I think I come off to some as someone who prefers to be pampered. Who likes things around me to be happy. I am Type A, who loves a plan and things to be properly in their place, to be sure, but I am adaptable when need be. I do like my bed. But I am not against camping at all. I’d rather be at a rustic cabin, cuz that is what I grew up knowing, but I have been camping in my teens. I’m not quite the stepmother-to-be from The Parent Trap (Hayley Mills, I love you). When I…
We have had no time for anything except preparing for our vacation. Thank goodness the medicine I took for the infectious colitis I suffered seems to have nearly worked, and I can almost function normally and eat properly again. That was rough. Now to focus on the next thing ahead! We are going to visit friends and then we are camping for a weekend before coming home. I should specify! In this day and age there are a lot of people who go camping with portable houses basically (“glamping” or “glamour camping”) and then there are those with RVs or…
So it has been a hard week or so. Josh’s 30th Birthday went by quietly. His mother showed up for a surprise visit and we went out for dinner Thursday night, Vietnamese. I felt bloated, nauseous, crampy, and awful that night and most of the next day but ignored it. Friday the 20th was Josh’s birthday. We played games and watched the World Cup. That night my Mother-in-law stayed to babysit and we went out for drinks with a couple true blue friends. One of my fave people, Shanna, came too. We talked each other’s ears off until after 1…
When I was 14 I used to write a poem or two or ten every day. I have notebook upon notebook. Just those plain black coiled notebooks. Most of it is TERRIBLE. I was never formally trained so they have no rhythm and I couldn’t tell you what type of poem any poem is- of mine or anyone else. I grew up completely enamored with Lord Alfred Tennyson and E.E. Cummings and read their poetry over and over. Growing older I realized some song lyrics are very much poetry as well; such as everything by Leonard Cohen and Hawksley Workman’s…
As I blogged earlier, my Husband and I have a two person book club. We are both avid readers but we found, once we had two little ones running around, we have less and less time to read. My Husband works at a job where he has the drive to a client, the drive between clients during the day and the drive home to listen to music or the radio. He decided one day to use that time to finish a book on tape. I found the same book in our library and started to read while the kids ate…
We have started to frequent the library again. The kids love the library! Both of them pick out any books they want and then check them out with their own cards. Here are three we keep going back to….. 1. We have taken this one out twice in a row and my kids don’t want to take it back. Inside this book, the Dinosaur versus everything from spaghetti to talking grown-ups to tooth-brushing. It is a really fun read and the kids love helping out with the roaring. I have even used this one to convince them to do other…
I was on Pinterest today. There were so many pins and boards dedicated to motivating kids to do chores. A lot of the pins involved crafts to set up punch cards or checklists for chores, and at the end the child would receive a reward. I was thinking a sticker, or a family bike ride, a movie night, or something similar. I was wrong and when I started to read the comments I realized this quickly. Many of the parents posted “Oh this works so amazing. At the end of the list I give him $20 and he has to…
My husband and I have started something interesting. I recommend it. It happened almost by accident. My Husband had downloaded a book on tape, Steig Larsson’s “The Girl Who Played With Fire” for a road trip. I finished my book while he was away and started to read the same book. When he came back it turned out we were in about the same spot in the book, but he was a bit ahead of me. Since I read at lunchtime while the kids eat, and Josh listens to his book on tape while driving to different clients all day,…
So I grew up in Saskatchewan and during University I ended up needing a place to stay and found a townhouse with a friend. Well, really, if I’m to be honest, a frenemy. BUT she was living with this fantastic girl that was destined to become one of my bestest friends ever. And this summer we had the privilege of staying with them on their farm for part of August… which I adored. The minutes and hours and days were too quickly eaten up with laughter and fire pits and eating and talking (non-stop between Melly and I for days.…
In the not-so-distant past… Today I had Izzy. On that day she isn’t even born yet….. I am in super painful back labour, and telling the doctors there is no way I can go through with this. But thanks to miracle drugs of the modern world I was able to relax and get through it. On the original birth day she was born at 10:22pm. 😀 I had her birthday party with friends in June, but today is her actual birthday and in September I am planning to have a family dinner for the family that lives here. Oh,…