My Weekend In Pictures

Friday: The 'Before' - kitchen is cleaned out in praparation for a new countertop, long awaited and long overdue.

Friday: During - coffee station is fully operational throughout the entire countertop replacement procedure. And my kitchen has been emptied into the dining room.

Friday: Still During - At this point, the children and I left for holiday festivities and Mr. A supervised Fred the Countertop Replacement Man.

Friday: After - Other than the sink being replaced front-to-back, the replacement was a great success and we now sport a lovely new, non-rotting, firmly attached countertop. But you may notice the cupboard doors are missing...

Saturday: After the After - since we had to caulk the edges (Fred was lacking the caulking and said he'd return 'next week'...I grew up with an extended family of contractors; I know what that means) we went to Home Depot for caulking. $100 later....

Sunday: Still After the After - a very calming neutral bluey-grey called 'Horizon'. And our new faucet! See how it's not leaky?! You may notice the lovely 20th century design feature of the single lever rather than the two taps. I can now touch raw meat without contaminating my entire kitchen!

Sunday: About When Mr. A Started To Get Annoyed - The Blue Eyed Bandit has 'helped' with the cupboard doors.

Sunday: About When Mr. A Was Definitely Annoyed: Photo Bomb by The Boy Child.

Sunday: The Final After - Coffee is ready to go. The yellow under the stove hood is the glow of the light.

Sunday: The Fnal After - I will miss the old cheery yellow. But it definitely had to go. It was old and dirty and clashed with the rest of the main living area.

Sunday: The Final After - The new colour is calm and quiet, much like the colour we painted the main living area last year.

♥ Mrs. A.

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Happy Birthday To Me!

There was quite a ramp-up to my birthday this year. Shortly after Christmas, Mr. A. decided that I needed to have a birthday party. He also decided to plan it - all by himself.

The actual party was to be modelled after a birthday party which we had recently attended. My niece turned 2 and the theme for the adults in attendance was 'pizza and beer'. (The kids who were there didn't notice as they were distracted by the fancy Dora cake and the Toys R Us explosion that they call their 'living room'.)

I found it all quite amusing. In the month leading up to my big day, Mr. A. took every opportunity to sneak in a secret whisper about some aspect of my birthday whenever my back was slightly turned. He dropped hints and made me guess and even roped the kids into his shenanigans over the gift I was to receive.

He took a half day off work while the kids were at a drama workshop the day before my birthday. We spent that afternoon going all over town picking up food and drink and party things. Not only was there going to be pizza and beer at my party - we were going to surprise everyone with a loot bag.

The morning of my birthday, I had been instructed to stay in bed. So I did. In my mind I was thinking that perhaps coffee would be delivered. That would be a nice birthday wake up. Not so. I needed to stay in bed so that I could be invited down to the living room once 'things were ready'.

Things were ready at the bright hour of 7:30, thanks to the dogs and much to the distress of The Girl Child. Mr. A. had prepared a treasure hunt for my birthday. There were rhyming clues - wrapped in birthday paper - and I had to go about the house searching for the next one until finally I found the 'treasure' in the potato bin.

My family had worked extra hard to drop hints in such a way that I was to think, perhaps, that I might have a lovely new Kobo to call my very own on my birthday. Sure enough, I unwrapped my treasure to find a nice white box with a picture of a Kobo and all the other appropriate labelling on board. Imagine my surprise when I uncovered a fancy iPad under all the packaging!

So much excitement and all before 8 in the morning...on a still-dark, pajama clad Saturday morning. I know, you're welcome for the photos!

Later on, when it was dark again (love me these Canadian winters...) my extended family arrived for pizza and beer and celebrating. There were even balloons and streamers. I tell you, Mr. A. pulled out all the stops for my party. He even managed to get 37 candles on a cake.

Missing from the celebrations were my two brothers who considered an overnight in Algonquin Park courting moose and barely-hibernating bears a priority. That's ok. They're jealous because they didn't get a loot bag.

