A Pacific Alphabet

This is a wonderful book to read. Not only is the vocabulary inside full of rhymes but the author has used each letter several times to start words on each page....for example...the letter B starts off "Blue whales make bubbles..."

The illustrations are pieces of art and are also full of the letter you are reading about. There is a page at the back that also lists items by the letter so you can see if you missed any.

This book is great as it can engage all ages. Highly recommended.

Birthday Celebrations

Last weekend was little PK's first birthday. We turned it into a birthday weekend and headed for Rathtrevor Beach.

He seemed quite taken with this ducky, which I believe was due to the fact that he can make it move - such a grown up boy.

There is great fun in the destruction of sandcastles. It took daddy working at super speads to keep ahead of little PK's ability to destroy them with his new outdoor tools.

But the most wonderful thing is wading in the warm water on this beach.

Or maybe it was the taste of his first birthday cake. Nothing tastes so birthday as a DQ icecream cake on a hot sunny day.

Or perhaps it's the nap that comes when you've had a long, busy day surrounded by your extended family and are cuddled into your new jacket and hat that was made with love from your grandmother.

I make this birthday banner from a tutorial I found at Vanilla Joy. I changed it up slightly by using some of the clothes that PK has grown out of that had gotten stained and so weren't really worth keeping but made you kind of sad to throw out. I hope to add to it in the next couple of years as I am sure there will be more clothes that end in the same stained fate!

Chili Lime Baba Ganoush

New recipe, and rediscovered vegetable all in one. I quite enjoyed.


Ingredients:
• 2 medium eggplants
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cumin

Preparation:
Pierce eggplant and broil until skin in charred.
Allow to cool slightly, then scoop out inside of eggplant, leaving skin behind.
Smoosh eggplant and remaining ingredients until smooth

On the Window Sill

Double fortunes from September 5ths dinner out.

"Moneywise, you are lucky this month"
"You shall soon be rewarded for your endeavors"

Fortune Found

We all have what some might consider strange quirks. I have a lot of them and here is one such example - I keep my Chinese Fortune Cookie Fortunes. You will find them in odd little places around the home - tucked into my daily planner, in my bedside basket, in the console of my car or in my purse or...well you get the picture. So in a bid to clean up my home I have decided to simply post my fortunes here. What a fun way to re-find my fortunes.

"A new chapter in your life is being written"

Creamy Cauliflower Soup

A yummy meal of Cream of Cauliflower Soup and Baking Powder biscuits was consumed by all as our second veggie dinner of the week. We also had a meal of tomato, onion and garlic pizzas with a greek salad on the side. Now off to work on PK's b-day banner.

The Story of Five Shrivelled and Forgotten Potatoes

Once upon a time, in a warm and well used pantry in a land called the Clarke household there lived a potato bin. Now in that potato bin there lived a supply of potatoes and whenever the potatoes moved away new potatoes would quickly arrive to take their place. For some strange reason though a couple, or five to be more precise, of potatoes chose not to leave the bin and there they lived until one day the overseer of the potato bin, Sonja, found them huddled at the back, shrivelled and dehydrated.

I am sorry little potaoes but your time has come, you must leave the potato bin declared Sonja and they were whisked away to meet their end in the compost bin. But for some strange reason on their walk to the compost bin Sonja got distracted by a bare patch of soil in her vegetable garden. Hmmm...she thought.....I guess the worse thing that could happen is that they don't grow and I have wasted this patch of dirt for the year. So the potatoes were saved from the compost bin and they in turn grew and multipled and supplied Sonja and her family with a large bowl (8.5 lbs) of new potatoes on which to feast.

Explore Somewhere New

The challenge - to go somewhere new each week

September 4 - Spectacle Lake Park

Spectacle Lake Park

Today we explored Spectacle Lake Park. I wouldn't reccomend doing the walk around the lake with a stroller - I think I had more upper arm workout then leg but it was a fun trip around the lake. We had a snack on the beach at the end of our walk. A nice natural quiet park.

I don't like graffiti in general but when it's possitive like this I can't help but smile.

Exploring the beach.

Some leftover art from a past visitor.

We then drove home the long way through Cowichan Bay and stopped in at Cowichan Bay Farm for some pasture raised chicken and dropped in at True Grain bakery for a fresh loaf of bread and some stone ground wheat for baking at home.

Garden Goodness

Last night's picks from the garden included sorrel, tomatoes, strawberries, and cucumbers. The sorrel was turned into a yummy pesto for rotini and beans (PK loved it!). Tomatoes eaten in the garden as an appi - PK still working on picking only the ripe ones and the strawberries were put into the freezer for some winter time goodness.

Exercise Everyday

September
1 - Walk to Silver Mine Estate's to return a canning jar
2 - Walk with my niece T (saw a buck and ate some blackberries)
3 - Walk down Peerless, Shinrock, Stein with PK
4 - Walk around the lake at Spectacle Lake park

A Book a Day with PK

My Little Book of Animals
Inside Noah's Ark
Bendon Bear and the Gentle Animals
Big Farm Friends
Who's Hiding on the Farm
Bendon Bear and the Farm Animals
A Pacific Alphabet

32 By 33

I saw this on another blog and thought it was a great idea. A list of things to accomplish by your next birthday - therefore I have 32 things to accomplish by my 33rd birthday (May 17). Obviously I may or may not get them all done but the importance is the act of working towards these goals, of believing in the possibility of accomplishing them and taking action to create them.

So here is the list.

1. Exercise everyday
2. Read PK a book everyday
3. Go on a volunteer vacation
4. Try a new food or retry a forgotten food every month
5. Save $200 every month
6. Have friends over for dinner every month
7. Install a berry patch in my yard
8. Drink more water
9. Go somewhere new each week
10. Get back to pre-pregnancy weight
11. Read Simple Abundance everyday
12. Start a business
13. Plant a vegetable or fruit in garden that I haven't grown before
14. Read a novel of a genre I don't typically read
15. Run a 10K in under 60
16. Eat more fruits & vegetables - less refined foods
17. Read a spiritual passage everyday
18. Finish PK's quilt
19. Take a course
20. Go to Peru
21. Eat 2 vegetarian dinners a week
22. Get back to wedding day weight
23. Volunteer once a month
24. Keep a gratitude journal
25. Create PK's Christmas stocking
26. Install a cut flower garden
27. Complete one craft/sewing project per month
28. Say 'I love you' and 'Thank you' to my husband every day
29. Visit my grandparents more often
30. Go on a date with my husband every month
31. Try 1 new recipe every week
32. Put together Pk's photo album

Camping bliss

Friday through monday was spent at Qualicum. The campsite left something to be desired but thankfully when you are spending time with friends it is easy to forget.

New friends


Fair fun



Sandy sculpting



And for todays news........my little sister is expecting #2....yeah!!!!

The 100-mile diet

So I just finished reading this great book by Alisa Smith & J.B. MacKinnon. They challenged themselves to eat a diet of locally grown (within 100 miles) foods for 1 year. The book itself is a mix of their individual feelings about what was going on in their lives, the foods they ate, the sourcing of the foods, the history of the areas the foods were coming from and much, much more. I found myself totally engrossed in this book and tempted to challenge myself to such an undertaking. But how am I to do this with the way my husband eats and with a 10 month old child.

I think however, that I could perhaps work towards such a goal. Start with buying as much BC produced products and then start to eliminate those that contain out of province items and then gradually to local grown only.

To start I have chosen to cook dinner tonight consisting of salmon caught just off our coast and island grown potatoes and beets. The lettuce and carrots are unfortunately imports as that is what is currently in my fridge. Dessert (if we have any) will be either Island farms icecream (a far cry from the real thing but locally produced) or perhaps some wonderful cookies from True Grains bakery (right here in Cow Bay)...oh and of course the bread if eaten will be from the same wonderful bakery.

Forever and a day.....

Well it has been a long time since I posted anything here. I don't think I realized how busy life would get with a child....and I only have one! This is a very short post with just one pic but it is my way of recommitting to an on-line log of life.



Taken last night of PK with his new pal from Aunty K and Uncle D

Light bulb ornaments

I love painted christmas lightbulb ornaments. They are on my list of someday when I have time I am going to do this. Here are some great ideas I have found of the good old web world. Enjoy.






Reindeer
Collection of many designs
Etsy collection

Mommy Madness

Ahh yes the joys of being a mother. Today I had one of those moments where I probably would have burst into tears if it had occured a week or two ago but today I had to surpress bursting into hysterical laughter for fear of waking the little man.

So here is how to story goes.....little man is having a grumpy morning. We have just finished a diaper change, mommy milk and bottle top up. I put him into his bouncy chair and he gets mad because he can't reach his toys. I prop him up so he can reach them and he promptly bursts into tears and starts crying. I pick him up, he settles down, I put him down on his blanket, he starts crying.....hmmmm goes mommy, maybe time for the cuddly wrap. On it goes, in he goes, a few more tears and suddenly someone is asleep.

Mommy thinks strange that he has zonked but I guess he feels the need to rest. Well let's see what we can do with him in his cuddly. Mommy carefully pours bottles of water with arms outstretched in front of her, trying to accurately pour a dozen bottles to send with her little man to grammy and grampas house for his first sleep over. Eleven bottles poured and mommy runs out of boiled water. Fill up yhe kettle and turn on. Okay finish this later thinks mommy. Now what?

Mommy should eat lunch now or it could be a while. What does the fridge contain? Hmmm, how about the leftover stirfry...that should taste good cold...we don't want to risk burning little man if we were to have some sauce drip now would we. Mmmmm, yummy lunch being carefully eaten over the head of sleeping little man...container held to chin...all of a sudden while spearing one of those juicy prawns the container does a flip, flys out of mommys hands, does a perfect 360 and lands on the floor.

Mommy stands in kitchen with horrified expression on face..Oh dear thinks mommy what am I going to do? Stirfry covers much of the kitchen floor with mommys feet in the middle of it. Do I risk waking little man by taking him out of cuddly? How can I clean up without doing so? Hhhmmmmm, dish towel onto feet and carefully remove mommy from the kitchen. Now what?

How about a picture to remember this crazy moment? Yes indeed. Then out came the handy dandy swiffer sweeper. A couple of dry clothes followed by a wet one or two and voila....the mommy saves the day as lillte man is still asleep. Now how about that lunch...

Oh yes, here is to photo of the day.

Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood

I thought it might be fun to post about the books we have on PK's book shelf. Maybe write about the story, thoughts, likes/dislikes, etc. This book starts the listing by default as the first book picked up. I absolutely love the illustration. Th story is short and easy to read. You can teach about obeying your parents and the dangers of strangers with this book. Get's my vote as a keeper.

PK

Now officially hooked up to the net from home but of course not much time to spend updating site as to what I am doing or what PK is doing. Picture above was taken to celebrate the beautiful fall colours around us. PK is now 9 weeks and such a big boy. This morning he rolled on to his side for the first time (or atleast while I was watching).