March Break

I'm up early. It's about 6:40 a.m. Everyone else is sleeping. I'm reading through my RSS feed and my email. I'm drinking tea and eating pumpkin bread. While this all sounds lovely, I'd rather be in bed under my duvet. But, I have a chiropractic appointment at 8:00 and would like to shower before I go because when I get home it will be a whirlwind of packing. We're driving to my dad's today for a few days of March Break fun.

Granted, there will be rain and slush and probably mud but there will also be a hot tub overlooking the slushy lake.

And there will also be work. I have my major project due next Monday for the class I'm taking so my evenings have to be spent working.

If you are spending this week with your kids on their break, have a great adventure together.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Beautify

I've never been one to choose a "word for the year". You may have talked to or read other people who do this: something, in a word, to focus on for the coming year. For me, this is too close to making a New Years Resolution, something I run away from annually.

Mainly because I try to avoid failure.

But this year, I started thinking about it a bit, just as a game. What word would I choose for this year? Laundry? That seems to dominate my time. Candyland? Also takes up more than its fair share of my days. Maybe sleep? that often sought-after but seemingly unattainable dream when you have three kids six and under. After about all of 5 seconds, I had moved onto something else. Probably choosing which setting to use on the laundry machine.

And then I had a new neighbour over for tea.

Her name is Shahi. She and her family just moved here from UAE. I decided to pull out the proper teacups instead of using usual pottery mugs. I served cake on pretty china plates.

As I passed Shahi her cup, she said: "These are so pretty. People don't put importance on beautiful things anymore. Everything is about function. It's sad that we are losing beauty from our homes and lives like that."

I haven't gone a day without thinking about that since. She's so right. We so often give over to function over beauty. I have a sideboard full of china and teacups and silver and crystal. It gets used at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Or if we forget to run the dishwasher.

I decided that my word of the year would be Beautify. In fact, this may become my word for the next several years, if not my lifetime.

Being frugally minded, this doesn't mean I will be spending money to beautify my home and life. It means I'll start giving more playtime to the beautiful things we already have. I now have at least one cup of tea a day in a proper tea cup. I try and move things around occasionally to take better notice of some of the pretty things I own. For example, my friend Michelle was visiting last week from Waterloo. I put all the little travel size shampoos and soaps for her in a gorgeous silver bowl that we received as a wedding gift but normally sits collecting dust on a dark shelf in our family room.

It might seem like this all seems so superficial. But what I notice is that other people notice when there is beauty around them - they can be simple things, or simple actions, but they can have a profound effect on how someone's day goes. Seeing beauty and appreciating beauty is fundamental to human nature. That's why we make art, go to art galleries, garden, go to parks, cook lovely meals, make pottery, knit, sew, have meals together, read and write.

As I thought about beautifying more, I knew this should and would extend far beyond material things. I'm making an effort to beautify life.

I'm a patient mother - quite patient, in fact - but I can always improve and I'm making an effort to do that.

I'm baking more (gluten-free, mind you) than I have in the past two months so there is always something homemade to be had as a snack or small dessert.

My letter-writing project (sadly behind right now) is an additional effort to add a small amount of beauty to other people's lives.

I'm knitting for other people.

Emily and I have started a creative project that is almost finished that will add a bit of beauty and several smiles to the people around us. It's also given us something really fun - and therefore beautiful - to do together.

I've started ironing clothes. If you know me, you'll know that is nothing short of a miracle. But it is rather nice to not look like you slept in your clothes. You know?

Beauty is how you decide to define it. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I can see beauty - or opportunities to beautify - all around me. How about you?

The award is in the bag

Would you like to know what I just did?

I just finished making a batch of homemade doughnuts. Oh yes, I did!

Gluten-free pumpkin doughnuts to be exact. And after a very long hiatus, I'm putting this up on a Wednesday which means this is part of Shannon's awesome What's Cooking Wednesday.

Emily made the batter with me, I heated the oil and deep-fried those suckers and they are everything a homemade doughnut (in this case, Timbit, or doughnut hole for you Americans) should be: crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, sugary, pumpkiny, spicy, warm.

For those of you vying for the Best Mum of the Year Award.... how does my dust taste?!

