slow living – November

November is done, already. Life didn’t seem much quieter for us and I’m beginning to wonder if I was deluded in thinking that it might slow down for us. Maybe someday. Fingers crossed. Did I mention that we are moving in January?

I’m following the example at Slow Living Essentials again this month, and using her categories to summarize my month and list some things I’d like to accomplish.

{Nourish}:

We are well into winter eating habits now. Meat and potatoes make an appearance regularly at the table. Last night was our yearly dinner party with friends and we enjoyed a prime rib dinner with potatoes and peas from the garden. The girls have said that they prefer our garden grown potatoes and won’t like when we have to switch back to grocery store vegetables. I didn’t write about much food this month, but I did post about some roasted apple and pear sauce.

{Prepare}:

About all that I managed to do this month was some blackberry freezer jam and roast and puree some more pumpkins. Both are now residing in my freezer, waiting for me to do something with them.

I did manage to save a bushel of apples from the neighbourhood robber baron chipmunk by putting an ugly black plastic Halloween rat in the crate. It worked. Not so much as one sighting of Dean the chipmunk ever since. Ok, so he might be hibernating, but let me have this one victory.

{Reduce/Reuse/Repurpose/Repair}:

We had a new high-efficiency furnace installed this month and dug a new foundation drain around the house to give some relief to the sump pump. We hope that both improve our hydro bills.

I am planning to reduce a lot of extraneous stuff around the house next month when we start packing for our move. The last time we moved we had 60 boxes of books. I am not moving that many books again. I have weeded out a lot of dishes, clothes and chotchkes over the last couple of years, but there is more to go through.

{Green}:

Nothing new to report here this month. I continue to do use my homemade products along with some store-bought stuff. There is a lot of room for improvement and I will get there eventually.

{Grow}:

I didn’t kill my houseplant this month. Does that count?

{Create}:

I gave up and unravelled the tall kid’s sweater this month. It just wasn’t working for me. I did manage to knit two baby toques, two pair of socks, a dishcloth and I sewed two receiving blankets for an expectant mom. I also made some beaded stitch markers to solve the problem of losing those tiny little O’s that I normally use. It felt good to have accomplished a few more projects. I have some more that I would like to finish before Christmas and a few more patterns lined up to keep me busy during the winter.

{Discover}:

Most of my reading has been surfing for new patterns and recipes on-line this month, plus keeping up with other blogs that I enjoy reading. I picked up a few recipe books and look forward to trying some of the recipes.

{Enhance – community}:

We donated to and attended a fundraising event for Ducks Unlimited this weekend. It’s an organization that the dad has been involved with as a both a volunteer and an employee for many years. It’s an annual event that brings out a lot of local personalities, which is always entertaining to watch.

{Enjoy}:

The small squeaky kid won a fire safety contest this month and got an exciting ride to school on the fire truck with the lights and sirens going. She disembarked the bus at school waving just like the Queen. It’s something that she will never forget.

This weekend was the highlight of the month for me – my university roommate and her husband came to stay. We enjoyed the DU banquet together, a hockey game (the tall hormonal kid’s team cleaned the ice with the other team), and a dinner party on Saturday night. We successfully rid ourselves of some ugly duck-related merchandise during our ugly gift exchange. We tried to smuggle the bone shaped wine bottle holder into our neighbour’s car last night while they were inside enjoying a glass of wine, but they had locked the doors (suspicious brats). So, I did the only thing I could do. I picked his pockets, stole his keys and broke into the car, depositing their gift.

They have also saddled us with a one-eyed duck head cheese board. I already have thoughts on knitting him a sweater before next year’s gift exchange. I tried to take a picture of him for this post, but my camera said “battery exhausted” when I turned it on. I know how it feels.

Another busy, somewhat weird and always enjoyable month.

Linked to Frugally Sustainable, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday