“do unto others as you would have them do unto you”

do you ever wonder where this went?? i feel that so many things in society have changed…so many things have been lost as we grow and progress in this world. but i find a lot of old world etiquette fading away. the little things. saying hi to your neighbours…knowing your neighbours. opening doors for people…holding doors open for people behind you. handshakes and introductions. DOING GOOD DEEDS.and the easiest of all….saying please and thank you…showing appreciation and gratitude.

so many things i grew up doing when i was a little girl have been lost and faded. so many GOOD childhood memories. things that, when i think about them…make me smile. one of my favourite memories was may day. may 1st. my sister, brother, and i used to wake and find special little place settings at our breakfast table. a little bouquet of flowers for each us that my mom picked from the garden, a little porcelain girl figurine holding the number of how old we were…okay my brother had a boy not a girl :). after breakfast we would go out to the garden and pick our own bouquets of flowers to deliver to our neighbours, friends and teachers. such a simple thing to do. but it brought  a smile every time!!!

so this year i had realized that i had been very remiss in sharing with my kids some of my favourite things about my childhood….this year i brought may day back :)…with a twist. flowers don’t grow here in alberta in may….one of the many things i miss about vancouver island :). and sorry…store bought flowers were not an option. so we baked instead. we made the most delicious pumpkin bread and muffins…courtesy of gi (you have got to try this recipe…AMAZING!!)…we wrapped it up and made pretty little tags(i cut the tags and the girls punched flowers and decorated them)…and delivered it to our neighbours and friends.

unfortunately i forgot to bring my camera for the delivery part of these goodies…the girls were so excited to be delivering their baked goods that in all the excitement we walked out the door without it….

but our neighbours and friends were touched and delighted by the random act of kindness. it got me thinking that the world would be a happier place if we got to know our neighbours again. if we stopped and said hi. shook a hand. passed a smile on. so while i know may day has come and gone….with kenner road celebrating friendship this month….the idea of may day can happen anytime of the year. i encourage of all you to spread a little sunshine…just because…on your neighbours:)

have a fabulous and beautiful monday!

~jessi

ryan’s pumpkin bread courtesy of gigi

ingredients

3 cups Sugar
1 cup Vegetable Oil
4 eggs
2 cups pumpkin puree
3 ½ cups flour
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Ground Allspice
1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
2/3 cup warm water

instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter 2 9×5x2 ½ inch loaf pans. Beat sugar, oil, eggs and pumpkin
in large bowl to blend. Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg into
another large bowl. Stir flour mixture into pumpkin mixture. Slowly mix in 2/3 cup warm water. Divide
batter equally between prepared pans. Bake until tops are golden brown and tester inserted into center
comes out clean (about 1 hour) Take out of oven and cool in pans on racks for 10 minutes. Then, turn
breads out onto racks and cool completely. Serve with whipped cream.

notes

“This is such a great recipe that is easy to whip up with items I usually have in my pantry and
Ryan loves to help bake it. He requests we make it often and even requested it as his birthday “cake”
for the past 2 years!”

This entry was posted on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 7:09 am by jessi and is filed under giveaway, inspiration, tutorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.