Virtually There

Winterluding a little bit

2012-02-11T08:54:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Ottawa. It was a high of minus 1 or so and sunny and only a light wind. I decided it was high time for a skate on the canal since we've stuck to our local outdoor rink thus far. But when I checked the canal conditions, it looked sketchy.

I had a Plan B: the newly installed Rink of Dreams, still downtown amidst the action, still outdoors, perfectly human-made ice and right in front of City Hall.... beside the canal. So I packed the kids up - it was unfortunately 4:00 pm by the time we were organized enough to leave the house - and headed downtown.

I parked at the National Arts Centre's underground parking. It took us a looooong time to find our way to a door that would get us out of the parking garage and I was decidedly grumpy by the time we hit the outdoors. My mood vastly improved with fresh air though and with the girls' excitement about getting to walk through one of the main Winterlude sites: Confederation Park. It's the site of the best ice sculptures and other great Winterlude public art.

They (and I) and Henry were not disappointed. They ooed and awwed at the ice sculptures and even got to sit on one (these photos were all iPhone specials (and not the 4GS... so sorry for the quality).

Emily and Hope try out the ice chair... and keep sliding off.

We loved the lost mitten sculpture (I'm sure that red and white number is mine.... I lost it earlier this winter. I loved those mitts but I'm not really willing to knit another at this point).

Dancing by the lost mitten sculpture. Henry is showing that he knows what mittens are.

That red and white one... there! Mine! (maybe)

More cool public art... hockey related, of course. This is Ottawa after all.

We stopped for a while to look at the infared wolves. These were very cool and I think they would be even better in the dark.

Favourite public art.

And finally we made it to the rink. We stayed in the middle so the kids wouldn't be run over by the speedy gonzaleses whipping around the perimeter and so Henry didn't get in the way in his stroller. There weren't may people using it (most people were on the canal) and the ice was perfect. My kids couldn't get over the condition of the ice. They'd never skated on perfect ice before. Emily was amazed at how well she was doing. Wait until I introduce them to an arena. Their minds will be blown.

Just starting out. Love Hope's laces.

Henry was content to be pushed around by me. Didn't like it so much when we stopped.

And with a gorgeous view of Parliament and downtown.

The lights on the boards change colours. Sounds tacky but actually really funky.

This is a shot I took of the new Convention Centre, which looked amazing all lit up. Couldn't get it on the iPhone but thought this was a cool effect anyway.

We headed back to the parking garage after only about 20 minutes of skating (and I realized we parked right around the corner from the door out... I just headed in the wrong direction when we left the first time). We were hungry and John was waiting for us at home. This was just a first taste. We'll certainly be back. I give a thumbs up to the Rink of Dreams. We'll definitely head there one day right after school and have a longer skate. For tomorrow however, it's back to our local outdoor rink where the ice is choppy but the parking is easy.

Something's gotta give

2012-02-10T10:11:00.000-05:00

Whenever I write a post up for the Girl Guides Canada blog (which is almost as RARE as my posts that go here), I get back in the groove of writing and wonder I'm not making time for more of it. And then I remember, oh yeah, that's because I do this and this and this and in the evening I absolutely MUST make time for Words with Friends because I now have another addiction to add to my list but this one is sort of good for me, right?, unlike the ongoing addiction to Coronation Street which also takes up part of my evening when I should be spending some time on things that make me grow in some way - such as writing or sewing - or eating.

And for an extra twist of irony, this is exactly what my GGC post was about and I'll post the link here when it goes up although I may have scared Talya off with it's verbosity. It's quite scary. Even for me.

Word of the day: loquacious.

That be me.

And now, I must go and change Henry's stinky and leaking diaper. I've ignored it (and him) too long as I wrote my post for GGC because something must be ignored at all times if I'm to get something else done. Unfortunately this time it was Henry. And earlier this morning, personal hygiene.

Conversation with Hope

2012-01-27T14:13:00.001-05:00

Hope is sick. She's been sick all week which means she's spent almost the entire week in her pyjamas. Today the buses were cancelled due to ~~Ottawa's seriously crappy January weather~~ freezing rain. This mans that Emily, who always insists on going to school on a snow day, has to be picked up at the end of the day instead of taking the bus home. And this means that I prefer that Hope gets dressed. And thus this conversation:

Hope: I wish I could play outside.

Me: Wait, you want to play outside but you're not willing to get dressed to go pick up Emily.

Hope: I don't mind wearing clothes, it's just that I don't want my hands to have to put the clothes on my body.

Even in sickness, this kid is super awesome.

New-found time

2012-01-26T06:57:00.002-05:00

Henry is in this habit of getting up in the morning at 5:45 or so. Today he slept in to a more reasonable 6:30 but that's rare.

And what do I do with this extra time that's being forced on me when so much of Ottawa (and my own house) is blissfully asleep?

I make lunches, read the paper, read email and blogs, make coffee (or tea) of course.

But I'm thinking that I should treat this extra time as something more special (rather than consistently wishing I was still asleep as I do most mornings). Yesterday I decided I would start trying to head out for a morning walk. This only works if John is home. Which he isn't at the moment.

For the mornings when he isn't here or it's too damn cold and icy to convince myself to head outside, I'm going to use some of my time to blog. I've been complaining and whining and lamenting about the infrequency of my posts, which is truly due to how many other things are vying for my time (read: Guiding). I don't really have an excuse if I've got an extra 30 minutes to myself in the morning.

Oh, Henry? What's he doing during this time? Well, watching Netflicks on my iPad, of course. The kid knows how to find it, choose a show, adjust the volume, get back to the start of shows. He'll probably be sending you an email to tell you all about it.

I have some ideas whirling around in my brain about goals or projects I want to undertake for this my 40th birthday year. Blogging is going to play a part. I've got some more thinking to do on it before I tell you all about it. But I'm beginning to think this extra time in my day will play a crucial role.

Christmas until now: a catch-up

2012-01-20T23:27:00.001-05:00

Once upon a time there was a blog. And the blog was happy.

But then the person who loved the blog ignored the blog and the blog was sad.

And then the same person needed the blog to build a house and to sit on its stump.

That's when things got weird.

Christmas. Beth's visit. New Years. Back to school. Brownies and Sparks starting back up. It's January 20 and almost a month (!) since I last posted. I'm not sure I've had such a long hiatus since I started blogging way back in 2006 but I'm noticing this trend among some of the blogs I follow. Maybe we all just need a break from ourselves.

However I still need to preserve our family memories since my personal memory is abysmal and getting worse with age and the less sleep I get so here goes.

Christmas was lovely. We had Christmas morning on our own and then we bundled the herd up and headed to Pam and Jim's for a great Christmas dinner that we didn't have to cook. And Jim made awesome Pomegranate Cosmopolitans.

Here is a selection of photos from Christmas Eve and Christmas morning:

Christmas Eve dinner before we got dressed up and headed to the Christmas Eve service at church. We had our usual German dinner of sausages and sauerkraut. This year we added scalloped potatoes. And ended with the traditional boutentelle (sp?).