So that's the short and sweet story of my birthday last weekend. There were some other lovely gifts and cards that really made my day. I don't usually enjoy this time of year as it's always so weary and dreary and dirty and gritty and cold and icy and everyone's so tired of winter and cooped up and miserable. This year was surprisingly refreshing. Not only due to the very strange, seasonaly surprising, mild winter weather we've been having but because of so much silliness and carrying-on as my birthday approached. Mr. A did a super good job keeping everything light and fun and stress-free. And surprisingly, I didn't really mind all the extra attention after all was said and done.



Here's to another trip around the Sun,

♥Mrs. A.

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I'm Back!

I've been away. And there were butterflies.

Guess where we went?

I brought the rest of the family with me. I think they had a good time.

We even got to see a little piece of home away from home.

And now that we really are home...I get to sleep.

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Changes

So many changes, so little time! It feels like 2011 has been just flying by so far.

The mandatory schedule changes I am suffering this year are not fun to get used to. Mr. A's work schedule changed in January necessitating my house-wife-y duties to resume before 7am. Not popular. Especially with the 'Spring Forward' time change. Other of my house-wife-y duties have had to be rescheduled as well since Time-of-Use hydro pricing has come into play in our city. Laundry and baking are now usually saved for the weekend.

My efforts to focus my energy this year are challenging - but it's a good challenge. I'm planning and organizing more efficiently as I focus on my list of priorities (really, I had to make a sticky note to remind myself). As a result, I find myself a little more accepting of what I do - or don't - accomplish throughout the day. I raise my voice less even when frustrated and stressed. Cool side effect.

Mr. A, The Boy Child, Miss K and I have been seeing our share of family changes as well. Mr. A's daughter, Miss B, has been able to spend some time with us. This new, very welcomed and long awaited change began last summer. We've moved through the novelty and excitement of a new arrangement into a more real eyes-wide-open time of learning about new family dynamics.

With the physical size of people changing around here it's become very apparent that if the size of the house can't change, then the layout and organization must. Adding one pre-teen girl to my collection of newly teen girl and pre-teen boy makes the relative size of one's sofa very small. In fact, it made the entire seating/lounging/sprawling situation very difficult. So Mr. A and I have been doing our very best to make changes to make things a little more comfortable.

Today we added new furniture. In preparation, we moved old furniture to a new rec room type space in our partly finished basement. Adding furniture gave me the perfect opportunity to rearrange our entire main floor. This is our main living area and I haven't been able to rearrange it for many, many, many years. The biggest change was removing the entertainment unit which paved the way for a nicely flowing open concept living area. I love it.

Surprisingly, the kidlets have entered the ranks of the working class. My brother-in-law has gathered them up on occasion and taken them to work at his marina. The arrangement has been working out very nicely and plans are to have regular workdays throughout the summer. Being a business man, my brother-in-law gave instruction on negotiating a wage the very first day the kids were there. He wrote them up a paycheque at the end of the day, much to their delight.

Miss K has been asked to provide her services to my sister, a new mom, as a mother's helper. Homeschooling has never been so flexible! We easily find a couple of hours once day a week for Miss K to watch my new nephew.

On the horizon are exciting things: our first foray into competitive sports for The Boy Child; a regular volunteer position for Miss K and I at the local therapeutic riding program; homeschooling highschool. Among the exciting upcoming things are everyday efforts: returning to running - this time with Miss K joining in; a surprise visit States-side to my mother-in-law's for Mother's Day; a new sesame allergy (added to Miss K's peanut allergy). And so life goes on.

♥Mrs. A.

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March Madness

Today was a March Madness day. My people were here, there and everywhere requiring this, that and more. On top of it all, I had a number of responsibilities and obligations to meet.

One of today's obligations included the creation and distribution of Mint Oreo Truffles. Yum!

Perhaps it's my age. Perhaps it's just years and years of trying, but I must say that I'm proud of myself for accomplishing all of today's 'to do's without the usually meltdown...which usually manifests itself in the form of a flappable, loud, ornery and barely productive woman. Yea me.

