Ready for a birthday?

Yes, we are!

Tomorrow Kiersten turns 4 and this is what she gets to wake up to:





I think she will be quite excited about the pink"ish" cupcakes, the pink swimming trunks( I finally found some longer ones:), and the lamp. She told me several times that she REALLY wanted her own lamp! I found this really cute one at the Salvation Army last week and thought it would work really well clipped to her bottom shelf above her bed. I've heard from reliable sources that she also has a pink sleeping bag and pink toolbox, etc on the way:). Are you sensing a theme here? Yes, Kiersten loves everything pink! She definitely likes girl things, but also has a rough and tumble side to her. Over the past year we've watched her change quite a bit. She's eager to learn and help in the kitchen. She doesn't like to be left out of anything the other kids are doing. She's learning to be a bit more gentle with animals. Still a work in progress as far as the cats are concerned.

We pray that this is a year of continued growth and look forward to seeing the Lord work in her life. She talks often about getting saved and Jesus dying on the cross without us bringing it up and we pray that the Lord continues to convict her little heart and bring her to true repentance and salvation. Our first prairie baby is growing quickly and we thank the Lord for each day that He allows us to spend together. There won't be a three year old in the house again until November of next year when Addie moves into that position. Overall I think it's been quite a good one! Til next time...

Farm Life in The Fall!

All kinds of jam to see us through the colder months!





Baking Fresh Bread To Warm Up the House!




Fresh Eggs From The Chickens! The one all the way to the right in the back is from today and it's like twice the size of all the other ones:).





The Canning Shelves Include Jams, Syrups, Pears, Peaches, Dried Corn, Apple Cider, Apple Pie Filling, Preston's Enchilada Sauce and Apple Twirls. I'm hoping to add homemade Ketchup and Salsa, but we'll see if we have time for that.





The school room is nice and cozy, but hard to get a good picture because of the lighting downstairs.



Off to change my blog background, milk the goat and enjoy more Fall Cooking!

Busy Canning Season!

I have to admit that in between homeschooling the kids I've been canning everything possible. I haven't taken a picture of our canning shelves yet. It's wonderful to see the variety of colors and foods that the Lord has allowed us to preserve. I don't think that I have any green ones, which is kind of unfortunate:). Maybe one of these years we'll have enough cucumbers to make a batch of dill pickles. We had plenty of peas, but the kids only like to eat them fresh, so we didn't think it was worth the extra work. I'm contemplating canning corn in the future too. This year I just dried it and we'll grind it for cornbread this winter. I love when the weather is cool enough in the mornings to motivate me to bake in order to warm the house without succumbing to turning on the furnace. I think it's been around freezing a couple times already, but thanks to all our wonderful quilts we're nice and warm without the furnace yet. Holding out as long as possible:). We have hot cocoa on the really cold mornings and do our chores as fast as possible, which is usually enough to keep us warm til the sun comes out in full force.

School days seem to make the weeks go by even faster than usual. It's hard to believe that we're in our 5th week already! It's October, so we'll probably have some birthday posts coming up. Kiersten, our first prairie born girl, will be turning 4 on Thursday. Amazing how much has happened in those 4 years. January will be our 5th anniversary of moving to Saskatchewan and bring the birth of our 3rd born prairie child:). I find it interesting that our 3 B.C. born children have all gotten car sick while driving through the mountains over the past couple years. Wonder if there's something hardier about the prairie babies:). They definitely had a much colder winter to live through their first 5 months of so. I love the mountains, lakes and rivers, but over time I've found that I like driving through the prairie better. It's more relaxing and the other cars don't seem to be driving so close:).

I hear the timer for supper, so I'm thinking this is a good time to sign off.