Ladybird's flowers, taco time, storm cleanup: Day 3 in Austin

There was a crazy storm here last night. I woke up around 3:00 to lots of thunder, lightening, wind and lots of hail. It lasted a while. I didn't get out of bed to have a good look but I wish I did, since I was out of bed trying to coax Hope back to sleep anyway. Beth went out to the porch and saw a piece of hail the size of a baseball. This morning there were big branches down in the back yard and all over the streets nearby. Leaves are covering the streets like carpet. We didn't have internet access all day. I told Beth we were living like pioneers, no internet and all that. I mean, how did they cope? Turns out we were better off than 10,000 other people in Austin who were without power most of the day. 8,500 people are still without power and some people had drifts of hail two feet high in their yards. Crazy Texas storms.

Anywho, this morning we went to the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center. It was really great, better than we expected. Beth and I both expected meadows of wildflowers but it was actual gardens that were very naturalized. There were some really interesting flowers, all native to this area of Texas. The butterfly garden was devoid of butterflies today. I think they were still in hiding after the storm. We did see a bunch of very cool caterpillars though. Emily ended up seeing most of the garden in her socks because she has so many mosquito bites on her feet that it hurt to wear shoes. It was a bit funny actually apart from the nerdy tragedy of it.



From there we headed to Maria's Taco Express, Beth's and my favourite taco place in Austin. Hope spilled juice all over herself. Emily and Hope ate nacho chips and sour cream for lunch.


Neither of my kids napped today. After I tried in vain for an hour to get either of them to sleep, we went out and cleaned up the damage in Beth's back yard and then cracked open pecans on the front porch. From there we went to the playground nearest Beth's house. It's a great playground. It's fairly small but it rules. It's completely shaded, the climber/equipment thingy has 4 slides. Four! Both my kids love it. It will probably be our routine at the end of each day before supper.

I made ugly rice paper roll-ups for dinner but they tasted good. At about 4:00 things went a bit awry around here after another great day. The kids, after pushing through missing their naps, started to get whiny and squirrly. Emily stayed in decent mood but decided to contribute to the growing mayhem of Hope and Kate by asking me for something, anything every 15 seconds or so until she went to bed at 7:30. Let's just say that by bath time, I was feeling a bit testy. I tried to be understanding with Hope seeing that I discovered two canines popped through during the last 24 hours. Seriously, I could use one full night of sleep though. That would make this vacation perfect.

I'm not sure what we're up to tomorrow. It's still under discussion but be rest assured, it will be great!

Dentist, Children's Museum and Farmers' Market: Day 2

This morning Beth had a dentist appointment so I was on deck with all three kids and you know what? Not so bad. In fact, it went great. Granted it was only an hour but still... it was actually fun although I don't think I actually sat down the entire time and I may have forgotten to put on deodorant in the midst of the activity and running between kids. It did give me a glimpse of what life would be like with three kids albeit for a short time. Hope would be the typical problem middle child: jealous, cranky, just out of sorts. With two kids, she's gold. Not sure what that means for our future but it was interesting anyway. I spent the time playing train, singing train songs along with a Kindermusik CD I had with me and then feeding them snack. Under me, Kate's breakfast was Mum Mums and Veggie Booty. She seemed to like it though.

After Beth got back we went to the Austin Children's Museum. With a membership to the Science and Tech Museum in Ottawa, we all got in free. With parking the entire morning cost us three dollars. Sweet deal all around. The Children's Museum was just the right size - not too big to be overwhelming but big enough to give the kids lots to explore. They LOVED it. There was so much to touch and push and pull and bang. It had the best craft area I've ever seen; even Mr. Dressup would have been jealous.

From there we came home for lunch. Hope and kate took giant naps. Emily refused and drew, played, lounged and then she and I played outside for a bit. After everyone was up, we walked to the Farmer's Market. I love that place. We went last fall when I was here after Kate was born and I was happy to find the ice tea people were there again. I stocked up on my stash of Hibiscus Mint tea to take home.

There is a sprinkler pad in the park where the market takes place. I stripped Emily and Hope down to underwear/diaper (I forgot the bathing suits) and they went to town. Well, Emily went to town. Hope didn't like the big spouts of water. Emily? She went berserk for it as you can see from the action shot. It was great. It wasn't as great that we also forgot towels. Ah well, with the hot weather, she felt cool anyway as she drip dried.


After the splashing, I bought ice tea, tacos and rotisserie chicken and bread and we had a picnic. Kate didn't get any of the chicken, at least not until later, but she went kooky for the ice tea. After eating we walked back home. Our transportation arrangement on foot is Emily in the Chariot, Kate on Beth's back and Hope on mine. Needless to say, I sweat a bit. The market was really fun. I loved today. I loved it as much as yesterday. And, Hope and Emily successfully fell asleep a few minutes ago in the same room. Same room! I only had to go back in twice. Some kind of record for this wee family.


Tomorrow we're thinking of making it an adult day and dragging the kids along and making them thing it is all for them: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Maria's Taco Express, and yarn shop. Ooh aah.

Flights, delays, arrival and Day 1

We're here. It took almost 10 hours, instead of 5, but we're here. We got through security and customs easily this time, unlike last time, although Emily was freaked out by walking through the metal detector on her own. After that it was just big adventure for her. Hope was put out, to put it mildly, that she didn't get her own seat like Emily did. She got over it when she discovered the in-flight magazine. She loved that thing.

