Making Progress

I just wanted to tell you all....my daughter, whom I love with my whole heart, really does not love to swim.  However, she is in swimming lessons.... (a very important life skill, I keep telling her!).  Today, she jumped off the diving board in her lessons.  By herself.  Without freaking out.  And without a life jacket.  AND, the most important thing of all.....she looked like she was actually....having fun!  It's a new day in the Goerzen household.  A new day!!  Way to go, little lady.  Way to go!

Garage Give-Away Part 2

After we made our piles of stuff, we asked the lady how much she wanted for it. She told us, "Just take it. It's all junk to me, and if you can use it, go for it!". We, of course, tried to convince her to take something, but she refused, saying, "Make me a planter with flowers in it from something. That's how you can pay me..." Ummm, OK!

The next day, after it had finally stopped raining, we unloaded the truck. And here is what we ended up with...

Now this may look like junk to some of you (and truth be told, it kind of is....), but once this stuff is all cleaned up, and flowers growing out of it, it'll look fairly impressive.  Or unique.  Yes, let's go with that!  Just in case you were wondering, this isn't all for me....we shared.  So only half of this "junk" is mine....

Garage Give-Away

Last weekend, even though the weather was terrible, we decided to go garage sale-ing. We had one sale that we knew about from the paper, and so, we headed out. It was a good 25 minutes from home, and we were prepared. Snacks for the kids, perhaps a movie...who knew what we would find!

When we got there, we learned that this lady who was having the garage sale was widowed about 2 yrs. ago, and their house was actually an old church. Her and her late husband had lived there for 24 yrs., and were working on fixing it up. Well, let me tell you....they had a LOT of work to do... Anyhow, the property is just too much for her to take care of now, so she had sold it. I found a very fun fruit box and 2 other little boxes with really old and rusty handles in the basement, which I gave her $5 for.

Just before we drove away, I saw a bunch of piles of stuff (aka "junk") in the back bushes. I convinced my friend, Suzanne, to go and ask if we would be able to take a look through there to see if there was anything else that we could buy. This lady told us how her husband, for 24 yrs., would bring home stuff, and make piles of it. She told him "No more!", but still, he continued to bring it home. Well, let me tell you friends, we hit the mother-lode!! We probably spent about 1 1/2 hrs. going through some of the piles. And here is what we found....

This was just the 'metal pile'....there were wood piles and other piles as well!

There was an old hay wagon in the middle of the bushes also.  Unfortunately, the new owners wanted this, so we couldn't claim it.  It would've make a great play structure for the girls!  Apparently, this wagon was brought from the family farm in Mundare.  Cool, eh?

 This gentleman also made his own wine out in the bushes, so there were a lot of wine jugs and other things which we couldn't figure out what they were.  A few more windows to add to my collection...

After about an hour and a half, as our piles started getting bigger and bigger, I figured I'd better call Art to come and pick up all these goodies in the truck.  Thankfully, he was headed home from the city, so he was able to pop in and load up.  Abut that time, though, we had a HUGE thunderstorm and terrential downpour, so Suzanne and I were looking like drowned rats by the time we got into the van to go home!  I'll post some pictures tomorrow of all our finds....

New Lamps

The other day I was in HomeSense just browsing the aisles.  In the lamp aisle were these two, completely perfect lamps for our master bedroom.  I wasn't looking to buy new lamps, but I just couldn't put these ladies back.  So, I decided they must come home with me. 

Hannah's comment when she saw the lamps was, "Do those really work?  They look too old to be able to turn on."  Yup, they fit in perfectly!

Once I got them home, they didn't work with the night stands that we had, so I had to rearrange the bedroom....all to suit a couple of lamps! Anyhow, I am still looking for a new dresser for Art, but for now, this will do.

This picture makes the paint color look fairly terrible...which it is (just not quite this bad!).  I have been itching to paint our room, but that, of course, is a fall/winter project.  All in due time, I suppose.  The basement in our next priority, so it might be a little while before our room sees the face lift that I would like!

Are We Having Fun Yet?!

Last week we celebrated our friend Natalie's birthday. After dinner, we headed out for some shopping, and Art took the kids on a quad/wagon ride. There were a few extra little people (as you can see, Eli was NOT so happy to see Natalie and I as we were leaving).  Hannah sat with Naomi, who loved the ride!  Take a look at the sky behind....we had quite the rainstorm about 10 mintues after that picture was taken!

The Garden

Thankfully, we got our garden in before all this crazy rain and cold weather.  Here are the happy "farmers", ready to get to work... We planted the usual....pumpkins, snow peas, sweet peas, beans, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and lots and lots of flowers!  Then, after I had planted my garden, I was at a neighbors house, and she gave me 2 asparagus roots.  She had them in her garden, and transplanted some, and gave me the rest.  I am hopefully that I won't kill the plants, and maybe later this year, we'll have asparagus!

 Here it is!  We found some very cool bamboo fencing/lattice for our snow peas and sweet peas.  I think it looks quite fancy and beautiful.  Now, the weeding begins...

Wellington

Last week, when the weather was still nice, the little girls and I headed over to Wellington for some inspiration. Wellington is a nursery in the city that is amazing!! There are about 5 building where they have flowers, gardening stuff, and home decor. The owner imports containers of antiques from France to sell and decorate this place. There are arbors and fountains and benches everywhere you look...and the smell is amazing. The lilacs were just starting to bloom when we were there. Here are a couple pictures to give you an idea of what it's like...

Needless to say....I was inspired!