Growing Up

After feeling absolutely rotten and having zero energy for the last week, I'm finally starting to return closer to normal (whatever that is).  All because of a very helpful, little pill - but I'll take whatever help I can find at this point.  Sooooo thankful to Adam for looking after me, Em and the house while I've been out of commission. 

I'm still not feeling great, but can at least get up from bed or the couch and get a few things done around the house before I have to rest again.  That's a good start.

Not much has happened around here the last while, as you might imagine.  We did manage to celebrate Emily's birthday last week. I was having a reasonable good day that day, and managed to make a pretty basic b-day cake, and went out to dinner with friends. Emily wanted to decorate her own cake too, so I gave her the tops I cut off her cake and she had a blast decorating it... and eating the frosting and sprinkles, while she worked.

Adam decided to take the day off work, so Em had someone to play with all her new toys with.  And she certainly wasn't lacking in new toys, lol. :)  She's very excited to be 3 - she thinks that was the milestone she needed to reach in order to be "big".  She's still talking up a storm, constantly.  Our own little chatterbox!

Other than that, we now have a pile of snow and very cold temps (-30C this morning, without the windchill).  Makes me very thankful for a nice warm fire on days like this. 

That's all there is to report for now.  I'm sure I'll have some exciting news to report later this week. :)

Until next time...

Buck Lake Blogger

Gearing Up For Christmas

Yesterday, I did a little Christmas decorating around our house.  Our Christmas town is now topping our tv cabinet,

various snowmen are scattered throughout our house, Mr. Moose is occupying his corner of the living room,

and Emily's taken to playing with our little Nativity scene.

We have yet to put up the Christmas tree, but it's starting to feel a lot more like Christmas around here.  No snow, currently.  I'm just fine with that.  I'm sure it'll all change by the end of the weekend. 

Other than that, we're all still a little sick... Emily most of all.  Last night was filled with a lot of coughing.  But she really is a trooper when she's sick - it certainly doesn't slow her down much.  I think she's over the worst of it, but only time will tell. 

Not much else is new.  Adam spent part of the day again yesterday out chopping and splitting some more firewood, which I then got to cart and load into our woodshed.  I also tackled a bit of our garage, organizing some things and loading up my van with a bunch of stuff to bring to our storage locker - mostly camping stuff.  Bringing that to storage is on the agenda for today.

Well, it's time for breakfast so I gotta go! :)

Until next time...

Buck Lake Blogger 

Another Year Older

Despite getting sick with a brutal sore throat and congested head that started on Friday, I still managed to have a pretty good weekend.  My secret to fighting off the common cold quickly is filling my system with as much water as it'll hold - and it really seems to make a big difference. I was noticeably improved Sunday morning.  Which was good, seeing as how it was Adam's birthday and I had a busy day scheduled.  We were up well before the crack of dawn thanks to daylight savings and the fact that we had been prepping Emily to go to bed earlier for a few nights, in anticipation of the time change.  She went to bed earlier, but also woke up MUCH earlier too.  I guess that gave us plenty of time to get ready for Sunday school & church.  Here's Em all dressed and ready to go! :)

After a quick lunch at home, I managed to sneak away to the Farmer's Market while Em was down for a much needed nap.  Unfortunately, there wasn't much excitement at the market - a lot of the same old stuff.  A quick tour of the hall and I left virtually empty-handed, except for a small Pampered Chef purchase. 

Home again, and I was gearing up to start baking Adam's birthday cake when he informed me that he didn't really need a cake.  Maybe he saw something in my still sick, exhausted expression and took pity on me.  I was really prepared to start whipping up a storm in the kitchen, but this was a nice break.  I felt a little bad that he wouldn't have a special dessert, so I decided instead to make him a quick batch of homemade peanut butter cookies.  His favourite and a rare treat, since no one else in the house eats them and they don't get made often.  He seemed pleased with my birthday compromise. :)

After a yummy dinner, and Emily was settled in bed for the night, we cozied into our couches to read our books - it was lovely!  All in all, a busy but good day. 

Until next time...

Buck Lake Blogger

My Little Doctor

I realize that Halloween was a few days ago already.  I just haven't had the time to post anything since.  I've promised a few pictures of Emily dressed up as a doctor for Halloween. 

She had a BLAST this year, going trick or treating.  We went out for about an hour and a half and visited 3 neighbours in our subdivision, by the light of the fading sun and the benefit of our flashlights.  After that we hopped in the truck and took the short drive to one of our neighbouring subdivisions for another 3 houses.  People seemed delighted to see Emily (there are not a lot of young kids around here) and she was happy to yell "trick or treat" and say "thank you".  I was very impressed when she started telling everyone (all by herself) "Happy Halloween and have a good night".  :)  It was a beautiful night, a little chilly by the time we called it quits, but the stars were twinkling brightly in the sky and I had an overjoyed child holding my hand while we walked in the dark... how does it get any better than that?

Emily woke up the next morning, where her first words out were asking to go out trick or treating again.  This has been the first year she really got the fun of Halloween and it was a bit difficult for her to understand that it only happens for one night a year. 

Not much else is new.  We've gone to (and been a little disappointed in) our moms & tots group this past week.  I'm having a tough time seeing the benefits when Emily doesn't want to participate in anything and many of the other kids are unruly and tantrum prone.  Still a debate in my mind whether or not we'll continue to go...

Tomorrow, we have a bit of a busy day.  We're supposed to be having a contractor out tomorrow morning to look at our house and give us an idea about the renos we want to get done.  Adam and I are contemplating either minor renos (gut the bathroom, redo a bunch of flooring, and reface our fireplace in stone) or major renos (all those listed above plus moving our fireplace's location, as well as building a bedroom and a half bath in our current family room).  After our hopefully quick meeting with our contractor in the morning, we have to drive 55 minutes away to Wetaskiwin, for family pictures.

Sunday brings Adam's birthday, so with Sunday school and church, the local Christmas craft fair that I hope to attend, baking a cake and making a special b-day dinner, I'm anticipating a rather busy day. 

The only other excitement we've had lately was a porcupine that wandered onto our deck last night.

He seemed to get rather confused about how to get off, since he was too big to fit between the posts.  I felt bad for him, because for over 10 minutes he just wandered back and forth, along the rails, trying to squeeze through all the openings.  But this was no small porcupine.  Finally, he realized that there was an actual deck there too that he could walk on, and as I cheered him on from inside the house, he meandered to the stairs and found his way out.  I'm sure he was terribly frightened by it all.  We seem to be attracting all sorts of animals lately.  Even the deer have ventured back on the deck, recently, to nibble at the dead perennials that I hadn't yet trimmed back.

And are, as I type this, eating the Halloween pumpkins on the front lawn.

Until next time...

Buck Lake Blogger