When we got on board we sat on the runway for a long time. When we finally took off, Hope had a full tantrum in my arms. She had fallen asleep for only a few minutes but woke up with a start. That sent her over the edge. She was scratching me, hitting me, throwing my glasses. She hated that I was holding her through her rage. She wanted down; unfortunately we were going up so I had to hang on to her. When we finally were done the initial take-off, I put her on the floor between my legs and within two minutes or so she was done and watching a DVD. She was asleep in another five. She slept on me for the next three hours. My ass was so sore and numb that I was biting my lip to divert the pain. My arm was killing me from propping up her head. Having a 20-month old on your lap for a 3-hour flight sucks. On the way home, I'll be looking for an empty seat and carrying that extra car seat wherever I have to go to get that seat. It will be so worth it. Yeah, and then we all slept like crap last night because I accidentally turned off the ceiling fan and it is damn humid here.

And now the complaining will end because today was great. Really great. Really, really great. After a leisurely start to the day, we headed to Zilker Park and rode the Zilker Zephyr, a little train that runs through the park. The kids, but mostly the adults loved it. Emily even brought her own train whistle with her which completely tickled the train driver guy. I hesitate to call him an engineer. He steered.

From there we shared the biggest snow cone I have ever laid a spoon on. After that sugar break, the kids played on the expansive playground and then we walked down to the Creek (Barton, to be exact) to see the turtles. After scaring them into the water, the kids stripped naked and splashed around for a long time. It was amazing to watch them and their white little bums frolicking in the water.

After that it was lunch at home, naps (although Hope refused that) and then off to Beth's local park for more play before supper. Everyone is quiet now; Beth and I are knitting and I may have a glass of wine at some point before heading to bed to catch up on the sleep I missed last night.

I did take a bunch of pictures but my card reader is in the suitcase in the bedroom where the girls are sleeping so I'll post them tomorrow instead as an edit to this post.

Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy so we'll probably go to the Children's Museum and then to the Farmer's Market at the end of the day for a picnic. All is well in Texas. And hot. Beth says this isn't hot but coming from Ottawa, this is damn hot. My hair is all frizzy, Hope's is adorably curly (more than usual), Emily's curls are back, I'm always sweaty, the air smells like blossoms and barbecue. Life is good.

Happy Birthday, self

I had a great birthday on Saturday. We went to the Farm, one of our family's favourite spots in Ottawa, I got a bunch of time to myself to do some errands ahead of going to Texas today, I did not have to feed the kids lunch or put them to bed for their naps, and then John and Emily made me a great birthday dessert of homemade strawberry shortcake. I took a picture of it but my camera is now deep inside my suitcase.

For Mother's Day yesterday we went to John's brother and sister-in-law's house for an amazing Brazilian churrasco. Cibele's dad who is visiting from Brazil with her mum, grilled all the meat and her mum made all the accoutrements. It was amazing. I was so full I didn't eat supper.

I am now in the last stages of packing for our flights this afternoon. I plan to blog everyday and post photos so keep checking in for a daily vacation log.

Until Texas....

My fallible memory

My memory is getting short, shorter by the day it seems and thus I am very thankful for this blog. I need to record things, family moments mostly, so that in a few years, let's be honest a few months if not weeks, I can see what we've been doing and relive the best moments and even the worst of our days. Mostly, I want to be able to read about my most special times with John and the girls because lord knows I can't trust myself to remember even when I think, in the moment, that I'll never forget "this very moment, right now; I'll commit it to memory and never forget." A few days later, it is likely filed away and starting to fade. I hate that. I hate that about fatigue. My memory is the first to go.

I feel lately like I'm living in a fog. I can't quite see behind me as clearly as I should. I want to relive special moments from Emily's babyhood but they are blurry and that bothers me so much. And so, the blog and my thankfulness for it. Of course it's usefulness as a memory jogger actually requires me to use it to record things, certainly more often than I do now. Like yesterday when I was walking with Hope to the sand box just a short walk down the path behind our house. She was holding my hand like she almost always does when she walks beside me. Her hand was cold. Her fingers were pointed up towards my arm. All four of them. Her thumb was squeezing the back of my hand. She was wearing her blue fuzzy Guess hoodie jacket that I bought used for Emily when Emily was tiny. It has matching pants that make her look like a teddy bear. Hope loves that jacket, even though it is a little too small for her now, and always wants the hood to be up, which it was yesterday. Her hair, her luscious curly, corn silk hair, was sticking out the front all around the hood. Her cheeks were framed by the tight hood making them seem even bigger than they are, which seems almost impossible. They are huge without the hood. They were rosy. Her eyes were glued to the sand box in the distance as she tottered along in her traditional sideways slightly pigeon-toed gait. She walked the entire way without asking me to pick her up. That was the first time she walked the whole way. When we got there she made me pretend hamburgers and stew and dessert and whatever I asked for. She climbed out through the window of the sandbox house. I carried her home and she buried her face in my shoulder because of the cold wind and I nestled my nose into those wisps of hair escaping from her hood.

I never want to forget it. I will though and when I do, I'll read this and enjoy that I loved that moment and planned to remember it for the rest of my life.

What's cooking Wednesday: the Thursday edition

Last night I stood in line at Wal-mart for twenty minutes after trying on virtually everything in the store and finding only t-shirts that fit me. I guess I deserve that for trying to buy clothes at Wal-mart. Following that I waited at Shoppers Drug Mart for twenty minutes for a prescription to be filled. After all that, I was too dang tired to post for WCW and so today we have What's Cooking Wednesday: the Thursday edition.

Before I get on with that let me draw your attention to two new items I just posted in my Etsy shop. Very cute, very for sale!



All right then, on with Week 2 of Eat, Shrink and Be Merry, the newest cookbook pulled off my shelf though often ignored and the newest cookbook from my favourite Polish sisters, Janet and Greta Podleski. I have to admit that this recipe is now a standby for me. I haven't used this cookbook often but when I do it is probably for this recipe. Put simply, it's hamburgers. But these hamburgers are perfection. We love them. I don't try any other recipes. And with a bit of tweaking, they are now perfected, in my humble opinion.

