autumn weekend

We had such a cool and wet spring and summer this year!  I've been waiting (impatiently) for some warm days this autumn and this weekend seemed to have been the first sunny one in a long time!

We made great use of today's sun.  My sister-in-law and her family were supposed to come to get their cattle off our pasture land today so I packed up some lemonade and pumpkin muffins and we headed out to the farm hoping to see some cattle wrangling with riders on horseback!

While waiting for them to arrive, we tried to fly kites but the wind wouldn't cooperate!

We noticed how the frost caused the trees to lose their leaves but the grass remains green due to all the moisture this year!  Unfortunately, the frost wasn't harsh enough to kill the mosquitos!

We checked out our crop!

The afternoon ended with disappointment as my sister-in-law had vehicle problems so the girls and I came home for supper.  Still, it was a lovely day!

scrappin'

Although I've been really occupied with work lately, I have managed to squeeze a little time for crafting on the side.  I have been taking a Big Picture Class, "Adventures in Scrapbooking: Use Your Stash", but haven't been following it as attentively as my first class, "Baker's Dozen".  (I really enjoyed Baker's Dozen.)

I have managed to do a couple baby layouts using photos that have been hanging around with my baby stash (and yes, I have my stash organized based upon seasons/occasions ~ call me "uptight" but I can usually find things reasonably quickly!) ...

I was delighted to finally able to incorporate K's baby barrettes into a layout!  Every time I see them, I think of her!

This layout didn't turn out as I had planned.  Its title is "Sweet Dreams" and the word "dreams" is designed into the patterned paper and located below "Sweet".  I just couldn't figure out a way of raising attention to dreams.  Working on a layout is like working on a puzzle to me.

Journalling is a very important part of my scrapbooking.  It is fun to play with paper and tangible things (buttons, accessories) but the journalling gets me each time.  It is a wonderful way to record memories!

last week's find

Well before the beginning of the kitchen reno, I realized that a regular table would not fit into the reno-ed kitchen.  A dining area, other than the peninsula, was not going to be feasible so I started my quest for the "perfect" vintage desk so that I could hover around spy upon the children while they worked on the computer.  For months, I have vigilantly visited antique stores and mid-century stores with my measuring tape in hand; I have cruised the internet searching for "Herman Miller vintage desk".  All for naught.  I finally relented and agreed that my dh's grandfather's 29"-wide arborite table would work for the desk but this table was still too wide.

True story:  last Saturday the phone rang and my dh was on the line phoning from our farm.  "Guess what I found!", he encouraged me.  I guessed gold.

But it was better than gold: it was a vintage table with grey arborite that my father-in-law purchased from an office auction in the 1980s.  It is 20" in depth and perfect in every way (altho I'm a little undecided whether we should paint the legs and apron of the table).  The table has sat holding "stuff" in the machine-shed since the 1980s.

My dh picked up our Acme stools and desk chair yesterday.  We are elated with the stools and chair and feel that much closer to the kitchen starting to function as planned!

Miele steam oven review

We have been completely delighted by our new kitchen appliances.  You may recall that I was very enthusiastic about getting a steam oven to replace the microwave.  However, it took a long time before our Miele steam oven was functional; we don't believe the oven's problem was the oven but that the oven wasn't getting sufficient electricity.  (Simply put, the electrician didn't read the manual closely and thought the steam oven was functional with lesser power supplied to it).

We've had the steam oven operational for a few weeks now.  We use it virtually every day, at least once per day.  It makes phenomenal rice.  We cook most of our vegetables in the steam oven.  My dh makes his morning oatmeal in the steam oven (which is nice because you just plunk the pan into the oven, trot to the shower and return and it is ready to eat ~ you don't have to babysit the steam oven like you do the cooktop).  I make better scrambled eggs in the steam oven than on the stove.

We My dh used it last week to make canned peaches: we my dh blanched the peaches in the oven (to remove the skins), we sterilized the jars in the steam oven, and, once we filled the jars with peaches and juice, we cooked the peaches in the steam oven which eliminated the heavy canner.  It will be a dream to use the steam oven to blanch and freeze yellow beans next year!

We haven't done much reheating of casseroles yet in the steam oven but that will be attempted in the future.  We tend to still (periodically) microwave frozen breads (as the microwave has been banished to the basement).  Also on my to-do list is to make creme brulee in the steam oven.

My dh is delighted to clean the steam oven now that he has found Shamwow which soaks up any residue steam water like a dream!  He thinks the time it takes to clean the steam oven would be about equivalent to the time he would spend washing/drying a pot and we just place the used pan in the dishwasher.  It is so nice that it's really hard to burn food in a steam oven either!
 

golden oldies

As I type this post, I hear an energetic discussion by two girls, aged 5 & 7 years, as they try to organize my dh's collection of 1960s and 1970s CD (music).  They are organizing the CDs into the "girl pile" or the "boy pile".  Where they don't know if the performer is male or female which happens most frequently, they load up the CD to check it out. (ie: "I've got to check this one out... I don't know if it's a boy" ~ happens to be Cat Stevens).  (Oops, here's Sweet Home Alabama which was conclusively decided as "boy stuff".  They then grumble how there is too much boy stuff.)

Earlier, they had a heated debate over care of the CDs.  As they pointed out, these CDs are really old because they make reference to 1960s Greatest Hits or 1970s Greatest Hits and, considering they constantly hear me talk about taking good care of vintage household goodies, they have been carrying the CDs carefully because they are, after all, very old.

Wait until they discover his LPs.  If only we had a record player for them to listen to the LPs.

the school year begins!

It's that time of year: the beginning of school.  This morning, K woke up around 4 a.m. wondering whether it was morning yet as she was anxious to go to school to start grade 2.  N attended her kindergarten orientation this afternoon.  Both K & N took apples for their teachers this afternoon.  They both had a great first day and are excited to return to school.

I never realized how much of parenting was an act of self-discipline.  In the early years, self-discipline consisted mostly of eating good and healthy food groups.  Now, as we start the school year, I am bracing myself to do the daily reading (in French) with K.

Last week, I started piano lessons K started group piano lessons with Music for Young Children (MYC) which is an excellent program to introduce children to piano, music theory and ear training.  I really wish I had the opportunity to participate in elementary group piano lessons as a child as they are so much more fun than having personal piano study with a teacher.  However, I have already done my 6+ years of piano study as a child so I find attending one-hour long group lessons and monitoring practices a bit burdensome!

Today, I registered K in Kumon so that she can practice and improve her math skills.  I'm hoping that she'll see the fruits of her labour herself so that she will develop self-discipline.  Yup, I know: wishful thinking.  My dh has volunteered to take her to Kumon class once per week.

With all this self-discipline that I am exercising and modelling, you'd think that I'd be able to climb mountains.  Nicht.  I suspect my personal self-discipline is fully consumed in parenting.