friday high five - don't want to forget

Not surprisingly Maya seems to be changing right before my very eyes. She's becoming so much more sure of herself socially. She's interacting with people almost from the moment she meets them and not after several hours of peeking out from behind my proverbial skirts. She doesn't need to be in constant physical contact with me and not everything in her life needs to be done by Mommy. It's lovely and a little heart breaking at the same time.

So for this week's Friday High Five - the things about Maya at 3 years and six months that I don't want to forget.

1. The piggy ride back. Every time we need to go from upstairs to down or vice versa she wants me to give her a piggy ride back. I could correct her, but it's much cuter this way.

2. The lisp. I'm not really 100% certain it's a lisp or if she's still figuring out the whole talking thing. She's been late for just about every developmental milestone, so I'm not convinced this is any different. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if she woke up tomorrow pronouncing it truck instead of thruck. Although, I would miss the thruck, just a little bit.

3. The knock knock jokes. She's just recently discovered them, coincidentally she's also discovered that poop is funny. So most of the punch lines are the same....
Maya: Knock knock
Me/Mike/Abby/Papa/Grandma/Anybody Who Will Answer Here: Who's there?
Maya: Abby/Daddy/Bible School/Pizza Hut/Mommy/Whatever she feels like
Whoever: Bible School who?
Maya: Bible school, you pooped in your underpants.
And then she laughs like it's the funniest thing in the world. This goes on for large portions of the day. Although lately she's been mixing it up with Abby/Daddy/Mommy/Zebby's butt stinks.

4. The crashes. The daily afternoon naps are a thing of the past, but now we've noticed that every third day or so she grabs her blankey and crashes between five and six and sleeps right through until morning. She does it very quietly too so you never know until you find her curled up asleep somewhere.

5. When she colours she likes to stick with one colour and cover the entire paper. And when she's not colouring she's drawing the cutest little faces with eyes, noses, mouths, and ears. And they actually look like faces too. The first time she did it I thought it was a fluke, but she's done it many times since. Perhaps we have another budding artist on our hands.

wordless wednesday - another entry for the fair.. maybe

How about a little wordless wednesday?

what's cooking wednesday - peanut butter frosting

Well I've made this icing a couple of times now and it's been a big hit when paired with chocolate cake. I had to supply the cake for a birthday dinner on Sunday and knowing the guest of honour was a big chocolate/peanut butter fan made it a very easy decision. I apologize, I didn't manage to get a picture before it disappeared.

Peanut Butter Frosting

4 1/2 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup milk

Mix icing sugar and peanut butter together on low speed. Add in vanilla and 1 tbsp of the milk. Gradually beat in the remaining milk until the frosting is smooth and spreadable.

Recipe: I like this icing, in theory. In reality I had a hard time getting the ratios just right. It went very quickly from too thin to too thick. I struggled with it both times. I'm not sure if it 's me -- being somewhat of an icing novice -- or it's just the recipe. It did taste delicious though. And judging by how quickly it went everyone else did too.

*Here's hoping that the Mr. Linky is back to working properly. Fingers crossed.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

how old does she think we are

On our way home from the sitter's the afternoon when Abby asked from the back seat...

So what did you use for roads back in the day?

serious randomness

Seriously, I just want to watch this video clip over and over again.



I know it's been floating around the internet a lot these days (over 7 million views), but it's just so perfect. Makes me smile.

Maya has a completely adorable little girl voice. It makes it hard not to laugh when you hear her say -- What the hell? -- from across the room.

Did you know? My sister-in-law makes killer meatballs. Seriously! I am so full right now.

Yeah, so full I didn't even feel guilty about not walking with ML tonight. Although I missed my time with her.

Also chocolate fudge cake with peanut butter frosting is a HUGE hit with this family.

And how was your weekend.

her big trip

I don't want you to think Maya was left out of the recent trip Abby took with Granny. She was invited to go..... sorta. Granny mentioned taking her and I said I thought she was still too young and -- more importantly -- too much of a handful to take. Granny asked Maya anyway, only to be told that she needed "to stay beside Mommy".

That didn't stop her from phoning Granny after the trip to ask when it was going to be her turn.

Where do you want to go? Granny asked her.

Hmmm. Maya thought about it for a moment. Grocery shopping!

So this morning Maya went on her big grocery shopping trip with Granny (and the Abster and I). It was pretty funny how excited she was about the entire trip. So much so she was even willing to let me braid her hair. Usually she has a fit if you attempt to do anything to her hair and has been known to pull out my pony tail because, according to her, I don't need it.

So we had some fun and bought a lot that wasn't on the official grocery list. For the most part Abby stayed with me and helped me with the actual shopping. While Maya and Granny tried on every pair of shoe in the shoe department. Well Maya did, Granny was just trying to keep up. Judging by the stickers and the Wii game that made it into the buggy there was a detour through the toy department as well.

Really, I just found it remarkably funny that when given the choice of where she'd like to go she picked grocery shopping. Maybe it seems so magical because she's never really gone grocery shopping before. Mike does the shopping solo now, ever since we figured out we spend way less money if he shops without *me* or the kids.

Big thanks to Granny for a wonderful morning at WalMart and for making Little My Pie's dream come true.

friday high five - ice cream

It briefly crossed my mind tonight to take the girls out for ice cream, but it never became anything more than that. It was just one of those nights that kind of slip away from you. Abby was across the street playing with a friend. Maya was wandering around the house having imaginary conversations into her Sleeping Beauty cell phone. As for Mike and I -- we just puttered. Next thing I knew it was an hour past bedtime and the girls were still up.

But if we had gone for ice cream -- for this week's Friday High Five -- these are my five favourite flavours in no particular order.

1. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. Oh yum!!

2. Anything cheesecake.

3. Anything brownie, preferably with a ripple of fudge.

4. Pralines and cream -- and I hate nuts of all kinds, but pralines they're more like candy than nuts.

5. Cookies and cream.

What's your favourite flavour?

Abby hit up the Cold Stone Creamery with Granny and ordered a cotton candy ice cream with kit kat bars and marshmallows -- how about that?

you capture - black and white

This week's challenge was black and white. I love black and white pictures. I think it really brings out the emotion in the picture when you strip away all the "colour noise". This week The Mommy Project and I had talked about doing a photo walk for this week's challenge, but this week just kind of got away from me and we never did talk about it again. I actually didn't pick up my camera much at all this week.

We've been having problems with our satellite reception since the spring. Mike, correctly, diagnosed the problem being the tree in the middle of our back yard. Turns out this year it grew just enough to wreck havoc with our TV watching abilities. The tree coupled with the past few weeks of overcast and rainy weather have made TV watching virtually impossible (I haven't seen the FoodNetwork in weeks my friends! Weeks!!). So last night Papa, Mike and I trimmed out the branches that had been causing the issue. Big huge branches that made loud cracking sounds as Papa cut through them. And fell very quickly out of the tree with loud thuds. It was all a little heart stopping for the worrywart that lurks somewhere deep inside me. Once we had the limbs down the girls had a great time climbing all over the pile. Great photo op for Mom.







Now this last one I took last month of ML's pond at the farm. There's a category in the fair - black and white photo - exhibitor's choice. This is an advanced category and I am soooo not in the advanced realm, but I'm considering entering it anyway. What do you think?



You Capture - hosted by...

wordless wednesday - our buddy jake & kevin costner

How about some wordless wednesday?



Accompanying words are here.

what's cooking wednesday - the robin edition

Today is typically the day for my weekly What's Cooking Wednesday posts, but today is a very special day, it being Robin's birthday and all. Robin and I have been friends for a lifetime it seems. We met as two young single ladies and we've managed to rack up six girls and a couple of decades of marriage between us. We've seen each other through so much stuff. Good stuff, sad stuff, and all the stuff in between. At this point she is so much more than a best friend. She's my family. She's amazing and I am thankful every day that we met. Even if she's not jumping at the chance to be my next door neighbour. So today instead of a new recipe I'm going to share with you my favourite Robin recipes. Yep, I've shared them here before, but they're still wonderful just like Robin!



Chocolate Bailey Shooters - mmmmm these were fantastic and a nice change from the usual jello shots. And Robin and I have consumed our fair share of jello shots. Back when we were younger and didn't have to get up early with kids.

Chocolate Bar Trifle - Umm I could eat a lot of this in one seating. It is so incredibly yummy. I'd like to try it with different chocolate bars, but Mike like it as is. And reallY i'm fine with that too.

So that's it, just the two recipes. I don't want you walking out of here thinking Robin only makes two things well. She's a great cook. Her pulled pork sandwiches are out of this world. And when she hosts a party she puts out a heck of a spread,but she likes to keep her recipes closey guarded family secrets, so be thankful I managed to get her to share these with us.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

just another random monday

After a week of lazy mornings and late bedtimes today was back to our regularly scheduled programming. Mike and I were back to work and the kids were back to the sitter's. Mike slipped out to a meeting after dinner, Maya crashed on the couch a good two hours before bedtime and Abby had a meltdown of epic proportions. I'm pretty sure the Mommy Project heard it at her place.

Speaking of the Mommy Project, she's back blogging again.Yay! I always miss her when she's gone on one of her hiatuses. She's actually blogging double. Check out her new photog blog. She's all kinds of talented.

And speaking of returning bloggers. My wicked talented bro, Uncle Dave, is taking another crack at the whole blogging thing. This time for his company, Page Design. Check him out soon, he'll probably only be blogging for the next ten minutes. Oh and if you can believe it he's twittering now too.

Movie night with the Jersey Girls this past weekend. We watched StepBrothers. I've seen it before, but it's always great to laugh a lot with your best girls. My favourite line -- Did we just become best friends? -- Classic! So very very funny.

Looks like warm, but rainy weather coming up. Hate that. Hopefully it holds off long enough for Papa and Mike to trim the tree that's blocking our satellite reception. Right now it's a question of what *can* we watch on TV, not what do we *want* to watch on TV. Treehouse wouldn't come in today which did not help Maya's sunny disposition at all.

And by the time most of you read this it will be Robin's birthday! Happy birthday to the best friend a girl can have. The Oprah to my Gayle. True sister of my heart. I love you, happy birthday!

she wii'ed

The other night we invited some company over for dinner and a swim. But those plans were thwarted when the skies opened up and dumped tremendous amounts of rain all over the place. So instead I barbecued whilst trying to stay dry under a tree and then ...... what to do ........ ummmm ... how about we fire up the Wii? Actually it was Abby's idea so she could show off her mad bowling skillz.

Maya watched the older kids all taking a turn rolling strikes and spares and decided that -- I wanna turn. Me. It's my turn!

So I hooked her up with a controller and attempted to help. That, apparently, was the wrong approach.

No! Don't need help. I do it! I do it!

And wouldn't you know it, she did. I was kind of amazed she caught on to which buttons to press and when to let them go very quickly. She finished her game with a score of 101. Not bad for her first outing.

too fast

I was sitting at my desk when Maya came wandering back to find me. I pulled her up in my lap and cradled her like a baby.

Me: Are you my little baby?
Maya: No! I not a baby.
Me: But don't you want to be my little baby.
Maya: No I just hafta be Maya. I hafta be little My Pie.

friday high five - favourite evening pastimes

This past week Mike and I have been on holidays and while we haven't gone very far it's been a full and busy week. We got some little jobs around the house done and had lots of time left over for fun.



So for this week's friday high five my favourite ways to pass an evening.

1. Watching a movie and knitting. Last night it was Wanted with Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy. While, admittedly I am a huge Angelina fan this was a great movie. Mike missed out on the first few minutes so he refused to watch it with me. His loss I figure. I also managed to get a few more rows finished on the scarf I've been working on for a hundred years. I hate the yarn I'm naking it with so I think that's the hold up.

2. Staying up way too late reading an really great book. Some time ago (my birthday? Christmas) my Mom gave me The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill. I have sucha backlog of books to read right now I hadn't even glanced it. Now Auntie Mel wants to borrow it and I just finished up the last book I was reading so I figured I'd better dive in before I handed it over to her because it will be a while before it makes it back to me.

3. Having dinner with family and friends. We've spent several nights this week in the company of some of our favourite people, talking, eating and laughing.

4. Lazy mornings in bed. Mike and I have been rearranging the furniture in our bedroom. We acquired a new (to us) dresser and side tables. It's more like a room for grown-ups now, but it seems like the whole family wants to hang out up there. So most mornings this week have found the girls in bed with us while we try to find something on the TV that everyone can agree on.

5. Taking pictures. I'm still trying to catch the perfect sunset over the farmer's field around the corner from my place, but it's been fun just to roam around the village with camera in hand and see what I come up with. I may have snapped a dozen or three of girls too.

you capture - shapes

This week's you capture challenge was shapes. I actually found this a bit harder than I was anticipating, but I'm pretty sure I was over thinking it. So I headed out and about with camera in hand and as it turns out -- it's all about the circles this week.









you capture - hosted by:

wordless wednesday - a silent tribute perhaps?

