow, I feel a little less scared and a little bit more empowed than I did 5 years ago.

My papa sent me a big bag of Chilis from the big city the other day. I can't get them easily up here as they are super expensive. Many spice mixes and ground spices have gluten contamination so I like to make my own from whole spices. I called my foodie dad to see if he had a source of ancho chilis... he gets tittilated to be sent on this sort of mission and sent me a bag with 3 different types of chilis. I will need to do some research to find out how to use them! Yumm yum. Spent a chunk of the afternoon roasting and grinding spices and it looks and smells fantastic!

A day in the life...

2009-02-19T18:48:00.000-08:00

This is poorly written and fragmented... I must apologise! I am feeling sleepy and don't want to edit and fix my poor writing style, so bear with me! lol

I have had lots of people ask me what a day in the life of us looks like.
I keep a daily note journal type of page to record what we do every day for home learning purposes. Here in B.C. we need to register with some sort of program. You can register with your local school as a home learner and pretty much do your own thing completely and your school system gets the funding as if you were another student there. You also have the option of a distance learning program where you use their curriculum and have a teacher assigned. We are with a private partially ministry funded program that works a little bit differently. We are able to unschool exclusively if we would like. I send in a version of my daily observation log to our learning consultant and he or she helps to fit what we do into the ministry guidelines. Sort of the opposite of creating a curriculum that would fit the guidelines and following that! What we do with our day typically changes with the seasons, and moods and health and coping ability! Just thought that I would put a little example up of what our day might be like.

The boys started off with a breakfast of scones. Papa gets up early for work every day before we are all up to meditate, do a bit of writing and he always makes brekkie for himself and the boys. I don't really enjoy gluten free baking because I can't even taste what I make , being intolerant to all grains. Papa takes over this part of the day anyhow. Yesterday eldest son asked for a length of nice rope from the neighbours who gave him some. He started off his morning searching for the knot tying section in the dangerous book for boys and trying out the instructions. After I was awake and had my coffee the boys and I played some K'naan videos on YouTube. He has been a favourite of ours for a long time and we got to see him live in our village last summer. In one of the videos there are images of Somali war and famine which got us talking about those topics. My son brought out the world map and showed me where Somalia is. He sucks up geographical knowledge. It was the first time that he had really listened to the lyrics of the songs. I showed him how to search for the song lyrics and we read them for quite a while and got into a discussion about hip hop, rhyming and poetry. Both boys were playing around free styling for a bit and I uploaded a series of five beat boxing lessons. Perfect for the vocal stimmer! The boys played around with that for a good hour while I did some dishes and laundry. My littlest guy helped me fold the laundry while eldest son played around taking photos for a while. Somehow he ended up directing a video of his little brother teaching a " how to fold laundry tutorial". While we ate lunch together we had CBC radio on and listened so the coverage on Obamas first visit to Canada. The neighbours called to propose a job offer of helping with dog care while one parent is away abroad. They are always excited to make money. I was kind of happy that it will partially involve poop scooping... as that gives a good sense of the reality of dog ownership. Of course what every little kid wants, but something that we don't have the financial means to pull off responsibly. After lunch we did our daily 3 km walk to the post office. We spent about 1 hr at the library where my oldest read Tin Tin and my little guy drew a picture package for his papa. On the way home we visited our friend who owns the local antique store. She saves me the vintage kitchen ware that needs cleaning up and that she knows I love and sells them to me for extremely low prices. The kids always ask a million questions and today got to see how the old tin laundry plunger thingy works. When we got home the boys snuggled on the couch while my oldest read the entire Tin Tin book out loud to his little brother. Then my oldest read a bunch of a novel to himself while the little guy made a book. I was making dinner, plus I made some fermented carrots, pickled beets and mango salsa. Eldest son got onto the computer to check his photo blog and his reader meter which shows where his readers come from. He was SOOO excite that he had a reader from Australia. The meter shows a world map for one option so that you can see visually where all of your readers are from in the world. I think that someone had read his from Germany as well. When I was finished cooking we played around on Stumble Upon. This is a really cool random search engine which lets you put in your interests and randomly leads you to great pages on the web. Purely entertainment for us. We looked at great photos of Thai veggie and fruit carving, explored the website of David Chiluly hand blown glass work and his glass botanical garden. We also watched a short animated film called EX-ET. .The boys cleaned the playroom before dinner and while cleaning the eldest found his journal that he was writing in at the beginning of the year. He decided that he really wanted to write in it again and found it super interesting to read back over what and how he wrote 6 months ago. He really thinks that he would be better at it now. After dinner we all snuggled and continued a series that we borrowed from the library. Good old Dr Quinn! So funny and dorky but it has the perfect amount of adventure. It always gives us great things to talk about. Now the boys are ready for bed. ( I can hear them in there debating the necessity of gun ownership!)They get about 45 min of bedtime story time with their dad. I am going to do some cleanup and maybe get in a workout.
So that is our typical style of a day. Of course it changes! I was kind of surprised at how much media we use in our day. I have one child that is a complete hands on learner. He loves to build and make things for the majority of the day. My eldest son really loves to TALK and debate and discuss everything. People all joke that he is going to be the prime minister or some sort of world leader one day. I really never thought that we would use so much media, but it naturally just happens that way. It is really neat to be able to use it well, really! So some days we have more interaction with other people ( my son said that he was tired from just being a guest yesterday and just didn't feel like having anyone else around today) and once the spring comes we spend a ton more time outdoors in the natural world.
There is a little glimpse of what our life looks like. Kind of cool really see how we meet the ministry guidelines just by living day to day. I had always heard that unschoolers could learn most of what they needed to know naturally and it is really cool to be part of a sort of social experiment to see that in action. The boys don't have any involvement whatsoever with the school program other than discussing ideas about what they would like to learn more about or experience. Our learning consultant lives on our street , so is just a really handy neighbour full of good resources to them! I hope this huge rambling deal is somewhat interesting to somebody!

