December 22

December 22 already!

Our wild, patchy, yet perfect tree is trimmed, the presents are (mostly) on their way from Amazon, snow has fallen in the last week to make everything look cozy and blanketed, and I'm barely wrapping my mind around Christmas being so soon!

Our last week was pretty rough with my poor Nora being really sick last week. A raging fever that didn't let up for three days, doctors visit, antibiotics, finally feeling better a few days after that - it was one of those sicknesses where she only wanted to be held by me for all her waking and sleeping hours. I lost a week a week before Christmas.

But she's on the mend, I was lucky enough to get out of the house on Saturday, and Christmas is still on it's way. Christmas can't be stopped, and that's almost a comforting thought to me as a mom to a bunch of little people who sometimes/all the time thinks that I must do everything before Baby Jesus can come. Seriously, I gotta check myself often because I can begin to operate like a kind of automatron who must get all the things done for everyone OR. ELSE. CHRISTMAS. WILL. BE. RUINED.

But I've had Christmases in the past few years where I was nine months pregnant, six months pregnant, and unable to get out of bed Christmas Day because of a terrible case of the flu, and yet Christmas went on and children were completely happy even if all the cookies weren't baked and each present wrapped perfectly. Christmas really does have it's own joy even when things are going pretty crumbily, and I think that's something I'm just learning even though the lessons were given a few years ago. I'm sure I'll need to relearn it again and again.

Now, even though I'm still pretty overrun with small children and their bubbling excitement that needs to be corralled on the busy days, I'm trying to soak it in because their precious little years really don't last long. I'm really so lucky to have a house full of kids who are completely over the moon about all aspects of Christmas, from Santa to the tree lights to candy canes to remembering every thing we've done before because it's all tradition to them.

It's a crazy kind of chaos where I feel like Christmas week is a wild sprint to the finish. Where I'm cooking and baking, finding fancy church clothes an hour before Mass, staying up late trying to find where I've hidden the stocking stuffers, still staying on top of the never ending laundry that doesn't stop for the holidays, packing for all of us, making sure we have milk -- it's tiring, I'm weary by the end of Boxing Day. It really is a lot.

But I'm going to remember the joy and actually enjoy myself too. I don't want to look back on my children's Christmases and only remember feeling frazzled and exhausted. I want to remember their sweet faces and expressions, that I was happy to see them happy. I want to remember the family dinners spent with our family and how lucky my children are to be part of it all. I want to remember the late nights of wrapping for so many people and then remember hugging and hanging out with them on Christmas Day. And while I watch them binge the littles binge on cookies and chocolate I'm going to enjoy a drink myself.

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Bringing A Little Autumn Indoors

Welcome to a little peek inside my home in all it's fall glory! Or, as close to glory as I'm gonna get. Bonnie from A Knotted Life is having a fun home tour and blog hop so make sure to snoop in everyone's windows!

Fall has it's very own feeling of coziness mingled in the crispness of falling leaves and the scents of spice -- a veritable siren call for those of us who love adding bits and bobs to our homes to celebrate the seasons.

Here is my oh-so-simple decorations that I add to our home, emphasis on simple. Like all else in my life past keeping the littles alive with food, clean clothing, and a modicum of householdly hygiene, I don't have a lot of time for "decorating" or "crafting" even though I kinda wish I did most days. But I do find that even the smallest of seasonal additions to our home makes the kids giddy with excitement. Which proves to myself that it's not simply me who cares how our house looks, I'll take any toddler signs of approval I can get!

Here we have my little attempt at decorating our front door. There's really nothing that makes you feel like a real bona fide adult like decorating your front door, ammiright? I made the yarn and felt wreath a couple years ago and I still like it! That's no small feat since I feel like I fall prey to house decor trends like a teenage girl to the latest One Direction single. 

I also just stuck in some branches in the flower pots I keep by the door, the kids found the nest and I think it's precious but don't know where else to display it. 

I usually like to have something pretty going on with our dining table because it turns out to be the centre of our small and very open upstairs. Usually it's covered in school books, mounds upon mounds of children's crumbs, but having something pretty still helps with an overall feeling of prettiness. A small sanity saving, if you will! 

