On the weekend, Melissa, Griffyn and Tarryn came to visit Michelle and the boys. Barry was working all weekend, so the girls were able to visit and have a bit of fun.

On Sunday morning, Melissa phoned and asked me if I was coming over to see the boys. I was happy to oblige. I love Griffyn and I have only seen Tarryn once before.

When I got there, Griffyn was just having a snack. A Tim Hort*ons timbit - the old fashioned kind with no glaze or sugar. Melissa is very good with him and doesn't allow him to have candy or a lot of sugar.
Griffyn is not only walking, but running and has been for some time. It's amazing how fast they grow. He is cutting teeth and likes to chew on his finger. Notice his tiger on the coffee table. He has several of these animals and loves them all.
Tarryn loves laying on the floor and watching all the things above him. I forget what these are called, but I remember Brandon having one. Both he and Jordan loved it. They are good entertainment for infants. Tarry looks at everything already. He's discovering the world.Well, Tarryn has been fed and is out like a light. I'm not sure how Melissa got so lucky but both of these boys are good kids. Griffyn obeys commands most of the time. He did get a one minute time-out while I was there for opening the drawers on Michelle's desk. Of course he is curious but Melissa doesn't let him away with anything. She is very gentle in her speaking tone and just says no, no. If Griffyn doesn 't obey after being told a couple of times, it's time out and he is learning.

Brandon was very good with the boys. He held and burped Tarryn and read Griffyn several stories over the weekend. On Saturday Griffyn crawled into his lap to listen him read. I wish I had seen that. I bet Brandon was ecstatic, though the on ly indication of this would have been a grin.

Jordan wanted to hold Tarryn and have his picture taken. He had some fun with both boys. Brandon didn't want his picture taken at the time, so I didn't force him. Melissa was teaching him how to do something on the computer.

I enjoyed the visit with all the kids. I held Griffyn and he offered to share his snack and his drink with me. I think Melissa is doing an excellent job with these boys who are only a year and one month apart. It can't be easy taking care of a 15 month old and a 2 month old.

As you read this, I am away with Brandon and Mom. We are going up north to see the autumn colors and Brandon and I are going to do a bit of fishing. I will be back Wednesday, but not sure what time. I have scheduled this to publish at 12:01 AM and hope it works.

Enjoy your week and enjoy the sights, sounds and fragrances of the season. ~Blessings, Mary~

In honor of Women's History Month and it's theme, Women in the Lead, I researched the lives on women who came to Canada to settle in the prairie provinces.

On November 7, 1885, the last spike was driven in British Columbia and the Canadian Pacific Railway stretched all across this great nation. Soon after, Canada's Minister of the Interior, Clifford Sifton, had thousands of pamphlets printed and sent to the US, England and European countries urging people to leave their homes and settle on Canada's prairie provinces where thousands of acres of fertile land available. Representatives were sent to tell people in Europe of the golden Canadian west, where there were thousands of acres of fertile land to be had for free. This wasn't entirely true because the land cost $10 and certain stipulations had to be adhered to according to the Dominion Lands policy. One was that a home had to be established at the minimum of 18 x 24 feet. Each parcel of land was 160 acres and all stipulations had to be met within 3 years. The offer of free land was a dream come true for many European families and they left their homes and came to the land of milk and honey - namely the Canadian prairies. They endured traveling across the rough Atlantic on filthy steamships only to arrive in Canada to board steam trains and travel for days. When they disembarked, they found that they had arrived in land that was dry, empty and flat and had no mery and stole the lives of their loved ones. Yes, conditions were harsh. The first thing these immigrants had to do, and it had to be done quickly, was to build shelter. There were no towns nearby and few neighbors. The families were isolated and lonely. Because there were few trees on the prairie, soddies were the only shelter that could be built.
Women toiled beside men to plough the rough prairie grasses and collect sod to make their homes. These women slugged heavy pieces of sod into carts and wagons from dawn until dusk. These pieces of sod then had to be stacked grass side down in double rows to make the walls of the soddies. Often the only wood available for roof supports were the very wagons that hauled the sod.

Soddies took weeks to complete and even though they were small, dark and had leaky roofs, the women turned them into cozy homes. Many prairie women covered the walls of their soddies with paper or cloth, while others plastered them with clay and straw. Once the walls were covered the women whitewashed them to brighten them up a little.

Some soddies had windows, but many didn't. Curtains, in the form of blankets, were hung from twine or poles for a bit of privacy. These inspiring women made quilts for the beds to bring a bit of cheer into the room. They stitched samplers to be hung on the walls while having no modern conveniences to make their work load easier. They fell into bed at night, exhausted, only to get up before dawn and do it all again. They mopped up water day after day when rains pummeled the prairies and leaked through the sod roofs. The old saying goes that if it rained for three days outside, it rained for six indoors.

