The only problem is that I don’t actually have a bike to go along with them. Over the last several years I’ve had a few loaner bikes that I seldom used. But, the thought of some fun family bike rides together, or heading out with Locutus on my bike so we can go a bit further afield than I can walk with him, is getting me all excited. Plus it’s a great way to exercise and have a greener footprint. So, I’m starting to look at riding a bike again.

The last time I had a bike of my own, I was a teenager and it was a mountain bike. I never really got the hang of shifting gears (probably because we never really went anywhere very far on them) and I know nothing about bike maintenance.¹ I know that a mountain bike probably won’t be the ideal bike for the type of riding I’m doing, so I’m kind of starting from scratch.

Not sure when I’ll get a bike or what type I’ll be getting yet (though a comfy seat is a must!) If you’ve got any tips or advice for me, or places online where I can read about different kinds of bikes, and generally how to care for and maintain a bike, that’d be great! Also, if you know of a great bike shop in the Surrey/Langley area, let me know!

1. So regretting not getting into this in University when I could have taken advantage of the Bike Kitchen!

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So far Locutus is pretty naturally a ‘run around’ and ‘move things around’ kind of kid. When it comes to physical play at the park or kicking/throwing a ball around, he has no problem. He also loves to move objects, figure out how to open and close things, push buttons, and generally get in to every cupboard and climb on every piece of furniture.

This is great, but I also want to expose him to more creative activities. He likes books, but has little patience to actually hear a story. He’ll move the pages back and forth and generally destroy any pop-up book he can get his hands on. But as soon as we try to actually go through a story from beginning to end, he’s more interested in flipping through to certain pages and going back and forth quickly.

Other creative activities I’ve tried:

• Finger painting with coloured yoghurt (he was still really young when we first did this one. I should probably try it again with him).
• Paint in ziplock bags taped to the window. Yeah, he completely ignored it. Got a little annoyed that I blocked his view.
• Crayons. He loves pens/pencils already, though getting him to stick to paper is sometimes tough. He did take up a set of triangular starter crayons the other day and played with them for a little while.
• Bathtub paint. Again, he wasn’t interested much in spreading colours around, but he did like scooping it with his fingers and dunking it into the water. He’s enjoyed playing with the empty cups in the bath ever since!

Some things that are still on my list of things to try:

• Sidewalk chalk – a little difficult with how busy the driveway area of our condo complex is. Perhaps we’ll see if Grandma and Grandpa want to try it?
• Cutting & gluing paper (or sticking it to contact paper). Have to be brave enough for the potential sticky mess for this one. I’ve already got some safe scissors for him to use.
• Play dough! He might actually like this one since it also has a mechanical aspect to it. But since he still sometimes explores with his mouth, I want to make one of the homemade varieties so that I know exactly what went into it. Plus I think this will be good to help strengthen his hands a bit more.

Got any other ideas for encouraging creative play for toddlers? Let me know in a comment!

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First, they came in these nice red bags. Easily identifiable as an emergency item.

A quick look at the inside and you can see that everything is nicely tucked away in pockets or strapped down. I like this because if you do have to use it in an emergency, it’s nice to know that things will be kept in place and not spill all over the place when you open the kit. There are even extra little loops that could be used to add a few other necessities to the kit.

The kit is designed to be a 72 hour kit for 1 person. So there are little emergency water pouches, SOS rations, some first aid supplies, a whistle, a dust mask, a couple light sticks, and an emergency rescue blanket. There was another card that was included with some suggestions on what else you would want in an emergency kit. It had pretty standard things like flashlight, radio, matches, toiletries, etc. I was impressed that they also suggested you include a pry-bar and an emergency toilet, as these are a couple of items that most people wouldn’t think to include in an emergency kit. I also really like the emergency blanket in there and would like to check it out some more. It’s tiny and I wonder how warm it would really keep you in cold conditions. If it is something that works really well, I think it’s worth tracking down a few more and adding them to our emergency supplies since they were very small and lightweight.

Now for a brief rundown of what I feel the advantages and disadvantages of a kit like this are.

Advantages:

• It’s compact and self-contained. It doesn’t have everything you’d need, but in terms of food, water, and basic first aid stuff, it’s pretty well stocked and in a container that you could carry or strap on if you needed to take it somewhere in a hurry.
• It’s got your food and water supply for 3 days. It’ll do for one person, or for a couple of people for a shorter length of time.

