Tag Archive | D&D

Patterns, Gallery and Other Things

Life is full of tests… I guess in my naivety I thought that once you finished school they would stop… or at least decrease. No such luck. You have to take tests to drive (which I have not), there are blood  tests… pregnancy tests… physicals (which are really one big battery of tests)… tests of strength, of memory, of courage… tests of worth… of morality… and then there are the silly tests in magazines… on the internet… our world is full of “measuring up” and it is exhausting. I wonder at the validity of most of these tests… are they truly necessary or even relevant when it comes to what matters or are we always in some sort of tug of war where we are trying to create our self worth from the externals instead of creating ourselves from the inside out? I wonder if I can figure out a better way to go about these tests? Or avoid them maybe? Or is it just too integral to our living within society to thwart?

Puzzling the Questions of Life in a Sailor Style Dress!

Puzzling the Questions of Life in a Sailor Style Dress!

Well anyway… today we added our 3rd piece to our Advent tree and the boys painted their 3rd page for their Advent colouring book. Then there was the Christmas worksheets that have to be corrected. Whenever the boys run out of room on a line and are copying words out they seem to loop around so that the next word or series of letters are actually written from right to left. Their letters are formed pretty wonderfully at this point just sometimes in the wrong order! But we are working on it.

Emanuel built his very own Christmas village today out of the nativity sets. Sadly he and Trinity cannot seem to compromise well enough to play with it TOGETHER but they are each enjoying the sets on their own to the fullest extent. Ken and I are already getting rather tired of the two songs they play but watching Trinity dance along makes it all worth it!

Emanuel and His Nativity Village

Emanuel and His Nativity Village

Sewing wise I have worked my fingers off on the Harley Davidson piece and am quite happy with the results. I am debating between flames around it and the wording Harley above and Davidson below on a slight curve… the final design will really be up to Ken but at least I still have the second version of the Chibi Dragon to complete… in green!

Skull is Done Now for Flames or Lettering!

Skull is Done Now for Flames or Lettering!

Tonight, of course, being Thursday is the guys’ gaming night! D&D for the win and in the middle of the living-room AGAIN. So no tv for Lisa tonight. I am debating between trying a new BigFish game or watching the newest episodes of Gintama that are subbed. Hard choice since I am not sure I am 100% in the mood for either. Funny how dependant I get on tv to be that distraction while I sew!

Note the Dragon ... it Roars Too!

Note the Dragon ... it Roars Too!

I am determined to get in some baking this weekend. We have a busy Saturday with a free crafting thing at Michaels in the morning and a puppet show at the library for the boys in the afternoon. Sunday is the long practice for the twins for their Christmas pageant so no church for the munchkins and I… BUT my cousin Elizabeth should be coming over for a visit. Company is always wonderful! So much to look forward to, especially Michaels – there are THREE activities for the boys to do! Not sure how that will go but we will give it a try. Hopefully we will get there at the beginning around 10 am.

I am a little excited – Ken got the Tardis pattern up and working on freebies! The text is not there but I am sure something can be sent out if people are interested. Again we are not able to sell these due to licensing BUT are accepting donations if you really enjoy them. I would love it is people DO stitch them if they send me out a picture so I can see other people’s interpretations on our patterns!

I have also almost gotten out family gallery up to date! So be sure to take a peek... Ken is weeding out the earlier stuff and I am trying to post fewer pieces but there is a nice selection of the Halloween pics up now.

My 3rd Advent Gift! Lotions... I love the Cherry Blossom smell... Thank You!

My 3rd Advent Gift! Lotions... I love the Cherry Blossom smell... Thank You!


This entry was posted on 03/12/2009, in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Banana Bread, Dragonfly and Other Points of Interest

This weekend has been full of both high points and low points. Thankfully the low points were nothing we were incapable of handling and the high points were actually shared with terrific friends.

I will start with the sad stuff – yesterday morning Ken was alerted to the fact that our friend Xinny’s grandfather had finally passed on. He had been sick for a while and hospitalized so it was no a shock (they were actually surprised he had hung on as long as he had) but still certainly a difficult thing to deal with. This has cancelled our Sunday plans with the family for a playdate for our kids. I am unsure right now what this means for Xinny and Alan’s trip to China. I know she has been looking forward to heading back there for years now.

Later in the same day my sister in law twittered that her grandmother back in Texas had also passed on. She too had been sick for quite some time. Circumstances are such that I am doubting she and our nephew will be able to head back south for the funeral. This is one of those moments where I wish we lived closer so  I could DO something, send some food over… watch the kiddo…

The loss of a beloved family member is never easy, no matter how sick they have been. I remember when my Grandma MacLean passed, we had known she was not in the best of health but still it was hard, I still miss my Grandpa Reinsch now gone 9 yrs. My Grandpa MacLean also passed that same year. In fact, both Ken and myself each have one surviving Grandmother. There are so many things one could say or not say for that matter but I guess it is all the personal journey now. You really can’t fix the loss of a loved one, just live through it. But I am sending my love and prayers to both sets of families.

