Thankful

Its Thanksgiving weekend.  

Where do I even begin?

I find myself hoping that in some way that I give thanks for all the good in my life each and every day.  With a glance I notice the words, "What are you grateful for today?" drawn in dry erase marker across the glass insert of my bathroom door.  A reminder to myself to take a present moment to consider what I have in my life.  

What I do know is that Thanksgiving weekend, or even the month of October, has become somewhat of a check point for me over the past couple years.  When thinking about what I am thankful for and what I have in my life, I am sometimes in a good place and sometimes I have found myself struggling somewhere in my life.  It seems that when the Thanksgiving weekend comes around, it inevitably becomes a time to check in with how I am doing and if I am really and truly making the most of, this "one wild and precious life" that I am given. (Thank you Mary Oliver).  

This weekend I am reminded that last year was one of struggle.  Quite honestly, I wasn't feeling as thankful, grateful and appreciative as I would have hoped and I had to make an effort to bring these thoughts to the forefront of my mind in the days leading up to Thanksgiving weekend.   It did me a world of good to reflect on this.  I really did need to do something to see that glass as half full again.  

This year I am good, better.  

I see my beautiful, health and happy girls.  I see my talented and dedicated Kevin.  I see the lifestyle we chosen for our family.  I see the connections with others that we have made.  I see the opportunities we have in front of us.  I see my own strengths and abilities.  

Its important to me to make something special out of weekends and occasions like this.  Its important to me that my girls grow up knowing that there is a special weekend where we reflect on thankfulness, gratefulness and appreciation.  Its important to me that we spend time together.  Its important to me that a family dinner is special, different, and more than the usual.  

They may not get it now, or even notice it, but I want to instil tradition and that will come in time.  

There aren't enough words to express how thankful I was for the weather that was delivered to us from sun up, to sun down this weekend.   The sun shone, the sky was blue and life was evident - everywhere.  

This weekend was spent strolling through the local outdoors Farmer's Market with each of my girls' hands in mine.  We rode bikes as a family down old, yet familiar bike trails, reminiscing of the times we had spent there when we were just K2 and K3.   I sipped coffee, alone, in a quiet coffee shop while I sorted and organized some of what has been cluttering my mind.  And I made delicious home made trail mix and granola bars.  

This weekend we ventured to our family place.  Again, never failing to disappoint.  We are so thankful for this place that melts cares and concerns and settles us into a place of undistracted togetherness.

 We thought there could be nothing better than a bit of end-of-season marshmallow roasting in the middle of the day!  Needless to say, the girls were anxious to get the fire started.....

With the gathering of paper, wood for kindling, logs to be split, two partially eaten bags of stale marshmallows and we were good to go....

I don't think they burn as bright in the day : )  and I will say that I think they taste better at night, but really, the girls didn't seem to mind.  Karis preferred them stale and straight outta the bag, Kamille preferred them two at a time and a little bit crispy!

 I topped mine off with my market purchase, Kettle Corn.  Yum!

There must have been a forest fire somewhere, because overhead was the back and forth of helicoptors carrying water bombs. 

Karis lost her ball down the hill into the water.  She was so upset as she watched it roll down into the mucky water.

 Big sis was going to try to get it, but the bank was quite high where she was....

 Mama to the rescue!  (and any excuse to get a photo of me in here!)

Soon after there was a spontaneous musical band travelling through our site!  

Both girls have really shown an intersted in music lately.  Kamille is loooooving her music teacher at school and is always happy to tell me about what she is learning about in music class.  One day I had the chance to meet her music teacher and introduce myself.  Turns out, she was just as fond of Kamille, and her interest in the class, as Kamille was of her.  She was so energetic and lovely.  I can see why she's a favourite of Kamille's!

Karis loves to dance and she literally starts to bounce or bop to a good beat when she hears it.  Its so awesome to see her pick it up.   The musical band was her idea!

But with weather as amazing as it has been and the warmth of the sun drawing us in, the girls put their musical instruments away in favour of shovels and pails and we headed on over to the island.

 The mud continues....

As we walked closer to the mountain range, the sun was on pace to fall behind as we arrived to our destination.  We soaked it up while it was with us....

This used to be a 6:00 or 7:00ish point for the sun in the sky...now it was closer to 3:30.  

sun on kamille, no sun on kev

Upon arriving, we found that the landscape had changed once again.  A spot that was once where we had rested our red umbrella and played along the water's edge was now a river of uneven slopes of sand.

this is where we ate chips and ju-jubes one day not long ago.

Kevin was able to pretty much walk around to view the other side of the island along a stretch of sand where water usually flows.

At one point, Kamille, who was hesitant about coming out to the trailer in the first place because she thought she would be bored, looked up at me and squealed, "Nature is a playground!"  Yes, my big girl, you got it!  Always.  Always in nature!

