Challenge: Day 18.

The challenge for Day 18 is "My Collections." I have a number but decided to just choose a few that are in our Master Bedroom. Maybe another day, I'll go around and showcase the others. For now, I'll start with the magainzes I love to gather and keep. Yes, I do read them all and often bring them along when I have a nice long soak in a warm tub!

"The English Home." When we were in the middle of our little house in the big woods build, I was looking for images of English Cottages/Country Homes. The day we bought our AGA in the big city, we stopped at our local bookstore (Indigo) and the store clerk was just putting out The English Home. I was thrilled and commented I had never seen this magazine before. She commented that it had just arrived and they had never stocked it before, but she wasn't sure it would fly here in Canada. I love picking it up each month, though it's usually a month behind. It's a fave in our home.

My very tall stack of TEH. I have run out

of room, so the new ones are now on the

window seat bench. I'll have to do a bit of

a tidy of the bookcases and move them over.

Ah, my very favorite is "Country Living" but it must be "The British Edition." I find the U.S. one to not be as interesting. I again watch for this each month and lately have been surprised that they've been arriving earlier and so not we're not a month behind. We are missing an issue from the late Spring. I'm sure Covid made it hard to order from overseas. Or maybe the publication didn't print that month. So happy to have this little stack grow and grow. But again, I've run out of room in our bookcases and on the window seat ....

Our bookcases are packed but I'm sure

with a bit of tweaking, we can fit these in.

Another collection is tiny teddies. I have

these four up in my dressing room corner.

The view from afar. I love this little hutch

that holds so many things I use and love.

My collection of soaps. When I visited England at the grand old age of 16, I fell in love with all the soaps we came across in our travels and starting gathering them to bring home. My suitcase smelled heavenly once we were back in Canada. And since then, I've experimented over the years to find scents that remind me of that amazing trip. On the top shelf of my tiny cabinet are a few soaps I will never use because of their shapes (crowns) and they are no longer made. But the rest we use all the time. The tiny ones smell the best and are from our favorite store on Salt Spring Island ~ Twang and Pearl. When we visit the island, I pick up as many of these as I can in my favorite colors. This year, we haven't ventured out, so I placed an online order to keep my stash up. The larger soaps are from Rocky Mountain Soaps, made here in Alberta. So many "flavors" and these are used daily. Dh has his stash and this is mine. Yummy!

Finally in this space, my last collection is my growing stash of Susan Branch books. I'm so excited for her next reads to come out and have one on my wish list for Christmas. Looks like I'll have to move the shelf above the books up to fit the next one in. We collect books in general in this family but this pile stands out as my current and forever favorite!

Do you collect anything? Hope you'll share!

~ Chy

Challenge: Day 17.

Today's challenge: "The Meaning Behind My Blog Name." Love this one! My answer is pretty short and sweet. When I was trying to figure out a name for my blog, I spent hours reading other blogs and figuring out why they chose the names they did. Most were quite obvious, especially for the type of blogs I love to read. I had a hard time at first trying to come up with a name that would capture my vision. As a fan of the "Little House" written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, it soon became clear to me that something along that line would be a great fit. I settled on "Our Little House in the Big Woods" ~ at the time, we were still dreaming of this scenario and felt it would keep us focused on our end goal of building on our land in the forest. When I started to create my blog, I quickly discovered another blogger had chosen "ourlittlehouseinthebigwoods.blogspot.com" for their domain, so I chose "ourlittlecottageinthebigwoods.blogspot.com" and it worked. We always call our house a "cottage" anyway so it was a good fit. I love the adventures we're having here and love how well the name of my blog has worked out. 

How did you choose the name of your blog?

~ Chy

Challenge: Day 16.

Today's challenge: "Proudest Moment." At 18 years old, when my appendix burst during my birthday party and I ended up with peritonitis for several weeks, I was told the chances of conceiving a baby would be quite remote. Once we were married 4 years later, we decided to try anyway. We also talked about the possibility of adopting but we truly hoped that our dream of a large, beautiful family could be achieved. On our very 1st attempt, we were shocked to discover that we could have a baby on our own! I was fortunate to have a very easy going, no morning sickness, lots of energy pregnancy. And at 8:02 pm, on the evening of July 10th my water broke. It took 2.5 hours before I had my first contraction @ 10:30 p.m. and @ 4:14 a.m. on July 11th, our daughter arrived, naturally and so big! We were told to expect a very tiny baby around 5 to 6 lbs but she was just 2 ounces short of 8 lbs! We were a bit of hit that day as it's not common for moms to birth without drugs or have such big babies. But we did it! And we did it our way. Yes, my proudest moment and it paved the way for our family to begin. Isn't she the sweetest! A beautiful dream come true ....

Do you have a proud moment to share? We'd love to hear it!

~ Chy

Challenge: Day 15.