Besides all of this, many times these women peformed this hard manual labor while pregnant and still nursing the last baby that had arrived months earlier. There were no doctors, so the women learned to use the prairie plants to nurse ill children and husbands. Still, these women forged on, kept homes, raised their children and worked side by side their with their husbands in the fields.

The women who helped settle the Canadian prairies to make Canada what it is today were strong, brave women who met obstacles head-on without complaint. They were women who fit into the 2008 Women's History Month theme - Women in the Lead.

If you would like to see what these women endured, click HERE to watch the video.

Enjoy your Sunday and remember to take time for yourself this weekend. Read a book or take time to enjoy a favorite hobby. ~Blessings, Mary~

In honor of Women's History Month, which is celebrated in October in Canada, I would like to review two books about women during WWII. The 2008 theme is Women in the Lead and these certainly were women who knew how to do just that.

The first volume is titled, Proudly She Marched Volume I by Ruth Russell. This book is a great read. It tells the story of 21,624 women who came from across the nation to Kitchener, Ontario in 1942. They came from all walks of life in order to sign up for the duration of the War. They traveled by train to Girl's Town, which was situated in Waterloo County. Girl's Town was a men's base that had been converted to accommodate them. They left farms and jobs in factories and stores. Some were teachers and nurses and some were homemakers. They all wanted to do their part in the War Effort, which they did and did proudly.

The second volume is titled, Proudly She Marched Volume 2 by Anne Kallin. This book tells the story of the women who joined the WRENs (Women's Royal Naval Service) at the urging of the Canadian government.

In 1942, young women traveled to Galt, Ontario, to join the Navy. It would be their job to release men from certain areas of service so they could do their patriotic duty afloat. 6,783 young women answered the call and trained at the HMCS Conestoga, which was the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service's training center.

The WRENs played a vital role in the War Effort between the time they arrived at HMCS Conestoga and the moment when the Ensign was lowered at the "ship" on the hill.

Both of these books tell the history of Canadian Women during WWII. All served in roles that had previously belonged to men with the exception of nurses. These brave women, after years of no recognition by the Canadian government, are now being honored for performing their patriotic duty so many years ago. They were pioneers in their own right and definitely left their mark on Canadian history. I salute them all.

Note: During WWII, Canada was still a British Colony. Though we declared war on Germany independently, all service men and women were considered to be part of Britain's military.

Enjoy your weekend and keep warm if you are in northern climates. It is to be windy and cold this weekend. ~Blessings, Mary~

It's time for Show and Tell Friday. If you would like to participate, drop over to Kelli's at There's No Place Like Home.

This week I have a family treasure to show my readers. The bone china covered dish below is 106 years old. It was purchased by my father in the 1970s for my mother. It cost an atrocious amount - $25 to be exact. That was a lot of money in those days and Dad was disabled at the time. He would have had to save for months to buy Mom such an expensive gift.

Notice the beautiful scrolled handles on the dish and the unique handle on the cover. The bottom is kind of scalloped. The dish is white as snow and is in mint condition. Even the roses and gold trim are in pretty much perfect condition. A bit of the gold has faded on the dish handles, but not many things are in such excellent condition when they are 106 years old. You can tell just by looking at it that whoever owned it before mother gave it a lot of TLC. There isn't so much as a nick out of the rim.
Here is a top view. I love the pink roses and will cherish this piece until it is time to hand it to Brandon. When he gets it, he will treasure it. He often asks to see it. He knows that one day it will be his. Why? Because one day when we were at Mom's, he saw it and exclaimed how pretty it was. He asked where she had got it and she told him that his great-grandpa had bought it for her long before he was born. He then asked if it could be his someday and the next time Mom dropped in to see me, she brought it and told me to see that Brandon got it when he set up house on his own.

Now this is a rare piece in my estimation. It was made in England and it is stamped with a green crown stamp that says, "Johnson Bros. England Patented 1902. There is something else there but the stamp has faded a bit and I couldn't make it out even with the magnifying glass.

I wish this dish could talk. I would like to know where it was purchased, who owned it from 1902 to the 1970s when Dad bought it for mother at an auction. Why was it held in such high esteem? Was it used for family dinners on holidays or did it spend much of its life in a china cabinet where the owner could display it proudly for all who came into her home to see? Lots of questions and no answers.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this family treasure. Enjoy your weekend. ~Blessings, Mary~

October is Autism Awareness month in Canada. In order to raise awareness to autism, I will be posting several times this month on various aspects of Autism Spectrum Disorder. There are many things that falls under the umbrella of Autism. Here is a graphic that will give you an idea of some of them.

October is a beautiful month in Canada. All of the trees don their beautiful autumn gowns and bright splashes of red, orange, yellow and brown look marvelous on a backdrop of evergreens.