Gratitude Sunday: Mostly Grace & Wool

Joining Taryn today at Wooly Moss Roots blog for Gratitude Sunday. A chance to look back at the week that was and reflect with gratitude.

Feeling grateful this week for:
::unseasonably warm temperatures and more outside time
::knitting outside on Wednesday. I meant to join in for Yarnalong but the day got away from me.
::the ladies at Serenity Knits in Newmarket saving the day with 5 skeins of Cascade 220 to finish off a big order of chicken mittens. Bless their souls! If you find yourself in or around Newmarket, Ontario go check out their store.

::a safe drive in and out of Toronto to pick up the aforementioned wool. The traffic in was a killer but there is something exciting about being in the heart of a big city. I love to visit and I love to leave!
::watching the Country Music Awards with my son this week. We're both big fans and it was special sharing this with my teenage son who is doing his best to be his own person separate from us.
::feeling content with my life of being mostly unemployed in the traditional sense. I found myself feeling satisfied with days off alone during the week, time to cook good meals, and time to knit uninterrupted.
::and then getting called back to my job at the airport. In all things be grateful right?
::grace being shown from one sibling to another. Absolutely awe-inspiring considering how these two love to pick fights with one another.

Gratitude Sunday: Chocolate, Wool & Fall

Joining Taryn today at Wooly Moss Roots blog for Gratitude Sunday. A chance to look back at the week that was and reflect with gratitude.

Feeling grateful this week for-
::chicken mitten love. Wow. I am overwhelmed by how many of you love the chicken mitten. Thanks!
::rain and wind and sun and clouds scudding across the sky. Nothing matches fall's weather and that smell of leaves on the ground.
::time outside in the garden cleaning up. I always feel good after messing about in the garden.
::a good run this afternoon made possible and enjoyable by warmer temperatures
::my brother solving a minor wool crisis. With the unexpected rush of orders I found myself out of the right colour and weight of yarn and none to be had at my local yarn store. He suggested a place in Ottawa with an online store. Bless them and their warehouse and their free shipping!
::the wisdom to embrace my body's aversion to running in the fall and take brisk walks instead listening to my ipod.
::an extra day of work this week.
::a neighbour who came by especially to drop off Halloween candy for The Boy when he didn't show up at his door last night trick or treating. The Boy had decided he was, in fact, too old for this game and had stayed home with me to hand out candy.
::chocolate :) Feeling pretty blessed right now.
What about you? What are you grateful for this week?

And Finally July

 I can't believe it's July and it's been so long since I've been able to post! It's been so crazy around here with me being gone 2 or 3 days a week to work in the city. I love the work I'm doing and the adventure of driving into Toronto by myself. Everyone is surviving and getting used to this arrangement. It helps that it's really only temporary. Soon enough the work will dry up but while I can I'm trying to get in as many hours as possible and build a nest egg.

Things are growing like crazy and my vegetable garden is...struggling. But I guess considering how little time I have to put into it as far as weeding goes, it's looking pretty good. The peas and lettuce and potatoes are doing well. Everything else is...struggling. Except the weeds. They're doing really well.

 We've been to the cottage a few times and gone swimming and done "cottage things". I feel like I wait all year for July and here it is and I am so happy. July is my very favourite month. I love the heat and the long days, trips to the cottage and the beach. I love how far away school still is.

This past weekend we made the long trip in to the cottage to bring in our new boat. It's been living in the hangar I work at for over a year while our friend patched holes, sanded and painted it. I am so very grateful for this little boat. I feel safe in it and don't have to worry anymore about our other boat that we had taken to calling "the widow-maker."

This would be my girl in her natural environment-up in a tree. This weekend she chose to stay with my parents rather than coming with us to the cottage. A good thing too as it was a very long, crazy trip in. By the time we got to the cottage and made dinner it was midnight. The next day I managed to get in a paddle and a swim before we began the long journey home.
So, that's my story. How is your summer going?

Gratitude Sunday: Being Late, Rain & Serendipity

Joining Taryn today at Wooly Moss Roots blog for Gratitude Sunday. A chance to look back at the week that was and reflect with gratitude. A day late but whatever...

The Em-ster looking slightly frightening and yes, that's ET

Feeling grateful this week for:
::The Em-ster's 11th birthday. What an interesting kid. For her actual birthday dinner she chose hot dogs and Kraft Dinner and I made her a chocolate cake from an old Betty Crocker cookbook I have. She's definitely her own person, quite the individual, with a strong sense of who she is (and isn't) and that includes an...interesting sense of fashion. Everyday is an adventure with her and we love her to bits.
::a new member of our family and The Em-ster's birthday present from us-a Holland Lop rabbit. I have tried numerous times to take a photo of Mia but it's kind of like trying to take a picture of a toddler. They're just so fast. Mia is entertaining, nice to pet and provides my garden with lots of goodness :)
::rain. Like many of you, we too have been feeling the need for some rain which came over the weekend.
::pepper plants from a neighbour around the corner. I had been wanting to add some to my garden but between the time and the expense I hadn't gotten around to it. I love it when the thing you need appears out of seemingly nowhere.
::colour in my front garden in the form of annuals, found on sale over the weekend.
::an impromtu fire and hot dog dinner on Saturday night with my husband's family and a relative visiting from Germany. There's a conservation area 5 mins away from our house and has been the site of many picnics over the years we've lived here.

