I posted a blog with a ton of questions about a week ago. It was SO fun getting everyone’s responses and input! Behold, the answer post! I’m not saying these are necessarily the right answers, but they’re the answers I got! Or maybe just the most popular answers, in some cases. If you read the whole comment section, most of this will be old news, but I’m doing it anyway! Lol! Bear with me.

1. Where can a person find yeast? I found some through a fundraiser! It will happen once a week, so you can get in on it, too! I did have to buy a pretty good amount, but I’ll throw it in the freezer! That being said, I can’t open the door tooooo far, but if someone needs some, I’d like to share here and there! Feel free to ask!

2. CERB questions. Thank you, Nancy, for answering a ton of questions and pointing me towards the people to call! Brady and I were both able to apply for CERB! It was a quick, easy application process, but we haven’t seen the money yet. Mine will come later because I prefer hard copy cheques to direct deposit (I know, I know, the govt doesn’t like that but I have my reasons, haha!) but Brady’s should show up really soon. We could only apply on Thursday, and then it was a holiday weekend, so hopefully this week!

3. The best way to grow raspberries is in a non-annoying where they won’t spread! Hahaha! Or more accurately, somewhere I’m ok with them spreading. It seems they’re no nonsense and don’t require a ton of sun, but DO require a ton of water. I didn’t know that! I think an underground planter is my favorite idea, so they stay contained, but are still down in the ground and insulted, with a better hope of wintering! (Krista, wanna share raspberries under the fence?? Lol!) My one concern with planting them in a buried planter is, will they keep showing up year after year? Or will I have to be fussing with new soil every couple of years? Can anyone help?

4. The little space between my walkway and my garage is still up in the air. I like the idea of succulents probably the best, but I’m not sure they’d get enough sun. Maybe just some basic flowers this year and see what happen next year. Maybe planters. My IDEAL would be succulents, honestly, but I just don’t know enough about them. The ones on my windowsill are doing well though!

5. A food bearing tree for the front yard. I had a few ideas. I like the idea of cherries the best. But I don’t want sour cherries. Here’s the thing. I am not especially concerned about having a tree in my front yard, but if I had one, I’d want it to be a fruit tree. If I can’t find one I really want, we’ll just not have a tree. I did toy with the idea of having a lilac tree, but apparently their season to flower is super short. Which is disappointing. I wanted a purple tree! Anyone surprised by that? Didn’t think so.

6. National parks. Closed 😭 I’m SO sad. Our whole summer could be thrown for a loop if this doesn’t let up soon. We miss Waskesiu already. Literally, the FIRST day of quarantine, the kids made packing lists for Waskesiu…

Last summer feels so far away already 😩

7. Dropping stuff off for people during the quarantine. Surfaces. All that stuff. Not too many responses on this, except one loving friend who said they would happily accept drop offs from my family ❤️ So that was REALLY nice. We dropped paska off at a very small handful of people’s houses, and I just asked first. There are of course people who are just saying no to be super extra safe, and I have ALL the respect for that!! But, for us, a big part of this is trusting my close people that, if they had ANY symptoms or concerns, they wouldn’t even offer. I’m hoping and trusting my people to be smart and not to put their people at risk. We are doing our part, and our best, and I’m happy there are people around us who are willing to accept us 🙂

8. NO ONE has new quarantunes??? 🎶 Just keeping them to yourselves?? Fine fine fine. I’ll share a few of ours with you! We’re enjoying “Never Seen the Rain” By Tones and I (same band who wrote Dance Monkey) and “The Lotto” by Ingrid and AJR. Check them out!

9. The best way to support your people was only addressed once, but I think the answer was bang on, and I can vouch for its truth, too. Just check in with your people. It feels small and insignificant, but it isn’t. We could not be doing as well as we’re doing if not for the handful of people who regularly ask how we are and what we might need. It goes a LONG way, because even when we don’t directly NEED anything, it feels reassuring to know we could ask if we needed! 

10. Seeding grass. Spring or Fall. Either or. I think what is going to make this decision for me will be what kind of topsoil we can get around here. We are technically allotted free topsoil from our build, but its just hanging in a field, LOADED with quack grass. If we could potentially get better topsoil somehow, I’d be inclined to get that and seed in Spring, but if any and all topsoil is going to be loaded with weeds, then we’ll likely spend the summer getting rid of them and seed in Fall. But I’d SO much rather seed earlier in the season!! It also depends on if the landscaping people we have in mind are back to work. If we’re on our own, it’ll look different. Either way, the material for our shed is on order! Woot!

11. Fence or grass first. Fence all across the board. Boom. Decided.

12. Butchered pig. I got a couple of names of people around here to call! Thank you!!

13. Not much on fresh fish. One offer to potentially share if there is excess, which I GREATLY appreciate!! I’ll have to post on Facebook when the season truly starts, and see if we can buy some off my local fishing friends here and there!

