Walk Two Moons

Christmas 2011

2011-12-29T20:42:00.000-06:00

For family and friends far away, thanks for all the ways you shared the holidays with us.

Advent 2011

2011-11-28T22:27:00.000-06:00

I wonder how we'll prepare ourselves for a winter advent celebration this year?

How will we prepare our hearts?

How will our table be welcoming to others?

Can we offer warmth within our bows?

We strive to shine light in darkness.

We want to deepen our understanding of the gift being given.

How will we get there?

And above all, where will we be when we arrive?

A Year

2011-09-23T20:42:00.000-05:00

Family, friends, and strangers who enjoy(ed) reading our blog, I am sorry.

The summer passed has been filled with sunshine, warm air, little girls, and household tasks, so much so that I've neglected this sharing place.

But I'm here to share with you now.

Our dear newborn baby Annika is now ONE!

Here's some highlights from our celebrations for Annika, otherwise known as Banannika!

Now that Annika has been introduced to refined sugar, opening presents, and dressing like a fairy life will be grand!

Thanks everyone who blessed little Annika with your love over the course of the year. She's a curious, active, cheeky little gal!

Spoiled!

2011-06-24T11:17:00.000-05:00

This is when I SHOULD be washing up my dishes: while baby has morning nap and before Corrina returns home from school.
But.... I have just been dying to put of some pretty pictures.

I was spoiled on Mother's day (and so was Dave on father's day!):

Dave and Corrina made beautiful Origami flowers to fill and outside flower pot for me!

We are having a wonderful summer. It's raining alot, so our grass is perpetually long and going to seed, but that's not stopping us from having a blast!

We've planted a "fairy" garden for Corrina to play in. It's really growing in beautifully!

Sometimes she's happy to sit and watch us play around the yard!

I made this hat!

Most of their interactions look like this!

Look what we MADE!

2011-06-03T10:11:00.000-05:00

A long long long time ago, Spring 2010, I decided that I wanted a better Kitchen Island.

So I "instructed" Dave to make sense of all my ideas of what this Island should encompass, and he set to work with some design ideas (this is pretty much how my amazing engagement ring cam eot be as well!)

In mid summer 2010 Dave drove around to 4 different Canadian Tire stores finding stools I liked that were on sale. We were going to build the Island around the stools, ya know to get the right leg room and stuff!

In late summer 2010 Dave bought a lot of really beautiful HARD Maple wood! It sat in the basement for along time. We wanted it to really feel at home here before we made something of it.

I found this website and "instructed" Dave to consult some ideas for actually building this table. The website made building look so easy and quick! I liked that!!!

In fall of 2010, while awaiting Annika, Dave and his Dad passed the time constructing the table top of the Island.

This construction process was Ginormously difficult. I don't think Dave would have ever agreed to my "instructions" to build our our Island had we any clue how time consuming and challenging the process would be. Chris lead the team though, and made our ideas come to life! He's amazing that guy, Chris that is! He just took off with the task, created detailed construction plans, whipped out to the store 100+ times to gather more supplies, and worked tirelessly on the project! I helped too, by finishing growing Annika!

So, with all this wonderful prep work in place, the table top prepped and ready to go, Dave set to work RIGHT AWAY, to put the rest of the table together.
Yeah, RIGHT! 8 months later, Dave had finished sanding the crazy HARD Maple top (DO you know how HARD Maple is, MY GOSH, that's Hardwood. I understand why it's for floors and not tables. IT DOESN"T SAND! But Dave found a way to make it get smooth!).

8 Months later, Dave and I finally dragged the pieces upstairs and began construction! Corrina happily watched a movie, Annika slept, and we built. Clearly Duffy helped.

Nice legs!

And, WAH-LA! We have a beautiful island that seats four, has drawers (facing away on the dresser base), is ridiculously sturdy, and is STILL NOT FINISHED!

We are keeping it under a table cloth until we can find more time to finishing sanding and smoothing, and than apply 100 or so top coats of varnish. This thing will NEVER get a scratch!

So, in one sense or another, this Island is about the same age as Annika. Well, even she took less time to make, all things considered!

Isn't she sweet?

A New Hope:

2011-05-14T11:08:00.000-05:00

It is a time of great celebration in the Galaxy...

Annika Bananika

2011-05-04T18:54:00.000-05:00

What can I say? We have fun together!

BIG NEWS!!

2011-04-01T11:21:00.000-05:00

Well everyone! We've been eluding to it for some time on here, but now is the moment when we finally announce the BIG NEWS! DON'T SCROLL DOWN and ruin it! Just be patient! This is not the kind of thing that comes around every day! And I was thinking about telling family first, and then friends, but I'm just so pumped that I can't keep it in! (I haven't let Janie know that I'm doing this blog post right now!) I've been so excited, and Janie is too. We haven't told Corrina yet, but I have no doubt whatsoever that as soon as she knows what we know, she'll be just as thrilled as we all are! Oh my goodness, everyone! Don't tell Corrina! We don't wanna ruin the surprise! As I was saying, and as I'm sure you've already figured out, things are getting pretty exciting around here! A little stressful, sure, but the business and all the preparation is about to pay off and in the end it'll be totally worth it! It's like they say, good things come to those that wait, and man, I feel like I've been waiting and waiting forever! But then folks also say that a watched pot never boils, so I've been trying not to be TOO anxious, but how can I not be! (is that the same pot that calls the kettle black? huh.) Anywho, I was talking to a friend today on the phone earlier. It was one of those calls, you know? When you hear it ring and you just thing "I'll be this could be THE call" You know? Do you ever get that feeling? I'm not saying I'm clairvoyant or anything, but sometimes you just KNOW. But anyways, I really appreciate your support everyone, 'cause this really has been a long wait for me, and even longer for Janie, I'm sure. Not many of you realize just how important this is to Janie. But what I really want to say is thank you to all of you, friends, family, etc., who has stuck with us, shown your support, and lent a helpful hand or two. It really is a blessing to know that all of you are behind us in this, and that as we move forward on this very exciting journey, you'll be behind us to!

Thanks a ton, once again! I really can't express what I'm try to say in words, and it means so much to me that I know that you already know! So thanks again!
-DAve

It's Love

2011-03-11T20:01:00.000-06:00

note the opportunity Corrina takes to cheat here :)

I just love these people! There's always room in each day to remember that more!

I think some of these people are sneaking up on me now. Yup, with tickles!

Clever

2011-02-16T22:03:00.001-06:00

Watch out friends, five year olds are clever!

Corrina asked, while brushing her teeth, "what if I want to get married one day, and the other person doesn't want to get married?"

Today when we arrived at Nursery school Corrina classified her friends in the hallway as boys and girls. It went like this "so and so has a vagina, so and so has a vagina, he has a penis, and daddy has a penis!" Loud and clear, everything is so loud and clear with this kid!

When Corrina asks about/for something and I've taken a moment to think about it my response, if positive, is "sure." Yesterday I was instructed that I should not say sure. Corrina thinks I should say "YES! or Absolutely!" with great enthusiasm.

One afternoon I told Corrina I'd like five minutes to rest, and I would sit on the couch, with feet up, and read my book. I said she could play toys, or look at books, or really do anything at all that she wanted apart from tv/computer. She plunked down beside me with a book, flipped through the pages in seconds, and said "I've been watching that clock, and look mom, the big hand has moved now, and your five minutes are over." I explained how I need a few more minutes, and she could have some time with me here, but letting me rest so I'd feel better. Corrina began stroking my arm, and kindly said "your time is over, but that's alright because you can sleep later when your friend comes over to visit, and I'll play with them, but now your time is over." So gentle, so kind, so strongly an extravert that can't play for 5 minutes alone! Hmm, I'll have to cash in on that sleep thing another time!

"Dried apricots make my brain hurt."

Well, the list could go on, but that's about all I can recall. Fun times.

Corrina was being a wedding planner, putting together a lovely tea reception. She's available for hire if your looking!

A spy following a clue for a certain little girl!

When Corrina holds Annika it looks like a person holding a twin of themselves as a baby. I recommend having your twins at the same time, otherwise its just too creepy!

A smile!!! It's hard for Annika to keep a smile when all the little orange lights and burst of white flash at her.

We sit, we eat, we spit!

We have more snow than I think we've ever had, at least since we've lived in Winnipeg. Do you see that composter? Basic model, same as the one in your yard, almost up to the top in snow. Makes for create tunnel building!

It has been so warm outside, -5 t0 +1, that we've been out without freezing in five minutes. From -45 in January, to +5 in February!

Accidental Nutella

2011-01-26T14:30:00.000-06:00

Last night I was set to make a really nice no bake cookie I found here, and I accidentally made a delicious nutella like spread.

No one minded to mistake!

Here's how I botched the recipe:

- use a blender instead of a food processor
-added too much water
-tried to make up for the water by adding extra dates

-gave up and spread concoction onto a graham cracker and called it a night!

I'd show a picture but I'm sure you can guess what this chunky, brown, thick mixture might look like in a photo!

The actual no bake fudgey snowball cookies are excellent too. I'd suggest making a proper batch next time you have someone coming over for tea!

And here's a picture of my baby. How does this relate to the recipe? She'll be eating the chocolate nut spread in just a few moments!

For those interested this is the Plan Dollhouse we bought Corrina for Christmas. She has alot of fun everyday with this house and all the special people in it!

Another random picture to show the new, way more functional home of our wonderful and free piano, in the dinning room. Now to learn how to play it :)

Birthday Bash

2011-01-23T13:38:00.001-06:00

How to have a fantastic 5th Birthday:
1. Start with a rainbow cake

2. Add a Birthday Tree (to put the presents under of course)

3. Invite a crazy scientist aka Dad! Forgot to buy smocks for all children, but buy a ton of prizes!

4. Make explosions, gak, and goo, all with lots of colors that inevitably end up on your guests tee shirts.

5. Finish with delicious rainbow cake, homemade pinata and fun presents!

Even with the massive amounts of preparation, and the energy needed it pull it off, I'd do it again. But only once a year!
Just for fun here is Corrina through the years:

6. Go shopping post party to replace all guests t-shirts

Merry smiles

2011-01-06T11:10:00.000-06:00

It would be so nice if we had one picture that featured everyone smiling, but Corrina's the only one trained right now. But we all like variety, or at least i do, so here's a bunch of pictures with different grins!

So christmas was great! Lots of time spent with different friends, and so many treats and games. But its nice to be back to the everyday life too.

Sisters

2010-12-25T13:08:00.000-06:00

I have been trying to upload a video for about 4 days and it's not working at all, so here is a link to see a little movie of Corrina entertaining Annika.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q76McYO3H_o

As Christmas draws near we are busy keeping ourselves busy with smiles and giggles.

I made a delicious bread today for Christmas morning. Right now Corrina is "a cook at a school making orange soup" while Annika sleeps beside her snug in a car seat, ie. the downstairs bed!

For Christmas Eve we will be snacking on some simple appetizers and treats while reading and learning from the story of Christ's birth, amid the glowing lights on the tree.

Wishing everyone a warm, safe, healthy, meaningful Christmas.

We are actually ALIVE!

2010-12-16T10:00:00.000-06:00

No smiles here, but this is pretty much what Annika looks like most of the time!

Corrina is "helping" Annika to smile.

We've been doing family activities to engage in waiting for Christ's birth, or Advent. We started with thinking about the Angels in the story. We make glitter angels, and painted angel cookies. Painting cookies rocks!

We are alive, and slowly becoming well again. This fall/winter season has been riddles with colds, infections, aches and pains. I'd like to think we are just getting it all out of the way for the year to come.

Life has been busy, and Annika fits right in perfectly. She is smiley and social, eats amazingly and sleeps great for her age. She is easy to entertain, cuddly and patient. You can imagine why I might say patient as you've had a sample picture above of the little "helper".

I'm not on top of anything at home! Maybe that's the way it should be. I am enjoying each day though. Its nice to focus on caring for my home and family right now. We've been crafting, baking, building, and as of late Corrina has asked that we teach her to read!

I've been brainstorming some newish hobbies to focus on in the coming year, as I need to get myself out of the kitchen away from the butter and sugar that's created so many delicious Christmas cookies if I'm ever to be a healthy individual who lives past 30! Seriously, I've been going a little nuts... After Christmas I'm only baking muffins and biscotti! I'm going to become a master at those two!

Anyway, I think I will take up sewing again. There are some moments when Corrina is at school or playing happily, the chores are done and the baby is sleeping and I NEED something stimulating to do.
I'm also going to increase my crafting with Corrina.

Anyway, I have nothing important to say, so go look at those cute gals again!

Into October with Family and Pumpkin Butter

2010-10-12T11:08:00.000-05:00

We just had a great visit with my mom. We've been spoiled this fall, with a fantastic visit with Dave's family. We accomplished so many projects when they came, spent really fun times together watching favorite shows and doing some Winnipeg activities. We had delicious meals, and lots of laughs while waiting for the baby. We would not have made it through September without them!

Just after they left we all came down with pretty horrible colds. Dave and I didn't know how we were going to make it through the nights with a newborn, let alone the next day. Thankfully we healed, as we knew we would, but in the moment it's rotten to wait for the healing to begin. Many people from church brought us homemade meals during this time which kept us going and coping! We are thankful!

And than my mom arrived and cleaned my home top to bottom, caught us up on nutritious meals again, did every bit of laundry, held and rocked Annika every chance to she had. She brought a nice replenishing zen feeling to our home with a hint of ginger as she constantly brewed rich chai tea to keep her energy up! During my mom's visit we had phenomenal weather and were out and about in summer clothes most days. I like having a baby in fall alot more than in bitterly cold January!

Through it all Corrina has been doing well as a sister. She continues to love helping and holding Annika. I'm not worried about Annika being dropped when in Corrina's arms, I'm more concerned about her being squished!

All in all we are doing well.

