A day out at the movies

On Sunday afternoon I took Emily to see her first movie in a movie theatre. Emily is just a tiny bit into Veggie Tales right now (her favourite CD is Silly Songs with Larry, she knows every character by name and often refers to the Israelites in her imaginary games. Just a little bit into it) so with a new Veggie Tales movie opening (The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything), I thought it would be a great mum and kid special moment.

And it was. I wasn't let down. And the Emily who I love the most, the one who doesn't scream, who isn't rude and doesn't hit, showed up to accompany me.

We got popcorn and her first pop, went in and then sat for 25 minutes while the previews went on and on and on and on. Seriously, why don't the powers that be shorten them for kids movies? There were kids there younger than Emily (which I found astounding given that her attention span was stretched) who had to sit through commercials, movie trivia and then seemingly endless trailers. I wish for the days when it was O Canada, one cartoon and then, Bob's your uncle, let's start the show. I would have arrived later but I knew seats would be scarce if I did that and I was right. So, Emily, every four minutes asked me "Is it on NOW?" "Nope, not yet." "NOW?" "Still no."

After the movie finally started, she wasn't so sure if she liked it. But, after the action really started, she was really excited to be there and loved the whole experience.

I look forward to doing it again someday... for a movie that's few months old, where we can grab our seats a few minutes before it starts.

What's cooking Wednesday

Welcome to Week 3 of my tour through my newest cookbook, Just One Pot. What I like most so far about this cookbook is the simplicity of the ingredients. Most recipes have a fairly short list of required ingredients. This week is no exception and in fact, it is the reason I chose the recipe. And, unlike last week, this recipe really does use just one pot (if you don't count the rice I made, and I don't).

Chicken with cilantro and tomatoes

750 g boneless skinless chicken breast cut into thick strips
3 tbsp olive oil
3 medium onions
large knob butter
750g tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp tamarind paste
3 garlic cloves
1 large bunch cilantro
1 small bunch mint
salt and pepper

I made a few changes to the recipe. I'll indicate that as I go along but I'll put her original recipe first.

Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pan. When the oil is very hot (this is really important), cook the pieces of chicken in batches until the chicken browns and turns crusty. Remove the chicken and set aside.

Peel and half the onions and slice down the halves to make chunky wedges. After you've removed the chicken, add butter to pan and put in the onions. Cook briskly, stirring every now and again, until the onions are wilted and scorched in places. While the onions are cooking place the tomatoes in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Count to 20, then drain, peel and chop. (Okay, so I used canned diced tomatoes which meant I didn't have to do this step - time saver bonus!) Stir the tamarind, bay leaf, and tomatoes (using the canned, I just scooped most of the tomatoes out of the can with a slotted spoon and then poured in a little bit of the juice) into the onions. Cook for 10-15 minutes, or until the tomatoes have broken down a bit (since I used can tomatoes, I only cooked for about 3 minutes because they were already broken down), then return the chicken to the pan.

Cook at a steady simmer for about 20 minutes (I didn't - I would have had dry rubber chicken if I had - I cooked for about 5 minutes), or until chicken is tender. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Peel the garlic and chop very fine. Coarsely chop the leaves from the herbs. When the chicken is done, stir in the chopped herbs and finely chopped garlic and serve over rice.

John and I totally loved this. I will definitely make it again. Hope like the sauce on the rice. Emily didn't try it but she hasn't really eaten any supper the last two days for some reason.

Take me away

I searched and searched YouTube for the Calgon Take Me Away commercial as a video explanation of my day. It is naught to be found. But, this is just as good, not to describe my day but to bring me a few laughs and remind me of a time when my only cares in the world were if there was an ample supply of Nerds at the corner store, how long the smell would last in my Strawberry Shortcake's hair and if I had enough beads to finish my friendship pins.



Ed. to add: John won't stop talking about how I should qualify this video and tell everyone how offensive I find it. I pointed out that people who read this blog should know me well enough by now to know that I obviously don't condone racial stereotypes. But he wouldn't relent so here I am adding the caveat. He's good like that.

Apparently I gave birth to twins, just two years apart

It's their hair, isn't it? They're both looking distinctly like young Beethoven's. Hair appointments going under list of things to do.

And if this isn't one of the cutest things you've ever seen.... well, I don't think we can be friends anymore.

Treasure Hunt Debrief

A few people have asked how Emily's treasure hunt went. I've been behind in getting a post up about how it played out.

It went great. In fact, it was the highlight in what has been a difficult week. Emily has been testing limits, and going well beyond them, for the past week and a half and this week it really wore me down. I think it is three-year-old stuff and not a complete chemical imbalance but I'm not ready to make a verdict yet. We've been subjected to screaming, kicking, rudeness, crying, insolence and Hope has been hit and pinched several times. Then she does a 180 and is back to the girl I know. We never know right now what we're going to get and what might set her off but sadly her default right now is to be rude to us and let me tell you, I need a vacation.

So, I devised the treasure hunt to give her and me a break from the conflict and as something special for her and me to do together while Hope slept. It worked so well. We both had a great time.

I drew a map that showed different routes through the main floor of our house. At the end of each colour-coded dotted line there was an X with a number. That marked part of the treasure. There were seven treasures in all.


I started by explaining the map to Emily and showing her how to follow each line and how to figure out where the treasure would be. She needed help for a while following each line, especially when they crossed another line but by the last few treasures, she was able to follow the lines on her own without getting mixed up by other routes. She was also impeded by my sorry excuse for a map. I started out well and then the scale got all wrong and I ended up using only 2/3 of the paper and having to squish everything in. There's a reason I didn't go into cartography. That reason and because it sounds totally boring.

She really is such a smart girl and can follow instructions and learn so quickly. I was really proud of her. It was a great adventure that we both needed.

Here is a little photo diary of the hunt:

It's possible that I'm a bit of dirty bird

Yesterday I finally pulled out the vacuum to do a post-Christmas suck of the living room rug and furniture. I'd put it off long enough and it was getting nasty.

I was just plugging in the vacuum when Emily noticed what I was doing.

Emily: Are you vacuuming, Mummy?
Me: Yup.
Emily: (short pause)

Emily: Is Omi coming?

What's cooking Wednesday

Welcome to Week Two of delving into my newest cookbook: Just One Pot. I'm thinking that the author really should have named it: Just One Pot (If You Don't Count Those Other Two Pots That You'll Probably Use). I really liked tonight's recipe but the recipe called for three pots. What gives? The back of the book cover reads: Delicious, easy meals that are simple to clean up because they're made in just one pot. Perhaps I'm getting caught up in the title and the promise the back of the book makes but I'm a bit of a stickler for accuracy. The fact is they are simple to clean up but only because I didn't do the dishes tonight.

On with the recipe. John and I declared it a winner. Emily ate potatoes. Hope ate ketchup mixed with sour cream. Mmm, mmm good.

Greek lemon lamb with new potatoes

1 lb small new potatoes scrubbed
1 bunch green onions, sliced
1 large clove garlic, chopped
1 lemon
2 zucchini, grated
1 2/3 cups baby leaf spinach (or frozen and thawed like I used)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
1 lb ground lamb
3 tbsp chopped mint
2 tbsp plain yogurt or sour cream
salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender. Drain and keep warm. Put a second pan of water on to boil. When boiling vigorously, add the spinach. Bring back to a boil and cook for 30 seconds, then drain in a colander. Splash with cold water and press against the side to extract maximum water, then squeeze into a ball and chop coarsely. Or, if you use frozen, put in pan with 2 tbsp water until thawed then drain and squeeze.