No one wants to be laughed at when they're naked

This blog is suffering from not-so-benign neglect. And just when there are so many things to talk about. It's always the way, isn't it? Lots been going on, much of it blog-worthy. Before the goings-on are filed away in my grey matter, never to be retrieved again, I'm going to try to get a few posts up this week. Saying it here may actually make it happen. Here's hoping, anyway.

I have funny kids... very funny kids... but the funniest (although the jury is still out on Henry) is Hope. She makes us belly-laugh frequently, never due to effort on her part, and then she gets extremely agitated (read: stinking mad) if she thinks we're laughing because of something she said or did. Which we almost always are.

Evidence: this week she said something funny (again) while she was changing into her jammies and yelled at us: I don't like it when people laugh at me when I'm naked!

Which did not make us laugh less.

In the past couple of weeks she has reached a new pinnacle of funniness. I've managed to remember three good Hope-isms, using top-secret, tired mummy-brain techniques, so that I could get them down and then free up that brain space for things such as remembering library book day and where I left my hemorrhoid medication. This is important stuff people. So very important.

Laugh #1: Hope tends to take Henry's toys right out of his hands. Yanks them actually. I caught her in the act a couple of weeks ago and explained how even though he's a baby, you can't just grab things away from him even if you want them. You have to treat him like you treat other kids, blah, blah, blah. I walked out of the room and back in to see her with Henry's toy again. I asked her how she got it.

Hope: "I asked Henry for it and he said yes."
Me: "But Henry can't talk."
Hope: "Yes, he can."
Me: "Uh no, he can't."
Hope: "Yes, he can, Mummy."
Me: "But how do you know what he's saying?"
Hope: "I understand baby talk."

A minute later, Hope turns to Henry and says: "Henry, can I use that when you're finished?" (She leans in to his face and listens near his mouth as though he were a stuffed animal in one of her pretend games.) "You're done? Oh good. Thanks!" Yanks toy out of his hand.

Laugh # 2:
Hope: I got my chest skin stuck in this zipper today at school. [It was a decorative zipper on the front of a dress.]
Me: Why were you unzipping that zipper?
Hope: My hand was tired so I was giving it some exercise to give it more energy.

Laugh #3:
(at the dinner table)
Hope: Mummy, you forgot to give me the broccoli I asked for!
Me: Oh, sorry. I didn't hear you ask for it.
Hope: That's because I asked you in my head.

And just so Emily isn't totally left out...
I was changing Henry's diaper last week when Emily walked into the room and said:
Is there poop in that diaper?
Me: No.
Emily: Good! Because the last time I saw Henry's poop, it was terrifying!

Letters 5 and 6

I have to admit that I got a bit behind in my letter writing. I haven't missed sending out a letter but for three weeks I was one letter behind, meaning that I always had two letters to send out and I never sent two letters out in a week so one letter kept being pushed a week ahead. Get that? Confusing, I know.

Well, last week I remedied that and actually mailed out two letters.

First, let's back up just a bit and say that letter number 3 went to Mrs. Cheevers. If you recognize the last name, you're right, it's THAT Cheevers, as in Gerry Cheevers, goaltender extraordinaire. If you know hockey, you'll know Gerry's mask: in 2008 Hockey News rated it the best goalie mask ever. I think I'm right in saying he was the first to ever decorate his mask - with stitch marks each time it was hit with a puck.

Mrs. Cheevers is his mother and just as importantly, mother to Pat Cheevers who was John's dad's best friend, pretty much forever as far as I can glean. Unfortunately for this world, Pat and Ken are in the great hereafter enjoying a beer (or several) together but Mrs. Cheevers is hanging on like a champ. She's what you'd describe as a spitfire in the best possible terms. I've always really liked her although I haven't seen her in a long time. I believe she is around 90 now, maybe a bit beyond that even. John's mom is close to her and visits her frequently. This is how I learned that Mrs. Cheevers was complaining that she hadn't received a letter in a while. That sealed it for me. Mrs. Cheevers was next on my list to write to. And I'm happy to report that she was thrilled to get my letter. I'll make sure that I write to her again in a few weeks.

Letter number 4 was a birthday card - a really nice one I bought at Chapters - for Donna, my dad's wife. I understand why people, and I've done it countless times, send e-cards but a real birthday card is just so much nicer. I will not be sending one e-card this year. It's going to be the real thing all the way... it's also a really easy way for me to send out a letter!