Emily begins unloading her stocking

Happy Hope on Christmas morning

As expected, Henry loved his book about buses

After a breakfast of Chelsea buns and fruit salad, it is on to the main event. Emily was happy with her Spirograph from Santa.

Hope opening her Barbie camper. It's seen lots of play since.

John is befuddled by the way the firetruck was attached to the box. Hey Santa, next year take stuff out of the packaging before you wrap it, okay?!

By the end of the gift unwrapping, Henry was an old pro.

On December 29, Family Reyburn descended on our house. Beth and Kate arrived from Texas and my dad and Donna from Gravenhurst. We crammed into our wee house and no one got maimed. We went tobogganing (Kate's first time) and made snowmen and went to the Nature Museum and made necklaces at Savvy Bead Company (one of the favourite activities we did) and went to A Gym Tale and Beth and I went to Spa Nordik on the coldest day we'd had so far this winter. Next time we're taking toques to wear with our bathing suits and bath robes. We also made a huge gourmet dinner on New Years. Beth introduced me to the wonders of St. Germain Elderberry Liqueur. All in all, it was an awesome visit.

Beth and Kate take the GT for a run

Emily, Hope, Kate and neighbour Anna pose with one of the best snowmen we've ever produced.

Kate works on her creation at Savvy Bead

Emily lines up her beads

Hope concentrates while she strings her necklace

Back to the routine come January 9. And since the snow fell on Christmas Day, winter has been hitting us full force in Ottawa with temperatures each morning around minus 17. I'm ready for a thaw. The cold temperatures are giving us perfect skating conditions however so we're going skating this Sunday for the first time this year. I'm really looking forward to it, as are the girls.

Henry turned 20 months old yesterday and he really deserves a post (or several) all his own. He is everything that is perfect about this age right now. Sure, he still has the occasional grumpy day (like today and yesterday) but mostly he is crazy fun to be with. He is cute as all get out. His hair is soft like feathers and curly like Art Garfunkel's. He gives us coy looks when you ask him questions looking for a laugh. His words are coming out faster and furiouser now. He pipes in for the "HI!" part of the Dora theme song... you know in the last part: da-da-da-da-da-Dora - HI! - da-da-da-da-da-Dora - HI!. He shouts out the HI! all on his own. One of his favourite parts of the day is when I play puppets with his bear and lamb that he sleeps with. He goes to sleep giggling away. He calls out "Mama!" over and over again through the day when he wants me to see what he's doing, what's he's built, the trouble he's getting into, or if I just haven't looked at him in a while. He loves playing in the snow, which is surprising given his age. Emily and Hope didn't take to it until they were over two. He refuses to get out of his sled when I'm pulling him around in it. He is crazy-crazy about Kindermusik and starts the next level next week. His favourite characters are Dora, Barney and "Toot", aka Thomas the Tank Engine. While his allegiances definitely lie with John and me, he is totally enamoured with Hope. He calls her name throughout the day if she's home or not. Sadly for Emily, he refuses to say her name although he loves her to bits too. She's dealing with it well but would love for him to give in and say 'Mimi'. For now, it remains all about Hope. Here is Henry's cuteness at work as well as the evidence of his fondness for saying 'Hope':

There have been some great moments with Emily and Hope from the last few weeks. While Beth and Kate and my dad and Donna were here, John and I and the girls played sleepover in the master bedroom. John and I were on air mattresses while the girls stayed in their beds. John has been known to snore now and again (that's called "glossing over the truth") and Emily is a light sleeper like me. Here is the list that Emily wrote one day while we were all sharing a room:

Beth and I just about popped a gasket laughing so hard when we read this. We did our best not to let Emily know how funny we thought it was. I think we failed. This gem is going right into her memory box.

This past week at Brownies we started to teach the girls how to hand sew. They embraced it enthusiastically and Emily came home asking me to show her how to sew on the machine. Two days ago she sewed a hot pad and Hope played around with different stitches on the machine. As Emily sewed her first line of stitching on the hot pad I found myself saying: "Emily, Nana would be so proud!" and felt tears welling up in my eyes. I was surprised by how emotional I was about it. This was a direct connection to my mum and a deep connection between my mum and my girls. This weekend each girl is going to sew a skirt for the Barbies. I can't wait.

Emily had her first piano lesson on Thursday, another connection straight to Mum. For the last year, I've been teaching Emily so this was her first lesson with someone other than me. She loved every second and I was pleased to get confirmation that I've done well with her in the last year because her teacher (the wonderful Lynn) was really impressed with how much Emily already knows.

I took the girls for haircuts over the Christmas holidays and you'll note from the video above that Hope had all her locks cut off. She's now sporting an adorable short cut that I absolutely love. She's really happy with it too. Hope continues to be my even-keeled, loving, cuddling, soft-hearted, reliable, hilarious and fun-loving girl. I can now add budding reader to that list. I'm so impressed with how her reading is coming along and thrilled that she isn't struggling with it. And unlike Emily she seems to have much more patience for sounding out words and working at it until she gets it. How refreshing!

Kudos to you if you've lasted this long. I think I can count on one hand those of you who are still with me. But this gets me mostly caught up and hopefully back in the blogging saddle.

Christmas came to Ottawa...

2011-12-25T21:14:00.001-05:00

...in the form of snow today. Just in time to make it magical.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Early mornings

2011-12-10T07:00:00.001-05:00

I'm not naturally an early riser but kids will force you to do all kinds of things that don't come naturally.

Henry is in the habit of getting up at 6:00 am. And twice in the night, I should add (insert sympathetic awwwws here).

On a school morning this just means that I have more time to get things done before school starts. And I don't mind that at all. On a Saturday, I guess it means I can blog. Or make pancakes. Or amuse Henry (quietly) while everyone else is asleep

But this week I realised that since Henry was born, I've slept in once. ONCE. It was at the cottage this summer and it was only because I requested it and then Hope kept wandering into our room to ask me questions. And no one stopped her so I just gave up and got out of bed. So it didn't really accomplish the happy mood I was looking for.

It's getting ~~a little~~ a lot played. I guess since I'm the one who always gets up with him, it's become the norm around here. And sometimes when a norm is established, it's like turning a laker to change it.

On the upside, I like to watch the sunrise and see the birds arriving at the feeder and I like the quiet in the house. On the downside, it's becoming obvious that I don't have a lot that's worthwhile to say at 6:00 am.

Christmasification

2011-12-08T22:05:00.000-05:00

Unlike last year, I am totally LAPPING UP Christmas this year. I'm feeling all tingly and excited and festive (even with the events of yesterday). I'm oozing good cheer and irritating everyone with my mirth.

As a result of this merry-making attitude, I planned to decorate the house in time for First Advent. Yeah, that didn't happen but I did get everything up by the night of November 30 so that everything was properly festive on December 1. I finally got the lights finished on December 3 (I wasn't as motivated that way when the temperature was hovering around zero but after it went up to something like ten degrees I climbed the ladder again for the last tinkering and plugging-in of the outdoor lights).

I have a treasured collection of Christmas decorations. They go out every year although I often move them around to try different locations and looks. Some years I can have them closer to the ground... other years (like this one) they need to be way, way up away from Henry's fingers.

