Reasons to love being Canadian

1.Because we have Thanksgiving early, and not very close to Christmas so by Christmas we're super excited for turkey and all the fixings AND willing to go to all that work again (for those preparing the meal). Oh, and Christmas itself. We love all the Christmasy everything.

2.Free health care.

3. Toques(and I might add that Joshua can now say "toque"...we randomly see what words we can get him to say. Toque comes out quite clearly! A true Canadian son...)

4.Having the best mens and women's national hockey teams. I'm talking Olympic teams here, people. And didn't we get the most gold medals last time 'round? YEAH!

5. The letter zed.

There's loads more...I was just thinking of how grateful I am to be Canadian. Because I attend (online) and American school I notice more little things here and there that are different and neat about Canada. I love my country! Why do you love being Canadian?

mmmm

pic from MADE

So, sometimes when I'm pregnant all it takes is the thought of something and I MUST make it and eat it. I was a goner today when Dana (from one of my fav blogs, MADE) shared her easy Rice Pudding Recipe. I don't know about you guys, but I never seem to have day old rice and the desire to make rice pudding at the same time, so this was perfect! I made it just about the same as her, but adding some tasty cream and even a bit of butter at the end, oh! and with brown sugar (I generally don't keep white sugar at my house because I find I don't use it very often.)

TRY IT OUT!
DOUBLE YUMMY!

MADE

Have a great weekend ya'll!

Lisa

So life has changed a bit...

Things have become super busy in the last four weeks as I have started school for Court Reporting (online).

This:

has become my life. Steno Theory.


 This means we as a family now get to juggle the dynamics of a full-time student daddio, a technically NOT full time student but it sure seems like it Mom, and our little Squinch PLUS the rest of life. Usually it's the rest of life that gets neglected. Seriously. Come visit my house and see how the piles of mess have now evolved into piles of more organized mess and in some places where that has LITERALLY been piled to the ceiling. Plus, over the last month has come the evolution of a new bed toddler bed and a bed for the baby-to-be (expected the end of March 2012).- BUT that is a post all to it's bad self. Nevertheless we don't have a garage or backyard or more than four rooms in our house (two bedrooms, one bathroom and a living room) SO it created a bit of a circus act to keep sane and carry on amid the wood shavings, etc.

BUT what I really was posting about is how I always accuse my husband of being obsessive compulsive about things, but now I'm just as bad (at least in some parts of my life)...like...checking online purchases to see their status and if they've shipped and where they are and when they will get to me. For school I ordered basically everything online and I needed it all before a specific deadline (the beginning of school) so I checked and checked and checked and checked. NOW there's no real deadline but I'm anxious to see the real deal of my new Lime Ricki maternity swimsuits that hopefully will get here sometime before Christmas! And by obsessive compulsive I mean, like 5 times a day. At least. The darn thing just won't say that it's shipped. It's "billed" but not shipped. Hopefully that means it will show up at my house one day still with that "billed status"...
anyway.

And I have desires to do cute Halloween decorating, but I'll be lucky if I get it up before the middle of November. So I'll just look at my cousin's cute decorating (Crystal!) and feel that one day it will be possible for me too.

Have a lovely fall day! I mean, Autumn. Please don't fall on my account :p

Lisa

10 Things

So I realized that no one really likes hearing me whine about how I am SO ready for this summer to be over. Instead, to simplify I thought I would list 10 things I am grateful for...you know "count your blessings"...because there are lots and they are good to remember. These are in no particular order, just as they come out of my head:

1. A baby boy who will happily play alone in his playpen while I nap, and sometimes even fall asleep, which he needed to do so we both could be a good mood.

2. The ability to write in different colours - I LOVE COLOUR!

3. Hot showers. I never coulda hacked it as a missionary in S. America or somewhere like unto it. I need my hot showers.

4. a clean towel

5.a toilet that flushes

6.oatmeal and having the option to eat it or eat cereal or something else. and using it in cookies

6.Skype

7.Finding beautiful places (especially in nature) and being able to spend time there.

8.Clean water to drink. and wash dishes with. and bathe in.

9.A nice warm place to live with plenty of blankets

10. A husband who works really really hard and is so nice.

11. qtips

What are you especially grateful for today?

Summertime!

So I'm getting SUPER excited for summer and found this really easy and super cool shorts tutorial from Saltwater Kids. I can't wait to make some for Joshua and not have to worry about buying him lots of shorts because seriously, the summer in Canada doesn't seem to last all that long. CHECK THIS OUT! plus she has a sweet give-away for a tent-making kit today.

You said you'd bake us a cake...

