Our House in the Middle of Our Street

Alright guys, settle down. Yes, I read a lot this month but I barely did anything else. The three of us were 'off' school from Dec. 8 and aside from two wonderful Christmas dinners with extended family, the holiday season was pretty slow for us. I spent this month of no extracurricular stuff on the couch reading nearly every night. It was delightful! Stay tuned, since I have 2016's reading list coming up soon. * My Kitchen Year by Ruth Riechl - This half-memoir, half-cookbook was full of pretty color photographs from Riechl's year after Conde Naste shut down Gourmet , the magazine Riechl had been editor of for years. It's her year of grief over losing a job she loved, a year of confusion as she felt restless and like a wanderer, wondering what to do next, and of slow meals meant to satisfy herself and those closest to her, quiet in the sustenance of time and thought. It's a beautiful memoir, though I didn't have it long enough to try any recipes. Not a

view from Ft. Langley bridge of Brae Island's chapel For many years I've set up some sort of a yearly list of things to do. They're sometimes small, sometimes big, sometimes silly, but always things I just want to make a little bit of space and thought to do and 'name it', if you will. I got 1/2 done on my 2015 list, but in my defense, I planned it around my birthday, which means I only gave myself 9 months in 2015, not 12. I'll have a new '16 in 2016' list soon, but for now, here's what happened, and what didn't. See the original list HERE .  I'll start and link to what did actually happen: I got professional family photos done , I wrote an actual Christmas letter and sent it to family, I * tried * turning Ani's bone & shell collection (it didn't look as great as it did in my head...) into artwork, hiked Deep Cove/Quarry Rock with my family, watched The Sound of Music with my kids , baked Confetti Cookies , and

The contents of the Kith and Kin sun prints box* For some reason, I tend to have a lot of luck in the giveaway department. I literally spend a total of 5-10 minutes a day entering giveaways that I find on instagram, blogs, facebook, what have you, and I have won quite a few of them. I was excited to win the Kith and Kin sun print craft box, because I knew my kids would be in heaven creating with it.  It was around the time we'd be heading to Nebraska for a few weeks, so I had Kith & Kin ship it to my mom's house, so we could enjoy the contents there. Turns out we had relatively no free time outside of planned grandparent & friend activities, so I brought the box home with me to BC and we did it during the kids' school day as an art project.  I don't know about you, but I love receiving Happy Mail...that'd be anything aside from bills or ads. The Kith & Kin sun print box was definitely happy mail. As you can see above, they include all the

my favorite view 5 minutes from my house I am feeling quite behind already, having missed this post by 5 days, and not finding myself in this space quite often this Fall. Our family was sick from about the last week in October through the bare end of November, so while just about everyone had antibiotics, probiotics, vitamins, and plenty of fluids, we weren't up and about too much. That makes for some excellent days of reading, if I do say so myself. Here's what I enjoyed this month. What about you? * Felicity by Mary Oliver -- One of my favorite poets had a new book out this past month and I obviously put it up for hold the minute I found out. This wasn't my favorite collection of her work, but certainly not the least. A good one-hour, shaped by beautiful words about the natural world.  * Chasing Francis by Ian Cron -- I really enjoyed this one! I first found it via Tsh and it piqued my interest. I pinned it for later and recently came back to it on a whim. I