Letter 5 went to my dear friend Marnie. She reads my blog so I'm not saying more about the letter (actually, package). Marnie and I met in first year university. We lived in the same residence: Conrad Grebel College, the Mennonite college at the University of Waterloo. To say we hit it off, is an understatement. I could go on and on and on about our exploits - together with the other member of the trio that year, Holly (Hi Holly!). The following year, after Holly moved off-campus, Marnie and I shared a room and after that, a few houses. We've stayed very close through all these years and thankfully I got to spend lots of time with her last year when we were in Waterloo although we both kept saying that it still wasn't enough. She's one of my very special friends who I can not talk to or see for a while and when we meet again, it's like no time has passed at all.

The other letter I sent was to someone else who reads this blog so I'm not going to say much else. Getting real letters is such a rarity now that I don't want to spoil the surprise.

I'm really enjoying this. I'm not being too hard on myself if something is delayed a week, as long as it get the letter out eventually even if I have to double-up one week. The loveliest part of this whole project is spreading the love. People really appreciate getting a letter or card or package and it makes me feel like I'm beautifying the world a little bit by brightening up someone's day each week.

More on my beautifying project in a future post!

Why helping women be successful in breastfeeding should be applauded and not criticized (aka Karen's newest rant)

I've been following this story out of the U.S. with great interest. Can someone, anyone, please explain to me using some intellectual capacity, how promoting breastfeeding, especially to a population that traditionally doesn't breastfeed or at least breastfeed beyond a few weeks, is being Big Mother or creating a Nanny State?

I am so riled up about this and it isn't (thankfully) happening in my own country. But I just don't get how Americans can vote for the Republican Party.

Promoting breastfeeding is in no way being a Nanny State or "Big Mother", as the Republicans have described Michelle Obama. If it is then so is an anti-smoking policy, or banning asbestos as a building material, or promoting fitness through Participaction.

The Republicans argue that making these opinions into policy is making the U.S. into a Nanny State. Oh, and the Republicans have never made their opinions into policy, right? Making killing an abortion doctor justifiable homicide in South Dakota comes to mind as a recent and abhorent example.

By the by, making breastpumps a tax deduction wasn't Michelle Obama's idea. It was proposed by 45 Congress men and women. Not that that should matter. Working mothers - and most women in the U.S. don't get much maternity leave at all - need help if they're going to continue to breastfeed. A decent breastpump up to the job of a lot of pumping costs about $250. For a woman being paid minimum wage, that's unaffordable. These women need help. It makes me sick that the Republican Party thinks that because one well-off woman could buy a pump on her own to breastfeed her five children, that all women can do that. Guess what? Most American women don't have that kind of money. Most American women need a bit of help if they're going to work and breastfeed.

American Republicans: start thinking about someone other than yourselves. It's what you were elected to do.

You make me thankful I don't live in the United States.

Change of plans

We were supposed to be driving to my dad's in Gravenhurst right about now but Emily's stomach had a different idea for the weekend.

Yesterday morning Emily got up around 6:00 coughing and crying (I should have known what was to come... coughing for her is a sure sign of digestive distress - and impending yakking). She went back to bed until about 7:30 when she got up and ralphed. She had some water later. And then up came the water.

She spent from about 8:00 until 11:30 asleep. The rest of the day she lazed about feeling sort of okay when she had Motrin in her but really not okay when the Motrin wore off. Fevery.

After a lovely bubble bath last night (soothing and useful to wash barf out of hair) she felt GREAT! I thought maybe, just maybe, we'd be able to go to Muskoka for the weekend. But alas, this morning, she got up and laid right back down on my lap and didn't move for about 20 minutes. She still isn't herself so we've decided to stay put. Also, the risk that another member of the clan may fall to this flu also weighed on my mind. When you're barfing, you really want to do it in your own bathroom.

