Happy Canada Day Eh!

Long time no blog.  I thought I'd start current and work my way backwards (and forwards) if I can!

Summer is here and what better way than to kick it off with Canada Day.

As per our usual, we met up with friends for the parade and then finished the day off with a BBQ and headed off to the fireworks.

This year I stood in front of my closet and wondered...'what do I have to wear that is red?'  I had bought a Canada Day t-shirt only to get it home and realize it had a flaw.  I took it back and didn't bother picking another one up.  So...I stood there going through my closet and wondering..'what do I usually wear on Canada day?'  Then the lightbulb went on!  I ALWAYS wear my red Roots hoodie that proudly displays my country's name and maple leaf.  Problem:  for the first time in ages, it was unusually hot for July 1st!  So hot, that a hoodie was out of the question!  

All of that to say that it was a HOT, SCORCHING Canada day!  I felt bad for the marching band all decked out in their black marching uniforms and hats!!!  On the other hand, I was thankful for the firefighters and their water supply that they shared with us!

Great Country...Great day...Great memories...As usual! 

An Evening to Remember...

A few weeks ago we had the privilege of taking some amazing people out for a night on the town.  A year ago hubby had a terrible injury on the farm and nearly lost a few fingers.  Through surgery, extensive physiotherapy, and much, much prayer, he not only kept all his fingers, but has regained a lot of use in them!  When this injury happened we were at a very crucial time frame at the farm.  We had barns that needed to be prepped and birds that needed to be moved.  That time in our lives was traumatic and devastating, but we were so blessed by those people in our lives who truly love us and supported us in our time of need.  We had more help than we knew what to do with both on and off the farm!  You can read a little more about that HERE.  
Well, it's hard to believe that over a year has passed, but we wanted to make sure these special people realized just how blessed we were/are by their love and sacrifice.  It took us a long time to find a date that worked for everyone, but we did it!  So, we booked a restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean and spent a wonderful evening with these folks.  The sky was the limit for this dinner.  The food was amazing, and the fellowship made for a memorable evening.  Once we were done dinner we strolled along the boardwalk and pier.  We are so blessed to call these people our friends.  So, friends, if you're reading this, know that we will never forget your kindness.  We will never forget who was really there for us when it came down to it.  We will cherish our friendships with you.  I thoroughly enjoyed my meal on this wonderful evening...after all, I worked my butt off both on and off the farm during that crazy time too!
Here's a few snapshots of the evening...oh, and my must mention note:  NO, I am NOT 7 months preggers in these pictures..this was obviously just a wardrobe malfunction!  Sheesh..I really loved that blouse when I bought it, but I'm having second thoughts....

Spring Break 2012

Spring Break here got off to a baaaaad start!  The weather was horrible!  It poured for the first week and a half!  We had planned a camping trip with some friends of ours and we were getting mighty nervous about camping in the weather, BUT, we ended up getting the BEST weather possible!  The nights were chilly but the days were gorgeous!  It reached a balmy 18* celcius for us.  The kids even had a bit of a sunburn!  We thoroughly enjoyed a break from the rain and the routine of life!  We camped close to home in the beautiful Ft. Langley. We were only a quick drive from home, a Starbucks and a movie theatre (for a surprise we took all the kids to see The Lorax). We had a wonderful time relaxing, walking to town and visiting. Our trailer's an oldie, but we sure love it!  We have made some wonderful memories with it!

It Was a Memorable Tree!

Well, our 2011 live Christmas tree will sure go down in history as one of our more memorable trees! 

I'll sum it up in point form:

- It was a beautiful, full tree with a wonderful aroma

- We purchased it from our friends Mark & Sarah, in honour of their brand new baby daughter, Megan.

- The funds for the tree went straight to Mark & Sarah's work at the Music for Life    School in Ughanda. 

   (Where the African Children's Choir children are educated)

- It was a huge tree!  So huge we had to cut the trunk way down to fit in the iron tree stand!