Cowabunga Beef Burgers

1 1/4 lbs extra-lean ground beef
3/4 cup fresh whole wheat bread crumbs or 1/3 cup dry unseasoned bread crumbs (if you have left over bread, save it, stick it in the blender or food processor and make your own fresh bread crumbs. They are way better than the dried fine ones.)
3 tbsp hickory-flavoured barbecue sauce (don't use a regular bbq sauce - it has to be hickory or smoked. It's the secret of this recipe.)
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (eh, optional in my opinion)
2 tsp prepared horseradish (to be honest, I rarely have it so it often doesn't go in but I've used it once and it was good, but not really necessary if you don't have it)
1 egg
1 tsp minced garlic
chopped cooking onion or green onion, as much as you like (this isn't in the recipe but it is a must. It makes the burger even better.)
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
extra bbq sauce for basting while they grill

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix gently using your hands. Shape meant into 4 large patties, about 1 inch thick.

Preheat grill to high. Grill burgers about 5-6 minutes per side. Baste with extra sauce last two minutes of cooking time. Do not press down on burgers during cooking or you'll end up with dry burgers.

Serve on whole-grain buns with favourite toppings. We add cheese while on the bbq and I serve them on the awesome PC thin hamburger buns.


Juicy, flavourful, delicious. Welcome summer!

Tulip time is happy time

It's tulip time in Ottawa. That usually means tourists driving very slowly (not considering that people actually live here) on the Queen Elizabeth Parkway, bus loads of Japanese tourists, lemonade stands charging $3 a glass, and rainy weather. Of course, it also means loads and loads of beautiful tulips; tulips so overwhelming in their colour that your eyes have trouble processing it and I can never get a photo that really captures how beautiful it is. I'm going to subject you to my feeble attempts nonetheless.

We decided to go down to Dow's Lake last night, the main site of the Tulip Festival, since it was great weather and it seemed we wouldn't really get another chance before I left for Austin (just six more days!). We had an early-ish supper and headed out hoping the crowds and parking wouldn't be too difficult. We were right on both counts.

The tulips were beautiful. The National Capital Commission never fails to impress me with the stunning colours and variety of tulips they plant. The beds look like ocean waves swelling through the park. It is truly amazing every year and probably my favourite festival for its shear beauty (although the Beaver Tails at Winterlude make that festival a contender for top spot).

This year Emily was wowed by the tulips, stopping to sniff each bed, point out the ones we were coming up to, running ahead to get to them first. I love her enthusiasm for life. Going to an event like this is a showcase for that part of her personality and I look forward to it every time we do something special or out of the ordinary. I can't wait for our trip to Austin and her first ride in a big plane since she was a baby. I imagine she won't stop talking for the full five hours it takes to get there.

I took several decent photos but as hard as I tried neither kid would allow me to get a family photo in front of the tulips. In fact, I really don't have any good photos of a parent with these two. It's a pipe dream. This is as good as it got:


Emily however hammed it up a few times for the camera.


One of my favourite little games at the Tulip Festival is to spot the imperfections in the beds: a tulip bulb moved by a squirrel or a few mixed up with the wrong variety. This year was the winner; look at this tulip:


One loan red petal on a yellow tulip. So cool.

And I did find one bed with a few adoptees. These little surprises remind me of Old Order Mennonite quilts. The women who make them purposely place one piece of fabric in the wrong direction or in the wrong place because, they say, that only God can make anything perfect. I really like the beauty you find in things that are considered to be imperfect.


Hope practised her sniffing which I had to capture on video. Do you hear that snort? (Admittedly, it is a little hard to hear.) That is Hope's method of sniffing.



Emily walked the whole time we were there. Hope begged to be carried most of the time. So, Emily and I were both tired at the end but I managed to stay awake on the ride home. I can't say the same for her.

I'll knit for money

I've decided to throw caution to the wind, put myself on the line and open an Etsy store.

Please shop there. I need the cash. The stuff I make isn't so bad either. If you're not picky.

Here is my first offering:


Okay, so I only have one item up there so far because I took a seriously crappy photo of a very funky bag I made. Must redo that to do it justice.

Here is my Etsy shop. I kind of like the banner. Not bad for 30 minutes work.

Now I get to brag about the other things I've knit lately. Check it out:

This is the first (and only) sweater I have made, so far. It's for Hope when her birthday rolls around in September. Me? I like to start early.


And this is the funky bag photographed really badly. Still, I wanted to show it off. I love how the little cell phone/iPod holder turned out.


That's my Bring and Brag for tonight. If you know a newborn who is crying out for a strawberry hat, you know where I am.

The first story for her wedding

Last night was the second of three birthday parties we have been to or will be to this week. Last night it was Emily's best friend Nevan's 4th birthday party. We love Nevan's parties because it is just as much for the adults as it is for the kids. It is always intimate - just three kids and their three siblings, parents and last night Nevan's grandparents were there, too. It was a lot of fun for everyone.

The adults were enjoying the dinner table to themselves, having wine, laughing, engrossed in their conversation while the kids, who had finished eating, were in the basement playing superheroes etcetera when I heard John beside me gasp "What the?" Silence hit the table. I looked beside me to see Emily, pants and underwear in a heap beside her on the floor, bent over, ass pointed at me, hands grabbing each cheek spreading them wide saying: "Mummy, can you check my bum? I went poop."

It was one of those moments where you think "this can't be real. This is a Dave Barry moment. It doesn't really happen, right?". And yet, there we were.

I scooped Emily up and took her down to the bathroom where I did the requested check. (As a quick explanation, she is just learning to wipe her own bum after the twosies and needs a little check to make sure everything is as it should be.) She kept asking me what was so funny. I couldn't stop laughing. I told her that the grown-ups just told a joke that I hadn't heard before and it was really funny. That satisfied her. I wasn't going to use that perfect, universe-stopping moment, that moment I will remember the rest of my life, that will most definitely be talked about at her wedding and told to her own children, to give her a lesson on appropriate behaviour in front of other people. It was too good to ruin it with that sort of thing. She bought the joke answer.