14. Aaaaand detangler was the last question!! Most people said they made a heavily diluted conditioner spray, but the orange creamsicle one from the Honest company sounds pretty great, too! Options! Woot!

So this was maybe the most fun blog I’ve ever done 😆 Such clear proof that we all live different lives, prioritize different things, and know different information. I SO appreciate all of these answers! Please, feel free to fill in anywhere you want to! I am HAPPY to receive more information on these subjects absolutely any time! 

You probably have noticed I’m not especially housewifey. I am not great in the kitchen, though I can confidently say I’ve been facing some of that stuff more often and I’m getting braver. Maybe not better, but braver 😉 

I used to be friends with someone who loved to poke fun at me, because I wasn’t confident in my cooking and baking skills. While I knew she was being petty, I’ve realized in the last year or two that it truly affected me. I’m trying to be better, and braver, and celebrate my victories along the way. 

Yesterday, I made paska! 

It was definitely a group effort. Not at all just myself. We made a HUGE batch of paska using a recipe my sister gave me once, combined with some tips and tricks I stole from Mennonite Girls Can Cook. 

While making a big recipe for the first time was an accomplishment, let’s look at the fact that I COULD KNEED THE DOUGH!!! 

THIS is almost an even bigger victory than making it at all. My hands just wanted to get into it, and I truly enjoyed it. The batch we made was way too big for my mixer to handle, anyway, so this worked out! Brady did trade me out towards the end so I wouldn’t overdo anything, but man, I really enjoyed it. Maybe I should start baking buns more often. 

Aaaaanyway, another part of the kitchen stuff that stresses me out is botching a recipe. Usually, if I mess up a recipe, I never make it again. Thats not a good thing, but its the truth. 

So, yesterday’s paska was NOT a flop, but it wasn’t all glamorous either. Some of the buns had growths or were misshapen, and out of the two loaves I made, I smashed one against the edge of a rack trying to move it around, and completely squished it in half. Also, everything got just a little bit darker than I wanted. I think the oven was a bit too hot. 

But as I tell the kids, it doesn’t have to look good to taste good! 

Laela and I iced and sprinkled them together this morning. 

Turns out, I was right! The paska tasted amazing. I am SO happy with how it turned out. I often don’t like what I make, probably because I put such a high expectations on myself, but this was really yummy 🙂 

This years paska haul was a great success!! Thank you to my encouragers. You know who you are. 

Last night, we had the pleasure of enjoying a homemade pizza night with my mom!

This is our version of quarantine schooling 😆 I can vouch that Laela LOVED it. 

And we all enjoyed reaping the benefits, thats for sure!! 

My mom uses an old mennonite biscuit recipe for the crust, so its yummy and light. We had one pizza that was mostly pepperoni and cheese, with one chunk that stayed just cheese. The other pizza had pepperoni, cheese, mushrooms, and pineapple.

We walked the pizza off afterwards.

We all LOVE my moms pizza, and everyone ate so much, but the pictures and teaching moment were the actual best part ❤️🍕

As has been happening so often with groceries, someone included our family’s needs in their trip into the real world, and bought us our garden ❤️ Cher’s mom, Sandy, lovingly went in for us and brought back soil, peat pots, and all the seeds on our list that she could find.

We officially have a pack of cucumbers, pickling cucumbers, yellow peppers, dill, lettuce, grape tomatoes, big tomatoes, corn, and rainbow carrots!! My kids aren’t big carrot eaters, so we’ll see if the colour helps 😉 I also got glads, and am still hoping to find peonies somewhere. Potatoes closer to the day. And maybe berries, if I’m on the ball enough to figure out how to do them well. Thank you, friend, for offering to be my raspberry dealer 😘 You know who you are.

This year will be a low pressure garden. I hope it’s successful, but our spring plans are already lofty with the fence, grass, and shed. Those things come first. So while I’d love to have beautiful garden boxes, its likely going to be a “seeds in dirt” kind of year. 

Unless this quarantine thing lasts a lot longer, in which case we’ll have nothing but time to build boxes! Hahaha! Whats one more project when we’ve got nowhere else to be?? 

You know the current running joke that everyone is online shopping since they’re all stuck at home? We are working HARD to resist the urge, but there are a couple of things that have been on the list for a while that I “indulged” in and looked around for. 

Pots. Pots and pans. Here’s the thing. We’ve been using a set of five non-stick teflon pots for a long time, and I’m confident I don’t have to tell you how unpopular that is. Last year, I made it my mission to find a new stainless steal set. And then last year, we were SO broke. There was absolutely no money for new pots. I had one person say to me at one point “Can you really afford not to, though?” And I know where they were coming from, but we could, in fact, afford not to. The money just was not there. 

