GINGERBREAD FRIENDS

Rylee wasn't quite satisfied with the boring old gingerbread men, stars, trees and angels....oh no, she wanted a mouse. When you don't have any fancy cookie cutters....playdough cutters to the rescue! So when she gets home today, she'll find her mouse....and a cow, a fish, a dolphin and the everpopular Christmas favourite - giraffe. Waaaay too fun on a snowy afternoon!

PACKAGE FROM FLORIDA

If you ask my kids what comes from Florida in the winter time, they'll answer:

alligator t-shirts

and alligator chocolate

The first package from my Mom arrived yesterday. Rylee knew what was inside that box before she even started to rip the paper. What Rylee doesn't know is that package number 2 will be hand-delivered by Lao Lao, on Boxing Day. I can hear the excited squeals already...from Big Daddy, because we'll get to go on a date while the "babysitter" is in town. Yippee!

HEART STEALER

When she finally settles down for her night night, she grabs me with both of her little arms, smooches me right on the lips and says "I yuv you Mommy". Then she falls back on the bed laughing. This goes on 7 or 8 times...or until she feels that I've been sufficiently loved. Usually within 3 hours, with a loud "Mommy, seeps, me, all done", a little frown and signing the words all done, I am summoned to her big-girl bed. Within 5 minutes she drifts off again while I rub her little back. Lately, she needs me another 3 or 4 times during the night. I am beginning to wonder if she's just liking the back rubs too much. lol Yup, I get tired, but how could yah get upset at this little face? She steals my heart!

What a privilege it is to be a stay-at-home mom!

WHEN YOU CAN'T FIND A BRUSH, A POPSICLE STICK WILL DO:

READY FOR KITCHEN DUTY:

EVEN HER SCARF IS BIGGER THAN HER:

IT'S LOOKING LIKE CHRISTMAS

OH FUDGE!

I love fudge! I mean it rates right up there with cheesecake. Oooooh yeah! I've never tried making it myself...until yesterday. It was so simple and ohhhh soooo good and creamy!

MAPLE FUDGE

1 1/3 cups of sweetened condensed milk

1 cup pure maple syrup

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1 tbsp butter

1/2 cup nuts, chopped (optional)

Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan except nuts. Simmer slowly, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves. Stir occasionally until mixture reaches the softball stage - 236 F

Cool without stirring until mixture reaches 110 F or until it feels warm. Beat mixture until thick, add nuts, pour into buttered pan. Allow to set.

SUCCESSES, SOAP, SOURDOUGH AND SYVRETS

I opened up the first jar of pickled beets from September...man oh man, are they delicious!! So my very first attempt at the pickled beets was a huge success!! Yippee! I know, for the amount of beets a person eats, it's probably much easier to just buy a jar at the store...yeah, yeah I get it. But really, it's the fact that I can do it. Oh and note to self: wear rubber gloves next time during the beet skinning process. The stains on my hands were....ummm....worrisome for the general public. lol

We opened up a jar of strawberry jam - July 12/08 - batch #2 - again, it was a hit! Woohoo! 2 for 2! I'm on a roll....

AFTER 2 BREAKFASTS - GONE!

*******

Baby J has the most delicate skin and I have to be verrrry careful what products she can use on her skin and clothes. Specialized and super expensive products can still make her break out...it's really weird. So this week, I made my own batch of laundry soap to see if it would work. It works great! No break-outs, it's super cheap, and honestly it does a better job of cleaning our clothes.

You'll need 3 products:

1 cup of borax

1 cup of washing soda

1 cup of a laundry bar soap grated (I used my cheese grater - took 1 minute)

Just stir them together. Use 2 Tbsp per load.

Then I use plain vinegar in the rinse cycle. Voila!

3 PRODUCTS:

FINISHED PRODUCT:

Oh, and I know what you're thinking...that I'm just one step away from wearing ankle-length denim jumpers and Amish headgear. What next, cooking on a woodstove and chasing goats from my garden?! Hmmmmm...now that has possibilities!

************

I tried my hand at sourdough bread on the weekend....now I really wish I had taken pictures of that. Total failure! Something happened to the sourdough starter...not sure what happened...but something happened. A thick crust formed on the top and under the crust was a runny slime. I couldn't stop laughing. The only thing Big Daddy said was "I don't have to eat that, right?!" lol

**********

I read somewhere on a blog this week that this homesteader described herself as part Olivia Walton, part Ma Ingalls, with a good dose of Ma Kettle thrown in. I laughed until I peed. Because my own mother says that she can't believe how much of a hillbilly I am and my Granny Syvret will never be gone as long as I'm alive. Sure we share a name, both love a full pantry and have been known to throw a clean dish towel over a pan of brownies, but that's where the similarities end....I think.

FORGOT ONE

Yeah, I forgot the best one that happened yesterday morning while walking to Kindergarten.

Rylee was tugging at her snowpants every few steps and finally I asked her what was wrong.
Rylee: "My bum is itchy. Scratch it for me, Mom!"

THE LIFE OF RYLEE

We took a little drive over a very winding road last week and of course Little Piddle is nauseous. She's so much like me!! Anyway, after trying lots of remedies - opening the window, holding my hand, not looking out the window - J settles down...and then we hear from the other back seat: "Mom, I'm car-healthy."

Since Rylee has been attending Kindergarten, I've eased up with the lessons at home. She points up at the planets on the ceiling in the playroom yesterday while playing playdough trying to recreate them.
Me: "What's the name of the red one?"
Rylee: "Marvin"
I think we'll get back to homeschooling again!

She tells me that some kids at school cry. A lot!
Me: "Why do the kids cry?"
Rylee: silence...just thinking this one through
Me: "Do you think they miss their Moms?"
Rylee: "Yeah, they probably miss their Moms."
Me: "Do you miss me sometimes?"
Rylee: "NO WAY!"
Oh it's good to be loved! lol

BOUGHT BUNKBEDS

At 7:30 on Friday morning we threw the kids in the CRV and headed off to the big smoke to do our bit to help stimulate the economy. By the time we were finished I was expecting a personal call from Stephen Harper, thanking us for our dedication to the cause or a call from some Visa official thinking that our card had been stolen.

One of our purchases was a set of bunkbeds. I know, I know, more kids are hurt from bunkbeds than all childhood diseases and all other accidents combined. I know! But, we bought a set anyway. lol Oh don't worry, we set them up as single beds for now...until the girls are old enough NOT to have an accident. I'm thinking maybe when they're 20 and 17.

By the way, if you're in the market for a set of bunks, I would highly recommend the plain-jane type over the more fancy and upscale ones. Why fork over good cash and then have a team of burly men deliver and set up your purchase, when you can carry a 500 lb box with at least 724 pieces to assemble by yourself with little people under foot! Ohhhhh, let the games begin.....

GOING TO NEED THE INSTRUCTIONS AND A BEER:

HELP ARRIVES:

TAKE A BREAK DADDY AND WE'LL GROOM YOU:

GOOD PLACE TO KEEP YOUR COMB:

AND WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE MUCH HAIR, YOU HAVE TO BALANCE YOUR BRUSH ON YOUR HEAD:

Sidenote: We've had 3 nights of peace since the girls are now together in their own big girl room, sleeping in big girl beds...okay, maybe 2 since the first night was a flippin disaster. And we never did get a call from Stephen Harper.

LONG DISTANCE CALL

I asked her what she was doing. She says, "Yao Yao talk". Yes, she was making a long distance call to Lao Lao in Florida....on the tv clicker! Too cute!

RANDOM THOUGHTS AND SHOTS

The big girl is earring crazy right now and being the mean Mommy that I am, told her she couldn't have any until she was 12. She made her own...out of stickers. What a kid!

HER SWEETNESS:

HER SWEETNESS ROARING LIKE A DINOSAUR:

TWO CUTIES:

RYLEE ASKED FOR THIS HAIRDO LAST NIGHT:

PLAYING IN THE SHELVING UNIT:

JAYME TURNS 2

Well, the birthday girl's day didn't start out so great, but it ended okay. J's been sick for the past 5 days and yesterday she fell asleep twice while I rocked her. She NEVER lets me do that anymore, so I held on for dear life, knowing it will be one of the last times!! She just wanted to be cuddled for most of the day...coughing and nose running...poor little thing! She perked up around supper time for a few hours to have her birthday "do", but she certainly wasn't her usual spunky self.