The rest of my Saturday was MUCH more positive. We made our foray into Value Village on the hunt for pillowcases (and peripherally a snowsuit for Trinity – though the price was just not right for what little they had there). I managed to find two suitable pillowcases – one in pink gingham and the other a more fleece type material. 99 cents a piece.

Pillowcases

Pillowcases

There was one pair of jeans in Emanuel’s size for 1.99 and two little books for 99 cents that I also picked up. Otherwise the children’s clothes was really not that much of a deal. At Superstore I can get pieces for Trinity for around 12.00. So I figure I will check their prices when we head to mom’s next weekend as well as going to the nearest GoodWill. I am hoping to find a snowsuit for Trinity for under 20.00 which may have me hunting on eBay… of course with her being 18 months in the winter I may find something elsewhere for cheap but I am not going to be too too optimistic.

Last night was the ultimate pick me up! For Ken who has been working so hard to feel and BE better I made up a loaf of banana bread from the last of my bananas and then we had Chris, Chris, Nathan and Ada over for gaming!

Nathan and Ada With Slurpee (We all had our large cups!)

Nathan and Ada With Slurpee (We all had our large cups!)

So no D&D but we did play Chez Geek! So much fun! Ken is now hooked and has read through all the instructions (Chris and Chris have expansions). It looks like we will be pricing out buying either Chez Dork or Chez Goth. Definitely a game we enjoy and could probably hook MORE of our friends on! We are always on the look out for more games.

Chez Geek

Chez Geek

So for our evening I baked a dozen of my applesauce muffins (Nathan alone ate 6 muffins! ), brought out the last of my oatmeal applesauce cookies (I really have to make another batch of those today or tomorrow as the kids and I love them for breakfast! They really are not too high in sugar), some sugar cookies (sent a dozen home with Nathan and Ada) and of course the fresh from the oven banana bread! This is one of the recipes my mom gave me. The kids LOVE it with chocolate chips added in (of course we do not have those in the house) and Ken just loves it without. The loaf was gone by the end of the night except for the two pieces I saved for the kids in the morning. YUM!

Banana Bread

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup bananas mashed

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (we left these out)

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, beating until smoother. Add mashed bananas and blend.

In a second bowl, stir flour with baking soda, baking powder, salt (and nuts if you like). Add to banana mixture stirring only to moisten. Transfer to a greased 9x5x3 (23x12x7 cm) inch loaf pan.

Bake in 350 F (180 C) oven for about 1 hr. until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Let stand 10 min. Remove from pan and place on cake rack to cool. Wrap to store.

Gone Before I Could Even Get a Picture!

Gone Before I Could Even Get a Picture!

I have started participating in something new on BigFish games. With having my own little subpage of reviews and such and listing my favourite games if someone else does any shopping off of my site then I get a reward! I figure I love their games anyway and I don’t mind writing up a quick blurb for the ones I play why not! So feel free to click on my page link and see if you like any of them too! I have been a part of the club for a year (as I mentioned previously) and have found they have GREAT variety! Who knows maybe I can reward myself up a few extra games to give away or something?

http://www.mygamespace.com/Ayjah

This morning had us off to H&W on our weekly produce adventure. Taber corn this time, as well as Granny Smith apples at 1.50 for a 3lb bag (I got two bags – one to eat and one to see how much sauce 3lbs of apples will make!). Bought a cantaloupe and am debating freezing half of it for winter smoothies. We decided not to go to church this week – Ken has work to do to catch up on his last week’s appointments and next weekend is Sunday School registration. The boys HATE going to church and then NOT going to Sunday School – you would think we lied to them or something! So I am taking advantage of this time to get stuff sorted for next week for school – more printing out of letters for the lapbooks and hunting for crafts through the library books. As well Ken has gotten me my newest cross stitch pattern – Dr. Who themed! A bit more complicated than the previous ones we are definitely going to have to tweak the pattern before I can consider posting it here. I have decided to stitch it on a yellow beige aida instead of my usual white – give it a more parchment look. Hopefully it will suit the stitch in the end!

Beginnings of Dr. Who!

Beginnings of Dr. Who!

The stocking is also coming along nicely! I am hoping to get started on the lettering this week as I have finally done stitching all the way to the top of the image. I figure if I can get the lettering done I will get a new burst of interest and just bang it out. I have to start on Trinity’s Halloween costume this week as well (still need to find some sort of green top or sleeper…) so my time is REALLY going to be divided!

Stocking Progress!

Stocking Progress!

I finished the stitch for my nephew in all its shiny Star Trek glory! This will be the first pattern we post on site too hopefully as I know of at least one other stitcher who wants to give it a go! I need to figure out how I can finish it off in a relatively affordable way but I am VERY happy with how it turned out. Definitely one of my more costly projects materials wise! But the actual project looks so nice and shiny!!! (I will post a picture when I post the pattern!)

When we got home from the store there was a dragonfly in the middle of our sidewalk – a BIG one… it sat there forever, Ken even pushed it slightly and it didn’t move though when I looked back later it was gone! What a neat thing for the boys to see and we managed to get some terrific pictures of it!

Dragonfly

Dragonfly

We tried a new recipe for dinner tonight – one my sister in law had twittered she was making! I took this recipe and altered it to not use frozen meatballs as we find it cheaper to make our own. I am going to try and make extra meatballs the next time we do up a nice large batch and freeze them and then try the recipe that way as well! So I will include both recipes – the one for the cheesy meatball subs with my changes as well as the meatball recipe we like to use.

Meatballs

4 lb lean ground beef, 2 cup crushed crackers, 1 large onion (diced small), 2 eggs, italian seasoning, salt, pepper, garlic powder. Mix together all ingredients. Mixture should be able to be formed easily into balls about 2 inches wide with hands. Preheat oven to 400 degree and cook for 20-25 minutes.

Meatballs

Meatballs

Cheesy Meatball Subs

1 cup spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup  water (left the water out)
2 Tbsp. KRAFT Grated Parmesan Cheese (we left this out as we didn’t have any on hand)
3/4 lb.  (3/4 of 1-lb. pkg.) frozen cooked meatballs (1-1/2 inch) (we made our own see above recipe)
4 crusty sandwich rolls, split
3/4 cup  KRAFT Shredded Mozzarella Cheese (we used a marble cheddar we already had at home)

COMBINE first 4 ingredients in large skillet. Bring to boil on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. (we combined everything but the meatballs and brought them up to a nice simmer and then added in our already warm fresh meatballs and cooked for a bit to get the flavour)

SIMMER on medium heat 8 min. or until meatballs are heated through, stirring occasionally.

SPOON into rolls; top with mozzarella.

We also put our buns in the oven for a few minutes first – cut open to brown. This recipe makes 4 we of course made more than that.

Cheesy Meatball Sub

Cheesy Meatball Sub

Next time we will season our spaghetti sauce more but mmm so good! I think the parmesan Ragu would be better than the original but all 4 boys gobbled theirs down. Trinity had a lovely finger food meal with her very own meatball!

Trinity's Dinner

Trinity's Dinner

So it was not an overly exciting weekend but I would say a good one and we still have one more day! Thank goodness for long weekends, though Ken IS going to have to do some work downstairs. I figure we will take advantage of his doctor’s advice and get started on an evening walk for the whole family, I figure nightly is a bit too much but maybe twice a week or more? Here’s hoping tonight’s windstorm blows past us by morning!

Me and My Baby

Me and My Baby


This entry was posted on 06/09/2009, in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Wreaths and Manners on a Rainy Day

What a rainy, miserable day it has been – at least OUTSIDE the house. Rain all day long so no playing out in the backyard for the kids which in turn had me a little grumpy having to deal with them in the house all day. With the storm last night there were apples from the “yucky” tree all over so I didn’t want them mucking around in them outside.

Rainy Day

Rainy Day

This meant more time to keep busy so we moved right into our letter G. We drew well, Gavin, a gecko and glasses. The capital letters were coloured with crayons. Nice and simple and relatively mess free which was important as not only did I have two batches of applesauce to make today from all the apples that fell off in the storm (I think we are coming to the end of them!) but we had a rather messy craft to do today.

G is For...

G is For...

Another Christmas ornament this one utilizes puzzles that are missing pieces. You take any pieces you like – except side ones (you want the bumpy shapes) and paint the backs of them green – we found this took two coats.

Painting the Pieces (Zander left)

Painting the Pieces (Zander left)

After that you glue them together into a wreath shape, stacking some pieces higher to give definition and then I took two routes to glitter them up – one way was to paint on green glitter glue (Zander and Gavin’s), the other was to take more white glue and then use just the generic glitter (Emanuel’s). This is then left to dry.

Painted Pieces

Painted Pieces

After that you take buttons and ribbon bows and glue them on (I used hot glue for the bows and white glue for the buttons). The finished product is really pretty and a terrific way to use up those incomplete puzzles.