Today's challenge: "A Photo of My

Handwriting." Here it is ~ plain and

simple and a half writing/half printing

kind of style. My personal favorite!

~ Chy

Conflicted Feelings.

 

Ugh! I hate having conflicted feelings. Usually I can figure things out but sometimes, the answer is not always as clear as I'd hope. Today, I'm conflicted. I know I'll find my answer OR the answer will present itself. Maybe writing about it will make it more clear for me. This often works.

I'm conflicted today because I've been offered an elective surgery date for a procedure that was cancelled back in mid March due to Covid. In the Summer, surgeries were approved again. I received a call on a Thursday, late in the day, for a spot that had opened for the next morning. But I turned it down as our music festival was the very next day. An announcement recently made it sound like all elective surgeries had been cancelled once again. But in reading the announcement again yesterday, I realize the headline and the body did not quite match and in fact, only 30% of surgeries were still cancelled. 

On Thursday, late in the day, I received a call from my surgeon's office and I wish I hadn't answered it ~ it said "Private" but I answered it anyway. I was offered a new date of Tuesday to come in for my surgery. I don't think I actually accepted it as I was in a bit of shock and was asking lots of questions. But I must have somewhere down the line said "okay" and now I'm sitting with conflicted feelings. 

Why am I conflicted? Here's the list:

The Pros to accepting this date:

* I'm already working from home so no missed work.

* I've been waiting a long time to get this done.

The Cons to accepting this date:

* My student is done on Friday so we have lots to cover this week. I can't just hand her off.

* I have a full caseload of clients who all missed last week because I was on a week long holiday.

* Covid numbers have drastically increased with over 1,000 new cases reported yesterday and 3 new deaths. This is a worry. Is it worth the potential risk?

* Reports are frequent talking about the overcrowding in our hospitals right now, with the ICU's at capacity. And lots of stories of people waiting for surgery who truly need emergent care. A lady in Calgary is waiting for hip surgery. She can barely walk. And yet she has no surgery date and has been waiting longer than me. I feel ethically and morally she should go before me as her need is great ....

* I would have to sit and wait once I'm done, on pain meds and probably pretty loopy until my dh can come pick me up. He can't take next week off as he just had this past week off. And the hospital right now doesn't allow support people to sit with anyone who is going in to surgery OR recovering. 

* My last surgery was when I was 18, so I have lots of fears that I've been working through and Covid has become the top of the list now that this is an added concern.

So many mixed feelings. I don't want to regret saying no and not getting this done. But I don't want to regret getting it done and then Covid is present. What if I get my family sick OR I get Covid? 

I worry the surgeon may become annoyed if I say no to this date. Maybe he won't agree to keep me on. This has not been shared but it's a worry for me. Likely unfounded. No shortage of surgeons out there for sure but I'd have to start all over again if my no is not well received. 

Ugh! I'm off to help dh board and batten our wall. Maybe that will help me come to peace with a decision. 

Thanks for listening!

~ Chy

A Knitting Mouse!

Truly, I could not resist posting this little mouse.

Is she not the sweetest thing you've seen tonight?

~ Chy

Challenge: Day 14.

Today's challenge: "An Average Day."

I'm not sure we actually have a completely
"average day" in our little cottage. Life is

often pretty eclectic and though that may

not work for many families, it does for us.

 We all wake up in the morning within about

an hour. Everyone leaves the house if it is a

work day at some point, early for some, later

for others. I'm always home at the moment.

Different times that the work day starts

and ends, and different days. I love it,

this staggered process. Gives us time

to work at home (and make sure the

greenhouse is doing fine after the first

snow fell). Time for self care as well.

We all have chores and tasks that need

attention. Much of this will happen at

the beginning or end of the work day.

Sometime on the weekend as needed.

We work in time to relax, time for each

other, time for solitary experiences, and

time for family gatherings. Even in this

Covid season, we all need to have time.

Weekends are filled and fun, busy but

productive. Down time and social time.

Once everyone is home late in the afternoon,

we might have dinner together, or watch a

show. Or work on a project. Or attend a

meeting. Or have a bath and read a great

book. Tonight, we're heading down to the

theatre room to watch a movie. To show

my point, look at our dinner above. Yup,

that was our breakfast for dinner. So good!

What does your average day look like?

~ Chy

Challenge: Day 13.

Challenge for Day 13 is "If I Won the Lottery." It

would be so much fun! But I'm sure it would also

come with a ton of stress. I'd hope that we would

not lose any family and friends over any winnings.

I know we would share and provide for the local

we support. Setting up a foundation to help families

more concretely than we do now would be part of

the dream. Helping our kids out. Ensuring my mom

is well taken care of. Treating my brother. I think

it would be so much fun to surprise those we love!

What would you do if you won the Lottery?

~ Chy