Keeping them guessing

 We don’t do elf on the shelf, but we do have an advent calendar. It is wooden, with little doors for each day, and we can put whatever we want behind each door. Most often we put in a small chocolate (actually two - one for each kid), but we also often put in a little tag saying things like “put up Christmas tree” or “hot chocolate” or “bake cookies.” We try to be a little bit predictable and boring so the expectations are not too high, while at the same time throwing slight curveballs to make it interesting. 

Last week Jeff decided to fill one of the little boxes with mini marshmallows, so they would pour out when the kids opened the door. They were surprised and delighted 😁 

Elves

 Yesterday we got our Christmas tree. We went to a farm in a small town/rural area about a 25 minutes drive from here, where we picked out our tree and they cut it for us and brought it back to our car on a sled. When we went into their little building to pay, they gave us hot chocolate and gingerbread muffins, and also gave the kids candy canes and gumballs and little plastic gingerbread people and little stuffed star ornaments. The building had all kinds of antique Christmas things that were very festive. Definitely got us all into the Christmas spirit!

Today we decorated the tree, after putting it up and putting the lights on yesterday. Maren and Linden were helpful and also took lots of breaks, during some of which they put decorations on sleeping cats:

My sweet little elves!

Two pictures

 Between us, Jeff and I managed just two photos this week. Kids with cat:

And Kids on a hike:

There really is plenty to report: Thanksgiving and days off of school along with a break from work, many pies including Thanksgiving pumpkin pies and a mini apple pie from the few wormy apples that we harvested from our brand new tree, putting up our first Christmas lights and wreath, enjoying some time outdoors, and all the other things. 

We are headed into our last week of classes, then we have finals week and a bit of a sigh of relief after that!

Middle of term slog

 For the last few weeks we have been in the middle of the term at OSU which means that Jeff and I are busy and not really able to make a lot of interesting things happen around here. Last week I had nothing to say in a blog post and this week I thought OK I had a better post something, but there is not much to say. Things are just moving along the way they always do. In the last two weeks I have these photos to report:

Linden being silly with carrots:

Linden being silly with a friend:

Rad Dad

Monday was Jeff’s birthday. The kids decorated his cake:

 

They did a pretty awesome job 😊 

Then of course on Friday was Halloween, and along with it came pumpkin carving. This hurt they carved things completely themselves.

This one has eyes by Maren and a mouth by Linden:

This is Maren’s 

And this is Linden’s 

And of course trick or treating. A few weeks ago, Maren came to us and said she doesn’t want to be vegan, and Linden agreed. There were social reasons, and wanting to be able to participate in food-related things with other kids. We talked as a family and decided that we would be “mostly vegan.” So this year that meant keeping all the candy from trick or treating - no swapping for vegan chocolate. In previous years we were able to pare down the amount each kid had significantly by taking out all the non-vegan candy and trading for a much smaller amount of vegan stuff. This year they have mountains of candy, and we can do nothing to stop them! 😬

Thanksgiving

 Last weekend we drove to Harrison Hot Springs in British Columbia to celebrate Thanksgiving with Jeff’s siblings and their families. It is a beautiful place, nestled in the foothills of two mountain ranges, with terrain that is similar to but also very unlike areas of the Pacific Northwest. The hills are much steeper, and the mountains much taller. The town is on the edge of a lake and snow-capped mountains are just beyond, visible over the lake. 

Unfortunately it rained much of the time that we were there, and much of the scenery wasn’t really visible until hours before we left. But the main point was to spend time together, and that we did. Many games were played, the kids spent time together, the adults talked to one another, we cooked, ate, and enjoyed our brief visit. 

And don’t forget baseball! Jeff’s brother and his sister’s partner are big Blue Jays fans. They/we watched the first game together, and now it is turning out to be an exciting series. I am not a baseball fan and have no particular allegiance, but with the Mariners being the closest team to us and the only northwest team, and the Blue Jays being the only Canadian team, I will be happy with either of them winning tomorrow!

Perfect 10

 Maren turned 10 last week! She had multiple parties, first just immediate family on her real birthday, then a sleepover with friends, and finally a party with extended family. That meant cake on three different days 🧁🍰🎂 

Her most exciting present from us was a watch that can call and text!

Camp

 This weekend I went to Camp Cleawox. There is a long-standing “hooky weekend“ for Girl Scout leaders and adult volunteers to have a weekend to experience camp as a camper. I learned over the weekend that this has been happening since the early 1980s.

In the 1990s I was a camper at Camp Cleawox, and it was a crazy trip to experience it again, though a bit updated/different compared to what it was back then, as an adult. I did many of the things I had done as a child – canoeing, crafts, campfire, songs, meals in the lodge, sleeping in rustic bunks, and making new camp friends. I am so glad I went!