How about a little wordless wednesday?

what's cooking wednesday - maple frosting

Well this week is a continuation of last week's maple post. Because as good as that cake is it is out of this world with the frosting. I am so thankfully I stumbled upon Dinner With Julie where I found these recipes. Her blog is all kinds of awesome.



Maple Icing

1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup

In a medium bowl, beat the butter with half the icing sugar until creamy. Add the remaining icing sugar and maple syrup and beat until well blended and smooth, adding a little extra sugar or syrup as needed to achieve a spreadable consistency. Makes enough for 2 dozen cupcakes.

Recipe Notes: This was such a quick and easy icing to whip up. Oh and it's so delicious it's hard not to eat it straight from the bowl with a spoon.

What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

she did it

Ever since Maya turned three her personality has been changing and evolving like crazy. I find it odd and interesting. Odd in that I see her in a way I never did before. Interesting for the same reason. It's like all of the sudden she realizes she can function in this world without me. And I'm surprised how quickly she's taken to this new outlook on life.

Tonight we went out for dinner with Grandma Linda and Papa - to an actual restaurant. There was a time when we would never have attempted such a thing with Maya. She just couldn't sit still long enough and I couldn't eat with her in my lap. All the strange people made her cranky and meltdowns were guaranteed. It just wasn't worth it, but she's better now with people and out in public so we went.

Part way through dinner she spilled her glass of milk, that was close to being finished anyway. She was upset for a moment because she got some on her pants. She does not like wet/dirty clothes. What surprised me though was while I was cleaning up the mess she hopped off her chair and went -- empty cup in hand -- to our waitress, who was serving another table at the time, handed her the empty cup and asked for another one.

All on her own.

She talked to a stranger.

This is the kid who wouldn't talk to Papa or allow Papa to talk to her for ages.

I have spent lots of time wondering how Maya will manage at school. Now instead of worrying, I'm excited and looking forward to seeing how she'll manage to adventure.

gone, but not forgotten

Maya has been managing quite well without her sucky for several months. So I was kind of surprised by the conversation we had last night while I was putting her to bed.

Maya: Mommy, I meed my sucky. My gween sucky.
Me: Maya, you don't have a sucky anymore.
Maya: I know because it's wost.
Me: That's right, but you don't need it anymore anyway. Suckies are for babies and you're a big girl now.
Maya: No I not a big girl. I a smaller girl.

this is my house, this is my home

It seems that my little post about the girls waiting for the water truck led to some questions about the little village in which we live. So I thought it might be fun to make a series out of it.



This is our back yard from our back property line. Ours is probably one of the smaller lots in the neighbourhood, but it's good enough for me. Mike, however, would love acres of land. Our neighbour on the other side of the garage (please disregard the horrible state of the garage it's in need of a major structural overhaul) is fairly close, but you could easily put another house in between us and the house on the other side.



And the front. It's an older (much older) house, pre-dating plumbing and electricity. The house used to be the original wooden siding, but we put the vinyl siding on about 12 years ago. Less maintenance and a little bit of help with the insulation factor. It does desire some curb appeal, but I am in no way good with plants. I need someone to tell me what to plant and where to plant it.



The view from the end of my driveway down the street.



And a very short stroll from my front door is this.....



It's an easy place to love.

friday high five - abby's vacation

For the last couple of years Granny has taken Abby away to an eco cottage in the summer. Granny's friend, TLP, goes as well with her grandson, who's a year younger than Abby. It's a great little spot for them. There's a nice lake to swim in and Abby will swim all day if you let her. She does get homesick, but she has fun too and always wants to go again. She was very much looking forward to going to the cottage this year, but they were closed for renovations. So this year Granny and TLP had to come up with a new plan - Niagara Falls.

They walked all over the falls, looked at it from many different angles, swam wherever they could, rode the tram up and down the hill and walked and walked and walked some more. And when she finally came home she was packed full of Niagara Falls history/trivia. I'm pretty sure she didn't stop talking for the first 24 hours she was home. She had to tell everyone(!) what she'd learned, what she saw and what she did.



So for this week's Friday High Five - Abby's Summer Vacation Highlights

1. I went down 86 metres to be beside the falls.



This is Granny and Abby during their walk behind the falls. Which, coincidentally was 86 metres down.

2. My favourite part was the level six rapids.



My Mom wondered if Abby would like to go on the maid of the mist. I had no idea. Abby is equal parts brave and not so brave, so it was a toss up. I mean that boat gets pretty close to the base of the falls. Turns out it was one of her favourite things about the trip especially after she found out that when Granny tried to take me (many moons ago) I refused to go.