My Saturday To Do List

And last but not least, fall into bed, exhausted at the end of a busy day.

Gratitude Sunday: Hamburgers, Homemade & Easter

Joining Taryn today at Wooly Moss Roots blog for Gratitude Sunday. A chance to look back at the week that was and reflect with gratitude.

Watching the kids play yesterday after visiting my Grandma.

A cool burl in a tree in the park. I am told this bump makes amazing wooden bowls.

Games and knitting after dinner tonight.

Feeling grateful this week for:
::a visit with my Grandma. I called her up a few days beforehand and asked her what she's been missing, what she'd really like to eat and she asked for a Harvey's hamburger and pop. So, we all got hamburgers and pops and had a picnic on the floor of her room complete with a checked picnic blanket. I'm sure the workers at the home were cringing when they saw our bags and I'm pretty sure my aunts would not be too happy with me! The poor woman is 90, wheelchair-bound due to arthritis and living alone in a nursing home. If she wants a hamburger, she should have a hamburger once in awhile!! But I digress.
::a visit with the pediatrician to help us sort out The Em-ster's issues. While she was rather abrupt, she did have a few suggestions on some things we could do to make things better in the mean time.
::Easter chocolate :)
::ending Lent with a homemade bun I baked yesterday and saved especially for the end of my 40 days without wheat. So good!
::warm days this week
::a few hours at home alone yesterday. I spent the time finishing some overdue mending, cleaning up and cleaning out, reading and knitting.
::almost done The Em-ster's sweater body. She's beginning to get excited. It's an at-home project now as it's become rather unwieldy to be taking places. You know what THAT means!!??  A new project.
::checking out Ravelry and Knitty for a new project to travel with me. I got stuck in the progress of the Lady Kina when I didn't have the right circular needles and as it's not in the budget to buy new ones right now I'm checking to see what else I can knit from my stash.
::being reminded of the abundance in our life. The universe has been conspiring to point out all the goodness we already have. Money comes from unexpected places, things I need suddenly appear or I notice them sitting in storage waiting to be repurposed. Amazing.
::the first run of the season. I'm going to hurt tomorrow but it was so worth it.

A very small everyday miracle on an average Tuesday

I've been writing a blog post in my head since I got home at 5pm. I had all sorts of things to say but it's 9:10pm and I am tired and now I find myself staring at this blank page, unable to remember any of the witty, thought-provoking things I had been meaning to type 4 hours ago.
Since 5pm I have scoured fridges, cupboards and cookbooks seeking something to make for dinner with what we have on hand. It's 2 days till payday and grocery day and things are looking pretty empty. I settled on Empty the Fridge Nachos-a recipe recently invented by me ;). It involves dumping the contents of a half empty bag of organic, low-salt, gluten-free, blue tortilla chips on a baking sheet, toping it with the cup of black beans left over in the fridge from something else and covering the whole mess in mozzarella cheese. This goes under the broiler to get all nice and melty while I frantically root through the fridges looking for something (anything) to flesh it out with. I found one orange pepper which got chopped up and put in a bowl. Not everyone in this house appreciates the value of a crisp orange pepper so making it optional seemed like the right thing to do. Next I discovered a slightly brown half an avocado languishing near the back of the fridge in a forgotten container and (miracle of miracles!!) another whole, ripe avocado. That went into the food processor along with a glug of olive oil, a splash of lemon juice, a clove of garlic, bit of chopped onion and salt and pepper. Voila! guacamole! By then the cheese on the tortilla chip-bean situation was nice and melty so I put it on the table with my loaves-and-fishes toppings of peppers and guacamole plus a half empty jar of salsa.
This whole meal started as a bit of a panic but ended up a success. The only thing left was a lone bean and a microscopic pile of crumbs in the corner of the pan. Not bad for no plan.
My son said the nicest thing about my guacamole (which he normally does not go for). He said he likes guacamole because it reminds him of summer and being at the cottage because we eat it so often there. I had no idea that was true! You spend your kids' childhoods providing them with all sorts of experiences and the thing they remember is something random like guacamole!
After dinner I dealt with dishes, a load of laundry, a herd of kids migrating in and out of the house and I knit one row on my daughter's sweater. Not exactly witty or thought-provoking stuff but it's real-life stuff and probably sounds more like a normal Tuesday than if I starting telling you my thoughts on how to achieve world peace.
Tell me, what did your Tuesday look like? Tell me the nitty-gritty details that made up an average Tuesday in an average person's life. Why? Because it's real and lets the rest of us feel like not everybody lives in a Pinterest board house with model children and a smiling spouse, washing dishes.