And just for fun, here is an amazing recipe I found for Pumpkin Butter.

I've been using mine to make Pumpking Lattes, pancakes, and just mixed with our Homemade Granola (I'll post that recipe soon too)!

Annika Meredith Grace

2010-10-03T14:25:00.000-05:00

Yes, our newest little one has arrived. Annika Meredith Grace was born September 15th at 12:39am. She weighed about 8lbs4oz, and was 20 3/4 inches long.

Annika will make it into the Top Ten for most mauled child!

Her labor and birth went really well. Lots of hard, intense work, but I was able to birth her naturally and we were blessed to avoid any special circumstances that might have changed that. When we recalled that Corrina made her way into the world in 15 minutes, down the birth canal that is, we were flabbergasted that Annika was birth in about 5 minutes. Not to be confused with the long labor! In less time than her big sis, Annika took about 16 hours from start to finish. Luckily for me only about 3-4 hours of that was active, hard labor. A neat thing about Annika's birth is that she actually crowned in her bag of waters. Once she crowned the doctor tore the membranes so Annika could breathe the air of her new world.

I had awesome support from Dave and from our friend Gloria who is a trained Doula. As well, another friend who is also a Doula passed along information and her experience with Hypno birthing. Hypno birthing in essence is practicing meditation to achieve focus and relaxation during labour and birth. The positive messages and soothing guided breathing and meditation made a complete difference in relaxation, and I think progression of labor too! I actually put on my meditation throughout early labor and took naps! Love it! I highly recommend at least looking into Hypno birthing if you are hoping to have a manageable natural labor and birth.

She is a darling! We are quickly developing a great routine with lots of eating, playing and sleeping (thank you Baby Whisperer). We are much better at giving Annika what she needs than we were with Corrina. it's great to have a head start.

And Just for fun, a little Who's Who?

Picture One

Picture Two

Picture Three

Picture Four

Picture Five

Snuggled Inside

2010-08-30T22:09:00.002-05:00

At 39 weeks today, our little Pippi is still snuggled up inside.
Perhaps the next post will include us snuggled up with her cute little face!

Lately...

2010-08-20T06:50:00.004-05:00

Here's a few quick photo updates on the lives of us:

How to get your kid to eat Tofu

What to do with fresh-picked raspberries

Janie and me at the natural Manitoba garden at the Forks.

Corrina and I have been playing Muppets a lot lately. Like, a lot.

Before and After: Family Desk and Entryway

2010-07-05T13:08:00.005-05:00

You may or may not know this about me: I'm into design and decor. I don't have time to do alot, nor do I really have any natural inclinations about space, color, style, and layout, but I try.

And Sometimes I obsess! Since moving to our house a few years back I started obsessing about having an organized family desk area, and entryway area for the mounds of crap that come and go everyday: work bags, daycare bags, beach bags, winter gear, grocery bags, bags of bags, shopping bags... and sometimes it's all those bags on top of one another.

And for obvious reasons (I hope!), this space was not working for us. Eventually the coat rack in the above photo fell down in the middle of the night, rendering me terrified that a window had been broken and we were about to be robbed. Really, the sound of something shattering was just the Winnie the Pooh porcelain savings box on the corner of the shelf.
It pains me to look at this space. Yuck! I wrote intelligent papers here? Pop Quiz: Did I write my papers in the pitch dark with blinders on so as to avoid the overwhelming anxiety I would get from sitting in such a cluttered space. Or did I spend most of my time "working" at the computer actually distracted with planning my make over moves and looking at design blogs?
You're a smart cookie, number two is correct.

While obsession and lack of time very seldom lead to great home transformations, when obsession takes over there's no amount of time too little to inspire change.

Really, it all began when I started obsessing over this desk shelf. One I thought it was such a great organizational space. Two I loved that it was homemade because that's really all I thought we could afford to invest in.

With a very patient and helpful Dave we struggled through creating a look-a-like. Well, upclose it looks more like a Seusicall look-a-like as things are angled less than straight.

Our tips: don't cut and sand MDF board in your dinning room and kitchen. Can you say dust storm? I still find dust from that MDF. Perhaps wait until the snow has melted and you can do this outside. And do your best to know thyself when attempting to build. Don't assume because the tutorial/instructions lay everything out so nicely that you'll actually be able to match the skill required. If you can't cut/sand straight, practice on scraps first until you get it down. Measure measure measure. Maybe don't work at 2am when everyone's irritable. And, if you have children, assume it will take about 4 times longer than anything predicted. Great tutorial though, and hey if we could get this shelf standing in the end, maybe anyone could do it!

But now, for the after:
It's been up for sometime and working really well for us to organize all our junk. It needs some purging of papers, and some beautifying, but who has time for those things!

The shelf and hooks are actually bought from Sears Online. We contemplated building our own but decided against it when it wasn't actually happening! There is just never a convenient time for us to build things. We do however have all the mdf cut out (ridiculously crooked) in the basement, ready to go to build a matching shoe cubby.

At this point I'm fine with the stand in brown shelf!

I think the green buckets on top are from Superstore. They house summer items like bubble stuff, Corrina's gardening bag/tools, sunscreen etc. I like them because I can just grab them and take them outside with us. Or cram all their contents into one of the million bags hanging on the shelf.

Like when we go to the park to make triple long tunnels together.And end of working alone!

So, with such a well functioning, good lookin' desk and entryway, what is a gal left to obsess over? Well, a new nursery of course!

2 more months to go!

Ahhh, it's been a good update. Thanks for your time!

Photo Dump (+)

2010-06-03T22:12:00.009-05:00

New Links

2010-05-26T09:44:00.002-05:00

I really do have a TON of excellent photos to add, but I haven't had a sane moment to do so. What I can share with you are some interesting, fun links I've found recently.

But first, Congratulations to Tammy and Ryan and the birth of little Everett.

Tammy was a tower of strength through her challenging experience, but I have no doubt that she stood strong, rolled with the punches, coped with the unknowns along the way so her littlest son could enter the world in health and strength. Wish I could be there to meet him and pamper Tammy for all her hard work! Our love is with you!

Second, I've added two crafty links to my blog roll. I've been inspired by the Artful Parent for while, and have incorporated some more art ideas into our family fun times. Of course, Dave is really the art leader in our home, creatively engaging Corrina in pre-dinner drawing lessons, monster making, or still life sketches (I kid you not!). I'm more the one who has to turn to other creative people for ideas, especially at the end of draining days, so I'm happy there are resources for me, and for you! And my next idea is to cut some scraps from plain fabric and pick up fabric markers for making fabric monsters and dolls!

The second link I added is the Crafty Crow, a collection of children's crafts and activities that is put together daily around season, subjects, special holidays, etc. Someone searches creative blogs and compiles all the ideas for you so you don't have to do the leg work, you just get to have the inspiration and fun!

I also put up a new book link for The Mindful Brain. This book is about brain development, the ability of the brain to change and grow in incredible ways through ALL OF LIFE, in ALL circumstances. One little line I caught in a quick scan last night was "nature needs nurture." All of our experiences influence our brain and the way we feel, sense, live, and think. Fascinating, to me!

On my to do list this week:
Many crafts with Corrina, including embroidery sewing
Planting/thinning my lettuce seedlings before they die
Making apple crisp with airport bruised apples from Dave's trip

AND
Posting blog photos

Corrina's Princess Magic

2010-05-04T07:04:00.002-05:00

While watching Sesame Street yesterday, Corrina was amazed when a little girl waved her magic wand and made wonderful things appear. Her jaw hanging somewhere around her navel, she managed to sat "How did she do that?"

So here is a little lesson in the wonders of TV magic. Corrina displayed not only stellar acting skills and a great on-screen presence, but also helped out in the editting process ("We need Fairy Sparkles!").

-DAve

Long time no see

2010-04-29T22:07:00.002-05:00

I have photos to share! Finally! Courtesy of Chris and Mary who cam to visit us over the weekend, and celebrated a birthday party with us.

We had a silly party with lots of fun games and dressing up.

I'm just getting around to cleaning up bubble solution footprints, and popping left over balloons. Of course the left over cake and candy was gone alot sooner than the mess...

A mean man

2010-04-17T20:22:00.002-05:00

Yesterday at the park sandbox Corrina was playing with two little girls we had met for the first time. One was named Pilot, and her sister named Penn. Neither were short for anything.

Seconds after learning Pilot's named Corrina made a connection: "I know a man named Pilot!" pause. "He was a mean man!" Voice increase. "And she said to Jesus, Crucify Him!"

What is a mother to say? "Uhm, yes, that was Pontius Pilate." To the Nanny accompanying the children. "I guess we memorized that story rather quickly."

I promise, we are not religious bigots. We are safe to play with in the sandbox.

Janie

The Story of Bottled Water

2010-03-23T09:50:00.007-05:00

I don't know about you, but I really appreciate the Story of Stuff project. Their latest video, the Story of Bottled Water, has this delightful little moment:

"Drinking Bottled water is quickly becoming as popular as smoking while pregnant!" (with the pregnant lady looking down on the bottled-water guy!)
-Dave

Chocolate Moneky

2010-03-22T13:11:00.004-05:00

This week we will be giving into chocolate cravings with two treats:

Moneky Banana Biscotti gone Chocolate (and Half Baked)
Here is the original RECIPE
And here is my version

3/4-1 Cup Ripened Bananas, mashed
1 Egg or 2 Egg whites
2 Tbsp brown Sugar
1 tsp vanilla

1 Cup white flour
3/4 + 2 Tbsp Whole Wheat flour
1/2-3/4 cup white sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup cocoa *my addition, and it is delicious!* (I encourage you to use fair trade from which ever local store sells it, like Ten Thousand Villages)
1/4 cup Chocolate chips (optional to make this double chocolate!)

Preheat Oven to 350 degrees
Place first 4 ingredients (wet) in a bowl and combine.
Mix together dry ingredients. Add to wet ingredients to form a thick dough.

Divide into two equal portions and place on a silpat lined baking sheet (or parchment paper) 4 inches apart.Form each piece of dough into a 6 inch log, about 3 inches wide. They turn out to be flat style logs, more like rectangles. Bake for 25 minutes.
Remove, and decrease heat to 250 degrees. Allow logs to cool ten mins.
Using a serrated knife cut biscotti into diagonal strips.
*This is where I stopped! Biscotti means twice baked, so if you like follow the remaining instructions for a great treat. Or, if your pieces were a perfect cakey crunchy combination like mine why not leave them and have Half baked Biscotti!
To finish: Place back on cookie sheet, and bake for 20-25 mins, turning once for evening browning if you like.
Go Bananas and eat them up!
Store in air tight container, if they make it that far!

Peanut Butter Balls
My mom made these all the time in little logs instead of balls. She called them chocolate bars and never shared because they were her special dessert. Please, share these with your family because they are a healthy treat for their sweets cravings too!
Mix 4 Tbsp light, crunchy peanut butter with 4-6 Tbsp hot (or left over) coffee (could use water for caffeine-free) .
Mix in 3-4 Tbsp hot chocolate mix (or cocoa and sugar if you like).
Toast 1/2-3/4 cup oatmeal in a frying pan on medium high heat, stirring often (don't need oil or spray or anything, just keep them moving). Just toast till light brown so they are no longer raw.
Add oatmeal and 2 tbsp dark raisins to wet ingredients and mix.
Wet hands with cold water and shape into 1/2-1 inch balls. Refrigerate to firm, and store in fridge or freezer.

Thank You, Ukulele Man

2010-03-08T16:01:00.002-06:00

The other day on the bus ride home I had a delightful encounter.

I got on the bus and sat near the front. There was a pair of young people sitting in the seat opposite and I couldn't help but be drawn to them almost immediately. She was your typical downtown young lady, trendy/hippy hand-made clothes and hat, while he was tall, bearded, wearing a huge winter coat and playing a blues scale on on a Ukulele.

Now, I've recently had a bit of an obsession with the beloved UKE, ever since an radio article on CBC's GO stated in no uncertain terms that the Ukulele is the perfect gift for the hard-to-shop-for person in your life, as its easy to play and growing in popularity. Plus the host said that playing a UKE makes you feel like a GIANT, which is no doubt all kinds of awesome.

But the pair on the bus had something else going on, beyond excellent taste in fashion and musical instruments. They were lively, daring, and looked to be having a lot of fun. In a place where most people sit silently avoiding attention, they were relaxed and even having some fun. Eventually he was able to coax his bus mate into a little impromptu jam session, while he played and she invented cold, bitter lyrics of lament and tragedy.

Now, I'm not saying I necessarily want to play the blue on a Ukulele whist (and at the same time) traveling on public transit, but I do want to take every opportunity to enjoy the company of those around me and not to let life slip by.

Thank you, crazy Ukulele Man. May we all follow your cute, under-sized example.
-Dave

Dave's Article for CFGB

2010-03-05T10:17:00.001-06:00

Fine Dining on the Rooftops of India

Monday, March 01, 2010

As part of a recent Food Study Tour, a group of Canadian Foodgrains Bank supporters and staff visited the Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on Relief (EFICOR). EFICOR is a partner of World Relief Canada and has long been active in the Indian state of Bihar, working with people who have traditionally been among the poorest and lowest castes in India.

Read more here:

Updated: Custom Action Figure Bookends

2010-02-23T06:52:00.011-06:00

Custom Action Figure Bookends

People on facebook have been asking what the paint fumes are all about. Well, a long time ago Janie started to get a little frustrated with the experience of living amongst and around action figures/toys/collectibles. I started to look for more practical applications of my beloved playthings. I started creating more elaborate dioramas, which pacified the maternal urge to purge, but my real dream was to create highly detailed and sculpted bookends. Still the problem remained though: Janie still just saw them as a pile of multicoloured plastic. Janie can't stand the visual clutter. All that colour and form leaping out from the shelf gets my imagination roaring, but for Janie it's just an attack on her eyeballs. Then my beloved boingboing.net, curators of all that is awesome online, provided the answer.

