Can I get that in triplicate please?

Why yes, you CAN!



This is my third batch of raspberry cakes. We end up eating one of each batch when I make them, so there are only 6 in the freezer. Still, six, yay!

Speaking of food, the oddest things are up with me and the grub. I've already accepted that since I hit 30, weird stuff is up with my appetite. Wheat makes me feel sick, chocolate gives me headaches, some days all I want is fruit, other days I live on rice cakes. After 5 years of this I've decided it'll just be like this until I get near 40 and then some logic will come of all this. In all of this time, I've slowly been moving away from meat. You'll recall, I was vegan for my early 20's, then vegetarian after Leif was born. hen I gave in to my big chicken craving for about 4 years. But in all of that, I've said I just can't go back to eating red meat. It grosses me out, I have no desire to eat it, I can't decide if it's good for you or not. So on top of all my current food weirdness, guess what I ate for dinner last night?



What is going ON here? Tonight I ate more steak, the night before last I had pork. I think at this point I'm just going to wait for a sign from the heavens as to what my body needs. In the meantime, I'll eat whatever strikes me and continue to enjoy lovely outdoor bbq dinners with my darlings.

Hannah got up to some more face painting today with some friends. Yes, my dear daughter is the one on the left grasping a sharp stick. I believe her chosen moniker is Mr. Evil-Nasty.



I finally got around to changing our seasonal table to summer. Waves and boats and elves on the beach, oh my!



And I'm happy to say that I finally got around to trying out a sunhat pattern. When you have a head as big as mine, you need to make your own hats.



I'm happy with the results and ready to hit my next project.


What're you up to this week?

C

It's the most wonderful time of the year . . .

. . yeah, that's a Christmas song, but anyone with taste buds can attest that summer berry season is THE greatest time gastronomically-speaking. Hannah and I have been waiting for some sun to come and warm up the crops here on the island. Berries are definitely more expensive this year due to the huge lack of spring sunshine. Wine too.

After a trip to the farms today, to fetch raspberries and wine, I tried a recipe of Susan's that incorporates my fave berry and cake too. Yummy! Since I'm such a baking maverick I messed with the recipe, so I could add my fave chewy thing (oats) to this lovely moist berry cake.



If my grandpa were still here, he'd love this cake I think. he and I shared a love for Candy Cookies, a simple mix of oats, brown sugar and melted butter. I added oats to this cake and made candy cookie for the crumble top. It tastes divine! I hope to make a bunch tomorrow and freeze them for the fall. While it was tasty with vanilla ice cream, it's even better straight-up in the palm of your hand.

The water guns have inspired a cops and robbers/wild west situation around here. I've had to protect myself (and our badly damaged wood floors) by instituting a no-guns-or-wet-butts-in-the-house rule.





We had a lovely visit with Shona, Isla and Bryn this weekend. We took in the organic islands festival, a Hannah Georgas concert, biked for gelato and watched the World Cup finals together. Much face-painting, playmobil and paddle pool fun was had by the kidlets.

When they drove away Ivy cried for her pal Bryn.



Leif has surprised us with another installment in his comic series, Bob and Lob. It is awesome, as always! I love how he draws the same background for each frame, the same as the previous one, as it goes with the story. That he remembers such a detail. I think my brother used to draw comics as a young boy. And Leif's father used to draw comics for me, back in our courting days. Though I've dropped many a hint about how much I adored his little literary adventures, the courting days are over (boo hoo) and I think our comic exchanges are a thing of the past. Thank goodness our son can pick up the slack for us, cause we are too dang worn out!




And I don't know if this will stop soon, but Hannah's teeth are just bursting out of her mouth. Now she's a total jack-o-lantern, and we're forever getting her to repeat herself, because her lisp is so darned cute!




This week we have soccer camp, more ice cream walks and much baking and crafting on the menu.

C

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Here are some pics.