Disadvantages:

• It’s really easy for people to get complacent when they are handed a kit like this. I’m sure most people don’t even open it to really see what’s inside or think about what other things it might be lacking. Plus the food and water do expire and will need to be replaced in 2017. A lot of people get their kit together and then don’t touch it for years, which means that by the time you need the things in it, they are now expired and useless.
• There’s no guarantee that a major disaster won’t leave you hanging for longer than 72 hours. It might take longer than that to get some services back up and running. Or, even if you do have access to supplies after 72 hours, they may be difficult to obtain. I’m not saying that you should go overboard and stockpile way more than that, but having multiple sources of the essentials will help you survive better in an actual emergency.
• It’s great for a major disaster, but it’s overkill for more common emergencies. Let’s face it, the most common emergency to happen is a power outage. I’m not going to break out my SOS rations for dinner if that happens. It’s good to have other contingency plans for more common emergencies too.
• It didn’t include anything about making a family communication plan. If something happens, do you have an out of town contact to check in with? Do your local family members know where to locate emergency services?
• It isn’t crush/fire proof. If major rubble falls on the kit then all those pouches of water don’t stand a chance. For true survival in a major disaster, having resources available in multiple spots is better in case you are cut off from that area of your house, or your kit gets destroyed as part of the disaster. As it was something that was a giveaway product, I can understand why they didn’t go to the expense of putting it in a crush proof case, but the containers that you have for your emergency supplies should also be taken into consideration.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I think these kits are great and generally speaking, some help is better than nothing. I’m just not going to sit back complacently and feel as though I’m ready now that I’ve got this little kit.

Any advantages/disadvantages you think I missed? Let me know in the comments!

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1. Survival Project Update – Emergency Preparedness Week
2. Survival Project – Car Emergency Kit
3. Project Goals

Recently I’ve made several small steps forward in getting our house stocked in case of an emergency.

I know that probably doesn’t look like much aside from a pile of crap. And right now it is kind of just a pile of crap. But, amid all the random craft supplies that are waiting to be organized there are first aid supplies waiting to be organized.

Over the past several weeks I’ve been watching for sales and picked up band aids, gauze, alcohol swabs, etc. The final part of my kits that I need are the containers.

In case you don’t recall my earlier post on the Emergency Kit for the car, it recommended using a Nalgene bottle to hold everything. They are compact, crush-proof, and double as a container for water. Luckily, an MEC is opening nearby in June, so I’ll head down and pick up a few. I figure having a crush proof first aid kit in our main house emergency kit isn’t a bad idea either.

A few of the other bits of progress towards our survival project include:

• Finally got our wills deposited into our safety deposit box
• Got an inventory of the contents of our safety deposit box (must still put a copy of the inventory somewhere in the house so people will know what’s there if something happens to us)
• One of the companies we work with gave out free Earthquake kits. I plan on opening the kit and figuring out what’s there in a separate blog post.
• Finally, a small step towards being better prepared for our most common emergency – power outage – picked up a 3 pack of LED flashlights at the grocery store this morning. Now we’ll be able to stash them around the house an have them handy when the power goes out.

Still lots of little things to do, but getting closer and closer to organized and ready.

How prepared are you in case an emergency happens?

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1. Survival Project – Car Emergency Kit
2. Project Goals
3. Preparing for the Snow/Quake/Zombie-pocalypse

Anyway, I’ll spare you the rest of the gory details of the cold symptoms. Today, after 2 days of getting 5 hours or more of sleep,² I’m finally starting to feel as though I’m getting better. Locutus and Benevolance are also thankfully improving too.

But, May is turning out the be a totally crazy month already. There’s a stag trip for Benevolance this weekend, preparations for a wedding (which Benevolance is playing the piano at), not to mention Benevolance studying for his next exam, and it’s a sumo month too! We’ve decided to cancel any sumo celebrations and I’m just going to focus on getting and keeping the house in order, and hopefully getting back to a few of my projects too!

Speaking of projects, here is the list of things that got derailed from the plague . . .

• My workouts. The rule of thumb is that if symptoms hit below the throat, you stop and rest. But I’m hoping that once my cough fully clears up (this weekend, dare I dream?) I’ll be able to start doing some workouts again.
• My dye projects. There are several shirts that I do not want to be white. I have procured the necessary dye (though I may need salt) and now just need the time/energy to get them dyed.
• Other gift projects. My sewing machine was in for servicing but now it’s back and ready to be used. Once again, I just need the time/space to get the fabric trimmed and get some of these projects finished.
• My crocheted dragon. I was too tired even to work on this little guy. He needs ears, assembly, and a few stitched details. Probably not this weekend, but maybe I’ll find some time next week.
• Blogging! Luckily I had a nice little buffer built up. But that’s gone now, which is why you get this random post of updates instead of something more focused and such. Will work on getting more meaningful content up soon!

