daily life and a catch up

Katia's art. I drew the trees, she stamped, drew, finger painted and used a straw to blow paint. 

 on my birthday, with my 2 loves, and all my cards in the background! 

 reading a favourite Halloween book from our seasonal books. This one has lot's of "lift the flaps" to open.. the best kind. ps. like the bed? Winslow made it! 

I am finally finding a moment to sit down after a busy week and write out what's on my mind. For a little town, Beaver Creek sure keeps me busy! Which is actually good, because I think that I am the type of person that needs to keep busy.
This past week we settled back into our day to day rhythm. We had spent the week before in Whitehorse and had been so busy and out of our element. It was nice to slow down, cook home cooked meals and sleep in our own bed.
I have been making an effort to really concentrate on making our meals healthy and delicious lately. Not that I hadn't done that in the past, but I felt like I was falling into a rut ..... (let's just say that homemade mac and cheese was on our lunch time menu way too much!). So, I've been making menu plans that will allow for more creative and nutritious lunches. For some reason, lunch is my difficult time of the day. I have the kids home all morning, then Winslow comes home for lunch, and then I have to get Noah to school for 12:45 each day. I alway find that I don't give myself enough time to get a hot lunch prepared and served by noon. But I am working on it.

Here are a few of our recent and well liked lunches:

- organic chicken wings (I actually found reasonable organic meat in Whitehorse!). I comes frozen and unseasoned, so I add soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and lemon (and hot sauce on Winlsow and mine).

- veggies and dip

- hummus and pita

-mini quiche

- chicken fajitas

-  mini chicken pot pies (I bought 4 ramkins for 10$ at the Super Store, actually I bought 8!)

And speaking of daily rhythms, I am actually happy that the darkness has returned. We are now going to bed much earlier and sleeping in much later, which means we are all better rested. It feels good to get a good night's sleep.
This past week was my birthday and we all had a lovely day enjoying some good food and good company. I ended up making all of the food that was on the menu that day, which had some people up in arms- but rest assured, I was happy to do it because it meant that I got to have a day full of delicious food~! I made pumpkin waffles for breakfast, and butter chicken for dinner. For dessert we had a decadent carrot cake and I decorated it with some bunting flags that I bought a few years ago from my friend Dawn in Austria. I really enjoyed receiving cards and gifts in the mail and loved opening them up. It was so thoughtful of everyone to take the time to remember me. I felt special.
I'm 32 years old now and I have made some goals for myself for the next year. They involve projects and changes, so I'm going to keep them to myself for now, but I hope to share them over the next few months.
In other news, we have been enjoying the return of Autumn. I know I had you all scared with my last post, where I showed the snow. It stuck around for a few days but has since melted and we are now enjoying a few more sunny golden days- thank goodness!
In celebration of Autumn, we have been working on some Autumn inspired crafts and have pulled out our Autumn /Halloween books.  I love having seasonal books that I tuck away and then pull out at the right time. It's always a surprise for Noah when he sees his favourite books return after being hidden away for a year. It's kinda like a present, and I like it!
So we are marching on with a busy couple of weeks ahead. We have Thanksgiving coming up and then a quick trip into Whitehorse on Oct 26th. Then home for Halloween and then a possible trip to Ottawa in November. I'm excited!
Hope you are all well.
xoxo