tree lighting

Our town had a lovely little tree lighting ceremony tonight, and we took the boys to see it. Thomas just squealed every now and then out of pure joy ('light' is one of his favourite words), and Phillip had a great time, too. Being outside after dark is a big deal when you're four.

pantry news, again

I guess there is one empty space there in the cupboard after all. I didn't notice that until I looked at the image on the computer. I still have some fruit that I froze in the summer and fall (pears in particular) that I have canning plans for. Once a few more jars are freed up, I'll have to fill in those spaces. Did I tell you that we opened a couple of jars of those dill pickles? They are AMAZING. Super crunchy, super tasty. I'm especially pleased because they're my first dills, and we eat them year-round. I will be making loads more next summer - it's yet another case where homemade is a huge improvement on the store variety.

Soap! I am still squeezing in some soapmaking in between all of the other busy-ness that fills my days. If you would like to order some for yourself or as a sweet gift for someone you like, just send me an e-mail and we'll sort out the details! If you're local, I'll be delivering some more to Yarmouth Natural over the next few weeks (I'll be dropping off a few tomorrow), or you can always call or send an e-mail. I can even (sometimes) deliver! Now's the time to let me know what you'd like - I'll be making a bunch this week and next, so speak up!

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to you Americans! I hope that you've had a relaxing, turkey-filled, thankful day with your favourite people.

oatcakes

Today was one of those days that had awesome potential (snow day!), but I got stuck being everywhere but in the present. And kept using the tone of voice with Phillip that I hate hearing from myself.

We made oatcakes together, which was sort of half successful. I got the recipe from a friend, and hers were awesome. Mine aren't. Maybe mine weren't because Phillip and I were struggling to work together. Or maybe because I left out the coconut so Adam would be able to eat them. Either way, I'll let you know when I get the recipe perfected. Good night!

book swap

We hosted a book swap / potluck today, and it was fantastic. Might I recommend that you do the same? We've been doing some rearranging, tidying, and cleaning out of our books, and we discovered that there were 123 books in this house that we didn't feel the need to keep. So we invited a pile of friends over, asked them to bring any books they no longer wanted, and it was a free-for-all.

Phillip did a great job at evaluating his books and deciding which to keep and which to give away. (That picture was taken before anyone came - that's only some of the books that we contributed.) He ended up donating about 1/3 of his collection, which was many, many books. And in return, we picked some of the ones that were brought by others, and the boys have some new-to-them books to enjoy. The left over books will be donated to the library.

Even better than that, we had piles of friends in the house for the afternoon. I loooooove having people over. Now that the kids are for the most part old enough to more-or-less play on their own together, there's an extra level of fun. I can't think of a better way to spend the day.