If I ever repeat myself in a title, just let me know.

I sit in a silent house. The girls both still sleeping and Paul just off to work. I have free time. I guess you could call it that as there are no mouths asking me for something. But.... There is the house and the this and the that. There is a list as long as my left arm of daily chores that I am now three to four days behind on cause we have spent the last three and a half days replacing two windows upstairs.

And then there is something else nagging on my soul. My Man. His never ending list of things to get done. And all I can do is watch and help where I can. I feel so helpless. Like I am in his life to watch him be weighed down by a pile that is bigger than he. How am I to be his help mate when all I can do is watch? I long to dig deep into my day and fill it with getting things done for him and yet I have the other list. The left arm list. The house, the kids, the this and the that.

And so here I sit in a silent house wondering. How do we get it all done? Where do we start? What is my first order of business for the day? I have been absent from here and I miss it. I miss sharing life, spilling it all out here in the open. And I know there will be more absence. There will be less and less time that I can give to this.

: :

I am back a few hours later with a Bean on my lap who is playing peacefully with a tea pot and cup. I have had some time to think on my last thought there and remember that things are really not going so badly. Some days may be hard, we may feel backed up, but then I just hunker down and get to work and remember that this is life. Crazy, Busy, Full, and Awesome. It is a gift. Each day is new and though it feel heavy on our shoulders we must remember to settle into it and move forward at the same time. There will come an end to the crazy. It may be awhile. There may be more crazy yet to come. But it will end. Even if for only a weekend.

So Let me say Thanks. Thanks for being patient with me. Thanks for checking in all week to see how things are going. Though I may be absent from here I think often on what I would say. I have plans to share a recipe. I want to share our lives. But when we awoke to the leaky kitchen ceiling all had to be put aside.

And so we climbed up on the newly tinned roof to figure out what was really going down.



This is it. The rot in the bottom of the window trim was extensive. Water sat down in the corners of these windows for far too long.


As we dug deep into the trim we discovered that these windows had to go. Sudden house reno in a mad dash.


My mans legs as he works on assessing the situation. Here is a man who will work hard to get a job done no matter how frustrating the process.


Trim removed and the bottom portion of the window gone. This is when we decided to go with all new windows vs. trying to use what was there. Especially seeing as what was there was rotten.


My work attire before I realized how deep we were going. I changed to shoes when it was my turn to start prying away at the window. I removed the top portion of the girls window while Paul took off to Brandon to pick up the two new windows.

From here I dropped off on the picture taking. So here we are with the final window in place. Paul is foaming up all the leaky holes in the wall. As we were pulling these windows out we realized that it is indeed time to redo the upstairs of this home. We are thinking next summer will be the start of one room at a time.


Now that those are done and trimmed out, well kind of trimmed out. We did a very hap hazard job as per the reno talk for next year. There are no after shots at this point cause well... My mind has moved on to the next big thing that is going to start around here.

Starting tomorrow I am going to attempt POTTY TRAINING!!! Yup, here goes the start of cleaning up all the same stuff I have been cleaning up for the last year and a half but now off the floor. WOOT!!. Ha. I am pumping myself up for this. There is one thing I learned for sure last time around. When toilet training a child this young it is not really so much the kid that is learning it is the momma. I am the one who has to put the little one on the toilet every 15 min. I am the one who has to watch the kid like a hawk. Keep my mind always on where she is and what she is doing. So if I appear to drop off the map for another week or two, do not worry I am just in the throws of some crazy sh*t.. Okay I am sorry for that but it's true.

So to all of you my readers thanks for keeping up with this crazy life. Thanks for checking in every now and then. Thanks for all the encouragement. I love to share my life with friends and family and often find being cooped up in this house I wonder if I will ever "get out". This is my coffee time with friends. Thanks for all the love.

Keep coming back. I hope to fill you in soon on the crazy learning that will be taking place in This Old House.

My take on KCWC so far

I have often come across sewing for kids week in blogs here and there on the world wide web and have always wanted to take part. So when I came across KCWC Fall 2012 I wanted to dive right in. I wasn't sure I could actually give an hour a day to sewing but now I fear what is worse.


I can't stop at only an hour. I want to sew all the time.


Now I remember why I don't allow myself to even start on a project. I will never stop. So after this week we'll see what happens but for now I am having a blast with turning out some warm winter pants for my girl.

Now on to the pattern. I have used this pattern once before and found it to be much too long in the waist for my girl and so there have been a few alterations made. For these brown pants I also brought in the pant leg as it is supposed to be a wide leg pant and I wanted something that hugged in a bit.

The fabric is brown corduroy that I had kicking around and some accent cotton that I had gotten in the scrap bin at the fabric store. Pocket design comes from here and I chose to do a flat front vs. the elastic all around on the waist band.


