What a lovely Christmas day post Zee!

Lee here...hard to top that one! No exciting news here!

I have the majority of the day to myself. Dh took the girls out to run some errands and go shopping. Its been a productive day...lots of tidying up since the house looked like it threw up Christmas, the dishes are done and now I am hanging out online..alll by myself since Kathee is at a wedding today and Zee is putting in a sink:)

This is a piece of art that I have in my house that I treasure....it was made by my LLL leader, artist friend Peggy.

There's Zee...pregnant and ready to dance! Im the fat lady there for her support!

Summer Arrival

Life Happens, 

Once again I am blessed with this awesome gift of Life.  It’s a wonderful and timely surprise. Three years ago I gave birth to my tenth child during an extremely stressful and sad time of my life.  Almost loosing my daughter to cancer had me experiencing a roller coaster of emotions that often had me over analyzing the connection between my unborn child's arrival into this world and the possibility of loosing my daughter at any moment.  The joy he brought our entire family, especially my daughter who fought to hang on was a powerful gift, something positive and joyful to hold onto when times were so difficult.   

Just a few weeks ago, after discovering this baby’s presence, I realized that this little one has planned his or her arrival during another rough patch in our lives, no doubt another positive force that will help us weather the storm.  Not everyone can understand or appreciate the desire to have a large family, and honestly its not about wanting a large family, its about the desire to nurture and parent, the uncanny feeling that your not done yet... not unlike the strong feeling parents get when they say they know they are done and ready to move onto the next stage of life.  I've fostered, adopted and cared for children consistently for decades now, believing this would ease that longing to nurture and mother a child, but alas, it only has reinforced my desire to do so until I'm the ripe old age of ninety-two.  

I’m hopeful things will progress easily and remain positive, Life is Good!

 "Everything has a cause, and each birth is part of an ongoing continuity in the cycle of experience through eons" 

~ Tibetan Art of Parenting

Zee's 2009 Resolution ~ Creative energy to harness and use wisely

This New Year, not unlike all New Years of the past, seems to evoke a sense of renewal even though I try not to let time be the muse that inspires.  Almost like that diet that begins Monday morning, instead of the moment it came to be.  As much as I try I can't escape the desire to make a resolution or two.  I've been fighting this want to make things.  I keep thinking I'd love to explore new mediums, and then I remind myself I don't need to make stuff, but I do need to make the stuff I already have more desirable and useful.  My New Years resolution is to do just that.  Old sheets and blankets will become new blankets and throw rugs.  Old towels and the like will become reusable bum fluff for those who are so inclined.  I'm putting my effort, time and resources into making our living space more creative giving me lots of opportunities to paint and draw to my hearts content.  I'm good with knitting only useful items using appropriate materials.  I feel this surge of creativity that needs to be let loose and dang it, I've found a way to go to town.  I think tiling my counter top has awakened a sense of urgency for ART... I'm still going to get myself into a pottery class, but only to make some useful things for my kitchen.  Glass blowing is on hold as are a few other things I believed to be a must do.  This New Year is inspiring me to plot a productive and creative garden space that will offer me more opportunities to recycle and create garden art.  I'm planning indoor space dedicated to year round gardening, using this plan to burn up some of that creative energy that seems to come it waves.  I'm excited about designing a home for herbs and small hearty veggies that will tolerate indoor cultivation.

This New Year brings change, hope and life... leaving behind the shadow of 2008, with all its good and difficult times, a reminder of today's potential and tomorrow’s possibilities.   With a fond farewell to 2008 I'm truly excited to begin 2009.

 

Happy New Year!

Happy Christmas Eve!

Its me, Lee...This was fun..playing the game Careers..I know one of Kathee's favs. So nice to spend time as a family doing something everyone enjoys. The holidays remind us to make time for fun always!

baking

Lee on board..I made some cookies that my mom made when I was a child. Its a different recipe but must be pretty close since they taste how I remember. They are candy caned shaped where you take half the dough and color it red and add some peppermint oil. I remember them being very plain but when you're a kid, call it a cookie and its good enough. Altho they are cute, they were a bit too boring and tasteless for my liking..I wont make them again. I dont want to make or eat something that is just ok. The peppermint patties on the other hand are FABULOUS! They are so easy to make and you just cant go wrong giving these beauties as gifts or to contribute to desert.

This gingerbread house was made by my husband and Kate and Annie last night. It turned out really well:) You cant see the rock garden at the back. This is more about creativity and a treat.....other than the candies and hardened icing, the rest goes to waste. Someone might naw on some gingerbread, but these store bought kits are generally too hard to eat!!