This year I bought another table runner from HomeSense/Goods, it's burlap with a little bit of glittery gold in it. Then I've had this mercury glass pumpkin for a couple years, also bought at HomeSense, threw it on a wooden platter with a couple white pumpkins -- done!

Since we don't have a mantle right now I have to put my obsession with bunting/garlands to use on our giant patio window. I found these pumpkins this year and couldn't resist one little bit. The kids think they're hilarious, and I call them "whimsical without being completely tacky".  But who knows, maybe I've crossed the line.

My photography goes completely to pot here, I'm so sorry. My house is really bright, which I love, but for some reason I have no figured out how to accurately photograph it. I know there is a secret aperture, shutter speed, something-something I'm missing. Help!

In our kitchen we have this little bay window that I always keep pretty display things on, so it gets changed up often, and cleaned less often. I've got family photos in these glass frames then more white pumpkins, a little tiny nest we found last fall, and of course, some pumpkin spice candles. 

My husband will notice this in a month, but right now I'm liking it for sure!

Guys, in God's mercy I don't have a big house. And you know why I say that? Because if I had a big house with McMansion-like decorating potential I would fall into a pit of tchotchke obsession and credit card debt. I looove seasonal tchotchkes. But obviously, with our house's main living area being relatively small and open I can't tchotchke this joint up too badly. My husband says prayers of thanks every day I'm sure. Look! Only a few squashes on the piano, with a really nice manly smelling candle too! It's a miracle! 

Also; pumpkins. Seriously, fall decorating is the easiest because...pumpkins. 

And that's about it. Very simple, a few things I keep from one year to the next, and some fresh pumpkins. It's not a lot but I feel it makes the house feel seasonal without going crazy. Because, I find I'd be tired of the season and my home in about two days if I went bonkers with a bunch of stuff that screamed "FALL" in brightly coloured letters or something. 

I've also just put these things around the house in the last week, I hate decorating too early for the season. It's just a weird pet peeve I have, but decorating for Christmas in November should be a crime. Also, since our summers are so short up here I really dislike rushing summer out the door in September, I like savouring the last warm days and saving the cozy elements of decorating for fall when the landscape changes to barren brown till the first snowfall during October.

Bonnie, asked me if I wanted to post about how we decorate for Canadian thanksgiving, so I will: we don't really decorate. Canadians on a whole don't go in for Thanksgiving like Americans. We cook a turkey, enjoy a day off with family, eat some pie and call it a day. We don't have a ton of Thanksgiving specific decorations in stores even. We usually have a nice fall table set, but other decorating past the regular pumpkins and mums aren't really the norm. We'll be celebrating Thanksgiving next Monday, and I won't change a thing except pulling out some fall dishes for dinner with my parents and family. And we're fine with that, because we're Canadian and fine with most everything.  

I should also mention that my kids usually make a bunch of seasonal fall decorations, but we haven't done it quite yet so that's why my windows are still free of construction paper, but it will come and we'll put them where everyone can see our creations. I try to keep a balance between things looking like a preschool, (even though that's what this house kinda is), and a catalogue (har, har!). 

One of things I like best about my home is that kids live here, and I'm glad it looks like it!

And I didn't forget my kitchen sink -- tchotchkes for everyone!

Enjoy all the fall festivities and the much better efforts by visiting everyone in the blog hop:

Svellerella

Mama Needs Coffee

Surviving Our Blessings

Two O's Plus More

This Ain't The Lyceum

House For Five

Team Whitaker

Clan Donaldson

Better Than Eden

And thanks to our host, A Knotted Life

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Declaring I Have A Cooking Style and Letting Go of Guilt

Most days I think of my "cooking style" as throwing together some food for my kids of whatever I've got handy, whatever I need to use up, and whatever I think won't take forever. I've got precious little time to devout to sautéing, dicing, multiple preparations, and complicated recipes. Usually I've got to hose kids down, find some who may have gone missing in the yard, then corral them to the table in hopes that what I've been cooking hasn't completely burnt on the stove while I've been gone.

