It was just a lovely week

So I"m not entirely sure what made this past week such a nice week, but it was just a really good week for us.

Yes, Jim struggled with the heat and trying to sleep.  He ended up setting up the trailer and sleeping out there.  The cool night air did wonders for him.  :)  YEAH!!!!   No headaches and general icky-ness feelings during the day.  

Justin and I did the pool thing frequently.   He now makes a beeline for his swimming pool when we are out in the backyard.   I can put him down anywhere and if he sees his pool...off he crawls to get to it.   Nice to see him having fun NOT nice having to haul him out wet clothes and all!   

I had my last Sunday School class yesterday (for this year).  We are trying to figure what to do for next year.  The one girl is so ready to move up, the other isn't.   Hard to know what to do.  They really don't want to be in a class all on their own either so....what to do?  Ah, their mom and I and Jim will figure it out.

Justin, Jim and I went for a bike ride for the first time yesterday.   it worked well!   We passed some horses and Justin got all excited.    I was reminded of why I like my bike so much.   :)   Cost enough...I should like it.  I"m hoping next year that we can afford to get the shifting system revamped.   Somehow it got messed up so shifting is an issue, but for just riding around town shifting is just not an issue...I love the smooth action and gliding of my bike.   :)

We had our anniversary, just a quiet day at home with lunch out and a "eat whatever you want" supper.

It was just a lovely week together as family.   It felt like my little old heart smiled a lot this week.

Our anniversary

Jim and I have been married, as of today at around 2 p.m. (I think) for four whole years. They been good years, filled with some tough moments, but also times of gladness and joy.

Times of sadness: arguements with each other over stupid things, loss of a child, watching Riley dog get older and stiffer, death of people in church and so forth.

Times of gladness: watching Riley play again when he switched over to a BARF diet, birth of our son, guinea pigs, The Royal winter fair (yearly), new friendships, and a whole host of more.

We've grown in our relationship with each other.

I've learned to appreciate him in ways that I never imagined.

I've grown in my relationship to God. Never expected marriage to impact that!

I'm a parent! Sometimes I'm still in shock! :) I so expected to live my life as a contented single woman. And now I'm living my life as a more or less contented married woman with a child! God is so full of surprises at times. :)

Praise be to his name!

So we are now at four years and counting....I wonder how many more we will get until God takes us home.... Good thing I can't see into the future. Makes me treasure each day that I have.

Discovery Toys

You know how when you go to fairs and so forth you will often see a vendor booth for Discovery Toys? I like their stuff. It's bright, colourful, children like it, it can be educational and so forth. I also find that their stuff is a bit pricey (at least for my book).

BUT!!!! Garage sales can be havens of discovery! This past Saturday we came upon this toy at a local sale.

CASTLE MARBLEWORKS® Play Tower
Thinking & Problem Solving, Fine Motor

Building the tower is just the beginning of this fast-action experience. As children watch the three weighted chime balls race and spin, twirl and drop back and forth, children learn to predict the pattern of the ball pathways. Set up the 8-piece set in different ways. 25" x 14½" x 10" (64cm x 37cm x 25cm). From 24 months-Kindergarten

In Discovery Land it is worth $50. We got it for the princely sum of 50 cents! It only has the one ball (but we've discovered golf balls work too!) Justin loves it. And I have always liked these rolling path ball toys. I think they are neat! And it's fun to switch which ways the path go, and to make the ball stay inside and to just listen to the sounds of the ball going down the pathways. Fun! Fun!

Discovered this morning

On our walk this morning (me and the dogs) we saw this fellow.

Picture from: http://www.northrup.org/photos/red-fox/

He, of course, saw us first and beat a hasty retreat. He stopped about 100 ft from us. The dogs poked up their heads and watched him. He sat down, curled his tail around us and kept a good watch on us. He didn't move until he thought we were well out of site. Makes me wonder if there is a fox den somewhere on the trail in town.

I just thought it was rather neat. I've never been that close to a real wild fox (one that's actually in the wild). Just so you know...it's way better than seeing them in the zoo! :)

He swims

So this past week we purchased a small pool for Justin. $10 at the local C. Tire store.

