ducky house

september celebration

I'm back with another update and this time I'm covering the earlier part of September and I have one word for you *wedding*

My niece decided to tie the knot with her secret highschool sweetheart. It was a big deal for our family since a) we haven't had a wedding in a while, b) it was my sister's only daughter, c) I've watched this girlie grow up from a wee girl to a big girl (insert 'where have the years gone' & tears), d) she was my flower girl some 19 years ago and e) my twin girlies were her flower girls. 

Well weddings along with being fun, require a fair amount of organizing & spiffing up as you can imagine. Thankfully my niece, my sister & bro-in-law took care of all the organizing and we as guests were left to making sure all were bathed and properly clothed for the event. My shopping started early when I found some awesome flower girl dresses in spring for my girlies which my niece approved of *sweet*. Buying early meant I didn't end up having to spend hundreds of $$ on their dresses later or panic that time was running out. Shoes on the other hand were a completely different story. I could not find anything suitable in this fair city of ours so I gave up and went to the internet where Zulily saved the day. After the girls were set to go I had to turn my focus to the two scraggly teens that seem to be growing faster than a golden retriever in his first year of life. Since dress pants & ties are not required homeschooling attire in our home, the boys needed the whole 9 yards, pants, shirt, ties, socks & shoes. I cut the fellows some slack and did not make them wear a full suit. As for the hubby, he was pretty good in the dress up department, though he did get a new shirt, tie and shoes. Me on the other hand, I needed a whole new ensemble. I went with an strapless formal gown, shoes, etc. Okay so the reason why I'm spilling all the details in print is because that's pretty much all you are going to get. Yes, I forgot to get a family photo (of us) except for a wee instagram shot on the way to the church in our chariot (minivan) *ugh* - you'll have to cut me some slack as I had more important things on my mind like making sure the girlies were good to go down the isle. Enough said, lets take a peek at the day's events starting with the rehearsal.

 

~ rehearsal night where the girlies get their walking practice.

~ on the way to the church, all dressed up and nary a picture to show - no I am not naked - remember strapless gown.

~ the girlies doing the stuff for real and doing a fabulous job at it

~ my niece and her daddy taking that walk

~ the bride - so beautiful

~ the happy couple cutting the fantastic cake my sister made! 

So ends the day and they begin their journey. I'm sure they will make a wonderful life together. I'll be back with an end of September/October update soon. xoxo

summer summary

Hello there, it's been awhile hasn't it? I mean - July to November - now that's just way too long for an update! So what on earth could have taken me away from this space all this time?? Life. I've embraced it and I've been busy in the thick of it, much like many of you I suppose (& to those that are able to keep up blogging along the way kudos to you).

As for me, my mojo for internet ramblings have up and left me right now, as have my crafty endeavors. I'm not fretting too much as I know things are cyclical. Overall I think I am more distressed that my craftyness is on the fritz as it is usually a huge energy booster for me. And couldn't we all use an extra boost of energy in our days? 

But lets not focus on that, I'm here today and I have a wee bit o' an update for ya. Our happenings were normal fodder for a family of 6 during the summer: 

~ bike riding continued on through the whole summer as a family 

~ and sometimes friends joined us

~ had a fight with the white cabbage butterfly and made decoys...

~ and bug juice - more likely salad dressing because I lost the fight and have no garden kale to speak of :( 

~ saw the local sights

~ hung out together at the pool

~ and by the fire

~ we baked apples

~ and then we baked  in the late summer heat

~ harvested vegetables and savoured their lovely taste and wished that the garden was bigger and the growing season was longer

So there we have it, all caught up with July & August for the most part. Watch for September's highlights, I promise it won't take 4 more months, lol.

strawberries anyone?

savouring a few more of those summer moments, the family went strawberry picking this week...

We: 

~ picked a bunch = 5 gallons; 

~ made 3 strawberry & rhubarb pies, delivering one to my sister whose kitchen is currently undergoing a major renovation; 

~ froze a ton for more strawberry & rhubarb pie because I did not think making 20 pies in one week and eating them all would be such a good idea for my waistline; 

~ will be making some strawberry jam as soon I get to the grocery store and replenish our sugar supply. 

~ and of course... ate a bunch, there is nothing like a fresh strawberry!

summer rituals and finding a new rhythym

we ride as a family almost every evening enjoying the trails. exploring new areas and paths being paved around our home. Our goal is to have some good ol' bike ride fun, but with that we find a common way to be together as family, a way to engage each of us.

I've been having a paralyzing fear of my kids growing up for the past while. It's happening right before my eyes and I can't seem to slow them down. I vacillate between my longing for those earlier years when days blurred into each other and it felt like those "baby-days" would never end and the reality of where we are today.The transition is both hard and wonderful as I watch my not so wee ones grow into strong, independent persons. My thoughts wander: where do I fit in now? is my job done?

