Well, I’m not much for getting blog posts together these days. There is so much happening and we’re (mostly) having a great time. And while I’m in no way ready for summer to be over (or school to begin, gasp), I’m secretly looking forward to the slightly more scheduled rhythms of autumn.

In the meantime, we’re enjoying visits with friends and family, market trips, canning adventures (and lunacy), summer storms, and long days.

Since complete sentences seem to be beyond my scope these days, or more likely at the best of times, here’s the bullet version of some highlights:

• I am head-over-heals in love with my clothesline. Some may call it a sickness, I call it hugging Mother Earth while showing the neighbours our underwear. It is a bizarre kind of high.
• Our baby, although Daddy tries to tell me she’s not really a baby anymore – I baulk at that, is growing. She is trying to stand unassisted and walking holding fingers, clapping with joyful exuberance, and just generally being a most wonderful little person. Plus her hair makes a crown of curls when she gets hots. There is nothing not to love in that.
• Petting rabbits is fun. I’m trying to convince Dan we need a couple. It’s doubtful I will win this but I have cute children on my side.
• I’ve been canning lots, but not as much as last year marathon of canning. We’re still eating our way through last year’s abundance (or excess depending on where you’re standing). If only Canada Post didn’t cost an arm and a leg I would send you all a jar (or two).
•  Currently, I have 29 – 1 ltr jars of dill pickles lined up on my counter and outside on my canning table*. I think that should get us through the year…
• *Yes, Dan – angel of canning innovation that he is, bought me a propane burner. Canning outside is a whole new world. I love it even more outside.
• I’m knitting again. I never truly gave it up but through this summer of unexpected twists and turns it was more an afterthought than a constant. Well, I’m back, baby, and I’m knitting my first sweater for me!! A shalom in Cascade Eco to be exact.
• Our garden is growing! And we are harvesting from it! This is an exciting surprise…every time something grows it feels like a wonderful miracle.
• I’ve discovered Pomona’s Universal Pectin. This stuff is amazing! Thanks to its wondrous gelling powers I’ve been making jams with honey rather than sugar. Thanks to that fact I’m now actually letting my children eat the jam I crank out so fiendishly.
• I finished the 10-day fast. I made it through, and learned things about myself, and will definitely bring fasting in more often. Oh, and Laura Emily, is my hero. Really, truly, she is an amazing woman. I’m so excited I signed up for this next adventure with her.
• By way of Anna Marie Horner I discovered this cause and this fundraiser – what an incredible program. I love what they are doing (and they’ve made donating so sweet).
• My genius friend (thank you, Sally) let me on to the BEST fruit fly solution ever. Okay, perhaps you are of the sort who is above killing them (you’re a better person than me), but if you aren’t and you spend frustrated minutes trying to catch the darn things while your family and friends laugh at you, ahem, then this is the ticket for you: An inch or so of apple cider vinegar in a jar with a couple drops of dish soap (to break the surface tension) left uncovered. I didn’t think it would work and the smell of ACV makes me almost as batty as the fruit flies but low and behold I had near twenty fruit flies dead at the bottle of the jar in an hour. Well, I never!

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How about you? How is summer, or winter depending on your hemisphere, treating you? Are you ready for a change or do wish it would never end? Happy Friday!

These past few days and weekend have found us settling back into a rhythm at home – which admittedly doesn’t always have much continuity to it but it works.

Dan has been working considerably harder than I have getting some things taken care of around the house. After being away we always come back and start noticing the little projects we’d forgotten about. Along with projects inside, he’s been hacking away at the jungle outside so that now the yard and garden are recognizable again.

We’ve had a few casualties in the garden but for the most part everything looks great. We enjoyed our first garden salad over the weekend with a few baby beets and carrots that were thinned – it was very exciting.

We have quite a late growing season here but hopefully in a few weeks we’ll be enjoying peas and beans along with more lettuce. This is such a first for us that it’s all somewhat of a guess. Dan’s been a little disappointed to realize that all his hard work is not likely to yield enough to go far amongst our growing family but I’m impressed with what he’s managed in our small space.

Brussels sprouts are one of our most anticipated veggies.

The kids can easily devour half a head of purple cabbage as a snack so we’re hoping this works out for us.

Sarah will not be convinced to let the peas grow a little bigger before she starts eating them.

The potato blossoms are lovely.

Any suggestions on when we are supposed to harvest this?

We are so excited for carrots!

Dan’s pride and joy – corn (growing with some lettuce).

While Dan has been busy with his projects I’ve been thinking about what needs to be done in the next weeks before the little bean arrives. My plans for baking and freezing bread were a bit daunted when we returned to hotter weather than expected but the last few days have been cooler allowing me to get quite a few loaves in the freezer with plans for more as long as the weather stays cool. I’ve also been busy making jam with our market spoils this week. I’ll have more to share about that later in the week.

For now bedtime approaches and kitchen clean-up calls. Hope you’ve all enjoyed a wonderful start to another week! Thanks always for your kind words and encouragement – I’m so blessed by the community that has found me here!

I’ve lived in this home for nearly nine years – Dan even longer. For each of those nine years we’ve talked about moving. We’ve looked, we’ve put down deposits, we’ve withdrawn deposits, we’ve renovated to sell, we’ve waited, we’ve hoped, we’ve trusted…and we’ve waited some more.

Before you get excited for us – we’re still waiting.

But rather than avoiding making changes to our space because we’ll be leaving soon (*cough*), we’re starting to invest in some changes that work for us.

Dan renovated the kitchen as our Christmas gift adding space that we can’t imagine how we lived without. We had our front window and door replaced to keep out a bit more of the elements. And this past week Dan dug out the long debated and deliberated vegetable garden.

Our yard is tiny and shared with two sets of neighbours but we’re excited to see what we can harvest from even this small space.

Dan worked so hard to dig up the grass and clay to prepare the space for a fresh load of nutrient rich soil. Everyone was very excited to see it delivered.

This weekend Dan and the kids planted the first of the seeds. Dan’s been perusing our favourite gardening book, The Garden Primer, for the best dates to start planting. We would have loved to have started many of these indoors but we don’t get enough indoor light to do much good. We’ll see how we do sowing them directly into the ground.

Oh boy, are we excited!

Dan’s inventive irrigation system with the few seedlings we bought – broccoli and brussels sprouts.

Dan also volunteered to grade the small patch of land outside the fence for a condo shared shed. The kids are excited to plant some annuals along the retaining wall.

Meanwhile in the flower garden we are seeing green.

Look at that – a bloom!

And what’s a day in the garden without mud pies?

It may not look like much but this is our space and we’re going to enjoy it to the fullest.