Hungry Helpful Hobbit

Miss Julia enjoys her food. Here she is with the pot of cream style corn, because she kept asking for more and more and more, so i just gave her the rest of it....in the pot. :)
It was pizza night, and julia helped with everything: rolling out the dough (okay, so she rolled and squished and played with it, and then i did the final roll), spreading the sauce with a spatula and then topping it off with meat and veggies. I did have to rearange some of her placements....like, everything in one corner of the pan...but she did it with me! :) i was thrilled to have the help.

and mmmmmmm.....was it ever good. Thank you mom for always having the tradition of making us home made pizza, because it is now a tradition in our family too! :) I loved pizza night at home, my mom makes an AWESOME pizza! :)
Tomorrow is Canada day so we shall celebrate the day with popcorn and water...yep, dave and i will be working at the farmer's market up in st. jacobs for the day! I hope everyone enjoys the celebrations and feasting. :)

Off to conquer the world of Catan tonight......

love from sue

This Is Where We Have Been Lately

WATER PARK WATER PARK WATER PARK WATER PARK WATER PARK!


I love this place!! I believe the story behind it is that someone died, left a million dollars for a children's park in the "south end" of Sarnia, and voila! we have a beautiful water park and brand new playground equipment! hooray!

Julia is in love with the park. Constantly running in and out of the spray toys, and then up to the lifeguards to tell them she got wet. ha. The guards are SO SO SO NICE!! They always remember our names and give us good advice of which tickets to buy for the best entrance costs.

Small town vibes: when i walk through our market, people know us and talk to us. We smile and they give us free cookies or licorice sometimes. At the gas station today, i saw the older gent who sells cars across from our home and he greeted us cheerfully. Must be a small town. People look, smile, and talk to you!! I love it. Sometimes i walk just to see people and talk. Julia enjoys it as well. I think she catches on fast to 'adult style' conversation. For example, at the market this morning, she talked to the strawberry lady for a few minutes, it went something like this:
"I went strawberry picking!! I WENT STRAWBERRY PICKING TOO!!(second time for empasis, in case she wasn't listening)"
"I looked under the bush, and saw a little red one" (as she acts out holding a tiny little berry and stares at it with eyes crossed, i'm sure!)
"then we put them in the strawberry boxes"
"I mashed them and we made jam"

jabberjibberjabber.

it is hilarious to listen and watch her talk in conversation with people, especially ones she barely knows. makes me laugh!

Soooooooooooooooo that's enough of my jibberish for today. love to all.

from sue

Again........

News: please pray for my mom, she is at the hospital all day today getting a spot removed from her nose. She is not certain how long the operation will take, because the doctors don't know until they start the removal. Thanks for the prayers. It isn't cancerous, however, it has returned from a previous removal (two years ago).

I finally went to a fabric store and bought the interfacing/iron-on material to finish off this dress!! i am so excited for Julia to celebrate Canada Day! :) heehee. costume makes all the different in celebration!! :)


Here is an old cast-iron pot in our garden, the first of many random trinkets to fill up our enchanted flowering grounds!

A FIRST

This morning Julia emerged from her room with a dear little stuffie that Aunti Sarah gave her for Christmas and anounced that its name is : SAGEN.

this is a first, and i am so giggly-thrilled about it! i don't know why, perhaps it is the growing of her imagination, but this is the first time she has named something original. usually it is something or someone she knows already, and today, it was her own. Her creation. Her mind making things up.

heehee. So, everyone, meet "Sagen, the Llama"

PS. i know it isn't a llama, but Julia is convinced he should be.....

StrawberryMania

The Masher -- "no mommy, i a big girl." (she doesn't think she is a masher, apparently..haha)

Stirring the goods......... thanks OMA!!

mmmmmmmmmm. the product. DELICIOUS!! We also created some pies and frozen berries for future use. What fun we had with Oma allllllllllll day. It was a busy-licious time of cutting, mashing, mixing, pouring, sugaring, laughing and talking. Family fun is a wonderful time to learn together. THe lessons Julia will learn from the kitchen and her oma will be timeless and priceless.the new FAMILY members, helping Opa BBQ. haha.