I loved how Cathy gave a tour of her Christmas decorations so I'm going to do the same. Take note - these decorations wouldn't likely make a design magazine - but they have a lot of sentimental value and that makes them much more meaningful to me than a colour-coordinated Christmas.

The dining room table: new Loblaws Christmas-themed table cloth. I pulled out all my candles and realized I had a good collection to create my own advent row of candles. However, they needed something to sit on so I whipped out some Christmasy fabric and made this little runner. Much better.

Advent candles on the newly-sewn table runner.

Top of the piano on one side: This snow-woman is a favourite in our house. I picked her up at Winners when Emily was a baby and she has to be the most popular Christmas decoration among the kiddies. They take turns walking around with her. Her little purse even has chocolately finger prints on her. And of course, more candles (it's an unintentional theme this year).

Candles collected along the way. The snow-lady and her grubby purse.

Other end of the piano: traditional Playmobil Advent Calendar. I've decided that chocolate advent calendars will not be an annual tradition for us here. I'm not saying "never again" but this is way more fun. For the past few years we've had the same Playmobil Calendar. This year I bought a new one after complaints of boredom with the same toys and scene last year. The kids love to open a new piece each day.

This year's Playmobil Advent Calendar.

A favourite cross-stitch I made for my mum many moons ago.

The words on the picture say "peace on earth".

The hutch below the cross-stitch above: A mess, yes but lots going on here that's fun. A snow globe that was a gift to my mum from one of her sewing students. It has a music box in it too. A very small nativity scene that I bought in Waterloo two years ago. And then the very important and popular "25 Days of Christmas" cards. Each day the girls (and next year Henry) open the card for that day. There's an activity for us to do that is either related to Christmas or just something fun and out of the ordinary. This is an annual event started and hosted by Andrea.

Our messy hutch. Lots of Christmas going on here.

On another dining room wall sits the first cross-stitch I ever had framed. The date I stitched on this says Dec 93. It's almost an antique now!

I still can't help seeing the mistakes I made but love it nonetheless.

Doesn't every child of the 70s remember or have one of these ceramic Christmas trees? I love it. This one has a music box and plays O Tannenbaum.

You'll find these in many Canadian homes. Pretty popular in the 80s.

And yet another cross-stitch I did long ago.

Another cross-stitch I did. I love me a Christmas cross-stitch.

This opening divides our living room and kitchen. Usually bereft with junk, I tidied and remade it for Christmas with a bit of Christmas fabric, my lovely St. Nicholas that I bought years ago in Sudbury when Pit's House of Treasures was closing and the little snowman bell I bought one year at a Waterloo flower shop. Also, more candles.

I love the poinsettia here among some of my favourite Christmas do-dads.

Pile of Christmas books for spontaneous reading and I like to spread Christmas coasters around.

One of two piles of Christmas books.

And here is the piece de resistance. And something I promised to give my sister but I'm having a hard time parting with it. Maybe she'll let me give her something else instead. I love this nativity scene. Way back when we were kids my mum had this made (during the time that ceramics were so popular in the 80s). Leading up to Christmas one year, she had us open a small gift each morning - each gift contained one figure from this set. I remember it so well. After she died Beth ended up with half and I ended up with half somehow. Now they're together and sitting where Henry can't touch them.

My favourite nativity scene.

Fun Santa scene on the window.

Some window decals the girls love.

Backs of toilets are perfect for Christmas displays! We gave that snowman candle to my mum for Christmas when I was pretty small. It's only been burned a bit and is another of my total favourites. The weird sign in the middle makes me laugh because I totally don't understand it. Another gift to my mum from one of her students. Santa and Jesus are entering a house holding hands. Hilarious.

A back-of-the-toilet display.

A favourite touch that was a gift from my friend Marnie, who I love. I only realized this year that this sign is painted on an old slate roof tile from New Orleans. Very cool.

Still one of my favourites.

Again with the toilets....

Another back-of-the-toilet display.

I like to add some touches to the basement for when guests come. Some fake greenery and a candle go a long way.

I like how the mantel turned out this year.

As do some homemade snowflakes.

Cheery snowflakes to welcome Omi and others.

And that's the grand tour. I hope your house is feeling cheery and festive too!

Time for a change

2011-12-07T08:21:00.001-05:00

I have long hair. I haven't had it cut since the summer and even then it was just a trim. Before that, my last cut was in January. I don't necessarily recommend this strategy - it's been adopted out of necessity because getting my hair cut with Henry in tow (or all three kids even) is very unappealing.

My hair has been very long for at least two years now. And it's time for a change. Later this morning I am going to a salon SANS LES ENFANTS and getting partial highlights, a cut and style (thank-you Groupon). I am drooling at the thought of being pampered for two hours.

The Before:

The After: (warning... this post gets really whiny and pathetic from here on in)

Why doesn't my hair look post-salonish? Why do I look so glum? Well, let me tell you...

As I was pulling onto the street where I planned to park right near the hair salon, my phone rang. It was the school telling me that Emily was in the office feeling unwell and a bit warm and could I come and get her.

We have one car and one cell phone between us. On the cell phone front, dumb.... I know.

So, I parked, emailed John and headed toward the salon. I talked to the stylist about my predicament. He told me he had no appointments for the rest of the day, only a couple left before Christmas and after that nothing for about two months. He did say that he would allow me to reschedule (normally without 24 hours notice any coupons are void). I made the decision to go get Emily since I hadn't heard back from John. As I walked to the car, I got an email from John telling me that he'd walk to get Emily and I should keep my appointment. I turned around back to the salon where I found out it was too late (!) to get my appointment back because he'd already started cutting someone else's hair and couldn't stop in the middle of a cut to get me going with my colour.

Too bad for me. To say the least.

We seriously need another phone and if one doesn't appear in this house by the end of the day I'm putting in a land-line. Seriously.

Perhaps it seems ridiculous but I cried most of the drive home. I've been looking forward to these two or so hours at the salon for weeks and weeks. We have no family in town to help me. John's mom is here and I booked the appointment specifically while she was visiting. It isn't fair to John to ask him to stay with Henry for up to three hours during a work day so I can get my hair coloured and cut and get pampered. This was my chance.

I know how trivial this sounds but I spend my day - day in, day out - giving to the kids, to volunteering, to the house, to getting up at least twice a night right now. I really felt I deserved and needed this and then, due to a lack of communication devices and really bad luck, I missed out.

I didn't feel any bitterness towards Emily. Until.

Until she came home, laid down for 15 minutes, announced she was fine, ate her lunch and then asked to go back to school.

And I'm not even joking. Because that would be the cruelest joke ever.

Needless to say, my mood did not improve with that tidbit of news. I poured myself and my crappy mood into stuffing my Christmas cards into envelopes (probably not the best activity to undertake when in the midst of a pity party - not a lot of Christmas joy went into the cards. In fact, I didn't even sign the backs of them. Nice one, eh?).

