Today is All Souls Day. A special day for us to remember those departed before us.For All Souls Day we made "sole" imprints (I'm a sucker for bad puns) and talked a little about death. I mentioned to my children that today we remember all those that have died. Monkey...
Tonight we dressed in costumes and went door to door collecting goodies. Monkey was Spiderman, Sweetpea was a zebra and Teddy stayed home with Papa.There aren't many children in our area so people were very generous with what they gave. We came home with...
We can see snow in the mountains across the lake. My children were asking if the snow would be coming soon for them to play in. We'll probably need to drive up into the mountains to play in the snow. It's such a strange concept to me.Watching the trees rustle in the...
[September 2013] Updated recipe: Chinese Plum Sauce 2.0In the last few years I've stopped canning unique foods like chutneys in favour of more basic, versatile foods such as canned tomatoes. Every family has their favourite foods and it takes...
The last couple days have been filled with fun activities for my children. It's been a nice change of pace and a great opportunity to meet new families.We joined a group of home learners for a tour of a Summerland Sweets, producer of fruit syrups, jams, and candies as...
This year all of our tomatoes came from Covert Farms. They were organic and we paid $0.60/lb if we picked them ourselves. This year we picked 200lbs of field tomatoes and 260lbs of Roma tomatoes. It was hard work and most of it I did on my own with the three little...
We eat a lot of salsa in our home. Not long ago I made twenty pints of salsa. I swear it was twenty pints, but now I'm only counting sixteen. Today I summoned the courage to preserve the last box of tomatoes. I scrounged up every last pint jar hiding in my...
When we decided to move South we weren't sure if the rabbits would join us. There were so many unknowns. We thought we might rent a place at first, which meant we couldn't bring the rabbits. Then we bought a place, so rabbits were an option again. In the end...
We brought our kids to daycare. That's right, I couldn't wait any longer. Not with this great place being a mere five minute drive away. Now before you jump to conclusions take a close look at the picture below. Yes, that's right. It's the Daycare rock face at Skaha...
When I bring my three little children on outings I am noticing, with significant regularity, how many people ask if Monkey (4.5) is in preschool.A couple weeks ago, when school started, I contacted the local French preschool program, twice, and I sent an email, but I...
My children have been helping me pick and preserve produce for the last week. I felt like we needed a break. This morning we joined a group of home-schooling families at a local heritage site, the Kettle Valley Steam Railway.When we left home this morning...
We have been to the U-Pick at Covert Farms almost half a dozen times in the last few weeks. More than half the trips I've braved alone with my three little children (4, 2 and 6 months). I think I'm starting to understand how to make these U-Pick trips fun (for...
I like lemons. As I child I'd suck on pieces of lemon for fun. They're so lip-puckering delicious. So, I never understood the expression "when life gives you lemons, make lemonade!". One thing I don't like, however, is a mushy watermelon. It's such...
Our stuff is slowly finding spots around the house. There are still many boxes to unpack but I've moved them to the basement so that they can be conveniently ignored. There hasn't been much time for unpacking, not with all the produce needing to be...
We have just returned from a houseboating adventure on Shuswap lake. It was meant to be a time of rest and relaxation for everyone, especially for my father who just completed his first ever Ironman triathlon. My husband couldn't join us so I went with the three...
It was an early morning for all of us. We woke up just before 5am and left our in-laws home by 515am. It's a forty-five minute drive from their house to the hospital. Traffic is non-existent that early in the morning so we made it to the hospital just before 6am....