I really feel certain that we are done baking and craft making for the year. I think Kate wanted to make some more ginger cookies but she can run that show herself.

Christmas Recital

Stefanie playing and singing Ron Sexsmith's song "Maybe this Christmas" with her vocal coach Amanda holding the mic.

Stefanie belting out "Rockin around the Christmas tree"

Maybe this Christmas will mean something more

Maybe this year love will appear

Deeper than ever before

And maybe forgiveness will ask us to call

Someone we love

Someone we’ve lost

For reasons we can’t quite recall

Mmm, maybe this Christmas

Maybe there’ll be an open door

Maybe the star that shined before

Will shine once more, ohhh

Mmmmmmm, mmmmmmmm

And maybe this Christmas will find us at last

In heaven, at peace

Prayed for at least

For the love we’ve been shown in the past

Maybe this Christmas

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.....

Lee here...Ok..I feel terrible about this..We got new windows and this is the last one that needs to be replaced...its in the girl's bedroom..its ice!! We are going to order a new window and have our guy come and install it whenever he can..It will take about 4-6 weeks for it to come and even if he can install it for march that would be great. I think in the meantime we are just going to cover it with insulation (they have another window thats newish). We usually have it covered with plastic by now but we were so excited to not have to do that to our wall of new windows, that we kinda forgot!

This is our snowy day....

..Ahh my favorite kind of day...calling for snow during the day, we dont have to go anywhere or do anything..we are making pepermint patties today and watching a movie later and making some hot chocolate with a candy cane stir stick. I think I will make a pot of soup.

The kids are still in bed. It is cold and windy and damp out at the moment and I cant wait till it starts snowing! Annie will want to go outside for a while and I do have to bring in some wood (Ok, so I do have to do something!) It is warm inside and the tree lights are on. Im going to put the kettle on for some tea. I think I will stay in my jammies all day!!

Finally, a few more photos for the blog...this first one is our little miniature Christmas scene that Annie very lovingly set up for us during our visit. Thank you Annie! It's perfect.

And doesn't this look like the perfect christmassy treat! fruitcake (with brandy) and dark spicy chocolate with a hot cup of coffee....mmmm!

We decided to decorate the mailbox too!

I will post our Christmas tree photo soon
too...

Our Christmas branch

with our new windows in the background:) We found the tree the other day in a neihbours woods.. I dragged it home on a beautiful snowy but not too cold day. We brought out the container of decorations and the girls went to work. Our decorations are everything from my parents first ornament, special bobbles from my inlaws, a syrofoam ball adorned with sequens and pins that Chris made when he was 5, to many homemade things the girls have made over the years. Its always a trip down memory lane opening up that box. We dont have room to hang up all the ornaments either...they try to cram on as many as possible but at some point, someone says.."thats enough".

I really miss my grandparents this time of year because it is with them that I have one of my favorite memories. When Chris and I were dating and then first married and before we had children that needed to get home to bed, we would all go to my grandparents Christmas day. The best part of the day came at night time when the other family members (party poopers) would leave, Nan would always whisper to me "you and Chris are staying right?" and we would. We would stay up late, have some wine and snacks and chat. Lee

Aidan was also in a parade this year. He was part of the Junior Fair Board's float...although they didn't really have a float, they walked. They were "Rudolph and his Fire Brigade", since this was the 50 th year of the fire dept. He wasn't too thrilled to have to 'dress up', but then a friend lent him an authentic set of coveralls from the local Fire Dept.

Christmas buzzzz

Yes folks, you saw it here first...STEFANIE IS BAKING...she looks a little buzzed like she may have been eating the sugar!

Lee here again! Annie is so excited over Christmas I had to send her away for a few days to play with friends....lol seriously, thats alot of holiday energy to be around. I like that the girls are excited but I must say it is difficult for me to be out in the crowds trying to finish up shopping. It just all feels like greed and now on the news they are saying so many people are backing out of their loans, mortgages etc yet here we are, bombarded with what feels like the main Christmas message of "buy more presents". We have never been over the top and most folks we surround ourselves with arent either...so, next year, I really need to be finished shopping by Dec 1 so I can enjoy the parts of the holidays that I love....Christmas music, being with friends and family and doing crafts, decorating, baking and remembering why we celebrate Christmas. Here it is Dec 12 already..our tree is up and I will post a pic when I change the batteries in the camera:)

Stories come to Life!

That was the theme of the library's float in the Christmas Parade. Hello...Lee here:) Annie and Kate are bunnies:) It was cold but they had fun getting to ride the parade route. Let it be known that parades have never done anything for me but the girls were interested in being part of it so there ya go:)

So I have been working on some Christmas presents. I made a couple of Garlands with dried fruit, nuts, cinnamon sticks etc. I will have to take a picture of one when it's finished and post it. I also made a couple more wooden snowpeople for my niece...here's a photo of the two I made for her and the ones we made last year (the "cool" looking dude was the one manly-son made...)

Here's my collection of 'gift wrap' so far. I've got tablecloths,

curtains and just some scrap fabric pieces.

Now I have to figure out the sizes of the gift bags

I will need and I can start sewing them up.

And I wanted to show you this cute little tablecloth I found

last year. I wanted something to make a new tree skirt and this was perfect. It is a round tablecloth. It already has a finished edge, so all it requires is a hole cut out of the middle and a slit up to the center hole. I LOVE the cute little elves and I think it will be so sweet under the tree!

Cows are Cool!

Meet my Neighbour! Mooooooo

We've set up a bird-feeding station and it's seen a lot of traffic...

including 3 red squirrels. But there's lots of feed for everyone. I bought some suet this weekend and hope to get that up for the Hairy Woodpecker who has been coming around. So far we've had chickadees, nuthatches, goldfinches, bluejays, mourning doves and the hairy woodpecker. The feeders seem to be busiest when I first get up in the morning. I imagine they will get busier still, when the snow arrives.

Stefanie is at a little gig tonight

Stef is off to the Walmart Christmas party to perform with Amanda's other singing students. I'm not there to see her perform which is weird for me. She is singing a Ron Sexsmith Christmas song..I think its called "Maybe this Christmas" and she is playing the guitar too. Then she is singing a jazzy version of "Rockin around the Christmas Tree" while Amada plays guitar. Sounds like fun and I wish I could be there.

volunteer work

Lee here...This is a picture of Kate and Annie helping out at the book sale fundraiser for the Alzheimer society. I have always done volunteer work and think its important that kids do the same..That sence of community and helping out reminds us that we are all in this together and that we need to look after each other...we are our brothers keeper. Stefanie had her first volunteer job when she was 7 years old and helped out at a learning/drop in centre that we always went to. She had to report to the director once a week...if she couldnt come, she was expected to call Ginny the director...she had a list waiting for her of things she had to do..like sharpen pencil crayons, water plants, help unpack craft supplies and then got these things checked off when she completed them. At the end of the year, she got a thankyou letter and a refrigerator magnet that says "volunteers take the time to lend a helping hand" that she still has. I think any little volunteer job is valuable and I hope that my children grow up feeling that is part of their responsibility to help others in whatever way they can.

New windows

Lee in the house...I dont quite feel in the Christmas mood yet because we have some construction going on at our house and everything is in disarray....I get more into it come Dec 1st when they start playing Christmas carols on the satelite dish..and we bring out our seasonal CD's. Kate is in a Christmas Ornament 4H club at the moment too...bringing home all kinds of awesome ideas.

The guy doing our windows is so great..our neihbour told us about him and we have had him do a few little jobs for us and now the windows...he is so funny, polite, punctual and tidy and thorough. The windows are such an improvement over the single paned ones we had that let in all the cold air! No more ice on the inside of our house!! No more putting up plastic every fall! It really makes me feel good seeing some progress in this old house!

Kathee here...taking a quiet break after a HUGE decluttering job. I have had sewing fabric, craft projects, and lots of Christmas craft items packed away and stacked in the small bedroom,( now our 'guest' room) I started going through all the boxes and bags and organized and sorted them. (some is going to the Goodwill, some to the rag bag) Now I know what useable material I actually have. I also have all my Christmas fabrics and crafts sorted and ready to use in the next few weeks. I want to make somemore Christmas cloth bags again this year. (We used no paper last year!) I have quite a few from last year, but some did actually leave the house, so I will need a few more. Every time I go to the Goodwill or Salvation Army store, I am on the lookout for any old Christmas tablecloths or just red and white pieces or even some type of checkered piece that would make a good giftbag. This year I found a tablecloth with a xmas scene all around the outside edge, so when I cut it, the scene will be at the bottom of the bags. I also found a red and white striped valance that I will be able to make a few bags out of. Last year I bought some cute napkins and used them as the 'wrap'....2 gifts in one, and I did this with a cute tablecloth too, making the 'wrap' part of the gift. I'll have to keep my eyes open for some more of those too. Not only is it much better for the environment (not using paper, and reusing goodwill items) but it's actually a lot of fun searching out possible 'wrapping' ideas
Now that I've got everything ready, I'm going to start thinking about what crafts I want to make this year too. What a good feeling to get all that decluttered and organized!