Three bookends, constructed of some of my lesser loved figures and a last minute few thrift store additions, hot glued to a metal bookend, and painted and sealed. Perfect.

-Dave

A Poem, and a Warning

2010-02-16T12:44:00.002-06:00

Dear Traveler
by Dave Colvinson

Should you ever find yourself
In distant lands or foreign scenes
And notice, much to your chagrin
The faintest of internal screams

Pay heed, dear friend! Do not ignore!
Cast away the very idea!
Resist the urge to shrug it off
As Traveler’s Diarrhea

The warning signs are obvious
And you’d do well to give them heed
A temperature spike of ninety-nine
The inability to feed

A body wrought with aches and pains
All these signals do incite us
Take action now, make no delay!
I’m afraid it’s Appendicitis!

Congratulations! Off you go!
One ultrasound and two X-rays
Blood work, urine tests, monitors
Get comfy! You’ll be there for days!

It’s true you may being to fret
When they remove all of your clothes
And you may shriek when given pills
Inserted where pills seldom go

But do not fret! You’ll make it through
Despair will surely be your folly
If hope itself seems nearly spent
Fear not! Just call on ***** Paulley!

Was ever there a friend so dear
As she who sleeps on tiny cot?
Who makes you smile when all seems bleak
And helps you hobble to the “pot”?

And so when all is said and done
Dear Traveler, do not lose heart
But perhaps in future journeys try
To return home with all your parts

Breakfast

2010-02-01T07:49:00.004-06:00

We usually eat a very healthy breakfast around here, but this morning I started thinking about variety.

We've done the whole wheat pancakes, the apple, banana, blueberry pancakes. Fruit and granola, high fibre protein packed cereal, oatmeal with berries and nuts, healthy muffins, and good old fruit and yogurt.

And I love them all! Especially pancakes and muffins! Ohhh, and homemade granola when I had more time at home! Yum!

But, I wondered what ideas are out there that I just don't know about, if any!

Well, here are a few good links I found to freshen up breakfast time:

10 Tasty, Easy Breakfast Ideas

Best Health Breakfast Ideas (Lots!)

Quinoa Porridge (Making this right now)

Another Banana Muffin Recipe

Apple-Walnut Pancakes (I want to try)

Some of my tips for healthy breakfasts:
Add ground flaxseed to everything you bake (Muffins, pizza crust, breads, sprinkle on cereal, add to smoothies)

Add oatmeal to baked goods ( My Favorite Banana Oatmeal Recipe: I add spices, reduce the sugar, use whole wheat flour, add flax seed, and sometimes nuts)!

Use as much whole wheat flour as you can to add fiber, nutrients, and to avoid the blood sugar spike that comes from white flour.

I didn't even mention eggs in this post, but those are often part of our breakfasts too: poached is my favorite, on whole grain toast, with fruit. Dave loves scrambled, or soft boiled with "toast soliders" and corrina loves them anyway!

What is your favorite HEALTHY breakfast?

The Chronicles of a 4 Year Old

2010-01-27T18:18:00.002-06:00

Corrina has been 4 now for just over a week! The day after she turned 4 she told me "Mommy, now I will be 5 and go to Kindergarten, and than I will be 6, and than I will be every number!"

As a 4 year old she told me on the way to daycare that she might have to leave our house to go learn to be a crossing guard, but she would wait till we have another baby so I would have someone to take care of. She said "Than I will come home and teach the baby everything I learn. And I will be able to reach things for the baby that they can't reach." She has also requested that when she turns 5 that we have another baby for her because 5 year old people need to be big sisters.

So, in short, being 4 is all about being 5!

Dear Corrina

2010-01-06T07:21:00.003-06:00

Dear Corrina,

You are turning four this month, and growing so much every day! Since you're growing up so fast, I wanted to take a minute to write down some facts about you to be forever immortalized in the solid marble slab that is the internet.

Corrina, you have told us (and often list for us) that when you grow up, you plan on being:
a Doctor
a Nurse
a Teacher
a Truck Driver
a Crossing Guard
and (my personal favourite) the Calgary Stampede.
and not a rider in the Calgary Stampede, or a Rodeo Clown, but the ENTIRE EVENT (as depicted in a poster you saw once).

This morning you told us you had a dream about finding "flying clothes" with your friends from Daycare and that you went flying up in the sky. This seems to be a recurring dream of yours.

You still sleep with your Pooh Bear every night, but have occassionally gone to bed without him (in which case I try to sneak him under your arm in the night).

You have told me that you remember when I was a baby, that you wish you could be mommy's mommy, and you cried very hard yesterday when I admitted that infact you and I cannot get married.

You love to sing. You love to play with dollies and with Lego. You love to colour with big heavey markers that blanket the page. You are constantly climbing, whether me or the furnature or a play structure. You love animals and babies and baby animals. You'll eat just about anything most of the time. Even celery.

I am very very proud of you and the little person you are. I love to read with you and tell you stories about the Hero Girl and her polar bear. I love you very much.
-D

Monday Morning

2010-01-04T07:59:00.004-06:00

QUICK EDIT:
Day went great, people are kind and friendly. Lots of meetings and orientations, learned how to make the coffee.
-Dave

(Our camera is on the fritz! It takes pink/purple photos and adds an interesting streaking feature so they appear to be melting. We've found that if we do a B&W finish they are at least presentable.)

It's early on Monday morning. On Mondays we aren't usually up and ready by 8am, searching for public transit tickets in pockets and baskets. Right now I'm either lazing in bed, or snuggled with Corrina on the couch. But, today, Dave begins his new job at the Canadian Food Grains Bank.

I said I would join him for breakfast and coffee this morning, but I didn't make very good company in the end as I groggily sipped peppermint tea and munch raisin bran. He was chipper and alive, motivated by hope and nervousness. Soon he'll be biting his mitts off to show the transit driver transfers, deposit change.

This marks a large change in our lives as Dave will embark on a new career with some exciting challenges. His new position is the Youth Engagement Coordinator. His purpose will be to expose young people (undefined) to the work of the Food Grains Bank, and create opportunities for people to make changes in their own life and faith in accordance with it's mission: A Christian Response to Global Hunger. His first major project is to join a team of staff and volunteers on an awareness trip to Indian and Bangladesh in 4 weeks! In the future he will be a part of the planning team for annual international awareness tours (similar to a missions trip however the participants are there to learn how the work of the food grains assisted people and communities with sustainable food sources). Dave hopes to gain a better understanding of the day in day out tasks this week as well he is still learning the about the various work the CFGB does in full. I'm sure he will have much more to say about it in 8 hours.

My day: normal. Speech therapy with Corrina, head to the library, fold laundry, play games and toys, head to the gym later. I think our weather is warming up a bit. We had many plans for outdoor excursions this weekend but were stopped head on by severe wind chill warnings. I generally don't take those as a challenge especially when there are children involved! If the balmy -18 with no wind holds we may do the playground today!

Well, here's hoping Dave didn't miss his bus! And a little video to end things off!

All is Calm, All is Bright

2009-12-28T08:48:00.005-06:00

Merry Christmas!
And a Happy New Year!

Graham Cracker Houses

2009-12-17T23:06:00.002-06:00

The other night our family got into the creative Christmas spirit! I hope to post more about everything later but here are a few pics I had to share!
-Dave

Advent

2009-11-18T20:49:00.002-06:00

We have no snow. Being from BC I was not aware how accustomed I'd grown to preparing for Christmas with snow. I always brag about the wonderful warm winters I grew up with. But now I'm bewildered by the green all around. The family traditions don't feel the same. I have no cue for what to do next. I really don't mind heading out to the car each day without scrapper in hand, but I really want to decorate now and it just doesn't feel the same without all the glittery snow blanketing my world.

That being said, I've at least been thinking about the upcoming celebration of advent. I've decided that we will do some advent focused activities as a family. We would like to prepare ourselves for the gift giving portion of Christmas before December so that our focus can be on learning, hearing, seeing, and feeling all the advent brings.

I found this neat page and may take some ideas from it.

I also watch this space for inspiration.

And this page always has appropriate children's lessons and activities.

What are you doing to bring the birth of Jesus in?

Wild Thing and Max

2009-11-04T18:13:00.006-06:00

First I think Corrina wanted to be a Halloween Fairy. Next she wanted to be tinkerbell, and in the end she wanted to be Max, from Where the Wild Things are, with much celebration and approval from Mom and Dad!
Dave was her wild thing and the little walk around the neighborhood was very fun!

Presenting:

And a video too,

It was time

2009-10-15T10:16:00.006-05:00

About two weeks ago:
Pretty long curls, bouncing down Corrina's back, sometimes tied up in tails, or braided to perfection!

Long battles in the bath to wash dirt from these pretty curls. Longer fights to brush out the tangles and encourage the bounce! Running out of creative ways to convince Corrina to let me brush and do her hair every day.
Cochlear implants stuck in wild jungle-like tangles, being ripped free from implant eating vines of curls....
It was time!With help from a friendly neighbor...

And a very patient Corrina...
Who sat very well, being only a little silly...

She is now sporting a very cute, fuss free, SHORT cut!We love the short cut! It has improved our parent-child relationship by at least 10%! Although, we do miss the amazing curls. I hope they grow back in when her hair gets longer again.

A Canadian Family Thanksgiving

2009-10-09T20:34:00.003-05:00

Here I sit to write a little bit about our Thanksgiving weekend to come, and my fingers are cold from the SNOW! It started at about 1:30 today. I watched it fall through my office window, high above the city. It was pretty! Than I had to drive in it. It was busy! Than I got to play in it. It was refreshing! But, it's always confusing to play in snow before we've carved our Halloween pumpkins. It makes me want to go around saying "Merry Thanksgiving!"

We are going to have a family (of 3) thanksgiving feast tomorrow night.
On our Menu:
Roasted Vegetables: turnips, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, and a little red wine vinegar.
Sauted cabbage and apples.
Seasoned roasted chicken.
And a new homemade Pumpkin Pie Recipe

Tomorrow we will spend some time doing activities to get ready for our humble feast for 3. I want to spread a sheet of linen out and decorate a new table cloth using stamps and fabric paints.
We are going to make pumpkins and leaves from baking clay/dough to paint and use as ornaments.
And hand print turkeys! What is thanksgiving without hand print turkeys.
Tonight Dave and Corrina made this paper lantern. It's just a piece of orange computer paper with holes punched out, wrapped around a glass candle holder!

And as for thankfulness, we are thankful to have a peaceful country to live in, to have employment that feels meaningful to us, to have family near and far, to have a warm, safe place to call home, to have food at our fingertips, to have thoughtfulness and humor, to be given grace and unconditional love, and to have the opportunity to share all this with those around us, daily.

Weekend Passed

2009-09-23T12:50:00.004-05:00

This Monday marked the passing of another year for me. Our camera is broken so I don't have any pictures to show the fun. But, fun there was!
We has sushi and cake with tons of friends and I heard one of the most beautiful renditions of Happy Birthday in my life. We have a number of friends who sing/sang in professional choirs such that they have the ability to take the mundane birthday song and pump it out in a manner that transplants me from my living room in Winnipeg to a fabulous auditorium, in France, where I am privy to a choral experience tailored for one!
I made them sing it twice, too. Once in the restaurant at their choosing, just to ensure public embarassment (but how could I be embarrased by such a harmonious sound!), and once at home for cake so that Corrina could have the full Mommy's-birthday experience! I marvelled at watching her sing along with them, swaying back and forth, locking eyes with me in joy! She, as a friend put it, has the ability to enjoy other people's happiness perhaps even more than she enjoys her own. At three, she has a truly empathic heart.
She caught me singing along at one point and said "no mommy, you don't sing!"

Dave gave me tickets to see Moulin Rouge performed by the Winnipeg Ballet for my present! I've been to the ballet once, courtesy of Dave. I am thrilled to have a second opportunity to experience the art of dance and music.

With the passing of my birthday often comes cooler weather. Growing up in BC I am familiar with blowing out the candles in the rain! Monday, my actual birthday, was a chilly day following a 25 degree Sunday, but I was okay with that because my favorite season remains Autumn.

I always find that I am much more inspired to do fall cleaning than spring cleaning because I get into a mood to nest for the winter. So, because it's been floating around my mind all week long, here is my list of autumn nesting activities that I hope to get to in at least the next month (these may be really boring for some, and interesting for others, but I just have to get them out of my head):

- relocate shelf from kitchen into dinning room for "family hobby activities"
- Raid freezer for frozen soup stuff from the summer and make soups on weekends (huck stuff over a year old, at least! Sadly I might not have much souping stuff left if I follow this rule!)
- Summer items down to basement/ Winter items up (in rubber maid bins)
- Buy more rubbermaid bins! Tackle the stinky basement so I don't put off doing laundry all winter long and spend the rest of my saturdays catching up!
- Switch toys from basement to play shelf and vise versa
- More hooks in entryway
- Hang closet cubby organizer or Frog in entry way for mitts/hats, etc... (i'm done with baskets. Too deep, too messy)

-Put Duffy on a diet (he's a cat)

-Hang photos EVERYWHERE!

- Windows: clean, cover in plastic, cover in plastic again

-shove vacum cleaner down ducts and turn on until I hear horrible clunking sounds coming from house or vacum.

-learn to spell vacuum

-find the shiny, metallic tape and double tape holes in ducts

- drape tarp over hole in roof, especially over Corrina's room

- buy slippers recommended by co-worker from MEC

-make/find more rugs that will inevitably become filled with kitty hair and thus maintain their softness all year round

- finally replace my one and only pair of runner/casual shoes/sneakers that are older than Corrina (now that I'm a professional!) consider the shoes of others in the household for replacement as well

- go un-shopping (return all the crap I bought, got home, and freaked out about over BPAs, and synthetic crap fabrics, made by children for children clothing. I'm not sure if this will induce the opposite effect of retail therapy, or double the effect of retail therapy. It will be like I'm the corporation and they are paying me for stuff I know is crap but they want to pretend is good to have!)