In the recent months, our pots have gotten BAD. Teflon flaking off. It was very clear we needed to start replacing them fast. Aaaaand then Brady dropped one and bent the heck out of it 😆 So I decided it was time to find some to buy. 

And it was oddly easy… 

Not everything is replaced yet, but we’re on our way! We found perfect stainless saucepans with nice heavy bases to replace our three smaller pots. They were 50% off, and oddly cheap. But the reviews were great, so we ordered them. A 1, 2, and 3.25 qt. 

Our bigger 6 qt pot has yet to be replaced. The closest thing looked right, but it was 5.5 qt and we are not in any position to be downsizing our pots. Nope nope nope. So I’m just keeping an eye out for that. 

The last pot that needed replacing is basically a pan. Its a shallow, 2.75 qt saucepan. We like it a LOT more than our basic frying pans because it has a nice lid on it and the sides are straight up, unlike a pan, if that makes sense. That pan was warped years ago, but we’ve continued to use it. But!! We upgraded 😳 Doubled, in fact. 5.5 qt. Ta daaaaaa!! 💁‍♀️

Ok, I know, I know, we went non-stick here. Not a popular choice, but we’re getting there slowly, and there are going to be things we don’t want to stick. This pot/pan/beast was originally $150 and we got it for $28. It is BANANAS. I know, I am oddly excited about it, but I guess thats adulthood for me 🤷‍♀️ Can’t afford to shop for non essentials, but I’d call the pots that cook our food essential. Yes? Yes. 

After ALL of that explanation, we got the pots home from the curbside pickup (where the store employee called us because they “couldn’t see our van” 😂) sanitized them, and discovered they gave us one wrong pot. Merp. Ah well. We’re still amped! 

Are you also amped about our pots? Because you should be. And if you’re not, if you could just fake it, that would be ideal 😆

Dear Covid,

I’ll use small words, so that you’ll be sure to understand, you warthog faced buffoon. #princessbride

I hope today finds you crappy. You’re a schmuck, and have really shaken things up. Do you just like attention? No one likes the one who just wants attention 🙄 Haven’t you figured that out yet? You’re just immature. Do you even have friends?? Do you notice that, the moment you show up, everyone leaves? The truth hurts, doesn’t it, fart face? Ya it does. 

I get it. You’re scary and important and intimidating. Maybe that makes you feel important. Whatever. You’re nothing but a bully. If thats who you want to be 🤷‍♀️ Your call, dude. You can have your negative attention, and be a lonely sad sack. 

You should know that, when you finally leave, we’re all going to PARTY!!! And you will not be invited. And no one will miss you. Because nobody likes you. Idiot. 

I’d put you in my burn book, if I were mean enough to have one. #meangirls 

I hate your stinking guts. You make me vomit. You are scuuuuum between my toes. #littlerascals 

I hate so much about the things you choose to be. #theoffice 

You are a sad, strange little man, and you have my pity. #toystory

via GIPHY

Peace out, dork. ✌️ 

Sincerely, 

Hailey, and the rest of the world

If you’re on my Facebook, I was concerned yesterday about getting to my Click & Collect pickup at the right time. As humour would have it, our order was booked for next Monday 🙄 So it became clear we were going to need a grocery shop ASAP. We were out of evvvvverything! Brady took the hit and offered to hit Costco for us this morning. I advised him to grab an orange flat deck cart. He laughed, but said he might. He did. 

Unfortunately, his hands are gigantic and his gloves ripped immediately 😕 Buuuuut the shop still needed doing. 

We needed a LOT of things. 

Familiar?? 😆

Costco didn’t permit Brady to use our green bins, but they only used one teeny tiny little box for a couple of things and the rest was reloaded onto the orange cart willy nilly. After many little spills and no one being able to help, Brady made it back to the bus and loaded it up. My goodness….. 

When he arrived home, it was a long process of unloading the items into the garage, disinfecting everything, and then putting things in their spots. We bought two of most items, just to cover us longer, so there was more than our pantry is used to holding, but we made it work. 

We came home wiiiiiiiith…

Two bags of red potatoes, two containers of grape tomatoes, six cucumbers, two bags of bell peppers, three bags of apples, three bunches of bananas, two big bags of frozen broccoli, two bags of burger buns, three bags of hot dog buns, two sleeves of English muffins, six farmer sausage, two packs of sandwich ham, four milks, three almond milks, two sour creams, a close of kombucha, a box of perogies, a bag of fries, three pounds of butter, four blocks of cheese, cheese slices, cheese strings (I know, I know, cheese cheese cheese,) One bag chicken nuggets, a box of quick oats, two boxes of Cheerios, two boxes of Froot Loops, two boxes of goldfish crackers, three boxes of granola bars, a big box of spaghetti noodles, twelve tins of tuna, tostitos, two bags of trail mix, cooking oil, potato salad, salt, raspberry jam, two rolls of parchment paper, aaaaaaand a big pack of toilet paper. Finally. 