HEY WHERE DID THESE COME FROM:




I CAN'T EAT WITH BALLOONS BEHIND MY HEAD:

YUMMY:


TWO-FISTED TEAR:


ASSEMBLING MY OWN TOY:



THE PACKAGING IS A GOOD GIFT TOO:

**REPEAT POST** GOTCHA DAY

I can't believe that I've been Jayme's mommy for a whole year!!

At noon on November 12 2007, your whole world turned upside down.

Your Foster Mama took you to the Orphanage, never to be seen again. A strange Nanny carried you onto a bus to begin your next step of your journey. After 2 1/2 hours, you arrived at the Civil Affairs Office where you wait in the lobby. A small group of parents enter this lobby. You don't recognize anyone. I don't recognize you. The strange Nanny carries you to the elevator. Four women are waiting to get on. You are 3 feet away, looking at me...at my glasses. We all laugh and guess who you belong to.

At 3:15, I hand an official piece of paper to an official lady. Then the strange Nanny hands me YOU. You don't cry. You just stare at my glasses and gently reach up to touch them. I say "Hi Jayme, I'm your Mommy" and we slowly walk to the center of the room. Time slows. You are so tiny. Just a bird in my arms. You are hungry, you are tired and you want your Mama. A sob fills your tiny mouth, huge drops of tears stream from your eyes. You moan "Mama" and I ache for you.

You are so sad! You have not waited 2 years or even 2 minutes for this moment. I thank God for you, this child. You can only cry and look desperately around for your Mama. I try to console you. You try to fight back. Finally you give in, rest your tiny head on my chest and sleep. Partly from sheer exhaustion and partly to escape this nightmare.When you wake up in that strange hotel room in a strange bed, to hear strange voices, you cry again. The moaning for your Mama starts again rhythmically. This will take time....

Over the next few days I will learn how to hold you the right way. Your way. I will learn that you need to sleep next to me holding a small cloth for security. I will learn that you are a real ham, a happy and laughing, cheeky little character. I will learn that you only drink water or juice from a glass. And you will learn that the lady with the glasses will drop absolutely anything she is doing to scoop you up when you call her "mum mum mum".The memories of these days will fade for you. But I will remember them for you. And be able to tell you just how courageous you were!

PITY PARTY

Oh my day didn't start out that way....no, I had a plan....I had a list and by golly I was sticking to it to finally get some things accomplished around here. So there I was busily cleaning (Mom, you can stop laughing) the bookshelves in the playroom, tossing magazines into the recycle pile, organizing CD's and books when I saw it....a lovely little piece of memorabilia that I haven't viewed in some time...it dared me to open it. I slowly placed the DVD into my laptop and was transported to 2004. Video of the first few moments after Rylee was placed in my arms. That room in China is in utter chaos - lots of other parents receiving their long-awaited children too - everyone's crying.

The tears haven't stopped over the past few years....tears for Rylee's biological mom and all that she will miss...tears for stubbed toes and skinned knees...tears of fear when she fell down the stairs...and over the past year, tears of loss....as I've watched this hideous disease called Autism take over my big girl. That video showed happier times, when Rylee was still mine. And that "loss" gripped me yesterday. I just couldn't shake it!

And then a friend sent me this:

Welcome to Holland
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may even learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland".

"Holland?", you say, "What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy! All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for awhile and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills. Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

Tomorrow will be a better day....

FOG, BOTOX, AND WITCHES

What do these 3 things have in common? They all add up to one trip to the Dentist with Rylee!

FOG:

We had a 9 am appt with our wonderful, caring and best-needle-giver Dentist in the world! I love this guy! He is amazing with Rylee!! Anyway, we are heading to the appt when we run into foggy conditions....I mean, I thought we were headed into St. John's kind of fog....when all of a sudden from the backseat comes this little nugget of wisdom. "It's foggy...guess God has to vacuum the sky." Too funny!