In heavy-bottomed skillet or other wide-based pan, heat olive oil and butter over medium heat and stir in the green onions and garlic. After a couple of minutes raise the heat and add the meat, cooking until nicely browned. Season with salt, pepper and then grate in some lemon zest (about 1 tbsp or so). Squeeze in the juice of the lemon. Cook until the lemon juice has amalgamated with the buttery meat juices and turned syrupy.

Stir in 2 tbsp of the mint and the zucchini. Toss around for a few minutes until the zucchini begins to weep and soften but remains distinctive; don't overcook. Stir in the spinach and remaining mint. Reheat and stir in the yogurt. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve the meat over the potatoes.

I love lamb but I don't eat it all that often. This gives me another recipe to add to my small collection (okay, it isn't a collection at all) of lamb recipes, and it isn't expensive either. This is a winner.

One or two good ideas a year

Once in a while I get a good idea. I seem to be a bit short on them lately but the last two days I've had two. Okay, I'll admit that once I thought them over a bit I knew that someone somewhere has done this before. In fact, probably a lot of people have done these things before. Eh, I'm still rather pleased with myself.

First idea was yesterday's lunch. I am sick of making sandwiches, macroni and cheese or tuna. I opened the fridge and a lone roll of Pillsbury Crescent Rolls stared back at me, leftover from a Christmas hors d'oeuvre. I grabbed them, filled each roll with cream cheese mixed with ricotta cheese, caramelized onions and a small piece of ham. They were awesome! The girls loved them. And the delicious filling covered up that weird Pillsbury aftertaste.

Idea two is a treasure hunt. This morning Emily pretended that a piece of paper with some scribbles on it was a map. I had a brilliant idea right then. While she has been in bed for quiet time, I drew a map of the main floor of the house and marked treasure around the map (numbers 1 to 7). I hid bits of treasure in those spots. I used a toy that I was saving for her birthday (but to be honest she would probably enjoy more now) that had several pieces to it. Voila! A fun game that will (hopefully) teach her what a map is and how to use one. I'll let you know if it works well or if it turns into a three-year-old meltdown which is entirely likely based on her behaviour lately. Off for tea and then to don my hunting jacket!

I thought the rush was over

Normally after Christmas I feel this awesome sense of time moving in slow-play mode, like everything was going so fast and then the tape kind of got tangled and things start moving frame by frame instead. I have always liked that feeling for the first few days following New Years Day but I remember last year, around the second week after Christmas, that time started to creep by. I found myself desperately looking for activities for Emily and me with Hope in tow.

This year is different and I don't know why. It doesn't feel quieter, the pace isn't slower. Sure, there are less visitors and activities but I feel just as harried, rushed and disorganized. Not to mention the house feels just as dirty. Maybe dirtier even. The Christmas tree finally hit the bricks yesterday. All the decorations are gone and the Christmas cookies are now planted solidly around my middle. But I still feel like I'm in a slippery funnel and I can't get a toe hold.

I think I know why. Their names are Emily and Hope. Christmas with them was wonderful, magical even. But unfortunately the burst of energy they both experienced has propelled them forward like some kind of kinetic jet pack that isn't slowing down. I'm having trouble keeping pace with them, keeping Emily entertained enough (at least to her liking) and keeping her agreeable. The last few days have been tough with Emily. She's been rude, loud, hepped up on goof balls in general. Hope is in the early days of weaning so that is wearing us both out a little bit and changing her wake-up schedule so I'm forced to hit the ground running with both girls out of bed at the same time.

This sounds like one long complaint. I'm sorry for that. I'm just damn tired. I also feel like I have very little time to myself - it adds up to about two hours a day total - to do things I really want to do: like knit and cross-stitch and learn to smock and get back into my sewing. I really want to throw myself into my fibre arts this winter but I'm not finding the time. Not to even mention the sadly neglected blog, cooking and baking (for fun) and reading. And my new course starts tomorrow night. I'm seriously considering dropping it for this semester so I can have a breather, do what I really want to do, and have John home a little more. Taking this course means he has to work on Sunday afternoons to prepare for his teaching the following week.

I'm not nearly as grumpy as this post suggests. I just needed to get it all out before I go upstairs, pick up some knitting, have a cup of tea and relax.

That tea may look distinctly like a glass of framboise. Hey, don't judge me. I deserve it.

What's cooking Wednesday

As I was glancing over my large cookbook collection just before Christmas, I had one of those moments I occasionally have, an angst moment, when I wish I spent more time in more of my cookbooks. There are good recipes there but I get into ruts like everyone else, not breaking the spines of many of my books except to make the one or two recipes I've made several times before. Often I pull the same five or six books off the shelf over the month and the others are sadly ignored. Well, no longer! In this latest moment of angst, I had an idea. For the next year I'm going to choose one cookbook per month, a cookbook I don't often use but want to get to know or get to know anew, and pull my WCW recipes for that month from that cookbook. The following month, I'll move onto another. As you can see, I certainly have enough to get me through twelve months and probably twelve more after that without hitting the same neglected cookbook twice (this is only part of my collection; the most neglected books are kept on another bookshelf in the basement):


I love my cookbooks and I love spending an evening reading them. They are all good and deserve their day in the sun so I'm going to choose books I don't cook from often, a few of them will be classics such as Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking or Madame Benoit Cooks at Home; others will be favourites of mine that I simply haven't used in a long time; some will be sentimental favourites such as The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines (the first cookbook I bought). This month I will be cooking from my newest cookbook: Just One Pot. John bought it for me for Christmas and I'm really excited about trying some of the recipes in there.

Tonight we wanted something vegetarian so I chose Eggs Masala. The flavour was excellent. It was fairly easy and quick to prepare. If you don't like curries, don't make this. Emily wasn't keen. We deemed it a "grown-up meal." But, I like to throw a curry at her once in a while to get her used to the flavours so that hopefully she will eventually see the light and we can start eating curries again on a more regular basis. John and I both agreed that the eggs were "interesting" and "different." I don't know if I would make it with the eggs again. I think I might substitute eggplant or chicken instead.



Eggs Masala

4 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 cardamom pods
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp whole cloves
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
400g canned chopped tomatoes
6 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced in half lengthwise
2 large onions, finely diced
olive oil
lemon juice
2 tbsp chopped cilantro leaves
salt

1. Remove seeds from cardamom pods. Grind the cardamom, coriander seeds, cumin, cloves and peppercorns to a powder in food processor or spice grinder and then add the garlic, ginger and 2 tbsp of water. Blitz to make a stiff masala paste and stir in the cayenne pepper.

2. Heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat and cook the onions until they turn caramel brown. Stir the masala paste into the onions and stir-fry for a couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes and some salt. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until sauce begins to thicken. Taste and adjust seasoning with more salt and lemon juice. If you need to cut the acidity a bit, add a touch of sugar or a dollop of ketchup.

3. Get the sauce very hot, then stir in the cilantro and place the eggs, sunny-side up, in the sauce. Continue simmering until the eggs are warmed through. Serve with rice.

Happy New Year

It's 10:25 pm. The girls are both asleep (just). John has gone to bed to read. I'm catching up on some blog reading and taking a break from my knitting, which has quickly become my newest obsession. If you read here often, you're probably realizing that every few months I have a new obsession. Knitting. You'll hear about it often for a while.