 They had so much fun....

 ...tossing sand..

...even getting a mouth full of sand.

 Making sand angels.....

 ...and digging their toes down below to feel the warmth of the sun's rays that was leftover.

 Nature is good that way.

Moustache!  

Its something she must have picked up at daycare and I love how much it really is a moustache look!

Oh my sweet baby girl was so so so very sad when she realized that she and her Daddy weren't going to sleep in the cabin together on this night.  She positively loves being here and while Kevin was working on a few things with the cabin, she must have thought we were staying.

He's promised her a night of snuggling once the railing on the loft is built.  Gosh how she loves her Daddy and the cabin he built!  

Our Thanksgiving weekend did included a delicious turkey dinner and a night snuggling all together while we watched the movie Madagascar 2.  We expressed thanks and gratitude for things in our lives - Kamille for the trees, because they keep us alive and let us breathe and Karis said she was thankful for our house, and her Mama and Daddy.  

Oh my sweet girls, how grateful I am for you, your health and your Daddy's love and kindness.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

***  

A little additional bit of love to remember about this weekend:

We were so proud of Kamille on our big family bike ride.  It was the longest ride she's done on her own two-wheeler and she did so well.  And, to make my heart swell just a tad more, Kamille read the bedtime story to Kevin, Karis and myself tonight.  Its a book we've read to her a million times over, Where Is The Green Sheep? by Mem Fox, so she likely picked it for its familiarity and its repetition, but there was something different in the way that she read it.  She was more attentive to the words and she did notice and stop herself when the patterns of the wording changed.  She recognized when the familiar statements weren't on the page and she made her best effort to sound out the unfamiliar words! It was amazing to watch!  I loved watching Karis watch her big sister as she read us the book.  So much love.  

The Cabin That Kevin Built

Its no secret that Kevin has a talent for creating, building and always having some sort of "project" on the go.  In my opinion, he gets these ideas and obsesses spends a lot of time thinking them through.

For the most part, I truly do benefit from his ideas and his work....

his father's day "built it myself" bench

re-purposed wood and nails

And this summer he also extended our deck so that we had more room.  This was no simple task.  There were large sheets of glass than needed to be removed and replaced when he was done.  

He is the kind of guy that does the job and then a little extra.  

Nothing is ever half-assed. 

The under-side of our expanded deck was enclosed with rows of 1.5 inch thick pieces of wood which he stained and measured out to be perfectly distanced from one another.  Not a quick job, but it looks awesome!  (similar to below) 

Exactly what he had done to the front deck last summer.

He's also a tool-guy.
He's got them all and he loves when he gets to use them.

His passion flows when he is at the trailer.  

Completing amazing projects this summer such as our kitchen renovation....

.....installed an outdoor shower, as well as stairs and a ramp to the water (with Rory), and his claim to fame - the woodshed that is build without nails, each groove gnawed with his own teeth.  

ok, that's funny.  but seriously no nails in this structure. 

When the cooler weather brings him inside, this won't stop.  He tinkers in our crawl space under our house and he spends hours in the garage.  As I type this, I look up to see the huge hole he has created in one of our walls on the mainfloor.  He is mid-job in creating a recessed space for our TV and DVD player into the wall so its not so obvious in the room.  There is no electrical for it.  He's gonna do that too.  He's got it all figured out.  I love that he can do this type of stuff.  

Anyway...

It was late spring that Kevin began to ruminate toss around the idea of building a cabin.  I am not exactly sure where the idea originated from, but it was after listening to him talk, glancing at many drawings and finally observing a foam-board model that he had built that I began to think that this might be one of his obsessions ideas that comes to life.  I mean, seriously, his model was built to scale with a plastic woman figure that he placed inside so that I could get the full effect.  Again, nothing is half-assed.

He showed all of our neighbours and anyone that would listen to his plans.  Of course everyone gave him the "you are awesome" thumbs up of approval.  He discussed it over many beer with his best friend (who is an architect) and began plotting how he could make this happen.

One day I arrived home to find an actual size framed wall of said cabin idea lying in our driveway.  Well, I'll tell ya, when foam board becomes wood, there is no stopping Kevin.

So how does he justify pitch this idea to me?   He tells me, "Don't worry baby, it will only take me 5 days and I will spend less than $3000 on it."

Ok, right?
And just like that....

We are the proud owners of a 100 sq. ft, non-permenant, cabin in the woods.
5 full days of his life, strength and sweat and currently sitting at a grand total of approximately $1700.
He has done it.

He took a week off work and finished the complete structure, ensuring that it was weather resistant.  

