Seriously Genius

My little Scarlet has a "getting into mommy's makeup" problem thats been going on for months. When I came across this idea I had to try it, despite the fact that it isn't at all natural. I found the tutorial here 

It's basically old makeup containers filled with different colors of nail polish.

Let it dry and then voila! you have pretend makeup that's fun and looks super real.

I had three busy helpers so mine aren't perfect but I think Scarlet will be in heaven. We bought some little brushes and a mirror compact and some fancy bobby pins from the dollar store to go with it. 

Camping

Look at the delight of having identified a bird. She truly loves bird watching.

She discovered this "Hairy Woodpecker". Jacob found her a polka dot feather to take home.

We did lots of swimming in the creek which was way fun but the best part was the evening. We sat around the fire and talked and looked at the stars. It was perfectly clear and pitch black so it felt like we could see every star. Tim actually saw 5 shooting stars. The first one Tim saw, Charlie caught too and its impossible to describe the rapture that took over Charlie's entire being. He was yelling and jumping up an down, literally, and describing it to us over and over. These are the moments I love sharing with my kids. I love being part of their discoveries. 

Charlie learned about carving soap. He carved a leaf and I carved a pineapple.

Banana boats. Banana in the peel, but cut lengthwise. Stuffed with mini choc chips, marshmallows and walnuts. Wrap that baby up in tinfoil and roast.

We had bannock, cooked on a stick, for breakfast. 

Scoopy

We learned how to make these spiral things for your hair with baking clay.

Sometimes when Scarlet gets restless in the car, Timmy let's her baby drive.

She only likes the marshmallow part of camping.

Piano guy

Charlie has the best hands. They are bear paws. Nice and thick and lovable. I think his hands are why we enjoy watching him play piano so much. He has been working on this song for months (this video is outdated because he already knows the next part), a little bit at a time. He's not done yet but he's getting there. Its interesting to watch his persistence. He works at mastering each new piece I show him, totally on his own accord or should I say a-chord... yikes, mom joke!.

Why do I love dresses so much

Summertime Eats

There's this Persian drink that I crave all the time. Its super refreshing in the summertime. Since I live in the middle of no where, sometimes I have to take matters into my own hands. So I made some myself and it turned pretty good. Basically its carbonated yogurt with mint and salt.

When I'm pregnant I want Persian food, but making it myself isn't quite the same as having dad's food. I tried this one the other day. I don't know what its called but its so good. Basmati rice, saffron, sauteed onions, raisins or dates, green lentils, and pistachios.

Another check off the summer list! Berry picking. We chose raspberries so we could have crepes with whipped cream and raspberries, raspberry smoothies, and raspberry ice cream.

This raspberry ice cream was heavenly.

Pureed bananas, raspberries, agave, plain yogurt, cocoa, and toasted nuts.

The King and I Thai restaurant in Edmonton has the most amazing salad rolls. They have basil, rice, prawns, and cilantro. I tried making my own but I used shrimp and added avocado but they just weren't the same.

Shmanniversary

Love this wrapping idea. I tried to copy it for Timmy's Anniversary gift. It was our 9 year on August 14th and I may just have the perfect poem for the occasion:

TO MY DEAR AND LOVING HUSBAND

by: Anne Bradstreet (c.1612-1672)

F ever two were one, then surely we.

 
If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee. 


If ever wife was happy in a man, 


Compare with me, ye women, if you can.


I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold 


Or all the riches that the East doth hold.


My love is such that Rivers cannot quench, 


Nor ought but love from thee give recompetence. 


Thy love is such I can no way repay.


The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray. 


Then while we live, in love let's so persever

 
That when we live no more, we may live ever.

So I have to explain this gift. I was so excited about it because I found it at the Bargain Barn for 25 cents! Its a 1938 first edition copy of Benjamin Franklin's biography. I looked it up online when I got home and it was selling for $385. Nice. 

“A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.”

        -Benjamin Franklin-

So the wrapping made for a neato bracelet for me afterwards. I wore it all week.

Sabzi on Whyte in Edmonton is the best persian food in town! Its my new favorite. EVERYTHING was perfect. Tim wanted to go there again the next night!

I got to visit Eli's work. I hadn't been there yet and I was floored by what he does, and all his innovative ideas. He's brilliant. He was like all business too- with a desk covered in computers and the phone ringing off the hook. It was so cool to see him work live.

SO handsome.

We stole him away for some bubble tea but it was a little bit tragical because Jenny wasn't there and I wanted to experience bubble tea with her for my first time. But she was so right, I am hooked. The avocado and tapioca is the best one.

 Lindsay is 30! Wahooo. She is my bestest bestest. I get so happy when I see her. She's like the balm of Gilead my mom would say. She loves olives so we went to the Italian Shop (I love the city sometimes) and she sampled all the different olive varieties (see the boy behind the counter, he would have done anything she asked him). Then we had a tasty lunch and one too many italian homemade treats. I've been craving those custard tart things ever since.

The Kearl Farm

The kids got to have a lovely afternoon of horse riding. One more thing

 checked off our summer to do list. 

"No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle."

~ Winston Churchill

Book Alert

These are my moms hydrangeas. Don't they make your heart swell.

 the Nature Principle By Richard Louv

The Nature Principle suggest that, in an age of rapid environmental, economic, and social transofrmation, the future will belong to the nature-smart--- those individuals, families, businesses, and political leaders who develop a deeper understanding of nature, and who balance the virtual with the real.

                                 The Rhythm of Family By Amanda Blake Soule

Introduction:

Wonderful things happen in our family when we choose to more slowly through our days. When we stop running and rushing about, we discover more time, energy, and space for the things most important in our lives. By slowing down, our connection with our children and as a family inherently become deeper, our creativity thrives, and we find meaningful ways to fill our time. By paying careful attention to the world around us, the slow and even pace can become one that we draw upon in our family lives as well. It can be the rhythm that we all need.

p. 150

It’s one of the most important lessons I think we can give our children; An appreciation and love of being still. Frequent days when there is no schedule, no plan, no rushing about from here to there.

It’s about the art of being where you are. The ability to sit at the shore= to explore, with only one’s imagination, the tools of the earth, and sometimes each other. I do believe this is the kind of lesson and gift that will continue to nurture their spirits for the rest of their lives; when they are able to find quiet in the middle of our busy lives. When they are able to sit under a tree and just think, just dream, just be for all the time that they need. These are essential lessons of childhood that will carry them into peaceful, healthy adults, able to find peace and quiet amidst the busy days and lives that we all ultimately lead. The outside world has a healing power- showing them this fact at a young age is giving them a lifelong gift of the way to a peaceful heart.

Book Alert

We think in terms of entertaining as a woman’s chance to demonstrate her skills and the quality of her home. Entertaining has little to do with real hospitality.

Secular entertaining is a terrible bondage. Its source is human pride. Demanding perfection, fostering ht urge to impress, it is a rigorous taskmaster which enslaves. In contrast, Scriptural hospitality is a freedom which liberates.

Entertaining says, “I want to impress you with my beautiful home, and my gourmet cooking.” Hospitality, however, seeks to minister. It says, “This home is not mine. Its is truly a gift from my Master. I am His servant and I use it as He desires.” Hospitality does not try to impress, but to serve.

Entertaining always puts things before people. Hospitality has put away its pride, it doesn’t care if other people see our humanness. Because we are maintaining no false pretensions, people can relax and feel that perhaps we can be friends.

               ~ Open Heart Open Home By Karen Burton Mains p. 25

This part of Open Heart Open Home reminded me of one of my favorite parts of Thoreau’s Walden:

You need not rest your reputation on the dinners you give. For my own part, I was never so effectually deterred from frequenting a man's house, by any kind of Cerberus whatever, as by the parade one made about dining me, which I took to be a very polite and roundabout hint never to trouble him so again. I think I shall never revisit those scenes. I should be proud to have for the motto of my cabin those lines of Spenser which one of my visitors inscribed on a yellow walnut leaf for a card: --

         

 "Arrivéd there, the little house they fill,
   

Ne looke for entertainment where none was;
   

Rest is their feast, and all things at their will:
   

The noblest mind the best contentment has."

“A morning in which a child receives no new idea is a morning wasted.”


—    Charlotte Mason (Home Education Vol. 1, p. 173)