Victoria Catch Up

Like I said, I'm back in Victoria!  Tomorrow kickstarts Eli's "Birthday Week."  That's right, we are celebrating his fourth birthday for an entire WEEK.  You see, Eli wants a pirate birthday, and seeing as we are in the best place ever to celebrate such a birthday, why not make sure we do it up right.  We just couldn't do that in only one day, so we welcome Birthday week!!!  We're starting it off by going to Buccaneer Days in Esquimalt! It's like The Calgary Stampede, but with Pirates instead of Cowboys!  How can we resist!  We've got costumes, and the boys have done their hair (just wait!), and I have never been so excited for a birthday week in my life (except, perhaps, when I was four - I don't really rememeber, but I'm guessing.)

But until tomorrow, let me grace you with some more beautiful pictures of this beautiful island I am living on.  This one we visited before we left. Can I say that I love castles?  Why are there no castles in Calgary?  I think when I become rediculously rich I will build one for myself. While the vast majority of the time I dream of being part of a Louis Lamour book, sometimes I think it would be awefully neat to be in a Jane Austen novel as well.  Couldn't I combine the two, somehow.  In any case, my castle will look something like this:

 But, my lion fountain will work much better than this:

 And I will have one of these crazy monkey trees in my yard, although, seeing as I will have a castle, I will call my yard a garden, or a courtyard, or something even more delightful.

 Of course, once we got back the first order of business was obvious.  We went straight to the beach to hunt for sea stars. We didn't find any, but we did find crabs.  Lots of crabs. And dead crabs, crab shells, crab legs... you get the point. 

 

You think we'd learn and bring a change of clothes when we go to the beach, but no, we always leave with the boys in their unders because their clothes are filthy and wet. Oh well, they have fun.

Come back tomorrow for Eli's Birthday Week, 2011!!!  Yeah!

We're Back

Perhaps I have confused you with my onslaught of posts about Victoria, and then my silence about it.  No, I did not fall out of love.  No, nothing terrible happened.  Yes, I'm back, and extremely happy about it.  You see, only three short weeks into our Victoria adventure the boys and I had to return to Calgary to take care of a few things, the most important of which was that I had to attend a birth, as a doula.  Although the baby chose to come a week late, and although I was itching to be back in Victoria, I was so glad to have been there.  I love what I do!  It was an amazingly beautiful birth, the momma laboured for 15 1/4 hours, pushed out her sweet baby in only 4 contractions, and nine minutes, held her newborn bundle on her chest for half an hour before any measurements or anything were done on her, and then breastfed right away. It could not have been more perfect!  I can't believe how much I love each of the couples and babies that I work with.  My favourite part is watching the dads comfort the moms.  The love I see in the eyes of a husband, watching his wife go through that to bring their baby into the world is absolutely priceless.  Honestly, I love what I do!

If you are wondering what happened with the Slave Lake collection, I'm happy to report that my friend Katey and her family we able to take full advantage of all the wonderful donations.  She still hadn't been home when she came by to go through the bags and bags of things, and she was able to take so many things that she needed for her family.  I was so overcome with the generosity of those who donated as I went through the rest of the things to organize it for donation.  With the outpouring of love from so many people, the people in Slave Lake were pretty specific about what they needed to be donated.  I was able to give what they needed, and anything that was left over I made sure it got to women in need in Calgary (through a few different shelters and organizations.)  Again, thank you so much for showing me what charity really is.  I wasn't the recipient of the donations, but I certainly gained from the experience.  To all of you who helped out, thanks!


Also while I was in Calgary I spent two entire weekends with Jared's family.  It was wonderful.  My nefew, Henrik (I saw him being born, too) was blessed at church, and there was a big family party afterward.  I love baby blessings, because everyone gathers together, not only to welcome the baby into the world, but to welcome them into the gospel, and as part of the plan of salvation.  I love seeing the babies surrounded by the arms of the Priesthood, held up by the worthy members of their family.  It is such a wonderful metaphor for the rest of their lives!  I love baby Henrik so much!

