Check out the video of the Fat Goose Craft Sale that I was a vendor at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNSlWmE7tRE

Hello all (?)

I haven’t updated this blog in forever, but am feeling inspired (read: procrastinating)

As the Christmas season approaches, I am again dismayed at the amount of waste we produce.  I love sending out photo cards to family and friends with an annual Christmas letter.  Eventually, I know that most of these cards, envelops and letters end up in a landfill.  Even if they are recycled, there is still the energy to produce, mail, and recycle them.  Same for wrapping paper, gift bows, packaging, and presents themselves.

Obviously, this is not new information.

So, it may already be too late for this year, but I am looking to swap fun eco-conscientious ideas, to reduce waste in gift-giving!

Here are a few ideas to get started and I’ll post more as I come to them.  Please leave me ideas in the comment section…

• reusable gift bags.  I love to sew these and will make some when my exam is done!
• E-cards and letters.  Have to say, not as excited about this one.
• Make your own gift bows.  Have not tried this yet, but it looks fun! http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2009/10/make-gift-bow-from-magazine-page.html

PS  By the way, I am very inspired by Kate’s blog, for those of you who know her.  The link is: http://kateandmatt.wordpress.com/

You can almost see Hazel growing and learning right before your eyes. It helps that Paul is so instructive about all of life’s important skills. Check out these videos:

Genius Baby

Genius Baby, Part Deux

so, in order to escape our house, which we are painting, i decided spontaneously to go to my parents’ for a few days with Hazel
…. by bus.

That was a mistake. She was great for the first hour or so. She slept, she played, she looked out the window, she charmed fellow passengers.

Then she started to fuss

…then cry

…then scream. She screamed for what felt like forever. People around me offered unwanted advice. Some lady in the back loudly complained that she’d never take the bus again.

So, I did what anyone would do. I bailed. Before getting to Toronto, the bus had to stop at the Scarborough Town Centre, and I got off. (Dad was kind enough to pick me up!)

After talking with some friends and family about his ordeal, it seems that every other mom could have told me that 3 hours on the bus with a 12 week old was a bad plan. It seems that I’m chronically over-optimistic ( as in, under-dressing for the weather, or way under-estimating how long something will take.)

Oh well.  Even if I’m overly optimistic, I’d rather be the type of person who takes risks, even if it doesn’t always work out.

So, just a little update for those of you that we don’t see regularly.

Hazel’s doing really well.  She had a doctor’s check-up today.  She’s 12 lbs 5 oz (between 75-90th percentile for her age) and she’s 25 inches long – off the chart!  (Meaning above the 95th percentile, Sabine – our doctor – explained.)

We decided to immunize her.  She had her shots and is a bit grumpy, but otherwise ok.

Generally though, she’s been great.  Sleeping lots.  Starting to laugh a bit, smiling a lot.  She’s getting able to bat and grab at things.  Lots of fun.

I haven’t written in a while because we’ve been all over the place. Paul had a week off when work at the legal aid clinic ended, but school hadn’t started yet. We took that time to squeeze in a bit more fun before fall.

We spent a few days in Renfrew visiting my grandmothers and went to Gran’s cottage, where I had gone almost every summer of my childhood.

For months, even before I had Hazel, I’d been looking forward to marking her height on the doorway – kind of a growth chart for all the relatives over the last few decades.

 

 

We came back from the cottage just in time for Craig and Sadiqa’s wedding (at our house!)

… and then the next day left to go camping at Murphy’s Point Provincial Park! We had originally planned to go a couple of nights, but were having so much fun (and Hazel was doing so well) that we decided to stay an extra day. It was lovely. The nights were cool, the days were warm and sunny, very few bugs, a fairly quiet campground, and Paul had the absolutely brilliant idea to bring a hammock! We’re getting excited to take Hazel on her first canoe trip, whenever she can fit into a lifejacket. To fit the infant one we have, she has to be 20 lbs .. so, maybe next summer. Anyone have any tips for camping with children?

 

 

 

 

 

This summer, for the second year, I’ve grown my grandfather’s beans.

In our family, homemade baked beans are a staple, almost like potatoes or rice.  When my Grampie was younger, he would grow his own beans for drying, which my Gran would bake.  Everyone in the family agreed that his were far superior to the store-bought.

Anyway, in recent years, Grampie was unable to garden.  After he passed away, Gran gave me some of his beans that she had saved, and I’ve grown them and collected the dried beans.

Last summer, I saved some of the beans for seed and gave the rest to Gran for baking.  This time, I think I’ll try my hand at baking them. I’ll let you know how they turn out…

As mentioned in the previous post, we recently visited Titia’s organic farm near Maberly, ON. Some of you may know Titia from the Kingston farmers’ market or participate in her CSA partnership. She grows the best pork I have ever tasted! Really and truly, her bacon and pork chops are unbelieveable. Check out this map to see where Ravensfield is and other organic farms in the area.

This is Titia and the some of her beautiful goats. One of the most difficult ones is named “Patience.” It seemed to lack the same herd mentality that the other ones did and would stray off on its own and needed to be regularly coerced down the road.

Well, we had our first ever family vacation. We spent 3 lovely nights at a cottage on Christie Lake (near Perth, Ontario) with our friend Claire and her one year old daughter Rosie. They were visiting from northern Manitoba. I was at Rosie’s birth last summer and was so excited to see her and how much she’s grown. She’s so beautiful, just like her mama – huge eyes and lips. And what a handful! It made us realize how much easier infants are to take care of than a one-year-old.

It was great to hang out, swap stories, catch up. We tooks some little fieldtrips into Perth and to Titia’s farm, Ravensfield. Paul got up at the crack of dawn (actually, even before that) to canoe solo each morning.

You can see photos from Claire’s visit here.

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.