So, here we are: a long weekend ahead of us (as today is a P.D. day - no school) and Monday is a holiday. So, as long as everyone is healthy or near-healthy, here is our plan:

Today: a trip to the library this afternoon or Chapters (this is really more for me - I'm feeling like I need to breathe air outside these walls)? Emily may stay home for this.
Saturday: maybe go to The Farm. We haven't been there since we moved back to Ottawa. The museum isn't open yet (although will be open on Monday for Family Day) but we can still see the animals. Nice little piggies.
Sunday: Jacques Cartier Park for some Winterlude, Beavertails and sliding down the ice slides. Late afternoon - first swimming lessons (at least for Hope).
Monday: There's a winter festival at our local park from 11am to 3pm that I think we may go to. Of course, today feels like spring, but I hear that Winter plans to show his face again this weekend.

What are you doing this weekend?

Making up for lost canal time

Last year was the first winter I didn't skate on The Rideau Canal since about 1997. We were living in Waterloo last winter, a long commute to the Canal, and the one weekend I did make it here I was about 6 months pregnant and already Large And In Charge and wasn't willing to risk catching my blade in a crack in the ice. Henry would have been fine but my body wouldn't have liked the 165 pounds of momentum behind that fall.

I'm making up for lost time this winter. I've been out three times on the Canal and twice on our local rink helping the girls learn to skate. Next weekend, we'll be in Gravenhurst skating on Kahshe Lake in front of my dad's house if all goes according to plan. My legs are slowly remembering what to do and how to recover. Pushing Henry in a heavy stroller (Peg Peregos are great but not exactly lightweight) makes it an even better workout... especially if I'm skating into the wind.


My sort-of routine is to go to the Canal on Wednesday and Friday afternoons while both girls are in school. I hope to keep doing this as long as the ice is decent. Wouldn't you with scenes like this?


My only complaint up to this point has been the lack of decent food on the canal for a gluten-sensitive girl like me. Beavertails? Yum but fully-glutened and not exactly a healthy choice for lunch. Poutine? That gravy is likely chalk-full of wheat or something related (if it is even identifiable outside of a lab) and it tastes like shite. Why can't we get a decent poutine on the Canal? We're in a city ripe with good poutine. It's about LAYERS, friends, LAYERS. Fries, cheese curd, GOOD gravy, repeat. NOT fries, more fries, a bit more fries, a few curds, a brown sludge poorly resembling gravy.


Of course, poutine is definitely not going to make the list of healthy lunch choices, even when done well.

And then along came the soup lady. Stone Soup Foodworks was profiled in The Ottawa Citizen this week so I, like many other people on the Canal yesterday, sought her out. I had her Thai Squash Soup for lunch. It was delicious and nice and spicy. Clearly Ottawans have been wanting this because the line was huge by the time I joined it. I bought the last bowl of squash soup and she was almost out of bread (which I didn't take - she gave me 50 cents off as a result. Very friendly.). I hope she's a new fixture on the Canal because she's set a new standard.


So, for all of those Ottawa mums out there who are feeling a little house-bound: get out there, get skating and have some soup. Henry says so! (Don't worry, Rose, he survived the cold!)

He'd be at home in a garbage dump

Henry's newest favourite place to sit:




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I've been hoping for this

Last year during our very social year in Waterloo, I found myself complaining that we didn't know our neighbours in Ottawa very well at all. We had a few acquaintances on our street but no one that I would really call "friend". The girls didn't have any playmates that they would just meet in the back yards or ride their bikes with or invite over to play. They had that in Waterloo in spades and I was very sad to leave that behind.

This afternoon the girls came home from school and started playing on our front snow pile. Anna ran over from a few doors down. Minutes later Emily popped her head in the door and yelled that she and Hope were going to play in Anna's front yard. A little while after that Emily came back and asked if they could go have hot chocolate at Anna's. When I called over a little while later, I could barely hear Anna's mum, Isabelle, over the din. Mohammed and Raeff, other neighbours on our street, were also over playing she said. Earlier this week I had a new friend, Shahi, from down the street over for tea.

I promised myself in the summer that I would try to make more friends on our street. While I don't think I actually did anything extraordinary to make it happen, I'm so happy that has.

Friends nearby make a home happier.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Snow Day.... Sort of

We've woken up this morning to a very snowy Ottawa. The wind is whipping, buses are cancelled, snow is still falling, traffic is snarled. Schools remain open for those that can find their own way there.




My girls take the bus to school so we offered Emily every student's dream this morning: a Snow Day. Stay at home with Mummy in your pajamas and watch movies and do crafts. And do you know what she said?

No, I want to go to school.