Other days in the mix I feel as if I'm living life on the edge of having nothing at all for when 5 pm rolls around and the natives are starving and I end up throwing something together that would normally not be classified as a "meal". It's a lot of work getting three meals on the table for seven people, and usually what's on the table isn't too exciting. Then when thinking of cooking attempts I feel guilty that I haven't meal planned, budget shopped, paleo-fied everything, or not touched my stack of beloved cookbooks in months.

Which I hate to admit because I used to love cooking, trying new recipes, using fancy ingredients, taking all the time, even sticking up my nose at people who bought pre-washed lettuce (lazy cretins!). But I've just wound up with a pile of Type-A guilt when it comes to making most of my family's meals from scratch, always serving vegetables, and really not buying much processed foods. Which I should be pretty proud about, not feeling guilt that it's not always blog-worthy or 100% organic.

Last week I read this great post at Keeper of the Home, and it sums up pretty much how I cook on an everyday basis. I thought to myself: that way of cooking sounds not so bad when it's written down.

Because it sounded much better written down, I thought about how I cook a little more and made the self-proclamation that it's a completely legit cooking style. My cooking style is now officially called: sometimes-survival/cook from the pantry/occasional great recipes from my favourite cookbooks/80-20 healthy and homemade/with as much flexibility as I can muster style. I feel so much more accomplished and much less guilty because of that silly, yet intentional decision. 

Instead of living in a dream world of what I wish I could cook, I've looked at what I actually cook the majority of the time and it looks a lot like this:

Pantry Cooking

I'm a half hour away from the nearest grocery store. A grocery store which has fresh parsley and cilantro on good days. I usually grocery shop for fresh fruits and veggies, milk and eggs once a week then do a more thorough (read, huge) monthly shop at Costco about an hour and a half away, or the other cheaper city grocery stores. I hate paying $5.00 a pound for butter in my town!

This works out to me mostly cooking from what I've got on hand. Since I rarely meal plan I usually just look at what's in my freezer that morning/day before/after lunch and see what I can use for protein and work from there. My family has to have a meat or protein each meal. My husband has the highest metabolism I've ever seen and I think he'd basically melt if not given meat each meal. This goes for his 5 offspring as well. I, on the other hand, could eat just salad for days on end but not lose a pound!

We also eat fairly close to paleo, although we like cheese. So that means usually one or two meals per week will have gluten or bread. My husband swears it makes him feel better overall, and I say to myself it helps me loose weight.


These Cookbooks

I love how that Keeper of the Home post pointed out that to make life simpler stick to a couple tried and true cookbooks that fit your style and the way you eat. As soon as I read that I realized I use these three cookbooks without fail if I'm going for a recipe meal.




 Mad Hungry: Feeding Men and Boys by Lucinda Scala Quinn

The longtime food editor for Martha Stewart wrote a surprisingly practical, approachable, and very real life cookbook that is applicable to families! She has 3 boys so all the recipes have basic ingredients, a lot of meat, but very high flavour. This style is definitely what I like to cook the most and every recipe I've ever used has been a hit with everyone. I go back again and again to this book and highly recommend it!




The Pioneer Woman Cooks by Ree Drummond

The classics of comfort food, I find myself going back to this cookbook for great recipes for the basics. Her pot roast, pizza dough, meatballs, chicken fried steak are all massive hits around here and even when I dial back half the butter and sugar everything still tastes delicious.




The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman

This one I admit to not making as many main dishes from because they lean towards being fairly time consuming, but I've tried tons of breakfast, dessert, vegetable and sides recipes from this book and loved them all. I find the book handier than the blog which is bonkers, of course.



Flexibility

Remember how I live far from civilization? It practically eliminates the option of opting for take out on the crummy days. So I just cut my losses and go for something somewhat processed, maybe fish and chips, or a tasty frozen number from Costco. Maybe breakfast for supper -- we have omelettes almost on a weekly basis and they're great for Fridays. Or cheese and crackers and chopped up veggies, maybe a loaded nachos, or salami and bread. I always have a variety of cheeses, different sausages frozen or in the fridge, and salami. Easy meats are great for throwing together a meal from what seems like nothing. I know these meals aren't 100% balanced, but because I know the majority of our meals are, I just let it slide.

