Avocado spinach delight!!

Posted in Life by livinthecountrylife

Ingredients:

1 avocado (soft)

1c. Cooked spinach

1/3 brick cream cheese

1/4c. Milk

1c. Cherry tomatoes

1/4 c. Chopped celery leaves

1 small carrot “flaked” (grated is fine!)

1tbsp garlic infused oil

4c. Pasta (I like penne)

1 chicken breast/ pork steak (optional)

Method:

1) Blend cooked spinach, avocado, cream cheese and milk together.

2) Grill meat of choice to fully cooked and chop up fine.

3) Cook pasta

4) Mix tomatoes, celery leaves, flakes of carrot together with garlic oil and let sit in fridge.

5) Add spinach/avocado blend to cooked and drained pasta and mix

6) Add meat and mix

7) Top with tomato mix!
ENJOY!

28Sep2017

To Post or not To Post!

Posted in family, Life by livinthecountrylife

I have thought long and hard about how to go about writing this post. We put a great deal of time and thought in to the decision not to post our children’s photos on social media, so although there are a few places where you might find them tucked in the background of a wedding photo or at an event. We however have consciously chose to not set out to post photos of them, and when they accidently are posted I always have a great response from the poster when I ask them to take it down! In fact in the last 3 years I have only had to report one photo! … Pretty great!

Now please don’t read this as an opinion on your own choice to post or not to post! I love seeing everyone’s children grow thru the power and wonder of social media! This was simply a choice we made as parents for our family and in no way does that make me question anyone else’s parenting choices to share things social media! I share an awful lot to social media thru avenues like my blog here, my vlog, facebook, instagram, and twitter, so no judgy momness here, I promise!

Growing up we didn’t have such technology and fast moving social networking; blogging, facebook, twitter, or snapchat weren’t things we had to contend with. MSN Messenger was the social media of choice by the time I was in highschool (Not to date myself!). By the time the big social networks became part of everyday life I was old enough to decide what I wanted to share with the world, and educated enough to understand the consequences of such sharing. I could determine if a photo or video of me was appropriate for the viewing audience of the entire web. It would be my decision to contact those who posted pictures I didn’t want strewn about the online world and ask they be removed.

I know there are many good reasons to share and post so many photos of our babies, they are if nothing else the cutest things in the world and for most parents the subject of almost every photo snapped on our phones, cameras, and other devices. Sharing their every move allows us to stay connected with long lost friends, family and distant relates across the world that may not otherwise be able to see them. But I have other methods of communicating and sharing photos of my beautiful babies with these people. So this decision doesn’t leave anyone who wants to be in the loop out! I send emails, private messages, and text messages, oh and whoa… snail male printed photos!!

My children do not have the ability or forethought to know what is or will be an appropriate Internet photograph and what is not. Furthermore they shouldn’t be expected to make such decisions at this age! Although I’m in charge today there will come a day where they will be in charge and what I have done until that point will affect them after I am no longer making those decisions. Now I am not saying I would ever plan to cover the internet with anything other than all the cuteness they have to offer, but who am I to decide what they will feel is cute, or embarrassing, or relevant by their teen years and beyond? I certainly wouldn’t want to post a “cute” wardrobe choice today and have them teased later for the fashion faux pas they made oh so many years ago.

I don’t believe they would they understand at this point what the implications could be of having the online world having access to their pictures. There are a lot of creeps out there. I know that there have been many warnings posted in twin momma groups I am a part of on facebook talking about how their children’s photos have been stolen and used so that people without twins can access groups like these… YUCK and WTF and that is just a mild example of what is out there on the nameless faceless World Wide Web.

We aren’t famous! I do not contend with the paparazzi. I suppose if I were famous I would have to come up with another plan! Haha as much as I like to broadcast my own life and photos here on my blog I in no way believe I am famous nor would I want to be, I much prefer simply documenting my quiet and simple life farming and raising my family!