3. Granny let me get a tattoo and it's going to last forever!



Or just a week as it is of the airbrushed variety.

4. The falls used to be big icebergs. Then one day the ice melted and it jammed the other ice and it broke and became the falls.



5. Giraffes are so tall they could reach all the way to my bedroom window.



They also hit up the zoo where the giraffes were one of the biggest hits of the day. Next to the water park and the hippos.

So yeah it was pretty much the best time ever. Granny and TLP are exhausted and have disappeared up north to recuperate at Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel's house.

you capture - food

There was actually two themes for this week's you capture - food and independence day. It was an easy choice for me since I'm Canadian. Really I take a lot of pictures of food for WCW posts, but this was a different kind of thought process all together.

This morning Mike and I decided to make some strawberry jam. Canning is not something I've ever done before nor do I remember ever helping anyone with the process. Thank goodness he agreed to help me. And you know what -- we both really enjoyed it. It was remarkably easier than I was anticipating and we actually had quite a bit of fun. Now I have a list of recipes as long as my arm that we'd like to give a whirl.



Mike picked up some beautiful strawberries from a farmer's market minutes from our front door.



Maya helped with the hulling, passing Mike each individual strawberry. Abby helped with the mashing and the stirring once we added sugar and lemon juice.



It was fun for the whole family.



I have to admit I was more than relieved that it looked and smelled like jam. Took me right back to my Grandma's house when I was a little girl.



Processing the jam in my brand new canning pot. Thanks Grandma Linda & Papa.



After I got the canning pot I had picked up a book on canning and when we finished up with the jam I came across a recipe for red onion (The Mommy Project likes to call it purple onion) jelly. Now I love red pepper jelly and I love red onions. Since we were in a canning mood/rhythm we thought we'd just keep going and give it a try.



Doesn't it look pretty?

You Capture - hosted by:

wordless wednesday - abby's adventure

And now for a little wordless wednesday

what's cooking wednesday - maple cake

Mmm there is just something about maple. I'm not sure if it's because I'm Canadian or what, but I do love me some maple. So as soon as I saw this recipe at Dinner with Julie (Oh the joys of mindless internet surfing -- fun new blogs to read) I just knew I was going to have to give it a try. It would be unCanadian of me not to.



Maple Cake

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. maple extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt, thinned with milk
3/4 cup maple syrup

Preheat oven to 375F. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar for a few minutes, until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition; beat in the maple extract.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another, stir together the buttermilk and maple syrup. Add the flour in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk in two, beating on low speed just until blended after each addition.

Divide the batter among about 24 paper-lined muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes, until springy to the touch.

Recipe Notes: This was fabulous. We had it with berries for dessert this past weekend. I did use brown sugar in place of the white sugar and I used a cinnamon flavoured maple syrup. So yummy. I highly recommend. Stay tuned for the maple frosting recipe! It was so good Mike wanted to marry me again!

What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

let's review - pc fresh meat

A while ago I was approached by my buddy at the PR firm asking if I was interested in giving the new President's Choice fresh meat a try.

PC's new line has increased the amount of meat that it's sourcing from Canadian producers. In fact all of the PC Free From chicken is Canadian produced. And what exactly is Free From chicken (or beef or pork for that matter) - the free from line are raised without the use of antibiotics or hormones in the case of the beef. The pork is sourced mainly from small family farms in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. The air chilled chicken is grain fed - no animal by-products and is Ontario and BC sourced. PC is also carrying a certified Angus Beef line as well. Angus beef must meet 10 strict specifications regarding marbling, carcass weight and defects. The PC tender and tasty line promises a steak house experience at home.

I have to say Mike and I were more than impressed with the quality and the taste of the steak we tried. The marbling was bang on, which made for an incredibly tender and tasty steak. In the past I have been disappointed with steak purchased at the grocery store, but this was some of the best steak we've ever had.

In addition we also received the PC sea salt and peppercorn grinder. I totally love this. It is the perfect ratio of salt to pepper. I really like that it has an easily adjustable grinder since I like a coarse grind to my pepper. And it has a handy snap on cover to keep moisture from getting into your pepper/salt. Triple love it.

knowing me, knowing you - july

Time once again for that monthly interview project I started. I hope you'll play along here or in the comments or heck make a note out of it on facebook. Yes, Heather I'm looking in your direction.