Afterwards, I made a cup of tea, watched Being Erica and then went to pick up Hope. I took her out for hot chocolate, stood in a giant line at Michael's with my 50% coupon and by the time we left the store I was in a remarkably better mood. Spending time with Hope has that effect. She puts things in perspective and her almost-always-good mood is contagious.

Even so, I still look like a hippy and I'm still kinda pissed but life goes on.

The conundrum of teacher gifts

2011-11-29T13:18:00.001-05:00

I've tried a few different ideas for Christmas gifts for teachers over the past few years. I have several good friends who are teachers so I polled some of them for ideas of what not to get. No mugs (obvious), no homemade gifts by kids (sounds harsh, I know, but the teachers don't know what to do with them afterwards and feel bad throwing them away), no wine (in case they don't drink). With all that in mind, I've normally stuck with something small from Ten Thousand Villages and then baked them some goodies based on what I already know they like. This usually seems popular. This year however, Emily's teacher announced right off the bat in September that she LOVES chocolate brownies and I've already heard that many of her students' families are giving her brownies. So, while I am willing to put myself out there and say that it's possible that I make the best brownies EVER, I'm not going to make Mrs. B any brownies.

So, what to do? I started with getting each teacher a can of Ten Thousand Villages Milk Hot Chocolate (super yum). And I was thinking of taking the easy way out with a Chapters gift card but then I got a small catalogue in the mail from Unicef. It's entitled Unicef Survival Gifts 2011/21 Gift Guide. You can view the catalogue online here .

The first page of the catalogue reads: "Give gifts from our carefully chosen Survival selection, and give children what they need most to survive and to thrive." The next page of the catalogue has a detailed map of where the Unicef Survival gifts will go (some to Central America but most to Africa). The gifts are divided into sections: Health, Education, Water, Food, Emergency and Play.

I was intrigued but assumed that, like most Living Gift programs, none would be priced at what I budgeted for teacher gifts (around $20 per teacher). I was wrong.

You can buy pencils for a school for $20 (that is 1,000 pencils), water purification tablets for $20, a Plumpy'Nut packet (peanut-based food for a child) for $10, therapeutic milk for $25, a writing and sketching pack for $10, and storybooks for $23.

I chose the pencils for schools for one teacher and the storybooks for another. There are also lots of gifts in the $30 range as well. I particularly like the Art-in-a-Box for $30 and the Literacy Pack for $30. I will be mailed a card for each teacher that will inform the teachers that these particular gifts have been bought in their name.

I think they'll appreciate these gifts a lot and I know there are children in Africa who will appreciate them even more. It feels good to do something like this and to know that I'm not adding to a pile of gifts that aren't really needed. I think it also sends a great message to my kids about eschewing consumerism and using your money where it is really needed and that giving a gift doesn't have to be about buying something tangible. It can be about finding a different yet meaningful way to express your appreciation for someone that also helps someone in dire need in the process. I hope that they see how well this represents the meaning of Christmas when they present their gifts to their teachers.

I can see this becoming a yearly tradition for teacher gifts for our family.

What do you normally do for teacher gifts? If you're a teacher, what do you love to get? Or dread?

Why we will always turn the radio on from now on before any car trip

2011-11-26T18:24:00.001-05:00

When I started writing this post two days ago, I wrote: One week ago right now, I was sitting down to a lovely dinner of chicken burgers and other yummies with my friend Michelle and her two lovely daughters (and John and our kids) at Michelle's house in Waterloo.

But now it is two days later and I finally have downloaded the rest of the photos to go with this post. My intro kind of lost its poetic appeal when I have to say "as of a week ago two days ago, I was sitting down to a lovely dinner..." Such is life around my house. Great intentions!

We had a great weekend two weekends ago visiting our friends and family in Waterloo and vicinity. The drive there was HORRENDOUS, worse than last year even when construction on the 401 heading west slowed us down so badly that we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in scenic Trenton, Ontario.

That was a total walk in the park compared to our drive to KW last weekend.

We hit the road 30 minutes after we had planned to (which is pretty much what we always plan for). The kids were chatting so much in the car that I didn't turn the radio on to listen to CBC Ottawa's drive-home show. (Cue foreboding music here. DA DA DAAAAA.) We stopped for supper in Kingston. I got a curious Facebook message from my friend Jan asking if we'd encountered the slowdowns on the 401 because of "that accident" she'd heard about on the radio. Nothing so far, I commented. On we went. DA DA DAAAAA.

Not long after we were faced with endless brake lights. We had just passed an exit that would have allowed us to get to Highway 7. Instead we sat between that exit and the next one for...
FOUR (horrendous) HOURS.

For most of that time, we sat with the engine turned off, as did most of the cars and transports around us.

I won't give you the rundown of what has to be some of the worst hours of our collective lives but we did live to tell the tale. And miraculously no one had to get out to pee which was very good since cars were zipping up and down the shoulder (in both directions!), police cars were zipping up and down in one direction, and transport drivers were using it as their personal parking lot. Not a safe place to squat for a pee.

And where did we end up spending the night? At the exact same Holiday Inn Express in scenic Trenton, Ontario.

Of course, our situtation was much, much better than the poor people who were actually involved in the accident that closed the 401 (initially in both directions). There were two transports involved and 4 cars. Someone died on the highway and another was airlifted from the 401 in critical condition. It was really bad.

We did finally make it to Waterloo the next morning and spent the rest of the weekend making the rounds.

Hope and Ruby begin the first of many tea parties

Madeline and Emily play as though no time has passed

Aunt Sue looks on while Henry explores Uncle Steve's dinky cars

Hope and Claire seemed to like the cars as much or more than Henry did.

Omi and Claire snuggle up.

We were lucky enough to hit KW during the weekend of the Santa Claus Parade. We all really like this parade because, unlike Ottawa or other big cities, you can always get prime viewing even if you arrive well after it has started. What a refreshing change! We were thrilled to start the day with breakfast at Greg and Tamara's house and then we all walked over to the parade with kids in tow.

Aisha found the bands a little loud.

There are a few floats/acts I always look out for at the KW parade:

The big lion

The giant Kitchener Ranger who has to bend way down to make it under the wires.

The "Waterloo Oriental Band." It remains a mystery to me.

I was lucky enough to squeeze in a reunion coffee with long-ago friend Cathy. A lifetime ago I used to date Cathy's brother and spent a lot of time with her and her family at that time. We lost touch about 15 or so years ago. Of course, you always wonder how people are doing and what they're up to when you lose touch. Through my dear friend Marnie (who I also saw in Waterloo but neglected to photograph), I found Cathy's blog and badda-boom badda-bing, reconnected. And now we read each other's blogs, email now and again and are Facebook friends. Funnily enough (and awesomely enough), I won a prize on Cathy's blog recently for her 500th blog post: a great Running Room shirt (for John) and a Starbucks gift card. For the handover, I met Cathy at Starbucks in Waterloo and was thrilled that her dad, Erv, joined us. What a great time we had chatting and catching up! Here are a couple of pics stolen from Cathy's blog:

Cathy and I showing off John's new shirt (he loves it by the way)

Erv and I posing with our drinks (courtesy of Erv!)