Eating a rainbow

 The garden keeps producing and I keep getting a lot of enjoyment out of it. Lately we are getting eggplants, yellow zucchinis, okra, peppers, and lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, and purple green beans. It makes it pretty easy to eat a rainbow 🌈 

It is that interstitial time between summer and fall, where there are a warm days and cool nights, the last of the summer vegetables but the pumpkins and squash not yet ripe, kids in school and soccer but the term not yet started at the university. For a lot of people spring is the season of new beginnings, but for me it is fall. After a busy but restful summer, we have a crop of new students, new classes, and things in general feel new and full of possibilities. I like this time 🌻

Back to school pumpkin pie

 On Wednesday the kids went back to school, Maren starting fourth grade and Linden starting first grade. 

On Saturday, they also have their first soccer games of the season.

And it’s a long story how this came to be, but for about a month Linden has been asking me to make a back to school pumpkin pie. So today I did, and it was delicious.

One week down, the rest of the year to go 😊

Summer shenanigans

 The last few weeks of August have been full of summer-y fun, like harvesting the bounty from our garden, including lots of eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans (that are purple and yellow), and peaches.

Our poor little peach tree was so loaded with fruit it could barely hold it without snapping all the branches.

There was lots of playing outside, homemade ice cream, and trips to the pool. 

We went camping at the coast with my mom, sister, and niece.

And we visited old friends in Washington. Our kids and their kids had a lot of fun playing together, and Jeff and I really enjoyed seeing them, talking, laughing, and playing games. 

The kids go back to school on Wednesday, and everything starts to ramp up again. But I think we really made the most of this summer!

Hot 🔥

 Today is extremely hot, over 100°F. It is going to stay hot for a couple of days, so we are mostly staying inside, at least in the afternoon.

However, we have had plenty of outside time over the last couple of weeks. We took the kids to the Benton County fair and they had fun riding on the rides:

It is kind of hard to see them but they are in the middle of the photo :-)

We have harvested a lot from the garden, including cucumbers, eggplants, purple and yellow green beans, a little more zucchini (production has slowed down considerably), and possibly the most exciting, peaches:

Our poor little tree can’t support the weight of so many peaches on its branches. This is after already picking a few, but there are so many more! 

Blackberry pie

 Nothing says summer to me like blackberry pie. For those who don’t know, blackberries are a terrible invasive plant here, but make the most incredibly delicious berries. We have a great situation here where our neighbours behind our house have blackberries growing that are coming over our fence. So we get the benefit without having to battle the problem 🤣

Last week the kiddos picked some berries over the fence:

It was fun, but not a ton of berries, so Jeff took the kids to a local park to pick some more, and we turned them into pie (actually more of a freeform tart or galette, but same thing). Linden decided she doesn’t like blackberry pie, so she got her own apple one.

Mmmm pie 😋

Zucchini!

The garden is starting to really produce, and we have new zucchini almost every day. I have never really had zucchini grow well like this - in Saskatchewan it requires hand pollination to do well, and I tried but the results tended to be underwhelming. Before Saskatchewan, I think I always planted them too close to other things. But this year they have plenty of space and plenty of pollinators, and my two plants (one yellow and one green) have been steadily producing for at least two weeks. We have had zucchini in pasta sauce, quesadillas, grilled on the barbecue, sautéed on their own, a couple of loaves of zucchini bread… if this keeps up we might actually get tired of it, but for now I am still excited that the garden is doing so well 😊

Jeff and I are working through the month of July, so the kids have had camps every week. Last week was Girl Scout day camp, and it was pretty intense - we dropped them off at 8 AM and pick them up at 5 PM, and then I was volunteering with check out (making sure the girls were going home with people they were supposed to go with), so they did not get home most days until around 5:40 PM. This coming week they have a garden camp that runs 9 AM to 3 PM, which is going to feel very relaxed.

Last week Jeff there was a particular day when Jeff had an evening commitment and since Camp was so long, he hardly had a chance to see the kids. Anticipating this, he decided to remind them that he loves them by making puzzles for the them. The puzzles involved word scrambles, crosswords, using answers to find a code, and then decoding a secret message in order to find a cookie. With them being as tired as they were after camp, these puzzles, which were meant to be pure fun, turned into a stressful and tearful experience. 

So the next day Jeff made new puzzles that were a little easier, and led to popsicles. Here are the kids doing those, still in their camp t-shirts:

This time there were no tears, and it was a bit more fun for everyone 😂

More camping

 Last week we camped for three nights at Lake of the Woods in southern Oregon. We camped with my childhood friend and her family, which was a fabulous time. We also visited Crater Lake, which Jeff and I had not been to for 20 years, and Maren and Linden had never seen. The reviews from the kids were mixed, though I think really they had a good time.

We came home to a garden that is thriving, and we picked some thing like 10 zucchinis yesterday. 

After a couple of chaotic years we are finally having a more relaxing summer 🌞