- It fell over.  A lot.  I finally got mad enough that I tied it to the wall in 2 places.

- It was infested with spiders.  A lot.  I find about 6 each day crawling on the ceilings all over the house.  And, I walk through cobwebs all over my house. blech.

- It was a beautiful, full tree with a wonderful aroma.  (I had to end on a good note, didn't I?)

A parting shot of our kids with the beautiful William's kids!
(I think they were wondering why Daddy was letting us cut a tree down in their yard!)

Sarah was the ever-gracious hostess who made us hot chocolate.
We all had a nice little snuggle with one week old Megan!

Um, Hon?  Do you need a hand?  HON?

Like I said, memorable.  We had a lovely, quiet evening here where Uncle Ken untangled lights and the kids and Rob decorated.  The carols were on and I was snapping pictures.  I love Christmas, and the tree is a part of that!

The Family that 'tubes' together...

Ah, I'm back!  Did you miss me?  It's been ages since I've blogged but it's been for a few reasons.  Reason number one:  I love blogging but family and friends come first and they've been all consuming (in a great way) through this past month.  Reasons two:  I really, really wanted to update the look of my blog and start the new year off right.

Oh, speaking of which, Happy New Year!  I had to write '2012' on a form for the first time today and it felt weird.  Even though my brain knew it was 2012, my hand hesitated!

We had a busy and fun Christmas Season.  There's lots I'm going to have to catch you up on but I'll start with our most recent adventure.  Monday was the last day of break before the kids headed back to school so we decided to head on up to Hemlock Mountain for a fun day of tubing in the snow.  The Tam family joined us and we had the most excellent day!  We packed up the snow gear, lunches, and the camera and headed on up the mountain.  We are so fortunate to live in a place where we can drive one way to the ocean and the other way to the mountains!   The kids enjoyed the trip up, but didn't believe us that there would, indeed, be enough snow to tube on once we got there.  The last 15 km of the drive were steep switchbacks on a gravel/mud road.  Great fun!

We made some awesome memories and enjoyed watching the kids have so much fun.  We ended the day with hot chocolate at the Tam house followed by a take out dinner with our wonderful bro Ken.  Fabulous, fabulous day!  We'll definitely do it again!

Surprise, Surprise...

Here I was, sitting at my computer when I should've been sewing.  BUT, if I had been sitting in my sewing room, sewing away, I wouldn't have heard the knock on the door that brought a pleasant surprise to my day!  My friend, Rhonda, drove all the way out from Chilliwack to drop off a giftie for ME!  Why?  I have no idea...the card says 'Thanks for being You'....well, Rhonda, I say thanks for being YOU!  You brought a smile to face and a bright spot in my day.  I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I appreciate it!  You have always been a generous person.  I love, LOVE the gifties.  A beautiful fall wall hanging that will inspire me to stitch waaaay more neater, and a book that's been on my "I 'need'" list for awhile now! (After all, I am a Farmer's Wife.....) Well, now that I'm inspired, I'd better go sew...

Blissfully Unaware

This post title seemed appropriate when I looked back on the date of my last post. March 29th. On March 29th I had no idea that the next day would be spent in the ER with hubby, wondering if he would still have all his fingers when he left. On March 30th Rob had an accident on the farm. He caught his hand in a piece of machinery in the barn. One of my greatest fears with a husband who's a farmer is injury. Rob works alone and is around equipment all the time. Often I stop in to say hi or bring him a treat...I think we both know that I'm checking in on him and making sure he's ok. Haying season is the worst:) There's always a small part of me that panics when he phones from work...usually it's just a call say 'hi poopsie!' and 'I'm thinking of you'...or more likely, 'I'm going to be a *few* minutes late'. But on this particular day it was a call to say 'I hurt myself pretty good and I'm thinking I should head to the clinic.'