These are among the many reasons Steve and I have decided to keep our children’s photos off the Internet. We are happy with our choice and if later in life my children decide that they want to broadcast themselves too I’m sure they will show you that really cute thing they did that time when they were little!

Ashley Moberly Lake

13Sep2017

Vlog

Posted in family, Farm, Life, Vlog by livinthecountrylife

For anyone who is an avid reader of my blog you know that life sometimes gets away from me, and the updates and notes I would like to post more regularly just take some time to write! Life, Children, work, farm, renovations, family, events and adventures always take precedent over my sitting to write, as I believe they should. Steve has been off work for a few days now and that has allowed me some catch up time with my writing, but he is off to work again in the next few days! And my own fall commitments will pick up as well with volunteering, work, and children! And the children are all starting their fall activities tomorrow. Fall is our very busy time of year and although I don’t have children in school yet I imagine that it will hold true for the next 20 or so years at least! I don’t mind though, I love the fall and the hustle and bustle makes the cooling weather and impending snow more tolerable! That all being said I have decided to ad an additional component to my posts, and start my You tube channel. Country Livin’ on You Tube. I love to sit and write and plan to continue, but the day to days of our farm life and life as a momma of three little ones might be easier updated thru video broadcasts, and since I am not yet ready for live video broadcasting thru the many elements of social media I have decided to try it out! Ill post some of the videos here on my blog page but for all the videos and to keep up to date as they are posted hit subscribe on my channel.

Thanks for Tuning in!

Cheers!

10Sep2017

Pumpkin Spice Season is Among us – Time for an Update.

Posted in family, Farm, Life by livinthecountrylife

It has been a busy and adventurous summer here on our little farm! We have been doing so many things and I can’t even believe fall is almost here! It has been an amazing summer filled with barbecues, campfires, riding, skiing, camping, rodeos, lake trips, weddings, and so much fun with family and friends.

Diamond Dinner

Early in the spring we ladies got together and headed down to the Diamond Dinner to support the Teepee Creek Stampede Queen Committee. We all got dressed up and were thoroughly entertained and fed extremely well as always from Lefty’s Cafe.

Moberly Lake

We spent time out at the lake with friends and family, taking in the sights, boat rides, skiing, limited campfires to propane (BC wildfires have been out of control this year and the bans were province wide.) thoughts are always with those affected by these devastating fires. You can Keep up to Date on Fires Here.

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Most years skiing isn’t something I get much time for, nor does the weather always cooperate but this year I got a few really great days for skiing while we were at my parents lake lot. The kids love hoping up in the front of the boat and watching us all ski.

RIP Sadie

We lost my big beautiful Sadie horse this summer, it was unfortunate, and we are still not 100% sure what happened. I had just been talking to her the evening before while out doing chores, and when I headed out in the morning to check on everything, she was laid down and already dead. It was sad, her and I did so well together as I am not the most seasoned rider she really knew what she was doing and took good care of me when we were out.

HD RIDE 4 A CURE

We were to ride in the HD Ride 4 a Cure this year, but when that wasn’t possible friends invited me along in their wagon, so I was still able to participate and contribute to an great cause. For more information on this disease check out Huntington’s Society of Canada Or for more local information check out Peace Country Huntington’s Society

I am lucky to live in a great community where we all come together to support one another and Id like to say a huge thank you to my sponsors this year as well! Thank you for supporting and sponsoring my Ride 4 a Cure!

Farm Animals

We have had a few new additions to our little farm, more baby pigs even this fall we farrowed 40 more. They are pretty darn cute! And Steve has wanted to farm cows since we moved out here all those years ago. So I finally broke down and got him a cow for his birthday, with some help of course, and she is away for another little while with the bull. So she will return hopefully bread soon! I have always been so hesitant to go ahead with this idea because I am pretty scared of the size of them. I know lots of people would say pigs are more scary they will eat you! …

Mine are pretty mellow, they come for ear scratches and belly rubs when I am in the barn with them. They are really only in their barn pens for having babies and all other times of the year they “free range” I use that term in quotes for a few reasons, one our pigs have a very large grazing area we call their pen. it is actually a 3 large pen system where we can have them on fresh greens thru the duration of the summer and much room to wallow in the mud, hand made shelters and forest/ tree provided shelters. Even with all the space they have and the constant grain feeding they still want to explore and have more room… like room in my veggie garden! So we often find they have broken out and are hanging out in my back yard! Eeek! we continue to fix fence and move them in until they can find another spot to break out! Ah the joys of farming pigs!

The goal is that I will get out there one of these days to do some videos and barn yard tours so you can see all the animals as a part of my new VLOG I love writing but sometimes with all the busyness that is children, activities and family its nice to do a video, plus touring around through video is nice to have a visual companion!

4 Days in the Wild and Other Rodeo Adventures

We made it to a few Rodeo’s this year, of course the main being the Teepee Creek Stampede As Steve and I are both involved with the Board and Committees. It is an amazing weekend and of course if you have never experienced it I highly recommend it! The children all love to take in the Rodeos, the Highschool rodeo in the spring was fun for them as the cowboys and cowgirls are much younger and being in the new Ag Event Center it was warm and comfortable for watching. We also headed out to the Dawson Creek Fall Fair and Rodeo where we saw lots of animals, rode rides at the midway, and saw the rodeo performance on Sunday. The kids had so much fun and I just love to see them enjoying all these events!

Wedding Time!

We Celebrated some weddings this year with some beautiful brides and handsome grooms. Most notably the marriage of Steve’s brother to his beautiful wife who I am so lucky to call my Sister in law and my children lovingly call aunty! It was an amazing day after all the practice runs all three children were there to help Aunty find Uncle, they had very important jobs and took it very seriously… either that or they were excited about the candies daddy had in his pocket! It was a jam packed day and so great!

Pig Roast

It was a fun day having a pig roast with the neighbours, we had some amazing roasters to help out and the flavour was so great!

Camping Trip with Daddy!

The Girls headed out on a camping trip with dad late this summer, they pitched a tent and slept out under the stars, on the far side of our land they hikes with a back pack to where Steve had taken all the big stuff earlier, they enjoyed s’mores, told stories and camped out as it started to rain! in the morning they hiked back to the house for breakfast. Henry and mom stayed warm and dry in our own beds in the house, but Steve is looking forward to next year when Henry can join them, and so am I when I can sleep in!

It really has been a jam packed summer and so much fun, We are looking forward to the fall, the kids are all signed up for activities to keep us busy while the weather cools and they are really excited for that. This momma is looking forward to some structure for the fall too. Soon the garden will all be cleaned out and food put away. The pigs, cow, horses and chickens will be all settled in for the snowy months. Hope your summers were great and that you will be embracing all that the pumpkin spice season has to offer!

Cheers!

16Aug2017

Honey Oat Granola Bars

Posted in Life by livinthecountrylife

So yummy… Was out of peanuts this time so I used a cup of peanut butter and 1/2 cup of coconut and still so good!!! great recipe!! Thanks for sharing

Slice & Dice

Buh-bye Quaker! Hello home-made granola bars! Mmmm! So soft and chewy!

No more artificial preservatives or fake sweeteners for me! The real-thing is so much better!

And the combination options are endless! Next on the chopping block is craisins and white chocolate chips!

Honey Oat Granola Bars

4 cups quick cooking oats

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup chopped salted peanuts

1 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup sunflower kernels

3/4 cup butter, melted

2/3 cup honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, combine oats, brown sugar, peanuts, chocolate chips and sunflower kernels. Stir in the butter, honey, and vanilla extract until well combined. Mixture will still be crumbly. Press into a greased-parchment paper lined 15x10x1 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until browned and bubbly. Cool for fifteen minutes on a wire rack. Cut into squares. Allow to…

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16May2017

Arrival of One

Posted in Life by livinthecountrylife

Since Mothers day has just passed I got to thinking that I never finished my Henry story for the world and so this is as good a time as ever to share it! I had a wonderful Mothers Day with my children. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful family, a fantastic mother of my own, and a great mother-in-law, the mother to an amazing man who I get to share this life with!

Mr. Henry arrived happy and healthy on January 13^th 2016 at 1:27 pm weighing 8lbs 3oz what an amazing day it was. Once again things went just as planned and I couldn’t be happier with our experience at the hospital and all the lead up to his arrival!

This was the first time I had left my girls overnight they were only 16 months old after all!

I was scheduled for surgery on the afternoon of the 13^th, which gave time in the morning to spend with the girls before we headed in to the hospital. I was concerned that I would be booked in too early to get some time with them the morning we headed in!

We arrived at the hospital and went thru the adm Prego Henry itting process; we got up to our room and settled in. It was a long wait to go to the OR, being later in the day than the girls there were opportunities for emergencies and other reasons for the surgery to be pushed back. After a bit of a wait I was wheeled down to the waiting area of the OR we waited there for the Doctor and the anesthesiologist to come chat with us.
Finally after we had met everyone and they were ready for us the scrub nurse came to take us to the OR. The process of freezing began and once I couldn’t feel the lower part of my body Dr. D began, she used the same location for delivery. Yay only one scar site! This time around I had informed the anesthesiologist of my past experience of mass amount of puking that occurred! She was right on top of the anti nausea medication (which she also ordered as a PRN for after)

Steve was told Henry was coming and he stood in time to see him join the world. The experience after this was a little different than with the girls because the OR was set up with the warmer at the foot of the OR table rather than the head, so Steve was able to tell me it was a boy, but then when he went to him to cut the cord, I couldn’t see or hear anything so it really felt like an eternity before he came back to me holding Henry. I was feeling good and Henry was doing well so they stayed until my surgery was almost complete, they left to do weights and measurements when I was almost finished. My Friend and nurse was able to be there again for us. (I feel so lucky to have had this experience twice that unfortunately so many don’t get even once.) She brought Henry into me at recovery and helped latch and with the first feed, he ate and then ate some more, I was ready to go back to the room before he was done eating and so Henry came for the ride with me back snuggled in and eating away.

We had so many visitors again, grandparents, aunties, uncles, and Friends stopping in to visit and meet our new little man. Of whom we hadn’t decided on a name for yet! But we were there for a few days so we had some time. We had a whole list of names we liked before we went in, and many were boys’ names, none of them suited him though and we struggled and struggled. Finally Steve was on the phone with a friend explaining we still hadn’t found a name yet, his friend must have asked what his grandfathers name was because he replied Henry. From that moment I looked at the new little man snuggled in my arms and said “Henry Daniel” then a wave of worry came over me. That was his name all right, there was no doubting it; I knew it couldn’t be anything else. The problem was though that not even a month earlier Steve’s brother and I had a conversation about baby names and he and his fiancé had talked about the name Henry being their first-born sons name. When Steve got off the phone I told him our babies name was Henry, it had to be, but he had to call his brother and get his blessing to use it, I would never want to “steal” a name. Steve talked to his brother and of course it all worked out in the end that our boys name became Henry Daniel after his great grandfather and father (Steve’s middle name)

We stayed at the hospital for a couple of days again, because of my surgery we had to hang out there and make sure I was healthy and ready to go home. When we finally left I was so excited to get home, to see my girls, to bring my son home and to start our family life as five.

When we got home the welcome was very emotional, the girls had missed me as much as I them and although Morgan was interested for a couple minutes with this new baby that mom and dad had brought home, she quickly adjusted and continued playing. Jordan on the other hand snuggled in with me and wouldn’t let go, or let Henry in. She had her mom back and that’s all she wanted, it took her a little longer to warm up to her brother.

Of course only five in the house didn’t start until 6 weeks later, I required assistance with everything. The girls still being so young meant that someone had to be with me 24-7 during my recovery time. We were so lucky to have my mom and dad stay with us and help out with the girls. I also was able to have support with cleaning again thru the county’s post partum home care program. Steve was able to go back to work because of the amazing support we received thru this time!

I am so lucky to have had the experiences I have with the births of all my children, the support we have had, and the amazing and beautiful children we have.

10Jan2017

Holidays

Posted in Life by livinthecountrylife

Our holidays were a wonderful celebration! The children are growing up and that makes all the magic of the season so much fun, they seem to understand more now about what is going on, every morning looking for “red” elf, making Christmas crafts, decorating, and spending time with our friends and family!

The holiday season really was jam packed and explains why we are all feeling under the weather!

We packed up and headed out on a few horse drawn wagon rides, one under a blanket of Christmas lights in the evening with family and friends singing Christmas carols and drinking hot chocolate by the fire after! Another with our friends and neighbours thru the snow covered fields one afternoon enjoying company and hot chocolate as we rode!

We traveled to my home town early in December for a Christmas celebration with my extended family, it’s such a wonderful way to split up the holidays as we have for the past few years stayed close to home for Christmas and so it’s great to make it home for the kids to play with all their cousins! It was a wonderful time, I just love to watch the girls interact now with other kids and it warms my heart to know they get to have, although sporadic, time with their cousins! Henry doesn’t play much yet with others but he got a lot of attention and was loving it!!

For Christmas Eve we spent our time with Steves family and nominated ourselves to cook the turkey! It was an epically large turkey and took most of the day to cook! It was so tasty, in fact the whole meal was wonderful! So great to spend that time with family!!

Luckily for us my sister and her boyfriend, and Steves brother and his fiancé live here! Steve’s sister lives many miles away but flew home to celebrate the holidays with us! I really do feel very lucky to have family all close in proximity as well as love! We had Christmas dinner this year at my sisters, she and her boyfriend hosted the whole crew, my mom and dad, uncle and grandmother, his mom and dad, Steves mom and dad brother sister and sister in law!

It was a wonderful and magical Holiday season but now we are in to the full swing of 2017 and I’m so excited to see what the new year has in store!!

9Jan2017

Now it’s January!

Posted in Life by livinthecountrylife

January is here, mostly I end up feeling so tired this month, it’s a tough one to get thru, even though the days are getting longer it never seems that way until closer to spring and January is so far from spring!! Once the hype of the holidays has settled down its always been hard to keep the momentum going on those cold dark January days! But something amazing happened last year that makes January so much better now! My baby boy was born, and how far he has come in just one short year is amazing! Everyday he does something new that makes me smile! When he climbs up on all my furniture and gives me the big accomplished grin! When he runs full throttle on his tiny legs down the hall after his sisters squealing in delight! Whe be snuggles in for a quick minute with me before he’s off again and wraps his tiny arms around me! He is amazing and he makes every day in January so much better!

So even though we’ve been fighting colds and sickness in our house for almost a whole month, and even if it’s still dark out as I write this a enjoy my coffee; listening to my children play together, laugh together and love each other (most of the time!) makes the cold and dark January just a little brighter!

4Dec2016

Snow globe Snowman

Posted in Life by livinthecountrylife

Salt dough!

1c. Salt
2c. Flour
1c. Water

Mix ingredients together in bowl until formed dough!

• Feels like play dough!!

Create!

Snowmen

Roll three balls for snow man parts
Place separately on a cookie sheet in the oven for 20min at 215° • the balls will still be a little playable when you remove them!
Use hot glue to stack and stick the balls together
Add snowman parts! We used googly eyes, toothpicks, and rhinestone stickers but you could add whatever you like and use whatever materials you like!