- Make more monogrammed art, from Corrina's art and other pretty paper

- sew a table runner

- sew some pillow covers from vintage scarves

- Read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

- read and create crafts around any book by Pheobe Gilman (jillian...)

I hope that our camera kicks in for the many fall adventures we have coming up!

Summer Holidays

2009-09-07T19:20:00.006-05:00

We had an amazing summer vacation in British Columbia with our families! We visited with Grandma Judy and Martin on the farm, eating tons of fresh fruit and vegetables all day long! We fed apples to cows, ate figs, splashed in the pool (bathing suit photos not included!), had tractor rides, and played with the cricket doll from my childhood!

What's better than having one great grandparent to visit in BC? Having TWO set of grandparents to visit! Dave's parent's just moved out to good ol' BC and now the grandparents live 5 minutes away from each other. It was phenomenal to visit one place and see everyone we love. We stayed with Chris and Mary in their new place and moved between the two grandparent houses daily!
Our vacation was complete with river walks, late nights, fancy cookie making with Claire, Vancouver visits, games, swimming at lakes, mini golf, walks down memory lane with old friends, delicious meals, family bbq's, hanging out with good friends, and of course an ikea trip!
I often feel that September presents as more of a New Year than January. At home we are finally seeing sunny summer days bringing with them extended family fun times. This New Fall I am working with families at a great agency, Dave is heading up some exciting projects at our church, and Corrina has had a growth spurt. Well, at least I've deduced that she must have had a growth spurt because everyone we see says "wow, she's grown tallllleerrr..." Yup, kids do that, especially ones with tall parents! Anyway, Corrina told me her perspective on this after dinner today:
"Mom, when I was a baby you put baby food in my mouth and it made me grow very tall into a big girl!" And as she was going to bed last night: "Mommy, my tummy has a little bit of room left and I need to fill it a little bit more so the food can make me grow tall so I can be 5 and 18 and go to school!" Mommy: "going to sleep helps with that too!"
I think that our fall will hold a lot of growing like weeds for all of us in a way! Now that we are home and settled I hope to keep posting/keep you posted on the things we are doing.

2009-07-26T09:37:00.002-05:00

I've written a lot of blog posts about being done school for a semester, being done school for a week, being done a course, being done a paper, or being done for a 5 minute break. I've never written a post about being done my degree! Being done school! Period!

On Friday I handed in my final project for my degree, a huge portfolio reflecting the various learning experiences that have contributed to the successful completion of my degree. The experience was almost symbolic for me, as I went through all the courses and papers I've written, placing them all together, into a HUGE binder. Handing it in was like releasing the weight of school while keeping all the good stuff, the knowledge and skills. Its great to be here, to be a social worker.

I have a term position lined up to start in August. The finality of school hasn't really sunk it yet, but I think that when my first week of work is over and I don't have to sit and write an assignment about it that it will hit me!

Congratulations to me!

Zoom Zoom Zoom

2009-07-06T20:10:00.002-05:00

Our year with Kristiana has just ended and I feel sad. We certainly grew close during our time together, and we were honored to have her live with us during her year as an International Volunteer Exchange Program person. We just took her to the airport this morning, so my feelings of sadness, loneliness and loss are fresh and strong. Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all. She was a blessing in our home and we hope to always remember our time with her sharing life!
This is a picture of all of us sharing a banana pankcake meal that Kris prepared. She really wanted to be able to make pancakes for her family so we did some hands on practicing so she could learn! I think we have sent her home as a true Canadian, equipped with a pancake recipe and a bottle of maple syrup!

In order to go out with a bang, we crammed in as many fun activities as we could handle this weekend. Bike rides, Mint tours (coin making mint-ing that is!), food food food, visits, movies, walks, music, games, and chit chats.
On Saturday we went mini golfing, and I think that Corrina had the best experiencing of her life! But, it wasn't with mini golf. She hated that, and mooped the WHOLE way. I had to bribe her to motivate her to play the last 2 holes by rewarding her with a ride on the Kiddie Karts!

She's orange! THE BEST TIME OF HER LIFE.
It took her a few mintues to get out of the "pit" with the other boys (yup, the only girl! We are so proud), but once she got going she was a true driver! She raced around the track like a pro, cutting off people, doing a few t bones, and making nice tight corners on the inside track!
It was so thrilling for us to watch her do something completely independant of us; we truly felt the difference between having a baby and having a child!
For the most part she figured it all out on her own. We said "push with your foot, and turn this way and that way" but she had to put the steps together to get where she wanted!

I think we just might fill the frequent riders card over the summer!
Here is the most recent family picture we have of us in our backyard, on our way out for Kris's birthday dinner. What this photo doesn't show is the huge Corrina meltdown that followed, inhibiting us from getting a picture with Kris!

Oh, and one last marvel for you Titanic fans: a giant inflatable titanic slide for free enjoyment on Canada day at the street festival! Hilarious eh? We climbed up the middle, and slid down the decks! Kris, a huge Titanic fan, was just thrilled. Corrina had a hoot too!

One more month, and counting, and I will be a social worker! Yippy!

Duffy, get off the table

2009-06-12T12:47:00.003-05:00

That's what gets said around here the most these days!

We are officially still waiting for something like summer, actually it would be safe to say we are waiting for something like spring. We've just had rain, and cold.

Here are some pictures of some things we've been doing.

We went to Kids fest, always a GREAT time! Unfortunately the weather was chilly so the day was a little bit challenging to enjoy. Here Corrina is getting Wings to fly. She told us "I will fly way up in the sky and mommy and daddy will wave BYE Corrina." The actions were adorable. She was pretty sure these wings would carry her far far away!

We have a beautiful nature conservatory type thing just outside the city with floating docks and a critter dipper swamp. we scooped up so many amazing little water bugs, and got to say hello to geese. I think we caught the geese in a little marital spat. Wow, I'm glad dave and I don't have pointy beaks and huge wings to use against each other when we fight!

From this photo you can see we've been to Holland to visit the tulips. That's a big fib.

Here's a recipe I made earlier this week. The whole family loved it. I may stop making spaghetti sauce with ground beef, it was THAT good!
From: Martha Stewart Wholeliving. Here's the link if you want more.

Ingredients

Serves 8

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped carrots
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups lentils, rinsed
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes in puree
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2/3 cup low-fat plain yogurt
1 1/2 pounds spaghetti or linguine
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Directions

In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, and garlic; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add lentils and thyme; cook, stirring, until lentils are coated, about 2 minutes.
Break up tomatoes using your hands or a spoon and then add along with puree. Add 4 cups water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover tightly, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until lentils are tender and starting to break down, about 45 minutes. Season generously with salt and pepper. Remove from heat. If eating right away, stir in yogurt.
Meanwhile, in a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta until al dente according to package instructions; drain. Toss with sauce and top with grated Parmesan if desired.

A month of photos

2009-05-01T23:48:00.008-05:00

I just uploaded pictures from the past month and in looking over them I am at a loss as to where to start with this post. The questions going through my mind include: which photo is the cutest; which photo has the best story; which story has the best photo; which story/photo will people actually be thankful they took the time to read?????
Some times these blog posts are hard. You know?

So, first of all, apologies for the sporadic blogging, and lack of comments on other blogs we read. I fear this is how summer will be for our online communication with friends, family, and unknown blog stalkers. Our new schedule for the "summer" (spring has hardly arrived in MB, how can we be thinking about summer!) has begun, so our time and priorities are changing for the season.

I fear we may return to the weekly/bi-weekly blog post routine out of hope for sanity within our household. I love blogging, sharing life, and indulging in a methodical read of every blog that looks like it has a possibility of having something even remotely interesting on it (the list gets long!), but I have declared a read-once-a-week fast for most blogs I enjoy for this seasons of life. So, we are still here, we are still enjoying your write-ups, and we hope you enjoy ours, just a little less (not that we've been good at these the last month anyway).

So, why not end with a bang!

The Soother Fairy visited a particular little 3 year old who was needing some incentive to learn to sleep without relying on a sucking. In exchange for all her soothers, which the fairy promised to deliver to special little baby's the world over, Corrina received a brand new big girl gift: a bike helmet!
Corrina excitedly collected all her soothers and proceeded outside to leave the bag for the fairy who would "fly down from the sky and TAKE all my soothers to all the BABIES" (talking in such long sentences). Of course, when we got through our bedtime routine and hit the "I want pooh bear and soother" part Corrina had the experience of a brand new emotion, which I kindly named for her: regret! We got through the bedtimes and nights though, and after 3 nights of doing our best to respond to her with care, comfort, and sensitivity we have a little girl who finally falls asleep on her own with no sucking! Another sentence Corrina can be heard saying from time to time: "Mommy says sometimes big girls can ride bike in the house." Oh, its so cool to have a little parrot around, and so not cool too!

The soother fairy may or may not appear as the child pictured below:
Dave's latest craft with Corrina is to reuse by decorating all the 3-d glasses from movies he's collected into fashionable play pieces! (Wow, this sentence is completely grammatically incorrect. That must be killing all you editor type folk out there!)

We are really enjoying all the thoughts Corrina has been sharing with us lately. Her personality is just lovely, and it comes out in so many ways:

Here we have a glimpse of her fashion sense: sun glasses, pumpkin dress, mittens for a 3 month old baby! I think we need to talk about dressing for the season 'round here!

Corrina had an 'owie' on the inside of her lip, so, of course, this only makes sense:

I am having a hoot playing with her hair these days.

And me and Dave did some building together, and have almost finished a certain project! More photos to come when all is done and decorated!

Spicy Sweet-Potato Fries!

2009-04-10T21:36:00.004-05:00

By popular demand, here is the recipe for our famous and delicious
Spicy Sweet-Potato Fries:

Preheat oven to 450
Place 1 Large Sweet Potato, peeled and cut into shoe-strings (1/4" strips)
in a Large Ziplock Bag.
Add:
Some Olive Oil
Lots of Salt and Pepper
Lots of Chili Powder
Some Cumin
Lots of Red Pepper Flakes
Lots of Tabasco/Hot Sauce
Some Sriracha HOT Chili Sauce (found in our "foreign foods" section)

Seal bag, shake 'til evenly coated.
Spread evenly on a baking sheet.
Cook for 10 minutes, stir/flip, then for an additional 10 minutes (or until warm and soft all the way through).

Janie calls them "Fire fries," but I think they could be hotter. Found a way to improve my recipe? Let me know!
-DAve

Try Chai with policy

2009-04-08T09:31:00.004-05:00

I am writing my last paper for Social Policy in North America. Challenging, life changing. I wrote a little reflection here, but cut it away because I changed my mind about posting it for today.

Instead wanted to share with you a little beverage that is pulling me through my paper writing morning: Homemade Chai Tea (yeah, I know, so 2000... the fad has come and gone, but I'm right there again)Chai Tea (from better homes and gardens)
1 black tea bag
1 3-inch piece of cinnamon stick
2 cups milk
2 Tbsp raw sug or honey
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp ground ginger (i used about 1 tsp chopped fresh ginger)
1/8 tsp ground cardamom (i used 3 pods)

In a small saucepan combine tea bag, cinnamon stick and 1/2 cup water. Bring to boil. Remove from heat. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes. Remove and discard tea bag. Add and stir together all other ingrediants. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture is heated through (do not boil).
That's the original recipe. I actually added my fresh ginger and cardamom in the beginning, and left them in till the end. I brought mine to a boil with everything and then let it simmer for a minute. I wanted lots of kick!

Corrina was doing some lovely posing for me this weekend. (Notice the hair clips Claire, and the shirt Rachel! Thanks!)
And then in came dad, and out came the tongue!
Corrina went to a really neat birthday party this weekend and had her face painted like a princess! This was her request!
Cute and disturbing all at the same time.
I have planned my vegetable and cutting garden for the summer. Photos to come.

A time to Breathe

2009-04-06T09:22:00.002-05:00

Janie here. I've had a weekend to breathe. I have one more paper coming due, and one exam to prep for, but I decided I needed at least ONE day where I did not do any school work. I try to carve in at least 1 hour a min a day, and I usually end up being so busy that it gets pushed to the late hours, leaving me constantly warn out and tired. I thought having one day where my mind was free from constantly trying to fit in a study time would be refreshing. It was!

We had a great weekend, and I have some photos to share later. But, for now, off to get morning chores and errands done, hopefully followed by an afternoon stroll in the park, with a snow suit on!

Good days to all!

Humpty Dumpty

2009-03-30T21:40:00.002-05:00

These days Humpty Dumpty is a regular feature in the house. But what do you do when you don't have any King's Men figures to come to the rescue? When you're Dave, you improvise. How many can you recognize?

One Proud media-saturated Daddy

2009-03-22T22:25:00.005-05:00

The other night Corrina reached a major milestone, and I couldn't be more proud. The three of us were sitting around in the living room, doing nothing in particular and getting kinda silly. I turned to Janie and for no particular reason said "I've got a FEVER...and the only prescription...is more COWBELL!"

And Janie said "More Cowbell!"

And, not wanting to be left out, and obviously recognizing the comedic perfection, Corrina chimed in, "More Cowbell!"

"More Cowbell! " said I.
"MORE COWBELL!! yelled Corrina, no doubt delighted with simplicity of the humor and the joyful ease of repetition.

Chants of More Cowbell echoed gloriously throughout our home until we all fell apart in a fit of giggles.

So here's one for the books: Corrina's first Saturday Night Live reference! I'm so proud!

changed again

2009-03-20T11:24:00.003-05:00

This is so silly, this changing blog process. So, i like the title and idea, but just couldn't do the darker colors. I liked the blue and tried to lighten it up, but as it was a template I couldn't change the background color for the life of me... so I am going greenish for awhile until I see something I like more I suppose. But, I think I can tweak this one here and there, and then I will be happy.

Here is a green post that I am loving.

Things I am loving

2009-03-15T08:37:00.002-05:00

Sun streaming onto clean dishes.
Home made yogurt and new thrifted dishes
Sweet Potato fries (but, season with olive oil and spices or Italian dressing and Parmesan cheese, bake in 450 oven for 20 minutues)
The different activities happening on our counter top!
Corrina's Bento Breakfast!

Jazzed

2009-03-10T23:00:00.002-05:00

Lately I have been spending alot of my 'internet time' browsing here. I think the spring cleaning bug is coming on for me, although we are months away from spring still. I can't help but want things to look organized and tidy. And of course, I have three papers due quite soon, so nothing does look neat and tidy. That an a strange compulsion to buy plants, all the time, whenever I see them.

So when my mind needs a break I head over that place I linked up above, and today I found there that I swear I have always known existed, but could never find... just like those tribe people you hear about from Wycliff translator stories, where they go to a remote tribe and find people worshipping a God of some sort and when they translate enough words to tell the people about english the people say "that's who we've been worshipping".
JUST LIKE THAT!

So, Dave is going to make me this, and this, in a row, in our kitchen, to perfectly fit our space! I have the plans hung on my shabby little bulliten board beside me. They are written on hot pink paper...pretty.... oh, the times they will be a changing!

Do you have the Spring cleaning bug, or stuff that gets rid of bugs and makes things clean instead?

Amazing find

2009-03-02T22:04:00.002-06:00

We hit the thrift store today after speech therapy to see if we could find some jungle animals to continue to expand Corrina's vocab in the games we play.
Of course, I had to look through the housewares section, and I found THESE amazing, beautiful cups & sauces! Follow the link, I don't have a picture yet.
I instantly thought "Scandinavian" even before I flipped the bottom up to see what the pattern was called. Nordic. Perfect! I love them, I want them, but am I being silly? I bothered Dave, who was digging through giant tubs of mcdonald toys and figurines looking for giraffes and tigers, and I think he got sick of hearing me say "should I? Am I being silly? I already have a dishes... they are pretty, but are they pretty enough for $13.00 for 16 pieces?" I decided that I would regret not buying them, and would probably bother Dave more talking about how I wish I had brought them home.
So, I bought them.
Tonight when I went online to see what the other dishes look like, I saw a more accurate price: one cup and saucer ranges anywhere from $10-35!
Thank Sally Anne!

Perfect days

2009-02-22T15:00:00.007-06:00

Perfection is subjective, but for us, at this time in the year, I think we had just about the perfect weekend. But, there are two funny things with this: one, we didn't do anything out of the ordinary, but the time just felt perfect. Two, Dave was gone for the whole weekend. I feel so bad saying that, and it certainly was not part of the perfection of the time. It would have been better if he were here, none the less, we had a great weekend! Please don't judge me...

Corrina and I hit our children's museum on Friday morning. We decided to buy a membership pass because they are very well priced. I think we have payed it off already with the 3 or 4 times we've been. At this age Corrina just doesn't get bored with it. In fact, she get's more excited about it every time we go. Love that!

I think the most perfect thing was making it through the grocery store without any fits or run aways. Corrina is the type of gal who just loves a good chase. It's just thrilling to her, and once she gets going she is the hardest little thing to catch because she's pretty sure it's a game, right down to the very upset momma assuring her that I do not feel the same way. But, this did not happen on our last shopping trip, and I still can't believe it. After helping me bag all the produce, she walked along, holding the side of the cart for the rest of the grocery trip. I'm sure she was sick of hearing me say "Corrina, it's good that you are holding the cart while we shop! I feel happy when you hold on and stay close." (They say praise the good behaviour you want to see more than the bad you don't want. She doesn't like this change, it's just not as thrilling at the troubmle attention, which means it works!) Anyway, I am defining moments like that as making my weekend perfect!

On Saturday night we had our little friend and his family over for an impromptu birthday dinner for him, and my gosh was it delicious. I made my own ricotta cheese for a roasted vegtable lasagne. We followed this up with the most amazing carrot cake I've ever had, topped with whipped cream-cream cheese frosting. The cake recipe came from my looney spoons cook books, which if you haven't checked out (ie. read, or checked-out from the library, either one) after hearing me rant about them for at least 3 posts, than I don't know what to say to you. Maybe I'm doing a bad job at convincing you... you tell me! Anyway, lovely super, lovely cake, and here are a few recipes.

Ricotta Cheese
2L Milk (whole, 2 %, I used 1%)
1 cup heavey cream (whipping cream, 35%)
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp lemon juice
Mix together first three ingredients in sauce pot over moderate heat until this comes to a rolling boil. Stir occasionally to prevent scorching. This can take a long time if you're bringing it up to a boil slowly. Be patient, it will pay off. Once boiling, add lemon juice. Reduce heat to low, and stir for 2-5 minutes, until the mixture has curdled. Line a sieve with cheese cloth, or thin, clean, tea towel, and place over a bowl to catch the drippings/whey/butter milk. Slowly pour all contents from pot into lined sieve, and allowed to strain until all liquid has dripped through. In the sieve you have your ricotta cheese, and in the bowl you have buttermilk. Ricotta cheese lasts for 2-3 days. Not sure about the holding time for the butter milk.

(I think we are eating yogurt on our valentines pancakes, so it relates!)

Hope you get a chance to try this out. I loved the results, plus the money saved (at least here in MB, ricotta cheese is ridiculously expensive). I am still meaning to make yogurt, (or here) but keep forgetting to buy a thermometer to get the temps right. I don't have a yogurt machine to keep things at a consistent temp, but I have read some different ideas about ways to incubate the yogurt. I have one friend who rigs up her crock pot in a funny way to create her own yogurt maker machine. Might try that, or this. Yogurt making, and maybe ricotta cheese making too, seem like the easiest homemade things to do in the WORLD. If only I had a cow, I would be set! But then, it wouldn't be so easy, would it!? (I heard on the radio that someone has combined !? into it's own punctuation mark called the interrobang... what do you think? )

Dave gave me a beautiful, fragrant hyacinth earlier this week. It has fully blossomed and is such a lovely reminder that in certain places of the country many people are about to enjoy the new life of spring. We won't for a more months outside, but at least I can enjoy the colors and smells in my kitchen!

I think the weekend will end in perfect as well, when Dave returns home tonight (and I have to shove him off because I am working on my overdue homework!) At least he will be home.
Ha, gotta love life!

This May Work

2009-02-19T22:36:00.004-06:00

I thought Dave would like this template, and then as I starred at it I began to like it too. Very different than what I set out looking for.

The title: It's weird to change a blog title. It's the name by which everyone recognizes us online. But, here's the deal. I heard the phrase "hello star shine, the earth says hello" in the Willy Wonka Movie with Johnny Depp, and thought it was hilarious. I did not know it was part of a song (that I don't really like at all). I think there was sorta a second title to our blog as well, or maybe it was the first and the above was the second. Whatever it was, Growing Like the Lilies, was neat, but I am a creature of change, so I thought I would take advantage of the overall change to throw a new title out there too. Hope I don't mess any of you up too much, trying to change your links and such. We are still here, just with a different name (until I get restless again!). My link list is totally suffering from this change too, so if you don't see your blog listed, and feel a little hurt by this, please know that I am adding more blogs and have not intentionally taken you off the blogroll.

The title may sound intergalactic, but I assure you, it's not. It's actually literary. It's the name of my favorite book when I was 12. Wow, its strange to look that far back in life and realize how impacted I was, at such a young age, by this piece of literature. I think the book really awakened, or maybe spurred and encouraged, my interest in truly learning to know people for who they are. If you have an evening (because seriously, as an adult, that is all it will take you to read this book) give it a shot. It's cute, insightful, hilarious, and a little sad. It might take you back to a certain age of identity development too, when some of your very own values began to surface.

The poem I've stuck up under the title also comes from that same year in life. My grade 7 teacher asked us to memorize a few pieces of literature. I was the only person in the class who did. I've always had a knack for memorizing poems. This is it, and to this day I cannot express my gratitude for the experience of knowing this poem.

I think, for me, the collaboration of the book and this poem encompass some of my deepest values in life: to know, and be known, non-judgmentally, gently. This is how I approach most things I do: work, marriage, parenting, friendships, sustainable living. If you can name it, I am probably trying to get inside of it, to see what it's like to walk two moons in another mans moccasins. If I can do this, than I believe change and hope are boundless.

What Happened

2009-02-18T11:15:00.004-06:00

My pretty, self created, learned-html-just-to-do-it, template is gone now, and dots are in it's spot. I loved my old template, but it was in the old blogger style and I really wanted to update to the new style that has fun widgets, rotating blog lists, and just way more options. So, it had to go for the time being. For now, until I can get something else happening on here, all my side bars are gone. Looks pretty boring in this space! But, something fun is coming, I hope!
I spent way too much precious time trying to upload a new template, but I kept getting error messages. So, by the time I went to bed my blog template was still not up and running, my dishwasher was not emptied, my laundry was not put away, and my homework was not done. Oh, to have endless time to watse without consequence. But, then, if had nothing else pressing to do the act of wasting time just wouldn't be enjoyable. I really only enjoy time spent procrastinating. Anyone else out there like this? Where can I get help!?

Last night Dave had a friend over to play a game. It was fabulous, and I think we really ought to make more time for him to play games with friends. This may sound altruistic of me, thinking of my husbands needs for social interaction and friendship, but I will reveal that my motives are actually selfish. Dave was sleeping on the couch, the house was a mess, and his friend was coming over in 2 hours. I decided that I would let him sleep (headache) and take Corrina out to the thrift store with me. I wondered what might happen while I was away... but said nothing as we left.
When we came home the house was clean, laundry put in it's proper place (ie down by the machine or upstairs in the bedroom, as opposed to the middle of the living room floor), dishes cleaned up, toys picked up, pretty lights alit, and Dave waiting calmly on the couch with time to spare! Yes DAve, I see many more game nights in your future!

2009-02-11T10:50:00.003-06:00

I'm pretty sure that Corrina believes she runs an orphanage most days. Like many little people, girls and boys alike, Corrina loves to play with other children, alive or plastic. Her favorite thing is to put them to sleep. She lines them up, pats their backs, sings songs, reads book, and then gets comfortable and sits to make sure they stay asleep. Dave got caught up in the fun this one afternoon, and like any good little baby he had a nice long nap while Corrina and I moved onto more important things like hanging pictures and making music. Who says only deaf babies sleep through loud noises!
We have made it out ice skating on the world's longest river trail only once this year. Corrina did very well on her skates, and managed to hold her own weight most of the time. She tried gliding on her own, which of course looked more like a walk-shuffle-fall, but she tried it on her own!

We have officially declared Monday to be Soup Day at our house. We have so many things going on that day, with different people coming and going at different times thus needing to eat at different times. I was tired of trying to squeeze in a super time, so we just decided on take-it-when-you-need-it soup. We have tried tons of fantastic soup recipes, mostly from this book (so I don't think I can write them out here, copy right laws and all). This just might be the best change we have made this winter. I want more soup nights! Easy to prepare, nutritious, mostly light on the budget, and comfortingly warm.
Just last night I made a Roasted sweet potatoe with ginger and orange soup. We made sour cream heart designs in the thick, flavorful puree.
I think my favorite so far has been a soup called Thai One On. It has lots of vegtables, including sweet potatoes (did you know the Canadian food guide recommends eating at least one serving of an orange vegtable and one of a dark green every day. That's hard to do some days, but not with soup!) red peppers, celery, coconut milk, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, some pureed, some left chunky. To finish it off you add shrimp! Wow, this is the most delicious (and one of the more costly) soups we've made! If you have the Eat, Shrink, and be Merry cookbook, you'll find this recipe there. If you are just dying to know how to make this, leave me a comment and I can email you the recipe.
So, if you are making soup, you most definately need to have some sort of warm bread to accompany it. Sometimes we make our own Tortilla dippers by cutting up flat bread, brushing it with a mixture of 1tbsp olive oil, 1tbsp butter mixed with garlic and herbs, and baking the pieces at 350 for 10 minutes. Amazing! Other times we just grab buns from our local organic bakery. And of course, when time allows, we mix up our own home made biscuits.
But, you see, I've always struggled with biscuits. I either don't like them because they are all white flour, have too much butter and fat, come out tasting like baking powder, are just a little too crunchy, or are perfect and soft on the outside, but soggy in the middle. Wow, it must sound like I am an awful buscuit maker! Some days I am, most days it's just the refined aspects of buscuits that gets me down. But, turning again to our faithful friends Janet and Greta, Corrina and I wiped up what will now be the go-to buscuit recipe in our home. This one I will share...with full credits to Crazy Plates cookbook.
Takin' Care of Biscuits (melt in your mouth whole wheat and cheddar biscuits)
Preheat oven to 425
Gather all children who enjoy dumping, stirring, rolling, cutting and making a mess

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Mix this together in a large bowl
Stir in 1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese (i used parmesan because we were out of cheddar)

Using a pastry cutter, or your fingers:
cut in 3 tbsp butter of margarine

Next combine:
1 cup buttermilk (to make mix 1 tbsp lemon juice and fill remaining space in measuring cup up to the 1 cup mark with milk)
1 tsp honey

Add this to dry ingredients. Using a fork stir to form a soft dough. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface, form into a ball, and roll out to 3/4 inch. Cut into circle (or hearts!). Place onto sprayed cookie sheet. bake for 10-12 minutes or until biscuits have puffed up and are golden.
These biscuits turn out very soft and moist, almost like a freshly made bun, while at the same time retaining the ease and size of a biscuit!