All Done! (Zander, Emanuel and Gavin)

All Done! (Zander, Emanuel and Gavin)

To deal with the kids being bored I also brought out a game I had bought at Walmart before we left for Minnesota. I have seen it at Toys R Us as well but for 20.00 or more instead of 5.00 like I got at Walmart (not sure if it is still priced at that). It is called Learning about Manners Picnic Basket Game and it is made by Playskool. The series is called Noodleboro and it also comes with a cd (we have not listened to yet) and a story… We played the game and then read the story, since the boys didn’t want the story first lol. We also have the Learn to Listen Pizza Palace game… there is a sharing game but I have not picked that one up yet. I am hoping the price will still be low and I can get it for Christmas :). The whole point was that you had to ask to PLEASE have a token out of the basket and then say thank you – if you don’t you have to put the token back. We didn’t play for a winner just for the sheer enjoyment and man did they ever!

Manners Game

Manners Game

Happy Participants (Zander left)

Happy Participants (Zander left)

I finished the BigFish game I spent one of my tokens on! It was great fun! Princess Isabella: A Witch’s Curse. It took me about 3 or 4 days to finish  but I really enjoyed it. There was the usual hidden object with some other puzzles included. I still have one more token to spend and then as I am part of the club I get another after the 9th. So I am hoping to find a new game to play over the long weekend. I would totally recommend joining BigFish – they have a great variety of games and all except the large file have a one hour trial and sometimes you can find trials elsewhere for the large file. I also check reviews on GameZebo. They have yet to steer me wrong!

So the long weekend is here and our plans are a little sketchy – we SHOULD be heading over to Alan and Xinny’s on Sunday afternoon (Xinny and kids leave for China on the 15th), Saturday we are on our way to Value Village on the hunt for pillowcases. Monday I am hoping to get to spend time with Nathan and Ada. But final plans have not been made – oh and there is the possibility of D&D Saturday night with Chris and Chris.

Ken managed to get to the thread store to pick up the silver I need to finish my nephew’s gift, as well as the last two skeins I need for this year’s Birthday Floss Club. I am looking forward to finishing that gift so I can finally corner Ken on posting the pattern. In fact, I have been asked to post my “nerdy” patterns on a site that caters to those and things like anime and manga. Which is very exciting for me! Hopefully with the time we have in the long weekend we can actually get the patterns up here as well and maybe even my donation thing for paypal for requests!

For supper tonight I steamed the Alberta grown cauliflower and local beans – they turned out totally delicious. The cauliflower was almost sweet. I am definitely going to try and get more as all 4 kids agreed with me that it was amazing. I am not sure if it was because it was local or really just a terrific head of cauliflower but mmm. Ken is so not a fan.

Hopefully the weather improves. The kids are DONE with being inside so rain or shine tomorrow we go out… this street is horrible for puddles – the water just runs away but I am sure if we wear boots and start walking we will find some satisfactory splashes somewhere. That is something we will have to buy next year – rain boots for Trinity… actually I need to find WINTER boots for her for this year as well! On a budget of course – and a snowsuit… perhaps eBay?

A few months back when all the mess began I did some hunting for freebies and finally received the two cookbooks I found. Gooseberry Patch puts them out (I get emails from them now as well – www.gooseberrypatch.com) with Sun-Maid – the raisin people. Quite a nice variety of recipes, I will have to wait until the budget allows for raisins or dried fruit but I am looking forward to using them. I totally recommend hunting around for savings online… as well as coupons (save.ca is a goldmine for grocery shopping coupons). I may just have to hunt down all my links and post them one day.

Cookbooks

Cookbooks

Trinity has a new favourite game – peeping around corners and saying hi and then giggling. Actually pretty much every activity she partakes of includes giggling. Having someone so happy around has definitely rubbed off on me. Today Emanuel came up to me multiple times to tell me she had come to give him hugs… the biggest smile on his face! I wish I could have gotten a picture!

Giggle Baby

Giggle Baby

I caught a tiny bit of the 2004 movie A Wrinkle in Time. I really have to see if Ken can find it and download it for me. The part I saw was very true to the book (I would love to recommend the series… though the first book is by far the best – they are by Madeleine L’Engle and I love a re-read now and then). I want to sit down and figure out what all the old books are that I enjoyed as a child or youth and start collecting. Over Sea, Under Stone comes to mind as well… suggestions are welcome!

I have started the Christmas list – the one of the people we are gifting this year. It is always hard to be all inclusive but budget wise I am hoping I am pretty near. This is going to be a crafty/baking Christmas… so hopefully the gifts will suit the people we give them to and bring as much joy as we are having making them. So I have purpose and now I should have a nice long soak… so off I go.

Counting Down the Days to the Next Event :)

Counting Down the Days to the Next Event 🙂