Our House in the Middle of Our Street

This might look like a title-heavy month, but don't let looks fool you-about half of these books are either extremely short, YA books (easy to read), or I started them in a previous month so didn't read them fully in November, just finished them this month. However, I have finally felt like our Fall season has been winding down the past week or so, and for that I can celebrate with more reading ! While a lot of families' obligations ramp up right before Christmas break, ours really start winding down around the first week in December, leaving us plenty of margin through the holiday season and beginning of New Year. Prepare for another (hopefully!) large reading month in December, followed by a Top 10 Favorites list. What did you finish this month that you loved?  * Adamant by Lisa Bevere - This was my small group's book choice for the Fall and although there were some great nuggets throughout, and it gave us great conversations, I didn't overly love this...

Although this stack was technically (mostly) read in June , it was a pretty picture that I wanted to post. The peonies were in full bloom and I had the whole summer ahead of me. Now, at the end of July I'm pooped! A lot of camping, trips, play dates, swimming, and just general outdoor mayhem of summer here leaves me feeling unbalanced and depleted. You feel like you waste it if you don't use it (the summer that is) because it rains so much of the rest of the year. Right now I'm desperate for 1-2 days of rain, but although that's not in the forecast, I'm just going to have to black-mark with an X a few days on the horizon to recover from so much going! That's where I'm thankful I'm a reader. * Parenting Chaos by Shawna Wingert - This is a short and independently published book about explosive children. I'm going to be honest, I just needed to read this for comparison's sake. I have one child who, to me, feels equal to about three children, a...

 snapped out front of Rook & Rose , in Victoria Early every year I love to make a goal list that I can slowly work through as opportunities present themselves. Sometimes they're big, sometimes small, and this one was home-centered: get more greenery in for our small basement suite. My sister-in-law does plants so well , and that has inspired me to get a few more plants to spruce up the place {see what I did there?}.  Stefan has liked this goal because he would have a house full of green if our budget allowed it!  My ZZ plant and broad leaf succulent from R&R When I went to Victoria with my friend Emily, we found this beautiful plant boutique (is that even a thing?!) and I bought two beautiful plants that were extremely well priced, and had a healthy gloss to them. The two plants above are from Rook & Rose , and if you're ever in Victoria and you have plant goals, go see them. They had an air plant that was nearly $100 (it was huge, most are ...

This was something brand new we did early in the Spring (yikes! I've neglected this blog for a long time...) around our town, Ft. Langley, BC . There was a 2-3 week period where nearly every house in Ft. Langley, which is home to so many beautifully landscaped properties, had a 'blooming bush' in their yard. The kids and I made up an activity--go on a "blooming bush bike tour" and take photos of all the gorgeous blooms.  Most of these photos were snapped by the kids, and people, we didn't even get farther than 4 city blocks before we were done because we had taken over 50+ photos! Here are a few of our favorites, and I tried to get a good array of colors presented.  If you know which flower/bush it is, leave it for me in the comments (and describe the photo/color of flower so we can know which is which). 

At the end of June we finished a monumental task- we finished the entire Laura Ingalls Wilder series; nine books where the shortest one was 150 pages, and most were well over 300. It took us a solid 7 months of reading aloud, during school time, bedtimes, bored times, etc. and I am so glad I made this a year-long goal, because quite frankly, it was a doozy. I had never read the entire series myself, I remember reading at least two of them, but I knew my kids were at the right age to enjoy these books. There are a number of series I have 'planned' to read to them through the next 3 years or so, and these were the books that I thought best to start with, because the kids would enjoy the simple stories of pioneer life, and were considered the 'youngest' of the series. The last two large books, Little Town on the Prairie, and These Happy Golden Years, were listened aloud on audio with Cherry Jones (thanks for the tip, Jamie Martin! ) because I needed a break, and my ...