A New direction

2009-02-04T09:33:00.002-06:00

I have often wanted to take this blog in a new direction lately. As many of you know I am in school, studying social work. I have decided not to be at home full time with Corrina right now. I do feel that this is what God has called me to do with life right now, but the sacrifice is challenging, even painful some days. I am thankful that I still have the majority of the week in and around the house, but even those days are filled with attempts to read, study and write. You know how school is, you can never consciously escape the work lingering in your mind. This is the most challenging balancing act I have ever attempted, but I like it. It is building character, knowledge, patience, and respect.

I have been doing a wonderful practicum at a local agency that focuses on supporting families in a number of ways. Through my practicum experience I have been exposed to/ taught some of the most wonderful parenting/living theories I have ever encountered. They just fit, they make sense with every child development and growth idea, and take a holistic approach to relationship development. I've been given the opportunity to attend fascinating workshops and seminars, and in general have had a new look at the social and political world around me. It's hard to contain the new information I have learned as just 'school', 'training' or 'career related' because the majority of it has to do with the struggles of parenting, living in within a minimal means, and coping with life while taking steps to change ones situation. All of these things apply to my family! The ideas move from being theories to becoming personal experiences of life.

I have been contemplating incorporating some of the perspectives, ideas, and theories that have impacted me at a personal level through the work I do into my blog posts. I wonder if anyone would read it, how it might be perceived, if I could really explain the depths of ideas in my mind, or if I would be snagged for plagiarism (oh, don't worry I know how to properly cite other authors works, however when you've just finished a 25 page paper the last thing you want to do it make another proper reference!).

I really don't have very many 'mothering' stories to share, play dates to post about, or beautiful house pictures to post these days. I still love all those parts of life but for me they are not a part of life right now, and that is just fine! That's just not where I am these days. (Although I do realize that a Corrina speech update might be appreciated by far away family... that will be coming! )

So, I've been thinking of going in a new direction. At this point I will just keep thinking and see what develops.

A staple, but not a staple, a granola

2009-01-28T22:41:00.003-06:00

So, I have been making a great granola recipe for about a month now and keep meaning to share it, but haven't had a moment. I don't actually have a moment right now, I am at that point in the semester where every minute counts, and every minute not used reading, or thinking, or thinking about reading is wasted.

But my eyes are ready to fall out of my head and roll around the floor, if that conveys that I am tired. My typing babbling will convey that I am tired if my really horrible description of my eyes doesn't.

Here is the fat free granola recipe I found. I was over the top excited because I hate all the oil in granola. I just won't do it. But we love granola, dave, Corrina and I, so I had to find something.

The recipe is from here, but I will type it out again, and add my thoughts. You should go to the other website because they have pictures, where as I am too tired to press the on button on the camera and take a picture of my fresh granola. I will now turn and look at it on your behalf, but that's all your getting tonight.

So, recipe:

450ml rolled oats (quick cooking, but not instant... as least quick cooking as you can find, maybe normal even.. they say quick cooking leaves a startchy taste when baked into granola, and I actualy found this to be true)

60 ml sun flower seeds (not deshelled from your mouth and than spat out)

120 ml sesame seeds

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

100 ml brown sugar (I use splenda brown sugar blend because, because I do...)

150ml of almond slivers

100 ml hazelnuts chopped (I just add more almonds)

1 tsp salt

*option: I add about 1/4-1/2 c. of wheat germ

*mix all that in a bowl! Yippy*

Now mix this in another bowl, or if you're a cheater like me just mix it all together in your glass pyrex cup

175 ml apple sauce

120 ml corn syrup (I hate that this is in here, and usualy try to take some out. Seems to work fine with a little less, maybe 100 ml instead. Any ideas for alternatives?)

4 Tbsp runny honey (I didn't have any tonight and the batch came out great, so skip this is you are cutting our excess sugar.. or keep this in and take out more corn syrup)

*mix all this into the dry, plop it on a baking sheet, nice and flat. You can even squish it a little with your spatula. Kinda fun.

Now bake it in a 350 oven, for 30-40 minutes, stirring every ten minutes. Make sure you work the edge bits into the middle, so they don't get scorched.

For me this is enough to fill only one cookie sheet, but if you fill two, or double the batch than switch the cookie sheets around with the stirring.

Watch the granola closely and when it starts to brown all over just leave it out of the oven. it may look a little wet still, but it gets very crunchy once it sits. So many lovely clusters too!

Once it's cooled, stir in about a cup of raisins, or crasins, whichever you like. Or you could do chopped dried apricots. I think I'll do that next week!

Seriously, I am never buying store bought again, or making any granola with oil in it. This stuff is amazing.

In other news, Dave is putting together a brand new bed frame we found at a thrift store. We had to do some piecing, but for the most part it looks great! I have never had a bed frame before. We've been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for a year, no box spring, no joke! The spring doesn't fit up our stairs. I can't wait to be up off the dang floor! I should go supervise now...

I am thinking about changing our blog template, but don't know where to find something neat to switch to. Any ideas?

Corrina's 3rd Birthday Party

2009-01-17T16:39:00.007-06:00

Happy Birthday Corrina!

I can't believe that you are three!

Today we celebrated Corrina's Third birthday with her first birthday party! Here are a few pictures and videos:
The cake recipe is from here, the icing is from the back of the bag, and the shapes are Starbursts rolled out and cut into shapes, which I learned about from here. Hmmm, I can taste it now! Delicious!

House Tour: Installment One

2008-12-29T00:15:00.010-06:00

Installment One: Corrina's Craft Corner

I have neglected to provide a real house tour since we moved into our place almost a year ago. I have always meant to, but felt that things were never really decorated and in place. Slowly we have been getting there, so here is a mini series I will be doing. It won't be a once a week guaranteed post. Rather, it will follow a schedule of rooms that are clean and I have time to photograph!

I am just so thrilled about this new space I created for Corrina so I thought I would start my tour with Corrina's Craft Corner

Here is a link note: You can also see this craft corner development here, at Flickr.

Otherwise, let the tour begin.

This is Corrina's new little craft corner/space! The table and chairs, as well as the white shelf are from Ikea . I've been hoping for a space like this for about 10 years, either for myself, or my child. I finally had the time and energy to put it together tonight, but it has taken a lot of forethought. I bought the white shelf about 2 years ago. We do not live near an ikea so our trips to ikea are very premeditated. I loved this shelf the minute I saw it in the catalog, picked it up when we were at the store, and stuck it in my basement until I had the perfect spot for it. Originally it was to be used for organizing deskish things by out computer, but as soon as our daughter became interested in crafting I instantly reallocated it's use to her space. It's perfect!

The "Corner"
I surprised myself when I found that we did not even have enough displayable craft items (that we wanted at Corrina's reach) to fill the shelves! I like it this way though.
Some orange juice containers covered in wrapping paper, are helping corral felt pens (markers, I am told), and glue sticks. The top shelf has some foam beads that we string and string again, and of course pencil crayons for those days when fat markers are just too cumbersome.

What better way to organize and ikea shelf than with Ikea plastic bins! There are little pads of paper slid in beside a tub of crayons and a tub of foam & Dora stickers. The tops shelf has an unopened christmas present and a christmas tag (aka I had nothing to put here).
Why the heck is there an unopened Christmas present still linger around? For Christmas I did a craft supplies stocking and this little parcel just got skipped over in the enamorement with glitter!
I love jars. Always have, always will. Corrina will also love them by the time I am done with her! Inside: googly eyes, star and circle sequins, a glitter shapes shaker, and of course buttons!
Above I've hidden some small things away in tins: pompoms, glitter containers, mini clothes pegs, and stick on jewels. There is also a little box of beads with elastic string and pipe cleaners, for those jewelry making days when Corrina just has to have a new necklace to go with her dress-up outfit.
The smallest jars I have ever seen came from an English hotel Grandma and Grandpa stayed at. These were the jams for the morning breakfast. I think Grandma shoved a few extra's in her pocket knowing we would all love them!
I love that in North America we get plastic jam packets, and in England they get real little glass jars. I think I'm moving!
I found child sized ripply/zig-zag/wavy/scalloped (whatever the decorative ones are called) scissors at the dollar store. Corrina can actually cut with them, whereas I can hardly shut my adult sized ones sometimes. Maybe I need some new ones...
Scissors are out of her reach here because I am all about prevention: prevention of hair cuts, random re upholstery, baby doll surgery, wall carvings, manicures, and purposeless cutting up of fun foam, the most likely to actually occur.
It's about prevention people.
I love how easy it was to use wrapping paper to glue around this recycled orange juice container. The paper was already curled up from living around a tube, so it naturally conformed!
Nothing new here really, just age old reuse and beautifying!

It's just so pretty I can't stop looking, although you're most likely thinking "I can!!" Tough Toast.

We use the space around shelf to hang up art from home, daycare, and other activities. You can't see it very well here, but the paper on the very right wall is a "seasons" mural Corrina and I paint together each season. It's a great way to teach Corrina some must-know vocabulary, show her letters and words, teach her things that go together, learn about weather, and inspire our other art projects. The list is endless really.

We painted this boring, white, press board shelf red when were first married. Actually, I was pregnant, and Dave was using tremclad because the lovely lady at the hardware store said that this would really be the only paint that would stick to a press board, melamine coated shelf. This was the worst painting experience ever. The priming sucked, the painting was awful and gooey, the clean up was horrific, and I had to stay out of the picture, in the bedroom, the entire time so as not to poison our unborn child with fumes.
This shelf started as my craft cupboard, transitioned into a pantry in our second apartment, and has regained it's original purpose of holding all things craft related.

Yes, I know, everything is red. I had a red organizing theme in our last place. This handy little basket hold alot of fun foam, some papers, and a few coloring books. Corrina is oblivious to it for the most part, until the scissors come out. She is a cutting maniac. This is not the best way to store this stuff, but it's working for now!
The craft corner exists within our dinning room. Such an odd little nook just needed to be filled with a place to create.
This is the little crafter herself. Of course, she is not crafting in this photo!

Or in this one.
Or in this one.
Or this one.
Like I could leave these adorable photos out!
This is how she feels about not crafting! Actually, this was her pulling a fake frown for the picture. The other similar picture of her above is the joy she experienced after pulling a fake frown!

Okay, here is a photo of the space in use.

Well, that is one little section of our house! Tour completed! I hope you are inspired, or at least in awe of me. Either is fine. Don't you think I should be included on this website? I do! Maybe they will discover me!

A Christmas of the Muppety Kind

2008-12-22T20:36:00.000-06:00

Hope you enjoy 'em! To be continued...

A snippet of so many different things

2008-12-15T22:40:00.004-06:00

Lots going on here! We've had a busy last few weeks, with paper writing (thank goodness it's over, for at least 2 more weeks), decorating for Christmas, attending events, and having good friends over. Corrina's language is continuing to develop at a rapid pace. She has most of her Christmas words down, and is able to share her imagination and daily thoughts with us using language now.
Here is a little conversation with Corrina:

Oh, FYI, the glasses are lens-less! Just for looks!

Today Dave got up with Corrina, leaving me to dream about selling my house (which I was very pleased to learn was just a dream when I woke up... often I get confused and it takes minute to return to reality and shake the emotions from the dreams. When I awoke it was to footsteps coming up the stairs. I turned to the clock, saw it was 9am, and thought "oh no, I'm in for a lecture about sleeping in too late..." and jumped out from under the covers. And then Dave began, but with words I did not expect AT ALL: "Get back in bed!" He practically barked it! Anyway, I can forgive him his yelling when the sight that follows is a tray of breakfast and Corrina carrying a little flower. This is the third breakfast in bed I have ever had. It was divine.

Speaking of bed, that is where I am heading again. Tomorrow I intend to begin my day with some major iron pumping at the gym, followed by some intense present selecting. I hope to get it ALL done tomorrow. You see, the truth is that I haven't begun at all. It has taken me a week to shed the stress of writing papers, but now that I have my creative mind back I can get down to giving (for, they say, it is, after all, better than receiving!)

Teeny weeny update

2008-12-01T00:01:00.002-06:00

We've not been up to anything profound recently.
Taking the time to put up a few Christmas decorations. I love white twinkle lights. They are everywhere in our house!
This is probably the most accurate image of what we've been up to. I have been trying to work on some huge papers, with little success, and Dave has been working hard to putting together a stunning Christmas Muppet Diorama. I can't wait to be finished for the semester, something that seems like it is never going to happen. Even more so, I can't wait to see what Dave is going to come up with this year. This would be a really great place to link to diorama's past, but I don't have that kind of energy right now.
We've been eating food, and looking cute.
And wearing adorable clothing (thanks mark and rachel, last year! Corrina is really into these right now, and often chooses them over other clothes!)

Here is the music I am most likely listening to while I try to focus on my paper

2008-11-24T00:26:00.001-06:00

** Disclaimer: I don't like the naughty word in the second song.**
Otherwise, enjoy

Winter is upon us

2008-11-07T15:35:00.005-06:00

The first snow of the season, in our first house, with our wonderful international volunteer exchange program (IVEPer) person experiencing snow for the very first time!

Kristianna (IVEPer) really wanted to eat snow! And she did. Corrina really wanted to copy her! We told her the rule about yellow snow, and brown snow, and any snow that has been at all touched by anything, human or animal or machine. She is just going to stick to eating fresh snow off of trees! She wants to make snow cones with juice and sugar. It is so neat to re-experience snow!

The other gal in the photos is another IVEPer also from Indonesia. Kris and her get along very well. We all played together. And the man in the picture below is not Dave, it is Hardy, the IVEP coordinator for MCC. He has children our age, but is a fun, goofy person!

Thanksgiving to Halloween

2008-11-02T22:30:00.005-06:00

I have photos!