Those are my key cooking tenants. I go through phases of batch cooking and freezer cooking, but I can't help but feel they're so much work and then are gone in a blink of an eye. It may be because I haven't gotten into the swing of things. Whenever I make meals like soups or pasta sauces I end up freezing a good portion for maybe one more dinner. It's not a big contribution, but it helps.

Again, it's not worth the guilt to lose our minds about a couple meals here and there. Or worry that it's not a meal because it required little effort from ourselves. Those days all work into your "style". See, adding that word to what you do just delightfully combines what you do into an eclectic yet collected mix of cookery. Guilt begone!

And so ends a post of too much information about the exciting topic of cooking for a family of 7. God Bless you for making it through!

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Seven Quick Takes vol. 101

Thanks to Jen for supporting random thought dumps once a week, every week.

{one}

I feel like I have approximately 550 million things to get done around here, but I'm going to blog anyway! Mostly because I'm probably going to spend the afternoon in the doctor's office getting little Peggy's leg looked after again. We'll get more x-rays and probably a new cast. I don't want to get my hopes up that she'll be completely healed today. It'd be nice, but I doubt it. 

{two}

So, I know I've been a huge dump of motherly guilt/failures lately, I won't change the blog name quite yet, but here's more. 

This week I've noticed Nora screams every time I sit down to read to the kids. I thought for the longest time it was just grumpiness, needing to nap, etc, but no...it's because I'm sitting and reading to everyone. She's gotten to be pretty clingy lately and she just screams and screams and I honestly don't know what I should be doing. Throwing her in her crib I guess, but screaming. 

I never wanted to be that mom who copped out about having other children to deal with and thus let the younger ones run around like wild beasts, but there are SO many children running around here. I like and understand Kendra's tips for sure, and I want to deal with things the majority of the time like Nell talks about in her great tips this week too. but I just feel as one child is throwing a fit and needs to be physically removed, I'm holding or nursing the baby, and there has always been a baby and multiple toddlers. I think I've gotten behind the eight-ball so-to-speak because I just revert to yelling at everyone while holding the baby and being unable to physically remove and calm them down. I have the shortest of wicks due to the constant bombardment of questions, and comments, and needs. I know it starts from me, so my constant screaming at everyone isn't helping anything or anyone. I totally get it. But I'm feeling pretty stuck and buried in my own crappiness. I think I've noticed it more in the last couple weeks because my husband has been working so much overtime, weekends, late nights. It's been just me on the parenting home front and I'm just seeing it more I guess. There's been more emotional outburst from the older kids too so it's just been a smorgasbord of bad behaviour around here. It's all exhausting. 

Sorry, just thought I'd get that out there...for no reason other than my own venting.

{three}

If you follow me on Instagram I'm sorry for the rehash, but we've gotten so much great photographic evidence of the crazy wildlife around our house lately.

Last week I saw a little black bear on the side of the road while coming home from the city. Then a few days ago my husband saw A LYNX just a mile or two from our house! Lynx are rarely seen, and I don't think we even thought they lived in this area so it was a wildlife highlight. I however, did not go for my nightly walk down that road, but completely chickened out and walked in the field in sight of the house!

{four}

This week went better than last in no small part because the weather was BEAUTIFUL! Our falls are so tragically short we have to enjoy every bit of them. And this week the temperatures were warm, the leaves turned golden, and it really helped my attitude (if not the screaming). 

I've also taken a bazillion and one photos and will probably take a bazillion more this weekend!

{five}

Am I the only one addicted to the PBS documentary series, The Roosevelts that aired this week? I love me a good historical documentary. Couple that with my almost medically documented addiction to biographies of the Presidents of the United States (of which I am not even a citizen) and it's basically my tv dream come true. 

As much as I love Paul Giamatti, I can't help want to scream at the tv: "You can't be Theodore Roosevelt, you're John Adams!!"

My husband was thankful he was working everyday this week and has only been forced to watch an hour or two.

{six}

Anybody cooked some good fall feeling recipes lately? I'm fully ready for good, warm, one-pot dinners which are my favourite to cook. I made the Pioneer Woman's pot roast this week and it was heaven! 