I'm guessing everyone else will remember it, too. I'm pretty sure they all thought it was one of the highlights of the evening.

Until I fell asleep last night I kept spontaneously laughing. The only thing that would have made it better would be if I could tell my mum about it. She would have loved that one.

What's cooking Wednesday

We're jumping ahead to What's cooking Wednesday, completely ignoring anything that has been happening to me on Monday or Tuesday; ignoring that John's mum is here providing me much needed relief, ignoring that we made a major decision to de-register Emily from one school and switch her to another, ignoring that I'm in the middle of deciding whether to go back to work in the fall or stay home (I expect several comments thanking me for that because we all remember last year and how my decision went on and on and on. I'm sparing you until the very end this time). We're just skipping ahead to the food because we know I'm all about the food and food is the thing I generally focus on when I don't want to focus on anything else.

This week I'm starting to look at a new cookbook from my collection. My two favourite Polish-Canadian-sister-cooks Janet and Greta Podleski's newest book Eat, Shrink and Be Merry has sat on my shelf for too long without being used. That is about to change. I know that Shan is wanting a copy of this book so I figure this is a way for me to finally try some of the recipes and for her to get a sneak peek before she wins a copy for herself.

Their previous two books, Looney Spoons and Crazy Plates, were huge hits. They put together pretty interesting recipes, put a goofy name on it, make it low-fat and Bob's your uncle. I have Crazy Plates and I love it, love it, love it. I use it all the time. I bought ESandBM over a year ago and have made maybe three recipes but I have many dogeared.

Last week, I checked through my cupboards and found I had everything to make the recipe below. I didn't really know if it would be a hit. I thought it would be just okay. Turns out it was a major winner. John and I loved it but Hope really loved it and Hope doesn't generally love anything in the food department, unless it's from the pickle family. She ate a huge bowl and repeated the performance the next night. This was a winner.

Mexican Lasagna (Okay, real recipe name is No Weigh, Jose! Mexican Lasagna. These women love the goofy recipe names as you will see in the coming weeks)

1 1/2 lbs extra-lean ground chicken (I used beef because we had it in the freezer)
1 cup each diced red onions and diced green bell pepper
2 tsp minced garlic
1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup diced tomatoes
1/2 cup frozen corn
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
2 cups your favourite tomato pasta sauce
1 cup medium salsa
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp minced fresh cilantro
4 large or 8 small whole wheat flour tortillas
1 1/2 cups packed shredded old cheddar cheese
1/4 cup shopped green onions (didn't use because I didn't have any)
sour cream

Preheat oven to 375. Spray a 9x13-inch casserole dish with cooking spray and set aside.

In a large, non-stick pot or skillet, cook ground chicken, onions, green pepper, and garlic over medium-high heat until meat is no longer pink. Break up any large pieces of chicken as it's cooking.

Add black beans, tomatoes, corn, chili powder, and cumin. Cook and stir for 2 more minutes. Add pasta sauce, salsa and black pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in cilantro and remove from heat.

To assemble lasagna, spread 1/3 sauce mixture over bottom of casserole dish. Top with 1/2 the tortillas, overlapping and cutting them as necessary to fit. Top with 1/3 sauce mixture, followed by 1/2 the cheese. Cover cheese with remaining tortillas, followed by remaining sauce. Sprinkle remaining cheese over sauce and top with green onions.

Cover with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 more minutes. Let lasagna stand for at least 10 minutes before slicing for easier serving. Top each piece with a dollop of sour cream.


Another thing I loved about this recipe, aside from the rave reviews and the tummy-warming flavours, was it finally took care of the problem of what to do with slightly stale tortillas. I always have some in the freezer and they inevitably get freezer burnt and then thrown away. Not any more!

Call Stockholm

Emily was sitting at the table yesterday eating something or other that is keeping our grocery bill exorbitantly high these days (not that I'm complaining really; Hope is eating after all. Like, really eating. Food. And not just chocolate food.) like apples or crackers in large doses. It's not the what that is so expensive it is the how much. These kids are eating like grown men. Okay, not quite grown men. Maybe very short men.

Anywho.

Emily: Mummy, guess what!?
Me: What, Emmy?
Emily: I finally learned to chew! And I finally learned to swallow! Right now! Isn't that great?
Me: Silence. Confused silence.

And it only took her 3 1/2 years. She's on the fast track to somewhere.

What's cooking Wednesday

I've been AWOL the last two Wednesdays. I had grand plans for both weeks and Wednesday night came and went and somehow I ran out of time to post, even though I had even prepared something. Anyway, I'm back. The recipe will be the last out of A Taste for Justice, the cookbook I've been revisiting the past four weeks. However, I will without doubt continue to come back to this book for favourites and new ideas.

Indian-Style Chicken

4-5 lbs chicken pieces, skin removed
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp pepper
3 cups plain yogurt
2 onions, finely chopped
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 1/2 tsp turmeric
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves

Rub chicken pieces with garlic, thyme and pepper. Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken, turning to coat each piece thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours, turning occasionally.

Preheat oven to 350.

Remove chicken pieces from marinade and place in a single layer in a large roasting pan. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil, turn chicken and bake for another 30 minutes or until lightly browned, basting occasionally. (You can also bake the chicken for the final 30 minutes on the bbq).

We liked this but we didn't love it. I think I would have liked it more if I had actually marinated it for 24 hours rather than 1 hour. Bad planning on my part. Still not bad though. I think done on the bbq it would be extra good. I did it on a grill pan on the stove top and that worked quite well.


A long time ago this was one of my favourite cookbooks and it still has a few of my favourite recipes (none of which I did on here because I wanted to try recipes I hadn't made before). Now, I have several more favourites out of this book and I know that I'm going to be using it a lot more than I have in the last few years.