Our day

Lee on board.....Today was one of those really great days that you wish you could just stretch out to last. It was so quiet and calm..the house was already tidy so there were no big chores to do. Its friday so it has that whole TGIF element..Annie and I went to the library and hung out..talked to the librarian..checked out some books, magazines and movies and partook in the highspeed available there. The weather was perfect, mild with that smell of decomposing leaves. We got out some embroidery to work on. Made pizza dough to make panzerotties for supper. It was such a melow day..Stef was at work so she missed out on it but I know she enjoys being away sometimes. I will finish my book club book tonight. So glad Ive been able to be home with my kids! Its all good!

Hey there! kathee here with some photos...

I found this Butterfly- (a Polygonia comma) on the floor near the front window over a week ago.

It did not look good and barely moved when I tried to pick it up. (I had no idea how long it had actually been in the house).I didn't think it would survive outside, so I let it stay in the house and decided I should try and feed it. I tried an apple, but it couldn't get it's proboscis into the apple, so I tried a clementine and it stayed on that piece for a while, 'eating', I presume. Anyway, it still seemed pretty lethargic and I didn't think he was going to make it, but today he was flying about and was very fast and seemed strong. I realized that he likely wouldn't do well living in our house all winter and seeing as it is already 13 degrees out today and sunny, I let him go...he flew off over the house. I know he won't last the winter, but he really wasn't meant to, and at least he can have one last 'fling' before it gets too cold!

This morning I did the last pages of my sister's Altered Book! It was a HUGE job, but I actually loved going through all the photos that I put into it.I also went through the journal I kept when we went to England, and it was fun relieving that whole time together and then putting all that into her book too. These are the last 2 pages...I wanted to sum up all the things we have done when we get together every year for our "Sister's Week". I did one of these pages in my other sister's altered book and it is so much FUN! Wouldn't it be great to be able to make a living do this all day... maybe a "Ransom-Notes-R-Us"....

The Cake

This is what Kate and I made to take to the Sister's Dinner..It was Kelly and Mickey's birthdays so what a treat!! It was delicious..all brownie with layers of buttery chocolate decandence. Kate did all the decorating..it looked totally professional!

Sister's dinner

Lee here....After thanksgiving when me and my two sisters had dinner together with our families, we decided to make it a bi monthy thing...figuring we really should make an effort to know each other more and hang out..have yummy food and wine. Its a great way for my girls to see an aunt uncle and cousin and his girlfriend that we might only see at Christmas otherwise...a shame considering we dont live far apart. So on the left is my older (by 2 years) sister Kelly and my little sister (by 7 years) Mickey.

Seemed like a good idea at the time.........

Driving by a house one day in town, I saw a cabinet at the end of someone's driveway and pulled the truck around to take a closer look. It was a Hoosier cabinet! A Hoosier was a cupboard built in the early 1900's. Houses of that period were not equipped with built-in cabinetry, and the lack of storage space in the kitchen was a problem. The cabinet had three basic parts- the bottom consisting of compartments and/or drawers, the top which was not as deep and had shelves and in the middle where the top and bottom were joined was a slide out counter, sometimes with narrow drawers or a cutting board. The coolest part, was that the top usually had a combination flour-bin/sifter, a tin hopper that could be used without having to remove it from the cabinet.

They were many different styles made over the years. My grandmother had one. I remember hers had a flour sifter and a bin for flour that didin't pull out like a drawer, but rather tipped out so you could scoop out your flour as needed. Hers has an enamel pull out counter and was much older than this one. The one I have is not one of the old models, but it's still really cool.

Needless to say, as soon as I saw this one, I knew I had to have it. It cost me $50. Lucky for me, I was driving the truck that day and we were able to fit it into the back. Now I am in the process of stripping it so I can get it into the house before the winter hits. I have only ever stripped one other piece of furniture and now I remember why.......I hate doing it! It is an AWFUL job! And very slow, and I don't know why I thought I wanted to do this...But after 2 days I am much closer to be done- the outside of it anyway. The inside will have to wait until another time (ie: it will stay the way it is) And I do LOVE this cabinet and have the spot picked out where it will go. (oh by the way, anyone looking for a FREE piano?!) Here's some photos taken just as I started stripping it and a few in the middle of the mess. I hope to someday have "after" shots to post as well...

Kathee those are sooo realistic looking!!!

and so yummy too!!

Here is Stef enjoying the leaves!

Me at the compost...

Lee here.....

I took Thai and Minh, Stef and Annie out and they seemed to have fun:) Chris was here to pass out goody bags and a can of lemonade to the 3 kids (from the same family) we usually get. It was such a beautiful night out for a walk!

During that beautiful day, I managed to clean up some of the yard..dug some leaves directly in the garden to decompose. I put leaves in my composter so I can start adding kitchen scraps again...the kids filled the leaf composter that I use as an addition to my food waste composter. I just add an armful of leaves whenever I empty the kitchen compost bucket. I bagged up some leaves to use in the spring. I hate to see leaves blow out of my yard..they are such valuable organic matter...I love the smell of them this time of year...and the cruchiness as you walk through them or as the wind blows them around. I have a vivid memory of helping my grandmother spread bagged leaves in her spring gardens for mulch.

This is a photo of the Halloween "Witch Fingers" cookies that we made for the trick or treaters this year. (they are very close to shortbread cookies...mmmm) We don't get too many kids to the house, so we usually make up goodie bags, and along with some store bought treats, we put the cookies in there too. I made just a couple of "toes" too. The fingernails (and toe nails) are almonds. One of Zee's boys suggested I add green food colouring next year so they really look 'witchy'. I am definitely going to do that!

Happy Halloween!

We were hit by a huge snowfall on Tuesday night and woke up to this...

Some of it has melted, and it's supposed to be sunny and warm today, so I will fortunately be able to finish our outdoor jobs before winter REALLY arrives. Our pond is really full and with a snowblower this year, we hope to keep a rink cleared on it.

"Houston, we have a problem!"

Lee's world.....yup this was it...a rainy Saturday afternoon..I had gone into town to drop some stuff off at my sister's house since her daughter was sick...On the way home, stopped off at the Stirling Library to pick up some movies and then to get the newspaper...made coffee and cinnamin buns...

It really was a lazy day! It felt good to hang out together with nothing better to do. Watched Apollo 13..one of my all time favorite movies. I want the kids to see "classics" like that...to see where famous movie quotes come from.

Hey there...Kathee here again...this time a much shorter blog. I just wanted to share a fun project that I am doing with my three sisters. It's called an Altered Book. There are many versions of it, but we are actually each doing a book of our own and then rotating the books amongst each other. So at the end of a year (we started last March) we will each get our own books back and each of our sisters will have contributed their ideas/thoughts/pictures etc. So cool! I am so looking forward to getting my book back! There are lots of sites out there about Altered Books, but to narrow it down, here is a link of one woman's site...she has done 18 books! She shows you pictures of the pages and tells you how she did it and what she learned from them. I haven't done anything that elaborate, but have a bunch of ideas now and have started a notebook of things I want to try in my next altered book. The hardest part is actually drawing, glueing or cutting into the book...I LOVE books and it seems so wrong to do that to a book, but then, a lot of these old books would just sit on a shelf or in a box or end up at the dump. Here they start a new life! Check it out...you'll never look at old books the same again!
http://karenswhimsy.com/altered-books/
My favourite ones are: 'A Cup of Sky' and 'Dreams and Delights'

Hey there! Kathee here...it's been soooo long since I've 'blogged'. Mostly because I've been busy or on the go somewhere (and also a little afraid I forgot my password and wouldn't be ABLE to get on)...but voila! With the cold weather fast approaching we are scrambling to finish up the outdoor get-ready-for-winter jobs (stacking firewood in the wood shed, clearing out the gardens, putting outdoor stuff away...). As well, we have decided that this year we are going to to cut some of our own trees out of our woods, for next year's firewood. Sounds simple enough, but this is a multi-step job....a tune up on the chain saw was the first step (that poor ol' guy owes us nothing...we bought it used 17 years ago and cleared all the trees on our property to build our house, and have used it often over the years...) So with the trees cut down in the spring, we (me, hubby, and man-ly son) headed into the woods this past Saturday, to buck up the trees into stove length pieces and stack them. Loading them onto the trailer that hooks to our little tractor would have been our first choice, but it would go against the odds that both the chainsaw AND the tractor would be working at the same time...so the hauling out of the woods and the splitting of it will be another days' adventure. And along with all of that, we still had to eat, so after a run back to the house for some sandwiches, tortillia chips, fruit and more water, we stopped for a lovely picnic break. We have one tree left to buck up and then we want to get somemore cut down and keep working at it over the next couple of months. It's a good feeling planning the trees that need to come down which will allow smaller, younger trees to do better, and at the same time, be able to heat our home with those trees.

