Lake-aholic me

I wish I could do justice in showing the lake in its splendor: the textures of the frozen ripples of water, snow and ice; the subtle shifts in shades of blues and greys and whites.

 

 

Dragon's Teeth 

 One of many nature-made quinzhees along the shoreline

I continue to be in awe of the wonders of beauty when I look out over the lake. There

are so many shades in the sky and across the snow and ice. I remain grateful and inspired.

 

 The vast variety of textures along the shoreline and across the surface of the lake are humbling and make me feel transported to an entirely different existence.

 

The Pleasures of Pumpkin

Mmmm. Simple, nutritious, chock-full of healthy stuff.

During the summer, I purchased food from local producers. In addition to enjoying fresh, local produce, I also dried/dehydrated enough (mostly at temps low enough to keep nutrients intact) so I could have nutritional local food throughout the winter. I also came across a family selling pumpkins for $2 each. Having read about pumpkin's super-food qualifications, I picked up 10.  I dehydrated bits of pumpkins (and pumpkin seeds!) for hours on end, grinding some down into a powder. Then I learned that pumpkins, like tomatoes, actually have some sort of additional nutritional benefit when cooked so I baked the rest and filled the freezer with orange goodness.

Every few days, I usually do up a batch of quinoa (and was surprised to find that the PC Organics quinoa was less expensive to buy than quinoa in the Superstore bulk section) and store that in the fridge. Then every couple of days I put together various ingredients to mix with my almost-daily serving of quinoa. This provides me with a healthy meal that's always in my fridge. The quinoa rings in at less than $2.50 a box and provides me with numerous meals/snacks over the course of about 3 days (I'm more of a grazer, not so much a sit-down-and-eat-a-big-meal sort of person). I always add in pumpkin for the nutritional benefits. Each pumpkin was $2, half a pumpkin would be $1, which means my daily pumpkin costs less than 25cents. From thereon in, it's just a matter of choosing what else I want to toss in. If I add in beans (lima, garbanzo, black beans, etc.) they're the ones purchased in bulk or in a bag and soaked overnight before cooking (I sometimes grind them down as well into a houmous/hummus sort of blend before adding them to other ingredients for the quinoa OR just have them on their own, blended down with raw garlic and whatever else I feel like adding) - again, a nutritional boost for pennies per serving. I usually add in turmeric and then whatever vegetables I choose from the jars of dehydrated goodness in my cupboard.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw how many seeds small pumpkins could hold. They're packed! And what a great, low-cost food item! They pack a nutritional punch. I dehydrated mine, mostly without salt but some of the last batches were sprinkled with sea salt. You can imagine all the seeds we have from the 10 pumpkins we bought. I'm so thankful we came across the pumpkin folks. 

Making Holiday Memories

Simple living brings with it many gifts, the greatest being a natural continuum of appreciation.

As we distance ourselves from consumeristic trappings, the more our mind and soul are free to breathe, to see good, to create, to participate in our existence.

Each year I grow further away from the consumerism that polluted my life when my children were small. Each year I am aware of a greater degree of inner peace.

How are we celebrating the holidays? My son and I are purposefully doing one special thing each day in addition to our usual family time:

Paper snowflakes, nature photography walk, making fudge, picking up a "new" board game at the thrift shop then settling in for an afternoon of playing and popcorn, playing music at local residential homes/shelter/seniors' homes, repainting canvases, an afternoon of sketching memories from family life, a "kitchen experiments" day, learning to knit, a minimizing day of clearing out items that could be better used elsewhere, felting, a "downtown" photography day, making a cookie train, and a movie evening which was a gift from a friend. We did the movie evening last night and saw "Hugo" - an interesting film highlighting the works of Georges Méliès. ***My son has reminded me that we'd also decided that we'll be making a special treat in the kitchen every day!

We're aiming to go for a walk every day. We usually put any food cuttings/scraps into our  small compost bag on our deck but during the winter we put some out in our yard every day for the squirrel and birds. We've been watching the History of Canada on vhs tapes we found at the thrift shop - they have so much information that we're looking forward to watching bits of them frequently throughout the holidays. My grand-daughters will be stopping by to spend part of a day here and there, when I'm sure much teadollspuzzlesstories-
windowwatchingwaterplayingsnacking will take place. We're going to play Christmas lp's, now that I finally found an affordale record player ($15 at our thrift shop!), including one that's the same as one I had when I was a child. On Christmas morning, we're looking forward to enjoying a breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, and mandarins before my son opens his stocking. At some point we'll walk over to one of the local residential homes for adults living with disabilities and we'll share some music. We haven't decided yet whether to have our Christmas dinner around noon or later in the day. We're also considering picking up some ice skates at the thrift shop and trying to stay upright on the local outdoor rink across the road from our house.

No malls, no shopping stresses. We're giving a few small gifts - some purchased at a couple of local shops within walking distance from our home, a few purchased online, and a few homemade.

A simple, peaceful Christmas.