Next week it will be time to Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

You may all go to Hell and I will go to Texas

Davy Crockett knew what he was on about. I have similar feelings saying goodbye to Ottawa for a week and hello to Austin. Beth, best sister in the world, is flying me and the girls to Texas. We leave on May 12 and I am so so so excited! Beth has many adventures planned for us. I'd be satisfied if we never left the porch, the teapot and the pecan cracker. But I'll be even more delirious if we do half the things Beth has lined up for us. Now I just have to figure out how to get two kids, two car seats and carry-on through the airport on my own.

Bye-bye booby

Last night I didn't breastfeed Hope. It was the first time in almost 20 months that she didn't breastfeed in a day. It was a bit sad but mostly AWESOME.

Gotta run to get a passport renewed because Texas here we come! Yay!

On the mend

I took Hope to the clinic last night after she puked up plain water. In fact, it was such a violent spew that the water was running out of her nose. Soon after that the doctor was telling me that it was going around, nothing to worry about, give her a Gravol suppository (since nothing would stay in her) and feed her fluids; up and around in no time.

I dreaded the suppository. I've only given one before, to Emily, and for a month afterward it was like a vice was keeping her knees together come Hell or high water, which made changing her diaper a minor challenge.

Well, Hope being Hope she thought the whole thing was funny. The girl who hadn't smiled in twelve hours got the giggles while I was shoving the little Gravol rocket up her bum. Totally in character and kind of made yesterday a whole lot better for a brief moment. Since then she has consumed more liquids and popsicles than should be humanly possible.

Every hour today I could see her improving. The three naps (yes, three!) didn't hurt. She seems back to herself. She's upstairs laughing and playing with Emily right now.

Phew. I'm so glad that it was just a bug. I could do without that for a while now. The house has an eau de barf about that I could really do without. Probably not aided by the fact that I haven't seen a shower in quite a while and it is quite possible that my feet have been sprayed by vomit more than once since I did see a shower. Oh, and add poop water to that too. Cloth diapers + toddler diarrhea = ew, ew, ew, ew.

And how was your weekend?

The hardest days of parenting

Hope is sick again. My girl who went from a record streak of no barf is now competing for the most barf in a single season.

This morning she threw up BEFORE breakfast, after one or two sips of her morning OJ. Then she threw up after breakfast. Then she threw up after some milk hours later, then after a cracker and some water and then again later after just water.

I know it's irrational but now I'm worried that there is something really wrong with her. She has no fever, she is quite happy a few minutes after each expulsion so although the puking points to a bug of some sort, she doesn't have any other buggy symptoms.

It's normal for parents to have mini-panic attacks about their kids' health. I imagine it is even worse if they've had scares in the past, which thankfully we haven't. But when you read or hear stories about kids who have serious health issues, you can't help but feel blessed that it isn't your kid and worried that it could be. I'm in one of those moments now.

The last three weeks she's been weird: not sleeping much, clingy, throwing up occasionally. I figured it was a tooth coming in but after today I'm wondering if the last three weeks were leading to today and pointing to something more serious.

I know, I know; it is probably nothing more than a bug and I sure hope it is. I'll go to the clinic later to have a doctor allay my concerns but for now, I'm going to sit here and try not to think about the other things it could be.

Inside the hallowed halls of the ding dongs

Yesterday Emily got her wish. She saw the culmination of a dream that began almost a year ago to the day. She finally got to go inside the Ding Dong Castle.

When Emily renamed Parliament Hill the Ding Dong Castle last year she was in the midst of a fascination with the place. Soon after that started she asked, continually, when we could go inside. I promised that when she was three I would take her in. With the crocuses blooming and my dad and Donna to help me out, I decided it was time.


Emily enjoyed the neo-gothic architecture, the library, the stained glass, the carvings, the marble, the splendour of it all but mostly she enjoyed the fire. The fire of 1917 that burned the place to the ground. The tour guide referred to it a few times and for Emily that was what it was all about. The stain on the sink? Must have happened during the fire. The clock on the peace tower? They put it up because of the fire. Those stairs right there? I think they used that during the fire. I was pleased that her first question was about how the people got out of the building. She had a hard time getting her mind around the fact that the buildings burned to the ground and they build new ones. That's a hard concept for the three-year-old mind it turns out. How can something that was there just disappear? Aside from the fire, the highlights for her were riding the train and bus to get there, drinking cream soda with Papa and Mummy getting a parking ticket. Damned OCTranspo and their inferior parking lot.


It was the first beautiful day of what is a beautiful week. I have flowers peeking out of the back garden, the snow pile in the front yard is well below the tree branches now and Hope spent supper with a streak of dirt across her face from her enthusiastic sliding all afternoon in the backyard.

Spring rules.

Quick word

My dad and Donna are visiting for the next three days which likely means I won't be blogging much however I have to announce some great news: John's brother Mike and Mike's wife, Cibele, our only family in town, had their baby yesterday! It's a girl, about 6.5 lbs, named Sofia and absolutely gorgeous! I got to stare at her for a while last night when I dropped off Cibele's first taste of dairy in many months. (Her nausea and violent stomach upheaval - and I mean, violent - was made way worse by anything dairy.)

That's the news from here. My good friend Marnie, also had a her fifth (!) baby two days ago. It's just good news all around. Add to that the 10 degree and more weather coming this week and I'm just a happy camper. Oh, and my dad and Donna brought two suppers worth of food and a bottle of Amarone. Could life get any better?

So awkward, so good, so satsifying.

It was everything I hoped it would be. Last night's return of the Office was brilliant. It was one of the most awkward episodes I've watched yet and if you watch the Office regularly you know that the cringe-factor, the feeling that you shouldn't be watching this, the absolute awkward feeling in the pit of your stomach is what makes it so brillant. They exceeded themselves last night.