The drive back to O-town was thankfully uneventful aside from Henry seranading us with screaming most of the way. It was GREAT.

Needless to say, my Starbucks card was put into use on Monday morning at our neighbourhood Chapters (aka free babysitting in the form of a Thomas the Train table).

This is what a woman looks like after a weekend away with three kids. That is a fully caffeinated drink.

Henry enjoys part of the spoils in the form of a ginger molasses cookie.

Great weekend but glad we don't do that drive more than twice a year or so. Of course, as Henry gets older and we get wiser about turning the radio on (!), it will get easier. Right!?

Why hula-hooping by an almost-40-year-old should only be attempted under the supervision of a qualified physician

2011-11-16T21:09:00.001-05:00

I was lazily preparing breakfast on Saturday morning (not rushing to make school lunches and breakfast at the same time like I do from Monday to Friday) when I heard Rob Burwash's sleep-inducing voice announce that there would be a hoop-a-thon/hoop dance/hoop thingy on Sunday afternoon in front of the National Art Gallery. A woman came on to talk all about it - hoopers (yes, that's what they're called) from all over Ottawa would gather with their hoops and hoop til the sun went down.

It took me all of about 4 seconds to decide where I would be on Sunday afternoon. Because hooping = awesome.

Emily and Hope really like hula-hooping and so does their mother (not that I imbibe often but when I have I rather love it). Emily is especially fond of it along with her friend, Rebecca. In fact, I even made hoops for them all last year (it is really fun to make your own hoops and they are SUPERIOR quality to the poor excuse for a hula hoop that you find at Canadian Tire). And so, I invited Rebecca and our neighbour, Anna, to join Emily, Hope and me on Sunday afternoon to hoop the day away.

Here is what we saw when we arrived (after driving all over God's green Byward Market to find a parking spot):

Coordinated hoop dancing!

There were piles of hoops to be tried - all homemade jobbies of course - and we tried many.

The favourite was this giant hoop:

I hooped right along with all the girls while trying to perfect some tricks (or at least get them to a point where the hoop wasn't hurtling across the brickwork at breakneck speed aiming to remove a tooth from an unsuspecting hooper or non-hooping innocent bystander).

We stayed for two hours. I was hooping for about 90 minutes of that.

As I said, I don't exactly hoop a lot.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that the next day I was ~~whining incessantly~~ mentioning on Facebook that my back was hurting. And later that day, I tried to bend over and pick something up and could barely stand upright without the help of that "I've fallen and can't get up" contraption due to my abdominals being in shreds. Oh and also, my neck hurt. I think I hurt my neck when I was perfecting my neck spin/launch the hoop to my hands trick that was oh-so-awesome and yes, it will appear on Youtube someday or at least on Canada's Got Talent.

A good number of people were there - it seems mostly hooping teachers and their families/friends - and us. And then a slightly strange woman who attached herself to our little posse. She was nice and friendly and really liked kids and I assumed she was there with her own kids but then she said and did a few things that made me realize that there is no way she has kids. Like, for example, she was INSISTENT that we pose for a photo with the hoops arranged JUST SO and everyone SMILING and LOOKING AT HER... RIGHT NOW. SIGH. WHY AREN'T YOU LOOKING OVER HERE? And me thinking... you do not have kids because someone with kids would not even attempt to get a staged artistic shot with four girls, one of whom is five years old and all of whom have been HOOPING for almost two hours. Because we all know that that would only be attempted in order to illustrate why you should never attempt it.

That grimace is me wondering why I didn't stop this idea in its tracks.

And then she insisted on drawing portraits of the girls right after I suggested I take them for hot chocolate before heading home. So now we have four tired girls with the hot chocolate carrot dangling in front of them being asked to sit quietly and NOT MOVE after hooping for two hours.

Recipe for success!

It would have gone more quickly if Emily's damn hair hadn't been so difficult to translate to the page.

But we did finally get the hot chocolate, and a sketch of the girls, and lots of stories to tell.

And possibly a hernia.

Do or do not. There is no try.

2011-11-15T10:08:00.001-05:00

When I saw this shirt on Etsy, I had to buy it for Henry.

First, I'm a big Star Wars fan. John is an even bigger Star Wars fan.

Also, this Yodaism fits Henry to a tee. This guy is bigger, stronger, smarter and definitely more mischievous than you would assume.

To your own peril.

As evidenced by him pulling down the laptop, climbing on the couch and opening it. This is just one of the many, many moments of Henry's day when he is into something, pulling down something, messing up something or taking something.

The morning often starts with him opening the dishwasher (on his own - it requires that he depresses a latch and then pulls the door open), removing cutlery and throwing the cutlery into the cutlery drawer.

He then moves on to opening my iPad, finding the video folder, choosing Netflix and then finding a Barney episode to watch. On. His. Own.

After that, it's time to empty the Tupperware cupboard or perhaps unfold all the laundry or maybe walk around with the cloth diaper pail. Or climb up to Emily's bunkbed. You know... if he's in the mood.

Or perhaps he'll find my teacup and drink the remnants. Or eat garbage off the floor. Or out of the compost bin. Yum. Breakfast of champions.

He may wear my underwear around on top of his pants. Or pull every Wii game out of the drawer. Or pull a step-stool over to the sink and start playing in the dishwater. And take photos of his day with my iPhone.

Yeah, I no longer judge him by his size. Actually, now that I re-read this post... I'm starting to think that Henry is actually Yoda. Without the Jedi powers. Although they still may show themselves. Next time my plane is stuck in a Dagobah swamp, I'm going to see if he can lift it with just a blink of his stink eye.

At 11.11.11

2011-11-11T12:57:00.001-04:00

This is what I was doing:

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A snapshot of me right now

2011-11-10T20:58:00.001-04:00

Given that I've pretty much abandoned this space of late, I think I'll just give you a quick snapshot of me right now... Actually, it's more for the me of a future since most of the time I figure that's who I'm writing for anyway.

I've made a small change in my daily eating habits that I feel could have some great long-term benefits and just plain makes me feel better about how I'm treating myself: I'm eating vegetarian lunches which must include a good amount of raw vegetables. Fish is allowable (and encouraged).

I'm completely ADDICTED to Camelot on CBC. Have you been watching it? If not, watch the first episode and then don't give up. Watch the second episode and I guarantee you'll be completely hooked.

I'm getting excited about the plans that Isobel (dearest neighbour) and I have for Sugarplum Fairy Homebaking. I love that I now have a partner in crime to share the burden and generate ideas with! Also, she rules at decorating cakes while I decidedly do not.

Why is it that it is always the same small group of people in any large group that are always the ones who volunteer? Church, school, the community... always the same few people. And we same few people are starting to get tired out!

Yesterday I decided that I'm tired of how our house looks inside. I'm sick of our wood furniture. I'm tired of looking at late early 2000s IKEA furniture. I'm tired of our once-beloved earth tones. I want some bold colours, some great art and a cool mix of eclectic furniture - American colonial, modern, even Victorian. With some leather here and there. I want a bunch of money so I can do all this redesign.