We spent the evening over at Ron and Meredith's, good friends of ours who we just don't see as often as we'd like anymore. They live in Chelsea, surrounded by deep snow, starry skies and silence. And the occasional bear. Who could ask for more on a New Year's Eve? We tobogganed on the hill in their back yard, ate delicious meat pies and made ice cream sundaes for dessert. We drank Bailey's and coffee in the basement beside the wood stove while the kids played until we packed them into their pyjamas and headed home. It's my favourite way to spend this night of the year: with good friends, nothing fancy, at a warm house, with kids around and home by 9:00.

I'm reflecting on the past year and how many things I've done in the past year that are new to me or newly rediscovered. I just started thinking about the past year, how much time I've spent learning or challenging myself or just doing things I enjoy. It started me thinking about the "new" in New Year and I started to wonder how many new things I've done in the past 12 months. There probably aren't too many but enough to feel that I still crave new experiences and challenges. I know I always will. It's my nature. I need to keep moving, to keep heading somewhere, even if I don't know where that is.

In the past year I've learned how to parent a 3-year-old. I started back to school. I'm (slowly) learning to live on one salary. I started to knit. I learned to make a lot of different kinds of bread. I learned to use a Mac. I learned to manage my blog and put together better posts. I learned to listen better (I think). I learned to better say what I mean. I learned to keep my mouth shut more often and speak up when I need to. I cooked more vegetarian meals. I decorated a Dora cake. I started to stay home more with the kids. I started to play doctor, camping, restaurant, grocery store and learned to do all kinds of crafts. I learned how to involve a 1-year-old in all of these games. I learned how to split my time and my lap with two kids. I learned to control my temper better. I figured out how to talk to a three-year-old. I learned English grammar.

Not bad for twelve months. I wonder what I'll learn, what new things I'll do in the next twelve. I look forward to finding out.

Has anyone seen my husband?

I found a ransom note tonight that read like this:

I have your husband. He's mine forever now... as long as I'm in town, anyway. You just better hope I never become resident at your house or he'll never come out of the basement.

Signed,
Wii

Looking back at 2007

I just saw this meme on Dani's site and really like the idea so I'm playing along. If you want to play too, just leave me a comment so I can come and read about your year, too.

Just post the first sentence of the first blog post of each month of 2007. As simple as that.

January: Maybe it isn't a real word, but I use it every year at this time.

February: This morning, before Hope's doctor appointment (nose is on the mend, by the way - or so says my doctor), we made a stop at Mountain Equipment Co-op.

March: I've mentioned before that Emily's current obsession is Curious George.

April: Beth is here!

May: Well, actually, it isn't hell so much as hellish.

June: Yesterday we met my very good friend Marnie, who was my roommate through most of university, and her daughter Molly and all trekked to the St. Jacobs Farmers Market.

July: We're back from a glorious, if rainy, week and a half at the cottage.

August: My ankle swelling reached its peak while we were at the cottage.

September: I took Westley and Hope for a good walk this morning.

October: Today is my and John's eighth anniversary.

November: I'm not quite sure what got into me but when November's issue of Canadian Living arrived, I must have become possessed with either Hallowe'en fever or by Martha Stewart.

December: Today is the first Sunday of Advent.

Tidings of comfort and joy

We had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas. It was filled with laughter, joy, lots and lots of noise, great food and drink; everything that makes Christmas magical for me. This year especially with my kids 1 and 3 years old I better understood why Christmas is better with kids around. You see things through their eyes and their excitement and joy is contagious. I love the din they add to the day; and then I love the quiet after they are in bed and we can all sit around with glasses of wine or scotch and laugh and talk and laugh some more.

Here's a wee photo montage of our day:

I hope that your day was as filled with love and laughter as ours was. Merry Christmas all.

I remember that restaurants can actually be pleasant

It's been a busy couple of days here.  Yesterday we finally left the house and went to the Byward Market for some good old-fashioned cheese shopping.  There are two amazing cheese shops in the Market.  Both specialize in Quebec cheeses.  I made some good, stinky purchases.  We also got some amazing lamb that Beth turned into lamb stew later that night.  After the Market, we headed to dim sum at my favourite dim sum place in Ottawa: Mandarin Ogilvie.  We haven't been there in about 8 months I'd guess.  It was so great.  And what made it even better was that the stars aligned so that all three kids were great during the meal.  Emily ate her weight in dim sum, Hope ate her weight in barbecue pork bun and the grown-ups were able to gorge themselves, talk and essentially ignore the kids.  You may recall that around the time I was in Texas in early September, Hope lost all ability to be in a restaurant without me wanting to stab myself in the eye with a utensil.  It's been almost that long since we've tried a full meal in a restaurant.  It just wasn't worth it.  But the meal yesterday was bliss.

Today we went to the Nature Museum and explored the dinosaurs and other galleries there.  Then we continued our culinary tour of Asia with bowls of Vietnamese soup for lunch.  I figured we were pushing our luck with the kids but they stepped up again and rewarded us with a great time.  Hope covered herself in rice, Emily spent her time with a jackfruit shake.

We deserved a couple of good days.  On Friday, we went into the Glebe, one of Ottawa's busiest shopping neighbourhoods, at 4:30 pm.  This was, in a word, stupid.  What was more stupid, on my part, was that I lost Beth and Graeme.  They were in another car and we got separated.  I then drove around the side streets like I had completely lost my grip.  Which I had.  I couldn't find parking, I couldn't find them, I couldn't find my sanity if it bit me in the ass.  I finally parked after 15 minutes.  Then, I got Hope loaded in the backpack, Emily out of the car and we started trudging down an unplowed street looking for Beth and Graeme.  Emily fell in the snow a dozen times at least.  She was great about it luckily.  We made it to the store where we were supposed to be going and I was told that no one had seen them.  We started walking down Bank St.  I hoped I would spot there car.  Nothing.  I looked for a pay phone.  The only one was back down the unplowed street.  Emily started falling again.  "This is where I had problems last time!"  She was melting my heart, if not the snow.  I called John who was pretty much no help.  He wanted to be but what could he do?  We headed back to the store.  If I didn't find them we were going to head home and hope Beth and Graeme could get back.  I walked around the store again with Emily saying "I thought this was supposed to be fun, Mummy" and "Mummy, you happy yet?".  I was about to walk through the door and back down the street when Beth walked in the door.  Thank God.  I hugged her and almost cried.  She'd seen me as they drove by on their way back to our house.  Beth had been in the store.  The staff just were idiots.  I won't tell you the store.  My advice is don't rely on the people who work there for eye-witness accounts.  Lesson:  choose a meeting place before driving into the Glebe in separate cars at the end of the afternoon on the Friday before Christmas.  You know, I'm not a stupid person generally but I play one convincingly.

The last two days have been really fun but Beth and I are looking forward to staying home tomorrow, maybe going for a walk and getting ready for the Big Day.

Emily's best picture yet

Where have I been?

John is on at me about how infrequently I am posting right now. I do feel bad about it and wish I had more time right now to post. This week has been pretty busy though.

My sister, Beth, and her husband, Graeme, and four-month-old Kate arrived on Tuesday evening. My dad and Donna arrived on Tuesday afternoon. Since then our very small house has been, well, kind of crazy. A little bedlam here and there. Emily and Hope love it. More specifically, they love Kate. They love touching Kate, poking Kate, rubbing Kate. Anything to do with Kate, they love.

We had a mini-Christmas this morning for my dad and Donna. They are spending Christmas in Edmonton with our family out there (hi Alberta family!). So, they opened their gifts from us this morning and we opened ours from them. I am very pleased to say that they bought me just what I wanted: a new winter jacket. The exact green down ski jacket from LL Bean. I've already worn it a couple of times and I LOVE IT.