And here are all my words to accompany them. We have a fabulous thanksgiving visit with Claire. Her photos are excellent, please do go look if you haven't already. I really wish we lived closer to our family. It is just wonderful to sit down for a cup of tea and conversation with people who have always just been there. It is comfortable.
Thank you Claire for treating us to your time and friendship, and for the gifts you brought, and the gifts you gave! We couldn't have asked for a better thanksgiving (well, maybe it would have been nice if Corrina was well so we could all sit at the table together... but otherwise!)

Corrina had a cold for about three weeks. I always suspect an ear infection after the first week or so, but I just hate all the antibiotics she has become immune to over the years (all 2.5 yrs!) so I try to wait as long as I can in hopes that it will clear up on its own. Never does... but now she is feeling better. Dave was also sick, and then I became sick. Of course, all these illnesses had to wait until a week before I had a paper due, and the worst for me had to hit the night before my paper was due! I am thankful that I have understanding professors who grant extensions. Unfortunately this means I have to write quality papers so they continue to see the worth in giving me extensions.

On to Halloween. It is rather interesting to explain Halloween to a person who has never celebrated it, but has heard all the bad things about it. Kris was more than willing to participate in the childish aspects of Halloween, like carving pumpkins, creating costumes, and of course enjoying the candy (way too much candy...)!

Corrina spent the day in this adorable pumpkin dress. One of the youth from church, whom this dress belonged to when she was 4, lent it to us for Corrina to enjoy. She went around the entire day saying "Pumpkin dress" excitedly. She has wanted to wear it every single day since Halloween. I had to tell her it was dirty so she would part with it for church today. It was partial truth!
With illness, and papers, and general stress and overload we just decided to dress Corrina as little red riding hood! She loved wearing her cap and carrying a little basket around!

When Corrina first received her implants it took her about three months to learn a new word. This was with multiple repetition and games. Of course so much time has passed since then, her hearing is more refined, and her cognitive ability for syllable, sound, and word recognition has developed overtime. At the beginning of the month we were amazed that she learned the word pumpkin within one week. So, we were blown away when within about 3 hours she learned the phrase (two words!) Trick or Treat! We talked about the phrase all day long, and we showed her that when she went to a house and said Trick or Treat, she would get Candy. She was very excited and did her best to emulate the sounds, but her attempts in the beginning sounded nothing like the phrase... however, with enough positive reinforcement (CANDY) she was announcing "Trick or Treat" loud and clear at each open of a door! While that is the amazing part, the bit that makes me feel oh so proud is the fact that she said thank-you to so many people without me even needing to prompt her!
So, while I don't really love the gory side of Halloween the actions sure to boost a little deaf girls opportunities for learning new words! We really do have to take every opportunity to teach her what we can!
Oh yes, a comment on the photo above: Dave carved an excellent Tiki Pumpkin with such great teeth. Take a closer look! It's so neat!
Just this morning we had the lovely experience of finding our pumpkins smashed on our sidewalk. A rather interesting experience for a little gal who was so proud of her baby pumpkin! Oh well, another opportunity to drive home the word "sad". She recovered just fine and even helped to pick up all the pieces!
I don't know why but this photo (yes, a little blurry) kinda reminds me of....
...this photo. A 2.5 year follow-up. I think it's just the layout and visible height difference. Neat to see though!

A few cute moments

2008-10-01T10:23:00.003-05:00

Some days we all leave the house together. I go to practicum, Corrina goes to daycare, and Dave goes to work. Other days just Dave takes Corrina and I stay home to read/study. Today was one of those days. Corrina understands that Mommy stays home, and she goes in the car with Daddy. It is fabulous to actualy explain things to her and have her comprehend what is going on. She must feel less frustrated too. Most of the time, to me at least, she seems like a 4 year old stuck in a 1.5 year olds mouth. Wow would that be tough. She is trooper though.
Today while we were getting dressed I told her that I was going to be staying home and she was going to play. I told her I was going to school. She understood, but did not like this. We talked more about what was happening. I told her I was going to stay here to read a book. She seemed happy to hear that and finally put on her clothes! Just after she stepped out the door to leave with Dave she turned around, looked at me, say "Mommy read book", and came back inside. Dave and I were telling her she had to go, and I was going to stay, thinking that she was sad and wanted to stay too. However, she had something else in mind. She went over to her book bin, found a big one, and gave it to me saying "Here Mommy, read book!"
This is amazing, for a few reasons. First of all, she understands! Second of all, she remembers! We have been working for a number of months to develop auditory memory, which means we have been trying to teach her to hear, listen, and retain the directions or info she hears. Brain development really flourishes within the first year of life, when children normally develop this ability through 'natural' listening and hearing. Corrina only started when she was 1yr5mnths. When we first started we worked on one item memory, at two we moved to two, and now we have passed three and are working on four! Her ability to remember between getting dressed, eating, and getting out the door that Mommy was going to be home reading a book is amazing to me! Plus, it was just so darn cute that she brought me a book to read. What a treasure.

Here is a little more cuteness for your day. Don't get the wrong impression, she isn't usualy this cooperative, just this cute!

Fish Training Kit

2008-09-25T13:41:00.003-05:00

Got a Goldfish? Want to teach her to play fetch? Play sports? Now you CAN with just one hour a day for a week with the fabulous R2 Fish Training KIT!

Soccer, football, limbo, even eating from your fingers. Who knew your little Goldie was capable of so much!

Now I know what you're thinking. That cant be real, yeah right. But Good Morning America believes, so maybe you should too.

Okay okay okay. So maybe this is dumb to you, but to me, this is MAGIC. Harry Potter and the Fetching Fishy. I gotta go watch that video again! SO cool.
-DAve

Just a little more

2008-09-22T13:30:00.004-05:00

With blogging I go up and down. Most of the summer I was down, not really putting too much time into blogging, but now I am feeling a little more up. Enjoy it though, because it really won't last long. I have some large assignments coming up so my time at the computer will move from blogs to word processing! Goody...

To start, here is our yard now! Tomatoes have been slow in winnipeg this year and mine have only been going red for a few weeks now. But boy are there alot left on there to harvest. I think I might have to pick them and ripen them inside, and then thrown them in the freezer to use in sauces later this year!

Here are the Nasturtium I was so worried about. The growth on the other side of the fence is even larger, and unfortunately has more flowers!! Good thing our neighbor doesn't mind me intruding on his yard! Last summer he says it was garbage everywhere, at least this summer it's flowers!

Corrina was doing a little posing for me today

I was going to add a cute little video, but it won't upload right now. I will try again later.

Hope everyone is enjoying autumn as much as me!

From Summer to Fall

2008-09-20T15:09:00.002-05:00

Here are all the photos I forgot to put on our blog this summer:
A still life painting perhaps (with help from mom!)
Tammy's wedding! Best friend from BC!

Dancing with a kindred spirit at the wedding reception!
Flying kites at Grandma's and Grandpa's house!

I have so many more pictures, thoughts, and adventures I want to share with you, but I am running out of time today. I am off to bake this cake for my birthda!y

Babies Babies, everywhere!

2008-09-06T22:22:00.002-05:00

Between now and November I know 5 people who have either had a baby or will have a baby very soon!
Here are two BEAUTIFUL new ones:
Jan and Paul's little Guinevere
and
Jodi and Ryan's little Seth
Welcome to the word new little friends.

Can't wait to see/meet the rest!

Dr Horrible on Seasame Street (sorta)

2008-08-17T13:54:00.001-05:00

Link!

thought some of you might appreciate this!
-DAve

Days of Summer Three: Summer Food Part I

2008-08-05T19:41:00.005-05:00

Summer brings the most fulfilling activities, which also sometimes happen to be the most delicious! For instance, strawberry picking!

Dave, Corrina and I picked 12, 4 L pails of strawberries, and had quite a time figuring out what to do with them all. My oh my, did it take alot of shuffling to fit all those plump berries into the cool fridge so they could keep until I could get my hands on them.

I had many ambitions for creating delectable strawberry dishes, from shortcake to scones, to pies. In the end we froze most of the berries, turned many into jam, ate 2 strawberry crisps, and dehydrated a pail into perfect cereal pals!

We've been having fun doing strawberry smoothies and shakes, and even went wild and made fresh strawberry daiquiri's.

I contemplated making freezer jam but decided against it for a few reasons. One, Corrina is allergic to fresh strawberries (but did phenomenal at abstaining from eating the berries while picking!) but can eat cooked berries, and two, my wise woman sources tell me the taste and texture of the cooked jam tops the freezer version.

For the Jam I used the less sugar certo pectin for a few batches and regular for a few, following the directions inside the package for each. I actualyl found the regular batches to be a little too sweet. It also bothered me that for the regular certo there are 7 cups of sugar to 4 cups crushed berries, whereas the less sugar certo called for 6 cups of berries to 4 cups of sugar. The only difference is shelf life: regular lasts 1 year, light lasts 6 months. However, I imagine the shelf life won't be a problem, as we are almost done an entire pint of jam already!
The hustle and bustle surrounding the berries was very energizing to me. Washing, hulling, cooking, slicing, and just being consumed by a nutritional task brought me a lot of joy. Won't be quitting my day job sadly (or school, as it were!), although I have thought about becoming a chef or pastry chef before.

We 'tested' Corrina's allergy to fresh berries and few times, so we had the chance to watch her devour a sweet fresh strawberry. She definately looked at us with that "How come you've been holding on on me... these things are amazing!" and came back for me. It became very tricky to monitor her for hives because our test got a little out of control since every time I turned around she was helping herself to another berry! In the end we only found one little cluster of hives, but this only happened about 5 days after eating a few berries a day. Corrina was not bothered by them and they disappeared quickly. We are still sticking to cooked berries for the most part though. My next adventure will be to make cooked strawberry popsicles. I plan on mashing and boiling the strawberries for a short bit of time, letting them cool, and putting them into molds. I doubt they will need sugar to be delicious, but I may reach for a teaspoon of honey if necessary.

Wow, with all this talk about fresh strawberries I really wish they weren't all frozen. Oh well, I guess I will just have to have a handful of the fresh Saskatoon berries that fill my fridge this week! That's another post though!

2008-08-01T11:33:00.000-05:00

We've been married for four years now! Yippy!

Days of Summer: Two

2008-07-30T22:18:00.003-05:00

First cutting of Zinnias from our garden! I appreciate that you sent me the seeds to grow mom. What an excellent little gift to slip inside a letter. I'll have to remember that next spring.
There is just one thing that is not right about these Zinnias. Do you see those little holes on the bright pink's leaf? Well, some of the leaves in the garden are almost all eaten up. Who or what is doing this? Slugs ate all my butter leaf lettuce, and I did not act in time to stop them. But if I can I will do my best to keep the Zinnias safe. Although, I guess they are feeding some special little bugs... but I want flowers this summer more than bugs. Great, now I am feeling so disconnected from nature the way the world works without human destruction. Really though, if you know what is eating the leafs, please leave a little comment, perhaps with a suggest as to how to fix this problem.

I have been absolutely amazed to see flowers and vegetables burgeon from seeds. I still do not believe that these flowers had their very beginnings, their first steps if you will, in the spare bedroom as seeds. And now, here they are, back in my house again! The cycle! I am sounding like an empty nester, so I'll stop.
What are you growing right now? What is blooming in your garden (take that literally or figuratively!)
Now go, get on with summer, or commenting!

Days of Summer One

2008-07-28T12:52:00.004-05:00

Days of Summer

Now that the weather is warmer in our neck of the woods our summer time activities have really picked up. We've been berry picking, swimming at wadding pools, having bbq's as a family and with friends, and spending countless hours swinging and sliding at the park. We've painted the sidewalk with, well, sidewalk paint, watered our flower gardens, played with neighbor friends, and put our legs to work riding tricycles around the block! Yet it's the little things that have been wonderful, and I must say that my most favorite part of the summer is just following Corrina around, going where she goes, doing what she wants to do.

I'm going to try something a little different this week. I will be posting a picture and a few words everyday, both to give a better glimpse into our summer life, and to be more consistent yet simple with blogging. So, here we are, this first day of summer!

Two more thoughts:
Certain dates have not passed yet regarding potential exciting changes in our upcoming year. These changes do not include anything new, cute and bald. They are still pretty cool though! Keep your eyes peeled (really, this is a rather crude saying, don't you think... yuck, peeled eyes!)
Second thought: Actually, more of a friendly welcome to check out some blog links I am adding to our sidebar. Both are family and crafting related. Both are published authors. Check them out!
Angry Chicken
Soule Mama

Corrina Singing

2008-07-27T13:52:00.006-05:00

Currently some of Corrina's favorite songs are:

Happy Birthday

Brown Squirrel

Twinkle Twinkle

I'm a little Tea Pot

ABC, and...

Johnny Apple Seed

Personally, I LOVE how almost every video we have of Corrina ends in her violently grabbing the camera!

-Dave

Splash Happy

2008-07-16T10:05:00.003-05:00

For anyone who does not make it over to facebook, here our some photos from out latest summer play... in puddles!
They say climate change will take its nasty toll on developing countries first due to their placement in the world (and ironically, the fact that they do the least to affect climate change and have the fewest resources to deal with the horrible results)... okay, enough of me being political... all this to say that we have had some very different weather (all across Canada) and our summer has mostly been rain. For having such a typical BC summer I wish I were at least surrounded by mountains!
Dave took these photos of Corrina playing with her neighbor friend.

The rubber boots are the ones brought back from England for Corrina. They still fit and work very well... no wet feet, unlike our neighbors walmart ones! Go Walmart!

I thought the sun would be shinning today, as it was streaming through the curtains when we awoke. The clouds rolled in and took over the sky in the end. I really do want to get up and wash some dishes, but the chore is much nice when the sun is beaming through the windows.