Here are some of the windows I told you about recently. Hannah did a wizard:



I did some flowers:



We've been having some serious laundry-needs-folding denial around here.



I finally tackled it tonight (because Shona needs that sfa bed tomorrow!). Now we can see how long we'll all avoid putting it away.




And Hannah has lost another tooth, sporting an odd reverse-vampire look.




Now for a cool, non-cooking dinner. Not a big problem, we rarely cook dinner anymore anyway!

C

Summer!!!!!!!!

As a heat wave rolls across Canada, I try to tap into the minds of those wierd folks who love the heat. Me, I like living on the Wet-Coast. The rain, the clouds, the sun that's usually not too hot. Sign me up! So this week, we've found our own ways to say Hello, I love You to this god-forsaken heat.

We've found 3 different ice-cream/gelato options in our little nearby Oak Bay Village. We go daily. The Tudor Sweet Shop has a mint ice cream with chunks of mint chocolates in it, and it cools as it goes down my throat. Yummy! They use these crunchy, tasty mini waffle cones made by a fellow in Duncan (love the local-ness!). The kids are lovers of mango gelato from Ambrosio grocery around the corner from Nicholas Randall.

Our first ice cream journey we stopped in at our local toy store (Timeless Toys, independant and carries no electronic toys) and nabbed some great things: a book on balloon animals that we hope I can master in time for next week's block party (we'll keep you posted); stained-glass colouring books of dragons and flowers; these cool colouring crayons that are like lipsticks, you draw and then smudge them, like pastels but lighter-weight.

The next day we nabbed a cool little garden wind chime from the local hardware store (they're going out of business, retirement beckons, everything's on sale!). I love it because it's subtle, makes a wee tinkling but is not crazy-annoying to our neighbours. Four bucks! Oh, and I got the kids water guns. Yes, a decade after I vowed I wouldn't, and taught the kids war was not something you *played* at, my thinking has shifted. Ivy has two little ones and the other two have a big one each. Kit is hoping for his own Daddy-sized super-soaker, but I'm not so down with that just yet.

We stay in a lot, where it's cool and shady, colouring stained-glass windows, watching season 6 of Road to Avonlea and the World Cup. What happened to Ghana really pissed me off. I know, I know, it's how the game is played, and I'd have likely hand-balled it too. But still, it sucks. As I type this, they are all in the livingroom building train tracks and watching Winnie-The-Pooh. Awesome.

We went down to Seattle this past weekend. Kit was in a huge Ultimate tourney (1000 players, yikes!) and we were way overdue on our Ashley/Virginia and Mike/Gail visits. It was great. I was worrried we'd be overwhelmed by crowds in a big city on a holiday weekend, but we scored. On our first day we checked out Gasworks Park, then stumbled upon a kids carnival ride scene, and it was awesome! Rides were cheap and the right size, lines were non-existant and the caramel corn was delicious. We stayed for hours and garnered a parking ticket for our troubles. :) Aubrey came along with Ashley to meet us, and he did his first foray into the fun world of carny rides. Sorry guys, no pics. They we hit the playground and the kids joined in a game of baseball, then off to Ashley and Virginia's for some fab homemade pizza. They always feed us well.

The next day we set out for the Woodlands Park Zoo. Such a cool zoo (but fyi their caramel corn isn't so fab). We were there for hours and only covered half of it. Here's a bunch of pics because yes, it was a bring-the-camera-kind-of-day.

First, they have the coolest feature. A room full of birds that are trained to eat of a stick. They landed all over Hannah and gave Ivy the scratchy-on-your-skin-creepies. It was so cool!







Here are the girls (Hannah, Mike and Gail's daughter Amelia and Ivy) on the komodo dragon statue. Why not right?



My girls on a blue ball statue thingy. (A memorial to an elephant that died at the zoo).



The boy on the ball.



Leif and Ivy LOVED this way cool slide-inside-a-fake-tree thingy.