Emily has run Donna ragged reading and playing in the snow. The first day Donna, Emily and I created a super slide down the giant snowbank that is our front yard. It was so much fun. I really felt like a kid again and it reminded me of the great things that winter can be.

Beth has recently learned to knit and she's taught me the basics, enough that I am currently knitting a dish cloth. I'm very impressed with myself since the only thing I've every knitted before was a bad scarf in high school that was full of holes and the sides were all wavy and oh yeah, I didn't finish it. This will do me well when I start my knitting course in January. I'm planning on being the star pupil. Oh, and speaking of that, I got my final grade for my course. My brown-nosing, front-row-sitting, answering all the questions scheme paid off with a 94. Don't you hate me?

Tonight we took a sleeping Kate and camera-happy Emily (she got a new camera of her own from Pappa and Donna for Christmas and it hasn't left her hand since) for a walk to look at the lights in our neighbourhood. We returned home to find Hope sportin' a look. She'd found a pair of my underwear (clean, at least) and put them on. She wore them until bed time. A good look, don't you think?

Tomorrow we're going to Parliament to see those lights after take away shawarma. Hopefully we'll be out a little more over the next few days seeing the sights and enjoying the snow. Don't you just love Christmas?

A new normal?

It has been over two weeks since Emily took an afternoon nap. She still has her Quiet Time in her room, looking at books and talking to her animals. But never sleep. Never.

It's been tough. I miss the two hours to myself. We also have a cranky, tired 3-year-old to deal with at the end of each day. Last night we hit our limit with that and I insisted on actual sleep for her today. I told her that if she didn't close her eyes after she looked at her books, she wouldn't be allowed to take her books in bed with her anymore.

Guess what?

She's been up there, silent, for almost two hours now. And it feels so good. It might not ever happen again so I'm relishing every single second that I've spent mopping the floors in peace!

I may open my front yard as a ski hill

Our front yard, tiny as it is, is looking distinctly like a bunny hill at a ski resort. The snow piled there from many drive way shovelings is approaching momentous and it is only December 15.

Environment Canada is currently predicting a major winter storm to hit most of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick tonight and tomorrow. Ottawa is going to be walloped again. Here is some of the language from their current warning for Ottawa:

A near-crippling snow storm...A massive winter storm...Copious amounts of snow...the potential to cause near-paralyzing conditions...

And in case I doubt their accuracy: There is a high degree of certainty with this storm as the concensus of weather model data is virtually unanimously forecasting this event.

So, should you be coming here soon from, say, Texas... well, you won't be having to dream of a white Christmas and you might just have to toboggan here from the airport.

Stepping out of my usual role

This blog is primarily about me, my kids and our domestic bliss. What you don't know about me is that I'm a bit of a political junkie. I love politics. Okay, it's more love/hate. I love to talk about it, read about it but I hate what most politicians do and I certainly hate what this current government is about. I started to become a junkie when I started working at Foreign Affairs. When your job is closely tied into what the government is doing you can't help but pay attention and form opinions. That's doubled or tripled when you are working in Ottawa. And when you start working, almost directly, for a minister of the Crown. Even on leave I'm still into it although I pick my issues of interest a little more selectively now.

What I don't do so far is write about it. Lately, I've been wanting to change that but it is a bit intimidating to put my political stripes out there. So, I'll start small: with our municipal issues at the moment.

Ottawa has captured the nation's interest with the fact that our mayor, a total and complete dimwit and, it seems, political moron (I could go on and on listing his faults, but who has that kind of time?) has been charged with two criminal counts in relation to bribing a mayoral opponent to drop out of the mayoral race held last year.

I did not vote for Larry O'Brien. If I had had the time, I would have been out there campaigning for the Anyone But Larry O'Brien Campaign. I dislike him that much. He has no vision for the city. He cancelled light rail, the one thing the city seemed to be doing well in regards to having a plan for our future. He stupidly promised a 0% tax freeze (how can you really have 0% when there is any inflation? That actually means that the city will then spend less than it did before) and then cried victory when taxes were raised by almost 5%. His only platform was 0% and he couldn't even achieve that. He's a terrible mayor. He's up on criminal charges. While it is permitted to continue to hold office while in court, I hope that in some way the city can use it as an excuse to get him out of there. Because.... he stole the election, he tried to use contacts to get his opponent a plumb federal appointment and he offered his opponent $30,000. If he's willing to do all of this when he isn't mayor and doesn't have the job to lose, what has he done while he has been mayor and what is he willing to do to keep the job?

As for the people who voted for him (and there were lots), we told you so. Lots of us saw the potential for this kind of thing in this guy. How didn't you see it? And how could we be so right?

A glimpse of my first grandchild

We're in the habit around here of playing hospital/doctor's office. I'm often ordered to be the doctor. Emily is almost always the patient and Hope is my eager assistant.

Yesterday, Miss Emily the Patient told Mummy the Doctor that she had a sick tummy because she had a baby in there. As I examined her I asked her if she knew if it was a boy or a girl:

E: It's a boy.
Me: Have you chosen a name for him?
E: Yup. Mustache. Because he has a mustache.

What's cooking Wednesday

My plan was, for the month of December, to put up a recipe each Wednesday for some sort of favourite Christmas baking of mine. Since I didn't get around to posting last Wednesday (or really much since then), I'll start with this week and try to keep it up until the end of the month. And then I have great plans for WCW 2008! Just wait and see!

Last Christmas I had these cookies at my friend Pam's house. My mum used to make these occasionally and I loved them. Turns out I still do. So, Pam handed me the recipe and I made them this week. They are delicious but a bit fussy. I generally stay away from fussy but at Christmas I make an exception. Often the fussiness is worth it and I have more patience for it at Christmas when you want something a little extra special.

Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1oz square semi-sweet chocolate
bit of milk

Okay, first thing to do is melt that chocolate and let it cool. If it is too hot, it will melt out the butter in the dough. It can cool while you mix everything else. One other note is that I doubled this recipe because I knew it wouldn't make as many as I wanted. The recipe above is the original amounts so you may want to double it, too.

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Sift together dry ingredients (I didn't) and mix into creamed mixture. Divide dough in half. Mix cooled chocolate into one part. On parchment or waxed paper roll out each half. I rolled it about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Trim each piece so that they are approximately the same size. Brush one layer with milk. Place the other layer on top. Using waxed paper like a sushi mat, roll the dough into a long log. Slice about 3/4 inch thick. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

Two recipe notes: First, since I doubled the recipe I had to roll out each colour three times. Otherwise the dough would have been too thick. Second, I found it easier to place the white layer on top of the chocolate layer when I put them together because the chocolate is a little wetter. This meant that when I rolled it the chocolate didn't crack like the white layer did making it better to have the chocolate showing on the outside.

Emily's letter to Santa

Last year I posted Emily's letter to Santa. I'm going to do it again this year and hopefully every year that she writes to him. She dictated her letter to me last week sometime. I'm putting it in the mail later today.

Dear Santa,

My name is Emily Walsh. I am 3. I eat really well. I love baking with Mummy. I love making up stories. I'm a good big sister. I help Mummy. I love my daddy. I've been a good girl this year. Ho Ho Ho!

I want a white marker for Christmas. I would like a camera. I would also like a Dora toothbrush and some Dora socks.