Have you seen this photo? I'll link to it but I won't post it so that it doesn't show up on people's mobiles or iPads as the photo that introduces this post. You all know that I'm new to Girl Guides of Canada but I love the organization and what they give girls around the world as though I've been a lifetime Guider. When I saw this I was disgusted and angry. Maybe you'll choose to make jokes and take it lightheartedly. But not me. I've reached my limit on the sexualization of girlhood in every sphere. Nothing is left untouched. This is an organization that goes against every message in this photo and to take it lightheartedly is to miss what this is really doing and to miss the messages that our girls and young women (and we old ones) are being sent by the world around us on a daily basis (just the tip of the iceberg is that we are valued mostly as sexual beings). We in Girl Guiding (not to mention parents, teachers and many, many others who work with girls on a daily basis) work really hard to combat these messages each time we're with our units because a pillar of the Guiding movement is building strong, independent and confident women who are leaders and feel empowered to make great choices for themselves. To use the very image of a Girl Guide to send the exact opposite message is disgusting at best and downright offensive at worst. So laugh. Make jokes. Shrug it off. Say you wouldn't say no to her cookies. Just don't say it to me.

I'm alive!

2011-10-26T23:25:00.001-04:00

I'm still kicking, friends... just silently. A few times I've written simply brilliant posts in my head but they got absorbed by my grey matter before I could spew them forth.

Given it's late and I therefore have no chance of putting something coherent together here are some random thoughts.

If I dedicated one day a week to cleaning the house... well, we'd live in a much cleaner house. Right now, I tend to do cleaning jobs through the week, here and there. Today I did most of it in one fell swoop. This may be a game-changer.

I really hate the term 'game-changer.'

I'm totally passionate about Coronation Street right now. Who's with me?

Since becoming a Brownie leader, I've become a bit obsessed by owls. Chapters has a gorgeous little owl mug that I've put on my Christmas list and I love some of the owl prints I'm seeing around. Also, I wouldn't turn my nose up at any cute owl necklace on Etsy. Just sayin'.

I realized today after getting all decked out in my yearly witch costume for Hope's Sparks Halloween party that I'm not so into Halloween anymore. I love watching the kids dress up but I'm not so keen now. I do continue to be keen on the candy.

It's time for a dramatic hair change but fitting a dramatic change into my schedule is proving to be difficult.

Henry is beyond all cute right now but he's also a holy terror. He stuffed a ton of paper towel in the toilet last week, rolled waxed paper across the kitchen floor so that it became decidedly unrolled, flushed his toothbrush down the toilet (we think), dumped a garbage can full of glitter onto a toilet seat and flushes toilets umpteen times during the day. He really likes toilets.

And... she's back. And now with more pumpkins!

2011-09-26T20:44:00.000-04:00

Whoowhee.

I was on a roll there but then the old Karen came back to her infrequent stop-ins round these parts. I know. None of us like change so I'm sure you're as pleased as I am that I'm back to my old ways.

Also, my new stint as Guider-spread-thinly has taken up a lot of my time recently what with two Brownie meetings now under my belt and my new roll as a Spark Guider.

Yes, you read that right. I'm now leading a Sparks Unit as well.

What's that? Crazy? Yes, I am. I fully acknowledge that and also my inability to say 'no'. At some point I'll learn that word but for now I will continue in my roll as over-tired and stressed over-achiever.

My issue is that I love to be loved. I accept it. I own it. Let's move on to pumpkins.

(But not before you go and read this blog post that I wrote for the GirlGuidesCAN blog, the first in a series I'm doing for them about being a first time Guider. Go on. I'll wait.)

Today my lovely friend Isobel and I ~~dragged~~ took Henry to Miller's Pumpkin Farm just south of lovely Manotick for a morning of frolicking among the pumpkins while we took hundreds of photos of the boy. Okay, I took the photos. Poor Isobel. She has a gorgeous camera and excellent photo-taking skills but her remembering skills were left behind today... with her memory card.

Luckily, I threw in my point-and-shoot at the last minute and the photos, while not as good as what Isobel would have taken, were not bad. Not bad at all.

A smattering:

Taking a look inside the pumpkin hotel

Peek!

Yeah, I'm cute all right.

Pensive pumpkin perusal.

It's hug a pumpkin day.

Hmm, I think this one deserves a Churchillian consideration.

Gah! Camera! I will wrestle that from your puny hands.

Gourds. Me like.

Witty caption here.

It was a lovely, lovely morning. The weather was perfect. I drank in every moment of sunshine because I fear that we are running out of days where the temperature gets over 20 degrees. I have to imprint this in my mind to get through the coming Ottawa winter.

But let's not talk about that right now. Let's just think of sunshine and roses.

Baby and You Blog Tour

2011-09-19T21:05:00.003-04:00

If you're not Facebook friends with me then you don't know how much I really love Facebook. It isn't because I spend hours there. I don't. It's because I love checking in multiple times a day, for just a few minutes each time, to see what my friends are up to. I have loved reconnecting with friends from long ago and staying in closer touch with the friends I see on a more regular basis.

Having a tight circle of friends, whether in real life or virtual, has been a lifeline for me through the early parenting years and I imagine it will continue to be as the years roll by. I find Facebook is a great place to go to quickly vent or ask a question or tell a funny story about the kids before it is lost in my grey matter.

This is why I think using Facebook in new ways to help new (and old) mothers connect with one another is brilliant. The Loblaws family of stores has created a Facebook page called Baby and You where moms can connect with other moms, ask questions and, best of all, get coupons. I love me some coupons! There is a Baby Talk page which seemed pretty active and a Mom Talk page (less active... hopefully there will be more content there shortly).

On their wall, the moderators have asked a series of questions to get discussion and sharing going. I really enjoyed reading through the series on what surprised mothers most about labour and delivery. The consensus seemed to be how awful the nurses were... I can relate. (I have many lovely nurse friends... too bad none of them work in maternity wards!)

The one thing I didn't like as well is that the Weekly Flyer tab is simply a reprint, from what I could tell, of the weekly Loblaws baby section flyer. When I was on the page there was nothing available under Exclusive Offers. Hopefully more will be added soon. For me, I'm all about saving money these days and I know I'm not alone. I think Loblaws could do some work on this section for sure.

If you're a mom with young'uns, go check out this Facebook page. I'm sure you'll find yet another reason to whittle away some time on Facebook and avoid that big pile of laundry!

Disclosure – I am participating in the Baby and You program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of Loblaw Companies. I received compensation as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Back to routines = deliciousness

2011-09-11T22:04:00.004-04:00

When summer arrives, at least around here, regular routines are pretty much out the window. Bedtimes get later, we play outside after supper almost everyday, clothes don't get ironed ever (which is only a little less often then they normally get ironed), we're more relaxed about sugar and t.v. It's pretty much paradise.

There are drawbacks to the lack of routines however... at least in the eating department. In the hot weather I stop making some of our/my favourites. This summer I didn't make one batch of my beloved granola, which is a fundamental staple for a gluten-freebie like me.

On Friday I could stand it no longer. In went the oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, ginger, cinnamon etc and out came my lovely, gorgeous granola. Breakfast has been delightful ever since.

