They forcibly tattooed Aunty Julia’s face in a modern and benevolent reenactment of Polynesian torture.

Hat tipped to Dylan Thomas and our somewhere around 25th annual Christmas Eve reading of A Child’s Christmas in Wales, I bought my son a catapult.  Which he will construct with his father, who I will have to send to Canadian Tire for a bulk purchase of safety goggles for us all.

Two adorable little dollies which I should have made myself, but instead purchased from Etsy arrived for The Meeps.   (Acorn  hat!!  Meeps needs her own acorn hat!!)

The children also received art supplies out the wazoo and a bean bag toss I found at the craft show for when they are feeling like throwing things in the house.

I received boots from Aunty Julia.  Not just any boots, oh no.  Boots I have promised not to wear to do chores.  Like all of those city people who wear Hunters but have never stepped in anything other than a dog turd on concrete, I now own DRESS WELLIES!  My entirely practical winter attire comes exclusively from Canadian Tire, and I was offered a “new cardboard box to sleep in” recently, so this is a step up I am excited to embrace.

Though I have no picture of it, the absolute highlight gift of 2010, which we may never be able to top, was a handful of pulleys and carabiners and a whack of old rope.  Bob has been learning about pulleys lately and loving it, making simple pulleys just using string and a chair back.  His world was cracked in two when he came downstairs Christmas morning to see ashy footprints coming out of our open fireplace and a multiple pulley set up hanging from one of our big wooden beams!  We have since discovered the dog harnesses clip up very nicely…

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I’ve been doing holiday shopping, which has been lots of fun.  I’ve linked below my favourite listings and shops on Etsy.  Other gifts in progress are wooden tattoo machines (made by Daddy) and a pulley, hook and basket (HABA makes one, but I’ll just go to Canadian Tire).  I ordered a wooden catapult from Lee Valley (good idea or bad idea, time will tell!)  A box of art supplies has arrived, always a hit.  I’ve got a bunch of supplies together to outfit them a craft cupboard they can access on their own, and I am hoping it will get done for Christmas.  It would be an awesome surprise.  I’ve also printed giant BLURB books for family again.  Nearly 400 page, 12″ x 12″ photo albums which truly rock the monkey.  Want to your loved ones cry with joy?  That’s the way to do it.

Never underestimate the joy of simple toys.  A jar full of acorns.  A fresh batch of play dough.  A huge roll of paper.  A big cardboard box.

Favourite Etsy Listings
Favourite Etsy Shops

I also have done a fair bit of shopping over the years at InspiredbyFinn.  That shop has outfitted my kids in high quality amber necklaces (first for teething, now for lovely looks) and leg warmers.  Bob is 4 and is still wearing his BabyLegs.  They are awesome for cold weather under pants and hot weather, worn just with a tee shirt.  If you shop there, you can use my code to get 25% off your next purchase:  twwly25

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So, about my tardiness with the blog posting.  I don’t know how much to write about the kids.  I don’t know how to write about myself without writing about the kids.  I don’t think I would have wanted my mother writing personal things about me in public places.  I would have wanted to have been asked first.

Thank you, Caitlin!

Thank you to Film In the Fridge & Anna Maria Horner.

In other news, had a fairly horrendous morning.  Scott went out to move a bag of feed over to the turkey tractor for me, and I come downstairs to see him walk by the front window with the axe.

Turns out some nasty predator tried to pull one of our turkeys out of the tractor through a 2″ space under the side.  Got teeth and claws in and just started pulling.  Until there was no skin left at all on the back of the turkey.

As I have previously blogged, poultry have a penchant for cannibalism, so its buddies were eating it when Scott came out.  To make matters worse, it was still alive.  Hence the hatchet.

I roasted the breasts and legs after cutting off the deep gashes out of the thighs.  Incredibly deep.  I feel so bad for that poor bird.

I’m hoping the Amish who took 120 cord of wood out of our bush over the winter are going to fulfill the rest of their end of the bargain by stacking it cut by the house, something that was supposed to be done months ago.  Time will tell.  And we have some wood to sell, if anyone is interested, email me.

Turkeys are all spoken for, but I have one half a pig for late fall still available, as well as half a lamb and two goats.  Please email me if you are interested in any of the above.

I got dressed up last week for a wedding.  That was nice.  Makeup, hair, clean clothes.  My husband on my arm. We went to the Harbour Brasserie and they do such a frigging fantastic job, top shelf.  They get the DOUBLE rock on.

I feel so thoroughly disconnected from my body after children, despite the perfect atmosphere for ridiculous dancing, I cannot engage.  It’s just not a body that I know how to move.  It’s my body, yes.  Certainly still looks like the same body!  But everything is different.  Seized in some places, joints threating to let go in others.  I am working out (Jillian Michaels, P90x and of course, the farm) but not moving any manner that is comfortable.  Ha.  Hoping with the Grandfathers both retired I may have some time this fall to take a ball room dance class with Scott or something.  That would be so awesome.

Here’s my painted and laquered going out Fancy Face:

Most of the garden is out now.  Peas, beans, raspberries, strawberries, leafies.  I’m trying to beat the hornworms to the tomatoes.  The kids sit and eat them in between helping with morning chores.  The kids help move waterers and the hose, they gather eggs.  It’s sweaty work, but totally sweet.  (My apologies for the horrible photo, they were so badly back lit but it was too cute not to use).

Here’s the Music Garlic laid out for washing like music itself.  (Garlic from Al Cowan’s Garlic Farm, can’t recommend enough).

Really hoping to go the Montreal Tattoo Convention with my husband this year.  We’d be gone from September 9th to the 14th and I am wondering if anyone reading this wants to farm sit or share farm chore duties with other friends and family.  Again, please email me if you’re interested!

I get asked a bunch what camera I use and do I have any tips.  I use a Canon Rebel, with a 20mm 1.8 lens on it.  I like the lens because it lets so much light in I can grab quick pics of the kids in the house or shade without any issue. The downside is that in bright light, shit just gets blown right out.  I’m no photographer.  I don’t usually take the time to make my horizon line level (see garlic above).  My only tips are: try to avoid using a flash; don’t be afraid to get close to your subject; take a squidrillion pictures so you actually have a chance of getting a good one; get aquainted with Photoshop or something similiar so you can at least rotate, crop and remove red-eye.  Just think about what is in your picture.  How it sits in the frame, what the basic composition is.  Oh yeah, and let me repeat: take advantage of the digital world and take a squirillion pictures so you have a chance of getting a good one.

Suki had been showing signs of labor all weekend.  She’d been pawing, contorting, heavy breathing, groaning, dripping mucous, contracting.  I spent so much time in the goat shed.  Some of it was very tranquil.  It’s quite nice to take a nap with a goat.  Other times, like at night during torrential downpour, being eaten alive by mosquitos dressed in a sopping hoody while staring at the goats ass…. not so idyllic.  My (marvelous and infinitely helpful) WOOFer Katie took shifts.  Auntie Alexis took shifts and even had the pleasure of helping hold Suks while I performed my first cervical exam as the vet was up North for a family gathering.  (We were worried she her amniotic sac had burst and there may be issues with potential kids.)  Through all of this Suk’s was the suckiest she had ever been, literally becoming a lap goat.  Laying across my legs, nuzzling my neck, putting herself under my hands.  She really wanted love.  So we gave it.

This afternoon her udder looked like it was going to burst.  Each teat looked like a jumbo cartoon breast from Playboy.  Her hind end had gone from very puffy to sunken and she began bellowing through her contractions.  Scott eventually heard this and came dashing out to the goat shed just in time to see a little nose emerging from within the fluid filled sac.  With a little manoevering and a few good pushes on her part we were soon helping clean off her beautiful little doeling.

Suki took instantly to mothering; licking furiously and keeping a hawk eye on her precious one. Little Cindy Ray took quickly and easily to nursing.  It was such a wonderful experience to get to share alongside my wonderful husband.  He caught Bob when he was born and played a huge role in supporting me during my labour with Meeps.  It was so fantastic to be able to help support our wonderful little goat through her labour, together.  Definitely softens the sadness of knowing we will not be having anymore kids ourselves.

And now I will shut up and show off some pictures.

On the topic of daughters, here is a recent picture of four generations of lovely ladies.

It is my precious little daughter’s birthday tomorrow.  But the Great Grandparents started their journey back to Hawaii today, so we shared presents for her yesterday.  We had a Blessingway planned, but given the unrelenting rain, the 7 or 8 desserts that failed miserably and the fact that I smelled like a goat… we decided to postpone.

There are plenty of people who think we are nuts over one component of our parenting ethos or another and one of those things involves toys.  We eschew plastic toys, specifically those containing BPA and pthalates.  We do this for two reasons: (1) I’d rather not expose my kids to said chemicals and (2) them toys is ugly.  I’ve gotten my share of “but you’re depriving them of play!”  Most certainly, I am not.  Mags presents included such wonders as a wooden coffee maker; a stash of handsewn finger puppets; a wool stuffed fairy and a fantastic set of felted peas in a pod, which I didn’t manage to take a picture of in daylight today, but I assure you are achingly adorable.  BEHOLD!

Maggie wore the dress I sewed for her from Anna Maria Horner fabrics (so wonderful) and Bob wore the Amish pattern based shorts I sewed for him over the winter.  He performed what he called Amish Dances all over the living room that day. They involved a lot of twisting and writhing, much akin to Suki’s recent behaviour.

And now it’s time for me to sleep, not in the manger, but in my own bed.

Good night all.  Thanks for checking in.

The kids for Christmas got a lovely little set of crocheted bags, stuffed full of bright felted shapes.  It’s one of their favourite toys.  They put the creatures in and out of the sacks, play with the creatures, pretend to “sew” the creatures.  A very simple, well made and well loved gift.

The mailman this morning brought the kids an early Easter present of felted eggs and a hilarious ball.  I could hardly fend the kids off the toys to take a picture of them!  They’re so excited, bouncing these little things all about the living room.  Another terrific purchase from Soos & Boots!! They also do custom orders, which is what these little duders were.