Michael and Jan coerced a few employees, most importantly Jim and Pam, to come to a dinner party at their house. The evening ended with the police arriving after neighbours complained of screaming and smashing from Michael's house. The complaint was a result of a fight between Jan and Michael that ended in a trophy sailing through his $200 tiny plasma screen t.v.

I loved the moment when Pam revealed she'd stolen Jan's CD made by her former assistant who Jan obviously has it on for. Also great was Angela smushing the ice cream cone on the door of the car after Andy took a bite of it, Dwight revealing that he only his relationship with his dinner date and former babysitter was "purely carnal," Jan declaring that the osso bucco had to cook for three hours before it is served, and the countless looks from Jim and Pam into the camera.

Below is one of the dozens of awkward moments... Jan "dancing" with Jim to the CD while Jim refuses to stand. If feels like watching a drunk student at a university bar trying to get an otherwise spoken for love interest to show an interest.... yikes.


It was a great half-hour. Can't wait for next week!

It's here. It's finally here.

It's been a long, dark few months. My Thursdays have been lonely. Very lonely. But today it all returns to normal and I am beside myself with anticipation.

If you were thinking of calling me between 9:00 and 9:30 tonight, please, please, please don't.

I'm otherwise occupied.


John has other plans.

First spring day

Last week the paper talked about the difference in ottawa between the first day of Spring on March 20 and the first Spring day. I couldn't agree more. March 20 passes without notice around here, especially this year, what with the metre high pile of snow in our front yard, the sub-zero nighttime temperatures and the occasional snow flurry we were having at the time. But today? Today really felt like the first Spring day. There were big puddles, grass was showing in a few places (not on our front yard - snow pile is diminished but still at a metre in a couple of places), and rubber boots were donned. We even pulled out the bubbles.

It was a picture-worthy afternoon.



Notice Emily's new rubber boots. I wish I could pull those off. Who am I kidding? If they made them in my size, I would totally own some (if I weren't on a spending diet, that is).

A financial goal

Not surprisingly, with one salary and two kids things are tight around here financially. Last week we found ourselves with $30 in the bank and not really sure how it happened. Luckily I got a reimbursement for some church-related expenses for over $300 that will get us to John's next payday. Just before we started eyeing a few good-looking cardboard boxes.

What disturbs me the most is that we don't really know what ate away at our account. Without checking our account activity I can make an educated guess: we frittered it away (likely, mostly me) on lattes, eating out, snacks out with the kids, etc etc etc.

So I've decided to set a new goal for myself starting today. I'm going to try to not spend money for the rest of April and all of May. When I say "not spend money," I'm talking unnecessaries, incidentals, wants instead of needs. Food will still be on the table and I will still wear deodorant. We're going to limit ourselves to eating out or taking in only once every two weeks (we've been doing that too often lately). There will be no more lattes from Starbucks. It will be make-my-own at home. No new crafting supplies; we'll use what we have. If I'm teaching Sunday School, I'll make do with things from home or the supplies at church.

Honestly, we live quite frugally but this month things went off the rails somewhere and I'm not entirely sure how. I keep my spending under control most of the time and I almost always pack our snacks, cook our own meals, and get our books from the library. Obviously I didn't do as well this month.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of April and May go. Last year I took up the same challenge for myself but did it only for a month. I didn't find it too difficult and I saw a real change in my habits afterwards setting me up well for going down to one salary. I need a refresh, a reminder of how I can do better.

Maybe we'll be able to save enough to reach John's stated target of when he'll know that we're financially comfortable:

"Two words: cashew butter."

The great melt

I have shared with you many photos of our gigantic snow pile in the front yard. Finally the time has come to say: it is melting!

Pretty slowly however. Instead of being in the middle of the branches of the crabapple tree, it is now at the bottom of the branches. Woo. Eee.

On Tuesday the thermometer hit 10 degrees. We put on the rain gear and headed out in search of puddles. We were not disappointed. In fact, we found the east coast, complete with ice bergs, right on our street:


And then I put the kids to work. They seemed to enjoy themselves.

What's cooking Wednesday

We have a guest WCW participant today: John, partner extraordinaire, who volunteered to cook tonight. I heartily accepted his offer. And it was good, as usual. John is a great cook and unlike me almost never opens a cookbook. So, I told him he was on deck for WCW today while I take a one-week hiatus.

Without futher ado....

Spaghetti with shrimp and asparagus

Marinate shrimp in lemon zest, lemon juice, olive oil, s&p, garlic and basil. Slice onions into large, thick whole (not chopped) slices. Wash asparagus but leave whole. Grill onions, asparagus with some salt and pepper and olive oil in a grill pan. Remove from pan when grilled and set aside. Put some butter in grill pan, dump in shrimp with marinade, cook on both sides, add asparagus and onions back in after chopping into smaller pieces. Cook together to blend flavours.

Cook pasta, remove from water with tongs and put directly into grill pan, add a bit more olive oil, some parsley and a squeeze of lemon. If you want it a bit juicier, add a bit of the past water.

Dress with freshly grated parmesan (which we were unfortunately out of).

A taste of spring before we can see the grass. And it was delicious.

Ending her non-vomit streak

Hope has a little Jerry Seinfeld in her or so I thought. Most kids barf a lot. Emily did more than her fair share between the ages of 0 and 2 and I expected the same from Hope but I racked my brain around 2:00 am last night and realized she'd only barfed once. Well, once before last night. To her credit, she made sure that she made up for her dry spell with volume.

Hope woke up crying around 9:30 last night but I was able to easily get her back to sleep. She was up again at 10:00; again I got her back to sleep. At 10:15 she was up again. I held her in the chair covered in a blanket, thinking she was cold. We cuddled for a while. Until she puked all over my shirt and then kept puking, covering the chair and carpet. Luckily John was in the basement on the other end of the monitor and came to help with the substantial clean-up. Hope ended up having a full bath and hair wash at 10:30. I could have used one myself.