Filled it with 3 inches of water.

Let the wonderful hot weather we are currently experiencing heat the water nicely.

Today Justin went swimming. I stripped him down outside and just
dumped him in. (after of course checking that water was indeedy warmed
up) This little 11 month old boy had SO MUCH FUN!!!! Made his
mom-mom laugh. I had purchased some sand toys a while back on sale,
and I dumped half of them into the water with him. Splash and dump
and attempt to drink. Boy.... you couldn't have asked for more fun.

AND THEN>>>> he learned that he>>>>> could
climb out! WOW!!! more fun!!!! more excitement!!!! More screams
of AHH!!!!!

Later today he might experience the joy of bike riding too. Justin
and I picked up a bike seat for him while garage-saling this morning
and then hubbie and I picked up a toddler bike helmet for him this
afternoon. He was unimpressed at the store (he HATES wearing anything
on his head). So we'll see how that goes.

Raw Food Diets

We are switching our dogs from a mainly kibble diet to a mainly raw food diet.

Why?
1. research shows it helps with dogs who have attitude problems which our Sassy dog sometimes displays.
2. research shows it helps older dogs maintain their health longer
3. we can do it for about the same price or a wee bit more as we can feeding a mid-range dog food
4. defecation is reduced!

After one week of doing this Riley was discovered happily playing in the backyard with an old sour cream container. I had never seen him do this with any type of vigor. Jim said Riley used to play like that all the time.

Sassy defecates much less often! YEAH!!!

A dog on the raw diet consumes between 2-4% of their body weight in food each day.

Our dogs are roughly 50 lbs – means 1-2 pound of food per day depending on activity levels

so....looking at that what we will do is

Riley
16 oz to start... we will see how he does

9.6 oz meat – bones, etc. (wings, necks, chunked meat)

2.25 oz veggies (this can be up-ed or lowered without effect overall)
4 oz internal organs – the mix from Metzger's good for this

Sassy
24 oz to start... we will see how she does

14.4 oz meat – bones, etc. (wings, necks, chunked meat)

3.6 oz veggies – (this can be up-ed or lowered without effect overall)
6 oz internal organs – the mix from Metzger's good for this

Tuesday's new mix made

Veggie mix – lettuce, carrots, turnip, peppers, broccoli...
- whatever isavailable with ½ of from above and below ground veggies

Weekly Menu

Sunday night – kibble with veggie mix
Monday night – oatmeal, rice and yogurt, veggies if any left
Tuesday night – veggies with meat
Wednesday night – veggies with yogurt, ½ meat, eggs
Thursday night – veggies, rice with meat – fish night?
Friday night – veggies with yogurt, ½ meat, eggs
Saturday night - veggies with meat

Justin and garage-saling

Yesterday was Saturday.

One thing that Justin is learning about Saturday's in the summer is that his mom-mom likes to go garage-saling. For those of you who have NO CLUE about what that means... it means that his mom-mom likes to check out all the yard sales around town (and anywhere else she sees one).

Yesterday we started off our day at the Fireman's Breakfast. Good food. Justin didn't eat he was too busy gaping at all the people around him. Jim had a huge breakfast, I ate what I could. Nice to support these men.

THEN>>>>> we went garage-saling. What fun!
1. Jen's sale - Justin got a barking dog, a puzzle box that makes noise, and an orange thing that you pull a lever and it tells a nursery rhyme.
2. Other sales - I got a neat scrapbooking sticker page, some free clothes hangers (I needed 10 she gave me a whole whack of them), a barney truck (you know...the purple dinasour that parents love to hate), and... Justin's new favourite toy!

This was a BRAND NEW... as in never been used, still in all the packaging. Shelcore Sort'n See. $5 only! I was impressed.

Justin had so much fun with it. I showed him how the blocks fit through the holes. He didn't get it. I showed him how the lid fits on. Well my goodness! First the blocks go in the bucket (without lid), then out of the bucket (repeat several times) and THEN!!!! the blocks go in the bucket one at a time with the lid going on after each of them. Boy oh boy...what a very intrigued young fellow he was. :)

Very fun to watch him learn and experience and explore.