Corrina is at daycare today, but my (one month of) summer job hasn't started yet, so I have yet another day to myself. I am beginning to get bored. Sure, I have lots on my to-do list but it is so dull to be by myself all day long. Instead of sitting home and being grouchy I called a new mom from church asking if I could take her and baby out. She is single, and does not have a car. I really like spending time with her though, and remember being at home all day with a very new baby. Since it is raining we will probably just go to the mall and walk around, but I doubt she has gotten to do that in a long time. Hope it goes well! Her little baby boy is cute cute cute, and I can always stand to hold a new born!

Lots of interesting things going on around here, but nothing I can peep about yet... have to wait until a few dates pass by before I can share cool secrets! Do I have your interest now???

It's greener on the other side

2008-07-09T10:28:00.004-05:00

I am absolutely sure that most people really will not care at all about the photos I am about to post. But than, I am sure that mom and dad colvin will be happy to see them, and other horticultural freaks (not that mom and dad are in the category of freaks, they just have an interest in what we have done with our yard!)
Lush, Green Grass! Just starting of course! And as you can tell we haven't even finished laying down the dirt. Afternoons have been spent typing papers, or watching the rain. Both cause major dirt laying setbacks. But, the sun shines today!

My garden has really taken off since planting the seedlings. The only color right now is green, but that's what comes of growing annuals from seeds! Next year I will start a perennial garden, which will supply endless June/July color!
My Nasturtiums are growing just fine now!

These Zinnias will bear flowers eventually, brightening the garden space!

Dave finds the BEST toys for Corrina. Check out more here!!!

The Superfort (on sale for $20 at our Zellers!) really has endless possibilities for building.
Thanks Dad!

Have I posted a picture of our place since the white went out and the green came in? Well...
I am growing beans up along the fence in the front corners. Our house still looks so plain to me, and I really am not a plain Jane, so this is worrisome. I want color, pizazz, brightness, life, zing, zang, whatever... I just don't want blah beige and brown... but I am working on a budget here, any inspiration? Maybe I'll do a little search and post what I find.
I am thinking that wedding lanterns could be hung from various area, but even then, they are small little jars, with just a twinkling of color.
Time to hit the thrift store and the hardware store for some bright tremclad! But not on a whim, rather with divine direction and inspiration!

Summer Summer Summer

2008-06-23T13:22:00.003-05:00

We mixed some food coloring and glitter into glue and corrina 'painted' on tracing paper. It dried rather neat!

A week or so ago we took Corrina to Kids Fest! It was such a great event, with amazing performances, activities, food, and of course people and kids! You can't really tell, but that's Fred Penner (at the fest every year since he is from MB) in the photo below. She actualy didn't want to sit and listen to him though. She was distracted by the police tent just outside and spent about 30 minutes just playing with the model lights and sirens they had set up!

As Corrina gets more patient with sitting I get more creative with hairstyles.
My garden is in, and growing (the most important part of course!).My neighbor gave me a bunch of bricks to line the edges with. It looks great! Don't have a picture of that though...
Tomatoes... that have doubled in size since planting, sweat peas at the back, and Zinnea as a border plant.

These are my nasturtium pre-planting... they are all dying now... The leaves are shriveling or going yellow. The stems are brittle. What do i do???? I LOVE nasturtium and want to save them. They are spread out, about 6 inches from one another, and i wove some leaves into the fence for support since they are a climbing type. Help!?

I'll Try to Catergorize on this very long post!

2008-06-11T10:07:00.011-05:00

Food I've baked or made and actually remembered to take a photo of:

On the occasion that we make it into a unique winnipeg store or bakery Dave often says things like "oh, that looks good" to the pies, or breads, or action figures. To which I reply "I can make that."
Oddly enough, when I do go and make something, like these delicious apple pies, he eats it enjoyable and than talks about how I bake too much and how he's going to get fat. There is no winning...We decided it would be fun and important to have some other Anglican youth leaders (that Dave works closely with) over for desserts, so I made strawberry tarts.
As it was April in Winnipeg, fresh strawberries (at least any that would be good) were not an option, but a good friend of mine gave me some frozen berries from her summer picking. What a lucky duck am I!
I've always used the tenderflake recipe for my pie crusts because I like easy, no fail flaky crust!
I thrifted an old molded tart pan a year or so ago, but don't often have a chance to use it except for muffin making (which turns out to be Corrina's favorite thing to do! My little baker!) . The tart shells took the design so nicely, which doesn't really do anything except make them a little more fun! To avoid a puffy tart shell I use beans (dry ones, not from a can) as pie weights when I am baking the shells or pies empty. Oh, and always remember to prick empties with a fork! Once the tarts are cooled the 'pie weights' drop right out. Gotta love being cheap!Because the berries were frozen the classic "strawberry tart" recipe geared towards fresh berries was not going to cut it. I went the route of sugar and cornstarch to achieve these delicious masterpieces! I actually do most of my heating in the microwave (yeah I know, lab rats that were given microwaved water did not benefit from any nutrients, whereas the ones that were given fresh water did... blah blah.. I still like my microwave!), so this filling was done in the microwave too, hence the giant Pyrex, my most indispensable kitchen tool! I've always wanted to try this giant cookie cake and finally found an excuse to make it for a friends birthday party!
The recipe calls for a cream cheese frosting between the layers. I changed this up a bit, for the better. One, I didn't want to buy 7 packages of cream cheese. Two, I thought that would be a little much. I ended up making a whipped cream & cream cheese frosting by whipping cream (with some sugar and vanilla as usual) to stiff peaks, and folding in whipped (with some sugar) cream cheese. I will never make plain cream cheese frosting again! The whipped cream version was so much better, lighter and tastier. Mind you the cookie layers absorbed alot of it, so i think I would double the icing next time, but this frosting on top of a cake would be amazing!

Crazy Colvinson's:

Can you believe that Corrina has been hearing for ONE YEAR with her right implant?

It doesn't feel so long ago that we were off to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto to have her head carefuly sliced open in order to give little Corrina hearing!

Corrina has gone from nothing more than a screeching "aaaaaaaa" spoken randomly to a vocabulary full of words and a mind even more full of understanding!
We spent a few mintues going over language developmental levels with Corrina's speech therapist a week ago. From our own observations of Corrina her development seems to be in the range an average 15-20 month old child (most two year olds are far beyond the 'average' development for their age range, so while Corrina is no where near the actual development of her peers she is at least catching up to the average level of development.)

We got a few new toys around here this spring. Dave is doing his part to make sure they are safe for Corrina.

Actualy, Corrina spent the entire evening riding tricycles and 'driving' cars with a few other 2 year old girls on our block. We have been meeting so many neat families and lots of little kids on the street. Right now we couldn't have asked for a better neighborhood for our family to grow into!

Our backyard still does not look too good. We have a fence along the back, and some bird feeders. We have started digging out garden plots. Good friends helped us weed, cut grass, and prepare our yard for soil and sod, but there is still alot of work to be done before things look, hmmm, how shall I say it... normal!
Corrina really doesn't mind though, in fact she doesn't really know the difference! She loves to dig in the dirt and at least right now she doesn't have to stay out of mommy's flower beds!
I am hoping that by next week I will be yelling at her to get out of them though, as my plants really need to get outside!

Corrina really enjoyed seeing her Grandma and Grandpa Colvin in May, as did we!

They helped us paint our house, and did a great job putting up the fence with Dave.

Corrina and I have been spending lots of time doing crafts together. It is a great time for me to talk to her and teach her words, or refine ones she has because she is actually sitting down!!! Her focus while painting is just incredible. She loves tasks that require fine motor skills and detail. Although she is playing language catch up she is very advanced in many other aspects which both helps her and frustrates her at times.
I am very excited for this weekend, yes, because of Father's day, and also because of Winnipeg Composting day. Once a year the city sells compost bins for a reduced rate and we are getting one tomorrow! I have never been so excited about vegetable peelings and yard trimmings in my life! We also get the dirt for our yard tomorrow.
Not actually sure yet what I will do for Dave for fathers day... must come up with a craft...

Well, this post is definitely long enough now! Hope you all feel sufficiently updated!

Distracted

2008-05-29T15:00:00.003-05:00

It's a warmish Thursday afternoon, 3pm. Corrina went down for her nap a little late today, so I still have plenty of afternoon to myself. The very fact that I am typing this means that I am distracted, really really distracted. You see, I have a paper due for my summer intensive course. The paper is due tomorrow. It is on Romans (3:21-26 if anyone is interested). This passage seems like an obvious passage to write 8 academic pages about, until you read an exegesis, make that 6 exegesisisisis all by very renowned Biblical scholars. Humph.
So, here I sit, doing my very best to keep my eyes on my research and off blogs in which people are singing songs of gardening. And that is just what I wish I were doing, digging more beds, digging out weeds, and generally preparing our 'gravel compound' for it's long awaiting transformation into my personal oasis. I have some great pictures to add up very soon... when the paper is done that is. Pictures featuring painted walls, fenced yards, goofy toddlers painting and crafting! Corrina is gorgeous and tall, and starting her career as a super model very soon. Dave is car shopping to replace our crashed up accent that the insurance company wrote off, and I really am going to get back to reading and writing (and thankfully no arithmetic!)
See you all soon, online that is!

I am fading

2008-04-28T22:37:00.002-05:00

My energy is slowly depleting tonight, thus I am not going to make a new post here, because I just finished a new one over here. Enjoy!

In short

2008-04-15T22:30:00.004-05:00

Two Friday's ago our neighbors house started burning down at 10:30 at night. Our house is about 18 feet away. We had to evacuate (and I mean grab the baby, and shoes, and get out) our house, stand in the snow for awhile while dark smoke billowed upward, mingling with the white flakes, and eventually leave to a friends house where we could sleep safely for the night. Well, sleep.... actually not so much. Between a wired toddler and extreme worries about the state in which we would find our house the next day, very little sleep was actually had. My most favorite moment of the night: Corrina finally fell asleep, so Dave and I were lying dead still (2:15 am). I began to think about the state in which we left the house (mid Carcassone game with a new Dave's-birthday-gift expansion pack we were playing for the first time, trying to get Corrina back to sleep after a waking.. nightmare maybe... we were sitting at the table, drinking tea.... oh Sh*t (pardon my french, but feel the stress!) we left candles burning on our table!!!!) and to make a long story short (ha, not really) dave went back to our house. Thankfully he found it standing with no fire damage. The police and fire people were still working on securing our neighbors house, putting up boards, cleaning up, etc.... The police office allowed dave to go back into our house to 'close' things up for the night.
Some funny details of the story: a week or so earlier I had called the health department because of all the garbage (large and small) spilling out in every direction from our neighbors house. Apparently upon inspection the house was condemned. When I first got outside in response to our neighbors yelling "fire" I found one hysterical (intoxicated?!) person and one very calm person who proceeded to announce to me: "Oh well, the house was going to be condemned on monday anyway..." In my very unknowledgeable opinion, I think they burned the house down to get the insurance money to rebuild! And rebuild they are!
Another funny detail: after about 5 minutes of standing on the street, going over in our head which area of our house may catch fire, Dave decided to go back in to get the computer! A fire person found him and kicked him out, with computer in hand! Dave tried to lock the door, and they wouldn't let him... they made dave give them the keys and locked up for us!
The majority of the fire was coming out of the top story of the house, out the back windows.
The side of the house bears dark burn marks from the flames. They all go in one direction: away from our house! They reach up to the roof, and at least 6 feet across the back of the house. Had the wind been blowing the other direction, toward our house, well, we try not to focus on attention on that. Praise God we are safe, and by all accounts our neighbors are physically safe as well. Priase God that our house is fine! We are glad to not be making a house insurance claim at the same time we are making car insurance claims! That would just be ridiculous, maybe. Although, i would take that over civil war, so, if we put things into proper perspective, really this was nothing!
I did mean to share this little story in short... really...

This weekend Corrina and I got to accompany dave and his youth group (along with two other church youth groups) to a really neat bible camp for a tri-youth retreat! It was great fun. I loved connecting a bit more with our youth, and meeting tons of other young people as well! Corrina got so much attention and exercise, and I got to relax and not cook!
Now we are home, back in the swing of things, and I have my last exam for the semester tomorrow night. I hope that things get 'boring' again... I could use some normal!

2008-04-04T16:07:00.003-05:00

Apparently my new favorite thing to do is forget to blog. Now that I am (almost) done school for the semester I can 'remember' again!
We are alive and kicking these days. I have lists made, games planned, friends written in on the calendar! I am so into this change of season. Spring brings such fresh feelings inside my heart and mind! And I can see the freshness appearing all around me too. For instance, the grass in our new front yard is starting to surface from the crystal snow that has forced it into hibernation for so long. Many wonderful treats (beer cans, fruit snack packages, full bags of previous owners garbage) are starting to appear in the back yard too. It's almost like finding a beautiful secret garden underneath all the snow. Almost! We have been waiting a month and a half to find out what exactly will be in our backyard. So far garbage is out winning grass by a long shot, but there's still lots of melting to be completed; I'm just trying to stay optimistic with my gardening gloves close by instead of my garbage gloves. Either way, when we are done with our yard it will be grassy, flowery, and playable, with room for the car too! I bought seeds for a salad garden yesterday, as well as different varieties of flowers. I have climbing vines, cutting flowers, and even a raspberry plant! How are other people's springs shaping up?Easter came and went. It's so far back I can't really remember the events, but here are some pictures of Corrina going on her 8 egg easter hunt. I think that she only found like 6 that day, and saved the rest for surprise discoveries later that week:This is Corrina and her little friend K hanging out together at church on Easter. These two gals are just 2.5 weeks apart. Play ground time together is pretty funny. First they avoid one another, than they fight it out, leading to great intimacy which allows them to actually play together. Good times!

Oh, and these little babies I am so proud of! I LOVE french braid pigtails, and was so pleased when she sat long enough for me to get them in there!
That is it for now. Nothing new to report, nothing else to say that I can think of.
Enjoy the springing spring, where ever you are in the world!