Playdate

We're always guaranteed to have fun at the Children's Museum.  We can go to outerspace, pretend to work in a restaurant, play with words, and teach in a turn-of-the-century classroom - all in one morning.  Soon there will be a new Arctic gallery, and well, that tickles us pink.  I hope there's ice fishing!

Here's to the weekend!
N

In Progress

We started a few masterpieces this week.   One being a creative endeavour, and the other we will leave to nature (with a little sun and water).

Yesterday's public discussion on the Senate's report on poverty was eye-opening.  We all know that poverty is devastating to one's soul, and for that reason alone, we should want to eradicate it, but it's been proven with unrefutable stats that it costs taxpayers more to allow our fellow Canadians to live below the poverty level than it does to bring them in from the margins.   It is to all of our benefit to educate, house, feed, employ and nurture every single one of us.  Imagine a country where each person is productive and paying taxes.  It would be an economic dream.  It costs taxpayers $100,000 per homeless person per YEAR.  Imagine if we helped lift that person up out of poverty by meeting their needs - housing, food, schooling, health, and finding a meaningful, good paying job.  It would be a very good start indeed.

So now I have to figure what I'm going to do about it.  In the next few weeks, I'll be meeting with the volunteer coordinator at a homeless shelter for young single moms.  In addition to some focussed volunteering, I will continue to talk about it and spread awareness and educate.  We need to show that the public, us, wants the poverty issue to be the government's top priority.  I've also joined the London Homelessness Outreach Network which is a grassroots organization developed out of the passion of individuals to take action on homelessness in our city.   If you feel like joining me, I'd be happy for the company. 

Happy Thursday, friends!
N

High Winds

Fun times are being had in these parts.  The Bumblebee is writing a book about a monster with smelly feet, and that there drawing is a town meeting to brainstorm some solutions 'cause all the 'sunlight' super power flowers are wilting from the toxic fumes.  We've come up with an ending, but each page she writes takes us farther from that predetermined destination.   Needless to say, it's going to take more time than I thought to wrap this ditty up.

Thankfully the girls and I have the next two days to hang out and enjoy each other's company.  I plan to wear lots of sweats, knit up a storm, drink pots of tea, and do a little early spring tidying.  What I am really looking forward to is an event on Tuesday morning that I am co-organizing for work with Glen Pearson's office.  Senator Art Eggleton will be presenting his report In from the Margins: A Call to Action on Poverty, Housing and Homelessness at the Wolf Performance Hall.  Doors open at 8:30 a.m., it's free, and there's no registration required to attend.  I'm stoked because this is exactly what I was seeking in my resolution-making - getting involved and building a caring community.   I just hope that I keep it together and don't cry.  When I get passionate about anything, I get really blubbery and unintelligible.  Everyone deserves a roof over their head, enough food to eat, and respect.  We live in a country that is incredibly rich with resources.  If one person is in need, we are all diminished.  If only this was as easy as solving some freaky malodorous toe jam.

N

Jackpot!

The Bumblebee likes reading.  Let me clarify.  She likes me reading while she listens.  And that's cool.  In the last few years, we have read Charlotte's Web, Nancy Drew, Anne of Green Gables, and lots of Little House on the Prairie books.  I'm a sucker for reading.   Just before Christmas, the Bumblebee discovered the Bad Kitty books, and suddenly she wasn't waiting for me to read to her, and before I knew it, she had finished all of the Bad Kitty books, and I hadn't read a single page.  I felt a little left out.  I could hear her laughing in bed and staying up late to finish "just one more chapter".   And so the quest began to search out another series that would equally encourage this solo reading.  She had seen the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie and expressed interest in reading the book.  The library came to the rescue last week, and she's flying through the first book.  And this week, the second in the series came in, and it's just waiting in the wings.  I'd have to say I'm enamoured of this little one flipping through the pages and chuckling to herself.   I admit I've snuck in bed beside her and listened to her read aloud, and this Wimpy Kid is hilarious.   Maybe not the classic headstrong female heroine I've been pushing on her for the last while, but I'll take it if it means that she continues to love reading.  :)

N

Fifteen

The eldest turned 15.  Over the last few weeks I've been practicing saying I have a 15-year old, but it still sounds crazy today even though now it is real.  I don't think anything can really prepare you for parenting a teen.  She's much closer to being an adult than being a child.  It's amazing to watch her spread her wings a little more each day.  She's pretty responsible.  She's very likable.  She can be very serious, and she can be very funny.  She also has raging hormones.  She is a teenager after all.  It comes with the territory. :)

Unfortunately she also has the flu.   Spending the day in bed with a sore belly wasn't exactly what she wanted, but there's always next weekend.

