Baby Rings

I finally have a new sewing project to share with you! One of my friends just had her second baby boy so I knew she probably didn't need any more clothes for him so I made up some
baby rings! I got the idea/tutorial from Make It and Love It and they were very easy to make if not a bit finicky. I'm thinking about making up a couple of blocks to go with the rings, or maybe a bib or something but we'll see if I have time.

Applesauce

My neighbours mom brought over a big box of apples from her apple tree for us this weekend so I made up a bunch of applesauce! The boys LOVE it and I would too if I weren't allergic to apples! Either way it was a good experience, I've never really made it before and I managed to get 9 very large jars made so I'm happy. I bought a hand food mill to make it with which made everything go much faster... no peeling, no coring!! I really love how the applesauce came out a nice pink color due to the very red peels, such a pretty color.

Our Weekend

This weekend Trav's parents came up to watch the boys for us so Trav and I could have a weekend away bow hunting. We had a great time but unfortunately weren't able to take anything home with us. We did see quite a few deer, two moose, a coyote and of course some gophers but it's only deer season right now and none of the ones we saw were close enough. Trav plans to go out again Thanksgiving weekend (Oct. 12th for us Canadians) so hopefully we'll be blessed with some meat in our freezer yet this fall.

Oh My! Soup

It's fall here, even if you can't tell by our extremely odd still hot days. I'm getting anxious for some cooler weather so that I can use my oven more often, cook more soups, and well just not sweat all day long!

Yesterday happened to be a cooler day so I went searching for a blended soup recipe that would have some of the ingredients I already had. I didn't have a ton of luck finding anything exact but I did use this recipe for the basis of the soup.

Here's what I had from the garden I wanted to use:

I chopped it all up, onions, zucchini, potatoes, and carrots.

Put some butter in a big pot waited for it to melt then threw in the onions. a sprinkle of salt, and a pinch of crushed red peppers. Once that was mostly cooked I threw in the rest of the veggies and let them cook up for a few minutes, stirring quite frequently. I also added a bit of chopped garlic right at the end.

For the base I used 3 cups of water and 1.5 cubes of vegetable bullion, you could also use vegetable soup base or chicken stock I'm sure. I let this cook for about half an hour but you could probably get away with less time depending on how small you chopped your veggies. Then I poured it all into a blender, whirled it up, and poured it back into the pot. Just before I served it I added a half a cup of half and half cream and a bit more salt. Seriously, this soup is to die for!!

I would type the whole recipe out for you, but it seems to be pretty good for just adding what you have and as much as you have. For the whole recipe as I lightly followed go here to 101 Cookbooks

And once again I completely forgot to take a picture of the soup all finished and in a pretty bowl but take my word for it, it looks and tastes delicious.

Sunrise

The boys have been getting up earlier again, much to my dismay, but I suppose there are benefits to getting up before dawn. I can't help but think how much more beautiful this would be if I didn't have to look past all the houses blocking the way, and if those buildings and tower were not on the horizon. Still, I'm just going to enjoy it because who knows when we'll be out of this city.

My Favorite Time of Day

My favorite time of the day is shortly after the boys get up. They both like to watch a movie while they eat/drink their milk so it's usually a half hour to hour of Baby Einstein, Cars, Thomas, or Backyardigans. It's so quite and peaceful in the house for that time. I sit and eat my breakfast and drink my coffee in front of the computer checking up on all the blogs I read and facebook and it's just quite. Exactly what I need in order to wake up for the day.

A New Bow

Trav finished a new bow a couple months ago already and I think it's his favorite so far. He dyed a deep red color and it shoots really nice. He's currently out hunting and although he's using his compound this weekend, I know he really hopes to fill one of his tags so he's able to take this new bow out next time. Basically the reason why he took his compound out first is that generally speaking compound bows are much more accurate, and depending on the draw weight, you can shoot from farther away. He didn't want to risk not getting a deer this year by only using his wood bow.

Here's a link to Primitive Archer, the site where Trav posts all his bows, and gets tons of his advice and ideas from for making bows, quivers, arrows, etc. Primitive Archer Online If you're really interested in stuff, sign up to the message boards, that's where all the good information is.

Easy Roasted Veggies

It's been forever since I've posted a recipe and I have a couple in mind to add to here in the next little while, all made with zucchini. Yup that's right. I realize I am not the only one with tons of zucchini to eat and I'm not complaining, in fact I'm super thankful for all the zucchini recipes online. I'm actually pretty sure I've never enjoyed zucchini this much before, maybe because of this pregnancy or maybe just because it's so good freshly picked. Either way, I thought I'd share my recipes for using up all that green goodness.

Easy Roasted Zucchini and Peppers

Ingredients:

Zucchini, Peppers, any other roastable (totally not a word I realize) veggies

Chop veggies up into large bite sized peices and throw into a covered roasting or baking dish. Drizzle on some olive oil and top with your favorite herb. I used parsley because that's the only fresh herb I had in the garden. Stir it all up, pop the lid on and roast at about 350 for 30 mins or until veggies are soft and lightly browned.

Here are some links to other zucchini recipes I want to try this fall:

Buttermilk Summer Squash Soup -101 Cookbooks

Pineapple Zucchini Sheet Cake - PW Cooks

Zucchini Ricotta Cheesecake - 101 Cookbooks

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes -101 Cookbooks (I've actually made these before... so good!)

Garden Results

Our garden has done very well this year and it's so amazing being able to walk outside and pick what I want to eat for dinner that night. We got a huge crop of beans, the tomatoes are just ripening now, tons of zucchini, onions, carrots, pototoes, oohhh it's all so good! Nothing beats fresh from the ground veggies!

Ultimately....

Saskatchewan

photo credit: Shelly McGown

Ultimately we'd like to move. We've never been city folk and I don't think we ever really will be. The first few years we were married we didn't particularly agree on where we wanted to live, me being from BC and Travis from Saskatchewan. There are just a few differences in where we grew up.... mountains as far as you can see for me, grass and rolling hills as far as you can see for Trav. It really didn't take me long though, before I started to be able to appreciate those rolling hills, and then not long after that I started to love them and now that's where I want to be too.

We always planned to live in Calgary for 5 years and then move but in the last year we've both been getting anxious about getting out of here. The problem though is jobs. There are some jobs available for Travis in the area we want to live but they just don't pay enough that I would be able to stay at home with the kids still and that's just not worth it to us. So basically we've realized that if we want to be able to move back to Saskatchewan then we're going to have to seriously cut back on expenses. I'm not entirely sure how to do this seeing as we already have budgets set in place and really don't buy anything more than we need so I'm looking for some help... what do you do to save to money? How are you frugal? I'm thinking about trying to do some meal planning for a month, making strict grocery lists and sticking to them. Maybe that will help, maybe not, but it's worth a try. Do you use a meal planning website? If so do you like it?

Here Comes Number Three!

Okay so maybe he/she isn't coming right now, but he/she is definately on the way! I am currently just about 10 weeks pregnant and feeling, well pregnant. Haven't been too terribly sick which is great because my last two pregnancy's I was really sick. I'm already counting down the days till the supposed energy bounce of the second trimester kicks in. I'm blaming my lack of posting the last 2 months on the fact that I literally am too tired to concentrate on posting.... is that fair?

Getting There

Today's to do list?

• Clean out my sewing/craft room! I'm hoping this motivates me to get going on some projects to share with you all :)

Just had to share this with you... even though my boys are 16 months apart I constantly get people asking me if they are twins... I'm just now starting to see why.