Oct 26 - Favorite things in your town.

I have to admit, I cheated. I read other blogs before I wrote this one, so I got a few ideas. The main thing is we do not live in a town. We live five miles from Swanson, which consists of a hamlet of fourteen houses, including our beloved Villa.

We live four miles from Donavon, which is another hamlet of the same amount of houses. This one includes the RM office and the fire hall, which, side note, our oldest has officially decided to join the fire department. We're proud of him. So ya, that's Donavon.

Then Delisle is about fifteen miles away and has two gas stations and the post office and best of all, the library. It also has the niftiest antique store and coffee shop which I peruse strictly to be with my friends. You all, this is a confession. I'm just not an 'antique' kinda person. I can buy those things and they never look right in my house. Except for the blue jars I got that I keep copious amounts of buttons in. Anyway. Ya. So Delisle is also the little town that Pat's folks moved to when they sold their farm and we love stopping at their place. My boys are so blessed to have a grandpa and grandma close.

Then Saskatoon is about a half hour drive away and that's where I would do all my shopping. And I do love to shop, unfortunately. The South Saskatchewan River runs through Saskatoon and there are neat trails to walk and ride bikes along. There are pretty parks to picnic at and little places like the Bulk Cheese Factory on Broadway and Homestead Icecream on Victory. And if you'd like a taste of the Native land in Saskatoon you could hang out on 20th. I wouldn't really recommend it but you should go to Waneskewin where the historical native stuff is. You could get in on a really Indian dance if you're lucky. We have the basics like Cabela's, Winners, HomeSense.

Oct 25 - Write about what's on your craft wish list.

• So first off, I would love to have a designated space for wood working. This is a craft I really enjoy doing and hardly ever do. My boys and I have made stuff together like this farmhouse bed pattern.
  
• So of course I would love a space big enough to create large wood projects. Ha.
• My delightful sewing and craft room truly supplieth all my needs plus. I love it. And because sewing is my main crafting area it is truly something I don't ever take for granted. If there's ever anything I need it's more fabric! I often window shop fabric online and I rarely, if ever, buy. It seems like I just can't justify those shipping charges! But then I go to the specialty quilt stores in town and the fabric I like costs just as much. So ya. Whatever. The majority of my quilting is done with Fabricland specials and castoffs from my grandma or my neighbor friend or leftover dress fabric. Do you buy fabric specifically for creating?

Oct 24 - What do you need to stop apologizing for?

I'm sorry I'm not writing! I just gotta quit saying that. I am so blessed to have a moment from time to time to write and even more blessed if I have a small inspiration.

So in the school of life for forty year old women I feel like I've officially graduated from grade six to grade seven and now it's time to step up the performance. It's likely time to say, look, this semester has no hieroglyphics. We're just full-throttle ahead in algebra and trigonometry, otherwise known as x or y for supper and which angle we're gonna take next.

One very random thought (should've been posted yesterday) is which can opener do I need? I'm very weary of cheap-o's that wreck after one try or elderly ones who skip three-fourths of the edge. I'd really like an electric can opener but even there, where do I start looking? Help.

Oct 17 - Write about your current favorite websites.

• Young House Love I've read this blog forever. I like their houses and copy different things. I like it that it's not heavy reading.
• Bower Power is another one I've read forever. If I have time I'll go check out these two. Funny that they're friends too. And I guess I like to read family stories. A boy family is an extra score.
• All Recipes is a go-to website I use to look up all kinds of food ideas. 

So... how have you all been keeping while I've been spinning my tires in all directions? Today I managed to snag the major book sale in between my vast and many deadlines between busing. I bought Pat a bunch of Ralph Connor books. I also squeezed in three quarter hour for Bertha Tea. The dear lady was not amused at our efforts. There was a birthday party next door which she would have much rather been at.

Oct 15 - Write about something you've been avoiding.

• Wyatt's bedroom closet
• Washing windows 
• Sugar
• The trimmer on the back deck
• Exercise, very unfortunately
• Writing ha

Oct 14 - Trust

Oct 13 - Share a quote

Oct 12 - Enjoyable sewing project

This. This one I did not want to miss. This is one of my favorite pastimes, my special space, my respite. Just basic dresses are fun. Or dresses with lots of detail if I have time. I love making potholders or quilts or bags or random things like a garment bag or laundry bag or slips or tablecloths. One thing I have sewed precious little of is little girly dresses. Most ladies can manage that.

One of my favorite bags I've sewed is this pattern.

Mine is in pinks and blacks and random splashes of color. I think it would make a good gift but I often don't have the time when I'm needing a gift.

This pillow was such a fun quick sew for Wyatt's baby room long ago. It's old and crumpled now, almost deceased but so very loved.

This is how I feel.

Oct 11 - Write about returning home.

I didn't realize until this morning (shows you exactly how on the ball I am with this whole writing thing!) that today's prompt comes on the day I plan to leave for Crooked Creek, my old home. I miss it so much. I love going home. I love visiting my mom and family.

This time I'm going home for my mither-mother's 70th birthday! Bren & I are driving together with Wyatt and Misty and we're planning on meeting Karen in Edmonton for night tonight. Tomorrow Ash and her kids fly in from North Carolina, the Lord willing. And we're all gathering for the festivities on Saturday and Sunday! So exciting!

Returning home has changed throughout the years. When we first got married I had years of angst preparing to go home. I focused a lot on my clothes, which I knew were never quite like my fashionable friends back home. Really, the hard parts then were finding my own direction while becoming like my classy family here and letting going of my ideas of how to do things. But always back home, the church smelled like church and the crowds mingled in the foyer and at Christmas there were pristine piles of snow and familiar faces and parties galore.

Then came the years of little boys and overwhelming tiredness and the grief of my dad dying and skinny days in unhealthy ways. But always back home, I found people who understood, people who remembered the grief. I found clover by the roadsides and tall spruce and tears of healing. I found old friendships and strong uncles and aunts and coffee at the old fabric store.

Slowly the hurts have healed and going home is not so poignant. When I go home I find laughter and youth I don't recognize singing in the programs and babies I hadn't heard about. The moms of my friends still hug me, the new church has no old memories for me and my friends and I point out our youth children to each other. It's different returning home now, because now I've lived longer in Swanson than I've lived anywhere else in my life. I've learned to like a smaller congregation. I've learned that there's good things where ever I live.

And I really can hardly wait to get back 'home-home' to my family of men. I will truly be returning home.

Oct 10 - What made today special?

sunlight dancing on harvested fields

kittens rolling and tumbling in play

savory ham chowder and hot biscuits

enthusiastic help of a five year old

family prayer for a lost book and

tears in the five year old's eyes

the smell of clean laundry and

piles of clothes ready to be put away

reading On The Banks Of Plum Creek

and everyone hanging an ear close

a long hot bath at the close of the day


UPDATE

lol, it's actually supposed to be unusual, not special
so here goes again

to town and back in just a couple hours (somewhat unusual)
shopped shirts with Wyatt and him and I do not agree about clothes
(this is becoming more usual, unfortunately)
cleaned out the garage (this Should be more usual)
piled the entrance full of pink party stuff (very unusual)
ate supper without Colby who was hunting
(unusual on a daily basis but looking at a whole year is very usual)

Oct 9 - What encourages you?

a smile from a stranger

honesty

happy children

my hubby coming in after work

prayer together as a family

politeness

being outside

fresh garden produce

consecrated youth

old friends

new friends

babies

grandpas and grandmas

our church

working together

Oct 8 - Addicted to something.

And so it is Monday. And it's Thanksgiving Day in this beautiful northern land. Pat's folks and Jeffs are coming for supper. I'm making ham, mashed potatoes and gravy and corn and fresh bread. Mom is bringing pumpkin pie and Steph is bringing a salad.

It's also almost snowing. A few flakes drift down every once in a while, the sky is grey and heaters are humming. I smell fresh northern air when the door slams behind the boys and ham smells waft all over my house.

What am I addicted to? I think someone else could see better than me.

(And then she kept going and didn't finish this or post it. Anyone else know what she's addicted to?)

Oct 7 - Hope

We spent our Sunday in Norquay at Derek & Ashley's wedding. It was quite a big wedding for their little congregation to host. Neither of them are super young, so they had lots of friends and congregations included in their celebration!

It was fun. It was good. It was tiring.

I got to be with Tracy for only a small moment, it felt like. She helped us clean up after the night before supper, bless her. We served 450 - 475 people at that supper. Like, Ruby had made all the food and planned and arranged everything but we were only four couples serving and we ran all evening.

We spent night at Richard & Natalie Goossen. We had never met them but isn't it wonderful that that doesn't need to hinder us? We enjoyed their hospitality very much. Especially the Sunday pants. My stars!! I had Pat's pants out and he told me he wanted to wear a different pair and I thought he was getting his pants and he thought I did. And so... an hour before the wedding started we realized that possibly we'd just go home and possibly he'd wear blue jeans to church and that's when Richard went and hauled out a pair of Sunday pants he'd just got. They were a big too long for him and that was the saving grace. Natalie and I laughed so long and hard. It was truly a very refreshing moment.

And so we went to the wedding.

I do hope I remember what I need to for the upcoming weekend.

Oct 6 - A Recipe

I'm all for the fall recipes these days. Like apple cake with ice cream and syrup and pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing and pumpkin muffins and carrot cake. Here's one of my favorite carrot cake recipes.

Stony Creek Carrot Cake

3 eggs
1 1/4 cups oil
2 cups white sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups coconut
1 cup crushed pineapple, drained
2 cups grated carrots

Mix first 8 ingredients, then add remaining ingredients. Bake at 350 F for 50 minutes. (I say a bit less) Frost with cream cheese frosting. Enjoy!!

Oct 5 - Outfit

Write about an outfit that you associate with an important event.

Nicole's Wedding Dress

Two years ago when Jodi asked if I would sew Nicole's wedding dress I glibly answered sure. I mean, I have sewed a number of wedding dressing in my day. I love sewing loops and fine work. Right?

Well.

The dress got sewed. And many stories can be told about the process. I didn't want to talk about it for the longest time. I didn't tell Jodi all the history for quite a while. And even now, I can laugh a little bit about it.

It started out with no pattern. And definite opinions about the pattern. It should have three scallops on each side, a sweetheart neckline, curving down into tight loops and miniature buttons. It should have flat sleeves with a curving sleeveline down over the hand and buttons and loops meeting on the inseam. It should have a wide belt with loops and buttons. And a straight skirt with no darts but fitted exactly over the behind.

So I hunted down a similar shaped friend who had just got married, borrowed her pattern and started from there. It worked.

The cream fabric was almost iffy with with seeing bra lines and panty-lines so I ended up lining the bodice and the skirt. And so eventually the dress was almost together, the loops all finished and only the finishing touches left. And then the first complication came up. I was on my way to Jodi's to get Nicole to try it on. Colby was sitting in the front seat beside me and the wedding dress was in a bag on his lap. We don't know how it happened but the bag tipped over and the dress fell out at his feet and the dear boy stood on the almost white wedding dress with his shop welding boots.

I took it home. I bombarded my mother, the queen of everything-laundry. I bought baby soap and fabric softener and spot cleaned that dress. It came out pure.

And then the second worry came.

The bodice did not fit the brides changing bosom line. Just a very small problem. The neckline did not sit flat. So I ended up moving the top five or six loops and adjusting the center two scallops and if you've sewed scallops, with lining, with loops. Well... it got done, many prayers later and looked good.

And then.

Girls, I was getting afraid already. Then, the unthinkable happened. As I was painstakingly sewing the buttons on a large snag appeared down the center front. Bold. Audacious. Defiant. I stared unbelieving. Do I start with a new dress? Could I make this work? Carefully, feverishly, I opened the side seam and between the lining and front I inserted a sharp needle and carefully, ever so carefully, hooked the offending snag from the back and worked it out. It was impeccable. It was a miracle.

And then.

Oh, yes, it goes on. The wedding day arrived. I had arranged with Jodi that I would run over there in the morning just to make sure the dress looked okay on the bride. This has never occurred before in my wedding dress escapades but this was right. Nicole got dressed. The bridesmaids fussed with their clothes and we all helped arrange and get ready.

All of a sudden Nicole came running down to Jodi and I, panic in her eyes. There on her bodice just above the bosom was a large red mark. Bright red. Juicy. Suspicious. We stared. What was it? I honestly don't remember in the panic and flurry of things exactly the order of events but it came out that Sasha (their foster girl) had just put nail polish on when she went to give Nicole a hug. I have no idea where the thoughts came from, except God. All I could think of was rubbing alcohol. We worked there together, Jodi and I, one hour before the wedding was supposed to start.

And the spot came out. Miraculously, it disappeared. There was NO TRACE of red nail polish on the cream colored wedding dress. It could only be a miracle.

My hands get clammy writing this. I haven't sewed a wedding dress since. I'm not exactly keen on doing another one, but God is faithful. He is gracious. He is bigger than all our needs. That I know.

(Please do not pass on.)

Oct 4 - Write about a humorous quote.

Apparently, why stop with one?

Oct 3 - Write about a way you relax.

I'm going to shamelessly back-post this month. Just a heads up.

I currently read to relax.

I used to have a long hot bath.

Or sew a quilt.

Or create something with my silhouette.

Or paint something.

Or build with wood.

But now I don't do anything but spin my tires. Or read.

Just saying.

Oct 2 -Write about a book that changed your life.

I'm just gonna quick list off books I've read lately and what I thought of them.


Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson - This is a hard read. I'm slugging through because the black theme always intrigues me.


A Place Called Bliss by Ruth Glover - This was an easy read and enjoyable. It's the first book in a series called The Saskatchewan Saga and it's all about history in our little area. The one glaring fault is that the books are not well written.


Barefoot Contessa by Ina Garten - All the cookbooks girls. I've really enjoyed reading these. There are lots of good ideas, lots of beautiful pictures and lots of really good step by step instructions.


Silent Tears by Kay Bratt - I haven't read it yet but it's a true story of a Chinese orphanage.


The Elsie series - I hated. I couldn't even finish one book.


Peace Like A River by Lief Enger - Very well written. Very hard to put down. The story is hard though, thought provoking.


Wild At Heart by John Eldridge - I had to return it before I was done and I'd like to borrow it again. It's a slower read but good insight to understanding men - which I am in need of. Lol!


And these are all just in the last while. I'm a speed reader and I love to listen to books while I'm walking or on my way to town or even while I fold laundry.


What have you been reading?

Oct 1st - What's a current favorite snack?

I'm going to challenge myself to writing before reading this month. So... here goes: a current favorite snack. Hmm. For me? For my men? For all the stuff and functions and yariva we've been partaking of?


In the last week I've made fresh gingersnaps and sliced cheese for a teacher coffee-break. And I brought Costco banana bread for a Villa board evening (just being real). And I made hot crab dip in a sourdough loaf for the teacher orientation night. And sent chips (only chip, horrors) to a youth function. And fed youth boys coke and chocolate bars late at night.


And as far as my men go, I've brought out cookies & cheese and crackers & cheese and cookies & cheese, etc. We have a pattern going there. Also, Gatorades and cokes.


But me? I like my coffee. And a spot of chocolate. And fresh salsa with chips. And pumpkin spice anything. And a little wee moment of time to sit down.