Cottage 2.0

This is the cottage I've been going to since I was little. It's rustic- think no indoor plumbing or electricity- and wonderful. I remember reading Kit Pearson's Looking at the Moon when I was younger and thinking how nice it would be to have an extended family cottage compound like the family in the novel. On the holiday weekend, I got to experience the closest thing to an island cottage where everyone goes for the whole summer.

Sunset on Friday night

Hubby says this is a typical Bible college ad

D only got to stay up for one campfire, and she loved it. Cautiously.

The baby got one bath to last her the whole weekend

D had two baths; this one, and one on Sunday morning due to pancake syrup

The extended fam on Saturday

People I love, holding kids I love

Our branch of the family tree

D's first canoe ride; again, cautious enjoyment

Hubby's specialty crepes

M dozes on the quilt our great-aunt made for D

Sweet summer

Oh, I do love summer: park visits, cottage weekends, garage sales, farmer's markets and fresh produce! After being away for two weekends in a row, we stayed in town this past weekend. On Saturday, I did the grocery shopping (ALONE and, yes, it was amazing) and stopped by a couple of garage sales. Or rather, the same garage sale twice. Initially, I bought a little Fisher-Price foldout dollhouse for 25 cents and a pair of ballet slippers for a dollar. I noticed a sweet blue dress-up gown with a tiara, but I didn't have enough cash for it with me. I figured that if I couldn't get it out of my head after grocery shopping, I'd get some money out and go back for it. By the time I got there, they were packing up the garage sale and really just looking to offload a bunch of stuff, so I got the dress and tiara, plus a second foldout dollhouse and another pair of ballet slippers, for the tremendous price of 5$. Hey, I have two girls, I'll probably need doubles of some things. So, that's D birthday shopping done. The unfortunate thing about it was that I forgot to take the gifts inside until the next morning when we were going to church, so she caught sight of one of the dollhouses. I decided to let her have it now and keep the rest of the things in her present stash for October.

D's birthday prezzies...shhh, don't tell her!

The garden thing is working better for us this year, as Hubby took over and did an awesome job. There are zucchini, tomatoes, peppers and carrots in the nicely boxed-in garden he's made. While we wait for the veggies, the fruit is almost more than we can handle. Rhubarb is done for now (I'm hoping to get a second crop later in the season, like we did last year), but we've harvested so many raspberries that even D is getting sick of them. You know those huge Becel margarine tubs? We've filled at least three or four of those, and we're not done yet. I've been on the hunt for other-than-jam recipes to use them up, and started with Smitten Kitchen's raspberry breakfast bars. I used butter for once and loved the results.

Our raspberry bushes are unbelievably abundant this year!

How on earth do food bloggers take pictures of finished products with none missing?

The girls were incredibly patient with me while we ran errands this morning, so after lunch we played in the backyard. I cleaned off D's old swing to put M in, and filled up the kiddy pool. D found some daisies in the desert wasteland of our backyard, so I picked them and tried to remember how to make a daisy garland, with mixed results. It was cute, but had no staying power and was disassembled within seconds of the photo below. M, meanwhile, seized the opportunity to try out her standing skills on the swing. I'm not even mad. That's amazing. I mean, she was belted in and everything. (But I put a quick stop to it.)

This is what we call her "flat grin". It's one of my personal faves.

You cannot leave this kid alone for a minute

(Except when she's sleeping)

Dissimilar sisters

Remember the time when D crawled up the stairs before we had baby gates? Well, because I have a blog, I can look back and see exactly when that was. August 14, 2010. Today Miss M, who started crawling at 6 months and pulling herself up at 7 months, made her way right up those same stairs. D was ten months old at the time; M is just eight.

This is just one of many points of contrast between my girls. M naps well during the day, but has only slept through the night a couple of times. D never napped in her crib (only in her swing or my arms), but she was sleeping through the night at four or five months (granted, her bedtime was much later). M started rolling over at four months; D never really rolled enough to make it into the baby book. Actually, when M started rolling, I asked D if she could do that as well, and I had to demonstrate what I meant! The girls look pretty different, too; although their colouring is similar (deep blue eyes, light brown hair), M's dimple distinguishes her smile. And overall, their features are just not that alike. Funny enough, D looks like one of my sisters, and M looks like my brother! I don't know why I'm so surprised; they are entirely different people, and have been from the start. There are so few pictures where they look alike that I've made a folder called "Similar Sisters"; it has all of five photos. This is not one of them.

My favourite milestone is coming soon, or so I hope. In early July 2010, when D was just nine months old, she woke up from a nap in Daddy's arms, looked straight over at me and said, "Mama." I can't wait to hear what M's first word will be. Probably "Go!" or something like that.

Sandbanks snapshots

This weekend was our annual family camping trip to Sandbanks, and we were blessed to be in the company of my parents, both of my sisters, and one brother-in-law. The weather was perfect (it actually started to rain a little as we left the campground), and there were very few bugs. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

OEYC works for me

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that we've only just started using the services of our local OEYC (Ontario Early Years Centre). Almost a month ago, on a rainy Monday, I thought it would be nice to visit the toy library there. We had never been, so I looked online to see what the hours were; I found that they offered drop-in playgroups in both French and English, and that the immersion playgroup (for families with limited French, which describes D although not me) was on Tuesdays.