Here's to another year of growing and learning and coping and cracking jokes.

N

School Lunch First Aid

My newest trick to entice the girls to eat their lunch apple is to sprinkle cinnamon on the slices.  When the slices naturally brown from being exposed to the air, the girls think it's cinnamon.  Well, it IS cinnamon, but they eat them.  They think it's a special treat.  They wouldn't eat the slices before because they were brown, and they refuse to eat apples unless they're sliced.  This is brilliant.  It's almost as brilliant as the time my friend showed me how she flips the bread crusts, so the crust is facing the spread on the inside of the sandwich, and the kids haven't a clue that they just ate the crust.  I experimented this trick on my family with grilled cheese, and no one suspected a thing.  These tricks make me feel a wee sneaky, but we're wasting less food, so I feel it's a win-win.  Good food is making its way into their bellies and not into the garbage.  And like Martha would say, "Now THAT is a good thing."

N

Friday Night Skating

Friday nights around these parts are being spent skating.   It's a nice way to wind down a week of work and school.   We skate in circles, we tell stories, we make plans, we joke around, we laugh, we hold hands, and we hold each other up.  I think to myself as we go round and round that we are so lucky to be skating and letting loose. We're lucky we have one another and these moments.   It's the four of us against the world.  To make the night last longer, we follow it up with fancy hot chocolates at Starbucks, then we slowly drive home in the dark.  We dump our skates in the foyer, and we change into our pyjamas and get cozy under blankets and watch movies.  The teen is not in these pictures as she is the one snapping away because on this particular Friday night, her feet were sore, and if you've ever argued with a teenager, you would know it's pointless. :)

Here's to five more days 'til our next skate.
N

A Teenager's Sanctuary

There is one room in this house in which we rarely step inside.  It's kept tidy for the most part.  I sneak in every few weeks and feather dust it to freshen it up a bit.   I never stay long.  I bet it's a treasure trove of teenage angst and drama.  I'd rather not find out as I am certain it would probably keep me up at night.  There is also a large collection of monkeys, and their stares are a bit unnerving.  Terrifying, really.  However, I am enamoured by her wall of art.  There are a few paintings that she has painted, but my favourite is this portrait that her best friend/boyfriend painted of her for Christmas.  He absolutely adores her, and I know that he spent so much time perfecting it.  I love it!  She spent an equal amount of time knitting him a super long navy scarf, and he wears it every time he steps outside which is more than I can say of Mr. J who has wore the Cobblestone I knit him once in two years.  They're so cute and cool and sensitive.

Happy Saturday!  I'm going to hunker down and get some knitting finished.  I'm excited about dinner - hummus, pitas, and fresh veggies.  It's a nosh kind of night.

N

Funky Cold Medina

When I found myself pregnant fifteen years ago, I had lofty dreams of being the hippest coolest mama, but it didn't take long for me to learn different.  Kids don't think their parents are cool.  I should have known this because I thought my mum was the most uncool.  But a mum has to be cool if they recognize coolness when they see it.  And if my kids are cool then I think that automatically makes me cool because I made them.  They are my mini me's.  This is my kid, so I am cool.

What kid takes a picture like this?  It's brilliant.  Hence, I am by association.  Huzzah!

N

Nantasket

This cozy little sweater came together in THREE days!  I'm talking a couple of hours each night by the light of the Christmas tree because during the day, we were out skating, going to the library, visiting friends, hosting a dinner, and cleaning house.  It helps that the pattern is fairly simple, and the wool was bulky.  Nantasket is a new free pattern from Berroco.  As soon as I saw it, I knew it was perfect for my Bumblebee, and I have had ten balls of Sandnes Garn Alfa wool for a year and a half in the stash - just enough for a child-sized sweater.  It's soft and stretchy and warm as well as a pleasure to knit. My only modification was to add an extra three inches to the length of the sleeves, and obviously I only needed to maybe add one tops. I think the sweater will look absolutely lovely with her skinny jeans, her leggings, and her flouncy skirts.  Best of all, I think the kid actually likes it.  She may even wear it.  I LOVE this sweater.

Now back to my neon green feather-weight cardigan.  If I ever finish it, I vow to wear it every day.  I'm serious.  Note to self, that Christmas tree NEEDS to come down.  I'm done with the holidays.  It's back to work and school tomorrow.  And packing lunches.  Ick.

N

Christmas Knitting

These seed stitch bracelets from More Last Minute Knitted Gifts take an hour from start to finish.  They take just a titch of sock yarn, and they're so sweet.   I think they would make a lovely little last minute gift for a hip teenager.  Thankfully I have a hip teenager, and she has many friends.

N

PS. The bracelets were knit exactly the same except I stretched the bottom one when I was testing it out on my wrist without undoing it (like a lazy teenager).   Now you probably think I have chunky wrists.  I assure you they're normal-sized.  After I took this picture, I stretched the heck out of the top one, so now they look the same again.  Huzzah.

Gingerbread House

Holy moly cannoli.  It's snowing hard and crazy.  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas . . .

And speaking of  Christmas , we can check off decorating a gingerbread house. Done.

 

Now I'm going to have to dig out the driveway, so that I can get out to play soccer.   Bleh.

N

Decking the Halls

Over the last decade, my parents have invited the grandchildren over to decorate their revolving, sparkling Martha Stewart Christmas tree.  This weekend was no exception.  We arrived to a bare tree and boxes of bows, balls, and ornaments, and by the end of the night, the tree is decked out from head to toe.  I love that they have favourite ornaments to hang, and they feel just as close to the ornaments with which my sister and I grew up coveting.  My favourite ornaments are the cream embroidered and stuffed stars that my mum made one year when I was in high school.  I also especially love the crystal beaded icicles that my sister, my mum and I slaved over for an entire afternoon so many years ago.  Maybe 25 years ago?   And now our children squeal when they pull out an icicle or the ceramic sled with all of their names written on it.  It's gold!

And then my mum makes a big dinner worthy of Christmas day.  This year was roast beef and gravy, mashed potatoes, baby carrots, corn and dinner rolls.  I brought pie and ice cream and cookies.  We ate until we were stuffed.  Naturally the board games were dragged out, and we ended up playing Apples to Apples.  My throat was killing me by the end of the night from all the screaming, laughing and joking around.  It was CRAZY fun.  I was in tears.  And everyone except the two little girls played - they took advantage of this time by moving every piece of my parents' furniture in the basement and building the biggest fort ever made. 

We had such a great time that we rolled up into our driveway well after midnight!

Clearly, this is happiness.  I am so grateful that I have my family, and we enjoy each other's company.  I am ever so thankful for our good health and good fortune.   I have everything I need.

N

Happy Halloween

For the first time in my 14 years as a mum, I feel as if I am on top of this Halloween thing.   The littlest is dressed as the ghostly spirit of a young girl tragically run over by a train just like Jumbo the elephant, and candy is ready by the door.  And we still have half an hour before the neighbourhood gang is gathering.

Huzzah!
N

Boo

That kid found the Halloween box that I unsuccessfully hid last year.  Dang.

N

Some Fun on a Monday

Yesterday we had some 'work' to do.  While the eldest volunteered at a craft station, the littlest and I took pictures.   Well, I snapped away while she played.  I admit I did some colouring too.  We had a lot of fun despite the Bee having a crick in her neck.  When we got home, I heated up one of the ol' rice socks, and she wore it around her neck to bed.  I felt so badly for her, but she didn't once complain.   And that outfit?   Oh boy, does she ever get lots of remarks, but she's got a 14-year old sister!  We've been noticing a trend around here of some slight copying with a little 8-year old jazz sprinkled throughout.   And we are big advocates of allowing our children to choose their own clothes except when they're 14 dressed like they're 18.  Besides, I'm nowhere near her at school, so it's not bothering me if she wears short over leggings with several different stripes. :)   And she loves scarves - this one in particular is made more special because it is El's scarf that was kindly lent to her for just the evening.   The Bee also does her own hair.  I love that she packs her fashion design book in her school knapsack because she's always thinking up new styles, and you never know when inspiration will strike.  Y'all best keep your eye out for this one!  I'm seeing snowflake tank tops and skirts made of streamers in the near future.

N

Loose Ends

These socks have been sitting in my knitting pile for a while now.  In fact I've probably only had to knit the toe on the second sock for two weeks.  Wednesday night while at Ignite London, I finished the toe, but I set aside the grafting until I was safely at home.  Well I got home, and they were set aside again until Saturday morning.  They fit the oldest perfectly.  Those are size 9 feet, my friends!   I shall not feel too guilty when I send her off at an ungodly hour each morning to the bus stop.  Her feet will be toasty.   Of course she can not wear this pair every day, so I will have to get moving on another pair.  If she's especially nice, I will lend her my size 8 socks in between. :)

The pattern is Wildflower by Fawn Pea, and they were very simple and mindless.  Really.  That one stitch is just purling 3 stitches together, leaving them on the left hand needle, bringing the yarn over, and purling the same 3 stitches together again.  Oh Nelly, it was easy.  I used up some unnaturally green Knit Picks Palette fingering-weight wool.  The wool was super cheap, but it is not superwash nor does it have a wee bit o' nylon.  Ack, it's what we get for $3 (I only used a ball and a half).   Oh but they will be warm, and that's all that matters at this point.  I really don't mind handwashing socks.  Really.

Happy Sunday.

N

Mini Me

It's no secret how much this one and I clash.   Mr. J says it's 'cause we're the same person.  Have you ever tried arguing with yourself?  It's an impossible battle to win.  We're not exactly the same.  I haven't a clue from where she gets this sweet curly hair, and she's crazy pretty.   My mum permed my hair a few times in my youth, and my hair stayed limp and heart-breakingly straight, and I was super nerdy.  It was the giant glasses.  Honest!  Her witty and dry off-hand comments usually floor us.  Do I do that too???   I guess we both get choked up and passionate about silly things.  I once went in to speak to her Principal, and it wasn't long before I was crying, and the lady sighed and noted that sensitivity must be a family trait.  So what!  We're artists!   No sooner did I bring home my new camera, she had my 'old' one in hand snapping a hundred pics a day.  In fact these photos were completely her idea.  The wall was changing colours, and it never occurred to me that it would make a great background.  It's gut-wrenching when the mentee surpasses the mentor.

N

Eight

Today you're 8.    I love you just the way you are.

• You make friends everywhere.
• You make the most boring task fun.
• You like simple food.
• You dress good.
• You give life to books.
• You ooze excitement.
• You leave drawings everywhere.
• You dance and sing unabashedly.
• You hold your own with your teenaged sister.
• You say thanks, and I want to thank YOU.
• You let me hug you as much as I want.
• You go with the flow.
• You LOVE parties and vanilla cake and balloons.
• You make us all happy.

You rock. 

Love Mum

PS.  You were most excited today about no longer being legally required to ride in a car seat.  How do you wrap up a gift like that? :)

Labour Day at the Lake

She wrote with feathers in the sand.  Mostly her name and initials all over the beach.  Kat and I set up some chairs and knit the best we could with the wind whipping about us.  It was the perfect way to spend the last day of summer.  School starts up again tomorrow.  Have I ever mentioned my dislike for packing lunches?   Oh well, I'll always have Saturdays and Sundays.

It looks like she has feathers up her noodle.  By the way, I was silently screaming inside my head about how dirty those feathers were, but the doodle is still alive and well.

I can not believe how anxious I am about the oldest heading to high school tomorrow.  That's super big.  I have to stop thinking about it.  It's making me old, grey and wrinkled.

N