Granted, it's difficult to spot the granola under the mountain of peaches. Here is my thought on peaches: God reached perfection the day s/he created the peach. Everything after that was downhill.

My morning granola bowl is constructed thusly: several large spoonfuls of plain yogurt. The yogurt MUST NOT contain any gelatin, cornstarch or other ingredients that make me say "blech!". I want pure yogurt and I do not want the container to say anything about low-fat. Low-fat yogurt means fillers to make up for the creaminess. That's where gelatin and cornstarch come in. No. Thanks.

After the yogurt comes the granola, then whatever fresh fruit I have on hand. Today I had this mammoth beauty *in* hand (as proof of its formidable girth):

I love me a Niagara peach. I wouldn't kick it out of bed for eating crackers.

I top my lovely bowl off with a drizzle of maple syrup.

After that, I cozy up with a "Hello. how you doin'?!" and dig in. But not before this is also ready at the standby:

And those two cheeky birds keep me company, looking on forlornly as they contemplate an existence without mouths.

Two big days

2011-09-08T11:07:00.005-04:00

The first big day this week:

Both Emily and Hope were very excited for their first day. Emily couldn't wait to see everyone and find out who her teacher would be. By the end of yesterday she declared Grade 2 to be the "best thing ever!" (although the protests I received trying to get her out of bed this morning would make you think the opposite). Hope was beside herself with excitement about starting full-day kindergarten. She started with just half her class and had a great day.

However.

She was back for her first "real" day today with her entire class (after having yesterday off so that the other half of her class could transition in). We arrived at the kindie yard to find every manner of helicopter parents milling around with their kids, many of them videotaping their kids... doing what? looking confused? waiting for their teacher? Now that makes for some riveting home movies!

Anywho, Hope didn't have any idea who these people were, she only saw one kid she recognized and, to make the whole situation a lot worse, her teacher wasn't in the yard. The only teachers were a myriad of ECE teachers that she didn't know. She went in, became a deer in headlights and burst into tears. And this is a kid who was jumping out of her pants to get to school every day last year and never cried once.

I stayed with her as long as I could, delivered Emily to her yard (where Miss Sympathy kept asking me what Hope's problem was... I do not see a career for her that would require a bedside manner of any kind), and then raced back to Hope to fulfill my promise of seeing her again before she went inside. I was happy to find that Mrs. B was outside, the bus carrying all of her regular classmates from last year had arrived and she was holding the door for her class. I caught her attention, blew her a kiss, wiped away a few tears (my own, not hers) and came home.

Parenting can really break your heart.

But, now onto the second big day this week:

Where does a newly-turned five-year-old want to have her breakfast? Cora's, of course!

John was able to clear the decks yesterday to celebrate with us over breakfast. Emily however was at school. "Not fair!"

Henry didn't give a rip that it was Hope's birthday. Just leave me to my melon, woman!

Last night we celebrated with Emily and dear friend, Anna, along with spaghetti and cupcakes. The big party happens on Saturday.

Not sure if she really likes birthdays though.

Most of yesterday was spent doing a few Girl Guide-related errands and then baking the cupcakes before we got Emily from school. As we left a local school where I went to hang a poster, Hope turned to me and said: "Um, I think you're forgetting something." Me: "What?" Hope: "I think you're forgetting that it's my birthday because we're just doing regular stuff." Priceless. This followed a not-so-gracious response to her birthday gift in the morning, which was one Barbie (she got her big gift, a scooter, in the spring): "Well, I was hoping there would be a lot more Barbies in this bag. Oh well, I'll get more from my friends this weekend."

This kid is a classic (and although it was pretty funny, I did also have a talk with her about greediness and graciousness).

What I did on my summer vacation

2011-09-05T21:44:00.008-04:00

As school is starting tomorrow morning across Ontario (at least for those in the English system... as on Ottawan I must be sensitive to my Francophone friends) and thus students across the province will be following a long and glorious tradition of writing a paragraph about what they all did this summer, I thought I would stand with them in solidarity and do the same. Given that I rarely posted this summer (just having too. much. fun), this clears things up in one go with a first-day-of-school-essay to start the year off right:

At the beginning of the summer, the girls took swimming lessons at Carleton and played with friends. We spent Canada Day at Pinhey's Point. We went strawberry picking at Purple Cow Strawberry Farm (definitely going back there next year).

Our first really summery outing... Pinhey's Point. It was HOT!

Emily's strawberry picking skills are improving!

The second week of the summer, the girls enjoyed Vacation Bible School at our church (actually LOVED IT more than enjoyed it... how could they not when the theme was FOOD) while I packed for our almost FOUR WEEKS at the cottage.

From mid-July until early August, we lived the high life at the cottage! Swimming! Beach play! Hiking! Ice cream! Playing with family and friends! S'mores! Fires! Games! More and more swimming! We spent a day at Uncle Steve's cottage where cousins frolicked. Omi spent a few days with us at our cottage. We hiked up the hill with her and took the annual "couch photo" and a not-often-captured family photo. We started to relish the summer produce (along with a good glass of red). Pam, Jim and kiddos joined us for our annual weekend together at the cottage. We met Aunt Beth and Kate at Santa's Village in Bracebridge where we were elves for a day. Henry discovered corn-on-the-cob.

Emily and Omi chill on the hammock at Steve's cottage on Couchiching.

A gorgeous display of everything that is great about summer. Our kitchen counter at the cottage often looked like this around dinner time.

Omi and the girls on "the couch."

And here we all are at the top! This will likely be one of the few family photos I have to choose from this year for our yearbook. Gotta get better about that!

First fire (and s'mores) of the season!

Pam, Jim and crew joined us for another great weekend which of course, had to include a trip into town for ice cream. This year we went to Kawartha Dairy. Won't be going back to Nutty Chocolatier after this. So many flavour options!

Elves for a day!

Don't get between a man and his corn!

Back to Ottawa in August for exploring the vegetable garden, hanging out with neighbourhood friends, celebrating Emily's birthday and hosting her birthday party at our house (my baby is seven!), more swimming lessons at Carleton, back-to-school shopping, a driveway painting party with neighbourhood kids....

I was so thrilled to discover this orange globe in my garden. I've never tried pumpkins before but I ended up with six of them. So excited!

And beautiful Celebration Squash, too!

For Emily's birthday she requested her usual favourite birthday food: homemade sushi. We all win!

We weren't sure what Henry would make of it... but he LOVED the sticky rice.

Emily's garden-themed birthday party meant lovely ladies lunching.

Bathing beauties.

This may become a summer tradition!

And then... back to the cottage for another week with family (all the way from Alberta) and more swimming, swimming, swimming (and canoeing!). And then closing up the cottage for the season. Boo-hoo.

Uncle Brian and "Leonard" make their way up the dock.

Goodbye until next summer, Mary Lake.

A LONG drive back to Ottawa through Algonquin Park construction and then chilling at home, getting some jobs done around here and getting our heads back into the regular-scheduled-program. And a special end-of-the-summer excursion: Saunders Farm... this also may have to become a summer tradition. The place is awesome. Especially the huge jumpy pillows. So. Much. Fun.

