For this Thing Called Wordless Wednesday:

+

=

!!!

While We Were Out...

...the anniversary of my first blog post came and went. Oh well. Maybe something exciting will happen for my two-year anniv.

My parents are visiting for a few weeks and on Saturday morning we went to the Farmer's Market and then to The Husband's work so my Dad could get a tour. Then we drove to this Mennonite bakery/cafe about 20 miles away. It was tasty but crowded in there and just before our food came, I was holding up the Little Goat and my Mom noticed something running down her leg. ARGH!! All over her shirt, my sweater, almost my pants, and definitely her pants! So a very important note to you all: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WASTE YOUR MONEY ON TEDDY'S CHOICE DIAPERS FROM SUPERSTORE!!! THEY. SUCK. Every time (and I'm almost not exaggerating all - really!) we've had a major issue with leakage and as you know, it's irritating. So consider yourselves forewarned.

Okay, so after our semi-harrowing lunchtime experience (oh, did I mention we had to change her on the floor of the front seat of the car because the cafe has no public bathroom?), we headed back to town and stopped at a roadside stand for a photo op and some pumpkins. This place was great! Everything a pumpkin stand should be. Hopefully next year, the Little Goat will be able to pose by herself on the bales.

Without further adieu.....Mmmm....pumpkins....

It's cold! It's windy! It's our very first family picture!

Somebody is NOT happy to be posing by some pumpkins.
Let's hope it's not an early sign of an aversion to pumpkin pie!!

Which Side Are You On?

For my first ever "Hump Day Hmm"....and don't get excited cause it could just as easily be my last (*smile*):

Hah! Now this I find amusing.

Busyness

I've actually had time to be a little busy in the last few days. The Husband (he prefers having the word "The" in front of his moniker until such time as I can think of a creative/catchy bloggy nickname for him) and I cleaned like crazy on Saturday and got a lot done. He finished installing ceiling tiles in our spare bedroom in anticipation of my parents arrival today. Only my Mom just called from Vermont to say they'd be in tomorrow sometime instead. Seems they did some, er, backwoods exploring late last night. We can relate.

Anyway, I thought I'd show you a few pictures of what I've been up to. Broadcasting it further gives me a sense of accomplishment in the Mom Department. Not that any of the canning happened in great quantities, but still.

Saturday: Bread & Butter pickles - those black things are peppercorns. The recipe called for too many of them!

Monday: That, my friends, is lemon curd. My all time favourite topping for almost anything!
(Canned before 7:30am yesterday morning.)

Monday: Cookies for The Husband's work potluck/baby shower lunch tomorrow.

Also Monday: I have ALWAYS wanted to learn how to fold towels like that and finally last night I had the time to figure it out!

Sunday: The Spare Bedroom, all ready. Leaving a basket (or in this case a bread bowl) of goodies in the Spare Room is a tradition my Mom started. A welcome basket of treats! And yes, the paint on the walls is called Lemon Spritz, and yes, it's blinding (!), because, yes, The Husband thought my Buttercream colour craving was too pale.*

*And yes, we're painting over it. Hah!

Here We Go A-Bloggering...

I have, once again, been slacking on posting. It isn't because I don't want to, it's more than I haven't had enough time with two free typing-hands (and even now I'm pushing my luck), and/or good ideas for anything to write about. I could just post a new picture of the cutest 2 month, 4 week, and two-day old girl on the planet every day, but I reckon most of you would get tired of constantly leaving the same comment: "Seriously, Bren J., that is the cutest 2 month, 4 week, and two-day old girl on the planet!"
I'm still going to post a picture anyway, because it is cute. And I should let you know that we've had all kinds of progress this week: She slept almost five hours one night and woke up only two minutes before the alarm was supposed to go off, she played with her car keys - by which I mean she grasped them in her wee hand and was shaking them unassisted, looking quite amused - and she put herself down for a 45 minute nap yesterday afternoon. A long enough nap, in fact, for me to bake an entire batch of cookies, start to finish (and consume more than I needed to)!

In other news, my good friend Zach, of no fixed Blogger address, bestowed upon me an award of his own creation: the King of Siam Award. I have no idea what the purpose or meaning of the award is. The king in the picture is King Rama VII, Prajadhipok. The most significant information I can find about him says that he was the last absolute and first constitutional monarch in Thailand as the result of a coup in 1932. So is that to imply that it's the award for bloggers who bend to the whims of their readers? Because if the coup was successful in getting the people a constitutional monarchy, the King's relationship with his people went downhill quickly after that. Hmmm.....

**************************
I've decided that since I'm in need of something to blog about these days, I will spend some time (EVENTUALLY, so don't go counting any chickens) further explaining our name choice for the Little Goat. One of her middle names is Leanne and as I mentioned several posts ago, she is named after five of the most incredible women I know. I thought maybe I should tell you a bit more about those women and why they're so important to me. Not only will it satisfy curiosity, provide you with more reading material and give me another opportunity to reflect on why I love these women, it will guarantee me five posts worth of blogging! I know, I know, for some of you, that's a week's worth of posts, but for me it could be more like a month's worth! So I'm not sure when I'll post the first installment, maybe this week. I need to hunt up some more incriminating photos.....har!