BOTOX:

After sniffing a couple tanks of that bubble gum gas and getting her tooth filled, Rylee bit her lip - real hard - and she was bleeding pretty good. At least she was still in the Dentist chair when it happened...Dr. P. gets her all fixed up and then puts one of those cardboard splint thingies in her cheek to keep her from doing it again. He gave me a prescription just in case her lip ballooned up to gigantic proportions and was infected. Well, by the time we got home, she looked like Angelina Jolie right after a botox injection....her bottom lip was HUGE! And there's a huge chunk out of it. Poor little thing! Gonna hurt in the morning....

WITCHES:

One really great side-effect to the bubble gum gas is that Rylee is really calm. If only Dr. P. would write me a prescription for a tank of that. lol She just sat and drew pretty pictures all afternoon....get a load of this one....remember she's 5.

..

LET IT SNOW...

Can you see it? Yup, it started to snow today. WOOHOO!

JUST DO IT!

Have you ever had dreams of doing something...even got to the planning stage...then just...STOP?! Well, we've talked and talked and talked about doing something on our 100 acres for 7 years now...it was time to DO SOMETHING!!

Soooo, we mixed in:

1 eager Dad (mine)

2 pieces of heavy equipment

3 days work

4 bajillion dollars

And got:

1 dug well

2 good roads

1 farm field ready for planting

1 verrrry excited Mama

My advice to anyone who has talked a plan to death....just pull the trigger and get on with it....

BIG DADDY AND UNCLE BILL CLEARING THE WAY:

CAN YOU MOVE IT OVER THERE NEXT?:

GRANDPA EASING THE TILES ON:

GRANDPA BULLDOZING A NEW 401:

TIME FOR A DRINK:

NAPPING IN THE BACKPACK:

CIRCUS DOG:

J CHANGED HER MIND ABOUT RIDING WITH GRANDPA:

THE MOOSE WALKED THROUGH DURING LUNCH:

KEITH URBAN - EAT YOUR HEART OUT!

GINGERBREAD FOR MAMA ANT'S CRAVINGS

Here you go Mama Ant:

1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cloves (I omit)

1/2 cup fancy molasses
1 large egg
1 tbsp white vinegar

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Beat butter in large bowl for 1 minute. Add next 7 ingredients. Beat well. Add molasses, egg and vinegar. Beat until smooth. Mixture will look slightly curdled. Add 1/2 of the flour. Beat well. Mix in remaining flour well. Divide dough in half. Wrap each half in plastic wrap. Chill for at least 3 hours. (sorry not a great recipe if you're having a craving) Roll out 1 portion of dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness. (if it starts to crack or stick weird, just add more flour to your board) Cut out with cookie cutters. Roll out scraps to cut more shapes. Repeat with remaining portion of dough. Arrange cookies about 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheets. Bake in 375 oven for about 8 minutes until edges start to brown. Let stand on cookie sheets for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely. (yeah like that ever happens)

Enjoy!!

TIME FLIES

Rylee finally got her cast off! Yippee! Her arm was kinda disgusting underneath...a couple of blisters and a ton of peeling skin. She looked like a shedding anaconda. She's supposed to be wearing a splint thingy for the next month, but she's enjoying the freedom too much to put it on. I know she's feeling better because she's drawing with that arm again!

We headed north again right after getting the cast off - man oh man was it cold! Unbelievable! I guess we really are heading into winter weather...time to remove all of the summer gear - from outdoor toys to clothes...let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! Probably get hate mail for that comment!!! lol

I only have one Rylee story to relay this time: Ry had been playing outside at Grandma's for about half an hour undisturbed (remind me to check on her every 10 minutes) and when I went out to chat, I noticed that there was something on my car. I held my breath as I walked around it...there were random doodles and the alphabet scratched into the paint. There was no denying who had done it...she even left her name inscribed into my hood! Black CRV for sale: low mileage, custom trim.

NO MORE CAST:

SIDEWALK CHALK AT GRANDMA'S HOUSE:

CRAZY MOOSE DRAWING:

GRANDMA AND THE GIRLS:

THE CABIN:

LEAVES ARE TURNING:

GEESE ARE STILL AROUND: