4H Banquet 2009

The PEC 4H Sheep Club was in charge of hosting the event this year. It's such a small club that they have never been hosts before, but the kids (and leaders ;-) ...) did a masterful job. I just have a few photos of the event. My favourite is this one :-).


MC's for the evening were Katlyn and Mikaela (centre); Shannon and Alison assisted by gathering up awards and passing them to the appropriate presenter.

The theme was "4H Members are Stars" and one of the things the club did was prepare stars showcasing each of the clubs, ranging from 6 weekers to yearlong clubs, that happened in Prince Edward County in 2009. Here is the Wall of Stars.



Getting ready (Katlyn, Mikaela, and Mikaela's mom, Patti, who is the head Club honcho ;-) ...)


Getting ready ...


It was such a delight to watch the event ... the club members did a fabulous job. My only regret was not getting a photograph of the three guys in the club (Iain, Jaret and Mitchell) -- by the time my camera came out the three lads (all 12 and under) were starting to look pretty disheveled ;-). But at the start they were all in black dress pants/cargo pants, blue dress shirts and dark blue ties! They also threw themselves wholeheartedly into the dance portion afterwards, which impressed the leaders no end.

Lastly, Alison once again won the Top Member award for the 2009 Sheep Club. Here are the two trophies she received:


4H sign-up night is tonight. Claire has decided that she is done with 4H for the most part. She may continue to occasionally do lifestyle clubs, but she is no longer interested in livestock projects. Iain is looking forward to 4H sign-up night this Wednesday; he has been wanting to do the beef club for two years and I wouldn't let him until he proved his ability to persevere with an animal in the sheep club. He proved it this past summer, so I suppose I may have to consider letting him have a go at beef next year. In the mean time, he will be doing wool club this fall, along with Alison, and is quite pumped about the weaving emphasis this year.

Alison is not sure what to do about livestock club next year. Because of her planned mission trip to Brazil, she will be hard pressed to work with a lamb. As well, after having won the Top Member award two years in a row, she will not allow her name to stand next year. She may try to aim for a junior leadership position instead, if it will work out with her busy schedule.

That's it for now! More later :-).

Introducing WillowGarden Daniel Day-Lewis :-)

We once again borrowed a ram lamb from Bill Stearman this fall. He's a cute little (VERY LITTLE) guy ... a lovely fawn katmoget. Here is is all decked out in a marking harness, a device that is supposed to allow us to know who he has covered when. However, we had a few issues with the harness, including size, and Jasmine (who kept untying it with her teeth ... sigh). Because he is brown (moorit) - based, any lamb that Kivu has will be some degree of moorit in colour, and either katmoget (like the ram) or gulmoget (like Kivu) or a gul-kat. Katmoget and gulmoget are patterns, not colours, and are co-dominant.


I have had much encouragement to find a large, meat-type ram to breed to the flock. As much as it makes sense, though, a few things keep me coming back to the smaller animals. For one, I get great joy out of cool fleeces (see pic below). Additionally, our sheep are easy to handle, and easy to transport (we use a dog crate in the van).


His fleece is not super-fine, however it is nice and crimpy, and quite a nice colour. Once spun it should result in an oatmeal coloured wool. However, he will be going back to Bill, so we can only hope one of the babies duplicates his colour :-).

You can see the orange crayon well in this photo.

We didn't pick him up until mid-November, so our lambs won't start arriving until mid-April in the spring. And although we only planned on breeding the ewes, we had a lot of rain over the past week and the fence separating the two ewe lambs fell over. Sensibly, they decided they should rejoin the main flock. We may try to move them again later on ... I don't think WillowGarden Daniel Day-Lewis has paid them too much attention yet :-).

Jasmine will once again produce white lambs since her genotype is Awt/Awt. Lambs from Rosemary or Loralei could be Awt/Aa B?/B? (white in colour) or Aa/Aa (brown or black). Lambs from Babette will likely be black, but there is a remote chance she could also have brown-based lambs. The genetics of colour inheritance is fascinating :-). The fuzzy babies are cute too! ;-).

Belleville Christmas Parade, November 13 (!!!) 2009

Our family volunteered to help with the UCB float, passing out candy canes. Despite the incredibly long wait, and sore feet, we had a lot of fun. So much so, that on our way back to the van, Kevin was stopped by a police officer who told him that our group was the most cheerful and "Christmas-like" bunch in the parade. She asked him "So what is UCB Canada?" Smile.

A couple of fun things ...

Number 1: Family photo taken for our church directory ->



Number 2: Family picture after bored Kevin subjected it to Photoshop ->


Number 3: Last night at a 4H event (annual banquet) one of our lovely senior farmers mentioned that our family was Youtube'd after squaredancing at Allisonville Hall in May. Our friend Blake found is fiddling, and his mom Michelle is playing the piano. Embedded here for your amusement/entertainment lol. ->

Death by theatre ... lol

Just quickly stopping by ... so busy!

What's new? Hmmm ... the main news would be my theatrical family. Everyone but me has auditioned for something this month, and there has been much success.

Alison and Claire tried out for the PECI performance of Romeo and Juliet. Alison is thrilled to report that she is neither a spider or a cow this year, but is playing Lady Capulet. Claire gets a boy part, but she is excited anyway to play Mercutio, which is quite a large role. Kev, Iain and Claire tried out for the County Theatre Group production of "Guys and Dolls". Kev was a little (a lot) shocked to find out tonight that he has been cast as one of the leads, Nathan Detroit. Iain was cast as one of his gang members, and Claire was cast as one of the HotBox girls. She, however, will decline the roll and concentrate on Mercutio. Additionally, Iain will have parts in Christmas and spring productions at Sonrise.

It's a good thing I don't "do" theatre ... I think our family would implode or dissolve or something :-).

We had two beautiful wee girls stay with us last week ... I will pray for them nightly for a very, very long time. We all fell in love with them, and as much as it was very busy, we would have taken them long-term in an instant.

I have joined Regal as a representative ... not planning on making a huge deal out of it, but we need wrapping paper, and there are quite a few of my friends that are missing Regal as well :-). More info to follow on that.

This is short and disjointed ... but it's something :-). Blessings to all of you!

Monumental moment last week ...

I popped upstairs during school to make lunch for Iain and myself. Going for "fast", I popped hot dogs into boiling water and prepared for a very excited boy (we don't have them often because I loathe hotdogs, but we were pressed for time). Just as they were done, Iain sauntered upstairs and asked what was for lunch. I said brightly "Hot dogs!" expecting cheers, high fives and a hug. What I got instead was ... "Huh. Okay." I said to my youngest man, "You don't sound very excited about hot dogs. Why is that?"

He said ...

(drum roll please) ...

"Yeah ... I dunno ... I just don't really feel like them today."

MY LITTLE BOY IS GROWING UP!!!!

Seriously, this boy has loved hot dogs his entire life. Serving hotdogs to him has been an act of love on my part, in his opinion. My mom world tilts again :-).

And other family news ... Kev had a day off yesterday, and we had a VERY productive day. We managed to get the garage all cleaned out and ready to put the car in for winter. We sorted through and organized the storage area, removing things for the dump. We took a van load of junk to the dump (Wednesdays are a GOOD day for Kev to be home; the dump is only open Wednesdays and Saturdays.) Not a particularly exciting day off for my big man, however it's been tough to find time for these pre-winter chores. Another one looming is our lawns .. they have yet to be mown for the last time. We have a waving wheat field on our front lawn. It mocks us when we look out the living room window. We have had so much rain that it's still wet on the infrequent sunny days ... by the time it's almost dry, it's raining ... or hailing! ... again.

Falling asleep and must go :-) ...

Alison was quoted last week in the County Weekly News

A friend of hers did an assignment for a journalism class, then her teacher asked her to submit it to both local papers. So, just for fun, here is one of the articles :-). If you double click on the photo, it will enlarge and her quote is in the top right corner.

A short school day here today; second fire of the season (why do the fires keep putting me to sleep???), then I'll take Iain in to Sonrise for French, Music and Phys Ed. Other than my time spent picking up Claire for her guitar lesson in town, I will be at Rosehaven Farm Store skirting some of my fleeces. My awesome husband has actually taken a day off next Wednesday, so I will be able to get to a Spinning Guild meeting :-). Hurray!

Feeling prepared for winter ....

We just got given a very old, but working, freezer, which is now ensconced in our garage happily freezing two lambs and 1/4 cow for the winter. We were able to get a really good price on 1/4 of one of these:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highland_cattle

Supposedly the meat is divine, but we'll wait and see. All I know is the only time I've had a t-bone steak since we moved back to Canada was at a friend's party a couple of years ago, and we have three packages now!

I managed to locate our first firewood supplier by looking through my old day planners. They had taken a couple of years off, but the nephew is back in the county and really trying to make a go of his business. He is a GOOD supplier -- was able to custom order my wood from what he had available (beech = good, hardwood maple = good, ironwood (aka eastern hop hornbeam, not the ironwood of the South) = EXCELLENT! We had lousy softwood last year from a neighbour (but were in a pinch so we were grateful :-) ...) plus some donations (thank you guys!) but it was a patchwork kind of season. We just had our chimney cleaned and this is the first year it has actually been dirty; too much low temp burning wood. And oh, the ash build-up with softwood!

School is going well all around. Claire is LOVING grade 9 (do they make Grade 8 really boring on purpose I wonder???). She has a great Venture class, and the subjects she has been worried about are not an issue at all so far. Alison is enjoying her classes, although doesn't get any anatomy this term in science and the rest of her favourite subjects are next semester. They are looking forward to trying out for "Romeo and Juliet" next month. Alison continues her Saturday job, and is also helping out at Blumen for Taste of the County, a big "eat local" promotion that is county wide. Both girls are presently getting their passports ready for possible trips next summer.

Iain is having a great school year as well! I've chosen pretty much the perfect curriculum for him in every subject we do at home ... his attitude is getting better and better and (YAY) he really is getting interested in what he's learning. Not sure what about institutionalized school killed his desire to learn, but it's so good to have it back :-). It has also been awesome that he can attend Sonrise Christian Academy for their home school program. The new teacher they have is awesome, and Iain came home last week saying that he LIKED soccer (let's not talk about his public school phys ed experience, where if you're not skilled, you are ridiculed by the other kids and in some cases, even by the teacher :-( ). They are also using amazing (and very boy friendly) curriculum for French ... Iain spent over an hour last night studying it for fun!

Life is good ... and fun :-).

Sigh.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2009/09/22/ottawa-.html

Those of you who pray ... please do. The woman who was killed left a 7 month old baby (she was a single mom)and is the niece of my good friend and neighbour (just around the corner).

And since I just received my first ever request to become part of a jury panel in town, please know that I in no way want to be part of a jury in this case. I checked out a different news article than the one above, and a certain sentence, if true and not sensationalized ... well, I am not that strong.

I am grateful that the pair decided to break in to some place in Quebec, and got caught. Not so bright of them.

Please pray for Karen, my friend, her daughter Julie (who went to school at the same time as the one fellow charged) and Steffany's family and son.

Sigh.

Music to my ears :-)

There has been a resurgence of all things musical at our house. Any given minute I may hear Iain on his electric guitar (currently working on Viva la Vida), Claire singing or on her acoustic (she saved up most of her earnings this summer, and a portion is paying for 20 guitar lessons), or Alison learning great music on the piano. I'm grateful that this generation's music is amazing, even though I'm not, as a good parent, supposed to love my kids' music. Hello? Coldplay? The Frey? Even some of the alt bands' commercial stuff is awesome. Alison is also learning to play the djembi and playing with the worship team, and Claire continues to sing, as usual. Iain has been writing songs like crazy since he learned a few chords on the guitar as well. I love it :-). Life is good.

Anybody else on ravelry?

I have a few of you already; I'm kkaci if anyone here would like to add me :-). (I love private blogs!)

In honour of Mary Travers, dead of leukemia, age 72

Busy Fair weekend ...

with no fair photos lol. We were graced with the gift of a little guy over the weekend; an 18 month old cutie patootie who was the epitome of sunshine and butterflies. Our whole family is wildly in love with him. And I thought an 18 month old would be difficult. I realized at some point this weekend that B. was about the same amount younger than Iain, as I was younger than Bev. Mom, you didn't let on how much fun it was when there were older kids in the house as well :-). B. is currently transitioning to a forever home, and is future mommy and daddy will be blessed.

I finally actually submitted something to the fair this year. Managed to wash and block them the night before; bought tapestry needles and sewed in the ends at a cafe in Picton just prior to drop-off; they were actually still damp when I submitted them lol. I guess they dried by judging time (or else that's why they placed 2nd :-P). Kev will finally get his Father's Day socks!






The ribbing pattern is called More Fun Than Cables and can be found here, although I didn't actually use this pattern but modified my own toe-up circ needle pattern instead.

During the last week, Alison (and I!) also spent heaps of time on the 4H Sheep Club display. I should have taken a photo at the fair with it's 3rd place ribbon, but didn't lol. Here it was when finished in our family room:




MOST of the stages on the Fibre Processing display are Rosemary. Her show photo from last year, her fleece -- I realized at the last minute that the shearing photo was actually Loralei (you can tell by the large Blue-faced Leicester ears she inherited from her sire). The handspun was even done from her lamb fleece (and is still in process, but hey :-) ...)

I am definitely looking forward to some slowing of the pace of our lives :-). Pretty please?

And a couple of thought on fostering. Because there are so few children needing care right now in this area, our start has been slow. We haven't felt like foster parents yet, lol. We've now had three children, albeit only as relief care, and we're starting to feel a little like this is something we do! I am considering calling a neighbouring county that seems to have a higher need for foster families ... we'll see. The increased travel would make visits more difficult (although travel expenses are covered, once can't get time back lol). I did a car seat training course last week with CAS: MY, HAVE THINGS CHANGED since our guys were little (let alone since I was little and used to ride upside down drawing dinosaurs with my feet on the window ledge!). I had to borrow a carseat for this little guy ... a $400 carseat may I add, and had to drive to CAS and have in installed by a carseat technician. I have a document to show to the police should I ever get stopped for a carseat inspection. Wow. And this week I have to take the van to our local Ford dealership and have them install some hardware so it is legal for us to have a front-facing car seat installed! This van had years of front-facing car seats in it, mind you, however we were legal in the U.S. where much of that took place.

Anyway, the girls are off, breakfast and science and language with Iain beckon. Have a great day, all :-).

Lost a ram lamb today :-(

just a few weeks before he would have been shipped. Sigh. Stupid Shetland horns. I knew this would likely happen one day... electranet fencing and horns are an explosive combination. Sadly, he got caught up sometime during the night.

I'm grateful he died on a Tuesday night, because I had to place an emergency call to "Uncle Ted" and take our other ram lamb in this morning, before he jumped in with the ladies and gave me February lambs. Wednesday mornings are the only mornings animals are taken in at Aman's, so the timing couldn't have been better. I'm grateful for my good farmer friend Arnold, who will use his backhoe to bury the lamb in the back of his property (I have bedrock down about 10" at best, so there's no way for me to dispose of an almost full grown lamb here, whereas Arnold has six or more feet of good topsoil in some areas.)

HOWEVER I just took in my potential flock sire for this fall, so I now need to come up with a plan B. I do know it will NOT be a Shetland. I really wasn't thinking .... last year I traded off my Shetland ram to Bill Stearman before his horns were big enough to cause a problem. I left it too late this year.

Sigh.

No, I receive no monies for this shameless promotion :-)

This is the BEST coffee out there, bar none. And even better, it's marginally local AND 100 mile (to us). Okay, the beans came from afar, but the roasting is done here, in Kingston, ON. Even better, we can purchase it at our local Sobey's.

Eat (sorta) local; eat fresh!

Busy ... (what else is new???)

Trying to prepare house to have an 18 month old this weekend. Our house is so not toddler proof! Yikes. New rule: toddlers and babies on weekends only :-). Five sets of eyes and hands are the only way this will get done.

On the other hand, it's the county Fair this weekend, and it might be fun to have a little one to take on the kiddie rides ;-).

First lamb has been shipped to Uncle Ted's ... looking forward to finding out the quality of our lamb this year!

Alison is busily getting the sheep club display ready. Chimney sweep tomorrow. Foster parents' meeting tomorrow night. Dropping off display at fairgrounds Thursday night. Long-awaited Picton Skateboard Park ceremony Thursday night. Training night for new church sound system Thursday night. (Can you see our predicament? LOL. And at some point, our weekend visitor must come for a pre-placement visit (... but when?!?!?!). Oh yes, and two and a half cords of wood to stack.

Iain's homeschool program starts on Thursday, so he is very excited. So far our school year has started smoothly! He is really working on being focused, and some of what we are doing is just plain fun! Had a great phone call from the grade 7 teacher who will be his phys ed teacher for the program ... he is new to the school but it sounds like he is going to be just as amazing as the other teachers at Sonrise. Nice that he's a guy too! I'm hoping that on of these afternoons during school I'll be able to do some fleece washing and carding ... I have nine fleeces from July and September to ready for spinning.

Okay, my five minute window is over ... looking forward to our schedule settling down somewhat. Ha, ha. But I have been told that month long lapses in blogging are not acceptable ;-). It's true!

Cheers, all!

This-and-that

Iain's first day of school (yes, that is a cup of coffee in his hand!). The girls both headed off for a 7:30 bus this morning, and already that significantly improves our school day. We can be up, organized, and started by 8. This is a good thing.


Alison is done her job at Blumen, although will stay on call for emergencies. Here is an example of what we are eating at home now, post summer job training. This was a lunch a couple of weeks ago ... pan-seared crab stuffed mushrooms with County corn. Can I just say ... yum!



Two photos from the 2009 4H Sheep Show. I was very proud of both kids involved. Alison had to work, and realizes that the livestock portion of the sheep club may be over for her due to summer job and potential travel commitments (more about that later!)

Claire with Paris:


Iain with Babette:


Claire's new haircut (and since this photo, we have also put in a temporary colour, but that will have to wait ... STILL trying to fix her hair post-Annie!)

"The Schoolboy" by William Blake

The Schoolboy

by William Blake

I love to rise in a summer morn,
When the birds sing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the skylark sings with me:
O what sweet company!

But to go to school in a summer morn,
O it drives all joy away!
Under a cruel eye outworn,
The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.

Ah then at times I drooping sit,
And spend many an anxious hour;
Nor in my book can I take delight,
Nor sit in learning's bower,
Worn through with the dreary shower.

How can the bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing?
How can a child, when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,
And forget his youthful spring!

O father and mother if buds are nipped,
And blossoms blown away;
And if the tender plants are stripped
Of their joy in the springing day,
By sorrow and care's dismay, -

How shall the summer arise in joy,
Or the summer fruits appear?
Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy,
Or bless the mellowing year,
When the blasts of winter appear?

For no other reason than I am decluttering and just recycled my paper copy of this poem :-).  Love it!

Powerful quote ... just because...

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its trouble, it empties today of its strength." (Corrie ten Boom)

I'm sure we can all think of occasions where we were so busy worrying about possibilities, that nothing in real time got accomplished. I know I can. Love this quote. Here's to being strong in our days :-).

And to help us with this ...

"So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10

"Don't worry about anything instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

"Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not...Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don't worry or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and gone tomorrow, won't he more surely care for you?... Your heavenly Father already knows your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today." Matthew 6: 27-30, 32-34

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5

"Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." John 16:33

"I am leaving you with a gift - peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give isn't like the peace the world gives. So don't be troubled or afraid." John 14:27

"Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:28-29

"Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about what happens to you." 1 Peter 5:7

"God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear, even if earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea." Psalm 46:1-2

"They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the LORD to care for them." Psalm 112:7

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4

"We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us - they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation." Romans 5:3-4

"Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall." Psalm 55:22

"The LORD is my light and my salvation - so why should I be afraid? The LORD protects me from danger - so why should I tremble." Psalm 27:1

"Trust me in your times of trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory." Psalm 50:15

"So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while. These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold - and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world." 1 Peter 1:6-7

Be strong TODAY, friends :-).

I am blog post deficient :-)

What a truly crazy summer. Our summer has consisted of:

Driving kids to work. Picking kids up. Over and over again. Foster babies for respite (TWINS! Who were only 2 weeks of age on their first visit :-) ...). Working with the lambs for the show which was yesterday. A massive decluttering effort on my part, that is every so slowly emptying our house of things not needed. (Thankfully I did keep a bin of newborn things, heh, heh ... came in useful!). We weren't able to go on vacation, per se ... Kev is taking the two youngest kids to the zoo and to Nan's birthday party this Friday and Saturday, however Alison wasn't able to get the time off work, so as her driver I get to miss the trip too. I'm actually a little bummed ... I haven't been to the Toronto zoo since I was pregnant with Iain (therefore he has NEVER been!). I'd love to go, BUT it will give me a great chance to get ready for Iain's school year.

This school year for Iain has fallen into place well. I will be using some Christian Light materials for Reading and English, and I think they will be a good fit for him. Donna Ward's "Courage and Conquest" as a history outline. MEP mathematics from England for Grade 7 Math. Singapore Science, which will be a lot of work for me to outline the text, and I'm not sure how this will go, but we have the material already. And barring something coming up, he will be doing the Homeschool option at Sonrise Christian Academy in Picton Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, where he will take one period each of Art and Music, and two periods of Phys Ed and French weekly. He'll be in the same class as the kids he was with in 2004-2005 for these subjects. I am BEYOND excited because I often get scattered when juggling so many different things, and these last few subjects are the ones that either 1) I can't do a very good job with only one student (phys ed), or 2) I tend to let slide when things get busy. (Interestingly, after observing their elementary school classes at SCS I no longer worry about the "let it slide" bit ... I couldn't believe how much of the curriculum DIDN'T get done at public school.)

Claire is thrilled to be starting in the Grade 9 Venture Program this September, and can hardly wait for the 25th when she goes in to pick up her schedule and get her lock, etc. There are a fabulous bunch of eighth graders in this county ... she will have a rock solid class and I expect it to be a very fun year for her. She has really loved working at West Lake Willows, and three days a week was perfect for her.

Alison will be in Grade 10 Ventures this year, and discovered last week that one of her good friends was invited into the program for Grade 10 (a whole bunch of kids dropped out after being frustrated by the fact that the teachers had expectations of them). Her little summer job has ended up being full-time ... great for the bank account, but not a particularly restful summer. Her boss wants her to continue to work a couple of days a week, but Kev and I are leaning to having her quit, or only helping them in a pinch. They did a party of 50 last week, and at the end Andreas brought out the kitchen staff and introduced them to the guests. They received a standing ovation (by the way, this is a VERY cool restaurant! The chef will spend quite a bit of time out visiting with the guests, in particular if there are visitors from Europe since he speaks German, and likely a couple of other languages).

Kevin has been enjoying his new position as Promotions Manager with UCB. This past weekend they ran a family event at Wesley Acres ... a concert with Joel Auge that was WONDERFUL, barbeque, swimming for the kids ... nice relaxed day. Kev is very good at event planning and I was proud of him :-). He also enjoyed two weeks off, in a ROW, in July. We didn't go anywhere, but it was great for him to just hang around.

All three children had a week at Wesley Acres Camp this year, and all three had a great time. Claire's camp was a Worship Camp ... the kids formed bands and the finale was a concert. Claire went in as a vocalist, and next year hopes to go back and play guitar as well. Since they've been home, Alison has joined the girls that went and they have been doing some music for our church (Alison is paying the djembi!). Iain went to camp, and his high point was kayaking. He just loves it! He had a good counsellor, and an AWESOME LIT. Alison went to the teen camp, and didn't know anyone so she had the most difficult transition to camp, but it ended up a great experience. The girls in her cabin were each given the book "Captivating" and she loved it.

Having the twins has been a complete privilege and a total challenge. They only come for two days at a time, and the first day is almost impossible each time. The next day is lovely. The first overnight they didn't sleep .. I crawled into bed at 3 a.m. and managed to sleep until5 lol. Woo hoo. So far, the second night they sleep, and alternate wake times, which is hard on sleep as well, but MUCH better. I was always more of an attachment parent with my babies, so listening to a little one cry just about kills me. Feeling very, very thankful that we had our babies one at a time :-).

The girls are assessing their options for community hours this year. Alison was hoping to volunteer at the hospital, but when we went last week she found out she would only be able to help in the cafeteria. Since she is more interested in the medical end of things, she is now looking at different options, and hopes to get in to a large nursing home in Picton. They have a substantial recreation department, plus their own physiotherapy staff. Claire was hoping to volunteer with our local MP Daryl Kramp, but the Picton office is tiny and they are not set up for volunteers. She is also considering Ten Thousand Villages (her favourite store) and Sonrise Christian Academy (which is right beside the high school so would be very convenient).

Must get going for now ... I hope your summers are all going very well!!!

Working women at our house!

First, let me start with Alison. Oh my. All I can say is she is going to be mightly glad when September rolls around and she has some time to herself. She is working two jobs this summer. She still continues at Marathon Stables, which is normally just Saturdays, however she also has two consecutive weeks of helping at riding camp. She insists this doesn’t feel like work (and in fact, until recently, her only payment has been riding lessons. Mary has also started giving her a nominal amount of cash as well!).

Her second job was the result of a “chance” meeting I had with a chef at No Frills. As we reached for the same perfect head of romaine, we ended up chatting, and he suggested that Alison submit a resume to the restaurant. It turned out he was the owner of Blumen Garden Bistro, and Alison has now been working there for a week and a half. She is the fourth “cook” in the restaurant (I say cook loosely, since this is a lovely upscale place where they serve daylily flowers in the salad and chickpea fries; oysters and creme brulee). Andreas is the head chef; there is a sous chef, a salads and appetizers chef, and Alison is now their preferred dessert prep person. However, she fills in for everything and they are thrilled with her, consider her part of the restaurant "team" and keep begging her to work more. She has made homemade egg noodles, crab cakes, the aforementioned daylily flowers in salad (she says the flowers are yummy) and is having a great time. She finds being in a kitchen soothing and restful (SHE IS NOT MY CHILD OBVIOUSLY LOL). This little restaurant served almost 100 people last night! She works Friday through Sunday, 3 - 11, and some Mondays as well. He would like her to come in Wednesday night as well, but I've said no.

Claire also scored in the job department this summer. She REALLY, REALLY wanted to work this summer, however being only 13 she figured the best she could do was babysitting. Last year she volunteered to clean trailers for our friends Scott and Sophie who run “West Lake Willows”. She is quite a good cleaner and she thought this might be a good way to get some experience. It has turned out that they had their full allotment of cleaning staff, so she is predominantly in the store, running the cash register, tidying displays, making registrations with a computerized system, scooping ice cream and making milkshakes. It is a GREAT job for her. She will clean if it is necessary, and also watch the children if Sophie has paperwork to do and Scott is unavailable. This is a beautiful place (I encourage you to go to their website and check it out!) and she is lucky to spend 3 days a week there this summer! She is working 12-6 Thursday and Friday, and 9-4 on Saturdays. Kevin actually spent the day there today SALMON fishing so I have hopes that our dinner menu tomorrow is taken care of ;-). Do you think a boat of guys thought to take a picture of the event??

Next post: Claire’s amazing week at Worship Camp at Wesley Acres (last week)

Alison’s new smile :-)

Today was “debanding” day in Belleville.  Alison went in like this:

 

And came out like this :-):

 

She will have to wear a retainer for a year (that gets fitted on Thursday), then nights only after that.  What a gorgeous smile now!

Lamb Fleeces (the great experiment continues)

Dave came over to shear on Saturday, and while we were out I spent some time looking at our 2009 lamb fleeces.  It’s been an interesting experiment.

Here are the three 4H lambs, then a fleece shot for each of them

Paris, Claire’s lamb:

Paris’ fleece:

Loralei, Alison’s lamb:

Loralei’s fleece:

Babette, Iain’s lamb:

Babette’s fleece:

(Some of you fleece types may remember my comment at Babette’s birth … that she was born with a lab puppy coat rather than fleece.  It “seemed” that she was shedding out the odd coat of guard hairs.  I spoke with someone familiar with her grandma, and she mentioned that there was some Romanov in the lambs ancestry that could have spontaneously shown up.  However, although inconsistent across her fleece, she DOES have a fleeces, and not only is it crimpy, it is VERY soft and lustrous, and she has double the staple length of the other lambs!)

