BOWMANVILLE ZOO

After an entire summer of Aaron working weekends, he was finally give his second Sunday off! We took full advantage of our day. When we started out we had no preconceived plans, just a car and hope; hope that a beautiful day was ahead of us. We got in the car and started driving east on the highway. We drove, not knowing where exactly were were going, just the general directions. We drove around for a while until we drove past a sign reading "Bowmanvill Zoo." Done! We decided to check it out! The boys had a blast and us grown ups did as well. What I did love about the zoo was that it was small! No miles and miles of land separating one exhibit from the next. No large hills to climb, no annoying crowds, just a few people who much like us wanted to take their kids out of a Sunday afternoon.

ONE STOP SHOP: DYNAMITE

Necklace: $16.90 | Bracelet: $16.90 | Belts: $19.90 | Blazer: $35.00 | Top: $12.00 (on sale) | Pants: $29.90 | Grand total: $130.60


As a mom I often have a limited amount of time to go shopping. Aaron works most weekends and I work all week so that leaves me about 2 hours to shop after going home to have a family dinner. 2 hours is hardly enough time to shop-hop so I usually look around online, pre-shop if you will, throughout the week, then narrow my shopping down to a few go-to stores. Dynamite is one of my absolute favourite places to shop and being that they have such a cute selection, I can find everything I need without having to shop-hop (even though I love to anyways hehe).

I cannot get through life without having a good blazer. My blazer must be versatile, have a beautiful lining, be well constructed, trendy enough but still classic, and it must stand out! Of course having your staple black blazer is a important but having at least one in a different colour is necessary when I want to give my look an extra kick.

I love a good white top. My opinion is that everyone should have a basic white top in their wardrobe especially if they work in an office setting, however it doesn’t have to be that button down white blouse your mother used to wear (nothing wrong with those). You can spice it up with a shear top (with a tank top underneath if see through!!) that you can either wear out or tucked in with a cute belt around the waist of your pants.

Despite what my mother suggest, I do not wear pants that just hang off my body, I like to respectably show my assets no matter where I am so there black skinny pants are perfect, they are by far my favourite pair for work. They are super comfortable and can easily transition from day to night!

Finally, what is an outfit without the proper accessories?! I love to stack bracelet and even stack them on top of my watch to make more of a statement. The right pairing of necklace and wrist wear can really complete your look.

WEDDING SEASON

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A few weeks ago Aaron and I attending a rustic wedding in the quiet town of Caledon Ontario. It was the first time that I had attended a wedding that I wasn't apart of in quit some time and I was looking forward on being able to sit back, relax, drink wine and enjoy myself without the stress honour of tending to anyone.

I absolutely loved the back drop; green all around with a calm stream cutting through. Lush tree's everywhere and not one single sound other than the intimate gathering of friends and family, woodland creatures and the ballads of the live band that played while everyone too their seats.

They says that a woman is the most beautiful on the day of her wedding, such was not the case for myself, but it certainly was for the bride Laile and her now husband Ariel wasn't too bad himself.

Creatively the two of them created the center pieces themself which added to the rustic feel.

 

 

The food was amazing! My favourite part of the entire meal was the antipasto appatizer. They gave each table a large platter and we at family style. For some reason I had been and still have been craving antipasto for the longest while so when we were presented with the platter I felt like the luckiest girl on earth!

 

 

I simply love weddings! Aaron and I never had a "real" wedding and looking back I glad that we didn't, the money, the time, the effort the stress all for one day. It was never for us. We do however appreciate and enjoy the time we get to spend with a couple that has just begun the rest of their lives. When you think about it, it's truly magic to witness two people committing themselves to each other and no other word but "thankful" come to mind when ponder the fact that we have been invited to witness. Plus it gives Aaron and I a chance to sit still and remember what we vowed to each other and how we once felt while we exchanged those vows. It truly was a wonderful night.

TIMELESS RECIPES: VEGETARIAN WEEK PART 2

Part one here

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Wednesday: Zucchini Casserole w/ a side of Asparagus

Original Recipe

Made with corn muffin mix and shredded zucchini, this casserole was wonderful and easy, perfect for summer. This would make a great side dish in a smaller portion paired with grilled chicken and a garden salad.

My tip: After shredding the zucchini get a clean tea towel or paper towel, wrap the zucchini inside and squeeze really hard to get rid of any access water. Note that when you mix the ingredients it’s supposed to look thick and crumbly and not like runny like a cake or muffin batter. Make sure you serve it when its nice and warm!