Another very pressing job is the garlic. We try to plant it by the middle of October, but we're consistently late, usually by a week or two. Saturday (when we were working in the bush) or Sunday (when we took man-ly son to a fencing tournament) would have been lovely days to plant, (you might know more about that Lee...!) but honestly, almost every year, the day we plan on planting the garlic tends to be a nasty one. Today was garlic planting day, and although it was cool and not sunny, it wasn't raining (or snowing, as we have had in past years' planting) and I bundled up with hoodie and gloves and it went well. We decided to plant a couple less beds this year since last year's harvest was not-so-good...a lot of rotted bulbs from all the rain and a lot of smaller bulbs. So after tilling the beds up and adding LOTS of compost, we've prepared the beds for hopefully a good year. And I'm happy with the amount we planted this year; not too overwhelming, but still enough to sell some and have lots for us.

This is some of the Rocombole variety, ready for planting. I also planted some F3, a variety we got from the Fish Lake garlic man (look that guy up, he's REALLY into garlic!), some Music, and my favourite, Czeckoslovakian Broadleaf. So the total this year, was 1200 and a bit, (down from 1600 last year, but I'm hoping for better quality this year)

This is a shot of a couple of the beds, already planted and ready to be covered over and tamped down.

There's Buddy, supervising...

Well, that's my adventure for the day...seems like a good time for a tea break.

In the Round

Here's my obsession, or dream... dream is more accurate. Ten acres + surrounded by trees. A Mandala Home with a guest yurt just a jaunt away. I'm going to teach myself cobb building starting with art sculptures and then a shed possibly something grander!

Since I'm dreaming I'm going for The Madrone oops PINCH, ok the Juniper or Magnolia is perfect with a basement. Now don’t forget solar power, passive solar, grey water, wind turbine etc.. etc.. etc..

There was an article in our local newpaper recently about a local couple and their four young children who have decided to put up Yurts and live on their 20 hectar lot in South Frontenac.

"Deep in the woods on a back country road north of Kingston, a local family is proving less is more.

Former owners of a custom-built hobby farm in Battersea, Jeremy and Vanessa Neven packed up their four young daughters earlier this summer and left their ideal Canadian lifestyle for something so unconventional it is quickly becoming a tourist attraction.

The Nevens have built a yurt - a fabric-covered, wood-framed dwelling that originated in Mongolia.

The yurt is a nomadic structure designed to be dismantled, transported by people or animals and rebuilt on another site. The structure is slowly becoming popular in North America due to its environmentally and fiscally responsible characteristics.
The yurt's design is simple and has changed very little in the last few hundred years.

The changes that have occurred are with the physical materials used, such as the exterior sheathing, which is now a polyester fabric.
Speaking from their 20 hectares in South Frontenac Township, where the two yurts are under construction, Vanessa Neven, a 34-year-old mother of four, says the family was looking for something different."

It's my Birthday:)

...42! wow!

Our Local Library

Hey..Lee here:)

We decided to rediscover our local library...its free and 15 minutes away..they can request books from other libraries so you really aren't limited to the books they have there. We hadn't been in years! It has changed sooo much..its bright and cheerful and honestly, I challenge Belleville, and Trenton's library to have a better children's section. (with a very involved children's librarian) Home Depot apparently went in last year and built all new shelving..so beautiful. The librarians were so fabulous!! They totally showed us around, gave us a refresher course in locating books. We went downstairs to meet the children's librarian who is new and she was talking to a reporter. Annie and I were the only ones there so he took a picture of Annie and the librarian for the local paper. He had heard me mention homeschooling (because no other kids were there on a school day) and said he had homeschooled as well..we had a great conversation! Kate had a great time too..they seem to have a decent youth section and they have highspeed internet...Kate was so happy to go on facebook. They have nice seating at their big windows. They have lots of programs going on like mittens being donated, childrens art auction and a little gallery too where they have book clubs and a knitting group that meets in the fall a couple of times. I plan on supporting this library..buying a book bag ,and on occasion, donating a book or movie. We look forward to going every week!

The K.I.T.C.H.E.N

Here are a few picks of the kitchen as it unfolds. The west facing wall is the target this weekend, at least I hope its possible. Most of it is moveable YIPPEE, if we relocate its portable, cept the new owners will need to get themselves some cupboards ;)