As the kids start to get older I'm putting a lot of energy into finding excellent resources to teach my kids that are affordable and interesting outside of picture books. Cooked , a 4-part series by Michael Pollan on Netflix, is one of those resources.  As an American in Canada, I sometimes feel a bit snobbish turning my nose down at the options found here. My pitiful, first-world-problem attitude of 'there's nothing on this Netflix'! led me to this series, which I'd never pick in a million years if I could watch Parenthood, Nashville, and New Girl back to back. Such is life, and I'm glad, because watching this--a show I was only marginally interested in--became a full supply of conversation between myself and my kids when we watched all four parts together.  I own one of Michael Pollan's foodie books , but I haven't read it yet. This documentary series is four parts named after elements used in or with cooking: Fire, Air, Water, and Ear...

fallen tree = instant playground Okay. So, I have no actual photos of us biking around Stanley Park 's seawall, but that'd be because we were biking. I do, however, have a few lovely photos to share from the time we spent at Stanley Park, mostly pausing for breaks for the kids, lunch, or just a pretty location for a picture. Stanley Park is one of my favorite places in Vancouver, and this year was the first time both kids biked all the way around the (5 mile) seawall on their own. The last time we did this , Ani was 4 and in the bike trailer, and Lukka had a bike so small he looked like he belonged in the circus.  rowing practice for crew members Both kids made it around with plenty of energy to spare (we considered going around twice), and enjoyed a picnic lunch at Third Beach, shown below, while the kids played in the sand on a beautiful Fall flavored day. The air was a perfect temperature, maybe 65, while the sun came in and out of the clouds. We spent time s...

I rarely set up field trips as intentional, often they'd be more categorically listed as "accidental" (happily!), and this would be one of those. The morning we went out to Willow View Farms in Abbotsford  was a gorgeous Fall day. It was chilly and sunny-just like apple picking should be. By mid-morning our jackets were off and we were noisily chomping our fresh honeycrisps. With moving into the lowermainland of British Columbia last year near the end of September, I felt I really missed apple season, because as much as we travel back and forth between borders, we can't take fruit or seeded vegetables across with us. I was also schooling the kids, packing up our apartment in Blaine, WA, finding housing, and doing all sorts of other necessary and tiring things, and I unfortuantely missed one of my favorite seasons in the year-apple pickin' time.  Growing up near Nebraska City, which is the home of Arbor Day , apples are THE Autumn seasonal marker for ...

 Lukka enjoying a Big Al's burger and onion strings! Last week I did Lukka's yearly birthday interview and this week I'm sharing what we did for his 8th birthday, as we stretched it out over the weekend. We don't do massive parties (mostly because of energy levels and finances) but we do like to give our kids a treat and celebrate them with things they like or want to do, and who with. When Lukka asked for a friend party this year, we knew we'd have a small willing crowd, I just had to come up with some activities for us to do that they would all enjoy, and also do it cheaply.  One of the first things I did in preparation for the party was to look on pinterest and find some cheap and easy outdoor games. I found one that used pool noodles, balloons, and baskets that I thought would be fun and appropriate. Balloons cost about $1-2/bag and pool noodles are roughly $2/piece. I cut all the pool noodles in half so I'd only have to buy 4 for all the kids i...

This year we aren't headed back to Nebraska for Christmas. It's a sad thing, something that will hit us come late December, that this is the first year we won't be spending with our families during the holidays. I've tried not to think about it. Instead, focus on others, right? I found the original teddy sleeping bag idea on pinterest over a year ago and plugged it into the back of my mind for Christmas gifts for littles back in Nebraska. Although I didn't stick to the exact design, nor buy the pattern, it did give me the inspiration I needed to create my own for my nieces and nephew. Instead of putting cotton batting in between the layers to give it that puffy feel, I used some extra bits of fleece I had on hand. Although I changed the design from the largest to the next two, I really like how each turned out. The two girls' sleepers have a permanently folded bit in front, embellished by a vintage button. I thought the fold-over helped it look more...