I didn't cut off enough excess on the front pieces and so had to do a bit of a pin tuck thing last minute but it just looks like it is part of the elastic portion of the pant so no worries. I lined the cuffs with the same fabric as the pockets so that when the pants are rolled up there is this sweet soft pink flower fabric. I figure these pants will go for a long time with so much extra cuff to roll up.


Next up were some warm jogging type pants.


Again same pattern, this time with a full leg that was pulled in with a loose elastic at the bottom.

Ah yes here is the pattern. When I took out all the kinks it works well. Really it is a referance point that I use cause it fits well for my girls bottom. Just the waist was too high and the leg to long. She is a size 4 so to speak but not so tall.



Also a little balloon detail for my balloon loving girl.

Again just using fabric I had kicking around. This was left over from a house coat I had made for my husband a while back.


Now I am off to work on a pare of pajama pants for this same little lady. Hope you are having a great time doing the things you love to do. I will say the sewing bug has bit hard and I hope to continue for at least the rest of the week if not a bit more.

Random times for random people

 After strapping a plastic cross stitch board on her back Suzie goes on to tell me what is happening.


"Mom I'm wearin a shield"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah I'm bein Goliath"

"Oh really, so your the bad guy?"

"No, I'm a good Goliath. I'm a girl so I can only be a good guy"

Well that came out of no where. Most often she is the bad guy cause she doesn't know any of the good guy character names.



Speaking of coming out of no where that is what this post is full of. Times long past and in fact I feel as though these should have been up on the blog long ago. But "I'm a girl so I can be random and way behind". So here goes nothing 


My folks came out for a working visit a few weeks back now. Or more, I can't even keep my days straight let alone the weeks. Did you know that today is October first? Yeah, crazy right? Well us Canadians have it even more crazy than that Next Sunday is Thanksgiving! Fall is taking me and sweeping my feet out from under me. It thinks it's funny to send my mind swirling like a bunch of orange and yellow leaves.

Just like Paul thought this would work really well for swinging Jade Bean all on her own.


Turns out it worked great. She had fun and Suzie joined in


Then of course she had to try the other direction. Yes she is wearing another skirt under her dress.


See, My mom. I'm not joking when I say they were here. If you follow my instagram feed you would have seen. Some days I find that it is easier to pull out my ipod than the ten pound weight. I just like the pictures that come from my ten pound weight a lot better.











It is a few hours later here. When it comes to writing out these posts they often take me all day if not more to make them all come together. I often wish to say some deep meaningful thing but wonder how I would make it flow smoothly when my brain feels foggy with the busy days. Jade seems to be working on some more teeth again so that makes her a clingy little thing.



But when it is this sweet pea that clings to my side I can handle that.


Playing a game of Kiss Grandma and then...


Run to kiss mom and back again.


Oh yeah, and My super great older brother came to work with my folks. My parents have some bits of property around these parts that needed some maintenance. This brother and his girls have lived in BC for the past, nearly five years, and are moving back out this way in a short little while. That will leave this small town holding four of us five kids in a very short distance of each other. Much fun to come!!!

Ah yes and somewhere in the last while I got to have four extra little kiddos here in my back yard. These are the kids of one of my many cousins and they are a joy to have around.





Here There is only one of them as the other three are off playing. (my goodness that was earlier this month and the yard looks nothing like that now. All is orange and dead with the trees coming bare as quick as the wind can remove their leaves.)




And so life goes on. My man and I are feeling the crunch coming on for the project that we have constantly on our minds. And so each evening we are working on it or on the things of the home that get left undone when we are at 152 North Railway. Soon we shall name it and no longer just call it "The Project".

Till then life is good even when full to the brim with crazy. Soon I will have my mind all organized and sitting just so. But then life might just be boring and I might not like it too much. So I think I am going to spin in circles with crazy busy and just call it dancing.

First real introduction to "The Project"

So we've moved!!


Ha ha, did I get you? Did you see those words and then look at the picture and have a moment of heart stop on my behalf?

Okay fine, just a silly joke. As Suzie would say "oh, He made a joke on me, He just did a joke"

Here's the truth of the matter, I am finelly letting you in on "The Project". This is a large endevour we took on as a family quit some time ago but sadly I have not been taking any before pictures. It really is a shame cause it will be interesting to see how it all progresses. So needless to say The bathroom was not in this state when we started.


Nope, it wasn't, there was a sink there once. And a whole wall behind it too for that matter. It actually looked like a bathroom. Imagine a mirror straight ahead and a tiny bathtub to the right. And to your left a very scabbed together shelving unit that really did not use up the space well.


This is looking through the back wall of the bathroom from the master bedroom. If you have never pulled apart a lath and plaster wall then you have not seen this. It is the old way of doing walls before drywall existed. It is dusty, messy work to remove.



Most of the lath is down.


And now it is down and all swept out and ready for the next stage.


Today we are there again doing more in the bathroom. We are hoping to have the water running by the end of the day and maybe a bit more too.


Toilet was removed so as to pull up the flooring.


The wall with the shelving unit was stripped down to the lath and will be boarded over. There was no need to remove it all. This building is a two story brick building "down town" Oak Lake. It is a small town of nearly 500 people so down town is a big statement for such a place. The upper floor is an old appartement that needs some lovin and the main floor is an old office space that we will be converting into a second apartement. These will be put up for rent when all is said and done. In the mean time we work hard at both getting the job done and relaxing when we are not working.

Here is a bit of last Sunday.

Pancake picnic. So much fun.




When they were done eating they both headed over to the swing for some time enjoying the cool morning.

Take heart, the job will get done. There will come a day when every free minute is no longer taken up by that looming project either in work or in thought. You will be free from this. Keep working and keep your head up. This too shall pass.

How does your garden grow?

Many mentions have been made of life being busy. Well here is a bit to show for it.

Produce from our own back yard!!

 Yes, we can grow Broccoli. I know I had no clue of that till this year. This was our first attempt and it was all made possible by this great new plan for our garden...Beware, long rambling garden post is about to commence in 5..4...3...
2...

1...
I have been head over heels in love with our garden this year. I mean, I have wanted to be out there. I look forward to the hour a day or more spent just puttering around. I will work out there when the sun is beating down full force without complaint.How could I not when the before looks like this.

All organized and clean.

And the current looks like this!!

Yikes I love it! I feel like I have a bit of a garden forest started out there.

So let me introduce you to each section of my garden. (I am so proud of how it grows).

Before...oh yeah before I go to far along I just want to share how this plan has made the Broccoli attempt possible. I am convinced that I have anywhere from two to three times more planting space then in the past. I could have most likely planted my garden this densely before but with a few set backs.

1: our dirt packs so hard that weeding and hoeing is a real B... (I know I should not even imply a swear but that is how much I hated hoeing.) Now I can reach over these lovely squares and just gently tug out the offending little plant and send it flying into the path.  (the reason nothing gets too packed is because I am never walking on the dirt next to my plants and the dirt mixed in the boxes is mostly compost and peat moss, super fluffy growing stuffs)

2: Planting this tightly without the grid and the raised bed would have made it more difficult to keep track of where everything was when first planted.


3: and this is one of my favorites, Suzie can spend any amount of time in the garden and know that she is not getting into the Plants and hurting them. She is very concerned that it all grows well and she can keep track just as well as I can of how it is doing.


Currently. I have got four squares of lettuce, four of spinach though one did not grow for some reason. 16 pepper plants. 7 tomatoes plants, One was taken by a cut worm. 4 cucs and two squares full of edible pod peas. This is plot number one.






Oh yeah, and three zinnias. These I planted early and then moved so one did not make it in the beginning of the season.

Plot number 2, Before (they are numbered by the distance from the house.)



Currently, Here you will find. 4 more squares of lettuce planted a few weeks later than the first plot. 4 more squares of spinach the same. 4 squares of Fennel (no I have not grown this before, I do not know what to expect). Six Broccoli plants on the left and six cauliflower on the right. 12 squares with carrots and 12 with beans in the back.



Did you know that when you cut of the first fully formed bunch of broccoli more little guys start up, You are supposed to be able to get a few harvests out of one plant. Again something I didn't know.




Fennel up close. We'll see.

From the back of plot number two looking out to where Jade spends most of her time while I work in the garden



Anywhere but in. She is not as big on the leaving the plants alone so they can grow aspect of the garden.

Plot Number 3 - before



Currently, Here I have one more cuc off to the right. 12 squares with onions, two pansies for some color, 8 squares with beets, two more zinnias, four muskmelon or cantaloupe, and four butter nut squash. Also a whole bunch of empty squares cause I was not used to this much space. Will probably plant more lettuce in a few weeks.


From the back side of Plot number 3.


Cantaloupe flowers. Come On Little Buddy, You can do it.


Ah yes, the mud days. She came in after this little session of play and was very upset that her boots were dirty. I am still working so very hard on getting her to understand that if you play in dirt, most likely you will get dirty. We're getting there.

Last but not least is Suzies plot. Hers has no number cause it is her very own. She directed the where the plants should be and she planted all the carrots herself. So in the back you will have carrots on the left and a pansies with two pepper plants on the right. In the front row you will have the exact reverse.

And that is how our garden grows.

::

Here are two strips of dirt that "grow" some of the best things of all. Childhood memories.

I was not sure how I would feel about having my grass pounded out by swinging feet. I have discovered these two patches of dirt are the best thing that have happened to my lawn.


One more cuc cause I had him and he needed a place to go.


The girls decided to offer to mow the lawn, I was grateful for the offer but alas it was a bit late. I had just finished and also run out of gas.

Jade points out the on/off switch, Suzie keeps a close watch to be sure she is getting it right.

P.S. If you actually read all that stuff about the garden and want to know where the idea came from I will set you up with a few links. She introduced us to the book that is all about square foot gardening.