GARDEN UPDATE: the first fruits of my tomatoe crop!

canadadaydress

This is the beginning of J's CanDayDress. i just have to figure out how to apply the various patterned Maple leaves that i cut out. :)

i am SO EXCITED!!

EEHEEHEEHEE. Every day is a celebration! :)

Piano Hour with Julia and Friends

Welcome to the Happy Fingers Piano Hour!!

Julia enjoyed the company of Judah and Levi today, as we endured a rainy, stormy morning indoors!! The three of them found plenty to do while us mommy's talked about a possible home business....i'll post more of that later if i try some of our ideas out....

Anyway....what an awesome storm today has been. Constant rain; thunder peels that last for at least 20 seconds, and pleasant cool air. I need to remind myself that when a day passes with such intense sweltering heat, i will see a refreshing rain soon. Heat fills the air, burdening it until it can hold the sultriness no longer: BURST! it rains. aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh. and we can breathe again.
I tried to take pictures of the rain, the drops, the pattern it makes in the air -- but i just can't do it. I suppose i'd need a manual camera and a tri-pod. Maybe in my retirement? haha.

Ummmmmmm. So lately there have been some terrible things happening back home. My Oma and Opa have been very ill. Opa is on the mend, but there were moments of near death that had us all on edge. Now my Oma is undergoing surgery for a burst blood vessle and her liver needs serious treatment. They most likely won't do a transplant, but we are awaiting news on WHAT they can do for her.
So...if you think of them, say a little prayer. Thanks.

Random Thougths of Oma and Opa:
They ARE dear, sweet, wonderful Grandparents. My memories of them are so pleasant; filled with adventures at their farm, stories of the old days, and good food on their table. Opa has strong, thick hands, browned and leathery from working every day of his life. Oma has a lovely quirk of singing about everything. Her voice often trails off to sing a line from a hymn that applies to the conversation. Oma wears bright pink. Opa jokes about everything. The air in their gardens is made fresh by the love they pour into them. Flowers grow, vegetables thrive, and a new item is always being constructed to make the grounds delightful to the eye. (walls, chairs, tables, fences....) Opa waves and honks at everyone he passes, just to see if they will wave back. At church, Oma STILL sneaks you and your friends' candies, and squeezes your cheeks in your teens and older.

hmm.
Love to all. Good'ay.

Peace Building

Amy stopped by for a night on her way home from Grad school in Vermont. (amy let me know if that is the wrong school i have as a link) What a precious friend this girl is. There is something so peaceful, honest and real about her that makes you want to sit and talk to discover what drives her on, what inspires her, what touches her heart. What a darling friend.

She brought miss Julia a gift.
IT is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute.

check the link. Thanks for the awesome book Amy, Julia loves it. pretty soon she will be saying "Llama Drama" and other silly rhymes.

We walked and talked all morning. (Julia was very forgiving, we didn't do a lot of Julia-style talk. haha. ) To probe the mind of someone so fresh from school was a great opportunity, Amy is so ready to apply her knowledge and passion to the world around her. The worldview she has and her love for God and people is amazing. We touched on how to unite world studies with greater goals than just fact-transfer and head knowledge; such as compassion, long term effects of aid, and our mindset while engaging with other nations. Questions like: What is our goal of helping other nations? what will be the result ten years from now? are we improving their lifestyle, or causing dependance? Are we coming in as the superior culture or as equals? How can we change our stereotypes of other nations in a balanced manner, and teach our children to see all people as God's creation, not the 'good' and the 'bad' ? Biblically, what is our role in regards to the 'alien' or foreigner? What should we as parents/pastors/ teachers be teaching our children to build into them compassion for the lost, lonely, hungry and oppressed?

So many questions, so little time. We had a very inspiring talk....and now i want to write curriculum for a school project that combines world studies with compassion, action and such...hmm.....

for another day!! haha.

Julia quotes:
while finishing off her popcicle at snack she says, "mommy, can i have a muffin to cool me off?"

Julia has an accident and creates a puddle on the sidewalk. Mommy asks, "Julia, did you pee in your underwear?" Julia says, "No mommy" (as if mommy can't see the puddle!!?? )
Mommy says, "Julia, i see the pee, i know you peed. It is called Lying when you say something that isn't true. " pause. ask again, "Did you pee in your underwear?"
Julia, "No, i just lying." pause. then in song, "Lying, lying lying. lying."
Laughter. hosing off. laughter.

back to the drawing board with this potty training thing.

arg.

Girlie

I know i'm biased, but really.... she IS the sweetest little thing i've ever seen!! :) haha. This is Julia trying on mommy's silk gloves and posing so nicely for the camera. what a movie star she is. haha.

We celebrated father's day by having a semi-quiet day. lovely. In the evening we ran to the beach again....because it is sooooooooooooo hard to stay away !! It was much cooler, so there was no swimming, just wading and rock collecting and sand shuffling....

oooooooooooooooh in the late evening there was a fabulous storm!! Rain that fell so thick it drenched us like a shower, and wind that tossed it to and fro. I felt an inch closer to what a hurricane must look like, thank goodness it was only a mild rain storm! Incredible. fantastic to watch!!

Upon awaking this morning Julia annouced to us that she heard the storm last night (it was after bed time) and that "I scared of it mommy". Poor sweet dear. She didn't make a peep last night about the storm. She must have been hiding under Teddy...... ooooh. We tell her occassionally to ask God to make her brave and protect her, if she is alone and scared. I wonder if she remembers that in her little bed at night.... you never know. I do believe that God reveals Himself to little ones in a special way. They are Sooo precious to Him.


that's all for now.....just awaiting for AMY OTIS TO ARRIVE!!! aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!! fun!!!

:) loves.

living the dream

THere is something about being at the shore....it fills you with life, breath, joy and eeeemmmmmh! It is like God made the water, the sky and the sand to reflect to us the peace, beauty and joy that only God bears in pure form. A glimpse of these things.

here is our day out.

ooooooh so lovely!! quiet beach, cold water, and a picnic.
daisy making on the waters' edge.
swiming
sail boats
oooooh so pretty.

love from us.

The Man: whewww!

Here he is, THE MAN of the house in his new work clothes.... NO BODY recognizes him haha, it is quite funny. I almost didn't the first night he came home!! Thank you Cogeco for the lovely get-up. Dave is learning a lot everyday, absorbing sooooo much and ready to learn all he can from this company so he can benefit from it as much as possible. They offer free training, ending in a diploma above what he has now. Dave can't wait to tackle the work, because not many employees have completed all of the courses offered.finishing touches.
another hat for baby May. (Julia's second cousin)

Hop Skip Jump Play

Today was filled with wonder and delight at the animal farm. Julia, Julia and Austin had a blast romping about together. Finding sticks, rocks, goats, carrots to feed the different animals and such, these three were enjoying themselves immensely. Julia holding the goats tail as they try to round him up......for a hug!
The Two Julia's
Oh the loverly horsilies. they are just so dandy-do-fun.

And from the party last night: the three boys. SEE ANY FAMILY RESEMBLANCE??

ahhhh, a breath of fresh air

Here is the lovely front garden, small but pretty and sweet. Below i have featured the latest blooms: sweet peas
and the ones whose name i cannot remember :

anyone know what it is?????

well, today i had such a special treat!! Natalie called me, a dear friend from my highschool days. aaaaaawwwww. A real breath of fresh air, that girl is!! :) i remember so SO many silly times with her....ha. haha. Anyway, may this be a pleasant inspiration for everyone to call up or write someone dear that is far away......

what a sweet delight it was to hear from a friend.

