Garden 2013

Here is an update on my garden. 
 So how were my garden boxes you ask?  They were excellent.  I did not get any animals eating my plants and the organic soil helped a lot of my fruits and vegetables flourish.  I would definitely recommend using garden boxes.  Another benefit of the garden box is it makes it much easier to harvest your food without hurting your back.  Its not on the ground so you don't have to bend over as much.

Here is some of the stuff I got this summer.

Red raspberries

Tomatoes: cherry, yellow boy, beef steak, grape, and roma

 
Spinach

 Peas and long beans

 Yellow and green Zucchinis

 Strawberries

 Lettuce: red, green, romaine and butter

Herbs: mint, Parsley, Lemon Balm

 Carrots

 Beets

Soft pretzels

YUMMMMM, every time we go to the states I have to a Aunt Annie's pretzel.  They are soooo good.  Soft pretzels here are not common, and if you do stumble upon some, it's usually hard and dry.  I found this recipe from allrecipes.com, and the girls had so much fun making them too.

Buttery Soft Pretzels

Ingredients:

4 teaspoons active dry yeast 1 teaspoon white sugar 1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F /45 degrees C) 5 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup white sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt 1 tablespoon vegetable oil   1/2 cup baking soda 4 cups hot water 1/4 cup kosher salt, for topping

Directions:

1.	In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.
2.	In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt. Make a well in the center; add the oil and yeast mixture. Mix and form into a dough. If the mixture is dry, add one or two tablespoons of water. Knead the dough until smooth, about 7 to 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3.	Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). In a large bowl, dissolve baking soda in hot water.
4.	When risen, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope and twist into a pretzel shape. Once all of the dough is all shaped, dip each pretzel into the baking soda solution and place on a greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
5.	Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes, until browned.

I'm finally back

YEAH! I'm happy to say my mom has returned from her month long vacation from Asia.  The girls and myself are almost all better from our colds.  The van is scheduled to be fixed in November and the insurance is dealing with the bus company for me.  It looks like my life is slowly coming back. 

I have many more recipes that I have made the past month, but just didn't get a chance to post them, so I will write them and post them up ASAP.  I'll also give you an update on my garden as well.  

I'm so lucky my sister is a photographer (www.huaphotography.com).  On the  Friday right before Thanksgiving E had a PD day, so we decided to go out for a little walk/photoshoot.  Good thing we went that day, because on Tuesday when I was driving E to school all the leaves were already on the ground. 

Where have I been?

So if you're wondering where I have disappeared to, I'm still here.  My life in the past few weeks have been crazy.  Here's why
1. The girls have started school. Which means home work, reading, practicing piano (which we still need to do). Packing lunches and snacks. Making sure I'm on top of all the events (picture day, parent night, library day, swimming lessons ...and the list  goes on).  
2.  My mom and dad left me for a month.  They are taking their well deserved holiday to Asia.  My mom usually comes to my house everyday so I can drive the girls to school. She also cleans my house when she's here.  So imagine the state of my house now.  It looks like a tornado hit it, not once maybe 10 times in a row.  I try to clean as I go but it's hard when I'm constantly cooking, and watching the girls.  A lot of time it's done after they're sleeping (which use to be my quiet time)
3. Josh had to to to Calgary, and high river for work this week to check out the Alberta flood damage.
4. Baby C is teething, and has had a fever of 40 degrees for the past 4 days. She's been having a hard time sleeping which means I don't sleep.  Last night I made it to my bed at 4am, which was better then the night before at 5am.
5. And to top it all off on Wednesday I got hit by a bus in front of E's school on our way to swimming.  So I spent all day yesterday dealing with that. ( filling out a police report, going to get estimates on the car, contacting the bus company).

So my question to myself is "when will this week be over?  Will next week be better?"  Oh yes, and my mom has only been gone 2 weeks, I'm only half way until I'm saved.

Poop

Yes, I mean real poop.  I guess every mom has some kinda poop story to tell.  Mine isn't that great but I'll share it with you anyways.  I will not be posting any pictures on the post, because I'm pretty sure most of you don't want to see it.

So this afternoon when I was putting baby C down for her nap, M was wandering around playing. She was suppose to be taking her nap, but wouldn't go down.  I saw her walk into my room to go to the washroom, but I didn't think anything of it because she does that all the time.  When baby C feel asleep me and M went down stairs to pay.  It wasn't until about  half an hour later when I had to go to the washroom when I made a discovery.  I saw a pair of pants sitting on the floor of my washroom, I look closer and the underwear was still there,  but there was also a huge chuck of poo attached.  I then looked in the toilet and saw probably about half a roll of toilet paper with poo smeared on it.  I then walked over to the girls washroom, and that toilet was also  filled with poo smeared toilet paper.  I called M upstairs and asked her what happened.  "Mommy, I had to poo, and I didn't want you to get mad, so I wiped my bum myself and cleaned up.  I even got myself new pants". So I cleaned up the mess. (I threw her poo stuck underwear in the garbage).  I thought it was all cleaned up, but as I was about to go downstairs, I see little spots of brown on the carpet from my room to the bathroom.  Ahhhhhhhhhh, I looked closer IT WAS MORE POO.  There was about 7 spots.   More cleaning for me.  It was so gross, but it's all cleaned up now.

Long weekend at kananaskis

The last time I was at kananaskis I was going as a counsellor and we were camping at Mt.Kidd.  Fast forward 13 or so years and I'm back (but this time staying at the hotel and bringing along 3 little girls) for a wedding.

You know your getting old when your attending a wedding of one of the kids you counselled.  Most of our friends are already married, but why did we have so many weddings this year?  When we were in university we were counsellor to a group of junior and high school kids. They have all grown up, graduated university, working and now getting married.   I'm so proud of all of them. They have grown up to become such great men and women of God.  I don't think I could have asked for a better group of kids to work with.   I know in the last few years, when I started having kids, I lost contact with many of them. Yes, we do say hi to each other when we pass by, but I do miss those years when I actually got to spend quality time with them.  The last few months I kept thinking I should call them up and get together to catch up, but with my busy schedule I haven't had the chance.  One day I will set up a afternoon date with them, but I hope it's sooner then later.

Thanks C&J for a great weekend! The girls had a blast!

My baby is now a first grader

6 years ago I was pregnant with my first child. Today is her first day of grade one.   Where has the time gone.  It's crazy how fast they grow up.  I still remember her as a little tiny baby keeping me up at all hours of the night and having to pace back and forth in the hallway to get her back to sleep.  She has grown to become such a great and caring big sister to M and C.   She is now my sweet independent little girl.  Today she came home with a letter saying she is the graduating class of 2025.  That seems so faraway, but I know within a blink of an eye we will be there. 

Wishing you all the best, and good luck! Hope you have a great year in grade 1.  I know I will be missing you at home.