Thursday: Vegetarian Lasagna

Original Recipe

I have never made any form of Lasagna before. For whatever reason I always thought it was time consuming and difficult to master. After I looked into this recipe I found that such was not the case. It was really no different than making spaghetti; the only difference is that Lasagna finishes off in the oven. Oddly enough, after trying this recipe I found that I liked vegetarian over meat lasagna!

I am truly happy that I did this; it actually saved us a few dollars at the grocery store, not just because we didn’t buy meat but because we planned out meals for the entire week so we shopped according to what the recipes called for.  By Friday we had a few different left overs that I didn’t even have to cook that day! This also showed me how easy is to no consume so much meat during the week, don’t get me wrong, I still love a juicy steak but it’s not something that I crave that much anymore. My husband is a huge meat lover, so much so that he practically begged me not to cut out meat this week, but meal after meal he had been so receptive and as time went on he actually requests that I cook these over and over again.

TIMELESS RECIPES: VEGETARIAN WEEK PART 1

Once before I decided to do a vegetarian week (5 days) and it was asurprisingly really easy to stick to considering I did absolutely no preparation for it. So after this past week I felt it was time to do it again. Someone consumed way too much food last week so this was much needed.

I prepared by looking up 5 different vegetarian recipes before I went grocery shopping, so that I would have all the ingredients ready and available to me. Not only were these meals vegetarian buy they were also completely new recipes that I had not tried before so you can also look at this as a recipe review as well!

Monday:

Mushroom Parmesan Penne

 

Original Recipe

The recipe is simple. You cannot mess this one up. For such a simple recipe this worked great. The longest part was when i was waiting for the penne to cook. I followed the recipe closely only during the last 30 second of cooking the mushrooms I added fresh diced tomatoes and the parsley. I like my tomato slightly cooked...more warmed rather than cooked.


Tueday:

Korma

Original Recipe

 



I LOVE Indian food but have always been intimidated to try it because of the many components. I will not lie, this recipe took a while to prep for. Im not sure how others do it, but I like to prep all my ingredients before I start anything to avoid feeling frazzled when I get into the heat of things. The only thing i would change about this recipe is to parboil the potatoes and carrots prior to preparing the meal as it took about 30 minutes for them to tendurize rather than the 10 minutes the recipe called for. Also I would add slightly less cream as it again took longer for it to reduce. This was to die for!!!

I will share the other wonderfull recipes that I've tried this week. One think that this Veggie week has taught me is that you do not need meat in order to have a wonderful meal!

mother struggles

The boys and I made some play dough this morning. After the disaster that was yesterday (not getting into it. I have two boys...you get the picture!) I decided that I needed to keep them occupied.

Motherhood has me ragged these days. I shake with fear over having to spend hours with them when Aaron is not with me. Joshua is at that age where suddenly I make absolutely no sense to him! I could have sworn that I at least had another 5 years before I had to deal with that.

Lucas pretty much does what Joshua does and its frustrating.

Who's up for a third kid :D ?????.....*Ashley gives blank stare*

My saving grace has been the fact that Aaron put a fence around the patio giving us private outdoor space. Before lunch I released the children and watched from the living room as they played for a good two hours while I drank a beer and watched reality television.

I am looking forward to my day off tomorrow and since its an American holiday the boys still have school/daycare!!! I really need tomorrow to recover and hopefully come Tuesday I'll start to feel a bit more positive.

KINGSTON

A few years ago I had a dream. One of those long, drawn out vivid dreams that seem almost like a movie but felt more like a memory.  I was in an old city, stone buildings, a center square, water nearby. Just off the coast was a ship half sunk in the water, it was brownish red from the rust and standing on a large rock at the edge of the water was a young girl looking out in at the horizon. The feeling I got from her was loss, sadness, waiting, separation, love.

A few months or so after that dream Aaron, Joshua and I (back when it was the three of us) took a trip up to Kingston because Aaron said it would be fun. I had never been. When I got there my dream hit me and everything I saw I kept thinking to myself  I’ve seen this! I am convinced that I’ve lived in this place before as anyone who truly knows me knows that im a big believer in past lives. It felt and still feels like home.  The only other time I’ve felt like this was when I gave birth to my first son Joshua. There have been people who I’ve met where I have an instant connection and no doubt felt like we had been together before, but not even that has happened to me more than twice.

A few weekend ago, I went back home.

 

 

 

 

It was a great day trip! The boys were at grandma and grandpas for the weekend so Aaron and I used out time wisely! We really had nothing planned other than to do a haunted walk at Fort Henry (I'd post pictures but iPhone pics at night in a dark fort are of poor quality!). Before the tour was went on boat cruise around the thousand Islands and explored the old city before grabbing dinner. We had an amazing time!