Also in the fibre arts news, here’s a picture of Mags in a newly aquired sweater that was pulled off of a moth eaten stuffed rabbit.  Yup, my daughter is so petite she fits into clothes intended for rabbits.  (Though she is nearly two, her 6-12 month pants still fit her perfectly about the waist… it’s just that they only come to her knees!) Her kitty hat was lovingly crocheted by a friend also.  The second picture is the face she makes when you ask her to say “CHEESE”!

I’ve got to get to work tidying the house of in honor of my company this weekend.  Company!  Here to see ME!  I am stoked.  If I can get the house together in good time, I’m going to hopefully finish some curtains for the kids room, and start laying out fabric and wool for some pillows for the kids.  Time to brew another coffee and get my clean on!

I’m working on another Amish pattern based dress for Meeps.  I have added a zipper, intend to sew on an exterior pocket and have used wonderfully bright fabrics, all very UN-Amish things.  Hoping to have this done by spring.  There’s no pattern for the dress, you just estimate a box shape for the top, double the width for the skirt portion, and unlike most dress/shirts I’ve sewn, instead of attaching the arms to the body at the shoulders and then sewing it together at the sides, you insert the arms (already sewn into tubes) into holes you have cut into the body.  You could easily do it in an afternoon, if you were child free.  If not child free, estimate one week of evenings.

It’s not done, and I am not by ANY means an accomplished seamstress, so please excuse my wiggly stitches and yet-to-be trimmed threads.

Because I needed something else to do, I have decided to start to try to learn needlepointing.  I am attempting to sew a cut out flower from the body fabric onto a pocket.  I am guessing this would be easier if (1) I had one of those needlepoint hoops and (2) I had any basic idea at all about what I was doing.

Anyone do needlepoint?

How do I stop the threads from twisting and not laying flat?
Should I have folded the fabric, as the thread seems to pull through?
Where should I look up stitches and things, anything good (free) online?
I doubled my thread, was this wrong?

We started night weaning Meeps over Christmas, when Scott had some time off work.  The deal is I tell her The Booby sleeps at night and will be awake in the morning.  (5am).  The first few nights were horrific, what seemed like endless screaming.  We don’t leave our kids to cry alone (I wouldn’t leave Scott if he was upset) so there were several nights of feeling like my brain was going to actually explode, leaving the dog something else disgusting to lick up.  Then she gave us a handful of remarkable sleeps; she would stir around midnight, Scott would pat her down, then sleep until 5am.  Now Meeps is wise to the fact that it’s Scott patting and not me, so she whips around to see it’s him and starts howling.  I don’t give her The Booby until it’s morning, no matter what, so every night there are several periods of dreadful shrieking to endure.

So that’s where we’re at.  I have night weaned, except I am getting no more sleep than before, and now my night is now punctuated with high pitched skull piercing bawling instead of nursing.

Reminding myself of the Founding Principle of Parenting… and that principle is:  Suck It Up.  We stay with our children while they are upset, so I just need to enjoy all of these recent mini vacations to my Happy Place and know that THIS TOO SHALL PASS.  She won’t do this forever.  It will get better.  I am not going to compromise my parenting ethics, I am doing everything I can do to make the situation positive, I tell her what a good sleeper she is, I fill her full of positive reinforcement.   Therefore there is nothing for me to do but Suck It Up.

I am presently in the middle of finishing up a pair of Amish pants for Bob.  They are really cute, can’t wait to post a picture of him in them.  If you’ve never seen an Amish pattern before, below is what I took home from Ida’s place the other day: two pieces of butcher paper and a little diagram that I made to attempt to remind myself of the basic construction of the lining, the suspenders, the pockets, the button placement, the waistband… all of the things NOT included in the cut out pattern.  (By a wing and a prayer is how I sew!)

If anyone out there has any old silkscreens laying around, I’m interested.  I would love to slap a couple of skulls to the side of Bob’s pants.

Bob is really into letters right now, phonics.  Most of my days are spent answering “What does TRUCK start with?  What comes next?”   He’s really into learning to tie knots, baking cookies, helping wash dishes and the table, and tattooing us.

Both kids love the new super long sled we got to help me out with goat chores.  Now instead of slowly alternating between moving Meeps and the 5 gallon water jug in spurts in the direction of the goat shed, I can load both kids, the jug and the food onto the sled and pull them to the shed.  Last night we took the kids for a walk around the corner (we were gone over an hour, made it only a fraction of the way around our “block”) and it was so nice.  We didn’t see a single other person, but we did see some cougar tracks coming out of the bush by the river that runs through the back of our place.  Meeps fell asleep on the way home, totally folded in half into her own lap like a ragdoll.  That sled sure rocks the monkey.

Some of my seed catalogues have arrived already, so my nights are filled with colourful plans.  I’ve convinced Scott to let me order bulbs for Mother’s Day and I can’t wait to get my orders in.  I can’t wait for baby chicks, for dandelions, for the goats to be on grass again.

The days are getting longer again, I can feel spring on the horizon.