Surely not with 7 year olds, teens & pre-teens still roaming the house. My role has simply changed and finding my groove is not so easy. Then again I am not alone, we are all changing. The eldest one is now a man cub, almost as tall as me at 5'10 ~ well maybe a few more inches to go. He has gone through the most transition this past year. His interests have taken him away from his world of physical imagination play to more adult like mimicking and conversation. It's been expected but at the same time hard on the others. They long for their "leader" to play again like he did once before. To lead them on an adventure filled with magic, monsters and villans. I see their broken heart and it breaks mine. I feel sad for the ones left behind but recognize the inevitability of it. As the youngest of 13, I understand all to well being left behind while others move on, it's a lonely road.

This is where we are right now, navigating a new phase. We are still a family, changing and finding a new rhythym and new ways to express our togetherness. Hoping ultimately that we will embrace it with grace and enjoy the ride.

may

A little catch up on things and life. I hope you don't mind it in pictures. In fact I hope you don't mind that there are only a few pictures. I seem to roll that way right now. My camera has been left behind at home more times then I would like to admit and I can't actually remember when I last took some decent shots of the kids. Ugh! Thank goodness iPhone is helping me catch bits of my day. 

I was thinking about how busy life feels for me right now. I can't seem to keep up with it or find my rhythym -frankly, it's disconcerting.  I keep hoping and waiting for the second surge of inspiration and energy to hit me and daily I find it evading me. Maybe it's cyclical? or maybe I just need to look at life through new lenses. I don't know the answer. I also don't know why things feel so busy. It's not like I haven't always been running with something or another..., perhaps it's the age of my kids now? I find raising little children taxes your energy in a different way - you are exhausted overall and spend a lot of time doing repetitive tasks, but our outtings were always closer to home and more infrequent. With my older kids, they are more independent but guidance & conversation is huge and we seem to have more groups & outtings that involve driving. Though we've made a lot of effort at keeping those things to a minimum, you know the simple life, there are still a few things that have us leaving the house on a regular basis. Blah, blah, blah, I'm sure y'all know what I am talking about.

In search of a solution, I have made some changes at work recently. I have gone from 80+ hours a month to about half that. This past month has been the first time that I am working reduced hours. The first thing I am noticing on my reduced hours is a sense of relief that has washed over me. I feel like I am able to get a few things done around the house that have me chasing my tail and I feel less stressed overall. My ultimate goal with my new found time will be to start cultivating some blocks of studio time just for making, just because. Ahh, the good life - I can't wait! 

Of course no sooner do I reduce my hours at work then I have to pull semi-full time hours this coming week - a commitment I made pre-work hour reduction. It should be okay though. It's part of my job to be available periodically throughout the year in bulk hours when needed. After my week of chaos I will be back to my shortened hours. yay... and some serious making ~ can't wait!  

Photo details: 

~ my girls primping for a party, even miss lily dog got in on the action courtesy of the twinadoes.

~ at soccer: early season games can be freezing, thank goodness the warmer weather has arrived.

~ my self-love gift for those "making" studio times. 

~ mother's day love, the bunnies finally left me one tulip in my yard. They faithfully eat them all, in four years at this home I have never seen one bloom. 

hello and goodbye

A fitting title since my first post this month comes almost at the end of February. I am slow time of year, as I make my way through what I hope is the end of winter. Not that it was a bad one; our winter has been unseasonably warm this year, even kibboshing all attemps at an ice rink on the lake as customary for us. Still, I find myself day dreaming of gardening, beaches & warm sunshine on my skin, ahhh! 

For now we keep ourselves busy with:

 

~ posies: something special to spice up a little something I made this past fall

~ tea parties: now that they are reading & writing, little notes are given to me with special requests <3  

~ minecraft: because this mumma caves & gives them techie time   

~ doggy cuddles: because the theme for SPFebruary is with something you love

~ kale goodness: dehydrated for chips, in smoothies, lasagna, soup - as many ways as possible.

~ impromptu weddings: since my niece recently became engaged, the talk at the table & the play has been all things weddings. Here she is a flower girl & this summer my girlies will be her flower girls :)  

~ thank you iPhone for helping me capture a little bit of each day ~ 

twirl & dance

Last week I had a chance to spend time with my sewing machine, just the two of us. Being out of the sewing loop for so long, I found it difficult to pick a task to work on. My need-to-sew-pile is pretty big and there are of course quilts in various stages, but working on quilts requires a certain degree of inspiration. Instead I opted for the sew pile with a quick start & stop project, perhaps the best place to begin on days of uncertainty. 

It's been awhile since I cut this fabric out, it is a repurposed print that I found in the thrift shop in excellent condition, a standard of mine for thrift purchasing; plus sewing with repurposed fabric gives me opportunity to work out the bugs in a design without wasting costly designer fabric. My initial intention was to make hostess aprons but that idea has since entered the nothing box of my brain (a catchy phrase my MIL used over the holidays) and is now unretrievable. I am keeping with the apron theme though and have cut a bit more fabric, a top portion to be exact, as well as muslin to make this bad girl fully lined. Finished product is a full body apron with enough fabric for the two little bakers in my life. The girls have been shadowing me in the kitchen over the fall and are really taking an interest in baking. But with only two aprons in the kitchen & three of us baking, a solution was needed.