Claire’s lace socks done … finally!

This is the first summer I’ve actually continued knitting in the summer.  Generally, once lambs are born, then there are gardens … and I don’t pick up needles again until October or November.  Something about wool and heat … and our house become a terrarium in the hot weather!  Perhaps because we had a real spring this year, and it did not heat up too quickly; perhaps because I’ve created a handknit sock addiction in my family and there are not enough fall and winter hours to complete what needs to be done … whatever the reason, I continue (so far) to knit this year.

Yesterday I finished these (should have finished them a week ago but I tried to cast off on a car trip without instructions and messed up sock two … I use a purling cast off used in Russia that I can never remember properly).

They are knit with Tofutsie sock yarn (soy silk, chitin, wool, nylon blend) on size US 1 (2.25 mm) circular needles. They are knit using my normal sock pattern (figure 8 cast on, toe up, short row heel) with a slight modification along the foot to allow for the lace pattern (I borrowed a stitch from the heel needle during the pattern portions of the sock).  The lace pattern would have shown up more strikingly with a plain coloured yarn, however this is what I had in my stash at the time :-).

 

The lace rib stitch pattern is as follows:

(Multiple of 10 stitches)

Round 1:  k9, p

Round 2:  k2, k2tog, yo, k, yo, ssk, k2, p

Round 3:  k9, p

Round 4:  k, k2tog, yo, k3, yo, ssk, k, p

Round 5:  k9, p

Round 6:  k, yo, ssk, yo, (slip knitwise, slip knitwise, k, p2sso), yo, k2tog, yo, k, p

Round 7:  k9, p

Round 9:  k3, yo, (slip knitwise, slip knitwise, k, p2sso), yo, k3, p

Claire’s Grade 8 Graduation, June 23,2009

What a wonderful evening we had at Claire’s grad. She was lovely and poised, and looked older than her years. Our friend Victoria once again worked her magic, and completely straightened Claire’s hair. Her Annie-hair is still growing out, but it looked lovely despite this fact.

Claire won three awards, which was pretty astounding since she was in a very strong class. She won the High Academic award (won by Alison last year!), the ETFO Award for History and Geography, and the Art Award (this is the only one she was secretly hoping to win!). Her Auntie Kim was particularly proud of the ETFO Award, which is sponsored by the Ontario Teacher’s Federation (Kim is on the executive). The theme for the night was “Hollywood” and the kids put a great deal of time into decorating.

Claire, leading her class in:

The Sophiasburgh Central School Class of 2009:

Mr. Stone presenting Claire with her diploma:

Nanny and Papa with the three kids:

Proud parents :-) … :

Us with all three kids:

Claire with her Principal, Mrs. “Pooky” (rhymes with bookie lol) Scott

Claire with some of her friends:

Claire and Kevin dancing the first dance, which by tradition at Sophiasburgh is a Father-Daughter/Mother-Son dance:

Claire, dancing with a BOY!! Gasp! (In fact, the “boy next door” … he invited her to grad as her date, however we don’t allow dating quite yet ;-) … )

One of Claire’s awards … check out the 2008 winner.

We had a genuinely great evening with Claire and her friends, many whom we have got to know over the last couple of years. It was awesome to be there to encourage them all!

The visit

A few days ago, we went on a family walk.  Iain and I trudged on a bit farther to go to one of his favourite “quiet” places, and came upon this little guy on the road.  When we approached him, he fluttered to the side of the road, but he didn’t look great and had some feathers missing.  I suspected he had hit a windshield.  I easily caught him, then held him in my cupped hand, and walked a km home with him happily peering through my fingers.  At home, we let him cool off for a couple of hours with food and water in our cage (make sure Myrt sees this mom ;-) ..), then once he perked up, we set him free out by the pond.

This little bird is a male yellow warbler, and as well as being very bright, was completely unafraid of the whole procedure.  We could put our hands in the cage and ask him to “step up” and he would hop up on our finger!  It was remarkable.

In the cage once we arrived home:

Letting T.J. go in the evening:

A couple of last pictures in the bushes by the pond:

We haven’t seen him since, but we hope he sticks around. Even if we don’t see him again, this special visit by such an incredibly brave, friendly little bird was a real gift.