It's been a while now that we (or at least I) have been on a journey
of learning to reduce, reuse and recycle.

I've always loved old things and I'm pretty thrifty so it's not been
difficult trying to reduce and reuse. Recycling on the other hand is
not something I was raised to do. But even that, we've recently
started to do. This is all in our efforts to keep things simple and
learning to be content with what we have. Also we believe in caring
for creation through not consuming more than we need and reducing the
trash that is filling up our limited landfills. Another thing that
we've been doing is also growing our own food using the limited space
we have. Oh... and composting, hopefully that works, we just started.

Ok... where to start?

Let's start with REDUCE.

Haha, it helps when we have limited budget to start with. We try not
to buy things. It's REALLY hard. We try. We're not very successful
here but we do keep to just buying books and clothes when necessary.
We use the library a lot so we only buy the classics and some popular
culture books that we like. And since we've been here, I think we've
bought clothes only at the start of every season. The kids do grow out
of their clothes pretty quickly and I do like shopping lah. Since
moving twice in the past couple of years, we have junked a lot of our
things and kept it simple. All we own are in the 2 bedroom apt we live
in now and also stored in one bedroom in James' parents' house. Yep
that's about it, I think.

Ok truth is, the shopping culture growing up in Singapore in deeply
deeply ENTRENCHED in me. What do we do when we have nothing to do?
Shop right? Seriously, even living in the countryside in NZ the past 2
years, has not purged the consumerism out of me completely! Eeeks. On
the weekends, we used to love to go into Warehouse (like K-Mart) and
look for little things to buy or even look see look see. Ah... so hard
so hard.

But we're going to try. A family of 4 doesn't need that much money to
live on as we have discovered esp if we reduce, reuse and recycle. :)

James has been working hard to get our garden going.

We harvested our first kale on Sunday for dinner! We also picked some
cilantro (coriander), chives, rosemary, thyme and basil.

I made rosemary roasted potatoes (added thyme in too) and James cooked
chicken heart with all the other herbs and veggies. There's also a
plate of play dough cookies that Sophie made :)

Today I picked some chye sim, chives and cilantro to throw into our
congee too. So convenient!

Feels so good to eat our own harvest. Can't wait for the rest to grow
up. Sophie was really excited too. She's been picking on the chives
and eating them on her own too. Great way to get the kids eating
veggies.

experimenting with sound, finally made it to Granville to get a kite,
Akari is back from Japan!, forest walk, hung out with the
homeschoolers at the UBC farm, worked on homework from Chinese Class,
playing at the playground with the homeschoolers after Art Class...

The weather has been great. So good to have more outdoor play. The
kids have been enjoying running around in the woods and open space.

Today marks 10 years since my DTS and also the day I met James for the
first time.

I still remember that time so clearly because so many things happened
in that year. I'm so thankful God intervened into my life so
purposefully and caused me to change directions. I'm so thankful for
the time I had in DTS and my friendship with James. Learning to hear
God's voice and to live by faith has totally changed my relationship
with God. The time in YWAM opened my eyes to see faith lived out and
love poured out like never before. It has been an amazing 10 years.

Thank you Lord, thank you Lord. Thank you for loving me enough to
barge into my life. :) You are a giver of good gifts. Thank you for
James.

P/s That's why I'm always really excited when people tell me they are
doing their DTS coz God used it to change my life.

The weather has been great! Finally I can see my toes again!

On our last day without James, we went to church on our own. Usually
I'll just skip since I'd need to stay with Levi in the nursery and
miss service anyways but I didn't want Sophie to miss Sunday School.
She really enjoys Sunday Sch. And it would be nice to hang out with
the parents at nursery anyway. So we went and it was a blessing. Got
to know some new parents.

As usual Levi falls asleep as soon as we are out of church and Sophie
and I went for a lunch date!

We shared a bowl of noodles. This is her being all goofy and eating.
I've really been enjoying the time that I have with her.

After lunch, we went to the library. Levi was asleep all this time.

On the way home (we usually walk home from church), we stopped by the
park coz she wanted to climb onto the rock to read. Levi finally woke
up and wanted to pick flowers.

When they got home, I got them changed into their swim suits to have
some water play. Finally the second hand water play table is put to
good use.

So glad to survive the 3 days on our own and have James back! Ended
the day with Mother's Day dinner. Sweet. Very thankful for these two
amazing children.

It totally rocks to live near the university. We live about 10 mins
bus ride from the University of British Columbia (UBC). I love the
vibe of the campus - constant flow of people learning different things
daily.

Today we got to take a peek into a marine research lab at the
Biodiversity department at a science fair organized by UBC.

Hermit crab

Got a seahorse painted

Dug for some bones

Found out that mushrooms and tomatoes are classified as fruit

I love how they made these!

And played some games

It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

James is away on retreat this weekend so it was up to me to get the
weekend going. After a whole week of outdoor activities, I decided I
need an indoor day. It was nice.... we baked and painted.

Levi painted for the first time.

I put him in his highchair coz that's less mess. He loved it! Totally
confused in the beginning but eventually he caught on. I use Crayola
washable paints for him. I love them coz they wash off so easily. I
think 18 months is a great time to introduce paints in this way. It
kept him occupied for while. Until he started painting his lips. Eeks.

Sophie was on the go with ideas from My First Art Book (an Usborne
book, brand new from the library! May 2012, woo too!).

I love this piece of hers. Watercolors are just so cool.

While Levi napped in the afternoon, Sophie and I baked a chocolate
cake and cookies. I was on a roll! The cake was for Samantha's 6th
birthday. :)

I love slow days like these.

I love love love that we keep finding new places to discover in this
amazing city of Vancouver.

We gathered at Kits beach, nearer to Varnier Park, just where the
Maritime Museum is, to celebrate Richard's 30th. A significant moment
and we were pleased to be invited to share in that special moment of
turning of a decade. They are just such a special couple.

The kids as usual had loads of fun in the open space. Levi with
Daniel's skateboard (he actually lifted his hands like a real
skateboarder) and a little Boston Terrier. Sophie with the flowers and
people.

This group didn't have kids but am glad Sophie and Levi are happy to
play together!

And the food. Levi naturally stopped and gravitated to the food as
soon as it was revealed. That's his gifting. To sniff out food.
Serious.

Sarah made Viet Pork Buns and Spring Rolls.... SO GOOD. It absolutely
makes sense that she's now Regent's catering service.

Thanking God for friends and love. A blessed 30th to Richard, wishing
him deep walks with the Lord in this season. Refreshing and tender
love.

Grace discovered a river trail about 10 mins drive from our home so we
decided to go check it out today.

It's like a different world out there. Can't believe we're still in
the city. It almost felt and smelled like Matamata - horses, lotsa
space, greenery, and poo. The area had many horse stables and nice
huge mansions. The trail we walked on was also a horse trail so it was
littered with horse poo, haven't seen those for a long time :)
Reminded me of the cow poo in Matamata. :)

We walked the trail until Levi fell asleep and the kids got into
action to explore the tributary into the river. It was MUDDY.

At first they had their shoes on and climbed the rocks.... slowly one
by one asked to take off their shoes... so eventually they were all
covered in mud and totally enjoying themselves. Something about kids,
water and mud. So happy lah.

Oh and one highlight of today - we saw different people riding horses
and a mother duck with her brood of duckings.

Now I totally understand why the North Americans schedule summer
holidays to be so long.... it is totally ridiculous to be stuck in
school when the weather is so great! Sophie is already comfy in her
swim suit and having no shoes. We're heading to the beach again
tomorrow! After some learning in the morning that is. :)