I barely remembered to snap a photo before I devoured it We don't eat out much, but when Stefan's in the mood (which is not often, he has more will-power than I do), for a burger, he usually wants to eat at Red Robin. We probably haven't eaten there but three or so times since moving out to Blaine, but I crave their Crispy Chicken Salad something fierce. If you want a salad that is a meal, and you love stuff in your salad, take my word for it and make this at some point this week. You will not be disappointed!  This serving size is enough for 1 person's salad, with chicken 'strips' leftover for 3 other people, at 2 a piece. You'll need: *3 skinless chicken breasts, thawed and cut into 3 strips a piece *6 cherry tomatoes * 1 medium carrot, chopped *2 cups of your favorite lettuce (I like curly leaf, and romaine) *2 eggs *1/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese *homemade honey mustard (1/2 cup each of honey, yellow mustard and then 1TBSP...

getting ready for a trip This is the second installation in the story. See pt. 1 here . When I answered the door, expecting to see Stefan after a long day of work, I came across a family member to the person in question of stealing our canoe--their mother. Again, we had a good relationship with this family and I was surprised. I didn't remember my manners and ended up talking to her in the hallway while I was half shielded by my door. I was still a little bit guarded from the morning's information and I didn't want to speak too much--not only did I not want to regret any words, but I really wanted to try to be wise, and not sound accusatory. She was crying and so confused about the whole thing. Her child would possibly have this on their record if we decided to have the police write up the report, which would ruin their possible career choice in the near future, since a black mark for stolen property is a big deal once you're an adult. I told her I didn't kn...

Above is a picture I snapped in between Lunchables and math work at the local laundromat this morning. For the last year and a half, we've done our wash in between cleaning up kids' rooms and getting dinner ready, but yesterday, I discovered a literal pool of water drenching our hallway carpet. Thank goodness we didn't throw in the load and leave, as is so often the case. Our washing machine went kaput, and unfortunately, at the end of the week, we're all nearing the no-man's-land of an empty underwear drawer, so off to the laundromat we went this morning! Make Do and Mend is one of my favorite phrases, because it has meant a lot to me over the last 9 years of being married and going through financial stress at times during that near-decade. Honestly, we have done so well for getting married extremely early in life (19 and barely 20!), having kids very soon after, buying and selling a house, managing a rental property, moving across the country, and nume...

Our new (used) Toyota Debt. It's become an ugly word to me. A word that is weighted with dislike. Heavy with constriction. Pregnant with owing. You get my drift.  We started out with our big move across 1800 miles with minimal debt (around $5K in student loans). We should have been hard balling those numbers for the previous 2 years or so, but instead we just lived really comfortably and didn't think about it much. We didn't have a ton of material possessions, but we enjoyed ourselves, once a week Chipotle, a new dress here and there. It adds up. We weren't practicing penny pinchers, mostly because we had done it for so long before and we needed a break, or a reward, or just an extended vacation from trying. But that's not how debt works. If you don't snowball it , it will snowball you.  That's what happened to us this past 18 months, as we needed a second vehicle, a commuter vehicle that would be great on gas. We chose to buy a new Honda mo...

 Our church's community garden is growing like crazy right now. Out here in the Pacific Northwest, we've had a hot spell for at least the past week. Thankfully, our secret beach is a short distance away and a free ocean water cool-off is always easy to get to. The heat has been amazing for the garden, though, and now it's my turn to water. A friend of mine watered the first month for the summer, and now she's headed out on vacation and I'm up for the next month. It needs near-daily watering, and I know by week three I am going to squeal if there's a day of rain, but honestly, it's a small price to pay (around 30 minutes of work, more if I weed) for delicious organic vegetables for free.  The bird houses on the fence posts are new this year, and so far I have yet to see any birds flying in and out of them. The paths--aside from the mulched parts--are completely overgrown with clover, weeds, and grass. Once the mulch gets put down everywhere it will lo...