Ready for Church*

Of course halfway through church she filled her pants and it leaked and almost got on her Dad's pants too, but hey, she looked so CUTE doing it! And her genius mother had of course packed an extra set of PINK clothes to impress all the little old ladies who can't understand the aversion to pink. So it was a win-win!

*Also known as: An Easy Post I Can Type One-Handed

SWEET!!

My internet-twin, Brenda, gave me this, my very first bloggity award!! Phew! I've finally made it!
This is what it means:

“This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. Once you’ve been awarded please pass on to seven others whom you feel are deserving of this award”.

So I have to pass it on to seven other bloggers. Hm. Not sure I know seven other bloggers well enough. Erin K. (who already got it from Brenda but it can't hurt to get it twice, can it?), Beck, Shalee, Bub & Pie, and back to Brenda. I'd also give it to my friend Bryan but I'm pretty sure he would think it looks WAY too girly to ever appear on his blog. That's not seven, but it's the best I can do.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

We've actually been watching movies around here lately. Not in the theater (but one can dream....), but on TV or rentals. So by way of filling space on the interwebs with useless blather, I'm going to tell you about two of our recent viewings.

1) Blood Diamond - This movie was full of swearing and violence, but it was really good. Ordinarily, I cannot stand movies that are only thinly disguised publiic service announcements or even more thinly veiled political statements (ARGH!), but this was a good one. Around about the time Blood Diamond first came out, you'll recall, there was a huge increase in pleas from celebrities to boycott the purchase of so-called blood- or conflict-diamonds; and if you weren't going to boycott The Evil Diamond Conglomerates, could you at least attempt to purchase other humanely harvested gems (at eight times the price)? Maybe that's why we waited so long to see the movie: I was getting really sick of hearing public service announcements.

Then we started watching the movie and we began to understand what all the hype was about. However our initial understanding quickly turned to disgust as the movie progressed. Yes, we can understand how a boycott of conflict-diamonds might be useful, but did all those celebrities stumping for Blood Diamond not actually SEE the movie? Didn't they see the kids? Daughters ripped from their mothers arms and forced into sexual slavery? Sons torn from their parents and forced to submit to brainwashing and the heinous act of transforming wee boys into wee murderers?

To us, THAT is the real problem. It isn't just happening in Sierra Leone where diamonds are concerned either. For years now in Uganda and Sudan, the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) has been kidnapping children and forcing them to commit unspeakable atrocities. Since it's inception, the LRA has kidnapped over 44,000 children! Now go back and read that again. 44,000 CHILDREN. (Check out what Far Reaching Ministries is doing in Africa! You can even help evangelize soldiers by purchasing camels for chaplains to use as transportation! CAMELS!!)

Yes, it would be great if something could be done to lower the demand for diamonds and improve the conditions in which European companies acquire them, but shouldn't we be focusing on saving those kids?

At any rate, we did like the movie. I'm not looking to start a debate and I'm not going to trade in my engagement ring, I just needed to make sure I got in a little soapbox-style rant today.

2) The Queen - We just watched this one last night. It's been on our list to see for a while and since it was the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death, it seemed somehow apropos. I had heard beforehand that the movie was as much a character study of the Queen as anything and it did not disappoint. It was full of real stock footage from the days following Diana's death, but not so full that you felt like you'd seen the movie before. And who knew the Queen could be quite so cold?! This movie is a must-see if you're at all interested in the royal family and you don't mind a slower-paced story. Oh, and true to form, Philip even makes some bizarre comment about Zulus. Oh that Philip, he must have skipped a few too many lessons in tact.

So watch those two movies and tell me what you think.

*******************************
In other news....we made this crock pot steel-cut oatmeal recipe the other day. It turned out...GROSS (sorry, Beck). Maybe we're just weird over here, but this oatmeal had the consistency of what we imagine Emma's father's gruel (that's 'grew-L') would be like; I followed the recipe exactly, but man, was it runny! We'll stick with our baked recipe.

*******************************
This morning we actually got up at a decent hour. I finished yesterday's laundry and the Husband cuddled up with the Little Goat. Is there anything cuter than a Dad curled up with his wee Goat? I think not. Then we gobbled down an egg and headed out to the farmer's market. This time, there were actually people there. Lots of farmers, purveyors of tasty gardeny produce. We bought a tomato, some zucchini, a cucumber, some purple and green peppers, some brussel sprouts (wish us luck, we're brussel sprout virgins), and the most important acquisitions, a GIGANTIC apple fritter and a cinnamon bun (yes, that's a BUN, not a ROLL) from the Mennonite bakery (yes! Mennos! We really ARE everywhere!) in a town a little ways from here.

Now we are home where the Husband is working diligently in his yard and I am working diligently at my computer (while tending the 'herd' of course). It's cool and crispy outside, it's September 1st; Fall has arrived. Here's to a fulfilling Labour Day Weekend!