Oh, I'm Canadian and don't even know what pecan pie tastes like, but Britt's Pecan Pie muffins looked so yummy! 

And I think banana bread needs to be made soon judging by the darkening fruit on my counter. Anyone wanna come over and bake for me?

{seven}

No big plans for us this weekend as my husband only has tomorrow off, but I was going to weasel everyone into a family fall photo, which I'm sure will cause all sorts of tears. Fingers are crossed!

Happy Weekend!

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Seven Quick Takes vol. 98

Just some quick ones, go visit the great Jen for more!

{one}

We made it through another week! And only one more week till the long weekend-what?! 

I honestly don't know where August went. It got abducted and was gone in a week I think. This week we didn't officially begin school, but we're easing into it again with our regular read-aloud time coming back in the morning, and some Life of Fred lessons to help us all recall what math is. If it was up to me we would probably never "officially" begin, I'd keep in as cas-u-al as possible, but then it would be October and people would report me.

{two}

Dom and Luke had a head-on collision last Sunday while they were playing tag in a stack of hay bales. They were running through the rows of bales and criss-crossed paths which resulted in Dom's best black eye to date. I think he's going to have colour for a while, but he cheerfully looks into the mirror everyday to say, "Look! My eye's almost all better!" I don't have the heart to disagree. 

{three}

Cari's theme this week for pics was your searched images. The first one that comes up for me is my Pinterest profile pic:

Then my screenshot:

I greatly appreciate Audrey Hepburn showing up promptly. Then a nice collection of my favourite Madonna and Child art I frequently pin. Unfortunately the premier of British Columbia, with whom I don't share many political beliefs, comes up because her name is Christy Clark. The other famous "Christy" Christy Turlington comes up a little further down the page. Next some books I've reviewed for different websites, lots of blogger friends, and then hey -- Richard Branson. To which I say wtf?? 

{four}

It was just a few short weeks ago I met Cari, was star-struck, hugged her too many times, went out for pizza with her, and drank champagne on hotel bed with her late into the night - but not in a romantic way -  it was all basically the greatest. I'm just digressing because Cari reminded me of Edel, and I'm still pinching myself that it actually happened. 

I hope it wasn't some weird Doctor Who type dream.

{five}

You guys! I haven't watched an actual movie in for.ev.er! Please tell me if anything good has come out this summer and is available to rent/download/stream/however it is we get movies these days. I think I'm going to try to watch The Grand Budapest Hotel this weekend, and Noah just for giggles. I'm also totally going to geek out teenage girl style to The Fault in Our Stars next week when it's available!

{six}

It's hard to believe, but it was our 8th anniversary this week! It honestly doesn't feel like 8 years. We're still too young to be doing everything we're doing. How are we parents to 5 kids? We're paying bills and have life insurance! What?! 

I don't have any advice to finding your husband. But I do think that you want to marry your greatest friend and make sure you keep that friendship the most important thing going. We sometimes joke that we're happy we still like each other, but seriously, you want to genuinely like the person you're married to after 8 years! I'd say it's good to joke with them, tease them a little, not have to worry you're going to upset them if you say something off the top of your head, play games together, and enjoy doing nothing together. That's probably life's greatest joy - being able to do nothing with someone with no guilt but pure pleasure.

{seven}

We're going out for our semi-annual date tomorrow night! So I hope you all bow your heads out of respect for this solemn occasion. I know I will be. And instagramming for added treasuring of memories! 

Btw- I took the plunge and subscribed to Chatbooks this week. If you love Instagram one quarter of how much I love it you'll love that you can subscribe through this app that will print you books of your pictures for just $6 for a 60 page book! I'll let you know when my first order gets in, but I'm half-way in love already!

Happy second to last weekend of unofficial summer everyone!

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Summertime Musings

I swear I was going to bah-log last week and Bam! a week later already and no writings.

As last we left our adventures I had just gotten back from a whirlwind weekend in Texas with next to zero sleep. Once I got home I slept-walked around for a couple hours, then hit the hay about 9 pm. Only to be awoken to small people vomiting in the middle of the night.

