Hockey Memory Jar for Boys

My son loves a project and loves to be a helper - he's 5 so I don't expect that to last more than a couple more years but I am taking advantage while I can.  He was all excited about doing a memory jar and came up with the idea of doing a hockey jar (big surprise right...not...).  

Farmers Market Fridays Are Back!

Happy Friday!  Summer is here and so are the local farm markets so I'm bringing back Farmers Market Fridays.  I hope to have a farm market, recipes using products from farm markets or tips on making the most of your farm market buys each Friday through the summer.  

Fairies: Recreate the Land of Lost Things

Children love "found things".  

Every small object found on a sidewalk or on the floor of the bus 

or in the parking lot of the daycare has great potential.  

My daughter has a grand collection of the "lost things" 

she has found over the years 

and finds it very difficult to part ways with any of them.  

In my Pinterest perusals 

I discovered creative folks making these very sweet "memory jars" 

The Hockey Mural

When we renovated our new house, we had some concerns about helping the kids feel settled and helping them feel involved in the process.  They had always shared a bedroom in our old house and over time it became a mish-mash of decorations and stuff.  Because my son loves playing mini stick hockey so much, it was important to me to set up his room in a way that he and his friends (or daddy) would be able to play hockey in there and I wanted to make hockey a part of the room overall, not just more stuff in the room.  I commissioned my brother (who also plays hockey) to paint a life-sized mural one wall.  

Throwback Thursday

One of my favorite pictures of myself - with my beautiful Arabian gelding, Sam.  This was one of my senior pictures.  At the time, my aunt lived in what is now our "old" house, right next to our new house, and the photographer lived across the street.  My aunt was able to stable my horse at her house for a few days and bring him across the street just for these pictures when we were ready.  You can't tell because the photographer touched it out of the picture, but I actually have a fresh 3-inch scar on my chin that day that Sam gave me when he accidentally kicked me on a trip out west just two weeks before this.

Inside the Farmer

A year ago my grandfather fell 15 feet off a ladder onto a concrete pad 

while working on the big doors of his shop.  

His injuries were very serious and the prognosis was full of a lot of maybe's and lengthy steps to attempt to rehabilitate.  

You may have seen my past posts about his accident and recovery.  

That's him with my little brother and I in the photo above - 

you can probably guess about when by the truck in the background!

Today, blogger Chris Chinn shared her thoughts on that inside part of farming, 

that look in the eye - determination, strength, hope, eternal optimism. 

The video linked up at the end of Chris' post says it all.  

It could have been my grandpa and his daughters and grandchildren in that video. 

 The voice of the farmer's son speaking about that phone call - we know that feeling.