Enter the apron, it's basic with rounded lower edges, I added a couple pleats on the bib portion to provide shape and deal with fabric excess which help to make the bib proportional to little girls. The fussiest part was pattern matching, as this is a busy fabric (good for spilage when baking), the three pieces had to be lined up for this. Surprisingly it wasn't too difficult and I think it went pretty successfully. All in all this was an excellent project to work on having been MIA with sewing; I spent one evening making the design/sewing the first apron, the next evening I whipped off a second. The only thing left was girlie approval which is based solely on the aprons twirl and dance factor.  

cranberry bread

The girls and I have been busy in the kitchen making cranberry bread, The recipe is from the book Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende & Harry Devlin, which we studied & made lapbooks of during the thanksgiving season.

My girls are ever willing and capable in the kitchen these days, they always want to help & make and I'm all for that. On this particular day I set out the ingredients, they round up the tools. We work slowly and try to stay the course of the recipe all the while they chat up my ear. I'm happy to have them so interested in making even if baking with kids twins can be daunting. Patience I tell myself, one day they won't need my help anymore. 

They carefully cut up the cranberries, measure & mix the ingredients. Help me pour it into the dish and let me put it in the oven, there have to be some rules in the kitchen. The recipe itself was a nice loaf loaded with fruit, we reduced the sugar & substituted raw honey into the mix, we also substituted the oil with coconut oil. The first time around we made the bread as one large loaf and recently made it again as mini loaves for teacher gifts (aside: fruit should be reduced for the mini loaves, in my opinion).

my rating: recipe was good

time with the girls: priceless

in my corner...

...summer is officially here and that means so many, many good things: 

...the weather is giving us beautiful warm days of sunshine sprinkled in with overcast days of shade and even a sprinkling or two of rain.

...our friends have returned and they have brought with them new little ones to love and admire. 

...our school year is ending today and now we turn our attention to some serious outside play - bring it on!

...the garden has been planted and the veggies are growing, the flower pots are blooming and green is always our favourite colour. 

...soccer season has ended for the summer, bike riding is a daily occurrence, we've made one trip to emergency so far and popsicles continue to make an appearance in the grocery cart. 

...I am excited that mr. duckyhouse will officially be on holidays for almost all of July in which we will soak up his goodness with lots of play, beaching, day trips, and yes even some more renovations. 

...I am picking up my camera again after a couple difficult months and realizing that it is through the lens that I am inspired to live a more grateful life. 

...hoping your corner is filled with grateful memories too! 

off, in all senses of the word...

As I write this post I am thinking that it would be lovely to tell you that my absence has been due to mr. duckyhouse whisking me away for a week long adventure to some far off exotic land. Alas, it is not true. Instead I have falling off the blogosphere radar for family doings and general unwellness. 

Mr. duckyhouse's parents arrived a couple of weeks ago for a surprise visit and left yesterday to return to their homestead. It was nice to visit and break from our daily routine. We enjoyed extended family time, visits and eating out for Easter - oh boy, it was nice not to cook a big meal this time around - thank you mom & dad, xxx. 

The girlies took a while to get over their spring colds but not without sharing with me first. I was dragging my feet all last week but with a little help from vitamin D, I'm feeling back to normal.

Mr. duckyhouse was away on business for a few days, he headed off to the east coast for a conference that lucky bugger. He wanted me to join him, but I'm still stuck on the logistics of travelling and leaving kids behind. One day...

     

My beloved B-meister, Benjamin, turned 11 and we had his customary birthday party over the weekend with some crazy weather to match, it snowed again. Thankfully it is all melted and I hope I won't have to type the word snow again until November. His outdoor soccer season just started as well and that looks to keep us hopping a few evenings a week (or maybe that will be a dad/son deal). 

Birthday's and such make me realize things are spinning fast and the kids are growing up too quickly for my liking. I can't spend a lot of time thinking about it or it does a number on me. Life is all about moving forward and embracing the stages and I especially need to remember that this week as I feel a bit in a funk. Rationally I know it isn't real, I always tend to feel a bit off during/after being sick, it will pass as it always does but sometimes it really does kick me down.

Thankfully I believe in being gentle with myself, loving myself at all stages - all moods. I believe life is what you make it and when you can't make your day into anything special, that is when being gentle with yourself really helps. For me that means not getting much done beyond being with the kids, some stretching & exercise, reading and lots of hot baths. If you're wondering where I've been, that pretty much sums it up. I'm embracing my week of non-productivity and I write in optimism that the ol' funk will lift. Thanks for listening, even if you don't understand, it helps. Be back with a fresh perspective soon. xxx