Beat the heat (SBC#53)

What I do to beat the summer heat is hang out in our back yard pool and avoid the public chaos that occurs when temperatures exceed 25 degrees Celsius.

Best Gardening tip (SBC#52)

It is simply fertilize! We used raw chicken poop this year. We covered the garden in it at the end of last harvest season and left it to sit over the winter and turned it in by hand as soon as the snow melted.  Our vegetables are three times larger and have already noticed a larger yield.  It works awesome!

Freebee fun with mini-me (SBC#51)

A fun free activity I like to do with Anomantia is a toss up between two things. 
The first is the toddler activity time at our local library from September to June.  It gives her the opportunity to interact with other kids her own age. They listen to stories and do crafts and it is all funded by our local Rotary and Kinsmen Clubs.
And secondly the Kinsmen Club also sponsors a wonderful outdoor area called Discovery Canyon.  They diverged a section of the river to create a mini tube run for kids shaded by trees and away from the city's hustle and bustle it is a little oasis from the concrete jungle where we live.

If I won the lottery... (SBC#50)

If I won the lottery, I wouldn't change a thing.  I would pay off any outstanding debt and invest the remainder of the money.  I would enjoy my family more and cut back my hours at work but other than that, I would live just the same as I am now.  I would use the interest to do all the little extras that we have been postponing because we just don't have them in the budget now but other than that I would still be me.

If I were in charge (SBC#49)

If I were prime minister for a day what would I change?
I think I would revamp the manufacturing sectors export legislation and the legislation on the export of raw materials would be changed too. 
I would allow for more finished products to be exported and ban the export of our raw materials and in turn boosting the manufacturing sector and reinforcing the national economy.

5 things to do in the dark (SBC#48)

5 things to do when the power goes out:
1. Play flashlight tag in the house or yard depending on number of players and weather.
2. Light candles and tell stories.
3. Take a bath using glow in the dark bubble bath (only if your hot water heater is not heated using electricity).
4. Do a puzzle by lamp light.
And if all else fails
5. Go to bed and have a slumber party.

Random Act of Kindness (SBC#47)

Right now the only random act of kindness I can think of is from our neighbour John who just passed away.
It was a Thursday morning, Laurence was expecting a load of drywall to be delivered that morning.  We had made arrangements for a friend to help us bring it all into the house but at the last minute he bailed on us.  I was too pregnant to help Laurence pack it all into the house, and when the delivery arrived so did the black rain clouds.  John noticed that we were trying to get the drywall moved and postponed his morning work to help us bring it into the house.  Bringing it in included going down two flights of stairs and he even went slow to be considerate about Laurence's leg.  When they had finished, we thanked John profusely for the help and we all went on with our day.  The next day, we were busy with appointments but Saturday, we had planned to start putting the drywall up.  Saturday morning, there was a knock at the door and there was John ready to help put the drywall up.  Between Laurence, John and our other neighbour Duane, the drywall was up and ready for mud by the end of that weekend. 
John was diagnosed with cancer last October and just passed away a couple weeks ago.  John was really a selfless person and was a great friend. 

Favourite space (SBC#46)

My favourite space in my house is the kitchen.  Our house is a four level split style house with the entry into the main living room, dining room and kitchen.  I have a love-hate relationship with my kitchen.  It definitely needs an upgrade.  But I love how it truly is the heart of our home.  My whole life, I always wanted a room with black walls, but my mum would never allow it or we lived in a rental where the landlords wouldn't allow it.  Finally the year Laurence and I were married, we bought our first house together and decided to paint the kitchen walls black.  It has white cabinets and doors with a hideous section of rose coloured textured wall on the bottom in one corner with white chair rail around it.  I would like to see it gone but that costs money and seeing as I am still on leave from work, it will be a little while before I can afford to rip it apart.  I will document every second of destroying the last of the previous owner's pink walls in our house (insert creepy muahahaha laugh here).  Laurence and I both love to cook (and I love to bake in the winter) so our kitchen is never lacking in dirty dishes but we did finally get our dishwasher fixed.  We have all black appliances and our dishes are mostly blue with a few of mix and match of whatever we have from when we first met.  I like to hang out in my kitchen with my girls and listen to music, my mum used to kitchen dance with us when I was younger too.  It just makes me happy to have my space in the house.

Beauty (SBC#45)

As I have previously posted, I don't wear make up very often.  The content of my make up bag is one small container of eye shadow. The last time I wore any was on the last date Laurence and I had without the kids and that was in May.
So my advice is that true beauty comes from within.  If you portray how you feel the inner beauty will shine through.  The cosmetics will just age you faster. 

Advice (SBC#44)

The piece of advice that I will pass along to my children when they get older will be:

1. Be yourself. Don't try to be anything for anyone because you will always resort back to yourself and things tend to fall apart.