Sidebar: Why the middle of the night? They haven't eaten in literally hours and yet - so much vomit. They're not even moving! It's just one of those mysteries of small children I will never understand.

And then there was throw up for about the next five days. Not all of it during the night thankfully, so I strung together a couple hours sleep to feel semi-normal again, but still, it was a long week of grumpy, sick children and a lot of laundry.

Have you noticed how sickness during the summer feels like a further indignity to a mom who usually feels children's illnesses as undue cruelty? It feels as if the few, short, luxurious, fantastic days of warmth are being stolen from you. Or maybe this is only a Canadian mom's problems because our warm days are so rare and dear and...so very rare. Last week though, it was almost too hot for the kids to enjoy being out so calling it sick days with extra tv made me feel a little less guilty that I wasn't outdoors lapping up the vitamin D.

Another thing about this hot weather that's a small drag is summer cooking. I just don't like it. I prefer stewing, and braising, and soups - glorious soups! I find grilling gets so old. Our fresh, local, tasty produce is just now ripening to the point of eating which is great, but for toddlers the idea of salad for dinner just goes over like a leaden balloon. So I find every afternoon I get a little annoyed when people want more than beer, hummus, and a cucumber thrown their way for sustenance.

Onwards and upwards though this week because I'm potty training! I'm beginning to think that potty training to the mom who's done it once, twice or thrice before is akin to childbirth. You know it's going to be so bad and you honestly will pay as much as it takes to avoid it altogether. But I'm just biting the bullet since they make no epidural for potty training -  or do they? *cough* wine *cough* - and so far so much yelling at me every time the word "potty" is mentioned. Lysol wipes should sponsor me at this point.

Anyway...I just wanted to type something to avoid both the potty messes and the ordering of school books that I should be doing right now. Hopefully I'll get my act together and write some coherent and interesting things soon.

Patron Saint of Potty Training - whoever you are - pray for us!

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Tromping Through Fields - p.h.f.r.

It's been ages since a deluge of child photos around here! It's also been ages since I intentionally took the real camera out of doors because I'm lazy and a complete Instagram addict. So I tried to remedy both habits last week as we all went out on a quick tromp through the fields behind our yard.

{pretty}

I'm sure it breaks a thousand internet laws to publish photos of your house on the internet but -- I'm tossing that naive idea to the wind simply because everything is in full bloom and full greenery. I know I share so many, many pictures of snow and frozen tundra for months on end that there must be a good mention to beautiful weather and growing greenery! And random boys doing random boy things.

Sigh. Everything is so beautiful here in the summer that it completely puts you under the spell that it's worth it to live here all year long. And it also makes you want to grow up to be a retired snowbird who spend the icey, white half of the year in Arizona.

{happy}

It's marvellous that my children get to roam freely in fields with nothing of civilization for miles around to stop them. Other than fences, which I guess are civilization since man built them. But it is by far the most romantic thing about living in the middle of nowhere. I don't think I spend enough time trying to document it or share it, but it's pretty nice around here.

 I feel as if I'm going to rip off The Pioneer Woman by doing too many cow photos, but we all want to pretend to be the Pioneer Woman every so often right?

{funny}

Boys and sticks. It's a thing. I cannot recommend sticks enough if you're parenting boys. Whenever they're freaking out, wrestling, and otherwise driving me crazy inside, I literally say, "Go outside and find a stick!" I think it'll be the title of my parenting book. 

{real}

And sometimes boys just need to go off and walk out of sight of their mothers and ride motorized vehicles. The motorized vehicles thing doesn't happen by themselves, I'm not completely crazy. But it was pretty cute watching Dom walk half a mile away by himself until he tired himself out and decided to bound back to me. I was allowing him time to himself and in no way was too lazy to walk that mile with him...

Also real, I mostly let my children dress themselves as evidenced in these photos. I already look back at photos and think, "Why did I let them wear that?!" but in the moment it's worth it. So you know that I didn't stage these delightful moments of childhood because everyone is dressed like a crazy person! 

There's a little taste of a late spring afternoon around here, glad I'm finally getting around to sharing it with you.

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more fun!

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