Thank you Nat-Rae. :)

see ya folks. off to prepare the house for a Graduation party for Dave. :)

match making

i am so very obsessed with pretty looking, co-ordinated things. oooooooh. i just love seeing colors match together, varied in shade and hue....striped, polk-a-dotted, anything! The order of it all makes me warm and happy inside...anyway...here are some of my latest MATCHES :


Baby Bonnet for baby May , Julia's second cousin.Here is it's match: the sleeper, elastic hem for cuteness and simplicity. i love clothes with as few zippers, ties, buttons, etc....not JUST because it is easier to make, but because it is less frill to deal with as a mommy and less roughness against new baby skin. So, yippee for elastic hems and overlapping necklines--another great invention. easy to put over Baby's head, and makes for a lovely line for the eye to see. Do you like the way clothes are put together? Do the lines and shapes make you want to wear things?? IT is manditory to answer these questions. VERY IMPORTANT INFO for me and my readers to know about EACH OF YOU READING THIS. :) thanks dudes. love from me.

roaring pots??

Nap Time Project:

fresh strawberry tarts. mmmmm... first the pastry....Then the sauce...... i just love the way it swirls in the pot. soooo beautiful. Strange occurance at this step of the process: my pot began to growl. this has never happened in all my days of cooking!! the sugar mixture was nearly boiling and the vibrations it was making were causing a growling noise from the bottom of my mixture!! it was crazy! (sorry if this is dull to you! i thought it was story worthy because of the horror-like qualities of a roaring attack pot.)

mmmmmmmmmm fresh berries........

FInished product: lovely tarts. I wanted to make a pie, but my plates have all gone missing??? i think i gave away too many pies last year...and NEVER got the plates back????
oh well. this was fun. and tasty.

farewell!

SUMMER WEEKEND

Soooooooooooooooooo
today our friends invited us to their potluckparty at the park. WHat fun! We had a bbq, a bug collector, a great playground and lots of people to meet and get to know. They were mostly couples that we had seen at church and not had the chance to talk to yet, everyone had from 1-4 kids and it was a lively place.
Below is pictured the 'bug collector' and Julia together....does she not look like Ashleigh?????? wow. i thought she did all day....same hair, eyes, face....cute .
Last night we thought of a splendid family outing: STRAWBERRY PICKING!

So off we drove to a nearby farm for a pick-licious time! When we paid for the berries, Julia gave a little tip for all the berries she consumed in the field, since they don't account for those in their price, i'm sure! haha. At least, not the number of berries that a Julia consumes.

Once our picking was done, we had to get our tent trailler so we can fix it up for the summer.....and oh the adventures we had at Opa's shop...where the tent trailler had been sitting for months.

FIrst the daisies, then the pionies, how pretty!!! We explored and picked and danced around...then home to bed.

Here is the proud picker! :) although....she didn't successfully keep more than 4 berries in her own box the whole time!! As if anything so juicy and delicious could ever be passed up!! :)

now i know

So, people always say how they are annoyed with blogger...well, i think i understand now. it has been soooo long since my comment option has worked, and everything is taking a long time to work... oh well. really it has been good. The last three days during nap time i haven't been able to do what i usually like to: relax and post and comment (i know, waste my precious time...haha, i love it). So i have been doing things that needed doing. (sort toys, put away most of them, simplify, aaaaaah, so nice)

anyway. here i am again. and here is our life in pictures, just because i LOVE photo-stories:


mmmmmmmmmmmm REAL fruit smoothy by Mom
mom and dad, doesn't this TOTALLY remind you of pics from our childhood?? Tyler, Daryl and Sarah and I on the swings while camping?? cute eh?? We had a LOVELY time at the park with Val and her boys! :) They are precious. When Julia had a hard time in the church nursery, Austin (blondy) would bring her toys and play with her. sweet sweet kids. Just like their mommy is!
Chalk art. :)
Another memory picture: this is a skirt i wore as a wee girl. now Julia can wear it...i think i put it on backwards though....oh well. :)
mmmmmmmmm chocolate pudding... messy messy messy. I just LOVE making messes. Too bad i'm so bad at laundry tasks. haha.

Dave has been loving work. He comes home really happy, excited even, and then he nearly counts down hours until his next time at work. It is so important to do something that makes you feel like that. And does he EVER look good in his uniform! i'll have to post pics. hahaha.

have a great day, from sue