Also, we just got some of my old family movies back from being digitized at Costco. I’ll have to find some time and courage to watch through some of the old footage and perhaps put some clips up online for other family members to enjoy too.

1. Please note, the doctor did not actually say those things, I’m totally putting words in his mouth.
2. This felt like heaven after a full week of only sleeping for about 3 hours a night and no naps. The 5 hours still weren’t consecutive, but it’s definitely better than before!

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• 10 Signs Your Friend is Toxic from Marc and Angel Hack Life
• The Lifeboat from Lucy March’s blog

I fully support dumping the toxic people from you life. Even toxic family members. I think that the problems caused from dumping someone are much lesser and shorter term than the problems that toxic person causes to your health and happiness. Even though I do a pretty good job in not letting toxic people in to my life, I occasionally slip up and need a reminder on how to deal with them.

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So here’s a link I came across years ago for making interactive timelines with a webapp called Timetoast. Original link was via Lifehacker.

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If the amount you are getting back is significant, it’s a good idea to put some thought into how it can best be put to use. This goes for any significant windfall of money. Generally speaking, here are some guidelines that I try to follow.

1. It should go without saying that the first thing to do with a windfall is pay off debts. If you have multiple sources of debt, you might look further into debt repayment strategies to find a method that will work best for you.
2. Do you have an emergency fund that can cover 9 months of living expense should something happen? If not, the windfall can go towards filling this fund. A TFSA account is a great place to keep your emergency money.
3. Do you have a large expense coming up that this can take care of? Property taxes? RESPs to fund?
4. If all of the above are taken care of, then I usually look at a 50-30-20 split. Half goes into savings. Even if you already have an emergency fund, most people haven’t maxed their RRSP’s. If you are a particularly savvy financial person, there are other investment options as well.

   Then 30% goes towards something fun and indulgent. Without some indulgences you are more likely to end up spending irresponsibly in the future. So if you plan for some fun spending, you won’t feel like you’re depriving yourself.Finally 20% goes towards paying it forward. This can take many forms, but you might set aside this amount for charitable contributions, or surprising someone deserving with a little money to help them out.

I don’t always follow that particular formula and some of my decision depends on the amount of the found money.

Have you got a strategy in place to handle windfall situations like this? Please share in the comments!

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Since I’m officially half-done with this pregnancy, I thought it would be a good chance to share some of my successes, challenges, and goals for aka-chan II.

Successes

• Made it through all-day sickness without needing meds
• Got this far without needing to wear maternity clothes
• Have started doing regular workouts
• Haven’t been obsessing over weight and have been generally eating very well
• So far, both of us are healthy and normal

There have definitely still been some challenging things so far too.

Challenges

• It’s impossible to get enough rest. Ever.
• I’ve had low platelet levels
• My carpal tunnel is already flaring up and will probably only get worse
• I’ve already been sick twice
• I keep getting regular headaches
• Things like picking up Locutus and carrying him are just going to keep getting harder and harder

There are a few things that I’ve realized and learned along the way with Locutus, so I also have a few goals for this second baby. The goals are for all sorts of things to do with pregnancy and our first year together.

Goals

• Keep my weight gain in check, just like my first pregnancy
• Go outside more, both during pregnancy and after
• Learn to nurse in a sling/wrap/carrier
• Get skin-to-skin contact right away
• Wear the baby more
• Go outside more
• Use the jolly jumper more (just because Locutus loved it, but didn’t get as much time in it because he outgrew it so fast)
• More sensory play
• Do yoga with the kids

And finally, I thought I’d share my crazy wishlist of items. To be clear, we don’t need any of these. But, I still would love to have any/all of them, if money were no object.

Crazy Wishlist

• Bumbo
• More wraps and slings (like an actual Moby wrap)
• Bob double stroller
• New messenger style diaper bag (not that I don’t love my current one, it just doesn’t stay on my shoulder very well)
• A sleep sheep
• A white noise machine
• A wet pail with a lid that secures better

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So, we decided to switch them! I’m excited because I get to give him his gift even earlier than I thought I would. And since I usually like to go out to a park as a family and take a bunch of photos of us for Mother’s Day, the switch works great for that too, since the weather will be nicer in June!

So our household will be celebrating “Fake Father’s-Day” in May and “Fake Mother’s-Day” in June. Anyone else do crazy things like this for holidays?

1. prepping to play at a friend’s wedding and another looming exam

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