It all came to $600 😳

I hope that lasts a GOOD long time!! 

Not because I don’t want to shop again soon, but I don’t want to wipe down $600 worth of groceries again anytime soon! 

Thank you, Lord, for keeping us afloat and providing for us, always. 

First…

I had SO MUCH FUN with yesterdays post! I did not expect the response I got, but I’m SO thankful so many of you answered! I’ve received comments, private messages, texts, articles, phone numbers, and general opinions and information. WOW! I am SO lucky to have you all following along, so willing to help in a variety of ways! It was suggested to me to make a post of the most popular answers, and I think that is SO smart! And I will! Except I’m going to give it a day or two, to make sure I get all the responses I’m going to get and to be as informed as possible! I know some people only read along every few days, so I’m going to wait and see, and also do some figuring myself. But I WILL update soon! 

What I wanted to make a little post about today is our supper yesterday. 

It. Was. Delicious. Mixed veggies, garlic roasted potatoes, and sausage. Pretty simple, nothing fancy at all. This meal always feels like a “back to basics” meal to me, yet its one of my favourites. Which I guess it ideal. I’d love to feed my family things like this absolutely always.

This sausage came from the parcel of meat that was gifted to us anonymously. It was peppery and delicious and tasted like love. Hahaha! I know that sounds dumb but that kind of stuff really sits with me. It drives me a liiiiittle bit nuts that I don’t know who gave it to us, but I also really love to bless people anonymously. So I get it. But whoever you are, if you happen to read this, PLEASE know how grateful we are, how loved we feel, and what a difference you made! You’ve saved us money, as well as trips to the grocery store. 

Last nights supper was ridiculously delicious. The end. 

I have a lot of questions. I keep wanting to ask them on Facebook, but it would just be SO MANY. So here’s my list! PLEASE comment if you can help! Hahaha! 😆

1. Where does a person buy yeast?? Has anyone found a secret store somewhere that has any? I don’t NEED any immediately, but I want some so I have the option to make bread and buns when we run out.
2. Can we apply for CERB if our cheque’s come a month after earned? Can Brady and I BOTH apply if we’re legally business partners? Getting through to anyone on the phone is next to impossible.
3. What is the best way to grow raspberries? 
4. What should we put in the section of our front yard between the walkway to the front door and the garage? Just a little space. I was thinking succulents? Or maybe pots…
5. What is a food-producing tree that is actually pretty? Thinking about maybe the front yard.
6. Are the national parks closed?
7. Do you worry about surfaces during the quarantine or more about exposure to people? (Takeout food, mail, parcels, drop offs, etc) Both? I wish we could drop treats off for our friends and neighbours, but I not thats not everyone’s jam.
8. Any new quarantine music you’re enjoying?
9. Whats the best way to support your loved ones during this time? 
10. When do you seed grass? 
11. What comes first, grass or fence, if we’re aiming to hydro seed? 
12. Where do you go to buy a butchered pig? We’re not as much “side of beef” people but we love sausage. Does anyone buy a pig? Around here?
13. How about fresh fish? I wish I fished…
14. Is there an excellent detangler for kids that doesn’t smell so strongly of fabric softener? What about leave-in conditioner? 

I’m sure there’s more, but these are some of the questions that swirl around in my mind these days. Themed towards Covid and my garden, mostly, lol! Please, help a person out! I want to be so organized when Spring shows up so I can make the most of my time! 

Yesterday was the warmest day of the week, and that is not saying much 😳 It was still freezing out, but we were a little desperate. Some of us were, anyway.

Also, the kids hadn’t eaten as much supper as they usually do, and we had six egg in a holes that were going to go to waste. So we threw them in a bag and bundled up to go walk them over to Cher’s house for her dogs. 

It. Was. Freezing. But it was still a pretty cute gig. 

The walk there wasn’t too bad. It was just that the wind was pretty biting. The walk back was another story 😆 Yet another walk where we just put our heads down and powered through! As we walked, I tried to remind them how nice it was being outside. Hahaha! It was an effort, anyway. They all agreed, as the wind left them breathless. 💨 (Did you know the wind emoji is also the fart emoji? Lol!)

Everyone was tired and freezing when we got home, which was actually perfect for bedtime. We let the kids take a breather before we started bedtime stuff, and I’ve gotta say it was our smoothest bedtime in a while. Not in the way that no one struggled. They did. But they didn’t get up a bunch or make up any excuses. They were ready to sleep. I love when that happens. 

It was a really nice way to wrap up the day. A little miserable outside but totally worth going out in it! That being said, I REALLY anticipate warmer weather!