Saturday in Pictures-knitting, reading, melting, sewing

 Knitting Lorelei's scarf. Thanks for the kind comments the other day when I asked if this pattern/yarn combination was too busy. The more I knit on it, the more I like it.

 Blogging, snacking, soup happening in the background and dinner in the crockpot.

 That there is melting snow and the first glimpse of sunlight my driveway has had in 6 weeks.

 Some treasures I found at the library this morning. I find the library is like chocolate-I can't leave with just one. It's a problem and might explain my troubles with keeping track of library books and the fortune the library is making from me in late fines.

Dreaming. Fabric for zippered cases and patterns for new summer clothes. 

I am in love with this green and pink floral.

Don't be fooled that my Saturday is all idleness and bliss. In actual fact there is un-photogenic laundry going on, tidying, keeping the peace between kids and procrastinating from cleaning the bathroom. Outside it is all brightness and melting snow and I feel the first stirrings of hope that spring is on it's way and it's so hard to be focussed on a day like this.

Gratitude Sunday: Green & Light

Joining Taryn today at Wooly Moss Roots blog for Gratitude Sunday: a time to look back at the week that was and reflect with gratitude.

Feeling grateful this week for:
:: pink tulips my sister in law brought when she came for dinner tonight
:: my pottery lamp. I love to light it at every dinner and watch the flame. It reminds me of camping, cottaging and the Christ candle at church.

:: winter. If I say it I find I do feel grateful for snow and cold and warm woolies. But I'll be thankful when spring comes though.
:: 3 days off in a row thanks to Monday's stat holiday here-Family Day.
:: hope and new beginnings.
:: my new Mama's Notebook planner-more on that soon.
:: the safe arrival of a new baby in my circle of acquantances. Maternal and infant mortality rates are blessedly low here but bad things still happen and I always say a prayer of thanksgiving when all goes well.
:: free tickets to the Outdoor Adventure show in Toronto next weekend. I was himming and hawing about whether to go with a friend when we came by these tickets. I love it when that happens.
:: this cake:

Keeping Busy on a Snowy Saturday (in pictures)

 What it looked outside our front window today

 My daughter heading outside to play

Layers of knitting: owl mittens, creeper mittens and one fox mitten

 A new purse from re-purposed fleece made by my daughter

 Dinner in progress: Sweet and Sour Meatballs from Fix It and Forget It-Recipes for Entertaining

Playing Blokus

Gratitude Sunday: a Walk in the Woods

Joining Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots blog for Gratitude Sunday. A time to look back at the week that was and reflect with gratitude.

Photos from our walk this afternoon by the river. Just from my ipod so not exactly gallery quality but you can still see it was cold and snowy.

Feeling Grateful this week for:

* an interview with these folks for my other blog. I feature local businesses to encourage consumers to shop locally. My favourite part about this job is hearing the excitement and passion in people's voices as they tell me about their business.

*a night hike at the local conservation area with our Scouts. It was pretty cold but the moon was out making shadows on the snow. Absolutely beautiful. We tried to do an owl call but for some reason (maybe 22 rowdy kids, dunno) they weren't answering.

*reading all evening on Thursday night. What a decadent treat. Hence no Thrifty Thursday. You can blame Debbie Macomber. 

*looking at my new job from the angle of being privileged to serve people healthy food. In the Christian tradition, serving someone is an honour.

*getting my hair trimmed yesterday

*a walk in the woods on a snowy day sans children

What about you? What are you grateful for this week?

This Moment-Baby it's Cold Outside!!

Joining Amanda today at Soulemama for This Moment.

{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember

Yarnalong: Button-tab Mittens & Simplicity

Joining Ginny today at Small Things blog for Yarnalong:

Knitting: I finished these sweet button-tab mittens this week and posted them in my Etsy shop this morning. I used Paton's Classic Wool Worsted in Aran on 4mm needles.

The button is the result of me saying to my husband "Do you think you could make me a couple of buttons for some mittens I'd like to knit?" He dug out an olive-wood pen blank he had laying around and quick as a wink it was cut to size, made round and coated in carnauba wax. They are perfect and I love them.

While I was outside taking photos of mittens I took these two pictures of the untouched snow in our backyard and my frozen sage.

Reading: Still working my way through Simplicity Parenting by Kim John Payne. It inspired me to do some major purging of toys, kids books and The Em-ster's room. Her room looks and feels so much more peaceful and inviting now and so does our family room with all that STUFF gone. We don't buy much during the year for our kids but somehow the house fills up with books, bits of paper, pencil crayons and markers and clothes. It's overwhelming for me to look at, I can only imagine what goes on in my kids' brains when confronted with all these choices and the clean-up afterwards. I'm onto the chapter entitled "Rhythms". We're pretty good at keeping a consistent routine but I'm interested to see what he has to say on that subject.
What are you knitting and reading?