A little Craziness...A lot of Happiness!

So what to do when your heart is breaking to hold a new born bundle of love?  What do you do when your being wants to be four provinces away and smell the delicious aroma of a newborns sweet skin?  To touch the indescribable silky skin?

Well, if you are in our family...you just pack up and drive!  We could not ignore the voice in our hearts whispering ~ go! GO! We managed to surprise some of our family members with our arrival to view a brand new fresh-from-the-baby-basket nephew.

With his sweet Mama ~ my sis in law 

Two cousins just 5 months apart!

 This was also our first time beholding the wonder of our niece that was born in April.  We heard she had some personality, but we just saw pure peachy sweetness!

Are we the only ones that just MUST smell their necks?

She loves her jolly jumper attached to the clothesline

She's also good at drooling over it too!

Notice what is in my sis in law's hand?  Yummy desert!

My man with his new poster to drool over

Silly faces eating.  So hard to get them to want to sit still and eat
when there are cousins to play with!

Cute brothers.  One has practice being the elder brother, the
other is new to it ~ 3 boys!

Our youngest, reading to the other cousins.

Cloth diaper bums!

Yes, she likes this!

I have to say I really wish they had such wonderful cloth diapers when I was having children.  No messes on your lap or crazy plastic pants!

Baby snuggles are the best

Want some icecream cones?

A prayer for a sister, a wife and a mother from a brother who loves her.

The oldest from two siblings

We all sorta felt this way

She does not look impressed, but she really did have fun!

1 ~ 2 ~ 3 ~ WEEEEE

The eldest boy here loves space!  Grandma made him a wall hanging.
They were having great fun with it

Showing some cousins the silly little eggs and green eggs that our chickens lay.

I'm sure this Grandma's heart strings were being pulled here.

My Ruth laying some love on her little cousin

Well, I did a "Jolene" and while I was trying to make conversation with an older nephew, I asked about his room ~ the room his younger brother was sleeping in!  Opps...the positive was that I got a nice long snuggle, but I don't know what his parents got later...

Still Digesting

Yes, I am still digesting...not only breakfast...but the week that was.  Another nephew was born into our family and in our typical family fashion, we took the opportunity to hitch a ride 4 provinces away to go see him!  We had less than a day to get ready and what didn't get ready, got left.  We threw everything into the van and at 11 pm we headed for Alberta.  By 8 am we arrived, had a bathroom break and a little breakfast, then headed for Manitoba.  By 11 pm we were in Manitoba and soon snuggled into a Murphy bed at a good friends home.  Babies would be cuddled in the morning! 

I did manage to snap some pictures and forgot to snap others.  Disappointing, but hey, it was a whirlwind.

Pictures will come, I am just not home to upload anything.

We were all so happy to see relatives again...a niece we hadn't laid eyes upon yet since her April arrival.  A oh so soft nephew newly born.  We got to drink in the sweetness of 5 nephews and 2 little nieces and watch them with "the girls" ~ their older cousins.  God is good.  We feel like we got to experience something extrordinary because we just said YES and went.  I will post soon enough.

Sour Cherries

A dear friend said she had some sour cherries on her tree that we could pick ~ would I want them?  Well, yes!  What are they?  Ha ha.  So I did a quick internet search and found some recipes for jellies, cobblers and pies.  OH yes, I'll be there to pick! Another surprise blessing was that she lent me her cherry pitter ~ my oh my ~ how fun is it to pit cherries!  We are all trying to act nicely and take turns.

Sour Cherry Pie Filling - makes enough for a 9-inch pie
from a recipe by Nick Malgieri

3 pints fresh sour cherries, stemmed, rinsed and picked over
3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

-To make the filling, pit the cherries over a bowl. Use a cherry pitter, or slash the side of each one with a stainless steel paring knife and squeeze gently to extract the pits. Put the cherries in a bowl as they are pitted.

-When all the cherries have been pitted drain the juices from the bowl into a non-reactive saucepan and add 1 cup of the cherries and the sugar. Bring to a simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is melted and the mixture is very liquid–about 5 minutes.

-Combine the cornstarch and water in a small bowl and whisk the cherry and sugar mixture into it. Return to the pan and cook, stirring constantly, over low heat, until it comes to a boil thickens and becomes clear. If it does not become clear, continue to cook over low heat an additional few minutes until it does.

-Pour into a large bowl and stir in the remaining filling ingredients, except the cherries then add the remaining cherries.

-Now you are ready to use it as a filling for your favorite pie dough!  Bake until the filling bubbles and the dough is golden, at whatever temperature you normally use for your particular dough.

Works so fast and slick...we all loved using it!

Sour cherries ~ a new favorite!

Sour Cherry Pie

Sour Cherry Jelly with dash of cinnamon

  The jelly recipe called for 4 cups of juice and 7 cups of white sugar.  YIKES.  I did 4 1/2 cups of sugar and 1 Pectin (no sugar needed) package.  It turned out great.

  

 This is my Back to Basics Juicer It is Stainless steel, unlike this one in the link.  I did just score an aluminum one at a funny little yard sale we went to.

Cherries / fruit go into the top...don't worry about stems or anything.  Just clean.

The cherries all juiced out will look gross and mushy like this

Juice in the bottom of the juicer.

Just remove the clamp and let the hot juice flow into
a glass measuring cup ~ then no need to
measure again.

I also made a cherry filling on the stove top (cornstarch, sugar and the natural juices) and then put a pie crust on top of it in my stoneware.  SOOO good.