I could tell something was off...he didn't sound too hurt, but there was something in his voice. It took me just a few minutes too long to realize he was in shock. I picked him up at the farm and off we went to ER. The staff were great, he was in within 10 minutes and was receiving treatment shortly thereafter. The big concern was infection. Barns aren't exactly the most hygienic places for an accident!
From this point on it really just seems like a blur. I feel as though I've been living in my car for the past month driving here there and everywhere. Life had to become very organized and scheduled and the days didn't have enough hours in them to get everything accomplished. The timing of the accident was interesting. On one hand, we had just shipped our big flock out so the day to day farm responsibilities were less than usual. On the other hand, we had 13,000 birds that HAD to be moved into the layer barns before they reached a certain age and in order for that to happen all the barns had to be cleaned and prepped for the move itself.
This is where God took over...He saw our anxiety, felt our helplessness, and took over. Rob and I can't even begin to put into words the overwhelming peace we have felt. It's as though nothing happened. Life was put into perspective very quickly. Things that normally feel so bothersome and mundane became things to appreciate and acknowledge.
Before Rob was even out of surgery we had more help than we knew what to do with. People we don't even know were offering their assistance. Fellow farmers came to the rescue, machinery was fixed, barns were cleaned, and flocks were moved! Kids were babysat so I could be available to work on the farm, meals were delivered, and cards were flowing into the mailbox. We even recieved a card from a family in Colorado who knows us through their daughter. They were letting us know that they, and their church, were praying for us! Our church family rose above and beyond the duty of a family and did everything they could to support us. Our friends, family and church prayed us through every step of the trauma. Men took time off their own jobs to come and work on our farm. All of those who volunteered their time didn't even ask if they could help...they just showed up and helped and organized more people on their own. We prayed for safety for these men, many of whom had not worked on a farm before. To feel this kind of love, to experience Christ's love through these friends is more than we can ever express in words. I can't imagine how we would have done all this without our church family. I have always been a strong advocate of church involvement, and this experience causes me to stress just one more time to all of you how important it is to invest your time and love into your church community. It's not a matter of having the resources of friends to help in a crisis, although this is a huge benefit, it's the way you experience Christ's love through these people.
Well, this blog post could go on for days, but to sum things up; we are so thankful that the surgeon was able to re-construct Rob's fingers. We are thankful that he will slowly regain use of them, if not entirely, then we'll settle for partially! We are thankful that the cost of therapy and all medical expenses will be covered. We are thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who protected us and embraced us. We are thankful for friends and family who carried us through this trauma.  Thankful for those of you who followed us through every step of the way with phone calls, texts and emails.  We are so thankful for our marriage and the unity we were able to feel despite the crisis.
Rob is thankful to be back at work...the crazy man won't stay away from his beloved farm! He has months of therapy ahead, and will need to take it easy, but that's a small price to pay for a farm accident! So, if you are one of the many friends that helped us through this, then we sincerely thank you from the bottom of our hearts!
I didn't get too many pictures...too busy! But here's a few I snapped with my phone along the way...
Here's hubby 'supervising' a few days after the accident:

Here's my bro who came to the rescue and put in some good time doing mundane chores with me on the farm:

Here's a few fierce warriors to braved the flock change...from left to right:

Josh, who's experience on a layer farm was such an asset,

Wayne, who said...and I quote "I'd deal with complaining customers all day before I'd ever chicken farm!"

And Stef, who kept us entertained all day! Stef's quote: "I was really careful with the chickens...well, the first few anyway...."

Thanks guys...you're the BEST!

And last, but certainly not least.... 'Dr. D' and fellow farmer and friend Dan who also played a big part in getting the job done! Way to go guys!



My Tuesday Timeout....