Another episode for the nerd file. I love you, my little nerd.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wah, harumph, grumble!

Here are some things I feel the need to complain about:

• John being away for most of last week while Henry decided to stay awake two hours (non-consecutive) each night and cry. Not John's fault in any way. Just bad luck.
• Mondays - I love them until I come home from my class at Carleton and then after that it feels like a big whirlwind while I try and clean up from the day and do the dishes and make dinner and play with the girls who really want to play games after not seeing me all day.
• my letter writing - I'm behind a letter. Last week, while I had plans to squeeze in my letter-writing, I didn't get it done. See above as to why.
  
• gluten. I love it but why doesn't it love me? Wah.
• people who flaunt rules... in front of their kids no less. Our local outdoor skating rink is actually a double-rink: one for recreational skating and one for hockey. There is a clear sign in the changing area that sticks, pucks and balls are prohibited on the rec ice. Does anyone care? Yes, two people - me and one other perturbed father who, like me, had to make sure his children didn't get a slapshot to the orbital lobe. Every other person on the ice (and there were many) had a stick, puck, net or full goalie gear (no exaggeration). Yes, I am calling my city councillor tomorrow. I'm that grumpy anti-hockey mom. So sue me for being unCanadian. I don't care. I just want to skate with my kids.
  
• The City of Ottawa's current garbage and recycling program. Our green bin (organic compostable waste) is currently full to the top - the lid can barely close - and it is also frozen solid. It's only collected every two weeks. We are a family of five (4 and a half anyway) who eat a lot of compostables and we're very committed to composting. The bin was full at the end of last week and it won't be collected until this Thursday. Collecting only once every two weeks is not acceptable when you want to encourage people to compost. I've told the city this in their current survey but I still feel the need to complain. To anyone who will listen.
• People who say they are "trying to prove a point" to the City by not using the Green Bin program. There is a special place in Hell reserved for you people. And I hope it is full of your stinky garbage.
  

Phew. Just needed to get that off my chest. And now, on to more positive things. Time for some tea and knitting. And a freshly baked (gluten-free) muffin!

Letters 1 and 2

I'm on track so far for my 52 letters in 52 weeks, granted it is only the second week but I like to give myself kudos occasionally...

Good for me!

Last week, I eased into the project and sent a birthday card to my friend, Pam. Last week I also ordered these pretty flat notecards on Etsy and bought some real-life notepaper from Chapters in preparation for what is to come.

By the by, it took me a coon's age to actually find any decent writing paper. I scoured Etsy. There was almost none to be had that was worth paying shipping for. I happened to be in Chapters picking up some SillyBandz for Hope (a reward for relearning how to go to bed and stay there) when I found some nice writing paper. They had one design. They had three boxes. $10. Done and done but wow, it really drove home how rare letter-writing has become. That doesn't come as a surprise of course. In fact, the back of the box of paper reads: "Designer letter sheets add flair to your correspondence, as you keep alive the fine art of letter-writing."

Yikes. The pressure! "Fine-art"... I doubt anyone will describe my letters that way. I am making an effort to sit down when I have no distractions and give my letter some undivided attention. This will be my once-a-week quiet time. I think that's something I could use.

This afternoon I sat down during a quiet moment and wrote a real-life honest-to-goodness letter. I haven't done that since.... I honestly have no idea how long it's been. I used to write letters all the time. And then email took over and it was probably circa 1994 that I last put pen to paper in a disciplined effort.

I chose to write to my friend Ferne today. Ferne is around 80 or so, maybe just shy of that. She visits the cottage right next to ours and we became fast friends during one of her early visits. Ferne worked for years in the maternity ward in one of the hospitals in London, Ontario and LOVES babies. She never had any of her own but you'd never know - she knows all the tricks and talks to babies like she had 40 of them herself. She also is just the hippest, most interesting 80-year-old I've ever met. I hope we cross paths again this summer. I don't see her every year but we write Christmas cards with short notes and she calls me occasionally.

Everyone needs a Ferne in their lives.

In fact, we've actually named her The Ferne because she's that awesome.

Anyway, I wrote to Ferne today for a couple of reasons: (1) she's a good friend and (2) she and my mum really liked one another and today is the anniversary of my mum's death and I just really wanted to be in contact with someone who knew and liked her but wasn't family.