My sister, Hope, is 1 year old. She already had her birthday. Hope would like a book for Christmas. She loves books! She loves eating supper. She likes playing with balls. Hope would like a duck squeak toy for in the bath tub.

Merry Christmas, Santa!

Love, Emily

Busy, busy, busy

You have to say that title like the bad magician in Frosty the Snowman. It makes it much funnier and seasonal to boot.

My Dad and his wife, Donna, were here most of the week thus my lack of posts. When people are staying at our house I don't post as often because our basement is transformed into a guest bedroom and our computer is located right beside the bed. At least, that's my excuse anyway.

It was a whirlwind of activity around here. As usual, Donna tackled all kinds of house projects: fixing our leaking laundry tap, fixing a leaking shower stall, replacing a toilet seat, playing with Emily in the snow and reading lots of books. My dad did his share too: he put up two new light fixtures and read to Emily until the cows came home (or until he was hoarse at least). It was a lot of fun and really nice to see them since I haven't seen them since August before they travelled to Australia.

Donna bought for us a great new sled for tobogganing this winter (no, it does not have a porsche symbol on the front). Emily had her first ride across the monumental amount of snow we have and only dumped twice.

I'm sad to say that I failed at something this year that I take pride in doing every single year in early December. Since 1991 my good friend Tamara and I have been exchanging Boot Day gifts. What is Boot Day, you ask? Well, it's our name for St. Nicholas Day, which is December 6. In Germany, kids leave out boots on December 6 and St. Nicholas fills them with gifts and treats. Tamara, being half German, got sent a St. Nicholas Day gift by her Oma during our first semester as roommates at university. Then we each left out a boot for each other when the day actually came, renamed it Boot Day and ever since with only a few misses (usually by me). Even if we're half way around the world, we send Boot Day gifts to each other. I failed this year. No Boot Day gift is currently in the mail. I still have hope though that I'll get it done in the next week. Sometimes St. Nick is a little behind. I hate to be the one to break the tradition but I figure having two kids buys me a bit of leniency. At least I know what is going to go into the boot. I just have to finish it all. I'm going home-made this year, which can go one of two ways: either people are wowed by my skills or people say "Oh, it's homemade!"

As I sit here half-dressed, listening to the kids getting wound up upstairs, I realize I should probably join the party and get us all out of the house. Pants are probably in order first.

Snow Day

Finally Environment Canada called it right. Normally when they call for a big storm and everyone starts to panic prepare, nothing happens. Maybe a flake or two, but that's it. This time it turns out they were right. And then some.

It snowed all last night. It snowed all day today. It's still snowing now.

John shoveled the driveway twice and probably could have even done it twice more. Two of our neighbours were stuck in the middle of our street. I foolishly took Emily over to the Community Centre on the sled and dumped her twice because of the tire ruts on our street. We laughed. Well, mostly me.

So, for all of you who are in a more tropical climate and are, just for a second, wishing for a white Christmas, here's a little taste for you. I'm sure this will be enough to satisfy you. And then you'll be very happy to walk out your door, feel the sunshine on your face and know that the only shoveling you'll be doing this Christmas will be in your garden.

This is a photo of our patio table. Notice we were lazy caught unawares this year and still have our umbrella on the deck and the chairs arranged as though we're about to have after-dinner drinks. Yeah, we meant to do that.


Anyway, that's a damn lot of snow. Want some?

There are stairs under there somewhere.

Last year we barbecued our Christmas dinner. I'm thinking we'll be cooking indoors this year. Oh, that's the barbecue if you were wondering why I was going on about last year's dinner.


I really wanted the photo below to turn out better but I'm limited by my sub-par technology. There is a very cool snow drift on our roof just below our bedroom window. I'll see if I can get a better shot of it during daylight, although I really like the back light from the house lights.


Although our winter tires are still in the garage, I realized again today that good winter driving is only partly about tires. Mostly it's skill. Luckily I seem to have some of that (my dad would be proud to know that) but some of my neighbours definitely do not. Those would be the ones who were stuck in the middle of the street and at the ends of their own driveways. It's called a gas pedal, friends. Think about using it.

The first big whopper

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. I do love December for the anticipation of Christmas at home and at church with each Sunday marking a new theme during Advent. Today, appropriately, was hope and I have a lot of Hope this year.

In further anticipation of Christmas and all things wintery, today is our first Major Storm Warning put out by Environment Canada. They are promising us snow, ice pellets and freezing rain. Good times, good times.

Meanwhile, our garage is still full of bikes, strollers, a Christmas tree from Ikea, sand toys, SNOW TIRES, and absolutely no room for a car. Can you guess what I'm doing this afternoon?

My reward, albeit a few days late, will be on Tuesday, which I am forever going to call Tim Tam Tuesday because BECAUSE my friendly neighbourhood Loblaws man promised me over the phone last week that he was ordering in (now and forever) Tim Tams. Yay Mr. Loblaws Man! Christmas comes early this year!

The Friendly Giant has nothing on me

It has been a kids' wonderland around here lately, if I do so say myself. I've been on my game. I've taken it a step beyond where I was with playing with the kids and dived in whole hog. I always made sure I played with them as much as I could while still getting things done around the house (to a point where I was satisfied, which is probably well below the satisfaction level of other people, admittedly). Playing with them often meant playing store once in a while, doing lots of reading, taking them to the library or to a museum and doing lots of crafts with Emily. It didn't often mean doing a lot of pretend games with them.

I've changed that.

Now, the house is dirtier to be sure (although still tidy at the end of most days), but I spend my day playing store, bakery, restaurant, doctor, hairdresser and house. Often all in the same day. We haven't left the house nearly as much. We haven't been to a museum in a long time.

Damn, we're having fun.

What's cooking Wednesday

I came across this recipe the other day when I was preparing to make bread. The book kind of just opened to this recipe so I figured it must be a sign that I should make Brownie Cake Pudding for dessert. Now, I never make dessert usually. Normally, we have yogurt or some fruit or, if we're lucky, a cookie. So this was going to be a special event.

The recipe was very easy to make. It is very chocolately and tastes similar but better to those cake puddings you buy in the box. Although I don't understand how it works, pouring the hot water over the cake batter creates a pudding layer underneath while it cooks.

I think (normal) kids would go crazy for the recipe below. My kid said it was "yucky." Of course, she didn't actually taste it so there's that.

I apologize for the poor photo. I couldn't get my camera to focus on the cake itself. I think it was the fault of the bowl. John would agree. He hates those bowls.

This recipe made me think of a very funny story from several years ago. It was my dad's birthday. My mum asked him what kind of dessert he wanted her to bake. He said "That lemon cake you make that has the sauce underneath it." She spent the next few days repeatedly rifling through her recipe box looking for the recipe he was talking about. She went through several of her cookbooks. She checked and re-checked but just couldn't think of or find the cake he was talking about. And then it dawned on her: he wanted her to make a Sherriff pudding cake. My mum, the baker and cook extraordinaire, who had wowed countless friends and family with her recipes, always home-made, owned her own catering business, had been asked by her husband of 30 or so years to make him a birthday cake from a box (although he didn't actually realize that). If you knew my mum, you can imagine her reaction: there was high-pitched protests, flabbergastations (good word, eh?), general put-out-edness, shock, laughter of course, and then, there was a Sherriff pudding cake.