We are definitly repeating both activities on our next trip South. We may take in some concerts and do a Portland road trip ater this year, and Seattle will be one of our stops. I will have a new neice or nephew to say hello to by then! Woohooo!

Hannah was happiest when she got to hold this little cutie:



That's Mike and Gail's wee boy Finnegan Henry (such a cool name huh?). Leif and Hannah fought over him most of the time, and asked again why we can't have more babies. We've explained the mechanics, and while the guilt of denying them this joy weighs on me, the thought of never being pregnant again makes me one happy mama. It's all good kiddos.

Now, when we are not eating ice cream or having water fights, we are tidying house for a visit from Shona and the girls this weekend. The kids have already helped in the layout department:





For the record, Shona does not smoke, I don't know where that came from, and don't care. I'll take any help offered.

I hope you're relaxing, wherever you are. :)

kisses
C

Freedom!

Yes, that's how it feels. After blogging about the kids weekly learning for a year, I'm not liking it. Our blog is supposed to be fun, silly and enjoyable stuff about us. It felt so dry and chore-like, and took the fun out of blogging and made their homeschool reporting really irritating for me. So, that's it. We're back to blog-as-usual, and I'll do the reporting seperatly, and privately.

A quickie post before the weekend hits us. Here's what's been going on with us:



Yes indeed, Hannah has lost another tooth. And there are 2 more wiggly ones. Her teeth are so close together, any new ones are relly going to need to fight for space.

I am most happy, as I have cracked the secret to creamy, resaurant-style homous. I found a blog all about homous, and the secret is in the order that you blend your ingredients. Tahini, lemon juice and water FIRST, then garlic and salt, then oil and beans, in small batches. It is the most delicious, tsty paste I've ever made. And I plan to make more today. It's a house of garlic breath over here.



In other cooking joys, we're on a crumble kick. I froze lots of apple pie filling in the fall, and now I can thaw it and bake it and breakfast is oh-so-tasty and warm.



Comics and manga are still big around here, and getting bigger. I can get lots of different styles from our library and the kids are nose-deep in them every day.



And what are they doing when they're not in manga-land? Here's a hint:



Yes, rollerblading around the house in their skivvies is exactly it. Ivy chases after Leif and Hannah with her grape-vine and wool lasso, trying to net herself a new pet. It's an odd backdrop to our lives, and they love it.


This week we're watching Narnia's Prince Caspian every day. Oh and speaking of tuning out electronically, we are all hooked (I'm the worst!) on this new video game. Kit set a high score, so I went in to beat him, then Leif beat mine. So now I need to set a higher one. Yeah, we're basically eating snack foods and playing video games all day. It's great!


I've come across a new website I'm loving to read. It's right up my alley.

Oh and I am SO excited for Christmas this year. Know why? Because of THIS.


Now you're sort of up-to-date. I'll be back soon; right now it's my turn on Bubble Town.


lots o' kisses

C

He needed to retaliate (Week 36)

I've waxed poetic (or talked with excitement) about this great PBS tv show called Martha Speaks. Yes it's an educational show, but unlike all the rest, it is actually well done, so funny, and enjoyed by all ages. It's MY favorite show people! And lately I've been noticing some great things coming out of the kids mouths that I can relate back to this show.

As we all know, I have the vocabulary of a long shoreman. If I need a word, I too often rely on slang jargon that sounds crass, juvenile and cheap. I don't hide this, and I have no time to care about it, for myself. The kids know I have a lazy, unimaginative vocabulary, and I encourage them to find the right word for how they feel, to not fall back on my standards.

So Leif and I are out playing tennis one day this week, and I hit it too hard to the back of the court, and he returns it with such force it clears the fence behind me and heads into the field. Then he says "Sorry Mom, but you hit it so hard to me and I had to retaliate". Oh yeah, that's a word. I would've said 'get you back'. Lazy.

I'm trying to explain the title of an Avonlea episode to Hannah. The title is a play on words, based on a common saying. I'm falling all over myself trying to explain what a saying is, it's a thing we say Hannah, to describe a moment or a feeling, but it's a standard sentence we use . . . argh. And she says "You mean it's an expression?". Thank you lord for providing me with the word I was looking for! Yes Hannah, an expression is what it is.

Hannah has been hired for a dog walking job this week. It sounded lke a great idea, a perfect opportunity for this kid who wants to have responsibilities (and money). Benny is a young shitzu type of guy who lives 2 doors away. When Hannah went for her first walk, he wouldn't leave the house with her, and their bigger golden retriever dog kept knocking her over. We're working on a solution.

Leif continues to enjoy playing hockey, watching the playoffs and tracking the hockey pool. Our wekly homeschoolers hockey days are going well, and are the highlight of his week.

Both kids have been enjoying playing a game that Leif came up with. You go in the back yard and hide somewhere in plain sight, using camouflage. So Leif wears all green and hides in the trees, for example. Then I come out and stand in one spot and try to see them.

Ivy just stands in the playhouse doorway and says "I'm in here!".

We've started lighting candles at dinner, and it has become an issue of who gets to light them (Leif or Hannah). There are 3 candles, and they've worked out a solution of how to share this task. Hannah lights 2 candles, then blows one out. Then Leif lights the remaining two. Pretty smart huh?

I'll leave you with a little chat on motivation, and how what you think motivates people doesn't really motivate people.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html


C

Not a woolly bear but a ??(Week 35)

After such a warm winter we are now flush with caterpillars to study. But what kind are they? We've definitely got an abundance of tent caterpillars in our apple tree. Leif and Hannah and Ivy spent hours up in the tree trying to collect and remove them. But we've run across a caterpillar that I recognise from childhood, it must be a common BC bug, but we cannot find it in any books or websites. When we search for 'orange hairy caterpillar BC' we only get returns on the woolly bear caterpillar, which is not the one we're looking for. No, I did not remember to snap a picture of it to show you.

We are all about celebrating the arrival of Spring around here. We finally cleared off the table and are really working to keep it clear, and our motivation for this is our lovely spring table display, some found nests, my first knit and felted nest and a newly knit and felted bunny.



Inspired by this, Hannah made a sign for all of us to remind us of the celebratory feeling of a new season



(Throw off your coats it's springtime!) (with a drawing of Leif about to fall back into a lawn chair under an umbrella, Happy birds and Ivy floating through the sky.)

And what is Spring without May Day? The complementary celebration to Hallowe'en, May Day is a celebration to bless the coming growing season and celebrate all growth, from plants to baby animals. We have a homeschoolers May Day each year out in Saanich and this year was as lovely as always.



One part of May Day is the pocket lady, who has an apron full of pockets with little treasures inside. You reach in and get a surprise. This year I had such fun making these super-cute pinecone necklaces (based on these) for the pocket lady. I love the fat little pinecones with their crocheted tops!



Another new, spring-like thing that happened this week was this:





My darling fellow got a haircut (at mama's salon of course!). His long hair was beloved, but hard to take care of when you are forever losing the hair elastics you need for aikido and soccer (we're talking 3 elastics a week). We found a style that blended the familiar longer hair in the front with much easier-to-care-for short hair in the back and sides. It looks awesome!

His first appearance with his new do was at his first soccer game on his new team. He made a fantastic save as keeper on a corner kick, tipping it up and over the net with his fingers. The crowd cheered!

Leif's been challenged this week with the concept of disappointment. He learned of a local street hockey league that he'd LOVE to join, but it is impossible with his other classes to fit it in. And his team jersey for soccer most likely will not have his chosen number on the back. :( These are big things for him. But the upside is that over time, the disappointments do not seem so huge, and do feel manageable, which is exactly the lesson to learn from them. Sigh. Growing up can be a bitch at times.