Fortunately we have had incredible weather since then and he has continued to spend time here and there putting all the finishing details into the outside structure - a tin roof, insulating, paint, eavestroughs etc.  

These photos are not the most recent capture of the cabin (minus eavestroughs), but pretty close to its outside completion.

the overhang is crooked because its propped up with a slant. 

See how the overhang falls to become the cover of the sliding door.  So smart!

The side and back.  Kevin has plans for an outdoor wash station/kitchen to be built just outside of the door.

Welcome!   That wooden step was found in the river.  Kamille primed and painted it one day while she was out there with Kevin.  

Its our little cabin in the woods!

He has built it on site of where our trailers are.  The plan was to use it once our tin box trailer wastes away due to water damage and other things that are currently affecting it.  But now that its done and liveable, its hard not to want to drag it out of the forest and replace the trailer!   We'll wait till next year.

So how did he build this in under $2000 and even under his budget (so far)?  Did you know that Kevin is the "wheeler and dealer" type?  Well he is.  He spent quite a bit of time in China (for work) when Kamille was a baby and toddler and so he quickly learned the value of material items.  Everything is negotiable in China and so he pretty much brings this way of thinking to anywhere that he shops.  Did you know that if you just ask, you can likely get a deal on something?  It does help that his line of work has allowed him to have established rapport with the local Home Depot management team.  He's not just some random guy asking for a deal in that situation.

Over time he scavenged wood from behind the Home Depot (he had permisson to do this).  The OSB he scavenged eventually became the ceiling boards.  And by doing some dumpster diving a couple days a week, he was able to scavenge 2x4 boards from wooden pallets that eventually supported the walls of the cabin.  We had a great collection of wood growing beside our home leading up to this.

The skinny horizontal window in the loft used to be in our kitchen and Kevin works in the paint industry and so all of that was easy to come by.

He got the all the windows and the sliding door second-hand from Home Depot and the re-use it store in town.  I'm sure he starts conversations like this, "So I noticed those windows lying around.  How about I take one of those off your hands for, um, lets say $50?" and then the negotiating begins!

He's the master of walking away as well.  He'll take the chance that if it doesn't sell for a week, you'll be willing to sell it for cheaper later down the road.  For example, our neighbour was going to sell the tongue-and-groove loft boards to Kevin for $2000.  Kevin wasn't willing to pay that much so he waited.  They were posted on Craigslist but didn't sell, so when our neighbours girlfriend complained that they were taking up too much room in their garage weeks later, the price dropped to a nice bottle of Spanish wine.

His other trick is to ask for something to get "thrown-in."  Like when he got the single door.  It went something like this, "I'll take the door for $100, but will you throw in the $60 sink for $10?"  $110 dollars later he has a door and a sink that was originally going to cost him $60.  Serious.

But the best story of all was the night he was driving by a townhome development that was getting its eavestrough's replaced.  He stopped in to ask the workers if he could have the old ones that were lying on the ground.  They said sure.  Kevin went to grab the guys a 12 pack of beer to express his thanks and when he returned they opted to cut him brand new eaves, custom cut to the sizes he needed....all for a 12 pack of beer people!  He scores like this all. the. time!

Anyway...he seriously is amazing.

Want to see the inside of the cabin too?

Its just framed in and all the many details of the inside will come in time.  I'd like to see Kevin come home every once in a while, so he's leaving the inside for later.  It will have cupboards, a drop down countertop space/island and different furniture.
But for now.....

pondering his next move. 

The loft is moveable and these boards are very heavy tongue-and-groove style so each one can be taken out.   One side will always be a main sleeping area, the other will depend on how much storage we need.  This shows the maximum loft potential.

such a happy boy.  

Railings will go up as well to prevent accidents. *shutter*  

The main loft is huge.  We could all sleep in this space, but we are considering a pull out for the lower level.  

Yes, I totally got them to pose for this next photo because it reminded me of Laura and Mary Ingalls in their lofted bedroom with the window close by.

totally watching for pa to come home!  ; )  

The other side is big enough or a kids bed if he were to build a railing for that side as well.

 Its already starting to take shape with odds and ends from around.....

And so this is the Cabin that Kevin built!  Pretty awesome, eh?
He is so talented and yet, just the average guy with no design or building experience to qualify him.

Kevin will tell you that I am not the biggest supporter of him when the ideas he has first begin to flow.  Sometimes I think its not realistic.  Sometimes I resent the time he might spend on his ideas.  But in the end, I can honestly say that the ideas that Kevin follows through with have always resulted in amazing things.

Dude, he built a cabin.  It is small, but we can live in it!  Its bigger than our trailer!
I am also proud of what my husband can get up to in his spare time.  ; )

And I am so excited to see what kind of fun we'll get up to in our new family space!