My Everything Corner

I am completely in love with my yard right now.  This is my 6th autumn here with a large garden(s), and so far, my most successful.  The pumpkin patch is amazing!!!  Even with the threat of yet another early frost coming on Monday, I am still happy with how many pumpkins, gourds and squash I have. My fall and Halloween displays should be nearing impressive for sure.  It is difficult to show in pictures how crazy these pumpkin vines have went, but when I am standing in among them, I feel like I am in an ocean of sorts. I won't know exactly how many I have until after the frost, when I can walk freely through the patch. I'm talking a lot about pumpkins here, but what I'm really featuring in these photos is a sweet little visitor that showed up back in June.  We call him Sam, and he is the friendliest kitty you've ever met. We're certain someone dropped him off near our home, and we've been loving him and looking for a home ever since.  I've become so fon...

Having an unstructured, quiet morning, I found myself missing my blog.  Although I've been visiting others' blogs, I hadn't added to my own in nearly 2 weeks.  So I thought it was time to catch up with what has been going on around here. We had our first get together since Uncle's passing. Although we were 2 days off my sister-in-law's special day, a comforting meal followed by a special cake was welcomed by everyone.  There was plenty of talk about Uncle and how things are going with the cleaning up of his home.  I know it isn't easy, and with every bit of physical progress, they make some emotional progress as well.  There are memories in everything they touch, right down to the old pancake mix.  Smiles are mixed with tears as they continue to sort through. The beginning of the new year is always my time to get caught up on the past year of scrap booking. I have completed two, one for each of my children and am well into a separate album for ...

I did not think I would be doing another post until after Christmas, but when my daughter decided to make everyone in the family a special card, and I fell in love with all of them, well, I just had to share them.  She asked me to pick a favourite and I really couldn't. You'll see what I mean... I shared this post HERE for Mosaic Monday.  Thank-you so much Judith for hosting!

We spent this past weekend celebrating our daughter's 13th birthday with decorations, cake, cards, gifts, and of course, friends and family!  Thank-you to everyone for making my little girl's day so special.  Now, here is a dreamy, (some might say cheesy) collage. I shared this post HERE for Mosaic Monday.

Oh my goodness, was my last post really about Halloween???  Time has flown by so quickly, and now that my daughter's birthday has passed, it is time to start thinking about the next event, Christmas of course!  We have a very relaxed holiday planned, as we have every year and hopefully everything goes as planned, as it usually does.  My little girl's 12th birthday was the exception this year.  The poor thing was so sick on her special day, I had to take her to a walk in clinic for a Dr. to take a look.   A bad throat infection has settled in and for the first time that I can remember she has to go on a round of antibiotics.  After only 4 out of 30 pills down, she is showing signs of renewed health! In the meantime, I've been wandering around with my camera and taking advantage of any photo opportunity that crosses my path.  We've had some incredible sun rises and sets, and one good dose of hoar frost.  My sweet, tiny kitten is 5 months old...

This post is a little delayed, being that my daughter's birthday was on December 6th, but I wanted to get this photo on the blog.  It's an odd age to be a big fan of Dilbert, but one weekend after finding herself with nothing to read, she went through our many bookshelves, and thinking that Dogbert was the most adorable thing ever, she decided to pick it up and read what he was all about. She quickly took to all the characters, although Dogbert has remained her favorite.  She has had to ask me a couple of times to explain a joke, but overall has a remarkable understanding of the text.  She even set to drawing her own comic, based on the Dilbert characters. She turned out to be such a big fan of the book that I didn't even need to ask what kind of a cake she might want.  She also received a Dilbert book for her birthday, and although she received 2 of the same Dilbert calendars, she was overjoyed that she could keep one on her bedroom desk, and...