It's interesting to see the difference in their needs as my kids get older. Still needy, but in a totally different way than when they were toddlers requiring all sorts of physically demanding care. Although, I do have to question the increased amount of lap-time being required by a certain Miss K. Not that I mind, but she is taller than me now, and quickly gaining on me in the mass department as well.

I suppose I notice the differing needs more these days as my siblings have begun having babies. And nice babies. I'm sure my babies were just as nice...I'm sure I would have properly noticed if I hadn't been so sleep deprived. So I'm thankful that I'm able to stay home and spend every day with my grown-up babies.

Now I'm off to relax and bask in the glow of a productive day. Tomorrow I'll wake up and try to do it all aver again.

~Mrs. A.

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I'm Glad To See Twenty-Eleven

The holidays arrived - even though I was wishing someone would dump the last half of December off the calendar - and departed with much ado in our household.

Being predictably myself, though, I have managed to pull a few positive things out of a pretty miserable month.

The Most Surprising Thing literally showed up on my door step smack in the middle of our annual Christmas Eve celebration. It was my brother, fresh from a whirlwind 17-hr flight and 24-hrs of travel from Korea. And as fast and unexpectedly as he arrived, he's on with his tomorrow after flying all day today back to his temporary home abroad. His unexpected visit made for a very fun and memorable Christmas and New Years...and hectic. Definitely hectic.

The Most Enjoyable Scheduled Event happened mid-December at my knitting club meeting. I've been trying to pull off a local knitting club with some success. For our last meeting of the year, I planned a small Christmas celebration with decorations and snacks and music. There are such a nice bunch of people that attend and they were all able to make it for the party. A motley crew, but it's so nice to spend time with others who make the time and effort to be somewhere.

And finally, the Most Awesome Thing was the arrival of the household's first teenager :-) She is lovely...even first thing in the morning just before opening her birthday gift. I simply cannot call her The Girl Child anymore, especially since she is taller than I am. She will need to be Miss K from now on.

Other excitement included a New Year's Eve family challenge of skill, smarts and silliness in which yours truly emerged victorious...with a trophy. It was a team trophy, but a trophy that I can claim and my brothers can't. I'm not sure that something like that has ever occurred before. Pictures forthcoming....after the engraving of the trophy. Told you it was real.

So onward into 2011. Today was gloomy and grey outside. We had some gloomy on the inside as well. I think just post-holiday greyishness. It was a welcome quiet day after such a busy couple of weeks. Although I feel the pressure to make a resolution, I've decided against it. I have a list of things to focus on instead.

Happy New Year. I hope the spring-ish feelings of renewal and refreshment take hold here in the A house as well as with the one or two of you who happen to pop by here.

~Mrs. A.

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~May~

May's calendar page is sitting on my computer desk waiting to be blogged. It's sitting there quite innocently, right where I put it. But it's kind of glowering, too. Glaring it's blogging want.

May wasn't anything spectacular. I'm sure it was sort of indicative if the way things usually are around here. I sifted and coasted and drifted through the days, sometimes wishing I could keep my head in the game more consistently. I suppose I would feel better if I were able to concentrate on the wonderfulness of my kids and the happiness of the dogs and the simple luxury I live in every day. I'll have to remember that.

I started May with a clean house and a new haircut. I had a really nice Mother's Day.

Treats!

I helped my mom out by going to work for her for a day. That was interesting. One working momma meant two sets of packed lunches, a baby-sitter, a puppy-sitter, packed up school work, a morning rush, a late dinner and an early bedtime. Totally not something I would do every day on purpose. I suppose it was a jarring experience just because we've not lived that way in a long, long time.

The skittish white dog got an eye infection. And Mr. A, bless his poor, oblivious heart, learned the ins and outs of dealing with the vet. I think he debriefed for a week.

Niece!

My new knitting group seems to have taken off quite nicely. As I had hoped, a good crowd of diversity has shown up and they all seem to be happy with a relaxed, social atmosphere. I find myself looking forward to spending a couple of hours planning and preparing for the meetings. So, every other week at the local library, we knit. The other attendees have taken it upon themselves to carve out some space at the local pub to knit on the off weeks. Hilarious. And awesome.

New Kittens!

On the home school front, we're picking our way through the final bits of work for the year. Much of the language arts we did was finished in May. We're a little behind my schedule in our history studies and the kids made a plan to finish their math by June 4. Running club finished early so the coach could take some of the kids and groom them to join the local private school's track team. We had a social picnic-park play after a museum program to kick off the good weather. I'll have to remember to have another at the end of this month. We took in the local multicultural fair as well. Always a good time. It always surprises me how much the kids enjoy themselves there even though it's loud and crowded and they are scared to try the different food. They eat cotton candy and apple crisp while the rest of us are sampling Indian, Jamaican, Turkish, Irish and Chinese food.

"Science" With Mr. A!

The Blue Eyed Bandit grew so much over May! She's impressing everyone at obedience even though we didn't practice a whole lot. She's very smart. She's such a happy, peaceful puppy. And ever since I moved her crate to my bedroom, she's slept through the night. That only took me three months to figure out.

Bad Dog!

I was reminded throughout May that I have 'Me' opportunities popping up all over the place. It's a little exciting after focusing solely on the kids for so many years. I'm part of a book club that I love. The knitting group, getting out a couple of times a week for a walk/run, puppy classes. We even had a couple over twice in May. I don't want to call them Couple Friends...Mr. A is shy, you know...but I think there's potential!

June is shaping up: We still have to get the boats out so we can get out on the River with the kids. And the car is having major surgery to the tune of the cost of a week long family vacation to somewhere a plane ride away. The next round of puppy classes will start. The Boy will be playing soccer and I will be convening his age group. Exciting times, I say!

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After The Storm - May Day

After a surprise thunderstorm, we took the dogs to the dog park and then we enjoyed a bit of a drive around the local waterfront. The river was full of rolling mist. Mr. A snapped some pictures while I was driving.

Things have been a wee bit stormy on the home front lately, so it was nice to be out for a bit of family time...even if not all parties involved may have chosen such an activity. It was a way to clear the air and start fresh after we returned home.

I've been careful to try to keep this blog anonymous for a number of reasons. It's funny how the few of you who read here are at least 'Internet acquaintances'. I'm not so concerned anymore about maintaining total anonymity, especially since my local IRL concern has been quiet and non-concerning for some time now. I'm not going to begin name dropping, but I'm also not going to be overly concerned about using Photoshop to get rid of street signs and other identifying marks.

I'm looking forward to this coming week. Hopefully the weather has turned the final corner to spring. School work is winding down while panning for next year is ramping up. It's easier to think ahead to summer plans with the boat in the driveway and the kids spending more and more time outside.

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Happy New Year! (and some Link Love)

How's that for a creative, attention grabbing title? Weak, I know. But really, I hope you had a good New Year's celebration as quiet or as feisty-spicy as it may or may not have been. I hope you're looking forward to seeing how 2010 pans out. By the way, are you a 'twenty-ten' kind of person or are you more in the 'two thousand ten' camp? Mrs. A. needs to know because I keep waffling.

The New Year and I have a Love-Hate relationship. I love beginnings: clean slates, starting lines, fresh starts. I hate the stick-with-it-ness that I inevitably and predictably procrastinate my way out of. Therefore, there is a noticeable lack of resolution proclamation around here. The disappointment is just not worth it. I do, however, have a few ideas percolating in the background...but nothing I'm willing to lay claim to just yet.

This New Year has started off on a positive note for me. There are new beginnings happening in the bedroom. Real actual furniture has been purchased. That's it, just furniture. This may not be very exciting for most folk, but I'm over the moon. One of the pitfalls of starting a family before establishing a household is the persistent lingering of the college bachelor pad homestead: practical before pretty and pieced together before planned. But no more - Mr. A and I will soon have a proper grown-up bedroom. In our search for a proper dresser, Mr. A and I found ourselves purchasing a complete bedroom set. More economical in the long run. Next month will see us purchase proper mattresses so we can replace the outdated, hand-me-down waterbed I've been sleeping in these last ten years. To distract me from the wait, Mr. A. purchased me paint. I LOVE to paint! So I am now the proud owner of a half-painted bedroom half-furnished with real furniture. (If the novelty of staring at my half-bedroom wears off, I'll paint the downstairs trim until the mattresses are ordered.)

I'm also excited about our New Year homeschooling plans. The last few evenings I've had our books out, getting organized for this coming week, Week #14/36 of our homeschooling year. Happily, I don't have a lot to do due to the work I did planning things out in the fall. New additions to our work arrived under the Christmas tree thanks to my supportive and overly generous mother-in-law. The Girl Child has a new art program Artistic Pursuits. She'll also be taking art classes with a local artist who is highly skilled in graphic design and technical illustration. As part of my thrown-together-in-desperation science curriculum, we'll be reading our way through Galileo for Kids: His Life and Ideas. The Boy Child is keen to use our telescope so hopefully the calendar I bought Skywatchers 2010 will be a daily reminder to do so. Although I am excited to resume our daily bookwork, I can't say that the kids are. I've been visualizing the appropriate parenting methods - patience and clear communication of expectations - that I will employ to deal with any slugishness or resistance. I should have a good week in me before I have to resort to bribery.

I figured that a New Year requires a little virtual closet cleaning as well. I've pared down my blogroll reading list. My goal is to spend no more than an hour poking through cyberspace on my daily blog-crawl and related side-clicks. I do love my blog reading. Good writing, ideas, inspiration and even a bit of entertainment all available with a couple of clicks. I'm such an instant gratification kind of girl. So here's what's holding my attention lately. Peruse at your leisure:

• A Small Corner of Nowhere - check out Audrey's blogroll as well
• Boarding In Bedlam - great writing by Arby...I love me a HSing dad
• Cake Wrecks - this would be part of the aforementioned entertainment
• Free-Range Kids - parenting inspiration and confirmation of philosophy for me
• Handmade Homeschool - check out Sarah's New Year's idea for 2010 - 12 in 12. Inspired!
• Home Spun Juggling - Cristina, her writing and her comics are long-time favourites
• Nurtured By Love - ideas, inspiration and good writing
• Peer Into Our World - Debbie's gone private for now, but a wise and wonderful HSing mom
• Pioneer Woman - Doesn't everyone read here? This one has 'ideas' and 'entertainment'.
• The Homeschool Classroom - more ideas...
• The Woman's Colony - a lot of articles...play catch-up on the weekend with coffee
• Totally Smitten Mama - beautiful babies, cool crafts and really thoughtful writing
• A Knitting Nurse - I keep coming back for Rudee's writing...and knitting

I hope you'll forward any favourite haunts my way. After all, I'm a quick reader. As long as everyone doesn't get all ambitious by blogging every day, I should be able to keep up.

I'm off to rest up for an early start tomorrow. I find it best to return to a regular schedule after holidays by scheduling early morning guests..my dad should be popping by around 8am. Hopefully I'll be dressed and have the dog walked by then. It's always good to have Monday morning ambitions.

♥Mrs. A.

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Apple Picking

Can you believe that until last weekend, I had never been apple picking?

I'd been to the orchard for a tour. I'd seen a demonstration of apple picking. But I'd never done the deed until last Sunday.

It didn't occur to Mr.B that we'd actually have to use all the apples we picked. Hello apple crisp! One bushel of apples makes six and a half recipes of apple crisp and one giant pie. I halved the crisps into smaller pans.

The kids ate two of the bigger pans over the next couple of days and we delivered a few pans to friends and family. The rest were destined for the freezer.

Apple crisp is a favourite around here - warm with ice cream - for breakfast.

I don't know why we hadn't done this apple picking thing before! It's awesome! I think that this might just turn out to be the A Family's newest Thanksgiving tradition.

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We Went Camping!

Hey all.

A two day camping trip necessitated a week-long respite from the blog.

Silly, eh?

When word came down the pipe that we'd be roughing it for two days, a few things needed to be put together so we would have a lovely time in the woods. Like food. And sleeping gear. And swimming gear. And dishes.

I spent last Thursday and Friday collecting things and packing and baking. Saturday and Sunday we did the deed. Monday was Recovery Day. Camping wipes me out!


Saturday:

• Drag butt out of bed.
• Wake others.
• Take Skittish White Dog to the kennel.
• Pack clothes; pack cooler; pack car.
• Drive to rendezvous point.
• Unpack car. Pack boat.
• Boat ride!
• Unpack Boat. Trek gear uphill to 'cottage'. Unpack gear.
• Chat with hosts.
• Unpack cooler. Lunch. Pack cooler.
• Pack fishing gear, snacks, drinks, kids into boat.
• Fish.
• Visit other cottagers.
• Kids' first motorboat ride. Fish The Girl's hat out of the lake.
• Return to prepare dinner. Eat.
• Campfire.
• Rescue children from mosquitoes thicker than fog.
• Play really cool card game.
• Sleep.

Sunday:

• Wake at 9:15 thinking it's 6a.m.
• Check on health of The Boy, my early riser, who has never been so quiet for so long.
• Take book to dock and read in the sunshine.
• Help get breakfast out. Ok, brunch.
• Pack up sleeping gear.
• Hang out at the dock while kids swim.
• Call MNR on idiots who parked their rental boat 30 feet from the dock.
• Mention the wee tiny fish they're keeping in their live well.
• Snacks dockside. Too full from brunch for lunch.
• Take boat out for the kids' maiden tubing adventure.
• Reassure The Girl that not everyone likes tubing.
• Remark quietly to Mr. B about the shortest and slowest no-wake tubing adventure ever.
• Pack swim toys and inflatables.
• Return to cottage and pack up all gear.
• Trek gear to dock. Pack boat.
• Boat ride!
• Unload Boat. Find Car. Pack Car.
• Drive home. Unpack car. Unpack cooler.
• Sleep.

In the end it was a great time. I get a kick out of all the 'necessary' things we need for a short overnight stay. We so appreciate our hosts inviting us to their family cottage (no plumbing, no electricity) as this isn't the kind of thing that we're able to do with the kids on our own. It's so quiet and relaxing to be on their wooded island even for just a short time. I love watching my kids do stuff for the first time. It still gets me after all these years. This time is was snorkeling and tubing and whittling. They love the 'adventurous' feeling they get from doing all of the out-of-the-ordinary stuff a trip like this entails. I love that at their ages, the kids are still excited to spend this family time together. Neither could imagine doing something like this any other way.


This one weekend made both the kids' summer.

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Summer Break

We're officially on Summer Break!

It's official just because I said so. Isn't that awesome?! I still find endless amusement that something can be a big deal just because I said it is. This amusement is a serendipitous benefit in my quest to find that special balance between structure and routine. But I digress.

Summer Break arrived last Friday. There was a little bit of history review, reading and filing of colouring pages. I spent some time pulling things off the shelf for the next day's book sale. The kids joined their neighbourhood friends for an afternoon of driveway hockey, water gun squirting, pick-up soccer and general hanging out.

I thought it would be a fun idea to mark the end of our semi-structured school year with a bit of a 'do'. We ordered pizza and I arranged a dessert from the bakery: cupcakes smothered in far too much icing. Delightful. I set the table nicely and at each place setting, I had a little something for the kids. The Boy had a small Lego set waiting for him at his place and The Girl had a new sketch book. Each also had a new beach towel. Things not just for thing's sake, but to show them that I'm excited to help them dive into their free time with enjoyable activities that they enjoy. I don't think I've been this excited for summer break since I was a student myself.

Since last Friday we've been knocking off things that have been stressing me one thing at a time. Not necessarily bad stress, but stress nonetheless. I've knocked off a book sale, extended family hosted a birthday party for The Boy we had to travel to, Father's Day, an Art in the City tour, a day at the park, a friend's birthday, soccer games, the chauffeuring of The Boy and Friend to and from the Museum program they attended Thursday and a business trip today with Mr. B. Fun times.

After this weekend, I launch Summer Projects 2009. SO much in mind, so little time...

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