Jumpy pillows!

Cedar mazes!

Adorable children!

A final weekend of fun this weekend... board games, pizza, tea party, baking and canning. Packing lunches.

Tomorrow my wee Hope starts full-day senior kindergarten. Oh, that sound? That's me weeping. I'm going to miss my Hopey so much.

It'll just be me and the wee man during the day (except for those days when I keep Hope home because I can't stand having her gone any longer).

And that, in a nutshell, was our most-amazing-fantastical-summer. I loved it so much and can't wait for next year.

Last hurrah

2011-08-28T12:18:00.001-04:00

It's our last hurrah at the cottage. We're here for a few days and then closing for the season. It's lovely to be back here again after a gloriously long stint in July but it's bittersweet because after this visit we won't be back until May.

I've labelled this summer "the summer of swimming". We were in the lake two or three times a day everyday we've been here. The girls have really advanced with their swimming skills (I also had them in two sessions of swim lessons in Ottawa while we were back there which also helped reinforce all their cottage practice). Emily has almost mastered front crawl and Hope is already starting to learn the stroke too. Hope is our fish; swimming comes easily to her and she's very buoyant. Emily loves the water but has to work a bit harder to master certain strokes although her kick is incredibly strong so she can really propel herself through the water. Even John and I have been swimming more for enjoyment than we have in the past few summers. John routinely swims to "Judgement Rock" across our bay and I squeeze in a swim straight out into deeper water when I can.

I can see each summer becoming easier and easier here: the kids need less entertainment, can spend more time in the water and will start to want to go canoeing and kayaking with me more often. (Emily, Hope and I just came in from our first and last canoe ride of the season. It took us this long to do it because the attempts from previous summers were not fun. Today was definitely fun.)

This morning the lake sent me a parting message. I was having my morning cuppa when I heard a loon on the lake. I came out to the front porch and watched the loon search for it's breakfast between its lonely calls across the lake. Saying goodbye to summer before he too heads away.

Goodbye for this year, Mary Lake.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:N Mary Lake Rd,Huntsville,Canada

Girl Greatness Starts Here

2011-08-16T22:24:00.003-04:00

There are so many posts I have swirling around in my head and none of them have been moulded into anything publishable. I want to tell you about our time at the cottage, about the creative project that Emily and I finally completed, about Emily's birthday and about my sudden desire to get this house organized (one can only tolerate squalor for so long).

Instead I'm going to tell you about something I know virtually nothing about: Girl Guides of Canada.

Emily has been part of a Sparks unit (the youngest group in Girl Guides) since she was eligible at 5 years old. She finished Sparks last spring and was keen on moving up to Brownies. The difficulty was that most Brownie units are held in the evening, finishing around 8:15 pm. That's not good for a girl whose school hours are 8:00 am to 2:30 pm and who requires about 11 hours of sleep to be tolerable. So I toyed with the idea of starting an after-school Brownie unit held at Emily's school. I talked to my friend Julie about it (a seasoned Guider). She was keen to get back into Guiding after a long break and said that she would run the new unit with me. Girl Guides was very interested in my idea and after a couple of phone conversations and a screening, Bob's your uncle. The Unit is starting this September.

Um, yikes.

I was never a Brownie or a Guide (although I openly coveted the chance to wear that brown pleated uniform and matching tam). I know very little about the organization save for the delicious cookies. But, I totally believe in this organization and what they stand for and what they've given to Emily. Here is Girl Guides Canada's Mission Statement:

Girl Guides of Canada-Guides du Canada enables girls to be confident, resourceful and courageous, and to make a difference in the world.

And then there is this excerpt from their program description:

The program fosters creativity, a wide variety of interests, self-esteem, healthy living, initiative, self-reliance, resourcefulness, leadership and the development of core personal values.

and this about Girl Engagement:

By developing and implementing girl engagement at all levels of our organization, we enable girls to develop leadership and life-skills and in turn improve their communities, their country and the world.

How could I not be fully-supportive and excited about being involved? This is girl empowerment at its best. This is fostering and supporting a generation of strong, independent and confident women. I'm fully dedicated to that.

So, even though I'm starting down this road blindfolded (albeit with a friend with a map along for the ride), I'm excited.

If you have a daughter in Ottawa and are looking for a great activity for her this year and are interested in the after-school Brownie Unit, send me an email and I'll send you all the details!

After three and a half weeks away....

2011-08-07T11:00:00.004-04:00

...my garden has this to offer:

Yes, that's a two-litre bottle next to those summer squash.

Garlic, my favourite thing to grow.

The tomatoes are plentiful this year. Now I just have to be patient and wait for them to ripen.

Found this beauty hiding among the vines.

There will be a lot of squash consumed this fall. Hooray!

In the foreground you can see ground cherry plants and their little papers littering the ground (thank-you squirrels). These are now my second-favourite thing to grow and will be in my garden every year now.

Cottage Life 2011, Week 1

2011-07-21T08:27:00.001-04:00

I haven't really fallen off the face of the earth, I've only done so grid-wise.

The kids and I are at the cottage for 3.5 weeks while poor John travels back and forth to teach.

We've just finished our first week and it went much better than I expected. This is the first time I've been here with all three kids on my own and while the cottage is an extremely easy place to be with a 4- and 6-year-old (easier than home in fact), that isn't always the case with a 1-year-old (it sure wasn't when Emily and Hope were that age).

Our days are usually filled with:

-breakfast
- kids watch a video on the laptop
- Henry naps and the rest of us play outside or bake cookies or do a job outside
- lunch
- swimming! Usually takes up about an hour or more.
- hanging out on the porch or by the lake under the trees
- Henry's next nap
- another swim perhaps or whatever
- snack and supper-making.
- another swim to cool down and tire out
- bedtime snack
- everyone to bed
- knitting time or watching a video if we adults feel like it

It's all very fluid. And wonderful. I am so happy to be here for so long this time. I don't want to go back to several short trips again.

It's uber-hot now, just like the rest of the country, but there is always a really good wind off the lake making it manageable during the day but when the wind dies off in the night, sleeping is fitful. Henry is up a little more than usual but it could be worse.

I've managed to complete 3 knitting projects that have been hanging over my head and I'm about to start a poncho for Hope with some of my Briggs and Little yarn from New Brunswick.

When John is here we watch episodes from the final season of Lost in the evening. We've been saving them to watch here.

As I predicted, the girls' swimming has become really good just over the last week. We're particularly amazed with Hope who was just starting to doggie paddle on her own when we arrived and is now swimming under water. She has an obvious natural ability that is starting to weigh on Emily (who is also a good swimmer but has to work harder at it). It will be a good lesson for her to see that Hope can be better at some things even though she's younger.

Today we're off to Lake Couchiching to spend the day with John's sister and fam. Lake Couchiching has no breeze traditionally. I'm really psyched about that. After supper we're going to my Dad's and spending the night there and all day tomorrow (Gravenhurst ribfest!).

And that is a recap of our first week of Cottage Life 2011.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:N Mary Lake Rd,Huntsville,Canada