Hello again to the 2 of you who sometimes stop by!

First off Jenna do come for a visit you are desparetly missed...and have no fears a certain someone is now in Mississauga.

As you may know by past posts Hubby was able to take 7 weeks of paternity leave! but

BIG BUT

you do not get paid during that time. The goverment puts you on some sort of E.I. and lets just say that when all was said and done and it came in it was equivaent to what Hubby would make in a week and a half.

YIKES

we knew this was the case but it was hard to swallow! So I am busy organizing a garage sale to earn some $$$ well hoping for $$ at least.

Today the great organizing begins!

An airshow is a common North American event. Though-out this province they are held all summer in various locations, frequently small local airports that are struggling to stay afloat with parcel and buisness flights yet not used by compalnies for airtravel needs.

The locals are always excited as all week long the planes practice their lop-d-lops, suicide dives, races and such. All over town the evergreen of front lawns become patchwork quilts of red, blue, brown and all sorta of coloured t-shirts as the houses empty of kids to watch the amazing feats in the sky overhead.

On the day of the airshow the whole town seems to stop for a few hours and everywhere the roads are chuck full of cars illegally parked on the curb, trying to find that "perfect" viewing spot. Neighbours turn on the BBQs and host family picnics, friends from out of town arrive for the afternoon and dinner. the children run in circles straining to catch that first glimpse of the fighters, great fun for all...

But I am petrified.

Most people run out of their houses at the sound of the planes overhead, but as the sonic boom shakes me deep down to my core, it just makes me want to run. When the glass in the windows shake, I quiver. For the sake of the children I must put on a brave face and not run down and hide in the cold storage.

The majority of the population over here has never experienced war first or even second hand. They talk about it "happening over there" freely, never thinking that it could come across the Atlantic, as if there is an invisible wall over the ocean.

Years ago my family lived in Austria, which was the main NATO base during the Bosnian war. Air Raid sirens were a reality, counting the supply helicopters fly over our house (nearly always losing count after we reaced 100) was a reality, feeling the ground shake and learning to cruch up into a little ball "just in case" when the fighters passed over head to their targets was a reality. Listening to the public announcements and freaking out cause we could only speak english and no one would translate and explain the looks of terror on their faces, was a reality.

Having our school, A.I.S., bombed because it was American (and the US had just entered the war), arriving at school and not being able to get to my locker because of the fire, having 6 different types of gaurds and soliders then stationed at the school, seeing army transport trucks, troop carriers, guns in the open, all this was too a reality.

So forgive me if I do not enjoy the airshow, and please ignore the tears that stream down my face at the memories so vivid and fresh that the sounds of the aircraft remind me of.

I pray my children can still enjoy it, and will never have the associations with the jets that I have.

To Teeth or Not to Teeth...

For some unknown reason our wee olive plants seem to get their teeth young. Magoo had his first at 3 months, Missy around 5 mths and now Sprout is teething. For Magoo "Bongela" which Dad would bring back from his trips to the UK did wonders. Missy too found relief. Sprout none!

I am reminded of Hebrews 10:36 "For ye have need of patience" so true! The last five or so days has been spent frantically trying to get the bare minimum done during her naps and happy spells. I would LOVE some advice!

Still we had a lovely weekend together. Simple summer meals of salad sandwiches and grilled veggies. We are blessed to have a famer's stand (called "The Stand"...what else!) within walking distance and so whatever we cannot grow ourselves we are sure to find there. They have a policy that nothing will come from further then 30 kms and hang signs so that you know the farm each veggie or fruit is from and the distance travelled. The lady who runs it is simply delightful and always gives the children a sucker when we leave. I really must write a piece on the joys of living in a small farm village but that will have to wait for another day.

The flowers in our garden are coming to a close, but we are determined to enjoy the few that remain. The black eyed susans, obedience plant, salvia, hosta flowers, roses and snap dragons are still going strong. It is simply delightful to be able to bring some of God's creation into our homes to cheer it up and bring the outdoors in! Wouldn't you agree?

You know when you have all these great plans.....

Yeah, so, yesterday I desided that I would have
-the Goons (all 3 of them) bathed and clothed ready to go to Lecture
-me looking stunning in a nice outfit for such
-dinner of BBQ chicken and veggie from our garden cooked
-set the table all nice and welcoming
-clean up from the kid chaos so that down stairs looks like adults actually live here

all before Hubby came home.

So I'm slogging away at folding and putting away Mt. WASHington and realize it it 5:45 and Hubby hasn't called so I phone him to see if he is on his way home to time dinner....Goons are thrown in to the bath (opps, I mean gently placed..) I frantically put Sprout into a cute lil dress. No answer so I asssume Hubby is out of range only to hear "I'm home"

Panic

Dinner isn't even started, let alone is the table set. Wife looks like, well um, not stunning.

So in the end Hubby finished washing the Goons while I cooked, we ate dinner and then i tore around trying to find the skirt I was going to wear (still not back to pre-preggy size yet) and decided to wear a nice hat....

hat is rather wild and so was wishing I had a different headcovering...oh well.

lesson learned.

We laughed while doing up carseats at my unrealistic goals.
Maybe next time I can actually have dinner on the table!

Hubby went back to work this week after seven weeks of paternity leave! So thankful for that! But now we are all trying to get back into the groove of regular smegular life. Coffee in the morning is now esential to my well-being!

Reading a funny but good book called "The American Frugal Housewife" Full of some good ideas on keeping down the waste in our homes and using everything. Some stuff though you can tell is from the 1830's when it was written!

Speaking of waste.....our lil town is having a town-wide garage sale sometime this month so I am going to start filling boxes with stuff from each room to get rid of. I can't wait for this giant clean out to begin! so what am i doing on the computer??? The girls are asleep and I don't want to wake them!

oh, and I am a famous procrastinator!!

Here are some pics of our garden, thought you may enjoy them...

What an amazing storm we experienced last night. Horizontal rain, sheet lightning that never stopped, hail...

no tornado though!

I have never before seen such amazing sights in the sky. you could actually see the forks of lightning going from one cloud to the other and then the sheets lightning. It was a blessing it wasn't forked lightning as it would have done a lot of damage down here.

First thing this morning the Goons and I made a little walk to see how the veggie patch had faired, and other then the corn being blown over it did preety good. The brussel sprouts are fine which surprised me.

Before growing some of our food for the summer months storms never really bothered me. However in the past month we've had hail three times, thankfully not damaging enough yet.

Our bean crop is nearly finished and the carrots haven't done well at all since the beans did too well and blocked out the sunlight from reaching them!

Today the Goons and I will finish finding and harvesting the last of the beans and planting some more letuce to gather in a couple weeks.

Sorry I have been missing for the summer. Hubby was able to take some paternity leave and just went back to work today ;-(

So I've desided to try and update at least twice a week, just on daily hum drum of life here in our little community with 3 Goons to make life interessting.

Mr. Magoo starts scool in 2 weeks, Sprout is teething and thankfully Missy is taking life all in stride.

So starting tomorrow expect some proper updates including pics and recipes if i can get my brain around all the computer stuff.