Have I ever officially told ya'll about my 'Tuesday Time Outs'?  I have taken so many pictures to post about my Tuesdays, but rarely do I get the time to organize them into a blog post.  More realistically, I rarely get my project(s) finished in time to post a satisfactory amount...well, that, and Kim always beats me to the punch and hers always ARE finished!!!  What can I say.... I get a 'little' less done with some of the kiddos still being at home!  Kim is always so gracious about packing up all her stuff and coming over here so that I can do the exact opposite!  Me packing up Isaac, stuff to keep Isaac busy, food for Isaac, and remember all my sewing stuff, plus arrange to pick up Abby part way through the day just wouldn't make for a very productive day! 
So, with those basics in place, each Tuesday, Kim and I get together to work on a project.  We've been doing this for over a year now and it's a great little tradition we have going.  Sometimes we choose a project to start together, other times we pull out our own projects.  Sometimes it's machine stitching, other times it's all hand stitching.  We ask each other for colour/fabric advice, and we ask each other for life advice!  We share many a laugh, a few songs, a few heartaches, plenty of conversation, and a few more laughs.  Coffee is always present and needles are always flying!
Today we started a pinwheel sampler.  This is a project both of us have wanted to tackle for awhile now.  Pinwheels look quite simple, but the amount of pieces that go into each one require pretty exact measurements.  Matching up seams can be tricky business, but we convince each other that 'no one's gonna notice that!'
So there's a brief sum up of Tuesday Timeouts.  Today's timeout was a little hectic around here.  The kids are home for spring break and they didn't seem to understand that every now and then (specifically Tuesdays) Mommy drops everything to sew!  Oh well...here's hoping next week goes better...did I mention that Kim is always really gracious about things....?

I'm working with a layer cake that I got awhile back called 'Punctuation' by American Jane.  It felt good to delve into this stash and create something with it!  The colours are fun and borderline on reproduction style prints.

In total there will be 2 sets of 8 pinwheels in the quilt, although each has it's own unique colour pattern.

I'm liking the look of this one and excited to keep working on it in my Tuesday Timeouts!

Missing magnets..

I miss having magnets.  I miss being able load up my fridge with pictures of all our friends and family.  Every year the photocards come at Christmas and I love them.  I display them proudly on clotheslines throughout the house. 

So, in lieu of having a magnetic fridge, I trim them all down and crop them as much as I can and then load up my photo stand with a huge collage of all our peeps.  I love passing this collage multiple times each day and being reminded of times with friends and laughter we've shared, and also remembering a friend to pray for during the week.  So here's this year's collage...

Ps..don't panic, if you're picture isn't front and center, you will be rotated half way through the year!

You know you had fun when...

...you completely forgot to take pictures during the event!  Yup, that was me.  I love New Year's Eve.  It's a great reason to get together with friends and eat yummy food and laugh, laugh, laugh.  We did all of those things this year, but I completely forgot to take pictures. Memories of this New Years Eve will include letting the kids (minus Isaac) stay up for the first time, discovering a new treat Janelle makes that is FABULOUS, the game Apples to Apples, hiccups, coconuts and SFU.  Thanks friends for a wonderful evening!
I took pre-party pictures, and after everyone left, I got Olivia to snap a post party picture.  So here's all I got...Wishing you and yours a very Happy New Year!  May 2011 be a year of personal and spiritual growth, contentment in life, and meaningful relationships with those you love.

BakeFest 2010

I think we just started a new tradition.  A group of us girlfriends decided to get together and do a bunch of Christmas baking.  Some fun facts about our bakefest:

Fact #1 - There were 6 of us.  Each girl picked 2 recipes and provided ingredients for 15 dozen of EACH recipe!

Fact #2 - Heather brought a huge bottle of bubbly

Fact #3 - It was really good bubbly.

Fact #4 - We baked over 2100 cookies that night

Fact #5 - It took us approx 7 hours to do it.  We started at 7pm - yes, you did the math right, we were up until 2 in the morning.  I'm paying for it this week.

Fact #6 - There were 3 workstations, 3 mix masters, 2 ovens running full time, and a fine layer of flour over every surface, including our faces. 