The next weekend I went to a Hudson Family Reunion, Jared's mom's family. I am so blessed to have made it into such a wonderful family. Seriously.  Some would think that a weekend with 50+ people would be a little overwhelming, but for me it was total comfort.  I wouldn't know what to do without the madness of such a big family around me.  We went to the zoo, partied at the church together, and otherwise just caught up on the lives of each other since the last Hudson gathering. I'm not sure how many people are as lucky as me to have in-laws that are as much family as their own. 

 

 Trying out ape arms.  Check out Eli's mean ape face.

 

 Eli helped Rhiannon be an ape, too

 You should hear Silas's peacock call. It's actually quite accurate.

Eli and Uncle Michael watching some baby goslings out the window (and yes, I realize that "baby goslings' is a little redundant, but that's what they are.)

 Silas and Aunt Rose.

And while we were at the zoo, we saw this guy:

He was over here, too.

And I think that brings me back to Victoria, where we have just two more weeks to see and do it all. I wish it were a month, or two, but I plan on making the most of it.  I really do love this place!

You Win Some, You Lose Some - Long sleeve oxford shirt to short sleeve - Mini Tutorial

I love it when I have an idea that I think is just going to be brilliant, but it turns out a flop.  It keeps me humble (and my kids too, since they usually have to wear my flopped creation or otherwise participate in its use.) 

Silas has just moved up a size of clothing.  Every time I do that I am surprised how dirty and worn the clothes are. I'm sure they weren't like that when I put them in the bins two years ago...  Eli wore the same clothes in the summer, so I don't have a lot of pants, but I've acquired a few hand me downs and giveaways, and so Silas's drawers are stocked.  One pair of GAP jeans, oh so cute, had a big stain on the knee that I couldn't get out.  It looks like whoever wore it before knelt in tar.  I didn't want to waste a pair of precious jeans, and I certainly can't afford to buy new ones when I've got perfectly good old ones around (albeit a little stained), so I decided that I needed to make them work, tar stain or not.  Unfortunately, this was one project that wasn't so brilliant. I 'embroidered' right over the stain, thinking it would look artistic, but now it just looks like he knelt in red paint.  But somehow red paint seems more acceptable than tar, so he'll wear them anyway. 

Tar stain.

Strange red stain.

Whatever, he thinks it's cool, and I'm pretty sure that Winston agrees.

On the other hand, sometimes I make things work and I love it!  

I did manage to come up with a creative solution this week. My boys wear white shirts and ties to church every week.  I love dressing them up!  However, after a long winter, both boys have only long sleeved shirts.  Silas has the sweetest little short outfit that would look much better with a short sleeved shirt.  So, I took one of his shirts with rather stained cuffs and made it into what I wanted.  I love not having to spend money on fresh, new stuff for my boys! 

 Step 1: Use either a short sleeved button up shirt or a t-shirt as a pattern to determine where to cut the sleeves off. 

Step 2: Cut the sleeves about an inch and a half longer than you want them to be at the end, parallel to the present cuffs.

Step 3: Fold the arms under twice and press. 
Step 4: Sew in a straight line at 5/8" around the arm (this is a little tricky, as the arm is too narrow to go around the sewing machine, so make sure you only are sewing through one layer while you do this).
Step 5: Sew around again at 3/4".

And there you have it.  A great use of a shirt you've been using all winter, for the upcoming summer!  Of course I did this 30 minutes before I had to walk out of the door for church, so there was no time for good pictures, but I assure you he looked darling!

Italian Dinner - Raw Style

Our raw food adventure has been going on for five months now. Crazy!  We aren't eating 100% raw anymore, but we are trying as hard as we can.  Jared is my inspiration: he is way more devoted than I am.  We all feel great, and there are so many things I will keep making FOREVER!  Like, for instance, raw alfredo sauce.  Real alfredo sauce is so bad for you, and so expensive, and so hard to make. I've only made it a handful of times, ever.  And then came raw food, and raw alfredo!  I love this stuff so much.  It tastes just as good as real alfredo without the heavy, want to just lie down on the couch and sleep for the rest of your life feeling that you get after you eat an entire plate of real alfredo.  And the marinara sauce whips up in minutes and is so fresh and delicious, no need to eat tomatoes from a can ever again!  I like to mix the both together best.