She hung out in bed with us for a while, playing. I put her back to bed around 11:30. I went back to bed and heard her chatting, then crying, then spewing again. Another change of clothes, bedding. I took her back in bed with me where we snuggled and finally fell asleep around 12:30 or so.

I haven't slept with Hope in months and months. She's never been good at it. As a newborn, she was always looking for boob. As a toddler, she only wants to play. Last night she finally gave in and went to sleep and it was so nice to sleep with her, if only for a little while. She snuggled right against me, actually pushing me off the bed at one point, keeping my chest warm and my face full of her curls. I got to breathe her in for about 2 hours. It was heaven.

Around 2:30 she woke up again and started to play so I got Grobag number 3 (her two other sleep sacks had been soiled by this point - luckily I have an ample supply), put her to bed and she slept until 8:00.

Poor kid. I hope she is better today. So far, so good. Me? I'm planning on finishing my cappuccino and then starting on laundry. Lots and lots of laundry.

Weekend recap

It's almost Friday and I still haven't talked about the end of our Easter weekend away.


I had finished off with sitting around drinking wine and playing Settlers of Catan on Saturday night after a day of the kids playing together, having a bath together on Saturday night and generally bonding. On Sunday morning Emily was itching to get out of bed and hunt for eggs. I made her wait until Hope and Elias were up but allowed her to look at the Easter basket I had made for her. It held the bunny and eggs I had knit and a new pair of pyjamas. She literally grabbed the bunny and threw it onto the chair behind her, rifling through the Easter grass looking for chocolate. Did my heart sink a little as my work of art was carelessly tossed away? Only a little. I respected her focus and one-mindedness. And, as it turns out, she's had days of fun since we've been home, undressing and dressing the bunny and hiding the eggs.

When Elias and Hope were finally upstairs (Hope had a similar reaction to her bunny and eggs but seemed to really like her pyjamas) they quickly found all the eggs and divided up the chocolate.

We packed up our things and drove down the road to Cambridge to spend the rest of the day with John's sister Sue and her family and John's mum, otherwise known as Omi. Emily and Hope had a great time playing with their cousins. Emily tried riding a scooter for the first time and got supremely frustrated. We left just before supper, drove to the west side of Toronto, stopped for dinner and then drove the rest of the way to Ottawa. The girls were great on the ride home, waiting to meltdown until we pulled into the driveway and woke them up.

And that is the end of the first weekend away we've had since September. It was so needed and so much fun.

What's cooking Wednesday and March Moment Day 26

Welcome to another week flipping through the pages of A Taste for Justice: A Bridgehead Cookbook. This week I made a recipe that was, like last week's, very easy however I didn't like it quite as much as the pork recipe from last week. The recipe for this week had rum in it and it was a little too overpowering for me. I would give this only a 3.5 out of 5 if I was a rating kind of girl. However, if you like to cook with rum then I definitely recommend this. By the way, Emily really liked it. Well, she really liked the cashews.


Cashew Chicken in Raisin Sauce

5 tbsp raisins, small, dark and seedless
5 tbsp rum
1/4 cup butter
4 chicken breasts, halved, deboned and skinned
slat and pepper
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup light cream
1/2 cup cashews

Soak raisins in rum and set aside.

Heat butter in heavy skillet. Add chicken, salt and pepper to taste. Cook over medium heat until tender, about 30 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and set aside.

Add the stock and bring to a boil. Mix together the cornstarch and cream and add to the stock. Bring to a boil again, stirring continuously for 3 minutes. Add soaked raisins with liquid. When ready to serve, add cashews and reheat the chicken in the sauce with lid on.

That's it. Really, can you find an easier recipe that also has a decent shi-shi factor? Maybe I didn't give this recipe enough credit above. I mean, I did steal a few extra bites from Emily's plate after she had picked out and eaten all the cashews, including some of mine. I did like it, I just found the rum stronger than I expected. But, served over rice (I made a mixture of brown, white and wild), it was really quite good. Okay, maybe a 4 out of 5.

Clearly I won't be asked to come to Beijing. I'm a waffler.

And a quick foray into a small moment for today.... I had a surprise visit from Louise, Emily's first daycare provider. Louise and I became very good friends while Emily was with her. Emily only left because Louise closed the daycare (after ten or so years) to attend teachers' college. Now she is done, living back in Ottawa and supply teaching. She had the afternoon free and came by for a visit. I haven't seen her in about 18 months and it was so great to hang out with her and watch Emily fall in love with her all over again. Really, it made me miss her that much more. Hopefully we'll see each other more often over the next few months. Emily had Louise reading to her pretty much as soon as Louise walked through the door. Probably the words going through Emily's mind were "fresh meat."

March Moment Day 25 or another reason to keep him around

My morning is deep, deep, deep within a rut. The rut I'm in is so big it would take a LAV3 to get me out of there. And even then it would likely be with me kicking and screaming and scraping my fingernails along the sides of the rut.

I really like my rut.

It goes like this: Emily comes into my room and says something along the lines of "Get up you hosehead. Get me my morning juice and turn on the t.v. and then leave me to the subtle nuances of Curious George." I comply. After she's settled in front of the t.v., I go back to the kitchen, start getting her toast ready and, more importantly, fire up the old cappuccino machine. I deliver Emily's breakfast to her. Normally by then Hope has woken up so I get her, change the old bum, get her some juice and toast and then settle her in beside Emily. By then my best friend the cappuccino machine is ready to go. I make my coffee, toast and then settle in to read the paper. Hope usually wanders up after a few minutes. Her attention span for anything other than Veggie Tales is short. She plays on her own while I keep soaking up the news from in town and out. After that it is in the shower, blah, blah, blah and on with the day.