Fact # 6.5 - Elise taught us all kinds of things about feeling true freedom.

Fact #7 - There were 2 adorable little baby girls to snuggle.

Fact #8 - It took me over 3 hours to clean up the next day (they offered to help but I declined)

Fact #9 -  I found cookie batter up the wall and on my curtains over the sink.

Fact #10 - This was one of the most memorable nights I've had with my besties and I'd do it all over in a hearbeat.

Love the memories we created, the food we made, the laughs we had, the youtube clips we watched, the time with these women who are so special in my life.

Here's a picture of my cut of the take:

These are the recipes I made:

Sugar Cookies:
Preheat oven 350-375*
Cream together: 1/2 cup margarine (cold), 1 cup white sugar.
Add: 1 beaten egg, 2 tbsp milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla and beat until fluffy.
Sift together: 1 3/4 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt and add to wet mixture.
Chill for a few hours as it is very soft dough.
Roll out to approx 1/8" thick, cut desired shapes. 
Bake for 6-8 minutes or until slightly golden on edges.
Ice cookies if you like  ( I combine marg, icing sugar and milk for my icing)

Ting-A-Lings:
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
2 cups crisp chow mein noodles
1 cup salted peanuts
Melt both chocolate and butterscotch chips in a double broiler.  Once melted, remove from heat and stir in noodles and peanuts. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto waxed or parchment paper.  Chill until set.  Store in fridge or freezer.

Lucky me...

I was happily surprised to receive this lovely table runner as a hostess gift previously this summer.  Whatever happened to the art of the hostess gift anyway?  I used to love to show up to peoples homes with flowers, or wine or whatever.  The odd time I still do, but it really seems like a lost art.  My 'Chilliwack' besties (aka Ladies who Lunch) keep this art alive!  They are so thoughtful and generous!
My sweetheart of a friend, Rhonda, made me this lovely gift.  It's all quilted and done in colours that fit right into the house.  Fortunately it's the perfect size for my antique stove. It's a reminder of the gift of friendship.  Thanks Rhonda...you're one of the most generous people I know.

A new life to celebrate...

A beautiful baby girl was our 'excuse' to celebrate this time!  We are so thrilled for our dear friends Depak & Tillie as they welcomed beautiful baby Anna Simran into their family last month. 
A few weeks back I entered a contest at the very last minute, to win a bunch of cupcakes by a local gal here in town who has a cake business.  Patricia of 'Patticakes' drew my name the very next morning and I woke up to an email saying I had won!  woo hoo...very rarely do I win anything! 
So...my first few thoughts were these:  a) we're going away in a few days and there's no way we could eat all these cupcakes on our own! b) ok, well, maybe we could eat all these cupcakes on our own, but that just isn't healthy! c) cupcakes taste better fresh than after they've been frozen d) what a perfect excuse to have a party!!!  Tough call..but let's go with D!
I sent out an invite to a few gals and we turned the cupcake party into a baby shower for little Anna.  It was a great way to catch up on our busy summer activities, and take turns having a cuddle with sweet little Anna.  Heather found the perfect card for Tillie, and I do mean PERFECT (see below..but only if the word 'boobs' doesn't offend you;)  The cupcakes were beautiful and tasted great!

The Ladies Who Lunch decided to Supper...

So my 'ladies who lunch' group has had a great year of fun, trying out quaint restaurants, getting together to sew and quilt, but the one thing we've never done is get together as families.  Trying to arrange a bbq for this many people is no small feat.  We did quite a bit of corresponding before we could nail down a day but we did it!  The weather didn't cooperate fully, but we didn't let it dampen our spirits.  It was so funny to watch the FaceBook threads go on and on about who would bring what and were we having kids come etc, etc.  In the end, it was a lovely evening, with great food that everyone brought.  I even recieved a few hostess gifts that I'll share about in a later post:)  Thanks to our hubbies for braving an evening with all us crazy ladies!