Now, if this meal were truly raw I would make Zucchini pasta by either cutting zucchini into very thin, long strips, or shaving it with a vegetable peeler, or spinning it through a spiralizer.  The boys aren't overly fond of zucchini pasta, so we have started making them rice pasta instead (still staying away from gluten as much as possible.)  There is no reason not to use the raw sauces on cooked pasta!  They are delicious either way. 

I'm constantly telling Jared that raw food is an art, not a science, but that's only because I'm really bad at following recipes.  There are so many different alfredo and marinara sauce recipes out there, but I don't use any of them.  I need quick and easy recipes, so I've made my own, and here they are for you to try out!  Do enjoy, and let me know what you think.

Alfredo Sauce

2 cups of white nuts (cashews, macadamia nuts or pine nuts, or any combination of the three), soaked for 8 hours

1 1/2 cups of water, divided

1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1-3 cloves of garlic

Spices to taste

In a high speed blender mix nuts, garlic, spices and 1 cup of water.  Add more water until you reach desired consistency. 

For spices you can just as salt and pepper, or you can experiment with others, like nutmeg, or thyme, etc. 

Marinara Sauce

Three tomatoes

10-15 sun dried tomato halves

1 clove of garlic

1 tbsp of olive oil

1 tsp of salt

Spices to taste

In a high speed blender, mix all ingredients until smooth.  For spices I might add pepper, oregano, onion...

And, just so you know, my taste testers approved whole heartedly.

Eli has two plates because he finished off mine before I could.  He loved it!

Broken something

You know how band-aids fix anything? Well, some times bigger band-aids are required.

Eli fell off the couch last night.  He just rolled right off.  He fell on his wrist, and was really upset.  Being the good mom I am, I told him to suck it up and that he'd be fine.  Well, hours later he was still complaining about it, and so, being the good mom I am I wrapped it up in a tensor and told him he'd be fine.  He was so excited for his cast on his broken arm.  Of course Silas wanted one too, so we fixed up his broken foot.  He couldn't have been more pleased.

If you were worried, Eli was still complaining this morning, so, for only the second time in his entire life I took him to the doctor, who disappointingly told him that his arm wasn't broken and wouldn't require a real cast.  We went home quite dejected, but somehow I think he's going to make it.

Sleeping Beauties

My baby sister graduated from high school this week.  Craziness!  After her all-night grad party she came home with a bunch of her friends to watch movies fall asleep on the floor.

I was trying to stay out of the way, so I didn't put Silas down for a nap when I usually do.  He put himself to sleep.

I love both of them, my baby sister, and my baby.

Fashion Emergency

I went to the mall tonight. I never got to the mall.  I especially never go to the mall without my kids, which means I never go to the mall and actually look around.  Tonight I did.  And, I didn't like what I saw.  First of all, I saw that while I have always fancied myself a pretty fantastic fashionista, I don't have a single item in my wardrobe that could be considered new and hip.  Seriously.  My wardrobe 90% of the time is jeans and a t-shirt.  That's it.  I try to wear cute t-shirts, not over-sized, make my body look like a square, t-shirts, but still, it's just jeans and a t-shirt. My attempt at 'the summer of no pants' is failing dismally, and my self esteem after window shopping tonight is following it.  So, what's a girl to do? Problem number one, we have no money to deal with my suddenly pressing fashion emergency, so really, short of ripping up the clothes I own to create new wonders, shopping will continue to be a futile experience.  Problem number two, I'm afraid I just don't have it any more. I wouldn't even know where to start.  Maybe I should start ripping up?  Maybe I should pray for a giant bag of barely worn hand-me-downs from a rich relative to land on my head?  Maybe I should just go wash my jeans so I can wear them again tomorrow?