These chocolate cupcakes were a real hit this past Saturday evening after we finished decorating the house for Halloween.  My daughter, who has taken an interest in the kitchen, helped with the decorating.  I stayed patient as her small hands tried to put even pressure on the pastry bag and helped her figure out how to fill in the spaces.  She listened carefully, tried her best and did an awesome job.  I definitely see cake decorating in her future! Those little ghosties are a Wilton treat, but they could easily be homemade with a bit of fondant and a candy corn.  I was just too lazy and decided to pay the $4 for the dozen.  The colorful leaf quins are crunchy little delights, or at least they were until they sat overnight under glass.  The display was lovely and kept my nosey cats away from our dessert, but the humidity ruined them making the leaves soggy.  I have to say the texture was much more appetizing when those candies were crun...

  My daughter is crafty and has recently taken up sewing.  Junior, my 20 year old black cat was her first victim.  Dressing up animals is obviously adorable, and other than their scorn for us, I don't know why we don't see more animals in stylish numbers such as this rustic, felted chapeau with a little black pompom on top.  He wore his new hat willingly for a while, but kept flicking his ears back under the flaps.  Eventually it tilted sideways, covering one of his eyes and even though the one-eye-hidden-behind-a-hat cat glance is very mysterious and sexy, it proved to be too much for him and he worked his way out of it.  I am sure this is just the first in what will be an entire fashion line for our feline friends.  Junior is our most willing model, able to put up with almost anything for the sake of looking good.  I also think it is fair to say that he is among the oldest in the business, ...

September 5, 2013 - The third day of school. My daughter wakes up, kisses me good morning, (while I'm still in bed) and promptly heads off to the kitchen to prepare her lunch for school.  I can only assume she is in a rush to beat me to it as she has insisted, since we bought her new lunch bag, that she wants to be responsible for this task. I really had no problem with her taking this on as long as she would allow me to scrutinize her choice of foods.  She had no problem with this, so it was on to learning how to slice bread.  I'm very fussy about my bread.  I really can't stand it when someone messes up my nice, straight cut.  But, for the sake of my daughter's education in the kitchen, I will put my fussiness aside.  Although she did a decent job of it on the two mornings I was supervising her, today, when she took the loaf on herself, it was a disaster.  Bread crumbs.  Dog food.  I walked into the kitchen and she im...

Tuesday, September 3, 2013 Doesn't everyone look happy on the morning of the first day of school?  Look at the faces in this photo.  Even the dog looks depressed. I must admit to experiencing mixed feelings.  I was looking forward to the peace and quiet of the day.  Todd had left in the morning for his week away, and the kids were off to school.  So I had no one to distract me as I went about the typical day of a housewife.  Weeding the garden, laundry, etc.  But as I was going through these mundane chores, I had a rather uncomfortable feeling come over me.  With my family being scattered, although it was peaceful, I no longer had the safe feeling that comes with us all being under one roof. I pondered this thought throughout my day, and even ventured out into the future to imagine what it will be like when the kidlets leave home, and go God-knows-where in the world.  There are too many unknown factors, of course, to get an...

The kids, Bear and I were out playing on the bales last night (again),  when Kaitlynn announced loudly that she had to go to the bathroom, but didn't think she would make it to the house.  She ran off behind some tall grass, but I could still see enough to realize she was taking off everything from the waist down, including her boots.  Jared was sitting next to me, and I said, "I need to teach that farm girl a thing or two about emergency 'field trips'".  Bear decided to join Kaitlynn out of curiousity, and I tried to call him back, without success.  After a moment, Kaitlynn starts yelling at Bear, and is starting to sound quite frantic.  I asked her if she needed some help, and she literally screamed "YES!".  So off I went, telling Jared to stay on the bales in hopes of saving what little dignity my daughter had left.  There was quite a surprise.  Kaitlynn's little 'field trip' turned out to be quite the episode.  'Numbe...

The kids have built their dragon nests in the bales, and are now playing out there every chance they get.  The game involves touring around the 10 acres and looking for a specific grass and other oddities to add to their homes.  It takes up entire afternoons.                                                                                                                         ...