2. Build relationships on a foundation of truth and honesty.  They will last longer than those built upon lies and deception.

And

3. Simply love.

Before and After (SBC#43)

My Wedding Day September 1st 2007

34 weeks pregnant with Anomantia (October 2009)

Same photo shoot as above but some fun pictures of Laurence and I

Comparing Belly Size

Being Ridiculous!

My mum's memorial bench at Croteau Beach July 2010

Nursing on the ferry to Victoria July 2010

Making dessert a very pregnant December 2011

Sleep Deprived with a baby (May 2012)

May 2012

I can't find any more recent photos and my old ones are on disk somewhere in this house... but here are a few that I can find.  I haven't really changed much over the years aside from the occasional hair colouring and a few rogue greys that are now present and the drastic hair cuts I give myself every few years, I am still the same, slightly aged but still me.  Crazy and all!

Passing...

This afternoon I am attending the funeral of a neighbour and a friend. 
John was one pf the best neighbours we've ever had.  He helped us renovate our basement and drywall Laurence's office. 
He was young, too young to die (under 40 years old).  He has left behind his wife and two children (10 and 8 years old).  Since hearing of his death, I wish there was something I could do to help but it is just too soon.  I remember after my dad died, everyone rallied around us to help ease the pain but over time everyone dissipated.  Then when you really needed someone there was no one.  I am guessing that come fall things will have settled down and I will once again be able to offer my help and have it accepted.
Rest in peace John B. Rest in peace.

Holidays (SBC#42)

The best holiday I ever had would be my honeymoon back in 2007.  Laurence and I were married on Vancouver Island at his parents' acreage.  After a couple of days, we left in our car and camped in our tent through the Rocky Mountains.  We went to Radium Hot Springs, Golden and after getting snowed on, we finally drove home to Gurneyland.  We spent one night at home and decided to go to the West Edmonton Mall and we stayed a couple nights at the Fantasyland Hotel in the mall itself.  We went to the Watermark one day and Galaxyland the next.  It was lots of fun, but I only had three weeks of holidays and they were over so we drove back to Gurneyland and I returned to work the next day. 
We love camping and roughing it in the wild.  What is your favourite holiday ever taken?

webby-favs (SBC#41)

I have a few websites that I absolutely love and wish I could live on their sites!

1. The Offbeat Empire: Offbeat Mama, Offbeat Bride and Offbeat Home.  I don't necessarily follow the beaten path, so these offer support and information on all aspects of the not so conformist lifestyle.
http://offbeathome.com/
http://offbeatmama.com/
http://offbeatbride.com/

2. Punchfork is my go to recipe site... YUMMY (need I say more?)!
http://punchfork.com/

3. A Beautiful Mess... I lust about this site!  It is all sorts of wonderful!
http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/

4.One Sheepish Girl.  I love her post on the 5 stages of knitting regret.  Makes me rethink my own patterns.
http://onesheepishgirl.blogspot.com/

and

5. Knitty and Ravelry:  my go to for knitting pattern ideas.  Ravelry is more mainstream and Knitty is far more abstract.
http://www.ravelry.com/
http://www.knitty.com/

Life Challenges (SBC #40)

I have overcome several challenges in my thirty years of life.  Some have been huge and others not so big in comparison to the ones my husband has overcome.  I have survived losing both my parents at the worst possible times in a girl's life.  I was thirteen and in the midst of puberty when my dad died.  It was sudden and shocking when I was just coming to grips with the fact that he had some serious demons that plagued his life.  So I researched and turned to myself and my family to get through.  The whole scenario made me closer to my mum and made our relationship stronger.  

I was eighteen when my mum was diagnosed with advanced rectal-adeno carcinoma (better known as colorectal and lymphatic cancers).  I was living in France at the time of her diagnosis and so my understanding of the whole situation was vague until I got a call from my older sister with the whole prognosis.  They gave her a 6 month life sentence.  My mum was a fighter and she was determined to see my younger sister graduate from secondary school (Danica still had two years to go).  I came home from France in October for my older sister and brother-in-law's wedding.  I lived at the house but only for a brief time as the rules imposed on me were ridiculous.  I had already been living on my own for the better part of a year and then to have a curfew again was strange and made having a social life impossible (not to mention the presence of my mum's husband who tried to control every aspect of our lives).  So I got a bachelor suite just down the street from my mum's house.  She fought hard and she successfully completed 36 out of the 64kms of the Great Walk in June of 2001.  I spent as much time as I could with her while she was ailing, but at the same time I needed to figure out how to take care of myself and maintain a relationship with my sisters.  August 24th, 2002, my mum died, two years and one month to the day from her diagnosis.  She made it to my Danica's graduation from school and she died one week and three days before my first day of college.  I had made her a promise that I would go back to school and take general studies until I decided on which career path I would take.  