D & me, in "la Belle Province" a few weeks ago

The girls and I have been going for the past three weeks, and it is a delight! For about an hour and a half, the kids play at whatever activity centre they want: there's painting, play dough, a sand table, a water table, a train set, a craft table, a play kitchen, and various large toys (trampoline, slide, stationary bike) and toy sets (cars, dinosaurs, potato heads) that vary from week to week. Then the kids and their care givers tidy up and gather on the carpet for about 10-15 minutes of French songs. It's been great to have the interaction with other bilingual parents, and to learn new music to sing at home; D's been humming the tunes to herself a lot lately, and occasionally tries out the words. We also picked up a copy of the play dough recipe (en français, bien sûr!), which we'll make after I've done this week's food shop. I'll never forget Prof. Paré's words to our 4th-year French class, that you can't teach someone a language without tying it to its culture. At least not if you want it to stick.

Redemptive bedtime

Since our Wednesday Bible study wrapped up almost a month ago, some of us decided to keep the fellowship going through the summer. After all, we're all free on Wednesdays anyway, we enjoy each other's company, and our kids love to play together. This week it was at Sarah's, and she has a bouncy castle in her backyard, along with a gazebo to keep the mommies in the nice, cool shade. We had a lovely time (and D had no potty accidents for once), even though M missed her morning nap. She proceeded to fall asleep on the way home, and woke up from her nap just minutes after I put D down.

This is way better than actually being in the exersaucer

So, too bad for me, there was no break until now. That being said, M is now quite mobile and entertained herself beautifully while I sorted receipts and did some tidying. She can crawl properly, and started pulling herself up on furniture last week. The kid is 7 months old, btw. I remember with D, from about 7-9 months it was a whirlwind of milestones: sitting up, then crawling, then immediately pulling herself to standing. At 9 months came my favourite one: her first word, Mama. Now, M is great at moving around, and not surprisingly, none too keen on sitting still. I don't know why I'm always surprised that my girls are so different.

Hey, how did I get myself in here? That was awesome!

M finally fell asleep in my arms around the time my sister came over to help with the dinner-bedtime routines (Hubby had evening class). She napped for all of half an hour, then was up and ready to move some more. D had been banging around her room for the better part of two hours, but did eventually fall asleep. I had to wake her up around 6, which is not something I enjoy doing. I know how rotten it is to be forced out of a comfy sleep, but it had to be done.

The cape I made her before she was born

After the baths were done, and the baby nursed and rocked, and D's teeth brushed, and the stories read, it was time for prayers. I will preface this part by saying I know D is only two and a half, and I know what happened probably doesn't count yet, but I loved her heart. Here's what happened. Whenever I pray with her at night, she chooses a few people to pray for, and I always pray for the same two things: that D's future husband will be a strong man after God's own heart (I know she may or may not marry one day, but I feel it's best to pray, just in case), and that D will choose Jesus to save her from her sins and follow him with all her heart all the days of her life. So maybe that's three things. Anyway, after I prayed and was about to say Amen, D whispered that God takes away our sins, and I whispered back that we have to ask him to first, but yes, he does. D looked up at the ceiling and murmured, "God, can you take away my sins? He took away my sins." It was the most beautiful thing I think I've ever heard, my own child asking her Creator to forgive her sins. I do realize that she's very young and that she probably doesn't fully understand the problem of sin and separation from God, or what Jesus' death and resurrection had to do with it, but she's putting the pieces together. And while it may or may not have redeemed her, it certainly redeemed my day.

Upping the produce intake and making lemonade

After a few too many pricey grocery visits in the early spring, Hubby suggested stretching our grocery shopping to three weeks instead of two. I declared it implausible, but then we tried it anyway. As it turns out, we end up emptying our cupboards and freezers more effectively, so that when we do eventually bring home three plastic tubs of food, we can actually fit it all in our house.

This week, I went a little crazy on the produce side of things. Everything just looked delicious, and no, I was not shopping on an empty stomach, although I was there sans kids. Here's what I bought:
-3 heads of cauliflower
-1 pineapple
-1 pint raspberries
-a bunch of kale
-6 sweet potatoes
-2 zucchini
-3 leeks
-2 lemons
-2 butternut squash
-celery
-giant bag of russet potatoes
-medium bag of vidalia onions
-4 bell peppers

The upside is that the trip to Food Basics only ran me about 80$, between all the fruits and veggies and the various other things like milk, pasta, sausages, hash browns, etc.

My hope is to use up everything before it goes bad, and I have three weeks. As soon as I got back from the store, I chopped up the leeks and froze them in 1-cup servings to add to soups or whatever. D and I gobbled up the raspberries (she finished them with her lunch today), and I went through both lemons (I literally made lemonade, surprisingly for the first time) and half the kale (made into chips, only the second time I've ever done so) with dinner tonight. I'm planning to steam, puree and freeze the cauliflower tomorrow in one fell swoop, and maybe shred and freeze the zucchini, too. I might cut the celery into sticks and keep it in a bowl of water in the fridge, so that's it's easy to snack on. I'll wait until the pineapple's properly ripe to cut it up and keep it in a bowl for the same purpose. All of that should take care of the more perishable items, and the rest will keep nicely until we need it.

I adapted a lemonade recipe and was shocked at how well it turned out. I've really only ever had bottled or made-from-frozen-concentrate lemonade, and this was way better.

1 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup lemon juice (I squeezed two lemons, then used bottled lemon juice for the rest)
3 1/2 cups cold water

In a saucepan over medium heat, stir the water and sugar together until the sugar completely dissolves. Pour into a pitcher, along with the lemon juice, and stir in the cold water. Serve with ice.