And I did. And it took 1 try and 2 days. I'll admit it mostly fell apart...I really wanted to make Red Velvet cake and ended up with Burgandy Brown chocolate cake that's pretty much AMAZING. Not to mention that I love putting vegetables into tasty things (I know, I'm wierd) and the beets make this cake really moist. I will post a picture once I cut it, but beware - this cake is delicious and well-rounded (i cut it out to look like a heart cause i'm too cheap to buy heart shaped cake pans and where on earth would i store them?) but looks ...very...amateur. BUT the frosting is just about the best you have ever tasted. It's roux frosting and has salt in it (i've never heard of that before but it balances it out so well) and is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo amazing. Seriously.

And I had no toothpicks so I took some dried spaghetti and stuck it into the cake instead to cover it up. I'm just that classy.

I actually tried 2 different recipes and I think I like the 2nd one better, it's by someone in Southgate Ward, and perhaps I'll post it cause it's p-retty amazing.

Hope ya'll had a good February 14th. The highlight of the day was getting to sleep in on the couch while my husband cleaned up the kitchen and made the bed. Then Joshua and I picked Dave up for lunch...All you can each SUSHI! Which was so so so so good. Joshua liked throwing the things we gave him to eat on the floor. Ah, and we didn't even have to clean it up.

The squinch awakes!

I bet Korihor would take the bus...

GRAB BAG SALE!!!

So once a season Once Upon a Child has a grab bag sale...stuff as many clothes as you can into a bag, and you get the whole thing for 15 bucks. I got there around 9:27 and there was already quite a line-up. The selection of boys clothes 24 months and up were pretty scarce, but I managed to find a few cute shirts, some that I can chop the arms off shorter and hem for summer and some that hopefully will fit him in the fall. A few cute sweaters for spring and a very few pairs of pants. Plus there was room in the bag so i picked a few shirts out of the girls section and one or two of them fit...so all in all a pretty good deal! A few plain shirts I got specifically so I can do some freezer paper stenciling on them . Now to wash the clothes...ah...the start of a great Saturday. PLUS my Mom is on her way to visit...our first out of town visitor at our new place, Number 203. We are SUPER DUPERly looking forward to it and hope the hide-a-bed is as comfy for a night as it seemed for 5 minutes (fingers crossed!!)
It's been super fun to play with Joshua the last couple days...he especially likes playing with his soccer ball. He brings it over to Dave or I and then we kick it or throw it and he fetches....uh, returns it. He LOVES it.

10 points to the first person to figure out who this quote is by: The search for truth is more precious than its possession.

So when baking, you can't necessarily use sour milk in any recipe. And that goes double-y if you're using goats milk. Luckily Dave's tastes are not as discerning as mine and it took him 20 minutes to guess why I thought the biscuits I made tasted a little off. Dipped in soup, not too bad. And does anyone else feel like screaming when their toddler somehow pulls everything imaginable off table/dresser, etc while your attention is diverted for a few minutes? Love the curiousity, can't stand the crazy mess that results from it sometimes.
BTW - Superstore I've found tends to have stale crackers (especially the PC brand) so ALWAYS check the expiry date...and if they're getting close, it's almost worth opening them before you leave the store cause they'll likely be so gross...and then you get to take them back. Blech.
Oh well. At the least the weather is SO much nicer. And at least we don't have to move anytime soon. Our neighbours down the hallway were loading up their U Haul when we were coming up the front steps and I don't envy them one bit. No sir. And a hopeful message from good ol' Mother T. "God doesn't require us to succeed, he only requires that you try"

Let's start at the very beginning...

I read other blogs and think "sometimes I do things, maybe I should have one of those"..so this is my attempt, bear with me. I love reading craft blogs, but don't understand the obsession people have with making things out of burlap (not that it's bad, but seriously, burlap pillows can NOT be that comfy) although I think making things out of book pages is seriously cool. And why on earth?! is someone banging on the pipes downstairs? I don't know, I just hope it doesn't wake up Joshua. I also have difficulties keeping my kitchen clean, I mean it's not that large, so you would think it'd be easier....oh, and my whole house. I am trying to overcome my inner sloppiness and become more organized, something that's a very slow process. I like sewing things, and am currently trying to use the stash of random fabrics I've inherited and the clothes i can't bear to give up because I know I can make them more wearable. And Dave just is pretty cool about the whole thing. He's pretty darn great and works really hard on school and our paper routes and keeping me happy. And I have one darn hair that grows on the bottom of my chin,...it's hard to see but I can feel it...it usually sits there til I discover while I'm actually in the bathroom with tweezers in my hands. So weird.

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
— Dr. Seuss