My husband and I have made it through the amputation of his right leg (BK) and the accidents leading up to the eventual amputation.  

I have also overcome the gender issues in my trade.  When I started my welding career in 2005, there were still fairly few women in the trade.  Today it is much more common to find women in the shops and in the field but when starting jobs, I was given a hard time and really had to prove myself in my profession even to men less qualified than myself.  I am a fully certified, red-seal welder and I am hoping to go for my pressure tickets early in the new year.  But I have been working for the same company here in the Halliburton Highlands since May 2008 and have had two maternity leaves (the most recent one ends on July 30th and I am looking forward to going back to work).

My life is no walk in the park and has been riddled with grief and dealing with family demons but I am strong and I will survive.

ARG! (SBC#39)

My two major pet peeves are having open cupboards in the kitchen and having empty toilet paper dispensers.  I am only 63" tall so the open cupboards tend to hit me in the head if I turn around too fast and well the toilet paper is self explanatory.

Music (SBC#38)

I have several songs that the lyrics really call to me, but out of them all, I love Angel from Montgomery by John Prine (My favourite rendition is performed by John Prine and Bonnie Raitt).  The song really reminds me of my mum more than anything as it was played at her memorial service. 

The chorus is:

Make me an angel
That flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give a me one thing that I can hold on to
To believe in this living is just a hard way to go.

Attempt without Failure (SBC#37)

I have tried to really think about this one... I usually jump in and fight my way through everything that I really want.  So I really don't have anything that I 'wish' I could attempt to do without failure.  I love the challenge of overcoming failure and succeeding at things that others may have doubted my capability.  I have a mantra that I live by, it is posted on my pantry door so I see it every morning.

Success is 

never final

and

Failure is 

never fatal

it is 

courage 

that

counts!

Banana pie smoothies

For breakfast this morning I made Banana pie Smoothies.  A huge hit according to Anomantia who keeps on asking for more Nana-pie.  After making it, I thought it would taste good with vanilla ice cream or maybe as a float!?!

Here is my recipe for Banana pie Smoothies:

In a blender combine:

2 ripe bananas (starting to get brown spots)
1/2 cup milk (could be soy or almond or plain old cow's)
1/4 cup ice cubes
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

And blend on high speed until you get a smooth texture then serve.

For thicker Smoothies add more banana or decrease amount of milk. The applesauce could be swapped out for fresh peeled apples but I was trying to use up the last of my homemade applesauce from last summer.

Halloween Traditions (SBC#36)

Laurence and I are in the process of establishing some traditions for us as a family with our two daughters.  Anomantia displayed a fear of Santa Claus at Christmas time, so we decided to not include the fictional characters such as Santa, the Easter Bunny and such.

Our big holiday that we make a big deal out of every year, would be Halloween!  We decorate the house, the yard and ourselves.  We try to make our house the scary house on the block by adding something different every year and constantly changing it up.  We spend the month planning it all out and try to spend as little money as possible on the whole project.  Our record low cost was $4.00 a couple years ago.  We use materials from around the house and re-purpose them into decorations.  Last year, we made Anomantia a Batmobile for going trick-or-treating rather than walking that way she was able to go to a few more houses with the neighbour kids. It was made out of a couple garbage bags, an empty margarine container, a couple empty fruit salad cups and some clear packing tape.  I cut the logo out of craft foam and we assembled the entire thing in our kitchen. (See picture above) I also made her costume from scratch out of some left over material from my yoga pants and some fleece my mother in law sent me from one of her projects.  With every step, it was a family project from collecting the materials to assembly, we all put a lot of effort and creativity into making it the best holiday for all of us.

Fears (SBC #35)

Like I have said in previous posts, I have a minor fear of spiders.  It isn't that bad anymore, they just kinda creep me out.  Since adopting a couple tarantulas this spring, it is like my house has become a magnet for spiders.  The whole south side of the house was covered in them when the spiders were kept in a room on that side of the house.  Now they have moved to a converted walk in closet/storage area in the basement and it seems that every spider in the vicinity gravitates towards them (shudder).

I also have a fear of solitude.  I dislike being alone, I need ambient noise all the time.  My husband is my polar opposite and loves being alone in quiet empty spaces.  Growing up in a house with lots of kids and people constantly coming and going, I got used to the constant buzz of life compared to silence.  I hated living by myself, I have always preferred living with people. 

I am not really afraid of much else, I have faced several of my other fears already and I chose to live my life and not run away from dumb little things that really aren't significant enough to matter.  I try to live my life fully and happily and when death comes for me, I will be ready and I do not fear it.  Otherwise life really wouldn't be worth living if I lived in fear of what might come.