John knows I read the paper every morning, and usually thoroughly. And so he left me a wee gift this morning. A subtle gift, meant to give me a laugh, but also based on our totally parallel opinions on our current government, our love of politics (not to the point where we ever want to join in but certainly where we follow and comment and complain and maybe, just maybe, one of us has joined a certain left-leaning - okay, very left-leaning - federal party) and our oh-so-similar and therefore cockeyed senses of humour. So, there I was this morning reading through the paper when I found this:


For most of you who likely don't recognize Jim Flaherty, he is Canada's federal Minister of Finance and esteemed member of the ruling Conservative Party, which to my ears is like living in Dog River and hearing mention of Wullerton.

I have strong feelings about Jim Flaherty but John's eclipse mine. Which I suppose is obvious by his graffiti above.

All this to say that my husband knows how to lift my spirits in the morning without even being home.

Back home

After a fairly uneventful but long drive home, here we are this morning back to the usual routine: Emily watching Arthur, Hope still sleeping, me looking bedraggled and no food in the house for breakfast. Porridge it is.

We had an amazing weekend. I'll give the recap from yesterday and the kids' egg hunt later with some photos.

Hmm, after just having to turn the t.v. off because Emily is shouting and pouting from not having the "right" Berenstain Bears episode, I'm starting to think this isn't going to be the best day for her. Ugh.

The weekend so far

I finished the knitted bunnies for the girls just tonight, just in time for the big day tomorrow. They are now perched, ready for action, in their baskets, on Tamara and Greg's piano.


We have had a great weekend so far with Tamara, Greg and Elias here in Kitchener. Yesterday we walked to Tamara's school so the kids could play in the snowy and icy playground. The rest of the day we ate and played and read books and ate. Last night I drank too much wine, played Settlers of Catan and laughed and laughed and laughed. Today we went to the St. Jacobs Farmers Market for our quarterly supply of summer sausage. We were glad to get the summer sausage but it was so busy that we were all grumpy when we left only 30 minutes or so later. The days of leisurely browsing the tables staffed by Old Order Mennonites while downing some hot apple fritters are a thing of the past. The new reality is standing in the cold for twenty minutes, holding a one year old, waiting to get in the building to order your apple fritters while the rest of your group is fighting for table space to eat the pancake that they stood in line for twenty minutes to get. Good times, good times.

From there we went to our friends' Marnie and Paul's house and spent the rest of the morning with them drinking great coffee, watching the kids play and catching up with friends we see far too infrequently. Marnie is at the end of her fifth pregnancy and for that alone she is a total star in my books. The fact that she has three kids at home kicks her up another notch. What clinches it for me though is that she is still totally the same very cool, hilarious kindred spirit she was when I met her seventeen years ago. Crap. Seventeen years? How did I end up 35? Just yesterday I was 19, I swear.

This afternoon Tamara and I abandoned our kids to our husbands, did some shopping and had tea out on the town. Now, the kids are sleeping, we're sitting around reading, blogging, drinking wine or scotch and some of us are watching the hockey game. We'll soon be back to playing cards or something else.

Tomorrow is the egg hunt and then we're off to John's sister's house in Cambridge for an Easter lunch before heading home tomorrow night.

I hope you're all having a great weekend, too.

March Moments Day 17 and 18

At least I'm consistent in not getting my tiny moments up every day. Now you know to expect inconsistency, which is consistent, right? See what I did there?

We've been dying a lot of Easter eggs. A lot. And a lot of fingers, too. Hope was not invited to participate this year because I prefer our floors, chairs and table to stay the colours that they are. She'll be in for next year. For now, we dye while she naps.


Emily is the resident pizza topper in our house. We make mini-pizzas about once a week for lunch. Emily has developed a very specific technique for the toppings, which are always the same: pepperoni, pineapple and cheese. She loves to make them. I love to eat them.


Hope gets the short end today but I'll make it up to her with an all-Hope day very soon.

We're off to Kitchener tomorrow afternoon for Easter weekend. We're staying with our very good friends Tamara and Greg who we see too infrequently. We'll be home on Sunday night late, I expect. Reports to follow on Monday amidst laundry, cleaning and all the rest of it.

Joyeuses Pâques, tout le monde!

What's cooking Wednesday

It is Week 2 of going through Taste for Justice: A Bridgehead Cookbook and let me say "Hurrah for this cookbook!" I've always liked the recipes I've tried from this book but I always go back to the same three or four. Tonight I tried something completely new: pork medallions with cashews and apricots. The whole family loved this, even Hope who tends to eat only vegetables lately. It is a recipe that has a big wow factor but is really easy to prepare. I would definitely make this for a special dinner and yet prepare it just for us too. It's that easy (provided you have port in the house) and that good. That being said, I didn't have cashews so I used pecans instead and it worked great.

Pork Medallions with Cashews (or Pecans) and Apricots

1 lb pork tenderloin, cut into thin rounds and pounded into scallops
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup port
1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
1/4 cup cashews (or pecans or whatever nut you like) coarsely chopped
1 cup whipping cream (I used 1/2 and 1/2)

Pat pork dry and season lightly with s&p. Dust with flour. Melt butter in large flat skillet. Cook pork scallops in batches, 1 or 2 minutes on each side. Transfer to serving platter and keep warm.

Pour off excess fat. Add onion and port to skillet; bring to a boil, stirring up browned bits from bottom of pan. Cook for 3 minutes or until sauce is reduced to a 1/4 cup. Add apricots, cashews, and cream. Cook, stirring continuously for 5 minutes, or until sauce has thickened. Pour over warm pork scallops.

The photo doesn't do this dish justice. The photo kind of makes it look like dog food. Don't be fooled. It looked much better in person and tasted phenomenal. And it made enough to put another meal in the freezer.