Category Archives: Boys

Be A Snail Lover

YUCK!

I am coming to conclusion that being a mother to boys is going to stretch me in more ways than them trying to use me as a wrestling mat.

My boys have always loved insects.  I can be outside in the garden and suddenly I will hear, “Butterfly”, “Bee”, “Look”, or I will see them hunched over something on the sidewalk.

I love being a stay-at-home mom because I can always stop and take a look at what they are inspecting.  I can keep little insects alive and I get to slow down and just be.

Our latest insect loving from the weekend: Snails.

No snails were hurt during this photo shoot.

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JC watching over the snails. 

Here are a sequence of photos I took while watching one of the snails.  He ended up touching the lens of the camera.  Awesome!

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These photos are not edited.  I was laughing my head off as I took them so that’s why they are a little blurry.

Snails have personality!  Sorry mom that they like to eat your plants.

Be Mexican and Mediterranean

I am unsure of which continent my childrens’ palates come from.

Isn’t cooking for and eating with children tricky?

They love their Mexican food so perhaps they are North American after all.  But meat and potatoes they won’t eat.  Turkey dinner with all the trimmings (turkey, potatoes, salad, cranberry sauce, stuffing…) is YUCKY for my boys.

Throw a plate of cheese, meat and olives in front of them, with some raw vegetables and fruit, the plate will be bare before we can give thanks.

Here was our lunch today:

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I combined the best of both Mexican and Mediterranean worlds by adding a few corn chips to the plate!

Next stop: Indian, for dinner!

Be Removing A Closet

What do we really WANT and NEED?

This question keeps rolling through my mind as I wade through the copious amount of stuff in my parents basement and the torn apart house we hope to occupy in less than four weeks.

You will be happy to know that we are not going on the Hoarders TV show, but we are making steps to remove a closet so that all three of our boys can share a room.

Yes, in the world of resale, probably not the best move.  But in the realm of us having the priority that our boys will be close, share their lives and their worlds with each other, getting rid of a closet is something we need to do.

One decision down… 1,368 to go!

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The view of the closet from the hall.  Look at all that space we will have for the boys literal bed room.  We plan on keeping their clothes, books and some toys in the other bedroom down the hall.  The boys are excited about their “sleeping” room and their “book” room as they are calling them.

Be A Cookie Recipe Sharer

Hands up (or hands down depending what time of girl you are!) the best cookies I have had in a long time!

My neighbour brought over some freshly made cookies and the recipe.  I love this as you get to see and taste the finished product, plus see how it was made.

Chocolate Chip Seed Cookies 

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(From Betty/Lizzie, my tea drinking neighbour)

These are big and yummy and freeze well, if they last that long! 

Back at 350 degrees for 15 minutes (mine were smaller and only took about 12 minutes)

1 1/2 cups of butter

2 cups brown sugar

2 egss

then add 2 cups of cold water

2 tsp vanilla

2 cups flour (I used 2 1/2 cups of spelt flour)

1/2 tsp soda

3 cups chocolate chips

1 cup raisins

1 cup pumpkin seeds

1 cup sunflower seeds

5 cups quick oats

*You can also add sesame seeds/millet/poppy/flax seeds or whatever you wish.

This is a stiff dough that needs good mixing and makes lots of cookies.  Some people make them large.  I don’t… plop them on the cookie sheets… you can flatten them, but I don’t.  

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Thanks neighbour.  I have made them twice in the last week to share with people.  YUM!

Be A Man – Part IV

I love my man!  Usually when I talk about ‘be a man’ (see here), I am talking about Sexy Neck.

In the midst of cleaning, moving and digging out trees, I had to add a guest “man” to my banter with my man.

Papa Bob or Baron Bob as we lovingly call our dear friend, is a great man.

He came to dig out our boy’s placenta trees.  Trees we had planted with our boys placenta’s underneath.  Strange, I know, but really interesting.   JC has an autumn blaze tree because of the colour and CC has a plane tree because of the size.  OC will get his tree this fall when he turns two.

Since we were moving today, the boys requested that the trees come with us.  They also asked if we could bring the bathroom mirror, but we left that behind.

Our Papa Bob, was busy digging a humungous hole in our heavy clay soil, but when the boys arrived he had them digging with him, avoided hitting them with his sledgehammer and looked like a superhero when the roots finally gave way.

Here is Papa Bob in action.  Let’s remember it is easy to get our heads down in a hole, but it is the people that God has placed around us that really matter.  Thank PB for reminding us of this!

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