Brownie Cake Pudding

2 tsp instant coffee granules or powder (optional)
2 tbsp plus 1 3/4 cups boiling water
1 cupe all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 cup milk
4 tbsp butter or margarine, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
whipped cream or vanilla ice cream (we didn't have any but if you have some, definitely plop some on top - it would take this dessert to a new height)

1. Preheat oven to 350. In cup, dissolve instant coffee (if using) in 2 tbsp boiling water.
2. In medium bowl, stir together flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt and 1/2 cup cocoa. In 2-cup measuring cup, combine milk, melted butter, vanilla, and dissolved instant coffee, if using. With spoon, stir milk mixture into flour mixture until just blended. Pour batter into ungreased 8x8 glaass or ceramic baking dish.
3. In small bowl, combine brown sugar and remaining 1/4 cup cocoa; sprinkle over batter. Carefully pour remaining 1 3/4 cup boiling water over batter; do not stir.
4. Bake 30 minutes (batter will separate into cake and pudding layers). Cook on wire rack for 10 minutes. Serve immediately or pudding will be absorbed by cake. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Alien Life Form

I was walking through one of the many buildings at Carleton University tonight on the way to my final class. A female student was talking on a cell phone right behind me.

"Yeah, we were supposed to watch Alf tonight."

Aside from being shocked and appalled that someone actually owns Alf on DVD, the topping on this proverbial cake was how clearly disappointed she was that she was forced to miss it because of something as annoying as a university education.

Is this goodbye to a precious friend?

I think Emily's naps may be coming to an end and I'm mourning even the suggestion of the loss. Yesterday, after our usual round of arguing, she took a two-hour nap (which I used to cook swill, apparently. Time well spent). I was very happy because she was clearly tired after lunch. She went to bed last night as usual but it took her until 9:30 to fall asleep. We could hear her talking and singing from 8:00 until 9:30. And then this morning she was up at 6:30. I'm afraid this might be goodbye to my afternoon solitude.

How extraordinarily sad.

That was a bust

While the sentimentality of my post below was commendable and certainly worth my efforts in the kitchen, the food did not produce the results I had hoped for.

Emily literally wiped her tongue with the back of her sleeve when she tasted the cider pork. That, my friends, is worthy of the Iron Chef judges, don't you think?

Smells like Mum

I just finished a day - with play breaks, pick up from preschool breaks, lunch breaks, nap breaks, tea break - of cooking. The kitchen smells amazing right now; like crock-pot cider pork (a new recipe) and rising oatmeal bread; and it has a warmth generated by all the kneading and stirring and chopping. And, I've got a hankering to make a real dessert - not just rice pudding out of a tub.

It smells and feels like my mum's kitchen and that is enough to perk me up on any day.

A little under the gun

I know, I know... I haven't posted in a few days. I need to post about Omi's visit complete with photos and our first full frolic in the snow. But, more importantly, I need to STUDY. My last quiz is on Tuesday and I must, must, must get another A+. Okay, so it's not a live or die kind of 'must' but I've got a solid A+ going in and the over-achiever in me has kicked into overdrive.

So, I must leave you now, pathetically, to study my grammar. That was a verb phrase with a modal followed by a to-infinitive clause. Just in case you were wondering.

Seems that Mother Nature has screwed me again

Yeah. Remember this post? If you haven't read it yet, go ahead. I'll wait.

Okay, so now that you're up to speed and know that I didn't get winter tires put on my car two days ago, this is what I woke up to yesterday morning:


Yeah, that sucked. And this morning I came downstairs to find there is more falling. A LOT MORE.

What's cooking Wednesday

It's become a tradition that when Omi/Rose comes to visit, I make tourtière. I got this recipe from my dad of all people. I say "of all people" because my dad isn't exactly known as being a master of pastry or meat pies or cooking in general, unless you're talking about chili, and then he's definitely the man to go to. He gave me this recipe when our family was still living in Fonthill, a small town in the Niagara Peninsula where I grew up. He got it from a guy at work. It was the guy's wife's recipe. Her name and address are in fact on the bottom of the recipe: Betty Leveille, 250 Division St, Port Colborne. So, if you're ever in Port Colborne and needing a good recipe, I recommend looking up Betty. She likely has more gems in her repertoire.

Apple Tourtière

(I'm going to transcribe this exactly as Betty had it down)

Use Tenderflake pastry recipe for 9 inch double crust pie.

3/4 lbs lean ground pork

3/4 lbs lean ground veal (I always use extra lean ground beef as we're not veal eaters around here - okay, so that wasn't in Betty's recipe)

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup chopped celery

2 tbsp flour

1/2 cup chicken broth

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp thyme

1 tsp salt

2 small apples, peeled and sliced small.

Prepare pie crust. Line 9 inch pie plate with bottom crust. In large pot, brown pork & veal, with onions & celery. Stir in flour. Add chicken broth, mustard, thyme and salt; cook and stir until thickened.

Place sliced apple in bottom of pie shell. Spoon pork & veal mixture over apples. Cover with pie crust top. Seal and crimp edge. Make small steam slits with knife. Bake in pre heated 400 degree oven for approximately 35 minutes or until pastry is golden and filling is bubbly. Makes 6 servings.


Back to my story with this recipe. My dad gave a copy to both my mum and I one day when he came home from work. I was a university student at the time. I think it must have been the term when I was at home when I couldn't get a job for my work term (thank you recession of the early 90s). I held onto the recipe but didn't make it until a few years later. I made it for friends who said it was great. Not being really "into" meat at the time, I don't even think I tasted it. I pulled it out again several years later to make for John and I. Wow. It was the best tourtière I had ever tasted. Fast forward to now. Essentially, the one wonderful thing about summer being over is pulling out this recipe again and making it until the crocuses push through the soil again in the spring. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

New me

I spent two glorious hours at the salon this morning, alone, reading and sipping coffee and being pampered by my other favourite man, Michel. And I think the result is glorious! A new me! I love change.... in small portions.

Michel put in blond highlights (although it is hard to tell from the photo below, they are actually quite obvious) and gave me a nice bob with a cool sculpt at the back.

Here is the before (a couple of weeks ago anyway):


And here is the after:

Don't blink

I realized tonight that next week is my last class. I can't believe my first foray back into a university classroom is almost over. I also can't believe I only have one week to prepare for the final quiz (I swear I thought I had more time!). This week will be, in a word, ugly.

Getting winter tires put on in this city is turning out to be a bit of a pickle, a little like trying to get my hands on the holy grail, something of a pain in the ass. Apparently everyone in the city is after the same thing. I figured it would be busy but I had arranged with Rose (my mother-in-law who is visiting this week) to look after the kids this morning while I got it done. I took Emily's car seat out of the car, folded down the seat, carried the four (large) snow tires with wheels out of the garage, loaded them into the trunk, drove over to the tire place, found out that everyone in the waiting area had been waiting for over an hour, found out that one of their balancers (whatever that is) had just broken, left and went to do other errands, drove to their other location across town arriving around 10:30 am, was told they were booked the rest of the day and to come back at 8:00 am another day and leave the car for the day.

Phew.

So, I'll be hunting down that holy grail next week when my dad is here. Let's hope that the weather stays happy until then.

Welcome, Omi

I've been looking forward to today for several weeks.

Today, Omi arrived.

John's mum, affectionately known by Emily's generation as Omi, is here until Friday morning. Emily was beside herself with anticipation. I picked Omi up at the airport while Emily was at preschool and then Omi (Rose to me) went with Hope and me to pick Emily up. Typically, when I get Emily from preschool, the routine is that all the parents go into the class where all the kids are pretending to sleep on the mat and then they all yell surprise and jump up (like we're somehow surprised they woke up?). Emily peeked open her eyes for a second, saw Omi standing there and ran over yelling "OMI!" and jumped into Rose's arms while the other kids were still snoring. It was such a pure moment. I loved it.