From the side of self-serving, I also know Ferne will write back which is an added bonus to this project; I'll likely get some letters back!

In fact, I was triple-super-over-the-moon-excited to receive a letter from one of my soul-mates and best friends, Marnie, today. She wrote me a real letter. For real. On paper. With pen.

And I didn't write her first.

What surprised me most was how much joy I got from reading the letter. Not because of what it said necessarily but just because she took the time to write. It felt really special. I hope that's how people feel when they get mine. Because making someone's day a little brighter is something I would like to do more often.

A Little Bit of Foodsense: Hello Dollies recipe

I have my first recipe up at the new and awesome A Little Bit of Foodsense. I'm a contributor to the site. Go have a look! (And make some Hello Dollies!)

Henry 365 update

I FINALLY updated Henry 365 over on Flickr. You can click there on the sidebar. Most of you won't be interested but if you're a blood relative you might be interested.

He sure is cute, our wee man.

52 letters, 52 weeks

Have you heard about this? A blog I jus discovered called The NonConsumer Advocate has started this challenge. The challenge is to write and send 52 letters or postcards or thank-you notes or care packages, one a week, HANDWRITTEN and sent in the REAL MAIL for all of 2011. Well, I'm going to do it! Granted it is the second week of January right now so it will be a 51 week challenge. You can read the original post here.

Last year I read the book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.... twice. If you haven't read it yet, do go get it. After reading it I was inspired to start writing real letters again. It didn't happen. I needed something to push me out of the gates. I think this challenge will be the very thing.

Now to get me some nice writing paper! My Ottawa Citizen scratch pad won't do it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Verbal Diahrea Round 1: the Henry Edition

I set myself a goal of finishing my assignment (more on that another time) so that I would have enough time to blog tonight. There are SO MANY things I want to blog about. I feel as though I'm about to throw up incoherent words all over the screen because I just want to get my thoughts out as quickly as possible. There are some many things I haven't written about since the beginning of December: the baking business, Hope's first kindergarten concert, Emily's reading, Christmas, Henry, my class at Carleton (the aforementioned assignment) etc etc etc.

Most pressing: Henry. I haven't given an update on the wee man in a coon's age. A coon's age, I say! And he is so deserving.

The wee man turned seven months old on December 19 and here we are ten days away from him being 8 months old and narry a tooth in sight. He sure seems to be trying hard to get one through what with all the drool and chewing and intermittent screaming and grunting. Try as he might, nothing seems imminent. He is weighing in at about 25 pounds. My arms are well-sculpted to say the least. At least the left one. The right is as flabby as ever.



Henry's days go like this: wake around 7:30 or 8:00. Squeal with uncontrollable joy when I walk in the room (because he hasn't seen me in, like, two hours!). Get dressed, head towards door of his room, squirm and squeal with uncontrollable joy because he might spot one of his sisters (hopefully the one that allows him some breathing space, although the smothery one is okay too in small doses). Breakfast - normally a prune concoction in order to aid things as it were - covers face in as much food as possible. While eating breakfast, he routinely tips his head to the side (either one will do) in order to see around some invisible object in his way - extraordinarily cute. After breakfast - carpet play time also known as the time during which he is ignored so that I can eat my own breakfast, read the paper or clean up the kitchen (hah! good one... doesn't usually happen until at least 4:00 pm and where is that housekeeper I ordered!?). Soon after that, nap number one happens, preceded by a long drink at the mummy-fountain, after which I either take a quick shower or play a board game with Hope or bake with Hope or do something or other with Hope. Henry normally sleeps for two hours... I say 'normally' because the last two days he has been taking one-hour naps. Not what we're looking for. This means he has much less patience for the rest of the day for being ignored. Not so good when I have other people and things needing my attention. His afternoon is mainly a repeat of the morning including an afternoon nap but minus the breakfast. Rinse repeat is the way it goes until about supper when he gets much attention from his sisters, a full family meal followed by a bath with one of the two girls, naked playtime (if he's lucky) on the carpet of the girls' room and then bedtime around 7:30. At some point in the afternoon, while Hope and Emily are both at school, we do occasionally leave the house to do errands. That is the part of the day when senior citizens swoon over his cheeks and his name (everyone over 70 had a brother named Henry apparently) and his size. We like that part of the day mainly because we're outside of these four walls (although I do like our four walls). Henry loves errands - so much to take in and lots of chatting from me as I putter through stores or meet a friend for coffee.