I am dehydrating some and will post pics of those and recipe later.

Also canned some for use in Pluma Moos later.

It was a long day...

God is soooo good!

I love it when God shows us His delight in us with something very unusual and out of the ordinary~
I'll post about it later

We went to church ~ 100 Mile Baptist ~

What an occasion, we made it into church!  Since moving to BC we have not attended a Sunday morning church service together as a family ~ so since August 2008, we have not been to any church in our area.

We have done some "home church" and have attended church when we were back in Manitoba, etc.  I bet we have all experienced or heard of something difficult happening in a church, or have been disappointed in church for some reason or other.  Why?  My answer ~ church is made up of PEOPLE.  People aren't perfect and cannot be our all ~ God is our all in all.

That said, we were going into 100 Mile for the local Fall Fair to pick up our girls fair entries and see if they had won anything.  So we packed up a little bit of snack type lunch food quickly and actually made it into the church on time.  I do remember saying sternly to my hubby "I'd rather not go at all if we are going to be late!"  Poor man, has to live with my anxious being-on-time personality.  I can get so frustrated!

I feel a little weird about writing about our church experience, but it was such a positive one that I really want to.  We have been to many churches that we were not noticed or welcomed in any way and thus felt like intruders.  This church was different.

We were dressed in clean clothes, casual, nothing fancy.  We did not feel out of place.

We were greeted by one man with disabilities at the door, then another man shook our hands and handed us a message pamphlet for the morning.  Then Mrs. L greeted me and started to ask a few questions, so I told her approx. where we were from and than we knew "S" and "A" and were in town for the fair.  From a quick look around, I actually noticed a few people I had seen around town or through a girls b'day party or homeschooling.  That was refreshing.

So Mei chose to sit us 2nd row up front, so we got a great view of the preacher and everyone else a great view of our heads!  At least they noticed we were there!  ha ha.

They called up the little ones before their S.S. for prayer and I counted 17 kids under grade 2.  There was no S.S. for the older ones due to lack of a teacher at the moment.  That was fine, our girls sat through the message and loved when the preacher spit out lukewarm water and pretended to barf into a pail!  Great fun!  Gregg noticed the preacher was also a snowboarder.  Good stuff.

They had simple music and chorus songs that we knew.  They have jam sessions in the evening sometimes...

We were invited to stay for chili and buns for their "kick off" of their regular year (not summertime schedule) so we took them up on it.  So weird for me, trying to get comfy in a setting that I am not used to.  It went so much better than I thought.  Numerous people came up to us and chatted and not just the basic "where are you from?  what do you do?" It was fun, there was laughter around and we felt at ease.  Even the girls want to go back.  I recognized some of the younger ladies from a ladies Christmas evening there that my Mom and I had gone to.  I asked the preacher's wife "K" if she had gotten her Kitchen Aid yet.  It's always nice to remember something about someone and have something to talk about!  I have been trying to make more effort to do this and it paid off Sunday!

They are also starting their Beth Moore Bible study on the disciple John on Weds. morning SOOOO I am thinking I may show up.  They said "bring your girls, they can do school in the other room"...hummm...I like the way they think!  Very inviting!

First impression ~ A HIT!

It was not so big that we got lost, not so small that you feel all eyes on you, and lots of cute kids running about and a few older ones too!  BONUS!  

Now if gas prices would just go down...

Barrier Fall Fair & Rodeo FUN times!

We ventured out early Sunday morning for a leisurely twisty drive to Barriere to take in their Fall Fair and Rodeo.  Gregg and Mei couldn't remember ever having been to one, so this was going to be something special.  Took us awhile to get our bearings, but we had so much fun looking at 4 H animals and other fair exhibits.  Lots of friendly people and lots of really hot and tired dogs.

What's a rodeo without a cowboy and chewing tobacco?

4H sheep projects

Had to go look at all the eggs

Such cute boots on a wee gal

Heavy Horse Log Pull ~ they weave between pylons like a figure 8

These little goats loved to suck on the girls fingers
Lots of OOOO's and AWWWW's

Broncs!

YEE HAW

We used to have team roping at our place every Tuesday
I loved their silly fake horns :)

Lots of funny chickens, but the girls thought all ours
looked healthier and more handsome

Baby cross breed Bantam (Japanese and ???)

Dream weaver!

My other dream...get me a little milk goat!

Smallest barrel racer ever!  So amazing.

Mechanical bull ride anyone?

My b'day cake ~ Rocky Road squares ~ slightly melted

Mom was also slightly melted...so she sat on the cooler under
the bleachers and visited with some little girls

My Dad's old profession/hobby ~ yes, he was the best...you may
even call him a champion!  No jokes.

My favorite part ~ watching the bulls

Dad informed us we had a good view point, but if there was a runaway
we'd be baling fast!

"MY" team of Belgiums... they just made it look easy...they
pulled over 7500lbs I think

Friendly man from Holland liked to tease us about
our horse choices~ but I won!

We joked this man could take a picture up the horses nostrils.
He said "ya, it's pretty good".  I'm not jealous...
I'd have to learn how to operate it and it's half my size.

 

An enthusiastic thumbs up! 

We have decided that we need to come back to the Barriere Fair it was so great ~ family fun!
Adults $12, students $8, age 10 and under FREE.  Lots of food concessions, although no fruit or such.  Thought they'd have pork or beef on a bun...oh well, it was great.  I recommend bringing your own food.  We bought 3 chicken strips and some soggy fries for $10.  They had some good looking Taco Salad there but I don't know the cost.