Exciting Bazaar Finds

I don't know why food special treats bless me like they do . . . but they do. The last couple weeks I struggled with feeling like we just can't succeed or move forward. So these are the special treats that He has put in my path.

I have never seen pineapple juice in our city. For Christmas every year I make a yummy cider that I just LOVE. It calls for 9 cups of pineapple juice. I had every intention of buying and draining canned pineapple (which we can find here). So when I saw these cartons of juice I bought 4; enough for 2 batches of cider. I'm excited for some yummy Christmas sipping.

The kids and I excitedly came home from the bazaar proclaiming "Daddy, we found rice cakes." Not that we love rice cakes, it was just fun to find a familiar kind of snack food. So we were pleasantly surprised when the sweetened puffed rice really tastes more like "Honey Smacks." We haven't tried it with milk, but it's a fun family snack. And we can get a bag of 10 for less than 25c.

Not at your local Wal-Mart!

Look at these precious shoes that I found for Elli at a little store next door to Austin's office. And for only $3.50. I know, it's hard to imagine why you can't pick these up at your local Wal-Mart.

Nothing says "cute little girl" like a pair of pink woolly mountain goats! Luckily the woolly mountain goats were easily removed and she's wearing her "pretty, pretty" shoes everywhere. I just had to get the picture of them first. Since finding her shoes, I've found other little girl things in the "Woolly Goat" line; tights, hair barrettes/bows, and a little purse.

Fall Photo Shoot

It is starting to cool off here, especially in the mornings and evenings. That has necessitated pulling out some of Elli's new winter things. And then I just had to pull out the camera too. Thought you'd enjoy seeing "Ms. Personality" in action.

Just waking up and not quite ready to give up her puppy or pacie.

This captures Elli!! I have memories of peering at life over the top of my cup. But I know I was older than Elli when I did it. Elli has no intention of waiting for life to happen; she is going to (and always has) take life on with all she has. Which sometimes leaves her dwarfed by what she has taken on. But, as you can see, most of the time she enjoys it all the same.

All things that glitter

This is my favorite store in our whole town. And the great thing is it is only a 2 minute walk from our house. I can easily come home with a treasure for less than a dollar! I guess you would categorize it as a "notions store." Piping, ribbons, sequins, lace, buttons, rhinestones, etc. are packed into this little store.

I've recently gotten into piping; used it for Ethan's cape, my entryway curtains and some things I've sewn for my kitchen. I can buy 10 meters of any color under the sun for about .75 c.

So there is my fun little find. Dad has always said "look for the gravy" in hard situations/times. So when days get rough, this little store has been the gravy. They love my kids and are always happy to see me. And just think of all the fun dress up clothes Elli will have as she grows up. :)

Austin revealed

My hubby sure makes me laugh, and there have been several times lately that are just too good not to share. People just don't realize all the silliness that goes through an engineer's mind, so I thought I'd shed some light on it.

Creative engineering used to hang our shower curtain

Demonstrating his ingenious grape harvester. No ladder needed

He totally has the skills to fix things, but we have encountered time and time again that the tools necessary aren't always available. He's my McGuiver; he can make almost anything do and sometimes laughs at himself in the process.

I don't know if it's unique to our marriage, but we take turns being the optimist. There are things that Austin really believes in that I can't seem to muster faith for. For example, our fruit ladden apple tree was blown over earlier this summer. Austin has given hours to cutting off the dead branches and collecting all the rotting apples (before Elli does) to deliver to our neighbors for their cow. We laugh (together) at his "audacity of hope" that with only one surviving branch, the tree can live and one day again produce fruit.

He has a new found appreciation for Russian rap. He heard this one song, over and over on his return trip from collecting our stuff in May. A few days ago he heard it in the bazaar and bought the DVD (for $1). Ethan loves to watch the racing cars and Elli can't help but dance along. Would anyone have pegged him as a Russian rap fan? I didn't think so.

So maybe this one is a little more obvious to the watching world; but this man has a soft heart and his daughter sure has captured it. This is a game Elli loves to play with Daddy; "mooch" (kiss). Not too hard to guess where she got her pucker from!

So there he is, Austin revealed! I sure love this man and wouldn't journey through life without him. He keeps me smiling, that's for sure!

Sweatpants!

The weather here has turned cooler and it is perfect sweatpants weather! And in my mind, Sunday afternoons/evenings is the perfect time to wear them. I dug through our winter clothes trunks and found my pair of precious stretchy cotton sweatpants. I didn't realize how ready I was to shed my "moo-moo" culturally appropriate dress and wear something familiar. By the end of the evening I was one happy gal. It's hard to explain how getting out of my tent sized dress and into some sweatpants could make such a difference, but it was just what I needed.

People come and go through our gate quite freely, so I wear long skirts and traditional dresses everyday. But I think after dark I'll be changing into my sweatpants. And with the days getting shorter, that means I get more sweatpants time. :)

A rough language week

This week has been a rough language week. We hit lesson 10 in our books and by the end of the week, it feels like lesson 10 hit us! Not only was this lesson packed full of grammar that I didn't even know the English terms for. We also had to re-learn how to say words we had previously learned, before we could even tackle the grammar. Today, it was an 18 letter word, predominately consonants, with 5 prefixes and suffixes. What do you do with that? After you have the suffix and the prefix what is there . . . the pre-prefix?

Luckily, Father knew it would be a frustrating week and He provided the exact comic relief we needed. I just found out about a friend's blog and in catching up on her world discovered this commercial that so perfectly captures what we feel like in so many of our language lessons. Thanks Kendra for much needed laughs! Both Austin and I have laughed so hard we've cried. We watch it at least once a day. Usually around the time we are sitting down to start our homework!