In essence, I couldn't ask for an easier baby. He is sweet and loving and fun and laughs so easily and I could just eat him up. Especially his thighs. In fact, a few people could easily dine on those thighs. He has lots to go around.


Phew. Verbal diarhea Round 1 complete. Tune back here... possibly tomorrow... for the Christmas show. Eventually, hopefully by the end of this week, I'll be caught up at least as much as I can be after this much neglect.

Welcome 2011

Wow, this site really is Virtually Stale. I hate to ever admit that John was right about something but....

December was insanely busy mostly due to another successful year for the Sugarplum Fairy. I made some very positive changes to how I ran the business this year. I'll devote a post to the business soon as well as one to our Christmas hubbub but for now I wanted to wish you all a belated Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year. I look forward to tomorrow mainly to get my healthy eating back on track. Tomorrow I go back to my no wheat, no dairy, no sugar regime and I think my gut will thank me for it. Not to say I haven't enjoyed the reprieve over Christmas. I certainly have but I've reached the point of too much of a good thing. Also some exercise would be helpful too. I vaguely remember what that is. I look forward to recommitting myself to my health.

2011 will be good in other ways too. I'm taking another course in my quest to get my TESL certificate, I hope to expand the baking business, I would like to blog more regularly and read some books that I've been meaning to pick up. None of these things are resolutions so much as some not-too-lofty goals.

I definitely do not expect to be awake to ring in the New Year tonight. In fact, I plan to head to bed shortly, read a little Marian Keyes and then gently snore my way into 2011.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Featured on SavvyMom Ottawa!

Sugarplum Fairy Homebaking, my other persona, is featured on SavvyMom Ottawa today! Go have a read (and order some baking if you feel so inclined :) ).....

That's what you get for referring to this as Virtually Stale

John just told me that "Virtually There is Virtually Stale." Hah. Funny guy.

Truth is there doesn't seem to be enough minutes in a day right now. I'm baking, freezing, andtaking orders for Sugarplum Fairy, taking the kids to their activities, changing diapers and playing with Henry, we've got all the usual church Christmas stuff going on, I'm still trying to get the Christmas decorations up around the house (that project stalled yesterday) and I haven't done anything about the 25 Days of Christmas project which has now been whittled down to 23 days at the most.

I'm not actually stressed about these things and how busy I feel. I still have time to help Emily with her homework, bake with Hope, tickle Henry and cook with John.

However it seems what has fallen off is the blogging. Something had to give.

I'll try and get here when I can but the reality of having your own baking business is that early December is mildly CUCKOO.

I must tell you about one small glimpse from my week though. This week was the last in the current gymnastics session for the girls. And the last week means that parents/siblings are invited in to watch the class, take pictures and see the routines that they've worked on. I went to Hope's class on Tuesday morning. Three and four-year-olds jumping around and hanging off ropes and tumbling and being generally chaotic. It was great. Hope is an amazing listener, she is extremely focussed on her task and her teacher and she is extremely persistent. If she can't accomplish something the first time, she tries until she does it. And without getting frustrated. That's pretty amazing for 4 years old. These qualities aren't true just at gymnastics. I've noticed those things in her for a while. They'll serve her well.

Yesterday we went to Emily's class. Hope was with me. Henry (all 23 pounds) was on my back in the Ergo baby carrier. By the by, my back is still aching today after having him in there for that hour. Emily's class had actual routines (sort of) that they worked out and performed together. There was floor work, beams, trampoline, etc. I've been to a few of Emily's classes but not for a few weeks. John has been taking her. I was WOWED at her progress. WOWED, I say. The child can do a full round-off and cartwheel. I have never successfully done a cartwheel so don't even ask about a round-off. She has almost mastered a handstand. I was really taken by her grace and athleticism. I knew she had athletic tendencies but it was amazing to see how after a few short weeks, her skills were really honed and she is so comfortable in her body, how it moves and what she can do with it.

Right now John would tell you that she does not get that from me. At which point I would do a double flip and drop him with a flying kick to the crotch. How's that for athletic, honey?