Freedom (SBC#34)

free·dom/ˈfrēdəm/

Noun:	The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. Absence of subjection to foreign domination or despotic government.
Synonyms:	liberty - independence

Liberté, libertà, liberdade, libertad, freiheit, frihed, vapaus, svoboda, saoirse are the translation of freedom in french, italian, portuguese, spanish, german, danish, finnish, czech and irish.  Some have similarities grammatically but they all have the same definition. 

Yesterday, we decided on a random camping trip.  On our way to the lake, we drove through the worst storm this year.  We had hail the size of golf balls and this morning on our drive back home, we heard that 4 or 5 tornados had touched down just north east of where we stayed.  Seeing as we all still have head colds, we decided to come home and go swimming at the pool instead of braving another night of close to freezing temperatures.   So for today, I guess I am going to just wish all of our friends south of the border a Happy Independence day!  And with that I am going to sip my tea and head to bed.

Summer 2012 (SBC#33)

Summer 2012-  I have made a point of never posting about holidays before they happen because I have known people who made huge announcements and came home to their places being broken into.

 My official plan is my return to work starting back on the 30th of July.   Laurence works from home, so I don't have to worry about daycare for the girls.  As for the month of August, it will consist of adapting to working again after being off for almost a year (Thank you Canadian maternity leave!). 

I do however post after holidays are over to share photos and stories of our adventures like I have in the past.

Until then... it is a mystery as to what I am doing and besides, we like to randomly go places with little to no planning before hand.  It keeps everything quite spontaneous here.  I hope everyone else enjoys their holidays!

say what??

Kids say the strangest things...

This evening Anomantia went into the garage to talk to her dad.

A: Dad?
L: Yes?
A: Dad, I got dick-lip and I like it!
L: You got what??
A: dick-lip! (puckering lips!)
L: Oh, you mean lipstick!
A: yeah, dick-lip!
L: (laughs)

Then Laurence came into the house to tell me all about it!  I couldn't help but laugh at Dick-lip!

Poetic Nonsense (SBC#32)

My favourite poem growing up was always Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Lady of Shalott. I carried it with me in my book, but as I got older, other pieces influenced my writing style and I grew to love several others to the point where I would have to carry textbooks around with me in order to have them on me all the time.  So I memorized a few and kept them in my heart and on my mind.  The others all reside on my book shelves at home.  As an adult, I really appreciate pieces that I can relate to, things from my childhood and things that make me really think.  Poetry runs in my family.  My dad wrote poetry and loved to share his somewhat crude insights into the joys (and downfalls) of the commercial fishing industry off the coast of British Columbia.  My sisters and I, we all dabble a little into poetic nonsense.  With that I leave you one of my favourites:


The Human Being

one tongue
to lick with
kiss with
crush words
spit em out with
two hands
to knit with
fix with
count ten
fingers    toes
only one nose
to run with
couple of eyes
to wink with
plead with
climb a mountain
swim the sea with
oh these legs
to jog with
twist a knee
come and go with
as you please with
six thousand billion cells
to be born with
divide    die and be
replaced with
a brain
a brain
to think with
make my hands
pour a drink with
a memory
to grow a fear with
forget a story
learn a lie with
and never be
alone again with
the human being

The three 'R's (SBC#31)

I try to keep Gurneyland as self-sufficient as possible through recycling, re-purposing and re-using as much as possible.  We have a large garden for the size of lot that we have, we also have a greenhouse and several planters that all require watering several times each day during the spring and summer months.  A few years ago, we decided to switch our watering system from the city water to collected rain water and installed water barrels to collect the rain.  In doing so, we have reduced our water bill to save money and conserve energy by using rain water to water our plants.  This year, Environment Canada declared that our area is in a drought and that water should be conserved.  So we have stopped watering our lawn (which I would like to dig out and put in more sustainable gardens) and have watered our plants exclusively using rain water.  Since doing our conversion, several of our friends and neighbours have also switched to rain barrels.  We have made our garden fertile using compost from our home and yard.  This year, we have planted Snow and Snap Peas, purple Pole Beans, Corn, Acorn Squash, Big Beef, Early Girl and Roma Tomatoes, Purple Haze Carrots, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, dill, radishes, lettuce, watermelon, sweet million cherry tomatoes, onions and stringless green bush beans.  I am hoping to have enough to can, blanch and freeze and have fresh to last us until the spring.  We also have an indoor garden with more dill, lemon basil, Genovese basil, Globular basil, oregano and thyme.  I am hoping to expand the indoor garden this coming winter to include some bell peppers and cucumbers but I haven't found the right strains of plants for that yet. 

HAPPY CANADA DAY  for those in Canada!  Enjoy the holiday weekend!