Since then Emily has kept Omi hopping - reading, doing crafts, playing store and more store and more store. Emily has also made a stark realization: Hope is now a factor and she has to share Omi with Hope.

Apparently she doesn't like this development. She asked me tonight what we're doing tomorrow. I told her I have to do a few errands in the morning while she plays with Omi.

"You taking Hope?"
"No. Hope is going to stay home with you and Omi."
"NO! I don't want Hope!"

When I told her she has to share Omi... well, that went down like bad medicine. Poor Hope. Only one year old and she's going to be in for the fight of her young life tomorrow. But there is no way in heaven or hell I am taking any kids with me tomorrow when I have the rare chance to go somewhere without them.

Even if it is just to get the winter tires put on the car.

Also, on Wednesday night, John and I get to go out! Alone! No kids! The last time we did that was in August when my Dad and Donna were here. We have no babysitter in Ottawa and no real options to speak of so far. It really does make us appreciate even more the opportunities to go out when they come up. I just wish they would come up more often.

So, what to do? Dinner? Movie? You know what? It doesn't even matter.

The comedian

Emily has been coming up with some gems lately. They're not really gems because they're comedic gold; I mean, these are things that you would hear everyday; it's just that we don't always expect to hear them come out of a three-year-old. But when she delivers one, we struggle not to laugh out loud. She knows, too. She knows we think she's funny and that's why we try and stifle our laughs. We don't want her to stop saying these things and we don't want her to lose the spontaneity of it.

Yesterday we were driving home from Farm Boy, our favourite local grocery store. We were talking about how it would be nap time (or dodo time in our house) when we got home. "Because you really need a dodo today." says I. Emily: "That's for sure!"

And then today at lunch, she got up from the table without asking to be excused. John called her on it, she asked, I said: "I guess so although next time you should ask before you leave the table." Emily: "It's a little late for that now!"

Right, I was supposed to do that

It's 11:23 pm and I just realized I haven't posted yet today. Not that that has stopped me from missing a couple of posts during the last week or so but since I actually realized it this time, I thought I should stop in and put some inane words down on paper... erm, screen. So, here I am.

Let's see, what did we do today? We went to the mall. Perhaps a tactical error on our part as everyone else in Ottawa seemed to have decided to head to the same mall.

I did get Emily a winter jacket at Children's Place for 40% off. Nothing remotely interesting happened.

Then we came home. I cleaned. We cooked dinner. Mike and Cibele had dinner here. Something funny happened that I can't remember.

Good night.

There.

Five minutes of your life you'll never get back

About a month ago we decided to change our internet service provider/phone company because Primus, a competing company, was offering an amazing deal: local phone, long distance and high speed DSL for 59.95 a month, which was almost $50 less per month than we were paying at the time. So, I called Rogers, our then ISP and phone company, to switch. They told me I would lose my phone number because we had a digital phone line and to switch to Primus (or any other phone company) I would have to change back to an analogue line. So, that was hurdle and annoyance number one. The savings were big enough to allow me to see beyond that and make the inconvenience of a new phone number worth it.

Our new modem arrived in the mail with the installation disk. I popped it in to find out it was not Mac compatible. I called the tech help line and was on hold for 35 minutes. Luckily it was a 1-800 number because I'm pretty sure I was talking to someone in India. I was told to call back several days later when my account would be "activated."

I called back several days later. A woman walked me through the set up. I won't give you the play-by-play of the set-up but it did involve me furiously burrowing into a box in our storage area looking for a phone cord that would allow me to stretch the modem across the basement to our computer (we've been wireless for too long, obviously). Again, good thing I wasn't paying for that call to India because she was on the phone with me for a while, not just because of the phone cord buried amongst skates and squash racquets but also because I'm a complete tool when it comes to any technological hardware.

Anywho.

So, the set-up didn't work I soon found out. Yesterday, I finally called back after reaching my limit with paying two ISPs. I got a really good tech-support woman on the phone. Within 3 minutes (no joke) she informed me that the set-up would never work because I was 4.9 kilometres away from their thingamajiggy. I pointed out that when I initially phoned Primus their customer service person told me I was within the range of the thingamajiggy and it would all be fine.

I was transferred back to customer service where a man waived (oh, how thoughtful) the cancellation fee of $100 to get out of my contract. When I told him I also wanted out of my phone contract since I had signed up as a bundle to save money, he informed me that it would be $40 to cancel that.

That's when Karen went a wee bit postal. I managed to keep things under control at this point (John would confirm that in this situation it is nothing short of a miracle that I didn't tear Mr. Guy at Indian Call Centre a new one) and asked to speak to someone who could waive that fee being that I only moved over to Primus to save money and now they aren't honouring their contract so

W.

T.

F.

I got the fee waived. Yay me.

So, that was how I spent the two hours I get to myself while the girls are sleeping on the rare day now that Emily chooses to sleep. Not so yay me.

Aren't you glad you spent the time to read this whole post? Did it change your life? Maybe not, but I'm betting you're not going to be signing up for Primus anytime soon.

And with that, my work is done.

Books, books and more books.... and sometimes more than once

I was over at Postcards from the Mothership yesterday, one of my daily stops. Dani wrote a post about books that Britons have re-read and asked Postcards readers to comment on what books they have re-read. Instead of commenting, I thought I would list them here instead.

I re-read a lot of books when I was young. I do it less so now because I have less time to read and so many books I want to read. Given that my memory isn't so hot anymore, I probably can't remember all the books I re-read as a child/teen but I'll do my best to pull a decent list together here.

1. Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
2. The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
3. Cue for Treason by Geoffrey Trease
4. The Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher
5. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
6. The Black Stallion by Walter Farley
7. The Three Investigators series by Robert Arthur Jr.
8. Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
9. This Can't be Happening at MacDonald Hall by Gordon Korman
10. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Okay, so this is not an exhaustive list at all. I re-read a lot more than those when I was little - Ramona the Pest, Trumpet of the Swan, The Tower of Geburah all come to mind rather quickly and I know that there were many more. But, I'm seeing a trend here. There are only two books or series on that list of ten that I read and re-read as an adult: numbers 1 and 2.

Well, I'll just chalk that up to "so many books, so little time" rather than "so little time, very little reading." That would just be too depressing a notion to face.

What books have you re-read?

Finally

The last few nights of letting Hope figure it out for herself - letting her cry and fuss during her 3:00 a.m. wake-up - paid off last night. She slept from 8:15 p.m. or so until 7:00 a.m. It was so sweet. And then after feeding at 7:00 she went back to bed until I woke her up at 8:45. And now she is napping. It is just so good.

I just hope it lasts for a while.

Now I can turn my attention to things like what we're having for supper when I so don't feel like making anything and changing light fixtures and getting our DSL connection set up. Don't you wish you were here right now?

What's cooking Wednesday

I knew it was risky to make this dish; not because John and I wouldn't like it, but because Emily might not like it. Turns out, my reservations were well-founded. Emily did not like it. John and I however were pretty pleased with it. So, I probably won't be making this one again in the next while because I do like to please everyone at our table if possible, but if you like Thai-style food and something fairly easy and quick, this might be just what you're looking for (with the added twist of mango in there!). This is another recipe from the palate-pleasing Podleski sisters.