1. What household chore do you dislike the most?

I think I'd have to go with vacuuming here. Mostly because I cannot stand our central vac. It's a dinosaur at this point and while it still works I question how effective it really is.

2. Do you have any travel plans this year?

Nope. We tend to spend our summer vacations close to home. Maya is a horrible traveler, from the motion sickness to her sleep issues to her hard time dealing with change. It's just easier to stay home. Abby is away with my Mom right now. She's pretty good, but does tend to get a bit homesick. There's no cottage for them this year. It's not open for rentals so they're flying by the seat of their pants. Today was supposed to be the zoo and then -- who knows.

3. Ever met a bloggy friend in real life.

Well I kinda count The Mommy Project. She had read large portions of my blog before we ever actually met in person. Although we did know about each other via our daughters and had an email relationship to set up playdates and such. And through her I met the lovely Widney Woman online and then in person last summer. A date I almost chickened out of, but am so glad I did not. She is even more fabulous in real life and her kids - uber adorable. Next on the agenda - Karen from Virtually There. Karen and I are long time bloggy friends and luckily she'll be spending the next year much closer to me than she usually is. I am hoping to hook up with her soon. I am equal parts excited and nervous as hell.

4. Seen anything good lately?

We tend to watch more movies in the summer just because there is nothing much on TV. This past weekend I watched The Other Boleyn Girl. I wasn't really expecting to like it as much as I did. Natalie Portman is great in it, but I've been a Portman fan since she did Beautiful Girls a million years ago. We also watched Role Models for movie night and I fell a little bit more in love with Paul Rudd.

5. What is your favourite kitchen appliance?

My kitchenaid mixer. No question. I have only owned it for six months, but it has more than paid for itself. I whipped up cookie dough in minutes with it tonight while I was bbqing dinner. Just because my Little My Pie wanted chocolate chip cookies. She's an only child this week so I aim to indulge her. And the appliance honeymoon is still not over. I can't help but run my hand over it's shiny finish whenever I walk by, just marvelling that it's actually mine.




So now the rules, they're pretty simple. Post your answers to these questions on your own blog in the next few days. Remember to link back here in your post and sign the Mr. Linky too, so we can all see what you have to say. Please make sure you link to your actual KMKY post and not your blog's front page. Any front page links will be deleted. And most importantly, have fun! Have suggestions for next months questions? Leave me a comment or send me an email and let me know.

friday high five - where i live

Well my last post of pictures of the girls in our empty pool seems to have made people wonder why we had the water for it brought in by truck. So I thought it might be a good idea, for this week's Friday High Five, to list how living here is different from living in the big city.



1. I live in a village, which is really a small collection of houses gathered around two intersections. Once upon a time there was a sign as you came into "town" that stated the population was 500. It was handmade so I have no idea how accurate it was, but it was probably pretty close.

2. I have neighbours, lots of great nighbours, "close" by. Our properties all vary in size, but we have lots of room in between the houses. Imagine a new survey and then remove every second (or sometimes third) house.

3. From my house you don't have to walk too far before you hit the first farmer's field -- in any direction -- but we're a mere 10 minutes away from "civilization".

4. Every lot out here is different, most have wells. Ours does not and city water pipes do not come out this far. What we do have is a cistern or a holding tank that is buried in the ground right underneath the office. It holds X amount of water and once that is gone, it's gone. Then we have to order a delivery of water from the water truck. Ideally you notice you're low before you run out and order it, but I can't say we've never run the thing completely dry because we have many times. We don't drink the water from our tap so we do have the down spouts on one side of the house run into the cistern to collect rain water. And everything we do is about conserving water to help a load last as long as possible. We were water conservationists well before it became cool to be one.

5. Way back in the day this was a bustling little town. The house beside us was the mill/funeral parlour. The house across the corner was a hotel. The house I looked at last weekend was the doctor's office. There used to be a store where The Mommy Project's house is now. Papa, himself, grew up in the house right next door to that and generations of Mike's family have lived in various houses in the village.

It is a great place to live, especially now that we have high speed internet, right MP.

you capture - photog's choice

This week the you capture assignment was entirely my choice. So I picked what I like to photograph the most -- my kids.

These I took while the kids were waiting -- not so patiently -- for the water truck to come and fill the pool.








This one I took while we were at Mike's cousin's place for dinner. I'm thinking about entering it in the blurred photo category at the fair, but I'm not sure. Thoughts?



You Capture hosted by: