Oh Enough Already!

This is the cold that never ends! Seriously, it gives me a day when it hides away making me think it's passing then BLAMO! It's back with a vengeance. I actually rolled out of bed knowing this was going to be a bad day. I don't like to let colds get the best of me. I try very hard to keep my spirits up because I know that there is something to be said about mind over matter. Still, holy! It actually felt like something heavy was sitting across my nose.

I sit here now composing this blog which is mostly just me whinning, with a completely congested nose. Later, I'll be coughing and likely lose my voice outright which will mean that the boys have a field day with that. They like it when I expose my soft underbelly. Makes it easier to go in for the kill.

Reason 7042 why I love my Husband

Life can be really crazy sometimes. Little issues become big issues. A thousand things on the to-do list pulls us in all different directions. Demands of busy days, responsibilities and fewer and fewer hours for personal time can really spin one's head around.

We try to live our lives as simply as possible. Being happy with what we have. Always expressing how blessed we feel we are. Still there are days when the outside world intrudes and we get grumbly. I think it is fairly universal now. Our home is no more unique than the neighbours in that way.

I don't need to list why I love my husband so much. It's usually pretty apparent. I am a lucky woman. But sometimes I'm reminded of just how lucky I am when after a very long and stressful day. After all the dishes are pushed to the side. The kids are rounded up and put to bed in a fashion that expresses how much we care about them and their needs but also trying to get it done to meet a conference call time.

I come downstairs to find the teapot filled and a single cup waiting for me. Some how, some way while he was scrambling about to prepare for the meeting and swooping around to help me with our nighttime routine he filled the kettle and made ME a cup of tea.

I love my husband because he knows me better than I know myself. I love my husband because he demonstrates how much he cares about me even if it's just a simple cup of tea that took him out of his way.

*bliss*

Sick Kid Monday

What do you get after a fabulous weekend? Yep, a cold. But not just a cold...a kid cold x 2!

Poor little pleas from a darkened room in the middle of the night for a drink of water. An echo of a cough from the other darkened room. That dramatic slap of the snooze button at 6 am.

A full day's schedule being rewritten in haste over the first cup of what will be an endless stream of coffee.

Cranky utterings from children not wanting their mother to intervene and change the channel from a movie they've watched 3 times since 6:30 am. Partly eaten snacks, strewn Kleenex balls and blankets cluttering the living room.

Oh the joys of school house cooties. This will be cold #3 for E and cold #2 for L. I'm feeling a little under the weather myself but I'm sure it's just the ill effects of interrupted sleeps in a strange bed and some of the worst food I've ever consumed, over exertion in the water park and the long drive home. Still, at least for me, if this is the hang over from a weekend filled with adventure, a lighter wallet and thousands of captured memories it was well worth the descent!

Pure Joy!

Have I ever told you that I adore Thanksgiving? That it is bar none, hands down, my favourite holiday. Not only is it the best culinary day of the year but it is also a weekend worth of priceless family memories.

This year we are lucky enough to have husband's parents join us for a dinner yesterday. FIL's health has been deteriorating rapidly and it sometimes feels like we live week-to-week wondering if we'll get many more memories with him.

This year each boy has had a fun field trip to a farm or farmer's market to explore the bounty of Ontario Farmers. They've come home for a new appreciation of the hard work it takes to put that food on the table from another perspective. Not just from mom waving a finger at them reminding them that there are starving children all over the place that would consider themselves blessed to have what they enjoy without much thought. Seeing it on the farm, touching the dirt and seeing the farmer's life makes it all the more tangible.

As part of our family weekend we took the kids out to Cooper's Organic Farm to trip along in the giant corn maze. Husband and kids were beyond delighted with the Maple Leafs theme because of their rekindled love of hockey. The whole trip was picturesque in such a corny fall themed way but sometimes corny is awesome.

The dinner has been planned and put off until tomorrow since the visit to the farm was followed by a very long family nap and a bit too much watermelon. Can't beat 10lbs of organic watermelon for $1.00!!! Seriously! I love getting into the kitchen with my glass of wine and my ipod loaded with opera favourites. Then kicking back with another glass of wine and letting everything roast for hours while I knit.

Our front porch now has five pumpkins (yeah that'll be work when it comes time to carve them) my kitchen is covered with hand print turkeys. Cut and paste turkeys. Of course my Thanksgiving tree and all my usual decorations. I celebrate large because I want my family to know that they are my everything.

I am blessed with the most fabulous group of friends. I have a good comfortable home that admittedly is not always clean but always warm and welcoming. I got to marry my best friend and
I love that each day he makes me laugh so hard I almost wet myself. My kids make my heart swell with devotion. Most days I even like my crazy wiener dogs. I have skills that make my life a little easier and faith that makes the hard parts more bearable. I don't need a holiday to be reminded of my many blessings but it sure is nice to have a whole day to celebrate them.

Happy Thanksgiving from my crew to yours!

What is wrong with you people?

Let me say, that I hate cell phones. I only have one because my kids are in some one else's care and I'm not entirely secure with that idea. Yep, I know, I'll grow out of that. But until that day comes I want to be reached if I'm needed.

Now that being said, I also have a phone just like this one in the picture. It's basic. It has a camera on it but the pictures are so spotty that they are unworthy of the effort. I don't have texting or web functions because I've deemed them wholly unnecessary. Essentially, it's the next step to starting a fire and beating it with a wet blanket. It gets the job done.

I spent a gorgeous morning in the pumpkin patch with my smallest darling. He was all smiles and behaved like the angel I'm used to seeing (though I wondered if starting JK had permanently altered that but that is another story....) We tromped through mud, poked at pumpkins, chased some chickens, and got to see all the farm animals. Picture a lovely sunny morning, gorgeous blue sky, golden sunlight lighting up the falling leaves. The perfect fall day.

So here we are, huddled around the farmer in the middle of the corn maze discussing corn and what products you can find corn (ok so everything). Then this woman pulls out her crackberry and starts texting what I could only imagine was a girlfriend. They carried on this text conversation the entire length of the time we were in the corn maze, every few seconds a bleep notification that she had a new text. I estimated we stood there for 25 mins. During that time the two children she was supposed to be watching were fussing and pushing at the other children being minded by the parents that were gawking at the twit with the blackberry.

OMG! Put the damn thing down and enjoy your child for Ch**&^ Sakes! You suck! Of course, I just smiled at her like the idiot I can be when there is something else itching to be said. My only hope at that moment is that I hope that damn thing falls in the toilet, then maybe your daughter can have a happier memory with you.

Ok rant over...phew.... Hey Kyla, goes right back to that discussion we had yesterday! Man alive!

A Parent's Prayer

Reminder to self: In five years we'll look back on this day and laugh. Then we'll mark it in our journal to read back to our son, as our wedding speech. Perhaps as a narration to a slide show of crazy "wish were never taken" pictures. Just a little get even.

But today it isn't as funny. Today the little hiccups are stressful and even a little heart rending.

As parents, we are given these beautiful little people to raise, mold and care for. I treasure my little guys and they certainly know they are loved. Understood, maybe not so much. As parents, if we understood everything they needed when they needed it, then many of them would reach adulthood with fewer mental scars. There was no manual that came with the diaper bag and spit-up cloths.

All we have is the cache of experiences from our own childhoods. Our own memories of what it was like to be a little one. A kindness that worked for us when we were confused or distracted. A punishment that came with a lesson learned. Many of us have not studied early childhood behaviour manuals. When a child throws a tantrum it's an easy guess that you wouldn't reward that child with the object he's kicking up a fuss about but would you know if he's throwing the tantrum to get attention? Would you know if the reason he's acting out is out of insecurity or low blood sugar?

So without the manual we muddle through. We make our mistakes. We have our triumphs and celebrate. At the end of the day we sit dazed and worried. Or smile and pat ourselves on the back for not dying on that day's hill. The war and it's many battles still lying ahead.

I'm just one of a few mom's drinking from the vodka cow today. Each of us battling blindly to get our kids into adulthood with one less scar. It sounds dramatic because to us, it feels dramatic. They are our everythings.

In five or ten years, I hope I can look back on these days and chuckle. From my lips to God's Ears.

Hmmm What's in Your Freezer?

It's that time again. The day I go grocery shopping. I've done a good deal of food hording through out the summer and a lot recently with the harvest from my garden.

My freezer seems filled to capacity which makes me wonder, hmmmm what's on the bottom? I know there is at least one turkey in there. I couldn't swing a cat last year without someone giving me a damn turkey.

Each time I dig around in there for ideas for dinner I feel like Jacques Cousteau, deep sea diving for sunken treasures. Going through the murky depths. Delighted by an apple pie. Shocked by a forgotten Lean Cuisine cira 2007. A mislaid bag of peas. Sick enough, at one point it was home to our pet canary (wrapped in layers of paper and double bagged with a label...quease) who had passed during the winter and deserved a proper burial, sans flushing down the toilet for background read this. Don't worry folks, at first thaw he got planted in the flower garden and is now guarded by a heavy decorative rock.

It seems with each shopping trip, something goes in....it's a good wonder if it ever comes back out. *lifts eyebrow*