I scored this brain teaser at a yard sale and Leif works on it a little each day.



Hannah is bursting with creative ideas these days (when is she not?). This resulted in a new necklace for me:



And one for Ivy:



And a simple lunch time meal was another avenue for Hannah to think outside the box. Who wants a boring old plate of veggies and tofu when you can make it a forest of intrigue and design?



Through some ingenious re-arranging on my part (I split our L sofa into 2 sofas. Not possible? I beg to differ!) Hannah's drum kit could get space front-and-center in the living room.



Now there is light and an audience, and Hannah (and others) are inspired to experiment on the drums throughout the day. Woohoo!

We've been soaking up the Sun whenever we can, and this includes 3D puzzles and boardgames on the finished front patio.



This T-Rex puzzle posed some challenges as it was bought used and so came without any instructions. I actually thought this was good, as we had to think about his body and relate the bones to our own bodies, and then group them by shape and size. Now that he's built, where oh where to put him?



This is Ivy's favorite game, Peter Rabbit's burrows and paths (think snakes and ladders), and it is challenging, both numerically and spatially. We play it any chance we get!

Happy May!!

Caelen

Time apart makes the heart grow (Week 34)

We had a lovely new experience this week. Kit had the camping bug on the weekend, and Leif's weekend was full of soccer meets, so we split up. Kit and Hannah went on a Gulf Island camping adventure, and I had a slumber party weekend with my two Capricorns. We got along famously. :)

First, Hannah's campsite pics:





She really liked being part of the whole scene: choosing a site, setting up the tent and chairs, cooking the meals. And the S'mores, both before bed and after EVERY meal. She's a Campfire Girl alright. They skipped rocks and checked out the forest, and just had a darned good time together those two!

Over here we did the soccer thing, the Thai take-out thing, and then headed out to Saanich to a fave walking spot, in Gowlland Tod Park.









I love this smokestack off in the forest. The park is the site of an old quarry, so there's bits of buildings here and there.



At home, Hannah became interested in a science kit we were given ages ago. It's a batteries-out-of-nature type of thing, and goes something like this:



It was a really tough concept to explain to her, but she liked doing the experiments, and we got all of them to work except the power-from-water one.

In other news, the second hand fairy has been kind to us this week. I scored 8 of these fantastic glasses at the thrift store. I LOVE them, so much that I've made an adults only rule about them, because I really, really don't want them to break.



And we scored a used games table with various surfaces to play on, and now they can play:





And I can craft:



And we can all be together in the same space. Nice.

Some great articles and links have come my way lately, and they're worth the time to read or watch.

One is about how children (and adults) should really learn math, by how they use math.

Another is a documentary I'd love to see called Race To Nowhere. It's incredible what we expect of our children, and how we see it as a reflection on ourselves.

Leif and Hannah were talking about who they would be in gov't (harper vs. Campbell based on their roles, not because they like either of them or not) and this lead to Leif wanting to give examples to Hannah of the different types of gov'ts there are in the world. This lead us to Wiki and my trying to explain how Canada's Constitutional Monarchy style differs from other similar Parliamentary styles. it was tricky, but I think we'll revisit it later in life. :)

We've had some great chats about gender this week. The kids have asked why is it so important to everybody, why is it only what's between your legs when you're born that makes such a difference? That it *should* be up to the person to choose which one they want to be (and i say yeah, but we're born already one or the other), which lead to Can you do or eat certain things to change your gender, and that lead us to people who are neither male nor female, and how we lack the necessary terms and acceptance for these other genders, that we still aim to put everyone in one of two boxes. Oh, how I love these out-of-nowhere chats.

I'll leave you with some funky, cool and kinda' haunting music that Hannah has created. She's taken tunes she knows how to play, but used different keys, not played the 'correct' notes, and thus created her own songs. See if you can pick out the 2 familiar tunes in this piece.



C