August 2009 – a hippie with a minivan

Back at the Cabin…

I visited my mom at the Cabin on Friday and we had such a great day…

A friend of ours from BC was visiting and he is someone who is just really nice to talk to… My uncle was also there, as he went for a visit last month and hasn’t went back home yet… it is just a really nice and calming place to be, so I don’t blame him for not wanting to leave…

Xavier and Colin have been spending the last days dressed as Knights and they didn’t hesitate brings their armour along…

Two times when we were there, the Deer came to visit… two mamas and two fawns…

This one was trying to get closer to eat some food just across the lake from the cabin.. the boys though were having trouble keeping quiet though and she went and met up with the others again and they headed back into the forest…

One of the boys favourite pass times at the cabin is playing in the dirt and rocks and just getting dirty…

Lilies on the lake…

Khéna was poking around in the water for bit…

and inspecting what he found very closely…

the deer came back again while we were there… this time getting a bit closer…

But the boys were also getting a bit closer… a little too close for comfort…

So off she went….

and off they went…

We headed back home just before dark and two of the boys were asleep within minutes…

I hope they remember their days at the cabin…

Picnics and parks…

We have been keeping busy lately with making the most out the rest of the summer…

With most kids going back to school, the homeschooling scene comes alive again and we have been having something each week with one group or another…

Though I don’t have many pics of it, we went to the first meeting/outing of the new unschooling group here in Montreal. We still have to get together and figure out what the group will become, but it was great going to a park in Montreal and hanging out with quite a few other unschooling families… it will be definitely worth the travel! Xavier is really starting to come out of his shell and is now having so much fun with other kids when we go out instead of playing alone as he used to..

My kids are somewhere around in this pic (or on the other play structure) … but I love that it is a picture of all kids that are unschooled 🙂

Then we had another Picnic, this time with the Montérégiennes group on the south-shore of Montreal. We headed to Ile Ste-Helene /Parc Jean Drapeau where there is an amazing park for kids… I hadn’t been there in years (to the kids park) but I will definitely go back soon… Simon and the boys will be going back tomorrow to go to the amusement park and I would love to check out the Biosphere and head to the park again…

The turnout for the Picnic was pretty good and we stayed for hours while the kids played and we talked…

The climbing structure is amazing and the ground surrounding the park is all bouncy… so bouncy that the kids were having fun falling and rolling on it….

I got this candid shot of Xavier walking around with Khéna and holding hands… I just found them so cute 🙂

Next week we have another Picnic with yet another homeschooling group… This time it will be on Mont-Royal at Beaver lake with the Montreal Homelearners group for the Not-Back-to School annual picnic….

Though we have a lot of fun when we go, I wish that I was a lot closer to these groups… The Travel time and the gas to get there add up quite abit.. but the local group is just not a lot of fun and I really don’t feel like we fit in… with the others however, our differences don’t seem to matter, and we can talk, and share, and just all be part of the group…

Beef, noodle, veggie Pho… yummy…

This is just one of those non recipes… Most of my cooking is made this way…

Today.. It started with this…

A few beef shanks, bones and some slightly freezer burned steak roasting in a pan with a few onions…

Then after a bit more than an hour the stock was started with the roasted beef and onion, all the pan drippings, two heads of garlic, a few large pieces of ginger, star anise, carrots and a few stalks of celery and then covered with water…

After a few hours of simmering, I let it cool, adjusted the seasonings (a bit of tamari and garlic powder were perfect) and then skimmed the fat and strained it leaving a beautiful and fragrant beef broth…

The wok came out and in went a bit of peanut oil and thinly sliced beef marinated in Hoisen sauce for a few seconds, then set it aside…

Then a bit more peanut oil went into my wok along with ginger, garlic, Chinese cabbage, thinly cut celery, carrots and bean sprouts… I added a few ladles of stock and covered until cooked but not soggy… and then set that aside also…

A few toy choy went into the wok… and then in a bit of water with a bit of Tamari and some noodles while I reheated the broth…

When everything was ready, the noodles went into the bowl… then the veggies, the beef and the toy choy with a a few ladles of broth on top…

A squeeze of lime, a bit of Sriracha Chile sauce and it was perfect…

A hearty bowl of delicious goodness…

little update…

What a bad blogger I have been… I haven’t been posting much lately…

Summers seem to be a hard time to post for me and in the last week or so summer has really hit here… We had a mild and rainy June, July and begining of August but now it is hot and humid and unbearable at times… I am so happy we made the switch in Janurary and now have our rooms downstairs in the basement… At least we are able to sleep pretty well…

The pregnancy is going well, I am nearing 18 weeks now and I can’t believe how fast it is going… I felt the baby move a lot at about 12-13 weeks but now in the last three weeks I haven’t almost any movement… I feel distant thumps once in a while but not as much movement as I am used to feeling at this time in the pregnancy… I am pretty sure that the placenta is in front so that would explain the lack of feeling, I am just looking forward to getting the bigger kicks soon…

I was getting a bit confused about the dates and I felt that I was measuring bigger for a while so last week I went to see a midwife friend of mine and she gave me a second opinion and everything looks to be on track now… but neither of us can explain how I was able to hear the HB so soon and why I was able to hear it where I heard it…

I haven’t felt much nausea in the last week which feels great but I am not hungry for much either… I am still eating bagels with goat cheese and hot pepper jelly everyday and craving sour and sweet things… I found some yellow plums yesterday and there are only two left from the box… I can’t get enough of that combination…

The boys went with my mom again last week for two nights and it was a lot easier with Khéna this time around… we went blueberry picking and did a bit of shopping and he was a lot more content about not having his brothers around than last time… My mom brought them back on Friday afternoon and then on Saturday we went to a party with Simon’s Family… it was gorgeous and hot outside and the boys played and had a lot of fun… we also broke the news to his family about the babe…of course everyone’s reaction was that it was time to have a girl… but they seems genuinely happy for us which nice to see… I honestly wish that we saw more of that side of the family more often…

I can’t believe that we are mid August already… soon the temps will go down and I will start cooking more and sharing more here… well… hopefully… 🙂

heartbeat…

I was able to get a little sound clip of the heartbeat last week and thought that I would share… it is the first time that I have heard the heartbeat this clear in any of my pregnancies…

At first in the clip you hear the normal heart beat sound but then you start hearing actual thumping.. hearing the thumping noise in the doppler was really a first and I have to admit it was amazing to hear… which is why I had to get the recording…

Heartbeat

Enjoy 🙂