"I can fly!', are not  words any Mother wants to hear from her young child.  But when they've spent 3 days working on a flight suit that they hope will make them airborne, one hopes that they will achieve at least a slight lift off. My 8, almost 9 year old daughter, Kaitlynn has always had a strong, vivid imagination and a drive to create.  She is constantly coming up with new ideas, and actually, a lot of them have worked.  So when she came to me with her paper feather suit and asked me, "Mommy, tell me honestly.  Do you think I'll be able to fly with this suit?"  I have to admit, I was a bit stumped as to what my answer should be.  Should I be honest and tell her exactly what was going to happen?  Or should I falsely encourage her and tell her to jump off the roof?  I decided to walk the middle ground and said something to the effect of, "I think you might need a few more feathers and a stronger support for those feathers, but go play ...

After a very rainy couple of days, on September 1, the kids were very excited to start school.  My sister, Auntie Lynn, is their bus driver, as well as the school cook. Two of her children are on the bus, and the kids just think this is a fabulous connection to have.   There are only 30 plus children in the entire grades K-8 school, and only 3 classrooms.  Grades K, 1 and 2 are together, grades 3, 4, and 5 are mixed and then the grade 6, 7 and 8's make up the last class. Their old school had about 70 kids in one grade alone and they were separated into 3 classrooms.  So this is a huge change.  But they are adjusting very well, and have even told me that they really prefer this school to their last.  Nearly 3 weeks has passed since their first day, and they are feeling right at home.  Their bus ride is even shorter out here than it was in Cold Lake.  A total of 35 minutes a day was shaved off their daily riding time.  So much fo...

There is nothing like a wide open space to encourage kids to play outside. My kids have always loved the outdoors, but since we've moved out here, they've at least tripled their time outdoors. Between the snake nest, the salamander crossing and the froggy patch, they are always on some sort of adventure, exploring and collecting. Not long after we moved in, we added bicycling to our repertoire of things to do outdoors. Within minutes Jared was off his training wheels, and my daughter wasn't far behind. Now we all ride together. Our favourite road runs just east of our place. It is quiet and there is a large water feature about a mile down where we love to watch the ducks swim and flap around. It is still very green here, but soon will be my favourite time of year to be outdoors. Once the colours start to change and the leaves start to cover the road and once I need a sweater to be comfortable outside and it gets dark early enough to enjoy the stars again. Th...

This is what we spent a good portion of our day doing yesterday. In the morning we baked, and after lunch we decorated. A large portion of cookies went undecorated and will go to my Son's Kindergarten class tomorrow. Using pink, purple, red, white and a few sprinkles, we put together a beautiful assortment of cookies to celebrate each other. Several days ago, we also created little boxes so that we could create Valentines for each other and have somewhere to keep them until we open them on Tuesday. We will be celebrating a day late because that's when Daddy gets home from camp. . . . . . . . . . The kids picked an assortment of different shapes. These are Kaitlynn's cookies and included here are hearts, flowers, birds and kitties. Also, being the super-duper kid that she is, she handmade all of her Valentines. She did 25 for her class, and several for her family as well. I can't wait to see what she put together. . . . . . . . . . . . . These are Jared's cookies. ...

Question: What would be a good idea for an art project this afternoon Munchkins? Answer: Feet painting!!! Question: Feet what? Answer: You know, 'From Bill Nye the Science Guy'. Question: OK, should I go find the supplies? Answer: Yes, right now Mommy!!! Question: (In my mind) Why did I agree to this? Well, it wasn't anything to worry about. I just brought out some warm, soapy water in a bowl when the kids were done, and left the paintings to dry in the sun. Now we have some updated art for their rooms, and some great keepsakes of their little 7 and 5 year old feet.

As I was working on the computer this morning, updating my jewelry shop on Etsy, my daughter, now 7, announced that she definitely needed her own shop. She said she new exactly what she wanted to make, and then begged me to create a shop for her. I was quite uncertain, at first, that this was a good idea. After doing a bit of light reading in the Etsy 'Do's and Don'ts' section, I was convinced that my daughter had a great plan. Running a shop under a parent's supervision could become a great learning experience. Little did I know that while I was teaching her about the cost of shipping and materials, she would be teaching me just how much she understands about people and their lives. The first card she came out with said, 'Who put stickers on the wall?' . She then explained that this card would be for the person who knew a child that was forever getting into trouble, and this could be their way of showing them that they loved that child...no matter wh...