Jars

Glue (hot or white school) cotton to the inside of the mason jar lid
Makes mixture of “snow” we used snowflake sequence and silver glitter, pour into mason jar!
Glue snowman to the cotton “snow” lid and screw lid on, turn upside down and there you have it… Snow storm!!

Tip: a pinch of corn starch in the glitter will help it from sticking to everything and itself!

Realities!

Yup, kids try to eat the dough! But it’s all food based so not a chemical danger and salty flavour is not really appealing!

Yup it’s hot glue but I did the hot glue gun handling and the girls pushed the pieces together!

The girls loved building these today and I had so much fun doing it with them!!

19Oct2016

Good day, time for an update!

Posted in family, Farm, Food, Life by livinthecountrylife

Well the cold weather has officially hit, the weather man keeps telling me it might warm up one more time but looking into the frost covered day I’m having a hard time
believing it!

The summer was such a busy one with so many adventures! Our garden was a huge success this year! We planted early enough to have a great crop of corn that we are still enjoying, potatoes that will last for months and so much fresh foods that I was able to can, pickle, and freeze what we need for the winter months! We are so lucky to have the space and the time to enjoy a large garden! I hope of course that next year we can keep working toward a weed free garden! We worked hard this year to keep the weeds down and they still managed to get away from us in the end but every year it’s better and better!

We certainly were busy in the barn yard too this year with the addition of our baby pigs! With two sows farrowing this summer we now have 18 babies settled in their winter pen with lots of room to run, and food to eat! And our Three sows have a boar with them now in their pen so we should be expecting another round of babies in the spring! This is the first year we haven’t done anything extravagant with our birds, in that we simply purchased a few new chickens at a spring sale and kept our flock small and manageable! I haven’t been over run by eggs this year which has been a nice change! Although with the cool weather the slow down has been a little too much and we’ve had to seek help with our egg supply from our neighbour until the ladies started laying again! We will plan to hatch out again this spring to replace some of the birds that are slowing down or not laying anymore, I think the kids are going to love the process and seeing the new babies!!

We did some camping this season too, the lake was beautiful, and camping at Moberly is always a treat! The girls got some much needed grandma and grandpa camping in without mom and dad, and Henry had some of his first camping adventures this year!

Steve and I managed to get some time in with each other too this summer… which of course can sometimes be a challenge with three young children! But with the help of our friends and family and some great babysitters we are so lucky to have we had a few fun adventures together!

We even got an old time drive in movie date in which was very fun! The movie was Grease so at one point we were watching the drive in movie scene at the drive in movie!

Steve and I have a really great group of Friends too who we spend time with often! We have had a great many barbecues, nights out,and games nights!

We searched and searched this summer looking for a play structure that would last our family many years of play! I read a blog (I wish I could remember which so I could give it due credit) that hit the nail on the head, explaining how:

We as parents do not buy extravagant play structures and toys for our children really! They are for us, the parents!

Rightfully so after our back yard was set up for the kids to freely play, gardening and yard work became that much easier! The best part of the process was when Steve showed up at the sellers house (we purchased used from a bidding site on Facebook) they thought he would be there for days unsetting it, instead he loaded it on to a trailer with a picker truck and the kids were on it by the next day!

4 Days in the Wild and 100 Years in the Wild

There are so many wonderful reasons I love living where we do and one of them most of all is our community! Everyone comes together for one another always and I don’t think I could want for a better place to raise our family!

And for 4 days (with the hard work and dedication of the entire team of volunteers) everyone comes together to participate in the Teepee Creek Stampede! This year marked the 100th anniversary of the rodeo and even the girls joined in on the calf scramble this year! My whole family was here mom, dad, and grandma traveled and camped out, it was great for everyone to experience the togetherness of this community first hand! Steve of course did a lot of volunteering again this year and it was great to have help from our friends and family to make it possible for the kids to participate and enjoy their time too! We are looking forward to next year as both Steve and I have taken on a greater roll with the organization this year!!