Thai Beau

1 1/4 cups light coconut milk (they are all about the low-fat)
1 tbsp grated gingerroot
tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp cornstarch
juice of 1 lime
1 tsp minced garlic
pinch crushed red pepper flakes (I omitted this because of Emily; turns out I shouldn't have bothered)
2 tsp oil
4 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (I used two and it was enough)
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and cut into strips
4 green onions, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil leaves
3 tbsp minced fresh cilantro
1 ripe medium-sized mango, peeled and sliced
hot, cooked basmati or jasmine rice

Whisk together first nine ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.

Heat oil in a large wok over high heat. Add chicken pieces. Cook and stir until chicken is lightly browned, about 4 minutes. Remove chicken from wok and set aside.

Reduce heat to medium-high. Add red pepper and onions to the wok. Cook and stir for 3 minutes, until red pepper begins to soften. Return chicken to wok. Add sauce, peas, basil, and cilantro. Continue cooking and stirring until sauce is bubbly and has thickened. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 5 to 6 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. Stir in mango and cook 1 more minute.

Serve over rice.

The sisters say that if you like things a bit on the hotter side you can substitute the red pepper flakes for some green curry paste. If I didn't have kids to serve, I would totally do that. This was good as it is but it would be even better with the curry paste.

Some progress

Last night I had to take serious action with Hope. I left her to figure it out on her own. The previous night when she woke up crying around 3:00, I waited for about 15 minutes. She complained most of that time. I went in at that point and she went postal. It was after the next hour or so of sitting in her room while she screamed at me and then simply kept herself awake that I decided my presence was making things worse. So last night I didn't go in. She woke up around 3:00 again and screamed bloody murder when I didn't go in (not what I predicted but things did work out in the end). I'm surprised you couldn't hear her wherever you are. After about 10 minutes she went back to sleep and didn't wake up again until 5:00 at which point I fed her. So, there was progress. I'm hoping that tonight it is even better although the complication tonight is my class and she won't get fed before bed.

I'm really enjoying my class. In fact, I'm loving my class. I love the obligation of leaving the house once a week, turning my back on whatever is going on here and leaving John to take care of it. I love that I sit with a bunch of other students and learn. I love that i'm not the oldest in the class. I love that I'm immersing myself in English grammar. I love that I've met new people. I love that I am getting kick-ass grades. I love that I'm one of those annoying mature students that sits at the front of the class and answers lots of questions. I love that I don't have to pay tuition because John works there.

In short, I love it all.

In my short foray back into higher eduction I've noticed a few changes in (gulp) the eleven years since I finished my undergraduate degree. First, every second person you walk by is talking on or texting on a cell phone. When I was doing my undergrad no one even owned a cell phone. I think most people knew what they were but no one had one. No one considered getting one. Hell, in my residence (granted it was Mennonite) we still had rotary phones. Second, there is a much bigger age range in the students in my class than there was way back when. I am not even close to the oldest person in my class. There are at least three, maybe more, who are probably collecting their CPP. It could be particular to the class I'm in. I'll have to keep note as I take more to come up with a hypothesis.

Before I started the class, I think on my first night, I asked John if students still took notes the old fashioned way: with pen and paper, or would I be a Luddite if I didn't have a laptop. He confirmed it was still done by hand, for the most part. He was right. Of course, all the classrooms are wired and profs can link to the internet right from their Powerpoint slides. I like this so much better than the nasty overheads they all used to use (not that long ago really).

Anyway, really, I should be up there reading for my course as I'm a few weeks behind now instead of assuaging my guilt for missing two posts already during NaBloPoMo.

Do I care? I really don't.

Will it ever end?

After Hope burned her hand a couple of weeks ago, the advances I made in getting her to sleep through the night went out the window. That was followed by a nasty head cold. I was back to getting up with her about two or three times a night and often fed her at least one of those times.

The last few nights she's gotten up around 3:00 and wanted to feed. Without a clock in our room (long story) I was left to guess what time it was and often guessed (wrongly) that it was past 4:00 and fed her. (4:00 is my line after which I will feed her.) Well, last night the clock was back and I realized it was just before 3:00 and the feedings likely had been around 3:00 for a few nights. So, it was time to take action. Emily was sleeping well after a few nights of not (thank you, UTI) so I figured I could only concentrate on one kid for the night.

Well, according to Hope, life had come to an end as she knew it. Screaming, jumping, shaking the crib, more screaming and screaming and screaming until I left her small room just to save my ears.

To make a long story short (or LSS, as John would say), John, Hope and I were up from 3:00 until 5:00 at which point I was on a mattress on her floor with her beside me. She fed, she went to bed, woke up a few more times but I ignored her and then I slept until 8:00. Now I'm in a minor panic because I'm teaching Sunday School this morning. I'm prepared but I hate to rush around and I feel like I'll rush around a bit.

I know that this is only the beginning of a string of nights like this. My motivation is high however because Hope is still eating almost nothing (besides breastmilk) during the day. I am so happy she has been such a great breastfeeder and that she is attached to it and that it is a source of comfort and security for her. But I need less of it now and I want more other food going into that pie hole of hers. I'm sure that the breastfeeding is contributing to her pushing away other food.

I missed posting yesterday. I'm a NaBloPoMo failure. But, I feel I have a good reason: God. S/He's contracted me to teach Sunday School and being the slacker very busy mother that I am I prepared my lesson last night which involved running out to get eggs at 9:00 to bake muffins for the snack, cutting out masks, cutting up pieces of paper and gathering craft supplies from around the house. The Art Attack going on in the basement and the muffin baking was prefaced by a great birthday party at our friend's Pam and Jim's for their wee one, Celia, who just turned one. I said to John before we left for the party that I love going to Pam and Jim's for dinner because all our kids play so well together (Emily and their son Nevan are the same age as are Hope and Celia) so we only have to really supervise occasionally AND we don't have to cook AND there's wine. Emily summed it up best when we were loading her in the car to go home and she said to John: "I was delighted to come to the party."

Me, too, although I probably wouldn't have sounded so eloquent saying it.

A lovely day

We had a great day today. I took the girls swimming this morning at the Plant Pool (one of the city's newest pools). Cibele, my sister-in-law, came with us. We all had lots of fun. I got to swim two lengths while Cibele fed the kids their snack (and let me say, man, I'm out of shape! Time to get to the pool more regularly), Cibele got to float and swim (something that seems to relieve her icky nausea and make her feel great at 3 months pregnant), Hope got to splash and squeal and Emily jumped off the side of the pool into my arms again and again (and swam with her beloved Dora ring, too).

After the pool we went over to PGI for lunch, one of my favourite cafe/bistro/patisseries in Ottawa. I think I introduced Cibele to a new vice.

The kids had a great nap. I was supposed to end the day with some good shopping at the Ten Thousand Villages sale at the church but instead I took Emily to a walk in clinic to get diagnosed with another UTI. Poor kid. It burns when she pees. I kind of figured that's what it was when she yelled from her bed two nights ago: "MY GINA HURTS!"

So, I'll be going to the sale tomorrow instead.

The most important words in the world

Emily, typical 3-year-old, takes what Hope has a lot. Tonight Hope was in the bath tub long before Emily and was happily (no, joyously) playing with all the favourite toys with no competition. She was thrilled to be able to have the plastic man (Noah, actually) and plastic woman (Mrs. Noah) figurines to herself. Finally, Emily showed up and was perturbed to find that Hope had Mrs. Noah tight and secure in her chubby little fist. She ripped it out of Hope's grasp.

Me: Emily, give it back to her right now, please. (Emily gives it back.) Emily, what do you say to Hope?

Emily: Sorry you took my woman.