Yay sun!

2009-02-18T15:12:00.000-08:00

We have all been feeling a LOT better with a bit of sunshine lately. We saw the beautiful yellow crocuses that we always look for this time of the year under a tree on our walk into town. Hooray! So good what a little vitamin D will do for ya!

I think I have let the greyness get to me along with the other minor bumps along the way. I have been secretly down in the dumps because two of my favourite, closest to me families are unexpectedly moving from the community. My " go for coffee in my PJ's, or borrow an egg at 9 at night neighbours" are moving shortly. I will miss them sooooo much. We don't have much privacy because the houses are so close together. You can see right through the playroom and kitchen... as well as right into the bathroom, from their deck. I was used to an elderly woman there before who never came out there. The neighbours now could just tease and yell at us to put some clothes on... or stop making out... lol... if we didn't shut the curtains. So I am pouty about that. The other family moving is my other favourite family ever. My friend who is a master herbalist, one of the most gentle and kind people I have ever met and their lovely little guy who is also a homeschooler. Anyways. It feels like those guys are the only people around that really get me, and my whole family. I am a bit of an introvert so I really cherish those few people that I bring close. I feel a little lonely already , before they even go! This will make for an interesting summer

Plugging away anyhow, making plans for a big garden this year. Awaiting the nettles and violet flowers that really let me know that spring has arrived!

Thought that I would pass along a little frugal tip that I have been using lately. We only shop once every two weeks... sometimes we get in once a week if we don't plan well. The only trouble with that can be that veggies don't last well for the entire two weeks. They are plentiful right after the shop but things like tomatoes start to go mouldy after a week or so. I have been making cultured salsa, Nourishing Traditions style, through the winter months when the tomatoes are out of season, expensive and just not as stable of a purchase. The salsa is super yummy ( well, with modification in my opinion) looks pretty while it sits out and does its thing, and preserves the freshness of the veggies for the gap between shops. It is great with cooked beans or eggs and is super yummy mixed with an avocado or mango with some corn chips. I know... bad bad because it isn't local! I can get avocados and mangoes super cheap in bigger amounts this time of the year because they are in season close to the equator. And the kids love them! I actually find it more frugal than other produce this time of the year... and they go perfect with the rice and beans!

Anyways. If you use your search engine to look for " lacto fermented salsa" or "cultured salsa", there are lots of variations on the recipe. There is something rebellious feeling about leaving food out of the fridge for way longer than seems reasonable and then eating it and not dying! I love fermenting foods! not dying... that is so rebellious! I almost died from food poisoning once, so letting go of my food safe training is a bit of a big step for me!!!!

Cute Mug

2009-02-14T19:04:00.000-08:00

Well... if you can get past the bloody stump! After torturing me with his grossly loose tooth all day, it finally came out. Along with a bottom tooth as well as he ate his dinner. The poor tooth fairy is going to go broke!

More snow!

2009-02-11T17:02:00.001-08:00

Almost better!

2009-02-10T09:59:00.000-08:00

It has been a long couple of weeks! We are all on the mend finally! I am feeling a little bummed and rough so I havent been posting... or picture taking! The boys don't cope very well when they are sick, so old issues have been really in the forefront. We have had to leave the last two circus classes early because oldest son has been having trouble coping( I made the mistake of stepping outside with my littlest guy to get fresh air.... even though I warned my oldest that we might do that. I came back to find him in a puddle of tears shaking, thinking we left him. I was so surprised at the reaction... he IS 7. He couldnt recover enough to finish the class). Youngest son almost ran into 4 lane 80 km an hour traffic yesterday to avoid being touched by a young toddler. His tactile sensitivity and fight or flight at unexpected touch... or possibility of... has just gotten out of hand. I guess that a potentially fatal episode kind of gives me a huge reality check!
Hubbys neck is pretty much better. He missed a couple of days of work and has payed 120 bucks for chiro treatments, even with the MSP copay. Along with that and the boys meds we are short over two weeks groceries. Luckily I have dried beans and preserved edibles from last years harvest but still not what the boys like to eat!. I lost my awesome gluten free sourdough starter because we couldnt afford to buy flour to feed it. I really really could use a grain mill so that I don't need to spend 5 dollars a pound for rice flour. It would be sooooo much cheaper to buy the grains in large amounts and mill them myself.
So, needless to say, I am a big ball of sunshine right now and I really dont want to get it all over everybody! Catch you on the upswing!

Long week!

2009-02-01T19:11:00.000-08:00

Well... everyone is still sick. Oldest son had a fever for three days straight and an awful cough. Young son came down with it shortly after that. He had a fever of 104 yesterday and al through the night. It finally broke this morning. His cough is something awful and he feels really crummy. Now he has the runs... maybe too much vitamin C? (I know that there was a tummy/ barfy flu as well as this coughing fever one going around last week at my hubbys work) Hopefully not a tummy bug on top of everything. Poor little guy!
Hubby put out his neck on friday. He has been completely immobile since Saturday afternoon and it looks like he will have to miss work tomorrow. We are all a mess over this way!!
Good news is that I put everyone in front of some movies, put on dinner and got a total of 6 hours in the workshop today!!! I made 2 beautiful pendants and really had a great creative session. I am hoping to work with a local artist on trade to put together a tutorial pamphlet on how to use a hairfork along with a couple of styles to start out with. It snowed again last night and the workshop is unheated... still I can see the light of spring ahead and am looking forward to getting in the shop when it is comfortable again.

Scooby Doo time

2009-01-27T07:33:00.000-08:00

Both of the kiddos have been sick for a couple of days now. We have been tucking in and staying cozy. The kiddos have a deal with me that we can rent Scooby Doo when they are sick so we rented a couple yesterday. They used to have an issue with the Scooby Doo thing and were obsessed with the topic. For our own sanity we put limits on it... The sickness idea is working well!

I have been up through the past two nights giving nebuliser treatments... I am so tired! My oldest son moans with every single breath when he is sick. He really can't control it. He does it all through the night too. when he was a baby he would moan for about half an hour before falling asleep.. every. single. time! My mom thought that it was crazy and she had never heard a baby do that before. As he grew he only does it when he is sick. It has driven the nurses/ doctors/ patients crazy if we have had to go for treatments at the hospital... especially when he starts to scream and panic every time he feels a bit of a drip from his nose.

So the poor kid. He feels so incredibly shitty. He has moaned through two nights now and that has kept me awake besides having to be up to administer the meds. In the day, in between the moaning on every breath ( you know... I may be exaggerating ... in the day as I am listening now it is only about half of the time) his stims get worse... stim number one? Humming!!!! On every other breath!!!! So I hear a moan... and then I hear a little ditty.... then a moan.... then a little ditty! OH. MY. GOODNESS!!!!!!!!! I truly am trying to be compassionate. I love that darn kid. But truly I am losing my mind! On top of it I am getting sick too.

It is nowing again, and windy. I need to call the fire chief and see who has a backup generator. Where we have to go to use the nebuliser if the power goes out. I have some emergency med backup but it just doesn't work well for us for some reason.
Hoping the kids will just sleep most of the day... heres for wishing right?!

Circus family...

2009-01-22T09:16:00.000-08:00

Well, we used some of older sons learning investment from the homelearning program to join a kids circus arts class. What a fun course. I need to bring the camera next time! We are on a mission to learn how to juggle. My little guy would love to try contact juggling. I have been on a mission to make as much equipment as possible. We only had one set of juggling beanbags that we were sharing so I dug out the scrap fabric bin( I save scraps of old clothing and such from when I was making recycled waldorf inspired dolls) and a needle and thread and whipped up a set for myself. I think I will make my littlest guy a set with a piece of furry cowprint fabric that I have tucked away with no imaginable purpose... maybe a leather set for my hubby? A fun no cost project! I used some very old rice that was in the back of the cupboard for years and years that noone really liked. So I guess that i cost pennies! So we have been just hanging out cozy at home with another winter cold... determined to learn how to juggle!